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Did woman send married men sex signals? Or is the defense victim-blaming? | Lawyers for two community leaders charged with sexually assaulting a woman in 2012 offered a clearer picture of their defense Wednesday in closing arguments: The woman encouraged the married men all evening and when she made it clear that she wasnt interested in sex, they stopped. Defense attorney Christine Mascal implied the woman and the defendants -- Charles McGee, 33, and Aubre Dickson, 44, -- may have had very different perspectives on what happened on the night of May 10, 2012. McGee and Dickson are fighting accusations of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration and other crimes, which would bring them a minimum of 8 years in prison if convicted. The two were indicted last year after Willamette Week published the allegations by Erica Naito-Campbell. McGee was running for Multnomah County commissioner at the time and dropped out of the race. He was working as CEO of the Black Parent Initiative then. Dickson was a chairman of the Oregon Housing Stability Council and a vice president at KeyBank. Both Mascal and defense attorney Stephen Houze told Multnomah County Circuit Judge David Rees that Naito-Campbell had given the men many signs that she was interested in sex. Mascal went further, implying that any alleged sexual activity ceased after Naito-Campbell says the men finally understood she wanted them to stop. Naito-Campbell had been drinking with the men that evening, gone to a strip club with them, talked about how a threesome was on her bucket list, continued to ride in a car with one of them after she says he twice put his hand on her knee and ultimately went to one of their homes, the attorneys said. Thats where Naito-Campbell says McGee and Dickson assaulted her. Mascal said she wasnt trying to attack Naito-Campbell. Rather, Mascal said she was thoroughly questioning an account that wasnt properly vetted by police or the prosecution. Its not about victim-bashing, said Mascal, who is representing McGee. And its certainly not about dragging her through the mud. ... Nobody has called her out. ... They took her at her word. The trial concluded its sixth day in front of a standing-room-only courtroom of more than 30 people. Some are supporters of Naito-Campbell, others of the two defendants. Defense attorneys called no witnesses, including their own clients. When asked by the judge, McGee and Dickson reaffirmed that they didnt wish to testify. Closing arguments will continue Thursday before the case goes to the judge to decide. Prosecutor Amanda Nadell said what defense attorneys have done to Naito-Campbell indeed amounts to victim-blaming. Nadell asked the judge to consider why Naito-Campbell would have gone through this ordeal -- all the probing questions and criticism -- if her account was all a lie. Nadell said Naito-Campbell has been adamant and consistent with her account: She didnt have as much to drink as the defense portrays; she never said she wanted to have a threesome with McGee and Dickson although she had talked openly about sex and considered strip clubs to be an enjoyable pastime with friends; and she made it clear that she had no sexual interest in either man. Twice, Naito-Campbell said she removed McGees hand from her knee and told him he was married. Naito-Campbell has said McGee was an acquaintance, but she felt comfortable going out with him that evening because she considered Dickson a friend who would protect her from anything bad happening. This case will ultimately boil down to the credibility of Erica Naito-Campbell, Nadell said. The state submits that Erica Naito-Campbell is credible and believable. The prosecutor said Naito-Campbells account is supported by years of documents, as well as testimony from friends, family and a therapist. They said she told each of them about the assault within days or weeks of it happening. Friends described Naito-Campbell, who had never been someone who cried much, as distraught, in tears and a changed person when she told them of the alleged assault. Her therapists records also documented how Naito-Campbell started seeing her within a few weeks of that night and how Naito-Campbell struggled with panic attacks, trouble sleeping and post-traumatic stress disorder, Nadell said. The prosecutor also said records show Naito-Campbell and her family spent more than $5,000 on therapy sessions in 2012 -- and Naito-Campbell and her family wouldnt have spent the money if the attack hadnt happened. Mascal said that Naito-Campbell listed reasons other than sexual assault on an intake form at her therapists office. Those reasons included that she was having trouble with her childs father and feeling abandoned. Houze, who is defending Dickson, contended that Naito-Campbell had consumed far more alcohol than she let on in her testimony, and she was too embarrassed to come to terms with what really happened that night with the defendants. When people get drunk, they often behave in a way that they regret, Houze said. ...Its human nature. Its a lot easier to blame other people for your shortcomings than accept responsibility for the poor choices one makes in life. Houze got in only part of his closing arguments before court concluded for the day and will continue Thursday. -- Aimee Green [email protected] o_aimee Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. | https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/03/did-woman-send-married-men-sex-signals-or-is-the-defense-victim-blaming.html |
How Will the Aston Martin AM-RB 003 Measure Up to the McLaren Senna? | From Car and Driver We compare specs on a pair of million-dollar cars, the McLaren Senna and a car tipped to be its rival, the Aston Martin AM-RB 003. The AM-RB 003, which made its debut at the Geneva auto show earlier this month, was developed in part by the same person as the Senna: British racer Chris Goodwin. Aston hasn't released a weight target for the 003, but we would be surprised if it could get close to the Senna's svelte figure. Hypercar buyers have never had it so good. There's plenty of choice for those with the happy ability to spend around a million bucks on a car capable of pacing genuine race cars on track. Aston Martin's forthcoming entry in the segment is set to offer another compelling alternative. We've already told you about the AM-RB 003, which will be given a more traditional name before it goes on sale in 2021. We thought it would be interesting to look at it against the car that Aston's senior engineers cite as its principal benchmark rival, the McLaren Senna. Of course, if you want a Senna but don't already have one, then it's already too late and you'll have to buy used. McLaren has already sold its full allocation of 500, despite a price of more than $960,000, and has built and delivered the bulk of these to owners. It has also just dropped images and details for the track-only GTR spinoff, but that one, too, has already sold out, despite a price of $1,200,000. Aston Martin says it plans to build 500 of the AM-RB 003, with price expected to be the equivalent of about $1,300,000 at current exchange rates. The good news is, it's not too late to get your name down for one; you can worry about how to afford it later on. This Time, It's Personal There's a very obvious link between these two cars: both were developed under the watchful eye of British racer Chris Goodwin. Formerly McLaren's chief test driver, Goodwin jumped ship to Aston Martin in 2017, where he has been charged with leading dynamic tuning of the company's trio of mid-engined cars: the Adrian Neweydesigned Valkyrie, the AM-RB 003, and the production version of the Vanquish Vision that will follow it. Unsurprisingly, Goodwin predicts that the 003 will prove to be even faster than the Senna, although he also insists that driver reward is a more important development target than just lap time: "We want cars that are great to drive, but which are also easy to drive," he told C/D at the Geneva auto show. "If you do that, then you unlock so much of the performance, and that's where the lap time comes from." Of course, in the interest of balance we need to point out that McLaren may well have introduced even quicker models by the time the production 003 makes it to market. Photo credit: Aston Martin More Powertrains The Senna's minimalist ethos saw pretty much everything removed that didn't make it go faster. As such, it uses a retuned version of McLaren's twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8, producing 789 horsepower without any form of electric-motor assistance. Aston has only released very limited details about the AM-RB 003's powertrain but has said that it will use a hybridized and turbocharged V-6. Interestingly, this is the same layout that Adrian Newey told us last year had been considered for the Valkyrie before the decision was made to use a Cosworth-developed V-12 instead. Aston says it is developing the new powertrain itself, which will be used-in different outputs-in the 003, the Vanquish, and also ultimately in some of the company's front-engined products. We can expect the AM-RB 003 to get the highest of these power levels, and although there is no official word on what that might be, Aston chief engineer Matt Becker told C/D at Geneva that both the Senna and the Ferrari LaFerrari are benchmark targets. For reference, the Ferrari produced 950 horsepower. Becker also confirmed that Aston is confident it will be able to produce more combined power from the electrically helped V-6 than it would be from a strictly internal-combustion engine of similar weight. | https://news.yahoo.com/aston-martin-am-rb-003-152100394.html |
Can hybrid watches hijack the ascent of the smartwatch? | Thank you for your help! Optional: help us by adding the time Few things better encapsulate watch-buyers dilemma of analogue versus digital than the sight of Liverpool football club captain Jordan Henderson at the end of the 2017 season double wristing wearing a smartwatch on one wrist and something more distinctly Premier League on the other. Mechanical-watch fans may appreciate the benefits of a smartwatch but will never completely forsake their traditional timepieces. A recent survey of 1,000 male smartwatch wearers in Britain by online watch brand Code41 found that 88 per cent also regularly wear a traditional analogue watch. A smartwatch is never going to have the timelessness or sentimentality of a traditional watch. Smartwatches arent a style accessory they are simply an extension of our phones, tablets and laptops, says the brands founder, designer Claudio DAmore. Yet global unit sales for smartwatches reached 18.2m in the last quarter of 2018, according to data from Strategy Analytics, an increase of 56 per cent over the year. However, a clutch of analogue watchmakers has decided that one way to fight the rise of the smartwatch is to build connectivity into classic analogue designs the result being a so-called hybrid. Hybrid watches generally combine a quartz movement that drives conventional hour and minute hands around a regular dial, but with a bluetooth-enabled chip that can offer features such as tracking, app notifications, GPS connectivity and the ability to remotely control certain smartphone functions. Fans are happy to sacrifice the functionality of a full-blown smartwatch for the hybrids more traditional, elegant aesthetic. Fossil hybrid watch A growing number of dial names now offer hybrid models, among them the large US brand Fossil, Scandinavians Skagen and Kronaby, and leading smartwatch maker Samsung. In October, Fossil signed a global licensing partnership with Japans Citizen Watch Company to allow it to use its hybrid technology. The aim, said Fossils chief executive Kosta Kartsotis, was to enable the group to broaden and accelerate the awareness and adoption of hybrid smartwatches and drive scale in the market. Yet some hybrid makers have been battling other challenges. Swedish manufacturer Kronaby filed for bankruptcy last month after a major investor in the brands Malmo-based parent company, Anima, pulled its financing. Within weeks, however, Anima was bought by Spanish watchmaking group Festina Lotus. Its president, Miguel Rodriguez, told industry news website WatchPro that the acquisition would enable his firm to take a step into the smartwatch segment and that Kronaby had proved to be one of the best hybrid smartwatches in the world. Skagen hybrid watch James Moar of UK-based data analysts Juniper Research agrees that the hybrid sector looks promising and in 2018 accounted for 22 per cent of all smartwatch sales. If you dont want something thats all-singing and all-dancing, [hybrids] are great and they will probably remain relevant to that certain category of buyer, Mr Moar says. Part of the reason sales havent picked-up, however, is the continuing popularity and improving functionality of smartwatches. Yet he believes that hybrid sales are likely to improve as technological developments bring additional features, so attracting a new wave of tech-minded buyers. Junipers research earlier this year concluded that hybrids would account for more than half of the smartwatch market by 2022. Among traditional watchmakers pursuing the hybrid theme is Switzerland-based Frederique Constant, a brand established in 1988 by Dutch businessman Peter Stas and his wife Aletta. Frederique Constant hybrid watch Frederique Constant and stablemate brand Alpina launched a 900 Horological Smartwatch at the 2015 Baselworld show. It was the first luxury, analogue watch with a regular quartz movement and bluetooth phone connectivity. Owners could toggle between functions via the crown to display data on a subdial. Though the couple sold both dial names to Japans Citizen Holdings in 2017, they remain majority shareholders in Manufacture Modules Technologies (MMT), a joint venture with Californian tech specialist FullPower that developed the watchs software. MMT has to date produced about 200,000 hybrid watches for brands including Mondaine and Ferragamo. If you dont want something thats all-singing and all-dancing, hybrids are great Frederique Constant last year returned to the market with another Horological Smartwatch, in the form of the 2,995 Hybrid Manufacture 3.0. It blended classical watchmaking with connectivity by integrating a bespoke electronic module into a traditional mechanical movement, rather than the quartz type usually used in hybrids. We developed an electronic layer that fits unobtrusively beneath the dial, so the watch just looks and feels like a normal automatic, explains Mr Stas. The 3.0 refers to a third function of the device the ability of the piece to monitor the accuracy of the mechanical movement and communicate it to the wearers phone. The model represents around 15 per cent of MMT watch sales by value and Mr Stas believes the market has further potential. Not everyone agrees. It all comes down to price points, says Jeremy White, executive editor of tech magazine Wired. If, for example, they cost less than 150, such as those made by Withings, they make sense, he says. But when a traditional watchmaker tries to do the same thing on a more expensive level, it is almost the case that they are cannibalising their own business, Mr White believes. The portion of the Venn diagram where the person who is interested in the quantified self ie activity and sleep measurements crosses over with the person who is interested in high-quality horology is absolutely tiny. | https://www.ft.com/content/f74e25dc-2e26-11e9-80d2-7b637a9e1ba1 |
Is Carpetright wrong over the right to claim compensation? | As a zero-hours contractor I had to take days off for carpet fitting appointments that were missed I contracted Carpetright to carpet my new home. Fitters arrived last September and carpeted the bedrooms and landing adequately, but did a poor job on the stairs. The Croydon store organised two further appointments in November to inspect the stairs and give a quote for the lounge. The first appointment was missed without explanation and I had to contact the store twice more to chase. Two more dates were missed without warning. Again I had to call and visit the store for updates. A date in January was eventually set for the fitting and the remedial work. I emptied the lounge but no one turned up. After further chasing, Carpetright said it would remedy the stair carpet as a goodwill gesture and a new date was set for February. But when I asked for compensation for the days Id taken unpaid leave to wait in, it said it did not have a compensation policy. BM, Croydon With dismal predictability your February date was also a waste of time as fitters had not been properly briefed and a new one was made and finally fulfilled this month. However, the very day I contacted Carpetrights head office you were offered 122 compensation which is the cost of the fitting. This does not reflect the earnings you lost as a zero-hours contractor, but Carpetright tells me its terms and conditions exclude compensation for missed appointments. According to Miquelle Groves of DAS Law, if a trader fails to fulfil a contract with reasonable care and skill within reasonable time, any clause excluding liability is void and the customer is entitled to damages. Unfortunately, the Consumer Rights Act does not provide for stress and inconvenience. As for loss of earnings, it all depends on how foreseeable any losses were. Groves says: If you tell the trader that you are having to take unpaid leave to be available for the appointments, it would be foreseeable that, if they fail to attend, you will suffer a financial loss that should be compensated for. Ultimately, a court decides whether the financial loss was foreseeable. If you need help email Anna Tims at [email protected] or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/mar/21/carpetright-compensation-lost-earning-missed-appointments |
What is Down's syndrome? | To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. (Oct 2013) On 21 March, people across the globe will be marking World Down's Syndrome Day. It is a day to raise awareness of the genetic condition. This year, the theme of World Down's Syndrome Day is leave no one behind, to promote support for making sure that people with the condition have the opportunity to live as fulfilling lives as anybody else and are treated equally. One of the ways that the day is marked is by people wearing colourful socks, so if you see somebody out today in colourful socks, this might be why. Read on to find out more about the condition and let us know in the comments if you're doing anything to raise awareness today! Down's syndrome is a genetic condition which typically affects someone's learning and physical features. It is not a disease, an illness or a condition that someone can catch. People who have Down's syndrome have different personalities and abilities to each other, just like anybody else. Typically, everybody with the condition will experience some level of difficulty learning, so it might take a person with the condition a little longer to process information, carry out a task or learn new skills. People may also share common physical characteristics (for example, a smaller mouth and one individual line across the palm of their hand), but they will look like their parents just like anybody else. To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. WATCH: Oxford Bulls: Meet the football team taking Northern Ireland by storm Individuals with Down's syndrome may be more likely to have some health problems - for example, with their hearing - so children with the condition might go to the doctor a little more often to keep on eye on their health. It can also cause speech problems, so a person might have speech therapy to help with this. The majority of people with the condition walk and talk, go to ordinary schools, play sport if they wish and lead a fairly typical life. The Down's Syndrome Association explains: "The level of support that a person with Down's syndrome needs as they grow older will be different from person to person." About one in every 1,000 babies is born with the condition. There are currently about 60,000 people in the UK with Down's syndrome. Getty Images About one in every 1,000 babies is born with the condition It is a little more likely for a woman to have a child with Down's syndrome if she has a baby when she is older. It occurs completely by chance in all races, in all countries across the world. Down's syndrome is a genetic condition, which means it is caused by something in a person's genes. Getty Images Down's syndrome occurs completely by chance in all races, in all countries across the world Our bodies are made up of billions of tiny cells, and each cells contains genes. Genes are grouped together in structures called chromosomes. Genes contain important information that determine features like our eye colour and whether we are a boy or a girl. Usually, cells contain 46 chromosomes. But Down's syndrome happens all or some of the cells in a person's body has 47 chromosomes due to an extra copy of chromosome 21. This is why you might also hear the condition being called trisomy 21. There are three types of Down's syndrome: Trisomy 21 - All the cells have an extra chromosome 21 (most people with Down's syndrome have this type) Translocation - The added genetic material on chromosome 21 is attached to another (around 4% have this type) Mosaic - Some cells in the body, not all, have an extra chromosome 21 (this is the least common type) Someone called Professor Jerome Lejeune proved that this is what causes Down's syndrome in 1959. Down's syndrome is named after Doctor John Langdon Down who first published information about the condition in 1866. Since then, we've learned a lot more about the condition. Let us know in the comments below! | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/24708543 |
Whats the best laptop screen size for poor eyesight? | Chris According to my pensioner eyes, clarity and crispness are less important than size. And in one of lifes little ironies, increasing the resolution of a screen, to make things look crisper, leads directly to a decrease in size. Fortunately, we can fix this in Windows 10s software settings by changing the scaling, as Ill explain later. However, programmers need to follow the rules, and even today, not every Windows program scales correctly. Screen size vs resolution Facebook Twitter Pinterest Both screen sizes and resolution started small, growing over the years as display and graphics technology improved. Photograph: Graham Turner/The Guardian Go back a few years, and most of us were using PCs with VGA (Video Graphics Array) screens, which had a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels. VGA was a major advance in 1987, and some feature phones and laptops still have cameras with VGA resolution. Screens kept improving, and the next major standard was XGA (Extended Graphics Array), with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels and the same 4:3 aspect ratio, like a TV set. Now your 640 x 480 photo no longer filled the screen, and if the screen was the same size, it would be smaller. Windows laptops moved on to widescreens with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, which sounds odd, but isnt. Manufacturers simply retained the depth from XGA (768 pixels) and extended the width to fill a flat panel with an aspect ratio of 16:9, which was efficient for manufacturing. The result was W-XGA (Wide Extended Graphics Array). Now you could fit two of your 640 x 480 pixel images on screen side-by-side with room to spare, but again, each image was smaller. The same thing happened each time screen resolutions increased. A 1920 x 1080 pixel Full HD screen can display two rows of three 640 x 480 images. A 3840 x 2160 (4K) screen can display 4.5 rows of six 640 x 480 images. What used to fill the screen now occupies only 3.7% of it. Of course, if the screen resolution stays the same, everything is bigger on a bigger screen. If you buy a PC with a 10in screen and a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, everything is really small and hard to read. Plug it into a 24in screen with the same 1920 x 1080 resolution and everything becomes dramatically bigger and easier to read, even though its not as crisp. In my experience, people with poor eyesight prefer big, slightly fuzzy text to small sharp text, but you will have to find the compromise that suits you best. Windows scaling Facebook Twitter Pinterest From the Display settings in Windows 10 you can change the screens resolution as well as the scaling, which makes things bigger while preserving clarity. Photograph: Jack Schofield/The Guardian One way to make everything bigger is to change the resolution of the monitor. Right-click on the Windows desktop and select Display settings from the drop-down menu. This will bring up the Display section of the Settings (cogwheel) app, which shows the screen resolution. It may say something like 1920 x 1080 (Recommended). Clicking the down-arrow will let you to select a lower resolution, going down to around 800 x 600. Every reduction in resolution makes everything bigger, though it also means the screen displays less information. But reducing the screen resolution rarely works well. LCD screens have a fixed grid of pixels that forms their natural resolution. Setting a different resolution can produce very blurry results. Fortunately, theres an alternative. Look for the box that says Change the size of text, apps, and other items. This should read 100% (Recommended), but the down-arrow will allow you to change this to 125%, 150%, 175% or even more. (My 4K monitor offers up to 350%.) This type of scaling makes everything look bigger without changing the screens native resolution. If you click on Advanced scaling settings then you can type in any number you like for percentage size increases between 100% and 500% (not recommended). In general, the smaller the screen and the higher the resolution, the more scaling you will need. Try the 125% and 150% options to see which suits your eyesight best. Changing icon and text sizes You can also change the size of parts of Windows. Right-click on the desktop and select View from the drop-down menu. This lets you select small, medium or large desktop icons. Alternatively, you can click on the desktop, hold down the Control key, and use the mouse-wheel to change the size of your icons. This technique works in some other programs too, including web browsers, File Explorer and Microsoft Word. To make other things bigger, start typing make everything bigger in the Windows 10 search box and click the top result. This will bring up the Display page in the Settings apps Ease of Access section. Make text bigger is the top entry, and its controlled by a slider. Drag the slider to the right to make the sample text easier to read, and stop when you like the result. Finally, type clear type into the search box and select Adjust ClearType text. This pops up a wizard that lets you select the text sample that looks best to you. ClearType uses sub-pixel rendering to make text look sharper. It made a big difference with low-resolution LCD screens, and doesnt make as much difference today or so it seems to me. Screen sizes Cheap Windows laptops generally have 13.3in to 15.6in with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. This is acceptable for most home uses. Better laptops usually have sharper screens with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels or more. You should find a 1920 x 1080 screen easier to read on a 17.3in laptop than on a 13.3 or 14in laptop because everything on the screen will be bigger. The problem with 17.3in laptops is that they are big and not very portable, and their weight is a challenge to the hinges. Consider getting an all-in-one PC with an even bigger screen usually from 21in to 27in or a smaller laptop with a separate 24in monitor instead. Standalone 24in 1920 x 1080 monitors are cheap and usually much better than the screens built into laptops. An all-in-one could provide a bigger, better screen for around the same price as a cheap 17.3in laptop, and a much healthier, more ergonomic working position. Possible options I recommend visiting PC World, John Lewis or another retailer where you can look at laptops of different sizes, as well as some all-in-ones. After that, it depends how much you want to spend. For best results with Windows 10, you should buy a system with an Intel Core i3-8100U or AMD Ryzen or better processor, 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD. If you decide on a 17.3in screen, something like a Dell Inspiron 17 5000 would fill the bill at 699. This has a Core i5-8250U, AMD Radeon 530 graphics, a 128GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive. My pick would be the HP ProBook 470 with a Core i7-8550U, 8GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce 930MX graphics, 256GB SSD, 1TB hard drive and three years of on-site service for 969.60. However, ebuyer.com has a version with a lower specification for 675.99. The silver HP 17-by0511sa is a budget option with a Core i3-8130U, only 4GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive for 529. According to Crucial, you could add more memory later, but this pushes the cost too close to the superior ProBook 470. The all-in-one options include the Acer Aspire C24-865 (i5-8250U/8GB/1TB HDD for 599), Dells Inspiron 5000 (i5-8100T/8GB/1TB HDD for 699) and Lenovos 520-24ICB (i5-8400T/8GB/16GB Optane/1TB HDD for 749). All three have 23.8in screens, which is a great size for ageing eyes. Ive linked mainly to Currys PC World for convenience, but there are many other suppliers both online and offline, including Amazon and Argos. Dell, HP and Lenovo also sell direct from their own websites, where they offer good support deals, flash sales, and student discounts. Email it to [email protected] This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/mar/21/best-windows-laptop-screen-size-poor-eyesight |
Could flexi-schooling help some children? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Flexi-schooling would allow some children to spend part of their school week learning at home When Tavis Potts' seven-year-old son was diagnosed with anxiety and stress, his parents proposed sending him to school part-time. The youngster was struggling with full-time education and they believed he would benefit from spending half-a-day a week at home. However, Dr Potts, a university lecturer, was disappointed that "flexi-schooling" was not an option at his son's Aberdeenshire school. Councillors will debate the idea later after one councillor, Alison Evison, said there was interest in the idea from parents. Officials have carried out detailed analysis of the proposal for members of the council's education and children's services committee. Tavis Potts believes his son could really benefit from breaking up his school week with half-a-day at home. He says the child has struggled with full-time school and an increase in work. Although the school has been "fantastic" in helping his son, he believes flexible schooling should have been option in dealing with the issue. "I proposed a half-a-day, for example, where I could work directly with my son, help him with his various subjects, his maths, his science, his English, his comprehension," he said. "But also as a way to give him some extra tuition in the areas that we're all passionate about as a family, which isn't really covered by the school, for example outdoor education." Image caption Tavis Potts believes his son would benefit from a more flexible approach to school He said it would have helped improve his son's wellbeing and attainment. Instead, they were given a "binary choice". "If there were issues that needed to be addressed or opportunities that you could use, you could either have your kids at school, or you could home teach full-time," he said. "Everything or nothing, and we think there's a middle-ground here, particularly where parents want to be actively engaged in the education of their kids." A report drawn up on the issue for Aberdeenshire Council listed a series of advantages of flexible schooling. It allows parents to spend more time with their children, and could give them the opportunity to learn about a subject in greater depth than if they were in the classroom, with more field trips and one-to-one attention. For younger and less mature children, it can also be useful in giving them more time to adjust to full-time education. Children who are recovering from a long illness can return to school again on a gradual basis. And it helps children who were previously home-schooled make a phased returned into the classroom. Image copyright Getty Images The report also says flexible education can also help children with additional support needs. But it also highlights concerns about fairness. Flexi-schooling may only be an option for families with the means and the ability to educate their children at home. The report adds that it could add to teachers' workloads, cause resentment among children, and adversely affect attainment. 'Flexi-learning would work for us' Image caption Dawn Ewan said son David had suffered anxiety Dawn Ewan started taking her son Fraser to the local woods to play one day a week after he suffered from anxiety at school. As the local council doesn't offer the option of flexible schooling, she had to keep him off herself. She said: "Fraser's very much an outdoor child. He feels very relaxed when he is outside. "He was just finding life really quite stressful for a time. He had a lot of anxiety, and his dad and I just felt that time being outside for extended spells of time to play would help with his mental health, with his social skills, and we actually found that it made a huge difference to him, just to be able to have that break from school once a week." Dawn would like the local council to adopt a flexi-schooling policy. She said: "I would really like there to be a policy where parents can apply to local authorities to have flexible learning for their children. "Much like parents who have their children in school full time and would like to home school, you could apply to the authority - and we all have our own reasons for wanting to do this - and on a case-by-case basis then that could be assessed. "In terms of relationships with schools as well, I think it would help. "If the child is less stressed, as a parent you are less stressed and if, as a school staff you can see the benefits, then there is more of a chance of us all working together for the good of the child." Tony Rafferty, the Aberdeen city representative on the National Parent Forum of Scotland, said the matter needed to be seriously considered. But he raised concerns that wealthy parents could take their child out of school for private maths tuition, while others could not afford it. "I think if there's equity for everybody it should be looked at seriously," he added. Image caption Tony Rafferty believes the idea should be looked at, but there are legitimate concerns about fairness Councillor Alison Evison said that flexi-schooling could enable parents to opt for a "combination of provision", which could involve a number of days each week in school and a day or two in alternative provision such as outdoor learning or in home schooling. She added: "This option would be a radical departure from current practice, but it is one which merits proper analysis and reasoned consideration of both the potential benefits and disadvantages." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-47642207 |
How did President Donald Trump's feud with John McCain begin? | CLOSE President Donald Trump spoke ill of late Vietnam POW Sen. John McCain to a crowd, which included members of the military. USA TODAY WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's feud with the late Sen. John McCain dates way back, to long before the real estate magnate launched a campaign for president. Trump, who occasionally re-airs his grievances with the late Arizona Republican, launched a new line of attack during an address in Ohio Wednesday, suggesting the McCain family never thanked him for "the kind of funeral that he wanted." Trump's role in the services were limited to allowing McCain's body to fly on planes used as Air Force Two. Here's a look at the back and forth between Trump and McCain through the years: Jan. 11, 2000: Trump, considering a run for president, criticized McCain's war service as he sized up other potential candidates in an interview on CBS. He was captured, Trump said, in remarks he would echo years later. I dont know. Im not sure. June 30, 2015: McCain tried to distance himself from Trump soon after the real estate magnate entered the 2016 presidential race by suggesting immigrants were rapists and drug smugglers. "I just disagree with his comments about the, quote, Mexicans," the senator told The Arizona Republic in 2015. July 11, 2015:Trump hammered McCain during a campaign rally in the senators home state, saying he was weak on immigration. "We have incompetent politicians, not only the president," Trump said. "I mean, right here, in your own state, you have John McCain." The audience booed at the mention of McCain's name. July 16, 2015: McCain responded to Trump in a piece in The New Yorker. The senator said Trump fired up the crazies and Trump responded by calling McCain a "dummy." July 18, 2015: Most Americans caught their first glimpse of the feud when Trump, speaking in Iowa, questioned whether McCain was a war hero because he was captured" in the Vietnam War. Trump, who did not serve in the war, said he liked people that werent captured. Many political prognosticators predicted the remarks would bring about the undoing of Trumps campaign. Feb. 9, 2016: Trump won the Republican primary in New Hampshire after coming in second in the Iowa caucuses days earlier. April 19, 2016:McCain announced he would not attend the Republican National Convention in July, where Trump would accept the party's nomination. May 5, 2016: McCain was heard telling supporters at a fundraiser that Trump was hurting the GOP brand with Arizona's Latino electorate, according to audio of his remarks published by Politico. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and President Donald Trump. (Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI, AFP/Getty Images) May 11, 2016: Trump seemed to backtrack from his original remarks, telling a radio program that: You know, frankly, I like John McCain, and John McCain is a hero. Aug. 1, 2016: McCain blasted Trump amid a scandal over the nominees remarks about U.S. Army Capt. Humayun Khan, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2004. Trump criticized the fallen solders mother, who stood silently by her husbands side during the Democratic National Convention. Aug. 5, 2016: Trump reversed course and endorsed McCain. "I hold in the highest esteem Sen. John McCain for his service to our country in uniform and in public office," Trump said. Oct. 4, 2016:McCain defended Trump over comments the nominee made about soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. Trump received criticism for saying some soldiers who return from war are "strong and you can handle it but a lot of people can't handle it." Critics said the comment spread the misconception that veterans with PTSD are weak. McCain said the media distorted Trump's meaning. Trump thanked McCain on Twitter the following day. Thank you @SenJohnMcCain for your kind remarks on the important issue of PTSD and the dishonest media. Great to be in Arizona yesterday! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 5, 2016 Oct. 8, 2016: McCain withdrew support for Trump after a 2005 recording emerged in which Trump discussed kissing women and grabbing them by their genitalia. McCain said the recording made it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy. Jan. 20, 2017:Trump is inaugurated the 45th president of the United States. So great that John McCain is coming back to vote. Brave - American hero! Thank you John. Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017 July 19, 2017:McCain's cancer diagnosis becomes public. Days earlier, before the diagnosis was known but after McCain had undergone surgery to remove a blood clot, Trump said, "We hope John McCain gets better very soon because we miss him. July 28, 2017: McCain joins other Republican senators to block the so-called "skinny repeal" of Obamacare, a last-ditch effort to make good on a Trump campaign promise. Sept. 23, 2017: Trump blasts McCain for opposing the GOP attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare, saying McCain was snookered by Democrats. Oct. 18, 2017: McCain swipes at Trump during a C-SPAN interview, noting that during the Vietnam War we drafted the lowest income level of America and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur." Trump received several draft deferments during the Vietnam War, including one medical deferment for a diagnosed bone spur in his heels, the New York Times reported. May 5, 2018: The New York Times reports that McCains inner circle informed the White House he doesnt want Trump to attend his eventual funeral. June 20, 2018: During a rally in Duluth, Minnesota, Trump blamed McCain for the collapse of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. We had a gentleman way into the morning hours, go thumbs-down," Trump said. "He went thumbs-down." A woman in the crowd reportedly shouted, Hes a war hero, but Trump ignored her and changed topics. When McCain voted against the repeal plan in 2017, he gave a thumbs down and said "no," which drew a gasp from members in the Senate chamber. Aug. 25, 2018: McCain dies. My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2018 Aug. 27, 2018: Trump faced a public outcry after raising U.S. flags two days after they had been lowered out of respect for McCain. The American Legion and other veterans groups criticized the move, and the White House quickly lowered the flags again. Sept. 1, 2018: Honoring McCains wishes, Trump does not attend the senator's funeral at the Washington National Cathedral. Trumps daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, attend the service. Meghan McCain later says they were not invited by the family. March 17, 2019: Trump tweets, incorrectly, that a court document shows McCain attempted to publicize a dossier alleging misdeeds by Trump before the election. McCain provided the document to the FBI after the election, and there is no evidence he also provided it to the media. Spreading the fake and totally discredited Dossier is unfortunately a very dark stain against John McCain. Ken Starr, Former Independent Counsel. He had far worse stains than this, including thumbs down on repeal and replace after years of campaigning to repeal and replace! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 16, 2019 March 18, 2019: On ABCs The View, McCains daughter, Meghan, slammed Trumps criticism of her father, saying: He spends his weekend obsessing over great men because he knows it and I know it and all of you know it: He will never be a great man. So it was indeed (just proven in court papers) last in his class (Annapolis) John McCain that sent the Fake Dossier to the FBI and Media hoping to have it printed BEFORE the Election. He & the Dems, working together, failed (as usual). Even the Fake News refused this garbage! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 17, 2019 March 19, 2019: In an Oval Office meeting with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Trump tells reporters he never liked McCain over differences that included Russia and health care. "I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be, he said. March 20, 2019: Trump expanded his attack, suggesting he did not receive a thank you presumably from McCain's family after Trump "gave him the kind of funeral that he wanted." Contributing: Dan Nowicki, The Arizona Republic Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/21/how-did-donald-trump-john-mccain-feud-begin-obsession/3228906002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/21/how-did-donald-trump-john-mccain-feud-begin-obsession/3228906002/ |
How Did Mighty Chevrolet Become NASCAR's Slowpoke? | Just before the 2019 NASCAR season, I talked to the seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson about having a new crew chief and a new corporate sponsor. I asked Johnson, who is 43 and is in his 18th Cup season, if the changes left him feeling invigorated, refreshed. I dont feel rejuvenated in my desire to compete, Johnson said, pleasantly but firmly. The drawback, it has turned out, is that Johnson is still driving a Chevrolet, and Chevrolets dont win Cup races like they used to. In fact, they have not won a Cup race at all this year, after underperforming most of last year. It has been a surprising development. Look, Chevrolet could take off almost the next three full seasons from the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series and still hold a lead over rival Ford, which has won 101 fewer races. Chevy has won 39 Manufacturers Cups, and Chevy drivers have won 24 of the last 36 series titles. But that is what makes this drought so strange. NASCAR is a vital marketing outlet for Chevrolet, because there are only two other manufacturers in the Cup series, one a longtime rival, the other a car maker that NASCAR fans still dont count after more than a decade because Toyota will always be Japanese to them. But Chevy drivers are off the pace into the second straight season in their Camaro ZL1, with no victories and only two top-five finishes in five Cup races. Toyota has won three races and has nine top-five finishes, and Ford had two victories and 14 top-five finishes. Fords performance is worse for Chevy because Ford rolled out its new Mustang car for Cup competition this year to early success, and the Mustang and Camaro are muscle-car adversaries. The Camaro won its first Cup race last year, but did not win again until the 22nd race, in August. Only one Chevy driver won a race last year after Austin Dillon won the Daytona 500: fan favorite Chase Elliott, who won three times. Five Chevy drivers qualified for the 16-driver Chase, but three were out after the first round, and no Chevy drivers made the four-car title race. It was not a spectacular debut for the Camaro, but Chevy drivers, the teams and the manufacturer promised to work hard on bringing regular victories back. It has not happened this year, yet. Chevys best finishers in each of the last two Cup races came in sixth place. Moreover, just one of the five Chevy drivers who hold down playoff spots now would be among the top eight drivers: Kyle Larson. Kurt Busch, who moved to a Chevy from a Ford, is in ninth place, and three Hendrick Motorsports drivers are in the bottom five, including Elliott. Kyle Busch, in a Toyota owned by Joe Gibbs, has already won two races this season, with four top-five finishes, and has established himself as the pacesetter in the standings. Just to rub it in, Busch has also won two Xfinity second-tier races and two truck races in 2019. Chevrolet has won exactly one Xfinity race -- and no truck races. It is still very early in the season, so a lot could change, but Chevrolet is eating Toyota and Fords dust. Besides Buschs early dominance, the Chevrolets surprising lack of power is the story of the season. Should a driver in a Toyota or Ford win the 2019 title, it would be the third straight year in which Chevy did not win the championship. The last time that happened was between 2002 and 2004, when Tony Stewart (Pontiac) and Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch (both Fords) won titles. Dillon became the second Chevy driver to win a pole position this year when he topped all qualifiers before a March 17 race at Fontana, Calif., but he needed strategy and luck to win it. Bothered by the stomach flu, Dillon ran near the front for most of the race but finished 10th. Next on the schedule is a race at Martinsville, Va., a NASCAR short-track favorite. Rules for the cars have changed somewhat this year, but a Chevy driver has not won a race there since Johnson in October 2016. A Chevy has won only two of the last eight races there. The ZL1 is the priciest Camaro, with an MSRP at $62,995 and up. A car buff would buy a ZL1 on its own merits, like a 650-horsepower engine and a six-speed manual transmission. But the car with the ZL1 label is not looking so fine at the race track, at least not yet. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davecaldwell/2019/03/21/chevrolet-becomes-nascars-slowpoke/ |
Will more genetically engineered foods be approved under the FDA's new leadership? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Ana Santos Rutschman, Saint Louis University (THE CONVERSATION) The world of food and drug regulation was rocked earlier this month by the news of a change in leadership at the Food and Drug Administration. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb resigned and will step down in early April. His temporary replacement is Dr. Ned Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute. As the news filtered out, stocks went up and down, consumer advocacy groups looked back on Gottliebs legacy and commentators worried about the future of the agency. Most of the attention surrounding Gottliebs departure has focused on the consequences of the resignation for the vaping and tobacco industries. But the impact of changes in FDA leadership extends well beyond that. FDA-regulated products make up 20 percent of consumer spending in the U.S. In the realm of food alone, FDA regulates 75 percent of our food supply. As a professor who studies FDA and health law at Saint Louis University, I have been working with the Center for Health Law Studies to monitor changes in FDA regulations and policies. Most recently Ive been tracking progress on the FDAs regulation of genetically modified food and think I can explain what consumers can expect from the agency after Gottlieb departs. How the FDA deals with GM plants and animals Genetically modified plants entered the U.S. market in the 1990s. Since then, the official FDA position has been that food derived from genetically modified plants and animals is not different from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way. This includes considerations regarding safety and long-time effects associated with its consumption. Many people regard genetically modified food as a means to feed more people at a lower cost. However, recent studies suggest that these promises remain unfulfilled since genetically engineered food first became available in the 1990s. Even though scientists have been able to alter the genome of animals for decades, it was not until 2008 that the FDA issued guidance on genetically modified animals. Since then, the agency has become much more active in this area. In 2017, months before Gottlieb became commissioner, the FDA issued further guidance on the use of emerging technologies, like CRISPR, that allow scientists to alter animal genomes. As with plants, the FDA considers genetically engineered animals safe for human consumption. The agency reviews these types of products as new animal drug applications. In 2015, two years before Gottlieb began his tenure, the FDA favorably reviewed an application involving AquAdvantage salmon. Although AquAdvantage salmon was being produced in Canada in 2016, Congress directed FDA to restrict importation of AquAdvantage salmon into the United States. This genetically modified fish incorporates a growth hormone gene from Chinook salmon and links it to a genetic switch, or promoter. The promoter taken from an eel-like fish called ocean pout keeps the growth hormone gene in the on position, allowing it to grow significantly faster than comparable Atlantic salmon. Gottliebs FDA and regulation of GE food Also in 2016, Congress made the U.S. Department of Agriculture the leading player in the labeling of genetically engineered food. The USDA issued final regulations on this topic in late 2018. As a response, on March 8, 2019, Gottliebs FDA reversed the regulation prohibiting the importation of AquAdvantage salmon. With this decision, FDA underscored the agencys belief that the product is safe for humans. In addition to endorsing the general safety of genetically engineered foods, Gottliebs official statement highlights the FDAs goal of explicitly assuring consumers that genetically engineered foods available in the United States market meet the FDAs high safety standards. In many ways, the response of the agency can be seen as purely mechanical and deferential to USDA and Congress. But I think it also signals continuity of a permissive policy when it comes to genetically engineered food. By treating it the same way it treats traditional food, the FDA will intervene if genetically engineered food is contaminated or prepared under unsanitary conditions, as it normally does under its general mandate as an agency tasked with protecting the public health. But we should not expect FDA to challenge the prevailing wisdom among regulatory agencies when it comes to genetically modified food. The FDAs behavior in this field is in line with the current scientific consensus in the United States and abroad. Numerous reputable institutions have upheld the safety of genetically engineered food. These include the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health Organization. Nevertheless, there are some critics of this consensus who call for more research into the long-term effects of eating genetically modified food. According to recent data, consumers continue to distrust genetically engineered food as well. GM food under Sharpless and beyond I believe that in the near future, FDA will address this distrust while continuing to guide the industry as different types of genetically engineered food enter the market. Right now, we know virtually nothing about the views of the incoming acting commissioner on genetically engineered food, or food regulation in general. I think the most likely scenario is that Sharpless FDA will not stray from its current path regarding genetically engineered food. In 2018, Gottlieb launched a Plant and Animal Biotechnology Innovation Action Plan, describing a public communication strategy to engage stakeholders. The plan includes public webinars on animal genome editing, as well as guidance on plant and animal biotechnology. Given the current scientific consensus, it would be surprising if Sharpless chose to move the agency in a different direction. On the labeling front, now that FDA has relinquished most of its authority in this matter to the USDA, the debate is likely to shift elsewhere. Already under Gottlieb, much energy was spent on labeling issues involving almond milk and vegan cheese. The agency worried that using dairy names to described plant-based products might be confusing to consumers. It is of course possible that Sharpless will not be at the helm of FDA for very long. After all, he is an interim figure of Democratic leanings. However, given FDAs improbable recent history, there is reason to expect some institutional continuity in the foreseeable future. Consumers should therefore count on increasing numbers of genetically modified plants and animals entering our food supply. Absent a change in scientific consensus, FDA will smooth the pathway for companies to bring these products to market. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/will-more-genetically-engineered-foods-be-approved-under-the-fdas-new-leadership-113338. | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/Will-more-genetically-engineered-foods-be-13705358.php |
Are the Midwestern Floods a Natural Disaster? | The United States has conducted a century-long, mostly failed experiment in flood control. We have straitjacketed the Mississippi and many other rivers with thousands of miles of levees in the quixotic pursuit of an unattainable goalthe floodless floodplain. But levees give a false sense of security, triggering risky floodplain development behind them. As the Association of State Floodplain Managers explains, Even the best flood-control systems or structures cannot completely eliminate the risk of flooding from all flood events. When the limits of federal levees became apparent after the Great Flood of 1927, the United States began designing artificial spillways and reservoirs to give rivers more room to spread out, although far less space than provided by their natural floodplains. When these efforts fell short, Congress launched a federal program of disaster relief in 1950. Soon thereafter, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) of 1968 offered federal flood policies, often at below-market, taxpayer-subsidized rates. NFIP payouts began to exceed premiums collected. By 2017, in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, the NFIP was $30 billion in debt to the federal Treasury. In 2017, Congress canceled a portion of that debt for the first time ever so that the program could continue to pay insurance claims. Despite these efforts, flooding remains the costliest and most common natural disaster in the U.S., according to the Pew Charitable Trusts, costing billions annually. Although our experience with floods has been tragic and painful, it has yielded a trove of information that can protect us going forward. A recent paper by the Center for Progressive Reform, to which I contributed, identifies the need for better planning before storms strike, drawing on the adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We know what to do, but now must summon the political will at the local, state, and federal levels to make enhanced disaster planning a reality. Hopeful signs have begun to appear. First, on Monday FEMA is expected to release Risk Rating 2.0, which will assess the actual flood risk of individual properties, incorporating previously ignored flood triggers such as heavy precipitation. Previous maps and analyses tied flood risk to the 100-year floodplainareas believed to have a 1 percent chance of flooding each year. In many cases, severe flooding occurred outside mapped floodplains, taking people by surprise and without sufficient insurance. Second, flood-insurance rates are beginning to reflect the true cost of insuring flood-prone properties. As Fugate has argued, As long as we price risk too cheap, theres no incentive to change behavior. Disasters will get bigger. FEMAs new Risk Rating 2.0 lays the groundwork for linking insurance premiums more closely to risk, while also charging more equitable rates for low-value properties. | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/midwestern-flooding-isnt-natural-disaster/585403/?utm_source=feed |
What is Jordan Peele's 'Us' about? And how scary is it? | In "Us," Gabe (Winston Duke), Adelaide (Lupita Nyongo) and their son (Evan Alex) are about to find out. (Photo: Claudette Barius) Watching a Jordan Peele film is a uniquely unsettling experience. This is not just because Get Out, his brilliant debut, and now Us, are smart-and-scary horror movies. It is also because, after all the clues he dropped like so many breadcrumbs in Get Out, you cannot simply sit back and watch Us. You find yourself endlessly searching for hints, for tidbits, for the at-first-glance throwaway image that ultimately will unlock the secrets of the story. Its relentless and its thrilling. Which is not to say that Us is the equal of Get Out. Few films are. But Us is a strong film in its own right, a sign of Peeles confidence as a filmmaker (here he tackles class division, in a different way than he did racism in Get Out). Its also a sign that we can be confident hell make us think while making us squirm. And maybe scream a little. Madison Curry stars in "Us." (Photo: Photo Credit: Universal Pictures) Us begins in 1986, at night at a carnival on the boardwalk on the beach in Santa Cruz, California. A little girl wanders from her father, who is drinking beer and playing Whac-A-Mole. She walks almost trance-like to the beach, and winds up in a fun-house, hall-of-mirrors-type attraction. Lost inside, she sees something that will haunt her for the rest of her life (and eventually haunt the audience). Then were in the present, with the girl, Adelaide (Lupita Nyongo) grown up, married to Gabe (Winston Duke), with a daughter, Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and son Jason (Evan Alex). Theyre on the way to their summer home in Santa Cruz. (If cinematographer Mike Gioulaks overhead shot of the family driving to their vacation isnt meant to evoke the opening of Stanley Kubricks The Shining, its a happy accident.) Adelaide really doesnt want to go to the beach, but Gabe, an amiable goof, talks her into it. They meet their friends Josh and Kitty (Tim Heidecker and Elisabeth Moss) and their twin daughters, a family just a little more well-off enough to bug Gabe. A couple of unusual things happen, enough to rattle Adelaide. Peele, who wrote and produced the film, in addition to directing it, periodically flashes back to the night in 1986 that so shaped her life. In 'Us," the Wilson family encounters a group of people who look just like them: Abraham (Winston Duke, from left), Umbrae (Shahadi Wright Joseph), Pluto (Evan Alex) and Red (Lupita Nyongo). (Photo: Claudette Barius) That night, the power goes out in their vacation home (Josh and Kitty have a backup generator, Gabe notes with annoyance), and Jason comes into his parents room with alarm: There is a family standing in their driveway. Its not just any family; if youve seen the trailer, you know that its them, or their doppelgngers. The film for a time becomes an exercise in home-invasion horror something at which Peele excels. (There are nods to several horror films here, recognizable but never overwhelming Peeles unique vision.) There are many surprises to follow, and many more scares, but underlying everything is a message a warning, really pitting the haves vs. the have-nots, a class division that has broken out into full-on class warfare. The reasons for this grow a little fuzzy as Peele tries to explain things late in the game; that part of the film isnt entirely successful, though it certainly doesnt lack for ambition. The acting is fantastic playing dual roles is doubtless an actors dream. But Nyongo is particularly outstanding. Peele relies on her to carry the film, both as a kind of action hero and her own worst enemy, and if youre looking for a message there, well, you can find one. Gabe (Winston Duke) and Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) protect themselves in "Us." (Photo: Claudette Barius) Peeles visual audacity is at times breathtaking, and always serves a greater purpose. There is a beautiful overhead shot of the family walking along the beach, carrying their supplies, casting long shadows. Theres no way to know in the moment youre admiring this that it carries meaning that informs the rest of the film. Thats just terrific filmmaking. And even if Us cant match the standard Peele set with Get Out, its another reason to be excited about whatever he comes up with next. Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. 'Us,' 4 stars Director: Jordan Peele. Cast: Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Elisabeth Moss. Rating: R for violence/terror and language. Great Good Fair Bad Bomb Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/movies/billgoodykoontz/2019/03/21/jordan-peele-us-how-scary-is-it-what-its-about-movie-review/3220730002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/movies/billgoodykoontz/2019/03/21/jordan-peele-us-how-scary-is-it-what-its-about-movie-review/3220730002/ |
