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How Are Computer Programming Languages Created? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. If you ask Wikipedia that question, you will find that a Programming Language "is a formal language, which comprises a set of instructions that produce various kinds of output," which is of course true, but in true encyclopedia form also mostly unhelpful. It does give the right idea, though. Just write down some instructions and some rules for what they do, and voila, youve created a programming language. If you write down these rules using slightly fancy language, you would call that the specification of your language and have a very good claim to have created a programming language. Of course, in most instances, programming languages dont start as exercises in specification writing. Instead, one starts with a program that actually does something with the programming language. Generally, this will either be a program that reads in some code written in the programming language and just does what the code says to do as it goes along (an interpreter - think following a recipe step by step) or one that translates the source code to the sequence of bits that the actual hardware understands (though this string of ones and zeros could also be considered a programming language that the hardware then interprets). There are a couple more exotic kinds of programs one could write to implement a programming language (e.g. type checkers, that just check that the source code is well-formed, i.e. allowed by the rules of the language, but dont otherwise execute it) and various variations on compilers and interpreters (hybrid systems, compilers to virtual hardware, i.e. low level languages that are designed to be easy to map to actual hardware, compilers from one high level programming language to another, aka transpilers), but the key thing is that these programs understand the language in some way. The specification usually comes later, if ever. Now, assuming youve started your own programming language, how does one decide what the language should be - what the available instructions are, what the rules and grammar of the language are, what the semantics of various things are, etc. Is there precedent somewhere, e.g. At the end, in every decision you make, you need to consider two things 1) The computer that has to run it and 2) The human that has to read it. Both are extremely important, but there is of course a trade-off between them and languages differ where they fall on this spectrum. In Julia, we try very hard to make a program well understood by both (this was actually one of the original motivations for Julia). This isnt easy and there are hard trade offs to be made sometimes (e.g. itd be nice to check overflow for all arithmetic operations, but doing this by default is too slow on current generation machines), but we try to make sure that a) We make reasonable choices by default and b) whenever we make a trade off in either directions there is ways to let the users make the opposite choice while being able to use the rest of the system without trouble. Julias multiple dispatch system is essential to making this work (though the details of that are a whole separate topic). [1] E.g. we have a policy of generally spelling out names rather than using short abbreviations, so you might consider sine and cosine more consistent names than sin and cos, but youd be fighting against 100 years of mathematical notation. As an example on the other side, a lot of languages like to use + to concatenate strings. However, we considered that a serious mistake, since + is facially commutative and string concatenation is not, which is why we use * as our string concatenation operator. 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/2019/04/05/how-are-computer-programming-languages-created/ |
What Interesting Trends Are We Seeing In Genetics Research Right Now? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Carrie Northover, Research Director at 23andMe, on Quora: One of the coolest things right now is the size and scale of the research were able to do with human genetics, and those numbers are just getting bigger and bigger. When people first started getting excited about genetics research, there was a lot of interest around finding the exact gene for a specific condition. For instance, there was this idea that we could find the gene for depression and immediately begin developing treatments. However, as weve engaged in more research, its become apparent that most conditions are much more complex than we thought and involve lots of different genes and lifestyle factors. With millions of people consenting to research at 23andMe and other research organizations, were able to make genetic discoveries in complex conditions. Basically, this means we can run research studies that are increasingly powerful and find many more genetic associations. For example, the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) we participated in on depression in 2016 included 459,481 participants from 23andMe and found 17 variants associated with depression. Just this year, we collaborated on a new GWAS on depression that had 2,113,907 participants (including data from other cohorts) and found 102 variants. Another exciting trend is the genetics community is really starting to focus on how to address the lack of diversity in genetics research. In order to make precision medicine a reality for everyone, we must conduct research in a diverse range of populations. At ASHG 2018, there was a session on Indigenous-led Initiatives on Addressing Equity in Genomics Health Care and Research. A recent article in Cell about the lack of ethnic diversity in human genomic studies generated a lot of press. Its definitely top of mind for us at 23andMe. 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/2019/04/05/what-interesting-trends-are-we-seeing-in-genetics-research-right-now/ |
Why Is China The World's Leader In Edtech? | A billionaire once told me that no matter what the question is, the answer will come when you follow the money. If you agree with this thesis, China is unequivocally the worlds leader in EdTech. In 2018, Chinese startups received over 50% of all the capital invested by venture capitalists in EdTechs worldwide. Chinese EdTech companies received more money than the total amount invested in EdTech firms from all other countries combined, according to a study released by HolonIQ earlier this year. Navita Ventures, the education venturing arm of global education provider Navitas, released a study on global EdTech ecosystems at the EdTech Asia Summit in Hong Kong last year concluding that Beijing is the worlds preeminent hub for EdTech, because an unparalleled number of EdTech companies are headquartered in the city. Even though the Chinese capital is home to over 20 million people, Beijing has the highest concentration of EdTech companies per capita globally, at 120 EdTech companies per million people, followed by New York (117), the Bay Area (91), and Bangalore (77). Navitas Ventures When it comes to EdTech In China, it is not only the quantity of capital and of companies that impresses, but also the breakneck speed of their growth. Do you know how many EdTech unicorns (i.e. China saw the establishment of 97 new "unicorn" companies in 2018. That means that every 3.8 days, on average, a Chinese startup reached a valuation of at least US$1 billion. As of July 2018, among the worlds 10 largest EdTech unicorns, seven were born in China, according to a list prepared by HolonIQ (see image). As of February 2019, CBInsights lists six EdTech unicorns, five of which were born in China. HolonIQ If you did not know that China was the worlds leader in EdTech and are feeling a bit late to the party, do not worry. I believe that the EdTech market in China will continue to grow for three key reasons: Cultural: Chinese families value and prioritize education. Both kids and parents dedicate resources with an intensity that Westerners find hard to match. The notion of work-life balance is very different for students in China. In China, families with preschoolers spent an average of 26% of their income on education, while those with K-12 children had education-related outlays of 20% of their income, according to the South China Morning Post Scale: Approximately 20% of the worlds population lives in China. Also, the recent end to the one-child policy, which lasted for about 35 years, will most likely cause a growth in the number of students in the coming years. Government Support: Almost every year since 2011, the Chinese government has increased its percentage of GDP spend toward education. The government also supports many initiatives including the MOOC Times Building, a 22-story tower filled with EdTech startups in Beijings startup district, Zhongguancun. In 2017, Premier Li Keqiang announced the formulation and implementation of a plan to leverage new technologies to improve the delivery of education. His bid, Modernization of China's Education by 2030, seeks to modernize the nations education sector. What happens in the world's second largest economy matters even if you are not interested in doing business in China. Some people believe Chinese EdTech will soon start an era of global expansion. For instance, take a look at MakeBlock, a Chinese startup headquartered in Shenzhen surfing this global wave of teaching kids how to build robots and how to code. Makeblock sells do-it-yourself robotics kits that need to be manually assembled by students who then write code to control their robots. Think of small LEGO-like robots that students can control by writing simple lines of code. The company claims to already sell its do-it-yourself robotics kits in over 140 countries with over 5 million users in more than 20,000 schools worldwide, including AltSchool, a Silicon Valley education start-up backed by Mark Zuckerberg. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ricardogeromel/2019/04/05/why-is-china-the-worlds-leader-in-edtech/ |
Was Game of Thrones Just an Elaborate Way to Make Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner Best Friends? | Game of Thrones may have lasted eight years and cost millions and millions of dollars and employed thousands of people, but its best lasting legacy might just be the friendships it created along the way. Specifically, we're talking about Maisie Williams and Sophie Turner, who took their sisterly bond as Arya and Sansa Stark off screen to become BFFS IRL. "It was like one big elaborate thing to find me a best friend. This whole show!" Williams joked at the season eight premiere. "I'm kidding. It's been incredible. To have a friend like that on something as wild as this is just like a godsend, really." | https://www.eonline.com/ap/news/1030154/was-game-of-thrones-just-an-elaborate-way-to-make-maisie-williams-and-sophie-turner-best-friends |
Did Late Actor Michael Landon Get Cancer from Filming Close to a 'Contaminated' Nuclear Site? | Nearly 30 years after Michael Landons shocking death, details surrounding the Little House on the Prairie stars health are being investigated. At the young age of 54, Landon died on July 1, 1991, from pancreatic cancer, just months after his diagnosis. And on Sunday, Reelz Channel will air its Landon-focused episode of Autopsy: The Last Hours of, which investigates the proximity of the Little House on the Prairie set to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, where there was a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1959, according to California Department of Toxic Substances Control. For nine years, Little House on the Prairie was filmed just 15 miles away from the Santa Susana Nuclear Laboratory, a narrator says in PEOPLEs exclusive sneak peek of the special. According to costar Karen Grassle, who played Caroline Ingalls, it took months and months for us to find the right outdoor location to film the show, which ran from 1974-83. Finally, this ranch was found out in Simi Valley, she explains. It was perfect for us. Michael Landon on Little House on the Prairie More But when hundreds of local residents started suffering from cancer, scientists discovered that the Santa Susana lab had been the site of the worst radioactive disaster in U.S. history and that years of contamination had prompted a cancer epidemic, the narrator says in the clip. As a result of the cancer epidemic, numerous studies were performed on the area. Studies have concluded that this was responsible for up to 2,000-cancer-related deaths and lead to a 60 percent increase in cancers such as lung, bladder, kidney, liver, blood, lymph node, upper digestive track and thyroid cancers, says forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Hunter. RELATED: Lucille Ball Was Using Poppers to Ease Pains in Her Chest and Heart: Forensic Pathologist But after examining the Report of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel from October 2006 and Landons autopsy results, Dr. Hunter doesnt believe theres a connection between the location of the laboratory and Landons cancer. Despite the scientific studies linking proximity to the site with elevated cancer rates, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that Michaels pancreatic cancer was caused by him working so close to the contaminated area, says Dr. Hunter. He adds: Although I cant rule it out entirely, I have found another, much more compelling and direct cause of his cancer. Years after Landons death, on March 27, 1992, the California Department of Health Services (CDHS) released a report that examined the incidence of cancer among residents of Los Angeles (1978 to 1988) and Ventura Counties (1988 to 1989), according to the government website. According to the report, residents living near the SSFL were not at increased risk for developing cancers associated with radiation exposure. Cancers were divided into three groups of very radiosensitive (thyroid, bone & joints, all leukemia, excluding chronic lymphocytic leukemia), moderately radiosensitive (breast, lung & bronchus), and possibly radiosensitive (esophagus, stomach, liver, brain & other nervous system, urinary bladder, other urinary system, salivary gland and parathyroid, and multiple myeloma), says the website. It continues, The analyses found that people living near the SSFL were not at increased risk for developing cancers associated with radiation exposure. The analyses suggested that male residents living in Los Angeles County near SSFL may have had an increased rate of bladder cancer relative to residents living elsewhere in the county. There was also an increased proportion of lung cancer among Ventura men. | https://news.yahoo.com/did-actor-michael-landon-cancer-204241814.html |