Can Inuit Moms Help Me Tame My 3-Year-Old's Anger? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR Michaeleen Doucleff/NPR Six months ago, I found myself preparing for battle. I was lying in bed at 5:30 a.m., going over in my head how to handle the next encounter with my 3-year-old daughter, Rosy. Goodness knows, I love her so much. But there's a fire in that little belly. And to be honest, I have no idea how to handle all the anger the tantrums, the screaming and, most of all, the hitting. This story is part of a series from NPR's Science desk called The Other Side of Anger. There's no question that we're in angry times. It's in our politics, our schools and our homes. Anger can be a destructive emotion, but it can also be a positive force. Join NPR in our exploration of anger and what we can learn from this powerful emotion. Read and listen to stories in the series here. When she's angry and I pick her up, she has a habit of slapping me across the face. Sometimes it really hurts. I've even started ducking like a boxer when I lift her up. At first, I reacted as my parents did, with bluster and sternness. That only backfired. All she did was arch her back and fall on the ground. Then I consulted Dr. Google and decided calm and firm was the "correct way." But this approach was like putting lipstick on a pig. Rosy could tell I was still upset and trying to control her. Slowly, a wall was rising up between Rosy and me. And I began dreading our time together. Ugh. Then back in early December, I had an opportunity of a lifetime. I traveled to the Canadian Arctic to report on a story about the Inuit and their remarkable ability to regulate anger. During the trip, I got the chance to hear advice from arguably the calmest, coolest moms in the world: Inuit moms. It was like these moms had handed me the manual on how to communicate with small children. And their advice completely shifted how I discipline. She's not 'pushing your buttons' For thousands of years, the Inuit have raised children in one of the harshest places on Earth. During that time, they've developed a suite of powerful parenting tools to teach children emotional intelligence, especially when it comes to anger. At the center of these tools is a major tenet: Never shout at small children. There was no yelling at kids [in traditional Inuit culture]," says Martha Tikivik, 83, who was born in an igloo and has six children. In fact, there's no reason for a parent to get angry at a small child, Tikivik says: "Anger has no purpose. It's not going to solve your problem. It only stops communication between the child and the mom." When a child is misbehaving or having a tantrum, the child is too upset to learn, says 89-year-old Eenoapik Sageatook, whose family was forced to settle in a town when she was a little girl. So there's no reason to scold or shout during these moments. "You have to remain calm and wait for the child to calm down," she says. "Then you can teach the child." In other words, cool your jets, Mama Doucleff. Stop blowing your fuse. Stop taking the toddler's behavior personally. And stop thinking that Rosy is "pushing your buttons," says Inuit mom and radio producer Lisa Ipeelie. "You think little kids are mad at you," she says. "That's not what's going on. They're upset about something, and you have to figure out what it is." OK. I admit that following this advice was really hard. I mean really, really hard. It took weeks of practice (and another trick I learned about anger). At first, I just stopped saying anything to Rosy when she had a tantrum or hit me. I knew that if I opened my mouth, the words would be tinged in anger. So I would just close my eyes to calm myself down and then wait for Rosy to calm down herself. Once I learned not to be angry with Rosy, I began trying to help her with her own anger by loving her. I'd ask if she needed a hug, or I'd hold her really tightly. Then after she calmed down, I took inspiration from the Inuit moms and turned discipline into fantasy and theater. Tell a story Instead of yelling or telling kids what to do, Inuit parents traditionally discipline through storytelling, says Goota Jaw, who teaches an Inuit parenting class at Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit, Canada. For example, she says, to get kids to stay away from the dangerous ocean, parents tell them about a sea monster that lives in the water. If you go too close to the water, the parents say, the monster will put you in his pouch, drag you down to the ocean and adopt you out to another family. There are stories to get kids to listen to adults, wear hats in the winter, not take food without asking and go to bed on time. At first, these types of stories sounded too scary for a 3-year-old. Then a few weeks after returning from the Arctic, I flipped my opinion 180 degrees. One afternoon, Rosy and I were in the kitchen, preparing dinner. I was trying to get her to close the refrigerator door. I deployed my typical strategy: adult logic followed by nagging. I explained several times how she is wasting energy. It was like I was talking to a wall. After a few minutes, I found myself in the all-too common predicament of arguing with a proto-human. I was ready to blow a fuse when my thoughts turned to Goota Jaw and the sea monster. There's a monster inside the refrigerator, and if he warms up, he's going to get bigger and bigger and come get you." Then I pointed into the refrigerator and exclaimed, "Oh my goodness. There he is!" Holy moly! You should have seen the look on Rosy's face. She closed the door lightning fast, turned around and said, "Mama, tell me more about the monster in there." Since that moment, storytelling has become a go-to parenting tool in our home. Rosy can't get enough of these stories and even asks me to make them scarier. Here are a few popular ones right now: 1. Sharing Monster: Living up in a tree outside the kitchen window, the sharing monster grows bigger and bigger when little kids aren't sharing. At some point, he could come up, snatch you and take you up in the tree. 2. Yelling Monster: He lives in the ceiling and comes down to snatch little kids who yell and are demanding. 3. Shoe Monster: She makes sure kids get their shoes on in the morning quickly or else she'll take you down into the heating vent. 4. Dress Spiders: Back in January, Rosy wore the same pink dress day and night for about five days. I couldn't get her to take it off. I tried talking logically: "Rosy, if we wash it tonight, it won't have stains on it for school tomorrow." She looked at me as if I were speaking French. Finally, I got close to her and whispered, "If the dress gets too dirty, spiders will start to grow in it." Rosy didn't say a word and slowly slipped the dress off. So nice and clean!" Rosy didn't miss a beat. "And no spiders," she emphasized. Overall, storytelling has opened up a huge communication channel between Rosy and me. I feel like I'm finally speaking her language. She couldn't care less about kilowatts of power or stains on the dress. But a monster that grows and spiders that crawl those ideas she can wrap her head around. Put on a play Storytelling has definitely decreased the yelling, nagging and blown fuses in our home. But the stories didn't stop the hitting. For that, I needed inspiration from another Inuit strategy, which anthropologist Jean Briggs studied for more than 30 years ago. In a nutshell, here's how the approach works: When a child misbehaves hits someone or has a tantrum there's no punishment. Instead, the parent waits for a calm moment and then acts out what happened during the misbehavior. Typically the performance starts with the parent tempting the child to misbehave. For example, "Why don't you hit me?" Then the child has to think: "What should I do?" If the child takes the bait and hits, the parent doesn't scold or yell but instead acts out the consequences. "Ow, that hurts!" Mom or Dad might exclaim, to show that hitting hurts. Briggs documented that the parent continues to emphasize the consequences by asking follow-up questions such as "Don't you like me?" or "Are you a baby?" The goal is to give the child a chance to practice the proper behavior at a time when the child is open to learning and not emotionally charged. Throughout the drama, the parent keeps a playful tone and a wink in the eye. With Rosy and her hitting, I definitely had not been reacting in a playful way. Just the opposite: I was stern and serious. So with a hefty dose of skepticism, I abandoned that strategy and gave this playful approach a try. Each time Rosy hit me, no matter how hard she slapped and how infuriated I was, I didn't get angry. Instead, I said in a dramatic way, "Ooo, that hurts! Goodness that hurts!" to show that hitting hurt me physically and emotionally. Then I asked her this one question, with an exaggerated sense of pain and suffering: "Don't you like me?" (To hear what I sound like, take a listen to the radio story). Immediately, this fun tone changed Rosy's behavior. The tension between us melted away, and the hitting decreased. I could see the little gears in her brain churning. "Wait! Am I hurting Mom's feelings?" she seemed to be thinking. (And I could see that Ipeelie was right. Rosy wasn't pushing my buttons. She cared about my feelings.) So I thought I'd try putting on a little drama by asking her, "Why don't you hit me?" The first few tries were rough. She would wallop me. But I stuck to the script, and slowly I could see her thinking before she struck. She started to play-hit me or stopped mid-swing. After about a month, a tiny miracle occurred. We were in the kitchen, having a snack, and I said, "Rosy, why don't you hit me?" "No," Rosy responded. Why not?" I asked. "Because I love you," she whispered. "Because you love me?" I said, in complete shock. "That's very nice." Nice and a testimony to teaching kids through stories, play and practice. | https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2019/03/21/702209976/can-inuit-moms-help-me-tame-my-3-year-olds-anger?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
Why isnt Warriors Klay Thompson an All-Defensive team lock? | Warriors guard Klay Thompson might be human, but his durability, consistency, stamina and textbook shooting form suggest otherwise. We take him for granted, Golden State assistant coach Ron Adams said recently. Every night, hes like a wind-up toy. You just wind him up and he goes. He goes offensively, and he goes defensively. Perhaps no part of Thompsons game is more overlooked by the public, at least than his defense. In addition to being one of the the greatest shooters in NBA history, he is one of the leagues premier on-ball defenders. Thompsons blend of endurance, size and makes him a trying matchup for everyone from LeBron James to Russell Westbrook. Adams, who has overseen NBA defenses for 27 years, is adamant that Thompson should be mentioned alongside Oklahoma Citys Paul George a candidate for MVP and Defensive Player of the Year as the leagues top two-way players. Warriors forward Kevin Durant said that the people who vote on that dont really know the game, and he might have a point. The rise of analytics in recent years has caused some sportswriters and broadcasters who vote for All-Defensive team to rely more on a few go-to numbers than what they see in games. Thompson doesnt fare well in the advanced stats. Through Tuesday, his defensive rating of 108.3 ranked 319th in the NBA, behind nine of his teammates. Thompsons defensive real plus-minus a stat measuring a players average impact on his teams defense by points allowed per 100 offensive possessions is minus-1.59, which ranked 92nd among 114 shooting guards. A deeper look at the numbers, however, supports the notion that he is one of the leagues best one-on-one defenders. This season, Thompson, who regularly guards the opponents top scorer, has held Washingtons Bradley Beal to 40 percent shooting, Portlands Damian Lillard to 33.3 percent and Houstons James Harden to 25 percent. In the March 13 win over the Rockets, Thompson limited Harden an MVP candidate to nine points on 23 possessions. Three nights later, in Oklahoma City, Westbrook had seven points on 2-for-16 shooting (0-for-7 from 3-point range) when defended by Thompson. Late in the second quarter, Thompson didnt jump on a Westbrook midrange pump-fake, cutting off the 2016-17 MVPs drive and blocking his shot. After Thompson grabbed the rebound, Westbrook livid over the no-call rammed into Thompson with his chest to earn his 16th technical and a one-game suspension. Asked after the game if Thompson make the All-Defensive team, Draymond Green said, One hundred percent. There arent many guards that are better than Klay defensively. Less than 48 hours later, when informed that his teammates dont understand why he hasnt already made an All-Defensive team, Thompson said, Well, that makes 15 of us. Whatever. I mean, its something Id love to definitely do before my careers over. I feel like I put the work in and have kind of proved that Im a reliable defensive presence for this five-year run that weve been on, so Id like to be rewarded. Thatd be nice. Most elite NBA players draw parallels to all-time greats, but Thompson tends to get compared to robots. Golden State general manager Bob Myers once said that Thompson is like the first Terminator, the one who doesnt say anything. In May 2017, after Thompson lost his train of thought during an interview, Deadspin.com postulated that his autopilot system had failed. A week later, Slate.com published an article investigating whether Thompson was, in fact, a robot. Such talk constitutes some of the highest praise in sports. Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson was nicknamed Megatron because of his seemingly superhuman strength and speed. Toronto forward Kawhi Leonard like Thompson, a two-way force known for his monotone interviews has been called a robot much of his NBA career. However, Thompsons defense hasnt always been characterized by machine-like precision and repetition. Thursdays game Who: Indiana (44-28) at Warriors (48-22) When: 7:30 p.m. TV/Radio: NBCSBA/95.7 Read More Like many players who came of age in the early 2000s, Thompson wanted to score like Kobe Bryant. Not until the summer of 2012, after he struggled as an NBA rookie to stop some of the leagues top guards, did Thompson decide to make defense more of a focus. Darren Erman, then the Warriors defensive guru under head coach Mark Jackson, led Thompson through 45-minute defensive boot camps every Monday through Thursday. Drills were designed to help him work on such fundamentals as sliding his feet and switching off screens. After 16 weeks of those rigorous sessions, Erman arrived at training camp and told Jackson that Thompson would be a Hall of Famer. Over the past seven seasons, Thompson has become a versatile defender. Though known for quelling high-scoring guards, he also can handle guarding big men. Thompsons penchant for on-ball defense allows Curry to play off the ball and preserve necessary energy for offense. I dont know how you quantify that, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. But to me, Klays definitely an All-Defensive-team player. Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Con_Chron | https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Why-isn-t-Klay-Thompson-an-All-Defensive-lock-13704578.php |
Will Brexit spell bust for architecture? | The letters all tell a tale of future financial loss, since architecture is directly tied to the construction sector: A decline in imports will cause upward pressure on the price of materials, with a decrease in construction and demand for architects. A smaller market and drop in the gross domestic product will weaken the economy, weakening practices. If Brexit happens, British firms will have to pay increased taxes on their fees for work in the European Union, further decreasing the work volume because of increased costs. British architects will no longer have access to European competitions, a source of commissions for large and small publicly funded projects across Europe. Each year competitions throughout the EUs 28 nations enable young European firms to establish themselves. | https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-brexit-architects-20190321-story.html |
How Much Do YouTubers Really Make? | The first time I realized the true potential of YouTube was when my children were very young. A few of my boys were sitting on the floor starting at the television and completely enthralled with what they saw a grown man playing with toys. I wondered what the heck was going on. After a quick Google Search, I found out the channel they were watching Ryan ToysReview was a wildly popular medium where someone, in this case Ryan, basically plays with toys so kids could watch. It was strange, I thought, but there wasnt any harm in it, either. Only a few weeks later, I learned that this wasnt just some sort of hobby. The Ryan ToysReview channel was making real money at the time, which I found out after discovering the channel had more than 11 million followers! Crazy enough, Ryan ToysReview now boasts over 18 million subscribers. It also brought in a reported income of $22 million dollars in 2018. And trust me, you would never guess it by watching one of his videos. Case in point example: This just goes to show the amazing potential YouTube has in terms of monetization, as well as the wide variety of topics you can cover. Not me. Thats for sure. Fast forward a few years and my outlook has totally changed. I started my YouTube channel Wealth Hacker in January of 2011, but it took me a long time to gain any real traction. In the meantime, I learned a ton about the various monetization methods YouTubers use as well as what it takes for the most successful content producers to grow their annual income into the millions of dollars. I also watched as several people I followed grew their online influence over the years in real time. One YouTube star who really influenced me is Emily Noel, although she actually started her channel in 2006. Emily was once a morning anchor at the ABC affiliate in Illinois where I used to live, but she started a makeup-focused YouTube channel along the way. Over time, she got to the point where she could quit her job to create makeup videos as her full-time job. Crazy enough, Emily Dihle (Emily Noel is her YouTube username) now has over 1 million YouTube subscribers as well as her own makeup line known as Emily Edit you can buy at ULTA beauty stores. But Emily and Ryan ToysReview are not the only channels making bank on YouTube today. Forbes actually outlined the highest-paid YouTube stars in 2018, but their list is really just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the most impressive (and rich!) YouTube stars you should know about include: Logan Paul Logan Paul started his YouTube channel in 2015, but it didnt take long for his channel to explode. He has over 18 million subscribers as of early 2019, and Forbes reports he had 2018 earnings of $14.5 million. Plenty of pranks that shock viewers along with random topics that arent necessarily appropriate for our readers here at Forbes. Alpha Male Alpha Male has almost 5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel, most of which show up to hear him wax poetic about male confidence, how to dress for success, and quirky topics like tattoo dos and donts. Founder Aaron Marino has been featured on Shark Tank not once but twice! While were unsure how much Alpha Male earns each year, Shark Tank investors offered him $100,000 for 10% of his product his own brand in 2016 according to GQ. PewDiePie PewDiePie is a Swedish gamer who has risen to online stardom since starting his YouTube channel in 2010. With over 90 million followers at his disposal, he earned $15.5 million playing video games online in 2018. Jeffree Star Jeffree Star is a drag queen and makeup mogul who earned $18 million via makeup videos and tutorials in 2018. The YouTube star was able to leverage a basic YouTube presence to launch Jeffree Star Cosmetics, which Forbes has estimated brings in up to $100 million in revenue per year. Jake Paul Jake Paul, who is the brother of Logan Paul, earned $21.5 million dollars in 2018. Some of his income came from the outrageous pranks and rap songs he shares on his YouTube channel, but Jake also sells merchandise on his own Fanjoy website. Obviously, the YouTube millionaires above represent the exception not the rule. Most people who start a YouTube channel will never make millions of dollars, and it may not even matter how many followers they have. The reality is, it takes a lot more than a bunch of followers to earn a ton of money and especially millions of dollars with only a YouTube channel. Tim Schmoyer of Video Creators, a YouTube channel with over 465,000 subscribers of its own, told me that he knows a YouTube star with over 2 million followers who only earns a couple hundred dollars per month. Schmoyer says most creators with large channels have a plan for how to create and deliver value, but most do not have a plan for how to capture value. They leave their monetization strategy in YouTube's hands and just hope that the money will appear as their channel grows, he said. The thing is, the amount of money a creator earns is actually based on the business plan they've wrapped around their channel not the size of their audience. It's the combination of intentionally creating, delivering, and capturing value, he said. Thats why so many of the top-earning YouTube stars have more than just a YouTube channel. The most successful YouTubers sell products or learn how to monetize their influence in other ways. Schmoyer, whose channel earns over $500,000 per year with less than one million views per month, says savvy YouTubers diversify with multiple income sources instead of just one. The main income streams YouTube stars use to build real income include: Google Adsense To become a YouTube partner and be eligible for certain monetization strategies like Google Adsense, you must have at least 1,000 subscribers, have more than 4,000 watch hours in the last 12 months, and live in a country where this program is available. Once you link Google Adsense to your YouTube account, you can get paid when someone clicks on an ad or watches your videos for at least 30 seconds. Getting someone to watch your videos for more than 30 seconds can be more difficult than it sounds and having a ton of viewers doesnt always translate into revenue, either. For those reasons, the size of a YouTube channel doesnt always dictate its Google Adsense income. And really, Adsense is one of the least likely income streams to rely on if your goal is making millions of dollars. Merchandise Sales Youll notice some of the biggest YouTube stars like Jeffree Star and Jake Paul sell their own products. This is part of the reason theyre able to earn so much. By coming up with products they can sell, they are able to leverage their online presence to build their customer base. While some YouTubers sell makeup, T-shirts, or fan gear, others take a different approach and focus on online education. For example, another famous real estate YouTuber, Graham Stephan, makes a killing selling real estate courses through his Real Estate Agent Academy. His courses start at $497 each, so that shows the potential thats out there! Sponsored Content In addition to Adsense and merchandise sales, many YouTube stars with a large following accept money for sponsored content. Typically, this income stream requires the content creator to talk about and feature a product or service in their video. Examples can include a makeup vlogger featuring a certain type of makeup in their video in exchange for payment. Another popular finance channel, Minority Mindset, shared in one of his videos how lucrative sponsored content can be. He was offered $150,000 to promote a product in crypto currency space. He didn't feel the product was worth promoting to his audience, but it definitely shows sponsorships are not to be ignored. A study from The Economist notes that influencers with at least 100,000 followers on YouTube can typically earn $12,500 for sponsored content, but those payments can escalate from there. Free Merchandise Many YouTubers also accept free merchandise they can review on their channels. These freebies dont necessarily translate into money, but they can help them save money and try new products without paying out of pocket. Peter McKinnon, a cinematographer turned YouTuber has racked up a huge following - over 3.3 million subscribers at a rapid pace. He's also mentioned on several of videos how much free product is sent his way. He typically pays for all the camera gear he chooses to review on his channel, which is one of the factors that has led to him being a trusted voice in the photography space. Even my wife, who has a substantial Instagram following, gets a ton of free stuff for our home based on her following alone things like rugs, lamps, and vacuum cleaners. Remember the days when most jobs entailed sitting in a cubicle and working for the man? Those days are long gone, and in 2019 there are an endless number of ways to earn money online. You can start a YouTube channel and learn to monetize it for sure, but you could also become an online freelance writer, blog for profit, create online courses, or become a social media manager. The YouTube stars we profiled here really do show that the possibilities are endless, but its important to remember they beat out thousands of other people to get where they are. Absolutely. Probably not. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jrose/2019/03/21/how-much-do-youtubers-really-make/ |
Are Successful Entrepreneurs Born Or Made? | The age-old question continues to arise today. This single question has rattled the minds of many thought leaders, industry authorities, professors and even entrepreneurs like myself. It appears so simple when asked, yet upon scratching the surface slightly, it becomes a far deeper equation. The nature versus nurture aspect behind entrepreneurship has caused quite a bit of buzz. There is even a rumored entrepreneur gene that some say predisposes us for success in our chosen endeavors. In a 2013 Forbes article, David K. Williams discusses the Founders Institute aptitude and personality test relating to revenue growth and market success. Maybe not, but these traits certainly dont hurt. The genetics portion of entrepreneurship has died down a bit since 2013. However, the question of whether us entrepreneurs are born or made is still up for serious debate. I think it is a bit of both heres why. Absolutely. However, it goes a bit deeper than simply being born with certain personality and aptitude traits. The ability to apply those traits the right way and in the right space is what makes an entrepreneur successful. American entrepreneur, record producer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams is exceptional at what he does in his specific entrepreneurial space, but he may be hard-pressed to develop computer technology that would have had the same success as Bill Gates, or make financial moves as brilliant as Warren Buffett. I believe that the reason Williams was able to have such success is that he applied his natural entrepreneur traits (nature) to what they were meant for (music). The same goes for Gates and Buffett. Those two probably would not have been able to establish the highly successful clothing line Billionaire Boys Club. There is also an element of passion within the entrepreneur nature argument. He was passionate about music and networked with friends, allowing him to expand at an early age. That passion burned into a tenaciousness. This allowed Williams to overcome setbacks in multiple industries, catalyzing his long-term success. This example highlights how entrepreneurs are indeed born, as long as their innate traits are applied the right way, at the right moment, and without the words give up in their entrepreneurial lexicon. Of course. We can all be made into something, as long as we apply ourselves unconditionally. If nurture did not exist within greatness, the education system would be the biggest scam of all time. Successful entrepreneurs are indeed born, and they need to apply their traits a certain way. However, no one is born with all the traits necessary to be 100% successful on their own. There is no one-man band in entrepreneurship. Along the way, every successful entrepreneur has learned new traits, making mentorship an absolute must. Every entrepreneur on the planet had some type of mentor or network of people that they could turn to for advice, learn from and bounce ideas off of. Robert Herjavec, an ABC Shark Tank shark and best-selling author, said this of his early mentor Ross Marsden: He took me to the window in our office and asked me to look at the hot dog vendor selling at the edge of our parking lot. He told me that I was acting like the vendor -- pushing product, and doing all the work to make a living. He followed that statement with, You need to be the guy supplying the dogs to all the vendors if you ever want to scale. So yes, there needs to be a bit of nurture involved with entrepreneurial success. How one gets nurtured is what makes the difference. My advice would be to actively seek mentors and build a strong network of people who have your growth in mind. If you keep company with those who have success, you are far more likely to be successful yourself. Its not because they will give you money. It is because they will share knowledge with you. That has a profound impact on any entrepreneur and is the reason why nurture is present in our daily lives. Entrepreneurship: Where Nature Meets Nurture From my experience, entrepreneurs are both born and made. The combination of these two forces is also not rare. Each day a new startup is launched, a new innovative idea is conceptualized and success of some kind is had. These newly successful entrepreneurs were born and nurtured toward their achievements. Their application of traits, passion, tenaciousness and yearning for knowledge is at the core of their success a very special place where nature meets nurture. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2019/03/21/are-successful-entrepreneurs-born-or-made/ |
How Many People Work for the U.S. Federal Government? | April 15 is a day that most Americans should feel like a boss. That indelible mark on the calendarTax Dayis a reminder, after all, that youve got 2,098,913 people on your payroll, as of June. That said, you may be surprised by where exactly your employees are working: The largest share, for instance, is tasked with taking care of U.S. military veterans (with 90% of staff deployed at VA hospitals). Employment at Veterans Affairs is up 15% over the past five years. Meanwhile, other big federal departments (agriculture, health, housing, and labor) have shrunk. Same goes for the Department of Education, which is actually too small to show on the graphic above. A version of this article appears in the April 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline On the Nations Payroll. | http://fortune.com/longform/government-employee-count-2019/ |
Is J.K. Rowling hurting the Harry Potter franchise? | by Anna Bold In a new feature on the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald Blu-ray DVD, J.K. Rowling revealed the intense sexual relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald. Rowling has been criticized in the past for announcing diverse traits about her characters post-publication but not including these facts in the literary or movie canons. Some fans want Rowling to put her words into action, while others are satisfied learning new information about the vast fantasy world. According to The Radio Times, J.K. Rowling revealed that Gindelwald and Dumbledore had an intense and passionate relationship. During a feature on The Crimes of Grindelwald Blu-ray DVD, Rowling commented: "Their relationship was incredibly intense, says Rowling. It was passionate, and it was a love relationship. But as happens in any relationship, gay or straight or whatever label we want to put on it, one never knows really what the other person is feeling. You cant know, you can believe you know. "So Im less interested in the sexual side though I believe there is a sexual dimension to this relationship than I am in the sense of the emotions they felt for each other, which ultimately is the most fascinating thing about all human relationships. Rowling revealed Dumbledore was gay in 2007, but despite the characters appearance in the Fantastic Beasts movie series, Rowling stated Dumbledores romance would not be portrayed on screen. Fans decried the lack of LGBT representation in the Harry Potter universe, arguing that revealing these facts in interviews while not including them in the canon was hurtful. As Heather Dockray wrote in Mashable, "But LGBTQ representation still matters, even queer wizard representation, especially in films targeted to children and young adults. And it's dispiriting and predictable to see yet another writer allude to their character having a "secret homosexual life" without being willing to portray it on screen." Some questioned if Rowling excluded LGBT characters in order to pacify a homophobic audience. its performative activism that allows her to present herself as progressive while keeping her films family friendly for the bigots that would undoubtedly kick off at the presence of a gay character laura (@lauraw97_) March 17, 2019 Others defended Rowlings statement, saying she was answering a question that she was posed about her own works. As author Melissa Anelli put it in her Twitter thread: People can take it or leave it but the second you tell a creative person to stop thinking/writing/creating youre being an ass. "You can have a strong relationship with any story you want and that relationship can develop in any way you want it to: but to pretend the author doesnt also have that right is super hypocritical. Whatever external material you dont like, you can just ignore." If an author wants to stop talking about their work once its out, cool. But thats each authors choice. No author or fan should tell any author how to interact with their own work. Melissa Anelli (@melissaanelli) March 18, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.nola.com/tylt/2019/03/is-jk-rowling-hurting-the-harry-potter-franchise.html |
What Is Spring Like on Other Planets? | The daylight is relentless and scorching. But the orientation produces a rather cool phenomenon. It lets Mercury have regions of permanent shadow near its poles that are never sunlit, and lets ice be present in those regionseven on the planet closest to the sun, says Nancy Chabot, a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Its one weird little planet, Byrne adds. Venus There is no springtime on Venus, nor any other seasonno seasons in hell! says Allan Treiman, a scientist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute. Its difficult to sugarcoat the environment on Venus. Surface temperatures are a sizzling 870 degrees Fahrenheit (470 degrees Celsius), hot enough to melt lead, all year round. Like Mercurys, Venuss axis isnt tilted enough to produce a noticeable difference. But the real reason the planet doesnt have any seasons is its atmosphere, which is choked with clouds. The clouds are so thick that its surface gets nearly no light or heat from the sun. Nearly all the sunlight and heat are absorbed by clouds, which then radiate heat down to the surfacethe famous greenhouse effect, Tremain says. Venus clouds circulate faster than the surface does, so all the greenhouse heat is spread around the planet, whether its day or night. Thats not all. To top everything else off, Venus day is longer than her year, says Vicki Hansen, a scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. (It takes 243 Earth days for Venus to rotate once on its axis, but 225 Earth days for the planet to loop around the sun.) So if she had spring, it would be hard to say what day it happened. Mars Marss axis is tilted slightly more than Earthsabout 25 degreeswhich means the planet experiences distinct seasons, too. In fact, like the Northern hemisphere here, the Northern hemisphere on Mars is entering spring now. The Northern hemisphere is starting to heat up; the Southern hemisphere cooling offjust like on Earth, says Don Banfield, a scientist at the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science. Well, not just like on Earth. Orbits affect seasons, too; the Martian year is twice as long as a terrestrial year, so the seasons stretch out longer. There are seasonal trends, such as summer dust storms, but without rain and plants, they arent quite as obvious, says Banfield. Jupiter Jupiter does not have a springtime, says Cheng Li, a scientist at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Like Mars, Jupiters axial tilt is too small to matter. Saturn Saturn does have spring: Its axial tilt is similar to that of Earth and Mars. Saturn is warm in the summer and cold in the winter, says Leigh Fletcher, a planetary scientist at the University of Leicester. The clouds and chemicals respond to these changes in sunlight. Perhaps the best example is the color of Saturns atmosphere, which shifts from blue hues in the winterrelatively clear skies with very few hazesto golden hues in summera more smoggy atmosphere with lots of hazes. | https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/03/spring-winter-earth-planets/585310/?utm_source=feed |
Will We Get To The Bottom Of The Truth On Forced Organ Removal In China? | On March 24, the UN marks the International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims, a day designated to honor the memory of victims of gross and systematic human rights violations and promote the importance of the right to truth and justice. Indeed, in 2006, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that the right to the truth about gross human rights violations and serious violations of human rights law is an inalienable and autonomous right, linked to the duty and obligation of the State to protect and guarantee human rights, to conduct effective investigations and to guarantee effective remedy and reparations. This right is closely linked with other rights and has both an individual and a societal dimension and should be considered as a non-derogable right and not be subject to limitations. Getting to the bottom of the truth is the only way that justice can be achieved. Sometimes, however, the truth may be beyond reach. The case of alleged forced organ removal in China seems to be one of such cases. Over recent years, several researchers (including lawyers and investigators) have been raising the issue of forced organ removal in China, namely, the illegal practice of removing organs from individuals who did not consent to it. Despite China arguing that there are approximately 10,000 organ transplants being conducted in China per year, all in accordance with the law, researchers suggest that this is far from the truth. Indeed, researchers indicate that the numbers of such transplants are closer to between 60,000 and 100,000 a year, significantly higher than the official Chinese estimate. Furthermore, researchers make a clear case that the vast majority of the unreported cases of organ removals are the illegal practice. This is predominately from prisoners of conscience, particularly religious minorities including Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims and unregistered House Church Christians. When imprisoned, they are subjected to abuse and torture and there appears to be no possibility to redress. As researchers suggest, many of them are subjected to forced organ removal. However, it is important to emphasize that the issue is not only about organ removal without consent or without valid consent. The evidence suggests that the prisoners of conscience do not survive the forced organ removal. Hence, it may be more accurate to talk about killings by way of forced organ removal. The issue of forced organ removal from prisoners of conscience in China is gaining some attention, including at the European Parliament, in the US, Canada, the UK and many more states. However, one of the most significant challenges is the lack of a smoking gun. The victims of forced organ removal in China cannot tell their stories. The bodies are not found. There is no clear evidence to help to address the issue once and for all. In response to this challenge, the China Tribunal, an independent peoples tribunal to inquire into forced organ removal from prisoners of conscience in China, has been established to obtain evidence of such practice, classify the atrocities and recommend future actions. The China Tribunal heard from several witnesses who, despite not being the victims of forced organ removal (as the allegation is that no victims have survived the procedure), have identified important elements explaining the practice. For example, a female Falun Gong practitioner who was imprisoned and tortured for several years told the China Tribunal how medical professionals were examining Falun Gong practitioners but not any other prisoners. The woman had a heart problem what ironically appears to have saved her life. She added: In the end, every Falun Gong practitioner had been given a medical check-up and had his or her blood tested. Even those who had developed a mental disorder were not exempt. Other, non-Falun Gong practitioner prisoners didn't have to go through this. At that time I already knew that the medical check-ups were not for our health. After the exams, I discovered that some practitioners had disappeared; I didnt know where they wentI never heard from the practitioners who were transferred. I understood the reason for these medical tests after I heard about the CCP harvesting organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. Then I understood the depth of their deceit. This was not an isolated statement. Indeed, other witnesses identified similar practices of medical examinations of Falun Gong and the disappearances of them without a trace. One witness, when asked why Falun Gong would have been picked for the examinations (and possible forced organ removal), identified that Falun Gong practitioners are very healthy and healthier than others in the Chinese prisons. In response to the work of the China Tribunal, the UK Parliamentarians decided to take steps to shine more light on the issue and engage the UK Parliament and Government in debates in pursuit of the truth. On March 5, 2019, UK Parliamentarians tabled an Early Day Motion raising the issue of forced organ removal from prisoners of conscience in China and the associated religious persecution. They called upon the UK Government to take more decisive steps on the issue and engage in a dialogue with the Chinese government. On March 26, 2019, the UK Parliamentarians will debate the issue of forced live organ extraction in China in a Parliamentary debate. The work done by the China Tribunal and UK Parliamentarians may shed more light on the situation of prisoners of conscience in China and honor the memory of the victims in this way. However, the road to the truth about these gross human rights violations against prisoners of conscience in China will be long (if it will even be possible to get to the bottom of the issue). This does not mean, however, that such work should not be undertaken. On the contrary, for the dignity of the victims, in the past and in the future, we must investigate and seek truth with the ultimate goal of stopping such gross human rights violations. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewelinaochab/2019/03/21/will-we-get-to-the-bottom-of-the-truth-on-forced-organ-removal-in-china/ |
Will the Fed's Neutral Rate Nirvana Crash the Economy? | So now we know a ceiling of 2.5% is the new 'neutral' rate for US borrowing costs. That's where the Federal Reserve just left its key policy rate after saying in November that 'neutral' was close and then raising to 2.5% amid the stock market crash in December. Peering ahead, the Fed's policy-making team now forecast a year-end rate of 2.6% for both 2019 and 2020 on average. So today's actual Fed Funds rate of 2.4% must look pretty neutral to the FOMC for the next 2 years, too. Proving both Donald Trump and Jim Cramer right might seem a big ask for anyone. But Fed chairman Jerome Powell managed it late in 2018, first because he wasn't the "low rates guy" the President thought he had hired, and second because, like the CNBC pundit said, Powell clearly felt he had to go through with the December hike not despite the stock market slump but because of it. Cramer then joined Trump in calling for Powell's head, but amid the worst fall in global equities since 2012, pausing the Fed's rate hike before Christmas would have meant really, really spooking the markets after the Fed chief said in October that the cost of borrowing was still "a long way" below neutral, adding that the Fed was still only "close" at the end of November. Reading about the 'neutral rate of interest' could cure your insomnia, but it's basically the Holy Grail for central-bank economists. Known as r* in PhD equations, the neutral rate does no harm, stoking neither fear nor greed among borrowers and lenders and so leaving the economy at full employment with steady inflation. Or it would if the economy already had those two nailed down. Note that the neutral rate "cannot be observed directly," says one explanation. "It can only be estimated." Nevertheless, this imaginary level of interest "matters because it affects how the Fed judges whether the interest rates it sets are stimulating or restraining the economy." No surprise then that the Fed itself tries to model r-star. And using the Laubach-Williams model (with a Kalman filter of course) they say the neutral rate would have been 0.8% above the pace of inflation in the last 3 months of 2018. Add Holston to the mix, and the Holston-Laubach-Williams model (again Kalman smoothed, natch) says it should have been 0.6% over inflation. Based on the Fed's preferred 'core' PCE gauge of the cost of living, the Fed Funds rate was running 0.5% above inflation in December. Nirvana at last! Or pretty darn close. But roll back to our defintion of r* for a second, and you see the problem, because any definition of the neutral rate first needs a definition of both full unemployment and steady inflation. Take the jobless rate first. Not that inflation rose at or after those two lows in the jobless rate. Instead it stayed penned pretty much between 1-2% per year on the core PCE measure, just as it now has for nearly a quarter-century. As it was, those 2000 and 2007 lows in the jobless rate in fact preceded a decline in GDP both times (the gray bars mark recession). So if there were any such thing as the 'neutral rate' not too hot, not too cold, but just right when the economy has full employment and steady inflation the Fed doesn't seem to have found it so far this century. Indeed, from the cyclical low in US unemployment, recession has come within 4 calendar quarters all but once since 1950 (the jobless rate bottomed at 5.0% in Q1 1989, recession came in Q3 1990). Now this winter's 9th and apparently final rate hike in the Fed's 2015 rate-hiking cycle came as the US jobless rate hit its lowest since 1970. The second quarter of 2019 also will mark 10 years since the 2008-2009 recession ended, taking the United States' second-longest economic expansion in history within 3 months of breaking the 1991-2001 record. Whatever central-bank theory says, history suggests the underlying trend only has one way to move from here. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/21/will-the-feds-neutral-rate-nirvana-crash-the-economy/ |
Should Retirees Expect More From Their Retirement Plans? | For most people, retirement planning is not the time to dream big. Dreaming big is what they did while they were working, but now that retirement is approaching, those dreams can often become overshadowed by clouds of financial worry. As you are no doubt aware, the money you have saved will play a huge role in how you spend retirement. But leading with assets when planning for retirement can limit your thinking, whether its subconscious or deliberate. Many retirement calculators and planning tools focus on two major inputs: How much money the retiree has saved How long the retiree thinks he or she will live For many of us, seeing the projected outcomes of such calculators where life savings dwindle over time do not inspire us to dream big. They do the opposite. With The Right Approach, Even Conservative Retirees Can Dream Big The old adage goes, If you have to ask, you cant afford it. But when it comes to retirement, many retirees often assume they cant afford it before they even ask. Of course, retirees should consider the very real financial risks they could face on the road ahead. Its only natural that the closer they get to retirement, the more they worry about making their money last as long as they do. But too often, the fear of facing these risks paralyzes retirees to the point that they write off almost every dream they had about retirement to help prevent them from running out of money. Experience has taught me that if retirees dont plan for these activities and at least try to budget for them, many could end up removing them from the list permanently. This mindset can lead to lasting regret, especially for those who have saved enough for retirement. Consider An Alternative Take On Planning For Retirement There is an alternate planning approach designed to help retirees attain their ideal retirement, one that doesnt even address money until the final steps. Step 1: List Original And Newer Retirement Goals The first step for pre-retirees and retirees in the goals-driven approach is a look back over the course of their careers to identify what they really wanted to do in retirement. As they grew older and wiser, their perspectives and priorities probably shifted a bit. Now its time to refine that big list to the goals that are still relevant today. Step 2: Identify Potential Retirement Challenges An actionable plan will include the good and the bad, so retirees should also list the things that keep them up at night or are most concerning about retirement. For some people, the fear of outliving their assets will be their biggest concern. For others, the fear of long-term care costs will weigh heavily on their minds. Whatever the concern is, it needs to be addressed and planned for. By successfully considering these could happen items, retirees can still feel confident enough to spend money on some of the fun activities on their list because they know their biggest fears have already been addressed. Step 3: Factor In Personal Expenses After identifying retirement goals and challenges, retirees should make a list of the living expenses they know theyll have in retirement from mortgage payments and groceries to new car funds and membership dues. Step 4: Identify Retirement Income Sources Next, retirees should identify how much income theyll receive from sources like Social Security, pensions and annuities. They should also include the retirement income sources for their spouses, if applicable. Step 5: Assign Budgets And Timing To Goals And Challenges Writing down retirement goals is a great start but being specific about when to achieve them can help ensure that plan is actionable. Retirees can assign timeframes to these activities, like spending a week in Greece for my 70th birthday. None of us likes to think about this, but our mobility in retirement has an expiration date. Thats why I encourage clients to prioritize the more physical activities for early in retirement to help make sure they cross them off the list. In addition to timing, retirees should estimate how much each of these activities will cost. To prevent sticker shock, activities can be separated into buckets where they can be saved for on a monthly basis. Step 6: Determine If Additional Income Is Needed The next step is to add up the costs of expenses, goals and challenges, then subtract fixed income sources. This total is how much additional income is needed each month to fund everything in their plan. Working with their financial professional, pre-retirees can evaluate how their assets can be used to help bridge this gap with retirement income that can be paid on a monthly basis, just like when they were working. Securing Your Retirement Income Plan The final step is to secure the retirement income plan and close any gaps between income and expenses with guaranteed lifetime income. Fortunately, even retirees who already have a plan in place can get a second opinion on their current retirement plans by using a retirement income planning tool or consulting with their financial professional. Materials offered by Heyday Retirement are designed to provide general information. Heyday markets insurance products and its representatives do not give investment, legal or tax advice. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinancecouncil/2019/03/21/should-retirees-expect-more-from-their-retirement-plans/ |
Are Pint-Sized Nuclear Reactors A Cheap Way To Cut Greenhouse Gas Levels? | Solving the climate crisis and determining nuclear energys role in the fix has long presented a dilemma for global leaders. While the low-carbon power source would appear to be a silver bullet in the battle, it remains a costly technology when compared to the current portfolio of fuels. Enter small modular reactors, which have economic advantages and which may be easier to permit. The demand for electricity is expected to grow by 45% by 2040, leading to greater emissions as well as higher electricity prices. Thus, the private and public sectors must work together to develop clean energy technologies. Nuclear energy is a conspicuous choice, given that the uranium that fuels such plants is plentiful and that the technology is reliable. (G)overnment officials must create new decarbonization policies that put all low-carbon energy technologies (i.e. renewables, nuclear, fossil fuels with carbon capture) on an equal footing, while also exploring options that spur private investment in nuclear advancement, says John Parsons, co-author of study produced by the at MITs Sloan School of Management called The Future of Nuclear Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World. In this country, the U.S. Department of Energy along with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems are helping to fund NuScales small reactor project in Idaho. NuScale estimates it will cost $3 billion to build $800 million of which it has put up. Its lifetime, or levelized, cost would be $65 per megawatt/hour. But some are questioning the economics, given that the current levelized costs for wind and solar energy are running between the high $20s and high $30s for the same unit. Even solar plus storage has bid in for $40 per megawatt/hour. NuScale, which is owned mostly by engineering firm Fluor, says that 12 of its modular reactors can be combined to form a 540-megawatt unit. When one of the modules goes down, it could easily be maintained while the rest of the reactors continue to operate, so that whole facilities are not knocked off the grid. Each individual module could be refueled in relatively short order. The cost of a 540 megawatt unit would be between $2.2 billion and $2.5 billion. While that is notably less expensive than a $1,000 megawatt nuclear plant, the cost to generate a unit of electricity is more because they get less oomph per ton of fuel about 30% more expensive than centralized generation, says the Atkins Report. That is why Babcock & Wilcox and Bechtel Corp. pulled out of this business. We do not see a clear path forward for the United States to deploy sufficient numbers of small modular reactors in the electric power sector to make a significant contribution to greenhouse gas mitigation by the middle of this century, says the National Academy of Sciences. Potential Payback As for the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, it would build a small modular 720 small megawatt nuclear plant at the Idaho National Laboratory site in Idaho Falls. Its goal is to get approval next year and to begin construction in 2023. This region plans to retire several coal plants. NuScale, in fact, sees its technology as a replacement for coal-fired generation. It says that its upfront cost is more but that it is just as economical over the lifecycle of the plant. It says that wind and solar alone wont solve the climate crisis. The Department of Energy has been working to support many innovative approaches to power generation, including this groundbreaking technology, says U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry. We are enthusiastic about the possibilities for the future and being on the cutting edge of nuclear generation technology. Nuclear powers struggles are well-known everything from the accident at Japans Fukushima plant to spent nuclear fuel storage, all on top of the economics. Globally, nuclear power now supplies 11% of the energy mix, which is down from about 18% 15 years ago. And in the United States, it makes up about 18% of the energy portfolio but 60% of its low-carbon power. Still, companies like Exelon Corp. and FirstEnergy Corp. may be forced to shutdown their nuclear plants in Pennsylvania and elsewhere because they cannot compete with natural gas. Markets are helping to resolve the climate paradox. After all, natural gas is replacing coal and helping to reduce this countys CO2 emissions. But the demand for natural gas keeps growing from both electricity generators and manufacturers, which means its price is destined to climb. The U.S. government thus reasons that an investment in the low-carbon nuclear technology will eventually reap rewards. After all, if the transportation sector along with the home heating industry electrifies, then the energy load will jump and more non-emitting fuels will be required. Moreover, venture capitalists wont tie up their money for a decade or longer while regulators scrutinize the technology. The right-sized reactors are expected to operate at high efficiencies and to have built-in advantages, potentially giving those investments a respectable return. Such units, for example, generally come with a nuclear waste storage containment device. The facilities could also be used to create drinkable water supplies in those countries where such a resource is in short supply. However, It will take many years of manufacturing experience before the industry will be able to confirm that small reactors can be built as cheaply as they say, says Edwin Lyman, with the Union of Concerned Scientists in a report called Small Isnt Always Beautiful. And that means that it will take massive taxpayer subsidies to get this industry off the ground. While those right-size nuclear reactors have a lot of appeal, they face many of the same obstacles as their bigger brethren, namely those centered on finance and regulation. But given that the demand for non-emitting electricity fuels will only escalate, the public sector is right to invest in this technology. It could one-day have a big payback both economically and environmentally. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2019/03/21/are-pint-sized-nuclear-reactors-a-cheap-way-to-cut-greenhouse-gas-levels/ |
Can the Project Runway Contestants Stop Freaking Out Long Enough to Handle the Latest Challenge? | Project Runway has had many out of this world challenges over the years, and now that the show is back on Bravo they're raising the stakes. In the exclusive preview below, the remaining 15 designers are shocked by the challenge presented by Karlie Kloss and Simon Huck. The designers are so spooked when they enter their redesigned workroom complete with modified models sporting A. Human designs. What is A. You've probably seen some of your favorite celebrities sporting some of the designs. "A. Human is a futuristic fashion line comprised of body modifications," Huck tells the designers. "In this world, we ask one fundamental question: If you can change your body as easily as you can change your clothing, would you?" | https://www.eonline.com/au/news/1025509/can-the-project-runway-contestants-stop-freaking-out-long-enough-to-handle-the-latest-challenge |
Can we have a new face to philanthropy? | This article is part of a series: Women in Philanthropy and Impact Investing, celebrating Womens History Month. #balanceforbetter A Google search on top philanthropists first revealed the current face to philanthropy men, mostly white, mostly old. But as Google adapts its search results depending on what I search, after I wrote two Forbes articles on women of color philanthropists, the current face to philanthropy is slightly more balanced. That is good news. campaign which seeks to change the conversation around race, gender and philanthropy. They have profiled diverse women in a series of videos with the aim of changing stereotypical perceptions of philanthropists. I think its so important to be visible about my philanthropy, says Nicole Robinson, VP of Community Impact, Greater Chicago Food Depository . In her video, she discussed the historical definition of philanthropy tied to affluence and wealth of a certain group. People of color are impacted often the greatest by the worlds problems, whether it is poverty, racism, violence or climate change, and it is only until recently that they have joined the ranks of philanthropists. But some philanthropists from diverse backgrounds have discussed their challenges of identifying with this label. A female philanthropist, who wishes to remain anonymous, interviewed for this story said, I think women tend to find it hard to introduce ourselves as philanthropists. There are a lot of baggage attached to this word, philanthropist. The baggage comes from the fact that fewer female philanthropists made the money themselves than male philanthropists. For most female philanthropists, there are personal reasons to getting the wealth which they may not want to disclose, or there is a degree of guilt attached to it. We also discussed the role of gender norms, as women tend to less comfortable with owning and making money. While these psychological barriers can be overcome by the individual themselves, the culture around philanthropy also needs to change. campaign, talks about why she is determined to lead this culture change. It's important for me to be visible in how I give back because representation matters. So, growing up and still to this day, I really don't know a lot of Mexican philanthropists. I don't see a lot of women in the way that we see men. I think of the first people I said when I said philanthropy represents Bruce Waynes parents and Bill Gates. I want to be able to recall more people who look like me. A new face to philanthropy is indeed emerging. Join the #IAmAPhilanthropist conversation on social media. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniechiu/2019/03/21/can-we-have-a-new-face-to-philanthropy/ |
Can 'Dora And The Lost City Of Gold' Be The Next 'National Treasure'? | Paramount We're getting our first trailer for Paramount/Viacom's live-action Dora the Explorer movie on Saturday during the Kid's Choice Awards. So, in anticipation of that trailer, Paramount just dropped a domestic and international one-sheets. Oh, and I think this is new news, but the film will be entitled Dora and the Lost City of Gold. Barring more reveals today and tomorrow, we'll have to wait until Saturday to see if Benicio Del Toro's Swiper the Fox will live up to both parts of his name and inspire the kind of online thirst afforded to Josh Brolin's Thanos, Tom Hardy's Venom and Marwan Kenzari's Jafar. You laugh, but that has actually been one of Disney's little secrets in the last few years. Think the social media-friendly villains for Star Wars (Adam Driver's Kylo Ren) and the MCU (Tom Hiddleston's Loki, Michael B. Jordan's Killmonger, etc.) that play hard to the female gaze. Some of that is just the source material (or characters in the MCU who had already been established when Disney bought Marvel and took over the MCU from Paramount, but every little bit helps in terms of pushing a given biggie to the forefront of pop culture. Yes, getting more female baddies like Cate Blanchett's Hela in Thor: Ragnarok is also a step in the right direction if you know what I mean... The hope is that Paramount and Nickelodeon use the property and its kid-friendly appeal to craft something akin to the National Treasure movies. Those films were old-school exploratory adventures that were also PG-rated thrillers with almost no real violence. I was always surprised that we never got a third National Treasure, as Book of Secrets earned $220m domestic from a $44m launch in Christmas of 2007 and grossed a whopping $457m worldwide on a $130m budget. The Nicolas Cage franchise always seemed to represent the moment where Hollywood started to stop making "kids films" and "adult films" and instead made mostly "for all ages" would-be blockbusters with hopes of worldwide global grosses. The Nicolas Cage caper was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, a man whose mid-1980's and late-1990's output basically defined the adult-skewing blockbuster in the wake of Star Wars and Batman respectively. Yet despite the real-world setting and adult-skewing cast (Cage! Jon Voight! Harvey Keitel! ), it was a PG-rated and wholly family-friendly adventure, somewhat representing a blurring of the lines that would define the next decade of mainstream Hollywood cinema. All of that being said, it would be deeply ironic and somewhat appropriate if the closest thing we got to a National Treasure 3 (and I consider Tomb Raider to be closer to the run-and-gun Indiana Jones movies) came courtesy of a live-action adaptation of a beloved cartoon aimed at preschoolers. That being said, if this movie is going to work beyond kitsch value, the best thing director James Bobin (who directed The Muppets) and writer Nicholas Stoller (who wrote The Muppets) can do is craft a kid-friendly adventure movie that just happens to feature an iconic IP and various fantasy elements (like a talking monkey named Boots and an emotionally needy klepto fox) tied to the brand. Yes, Dora the Explorer is a hugely popular property, one that (like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) gets new fans right as the current generation outgrows it. And if Paramount and friends can craft a halfway decent adventure movie for kids that happens to be a Dora the Explorer movie, well, then they might just have something. Come what may, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, starring (deep breath) Isabela Moner, Benicio del Toro, Eva Longoria, Temuera Morrison, Michael Pena, Q'orianka Kilcher and Eugenio Derbez, opens August 2, 2019 alongside Universal/Comcast's Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs and Shaw and (barring a premiere on Disney+ or Hulu) Fox's The New Mutants. By the way, Moner is the real deal and I'm begging all of you to rent Instant Family when you get a chance. It was one of the best big studio releases from last year and she was a big reason why. It earned an okay $118 million worldwide (including a leggy $67m domestic from a $14m launch) on a $48m budget. But, it needs YOUR help to ensure a decent post-theatrical lifespan. Paramount | https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/03/21/dora-and-the-lost-city-of-gold-benicio-del-toro-isabela-moner-poster-michael-pena-paramount/ |
Does Netflix have a killer problem? | Theres the show in which the protagonist throws a rock at the head of a young woman, follows her to a beach house and shoots her dead. The true story about the brutal sexual assault and murder of a woman in Wisconsin. The recordings of the notorious 1970s man who confessed to killing dozens of women, sometimes having sex with their decomposing corpses. The group isnt a listing of cult exploitation videos. Its a much more mainstream collection You, Making a Murderer and Conversations With a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes, a sample of recent hits on Netflix. As the streaming giant has continued to shower billions of dollars on programming and marketing, it has become one of the most powerful forces in entertainment, putting both Silicon Valley and Hollywood on the defensive. The service has done this in part with the help of delicate dramas such as the recent Spanish-language black-and-white film Roma, which won three Oscars last month. Yet Netflix is also quietly capitalizing on another form of content. More than other entertainment outlets, a number of Netflixs hit shows spotlight gruesome violence, often committed against women, according to viewership statistics and industry experts. And Netflix is both more popular (some 60 million U.S. subscribers) and more intensely watched (in all rooms of the house, often multiple episodes at a time) than traditional television, raising worries among some media-violence experts. Im concerned about the trajectory were on, said Glenn Sparks, a professor at Purdue University who has studied the effects of media violence, and is one of a number of critics who come not from the more traditional ranks of conservative family groups but are instead academics, journalists and mental-health experts. If I worked at Netflix I might say, Well, this is what people want. But that doesnt mean it should be provided, he said. The research shows that escalating violence on-screen can make us more tolerant of it in real life; it can leave lingering fear that can cause sleep disturbances and other problems. Advertising There is, he added, an issue of social responsibility here. Netflix closely guards its viewership data, so it is hard to make direct comparisons to broadcast and cable networks, which allow themselves to be rated. And Netflix is of course by no means the first content company to offer gore on the small screen. HBO has True Detective and Game of Thrones, Showtime had Dexter, and CBS has long tested the limits of blood appetites on procedurals such as CSI, to name a few examples. But in the data Netflix does release, there are strong hints of the disproportionate role of violence in its top offerings. (Note: The story ahead contains some plot spoilers of previously released Netflix shows and movies; please read with this in mind.) Netflix recently revealed its most binged shows in 2018 the shows people spend the most time watching in a single sitting. Of the top three last year, two centered on death or violence, Making a Murderer and 13 Reasons Why, the latter a scripted drama focusing on the suicide of a teenage girl. Netflix provided the eight most-binged of its original productions in 2018. Half of them contained a significant degree of violence or morbid themes. Then theres newcomer You, about a creepy stalker, which the company touted on a recent earnings call has been viewed by at least 40 million households. And one of the most-watched Netflix movies ever, Bird Box, released in December, is a dark exercise in which victims are moved to take their life after encountering a lethal supernatural being. The film was viewed by 80 million accounts in its first month of availability, Netflix executives said. Asked about both the trend and the criticism of it, a Netflix spokesperson said: Theres a huge choice on Netflix: dramas, romantic comedies, cooking shows, mysteries, documentaries, stand-up comedy specials, and a whole lot more. Focusing on one genre to the exclusion of all these others simply doesnt reflect the programming we offer. Advertising But the company has also boasted of the popularity of programming with these themes. In its earnings call in January, Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos told analysts that One thing this quarter thats been incredibly exciting [is] when you see a big number like Bird Box and You. ' He said the two content offerings tap into the global zeitgeist. While theres plenty of violence to be found elsewhere, other networks shows dont dwell on these subjects as often. Of the 15-most watched series on HBO in 2018, only three might have been regarded as centering on hard-edged violence And no broadcast network in 2017-2018 had more than one show in its top five that primarily trafficked in violence, even of the more benign broadcast-network kind. The top scripted series on the biggest networks in 2017-2018 in the adult 18-49 demographic NBCs This Is Us, CBS The Big Bang Theory and ABCs Roseanne are all preoccupied with other themes. People who study violence on entertainment platforms say the intensity of the fare on Netflix can also be greater than on competitors. You follows the main character as he takes a mallet to a young male victim, locks him in a Plexiglas cage and poisons him. Conversations with a Killer has the faces of tortured murder victims flashing across the screen as Bundy explains why someone might commit the horrific crimes. Other TV shows will certainly spotlight a corpse or murder, but stalkers and serial killers are far less often the shows central protagonists. Even Game of Thrones, possibly some of the most violent content not on Netflix, is frequently focused on power and palace intrigue, with violence more the dependable tool to acquire it. I think the decision to show more sensationalist programs is driven by the same thing that makes Netflix give us so little control to stop the next episode, said Wendy Wood, a professor of psychology and business at the University of Southern California, alluding to the so-called autoplay feature in which a new episode begins automatically. That something is success to Netflix. ' Robert Thompson, a professor of media and culture at Syracuse University, says the reason for this focus may have to do with the fact that viewers often watch Netflix in more private ways and settings than they do traditional television. That can help the service achieve for shows about killers what e-book readers did for 50 Shades of Grey, plain-brown packaging by way of the company of the red envelope. In other words, he said, violence fits the delivery vehicle. If you look at television history, theres often a mirror effect, Thompson said. In the early days of TV, in the days of I Love Lucy and Leave it To Beaver, families would gather in the living rooms to watch shows about people who gather in their living rooms. And now were people who sit huddled alone, looking a little creepy, watching people who are huddled alone looking a little creepy. Grisly content also can fit with the type of narrow but deep engagement Netflix seeks; the services model is based more on small pockets of high interest than the broad-viewership ambitions of many competitors. Whats more, some note that the companys algorithms tend to encourage consumption and production of whats already succeeding, amplifying the trend. Because Netflix bases so much on technology, when something works, youre going to have a lot of different versions of that same thing. I think thats whats happening with this kind of violent content, said Gina Keating, the author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for Americas Eyeballs. I would call it a virtuous circle except its not that virtuous. Advertising The services interest in violence began early. Netflixs first original scripted series was House of Cards, with its linchpin moment of Frank pushing Zoe in front of a train. Shortly after came Hemlock Grove, which opens with two teenage girls violently murdered. Soon these themes had spread to other narrative forms, culminating in recent months with the raw recordings of Conversations and the plot lines of You, whose first season Netflix recently acquired from Lifetime as part of a deal in which it will also finance a second season. Making a Murderer was a landmark event for Netflix when it came online in late 2015, with its story of a man accused of murder and sexual assault. It would soon spawn both a second season and other true-crime series such as Evil Genius and The Innocent Man. Last week the company released its latest entry in the category, The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann, a story of a young British girl who went missing while on vacation with her parents in Portugal. The series has received negative reviews; the Guardian called it morally and creatively bankrupt and a blatant cash-in on the vogue for the true-crime series that have become a staple of Netflixs output since the success of Making a Murderer. ' The boom is presaged by both HBOs The Jinx and such true-crime podcasts as Serial, though the latter form is moderated by its lack of images. And even before the recent Velvet Buzzsaw, a dark horror-comedy that featured admirers of art gorily hanged and burned, and Polar, a hit-man thriller with multiple gruesome murders, Netflix was debuting films like The Babysitter and Clinical, which feature plenty of explicit violence. (Its worth noting that the tone and quality of all of this content can vary wildly; some pieces have drawn high acclaim while others have been pilloried.) Some experts say they have particular concerns about portrayal of violence against women. Advertising There are many studies that show that the rape-myth acceptance scale basically how much male viewers accept a rape myth goes up with increased exposure to this kind of content, Sparks said. The idea for example that women might be asking for sexual assaults, or might enjoy them those are very clearly myths. But consistent exposure [to violence] like this is shown to make more males conclude theyre true. The programmings potential effect on suicide has also come under scrutiny with the popularity of 13 Reasons Why. In a large joint study after the shows debut in 2017, researchers at a number of institutions, including University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the University of Washington found that Google queries about suicide had gone up 19 percent in the three weeks after the show became available. Both the statistics and anecdotes support the idea the show was glamorizing suicide, experts said. I had a dad call me because he found his 15-year-old in her bathtub dressed like Hannah, who had cut herself like Hannah, said Dan Reidenberg, a psychologist who runs Suicide Awareness Voices of Education, a Minnesota-based mental-health organization, referring to the shows main character. The research bears this out. The way the show presented the content had real impact. Reidenberg, who works with Hollywood on the depiction of mental-health, was called by Netflix to watch 13 Reasons Why and offers executives thoughts after the first season was shot. He said the company did listen and hear feedback but didnt, in his view, change the season much as a result. Advertising Content providers say that violent entertainment is simply built in to the American consumer experience; it is less a matter of a company creating a desire than meeting one that is already there. The point does not persuade USCs Wood, who said that, even though many people choose to watch this content, she didnt believe that absolved Netflix of responsibility. The fact that we dont have control not only over whats made but how its viewed that so much of the so-called personalization is decided on by Netflix with its algorithms makes them responsible, she said. There is little sign Netflix will turn away from the category. In addition to the investment in You, its firmly in the Bundy business it recently acquired the scripted Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring the teen-friendly star Zac Efron. Fans have already buzzed online. Of course a lot of this is going to be popular, Sparks said. But just because people like it doesnt mean Netflix always has to foster the appetite. McDonalds used to make French fries with beef tallow because it tasted good. That didnt mean they should continue serving it. | https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/does-netflix-have-a-killer-problem/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
What's being done to help people affected by Cyclone Idai? | Getty Images UK charities have launched a joint appeal to help people affected by Cyclone Idai. The 'Disasters Emergency Committee' (DEC) aims to bring together 14 major charities in the UK to provide and deliver aid in places where there has been a natural disaster. This comes after Cyclone Idai caused massive damage in southern Africa that could affect hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, according to experts. The United Nations (UN) has said that the huge storm has triggered a "massive disaster". The tropical cyclone has caused large-scale destruction and flooding to countries in the region. AFP All the reports suggest that the situation for emergency services there is extremely difficult. Although supplies have started to arrive, some communities are struggling to get help. Charities are worried about disease spreading and there is concern about getting clean drinking water for the people affected. Rescue teams have been dropping high-energy biscuits, water cleaning tablets and other supplies to people directly surrounded by water and mud. To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. According to experts, at least 1.7 million people were in the direct path of the cyclone in Mozambique. Authorities say hundreds of people have died in the country because of the flooding and high winds but are warning that number could rise. This is shaping up to be one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere. Clare Nullis , United Nations' Weather Agency Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi has called it "a humanitarian disaster of great proportion". 3,000 people have been rescued there so far but there are still 15,000 people that still need rescuing. Another country affected by Cyclone Idai is Zimbabwe. The government there says many have died and hundreds are missing. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that the government was conducting rescue missions and delivering food aid. Other African countries, including Malawi, have been seriously affected by the cyclone too. The UN says nearly a million people have been affected there. DEC 14 major UK charities have come together to provide and deliver aid in places where there has been natural disasters The UK government has promised to send 6 million of humanitarian relief aid to help people in Mozambique and Malawi, along with tents and shelter kits. Now, the DEC has also pledged its support. It will work closely with national organisations to deliver emergency shelter kits, food, tablets to clean water and medical help. Fundraising appeals from the DEC will be on British TV channels including the BBC on Thursday 21 March. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47653713 |
Has There Ever Been a Perfect March Madness Bracket? | There has never been a verifiably perfect March Madness bracket in the history of the NCAA tournament, which might be due to the fact that the general consensus among mathemeticians puts the odds of attaining a perfect bracket at one in 9.2 quintillion. Since 2011, the big dance has had 68 teams competing in its field since 2011. Eight of those teams compete in the First Four," or play-in games that take place before the first round of the tournament. Almost all bracket pools disregard these games and only count games starting with the official first round of March Madness, when 64 teams tip off. Beginning with the first round through the championship, there are 63 games in a standard NCAA tournament bracket that an individual would have to predict correctly to make a perfect bracket. Assuming that the odds of picking each game correctly are an even 50-50like a coin flipthe number of possible bracket outcomes is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Given the overwhelming odds against predicting every single upset in the madness that is March basketball, it's not surprising that the feat has not been accomplished yet. | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/march-madness-ncaa-tournamnet-perfect-bracket-history |
What Are the Odds of a Perfect March Madness Bracket? | While it is technically possible to make a perfect March Madness bracket, the odds are overwhelmingly against itno one in the history of the NCAA tournament has ever made a verifiably perfect bracket to date. The big dance has had 68 teams competing in its field since 2011. Eight of those teams compete in the First Four," or play-in games that take place before the first round of the tournament. Most bracket pools disregard these games and only count games starting with the official first round of March Madness, when 64 teams tip off. Beginning with the first round through the championship, there are 63 games in a standard NCAA tournament bracket. Assuming that the odds of picking each game correctly are an even 50-50like a coin flipthe number of possible bracket outcomes is 9,223,372,036,854,775,808, per most mathematicians, which make the odds of picking a perfect bracket and getting all 63 games correct are a staggering one in 9.2 quintillion. One quintillion is one billion billions. Back in 2015, Duke math professor Jonathan Mattingly tried to calculate the odds of picking a perfect bracket for the average basketball fan. His strategy attempted to take things like prior knowledge of teams and the preceding regular season, tournament history, and an understanding of the sport itself into account. It also considered odds like the fact that a 16-seed has only beaten a one-seed one time in history (135 out of 136 one-seeds have won their first round game). According to Mattingly, an averagely-aware fan has a far better chance of achieving bracket perfection than the 1 in 9.2 quintillion odds suggest. Mattingly's numbers say that the odds of picking all the games correctly is actually one in 2.4 trillion.DePaul mathematician Jay Bergen used a different formula to calculate the odds of picking a perfect bracket to be one in 128 billion. Despite differing calculations about what the actual odds are to create a perfect bracket, one thing is clear: it's nearly impossible. | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/march-madness-2019-ncaa-tournament-perfect-bracket-odds |
What Would Happen If President Trump Were President Of A Public Company? | This is a question that has long interested me. My premise being that we've normalized and accepted certain behaviors, and tolerate things in a president of the United States that would never be tolerated in the president of a major public company. (Donald Trump, of course, never ran a public company but a privately owned family business.) For today's hypothetical purposes let's say we're not concerned here with the company's performance. It could be exceptional, poor or average. We're just concerned with the actions and behavior of the company president and its potential effects on the brand. Let's look at a few examples... without even getting into the question of possibly "cooperating" with a powerful foreign competitor... as that one feels too far afield and at this point hard to prove. So let's just stick with a few actions and situations that are widely known and documented. Lack of truthfulness. Or call it lying if you prefer. By the Washington Post's careful count, the president had made over 8,000 false or misleading claims in his first two years in office. I think not. And that's roughly 1/100 of the amount of mendacity the Washington Post has identified. Hush money payoffs to mistresses. Followed by more lack of truthfulness and multiple changed stories about what was done, or not done, in these situations. My own experience as a longtime corporate communications executive for a Fortune 500 company has taught me that boards and senior managements generally have very low tolerance for executive behavior that is publicly "bad for the brand." Thin-skinned in this area, as they should be, to put it mildly. Multiple members of his management team are convicted or in prison. Among others, using the titles loosely, his former "chief operating officer" Paul Manafort and "general counsel" Michael Cohen. Ditto to answer above. It's often felt that the most important decisions a company president makes are the choices of the people he surrounds himself with. Enough said. Publicly insulting and undermining the board of directors. OK, this isn't an exact parallel analogy I admit, but I think you'll get the idea. There's been a steady drumbeat of Twitter vitriol toward Mr. Mueller and "his band of angry Dems." Terms like "witch hunt" and "hoax" have become part of our national vocabulary (which of course is precisely the point). In all likelihood with zero tolerance. In short, compared with standards commonly used and accepted in the business world, it's interesting that we seem content to set a very low bar for the highest office in the land. By comparison to a public company president, a U.S. president gets a mulligan. I'd say you get three guesses and the first two don't count. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2019/03/21/what-would-happen-if-president-trump-were-president-of-a-public-company/ |
Is The Future Freelance? | Manyminds. Kirsty Hulse embraces the freelance culture across her business. Indeed, Manyminds could not exist without the rich pool of freelance talent she hires to create world-class content for some of the world's leading brands. Businesses are clearly waking up to how they can use freelance talent across their enterprises. I spoke to Kirsty to gain an insight into how she approaches the freelance talent she uses, and what this means for business in the medium to long term. "The primary driver is that the access to talent is significantly increased through the use of freelancers. I do not have to source employees with a 20-mile radius of my office. I can use a global talent pool and access extremely high level or specialised skill sets as and when I need them. "I did not set up my agency and then transition into a freelance model. I set up my agency because I had a hunch, which later proved to be true, that using a pool of expert, independent freelancers that collaborated according to project requirements, would be cheaper and high quality. The second reason is that this allows me to have a very lean approach to my business overall. My overheads are significantly reduced without lofty office costs, so it allows me to be bolder and take more positive risks in my businesses." "In many industries, hugely. The great thing about working with freelancers is that they are businesses owners in their own right. This means your workforce understands the pressures and requirements of running a business. This can be hugely helpful for any growing, small business to work with those who understand the importance of hitting deadlines and maintaining quality client relationships. "Also, in my industry (digital marketing) I have seen many more companies openly use freelancer resource since I set up my agency four years ago. So, whilst it's becoming more recognised and prevalent there is still a notion that you need to be able to see someone's screen to ensure they are working effectively." "This is easy. The freelancers I work with are businesses owners in their own right. They would not want to be hired. The work I provide them is only a part of a broader revenue they make. This is a key distinction for me. If you are working with a freelancer who relies solely on the work you give them to sustain themselves, then you have an ethical responsibility to hire that person. Working with independents is great, as long as it's a mutually beneficial relationship." "No, I would not say that. My use of freelancers is not a cost-saving exercise. For example, last year 84% of my business running costs went on freelancers. This is a much larger employee or workforce expense than most other businesses and I believe I would spend less if I were to hire a team. However, I equally believe in the benefit of professional autonomy. I do not have other expenses such as office spaces, so a lot of my cost saving comes from working remotely as opposed to not specifically employing them, meaning I can put the money I would spend on offices and equipment etc. towards a really qualified team." Manyminds. "There has to be a structured process and hugely defined briefs and defined outputs. In order to ensure your freelancers are being paid fairly, and are delivering high-quality work in exchange, those outputs have to tightly defined. When you are working with a freelancer on an ad hoc basis, as opposed to an employee, the quality becomes explicitly about the work rather than broader considerations such as cultural fit." "I do not think so. From my experience, HR costs are not a driver for a move to be flexible teams, that's a cultural and societal mindset shift in what it means to go to work. There are many businesses that offer outsourced HR services to small business. In the past, I have used a company called Peninsula who offer legal and HR support specifically tailored to small businesses, so there are avenues for small business to scale and grow and employee team. I do not think that would be a specific roadblock for those SMEs with employed teams." | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhowell1/2019/03/21/is-the-future-freelance/ |
Is Scotland scunnered with Brexit? | Image copyright PA Let me join the chorus of congratulation which has attended the initiative by the University of Aberdeen to launch a substantial new linguistic study of vocabulary in the Scots language. Long years ago, back in the Middle Ages, I had an unofficial role in the Commons press gallery, helping baffled Hansard reporters cope with the Scots words not infrequently used by Donald Dewar and others. I provided soothing translations. I was delighted to note today that the Aberdeen endeavour is already mirrored at Holyrood. Willie Rennie of the Liberal Democrats summed up Scotland's view of Brexit by declaring that folk north of the Border were "scunnered". He could - and should - have gone much further down this welcome road. Perhaps he might have decried his rivals as fushionless. But it's a start, chums. An attempt to revisit the language of Dunbar, Henryson and Douglas; the language of Burns, Fergusson and, yes, Scott; the language of Welsh, Kelman, Leonard and Lochhead. At Holyrood, Nicola Sturgeon would undoubtedly endorse Mr Rennie's use of Scots words. She agreed with him too when he argued that Brexit had been miserably badly handled by the prime minister. Image caption Nicola Sturgeon agreed Brexit had been badly handled But at that point their paths departed. Mr Rennie did not agree with the first minister that the answer to the Westminster guddle was to opt for Scottish independence. Indeed, he was rather vocal on the subject. The last thing Scotland needed, he argued, was to add what he called the chaos of independence to the crisis of Brexit. Let us back-pedal a little. Politically, Brexit is all-consuming. The PM is in Brussels as I write, seeking an extension to the scheduled date of the UK's departure from the EU. She has been told that such an extension would be conditional on the Commons backing the existing withdrawal deal - which has twice been overwhelmingly rejected by MPs. Serious topics Despite that, the two principal opposition leaders opted to steer clear of the subject in questioning the first minister. To be clear, they chose deeply serious topics. Jackson Carlaw, for the Tories, asked about drugs deaths. Labour's Richard Leonard asked about hospital staffing. Perhaps they felt they had said all they had to say on Brexit. Perhaps they had heard what the FM had to offer on the topic. Perhaps they felt decisions on this matter rested elsewhere. For whatever reason, they steered clear. Image caption Willie Rennie argued against independence But Patrick Harvie of the Greens did not. He said Brexit argued for Scottish independence - and that the FM had promised to update her thinking on the subject. He concluded his argument with a single word: "When?" Ms Sturgeon said, having waited quite some time, it was right to give the Brexit process a further few days in the hope that clarity might emerge. Alternative path But she empathised with the frustration felt by those who, she said, witnessed the influence over Scotland and the rest of the UK currently deployed by DUP MPs and what she characterised as a cabal of right-wing Conservatives. Westminster governance, she continued, was evidently broken and it was right to give Scotland the chance to choose an alternative path. She also agreed with Patrick Harvie that it would now be sensible to dump Brexit altogether. At which point enter Willie Rennie, castigating independence. If ending a 40-year European link could cause such disruption, he argued, imagine what would ensue from ending the 300-year-old Union that is the UK. Ms Sturgeon was unimpressed. She said Willie Rennie's argument amounted to doing nothing in the face of UK-imposed Brexit chaos. His stance, she said, was that Scotland should just "grin and bear it". On with the clanjamfrie. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47654424 |
How Do Europe Revenues Affect Ford's Valuation? | Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) reported its full year results for Fiscal Year 2018 in January. The company generated $160 billion in revenue and $0.92 in Non-GAAP EPS. Fords higher-than-expected earnings has boosted investor confidence. Based on Trefis analysis, we have a price estimate of $11 for the company. The company is taking important and decisive actions to resolve under-performance. Some of these, for example, they decided to phase out of sedans in the US market, restructuring in Europe, and plan to take China to a profitable growth. through our interactive dashboard. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Ford recently announced restructuring of its Europe business even after going through a strong product refresh in 2018. In the region the company plans to leverage their profitable light commercial van and pickup business while simultaneously reduce cost and improve capital efficiencies. The company recently announced that there will be a more targeted vehicle lineup in Europe which will help with the cost efficiencies. Further, the company recorded a 5th consecutive year of growth in share of light commercial vehicle business in Europe and is targeting the top position in 2019. All things considered, we believe that the company is finely poised in the region. So we created a scenario analysis to ascertain how much does the Europe business contribute to Fords valuation if the revenues from the region are 50% less and Nil so as to determine the importance of the segment to the share value of the company. In case the companys presence in the region is halved, and thus the revenue from the region is 50% of the current estimate, the price estimate falls down to $8, down by 28% from current Trefis Price. In the second case, if there is no presence of Ford in Europe, then the price estimate falls down to $5, down by 58% from current Trefis Price. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/21/how-does-europe-revenues-affect-fords-valuation/ |
How deadly is Mount Everest? | As glaciers melt at a greater pace, there are concerns among expedition operators that bodies are becoming exposed on Mount Everest. The mountain is one of the crown jewels for climbers - but with the achievement of reaching the world's highest peak come risks. Everest deaths Records suggest there have been just over 280 deaths on the mountain. While the number of deaths has been increasing, however, the death rate - the proportion of those who climb above base camp that die - has fallen to below 1%. Deaths on Mount Everest Cumulative number of deaths on Mount Everest, 1900-2018 Since 2010, there have been 72 deaths on Everest and 7,954 climbs above base camp. Death rate on Mount Everest Ratio of deaths to climbs above base camp by decade Most of these deaths are from avalanches or falls, which partially explains the difficulty in retrieving bodies from the mountain. Acute mountain sickness, with symptoms of dizziness, vomiting and headaches, has also caused deaths. Cause of death on Mount Everest Percentage of deaths by cause, 2010-18 While the risks are clear, Alan Arnette, a professional mountaineer who counts Everest and K2 among his climbs, points out that it is significantly safer climbing Everest than elsewhere in the Himalayas. On Everest, he says, "it's basically just following a well-used route". "There is a lot more infrastructure, more tea houses, more helicopter airlifts possible," he says. "In some of the mountains in Pakistan you have to rely on an army helicopter." 'Killer Mountain' The recent deaths of two climbers in Pakistan have highlighted that danger. The British climber Tom Ballard and his Italian climbing partner Daniele Nardi died attempting to scale the Himalayan peak Nanga Parbat, known colloquially as "Killer Mountain". Tom's mother, Alison Hargreaves, had previously died climbing K2, the world's second-highest peak, also in Pakistan. Image copyright Tom Ballard Image caption British climber Tom Ballard died climbing Nanga Parbat Both Nanga Parbat and K2 are considered two of the toughest of the "eight-thousanders" - the 14 mountains higher than 8,000m (26,000ft). Statistics on successful attempts and deaths are not as readily available in Pakistan. But calculations done by Mr Arnette and other climbers show Nanga Parbat has had 339 successful ascents to the summit and 69 deaths. Deaths on mountains over 8,000m Ratio of deaths to successful summits That works out at roughly one death for every five successful ascents to the summit. K2, which is part of the neighbouring Karakoram mountain range, is even more dangerous - there have been 355 successful ascents to the summit and 82 deaths. Across the Himalayas Most Himalayan ascents are not attempted from Pakistan but from mountains with their peaks in Nepal. And statistics are more detailed in this part of the Himalayas, thanks primarily to the work of journalist Elizabeth Hawley. Her Himalayan Database is seen as the most authoritative records of climbs, successful or unsuccessful, of more than 450 peaks in the region, including Everest. Unlike records from Pakistan, the Himalayan Database collects information not just on successful ascents to the summit but also on all those who venture beyond base camps, giving a more accurate view of the danger of the mountains. And for all climbs above base camp in the region, the death rate has dropped from 3% in the 1950s to 0.9% over the past decade. For Sherpas, the Nepalese professional climbers hired to support mountaineering teams, it has declined from 1.3% to 0.8%. Likelihood of death in Himalayas % of trips above base camp resulting in death in Nepalese Himalayas by decade Since 2010, there have been 183 recorded deaths above base camp in the region, according to the Himalayan Database, and over 21,000 climbs above base camp. The statistics also shine a light on which mountain peak poses the greatest threat to climbers. Ten most deadliest peaks in Himalayas Ratio of deaths to climbs above base camp Since 2010, out of the four mountaineers to have climbed Yalung Kang, three have died. The overall number climbing these peaks is small, which does skew the figures, but ultimately reiterates the point that the mountains less well trod are potentially the most lethal. Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-47418215 |
Is it time for the Vikings to trust Kyle Sloter as the backup QB? | Welcome to the Thursday edition of The Cooler, where sometimes its the next guys turn. Lets get to it: *Wednesday brought some interesting news in that former Vikings backup QB Trevor Siemian agreed to a one-year deal with the Jets. He is now the McLovin we lost. The question now for the Vikings is whether they trust Kyle Sloter enough to be QB2 behind Kirk Cousins, whether they will bring in another clear-cut backup or whether they will settle somewhere in-between. Sloter, youll recall, went undrafted in 2017 and was in camp with the Broncos before the Vikings made an aggressive bid paying him nearly triple the going rate for practice squad players to add him. He served primarily as the No. 3 QB each of the last two seasons, including a year ago firmly behind Cousins and Siemian. He had a strong preseason in 2018, completing 73.2 percent of his passes for 366 yards, four TDs and no interceptions. Our Andrew Krammer reported that the Vikings wanted Siemian back and are exploring other options, so it would seem at least like they had budgeted for another QB. For what its worth, Cousins seems pretty comfortable with Sloter. He posted a picture on Instagram of the two of them working out together last week, and Sloter commented: Name a more iconic duo. *The Timberwolves announcement that Robert Covington, Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose are all expected to miss the rest of the season sure comes at an interesting time. Maybe the team was just waiting for clarity on all three, but announcing them at the same time gives the impression that the Wolves all but eliminated from the playoff race have shifted their focus. *Ichiro retired, ending one of the best and most interesting baseball careers in recent memory. I had a chance to talk to Ichiro and Pete Rose about the pursuit of 4,256 hits a couple years back, if you have a few minutes to spare. | http://www.startribune.com/is-it-time-for-the-vikings-to-trust-kyle-sloter-as-the-backup-qb/507470372/ |
What states permit legal wagering on the NCAA basketball tournament and other sports? | CLEVELAND, Ohio - Wagering on team sports such as the NCAA basketball tournament still is not permitted under Ohio law, but Ohioans dont have to go far to place legal bets on their favorite games. Pennsylvania and West Virginia are among the states that have legalized sports betting since the U.S. Supreme Court in May issued a ruling opening up the possibility for any state to do so. Legal sports betting is now taking place in eight states, according to a national survey conducted by the Associated Press. The others are Delaware, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Mississippi and, of course, the nations gambling capital of Nevada. As for Ohio, Gov. DeWine predicted last week that sports gambling is on its way to Ohio, but he deferred to the legislature to determine how to proceed. DeWine said he expects tax dollars from sports wagering to begin flowing within the next two years. Senate Bill 111, sponsored by Sens. John Eklund, a Geauga County Republican, and Sean OBrien, a Bazetta Democrat, would legalize the wagers in casinos, racinos and other places with video lottery terminals. Its unknown if that approach will be endorsed by the legislature. Heres a rundown, of what is happening elsewhere: Delaware: The state determined it could move forward under existing law, and in June became the first state outside Nevada to expand gambling to individual games. Mississippi: Ahead of the Supreme Court ruling, Mississippi used a 2017 daily fantasy sports bill to remove a ban on sports betting. Legal bets began in August. New Jersey: The state brought the suit that led to the Supreme Courts ruling and began sports wagering in June. But there are penalties for wagering on sporting events involving New Jersey college teams. New Mexico: Sports betting is in place at a tribal casino. Nevada: Sports gambling goes back decades in Nevada, and especially in Las Vegas. Pennsylvania: Launched at the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course near Harrisburg in November. Sports gambling expanded to six locations by last month, including the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, with bets totaling $31.5 million statewide in February. Rhode Island: Approved legislation and began legal wagering in November. West Virginia: Sports betting was legalized in March 2018, allowing sportsbooks at all five of the states casinos, and gambling through mobile apps when in West Virginia. Mountaineer Park, about two hours southeast of Cleveland, went live in November. But the West Virginia lottery said on Wednesday that wagering remained offline at Delaware Norths Mardi Gras Casino & Resort and the Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack because of negotiations between the facilities and a third-party technology vendor. Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner . Follow casino coverage at cleveland.com/casino. | https://www.cleveland.com/casino/2019/03/what-states-permit-legal-wagering-on-the-ncaa-basketball-tournament-and-other-sports.html |
How populist was Theresa May's Brexit address? | In a televised statement Theresa May appealed to the public in her latest bid to get her Brexit deal through parliament. In the speech May blamed squabbling politicians for delaying Brexit. The speech infuriated MPs who accused her of causing further division within parliament and somedrew parallels with Donald Trumps rhetoric. The Guardian has worked alongside Team Populism over months to classify how populist a leader is, as determined by their speeches. In our analysis May was classified as somewhat populist, putting her in the same category as Donald Trump, Brazils Jair Bolsonaro and Hungarys Viktor Orbn. Play Video 3:52 Brexit: May says high time MPs vote for her deal in No 10 statement - video In March 2017 I triggered the Article 50 process for the UK to exit the EU and parliament supported it overwhelmingly. Two years on, MPs have been unable to agree on a way to implement the UKs withdrawal. As a result, we will now not leave on time with a deal on 29 March. This delay is a matter of great personal regret for me. And of this I am absolutely sure: You, the public, have had enough. Youre tired of the infighting, youre tired of the political games and the arcane procedural rows, tired of MPs talking about nothing else but Brexit when you have real concerns about our childrens schools, our National Health Service, knife crime. Team Populism have identified three key elements to look out for in populist speech: people-centrism, anti-elitism, and the depiction of a moralised battle between good and evil, or a Manichean world view. Straight off, May hits on two elements of populist speech here: people-centrism and anti-elitism. She makes a direct appeal to the British public and allies herself with the frustrated masses, who are portrayed as having a singular view on the situation. May also says the difficulties with Brexit are due to an obstructive establishment, or an elite, who have thwarted progress through political games and arcane procedural rows. You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with. I agree. I am on your side. It is high time we made a decision. So far, Parliament has done everything possible to avoid making a choice. Here May continues to position herself on the side of the people and characterises the Brexit debate as a battle between us and them. Although there are some elements of populist speech its not a classical text with all three aspects of populist speech, says Bruno Castanho Silva, a member of Team Populism working at the University of Cologne. The language is not as strong as her speech at the Conservative party conference in 2016 the most populist of all Mays statements we analysed. Then, she described the narrow vote to leave the EU as a decisive revolution in which millions stood up and said they were not prepared to be ignored any more. She has references to the public and there is something there that could be read as populist but the MPs are not described as this evil elite entity. However she frames the political class as dysfunctional which is a populist element but its not an elite conspiring against the people, says Castanho Silva. Some argue that I am making the wrong choice, and I should ask for a longer extension to the end of the year or beyond, to give more time for politicians to argue over the way forward. That would mean asking you to vote in European elections, nearly three years after our country decided to leave. And just how bitter and divisive would that election campaign be at a time when the country desperately needs bringing back together. To close May hits on a more conciliatory note by appealing to the public that now is the time to bring the country back together. Theres some recognition that there are other sides to this story and they have legitimate needs, says Castanho Silva. In acknowledging the opposing views on Brexit, May introduces the idea of pluralism, not a typical element of populist speech. So although the speech does have some populist attributes its not her most populist to date. Additional reporting by Sean Clarke and Paul Lewis | https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2019/mar/21/how-populist-was-theresa-mays-brexit-address |
Should black Americans get slavery reparations? | In the US, a growing number of voices are saying the answer is reparations. Reparations are a restitution for slavery - an apology and repayment to black citizens whose ancestors were forced into the slave trade. It's a policy notion that many black academics and advocates have long called for, but one that politicians have largely sidestepped or ignored. But increased activism around racial inequalities and discussions among Democratic 2020 presidential candidates have thrust the issue into the national spotlight. This week, talk of reparations made headlines after a Fox News contributor argued against the policy by saying the US actually deserves more credit for ending slavery as quickly as it did. "America came along as the first country to end it within 150 years, and we get no credit for that," Katie Pavlich said on Tuesday, adding that reparations would only "inflame racial tension even more". Skip Twitter post by @LisPower1 Fox's Pavlich complains that America gets no credit for ending slavery. "They keep blaming America for slavery, but the truth is that throughout human history slavery has existed. America came along as the first country to end it within 150 years. And we get no credit for that." pic.twitter.com/d4deB0lrbB Lis Power (@LisPower1) March 19, 2019 Report The backlash to her comments from liberals and activists was swift. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr, responded by saying America "doesn't deserve credit for 'ending slavery'" when the ideologies are still prevalent. Skip Twitter post by @BerniceKing America doesnt deserve credit for ending slavery. What America ended (on paper) reflects an ideology and a quest for power at the expense of humanity that are still prevalent in the policies, spirit and mores of this nation. Talk of repaying African-Americans has been around since the Civil War era, when centuries of slavery officially ended. Some experts have calculated the worth of black labour during slavery as anywhere from billions to trillions of dollars. Adding in exploitative low-income work post-slavery pushes those figures even higher. Even after the technical end of the slave trade, black Americans were denied education, voting rights, and the right to own property - treated in many ways as second-class citizens. Those arguing for reparations point to these historic inequalities as reasons for current schisms between white and black Americans when it comes to income, housing, healthcare and incarceration rates. Prof Darrick Hamilton, Executive Director of Ohio State University's Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity, says this history is part of America's unique problem. "From our founding fabric we have based our political and economic institutions on chattel slavery," he told the BBC. "Which makes our institutions not only pernicious but structurally entrenched [in inequalities]." A brief timeline of slavery in the US 1619 - Some of the first African slaves are purchased in Virginia by English colonists, though slaves had been used by European colonists long before 1788 - The US constitution is ratified; under it, slaves are considered by law to be three-fifths of a person 1808 - President Thomas Jefferson officially ends the African slave trade, but domestic slave trade, particularly in the southern states, begins to grow 1822 - Freed African-Americans found Liberia in West Africa as a new home for freed slaves 1860 - Abraham Lincoln becomes president of the US; the southern states secede and the Civil War begins the following year 1862 - President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation frees all slaves in the seceded states 1865 - The South loses the war; the 13th Amendment to the Constitution formally abolishes slavery 1868 - The 14th Amendment grants freed African Americans citizenship 1870 - The 15th Amendment gives African American men the right to vote; the South begins passing segregation laws Image copyright Smith Collection/Gado A case for reparations... In arguing for reparations, Prof Hamilton says the impact of slavery continues to manifest in American society. "The material consequence is vivid with the racial wealth gap. Psychologically, the consequence is [how] we treat blacks without dignity, that we dehumanise them in public spaces." From policies excluding primarily black populations - like social security once did - to pushing narratives that blame black Americans for their economic problems, Prof Hamilton says the US has structural problems that must be addressed in order to move forward. US household income by race ($) Median adjusted for inflation In 2014, journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates brought similar ideas into the national conversation with his piece The Case for Reparations. Coates detailed how housing policy and wealth gaps in particular most clearly illustrate the ways black citizens are still affected by America's past. Decades of segregation kept black families away from white areas, which had better access to education, healthcare, food and other necessities, while institutionalised discrimination hindered black Americans' economic development. "As we go further back in our history, one can see it as explicitly violent," Prof Hamilton says. "Now it might be implicitly violent." Subconscious racism in police forces, enduring bias against black Americans in the courts and financial institutions are some examples of that subtle violence, he adds. Image copyright Smith Collection/Gado Image caption Chicago's projects and segregated neighbourhoods are often pointed to as an example of racism in US housing policy ...and a case against it But support for reparations today remains largely divided along racial lines. A 2016 Marist poll found 58% of black Americans were in favour of reparations, while 81% of white Americans opposed the idea. A 2018 Data for Progress survey also found reparations to be unpopular among the general public, and especially so among white Americans. One argument against reparations echoes what Fox's Ms Pavlich said - that they would only build walls between Americans. Some contend that the reason reparations have worked elsewhere, namely Germany, which has paid billions to Holocaust survivors since the end of World War Two, is because the reparations are between nations, not within one. "For the United States to do the same for the descendants of slaves would be to imply that afterward, we will be going our separate ways, with no special obligations on either side," columnist Megan McArdle wrote for the Washington Post. "A one-time payment, and then nothing more owed...That is the only conception of reparations that could possibly be politically viable. It would also be utterly toxic, ultimately widening divisions that we're trying to shrink." Even for some black activists reparations seem an unreasonable ask. Bayard Rustin, who organised the March on Washington and was a friend of Martin Luther King Jr, called it a "ridiculous idea". "If my great-grandfather picked cotton for 50 years, then he may deserve some money, but he's dead and gone and nobody owes me anything," Mr Rustin told the New York Times in 1969. He later expanded on the views, writing that a payout would demean "the integrity of blacks" and exploit white guilt. "It is insulting to Negroes to offer them reparations for past generations for suffering, as if the balance of an irreparable past could be set straight with a handout." A monetary payout to black Americans usually comes to mind when discussing reparations in the US. And critics are quick to point out such a payment would cost the US trillions. But just throwing cash at the issue, advocates say, would not address the root of the problem. Prof Hamilton told the BBC he supports a payout mostly as a symbolic gesture. "In any case where there's an injustice, to achieve justice not only do you need the acknowledgment, you need the restitution." "We need to couple it with an economic justice bill of rights," he adds. "Simply paying the debt doesn't address the structural problems America has, with certain classes of Americans being able to extract and exploit." But acknowledgement isn't "trivial", he says - it would help refute existing narratives that dehumanise black Americans as lazy or dysfunctional. Economist William Darity has also suggested a "portfolio of reparations" that would combine payments with black-oriented policies focusing on funding black education, healthcare, and asset building as well as ensuring that public schools properly teaches the full impact of slavery. President Barack Obama never endorsed a reparations policy - nor did 2016 candidate Hillary Clinton - but next year's presidential contenders have been more outspoken, if vague. Senator Kamala Harris has said she is in favour of "some type" of reparations. In February, she told The Grio: "We have to recognise that everybody did not start out on an equal footing in this country and in particular black people have not." She has proposed the LIFT Act, which would give families earning under $100,000 annually a tax credit, benefitting "60% of black families who are in poverty". The California Democrat has also suggested policies investing in black communities through black colleges and healthcare programmes, for example. Senator Elizabeth Warren has also expressed support for reparations, calling racial injustices "a stain on America" that has "happened generation after generation" at a CNN town hall this month. "Because of housing discrimination and employment discrimination, we live in a world where the average white family has $100 [and] the average black family has about $5. It's time to start the national, full-blown conversation about reparations in this country." Mrs Warren said she is in favour of a bill currently in the House of Representatives to appoint a panel of experts to report back to Congress about what can be done to solve these issues. Senator Bernie Sanders saw some backlash during the last presidential election over rejecting the idea, but he maintains that a reparations cheque would not fix the problems. "Right now, our job is to address the crises facing the American people and our communities, and I think there are better ways to do that than just writing out a cheque,"he told ABC's The View this month. Mr Sanders said rather than supporting a payout, he is for universal programmes or anti-poverty measures that would help all underprivileged communities. Senator Cory Booker, like Mrs Harris, has proposed a "form of reparations". "Baby bonds" would create a trust fund for lower-income children that they could use for education or housing As more black families are impoverished than whites, the policy would help address race inequalities, broadly speaking Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro said the idea of reparations was something "worth" discussing. Mr Castro said he is also in favour of an expert panel that could study the issue and inform Congress how best to proceed. Author Marianne Williamson has said she supports a reparations plan. She has floated the idea of a $100bn "educational, economic and cultural fund to be disbursed over a 10 year period by a council of esteemed African American leaders". To Prof Hamilton, regardless of policy, the fact that these conversations are happening is a step forward. "The conversation in and of itself is valuable. It's opening the door to reframe our understandings of racial inequality overall." Additional reporting by Paula Hong. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47643630 |