Who are the 264 men arrested in the Florida day spa prostitution crackdown? | Several spas were closed in Martin and Indian River counties, and Jupiter following an investigation into human trafficking involving sex. (Photo: TCPALM) STUART, Fla. - Blue collar to billionaires. Millennials to baby boomers. Boy next door. These descriptions characterize many of the nearly 300 men accused of buying sex during a day spa prostitution crackdown that began last July and ended with law enforcement announcing hundreds of arrests in February. These men are all ages and from all walks of life, said Bruce Colton, the state attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit, which covers Florida counties of Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River. Theres people out building houses every day and people who are retired and billionaires, he said. Theres no limit as to who these people are. More: How Florida police snared nearly 300 including Robert Kraft at spas used for sex trafficking Police in Jupiter, Martin and Indian River counties spent months watching massage parlors, videotaping hundreds of sex acts explicit recordings defense attorneys are now trying to get tossed out of court. CLOSE The Vero Beach Police Department hosts a news conference Feb. 21, 2019 detailing a prostitution and human trafficking ring that was busted across Treasure Coast, Palm Beach and Orange counties. Hannah Schwab, [email protected] Ten spas were shut down Feb. 19 in a series of raids authorities said were potentially linked to a Chinese human trafficking ring. Investigators have arrested 12 Chinese women and one man accused of working for the spas. A woman in Vero Beach is accused of human trafficking under the "RICO" statute short for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization. Spa customers Undoubtedly, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, 77, whos charged with two misdemeanor prostitution-related offenses, has garnered the most publicity. Hes accused of visiting a Jupiter spa twice and receiving sex acts that were video recorded. More: Patriots owner Robert Kraft apologizes in his first statement since solicitation charges Kraft has pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial. Its unclear if he will attend an April 12 status hearing in his case. Many of the 264 men accused, though, are not well-known. Yet, using public arrest and court records that include age, hometown and other data, its possible to shed light on the men accused of illegally receiving sex acts at day spas in Sebastian, Vero Beach, Stuart, Hobe Sound and Jupiter, Florida. The men charged range in age between 19 and 84. More than half are in their 50s and 60s, with a median age of 57. Criminal defense attorney Andy Metcalf, who represents 30 men arrested in Indian River County, said his clients dont fit any profiles. If you asked me an average age, anywhere from 30s up to 70s, he said. I dont have an average client that fits into this. The accused men are overwhelmingly white only 5 percent are listed in records as being any other race. Almost all are U.S. citizens, records show. Of the 264 men charged, most of them 238 are from Florida. One-tenth of the defendants have a primary residence outside the state. Every state from Virginia to Maine along the I-95 corridor, except New Hampshire, is represented among the home states of 18 of the men. Five, including Kraft, are from Massachusetts. Two are from the South, four are from the Midwest and one comes from Colorado. One lives in Ontario, Canada. More: Robert Kraft won't take diversion deal in sex spa case, at least not now For more than half the men arrested, police didnt collect information on occupations. Of 126 men who had a profession listed on an arrest report, or their job could be easily found from internet searches, only nine have worked in executive-level jobs. Additional occupations include: 25 are retired; at least 15 are veterans 27 work in construction or a related job, such as residential plumbing or carpentry 12 own a small business, from surf shops to fast food franchises to citrus farming Four are current or former emergency first responders, including law enforcement Three are or have been licensed massage therapists Five work in healthcare, including two dentists, one respiratory therapist, one physical therapist and one pharmacist Two sell cars, one is a certified public accountant; two work at local supermarkets; one teaches music; one was a visiting church deacon, before he left the position after his arrest The men charged are considered first-time offenders, in that, they all face first-degree misdemeanors of soliciting prostitution. That charge becomes a felony for second or third-time offenders. All spa customers arrested in Martin County face an additional misdemeanor count of use of a structure or conveyance for prostitution. Sex buying market Its impossible to know if any of the defendants had previously engaged in the illicit sex activities related to their charges. Experts who research the commercial sex market said only a small percentage of the U.S. male population buy sex, but some who do become habitual buyers. Swanee Hunt, a former U. S. ambassador to Austria and founder of Demand Abolition, a Washington, D.C. group that works with survivors of prostitution, said while its true most men dont buy sex, one out of five men you know do. The demographics basically match the demographics of a community that they come from, Hunt said. With one exception and its men who are the highest frequency buyers; they call themselves hobbyists, which is telling, and its a sliver. A survey study, "Who Buys Sex?" released in November by Demand Abolition found that most men have never paid for sex. The group partnered with the University of Portland to survey 8,201 adult men nationwide over two months beginning in December 2017 to learn more about sex buying habits. Results show 6.2 percent of the men surveyed reported buying sex in the past year and 20.6 percent had done so at least once in their lifetime. Other findings include: Demographic traits are poor predictors of sex buying: Race and sexual orientation have almost no profiling power. High-frequency buyers account for a disproportionately large share of the illegal sex trade, estimated at $5.7 billion in the United States High-frequency buyers are much more likely than other men to make $100,00 or more annually. U.S. sex buyers spend more than $100 per transaction. Only about 6 percent of men who purchase sex illegally report ever having been arrested for it. Most communities, Hunt said, would be so surprised to learn who the johns are. It could very well be the boy next door or the man next door, she noted. In fact, there were some at your table at Thanksgiving dinner. Proving solicitation Attorney Metcalf predicted many of his clients may be acquitted because in the dozen spa videos hes reviewed which dont include audio he didnt see proof the men solicited prostitution. Thats not to say the videos hes seen didnt show inappropriate conduct, Metcalf acknowledged, but not criminal behavior, he insisted. I havent seen any of my clients procure, entice, induce or solicit prostitution, he said. Those are the words in the statute and I have not seen that happen on any video. He rejected characterizing women working at the raided spas as being held in sexual servitude, as law enforcement authorities said when announcing arrests. More: Amsterdam sex workers angry at red light district tours ban More: Sex trafficking, prostitution is anything but a 'victimless crime,' experts say These were sex workers, they were not slaves, Metcalf said. If law enforcement wants to tell me differently, then I want to know how they could sit there and watch it go on and on and not bust in the door? Colton declined to comment on law enforcement methods used to investigate the day spas. But he stood by authorities saying early observations indicated human trafficking was involved. He also noted that some of the women charged face RICO counts that claim human trafficking was part of their criminal enterprise. Im not saying that were going to be able to prove a human trafficking case against anyone, Colton said. But I think that we have enough evidence to justify the position that we are taking with the johns in this case. A lack of evidence has resulted in some cases being dropped, court records show. Four cases were dismissed in Indian River County because no exchange of cash was captured on camera, according to Assistant State Attorney Steve Wilson. The state also dropped charges against one man in Vero Beach after he was misidentified by authorities. Related: Man falsely arrested in sex spa case speaks: 'On Feb. 25, I thought my life had ended' In Martin County, charges were dismissed against a man who was misidentified by investigators. Seven men avoided charges after prosecutors rejected arrest warrants because video recordings didnt show proof of payment to a spa worker. Diversions, plea deals In Palm Beach County, Mike Edmondson, a spokesman for State Attorney Dave Aronberg, said the 25 men charged in Jupiter including Robert Kraft had an April 5 deadline to enter a deferred prosecution program that could result in charges being dismissed. USA Today reported Thursday Kraft will not enter that program. The diversion program requires defendants to provide a sworn statement regarding knowledge of their illicit activity at Orchids of Asia Day Spa; pay a $5,000 civil fine, be screened for sexually transmitted diseases; complete 100 hours of community service and attend a prostitution impact prevention education course. The diversion program is not considered probation and ends when all conditions are met. Colton, though, nixed offering pretrial diversion for those charged in Martin and Indian River counties. Defendants there have two choices: accept a plea deal or go to trial. Hes not offering diversion, Colton said, because society and lawmakers recognize the problems with this type of action, and the importance of trying to discourage customers from utilizing these facilities. We should be treating these cases with the seriousness with which the Legislature has recognized them, he said. Eve Samples: Lawmakers want mandatory 30-day jail sentences for all 'johns' in sex-trafficking cases The plea deal he offers requires entering a guilty or no contest plea to one count of solicitation for prostitution, meaning in Martin, a second charge of use of a structure or conveyance for prostitution will be dropped. Other terms include: Pay a $5,000 fine and up to $1,200 in court costs Complete one-year of probation Perform 100 hours of community service Complete a human trafficking educational course Testing for STD/ HIV In exchange, a judge will withhold an adjudication of guilt Defendants who go to trial will face two misdemeanors, Colton added. Further, defendants captured on video at a spa can expect the recording to be played during a trial. We do intend to introduce those videos as evidence, Colton said. Follow Melissa E. Holsman and Miranda Moore on Twitter @MHolsman and @Miranda_Writes1 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/05/who-are-the-men-arrested-florida-day-spa-crackdown/3379936002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/04/05/who-are-the-men-arrested-florida-day-spa-crackdown/3379936002/ |
Is Israels Benny Gantz Guilty of War Crimes? | 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. Israels election on April 9 culminates the most frenetic campaign season in recent memory. From the announcement by Israels attorney general to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for bribery, fraud, and breach of trust pending a hearing; to the TV report that his rival Benny Gantzs cell phone was hacked by Iranian intelligence; to the recent ad in which Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked douses herself in a perfume labeled Fascism, political whiplash has become a way of life in Israel. And there are still four days until the vote. Ad Policy As Israeli voters are glued to their smart phones following the latest developments, one Palestinian family is closely watching the election for another reason. The Ziada family lost six relatives in an Israeli bombing on its home during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Israel claims the house was a Hamas command and control center; the family maintains the home was a civilian building, not a legitimate military target. Now one of its surviving members is suing Gantz, the former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and Netanyahus most credible challenger, for alleged war crimes. Ismail Ziada is a Palestinian with Dutch citizenship who lives in Holland. In 2018, he filed suit against Gantz and another ex-general, Amir Eshel, in a Dutch civil court with international jurisdiction. The generals, whose legal defense is funded by Israel, are disputing the courts authority in the case. Related Article In a First, Palestinians Challenge Israels Settlement Enterprisein a US Court Mairav Zonszein In September, the court will decide whether to hear the lawsuit, according to Ziadas lawyer, Liesbeth Zegveld. If it does, she says, it will set a critical precedent, demonstrating that Palestinians have no recourse in the Israeli court system and must seek justice abroad. The purpose has always been to show or demonstrate that Israeli courts do not give Palestinians access to impartial or independent courts, says Zegveld. (Ziada declined to speak with The Nation.) The election has raised the profile of the lawsuit, garnering media coverage in Israel and abroad. But it could also stop the case against Gantz in its tracksat least for the time being. If Gantz wins and is able to form a government, he will have immunity from foreign prosecution as prime minister. Should that happen, Ziada will continue to pursue his claims against Eshel. Current Issue View our current issue Twelve days ahead of the election, several of Ziadas relatives gather in the living room of a home in Bureij, a Palestinian refugee camp in central Gaza. Its the end of a tense week in the region. Days earlier a rocket from Gaza destroyed a house north of Tel Aviv. Israel responded with missile strikes throughout the strip. Now, a shaky cease-fire seems to be holding. Its market day in Bureij, and the potholed streets are choked with cars and people. But inside the dimly lit house, it is quiet. A towering gray compound with black metal gates, the house was built on the site of the home that was bombed in 2014. It was completed just last year with the help of foreign aid. Qatar funded the first floor, says the family, Kuwait the second, and Saudi Arabia the third and fourth. The house is identical to the one that was bombed, its design a show of fealty to the family members who once lived there. The familiarity is comforting to the survivors, but it also serves as a constant reminder of their loss. My mother used to sit here when she was reading the Quran, says Hasan Zeyada, gesturing to a chair near a shaded window. Muftia Mohamed Ziada memorized the tome after years of study. At 70, she was the oldest victim in the bombing. She is buried in a nearby cemetery, along with three of her sons, a daughter-in-law, and a grandchild who died in the attack. Zeyada is Ismail Ziadas brother. (The two spell their names differently in English.) As the oldest brother, he is responsible for the well-being of his orphaned nieces and nephews, seeing after their housing and education. A Gaza City psychologist, Zeyada says that his brothers lawsuit in Holland is a kind of empowerment for the extended family. Psychologically, it is very important for us to know that we havent accepted being totally powerless and helpless before the perpetrator. Zeyada calls his brothers lawsuit in Holland an opportunity for the family to pursue justice. But its about more than the family. It is a message from our family to all the Palestinian families: you have to find accountability for the criminals. In the Israeli election, Gantz has made his conduct as military chief the centerpiece of his campaign. A newcomer to politics, he entered the race in January with a series of video ads boasting about the blow he dealt Hamas in the 2014 war. One shows black-and-white aerial footage of Gaza in the wake of Operation Protective Edge, with blocks of leveled buildings. As music befitting a militaristic video game plays, figures flash across the screen: 6,231 targets destroyed and 1,364 terrorists killed. Since the ads were released, Gantz has merged his party, Israel Resilience, with two others to form the Blue and White alliance. Three of the top four spots on the electoral list are held by former generals, a projection of strength to the security-alert Israeli public. The message seems to be working: In the final stretch of the election, Gantz and Netanyahu are neck and neck in the polls. Now, Gantzs campaign ads have become part of the case. Zegveld entered a USB stick containing the videos to the court as part of her sides materials. She argues they show that Gantz was not only acting out state policy in his role but that he is personally responsible for the bombing. Both Gantzs spokesperson and the generals lawyer declined interview requests from The Nation. A statement from Israels justice ministry in February urged the Dutch court to dismiss the case, arguing, Litigating the lawsuit before a Dutch court would circumvent fundamental and long-recognized principles of state immunity. The incident in question happened on the afternoon of July 20, 2014, twelve days into Operation Protective Edge. It was the most brutal conflagration between Israel and Gaza yet, a 50-day war that killed 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, according to a United Nations Human Rights Council report. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians, including a Thai national working in Israel, were also killed. According to the lawsuit, on the day of the bombing, Ziadas mother, Muftia, sent the women and children out of the house. She had a gut feeling, the case notes. This was not a rational decision because it was not safe on the streets and in Gaza City either. Muftia remained in the house alongside five other family membersher adult sons, Omar, Yousef, and Jamil; Jamils wife, Bayan; and the couples 12-year-old son, Shaban. According to witness testimony in the case, in the mid-afternoon, a neighbors house was hit. Yousef wanted to call a taxi to evacuate the remaining family members, but it was too late. At around 1:30 PM Israeli warplane fired on the house, killing all six family members inside as well as a houseguest, Muhammad al-Maqadameh. Ziada, who was in Holland at the time, learned of the bombing on a local Gaza news site, which listed two brothers and his 12-year-old nephew among the dead. Later, he read a friends Facebook post detailing the other casualties: his mother, a third brother, and a sister-in-law. The plaintiff was in shock about the death of his family, the lawsuit says. Israel later examined the bombing as one of several alleged exceptional incidents during Operation Protective Edge. But in 2016, Israels Military Advocate General announced in a report that it was closing the case without ordering a criminal investigation. The MAGs report describes the family home as an an active command and control center by Hamas. It claims that three unnamed family members were discovered to be military operatives in the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organizations.It also names al-Maqadameh, the houseguest, as a Hamas senior military operative. In light of these and other details, the MAG deemed the bombing lawful. Ziadas case rejects the MAGs findings about the home and the family members inside. It notes that one brother, Omar, was in Hamas, though it claims he was not an active member at the time of the bombing. The case argues that even if al-Maqadameh is proved to be a militant, which it says the MAG failed to do, the attack is still in breach of the principle of proportionality and the obligation to take precautionary measures in warand hence an alleged war crime. Ziadas case is the latest chapter in an intergenerational drama linking his family in Gaza to a family of Dutch Nazi resisters. Ziada is married to Anglique Eijpe, the descendant of Dutch activists who saved a Jewish boy in the Holocaust. Ziada met Eijpe in the West Bank in 1998, when he was a student at Birzeit University and she was an intern at the Dutch Representative Office, a diplomatic mission in the Palestinian Territories. The pair eventually married and moved to The Hague. Ziada became a Dutch citizen in 2010. During the Holocaust, Eijpes great-uncle, Henk Zanoli, was a young member of the Dutch underground. In roughly 1943, he risked his life to transport a Jewish boy by train from Amsterdam to his familys home in rural Holland. Under the familys care, the boy survived the war and later moved to Israel. In 2011, Israels Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial awarded Zanoli the Righteous Among the Nations medal for his familys deed. In 2014, Zanoli was a nonagenarian retired lawyer when Israel bombed his in-laws home in Gaza. Upon learning of the attack, he relinquished his Holocaust-era medal in a public act of protest that reverberated around the world, with media coverage in practically every major outlet. In a letter to the Israeli embassy in The Hague, he said that keeping the medal in light of what happened would be an insult to the memory of his family who saved the Jewish boy, and to his kin in Gaza. Buried in the third to last paragraph of his letter, Zanoli included a prescient statement: that one day Israel would face accusations of war crimes for its actions in Gaza. As a retired lawyer it would be no surprise to me that these accusations could lead to possible convictions if true and unpoliticized justice is able to have its course, he wrote. What happened to our kin in Gaza will no doubt be brought to the table at such a time as well. Related Article Israeli Extremists Are Making a ComebackWith the Help of US Tax Dollars Mairav Zonszein Zanoli died in 2015. Reached by The Nation, Eijpe says she found her late great-uncles words eerie, a premonition of the case that her husband filed against Gantz and Eshel. Today, she says, her familys Holocaust-era activism provides a meaningful backdrop to her familys legal pursuit. Their legacy and their history are, for me personallyand I think I can say that goes for Ismail as wellan inspiration for seeking justice and standing against oppression, she says. Back in the home in the Gaza Strip, Wadea Ziada, 17, whose father Yousef was killed in the attack, has a prediction of his own: that the family will find a way to hold Gantz responsible, whether or not he wins the Israeli election. If he wins, he will run away from being judged, Wadea says. But there is a god, and he wont run away from Him. One day, he will be judged. | https://www.thenation.com/article/israel-elections-benny-gantz-war-crimes-gaza-holocaust/ |
Should LSUs football coach have spoken at a political fundraiser for Louisianas governor? | LSUs popular football coach Ed Orgeron is Louisianas most well-known state employee. Some even consider him the face of LSU, Louisianas flagship university. So Orgerons appearance at a political fundraiser for Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards Thursday (April 4) raised some eyebrows, especially in Republican circles. The coach, who grew up outside Houma, introduced Edwards at an event that cost $1,000 to $5,000 per plate to attend. It was held at the LSU Andonie Sports Museum on the universitys campus and all the proceeds are going to Edwards reelection efforts. The governor faces two Republicans Congressman Ralph Abraham and Baton Rouge Businessman Eddie Rispone on the ballot this fall. I know the state of Louisiana believes in him just like a championship quarterback, Orgeron said at the event, according to a recording of the fundraiser on The Advocates website. Oregeron is well-liked in Louisiana, and Edwards campaign staff shared a story about the coachs appearance at the fundraiser on social media Thursday afternoon. area campaign lashes out because they have no prominent supporters and no one wants to go to their fundraisers#lagov #lalege https://t.co/7oSW7hc3He Eric Holl (@FrederickHoll) April 5, 2019 But Edwards relationship with Orgeron isnt just personal. The governor has some say over Orgerons job security and how much he is paid. As governor, he appoints members to the LSU Board of Supervisors, which oversees Orgerons contract and recently gave the coach a bump in compensation. Republicans seized on the opportunity to say it was inappropriate for the face of LSU to be mixed up in raising campaign cash for the sitting governor. Outrage over the issue was led by U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-La. Kennedy mentioned his disgust with the situation during several media interviews Friday. He said he would never allow Orgeron or any other university football coach in Louisiana to endorse him personally publicly. This is both teeth striped down to the marrow stupid, Kennedy said in an interview with NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune Friday afternoon. He should not be endorsing Democrats, Republicans, socialists, communists, Hindus... Kennedy said Orgerons involvement in the governors campaign could potentially turn people who dont align themselves with Edwards politics off of LSUs own fundraising efforts. The university launched its most ambitious campaign ever last week with the goal of raising $1.5 billion to support its campuses statewide. LSU debuts $1.5B fundraising campaign, with 60 percent for academics, 40 percent for athletics LSU calls it the largest fundraising campaign for higher education in Louisiana's history. Abraham, the Republican congressman running against Edwards this fall, also criticized the move. Lets be real here - John Bel is his boss. Its beyond inappropriate. Its selfish and shows poor leadership for the governor to co-opt LSU football for personal political gains, Abraham said. He just threw the our flagship university into another PR nightmare and isolated half the fanbase. Lionel Rainey, Abrahams political consultant, joked that Edwards might soon be seen leading the LSU band like Huey Long. Long famously pumped money in the marching band, took a personal interest in its operations and used it for his own political purposes. The Edwards campaign pushed back against the criticism, saying that Orgeron had a right to participate in the political progress. Its also troubling that a United States Senator and attorney believes that college coaches should be denied their First Amendment rights, said Eric Holl, spokesman for the governors campaign. Theres a long record of coaches supporting candidates for elected office in Louisiana and other states, and they have the right to do so. No state employee policy prevents Orgeron from participating in political fundraisers. Orgeron is an unclassified state employee a status that is usually associated with the governors cabinet and other political appointees. Unclassified employees are allowed to be active in political life. Classified employees more rank-and-file state workers and career civil servants cannot participate in state political campaigns under civil service rules. This isnt the first time that Orgeron has appeared a political event for Edwards. The governor and the coach have expressed an affection for each other. Edwards often refers to the Orgeron as a friend. Orgeron gave a lengthy introduction for Edwards at a business summit the governor threw earlier this year. The coach has also appeared with the governor in a public service announcement for hurricane preparedness. Those werent campaign events though where the governor was trying to raise money to stay in office. Orgeron isnt the first LSU coach to enter the political mix on behalf of a governor. Former LSU coach Les Miles appeared a presidential campaign fundraiser for Gov. Bobby Jindal, when Miles was still working in Louisiana and Jindal was still in office. It was wrong when Bobby did it. Its wrong now, said Rainey, with Abrahams campaign. John Bel Edwards calls Ed Orgeron a bargain The governor said Orgeron is paid less than most other football coaches in the Southeastern Conference. LSUs athletic department declined to comment on Orgerons appearance at the Edwards fundraiser. President F. King Alexanders office has not yet responded to requests for comment. When college football coaches get involved in their states politics, it tends to attract attention. In 2018, University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban and West Virginia University basketball coach Bob Huggins publicly endorsed Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, ahead of his reelection. Saban and Huggins both grew up in West Virginia. Kansas State University football coach Bob Snyder also appeared in a video for former Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts in 2014 a move which landed Snyder in hot water with his employer. University officials eventually asked that the Roberts campaign to stop using the recording and said Snyders endorsement was against the schools internal policies, according to The Kansas City Star. Manchin and Roberts were also both running for federal offices, ones in which they dont have much say over whether the coaches stay or go at the local public university. Edwards has much more influence over Orgerons future with LSU. | https://www.nola.com/news/2019/04/should-lsus-football-coach-have-spoken-at-a-political-fundraiser-for-louisianas-governor.html |
Who are the world's richest women? | Image copyright Reuters Image caption MacKenzie Bezos will keep a 4% stake in Amazon When the world's richest man and his wife decided to divorce, the numbers were always going to be big. And so it proved this week, when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and his wife MacKenzie agreed the terms of their split. MacKenzie Bezos will keep a 4% stake in the online retail giant. Her stake is worth $35.6bn (27bn) on its own, making her the world's third-richest woman (and the 24th richest person in the world). 1) Franoise Bettencourt-Meyers Image copyright AFP Net worth: $49.3bn, making her the world's 15th richest person, according to Forbes magazine. The French heiress to the L'Oral cosmetics fortune who, along with her family, owns 33% of the company. The 65-year-old inherited her wealth from her mother Liliane Bettencourt, who died in September 2017 aged 94. The two had been estranged and entered into a long dispute in 2007. Ms Bettencourt-Meyers filed a lawsuit over concerns that her mother was being exploited by members of her entourage amid declining health. But they reconciled in the years before her mother's death. Ms Bettencourt-Meyers is also an academic and has published books on Greek gods and Jewish-Christian relations. 2) Alice Walton Image copyright Getty Images Net worth: $44.4bn, putting her 17th on the world rich-list. The 69-year-old is the only daughter of Sam Walton, the founder of US supermarket giant Walmart. However, unlike her two brothers, she has moved away from the family company and focused on the arts, becoming the chairman of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in the family's hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. 3) MacKenzie Bezos Image copyright Reuters Net worth: At least $35.6bn - this is the value of her stake in Amazon alone, but her true net worth is likely to be even higher. Keep an eye on the Forbes 2020 rich list to see how much higher. The 48-year-old has four children with the Amazon founder, whom she married in 1993 after they met while working together at a hedge fund. The Californian was one of Amazon's first employees, having joined as an accountant. She has published two well-reviewed fiction books, and trained under author Toni Morrison, who said she was one of her best-ever students. Ms Bezos, who was born MacKenzie Tuttle, also set up an anti-bullying organisation, Bystander Revolution, which encourages the "simple habits of kindness, courage, and inclusion". 4) Jacqueline Mars Image copyright Getty Images Net worth: $23.9bn - the 33rd richest person in the world in the pre-MacKenzie Bezos era (this also applies to the other women below on this list). The 79-year-old owns a third of Mars, the world's largest confectioner, which was set up by her grandfather Frank in 1911. She worked for the family firm for almost 20 years and stayed on the board up until 2016. Now she is described as a philanthropist, sitting on boards for the Washington National Opera and the National Archives, among others. Another fact you may not know about Mars: it is one of the largest manufacturers of pet food in the US. 5) Yan Huiyan Net worth: $22.1bn, making her China's richest woman and the world's 42nd richest person. The 37-year-old owns a majority stake in the Chinese property giant Country Garden Holdings, which has ridden the wave of China's building boom. According to its website, Country Garden was the third biggest property developer worldwide in 2016. Yan Huiyan, a graduate of Ohio State University, inherited most of her 57% share in the company from her father. 6) Susanne Klatten Image copyright Getty Images Net worth: $21bn, which put her at 46th in the world. The second European on the list, the 56-year-old German has a mixture of cars and pharmaceuticals to thank for her wealth. She inherited 50% of chemical company Altana AG when her parents died, while she and her brother also own almost 50% of BMW. She has since taken Altana private, making it all hers, as well as buying up stakes in a number of other companies - from wind power to graphite production. The widow of the co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, she and her family inherited $20bn in stakes in Apple and Disney when her husband died. Since then, the 55-year-old has gone on to invest some of the money in journalism, taking a majority stake in The Atlantic magazine, as well as investing in non-profit publications Mother Jones and ProPublica. She also invested in a coding school and set up the Emerson Collective Foundation, that works for immigration and education reform. In May 2018, Powell Jobs spent $16.8m on a six-bedroom San Francisco mansion with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-47824937 |