Whos Afraid of the International Criminal Court? | Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced diplomatic sanctions against the International Criminal Court. Members of the Court investigating war crimes committed during the Afghanistan war will now be denied entry to the United States; Pompeo also threatened economic and financial sanctions unless the ICC drops this investigation. Ad Policy By using sanctions against the main international judiciary investigating mass-scale atrocities and crimes against humanity, the U.S. government is engaging in a particularly virulent form of power politics. But the assertion of national sovereignty in this arena is nothing new; in fact, sanctions themselves depend on this sort of action. Sanctions originated in the early twentieth century, when international law was very different from what it is today. The Great Powers controlled the development of the international legal order, which supported colonial empires and upheld racial inequality, and sovereignty was a prerogative of European and American states. Most of Latin America, Africa and Asia was considered only partially sovereign at best, and uncivilized at worst. American politicians and elites in this period were strong proponents of international law: Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft, and Andrew Carnegie all championed arbitration to resolve international disputes. They supported pooling Great Power navies as an international police force against recalcitrant countries. This entire operation was deeply colonial. Gunboats and expeditionary forces could be used to impose imperial discipline by force a sanction to protect Western investments and citizens abroad. International law gave the Great Powers this right to the use of force, since colonies and non-Western states were not fully sovereign. Decolonization between the 1940s and the 1970s changed that. The end of formal empire enabled many colonial peoples to acquire sovereign statehood. As more countries gained a say in which global norms should be enforced, using economic and diplomatic pressure acquired greater legitimacy. Sanctions could now be used against colonizers, such as the white settler regimes in Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. The United Nations General Assembly became the Third Worlds favored vehicle for advocating the equal application of international norms to all. Broad member-state coalitions opposed the illegal use of force and pressed for a new international economic order. During the Cold War, this activism made the United States distrustful of the General Assembly and of international legal institutions. The core principle of territorial integrity adopted in the UN Charter protected governments that Washington opposed or wanted to overthrow. Over time, the U.S. began to undercut international law in several ways: it undertook covert operations, used sanctions unilaterally, and controversially expanded the right to self-defense. Nixon, for instance, reinterpreted the meaning of self-defense to invade Cambodia and bomb Laos in 1969 and 1970. The Reagan Administration unlawfully invoked self-defense in the 1980s to invade Grenada and Panama, bomb Libya, and mine the coastal waters of Nicaragua. In the latter case, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued a landmark verdict which found the U.S. guilty of illegal interference and use of force against a sovereign state; the ICJs 1986 Nicaragua v. United States ruling angered officials in Washington D.C. and was the context in which neoconservatives such as John Bolton cut their teeth. In a world where American adversaries were fully sovereign, Bolton and other unilateralists saw international law as a threat to U.S. national security. The end of the Cold War reduced the tensions between Washingtons power and the international rule of law. During the 1990s international outrage at atrocities in Yugoslavia and Rwanda produced special war crimes tribunals and spurred the emergence of the field of international criminal law. Unlike the inter-state disputes governed by traditional international law, international criminal law punishes individuals, not states, that are responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The Rome Statute of 1998, which created the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to which 120 states became parties, was a major advance in this domain. Current Issue View our current issue Because of its wide jurisdiction, major powers have resisted the ICC. China and India never signed the Rome Statute. Russia and Israel signed but did not ratify the treaty, and then retracted their signature. In spite of President Bill Clintons initial support and adherence, Congress never ratified the Statute, eithera position defended by Bolton and his ilk, who called the ICC a stealth approach to eroding constitutionalism. The Bush Administration formally rejected the Court in May 2002. The neoconservative attack on international law included the passage that year of the American Service-Members Protection Act. Informally known as the Hague Invasion Act, it allows the use of military force to free Americans or citizens of countries the U.S considers allies held by the ICC in the Hague. The ICC has been seriously criticized from the left as a biased institution, and theres some truth to that: in its first decade, the Court only investigated and prosecuted war criminals from African countries. This made it vulnerable to accusations that it was an instrument of neocolonialisma return to the times when non-Western states were not fully sovereign, and international law was a tool of imperial domination. Boltons crusade against The Hague acquired unexpected support from African states such as Burundi, which became the first state to leave the Court in October 2017 because it opposed probes about alleged crimes against humanity during its 2015 elections (the ICC has continued to investigate the case). But in recent years the ICC has begun to change. In 2012, the Gambian lawyer Fatou Bensouda took charge. She has started investigations of crimes committed in many different contexts: the Colombian civil war; the murderous war on drugs in the Philippines; Israels occupation of Palestinian territories; Myanmars repression of the Rohingya; Ukrainian crackdowns on the Maidan protestors; the U.K. occupation of Iraq; and the U.S. war in Afghanistan. The ICC has acquitted several African government officials charged with atrocities. It recently bungled a recent case involving the Congolese politician Jean-Pierre Bemba. This is evidence that its prosecution leaves much to be desired. But also refutes the charge that it biased against African nations and that its trials are rigged. More ambitiously, Bensouda is scrutinizing not only state officials, but also corporations and civil society actors. In 2016 she indicated that the ICC aims to create a complementary system of criminal justice in which the Court helps countries prosecuting the illegal exploitation of natural resources, arms trafficking, human trafficking, terrorism, financial crimes, land grabbing or the destruction of the environment. International law is currently under serious pressure, and progressive foreign policy should take an interest in improving it. Russia illegally annexed the Crimea in 2014 and has defied economic sanctions imposed in response, and the Trump Administration has reprised an American Cold War tradition of unilateral hostility to international norms. The challenge is how to protect weaker states and peoples from domination while preventing the abuse of sovereignty to cover up domestic atrocities or justify illegal war. Bensoudas attempt to broaden the reach of international criminal law through the ICC is important, but it can only be one part of a more complex, multi-layered progressive project. In the realm of global trade and investment law, for example, sovereign decision-making actually needs to be strengthened. The economic content of the rules-based global order facilitates oligarchic self-enrichment and tax avoidance on an enormous scale. In such circumstances, the idea of a rule of law is meaningless unless it promotes accountability, peace, and greater material equality. That international law can advance a progressive foreign policy agenda was driven home last month, when the International Court of Justice, ruled that Britain must return the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius. Administered as the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), the U.K. government deported the native population and leased the islands to the United States in 1966. Since 2001, the military base on Diego Garcia has become instrumental in Washingtons endless wars in the Greater Middle East, serving as an interrogation site for the CIA and as a staging point for air strikes on Afghanistan. But since the Chagos islands were never properly decolonized and are in fact Mauritian sovereign territory, the U.S. presence on Diego Garcia will have to be renegotiated. In different ways, the ICJ and ICC are both putting pressure on the illegal excesses of U.S. hegemony. In his recent book The Trump Administration and International Law, Obamas Legal Adviser to the State Department Harold Koh takes the current occupants of the White House to task for their disregard of international lawa criticism enthusiastically endorsed with blurbs from Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright, Samantha Power, John Brennan and Michael Ignatieff. Yet the Obama Administration largely ignored its predecessors legal transgressions. Bush-era torturers were never held to account, nor was the ridiculous Hague Invasion Act repealed. In some areas, liberal internationalists even exploited earlier erosions. Obama continued drone strikes by significantly stretching what constituted an imminent threat justifying self-defense; this has turned out to be a gift to Trump, who has ramped up drone strikes enormously during his first two years in office. Koh himself has opposed the 2010 Kampala Amendments, a set of new rules which give the ICC powers to prosecute the crime of aggression, in part because they curtail Washingtons ability to launch humanitarian interventions. Indeed, strengthening these rules in a substantive sense will not just restrain individual U.S. presidents, but impose limits on the exercise of American power in general. Prosecutions cannot replace politics. International indictments are insufficient in themselves to solve conflicts and improve life in far-flung countries. But holding a far wider range of actors accountable will certainly strengthen the legitimacy of international institutions, and assist grassroots campaigns for political and social justice. Pompeos travel bans against the ICC put its personnel in the same position as foreign citizens affected by the Trump Administrations odious Muslim ban, and given the administrations radical sovereigntist stance, it is not surprising that it treats institutions seeking accountability for its wars in a similar way. The only way out is to make the rule of international law applies to all governmentsincluding the self-appointed defenders of a rules-based global order. | https://www.thenation.com/article/whos-afraid-of-the-international-criminal-court/ |
How Can We Keep Our Data Safe Online? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Mrten Mickos, CEO of HackerOne, on Quora: Assume privacy does not exist, but fight for privacy as if you are defending the constitution of your country. It is a weird twist of logic, but in order to have an open and transparent society, we must protect privacy. Easier said than done, but dont say something in a digital format that you may regret or that you cant stand the world knowing. Digital self-restraint is difficult, and sad in a way, because we feel we are less human if we cant do whatever our feelings tell us to do in a given moment. Read Kahnemans book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Do the fast things offline and only the slow things online. Whatever you emotionally may think about passwords, deal with them properly. Set different passwords for every service you are using (and consider using an online password manager such as 1Password or LastPass). Activate two-factor authentication (2FA) on every online service you use. If some provider does not support 2FA, stop using them. Remember that it is often your mobile phone that is the second factor in 2FA, so now you must protect your mobile phone carefully. Every online presence has a physical corner somewhere. At home, you may have a computer that is not locked. Or you store some key passwords on a piece of paper. Think carefully about this. Make sure no one unauthorized can get access to your digital persona using what you have at home. You need a plan for this. You probably need a paper with instructions - well protected from everyone, but accessible to your nearest ones. The problem is that your main passwords will change, and you will have to remember to update this written instruction every time. Learn to be on your guard online. Think that every text message, email or other message can be a scam. Dont click links in emails until you are fully certain that the email is legitimate. Dont take action on urgent requests for help from bosses or friends until you have verified that the request truly came from them. Don't assume a text from your bank is from your bank, call the number on the back of your card, or on the banks actual website. If you have the skills and resources, try to divide your digital and financial presence into separate buckets. It is not advisable to have all eggs in one basket. For instance, use one web browser for business and official stuff, and another one for your leisurely browsing. Maintain two or more email accounts. Have two cell phones, perhaps two laptops. Have two separate credit cards so that if one gets shut down because of cyber crime, you can get by on the other. Discuss these topics with everyone in your household and family, even extended family. People need encouragement and reminders from those they trust to truly take action to become safer online. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/03/21/how-can-we-keep-our-data-safe-online/ |
When is Easter Sunday in 2019, 2020, 2021 and historically? | CLEVELAND, Ohio - Easter Sunday 2019 will be on April 21, later than in any year since 2011 and increasing the chances of warm temperatures. Easter fell on April 1 last year, when the high temperature in Cleveland was just 43 degrees and the low was 32. For those planning ahead, Easter will be on April 12 in 2020 and April 4 in 2021. The chart below shows the dates of Easter each year since 1950, and extending through 2021, with the Cleveland weather for previous Easters. Since 1950, Easter has been as early as March 23 in 2008, and as late as April 24 in 2011. Cleveland weather history: find weather details for any date since 1871 Database: Find Cleveland weather details for any date since 1871. Search by date, year, month, holiday, or special events such as Cleveland Indians home openers and Cleveland Browns home games. | https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2017/01/when_is_easter_in_2017_2018_20.html |
What is Rep. David Stringer trying to hide? | Rep. David Stringer (Photo: Associated Press) This, Im guessing, is where the rubber meets the rutted road for Rep. David Stringer. The House Ethics Committee on Wednesday rejected the Prescott Republicans request to keep secrets about his past. Specifically, the panel voted 4-1 not to bar the public from seeing subpoenaed documents that might shed light on whether Stringer was once involved in child pornography or other sex crimes. House Ethics Chairman T.J. Shope, R- Coolidge, said he issued the subpoena because Stringer refused to provide requested documents or be interviewed by House Ethics Committee attorneys hired to investigate him. She's right. Public has a right to know "Of utmost importance is public confidence in what we do," said Rep. Kirsten Engle, D-Tucson, who was among the four legislators to vote against Stringer's request to keep secrets. I feel that integral to having public confidence is the transparency of our deliberations and the information on which it is based." If by that she means the public has a right to know whether one of the elected officials who writes our laws was a sex offender, possibly caught with child pornography, she's right. We do. You'd think that Stringer, given his assertions of innocence, would not only agree that those documents should become public. He'd demand that those documents become public. People have been standing upwind from Stringer since last year when he made a series of racist comments about immigrants and people of color. But his toxicity hit fatal levels in January when the Phoenix New Times revealed that Stringer was given probation for sex-related charges in 1983 and ordered to seek entrance into a program for sex offenders. Among the original charges: possession of child pornography. The documents obtained by New Times didn't specify the disposition of the child pornography charge. Stringers record was expunged in 1990. He contends he never was convicted of any crime. NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. Given that, it seems curious that he wants to keep secret whatever documents his colleagues have subpoenaed documents that presumably shed light on that 1983 criminal case. Yet, Stringer has not produced the documents, forcing Shope's subpoena, and Im guessing he will not produce them. Stringer has until March 27 to produce the documents, which would become public once the investigative report is complete. It's unclear what happens if he doesn't comply but it won't be anything good. Since last summer's racist rants came to light, Stringer has resisted calls for his resignation ... from his party ... from his colleagues ... from Gov. Doug Ducey. After the sex charges came to light in January, he again made it clear that he wasn't leaving. Resigning over a 35-year-old allegation for which I was not convicted and which was expunged would set an incredibly bad precedent, Stringer told 12News at the time. I'm guessing that sets a fire under Stringer and he rockets out the door. The bet here: he's gone by month's end. Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/03/21/what-rep-david-stringer-trying-hide/3236037002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/03/21/what-rep-david-stringer-trying-hide/3236037002/ |
Are modern commercial aircraft too complicated to fly? | Complexity in the cockpit, and a President raising the stakes at 35,000 feet. The investigations into two recent crashes of Boeing 737 Max 8 jets are in the early stages, but President Trump remains firmly grounded on a probable cause. Airplanes are becoming too complex to fly. Pilots are no longer needed, but rather computer scientists from MIT, the President tweeted. But most aviation experts say the Presidents theory isnt consistent with the realities of modern air travel. Some of these minor things that the computer can do for you and the computer can show you are very helpful and it can reduce the pilot's workload, said Denny Kelly, a former commercial airline pilot who now works as an air accident investigator. But the technology is a double-edged sword. When youre real busy in the cockpit and something goes wrong, you need to concentrate on the problem, not on the computer, he added. Kelly also thinks that while computers do make planes safer, todays pilots are taught to rely too much on technology. "The pilots need to know how to hand-fly the airplane, take it away from the computer and fly it by hand, in an emergency, he said. Investigators say data from the black boxes of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed earlier this month and a Lion Air plane that went down near Indonesia last October show clear similarities. Authorities are eyeing the aircrafts anti-stall system as a possible factor in both crashes. Now, the Department of Transportations Inspector General plans to audit the F.A.A.s certification of the Boeing 737 Max 8. (The F.A.A. initially said the Max 8 was still airworthy before changing course, joining dozens of other nations in implementing some form of ban.) Some experts say the Presidents diagnosis on what ails aviation could undermine the publics trust in air travel, while others insist Boeing is ultimately responsible for the crashes - and THEY need to restore public confidence sooner rather than later. They are missing out on an opportunity or a necessity to communicate with the flying publicto remind everybody that this is what we stand for," said Dennis Culloton, C.E.O. of Culloton Strategies. But that effort could be too little, too late for Boeing. Their reputation has already been sullied, Kelly said. Once these airplanes are out there and theyre performing like they should perform, I think their reputation will come back. But as it stands now, their reputation is not what it should be. Despite the backlash, Boeing is doubling down on technology. The company is moving ahead full throttle on a new aircraft center which should open in 2020, focusing on robotics and artificial intelligence. Steve Rappoport is a Newscast Producer for Fox News Radio. Follow him on Twitter @SteveRappoport. | https://www.foxnews.com/tech/are-modern-commercial-aircraft-too-complicated-to-fly |
Can bringing young and old under one roof solve the world's housing crisis? | BRUSSELS (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Home sharing initiatives that link cash-strapped young people with elderly home owners are becoming popular with governments around the world as they seek to tackle the twin crises of homelessness and loneliness, experts said on Thursday. Home sharing, which usually involves an older person offering a spare room at low cost to a young person in exchange for help and companionship, is increasingly seen as a solution to the problem of affordability faced by many countries. Experiments in a number of countries suggest it could also alleviate loneliness among older people - a growing problem as populations age and more and more people live alone. In this city, home sharing is gaining momentum, Celine Fremault, housing minister for Brussels, told an international symposium in the Belgian capital. We want to promote a well-proven model. She said the Brussels government would support such initiatives, with projects already under way to create 350 new inter-generational homes as part of the citys public housing policies. Inter-generational home sharing among strangers likely began in the 1970s in the United States, according to Homeshare International, which hosted the World Homeshare Congress. The concept spread to Europe in the 1990s and later to Australia, and there are now a growing number of pilot projects in Asia. Baudouin Waulquez, an 86-year-old Brussels resident who took a young musician into his home, said living with someone from another generation had been an extraordinary experience. He said living with a 19-year-old had required some adjustment - including learning to share the fridge - but he was pleased he could accommodate someone who would otherwise struggle to live in the city. The match was really perfect and took off immediately, he said. OPEN TO THE WORLD Kirby Dunn, executive director of Homeshare Vermont, said the non-profit received about half its funding from state. I think smart governments look at this as a very cost-effective way to save money but they dont want to do it alone. Inter-generational home sharing has steadily gained ground in cities from London to Seoul, as property prices rise and traditional family structures change with more and more young people moving away from their families to take up jobs. Population aging is set to become one of the most significant social transformations of the twenty-first century, according to the United Nations - with the number of people aged 60 or over to more than double by 2050. Loneliness is a particular problem for older adults and research links it to dementia and premature death. In Britain, the majority of people over 75 live alone and about 200,000 older people have not had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month, according to government data. Annie Boisdenghien, 76, became a host in Brussels after seeing a newspaper advert for home sharing a decade ago, and has welcomed students from Ireland to Poland. My nest was empty, she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Now, I am not alone, there is life in the house. Boisdenghien enjoyed attending concerts with her young flatmates, who have made her feel physically secure and happy, she said. When you live alone in a big house, you sometimes feel lonely, so to fill the vacuum you turn to other people. Her current housemate, Mattias Renaux, 21, is a communications student in Brussels and enjoys baking pastries for Boisdenghien. We do complement one another and we enjoy our lives, he said. With two-thirds of people set to live in cities by 2050, according to the United Nations, and property prices climbing, delegates said that could soon become the social norm - with advantages for both sides. I want to remain open to the world, said Boisdenghien. I dont want to stick to the old ideas. | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-homelessness-youth/can-bringing-young-and-old-under-one-roof-solve-the-worlds-housing-crisis-idUSKCN1R22AW |
Could a slowing economy be a drag on President Trump's re-election prospects? | President Donald Trump likes to tout a strong economy - central to the image he wants to project as a successful businessman now bringing that same acumen to politics. You look at some of the economic numbers. Nobody thought we'd ever see numbers like that in our country, Trump bragged in his typical exaggerated style Wednesday at an event in Ohio. Not for a long time, not for ever. And what we're doing has been incredible. But at the same time, the Federal Reserve is sending signals that U.S. economic growth is slowing -- and could slow significantly more leading up to the 2020 presidential election, ominous signs for the presidents re-election prospects, which could swing on the electorates impression of a mixed, mushy economy. To keep impressions positive, the president keeps up a drumbeat of sometimes questionable "good news" claims, capitalizing on market trends through a trifecta of tweets to millions of followers, gaggles with reporters and speeches to supporters. Great news from @Ford! They are investing nearly $1 BILLION in Flat Rock, Michigan for auto production on top of a $1 BILLION investment last month in a facility outside of Chicago. Companies are pouring back into the United States - they want to be where the action is! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 20, 2019 Trump's relentless focus doesnt always generate headlines or water cooler talk, but its an everyday point of emphasis inside the White House. On Thursday, Trump met privately with a consortium of business leaders, including the CEOs of Home Depot and JP Morgan Chase, where he participated in a discussion to tout his business friendly agenda. The White House closed the event to reporters, but says Trump continues to spur economic growth, boost the economy, and allow companies to unleash their full potential. Jerome Powell, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, has taken unprecednted flack from Trump for raising interest rates to curb inflation - rate increases the president claims hurt economic growth. But on Wednesday Powell said the Fed would pause planned rate increases because the U.S. economy was slowing -- and could continue to slow in part due to a prolonged Trump trade war with China. Powell said the Fed has lowered its Gross Domestic Product forecast for 2019 to 2.1 percent growth, a point below 3.1 percent GDP realized between the fourth quarters of 2017 and 2018. It is a great time for us to be patient and to watch and wait, Powell said, explaining why the Fed was not changing interest rates but simultaneously suggesting an additional level of nervousness due to slowing domestic and global growth. For 2019, the White House predicts a much higher 3.2 percent GDP for the same period, accounting for more than $200 billion in disputed growth and banking on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to speed up growth this year. Powell has declined to comment on the conflicting projections. While the presidents grasp of economic reality is often challenged, fact-checked and spun by his political adversaries as exaggerated, the president nevertheless continues boasting about the economy, which enjoys full employment, high consumer confidence and low inflation. We've created more than almost 6 million jobs since the election. And if I would have said that to the fake news during the campaign, they would've said, He exaggerates. I'm not exaggerating, but nobody would've believed that could happen, Trump said Wednesday. One area of the economy that the Fed and Trump can agree on is anxiety that the slowing global economy could have a negative impact on the U.S. economy, and in turn his candidacy for another four years in office. The world economy is not good, and frankly, if the world economy were good, that would be, in a way, good for us, Trump said. So we're fighting there. We're bucking. Europe is down, Asia is down -- a lot of places. Almost every place is down. Except the United States is up, and we're way up. Trump says the U.S. is prevailing despite external economic forces adding his own partisan flare to discredit Democrats as he shifts into campaign mode. And just think of what that would be: The world goes up; we go up with the world. The world is down, but we still go up, Trump said. Something is happening. That wouldnt happen under Barack Obama, that I can tell you. It wouldnt happen under Crooked Hillary Clinton. | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/slowing-economy-drag-president-trumps-election-prospects/story?id=61837782 |
Will Cleveland Indians opening-day middle infielders be Eric Stamets, Max Moroff? | SURPRISE, Ariz. This is not what manager Terry Francona had in mind when he thought about the 2019 season opener. The possibility of not having shortstop Francisco Lindor or second baseman Jason Kipnis because of injuries would have come to him only in a nightmare. But thats what the Indians and Francona could be dealing with in the March 28 opener against the Twins at Target Field. Lindor has been sidelined since just before spring training with a strained right calf. He said Wednesday that he wanted to play in the season opener, but was going to follow the trainers instructions. Last week Kipnis was out of the lineup for four games with a tight right calf. He played Monday against San Diego, but on Wednesday night he left a split-squad game against the Giants after the first inning with more pain in the right calf after grounding out. Kipnis received an MRI on Thursday morning and the Indians were waiting for the results. Conceivably the Indians could open the season with a middle infield of Eric Stamets and Max Moroff. If that doesnt ring your bell, theres one more thing to consider. Stamets left Wednesday nights game against the Angels with a tight left hip flexor. Hes made 15 starts at shortstop this spring and was the Tribes choice to start if Lindor wasnt ready to open the season. Francona was optimistic that Stamets will be ready for the season opener. The (injury) is mild, said Francona. His strength tests out fine. We wont play him today. Well see how he tests out today. When he plays next, I dont know, but it doesnt seem like something that will linger. He wanted to keep playing Wednesday night, but I told him that doesnt make much sense. Why aggravate it? Regarding Kipnis, Francona said, "They were trying to get Kip imaged this morning, but they couldnt call until this morning. Im not sure what time that will happen. As for an impact on the middle infield, Francona answered the obvious question by saying, If (Kipnis) cant play that would impact the middle infield. Thats why the first step is to get it imaged, see whats going on in there ... rather than ask the medical people to guess because of where we are in spring training. The Indians break camp on Sunday, play exhibition games against Texas on Monday and Tuesday at Globe Life Park. Theyre off on Wednesday and open the season on March 28. Moroff, a switch-hitter, came to the Indians from Pittsburgh along with outfielder Jordan Luplow. The Indians sent Erik Gonzalez and two minor leaguers to the Pirates. The Pirates named Gonzalez their opening day shortstop on Monday. On Wednesday, infielder Ryan Flaherty opted out of his minor-league contract with the Indians and became a free agent after learning he wouldnt make the big-league squad. If Kipnis isnt ready for the opener, Flaherty will be missed. The guys who have the outs, I think sometimes they do themselves a disservice, said Francona. They kind of force your hand when youre not ready to make a decision. Youre seeing guys throughout baseball taking their outs. It makes it tougher (to pick a roster). That, of course, is a byproduct of teams bringing so many players to camp on minor-league deals to save money. It is the players only recourse. Lindor has been playing minor league games and running as fast as my leg will let me. We met with the medical staff this morning on Lindor, said Francona. The medical staff will meet with him today to go over the next week. Id prefer to let that happen first and then explain it. I just dont want to do it before weve had a chance to sit down with Frankie. Stamets has never played in the big leagues. Hes hitting .205 (16-for-43) with five RBI in 21 games this spring. Last year he played 38 games at short and 40 at second base for Class AAA Columbus while dealing with a variety of injuries. He catches everything in sight, which is good, said Francona. When youre trying to replace somebody at shortstop, you dont replace a Lindor. Theres only one of him. But its nice to know that when the ball is hit, youre out. Especially with our pitching staff. The hitting is still a work in progress. If it wasnt hed be a major league star because hes so good defensively. Moroff has made five starts at second, four at third base, five at shortstop. He went into Thursdays game against Texas hitting .250 (10-for-40) with three doubles, one homer and five RBI. He gone: The Indians optioned right-hander Adam Plutko to Class AAA Columbus on Thursday morning. Plutko, with the exception of a bad start Wednesday night against the Giants, had a strong camp. Adam is a kid who is wise beyond his years, said Francona. The last couple of years hes been up and down. Hes really been that guy who has bounced around and hes handled it. We told him if you couldnt handle it, we probably would have gotten somebody else. And he gets it. Hes a smart kid. He asked good questions. I have no doubt hell go down and do his thing and be ready when there is a need. Plutko made six trips to Cleveland from Columbus last year. He went 4-5 with a 5.28 ERA in 17 games for the Tribe. He struck out 60 and walked 23 in 76 2/3 innings. Get Tribe Insider texts in your phone from Paul Hoynes: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the award-winning Indians reporter, just like you would with your friends. Its just $3.99 a month, which works out to about 13 cents a day. Learn more and sign up here. | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/will-cleveland-indians-opening-day-middle-infielders-be-eric-stamets-max-moroff.html |
Who has the toughest Arizona high school football schedule in 2019? | A look at who has the toughest Arizona high school football schedule against out-of-state opponents with key dates: Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei at Peoria Centennial, Sept. 6 Peoria Centennial head coach Richard Taylor watches the clock tick down during the second half of the Ironwood Ridge vs. Peoria Centennial high school football game at Ironwood Ridge High School, 2475 W. Naranja Drive, on Sept. 14, 2018, in Oro Valley, Ariz. Centennial won 55-7. (Photo: Mike Christy / Arizona Daily Star, ARIZONA DAILY STAR) Mater Dei is playing the two best Centennial teams in the nation the one from Corona, Calif., and this one in Peoria, where the Coyotes don't shy away from the nation's heavyweights. They knocked off Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) St. Thomas Aquinas and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman at home the last two seasons. But this would take a minor miracle to pull off the upset against arguably the nation's top high school football team. This is Centennial's only out-of-state opponent for 2019, but this is by far the toughest non-region game for any team in Arizona. Jaydin Young, Jonathan Morris, Eric Haney, Dyelan Miller, get ready. Chandler at Sacramento Capital Christian, Sept. 14 The three-time defending 6A champs only have three home games but it doesn't matter to this juggernaut. The Wolves will play anybody anywhere any time. And they go out of state twice at Henderson (Nev.) Liberty (the only team to beat Scottsdale Saguaro last year) on Aug. 23 and this game that features one of the best teams in California. Capital Christian went 13-1 last season when it scored 557 points and lost its only game in the Division 3A NorCal championship game to Santa Clara Wilcox 34-30. Chandler loses its top three playmakers in QB Jacob Conover, RB DeCarlos Brooks and TE/WR Brayden Liebrock. But the next wave is ready to have the Wolves rolling. Stay in the know. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Saguaro at San Diego Cathedral Catholic, Aug. 31 Saguaro has back-to-back out-of-state games, starting with this big one that is billed as the Honor Bowl. The following week, the six-time defending state champions travel to Las Vegas to play Faith Lutheran as part of the Polynesian Classic at Bishop Gorman. Faith Lutheran lost to Chandler last year 35-21 in the Polynesian Classic. Faith Lutheran went 8-5, playing a demanding schedule and fell short in the Nevada 4A quarterfinals to Arbor View. Cathedral Catholic was ranked No.40 in the country and No. 9 in California last season when it went 12-2, losing to Folsom 21-14 in overtime in the CIF State Division I-AA championship game. Saguaro's 2020 class might be the deepest and most talented in coach Jason Mohns' six-year run of titles, so the Sabercats should be ready. Phoenix Pinnacle at Sammamish (Wash.) Eastside Catholic, Sept. 20 Pinnacle warms up for this with road games against Gilbert Perry and Phoenix Mountain Pointe to open the season. Eastside Catholic is the team that gave Peoria Centennial its only loss (17-0) last season in the late-December GEICO Bowl at Centennial. It is on a 13-game winning streak that includes beating Seattle O'Dea 31-13 for the Washington 3A championship. And it returns top running back Sam Adams. Phoenix Desert Vista vs. Sherman Oaks (Calif.) Notre Dame, Aug. 31, at Sacramento Cathedral Catholic Desert Vista opens at home against Palm Springs (Calif.), before making this road trip. Notre Dame is a traditional power in Southern California, led by coach Kevin Mooney. Last year's team went 9-5, reaching the CIF Southern Section Division 2 semifinals, before losing to Rancho Verde out of Moreno Valley 41-38. The dynamic Grubbs brothers backs Tyson and Devon return to keep the run game revved up for Desert Vista. Brothers Tyson, left, and Devon Grubbs are a running back duo for Desert Vista High School that has led the team to a 4-0 start. (Photo: Tom Tingle/The Republic) Peoria Liberty at Henderson (Nev.) Liberty, Sept. 20 Nevada's Liberty is playing host to Chandler, then at Mililani in Hawaii, and at Corona (Calif.) Centennial to open the season, before returning home to play the Liberty Lions of Peoria. That might be the best time for the Peoria team to catch a Nevada power that beat Saguaro each of the past two seasons and lost to Bishop Gorman in last year's Nevada semifinals. Phoenix Mountain Pointe at Las Vegas Faith Lutheran, Aug. 23 This is opening week for Mountain Pointe, who then plays host to Pinnacle. Last year, Rich Wellbrock's team lost to South Jordan (Utah) Bingham 21-14 the first week of September in its big out-of-state game. To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at [email protected] or 602-316-8827. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/03/21/who-has-toughest-arizona-high-school-football-schedule-2019/3234778002/ |
Will Oregon be able to contain Wisconsin All-American Ethan Happ? | SAN JOSE, Calif. Someone needed to give Kenny Wooten and Francis Okoro an early look at what theyll be facing when Oregon takes on Wisconsin All-American center Ethan Happ. Lacking numbers for a complete scout team, the dubious honor fell on Ducks assistant coach Kevin McKenna to simulate the 6-foot-10 Happ, who leads the Badgers in nearly every statistic, including scoring (17.5 points), rebounding (10.1) and assists (4.6). Ive been doing a terrible job of imitating him because Im really old and hes young and a lot bigger than me, said McKenna, 60, who played shooting guard at Creighton and for six years in the NBA. "Were just trying to give them a look and see how he is. Hes a really unique player, versatile player. You dont see many 6-11 guys bringing the ball up the court and backing guys down. Hes a really good player. ... My goal with the scouts is to not get injured and so far, knock on wood, Ive been able to do that. Wooten will be Happs primary defender when the No. 12 seed Ducks (23-12) face the No. 5 seed Badgers (23-10) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the SAP Center on Friday (1:30 p.m., TBS). The 6-foot-9 Oregon sophomore recognizes how difficult it will be to contain Happ, who is likely the toughest individual challenge of his career. Watching the film you can tell he really knows the game, high IQ, Wooten said. "Hes been around college a very long time, hes seen every defense, all of that. Im pretty sure hes going to come out and give us a hard time. Were going to try to keep him as far away from the basket as possible, wall up and make him shoot over the top. Thats going to be our biggest thing, have him shoot over the top, dont go around, dont give him any angles. Oregons defensive mentality didnt just shift, it went into overdrive to spark 8-game win streak, NCAA Tournament berth Over the last eight games Oregon's opponents are averaging just 54.3 points, shooting 34.6 percent from the field including just 23.1 percent from three-point range. If averaged for the entire season every one of those stats would be best in the sport. Wooten, who is averaging 2.0 blocks per game, can go toe-to-toe with Happ vertically. Both he and Okoro will also have to be active horizontally to disrupt the Wisconsin center from finding open teammates on the wings. Ethan has really good footwork, Okoro said. What we got to do is wall up with him and stay with him. ... He really knows how to pass the ball. He catches it, he knows when to distribute, he knows where all his teammates are. Thats going to be a little bit of a problem for us, but I think me and my teammates, we talked about it and we know what to do. Happs 21 double-doubles are tied for fifth in the NCAA this season and only one team, Stanford, held him without an assist this season. Oregon coach Dana Altman said Happ has unbelievable instincts," particularly for a front court player. Anytime he sees a double coming or pressure, that ball is out of his hands quickly, and accurate, Altman said. "One-handed passer, he gets it quick. And for a big guy to average almost five assists a game, he is a unique talent. So I dont know how we slow him down. Better coaches than I have failed, and so were just going to have to try to contain him a little bit. Theyre a solid offensive team. They got three guys in double figures. Theyve got a number of guys that have the potential to score. And hes just a really unique player for an inside guy that just can pass the ball as quickly and as accurately as he can. Really presents a lot of problems. Oregon is focused on trying to make it hard for Happ to gain the positioning he wants. We gotta hold him, gotta make his touches hard, guard Payton Pritchard said. "We gotta force him into tough positions, and then we cant allow him to have easy assists, low kickouts. He gets the ball out fast out of the post. Oregon also presents a unique challenge to Happ, as the Ducks have four players 6-foot-9 to clog passing lanes. Happ said the Ducks length is somewhat new for the Badgers. Theres a lot of things we can do to negate that, but thats kind of what weve practiced all year long so its not long were practicing for anything new really, Happ said. I think having those guys coming to double team or closing out to our shooters affects our rhythm a little bit. Youve got to feel it out for a little bit and see whats working, whats not. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/03/will-oregon-be-able-to-contain-wisconsin-all-american-ethan-happ.html |
What does Iowa State think of Ohio State basketballs leading scorer Kaleb Wesson? | TULSA, Okla. -- Playing in the Big 12 conference, Iowa State doesnt get many opportunities to match up against a player like Kaleb Wesson. At 6-foot-9 and 270 pounds, combined with a high skill level, Wesson provides an obvious matchup problem for a team whose length on the perimeter is its strong point. Head coach Steve Prohm stated that the closest theyve seen to what the Buckeyes bring to the table would be Baylor prior to the injury to Tristan Clark. Clark scored 16 points in the one game he played against the Cyclones this season. He was averaging 14.6 points and 6.3 rebounds per game which almost exactly mirrors Wessons stat line. He also mentioned Kansas Udoka Azubuike who only played in nine games this season because of his size and strength. The physicality and the way you have to guard Wesson you have to think with that mindset, Prohm said. You cant get rode up and give angles or hell kill you. Freshman Talen Horton-Tucker compared Wesson to Kansas junior Dedric Lawson, who averaged 19.1 points and 10.3 rebounds this season. Though he doesnt have Wessons size, the two have similar skill sets as bigs that can shoot from the outside. Dedric Lawson is a lot skinnier than him, Horton-Tucker said. They both kind of play at their own pace. Theyre good. Wesson sees that the Cyclones usually play smaller lineups. He comes from a conference where every team has a post presence that can match him. Prior to conference play where very few teams had an answer for him he was averaging 16.5 points and 6.8 rebounds. Once January hit, those numbers went down to 12.9 and 6.5. This is the first time hes ever played against a Big 12 opponent. Just having to guard somebody like me, I feel like, its going to be big for them, Wesson said. Theyre a little undersized so rebounding is going to be a big emphasis for our whole team. Because the Buckeyes play through a post player, their approach is much different than what Iowa State is comfortable playing. Because of that, tempo will be an important key for both teams. On the season Iowa State averages 77.4 points per game, Ohio State 69.6. We have to make them play our style of ball, the Cyclones Marial Shayok said. I think we do that by getting stops first. As long as we play defense and get out and run I think well be fine. Get Buckeyes Insider texts in your phone from Doug Lesmerises: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the award-winning OSU football reporter, just like you would with your friends. Its just $3.99 a month, which works out to about 13 cents a day. Learn more and sign up here. | https://www.cleveland.com/osu/2019/03/what-does-iowa-state-think-of-ohio-state-basketballs-leading-scorer-kaleb-wesson.html |
What Is Going On With Jo's Family on Grey's Anatomy ? | Jo is in for one major conversation on next week's Grey's Anatomy. She was absent almost all of tonight's episode as she traveled to meet the birth mother she thought she had found after taking a DNA test. It was only at the very end that Alex arrived home to find her in bed. When he wasn't looking, we saw that she was in tears. Then in the promo for next week, we see Jo arriving at her mother's door. The woman, played by Michelle Forbes, quietly tells Jo she "can't be here," so Jo asks if they can meet at a diner for one conversation. We then see Jo crying at the table after asking who her father is, and the promo promises it's "one astounding hour of television," and even says that viewer discretion is advised. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1025863/what-is-going-on-with-jo-s-family-on-grey-s-anatomy |
Who is the UK's 100bn benefits bill spent on? | Image copyright Getty Images Paying benefits to people of working age is a big part of what the government does. In fact, it spends more on these benefits than it does on education or national defence and policing. They account for roughly 1 in every 8 the government spends, or about 100bn a year. This is on top of the 120bn that is spent on benefits for pensioners. A look at the size of the bill and who gets these benefits reveals big changes over time. Most people will receive benefits There are about 1.8 million households of working age who get at least 80% of their income from benefits. But there are two reasons why the system is far wider than this. First, many more households get smaller income top-ups from it. About half of all working-age households currently receive some benefits. Even excluding child benefit - which all but the highest-income families are eligible for - the figure is about one in three. Second, working-age benefits are not simply supporting an unchanging group. Most of us will draw on them at some point - for example, during periods of low income, parenthood or ill health. About three-quarters of working-age benefits are spent in one of three ways: Tax credits, mostly topping up the incomes of families with someone in paid work, but on modest earnings Housing benefit, helping low-income people meet the cost of rent Disability, incapacity and sickness benefits, for those whose health limits their ability to work or adds to the cost of living These benefits now dwarf those designed to support the unemployed, in part because of the rapid fall in unemployment. This has been accompanied by a shift in the way that we decide who gets support. The original vision for the welfare state was a largely contributory one. Those who had paid social security contributions when in work were entitled to support later on if they fell on difficult times. We have since turned increasingly to means-tested support - essentially offering financial help to people if they appear to need it, regardless of past contributions. Supporting people who are working Today, more of the poorer sections of society are in working households than in the past. Twenty years ago, most non-pensioners whose income was below the official poverty line were in a household where no-one was in paid work. Now, more than two-thirds of such people are either in work or live with someone who is. Most poorer working-age households are working % of people in poverty in working-age households who live That is the result of both good and bad news. On the one hand, unemployment is much lower than in the past. But on the other hand, for those who are in work, pay growth has been very weak. This means that work is a less reliable route out of poverty than we might have expected. After adjusting for inflation, the lowest-earning working households today earn little more than their counterparts in the mid-1990s. Tax credits in particular are being used to plug the income gap left behind by a lack of pay growth. In 1994-95, 40% of working age benefits were paid to households with at least someone in paid work. In 2016-17, this was 58%. Support for housing costs Housing benefit exists to help low-income renters pay for a home. It costs the government more than policing, overseas aid and various government departments. Three million working-age households receive 17bn per year in housing benefit, with a further 6bn going to pensioner households. Spending in this area has roughly doubled since the early 1990s, after adjusting for inflation. More stories like this In part, this is because other forms of public support for housing have fallen. For example council housing, in which rents are typically well below market levels, has been in decline. The proportion of people living in council housing has fallen from about one-third in the 1970s to less than 10%. And in recent years another large factor has been falling rates of home ownership. This has fuelled massive growth in the size of the private rented sector, where costs are higher. Real terms working-age housing benefit spending Growth in the number of people needing support for housing costs creates a dilemma for government. It faces a choice between picking up ever more of the tab for higher housing costs and allowing low income families to do so. Recently, it has moved towards the latter approach. Since 2012-13 housing benefits no longer increases each year in line with rents. Incapacity and disability benefits Another area which has been under government scrutiny is incapacity and disability benefits. Incapacity benefits are paid to people out of work if their ill health is considered a limiting factor. Disability benefits can be paid to people in or out of work if a disability adds to the cost of living. Spending on health-related benefits has risen Real change in working-age spending The government recently changed the way it assessed people's health and, as a result, had expected to be making fewer payments. It was very wrong. The numbers on these benefits have continued to grow. Spending has risen - dramatically in the case of disability benefits. Despite that, stories abound of claimants finding it difficult to get support. It used to be the case that older age was the best predictor of who would need incapacity benefits. Now it is low education levels. In other words, these benefits used to largely support people at the end of working life, before they could claim their pensions. Percentage of population on incapacity benefits By age and level of education Now they also support large numbers of people in their 20s and 30s. Many have few qualifications, increasing the challenge they face in finding well-paid work. In addition, the majority of incapacity claimants now have mental or behavioural problems as their primary health problems, rather than physical conditions. Benefits are in the midst of an overhaul. Universal credit - which brings together much of the working-age benefits system into a single payment - is being rolled out across the UK. But while there are potential advantages of a system that is simpler in this way, it has proved controversial. Among the reasons are longer waits to receive payments and the intention that universal credit would see overall payments to households reduced. For all its huge importance, though, it is perhaps easy to focus too much on universal credit. Much of the 100bn per year we spend on working-age benefits is there to tackle deep problems created by low pay, high housing costs and ill health. Those are challenges that will remain whatever happens next with universal credit. About this piece This analysis piece was commissioned by the BBC from an expert working for an outside organisation. Robert Joyce is deputy director at the IFS and head of the Income, Work and Welfare sector. In February he presented a talk called The Future of Benefits for the 50th anniversary of the IFS. Edited by Duncan Walker | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47623277 |
Does #nomakeup trend help women or is it bare-faced cheek? | LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From the skies to the stage, women are taking a stand for equality by wiping off their make-up, sparking a bare-faced trend that won rising numbers of followers globally but also triggered vocal defenders of the benefits of cosmetics. An online #nomakeup campaign dates back about three years to when U.S. singer Alicia Keys vowed not to wear make-up anymore but it has gained momentum this year with other celebrities and industries following suit. British singer Jess Glyne made headlines in February when she took off her make-up during a Brit Awards performance while singing Thursday, a song about not wanting to wear makeup. Airlines Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus this month updated guidelines stating air hostesses no longer had to wear make-up. A spokeswoman from Virgin Atlantic said the move was made to reflect a change in the aviation industry, where highly coiffeured female hostesses were once nicknamed trolley dollies, and Aer Lingus said it reflected changing dress norms. University student Yim Ji-su helped spark a debate in February about daily sexism in beauty-obsessed South Korea by ditching her make-up and shaving her hair into a buzz cut. Abi Wright, founder of UK-based Inspiring Margot, a company working to build womens confidence in the workplace, said wearing make-up should be a choice, not an expectation. If, as women, were expected to wear make-up then that simply says our appearance is more important than our skills and abilities, Wright told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. It highlights yet again that our society associates a womans worth by appearance and nothing more. LAWS ON DRESS In Britain, discrimination at work over make-up or clothing is illegal under the Equality Act 2010 but this law has come under scrutiny since a 2016 campaign by Nicola Thorp who was sent home from work without pay for refusing to wear high heels. This prompted a parliamentary inquiry that led to guidance setting out how the law might apply when an employer required female staff to wear high heels, make-up, or revealing clothing. The United States has similar laws with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stating standards can be different for men and women as long as it is generally consistent but there has not been many challenges to sex-based employee dress codes. The trend to go bare-faced has been picked up by the global cosmetics industry, which was worth at least $48.3 billion last year, according to market research group Mintel. New cosmetics companies like Glossier Inc, which was valued at over $1 billion this week, are offering products that cater to various skin tones and emphasize a natural no-make-up look. No make-up is really a symbol of being empowered and being comfortable in your own skin, not having to hide behind something, said British make-up artist Lee Pycroft. Its positive because its taking away the association that women have to look a certain way to fill a certain role, said Pycroft, who has worked with celebrities like actresses Anne Hathaway and Laura Linney and supermodel Elle Macpherson. SKIN DEEP But the bare-faced movement has divided opinion over whether this is a serious assertion of female equality or the focus on make-up as a negative for women was overblown. Ria Cooper, 25, who at 13 became the youngest transgender woman in Britain in 2007, said wearing make-up could be positive, transformative and more than skin deep. She set up a beauty salon in northern England in 2018 to support and guide other trans women with beauty tips who might not feel comfortable at traditional salons. I believe woman are beautiful without make-up, but I also believe make-up does do wonders, Cooper said in a phone interview.Make-up makes you feel beautiful and more confident. Make-up artist Pycroft said she has seen firsthand how it can change a womans demeanor, having done several make-overs for domestic abuse survivors and other vulnerable women. Having seen the way make-up can be used as a tool to help people, it can have a very positive part to it, she said. Make-up is often thought of as superficial and a bit fluffy, but it can bring about the person that weve forgotten about. It can be really empowering. | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-women-makeup-trend/does-nomakeup-trend-help-women-or-is-it-bare-faced-cheek-idUSKCN1R305X |