Is it a good time to be a first-time buyer in Las Vegas? | 2019 GLVAR President Janet Carpenter If first-time homebuyers seem confused these days, it would be hard to blame them.After all, just a few weeks ago, we saw two seemingly conflicting national reports about whether or not Southern Nevada is a good place for first-time homebuyers. First, BankRate.com issued a report ranking the Las Vegas market as the eighth worst metro area in the country for first-time buyers. See the report at bankrate.com/mortgages. BankRate.com based its low ranking for our area on 13 measures related to affordability, culture, the job market, market tightness and safety. It used what it described as the most recently available data for the 50 most populous metropolitan statistical areas, or MSAs. For our analysis, we gave affordability a 30 percent weighting, safety, market tightness and the quality of the job market each a 20 percent rating and culture a 10 percent rating. Just one day after BankRate.com released its report, Zillow issued a March 19 report and news release on a similar topic that painted a completely different picture of the situation in Southern Nevada for first-time buyers. On its list of the Ten Best Markets for First-Time Homebuyers available at zillow.com/research, Zillow ranked Las Vegas as the second best place in the entire nation for such buyers. Zillow used different criteria for its lofty ranking for the Las Vegas area, including these four metrics: Low median home value that requires a smaller down payment. Strong forecasted home value appreciation, helping buyers overall wealth grow. High inventory-to-household ratio, to indicate available supply. High share of listings with a price cut. Talk about mixed messages. When media outlets contacted the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors recently to ask about this issue, 2019 GLVAR President Janet Carpenter explained that the answer to the question depends on who ask and when. I dont want to get into the weeds here in comparing the methodology that led these two different companies to come up with two completely different conclusions about the state of our local housing market for first-time buyers, Carpenter said. But I can tell you this: I believe our local housing market is certainly more favorable today for first-time buyers than it was just one year ago. Consider that GLVAR statistics show the median price of an existing home sold in Southern Nevada during February was $296,200. That was down from an even $300,000 in January, but still up 7.7 percent from $275,000 in February of 2018. At the same time, she said the local housing supply has been rising rapidly in recent months, with nearly a four month supply of homes now available for sale. One year ago, local home prices were rising more rapidly posting a year-over- year gain of 14.6 percent through February of 2018. Meanwhile, the local housing inventory one year ago had shrunk to less than a two-month supply of available homes. That was a tough time for almost anyone looking to buy a home, especially for first-time and entry-level buyers, Carpenter added. No matter what housing report youre reading these days, if youre looking to buy your first home in Las Vegas today, your odds have certainly improved. GLVAR was founded in 1947 and provides its more than 14,000 local members with education, training and political representation. The local representative of the National Association of Realtors , GLVAR is the largest professional organization in Southern Nevada. Each GLVAR member receives the highest level of professional training and must abide by a strict code of ethics. For more information, visitLasVegasRealtor.com. | https://www.reviewjournal.com/homes/advertising-features/is-it-a-good-time-to-be-a-first-time-buyer-in-las-vegas-1634549/ |
Will Salems flowering cherry trees survive? | The fate of two double rows of flowering cherry trees that line the Capitol Park Mall in front of Oregons capitol building in Salem will be determined at the end of April, when civil engineers hired by the city will submit recommendations on how to resolve leaks in the parking structure that sits beneath the iconic trees. The trees, which are maintained by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, were planted in 1991, the same time the underground parking structure was constructed. The outer membrane of the parking structures roof reached its life expectancy in 2015, according to state officials. Leaks have been occurring there ever since, and theres some concern over whether the trees roots are, well, at the root of the problem. Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has a State Capitol State Park Comprehensive Plan, in place since 2010, which provides for the replacement of trees in the space including, as needed, the cherry trees. Well know the trees fate in the coming weeks. In the meantime, scroll the gallery for a look at them, photographed today in peak bloom. -- Beth Nakamura Instagram: @bethnakamura Twitter: @bethnakamura | https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/04/will-salems-flowering-cherry-trees-survive.html |
Will The Next Recession Be Any Different? | Its a good question, so lets delve into. All recessions have commonalities as well as unique characteristics. Before looking at the likely characteristics of the next recession, lets take a look at history for common trends and possible differences. And before that, lets review the definition of recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a private non-profit organization, is the widely-recognized arbiter of recession beginnings and endings. They say During a recession, a significant decline in economic activity spreads across the economy and can last from a few months to more than a year. Similarly, during an expansion, economic activity rises substantially, spreads across the economy, and usually lasts for several years. They also note that within an expansion, a brief period of decline can occur, and during a recession a brief rebound might happen. And NBER emphasizes the spreading of economic decline across sectors. They dont use the label of recession when a single industry goes into a slump but that slump does not spread widely. An example of such a non-recession was the oil industry collapse in 1986. Oilmen felt a severe decline, and Texans thought they were in a recession, but other industries and other parts of the country were expanding quite nicely. Now for the commonalities: In the post-World War II era (the period I have the most knowledge of), all recessions have been preceded by Federal Reserve tightening. The Feds fingerprints are on every recession, though in some cases other fingerprints are also present. Dr. Bill Conerly based on data from National Bureau of Economic Research and Bureau of Economic Analysis Now for the variations. Severity and length can vary. The decline in GDP from peak of the boom to trough of the recession has been as small as 0.3 percent (the 2001 recession) and as large as four percent (2008-09), with an average of two percent. Length has been as short as six months (1980) and as long as 18 (2008-09). Oil price increases played a major role in the recessions of 1973-75 and 1980. James Hamilton has found that oil prices rose before all post-war recession, but in some cases the rise was part of the preceding economic expansion and not necessarily a cause of the recession. Other contributing factors include the housing bubble and financial collapse of 2008-09, the buildup and slowdown of Y2K spending along with the dot-com bust of 2001, the drop in consumer attitudes during the first gulf war in 1990, the steelworkers strike in 1959, and so forth back through history. Now lets address the question of what the next recession will look like. If we have a recession begin in 2019 or 2020, Federal Reserve over-reaction will likely be a cause. Right now I dont see the Fed making a big mistake, but thats hard for even the best economists to see in real time. The case I worry about the most is the Fed leaves monetary policy unchanged through late 2019, the economy shows strength and inflation accelerates, and then the Fed decides its behind the curve and slams on the brakes. That is a story more about 2020 or 2021 than 2019. It is not my most-likely forecast, but it is my biggest worry. Global economic decline is possible, but usually not severe enough to trigger a U.S. recession. The Asian financial crisis of 1997 was hardly felt in America. Today European economies are weakening, with Brexit throwing a monkey wrench into many businesses plans. U.S. exports to Europe, though, do not constitute a large part of our economy, about 2.5 percent of GDP. A severe recession in Europe would not, by itself, trigger a recession in the U.S., though it would slow down economic growth. Financial crisis seems unlikely. The stock market may seem high, but a drop in stock prices by itself is not recessionary. To get a financial crisis, we need too much speculation, and I dont see that happening. Some pessimists point to high housing prices, but our actual construction is right in line with needs generated by population growth. (More on this in a later article.) So my best guess is that the next recession, whenever it hits, will a garden-variety Federal Reserve over-tightening recession. New housing construction will be hurt the most, car sales will drop, business capital spending will decline, then other discretionary consumer spending. Interest rates will drop, first from market dynamics and then pushed down further by the Fed, and inflation will decelerate. Some consumers and some businesses have stable income and will decide that its a dandy time to spend, especially on interest-sensitive purchases. Economic growth will spread across the economy and the recession will be over. Although the business cycle is uncertain, one thing we can be sure of is that surviving a recession is more likely for businesses, families and governments that take prompt action with a well-conceived plan. Prompt action is critical, but very hard psychologically. Cutting back spending is not fun, and human nature is to delay. But survivors dont dilly dally when times get hard and change is necessary. Plans that are well-conceived are also crucial, as panic-driven actions are less likely to succeed. Plans developed during good times are not only going to be more consistent with long-term strategy and values, but plans already developed will be executed faster than spur-of-the-moment ideas. To survive the next recession, whenever it comes and however it looks, sketch out your contingency plans now. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/billconerly/2019/04/05/will-the-next-recession-be-any-different/ |
Is Childish Gambino Dropping A Visual Album With Rihanna Next Week? | [caption photocredit="Getty"] Getty Both Rihanna and Childish Gambino have been dodging questions about when theyll be releasing new music for some time, but it seems like fans might finally get what theyve been waiting so long for very soon. Ads began popping up this week on Spotify for Guava Island, which is the name of...something that Gambino (otherwise known as Donald Glover) has been working on for some time, but which he has also been nearly silent about. The rapper, singer and actor (and then some) first teased the project with a video trailer late last year at a music festival he curated, where fans were treated to the first sights of what appears to be a film. Since then, people have been waiting with bated breath to hear more about Guava Island, and now they know when it will be out...though exactly what it is still isnt clear. The ads say that the project is coming April 13 (next Saturday), and they use the tagline Ill see you at the show, which seems to suggest it will be premiered at Coachella, where Gambino is performing. At this point, its clear that Guava Island has some sort of visual component, its coming next weekend, and that Rihanna, who appeared in the trailer, is also involved, but beyond that, nothing is certain. Nobody can tell, and its impossible to know at this point whether Rihanna simply makes a cameo, or if shes just as involved as Gambino. A clue highlighted by Crack Magazine showed the resume of a cinematographer who has worked with Glover on his TV show Atlanta, who listed Guava Island as a visual album...though that now appears to have been erased from his CV. So, while its unlikely that anyone other than the people closest to Glover and Rihanna know what Guava Island is, or that anyone else will before its unleashed to the public, at least superfans wont have to wait long to see, or hear, or both, from the two musical superstars. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2019/04/06/is-childish-gambino-dropping-a-joint-visual-album-with-rihanna-next-week/ |
Why Is It Called A Taser? | BLOOMBERG NEWS Necessity may or may not be the mother of invention, but sometimes the story of an idea's birth is weirder than anything you could make up. In today's example, a former rocket scientist invented the taser in his garage because of something he read in the news, and it's actually named after a character from a 1911 young adult science fiction novel. Tasers exist because one day in the late 1960s, Jack Cover -- a former military test pilot with a doctorate in nuclear physics who worked with NASA as a contractor (with North American Aviation) on the Apollo missions -- read a newspaper article about a man who blundered into an electrified fence. The shocking experience left the man unable to move for a few minutes, but otherwise unharmed, which intrigued Cover. He had also noticed a spate of news reports of aircraft hijackings, and the offbeat news story about the man in the fence gave him an even more offbeat idea: an electric stun gun that would let law enforcement stun a suspect without doing any permanent damage (in theory). He set to work in his garage workshop and emerged in 1976 with a dart gun, more or less. It could fire the darts only a short distance, because electrical wires tethered them to the gun -- and carried the electrical current that gave the weapon its name: Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle, or TASER. And that's where the story gets really bizarre. Tom Swift, genius teenage inventor, was the star of a series of science fiction novels for young adults, first published in 1910. The series titles offer an interesting glimpse of 1910's concept of futuristic sci-fi gadgets: Swift's adventures hinge on far-fetched inventions like a portable movie camera, a telephone that can send photographs, and a technique for making synthetic diamonds. Of course, to be perfectly fair to the 1910s, there's also a flying submarine and a rifle that fires blasts of energy through walls. That particular invention is the centerpiece of the 1911 Tom Swift And His Electric Rifle, one of Cover's childhood favorites. Although the TASER didn't work much like Swift's physics-defying weapon, it was close enough for government work (or at least for a former government contractor's personal project). Cover initially dubbed his invention simply Thomas Swift Electric Rifle, but decided to give young Tom a middle initial once he started selling the stun guns because, as he told the Washington Post in 1976, "We got tired of answering the phone T.S.E.R." Since then, of course, English speakers have collectively decided that "TASER" sounds like a noun that should mean "something that tases," so if you zap someone with a Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle, you've tased them. After that wildly improbably beginning, tasers are now ubiquitous tools in the inventories of law enforcement agencies, militaries, and private citizens worldwide. Cover envisioned a non-lethal way for police to restrain a suspect, but there's still debate about the safety of tasers and whether they impact police officers' decisions for better or for worse. They're clearly less lethal than firearms, but not perfectly safe; a taser shock can kill someone if they're on certain drugs (legal or otherwise), under cardiac stress from heavy exertion, or suffering from certain heart conditions. Several law enforcement agencies point to fewer injuries to both officers and suspects since their adoption of tasers, but other studies contest those results. Cover was born on April 6, 1920, and died on February 7, 2009. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kionasmith/2019/04/06/why-is-it-called-a-taser/ |