Whos going to hit high notes besides Francisco Lindor, Jose Ramirez for Indians offense? | CLEVELAND, Ohio In one corner the Indians have Francisco Lindor and Jose Ramirez. Two switch-hitting, power-laden MVP candidates to carry the offense. In the other corner is everybody else who will swing a bat for the Indians this season. So theres Elvis I and Elvis II, but every star needs a backup singer or 10. Heres a look at what kind of notes Indians batters not named Francisco Lindor or Jose Ramirez can be expected to hit in the 2019 season. THE INFIELDERS Lets start with the infield since thats where Lindor and Ramirez will be doing their business at shortstop and third base. Old friend Carlos Santana has returned to play first base, some left field and DH. He spent last year in Philadelphia doing what he usually does playing nearly every day, not hitting for much of an average (.229), showing some pop (28 doubles, 24 homers, 86 RBI) and, shocker, walking. Santana finished second in the NL with 110 walks the most by a Phillies switch-hitter in franchise history. Look for Santanas average to go up a click or two because hes back in the AL where he knows the pitchers and ballpark. Hell be expected to hit somewhere in the middle of the lineup to fill the holes created by the departures of Michael Brantley, Edwin Encarnacion, Yonder Alonso, Melky Cabrera and Yandy Diaz. Dont be surprised if manager Terry Francona puts him in the leadoff spot now and again. * Key stat: Santana was one of two players in the big leagues last year to drive in at least 85 runs and have at least 110 walks. Bryce Harper was the other. * Fun fact: The Indians, with the return of Santana, have three of the top five home-run hitting switch-hitters in franchise history. Santana is No. 1 with 174, Lindor No.4 with 98 and Ramirez No.5 with 87. The Plain Dealer Jason Kipnis could use a consistently productive season in 2019 because it could be his last in Cleveland before he becomes a free agent. Jason Kipnis returns to second base for his eighth, and possibly last, season with the Tribe. Kipnis, bothered by a right calf and quad problem in spring training, needs to put a full season together at the plate. He rescued his 2018 season with a strong finish, but a consistent year would go a long way to helping the Tribes offense and setting himself up for his first plunge into free agency. It will be interesting to see if Francona puts Kipnis in the No.2 spot between Lindor and Ramirez to replace Brantley, who signed a two-year deal with Houston. Kipnis OPS has dropped from a career high .823 in 2015 to .704 last year. * Key stat: Kipnis hit .292 (38-for-130) with eight homers and 59 RBI with runners in scoring position last year. * Fun fact: On Sept. 1 Kipnis collected his 1,000th career hit, all with the Indians, on a walk-off grand slam against the White Sox to erase a 1-0 deficit on Sept. 19. The only other player to do that was Ron Santo of the Cubs on Sept. 25, 1968 against the Dodgers. Hanley Ramirez could hold the key to this offense. Of course, he has to make the team first. But if he can anchor the middle of the lineup from the DH spot, think of the protection he could give Lindor and the other Ramirez at the top of the order. He signed a minor league deal in late February and has just two extra base hits in six games (UPDATE). Francona, however, says Ramirez still has bat speed. * Key stat: Ramirez hit .330 (32-for-97) with three homers and 17 RBI in April last year for Boston. * Fun fact: Ramirez won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2006 playing shortstop for the Marlins. He has since outgrown the position. Max Moroff and Eric Stamets have been competing for the utility infielders spot. Stamets, with Lindor sidelined with a calf injury, has seen most of the time at short this spring. If Lindor isnt able to open the season on time, Stamets could get a chance to play there when the Indians open the season against the Twins. Moroff, acquired from Pittsburgh in November, has shown some production with the bat in the past and hes out of options. * Key stat: Stamets played just 78 games at Class AAA Columbus last year because of back, groin and biceps injuries. * Fun fact: Stamets was born in Dublin, just outside of Columbus, and grew up a fan of Tribe shortstop Omar Vizquel. * Key stat: Moroff played 17 games at second and six at shortstop last year for the Pirates. * Fun fact: Moroff went 80-for-80 in stolen bases in his high school career at Trinity Prep School in Winter Park, Fla. THE CATCHERS Roberto Perez will open the season at catcher. He replaces Yan Gomes, who was traded to the Nationals in November. Perez is well equipped to handle the defensive side of the game. He throws well, works smoothly with the pitching staff and excels at framing pitches. But hes going to have to hit a lot better than he did last year to help the offense. The good thing is Perez has hit well in spring training after hitting .333 (23-for-69) for Licey in the Dominican Republic over the winter. The Plain Dealer Roberto Perez will open the season as the Indians' starting catcher following the trade of Yan Gomes in November. (Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer) * Key stat: Perezs .168 batting average last year was the lowest in the AL among hitters with 200 or more plate appearances. * Fun fact: Perez caught all 15 games during the Indians 2016 postseason run to Game 7 of the World Series. He hit just .186, but three of his eight hits were home runs. The Indians acquired Kevin Plawecki from the Mets on Jan. 6 because they needed a catcher after trading Gomes. Plawecki will open the season in the backup role, but the former No.1 pick has shown he can swing the bat. He hit seven homers with 30 RBI in 79 games last year. In 2017 he hit .328 (81-for-247) with nine homers and 45 RBI in 64 games at Class AAA Las Vegas. If Perez struggles at the plate, Plawecki should get a chance. Francona isnt going to play Perez every day. * Key stat: Plawecki had 14 RBI in 22 games in August last year. * Fun fact: Plawecki played three years at Purdue. His wife, Tayler, played soccer at Purdue. THE OUTFIELDERS The Indians turned the outfield inside out over the winter. Brantley, Lonnie Chisenhall, Brandon Guyer, Rajai Davis and Cabrera were allowed to leave through free agency. Those five players appeared in a total of 404 games in the outfield last year. The following are the outfielders who have a chance to replace them in 2019. Leonys Martin, who almost died last year because of a bacterial infection, has had a great spring. He nailed down the center field job and spent a lot of time in the leadoff spot in place of the injured Lindor. Martin hasnt played a full season since 2016 with Seattle. If he can come close to those kind of numbers 148 games, 72 runs, 15 homers, 47 RBI and 24 steals it would be a boost to the offense. * Key stat: Martin is a lifetime .254 vs. right-handers and .234 hitters against lefties. In his last full year (2016), he hit .246 against righties and .261 against lefties. * Fun fact: Martin, a native of Cuba, became a naturalized U.S. citizen on June 25, 2018. The Plain Dealer Jake Bauers is expected to see time in left field and first base this season for the Indians. Jake Bauers made his big-league debut last year with the Rays. Hes played only 96 games in the big leagues so there is going to be some growing pains with this left-handed hitter. If Hanley Ramirez makes the club at DH, Bauers is expected to spend most of his time in left field. If Ramirez doesnt make the club, hes expected to share first and DH with Santana. In 2017 Bauers slashed .263/.357/.426 at Class AAA Durham with 31 doubles and 13 homers in 132 games. The Indians could use that kind of production this year no matter what position he plays. * Key stat: Bauers led AL rookies with 54 walks last year. * Fun fact: Bauers says his favorite thing to do away from baseball is surf. Switch-hitter Greg Allen has done everything possible to make the opening day roster. He finished last season on a roll, hitting .297 (35-for-118) over his last 43 games. This spring hes hit from day one will playing mostly left and center field. Allen still needs to improve against lefties he hit .208 (10-for-48) against them last year to give Francona an option if he wants to use him in a platoon situation. Allen brings speed to the offense as well. He stole 21 bases in 25 attempts last season. * Key stat: Allen hit .483 (14-for-29) on the first pitch last season. * Fun fact: Allen hit two homers last year a walk-off homer in the 14th inning vs. Houston on May 27 and a game-winning two-run homer against Boston on Aug. 20. Tyler Naquin came to spring training healthy for the first time since 2016. He told reporters he felt like he was 15 again after undergoing surgery on his right hip. To help the Indians this season, he has to stay on the field and produce. This spring he homered on the first pitch he saw, but the rest of the Cactus League season has not gone as smoothly. Naquin, who has an option left, is another left-handed hitter who needs to improve against lefty pitchers to get more playing time. He hit .250 (4-for-16) against lefties last year. In his career, hes hitting .283 (136-for-486) against righties and .250 (13-for-52) against lefties. * Key stat: Naquin had a career-high 11-game hitting streak from May 1 through June 17 last year. * Fun fact: Naquins favorite movie is Tombstone. Trayce Thompson has a chance to make the club as a spring-training invitee. The Indians love his athleticism and this spring hes actually hit. That has proven to be a problem for Thompson in big-league stops with the White Sox, Dodgers and As. If Thompson is going to help, its probably going to be in a bench role. That means hes going to have to find a way to be productive as a role player on offense and defense. This is his 11th professional season so he should have an understanding of his role. The Plain Dealer Tyler Naquin, who came to camp healthy for the first time since 2016, has a chance to open the season with a spot in the Indians' outfield. (Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer) * Key stat: Thompson was released by the Dodgers at the end of spring training in 2018, claimed and released by the Yankees and claimed two days later by the As on April 5. * Fun fact: Yes, Thompson is a member of the basketball-playing Thompson family. His brother, Klay, plays for Golden State. Another brother, Mychael, played for the Cavs and his father, Mychael, played in the NBA for 14 years. The Indians signed Carlos Gonzalez to a minor-league deal on Tuesday, so he wont be ready for the season opener. If he shows he can help the Indians, hell probably join them sometime in April. Hes been the Rockies starting right fielder for the last three years so thats where hell probably play for the Tribe. His numbers took a big dip outside of Coors Field. If hes going to help the Indians, hes going to have to prove hes productive at sea level. * Key stat: Baseball-reference.coms 2019 projection for Gonzalez have him producing a similar season to what he had last year -- .267, 16 homers and 64 RBI. * Fun fact: Gonzalez has to be happy that he doesnt have to face Tribe pitching for a while. Hes hitting .111 (1-for-9) against Brad Hand, .143 (1-for-7) against Trevor Bauer and .200 (1-for-5) against Corey Kluber. | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/whos-going-hit-high-notes-besides-francisco-lindor-jose-ramirez-for-indians-offense.html |
Can blockchain apps ensure a responsible mineral supply chain? | Verifying the origins of metals and minerals and ensuring the extraction of these resources are not benefiting warlords has been an ever-increasing concern of mining companies in recent years. In 2017, the US passed the Dodd-Frank Act, which in Section 1502 included a requirement for any US firm to ensure that mineral resources they procured, including tin, tantalum, gold, and tungsten, was sourced responsibly and not for the enrichment of anyone involved in armed conflict. Though the Trump administration has moved to repeal this measure, it still remains on the books and in effect. The EU has also adopted new import regulations on conflict minerals, implemented as of May 2017. The new measures will apply to all EU-based companies from January 2021, requiring them to report their supply chain due diligence obligations on sourcing of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold and ensure armed groups can no longer use these minerals as a way to finance warfare and human rights abuses. Though there has been some debate on the effectiveness of these types of regulations on stemming violent conflict in the region, companies in the mining industry have been faced with another issue: how to ensure their mineral products are responsibly sourced. Some entrepreneurs see blockchain-based systems as the way forward to ensure responsible sourcing. A new company based in Berlin is hoping to provide a solution. MineSpider, created in 2017, has adapted bitcoin technology in a way that will allow companies to be confident in their sourcing, and be able to report their supply chain due diligence to governments, without disclosing their supply chains to competitors. Theres a lot of thoughts on how to keep sensitive data private, MineSpider founder and CEO Nathan Williams said. The problem with private blockchain, if brands want to have their own private blockchain, a miner would have five different systems to use. To overcome this issue, he and his team built a layered blockchain system using Ethereum, an open-source platform which aims to replace third-party systems holding complex data on cloud networks. The platform allows developers to create apps and other programs based on blockchain technology. Williams describes MineSpider as an onion, or a Russian doll. We have two layers a data layer and an Ethereum layer. Ethereum is the blockchain immutable layer, and on that we are storing a ton of material, how much in shipments and the grade, he said. Then there is a link to a packet of data. One layer of data is data you want everyone to see. Another layer is private data that needs to be registered as unchangeable, which is only available to customers. The third layer is key we encrypt the first two layers, and then asymmetrically encrypt that with the key of your customer. Companies can then provide keys to customers and regulators, which will have encrypted access to the data. This creates a system that allows certain recipients to read sensitive data, which allows mining companies to provide receipts that theyve done their due diligence while also protecting their supply chain details. MineSpider has developed the software and is now preparing its first pilots. Williams says the firm is in negotiations with several large companies, including one sizable auto manufacturer in Germany. MineSpider is also working to develop a system which can be used by artisanal miners There is competition in this space, as other developers are using technologies similar to Ethereum such as Hyperledger, Peer Ledger, and others. Circulor, a UK-based company, has also created a system based on blockchain that allows mining companies ensure their minerals are responsibly sourced. The company has signed an agreement with the government of Rwanda and the Rwanda Mining Association, and says it is in discussions with Apple. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaxjacobsen/2019/03/22/can-blockchain-apps-ensure-a-responsible-mineral-supply-chain/ |
Are pilots outside the U.S. getting the training needed to fly jets, including Boeing 737 Max 8? | CLOSE Boeing CEO Dennis Mullenburg explains what his company is doing to ensure the safety of passengers after the Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes. USA TODAY The catastrophic crashes of two Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in less than five months have focused attention on what information the company shared with pilots and how much training they received on the new aircraft. Aviation experts also now question whether pilots for some foreign airlines are prepared to handle emergency situations. The accidents involving Lion Air Flight 610 off the coast of Indonesia on Oct. 29 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 on March 10 just outside the capital city of Addis Ababa killed all aboard, a total of 346 passengers and crew. The crashes are still under investigation, but the Ethiopian transport minister said there are clear similarities in the doomed planes movements, with erratic changes in speed and altitude. In both cases the pilots unsuccessfully attempted to return to the airport a few minutes after takeoff before the aircraft nosedived. While signs point to a faulty sensor linked to a new feature of the jets flight-control system as the likely source of the problem, some industry observers have also noted pilots in many other countries dont undertake nearly as extensive a training regimen as their American peers. Red alert: Reports: Boeing will add warning light to aid pilots after Ethiopian 737 Max crash Close call: Jump-seat pilot reportedly saved Boeing Max jet one day before Lion Air crash To fly for one of the scheduled U.S. airlines or their regional carriers, the Federal Aviation Administration requires an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, which calls for at least 1,000-1,500 flight hours, depending on how the training was done. And pilots hired by the major airlines typically have much more experience than that. By comparison, the roughly equivalent Multi-crew Pilot License issued by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which takes a different approach to training, can be earned with as little as 200 flight hours. Brent Bowen, professor of aeronautical science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and former dean of its College of Aviation, said most U.S. pilots come from military or college-based programs and have four-year degrees. Thats often not the case elsewhere, he said, especially in developing countries. Some nations hire pilots basically off the street without a degree and send them to 18 months of training, then put them in the co-pilot seat of a 737, Bowen said. You can pretty much say the co-pilots at our major airlines in the U.S. have probably 10 times the amount of experience that some countries co-pilots have. A heap of debris from the wreckage of an Ethiopia Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft are piled at the crash site near Bishoftu, Ethiopia on March 13, 2019. Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 302 carrying 149 passengers and 8 crew was en route to Nairobi, Kenya, when it crashed on March 10, 2019 by yet undetermined reason. All passengers and crew aboard died in the crash. The Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft has come under scrutiny after similar deadly crashes in Ethiopia and Indonesia within a few months. Several countries have banned the plane type from their airspace and many airlines have grounded their 737 Max 8 planes for safety concerns after the Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed minutes after take-off on March 10. (Photo: EPA-EFE) Ethiopian Airlines, which before this accident had a stellar safety record, said the captain of Flight 302, Yared Getachew, was an experienced pilot with more than 8,000 flight hours. However, co-pilot Ahmed Nur Mohammed had only 200 hours of flight time, according to the company. Both trained at the airlines academy. In addition, the New York Times reported Thursday that Getachew did not receive simulator training for the Max plane, even though Ethiopian Airlines was among the first carriers to acquire that teaching device, and it was operational by January. It wasnt clear whether Nur trained on a Max simulator. The airline challenged the reports accuracy and said in a statement both pilots completed the differences training recommended by Boeing before upgrading from the old 737 to the Max model, adding that the pilots were also briefed on the FAA directive following the Lion Air crash. Ethiopian did not address whether Getachew and Nur trained on a Max simulator, but noted that the machine does not replicate the problems apparently created by the new software in the Max flight-control system, known as MCAS. The time spent training on simulators is particularly critical to developing the ability to respond to emergencies, said Robert Ditchey, a former Navy pilot and co-founder of America West Airlines who used to hire and train pilots. The only way you get that kind of training what happens if your engine quits; what happens if this fails or that fails is in the simulator, Ditchey said, pointing out U.S. airlines have more and higher-quality simulators than their foreign counterparts. If they dont have simulators, they cant do it. So if youre Kazakhstan and you dont have your own simulator, you cant teach that kind of stuff. The only training you can give your pilots is normal stuff. You dont teach them engine outage, you dont teach them emergency, you dont teach them if the airplanes on fire. So foreign airlines are limited by a number of factors, one of the major factors being whats available to them. Though Ditchey lauded Ethiopian, which does have a Max simulator, he also said most developing countries lack the kind of aviation infrastructure found in the U.S., where there are plenty of flight schools and all five of the armed service branches train pilots. In fact, many foreign countries send their aspiring pilots to hone their skills here, although its expensive. Simulators cost millions of dollars, as much as smaller planes, and time on them is scarce and can run into the thousands per hour. Martin Rottler, who teaches at the Center for Aviation Studies at Ohio State University, said that experience has helped even out the airfield, so to speak, between foreign and domestic pilots. "Not every pilot in the cockpit is going to be Sully Sullenberger. Daniel Rose, pilot and lawyer, on the need for airplanes to be designed with the average aviator in mind Rottler argues that, despite the disparity in required flight hours, the training undertaken by pilots from other countries is not lesser, only different. Instead of emphasizing flight time as in done in the U.S., the ICAO model adopted in most of the world is geared toward preparing students for what a pilot for a commercial carrier might encounter. Rather than making their way through several pilot categories, Rottler said, Theyre training from Day 1 to be a professional airline pilot. ICAO overhauled its training system in 2006, at a time when demand for pilots increased significantly as the international airline industry expanded. Rottler acknowledges more study needs to be done on the results of ICAOs competency-based system, but some veteran pilots are ready to give it the thumbs-down, arguing that too much reliance on automation has eroded modern pilots flying skills, and not just the foreign ones. Inside the cockpit While the Air Line Pilots Association the worlds largest union of its kind with more than 61,000 members limited its comments for this story to expressing support for the current grounding of the Max jets, others have not been as circumspect. Albert Ricks, who flew American Airlines planes for 35 years, said he and several fellow retired pilots have been dumbfounded about the inability of the aviators on both crashes to handle the emergency. He said the cockpit of the Max and the 727 jets he used to fly are essentially the same, with two prominent wheels sitting in the middle of the center console next to the pilots knees. That trim wheel which controls the horizontal stabilizer in the tail typically moves incrementally up and down. If at any point it starts spinning, though, experienced pilots know to instinctively grab and stop it right away, Ricks said, preventing whats known as a runaway stabilizer. What we believe is that, even though the captain had all this experience, his training did not include this rapid response that is needed if that wheel should run away, Ricks said of the Ethiopian crash. One of faults that all senior pilots find with the new way of flying is that pilots now dont have that basic military training, and the airlines and the FAA seem to think its better that you fly the airplane on autopilot and flight director all the time. So typically you take off and you might get to 1,100 feet and put the autopilot on and its programmed to fly the airplane right to the destination airport. A more common source of the blame, though, has been Boeing, which reconfigured the 737 an airplane initially unveiled in 1967 by outfitting it with larger and more fuel-efficient engines. Because of their size, the engines had to be relocated, making the plane more prone to stalling. The MCAS software was designed to counter this problem, forcing the nose to automatically pitch down when the possibility of stalling was detected by the angle of attack sensors. But the MCAS uses readings from only one of two such sensors, an unusual decision in an industry that relies on redundancy for safety, and faulty readings apparently triggered the series of events that led to the Lion Air crash and possibly the Ethiopian Airlines one as well. Daniel Rose, a Navy-trailed pilot and lawyer for Kreindler & Kreindler LLP which specializes in aviation-accident litigation said aviators cant be expected to make up for a planes design flaw no matter where they came from, especially when Boeing didnt initially inform them about the MCAS. Even if you accept the fact that on average pilots in developing countries are less able to deal with an emergency for whatever reason, thats what the aircraft has to be designed for, Rose said. Boeing is selling these aircraft to every country that wants to buy them. There has to be somewhat of an understanding of what the average pilot is capable of." He added, "Not every pilot in the cockpit is going to be Sully Sullenberger. 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Why does Coronation Street keep exploding its lesbians? | I grew up watching Coronation Street with my family, breathing in sharply whenever Sophie Webster came on screen. This was 2014, and as the romance between do-gooder Sophie and her runaway love-interest Maddie grew, Id plan in my head how to say that I was like them. Then, on the night of a mammoth fire, Maddie was hit by a huge explosion from the Builders Yard on her way to meet Sophie. Sophie watched on from the other side of the road, screaming Maddies name. Maddie died. I didnt come out to my family any time soon. Because this week, history repeated itself. On the wedding day of Kate Connor and Rana Nazir, the Corrie producers dumped the factory roof on Rana in her wedding dress . The falling roof rocked the factory like an explosion, trapping Rana under beams and debris. Kate and Rana have been the soaps only lesbian couple since Sophie and Maddie they had plans to have a baby, which would have been the shows first depiction of same-sex parenting. Instead, she and Kate said their vows in the rubble. Stroking Ranas shaking head, Kate read aloud: Youre everything to me love is one soul in two bodies and thats us. I cant exist without you. Rana could barely speak from crying We cant leave each other because were the same person, she just about managed to say and then she died. It was devastating. Its five years since same-sex marriage became legal in the UK, but the closest Corrie has come to giving viewers a gay wedding is this harrowing marriage-death moment. Bhavna Limbachia, who plays Rana, has said she wanted to leave the show and that this was the only fitting end to her story but it is not excuse enough to detonate yet another lesbian. We shouldnt underestimate how corrosive it is for LGBT people to see themselves die on screen. Watching Rana die in Kates arms brought back all the feelings of shame, anger and frustration I felt when I was keeping my sexuality a secret and saw my only representation on screen fly into pieces. Whether torn apart by death, homophobia or relationship breakups, Im too used to seeing LGBT soap characters destined for misery. Hayley Cropper, the first transgender character in a UK soap, died a few years ago after a cancer diagnosis led her to take her own life. The shows gay characters have little success when it comes to life, never mind love Sean Tully became homeless last year, and it emerged that Billy Mayhew had become a heroin addict. And ever since the death of Maddie, Sophies dalliances have been doomed. What Coronation Street's 'mingebag' jibe tells us about the north-south divide Read more Gay people meet the same fate in other soaps. EastEnders killed off Paul Coker in a devastating homophobic attack in 2016, leaving boyfriend Ben to pick up the pieces. In 2015, Emmerdales lesbian character Ruby was killed in a helicopter crash (because thats relatable, apparently). Long-time gay character Aaron Sugden-Dingles storylines have revolved mostly around his struggle to come to terms with his sexuality. For years, its been a given that gay characters not just in soaps but across TV and film wind up dead. The problem is that we are used to television that essentially programs straight shows with gay characters. Mainstream TV often places LGBT people within an acceptable heteronormative framework following narratives which address LGBT people coming out or transitioning, fighting for survival and struggling for acceptance or straight privileges like the right to marry. In this way, mainstream TV shows straight audiences a world they are comfortable with, even luring them in with the use of hot actors or dramatic storylines. This is why so many LGBT characters end up dead. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rana and Kate propose to each other on Coronation Street. Photograph: ITV/REX/Shutterstock It is important to share real stories on soaps like Coronation Street, and shed light on important and heart-wrenching LGBT issues. But these tragedies neednt make up the entirety of narratives about LGBT people. Its equally important to see survival and hope, trivial romance and fun. LGBT people are still too invisible on soaps, and their happiness so often absent from storylines. I just want to see a stable gay relationship last for once. For many LGBT people searching for representation and validation on screen, its important not to see a character you thought you saw yourself in explode into pieces and die. | https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/mar/22/why-does-coronation-street-keep-exploding-its-lesbians |
What happens next on Brexit? | LONDON (Reuters) - European Union leaders have given Prime Minister Theresa May a two week reprieve before Britain could leave the bloc without an exit deal if she fails to win parliaments backing for her agreement with Brussels. FILE PHOTO: A British Union Jack flag is seen on the desk of a Member of the European Parliament ahead of a debate on Brexit after the vote on British Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit deal, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, March 13, 2019. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler Below is what is due to happen next: BREXIT DEBATE - MONDAY 25 MARCH Lawmakers are due to debate a government motion saying that parliament has considered a statement made by May on March 15 which set out the governments next steps on Brexit, including its plan to seek a delay. They will put forward proposed changes, known as amendments, to this motion setting out alternative ways forward on Brexit. While amendments are not legally binding - although they exert political pressure on May to change course - a cross-party group of lawmakers hopes to use one to change the rules of parliament to wrest control of the Brexit process from the government. The group, including lawmakers from Mays Conservatives, have put forward a proposal which would set aside March 27 to debate and vote on alternative ways forward on Brexit to try to find a majority that would break the parliamentary deadlock. A similar amendment voted on last week lost by just two votes so this is expected to have a good chance of passing. EU leaders have agreed to delay Brexit to May 22, from March 29, on the condition the Withdrawal Agreement is approved by parliament next week. The government has yet to schedule a day for a vote but it will have to notify parliament the day before it plans to hold one. Tuesday had been the day most widely expected but with the threat of a no-deal exit on Friday now removed, some believe it could be later in the week. Commons Speaker John Bercow has ruled that the government cannot bring forward proposals for a vote that are substantially the same as those already defeated twice before, but this is not ultimately expected to prevent a third vote if lawmakers want one to happen. Mays team says that the approval at an EU summit of the so-called Strasbourg agreement - extra assurances on the Northern Irish backstop arrangement - and other measures now change the deals shape from the last time it was voted on. May needs to win over at least 75 lawmakers to get her deal approved, at the moment this looks like an uphill struggle. Last week, Mays de facto deputy, David Lidington, promised that if the governments deal was not approved and Britain was facing a long delay to Brexit, the government would give parliament time to consider the way forward. In such a scenario the government ... would facilitate a process in the two weeks after the March European Council to allow the House to seek a majority on the way forward, he said. This has been interpreted as so-called indicative votes, which would allow lawmakers to vote on a variety of possible Brexit outcomes to see if there is a majority for any option. On Thursday, May said she would honor the commitments made to parliament by her government. Such votes could be forced on the government on Wednesday if the proposal to take control of the business in parliament, put forward by the cross-party group of lawmakers, passes on Monday. LEGISLATION TO CHANGE EXIT DATE Parliament must pass the legislation required to change the exit date in law before March 29. This can be done via secondary legislation, known as a Statutory Instrument, or SI, and would need the approval of both parliaments lower chamber, the House of Commons, and upper chamber, the House of Lords. Mays spokesman has said the government expects this could be done in one or two days. NO DEAL EXIT - APRIL 12 If parliament does not support Mays deal next week, the EU has agreed to delay Brexit until April 12 - the day on which Britain would have to give legal notice that it was taking part in EU elections on May 23. At this point we would either leave with no deal, or put forward an alternative plan, May said in Brussels on Thursday. EXIT WITH A DEAL - MAY 22 If Mays deal is approved next week, Britains exit will be delayed until May 22 in order to give parliament time to pass the legislation necessary to ratify the deal. | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-whatnext-factbox/what-happens-next-on-brexit-idUSKCN1R31DF?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29 |
Will there ever be a perfect bracket? | by Daniel Tran The most exciting time in college basketball is here and millions of NCAA basketball fans, and non-fans, have brackets filled out in the hopes of winning a little scratch from Tom in accounting. While those pools are great for bragging rights, companies are giving out millions of dollars for the perfect bracket. Most think a perfect bracket will eventually occur. Others believe it will never happen. The chances of getting the perfect bracket is one in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. As long as the odds aren't zero, it will happen. Maybe someone builds an NCAA Tournament computer that perfectly takes into account wins, losses, pressure scoring, and body hair density of each competitor to predict all the outcomes. Maybe a psychic who uses their powers, not for good, but for NCAA Tournament outcomes is born. It might take hundreds, if not thousands, of years but there will be a day when the world rejoices over a perfect bracket. last night i came home a wee bit intoxicated from my agencys big yearly meeting and filled out my bracket so i think its safe to say that the whole a perfect bracket doesnt exist thing is gonna come to an end this year Dijana Kunovac (@dijana_kunovac) March 21, 2019 Here's a list of things more likely than a perfect bracket: Getting struck by lightning twice in a row Getting killed by a falling coconut Getting killed by a shark Winning the lottery Finding your actual soulmate So... yeah... a perfect bracket is never happening. Take a deep dive into the absurd odds of a perfect bracket: 1 in 9,223,372,036,854,775,808. Fill your bracket out here: https://t.co/sfuizyhwHs pic.twitter.com/YyrQVcwyTn NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) March 21, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/03/will-there-ever-be-a-perfect-bracket.html |
How Will The Failure Of Biogen's Alzheimer's Drug, Aducanumab, Impact R&D? | The landscape of experimental Alzheimers disease (AD) drugs is strewn with failures, so much so that it has been referred to as an unrelenting disaster zone. Recognizing the greatly increasing number of patients with this disease, many biopharma companies have invested a lot of resources in attacking this problem, only to be turned away in late stage studies as happened to Merck with its BACE inhibitor, verubecestat, and Lilly with its beta-amyloid antibody, solanezumab. 2016 Bloomberg Finance LP Now add Biogen to the list of companies that have failed in this arena. Its drug, aducanumab, partnered with Eisai, was believed to be better in removing beta-amyloid from the brain than any agent previously tested. Many have hypothesized that beta-amyloid causes the formation of damaging clumps of debris in the brain leading to AD. Unfortunately, Biogen halted a major clinical trial with aducanumab due to a futility analysis showing that the drug doesnt work. This is a terrible result for Alzheimers patients who had hoped that this was the drug that would finally succeed in treating AD. But the demise of aducanumab is also disastrous for Biogen which had expended an enormous amount of resources into this program, likely at the expense of other opportunities. It was a risky bet and one for which Wall Street has delivered a punishing blow. Biogens stock dropped by nearly 30% shortly after announcing the disappointing aducanumab results. As John Carroll has reported, many industry analysts believe that there arent many gems in the Biogen pipeline that can make up for the loss of this potential blockbuster. In predicting Biogens next steps, perhaps there are some learnings from another such pipeline failure that of Pfizers torcetrapib. Torcetrapib was the first of a class of compounds known as CETP inhibitors, drugs that both raised HDL-cholesterol and lowered LDL-cholesterol. A CETP inhibitor had the potential to remodel a heart patients lipid profile thereby greatly reducing his risk of a heart attack or stroke. There was tremendous excitement generated in this potential breakthrough treatment, not just in Pfizer but also among cardiologists and heart patients. In fact, internal commercial analyses predicted annual sales in excess of $15 billion. However, as happened with aducanumab, on December 4th, 2006, Pfizer announced that torcetrapib failed its long-term clinical study. The drug was dead. The Wall Street reaction was swift, albeit not as dramatic as Biogens experience. Pfizer stock dropped 10% as a result of this news. Internally, the Pfizer reaction was intense. Torcetrapib was supposed to be the blockbuster that would drive growth into the next decade. Its loss created an enormous hole. Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler responded in a couple of ways. First, he decided to right size R&D in relation to lower expected future revenues. In effect, hundreds of millions of dollars needed to be cut from R&D. Pfizers R&D budget had already undergone major portfolio adjustments and reorganizations over the previous five years due to the acquisition of Warner-Lambert Parke-Davis in 2000 followed by the acquisition of Pharmacia in 2004. Meeting the new R&D budget targets werent going to be achieved by simple cuts; rather, major research sites had to be closed and jobs had to be eliminated. Gone were R&D sites around the world including those in France, Japan and, most significantly, the iconic laboratory in Ann Arbor, Michigan. But budget cuts werent going to be enough for Pfizer to meet its desired goals. The company began assessing major M&A opportunities and in 2009 it acquired Wyeth for $68 billion leading to yet another round of reorganizations and portfolio reshuffling. The ripple effect of the torcetrapib demise was felt by the entire company and lasted for a number of years. Undoubtedly, there will be budget cuts. In addition, perhaps Biogen will look at its R&D portfolio and give a higher priority to those programs that have the potential to deliver revenues in the short term. There might also be a push to drop programs deemed to be very risky or where the proof-of-concept requires long, expensive clinical trials. Finally, it wouldnt be surprising to see Biogen become aggressive in their M&A activities. But make no mistake. The death of an important drug like aducanumab will have both a short and a long term effect on Biogen as a company and especially on R&D. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnlamattina/2019/03/22/how-will-the-failure-of-biogens-alzheimers-drug-aducanumab-impact-rd/ |
Will AI 'Cheats' Outsmart Us? | HHI As software developers build an increasing amount of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the apps on our desktops and in our pockets, we have become more aware and concerned about the nature of the AI brainpower being employed. Concerns in this space have gravitated towards AI bias and AI ethics. AI ethics is also a thorny issue. In basic terms, we need to know more about the spectrum of intelligence behind the AI thought process and understand more about how it formulates the decisions it makes for us. Explainable AI Apprehensions in the AI space have given rise to discussions around so-called Explainable AI (XAI). Also sometimes called Interpretable AI (IAI) or Transparent AI (TAI) and often twinned with the concept of FAT AI, that is AI with FAT (Fairness, Accountability and Transparency) Explainable AI refers to techniques in Artificial Intelligence where the decisions it makes can be trusted and easily understood by humans. As Forbes contributor Tom Davenport has noted, If we use AI in a regulated industry, we had better be able to explain how the machine predicted a fraud or criminal suspect, a bad credit risk, or a good candidate for drug trials. At the other end of the spectrum -- and contrasting fairly directly with Explainable bias-free ethically-aware AI -- we find cheating AI. Good AI is intelligence that works things out by observing data values and then uses an algorithm to calculate the answer to the problem it has been tasked to solve and so create new knowledge. Naughty cheating AI still has data ingesting capabilities and runs on algorithms, but it employs cheating strategies to shortcut or generalize the results it produces. Head of the Machine Learning group at Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) in Berlin, Germany is Dr. Wojciech Samek. Explaining that his department has identified various different types of AI strategies, including cheating, Dr. Samek explains that his organization has worked with Technische Universitt Berlin (TU Berlin) and Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) to try and provide a glimpse into the diverse intelligence spectrum observed in current AI systems. [To understand cheating AI, consider the example of] the AI system which won the PASCAL VOC image classification challenge, which was detecting boats only by the presence of water, airplanes only by the presence of blue sky and horses by the presence of a specific but common copyright tag, which was present in many horse images, said Dr. Samek. Furthermore, AI which was trained to play the Atari Game Pinball was not using the flippers to do so (like a human would do), but was controlling the ball by nudging the table. Layer-wise Relevance Propagation (LRP) is a technology developed by TU Berlin and the Fraunhofer HHI, which enables AI visualizing (i.e. the computer being able to look at an image) on the basis of specific criteria AI systems use when making decisions. Spectral Relevance Analysis (SpRAy), an extension of LRP technology, identifies and quantifies a wide spectrum of learned decision-making behavior. This also makes it possible to identify undesired decision making, even in very large datasets. "What we refer to as Explainable AI is one of the most important steps towards a practical application and dissemination of AI," said Dr. Klaus-Robert Mller, professor of machine learning at TU Berlin. "We need to ensure that no AI algorithms with suspect problem-solving strategies or algorithms which employ cheating strategies are used, especially in such areas as medical diagnosis or safety-critical systems." Training data & troubleshooting Director of strategic architecture at AI operations (AIOps) company Moogsoft Dominic Wellington reminds us that what we might term AI cheating is no more than the AI finding different patterns from the ones we expected it to find. He suggests that this is not necessarily a negative factor, just one that we need to be aware of. The example of an image classifier that learned that horse images tended to include copyright notices and seized on this easily-recognizable feature is telling us about a problem with its training data. In other situations, this ability to spot unexpected patterns could actually be helpful, avoiding preconceptions that humans might have about the expected behavior of a system. Explainable AI is also a term that requires some unpacking. By definition, AI systems are not going to be explainable in the sense of being able to show a decision tree for every single output -- but equally, those outputs should be capable of being compared to known good outputs as defined by human users of a system. If the horse-classifier is consistently failing to identify horses, its human operators that need to be able to troubleshoot it -- if not in the specific, certainly in the aggregate, said Moogsofts Wellington. Ultimately this whole discussion comes back to the processes that the AI systems are part of. These systems must be designed to allow for human appeal and oversight, not treated as 'infallible oracles' of any kind. Moogsofts Wellington insists that AI misclassifications are actually opportunities to refine and improve the system -- but he says, in order to take advantage of those opportunities, there must be a mechanism in place to flag the issues in the first place -- and some of those ingenious shortcuts might look superficially like cheating. AI understands Humans have been worried about the possibility of computers taking over the planet for as long as weve had machine brains as part of our lives. While the rise of the robots is probably not quite around the next corner, we do have a responsibility to look inside the machine brains we are currently building as we assess the spectrum of intelligence being engineered. Unless we engineer AI brains not to, then they will operate with the potential ability to cheat, or to learn how to cheat. Even then, as suggested above, some cheats may develop. So the lesson here is that AI cheats shouldnt and wont outsmart us, but only if we are aware that those shortcutting exercises exist in the first place so that we can use them as points of learning to build better AI systems in the future. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/adrianbridgwater/2019/03/22/will-ai-cheats-outsmart-us/ |
Are bots gaming the 'Cancel Brexit' petition? | Image copyright Getty Images Questions have been asked about whether a government petition calling for Brexit to be cancelled has been swamped by bots. Bots are automated programmes which can carry out a command thousands of times. The BBC spoke to three cyber-security experts about how likely it is that a number of the 3m signatures gathered so far are not genuine. They all agreed that the petition's email validation process would be a deterrent. Each signature requires a unique email address to which a verification link is sent before the vote can be accepted. UK-based voters must also share a valid postcode. While email addresses are easy enough to set up, doing that in real time at high volume is less straightforward. Additionally, while it is possible to buy lists of email addresses stolen in various data breaches on the black market, the owner of the list would still need to access those email accounts and retrieve the validation email before being able to vote in the name of somebody else. The email verification would be likely to deter bots said Lisa Forte, partner at the cyber-security firm Red-Goat. "Any significant political decision such as this petition is highly likely to attract bots," she told the BBC. "This particular petition is now employing email verification before signing, meaning it is much harder and therefore much less likely bots are being employed." 'A bit of a pain' Cyber-security expert Kevin Beaumont said that while it was possible that bots were involved, it would be "a bit of a pain" to build a sophisticated enough programme to cope with the email addresses. "They would have to make a bot that signs up with unique email addresses, then clicks the unique link to sign," he said. The House of Commons declined to comment on its security checks but it did say the Government Digital Service uses "a number of techniques" to identify potentially fraudulent votes and bot activity. It is not possible to use the same email address more than once to cast a vote. "I'm not sure the system itself is that sophisticated - it fell over as soon as people started voting in large numbers," said Prof Alan Woodward from Surrey University. The UK government's petition platform has crashed several times under the weight of traffic in recent days. The petition launched on 20 February, but has now gone viral. I wouldn't be at all surprised," he added. "It's a petition, it's not a vote - it's not meant to be as secure as an e-voting system." Skip Twitter post by @HoCpetitions A lot of people have been asking about numbers. Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have been simultaneously viewing the petition to revoke article 50. Nearly 2,000 signatures are being completed every minute. Petitions Committee (@HoCpetitions) March 21, 2019 Report According to the rules of the site, anyone can submit a petition. If it gets 10,000 signatures it will receive a government response, and if it gets 100,000 it will be debated in parliament. Beyond that, the numbers don't make a difference, he pointed out. Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage suggested that "Russian collusion" was behind the unprecedented traffic towards the Brexit petition. While Russia is notorious for seeking to meddle in the politics of the west, on this occasion there is a question mark over what its intentions would be, added Prof Woodward. "All the evidence is that Russia was supporting the Leave campaign," he said. "So why would they suddenly be supporting Remain?" While the petition data reveals that signatures are coming in from all over the world - including small numbers from Russia, China, Iran and one from North Korea where it is unlikely the page can be seen - the UK government said that any British resident or citizen can vote, wherever they are. It is however not difficult to disguise or hide a location on the web. In 2016, an earlier petition calling for a second EU Referendum attracted 3.6m votes, but was hijacked by bots. On a message forum, someone who claimed to have taken part said they had voted 33,000 times. In January 2017 a petition calling for the end of "mass signings by bots" was rejected by the Petitions Committee on the grounds that it was unclear what was expected of the government. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47668946 |
Could California reclassify janitors, truck drivers, construction workers as employees? | As California wrestles with determining whos a gig worker and whos an employee, with big implications for benefits and taxes, researchers at UC Berkeley have delved into three industries with a high share of workers classified as independent contractors: trucking, construction and janitorial services. A new report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center examines demographics and wages, as well as employers classification practices, with an eye to the impact that changing workers status might have. Independent contractors the status most gig workers have dont get benefits and must pay their own employment taxes, among other differences. These industries that are some of the worst offenders in California (for misclassification) have a disproportionate share of workers of color, immigrants and low-wage workers, said Sarah Thomason, a research and policy associate at the Labor Center who co-authored the report. These workers are in vulnerable positions and being exploited. Contracted janitors, for instance, make a median hourly wage of $12.22, and are 80.9 percent Latino and 3.7 percent black. Almost half live in households defined as low income (below 200 percent of the federal poverty line). The report estimated that 19 percent of California janitors are independent contractors, without suggesting how many are misclassified. Among truck drivers, the median hourly wage was higher at $19.70 but drivers have high expenses, with many having to purchase a truck and pay for fuel, insurance, maintenance and repair. About 60 percent were Latino and 6 percent were black. About a fifth live in low-income households. The report quoted a National Employment Law Project report that about four-fifths of drivers at ports are classified as independent contractors, with the majority misclassified. For construction workers, median hourly pay is $14.98 with 73.2 percent being Latino and 2.3 percent black. About 40 percent live in low-income households. Many gig workers, whether in new occupations such as ride-hail driver, or traditional ones such as janitor or truck driver, could soon become employees in California after a groundbreaking state Supreme Court ruling last year. The Dynamex case implemented a simple criteria called the ABC test under which someone is an employee if a company controls what they do; if their work is linked to a companys primary business; and if they do not have an independent business performing that work. Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is sponsoring a labor-backed bill that would codify that test. But numerous companies have lined up against it, saying it would undermine the flexibility that both they and gig workers value. A separate case based on different criteria was decided in the U.S. Supreme Court this week. The high court declined to hear an appeal by the California Trucking Association, leaving intact a decision that could result in widespread reclassification of state truck drivers as employees. If the ABC criteria becomes more widely applied, definitely misclassification would not happen as frequently, Thomason said. Gig workers lack a whole list of protections afforded employees, including minimum wage, overtime, paid breaks, family and medical leave, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and workers compensation. Those costs would add about 41 percent on top of the cost of wages, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics studies. Carolyn Said is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @csaid | https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Could-California-reclassify-janitors-truck-13707733.php |
Where have all the Cleveland Indians gone from this winters wheeling and dealing? | GOODYEAR, Ariz. Spring training is almost over, which means its a good time to look at the Indians players who left the organization through free agency or trades over the off-season. It will just take a couple of minutes to check in on some old friends. First lets catch up with the departed free agents. The Indians watched 11 players dive into the free-agent pool after Boston won the World Series and only one of them returned Oliver Perez. Heres an update on where the other 10 landed and how theyre doing as spring training enters its final days. *Michael Brantley signed a two-year $32 million deal with Houston. Hes hitting .313 (10-for-32) with four RBI in 13 games this spring for the Astros. Brantley is scheduled to start in left field and bat cleanup behind George Springer, Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman this year. Carlos Correa will hit behind Brantley in the fifth spot. *Josh Donaldson signed a one-year $23 million deal with the Braves to be their regular third baseman. He spent the last month of last season with the Tribe, but was still recovering from calf and shoulder injuries. Donaldson is hitting .167 (2-for-12) with one homer and three RBI in six games this spring. He is said to be healthy. *Cody Allen signed a one-year deal worth $8.5 million with the Angels. Hes going to be their closer this year. In seven games this spring, he has a 3.38 ERA with 10 strikeouts, four walks and three earned runs. Allen has allowed two homers in eight innings and the opposition is hitting .226 against him. The Plain Dealer Lefty Andrew Miller signed a two-year $25 million deal with St. Louis during the winter. *Andrew Miller signed a two-year $25 million deal with the Cardinals. Hell fill the same role he did with the Indians part-time closer, setup man and full-time trouble shooter. Hes 0-1 with an 11.81 ERA in seven appearances this spring. Miller has allowed seven earned runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. Hes struck out eight and walked five. The opposition is hitting .250 against him. *Lonnie Chisenhall signed a one-year deal with the Pirates worth $2.5 million. Chisenhall has had a quiet camp. Hes hitting .200 (5-for-25) in 11 games with no homers or RBI. Hes expected to start in right field until Gregory Polanco returns from shoulder surgery in May. Chisenhalls last two seasons with the Indians were ruined by calf injuries. He had some calf tightness early in camp with the Pirates, but appears to be healthy now. *Melky Cabrera signed a minor league deal with the Pirates. Hes hitting .310 (13-for-42) with three doubles and two RBI in 15 games. Hes pushing Chisenhall to be the starting right fielder. If not, hes expected to make the club as a pinch-hitter. *Josh Tomlin signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee. He opted out of his contract with the Brewers on Wednesday and signed a minor league deal with Atlanta on Thursday. He reportedly has a chance to make the big-league roster as a long man. Tomlin made five appearances with the Brewers, including three starts. He went 2-1 with a 4.80 ERA. He struck out nine, walked two and allowed eight earned runs in 15 innings. *Rajai Davis signed a minor league deal with the Mets. Hes hitting .310 (9-for-29) with one homer and six RBI in 13 games. Hes posted a .905 OPS with 10 strikeouts. The odds do not favor him making the big-league club. *Brandon Guyer signed a minor league deal with the White Sox. He was hurt early in camp, but has been playing lately. Hes hitting .217 (5-for-23) with one homer and three RBI. His chances of making Chicagos big-league club do not look good. *Adam Rosales signed a minor league deal with the Twins. Hes put up good numbers this spring, hitting .294 (10-for-34) with three doubles, four homers and nine RBI in 15 games. But it does not appear hell make the big-league club. On the trade front the Indians made five significant moves during the off-season. Hes a quick look at how those departed players are doing. The Plain Dealer Former Indians utility infielder Erik Gonzalez has been named the Pirates' opening day shortstop for the 2019 season. *Erik Gonzalez was traded to Pittsburgh on Nov. 14 in a five-player deal. On Monday the Pirates named him their opening day shortstop. He had been the Indians utility infielder. Gonzalez is hitting .229 (8-for-35) with two doubles, one homer and three RBI in 14 games this spring. *Yandy Diaz was traded to Tampa Bay on Dec. 13 for Jake Bauers. Hell platoon at first base for the Rays and see time at third and DH. Diaz is hitting .308 (12-for-39) with two homers and nine RBI in 16 games. He has a .926 OPS. *Edwin Encarnacion was traded to Seattle for Carlos Santana on Dec. 13. Encarnacion will play first base two to three times a week and DH the rest of the time. The rebuilding Mariners are reportedly still be looking to trade him. Encarnacion is hitting .129 (4-for-31) with one RBI and 11 strikeouts. Hes played in 11 games. *Yonder Alonso was traded to the White Sox on Dec. 14 for Alex Call. Alonso has had a big spring power wise. Hes hitting .208 (10-for-48) with two doubles, five homers and 13 RBI in 17 games. Alonso will share first base and DH with Jose Abreu during the regular season. *Catcher Yan Gomes was traded to Washington on Nov. 30 for Daniel Johnson, Jefry Rodriguez and Andruw Monasterio. Gomes is putting the finishing touches on a big spring with his new team. Hes hitting .419 (13-for-31) with four homers and seven RBI. Hes posted a 1.293 OPS in 13 games. The Nationals excellent starting rotation has been complimentary of Gomes ability behind the plate. Hes expected to share playing time with Kurt Suzuki, who is also in his first year with the Nationals. Its still not clear how manager Dave Martinez will split the playing time between Gomes and Suzuki. Get Tribe Insider texts in your phone from Paul Hoynes: Cut through the clutter of social media and communicate directly with the award-winning Indians reporter, just like you would with your friends. Its just $3.99 a month, which works out to about 13 cents a day. Learn more and sign up here. | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/where-have-all-the-cleveland-indians-gone-from-this-winters-wheeling-and-dealing.html |