Do the Democrats need God or Bruce Springsteen? | Americans have every reason to look for a leader who can demonstrate that he or she has a moral compass. Donald Trump exemplifies the worst of both previous examples: a documented history of philandering, and lying at a rate that would make even Nixon blush an average somewhere in the neighborhood of six a day, according to independent sources. In searching for a Redeemer President, we should remember that religious affiliation is an imperfect proxy for morality; many atheists are paragons of virtue. But religion is typically the shorthand for judging someones moral and ethical fiber, so Im astonished that so few of the many candidates running for the Democratic nomination have made their faith a calling card, thereby offering themselves as the redeemer option this time around. Yes, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders make a right-versus-wrong argument for economic fairness. >> Click here to read more | https://www.latimes.com/opinion/readersreact/la-ol-whats-wrong-with-democrats-newsletter-20190406-story.html |
Will Trump's Executive Order on Free Speech Scare Student Activists Silent? | In the wake of President Donald Trumps executive order to protect free speech on college campuses, which allows federal research and education grants to be withheld from public higher education institutions if they do not promote free and open debate on campus, some fear universities will feel pressure to protect the rights of guest speakers at the expense of the students who protest them. On Friday, a third University of Arizona (UA) student was charged with a misdemeanor and is now facing up to six months in jail, after protesting the presence of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on campus. The charges come one year after Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a measure to protect free speechfor both student activists and speakers on college campusesin response to riots over a scheduled appearance by alt-right speaker Milo Yiannopoulos, at the University of California, Berkeley. Yiannopoulos was expected to out undocumented students at the event. Michelle Tllez, an assistant professor in the department of Mexican American Studies at UA said the charges against students are a move toward silencing progressive activists. They exercised their right to protest and thats whats being seen as a threat, she told Fortune. And now the students are being charged and its egregious. UA said the CBP agents were invited by some of its students. University of Arizona president Robert Robbins called the protesters actions a dramatic departure from our expectations of respectful behavior and support for free speech and university police charged three with interference with the peaceful conduct of an educational institution. Student protest is protected by our support for free speech, Robbins said in a statement. But disruption is not. A video of the incident shows a student protester standing outside the event and later walking behind Border Patrol agents, calling them murderers and arguing that the college is supposed to be a safe space for students. Videos of the protests were shared online after some media outlets called them an example of free speech being impeded by liberals and leftists. But the free speech argument has been used as a talking point in recent years to protect white nationalist organizing and speakers on college campuses. Public universities, like UA, are already required to uphold the First Amendment. But in some cases, the ideals behind free speech might not apply in the same wayespecially when students feel threatened. UAs Immigrant Student Resource Center and the Mexican American Studies (MAS) department said they had to close earlier this week after professors in the department were targeted online by far-right hate groups. This is not new, as threats of violence towards students who protested Border Patrol on campus continue to be (sic) grow, the Center wrote in a Facebook post. Tllez explained that the student protest against the agents, who were fully uniformed and armed, should not be disconnected from the context of Arizonas anti-immigrant policies, and what she described as Border Patrols culture of cruelty. According to the Southern Border Communities Coalition, an organization formed in 2011 that promotes policies that seek to improve the quality of life for people living along the Southern border, 83 people have died in the custody of, or in encounters with, U.S. border agents in the past nine years, with causes of death ranging from illnesses to fatal shootings. Even here in recent days theres been families separated and residents in Tucson being detained by border patrol, so we cant dehistoricize and depoliticize whats happening here in Tucson and Arizona more broadly, said Tllez. But the disruption on the University of Arizonas campus also exists in the context of ongoing controversy around free speech on college campuses, especially in recent years. Ben Cooper, a junior at Arizona State University (ASU) and the communications director of the Young Democratic Socialists of America at the school told Fortune hes always been concerned the [college] administration and police will take action against students holding protests. According to Cooper, since as recently as 2016, ASU created what he called free speech zones on campus where students are allowed to protest. Students at ASU organized a march on Thursday in a public area open to student action to protest Border Patrol agents who were invited to recruit there at a career fair. Some held signs that read, Solidarity with U of A. Protesters were not allowed into the building where the event was held, but, Cooper said, Someone poured water on us from a building and the police didnt do anything. Trump first proposed his executive order on free speech in a two-hour speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 2. During this speech, Trump highlighted cases of conservative students being targeted on college campuses, including a member of Turning Point USA, a far-right organization with connections to white nationalists. Trump officially signed the order at a White House ceremony on March 21, two days after the incident at UA. If a college or university does not allow you to speak, Trump said during the signing, we will not give them money. DACA [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] recipients at the University of Arizona wrote an open letter of support for the student activists who disrupted the CBP event, saying the presence of agents poses both a physical and emotional safety concern to undocumented students and local undocumented residents. The discomfort and fear we face at the sight of Customs and Border [Protection] is overwhelming, they wrote. As DACA recipients at the university, the presence of CBP on campus has a traumatic impact on our overall well being and impedes us from fully engaging in academics. UA said that college Republicans did hold a second event with a Border Patrol agent that was protested by about 50 students. There was no disruption, both groups had the event they planned and both groups departed without incident, a UA spokesperson told Fortune. This is much more typical of how we hold events on campus involving potentially controversial speakers and topics. But Tllez said the first incident could have had the same result, without the student activists facing charges. The presenters could have continued with their presentation and protesters could have continued, she said. But [Border Patrol] chose to leave campus and there was no aggression in any physical form [toward them]. Two of the charged students are scheduled to appear in the Pima County Justice Court on April 22, 2019, and a third is scheduled to appear in the Pima County Justice Court on April 25, 2019. The University of Arizona Police Department said it is continuing its investigation into the incident, but they dont anticipate any more arrests. | http://fortune.com/2019/04/06/trump-executive-order-free-speech/ |
Can Libya's strongman Hafter capture Tripoli? | Libyans walk in the Tripoli's Martyr Square as fresh fighting flared south of the capital (AFP Photo/Mahmud TURKIA) Tripoli (AFP) - The sudden offensive against Tripoli by Libyan strongman Khalifa Haftar has taken pro-government forces and the international community by surprise. - Haftar's self-proclaimed Libyan National Army launched the assault on Thursday as UN chief Antonio Guterres visited Tripoli ahead of a planned conference later this month to hammer out a roadmap for delayed parliamentary and presidential elections. Haftar believes that "a national conference is a forum in which all the actors must... show they are willing to accept his absolute supremacy," said Jalel Harchaoui, research fellow at The Hague-based Clingendael Institute. The offensive came weeks after Haftar and key rival Fayez al-Sarraj, who heads the Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord, met in Abu Dhabi in February to discuss the creation of a new government in which he would be represented. "Because the new government negotiated at Abu Dhabi was not revealed, Haftar felt that Tripoli players had not submitted enough to him ahead of the national conference," added Harchaoui. "So he chose military force to change the facts on the ground." Analysts also believe Haftar wants to affirm his military clout after launching successful operations in the east and the south of the country -- spurred by the fact that the international community failed to react to those past offensives. He has been encouraged by "the silence of the international community during the previous operations, especially in the south" where he struck tribal alliances, said Tarek Megerisi, an analyst at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Timing the assault to coincide with Guterres's visit was an act of defiance. "Haftar made major mistakes. He underestimated the reaction of the foreign powers, being even so daring as to choose the day (Guterres) arrived in Tripoli to order the invasion," said Libyan analyst Kaouthar Hassan. - Analysts believe that Haftar over-estimates the strength of his LNA. They say the controversial field marshal, who backs an administration rival to the GNA based in eastern Libya, was counting on a quick collapse of Tripoli militias. But pro-GNA reinforcements from around Tripoli rushed to assist in driving back his forces. Haftar's first setback took place when he seized control of a key checkpoint known as "Bridge 27" less than 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) west of Tripoli. Pro-government forces from the coastal town of Zawiya battled them, retook the base and captured more than 100 of Haftar's men. "Haftar is not capable of waging the battle for Tripoli," said Libyan analyst Farhat Asseid. "He has already faced a moral setback when he hastily decided to attack the checkpoint near Tripoli," he said. Megerisi agreed. "Haftar is not as strong as he appears and cannot in the end deliver stability to Libya," he said. Powerful armed groups from Libya's western city of Misrata have also said they were ready to halt Haftar's "cursed advance". "The Misrata militias are more important (in numbers) than Haftar's forces," said Ali Bensaad, an expert on Libya and professor at the French Institute of Geopolitics. - The self-styled LNA is Soviet-trained and made up of former officers from the Libyan army, militiamen, fighters from allied tribes and Salafists. "Despite the effective branding, Haftar is not actually in control of an army in the traditional sense of the term," said Megerisi. "The LNA is a shaky alliance between various militias of tribal, religious and local interests around a core of more traditional forces who themselves are highly compromised by Salafist components." "From an institutional and historical point of view... it is impossible for now to affirm that Haftar was right to present his coalition as a real army with a relatively clear discipline and a clear chain of command," said Harchaoui. For Libyan university professor Ahmad al-Messalati, Haftar "is capable of taking Tripoli but only on one condition", if he manages to form "strong and efficient alliances with certain armed groups" in Tripoli to ensure his forces can enter the capital without bloodshed. | https://news.yahoo.com/libyas-strongman-hafter-capture-tripoli-143224710.html |
Have We Stolen A Generation's Independent Thought? | Getty "Kids these days," the complaint begins. "They cannot think for themselves." The complaint has come across my desk three times this week, voiced by someone in the higher education world complaining about the quality of student arriving in their ivy-covered halls. It's worth noting that the observation itself has no particular objective, evidence-based support. There's no college student independent thought index we can consult to check for a dip. Just the subjective judgment of some people who work at the college level. So the whole business could simply be the time-honored dismay of an older generation contemplating the younger one. If we do accept the observation as valid, there are a variety of possible explanations. A study showing that people just stick with their team and don't think about the ideas involved. A political climate in which truth-telling and truth-searching are not currently highly valued. The power of YouTube conspiracy videos. Helicopter parents armed with bazooka-mounted lawnmowers. But there's another factor to consider, a firmly school-embedded factor that has promoted anti-thought for a generation. Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, the US has used high stakes standardized tests as accountability measures for schools, districts, and teachers. This has led to a twisting of public education, as schools have reassigned their resources to focus on preparing students to do well on standardized math and reading tests. Music, arts, history--even recess--have been placed on the back burner because they are not on the test. Much has been written about the effects of high stakes testing on education, but we should also pay attention to the nature of the tests themselves. They are, for the most part, standardized multiple-choice tests, and as such, they promote a particular view of the world. Consider the difference between the two following questioning strategies: Read this poem. Provide some evidence of how particular words and images are an important part of how the author makes their point. You'll be scored on how well you express and support your idea. Read this poem. Here are four possible statements that could be the author's main idea, but only one is correct. Pick that one. Here are four quotes from the poem that might be the most important evidence of the author's main idea, but only one choice is correct. Pick that one. The first strategy encourages the student to explore, to think, and to support her own ideas. Her task is to think and to express her thinking. The second strategy tells the student that the questions have already been settled and that somebody already knows the one correct answer. Her task is to figure out what that somebody believes the answer to be. The second is anti-thought. Even though a question like "what's the most important detail" is what many students would consider an opinion question, successfully answering means setting aside their own opinions, their own thoughts, and trying to predict the opinions and thoughts of the test writers. The second is, of course, a standardized multiple-choice testing strategy. By focusing on that type of questioning for students' entire academic careers, we hammer home that, rather than a world open for exploration and discovery, the world of math and reading is a world where every question already has a known answer and no exploration or thought is needed. Just learn the kind of compliance that keeps you on the path that has been laid down for you. Test manufacturers can keep making noises about new generation tests, but as long as we stick to the fundamental formula--we will tell you which answers to choose from, and only one is "correct"--we are still deep in the land of anti-thought, the kind of place where the writer of poems can't even answer standardized test questions about her own works. Every test, every question, pushes on students some fundamentally troubling notions about the nature of knowledge and understanding in the world. They also teach students that independent, open-ended, exploratory thought is neither necessary nor desired to navigate the world. We are teaching students, literally, not to think, but instead to clear their own thoughts and concentrate on following the path followed by the people who wrote the test questions. We are teaching them that every question has just one right answer, that somebody out there already knows it, and that you go to school to learn to say what those people want you to say. This is not a new issue in education, but we have ramped it up, systematically injected it into every level of K-12 education, and incentivized it like never before. If it has stifled a generation's desire for independent thought, that is no surprise. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/04/06/have-we-stolen-a-generations-independent-thought/ |