Does Anyone Agree With France Football That Jrgen Klopp Is The 27th Best Manager Of All-Time? | Getty Anytime you try and produce a top list of any kind, you are going to generate heated discussion. France Football has done just that after publishing what it claims to be the top 50 soccer managers of all-time. To start with, a list is only as good as the criteria that guide the selection committee. France Football offered up the following - trophies won, influence on the game, personality and influence managers who followed. Here is the list that France Football dropped on the world of soccer. France Footballs greatest managers of all time. pic.twitter.com/AnALsamvZS football.london (@Football_LDN) March 19, 2019 #41 Mircea Lucescu, #42 Tomislav Ivic, #43 Stefan Kovacs, #44 Luis Aragones, #45 Frank Rijkaard, #46 Otto Rehhagel, #47 Raymond Goethals, #48 Marcelo Bielsa, #49 Antonio Conte, #50 Jean-Claude Suaudeau. The first thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is the eras. There is only one manager who exclusively managed in the pre-WW2 era and that's Arsenal and Huddersfields Herbert Chapman ranked 24. Eras are difficult to compare and France Football tore off a big chunk trying to make it an all-time list. Perhaps post WW2 might have been a better starting point, but there again Best 50 All-Time Managers After 1945 hardly rolls off the tongue. There is no place for Italys World Cup winning manager in 1934 and 1938, Vittorio Pozzo. If influence is what you are looking for, then surely Jimmy Hogan should be on that list. Hogan was largely ignored in the UK, but he influenced generations of coaches in the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Hungary, and throughout Eastern Europe. The next issue is the underrepresentation of South American coaches in the top 50. There is Argentine-born Helenio Herrera at #7, I have no problem with the selection although the ranking might be generous. There is also the great Brazilian manager Tele Santana at #34 and current Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa at #48. Santana not only delivered two great Brazilian teams to the World Cups of 1982 and 1986 but he also won back-to-back Copa Libertadores trophies and World Club Cups beating Barcelona and AC Milan. In Bielsas favor is his tactical influence, on the downside, his teams have always promised lots but rarely if ever, have they delivered. I dont believe he is worthy of a top 100 spot, let alone top 50. Here are five France Football blindspots - Csar Luis Menotti and Carlos Bianchi from Argentina, and three Brazilians, Carlos Alberto Parreira, Mario Zagallo and Luiz Felipe Scolari. Uruguayan manager Oscar Tabrez might even be worth a shout. Getty Up next are the managers in the top 50 who are there under false pretenses. Topping that list is Jrgen Klopp an absolute criminal pick at #27. Others that Im not buying are Diego Simone (#31), Rafa Benitez (#37), Antonio Conte (#45), and Frank Rijkaard (#49). My next beef is managers that may be worth a top 50 spot but who have been ranked far too high. The first would be Sir Alex Ferguson at #2. Certainly a top 5 pick, but not, in my opinion, #2. Arrigo Sacchi (#3) shouldnt have reached anything close to such lofty heights. Others who have been overvalued in my opinion are Carlo Ancelotti (#8), Miguel Muoz (14), Louis van Gaal (#18), Ottmar Hitzfeld (#19), Guus Hiddink (#29) and Arsene Wenger (#32). Time may be more kind to van Gaal, Hitzfeld, and Hiddink but at the moment they strike me as top-of-mind selections rather than picks that will stand the test of time. If there is no Matt Busby, there is no Manchester United as we know it. Brian Clough (#15) is a top tenner for sure for his incredible achievement of two European Cups at Nottingham Forest as well as English League Championships at Forest and Derby County. Bob Paisley, the first manager to win the European Cup 3 times with the same club and all within 5 seasons, gets picked 26th absolutely ridiculous. Vicente del Bosque deserves a much higher position than #33. However, the biggest injustice is Jock Stein at #34. Steins Celtic team dominated Scottish football - and got the better of England's best - at a time when it meant something. Celtic was the first team from Northern Europe to win the European Cup and every player was born within 30 miles of Parkhead. Whats more, it was Steins ethos of entertaining the fans with attacking football that put paid to the stifling, but to that point successful, defensive tactics of Helenio Herrera and his ilk that had threatened to strangle the game. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbymcmahon/2019/03/22/does-anyone-agree-with-france-football-that-jurgen-klopp-is-the-27th-best-manager-of-all-time/ |
Can Seattles 5th Avenue Theatre score another hit with Broadway-bound new musical Marie, Dancing Still? | In 2002, Seattles 5th Avenue Theatre scored its first Broadway hit by launching Hairspray, a zesty, warmhearted musical romp that snapped up eight Tony Awards. Marie, Dancing Still is a much-anticipated, also Broadway-bound new show debuting this month at the 5th Avenue, which has a new artistic director eager to make his mark with his first pre-Broadway pick. The creative forces behind this dance-rich period piece are well-established movers and shakers in musical theater: Susan Stroman, a five-time Tony Award-honored Broadway director-choreographer, whose credits include the blockbuster musical The Producers; and writer-lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty, collaborators whose output includes the perennially popular tuners Ragtime and Once on This Island. Ballet fans should also take note that the title character in Marie, Dancing Still about the young ballerina immortalized in a famous Edgar Degas sculpture is played by a real-life ballerina, touted New York City principal dancer Tiler Peck. All are installed in Seattle currently, revising and polishing their show at a theater nationally respected for nurturing big-deal new musicals. Wed love for the theater to continue to be a pipeline to Broadway, said Bill Berry, the new producing artistic director of the 5th Avenue. Though he was careful to add: The Broadway landscape is changing and shifting in some ways that may make it less advantageous for New York producers to choose Seattle as a launching pad. Advertising Berry should know. He spent 17 years as the 5th Avenues associate artistic director before succeeding David Armstrong (his husband and longtime creative partner) in the post of producing artistic director. Over his and Armstrongs tenure, the ornate downtown showplace and former movie palace has nurtured and unveiled 20 new musicals. Nine have made it to Broadway, and three (Hairspray, Memphis and Aladdin) became crowd-pleasing hits. (Disneys Aladdin is still playing to near-capacity on the Great White Way, five years into its run.) A few others (Shrek the Musical, The Wedding Singer) had modest Broadway runs, but spun off national tours and regional productions. If the percentage of success seems underwhelming, it is plenty impressive to theater people. They know the myriad obstacles to propelling a fresh musical to high-stakes Broadway and the dismal odds of hatching a hit. Anita Waxman, the seasoned Broadway hand who is a lead producer on Marie, Dancing Still, has backed both hits (the recent revival of Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler) and flops (Escape to Margaritaville ). And she considers the 5th Avenues Seattle-to-Broadway track record massive. Still, according to Berry, the rising costs of jetting in and housing a large New York-based company (more than 60 people, for Marie) for weeks may deter some producers of new musicals from a Seattle tryout. And another showplace much closer to Manhattan, New Jerseys Paper Mill Playhouse, has recently become a stiff competitor for shows en route to Broadway. Advertising Another concern: how the internet has figuratively erased the 2,800-mile distance between New York City and Seattle. This used to be a safe, private space for developing a big show, said Berry. Now patron and critic reviews, photos, even (unauthorized) videos of pre-Broadway performances are swiftly posted online these days resulting in either positive East Coast buzz, or buzzkill. But that has not dissuaded Waxman, who took on Marie, Dancing Still after its mixed but encouraging reviews for the premiere (under the initial title The Little Dancer) in a limited 2014 run at Washington, D.C.s Kennedy Center. Set in the heady ballet and art world of late 19th-century Paris, it offers an imagined dramatic account of a plucky young ballerina with the Paris Opera who becomes the model for the well-known sculpture Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, by artist and ballet-lover Degas. At the Kennedy Center, I thought it was a beautiful show, Waxman said, and unlike anything Id seen before. Reviewers suggested it needed some revamping. Washington Post critic Peter Marks, for instance, found fault with the plotting and characters in Little Dancer, writing, It feels as if [the musical] has only scratched the surface of possibility of its story. Waxman and the creators agreed that more work on the show, away from the bright lights of Times Square, was essential. And extra costs and risks notwithstanding, Bill Berry was the first person I called, Waxman recounted. I said to him, do I have a deal for you. As a backer of Bombay Dreams, a Bollywood-style musical that visited the 5th Avenue on tour over a decade ago, Waxman was introduced to this big, beautiful theater, with an incredible support system. The board of directors, Bill and [managing director] Bernie [Bernadine Griffin] have all been so helpful. Now its kind of like home in a funny sort of way. It just feels safe not from critics or the internet, but safe for something we can develop and move along to Broadway. It has taken five years for Marie, Dancing Still to ripen, and in that time Waxman says the musical has changed a lot. Its now truly a story about Degas, and the inspiration from Marie, and you see a kind of father-daughter relationship that develops between them. But more importantly you see the lives of people who are artists through and through, and what they give up when they lose their ability to do what they love to do. Berry quickly took a chance on the work. Waxman just had to say Stroman, Flaherty and Ahrens, and I said, Of course! I also believe its a very touching story, a very human story, about what we leave behind to others when we leave this world. Berry flew to New York to see a workshop of the revised version, and gave notes to the creative team about a few things I was confused by, or I thought could be better. Its a collaboration. He continues to weigh in as the show progresses. We dont just say to producers, Come and rent the 5th Avenue. We want to be part of the process. Its our responsibility to be sure our 20,000 season subscribers and our single-ticket buyers get the best show possible. One thing his theater is not responsible for is raising the entire production budget, which includes payroll for a cast of more than 20 and fees to designers, musicians and other personnel. The total tab adds up to roughly $12 million to $14 million for the Broadway mounting. And most of it is coming from commercial investors, including Waxman. Advertising But the 5th Avenue isnt getting by dirt cheap, either. Of the $6.5 million targeted for just the Seattle engagement, the theaters share is about $3 million. Thats still considerably more expensive than the production costs of every other show in the 2018-19 season. Obviously, the potential for bragging rights. Every regional theater wants to be associated with a box-office smash in New York which it can later publicize and use as subscriber and fundraising bait. Also, if a musical is a crowd-pleaser in New York, on tour and via royalties (generated by later professional and amateur productions), the 5th Avenue will get a slice of that. The percentage varies from show to show, based on numerous factors. The Kennedy Center (which commissioned the piece) will get a very small sliver of any profits, said Waxman. The 5th Avenue would accrue more that is, if its expected New York run can pay back the backers, turn a profit (the vast majority of Broadway offerings dont), and hit the road on an extensive national tour. The 5th Avenue has already raked in more than $1 million from its small piece of the Hairspray pie. But whatever the ultimate fate of Marie, Dancing Still, Berry plans to continue his theaters role in incubating musicals, if and when promising ventures come along. The recently announced 2019-20 season features two new shows with Broadway aspirations: Austens Pride (a musical version of Jane Austens Pride and Prejudice), and a revamp of Stu for Silverton, a musical tale of social tolerance, which Intiman Theatre debuted here on a much smaller scale in 2013. (Former Intiman artistic head Andrew Russell will again direct.) But Marie, Dancing Still is special for Berry: I feel personally a lot is riding on it because its the first show Ive said yes to here. He added with a laugh, Actually, I feel a mixture of things pride, responsibility. And fear. _____ Marie, Dancing Still, book and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty, directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman. March 22-April 14; The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Ave., Seattle; $29-$155 (prices subject to change); 206-625-1900, 5thavenue.org | https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/theater/can-seattles-5th-avenue-theatre-score-another-hit-with-broadway-bound-new-musical-marie-dancing-still/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_seattle-news |
What is anti-poverty campaigner Sir Bob Geldolf doing in New Zealand? | Anti-poverty campaigner Sir Bob Geldolf has touched down in New Zealand to preach an "embrace technology" message to clients from one of the world's biggest accounting firms. Last night, the I Don't Like Mondays singer spoke for over an hour to a select group of 50 clients from Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young (EY) at their Takutai Square offices in Auckland's CBD. The central theme of Sir Bob's speech was for the world's powerful elites, the "one percenters", to "not fear technological disruption and change" by offering historical examples such as the steam engine that "augmented" our strength and power. New Zealand managing partner of EY, Joanne Ogg, said "An Evening with Sir Bob Geldof" spanned a broad range of topics, but focused on change being "unknowable" and "constant". Advertisement "Bob has an incredible ability to talk about the past, talk about history and what that means for the future, and talk about the current world situation in line with what that means for all of us as individuals and leaders," Ogg said. "Having heard him in November last year and last night, he's just on the pace completely with world events. He talked a lot about Christchurch and the impact on our country. "He talked about different world leaders and where different countries are at, he talked about technology and the impact and rate of change we're seeing. "He talked about artificial intelligence and how that could go so far. I recall he quoted the 'machines can't dream' message". In a event description for one of Sir Bob similar speaking engagements for EY in the UK, the accounting firm admits: "Putting a fearlessly mouthy Irish rock star on stage in front of EY's partners and clients to challenge our thinking was a risk." "But with the growing trust deficit between organisations and citizens driving a worrisome nationalistic and interventionist approach by governments; the rate of innovation required to keep up with technological change; and new pressure and demands from consumers and employees; it was a risk worth taking," the EY release said. Another report from a member of last night's Auckland audience was that Sir Bob intended to travel to South Korea in the near future, and potentially venture into Kim Jong Un's rogue state north of them. "Never before has the world felt more fractious and fearful. Never before have we needed to be more bold." We were honoured to be joined by Sir Bob Geldof tonight where he shared powerful insights about the state of the world and the need to embrace change rather than fear it. pic.twitter.com/5WbcTp5whX EY New Zealand (@EY_NewZealand) March 21, 2019 EY's Joanne Ogg said Sir Bob brought his own experience pioneering one of the largest televised events in history, 1985's Live Aid, to inform his current message of embracing new technology. "He talked about Live Aid and how that came to light, and what he was trying to do, and the fact that he probably couldn't do that now because there would be too much of a barrier now. It would be too hard," Ogg said. "Yet in the late 80s he could manage to technologically bring the nine cities together into one. "He completely mesmerised around 50 of us, and took us on a journey of his mind really. It's very hard to do it justice because it's just so profoundly interesting and he just made us all reflect." Geldolf's Live Aid benefit concerts in 1985 were held across nine countries, and watched by an estimated TV audience of 1.9 billion people. They reportedly raised NZ$184 million for poverty in Africa. EY New Zealand posted on Twitter last night, describing it an honour to host Sir Bob, quoting a line from his speech: "Never before has the world felt more fractious and fearful. Never before have we needed to be more bold". Sir Bob Geldolf at a speaking engagement at Big Four accounting firm EY in Auckland. Aside from the EY speaking engagement, it is not clear what else Sir Bob is doing in New Zealand. Last weekend, he attended the Melbourne Grand Prix in Melbourne. Sir Bob himself has a estimated net worth of NZ$218m. In February 2019, Geldof was confronted with fresh claims of tax avoidance and fraud that relate to the funding of his 2011 solo album How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell. The Sunday Times published claims that Geldof had "misrepresented" the funding of that record and provided invoices that were "five times more costs than were needed". | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=12215429&ref=rss |
Can the Oregon Ducks continue to redefine their season in the NCAA Tournament? | SAN JOSE, Calf. Paul White and Payton Pritchard have been in the Big Dance before, just not via a such an arduous path. The Oregon redshirt-senior forward and junior point guard were each fortunate enough to be on teams that secured at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament when they were freshmen, which for White, came while he was at Georgetown. This years journey was far less certain. In fact, it was all but completely dismissed as even a possibility as far back as three months ago, when Bol Bol suffered a season-ending foot injury. The opening line epitaph for Oregons 2018-19 season was set. Kenny Wootens broken jaw, the late-game collapse to UCLA and again later to Washington, Whites sprained ankle, a horrific display at Colorado, season sweep by Oregon State and road sweep in Los Angeles were all to be further context for a season that was to be defined by what might have been. Then the calendar changed to March and the awesome power of the month that defines college basketballs changed everything. Eight straight wins, including four in four days to win the Pac-12 tournament, fueled by suffocating defense has redefined the season for Oregon (23-12), which takes on Wisconsin (23-10) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament this afternoon at the SAP Center (1:30 p.m. PT, TBS). Scouting the Wisconsin Badgers: 5 questions with a Wisconsin basketball writer Insight on the Badgers from Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal From the Final Four year (in 2017) to this year, this is two different teams but that year we knew we would be a top seed; this year we had to win to make the tournament Pritchard said. But for me personally, I think this year has been, its definitely something that Ill remember. Its very special to win four straight like that, make the tournament and the way this team came together and fought, its special. Were ready to make something happen. White described his freshman year at Georgetown in 2014-15, when the Hoyas were a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, eventually losing in the second round to Utah, as being a fly on the wall. But aside from Pritchards resurgence over the last three weeks there has been no player more responsible for Oregons success this season than White, who is averaging a career-best 10.6 points and 3.9 rebounds. (Last) weekend, even the weeks leading up to this, really changed this whole narrative of this team of how people have embraced us, White said. People were counting us out three-four weeks ago. People werent even really worried about us. We were 6-8, thought we were another team that was going to be flapping in the breeze. Compared to that Georgetown team, I think Georgetown we were very determined, it was a much older team. This team we have a lot of young guys. Its a complete 180 if you ask me from my experience. Much as been made about how Oregon made such a dramatic shift so quickly to save its season. Freshman Francis Okoros improved play was a big factor, allowing Dana Altman play a larger lineup at times. Improved health and overall team chemistry were also factors. Everybody kind of gave themself to the team, Altman said. "NCAA Tournament is not an individualized sport, we either all go or no one goes. Those guys really wanted to go. So I think every one of them gave up a little bit of what they wanted to do for what the team needed them to do. And thats so important, the chemistry, thats so important. Guys believing in each other. And that unselfishness really helped us in the growth of our team. In the 39 years Ive been lucky enough to do this, Ive never seen a team make that drastic of a change in a three- or four-week period. The 6-foot-10 Happ leads the Badgers in nearly every statistic, including scoring (17.5 points), rebounding (10.1) and assists (4.6). The 2018-19 Ducks will forever be known for their late-season surge and Pac-12 tournament title. Whether they add more distinctions, such as a Sweet 16 and beyond, is up to them starting this afternoon. Thats the power of March. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/03/can-the-oregon-ducks-continue-to-redefine-their-season-in-the-ncaa-tournament.html |
Is Shake Shack coming to New Orleans? | Shake Shack, the hamburger chain from well-regarded New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, has already announced that it will open restaurants locally in Metairie and the new airport terminal. Now it looks like Shake Shack is eyeing a third, flagship location in New Orleans at the Shops at Canal Place mall. A request was made to the city to let a potential Shake Shack at Canal Place operate as a standard restaurant, which would allow it to sell alcohol. Fast food restaurants in New Orleans are prohibited from selling alcohol. A representative from Shake Shack refused to confirm that a location was planned for New Orleans. We have no concrete plans to share at this time, said the spokeswoman. The news of a possible Shake Shack in New Orleans was first reported by the food website Eater. Meyer, known for his New York fine-dining restaurants like Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern and The Modern, opened the first Shake Shack in 2001 as a summer pop-up at Madison Square Park. He applied his fine dining approach to burgers, french fries and milkshakes. Shake Shack is now a publicly traded company with more than 100 locations around the world. Shake Shack told investors that it plans to open 30 to 40 new locations in 2019, according to Investors Business Daily. It is also pushing delivery, automated kiosk ordering and its new chicken nuggets to increase revenue. Check back to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune for updates. | https://www.nola.com/eat-drink/2019/03/is-shake-shack-coming-to-new-orleans.html |
Should the U.S. ban assault rifles? | by Cait Bladt Mere days after a white nationalist murdered 50 people in two mosques in New Zealand, the countrys prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles. Mirroring a similar ban in Australia that went into effect in the 90s, New Zealand is instating a buy-back program. Many activists and politicians think the U.S. should take a page from New Zealands book. Others say gun ownership is a right in the U.S. and that should not change. New Zealand had a strong culture of gun ownership and use. According to NPR, there are 1.2 million guns registered in the countryroughly one for every four people. But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took swift action after the shooting in Christchurch and enjoyed roundly bipartisan support in her effort to change the laws. Per Refinery29: "I strongly believe that the vast majority of legitimate gun owners in New Zealand will understand that these moves are in the national interest, and will take these changes in their stride," Ardern said on Thursday. "What we're banning today are the things that were used in last Fridays attack." ...Gun reform advocates praised Ardern's leadership. "It is heartening to see Jacinda Ardern's incredible leadership and how quickly her administration is acting in the wake of this horrific mass shooting," Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, the grassroots arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, told Refinery29 earlier this week. "We've had at least 200 mass shootings in America since 2009...and yet our leaders have done very little." The plan in New Zealand mirrors similar reform in Australia, which allows individuals to request exemptions. Per Vox: The plan seems similar to what Australia did in response to a mass shooting in 1996 changes that have been linked to fewer gun deaths in the subsequent years. When Australia undertook similar reforms, their approach was to allow for exemptions for farmers upon application, including for pest control and animal welfare, Ardern said. We have taken similar action to identify the weapons legitimately required in those areas, and preclude them. American politicians, including presidential candidate Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, praised Arderns actions and called for similar reforms in the U.S. This is what real action to stop gun violence looks like. We must follow New Zealand's lead, take on the NRA and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States. https://t.co/lSAisDG9Ur Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 21, 2019 Not everyone in New Zealand supported the reforms. NPR talked to several gun owners in the country who were concerned about the lack of protections for gun owners in the countrys laws. ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: ...[Gun owner Thomas] Jones says gun ownership isn't enshrined into New Zealand's constitution like it is in the U.S. And gun enthusiasts like him don't have an organization like the NRA to represent them. That's left him and his friends feeling vulnerable after Friday's attack. THOMAS JONES: And it's really disappointing to have the government throw on us what one person did and punish 250,000 gun owners at least just because of what one man's done. SCHMITZ: A quarter-million new Zealanders would have to give up their semi-automatic guns if the government bans them. For Jones, that would mean giving up four of his 12 guns. He says he uses these semi-automatic guns as part of his livelihood. He owns a hunting business. Conservative political pundits decried the action in New Zealand and emphasized that American gun owners are protected by the Constitution. First, define assault weapon. Words are important and certain laws come into play depending on which words are used, so define this. Secondly, the US isnt NZ. While they do not have an inalienable right to bear arms and to self defense, we do. https://t.co/E3M7Qh1fbV Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 21, 2019 The Washington Post reported that making similar changes in the United States would be far more difficult, given the power of the gun lobby and precedent set by the Supreme Court. Ardern is also less likely to face challenges from the courts than politicians would in the United States, where the Supreme Court has interpreted the Second Amendment as giving people the right to own guns. Those legal hurdles have been exacerbated by a gun lobby that has conveyed a perception that tighter laws are by definition a violation of the Second Amendment. The gun lobby has been very influential in convincing people the [Second Amendment prohibits any] form of gun control, which affects the politics over even modest measures, Webster said. As a result, the United States is likely to remain an outlier on gun reform. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/03/should-the-us-ban-assault-rifles.html |
Will grounding Boeings 737 Max 8 affect Clevelands resuming Icelandair flights? | CLEVELAND, Ohio Icelandair is scheduled to resume nonstop service between Cleveland Hopkins International Airport and Reykjavik, Iceland, in less than two months. There is a problem, however: The plane designated to fly the route, the Boeing 737 Max 8, has been grounded worldwide, leaving some travelers to wonder whether their flights to Europe this summer will go as scheduled. Bogi Nils Bogason, president and CEO of Icelandair, tried to put travelers at ease with a statement on the airlines website last week: In the short term, this decision will not have a material impact on the companys operations since it only affects three passenger aircraft of a total fleet of 33, which creates flexibility to respond in the coming weeks. But its looking increasingly like the Boeing planes, pulled from the skies after two devastating crashes in five months, wont be back in the air in the coming weeks. Its more likely to be months. Its not clear, although industry observers think that the carrier may be able to maintain its schedule, or at least most of it, through a series of short-term moves designed to minimize disruption. In response to several questions, U.S. spokesman for Icelandair Michael Raucheisen said: Right now we are OK, but we need to see how things progress and are resolved. A spokesperson for Cleveland Hopkins, Michele Dynia, declined to say whether the airport has been in touch with Icelandair since the grounding. We value the international service being provided by Icelandair, she said. We look forward to the commencement of service in May. The carrier is still booking tickets on the routes that use the Boeing 737 Max 8, including service between Cleveland and Reykjavik, which restarts on May 17. Air Canada, in contrast, announced this week that it had taken the Max 8 out of its schedule until at least July 1. The 737 Max 8 is a more efficient, longer version of the Boeing workhorse 737, capable of flying farther distances, including across the Atlantic Ocean. Icelandair flew a brand new Max 8 back and forth between Cleveland and Reykjavik last year. Two fatal crashes involving the plane, one in October in Indonesia on a Lion Air flight, the other an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed on March 10, led to the grounding of the aircraft across the globe. Investigators are looking at the possibility that both crashes were caused by a faulty sensor that triggered an automated anti-stall system, which ultimately caused the planes to nose dive. Boeing is working on updating both the planes software and pilot training program. The planes also will have to be recertified by the Federal Aviation Administration. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency, which covers Iceland, also has said it would need to certify the planes before theyre permitted to fly again in European airspace. Its hard to imagine the grounding not lasting months, said Seth Kaplan, the founding editor of Airline Weekly. He noted that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner was grounded for four months in 2013, because of problems with overheating lithium ion batteries problems that did not result in any fatalities. Looking at Icelandairs summer schedule, Kaplan said a relatively high percentage of flights more than 25 percent are scheduled on Boeing Max 8s or 9s. Both versions of the 737 are included in the grounding. Before the recent grounding, Icelandair was expected to take possession of an additional six Boeing Max planes (three 8s and three 9s) this summer, according to reports. Boeing has halted delivery of the Max jets during the grounding, but it is continuing to make the airplanes. Icelandair plans to use the planes on routes to several U.S. cities this summer, including Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and Washington, D.C. Despite the heavy use planned for the Max planes, Kaplan said he thinks Icelandair may be able to make do without the aircraft short-term, if necessary. The company could substitute other aircraft into the routes by delaying planned retirements of older planes or it could rent planes. The problem for Icelandair: Other carriers will also likely be scrambling for planes if the grounding continues into the summer, which is peak travel season for many airlines. It becomes more acute when youre talking about June, said Robert Mann, an airline industry consultant based in New York. Those flights are already booked. The longer it lasts, the worse it gets. Mann believes the Max problem can be fixed relatively easily with a software update. But politics has overtaken the engineering, he said. The involvement of numerous investigatory agencies the FBI, Department of Transportation and others, in the United States and abroad will likely lengthen the time the planes are out of commission. If the carrier must cancel flights, Kaplan guesses that Icelandair would be more likely to reduce frequency to a destination say, New York City, which has two nonstop flights scheduled on some days than canceling a route altogether. Cleveland was part of a major expansion last year by Icelandair, which added four new U.S. cities to its route list. Since then, the carrier has encountered some financial troubles, cutting two of those new cities Dallas and Baltimore leaving Cleveland and Kansas City. Both Cleveland and Kansas City are seasonal routes, flying only in the summer season (although Cleveland was initially planned as a year-round route). Icelandair flew the route five times per week last summer, but has reduced its frequency to four times per week in 2019, on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. Related: Cleveland Hopkins Icelandic airline experiment hits turbulence, as Wow pulls out, Icelandair cuts back | https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/03/will-grounding-boeings-737-max-8-affect-clevelands-resuming-icelandair-flights.html |
Where did the idea for Minneapolis skyways come from? | Its hard to imagine downtown Minneapolis without its skyways. They have become, after all, as distinctly Minnesotan as hockey and hot dish. It turns out the skyways were not a reaction to Minnesotas frigid climate. Some attribute the skyways to Leslie Park, a Minneapolis developer who proposed them to keep businesses downtown. General Mills left downtown in 1955 for Golden Valley, and the next year, Southdale Center opened in Edina. Southdale was the first climate-controlled, enclosed shopping center in the country, said Iric Nathanson, a local historian. Park felt that Southdale was going to suck all of the economic and financial energy out of downtown Minneapolis. When Parks company developed the Northstar Center in 1959, he designed an enclosed walkway to link the building with Northwestern Bank. The link was built in 1962. As new skyscrapers developed, many included skyways. [They] spread out like an octopus, Nathanson said. It turned out to be a big hit. This skyway question is a part of Curious Minnesota, our community-driven reporting project that invites Star Tribune readers into the newsroom. To get us rolling, were answering this question from a curious staff member. And heres a twist. During our research we learned of a competing skyway origin story. Before freeways circled Minneapolis, drivers from across the state were directed through downtown, leading to congested streets and dangerous crosswalks, said Jack Byers, a former Minneapolis city planner. [City planners] envisioned a system of second-story walkways that would take pedestrians up off the sidewalk so they were not having to cross through intersections where cars were turning, Byers said. Turn the city inside out The citys early skyway designs were not the enclosed walkways that exist today, but instead had open sides. Some downtown real estate owners supported the idea of second floor walkways as a way to rent out traditionally undesirable space in their buildings. Nobody really wanted the second floor because the second floor was the worst of all worlds in that you didnt have a view and you were also very close to street noise, Byers said. The citys second oldest skyway still stands today, linking the Northstar Center and Roanoke Building. Although still operational, its age shows, said Elizabeth Gales, a local architect. It is claustrophobic, she said about the skyway. They werent sure what they were doing and thats the way they [initially] envisioned the bridges. At first, skyway bridges only linked individual buildings. It wasnt until the construction of the IDS Center in 1972 that the individual skyways transformed into the sprawling system that exists today. IDS was designed with the skyways in mind, and soon became a hub, connecting to a skyway bridge on each side of the building. There was this idea to turn the city inside out so that the public space was on the interior rather than the exterior, Byers said. In the 1970s, Minneapolis was imagined as a tiered city with a bustling city center encircled by a ring of parking ramps. The idea was dont drive all the way into downtown. Drive to the edge of downtown and leave your car [there] and walk the rest of the distance, Byers said. If the weathers nice take the sidewalks; if the weathers crummy take the skyways. Skyway styles Minneapolis was one of the first North American cities to construct a full-fledged skyway system, Nathanson said, but St. Paul was not far behind in 1967. Since the Minneapolis skyways are managed by the buildings they link (and St. Pauls are public), the two cities approach the system differently. St. Paul skyways blend into the cityscape like furniture, Gales said, but Minneapolis owners give their bridges a unique flair. Your bridge should be a gateway entrance into your building and so the style and appearance of your bridge should enhance or work with whats going on with your building, Gales said. Stained glass decorates the skyway leading into the Wells Fargo Center, reflecting the buildings history and elaborate decorations and the skylights in bridges leading into the IDS Center, match the ceiling in Crystal Court. Heres some more skyway trivia to think about the next time youre strolling downtown: The citys first skyway was demolished in the 1980s during the construction of Norwest Center. The latest skyway addition came with construction of U.S. Bank Stadium a few years ago. In 2015, a Brainerd family purchased a 280,000-pound skyway bridge and converted it into a home. Whether you view the skyways as notoriously hard to navigate or a shield from the elements, they have become a permanent downtown fixture. Theyre very interesting things, Gales said, love them or hate them. Emma Dill is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune. --- If you'd like to submit a Curious Minnesota question, fill out the form below: | http://www.startribune.com/where-did-the-idea-for-minneapolis-skyways-come-from/506217261/ |
Can Social Retail Therapy Save the World's Brick-and-Mortar Marketplaces? | Jose Silva As the continuing decline of UK high streets promotes calls for government intervention, and the slow death of the American mall continues at pace, it seems brick-and-mortar shops cant catch a break. Indeed, research conducted by Altus Group predicts that 23,000 shops in Britain are set to close in 2019, affecting over 175,000 high-street jobs. This trend has been accelerating in recent years, as digital retail sales continue to rise at a double-digit pace, outstripping the single-digit growth of their in-store counterparts. So much of this change in consumer behaviour is often credited to better deals and greater convenience online, though retail experiences aren't and never have been just about the transaction itself. From the earliest bazaars in Persia to the sprawling post-war American mall, retail spaces have played a central role in the development of social and cultural life. As so much of our social life has been outsourced to technology, so too has our retail purchasing behaviour, with online reviews into the thousands on popular items replacing the sort of social discourse and pro-social behaviour that used to be the bread-and-butter of the marketplace. And yet, people are lonelier than ever. A 2016 study from Harvard labelled loneliness "an epidemic," and in 2018 the UK appointed its first Loneliness Minister, suggesting that alienation is on the rise as our social lives become less and less about in-person connections. A 2017 study in the Journal of Consumer Behaviour found that socially-excluded people estimated that they had more friends on Facebook than those who aren't socially excluded, suggesting that likes and views aren't always enough. That is not to say that digital connections aren't necessary or beneficial, but rather, that they are and were always meant to be an adjunct or accelerator of social interaction, not a replacement. So is it time for some social "retail therapy?" Often the brunt of jokes, the concept of retail therapy has been studied as a personal and emotional experience linked to our own hedonic impulses. But new research published this year suggests there may be more at play. Join the crowd: How social exclusion affects approach behaviour toward consumer-dense retail environments," co-authors Veronica L. Thomas and Christina Saenger discovered that people experiencing social exclusion (which constitutes roughly 1 in 5 of us) experience heightened social affiliation motivation, which makes them see crowds in retail spaces as positive, leading to greater purchase intentions. As loneliness is on the rise, re-inventing retail spaces as social spaces could help brick-and-mortar to harken back to its social bazaar ancestry. I spoke with Veronica L. Thomas to learn more about this how this particular consumer behaviour could create more positive social retail experiences. Veronica: I always find it intriguing when there is the possibility that a relatively well-founded or intuitive finding may potentially be contradicted. My co-author on this research, Christina Saenger, and I have conducted multiple studies on self-threat (social exclusion is a particular type of self-threat) and I had previously read a somewhat related article (Mourey, Olson, & Yoon, 2017) that demonstrated that individuals who were socially excluded estimated that they had more friends on Facebook than individuals who did not experience social exclusion. This knowledge made me question the long-standing assumption that crowding in retail environments is something that should be viewed negatively. (Please note that there are some studies that discuss exceptions to crowding as a negative, but many academic papers consistently find that crowding negatively affects a consumers retail experience.) Thus, I wondered if crowding may actually be viewed positively by those consumers who experience social exclusion. Veronica: In this particular study, our hypotheses stem from evolutionary social cognitive theory. This theory asserts that the human brain has adapted to manage challenges that may threaten our survival. A lack of affiliation is one of these challenges as, in the past, interdependence on others was often vital for obtaining resources, protection, and reproducing. Today, people still exhibit a strong need to belong and when a threat to belonging occurs, such as through exclusion, individuals are motivated to affiliate. We examine this affiliation motivation and its impact on consumer behavior in a variety of ways. In our first study, we demonstrate that consumers who are socially excluded show a preference for crowded retail images. We had two conditions (excluded/not excluded) and showed both groups of participants 4 sets of pictures. Each set contained two pictures of a similar retail environment, except one picture was crowded, while the other was not. Participants in the excluded condition selected a significantly higher number of crowded images. In our second study, we again had two groups of participants (excluded/not excluded) and showed both groups the same image of a crowded retail image. We then measured approach behaviors (e.g. desire to browse at the retailer, desire to spend money). We found that socially excluded participants were more likely to indicate a desire to approach the retailer than non-excluded participants. Finally, in our third study, we actually demonstrate that socially excluded participants are more motivated to affiliate (consistent with the theory above) and perceived an image as more crowded than non-excluded participants (suggesting exclusion changes our perceptions- similar to the Mourey et al. article noted above). In this study, we also replicate our findings regarding approach behaviors noted in study 2. Veronica: Since the goal of affiliation makes consumers more sensitive to cues that would signal inclusion, socially excluded individuals are positively biased toward crowding, preferring crowded retail environments (as demonstrated in our results from studies 1-3). Further, as demonstrated in study 3, socially excluded consumers also actually perceive retail spaces to be more crowded and perceive crowding positively. Since the retail space is associated with goal achievement, overcoming exclusion, the retail space becomes viewed as affectively positive. We know that when consumers view a retailer/brand more positively, they express greater purchase intentions. Karen: Is there anything retail environments can do to create "positive crowds?" Veronica: Yes! What are research really demonstrates is that retailers can appeal to consumers who may potentially feel socially excluded by encouraging crowding and providing re-affiliation opportunities. For example, certain times of the year are more likely to result in social exclusion. My colleague and I discuss in the paper how Valentines Day frequently garners attention for the focus it places on those in romantic relationships, leaving people without a significant other potentially feeling isolated. We note that retail environments that appear crowded could be more enticing for these individuals and that marketers may want to appeal to these individuals. Matthew Henry The Opportunity in Community To a certain extent, malls and high streets are beginning to do this. Even at my local Stratford Westfield Mall in London, along a single stretch of shops you'll find a communal piano, ping-pong tables, and an open space of community events. And yet, many stretches of compartmentalised shops and packed food courts don't necessarily create the sense of "positive crowding" that Thomas and Saenger speak about in their research. Retail needs an experiential overhaul, and perhaps retailer Sir John Timpson's suggestion that high-streets and malls need to diversify into real community spaces ones that include housing, medicine, grocery, and parks holds water. In light of recent research in social and consumer behaviour, our social affiliation drive isn't going anywhere, and perhaps brick-and-mortar shops need to look beyond the transactional nature of retail experience, and consider their role in creating the social retail therapy of the future. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karencorreiadasilva/2019/03/22/can-social-retail-therapy-save-the-worlds-brick-and-mortar-marketplaces/ |
Is "Energy Independence" a Worthy Goal? | Getty Say "energy independence" to most people, and they will agree that it is a worthy and laudable policy goal. The right wants to wean us off of foreign oil. The left wants to wean us off of oil, period. Both seem to think it's a bad thing that we buy oil or other fuels from foreign countries. I'm not convinced. Energy is important to any economy, but I don't think "energy independence" is any more important or worthy a goal than "food independence" or t-shirt independence. It indulges the "imports bad, exports good" fallacy of eighteenth-century mercantilism and privileges production per se as the raison d'etre of economic activity. It also promises additional security as we don't expose ourselves to the possibility of being taken advantage of by foreigners who may not have our best interests at heart. These are mistakes, however. To the extent that an economy has a "point," it is not just producing stuff. It's consuming--and not just stuff as there is a lot more to life. Greater productivity means more opportunities for leisure that we can use to cultivate our finer instincts. Lower energy prices brought about by increased foreign trade would mean lower prices for most things and, therefore, greater scope for flourishing. Yes, some people will use that new prosperity badly. Others, though, will use it to enrich their minds and bodies. Instead of enjoying this prosperity, however, we have resources tied up in artificially expensive energy production and storage. Here again, I think it's a mistake to discourage energy imports or privilege domestic energy production in the name of security. This is so for a couple of reasons. First, there are a lot of people around the world from whom we can buy oil, ethanol, steel, and other goods of strategic importance. Second, oil can be stockpiled as with the 727 million barrel US Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This doesn't even have to be a government program as commodity investors can store and stockpile oil (or trade futures and options contracts) in anticipation of higher prices caused by supply disruptions. Well-functioning markets for commodities like oil and steel obviate the need for things like "energy independence" or the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Healthy commercial relations are, perhaps, important elements of healthy political relations, as well. Frederic Bastiat is reported to have said "when goods don't cross borders, soldiers will." Apparently, he didn't actually say this, but it's an important thing to keep in mind--especially in light of the theory of "the capitalist peace." And so it is that "energy independence" sounds good to some ears but doesn't deliver. That isn't to say that there aren't a lot of good reasons to "drill, baby, drill" or adopt a fossil-fuel-free Green New Deal. Maybe there are. Decreasing our reliance on foreign energy," however, is not one of them. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/artcarden/2019/03/22/is-energy-independence-a-worthy-goal/ |
Were Minneapolis skyways first created to combat the cold or something else? | Its hard to imagine downtown Minneapolis without its skyways. They have become, after all, as distinctly Minnesotan as hockey and hot dish. It turns out the skyways were not a reaction to Minnesotas frigid climate. Some attribute the skyways to Leslie Park, a Minneapolis developer who proposed them to keep businesses downtown. General Mills left downtown in 1955 for Golden Valley, and the next year, Southdale Center opened in Edina. Southdale was the first climate-controlled, enclosed shopping center in the country, said Iric Nathanson, a local historian. Park felt that Southdale was going to suck all of the economic and financial energy out of downtown Minneapolis. When Parks company developed the Northstar Center in 1959, he designed an enclosed walkway to link the building with Northwestern Bank. The link was built in 1962. As new skyscrapers developed, many included skyways. [They] spread out like an octopus, Nathanson said. It turned out to be a big hit. This skyway question is a part of Curious Minnesota, our community-driven reporting project that invites Star Tribune readers into the newsroom. To get us rolling, were answering this question from a curious staff member. And heres a twist. During our research we learned of a competing skyway origin story. Before freeways circled Minneapolis, drivers from across the state were directed through downtown, leading to congested streets and dangerous crosswalks, said Jack Byers, a former Minneapolis city planner. [City planners] envisioned a system of second-story walkways that would take pedestrians up off the sidewalk so they were not having to cross through intersections where cars were turning, Byers said. Turn the city inside out The citys early skyway designs were not the enclosed walkways that exist today, but instead had open sides. Some downtown real estate owners supported the idea of second floor walkways as a way to rent out traditionally undesirable space in their buildings. Nobody really wanted the second floor because the second floor was the worst of all worlds in that you didnt have a view and you were also very close to street noise, Byers said. The citys second oldest skyway still stands today, linking the Northstar Center and Roanoke Building. Although still operational, its age shows, said Elizabeth Gales, a local architect. It is claustrophobic, she said about the skyway. They werent sure what they were doing and thats the way they [initially] envisioned the bridges. At first, skyway bridges only linked individual buildings. It wasnt until the construction of the IDS Center in 1972 that the individual skyways transformed into the sprawling system that exists today. IDS was designed with the skyways in mind, and soon became a hub, connecting to a skyway bridge on each side of the building. There was this idea to turn the city inside out so that the public space was on the interior rather than the exterior, Byers said. In the 1970s, Minneapolis was imagined as a tiered city with a bustling city center encircled by a ring of parking ramps. The idea was dont drive all the way into downtown. Drive to the edge of downtown and leave your car [there] and walk the rest of the distance, Byers said. If the weathers nice take the sidewalks; if the weathers crummy take the skyways. Skyway styles Minneapolis was one of the first North American cities to construct a full-fledged skyway system, Nathanson said, but St. Paul was not far behind in 1967. Since the Minneapolis skyways are managed by the buildings they link (and St. Pauls are public), the two cities approach the system differently. St. Paul skyways blend into the cityscape like furniture, Gales said, but Minneapolis owners give their bridges a unique flair. Your bridge should be a gateway entrance into your building and so the style and appearance of your bridge should enhance or work with whats going on with your building, Gales said. Stained glass decorates the skyway leading into the Wells Fargo Center, reflecting the buildings history and elaborate decorations and the skylights in bridges leading into the IDS Center, match the ceiling in Crystal Court. Heres some more skyway trivia to think about the next time youre strolling downtown: The citys first skyway was demolished in the 1980s during the construction of Norwest Center. The latest skyway addition came with construction of U.S. Bank Stadium a few years ago. In 2015, a Brainerd family purchased a 280,000-pound skyway bridge and converted it into a home. Whether you view the skyways as notoriously hard to navigate or a shield from the elements, they have become a permanent downtown fixture. Theyre very interesting things, Gales said, love them or hate them. Emma Dill is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune. --- If you'd like to submit a Curious Minnesota question, fill out the form below: | http://www.startribune.com/were-minneapolis-skyways-first-created-to-combat-the-cold-or-something-else/506217261/ |
Do Diamondback fans even know who they got in exchange for Paul Goldschmidt? | The St. Louis Cardinals have reportedly extended their offseason acquisition, first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, for five years, $130 million. And at that price, the Arizona Diamondbacks might be wondering why they gave up their face of the franchise with one year left on his existing contract. But give him up they did! After finishing just 82-80 last season, the D-backs are officially rebuilding and so they flipped the six-time All Star for a pitching prospect, two minor leaguers and a 2019 Competitive Balance Round B draft pick back in December. Paul Goldschmidt played eight seasons for the Arizona Diamondbacks before he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals last December. (Getty Images) Scroll to continue with content Ad Its possible that one or more of the guys Arizona got in return will prove to be savvy acquisitions in the long run. The bundle of prospects included right-handed pitcher Luke Weaver, catcher Carson Kelly and infielder Andy Young. But Goldschmidt, who spent eight years in Arizona, is still a much, much larger presence even in his absence in D-backs spring training than any of those guys. We asked a bunch of fans, many of whom were still rocking Goldie jerseys, if they could name even one of the guys their team got in the trade and, well, just take a look at how that went. More from Yahoo Sports: | https://sports.yahoo.com/do-diamondback-fans-even-know-who-they-got-in-exchange-for-paul-goldschmidt-220749904.html?src=rss |
What is the record winter snowfall for Cleveland? Average amount? Annual totals? | CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland set a record for snow with 117.9 inches during the winter of 2004-2005. The winter of 2013-14 had the most snow since that record year, with 86.1 inches recorded by the weather service at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. There were just 32.8 inches during the winter of 2015-16. On average, since 1950, the airport about 60 inches of snow during the winter, counting late fall and early spring snows in the totals, cleveland.com found in tabulating daily weather reports. Earlier in the 1900s, the official readings were taken downtown, instead of the current location. Annual Cleveland snowfall Updated through March 21, 2019. Source: Analysis of National Weather Service Records -- Rich Exner, cleveland.com | https://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/2014/03/what_is_the_record_winter_snow.html |
Was Wheaton Precious Metals Able To Beat Market Expectations In Q4 2018? | Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE: WPM), one of the worlds largest precious metals streaming companies, announced its Q4 2018 results on March 20, 2019, followed by a conference call the next day. Though the fourth quarter revenue and EPS were lower on a year-on-year basis, WPM beat the consensus estimates for revenue and EPS for the quarter as well as FY 2018. The company reported revenue of $196.6 million in Q4 2018 (against market expectation of $191.7 million), 18.9% lower than the $242.5 million reported in Q4 2017. The companys earnings came in at $0.08 per share (against a consensus of $0.06 per share) in Q4 2018, much lower than $0.19 in the year-ago period. Full year revenue decreased by 5.8% to $794 million in 2018. According to Trefis analysis, the lower revenue and earnings were mainly the reflection of a decrease in silver shipments, driven by termination of the old San Dimas silver purchase agreement, coupled with the ceasing of silver production from Lagunas Norte, Veladero, and Pierina mines. Lower silver revenues were slightly offset by an increase in gold sales and addition of palladium sales as a new revenue stream for the company. In addition, here is more Materials data. Trefis Key Factors Affecting Earnings Decrease in silver production and price realization: Silver was the biggest drag on WPMs revenue growth in 2018. Revenue from silver decreased by 18.1% (y-o-y) to $343.6 million in 2018, compared to $419.3 million in 2017, mainly due to an 11.8% decline in silver shipments to 21.7 million ounces in 2018 from 24.6 million ounces in the previous year. Volume decreased as a result of the signing of the new San Dimas agreement in May 2018, under which silver production that was attributable to the company under the old agreement would now be converted to the equivalent gold volume. Additionally, silver production at the companys Lagunas Norte, Veladero, and Pierina mines ceased effective March 2018. Along with lower volume, silver prices also witnessed a decline on the back of a stronger dollar and rising interest rates in the US. Going forward, we expect silver revenue to decline marginally in 2019 and remain flat in 2020 driven by lower volumes, partially offset by strengthening of prices as observed over the last three months. Higher Gold Sales: Gold revenue increased by 4.1% to $441.2 million in 2018 from $423.9 million in 2017, driven by higher volume and better price realization. Gold shipments increased from 337.2 million ounces in 2017 to 349.2 million ounces in 2018, mainly due to additional gold attributable to WPM following the new agreement with First Majestic at San Dimas, coupled with WPMs acquisition of a new gold stream at Stillwater, and higher production at Salobo and Constancia mines. Additionally, though gold prices witnessed a lot of volatility in 2018 due to rising interest rates, prices saw some strengthening in the fourth quarter, which helped WPM increase its price realization for the year. We expect gold prices to rise further in 2019 (as the trend has been over the last three months) on the back of higher retail and institutional investment in the yellow metal, with many Central Banks buying gold as a hedge against rising economic uncertainty. Simultaneously, we expect volume to rise further over the next two years as WPM would benefit from a full year under the new San Dimas agreement, slightly offset by lower-grades at Salobo due to mine sequencing (most pronounced in the first quarter of 2019). Benefits from Palladium: Palladium is a new addition to WPMs revenue streams with the company having entered into an agreement with Sibanye-Stillwater to acquire palladium at an agreed ratio of total production at the site. Palladium added $9.2 million to the companys revenue in 2018. Palladium production is expected to increase going forward as the Company has its first full year of production from the Stillwater stream, which was acquired in July of 2018. Prices are expected to remain elevated in the near-term, in line with the recent increase. Higher Margins: Net income margin increased sharply to 53.8% in 2018 from 6.8% in 2017. However, this rise was driven by a one-time gain from the termination of the previous San Dimas silver purchase agreement, which amounts to approximately $245.7 million. This gain was partially offset by higher interest expense on the back of rising interest rates and increased amount drawn under WPMs revolving credit facility. Over the next two years, we expect margins to decline to about 32%, in the absence of any large non-recurring benefit, offset by higher volume and better price realization. We expect the declining silver production to be completely offset by rising gold output, which would be driven by the new San Dimas agreement and Stillwater acquisition. Additionally, the company has announced the expansion of its Salobo III mine, thus ramping up its total gold production. With the addition of Palladium to its portfolio, WPM is expected to reap benefits of this diversification as palladium prices have increased sharply in the last couple of months. Additionally, in June 2018, WPM entered into an agreement to acquire from Vale an amount of Cobalt at an agreed ratio of Voiseys Bay cobalt production. Though deliveries under the contract are scheduled to begin in 2021, we believe that the companys aggressive push towards diversification rather than being a traditional silver-gold miner, would help in enhancing investor confidence as the stocks risk goes down. With the Feds latest statement dimming the likelihood of any rate hikes in 2019, prices of precious metals are expected to strengthen further. Thus, rising production of gold and palladium along with a positive pricing environment, expansion projects in the pipeline, and the companys focus on diversifying its portfolio and risk-mitigation, is expected to support WPMs stock price going forward. We have a price estimate of $27 for WPMs share price, which is higher than its current market price. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/was-wheaton-precious-metals-able-to-beat-market-expectations-in-q4-2018/ |
What Will The England Team Look Like At World Cup 2022? | ASSOCIATED PRESS The 2018 World Cup represented a breakthrough for England. To say that it was a return to form drastically overstates the level of form that existed beforehand, but their eventual fourth-place finish did go a long way to rehabilitating the image of the national team in the eyes of the English public. For a long time, brand England was one that meant overpaid, overindulged, underperforming footballers, followed around by a rabid press, supported by balding, drunken louts and destined to get beat by the first team of any quality that they faced, even if that team was Iceland. In 2018, they seemed like nice boys, the sort that youd be happy to ask out one of your offspring. Even the tabloid press seemed to get on with them, and they were photographed enjoying darts tournaments with the hacks. Sure, the fans were still pretty pissed up, but they werent half as loutish. Wed all chilled out a little. A lot of that is to do with the way that the structure had changed. There appeared, whisper it quietly, to have been an element of joined up thinking in the methods of the Football Association. They had built St Georges Park, a facility modeled on Frances famous Clairefontaine academy, designed to incubate young talent into the England setup and to nuture them through the age group sides. The manager, Gareth Southgate, seemed reserved, calm and, crucially, like he actually liked doing the job. He himself came to the top job through youth setup, having previously managed the U-21 team, so he knew the team well. Beneath him, the U-17s and U-20s were world champions, the U-19s were European champions and the U-18s won the prestigious Toulon Tournament. On the back of their 4th Place finish, the senior side compounded it by then reaching the Finals of the UEFA Nations League, emerging from a group that contained Spain, perennially one of the best teams in the world, and Croatia, who ended the 2018 World Cup dream. England are now favorites to claim the inaugural Nations League title in June. Its worth a deep dive, then to work out just who might feature for England in Qatar. Goalkeepers (3) The obvious place to start is in goal, and given that he is just 24 years of age, there seems to be no reason to doubt that Evertons Jordan Pickford will not still be the keeper come the next World Cup. Hes great with the ball at his feet, he suits Southgates style of play and he is a regular in one of the Premier Leagues bigger sides. Short of a massive drop off in form - and weve seen that happen with Joe Hart, who everyone would have written in first for World Cup 2018 four years out from it, Pickford will remain first choice. Beyond him, the floor is open. Jack Butland, who went to Russia 2018, is currently playing for Stoke City in the Championship, but were he to return to the EPL, one would suspect that he would keep his bench place. Hell be 29 in 2022, still young for a goalie. That the keeper tends to be older than usual might hinder any of the current youth team, but there are a few younger keepers knocking around that might kick on. Angus Gunn, recently called into Southgates squad and making regular starts in the Premier League for Southampton, is the current frontrunner. Defenders (8) Englands defense has all the attributes that should see them maintain and grow towards 2022. John Stones should be leadership material by the time Qatar rolls around: he was already one of the more experienced players in Russia and will be just turning 28 by the time of the next World Cup. With an extra four years under Pep Guardiola, he could be one of the best defenders in the world. See also Joe Gomez, currently playing next to Virgil van Dijk, aka the current best defender in the world, under Jrgen Klopp at Liverpool. Harry Maguire should still be around, as will Eric Dier. On the right, Gomezs Liverpool teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold was the youngest squad member at World Cup 2018 and Tottenhams Keiran Trippier, who was one of the most potent attacking weapons England in Russia. Trippiers form has tailed off this year, but unless that decline is terminal, hell be there in Qatar. Aaron Wan-Bissaka has been one of the standout youngsters of this season and will be hot on Trippiers heels if he doesnt opt to play for DR Congo instead. On the left, the current incumbent Danny Rose will likely be too old, but behind him comes Ben Chilwell, one of the best young LBs in the Premier League at Leicester, and perhaps Luke Shaw, rejuvenated at Manchester United and still just 23. Ryan Sessegnon of Fulham has struggled in his first season in the Premier League, but is still just 18. His time will come. Midfielders (9) The center of midfield was a problem point for England in Russia, with Dier played out of position and Jordan Henderson often off the pace. The defection of the best young holding midfielder in the Premier League, West Hams Declan Rice, from Ireland should see him take over from Henderson long-term. Harry Winks is already involved in the squad, albeit mostly from the bench, but if he maintains his place in Spurs first XI, it is hard to see past him for a third center mid role. Morgan Gibbs-White has been a revelation for Wolves and a senior team appearance is only a matter of time. With Winks and Rice anchoring the midfield, the options further forward are exceptional. Jadon Sancho is the best young player in the Bundesliga and Raheem Sterling and Dele Alli are among the best players in the Premier League full stop. All three are regulars for England now and can expect to keep those places, as can Jesse Lingard of Manchester United. Phil Foden might struggle to get a starting place in Pep Guardiolas first XI at the moment, but the 2017 FIFA Under 17s World Cup MVP could not be in a better place to learn. Hes 18 and already playing in the U-21s, so expect him to be called up to the senior squad as soon as he gets close to the City team. Chelsea have a legion of loaned out youth teamers, but should their looming transfer ban finally force them to break the habit of a lifetime and actually pick them, it could do wonders for England. Mason Mount, currently on loan at Derby County, has been one of the best players in the Championship this season, looks the most likely to profit from that and could establish himself. Ruben Loftus-Cheek went to Russia in 2018 and is only a regular place in the EPL away from the senior squad, but needs that to press his case. James Maddison has also starred in the EPL this season and is on the fringes of a senior call-up. He, or potentially either of his Leicester City teammates Harvey Barnes or Hamza Choudhury could feature, as could Bournemouths Lewis Cook, Arsenals Ainsley Maitland-Niles or Ronaldo Vieira, who recently broke into Sampdorias first team in Serie A. Forwards (3) The forwards, or at least two of them, pick themselves. Harry Kane is the captain, talisman and first name on the team sheet. If hes fit - or, if you listen to the rumors at the World Cup, half-fit, he plays. Marcus Rashford can play wider and offers a nice point of difference to Kane, so he is a certainty as well. The third striker position is currently occupied by Bournemouth's Callum Wilson, but he will be 31 by 2022 and is by no means established at international level. Callum Hudson-Odoi, subject to a huge bid from Bayern Munich in January and in line to make his international debut this weekend, might well benefit from the Chelsea transfer ban and take a wide forward role. The younger crop is still largely untested in the Premier League (or elsewhere), but there are a few sleepers that might well make a case for themselves. Centrally, Reiss Nelson of Hoffenheim has six goals in the Bundesliga this season, while Rhian Brewster top-scored at the U-17 World Cup and will hope to be a Premier League regular by 2022. Out wide, Demarai Gray will be in with a shout if he keeps up his 2018/19 form, while Ademola Lookman certainly has the talent, if he can get the gametime. Englands squad for Qatar 2022 GK Jordan Pickford RB Trent Alexander-Arnold CB John Stones CB Joe Gomez LB Luke Shaw CM Declan Rice CM Dele Alli CM Phil Foden LW Raheem Sterling RW Jadon Sancho ST Harry Kane GK Jack Butland GK Angus Gunn DF Keiran Trippier DF Ben Chilwell DF Harry Maguire DF Eric Dier MF Mason Mount MF Morgan Gibbs-White MF Harry Winks MF Jesse Lingard FW Marcus Rashford FW Callum Hudson-Odoi | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemeehallwood/2019/03/22/what-will-the-england-team-look-like-at-world-cup-2022/ |
Is Co-Living 2.0 The Next Big Thing In Residential Real Estate? | Getty You all know the old saying, home is where the heart is. Increasingly, urban residents have been looking for places that foster a sense of community, as well as providing great accommodation. It is a well-known fact that people have a growing sense of isolation in our ever more connected world, something that has been highlighted with the heightened attention to mental health issues in recent years. It was this desire for a sense of community, alongside increasing levels of unaffordability in cities, that spawned the first wave of co-living concepts. Co-living 1.0 seeks to bridge the gap for university leavers, with micro-spaces, shared kitchens and large communal areas. This product also works well for remote workers looking for temporary short-term accommodation or for a place to sleep in a few nights a week when they are in town for work. Though addressing a real need, co-living 1.0 remains very much a niche product. New co-living propositions have been hitting the market recently, targeting a slightly older demographic that desires a strong sense of community and a curated offering, but also wants significantly more living space than that afforded by micro-living products. They value their privacy, care about what they are sharing and whom with. This is co-living 2.0, which might just be the next big thing in residential real estate. Anil Khera, Founder and CEO of Node, is a pioneer of the co-living 2.0 model. Node is a global co-living company that creates urban rental apartment communities in creative capital cities around the world. Nodes curated co-living concept delivers compact, efficiently designed apartments which have their own private kitchen and living areas. The interior design is customized to be unique to each unit (Node even collaborates with local artists to create art for single units), and the neighbors are a group of creative and sophisticated peers to connect with. As Khera puts it, Few people want to spend over $/1,000/month, live in 100 square feet and share a kitchen with 10 other people. There has to be a co-living model that embraces communal living and the sharing economy, but with slightly larger private spaces for sustainable independent living too. Nodes target market is older and richer than that for co-living 1.0. Residents are typically in their late twenties and early thirties, are single or married but dont have children, and each individual earns on average $70 thousand per year. There is a strong female demographic in Nodes buildings, and residents tend to have just moved to that city. They are looking for a place that feels like a home, which is private and fosters a sense of security whilst also being inclusive. Khera believes that this new format could bridge the gap between co-living and multifamily/PRS, creating an entirely new market segment that will attract creative types, entrepreneurs, freelancers and professionals who are not quite digital nomads but are rather global citizens, These people may have three cities they call home for the next five to ten years and will move back and forth for medium-term stays of one to three years at a time, with shorter term visits in between. At present, there is no real way of creating continuity in terms of a community for these people, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Nodes vision is to create a truly global network of buildings, which will allow residents to keep a foot in the communities they no longer live in, or dont yet live in. They will have their main home city but can benefit from short term stays in Node buildings in places they travel to. According to Khera, As people move around globally, there is a growing need and desire for a global community a group of friends, peers and even mentors that live and move around the world. Restarting community life every time one moves is highly disruptive and so the rise of a global community can help tackle issues of loneliness and isolation for globally mobile people. Central to this offering is Node connect- a platform to connect with the wider community, including non-residents. Residents lounges double as event spaces and pop up coworking areas. Node is also launching a global residents app, the first of its kind. This will encompass everything from access control to deliveries, from the resident application process, through maintenance, to payments, as well as governing internal messaging groups which are tiered for the global or local community. The Node app will give residents and members to access to nodes communal spaces globally and will help them connect with other people in the space and around the globe. Khera believes that the only way to build a truly global community is through tech, telling me that The concept of being able to call multiple cities home can be fostered through technology that connects our Node residents worldwide. Node recently launched their latest development in Dublin, to great fanfare, and with great success. They are steadily scaling the business, all in the name of building a truly global network for their residents. They are very much at the forefront of the co-living 2.0 movement and, though their success to date is deeply encouraging, only time will tell if this is yet another niche play or the beginning of a revolutionary market shift. I suspect the latter. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/angelicakrystledonati/2019/03/22/is-co-living-2-0-the-next-big-thing-in-residential-real-estate/ |
Can Trump Survive Mueller? | Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for Politico. Well, the newswoman said to Donald Trump, youre under a tremendous amount of pressure lately. Why do you say that? he asked. Story Continued Below It was April 6, 1990, and Paula Zahn on CBS actually had plenty of reasons to think Trump might be feeling anxious. It hadnt been two months since the hyper-public, tabloid-tawdry revelation that his philandering had shattered his marriage to the mother of his first three children. He and his executives were grappling with the flawed, frantic opening of the newest, gaudiest, most expensive and most debt-bloated of his three casinos in Atlantic City. And reporters who covered money instead of celebrity had started to suss out the unsteadiness of Trumps overall financial state. Both in your professional life and your personal life, Zahn offered. She asked how he was doing. I feel great, Trump replied. Im doing well. Nearly three decades have passed. Even in Trumps perma-perilous presidency, this is a juncture that pulses with risk. Newly empowered Democrats in Congress are ramping up multiple investigations, and talk of impeachment is impossible to avoid. Looming largest over this tumultuous battlefield, though, is the report special counsel Robert Mueller appears poised to submit to Attorney General William Barrthe culmination of nearly two years of labor and the subject of immeasurable speculation. While Trump often awards himself and his administration A-plus grades, many others question whether he will be able to sustain his rosy self-assessment once the details of Muellers findings become public. Trump in the 90s: Amidst a period of highly-public personal philandering, Donald Trumppictured bottom left with his first wife Ivana in 1989, the year he began his affair with his to-be second wife Marla Maples, pictured bottom right with their newborn daughter Tiffany in 1993would open and drive into incredible amounts of debt multiple casinos in New Jerseys Atlantic City, including the Trump Taj Mahal, pictured above at its grand opening in 1990. | AP Photo/Mike Derer, SWERZEY/AFP/Getty Images, AP Photo Every flurry of tweets from the presidentand last weekends two-day grievance bender against late-night comedy and cable news shows was a particularly strong examplebegets new pronouncements that Trump is coming unglued from the strain. George Conway, husband of close Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, hauled out the clinical definition of narcissistic personality disorder to make the case that Trump is not only unfit for office but becoming catastrophically worse. And psychiatrists are speaking with dire predictions about the potential for a deranged person with extraordinary powers to create global mayhem and destruction. He has very poor coping mechanisms when he is criticized or when he feels humiliated, Bandy Lee, a forensic psychiatrist from Yale and the editor of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, the second edition of which is out this month, told me, and at these points he generally goes into attack mode and he threatens others or tries to get revenge. Obliterate observing eyes of his humiliation, Lee said. Destroying the world. That, very quickly, becomes an avenue, a perceived solution for individuals with his personality structure. Make what you will of such medical predictions, but the historical record tells a different story. The back-and-forth with Zahn is an instructive (and comforting?) reminder about overstating Trumps fragility. The Trump campaign in 2015 and 16 careened from kill shot to kill shot, of course, and just kept going, right to the White Houseand that was not the first time he flashed his ability to mitigate calamity and deftly skirt what might have seemed like an inevitable comeuppance. Whether or not Trump could remain not only financially solvent but reputationally intact was an open question for the entirety of the first half of the 1990s. So many times, he could have been snuffed, stopped, rendered a relative footnote, his place in the history of this country limited to status as a gauche totem of a regrettable epoch of greed. That, needless to say, is not how the tale played out. Trump is many things. A developer. A promoter. A master media manipulator. A grown-old rich kid. The president of the United States. Above all else, though, he is a survivor. The ultimate survivor, former Trump casino executive Jack ODonnell told me recently. Trumps Trophies: Trump had a tendency to spend on things he couldnt affordlike his Manhattan Plaza Hotel, left, a luxury yacht, top right, and his 1989 airline Trump Shuttle, bottom leftmostly with borrowed money. | AP Images, AP Photo/Marty Lederhandler, JetPix/Wikimedia Commons But its not just that Trump has survived thats important to consider at this momentits how he has done it. Armed with extraordinary audacity, constitutional sangfroid, a stomach for tumult, an acumen for recasting obvious losses into strange sorts of wins, and the prodigious safety net bequeathed by his wealthy, wily father, he has plowed past myriad hazards. And he did it by tying himself tightly to his bankers and lenders in New York and to gaming industry regulators in New Jerseywho let him live large until they couldnt let him die without fatally wounding themselves. He effectively inhabited hosts, using them to get bigger and bigger in the 80s until he was practically perversely invincible by the 90snot only too big to fail, as the late Wayne Barrett once told Susan Glasser and me, but too big to jail. Perhaps his past escapes are the reason he appears oddly calm as most of the country leans forward, awaiting word of bombshells from Mueller. Over the weekend, when outsiders perceived mounting anxiety in Trumps Twitter barrage, people who spoke to Trump by phone told reporters that he seemed to be in good spirits. The volume of tweets, they surmised, was just a product of too much time on his hands in the White House. His bravado and bluster cant mask, his critics say, the true jeopardy he faces. The stakes now are too high, the arena too large, the political currents too strong, for Trump to expect the same results. But if he does fail, pinned to account by the weight of evidence uncovered by Mueller, one thing is certain: It will be the first time. *** Those who believe in the power of Trumps survival skills to protect him from even this unprecedented threat draw an analogy between the Republican Partyits members of Congress and especially the Senateand the institutions that have enabled him in the past. The banks were heavily invested in Trump, and they couldnt have him go down, former Trump campaign staffer Sam Nunberg told me, and the Republican Party cant have him go down. I think he believes that the presidency is too big to fail, too powerful to be taken down, ODonnell added. And I think that this is kind of something that he learned in the 90s, where the banks basically said to him, Youre too big to fail, we have to back you. And they did it, time and time again, in Atlantic City. To be determined in the coming weeks and months: how well those lessons will hold up. This is a man who has lived dangerously for decades by flirting with the boundaries of propriety, legality and civility, Trump biographer Tim OBrien told me. And he is now faced, after years and years of getting away with it, with consequences that are far beyond anything hes encountered before. I think theyre going to be absolutely of no use if the legal consequences are realized at their full magnitude. Trump the Builder: The New York real estate mogul, above in 1987, partnered with Hong Kong investors to develop buildings on the Upper West Side, below, that would have been Trump City but were later called Trump Place, until recently tenants voted to remove the presidents name. | Joe McNally/Getty Images, Oliver Morris/Getty Images Others who know Trump well arent so sure. No matter what they do, he survives. No matter what they try, he survives, longtime New York Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf told me. He absolutely can. In the middle of 1990, after all, he was more than $3 billion in the red. He had for years spent too much to buy too much, all with mostly borrowed money. The yacht, the airline, Manhattans Plaza Hotel. Trophies, he called them. And his casinos, first two, now three with the lurching launch of the Trump Taj Mahal, cannibalized each other. Even record rakes of cash werent enough to simply service all of Trumps debt. On the horizon was the first of his six corporate bankruptcies. Trump is on his way downand probably out, business journalist Allan Sloan wrote that June in Newsday. People didnt stop at mere predictions. They also poked fun. I envision Donald Trump a year from now doing the ads for stomach-flatteners or ginsu knives on late-night TV. Or as a Worldwide Wrestling Federation commentator, Gail Collins, then a columnist for the New York Daily News, told David Von Drehle, then a reporter for the Miami Herald. Vanity Fair editor Tina Brown likened Trump to late-in-life Elvis. He probably will wind up in that sort of Graceland, you know, wearing a diaper, she told Steve Kroft of CBS News. Spy, the puckish satirical magazine and inveterate needler of Trump, in its August 1990 issue took a tongue-in-cheek look at what they foresaw as a sad, middling future for a balding, paunchy Trump. Their crystal ball, though, was not all wrong. They anticipated a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, and a rough version of reality television, tooand a public offering that would permit Trump to use money from shareholders to make money of his own (Now YOU can own a piece of the Trump!). But beyond the smart sets schadenfreude were Trumps real-life results. After weeks of negotiations, the cluster of 70-some-odd banks that had loaned him billions of dollars gave him an additional $65 million loan. It was the first in a yearslong sequence of bailouts and extensions and breathing-room reprieves. They had loaned him so much money, it was no longer only his problemit was theirs. He all but dared them to take him down. He has a good bit of leverage over the institutions, a Harvard Business School finance professor told the Boston Globe at the time. His adjusted net worth is minus several hundred million dollars, by my estimate, and he is alive only because his bankers are too red-faced to pull the plug on his life-support system, the chairman of a money management firm wrote in the New York Post. The most important thing, an official in the office of one of his lenders said in The American Banker, is to make Trump survive. Trump the Candidate: Despite a number of incidents that might have taken any other candidate downincluding the infamous Access Hollywood tape, pictured above, in which he swaggered about sexual assaultTrump was elected president on Nov. 8, 2016 and delivered his acceptance speech, pictured below, in the early hours of the following morning. | YouTube, Spencer Platt/Getty Images The banks over time clawed back a passel of Trumps possessions (the yacht, the planes, the Plaza), but they didnt take his casinosbecause they didnt want them. The last thing they want to do is manage casinos, an analyst from Moodys Investors explained to the Associated Press. And the last thing the gaming officials and city leaders in New Jersey wanted was to have them close. The relationship was the same as with the banks back in New York. Desperate to prop up the flagging gaming industry, looking continually to the casinos to inject into the struggling seaside town at least the appearance of vitality and prosperity, they needed Trump as much as Trump needed them. A prerequisite to owning a casino in Atlantic City, understandably, was financial stability, and regulators could have stripped Trump of hisrepeatedlybut of course didnt. Trumps casinos amounted to roughly a third of the market. The whole economic development of the town, said ODonnell, it was dependent on this. And so they justthey caved. Trump had managed to turn an apparent weakness into a significant advantage. The banks put him on an allowance of $450,000 a month. The Trump Tower triplex was safe. The man is a Sherman tank in a Brioni suit, New York Post gossip columnist and Trump pal Cindy Adams told USA Today. Hey, look, I had a cold spell from 1990 to 91, he said in 1994 in New York. I was beat up in business and in my personal life. But you learn that youre either the toughest, meanest piece of shit in the world, or you just crawl into a corner, put your finger in your mouth, and say, I want to go home. And Trump didnt want to go home. He wasnt entirely in the clear, though, until 1995 and 96, when his need for money finally superseded his desire for absolute control and he took his casinos public. He sat in his office and looked at OBrien, then a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. He was back, he said. People bought stock in Trump and lost money in droves. Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts proved to be a good investment for just one personTrump. It was to get other people to get him out of that debt, a former member of the Trump Organization told me. In addition to his selling of his stake in his foundation-laying Grand Hyatt and tens of millions of dollars of wrangled, well-timed loans from family trusts, its what saved Trumpalong with a partnership with Hong Kong investors that turned his long-held plot of land on the Upper West Side that always cost him money into one that began to actually make him money. Construction on what would have been Trump City and now would be called Trump Place (and then wouldnt) started in 1997. And two years later, in front of some of the buildings, Trump let the magician David Blaine get buried alive for a week in a plexiglass coffin. It was, said Blaine, a stunt famed illusionist Harry Houdini always wanted to do. For Trump, the publicity ploy made for an apt ode to the art of escape. Trumpologists and culture critics frequently cite showman P.T. Barnum as Trumps preeminent antecedent, but another, less noted inspiration was Houdini, the author of a forthcoming Houdini biography told me. He always foundespecially when it just seemed like it was over for himhe found some new chapter, and some new way to sort of get his success going again, Joe Posnanski said. He created this handcuff act, and the handcuff act becomes huge, and then that sort of runs its course. And then he comes up with the milk can, and the milk can sort of runs its course. And he comes up with the Chinese water torture cell, and that runs his course. And he starts hanging upside down and escaping from straitjackets. It makes Posnanski think of Trump. With Trump, you just think, OK, this is it. This is totally it, you know? he said. Hes bankrupt, people are laughing at him, hes this, hes thatbut its never over for him. Trump, said Sheinkopf, the Democratic strategist, is incessantly pulling Houdini acts. Recall all the gaffes that were to have torpedoed his indelicate, unorthodox 2016 presidential bidpeaking, of course, with the Access Hollywood tape revealed in early October in which he swaggered about sexual assault. *** Those who predict Trump will ultimately fall dont disagree that he has benefited from well-placed safety nets before. This time is different, they insist, because his high-wire act is being performed at unprecedented heights. Under Investigation: An investigation run by Robert Mueller, left, has hung over Trumps presidency for nearly two years and led to the arrest of multiple of the presidents associates, including his former attorney Michael Cohen, top right, and his long-time advisor Roger Stone, bottom right. | Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images, Alex Wong/Getty Images, ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images Significantly higher, OBrien said. Hes been on a financial tightrope, and a familial tightrope, but hes never been on a legal tightrope like this one. Not even close. This is fundamentally new because of the legal consequences, and those legal consequences dont end with the filing of the Mueller report. He still has issues that are still very serious in the Southern District of New York; in some ways, they may be more serious than the Mueller investigation in terms of potential consequences and how far they dig into his world. Bandy Lee is worried. The forensic psychiatrist from Yale has studied thousands of people with the mental disorders she perceives Trump has. Their behavior, untreated, had predictable and unpleasant results. She foresees a similar unraveling for Trump, albeit with a wild card she has never encountered in any of her patients: the awesome power of the commander in chief. Under stress, we can see the limits of ones ability to cope, and we can see that the president has reached his limits fairly rapidly, in terms of not being able to sit with the advancing special counsels investigation. You can see there is a heightening of activity and creation of crises, distractions, if you will, in order to distract both themselves as well as the public away from the bad news he is continuing to receive, Lee said. He has very poor coping mechanisms when he is criticized or when he feels humiliated, she continued, and at these points, he generally goes into attack mode, and he threatens others or tries to get revenge. Our conversation took place before Trump resurrected his feud with the late John McCain, but I couldnt help thinking of Lees warning as I listened to the president on Wednesday belabor his grudge before a crowd of workers who were expecting some good news on the economy, not a hit job on a war hero. Maybe this, just like the days of name-calling with George Conway, really are the signs of a mind in turmoil. Trump the Survivor: President Trump departs the White House earlier this year, while talk of his impeachment by a newly-Democratic House is impossible to avoid. Hes teetered on the brink before and never succumbed. | Win McNamee/Getty Images And yetand this is just the reality of the recordTrump shrewdly, bullheadedly, even blithely pushed past crises in the 90s that would have felled almost anybody else. And then, perhaps convinced of his own invincibility, he blew through a litany of accepted social and political checkpoints on his way to the Oval Office and his high-backed chair behind the Resolute desk. Pressure, Trump said in an extended interview in Playboy in 1990, doesnt upset my sleep. I like throwing balls into the airand I dream like a baby. That same year, on June 14, he turned 44. The next day, he missed about $45 million in debt payments for his casino called Trump Castle. He is absolutely on knifes edge, James Grant, the editor of Grants Interest Rate Observer, told Newsday. The day after that, Trump had a party. More than a thousand employees in Atlantic City showed up at the bash on the boardwalk, according to news reports. We love you, Donald! they cried. He was presented with a chocolate cupcake, a 12-page birthday card and an 8-foot-by-10-foot portrait of himself. Nobody wants to write the positives, Trump told the cheering crowd. Over the years, Ive surprised a lot of people. The largest surprise is yet to come. True. | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/03/22/trump-mueller-report-survive-226101 |
Which Portland-area zip codes pay the most for car insurance? | According to a report from car insurance website, The Zebra, car insurance rates are going up in the Portland area. "Car insurance rates in the Portland-metro area shot up 9.7% as the population continues to grow, increasing traffic congestion, crashes, and claims, Alyssa Connolly, Zebras Director of Market Insights said in a press release earlier this year. Portland also saw a sharp increase in vehicle thefts, which may be negatively affecting rates, Connolly added. Connolly also pointed out the increase is not unique to Portland. Nationally, rates have been impacted by an uptick in crashes caused by distracted driving (driving while using a phone or device), she said, and new technology making cars more expensive to repair after a crash. The average annual premium a Portland metro area car owner pays is $1,623, greater than $1,404 in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area and the national average of $1,470. We have it better than big city Californians. In the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose metro area car owners pay an average of $1,799 annually and in the Los Angeles metro area, that number is a whopping $2,046. 10. 97030, Gresham: $1,812 9. 97211, Portland: $1,820 8. 97218, Portland: $1,848 7. 97206, Portland: $1,859 6. 97220, Maywood Park: $1,901 5. 97216, Portland: $1,903 4. 97233, Gresham: $1,908 3. 97230, Gresham: $1,911 2. 97266, Portland: $1,921 1. 97236, Gresham: $1,942 | https://www.oregonlive.com/trending/2019/03/what-portland-zip-codes-pay-the-most-for-car-insurance.html |
Does Samuel L. Jackson watch his own movies? | The next time you are watching a Samuel L. Jackson film and you see someone in the theater who looks like the actor, it just might be the one and only. Jackson tells Steve Kroft that he's not one of those actors who claims he can't watch his own films. He likes watching himself on the big screen. So do a lot of people: Jackson is currently the highest grossing actor in Hollywood history. The movie star talks to Kroft for a 60 Minutes profile to be broadcast Sunday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Jackson thinks it's a tad disingenuous to say you can't watch yourself in films. "I always think that, 'Oh, I can't stand to watch myself' is like some bulls---," he tells Kroft. "And if you can't watch it why should people pay $13.50 to watch you do it?" For the former stage actor, watching his film performances is a privilege. "When I was doing theater in New York, I always wanted to see the play I was in with me in it," he says with a grin. "Yeah, it is very difficult. So this is perfect for me, I get to watch my performances." A record number of people have watched Jackson in over 100 movies, making him the highest grossing Hollywood film actor. The fact that the prolific movie star has never won an Oscar doesn't seem to bother him in the least. "Like I tell people winning or losing an Academy Award doesn't do a lot toward moving the comma on your check," he says. "Butts in seats. Selling tickets." Kroft also speaks to Jackson's wife of 38 years, the actor LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and accompanies Jackson to his childhood neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tenn. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/does-samuel-l-jackson-watch-his-own-movies-60-minutes/ |
Do wheelchairs belong on hiking trails? | For more stories like this, check out The Chronicles weekly Travel newsletter! Sign up here. Bob Coomber remembers a moment from 15 years ago like it happened yesterday. The seasoned hiker was about to set out along the summit trail to San Jacinto Peak, a mountain near Palm Springs known for its scenic hikes, when he encountered an obstacle he couldnt immediately surmount: two park rangers who wouldnt let a wheelchair on the trail. I was just heading to the trailhead when they came running after me, Coomber recalls. They were shouting, Wait! Wait! That trails not ADA-certified! Over the past 30 years, the 64-year-old Piedmont native has slowly but surely pushed and rolled himself to heights that would challenge any hiker. He has summited White Mountain - the third-highest peak in California - and Sonora Peak in the central Sierras, crossed significant stretches of the Pacific Crest Trail, and earned a place in the California Outdoors Hall of Fame. Those rangers didnt drag me away or anything, but they wouldnt let me by, either, Coomber says. They thought I was going to hurt myself, I guess, or maybe get stuck. Halting a wheelchair hiker in this manner was a bit ironic: In 2004 there was no such thing as a hiking trail that complied with the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. The law had led to major improvements in accessibility since its passage in 1990, but nearly 15 years later, it still wasnt clear how the law applied to parks and trails. The idea of accessible parks really wasnt in existence for a long time, says Stuart Seaborn, managing director of litigation at Disability Rights Advocates, a Berkeley nonprofit that has played a central role in expanding accessibility nationwide. In Berkeley, Disability Rights Advocates was using litigation to increase park access, modifying the landscape to meet the demands of disabled visitors. Meanwhile, down the road in Livermore, Coomber was towing wagons and lifting weights modifying himself to meet the demands of the landscape. In 2005, Disability Rights Advocates reached a landmark settlement with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, in which the state agreed to make a wide range of improvements handicapped-accessible parking spots, accessible campsites and toilets, paved and low-grade trails, more informative signage at trailheads, beach wheelchairs at some coastal parks, and sign language interpreters and audio guides for educational programming, among other reforms. In 2014, DRA reached a similar settlement with the National Park Service, resulting in similar changes at Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo, San Francisco and Marin counties. The case was specific to the GGNRA but functioned as a warning shot at the National Park Service to improve access or face more lawsuits. Together, these two lawsuits one at the state level, one at the federal level represent the beachhead in the legal battle to improve accessibility for the disabled in Americas parks. As DRAs late founder Larry Paradis said in 2014, these settlements provide a model for federal and state parks nationwide to be inclusive of all people in our community. The effort to open Californias parks to people of every ability has in turn raised important questions about the proper balance of nature and civilization in public parks. In the urban landscape these questions are largely answered, but park visitors, legal advocates and landscape architects are still working out what exactly accessibility means in the great outdoors. Its about preserving the natural integrity of these places while balancing the need for access, Seaborn says. Fortunately, its not a zero-sum game. Its no accident that accessibility has shown the most improvement in the built environment: If you have to build something anyway, you might as well build it in a way that benefits as many people as possible. And the relative orderliness of streets and buildings provides a baseline of accessibility that was not commonly found in the pre-modern world. Outdoor spaces are more complicated. Parks exist on the periphery of the built environment, both geographically and conceptually. The thought of a large park might conjure earthy images of trees and rocks and streams, but those scenic features exist alongside man-made amenities ranging from pit toilets to air-conditioned gift shops. Even the faded, rough-hewn trails running through Yosemites backcountry are subtle enhancements that guide hikers along safe, curated routes. Parks, in other words, resemble the wilderness even though they are built by human hands. This man-made aspect of parks was central to Disability Rights Advocates legal argument, in their landmark 2005 settlement, that parks should be held to the accessibility standards laid out in the Americans With Disabilities Act, the definitive law protecting the rights of people with disabilities in the U.S. Patterned after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA added disability to the list of characteristics by which it was illegal to discriminate, alongside race, sex, religion and others. It also established new accessibility requirements for employers and public entities that have over time transformed the built environment. The fruits of the ADA are ubiquitous in towns and cities: curb cuts and ramps for the mobility-impaired, chirping crosswalks and braille signage for the sight-impaired, and closed-captioned TV transcription for the hearing-impaired are just some of the accommodations that many of us now take for granted. Because state parks are a program provided by Californias government, the organization argued, they were covered by the ADA just the same as a sidewalk or a city bus. One of the beauties of the ADA, knocking on wood, is that its very broad, Seaborn says. But not everyone saw it that way at first: Even after the ADA was passed, Seaborn says, there was some doubt among communities and government officials about whether the ADA went beyond things like basic services. And without an explicit mandate to comply with the new law, many government agencies saw no reason to devote any part of their limited budgets to costly accessibility upgrades. Thats why DRA had to litigate even things like, Are sidewalks covered? says Seaborn. Lawsuit by lawsuit, his organization has worked to extend the reach of the ADA to the programs and services of any public entity. In 1998, the group successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that the law applied to state-run prisons. A year later, it convinced the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that Sacramentos sidewalks were covered by the ADA. Following this string of successes, the state parks agency - a publicly run program with inherent accessibility challenges - was an obvious target for ADA enforcement. The 2005 litigation culminated in a landmark settlement in which the state agreed to allocate $90 million toward improving access for people with disabilities. Today, State Parks notes that the department has completed hundreds of barrier removal and accessible projects statewide, and accessibility is continually improving. Under monitoring by Seaborns group and the design consultancy MIG, State Parks is slated to continue enhancing park accessibility through at least 2028 23 years after the legal settlement that set this work in motion. That may sound slow, until one considers the vast scale of Californias 110 state parks and other state-run public lands. Altogether, these recreation areas cover 1.4 million acres and contain more than 3,000 miles of trails. To monitor progress over this enormous area, MIG performs spot checks at 5 percent of designated project areas; to round out this limited picture, DRA solicits feedback from disabled park visitors to identify areas that may require further attention. While its not practical to keep a close eye on every potential ADA violation, the broader objective is to incentivize State Parks and other park agencies to proactively increase accessibility on their own. The goal of bringing a systemic lawsuit like this is to accomplish systemic change, says Maia Goodell, the DRA attorney overseeing this work. The hope in this process is that everybody is on the same page and nobody has to sue. But we certainly stand ready to continue to pay attention to whether the law is being followed. While the Department of Parks and Recreation is currently obligated to implement accessibility features by a consent decree, the department seems to have internalized the deeper point. DPR will continue to make accessibility improvements and maintain its inventory of accessible features, a spokeswoman says which is exactly why DRA filed suit in the first place. For a seasoned outdoorsman like Bob Coomber, disability accommodations come with pros and cons. On the one hand, he uses ramps and other wheelchair-friendly features on a daily basis. On the other, he says, I want to keep the most pristine places the way they are. The last thing I want to see is a wheelchair-accessible route over Forester Pass on the Pacific Crest Trail. We shouldnt be paving over paradise. To be fair, no one is proposing a paved route on the PCT. Trails for the hiking enthusiast who likes physical challenges thats going to be beyond what our folks are pushing for, says DRAs Seaborn. Nonetheless, this is a common concern raised in parks accessibility discussions. I think theres this misperception that were paving the world, says Bonnie Lewkowicz, who has explored many of Californias parks by wheelchair. First of all, she says, were not paving all that much. Second, I have just as much right to enjoy the parks as you do. Lewkowicz is the founder of Access Northern California, an online database shes run since 2002 to help users search for outdoor spaces and experiences that fit each individuals unique physical abilities. Since the California State Parks 2005 settlement with DRA, she says, its a little easier to find accessibility information on the departments website. For his part, Coomber, known in the outdoors community as 4 Wheel Bob, usually skips the research and just hits the trail. People will say this place is good for wheelchairs, this place is bad, but let me make that assessment. I dont want anyones opinion in there before I get to see it. That approach has certainly delivered the adventure he seeks, but it has also put him in situations most people would prefer to avoid: he has broken several chairs on the trail, not to mention his femur. When all else fails, I just scoot back to the car. It looks funny, and it takes a while, but it works, he says. But even the fiercely independent Coomber recognizes the importance of accessibility at the systemic level. In 2016, he was elected to the Livermore City Council, and despite his personal taste for physical challenge, accessibility is one of his policy priorities. I always keep in the back of my mind, he says, when we do something, how are we going to make it work for everybody? | https://www.sfchronicle.com/travel/article/Do-wheelchairs-belong-on-hiking-trails-13709018.php |
Why does Jane Philpott keep knifing her fellow Liberals? | I guess we have the answer. She would quit cabinet. She would remain an MP, fail to resign from the Liberal caucus, continue to attack the government in an election year as a matter of principle, and say in explicit terms that her fellow Liberal MPs care more about re-election than conscience. Liberal MP Jane Philpott seems bent on doing everything in her power to elect a Conservative government, and her reasons are simply unfathomable, Heather Mallick writes. ( Justin Tang / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) Equally, she would give an interview although she could use parliamentary privilege to speak candidly to hint at corruption in the SNC-Lavalin affair so complex that it might take four hours to explain. Four hours! So she told Paul Wells, a great political journalist with a preternatural ability to persuade intelligent politicians to say the silliest things. Perhaps he uses silence judiciously. And with that in a climate emergency, with young people bereft, with Donald Trump still in office were pulled back into SNC-Lavalin. My wildest fantasy: Ottawa was distributing crystal methamphetamine in diplomatic pouches until two cooks yes, the cabinet cooks meth on those rural caucus retreats plucky Jody Wilson-Raybould and Philpott, went on strike for a bigger lab. Or their own distribution deal. Or perhaps she and Wilson-Raybould were unhappy at Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus gender-equal cabinet and quit to make an obscure feminist point that frankly eludes me and many other feminists. Or she is, as she says, totally devoted to the honest burghers of Markham-Stouffville. Heres my problem with these theories. People in her riding are the same as other Canadian voters. They want a stable future for their children, an effort at preventing and preparing for the climate change that is about to devastate us, good jobs, equity for women, fairness for Indigenous people, and a national pharmacare plan. And thats why two women, presumably feminists, quit cabinet, so they could personally do less to achieve these things. I grieve to use feminist because I firmly believe that women are a lot like men. They are individuals and dont represent the cause. As it turns out, thats a good thing. Talking to Wells, Philpott spoke obsessively about Wilson-Raybould, blue-skying about what a cabinet minister under pressure and perhaps being harassed might do. In a world run by men, I usually advise such women to do a Tina Fey: go over, under and through. Live to fight another day. I have a basket of clichs at the ready. Article Continued Below Women, including cabinet ministers, have to be resilient. I have worked for and with difficult people but I am resilient. Of course, that is only because I had very large class sizes in high school, says Doug Ford. Perhaps Wilson-Raybould and Philpott were tutored. Either way, I cannot fathom their motive for doing everything in their power to elect a Conservative government headed by the embarrassment that is Andrew Scheer. MPs are well-paid and well-pensioned, as they should be. And its hard to leave the public eye. I doubt they want the leadership of any party, national or provincial, not that it will ever be on offer. Voters dont mind political manoeuvring. Thats the job. But they dont like serial knifings, which is what Philpott is doing to the prime minister and Liberal colleagues. It bothers me that Philpott was unkind enough to say of them, there are people who are afraid that theyre not going to get elected because of what I did. She doesnt mention the possibility that they fear the return of the Conservatives with their sexism, Yellow Vest pals, racism against Indigenous people and at the border, apathy about climate change, and laxity about gun control including assault weapons. Maybe political life was more than a job to many Liberal MPs. It was a call to make Canada a better place. It is possible. Both Wilson-Raybould and Philpott are good people, and I admire Philpotts immense stores of compassion. But theyre nave and new to politics, which is all about bending with the blows rather than breaking, and taking the long view. It is not pleasant to think yourself demoted, as Wilson-Raybould did with Indigenous Services and Veterans Affairs. It hurts. But I dont understand Philpotts motives for her continued knifings. If the two are waiting to be exiled and claim supreme victimhood, I say it discredits feminism, because pathetic men do this all the time. Look at former Ontario Conservative leader Patrick Brown writing Takedown: The Political Assassination of Patrick Brown its Jaccuse written by a hamster and driving around looking for a random election. Look at U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wailing. This is not my fault. I did not start this, Philpott told Wells. This is a self-help affirmation that I do not intend to post for morning guidance. It doesnt matter who started it. And I find that people who say it is not their fault are often the very people whose fault it is. Heather Mallick is a columnist based in Toronto covering current affairs. Follow her on Twitter: @HeatherMallick Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/03/22/why-does-jane-philpott-keep-knifing-her-fellow-liberals.html |