Will Netanyahu win the upcoming Israeli election? | "Face the Nation" moderator and CBS News Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent Margaret Brennan with five things to expect. ONE: NETANYAHU WILL LIKELY WIN Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces a number of challenges including potential bribery, corruption and breach of trust charges that could carry a decade-long prison sentence. But he remains popular. Israelis are largely single-issue voters, the biggest being security. Netanyahu, who appointed himself defense minister in 2017, is viewed as reliably strong on security in (what is) a rough neighborhood. If re-elected, he'd be the longest serving Israeli leader since founding father Ben Gurion. TWO: THE OPPOSITION IS WEAK Netanyahu's main rival is a former military chief, Benny Gantz. His party has leaned on framing Netanyahu as corrupt and in power for too long. But he's campaigned on nationalist issues quite similar to Netanyahu's platform, such as demanding international law be sidestepped in order to recognize Israel's claim to the disputed Golan Heights and Jerusalem. Netanyahu's friendship with Trump already helped him deliver US backing on both those claims. Gantz has also never been a politician, allowing Netanyahu to frame him as inexperienced and a comparative unknown on the world stage. THREE: PLAYING TO THE BASE Similar to President Trump, Netanyahu has branded charges against him a 'witch hunt', a 'left-wing conspiracy' and 'fake news', to pander to his conservative base. His party has gone as far as suggesting Gantz is mentally unstable. He's also known to play off racial politics. When Israelis headed to the polls in 2015, he broadcasted a message on the day claiming Israeli-Arab voters are coming out 'in droves' so Jewish citizens must get out and vote for him quick. FOUR: FORMING A COALITION The winner must secure a coalition of 61 out of 120 parliamentary seats to form a government. Gantz's party is rivalling in the polls, but even if he wins he'll struggle to gain other partners. A majority of Right-wing parties have already said they'll only join Netanyahu. Netanyahu's coalition may include the likes of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked, who believe the Palestinians cannot be allowed to have anything resembling a state. While the Trump Administration hopes Netanyahu's tough-on-defense reputation will allow him the political wiggle room to make some concessions-- with his hands tied to a Right-wing coalition, he may struggle to get his government to agree to anything in Jared Kushner's pending Middle East peace plan. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-netanyahu-win-the-upcoming-israeli-election/ |
Are the Bulls the best fit for Ja Morant? | originally appeared on nbcsportschicago.com Ja Morant officially declared for the NBA Draft on Thursday, which brings to mind his eventual landing spot and where he would be a good fit. Morant figures to be one of the first players taken after Zion Williamson in the draft and the Bulls are in need of a point guard with Kris Dunn not looking like a long-term starting option at this point. Scroll to continue with content Ad ESPN fired up its take machine with Morant making it official that he will be in the draft. Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman both gave their views on which teams need Morant the most on First Take. Smith said the Suns need him to provide Devin Booker with a point guard. He threw out a Russell Westbrook comparison for Morant, saying the Murray State product has the athleticism (and turnover streak) of Westbrook. Kellerman gave Bulls fans what they want to hear. He said pairing Morant with Zach LaVine after he showed he can be a consistent scorer in the NBA would be big for the Bulls. "The man can really score the ball at the NBA level and do so efficiently," Kellerman said of LaVine. "You put him with a point guard and that athletic backcourt It would be very good for the NBA to have (Morant) in Chicago." If the Bulls do land Morant in the draft, it would give the team a projected starting five of him, LaVine, Otto Porter Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Wendell Carter Jr. Suddenly the Bulls would have solid or better players at each position. Something to dream about, Bulls fans. Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Bulls easily on your device. | https://sports.yahoo.com/bulls-best-fit-ja-morant-001053422.html?src=rss |
How Is The Margarita At Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville? | Landing at No. 47 on the Forbes list of Celebrity 100 Earnings, Jimmy Buffett's hardly a beach bum. Yet, the beloved singer has managed to create a $51 million empire selling that laid-back vibe at branded restaurants, hotels and retirement communities, all "inspired by the lyrics and lifestyle of Jimmy Buffett." We recently stopped by Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Pensacola Beach, Florida, to try the famous signature cocktail. Leslie Kelly Getting in the spirit Margaritaville sits on 800 feet of gulf-front, about 10 miles from historic downtown Pensacola. Wander in the lobby, and there's a gift-shop selling all sorts of merch designed with Parrotheads in mind. Even before checking in, you can splurge on a "It's 5 O'Clock Somewhere" beach chair or a colorful T-shirt that reads: "When Life Gives You Limes, Make Margaritas!" Jimmy Buffet album covers hang throughout the lobby and there are plenty of reminders of his large catalog of hits. The featured restaurant is named Frank & Lola... Love Pensacola from Buffett's 1985 Last Mango in Paris album. Leslie Kelly Barefoot bar While Frank & Lola and its bar enjoy amazing water views, if you want to get the true beach treatment, head to nearby LandShark Landing. This all-ages venue has loads of outdoor seating among the famous white sand, including a few hammocks. Inside, it's a lively atmosphere with surfboards and various nautical flotsam hanging from the ceiling and a long list of tiki drinks to consider. Anchoring that lineup are half a dozen variations of margarita including a rendition featured on Radio Margaritaville that contains coconut water and coconut cream. (Which sounds a lot more like a Pina Colada, doesn't it?) Leslie Kelly The verdict A friendly bartender was doing a spectacular job juggling various orders, but mixed up a classic margarita as if it was the most important beverage he'd made all day. Maestro Dobel Diamante and Milagro Silver Tequila were poured over ice in a cocktail shaker, followed by a splash of orange liqueur and a generous shot of fresh lime juice. A quick shake and the mixture was poured over ice, a lime wedge on the side. Because it's served in a plastic glass, the salt rim disappeared as soon as the margarita hit the ice. The bartender offered another, freshly salted glass, and a couple sips in, it was clear this was a fine $10 drink. Nothing life-changing, but perfectly well-balanced so it didn't taste too tart or too boozy. And like most margaritas worth their salt, it packed a punch strong enough to trigger cravings for a cheeseburger in paradise. Read about a special trip to Mexico in search of a famous margarita. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekelly/2019/04/06/how-is-the-margarita-at-jimmy-buffetts-margaritaville/ |
How can celebrities walk the social media tightrope? | Image caption Justin Bieber has apologised for his April Fool's prank "Is it too late now to say sorry?" sang an embattled Justin Bieber in 2015. Four years on, the answer for celebrities, Bieber included, appears very much "no" - particularly on social media. Fans demand authentic personality, but newly-married Bieber's pregnancy-themed April Fool's joke earlier this week walked him right into the midst of "cancel culture", when people boycott problematic celebrities. While celebrity names from David Beckham to Kris Jenner, and even Bieber's mother Pattie Mallette, saw the funny side, others branded the star "shameful" and "disgusting". Within 24 hours an apology had been posted, clarifying that he "didn't mean at all to be insensitive to people who can't have children". "I am a prankster and it was APRIL FOOLS'" he added. The current state of increased sensitivity is arguably the perfect love (or hate?) child between social media "amplification" and celebrity culture. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Edwin L Battistella, author of Sorry About That: The Language of Public Apology, says the majority or public apologies fail. Dr Pamela Rutledge, director of the US-based Media Psychology Research Center, says that the nature of social media networks allows fans to form "para social" relationships, meaning they "genuinely feel like they know a celebrity" through the intimacy of their posts. Stars, meanwhile, use this to enhance their reach across social groups to an extent previously unthinkable outside the digital age. And because society deems "people who appear in the media as important," celebrities become "viewed as role models" - or 'influencers' - in the process. But this creates what Dr Rutledge describes as the "forgotten irony of social media". She says stars often forget that the exposure that lifts them up "constrains their privacy" and, by extension, freedom of expression. The intense feeling of connection through social media relationships means many fans react personally. As much as they may jump to defend a celebrity from the attack of others, they will also "take exception to the behaviour of a celebrity if it violates their world view" . "You can't expect to benefit from the amplification and not be subject to the constraints," she says. Rage against the machine The polarisation is also heightened by the mechanics of social media itself. Whereas previously outrage would be limited to small groups to reinforce trust and a sense of community, the internet has taken this principle and transferred it to millions. A research paper on moral outrage in the digital age by Professor Molly Crockett of the University of Yale, found that online platforms have "profoundly changed the incentives" of expressing outrage and information sharing. Justin Bieber isn't alone in watching a social media post provoke an unexpected negative reaction. Liam Payne apologises for standing atop a tall building Back in 2014, Liam Payne was at the height of boy band fame with One Direction. A night out with friends led to a picture of him posing atop a high-rise building making its way online. His loyal teenage fanbase grew so concerned that he was forced to release a statement saying it was "stupid and irresponsible" and warning against replicating his actions Lorde apologises for quoting Whitney Houston prior to taking a bath In 2018, Lorde innocently posted a picture of her running bath alongside the caption "And iiii will always love you," the chorus from Whitney Houston's 'smash-hit of the same name. She quickly found herself under attack as Houston died in a bathtub in 2012. Responding to the controversy, she wrote: "Extremely extremely poorly chosen quote. I'm so sorry for offending anyone I hadn't even put this together, I was just excited to take a bath. I'm an idiot. Love Whitney forever and ever. Sorry again." Platforms compete for advertising venue using algorithms built to reward virality, meaning "outrageous content generates more revenue". User reactions follow the same pattern. The removal of real-life repercussions, as well at the ease with which people can express themselves (think of Facebook's react buttons), encourages extreme responses. It concludes that this can combine to "provide reputational rewards" for moral outrage online. The chance of likes or follows makes outrage worthwhile. In light of this heightened emotional state, it is easier to understand how the cycle of outrage forms so quickly, especially combined with the personal relationships fans feel they form online. Ron Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations and crisis management mogul explains that in the social media age "time is definitely not on your side". "Public apologies are pretty much expected and required within 24 hours of the incident. When you're in the hot seat, the first 48-hour window of the crisis is the most important. "Justin Bieber's response was great. He did exactly what one should do when in the midst of a crisis PR situation - he addressed all of the 5Ws - who what when where and why - and did so quickly and affirmatively. "He maintained his authenticity and personality while also consoling those who were offended." "Of course, Bieber did not intend for this to cause so much controversy. But a crisis is never predictable - that's what makes it a crisis." Looking to the future, Torossian feels authenticity may well be diminished, but as Bieber wrote in his apology on Instagram: "There's always gonna be people offended." Perhaps a sign of a future in which apologies will be more selective than the outrage. Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47825846 |
Where are England's pongiest places? | Image copyright BBC/ Derby Telegraph/ Getty The sweet smell of home can mean many things to many people - but if, to you, it conjures the intoxicating aroma of warm dog food, rotten eggs or cannabis, you could be an inhabitant of one of the places mentioned below. We hold our noses and get set to explore England's pongiest places. Then, you are not alone. When the wind changes direction, residents of several towns and cities get a waft of something very specific - be it biscuits or breweries. "Many of these smells are associated with industry," explains Will Rossiter, associate professor at Nottingham Business School, who points out that places like Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Burton upon Trent were once home to a "lovely, hoppy, malty smell" associated with their breweries. But in some places, the whiff was far more noxious. "It used to be the case that if you drove up the M1 through north Nottinghamshire, you really could almost taste the sulphurous smell of the old coking works," Mr Rossiter said. "You could see a yellow haze." Image copyright Lydia Leith Image caption The odour of British manufacturing continues to linger As Britain's manufacturing sector has shrunk and environmental regulations have improved, Mr Rossiter says the smells associated with industrial processes have also disappeared - but there are a few places where industries - and their odours - continue to linger. Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire Melton is famous for styling itself as the capital of rural food; both pork pies and Stilton cheese are made in the area. But it's another kind of food that infiltrates the nostrils of its residents. Image caption Melton Mowbray styles itself as the rural capital of food "During the summer there's a nice smell of warm dog food," said Sarah Haines, who lives in the town. The pet food smell that permeates the streets on sunny days stems from the Mars Petcare factory, on Mill Street, which manufactures rural fare of a different kind, namely Pedigree Chum and Whiskas. "It's just part and parcel of living here," added Georgie Kemp, Sarah's friend. "You certainly don't smell pie and cheese anyway, as you'd expect." Image copyright Facebook According to social media, Melton also basks in the very distinctive odours of rural life - one of the drawbacks of being surrounded by rolling countryside. "Yes, you get the muck-spreading in the summer," added Ms Haines. "Basically, there are no nice smells." Image caption Sarah Haines and Georgie Kemp say their hometown smells of "warm dog food" A local joke is that the town marks the point where the River Eye becomes the River Wreake - "Eye Wreake" being the result. But many residents say the odour does not offend them as much as you might expect. Image caption The Mars pet food factory in Melton Mowbray "Can't really say it bothers me," said one woman who was shopping at the town's market. "We stayed in France near a pet food factory and that one smelled much worse than ours," added another. Mars Petcare said it was aware its production processes occasionally produced "a distinctive smell" and it worked to minimise this as much as possible. Carlisle and Wigton, Cumbria Image copyright Lydia Leith Image caption Carlisle's biscuit smell is described as "a bit unusual" Biscuits versus rotten eggs. Biscuits versus rotten eggs... In the battle of the Cumbrian pongs, the proud city of Carlisle definitely takes the biscuit. Image caption The Carlisle biscuit operation wafts coconut and ginger fragrances around the city "One of the first conversations I had when I came here was with someone who said: 'It smells a lot better than Wigton'," said comedian Mark Steel, who visited Carlisle for his BBC radio series Mark Steel's In Town. He claimed Carlisle residents were so used to the "constant biscuit cloud" they could actually pick out the individual biscuits being baked at the time. "When I first came here I mentioned the smell to three people and every one of them went, "Yeah and it's ginger nuts today". It's a nice smell. It's just a bit unusual when it covers 15 square miles." Image caption Comedian Mark Steel referred to the scent as a "constant biscuit cloud" "It's quite a comforting smell," said creative designer Lydia Leith, who lives in the city. "If they're making Nice biscuits, you get a smell of coconuts. Other days, it's a gingery kind of smell. "Although it's not very helpful if you're on a diet." Down the road in Wigton, however, townsfolk did not get quite so lucky with the whiff of their local industry. Image copyright Lydia Leith Image caption Lydia Leith says the Carlisle biscuit smell is "comforting" but not helpful if you are on a diet "It can only be described as sulphur," said Sandra Hodson, a town councillor who has lived here for 40 years. The so-called Wigton pong emanates from a nearby factory that makes food packaging film. The process involves a range of chemical processes which have been known to give off a rotten egg smell. You might also like: "It's only on certain days and generally you smell it when you're going to get wet weather, for some reason," added Mrs Hodson. "It's like our weather station." However, she added the town was proud of the factory, which is owned by Japanese company Futamura. "It's the glue that holds us all together," she said. "If we ever lost it, it would devastate us." Futamura did not respond to the BBC's request for a comment. Derby Image caption In the summer of 2018, the streets of Derby were plagued by a "mystery sick stench" While some odours linger like - well, a bad smell - other whiffs disappear in a jiff. Such was the case for the people of Derby during the long, hot summer of 2018 when a mystery "sick" stench was reported in the city. Image copyright Twitter The smell was described by residents as "like sick", "like sewage" and "like poo" and one shop said it was "running dangerously low on air freshener". "It smells just like liquid manure," Tom Clarke, from Chellaston, told the Derby Telegraph. "It was just nasty," recalls Mycah Gatt, who lives in the city. "It smelled like pure sewage. It was so intense it made us feel dizzy. It was like shoving your head down a toilet. We stayed inside as much as possible." Image copyright Derby Telegraph Image caption Tom Clarke held his nose and got on with it Derby Council and Severn Trent both said they did not know what caused the pong. Derby councillor Martin Repton speculated the stench stemmed from fertiliser from a farm in the Kedleston area. Image caption Mycah Gatt says the mystery odour made her feel dizzy "We are a small city, quite low-lying, and, unlike other cities, we are surrounded by farms," he said. "I can remember smells like that as a boy at muck-spreading time but not quite as bad. "Perhaps it was the way the wind was blowing, perhaps it was a different type of fertiliser. "It was dreadful, it was obnoxious and the way it enveloped the streets was quite worrying." Image copyright Martin Repton Image caption Martin Repton said the odour was "obnoxious" Luckily, the smell quickly wafted over Derby and, so far, has yet to return. Nailsea, Somerset In July 2017 the residents of the Somerset town of Nailsea began complaining that their town smelled of cannabis. "Left my bedroom window open last night, woke up about three-ish with the room absolutely reeking of it," complained one resident on the town's Nailsea People Facebook page. "Is it just me or does Nailsea stink of weed?" asked another on Twitter. "Yes I noticed it the other day," somebody replied. "I did wonder if someone had been composting their cannabis plants!" Image copyright Heather Pickstock Image caption Heather Pickstock found Nailsea's "cannabis operation" was, in fact, the smell of a blackcurrant harvest Heather Pickstock was the Bristol Post journalist who sniffed out the source of the smell. "I first noticed it when I went into Nailsea one lunchtime and smelled it, initially thinking someone was smoking," she said. "It was quite pungent. But then I realised it was covering the whole town and started to investigate and saw other people talking about it on Facebook." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The smell was caused by the blackcurrant harvest for Ribena What she found was quite surprising. "It was caused by the blackcurrant harvest by Thatchers Cider in Sandford for Ribena," she said. "They do harvest every year but it was the first time I'd ever smelled it." Image copyright PA Image caption Nailsea residents believed the smell of the blackcurrant harvest was the aroma of cannabis Thatchers said it pressed about 13,000 tonnes of blackcurrants at its mill in July and August each year. These are then sent to Ribena's plant in Coleford, in the Forest of Dean. The cider-maker added that the smell was a "perfectly natural" result of the pressing process. Police at the time confirmed the odour was "due to the annual blackcurrant harvest" and "not due to a large cannabis operation". "People do not need to be concerned," they added. Ribena, though, has declined to comment on the stink. London Image copyright Getty Images Image caption London had "odour issues" in Victorian times, when it endured what was known as the "Great Stink" In Victorian times, the English city with the biggest odour issues was London. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Engineer Joseph Bazalgette helped clean up the city with a sewer system Notoriously the city's "Great Stink", in 1858, saw the hot weather exacerbate the smell of untreated human waste and effluent around the Thames. The city cleaned up its act thanks to civil engineer Joseph Bazalgette's famous sewer system that still operates today. Not quite, according to some. Image caption Students Hodan Shire and Zanaira Siddique think London still smells "I think it's improved since Victorian times but some areas still smell a bit," said law student Hodan Shire, who lives in the north west of the city. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption By 1866 most of London was connected to a sewer network devised by Bazalgette "It smells mainly of cigarettes and traffic fumes," added her friend Zanaira Siddique, from Cambridge. "When you come here, it kind of hits you. When the weather gets hotter, it's even worse." Indeed, in October 2018 there were reports of an "acrid, noxious and strange chemical smell" across parts of the capital, although the authorities could not confirm the cause. Image caption Gemma Dilworth and Annika Murfitt say the dirt and pollution get up your nose "It smells of rubbish because of all the bins on the streets and the dirt and pollution," said Gemma Dilworth, who commutes to the city from Oxfordshire. "You have black bogeys when you blow your nose." "It's not really bad but there is still a smell," agreed her friend Annika Murfitt. Image caption Mark and Lynn Jones say the urine odour is "just a city smell" "It smells of urine and drains," said Arsenal fan Mark Jones, from Devon, who was visiting the capital with his wife Lynn. "You can smell pee around every corner but, in fairness, that's just a city smell." Image caption Dane Lars Friis says the main thing he can smell is "lots of food" However, to Danish national Lars Friis, who lives in Chiswick, the odour of London is a pleasant one. "Hmm... the main thing I can smell is lots of food." Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-47088784 |
Will Phoenix see 90-degree temperatures next week? | A day in the desert at Four Peaks in Arizona. (Photo: Courtesy of Archie Tucker) Meteorologists say the Phoenix area could finally see 90-degree temperatures in the next couple of days. A National Weather Service forecast for the Valley area says it could reach 90 on Sunday and then the mid-90s Monday and Tuesday. It's all due to a high-pressure system building across the desert southwest, bringing higher temperatures and the warmest conditions so far this year, according to the Weather Service forecast. "High temperatures across the lower deserts will easily warm into the middle 90s early next week," the forecast stated. Nighttime temperatures will remain in the 60s. Quite the warm up is expected over the next couple of days with temperatures rising into the mid to upper 90s on Monday across the lower deserts. Some areas in southeast CA and along the Colorado River Valley may approach 100. #azwx#cawxpic.twitter.com/dxCBbLqI7B NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) April 6, 2019 Should Phoenix actually hit the 90-degree mark, it will be for the first time this year, the Weather Service tweeted. Some areas in southeast California and along the Colorado River Valley may approach 100. Saturday was the 160th day this year with a high temperature below 90 degrees at Sky Harbor International Airport. The record is 206 days set in 1912, according to the Weather Service. Weather in the Phoenix area will begin to cool off later next week. The Tucson area could also see temperatures in the mid-90s Monday and Tuesday. In northern Arizona, temperatures in the Flagstaff area are expected to hit the mid-60s Sunday and the low 70s Monday before cooling down later in the week. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2019/04/06/phoenix-90-degree-temperatures-next-week/3390639002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-breaking/2019/04/06/phoenix-90-degree-temperatures-next-week/3390639002/ |
Was double dribble missed by refs during Virginia, Auburn? | Final Four referees are under criticism as to whether they missed a possible double dribble at the end of Auburn and Virginia's Final Four Game. Auburn had a foul to give, but before the Tigers fouled, Jerome lost control of the ball off his foot and recovered it. As Ty Jerome brings the ball up the court, he accidentally bumps the ball off his back foot," CBS rule official Gene Steratore explained while reviewing a replay. "He then re-possesses this ball with both hands. That ends his dribble. As Ty Jerome brings the ball up the court, he accidentally bumps the ball off his back foot he then re-possesses this ball with both hands. That ends his dribble.@GeneSteratore explains a missed double-dribble violation on Ty Jerome near the end of the game. pic.twitter.com/763pV0sXyA CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 7, 2019 Auburn pulled ahead after being down by 10 points with five minutes remaining. With six seconds left in the game, Kyle Guy hit a three that put Virginia within one. The Tigers' Jared Harper was fouled and hit one of two free throws before the final play. Samir Doughty fouled Guy on a last-second heave, which led to the three foul shots. Guy hit three free throws with 0.6 seconds remaining to send the Cavaliers to their first national championship with a 6362 win over Auburn. Here's the play that resulted in a foul on Kyle Guy pic.twitter.com/cdUygQThHV SI College Hoops (@si_ncaabb) April 7, 2019 Kyle Guy hits all THREE from the stripe. Virginia is headed to its FIRST National Championship on Monday night. pic.twitter.com/4GIIoPF6w9 CBS Sports (@CBSSports) April 7, 2019 Guy finished the game with 15 points. After the game, Guy told Tracy Wolfson that he was "terrified" at the free throw line. | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/04/06/double-dribble-ty-jerome-kyle-guy-foul-samir-doughty-virginia-auburn-final-four-ending |
Does my ex have to be in my daughters life? | Five years ago, my ex ended our marriage, but he has kept in touch with my youngest daughter (we married when she was 12 and she lived with us). She now has three children my grandchildren and wants her stepdad to play a role in their lives. It was so difficult over the holidays when there were gifts from him and the girlfriend. I thought I was past being hurt, but hearing the girlfriends name was difficult. With Easter around the corner, Im anticipating the same thing. Good ex-etiquette is good behavior after divorce or separation, and it doesnt sound like youre acting up, giving anyone ultimatums or badmouthing anyone, so youre demonstrating good ex-etiquette. It seems youre just acknowledging your hurt and anyone who has faced a breakup understands where youre coming from. However, it also sounds like youre stuck. Five years is a long time to be upset. Your ex is maintaining a relationship with a child hes raised because she wants that relationship to continue. You havent found someone new, so as a result, hes the likely candidate to carry the grandpa gauntlet. Hes supplying presents, obviously seeing the children at different times than family get-togethers and since this is something your daughter wants for her children, hes doing what is asked of him. Thats good ex-etiquette. Some would say he has no business continuing his relationship with your daughter. I dont agree and it doesnt sound like your daughter agrees, either. As difficult as it might be for you to continue to interact with him, even from afar, if he was a father figure to your daughter, its up to them if they want to continue that relationship. From a personal standpoint, I was married to my bonuskids father for well over 20 years. Although we are on good terms, if we werent and my bonusdaughter wanted our relationship to continue, thats the way it would be. She had a difficult time with our divorce. I cant imagine how she would feel if I stopped talking to her because I was no longer married to her father. My relationship with her began when her father and I got married, but over the years we developed a bond that was not dependent on that marriage. That continues to this day. If you havent gone to counseling to help you deal with all this, now is the time. Theres too much life to live to be stuck in a painful past. Thats good ex-etiquette. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/07/ex-18/ |