What Is Jordan Peele's 'Us' Really About? | Just as Get Out was a metaphorical story of the insidious racism that festers even in progressive circles, Jordan Peeles Us provides social critique through horror. Thankfully, Peele doesnt hammer his audience with his message; theres enough ambiguity in this film to invoke varied discussion. The following analysis is my personal take on the story, and entirely subjective. Spoilers Ahead, Obviously Us sees Adelaide and her family living a modest version of the American dream. While theyre not quite as wealthy as their neighbors, they are comfortable enough to own a holiday home. Interestingly, Adelaides husband Gabe stresses about keeping up with said neighbors, without considering that their marriage appears loveless, the rival family clearly not as happy as his own. When the invasion of the doppelgngers begins, our first reaction is of, course, terror. These people are incredibly violent and otherworldly. Adelaides doppelgnger, Red, is the only one with the ability to speak, the others communicating through hand signals and animalistic cries. But when we discover where the doppelgngers came from, the horror story twists into a sci-fi dystopia. The aggressors become the victims, as it becomes clear that these people are fighting back against a world that imprisoned them beneath the ground, living in the shadow of their originals. We sympathize with these murderous people, damaged as they are. Us is about living under the weight of guilt that comes with modern life, the knowledge that the First World is elevated by the suffering of the Third. Somewhere, unseen to us, countless individuals are enslaved and exploited, so that we can consume. The clothes we wear, the food we eat, and the cheap technology we buy are provided through supply chains that get progressively nastier the further they move away from us. We are connected to these unfortunate people, though we try not to think about them. This trail of blood only gets thicker as we move back through history, and learn about how our civilizations were founded. When young Adelaide initially visits the hall of mirrors, it is marketed as the Shamans Journey, echoing the Native American genocide that birthed America. When she returns to the hall of mirrors, it has been repackaged as the more politically correct Merlins Journey. And inside, going down the literal rabbit hole, she enters the place where the doppelgngers were born into imprisonment. Their red jumpsuits invoke prison uniforms, the white rabbits bring to mind the countless animal test subjects that have suffered, so we dont have to. The bleak underworld resembles a depressing underground mall, the inhabitants doomed to echo the actions of the people above. Without knowing it, the ordinary Americans going about their business are puppet masters to the wretched doppelgngers. But Adelaide is different. She swapped roles with her original, and thus, condemned Red to a life of suffering. In hindsight, Adelaides strangely sympathetic behavior to the psychotic doppelgnger children makes perfect sense, as does her unwillingness to converse with Kitty, and her reluctance to return to the beach. She always knew her actions would have consequences, that she didnt really belong in this world. Its a twisted version of imposter syndrome, the feeling that the life you enjoy is undeserved. Its clear that she eventually became indistinguishable from an ordinary person, meaning that all the rest of the people trapped down there also have the potential to be normal. The doppelgngers cannot speak because nobody ever taught them to, they were driven mad by their living circumstances. We are all monsters, the film seems to be saying. The sins of the past and present corrupt our comfortable lives, sparking symptoms of discontent, depression, a pervading sense of guilt and unease. Red, the original Adelaide, lived a life she always knew was wrong, and her grand scheme to unite the doppelgngers in a line of solidarity will ultimately fail. The final shot shows the helicopters circling the doppelgngers - we know their rebellion is already over. Ironically, the gesture was inspired by the activism Red saw on television as a child, a human chain organized to end world hunger. That charitable event too, was practically futile, merely an acknowledgment that there are others out there who are living in hell, a feel-good event for those involved, and nothing more. Adelaide traded her suffering for someone elses happiness, and shes not the only one. Adelaide and Red are identical, one simply a victim of circumstance, reacting to her immense suffering with violence. Adelaide got away with it, and in her final appearance, she smiles, knowing that its over. Its pretty unsettling to think that most of us would do the exact same thing, in her circumstance. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/03/22/what-is-jordan-peeles-us-really-about/ |
What Is McDonald's Expected Revenue And EBITDA in FY 2019? | McDonalds (NYSE: MCD) released its full year results on January 30, 2019. The company beat the consensus earnings but missed slightly on revenue for the 4th Quarter. This was primarily due to the refranchising of its restaurants that has been under process for a couple of years mow. The companys long-term goal is for 95% of McDonalds restaurants to be owned by franchisees, and at the end of FY 2018, this figure stood at 92.7%. Overall the company posted revenue of $21.03 billion while earnings were at $7.50, up 18% year on year as the refranchising strategy has also helped them in cutting down costs and thus improving margins. Global comparable sales also improved by 4.5% YOY. Based on Trefis analysis, we have maintained our long-term price estimate for McDonalds at $196, which is around 5% ahead of the current market price. We have created an interactive dashboard on McDonalds Revenue And EBITDA Breakdown, which details our forecasts for the company in the near term. You can modify our assumptions to see the impact any changes would have on the companys revenue and EBITDA. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Overall we expect the company to generate around $21.5 billion in revenues, up by 2.3% year on year and $11.5 billion in EBITDA, up by nearly 12% year on year. Out of the total expected revenues from 2019, $8.05 is expected from the US segment, closely followed by International Lead Markets segment at $7.8 billion. For High growth markets our estimate is $4.01 billion while for Foundation Markets and corporate it is $1.7 billion. The overall revenue is still less than the number achieved in FY 2017 mainly due to the refranchising strategy of the company which translates into better earnings but lesser growth or negative growth in the near term in the top line. In the US the company is executing significant initiatives in making foundational changes in the business and staying focused on the customers. Still, in 2018, they grew sales while continuing to invest billions of dollars in the restaurants. In 2019 we expect them to continue the growth for revenue and also improve the EBITDA margin. International lead market segment grew on the back of UK, where they now have 51 consecutive quarters of like-for-like sales growth with simultaneously increasing its share, and Australia with offerings such as the successful all-day favorites and the benefit of rising delivery sales. We expect these two regions to continue to add to the growth of the segment. We saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue of High growth markets in 2018 due to an impairment charge and refranchising in China and HongKong. Moving forward in 2019 we expect the segment to gain its previous traction and improve its EBITDA margin, too. Foundation Markets and Corporate saw a fall in EBITDA and revenue. The fall was mostly driven by higher investments in technology in the corporate segment and the company expects the same to continue for another year before the segment stabilizes. Overall, McDonalds is expected to do well in FY 2019 in terms of revenue and earnings on the back of refranchising, technological initiatives, new launches, and increasing share in certain markets. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/22/what-is-mcdonalds-expected-revenue-and-ebitda-in-fy-2019/ |
Does Anybody Really Want What Apple's (Probably) Offering? | Getty The Silicon Valley trades have been just about roaring with delight over what will allegedly be Apples big TV announcement next week. Seems those mavericks are going to reinvent the bundle. Kinda, sorta, not really. What they are allegedly doing is packaging up a bunch of streaming services like Showtime, Starz and HBO, and letting you get a full year subscription for less than it would cost you to subscribe to each individually. Plus, you get a bunch of new original shows from Apple as part of the package. On paper it sounds sort of interesting, but lets dive a little deeper into the proposition. Subscribing and unsubscribing to HBO and Showtime is a hassle if you have them as part of your cable bundle. Theres some magical math the provider does that somehow makes it seem like youre paying less if you add some premium cable stations as part of your Super Platinum Plus bundle, and cancelling means spending hours on a phone chain and arguing with a rep who is incentivized to talk you out of cancelling. So theres that. But if you have a Roku or Amazon Fire TV, you can easily subscribe and unsubscribe from HBO or Showtime via the apps. No one will argue with you and it will take all of five minute. Whats more, you can subscribe via your Roku or Amazon account, as both companies already have a system that lets you manage all your subscriptions. So while the Apple offering will be useful to people with Apple TVs, but its a me too offering, not an innovation. I can understand why HBO, Showtime and Starz might want to lock people in for a year right now, but Im not really getting whats in it for consumers. (And lets be real: the cost savings of just a one-month cancellation to any of these services is likely to equal the savings from signing up for a full-year subscription.) There's also the fact that it seems that Apple is going to launch with just a few of the smaller streaming services which means they're not likely bundling a big percentage of most people's streaming bill, which further reduces the service's usefulness. Well, one could argue, there is all that new original programming that Apple is going to be offering for free. Which brings up yet another yes, but You see, youll only be able to watch those shows on an actual television set if you have a $179 Apple TV device. And a $179 Apple TV device is not something a whole lot of people have. (Nor should they, given that they are in no way superior to a $29 Roku or Amazon Fire TV device.) Apples new shows can also be watched on a few models of Samsung TV, and, it seems likely, viewers will also be able to stream them to their Roku devices using Airplay 2. Something I can all but assure you that very few people will be bothered to figure out how to do. Now Apples announcement may not turn out to be a total bust. There are also rumors theyll include a program guide of sorts for all your subscription services. Thats yet another not a bad idea on paper as one of the biggest complaints I hear about the all-app ecosystem is that its hard to figure out how to find anything. But thats because people forget whether that new series Russian Doll their friend told them about is on Netflix or HBO or FX, not what time its on, so the guide is likely to be of limited use, especially since its not particularly all-encompassing. Bundle 2.0 Apple has deep pockets and a loyal fan base plus millions of iPhone users worldwide. That gives them bandwidth to figure this all out and to iterate. The lessons they learn selling Bundle 1.0 may prove valuable to them in launching Bundle 2.0, which is definitely something I see happening in the post-Flixcopalyptic TV industry, as astronomical churn rates cause both subscription services and vMVPDs to see bundling as the best way to increase stickiness. Future bundles will likely include non-TV media platforms with monthly subscriptions, like music streaming and newspapers and magazines. (Similar to what Hulu and Spotify are already doing, but only on a more massive scale.) As for Apple, well find out what theyre really up to next week. At which point it may make sense to revisit this piece. Or not. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/alanwolk/2019/03/22/does-anybody-really-want-what-apples-probably-offering/ |
What Makes People Heed A Weather Warning Or Not? | "We have not had anything of this nature before." It's something commonly heard in the aftermath of deadly disasters. It's what Alabama Sheriff Jay Jones said after a tornado killed 23 people in Lee County earlier this month. And it helps explain how residents got caught so off guard the twister was the most violent to hit the area in recent memory, so for many, it was unprecedented. Invisibilia, the show about the invisible forces that shape human behavior, is back with Season 5. The new episode follows Alabama meteorologist James Spann as he grapples with the aftermath of one of the worst tornado outbreaks in the state's history and tries to understand how people process weather warnings. And it looks at what we can all learn from him about how to handle uncertainty. Yet even an unprecedented twister can be predicted. Meteorologists had warned of severe weather a day before it struck Lee County. The issue is how people interpret these warnings, says Kim Klockow McClain, a research scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies. "We often hear the individuals who get on TV that say, 'Things hit without warning' or that they didn't believe this would happen to them," she says. "As a social scientist, I say there's a lot in these stories. We need to get out there and do a better job of understanding their perspective." For the past eight years, Klockow McClain has traveled to hard-hit cities and towns to understand why people got killed in storms that she says "really should be survivable as long as people can get to the right shelter." She's heading out to Lee County next week to talk with survivors, emergency managers and meteorologists about why the tornado an EF-4 with winds that reached 170 mph was so deadly. Klockow McClain spoke with NPR about what past disasters have revealed about the way people process warnings of severe weather and then how they respond. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Meteorologists can often predict when a storm is going to hit, and yet people still get caught up and killed in these storms, like the one in Lee County. We give people days of alert that their general region may be threatened. But people are really savvy about this. They know that even if a region in general is at risk, that doesn't necessarily mean there will be a tornado that hits their house. So people wait until things get quite close until they make those calls. For tornadoes, they typically wait until they're under a warning and then there's just a couple of minutes. Then all they can really do is shelter in place. So people are basically saying, "I get that my region is vulnerable, but that doesn't mean it'll come near my house." Yes, that's right. People are doing what we call "confirming the threat." And they do this, from what I've found, on a continuous basis. They'll be watching, and maybe they'll go get their children. But they won't necessarily take shelter until things get a little bit closer. I've found that visual cues were very important. People are driven to go look outside. That's one of the most common things people do when they hear sirens, they look outside. This confirmation process is baked into our brains, but it's just not easy to do in the Southeast. The landscape doesn't lend itself to people seeing what's going on very well it's hilly, it's treed, tornadoes happen at night. Alabama is full of people who have weathered their fair share of storms and been fine until a big one hits. People do tend to base their future decisions on what happens in the past. We call this "the shadow effect." After Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Rita was headed for the Houston area and there was a mass evacuation. People were just not going to mess with it. So people learn from their direct experiences and watching the experiences of people nearby. But there's also an interesting localized effect especially for tornadoes. When people go through multiple tornadoes, they learn from those events and some of the lessons they carry away are a little bit interesting. Yes, this is folk science. The most interesting example was a community in Mississippi where everyone believed there was a waterway to their west that prevented tornadoes. So the sheriff of the community, at the direction of the mayor, went a mile south along the waterway to watch as a storm was coming in. The mayor said, "If it crosses the waterway, let us know and then we'll shelter." And it started to cross the waterway. The sheriff had just enough time to drive quickly back up the road to the town. I was astonished. The idea had been socialized so strongly that people acted in concert to monitor the waterway instead of just the weather forecast and radar. The best thing we can do now is really understand where these beliefs come from. I liken it to medical practice, where you have a diagnosis phase and then you have a treatment phase. I would say social science as applied to weather forecasting is still in the diagnosis phase. We're just learning these effects even exist. Before we can know what to say about it, we need to do clinical trials. We need to experiment with different communication strategies. My advice to emergency managers in these local areas is to be aware of what these populations are saying. If you live in the community, you know about these localized features; you know they aren't going to protect them much. Emergency managers should know that while these sayings might be funny, they can mean that people are less prepared. So it's on the emergency manager to step up their preparedness. | https://www.npr.org/2019/03/22/705455226/what-makes-people-heed-a-weather-warning-or-not?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
Is Apple about to expand its TV business? | Invitations to an event at its Cupertino campus on Monday simply saying "It's show time" have sparked speculation that the tech giant could be about to announce its next TV steps. Apple needs to diversify and find a new ways of bringing in cash as iPhone sales slow down, analysts say. But in an unforgiving media landscape, Apple is expected to launch a challenge to the likes of Netflix. Apple kicked off its TV ambitions in 1993 with Mackintosh TV, which didn't get very far. Its first major foray into the area was in 2007, when it first started selling its Apple TV console. This has had limited success compared with its iTunes music service, analysts say. Jim Nail, principal analyst at Forrester, says: "Apple has had a TV device and content library for several years, following the model around music that revolutionised that industry. "But people consume TV and music content very differently so just applying the music model didn't have the same impact." Apple TV's hardware and technology platform is used to rent and sell content through iTunes. Image copyright CBS/YouTube Image caption James Corden got a bit emotional on Paul McCartney's Carpool Karaoke The firm has released original titles through Apple Music, including Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps, a reality show about app development. Since 2007, Apple has also had some success in distributing movies and TV shows, according to Canalys analyst Ben Stanton. However, he adds: "Its iTunes movies business is under huge threat from affordable streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and soon Disney. "It was a success in its day, but Apple now needs to evolve this business or it will die." Apple has built up relationships with major movie studios and TV networks, and these are "critical" for it to launch a subscription service, Mr Stanton says, because it needs to have more content than just its own original shows. But some big players have said they are not on board. Netflix has already ruled out making its TV programmes and films available through Apple's subscription service, with chief executive Reed Hastings saying: "We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service." Apple has been on a $2bn spending spree, signing up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, for original content. Jennifer Aniston and Reece Witherspoon are also widely reported to have been signed up. Directors and producers including M. Night Shyamalan and J.J. Abrams have been signed up, according to showbiz publication Variety, as well as Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television. Apple also hired two well-respected Sony Pictures executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, to head its original content division. Image copyright Kevin Winter Image caption Oprah Winfrey has signed up to a multi-year content deal with Apple As for the service itself, Jim Nail of Forrester says: "As usual, Apple is so closely guarding the details that it is hard to judge it. And the price matters a lot. As they say in the TV business, stay tuned..." It may also allow customers to buy subscriptions to CBS, Viacom and Lions Gate, and is also in discussions with Game of Thrones maker HBO to become part of its service, according to Reuters. Netflix "is the biggest fish in this particular pond", says Ben Stanton, and Netflix and Apple "have been at loggerheads recently". The streaming giant is shifting its subscription model away from the Apple App store, which means it will be much harder for Apple to make money from Netflix customers on its iOS operating system. In terms of content, Amazon Prime has a number of irons in the fire, including an upcoming series based on JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings mythology, Radio Times reports. Image copyright Sky Atlantic Image caption A new series of Game of Thrones is due out in April Amazon Prime includes Channels, where consumers in the US can sign up to third parties such as HBO and Showtime. HBO is due to premiere season eight of its smash hit series Game of Thrones in April. The BBC and ITV also announced recently that they are in talks over launching a service called Britbox in the UK. Smartphone sales are slowing for many major manufacturers, including Apple, says Ben Stanton, but most other companies have big businesses to fall back on. "Huawei has its infrastructure business. Samsung has a very profitable components division, not to mention its TV business. But Apple is extremely dependent on iPhone," he says. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Apple chief Tim Cook wants to shift the firm's focus to services Apple chief executive Tim Cook has said he wants to focus the company on selling services rather than just hardware in a major shift in strategy. Apple is "sacrificing some of the profitability in its iPhone business" to try to push up the number of people using iOS, so it can sell services to them and to its existing user base, Mr Stanton says. Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis adds: "iPhone sales are slowing so it makes sense for Apple to further diversify its business. "Video viewing is growing, the Amazon Channels model has been successful for Amazon and the third party services alike, and with a massive base of iPhone and iPad users there is quite a lot of potential." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47657414 |
What does the Mueller report say and what does it mean for Trump? | We dont know yet. We know that Mueller has filed his report to William Barr, the attorney general, and that Barr has informed Congress that he received it. Mueller was only required, under the regulations on special counsels, to explain to Barr whom he decided to prosecute, whom he declined to prosecute, and why. But it is possible that he added more detail on what he found out. A justice department official said on Friday the report was comprehensive. Barr did disclose on Friday that there were no actions proposed by Mueller that Barr overruled. This means that Mueller apparently made it to the end of his investigation free from interference from Trumps administration. The report is likely to reveal whether or not Mueller discovered any coordination between Trumps presidential campaign and Russian operatives who interfered in the 2016 election. Trump has repeatedly denied that there was any such coordination, and no Americans have yet been charged for it. But Mueller has accused Trumps former campaign chairman of sharing polling data with an alleged Russian intelligence asset. The report may also say whether or not Muellers team concluded that Trump obstructed justice or attempted to by firing James Comey, the former FBI director, or taking other actions. It is not clear how much of the report will be given to Congress and the public. Barr said in his letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate judiciary committees on Friday that he was reviewing the report and may be in a position to advise you of the special counsels principal conclusions as soon as this weekend. Barr said he would separately be discussing with Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, what other information could be revealed to Congress and the public. The attorney general told Congress that he was committed to as much transparency as possible but said he would also be guided by the justice departments long-standing practices and policies. Typically the department does not make public derogatory information about people who are not being charged. In any case Democrats, who control the House, have vowed to obtain the full report and make it public. If Barr resists this, a legal dispute may follow. Mueller documented, in lengthy and detailed indictments, a long-term and multi-level effort by Russia to tamper in US elections and sow discord online. Muellers documentation of the Russian espionage and sabotage efforts contrasted with Trumps equivocation on whether Russia had engaged in such activity. Mueller also uncovered and documented ties and contacts, before and after the 2016 election, between Russians and key former Trump aides including Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos and Michael Cohen. All have pleaded guilty to criminal conduct or been convicted by a jury. Mueller had also referred investigations to outside prosecutors offices in New York and Virginia, which have resulted in convictions against or guilty pleas from Manafort, Cohen and Gates, and which have led to ongoing investigations of alleged criminal conduct inside the Trump Organization, the Trump Foundation, Trumps inaugural committee and the presidential transition team. In all, Mueller had previously indicted or secured guilty pleas from 34 individuals (including 26 Russians and six former Trump aides) and three Russian corporations. With near unanimity, former prosecutors and legal analysts have judged Muellers work to have been completed with speed and precision. Mueller was appointed on 17 May 2017, to serve as special counsel for the Department of Justice. The appointment was prompted by the firing of the FBI director, James Comey, eight days earlier; the recusal of the then attorney general, Jeff Sessions, from matters pertaining to the Russia investigation; and a perceived need to protect and advance open investigations into Russian election tampering and the Trump campaign. An official letter of authorization signed by the acting attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, authorized Mueller to investigate (quoting from the document): (i) any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump; and (ii) any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation; and (iii) any other matters within the scope of [the statute prescribing the special counsels jurisdiction]. Mueller turned in his report 650 days after his appointment. By the end of last December, the investigation had cost about $27m, Politifact estimated a fraction of the cost of special prosecutor investigations in decades past. Accounting for the estimated $48m that Muellers team has clawed back from tax cheats, the net cost of the Mueller investigation could be negative. Yes, lots. While the special counsels office has concluded its work, investigations taken up by federal prosecutors in the southern and eastern districts of New York continue, and prosecutors have also been active in the eastern district of Virginia and the District of Columbia. Unlike Mueller, those prosecutors are not bound by narrow authorizations dictating what activity they can investigate, and there is no pressure to hasten the investigations. Congress is conducting separate investigations of Trumps campaign and other matters. Evidence gathered by Mueller could feed those investigations. Muellers duties connected with his appointment as special counsel are now complete, and he is not expected to take on a further public role. Before agreeing to the special counsel appointment, Mueller, 74, was in private practice, after having served for 12 years as director of the FBI, as a US attorney, and as a marine. He has not announced future plans. | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/22/mueller-report-what-it-says-what-does-it-mean-for-trump |
Who is Robert Mueller, the 'pain in the ass' who took on Trump? | Friday evening brought news of the completion and submission of a long-awaited report by special counsel Robert Mueller, about alleged collusion between aides to Donald Trump and Russian operatives. Mueller report: special counsel delivers findings of Trump-Russia inquiry Read more Mueller submitted the report to the attorney general, William Barr, who said in a letter to members of Congress he may be in position to advise them of its principal conclusions as soon as this weekend. Calls for the release of the full report followed immediately. The president, who was at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, did not immediately respond. But in close to two years since the former FBI director started work, he has repeatedly attacked his credibility. In doing so, he has not merely been trying to knock down an investigation Mueller built with stunning speed since he was appointed special counsel in May 2017. He has been attacking his very reputation. The formidable edifice of Muellers personal reputation built over a 50-year career as a public servant, which began with voluntary conscription in the US Marine Corps at age 21, featured multiple distinguished turns as a federal prosecutor and culminated with the top job at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Along the way, Mueller, 74, won a reputation among Republicans and Democrats alike as an intimidatingly hardworking, methodical and serious straight-shooter for whom personal integrity and adherence to the justice department playbook have always been granite-etched fact. He is probably Americas straightest arrow, very by-the-book, very professional, Garrett M Graff, whose book The Threat Matrix studied how Mueller transformed the FBI after the 9/11 attacks, previously told the Guardian. He is so straight, he always wears a white shirt, Thomas B Wilner, a longtime friend, told the Washington Post last year. Hes a pain in the ass in many ways because he is so straight Hes conscious that hes a public figure, and he doesnt want anything to compromise his integrity. Even a blue shirt. Muellers seriousness of purpose has been on display throughout his investigation, which within six months had won a guilty plea from former national security adviser Michael Flynn, for lying to investigators. As Trump has tweeted and raged, repeatedly calling Muellers work a witch-hunt, Mueller has remained silent, allowing his work to do the talking. Mueller has indicted or secured guilty pleas from 34 individuals and three companies, including six former Trump aides, five of whom pleaded guilty: Roger Stone has pleaded not guilty, while Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen pleaded guilty). The special counsel is estimated to have clawed back at least $48m through tax fraud cases. Read more Child of privilege, called to serve Despite their radically different personal paths, Mueller and Trump, 72, are contemporaries born in New York City to wealth and privilege. Trump, who reportedly had inherited $1m of his fathers real-estate fortune by age eight, was packaged off to military school and graduated with an economics degree from the Wharton School in Pennsylvania. Mueller, the son of a navy officer turned chemicals executive, was sent to the exclusive St Pauls boarding school in New Hampshire and graduated from Princeton. After the school years, the two mens lives diverged sharply. While Trump escaped military service via a diagnosis of bone spurs made by a physician who rented his office from Trumps father, Mueller signed up for the Vietnam war at the bloody height of the conflict. He was shot through the thigh and would be recognized with a Bronze Star for valor in combat, a Purple Heart and other decorations. Second Lieutenant Muellers courage, aggressive initiative and unwavering devotion to duty at great personal risk were instrumental in the defeat of the enemy force, the commendation for his Bronze Star read. Upon his return to the US, Mueller earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and began his career as a federal prosecutor, spending six years in the US attorneys office in San Francisco and six in the equivalent office in Boston. After the election of George HW Bush in 1988, Mueller, a lifelong Republican, moved to the justice department in Washington, in short order taking charge of the criminal division, where he oversaw prosecutions of the Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, the Pan Am flight 103 bombing suspects and organized crime cases. After a stint in private practice, Mueller signed up to prosecute homicides in 1995 in Washington DC, and was credited with turning the department around. His subsequent work as US attorney in Californias northern district won similar praise, and in July 2001, George W Bush nominated him as FBI director. The 9/11 attacks fell one week after Mueller was sworn in. Bobs a good Marine, his deputy, Tom Pickard, told Graff for a 2008 profile. He was very cool under fire. Mueller was at the office around 5am and would work until 11 or midnight, wrote Graff. Every day he showed up pressed, clean, and ready for more. Muellers challenge in the ensuing years was to implement a technological and organizational revolution in the bureau, and to manage a shift in its traditional role from a focus on prosecuting crimes to preventing terrorist attacks. Muellers adherence to the law brought him into conflict with the Bush administration as it built new counter-terrorism tools. In 2004, Mueller and his justice department superior at the time, deputy attorney general James Comey, came within hours of resigning over the planned reauthorization of a dragnet domestic wiretapping program, which Mueller and Comey believed to be illegal. The program was not reauthorized. When Mueller came to the end of his 10-year term as FBI director, his leadership was the object of such bipartisan admiration that the US Senate, at Barack Obamas request, voted 100-0 to change the law to extend Muellers tenure, which lasted until 2013. Mueller had spent four years in the private sector by May 2017, when Comey, not yet halfway through his own term as FBI director, was fired by Trump, a move that led to Muellers appointment as special counsel a pivotal moment wheretheir paths crossed once again. | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/22/robert-mueller-report-donald-trump-russia |
Will We Ever Hear from Robert Mueller? | For nearly two years, Robert Mueller has been a silent participant in American government. Tasked by the Justice Department with investigating Russias attack on the 2016 election, he communicated with the public only through court filingsindictments, motions, plea deals. SightingsRobert Mueller at the Apple Store, Robert Mueller at the same airport gate as Donald Trump, Jr.were enough to make news. On Friday, Mueller concluded his investigation and maintained his silence. It was left to William Barr, the new Attorney General, to tell Congress that hed received a report from Mueller, and would be reviewing it in the coming days to determine what Congress and the public can be told of its findings. While Mueller was working, Democrats often interpreted his silence as a great strength, a sign that his investigation was far removed from the everyday scrums and tweet drama of Donald Trumps Washington. Minutes after Barr disclosed his receipt of the Mueller report, leading Democratsincluding much of the 2020 fielddemanded its immediate release. As my colleague David Rohde noted on Friday, if Barr refuses to make the report public, House Democrats have vowed to subpoena Mueller himself. Surely, there will be debate about Justice Department policies and practices if it comes to that. For Mueller to testify would be an extraordinary step. But he was appointed in extraordinary circumstances, because senior Justice Department officials realized that public trust in government was at stake. Many Americans were expecting Mueller, when he was done, to be forthcoming about what he found. Preserving public trust now means breaking the silence, in one form or another. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/current/will-we-ever-hear-from-robert-mueller |
Why are nets appearing over trees and hedges? | Image caption The Wildlife Aid charity says this netting in Guildford was put in place to stop birds nesting so that the trees can eventually be removed It's finally spring, the time of year when the flowers bloom, the sun is out for longer and birds are nesting. But nesting is not being made easy in many parts of England, with increased reports of developers covering hedges and trees with netting. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says developers do this to make it easier for them to remove greenery when the time comes, as although it's an offence to destroy an active nest, there are no laws to prevent the installation of nets to stop birds nesting in the first place. One of several high-profile figures to condemn the practice is naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, who has described it as "ghastly" and the "antithesis of everything conservation stands for". The RSPB - which says the UK has lost more than 40 million birds in the past 50 years - has now asked the government to address this issue. Image caption Hedgerows covered with orange netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust says netting "seems to be an increasingly common practice", which it's seeing "more and more on developments", while the Woodland Trust believes it's been happening for a few years. The representative body of the homebuilding industry, the Home Builders Federation (HBF), says installing this type of netting is not a new thing but as it's not aware of anyone who monitors its use, the organisation can't comment on whether the practice is on the rise. Image caption Outline planning permission was given for a development on this site in Warwickshire three years ago Netting is being spotted all over England, often in places where preparation work is being carried out for planned housing developments. In Guildford, 11 trees have been covered by Sladen Estates, which is aiming to build 191 homes on a derelict site, and netting has appeared on hedgerows in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Taylor Wimpey intends to build a 270-home development. Image caption A spokesman for Solihull Retail Park says these nets are to ensure birds are protected during redevelopment work Image caption Green netting has been spotted in Rocks Green near Ludlow in Shropshire In Tuffley, Gloucester, blue and green netting has been installed, while in Darlington, a dead sparrow was caught in black netting on land where homes are set to be built. Darlington Green Party says residents are tying green ribbons to hedges and trees in protest. Some netting has come down, however. Tesco removed nets installed at a store in Norwich after criticism from bird-lovers on social media. Yes, although the RSPB says there are legal responsibilities such as fitting the netting properly and checking it regularly to make sure birds and animals aren't trapped. Image copyright PA Image caption Broadcaster and naturalist Chris Packham says this "ghastly new netting practice has to stop" The great and the good have criticised the practice, including author Philip Pullman, who described the Guildford tree covering as "wicked", and TV presenter Jake Humphrey, who called the Tesco netting in Norwich "nonsense". A petition calling for netting hedgerows to become a criminal offence has more than 36,000 signatures and a campaign has been started asking people to send photographs of netting to their local authority, including the #NestingNotNets hashtag, with details about the location. Dr Rob Lambert, an environmental academic from the University of Nottingham and vice principal of Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, says the reaction of the public "expresses the real connection we have with nature". Dr Lambert, who says 25 million people across the country regularly feed birds in their gardens, believes the netting issue has struck a chord. "There is an incredible sense of 'what have we become and why are we doing this?'" he says. "I can absolutely see the pressure housing developers are under but we have to find a way forward where nature does not come last." Image caption Netting erected to protect the trolley area from bird droppings at this Tesco store in Norwich has been taken down William Davis Homes, which has covered hedges in netting in Radcliffe-on-Trent in Nottinghamshire, says it was given permission to access the site in November. A spokeswoman said: "The works are being carried out in compliance with planning consent, observing the requirements of Countryside and Wildlife Act and following industry best practice." Developer Sladen Estates, which aims to build 191 homes in Guildford, says it took advice on the use of the netting. Andrew Whitaker, from the Home Builders Federation, says: "Netting trees aligns with the relevant environmental requirements in instances where it has been agreed with the local authority that a tree has to be replaced." He adds: "Last year, house builders planted about nine million trees and shrubs, making the industry one of the nation's biggest providers of new trees. "As we build the homes the country needs, the industry is committed to bio-diversity, proactively acting to protect birds and providing a net increase in the number of trees." Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The practice has been widely criticised as detrimental to birds and other wildlife Jack Taylor, from the Woodland Trust, believes putting up netting shows "an alarming disregard for the welfare of wildlife". "While not an illegal practice, we consider that netting hedges and trees during the nesting and breeding season is inappropriate," he says. An RSPB spokesman says we "cannot keep trying to squeeze nature into smaller and smaller spaces or demanding it fits in with our plans". "We are looking to the government to not just ask planners and developers to think about whether it is necessary to remove the trees and hedgerows that are vital for supporting our wildlife, but to ensure that developers replace what they take away." Image caption Green netting covering a hedgerow in Hilton, Derbyshire A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) says it wants developments to "enhance our natural environment" and has announced plans to require developers to deliver a "biodiversity net gain". The Defra-sponsored body Natural England says it doesn't regulate the use of netting on trees, but that it's "essential that developers look at the most suitable option for complying with the necessary regulations". It says alternatives to netting, such as scaring off birds or restricting access to food sources, can be useful management tools to guide animals away from particular areas. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47627749 |
How many Colorado drivers were arrested for DUI over St. Patricks Day weekend? | Colorado State Patrol and local police arrested 293 impaired drivers over St. Patricks Day weekend, a decrease from 2018 celebrations, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced in a news release Friday. Denver police recorded the most arrests of any city with 31 people getting citations, followed by Colorado Springs with 26 and Aurora with 15. The state patrol made 38 arrests. Law enforcement made 323 arrests for impaired drivers last year, the release said. CDOT pointed to its free ride-sharing offer, which provided rides to drivers who pledged not to drive impaired. More than 4,200 took the sober-driving pledge, CDOT said. | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/22/st-patricks-day-dui/ |
Do Bonuses For Teachers Lead To Math Test Score Gains For Kids? | Getty Royalty Free Low-performing schools in high-poverty areas struggle to attract and retain teachers. In a recent study published in the journal Economics of Education Review, researchers explored the impact of teacher bonuses on teacher retention and student test scores in math and reading. High-poverty schools in Tennessee. As part of a one-year pilot program, 473 teachers who were ranked as "highest-rated" based on state evaluation criteria and were working at "priority schools" were offered one-time, $5,000 retention bonuses with the stipulation that they stay at their schools the following year, a news release notes. (Priority schools were ones with the lowest percentage of students rated as proficient or advanced in math, reading/language arts and science in third through eighth grade.) The teacher evaluations were based on principal observations in class, student perception surveys, reviews of prior evaluations, and student test score growth. The study explored the impact of those bonuses on both teacher retention and student test scores after one year. Of the teachers who were offered the bonus, 321 of them stayed and 152 left, so the retention rate for those teachers for the school year for which the bonus was offered was about 68 percent. "While impacts on math scores were only marginally significant, students still scored higher in this subject area in the years following the bonus distribution," according to the news release, which also notes that "priority schools that participated in the bonus program saw a significant improvement in reading test scores among students compared to similar non-participant schools in subsequent years, even after the retention bonus was removed." The extent to which a $5,000 bonus incentivized STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) teacher retention is also uncertain, the news release notes. There are widespread shortages of teachers for these subjects and many teachers in these areas hold advanced degrees in their subject areas, so an offer of a $5,000 one-time bonus may not have been enough to promote retention of these teachers. "As long as there are schools with high concentrations of racially and economically disadvantaged students, we must have a policy imperative to keep effective teachers from leaving these challengingalbeit rewardingworking environments," according to the study. The "modest in magnitude" results "highlight the potential of targeted incentives as a tool for minimizing the harm caused by high rates of turnover among highly effective teachers in racially and economically isolated schools. Additionally, the findings support the hypothesis that even modest increases in the retention of effective teachers in low-performing schools, where turnover is high and replacement teachers tend to be less effective or less experienced on average, can measurably improve student learning," the researchers added. In an article about the study on Education Week's Teaching Now blog, Walker Swain, an assistant professor of education policy at the University of Georgia and lead author of the study, told article author Sarah Schwartz that implementing retention bonuses could cost less overall than the recruiting and training costs associated with high teacher turnover. What's more, the retention-focused maneuver could also stabilize schools. It amounts to an equity issue. "In Tennessee, low-scoring schools tended to serve students from low-income families and students of color, Schwartz wrote. "If you're losing your effective, experienced teachers and replacing them with new teachers who get paid at a lower rate ... then the amount of money that's getting spent on these kids in high-poverty schools is less than the kids who are getting taught by the $60,000 teacher with a master's and performance pay," Swain told Schwartz. This post is the third part of a project I'm embarking on exploring the different aspects of ensuring that every kid in the U.S. receives a quality mathematics education suited to their needs, aptitudes and interests. As I create additional posts for this series, I will include the links to them below. Part Two: "Why Solving Fewer Math Problems May Actually Benefit Some Kids" | https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelcrowell/2019/03/23/do-bonuses-for-teachers-lead-to-math-test-score-gains-for-kids/ |
What time, TV channel is Oregons second round game of NCAA Tournament? | SAN JOSE, Calif. The game time and television network are set for Oregon basketballs second-round game of the NCAA Tournament. No. 12 seed Oregon (24-12) will play No. 13 seed UC Irvine (31-5) at approximately 6:40 p.m. PT Sunday in San Jose, Calif. on TBS. Spero Dedes, Len Elmore, Steve Smith and Ros Gold-Onwude will be on the call for the game, which will begin roughly 30 minutes after the conclusion of the earlier game, which is set for 4:10 p.m. PT. The Ducks, who defeated Wisconsin, opened as 5-point favorites over the Anteaters, who defeated Kansas State. If Oregon wins, it will face the winner of the No. 1 seed Virginia and No. 9 seed Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Louisville, Ky. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/03/what-time-tv-channel-is-oregons-second-round-game-of-ncaa-tournament.html |
Are genetic tests useful to predict cancer? | The health secretarys call for tests to be rolled out on NHS was met with controversy The health secretary, Matt Hancock, this week shared his shock at discovering that he is at greater than average risk for prostate cancer, despite having no family history of the disease. The revelation came after he took a predictive genetic test that assesses risk for 16 common diseases, including coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, asthma and breast and prostate cancers. Hancock said the test might have saved his life and that such tests should be urgently rolled out on the NHS, to guide screening programs and the age at which drugs like statins are prescribed. However the suggestion was immediately met with controversy. Some claim that the usefulness of predictive DNA tests has been overstated, pointing to the fact that, while Hancock described his own 15% lifetime risk of prostate cancer as high, it was only marginally above the population average risk of 12%. UK breast cancer death rates falling fastest in big six of Europe Read more Until now, genetic testing for disease risk has largely focused on versions of single gene that confer a substantial amount of risk, such as BRCA for breast cancer. The latest predictive tests for a range of common diseases take a different approach: they aggregate the tiny contributions to risk made by hundreds or even thousands of genes to give a personalised score. Because the risk is spread out over many genes, people can end up at the very high-risk end of the spectrum by chance, without having a family history of a particular illness. Seven key facts Show Hide Our genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, which forms double helix strands inside the nuclei of our bodies cells. DNA contains information that is passed from generation to generation and directs the development of our bodies. Scientists began studying ancient DNA 20 years ago when Svante Pbo used gene amplification techniques to extract and analyse genetic material from Neanderthals. At first only fragments of Neanderthal DNA could be studied, but by developing techniques to piece together small overlapping fragments, it was possible to recreate the entire set of genes, or genome, of a Neanderthal. Subsequent research showed that most people outside Africa contain small numbers of Neanderthal genes, the result of interbreeding between the two species as modern humans emerged from their African homeland about 70,000 years ago. In 2010 scientists discovered the genome of a completely new human species in bone and tooth fragments found in the Denisova cave, Siberia. These people are now known as Denisovans. Research published last year suggests that modern humans interbred with both Neanderthals and Denisovans on numerous occasions over the past 250,000 years. Genomics Plc, the Oxford-based data science company that provided the health secretary with personalised risk scores, has just released results showing the extent to which predictive DNA tests can reveal the likelihood of diseases from cancers to asthma and coronary heart disease. Based on data from 160,000 men (UK Biobank participants), it found that those who scored in the top 1% in terms of risk for heart disease had the same risk at 45 years old as an average man at 60-65 and one of the lowest risk men in their mid-70s. When the scientists looked more closely at common characteristics of the high-risk men, they found they had slightly higher cholesterol, BMI and blood pressure but not extraordinarily high. Prof Peter Donnelly, a statistical geneticist and CEO of Genomics Plc, said: Many of them are individuals who would be invisible to the health system currently. Theyre happily wandering around the streets at much higher risk of heart disease but not aware of it. If you were one of these men thats potentially helpful to know. Similarly for breast cancer, the top 1% of women based on genetic risk score had a 30% lifetime risk of breast cancer, while the lowest 5% had a 2%-3% lifetime risk. Genomics said its tests cost 20-40 per person, much lower than the 500-1,000 cost to sequence a whole genome. The world were in, where we screen women just based on age and offer mammography at 50, just doesnt make sense, said Donnelly. We should be screening these women much earlier. Prof John Bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford university who led a recent government-commissioned review of the life sciences industry, said the approach could have a quite profound effect on the ability to manage disease. Read more Currently, he said, screening programmes face huge problems: they are expensive, they give lots of false positives and miss people such as women in their early forties who never enter routine screening for breast cancer, but who have a high genetic risk. Its all slightly hopeless, he said. This is exactly what we need. David Spiegelhalter, professor for the public understanding of risk at the University of Cambridge, agrees that genetic tests could allow the NHS to rapidly identify those who may need closer monitoring. However, he said care would need to be taken in how risk scores were communicated to individual patients, most of whom (as in the case of Matt Hancock) fall somewhere in the mid-range for most illnesses. Even the most extreme 3% are only at around 2-3 times average risk, and so most people will only be given a moderately raised or lowered risk, said Spiegelhalter. It is essential that these results are communicated properly, to avoid any suggestion that they are predicting the future. A significant concern is that the vast majority of data that has been used to identify risk genes has come from people of white European heritage, who are significantly overrepresented in genetics studies and databases such as UK Biobank. The extent to which genes confer risk also depends on the overall genetic backdrop, which varies across ethnicities. This means that currently the tests developed by companies such as Genomics Plc work less well for people of non-white European heritage. Donnelly said the company is currently assessing the extent of the performance gap and looking for ways to improve the technology so it works better for everyone. One has to even think really hard about whether it should be rolled out now when its more useful for some individuals than others, he said, adding that if there was a significant gap then he would be against rolling it out quickly. | https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/mar/23/are-predictive-genetic-test-useful-to-predict-cancer-matt-hancock |
How Did Huawei Defeat the U.S. But Lose To Apple, All On The Same Day? | 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP As I suggested earlier in the week, it looks almost certain that the European Union will collectively snub U.S. entreaties for member countries to align with Washington on a prohibition of Huawei 5G equipment, settling for 'careful and considered' inclusion instead of blanket bans. The view that will be taken is that risks can be mitigated, and any moves to fully strip Huawei out of their networks and 5G deployment plans would carry untenable scheduling and financial penalties. On Friday Reuters reported that "the European Commission will next week urge EU countries to share more data to tackle cybersecurity risks related to 5G networks but will ignore U.S. calls to ban Huawei Technologies." EU countries will be directed to "exchange information and coordinate on impact assessment studies on security risks and on certification for internet-connected devices and 5G equipment." It's not all good news for Huawei, though. Also on Friday, it was reported that the company's CFO, arrested in Canada in December on U.S. charges relating to breaches of Iranian sanctions, had snubbed their own devices for Apple alternatives. Court documents showed that Meng Wanzhou was arrested with a MacBook Air, an Ipad Pro and an iPhone 7 Plus. Huawei has recently been accused of targeting Apple trade secrets and of punishing staff for publicly using Apple devices. So, maybe Meng Wanzhou's use of Apple products was just 'research'. Networks... There are no real surprises in the latest news from Europe. Germany, Italy and even the U.K. have been heading in this direction for some months. Huawei has entreated them to scrutinize the company for security vulnerabilities, saying it will invest to fix any that are found, opening a cybersecurity transparency center in Brussels to emphasize the point. And all the time there has been a vacuum of tangible data from the U.S. to back up claims that the company might collect intelligence at the behest of Beijing. Ultimately, though, it's the industry that has most helped Huawei. No major carrier has come out in support of a ban, most have remained neutral or talked positively about the Chinese company's innovation and product quality. The company filed more patents than anyone else last year: An all-time record by anyone, according to WIPO's director. The company also helped its cause by running a meticulous campaign at Mobile World Congress last month, where they combined the usual technical fizz with a challenge to the U.S. on their own cybersecurity and data integrity record. Much of this was a PR stunt, of course, but the view of the industry started to firm in their favor. "Weve not seen any evidence of backdoors into the network, said Vodafones most senior lawyer in the U.K. If the Americans have evidence, please put it out on the table. And this neatly summed up Washington's conundrum. Reuters reported that "European digital chief Andrus Ansip will present the recommendation on Tuesday. While the guidance does not have legal force, it will carry political weight which can eventually lead to national legislation in European Union countries." The EU member countries want a way out of this, without damaging relationships with the U.S., but also without stalling their own 5G plans. There will be a range of security concessions and containments to come. All that said, the battle is not yet won. But 5G deployments will move rapidly now, and once Huawei is included it won't be removed. The company announced multiple contracts at MWC and we can expect more to come through this year. They are likely to write off any North American ambitions if they can maintain their leading role in EMEA and Asia-Pacific. ... and devices On a lighter note, the court documents showing Meng Wanzhou's devices at the time of her arrest are little more than an embarrassment. But it isn't 'nothing'. There was an outcry in China after her arrest, with calls for the boycott of Apple products. Nikkei Asian Review even reported that "a machinery maker in Shenzhen, where Huawei is based, threatened to confiscate Apple devices from employees and fire those who did not comply... Shenzhen Yidaheng Technology said it would fine staffers who bought iPhones the equivalent amount of their device, while other companies threaten to withhold bonuses." And Huawei themselves have been publicly sensitive about employees' use of Apple products. In January, it was reported that employees were fined after a "Happy #2019" tweet from the company was tagged as being sent by 'Twitter for iPhone'. And no-one likes hypocrisy. Last month, Huawei was alleged to have targeted information on Apple's trade secrets, approaching suppliers and "trying their luck" to uncover detail that would help their own product design. Huawei denied any wrongdoing: "Employees must search and use publicly available information and respect third-party intellectual property per our business conduct guidelines," explained a company spokesperson. The rest of 2019 will be characterized by a seemingly controlled inclusion of Huawei in new 5G plans. There will be some feisty rhetoric around intelligence and data sharing between the U.S. and its allies. But, in truth, it is unlikely that with the ongoing fight against terrorism - including the far-right - as well as the threats from Russia, Iran and China itself, the world security order can significantly change. And then there's the trade war and the negotiations that are likely to put everything on the table. There was always a chance that the battle against Huawei would be a card played in those talks, it's quite possible that developments in Europe make that more likely as it will be seen as using the card before it dissipates. "There's no way the US can crush us," Huawei's founder told the BBC last month. "The world cannot leave us because we are more advanced." At the time that seemed overly confident. Not so much anymore, though. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/03/23/how-did-huawei-defeat-the-u-s-but-lose-to-apple-all-on-the-same-day/ |
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