Can 'Harry Potter' star Daniel Radcliffe bring wizardry to new film 'Circus Kid'? | Hollywood's most famous wizard just pulled off a pretty good trick. Daniel Radcliffe, celebrated as young wizard Harry Potter in the popular film franchise, has taken on a new surprising role that of executive producer for a documentary exploring what it's like to grow up in a circus family. Circus Kid captures the real-life tale of Lorenzo Pisonis unique childhood with The Pickle Family Circus and how it wasnt all fun and games when it came to taking the stage as an entertainer with his performing parents. Radcliffe met Pisoni during his Broadway debut on Equus in 2008 and was immediately captivated by his fellow performers journey. We became very good friends, Radcliffe told Fox News. I started learning about his life and then I became the most annoying [person] Like, Oh, you were in the circus?! Can you juggle? It was annoying Im sure, but he was very sweet and humored me." And while the two men shared similar offbeat upbringings, Radcliffe was more fascinated by their differences and how the spotlight had impacted them over the years. I think I'd be hard-pressed to find parallels in our families and how we dealt with it all, explained Radcliffe. Lorenzos parents are separated. Im very lucky my parents are still together and are a wonderful team. And Lorenzo went off on his own for a lot of his childhood. I was generally chaperoned by one or the other of my parents But it all just made sense. When youre living in a life where there really isnt a blueprint for it, theres nobody you can look to. Daniel Radcliffe on his unique childhood "When youre living in a life where there really isnt a blueprint for it, theres nobody you can look to, there wasnt a family my parents can go and say, OK, so whats it like when your kid gets involved in a massive franchise? You just have to go, Lets do this ourselves. I certainly wouldnt change anything about my life or how I grew up because it made me the person that I am. Im actually becoming more and more OK with that person. At age 11, Radcliffe achieved international stardom when he was cast as the lead in Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone in 2001, which was based on the beloved best-selling fantasy novel by British writer J.K. Rowling. Not only did the film become a box-office sensation, but the eight-film series spanned Radcliffes late childhood and set him up for life. The franchise ended its run in 2011 and skyrocketed the young actor's net worth to nearly $100 million. Radcliffe managed to escape the child star curse, however, and has gone on to enjoy a scandal-free Hollywood career. He credited his parents for providing a sense of normalcy over the years. I think my mom and dad were just parenting very instinctively. Not that Im saying Im an amazing person, but I just feel like they did a really good job. Daniel Radcliffe From my point of view, I feel like my parents set a ridiculously high bar for me when I become a parent, he admitted. I just look back and go, Man, they really made things easy for me and comprehensible and not scary.' I dont think they were ever thinking, We have to do this. I think my mom and dad were just parenting very instinctively. Not that Im saying Im an amazing person, but I just feel like they did a really good job. And while Harry Potter has certainly provided Radcliffe with immense wealth, he isnt interested in enchanting audiences on screen with the same magic formula. Instead, Radcliffe is determined to take on diverse roles that showcase his talent. In 2016s Imperium, Radcliffe starred as an FBI agent going undercover as a white supremacist. That same year he also starred as a flatulent corpse in Swiss Army Man. Radcliffe is aware some may question his choice of roles, but hes perfectly content with transforming into different characters even if they wont become his next moneymaker. I think I wanted to try as many different things as I possibly could, he explained. You know, to find out what youre good at, to find out what you like doing I think this is something Ive become better at [doing] in the last few years [Just] really trusting my instinct. Im still really enjoying acting and Im finding lots of projects that I really want to do. Daniel Radcliffe "Having a good time with the [film] Im doing now is the most important thing for me. Because I dont watch myself back. I might see [the film] once or twice when theyre not finished so I can go and take a note of something my experience of something is going to be the experience that I had making it. Thats ultimately the thing youre left with. Thats my drive now. Will I enjoy this or wont I? Radcliffe said he can envision himself working more behind the lens in the future. I would love to direct at some point down the road, he said. Ive been saying this for years. I will get around to it eventually. Im still really enjoying acting and Im finding lots of projects that I really want to do. For the moment, Im very happy to act. Theres no rush. "I would also love to write. Ideally, I would like to write and direct, but I dont want the first thing I make to be s----y. I want to make sure the script is right. Im going to take my time working on those things. Still, Radcliffe knows he may never escape "Harry Potter." But rather than shun the iconic persona who has delivered a life of immense wealth and professional freedom with just the wave of a magic wand, he embraces it. In fact, it only motivates him to show audiences what hes capable of. I think I felt a lot of that pressure in the beginning, said Radcliffe. I dont know what the percentage is, but theres a percentage of people who will absolutely be willing to see me as different characters. Theres a percentage of people, probably smallish, that already do. But theres a percentage of people who will never see me as anything other than Harry Potter. And Im not going to worry about that. "Im also very happy with that. I loved the part. And if thats the way I will remain in some peoples minds until the end of time, then thats fine The fact that Im able to do stuff that Im proud of, if I just carry on and do the things that I want to make, hopefully they will reach more and more people. Circus Kid premieres December 21 on Sundance Now. | https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/can-harry-potter-star-daniel-radcliffe-bring-wizardry-to-new-film-circus-kid |
Why does great architecture have to be fun? | Youll have seen, reproduced in print or online, The Singing Butler, Jack Vettrianos painting of a posh couple dancing on the beach, sheltered by umbrella-carrying servants. You might also have seen Coal Drops Yard, the shopping centre in Kings Cross, London, that is surmounted by a pair of kissing roofs. The latter, in its fusion of romance and rain exclusion, could be considered an architectural realisation of the former. The designer of the kissing roofs is Thomas Heatherwick, who is to architecture what Vettriano is to art (or EL James is to literature, or Katherine Jenkins is to music), that is to say, someone whose success and popularity is matched by deep critical scepticism. Id put Bjarke Ingels in the same company the Danish-born, New York-based impresario who designed a Lego-like headquarters for Lego and makes apartment complexes look like mountain ranges. This spring, each is unveiling their most striking landmark to date. In April, in Copenhagen, the long-awaited Amager Bakke waste-to-energy power plant is due to open, designed by Ingels and his practice BIG. It is a structure that combines an environmentally conscious public facility with a ski park descending its sloping form. Hey, it says, you can be good to the planet and have a laugh. Function follows fun. In New York, meanwhile, Heatherwicks Vessel, the 150ft-high public sculpture composed of multiple staircases, offers the public a different way to clamber over the city. Like the power plant, it promises childish pleasure city as playground, art as climbing frame. Which is similar to the appeal of Vettriano, Jenkins and James. They speak directly to the simple emotions, say their fans, and bypass the usual gatekeepers of taste and value. It helps, goes the narrative, if you are self-taught and, therefore, spared the obfuscation and doubt that is inculcated by academies. This is true of Vettriano and James. Its also a big part of the Heatherwick story that he studied design rather than architecture. This background liberates his vision, or makes him inept in basic questions of scale and use, depending on your point of view. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ski slope on Bjarke Ingelss Amager Bakke power plant in Copenhagen. Photograph: Rasmus Hjortshoj For its true that education complicates things. Architects (usually it depends where they study) get taught to worry about such issues as a buildings context, the relationship of detail to the whole, or of appearance to structure and function. They are generally taught to mistrust their first concept for a project, to test it against multiple considerations. If a student is told that their design is a one-liner that its only got a single idea thats not a good thing. Ingels and Heatherwick blitz these scruples. They offer at most two-liners (its a power plant and a ski slope, its a garden and a bridge). Part of their shtick is their apparent facility, the appealing myth of the napkin sketch that turns into a building. Ingels doesnt seem too troubled about the elegance of his details. Heatherwick has the magical ability to make budget constraints, which architects are also taught to respect, vanish. He is able to attract the sort of client with the means to pay no matter what to build a slice of his genius. One such is Google, who has hired both Ingels and Heatherwick to design HQs in Silicon Valley and London. This overload of ego and vision might seem like a pudding overegged or a lily gilded but its the kind of thing you can do if youre Google. Well, Im one of those sceptical critics. I love the idea of the ski slope/power station but need to be convinced by how it works out in reality. Vessel seems to be offensively indifferent to the buildings and spaces around it; I wonder how great it will really be to go up and down its stairs. I like things such as nuance, complexity, multiplicity and depth, in architecture as in other art forms. It seems obvious and fundamental to me that cities are made of multiple buildings playing off each other, not by autonomous objects. I also oppose a culture that invests little in the dignity and beauty of everyday places streets, schools but finds billions in its back pocket for corporate spectacle. But those more reflective architects, and the critics who support them, have to recognise that Heatherwick and Ingels present a challenge. Theres real power and attraction in those excessive constructions. They appeal to a desire that people have of their surroundings, to engage and excite them. The really impressive achievement would be to respond to that desire with structures that have more than one, or even two, things to say. | https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/07/architecture-does-it-have-to-be-fun-tom-heatherwick-bjarke-ingels |
What do we mean by we? | That syntactic atrocity is prompted by a recent colloquy between Laura Ingraham of Fox News and former GOP operative Patrick Buchanan. They were talking on Ingrahams podcast about what they see as the impossibility of America absorbing more newcomers from what Buchanan called the second or the Third World. Then he dropped this gem: African Americans have been here since 1619. Theyve helped build and create the nation. Presumably, he means the country, which raises an obvious point. Heres something equally obvious. When Buchanan says we, he does mean America. But when he says America, he means white people. Not that hes the only one to rhetorically ostracize people of color. Journalists do it all the time when they use terms like evangelicals to refer to religious white people, Southerners, to denote white people in Dixie or working class to designate white people with blue-collar jobs as if people of color did not go to church, live below the Mason-Dixon Line or punch time clocks. Advertising President Donald Trump did it when he recently tweeted that politicians in storm-torn Puerto Rico only take from USA. As if Puerto Ricans, who gained citizenship in 1917, were somehow separate from USA. Too often, then, people of color live in other peoples blind spots, unseen in the shadow of their assumptions. Some of us have a default image of what constitutes American, and it rules out Spanish surnames, dark skin and prayers to Allah. Which stands in stark contrast to the values America claims to hold dear. For 243 years, the country has balanced in the tension between what we claim and what we are. In 2019, though, that tension is ramped up by a sense of the demographic clock ticking down on white primacy. Its not too much to say that in some quarters, a kind of panic has set in over the notion that someday soon, white people will no longer hold numerical superiority. Its that panic that made a woman cry, I want my country back, that sent people hunting for Barack Obamas real birth certificate, that inspired ponderous think pieces on the demise of the WASP establishment, that elected Trump president, that made white evangelicals betray their stated convictions. Its that panic that has Buchanan and Ingraham fearing the future. He sees the country becoming a giant Mall of America. She thinks the English language might disappear. The irony is that if the country is, indeed, doomed, it is not because immigrants flock here, drawn by its ideals. Share your opinion by sending a Letter to the Editor. Email Share your opinion by sending a Letter to the Editor. Email [email protected] and please include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words No, if America fails, it will be because people like Buchanan and Ingraham lacked the courage to live up to those ideals. It will be because it was still possible, as late as 2019, for a white man to regard African Americans, progenitors of Americas music, fighters of its wars, tillers of its fields and redeemers of its sacred values, as somehow alien to America. And it will be because he and people like him still arrogantly arrogate unto themselves, as if handed down from the very hand of God, the right to determine who we is. And, more importantly, who we is not. | https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/what-do-we-mean-by-we/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
What Are The Best Airline Ratings? | Before Tina Harrison flew from Toronto to Nashville, maybe she should have checked the best airline ratings. Somewhere along the way, Air Canada lost her luggage, and it stayed lost for four long days. "It was one of my worst experiences with customer service," she says. "This was a special trip celebrating my 50th birthday -- and they ruined it in more ways than one." A little research might have revealed Air Canada's reputation for losing luggage, although exact numbers are difficult to find. Unlike U.S. carriers, Canadian airlines do not report their lost luggage numbers in a systematic way. Oddly, consulting a popular airline rating might have confused a passenger like Harrison. In 2017, for example, Skytrax crowned Air Canada the best airline in North America. That same year, another survey by JD Power and Associates found Air Canada ranked the worst. That's a timely question on the eve of the annual Airline Quality Ratings' release. But the answer is likely to resonate among travelers planning their summer vacations, and those who may have a choice. (I say "may" because on many routes, you only have one or two real options, making quality almost irrelevant.) If you've been watching the airline industry for as long as I have, you'd only believe a few airline ratings. Fewer than you might think. Once you talk to the people behind these airline ratings, a strategy for booking your next flight reveals itself. I'll share that with you in just a moment. Every week, it seems a company or media organization claims it has the definitive list of the best and worst airlines. If you're a numbers person, you can easily eliminate some of them. For example, one survey claims to poll nearly 20 million people online. Highly unlikely. Others don't even tell you how many passengers were surveyed, or how they qualified these participants. And few -- very few -- use hard performance data to back up their results. By the way, Harrison's case was not difficult. After four luggage-less days, she just wanted Air Canada to pay for the extra clothes and toiletries she had to buy, plus cover her cell phone bill. "I don't think this is too much to ask for after all of the time and effort I have gone through to get my luggage," she told me. I shared the Air Canada executive contacts from my consumer advocacy site and offered to help Harrison see her claim through on my help forum. I've covered the airline industry for years, both as a journalist and a consumer advocate. My nonprofit consumer advocacy organization collects consumer complaints and reports them every month. I've been able to overlay the complaints data with the surveys to determine which ones are talking to actual consumers -- and which ones are interviewing random people online. Here are the top 25 companies since the beginning of 2019. Note: these are not one-off questions sent to my advocacy site. Consumers must complete a detailed form to get help. Last month, we received nearly 1,000 requests for assistance, a new record. Elliott Advocacy Cases Year-to-Date Rank Top 25 Companies Total Complaints Percent 1 American Airlines 139 5.00% 2 United Airlines 55 1.98% 3 Airbnb 45 1.62% 4 Expedia 41 1.47% 5 AT&T Communications 40 1.44% 6 Sears Holdings Corporation 37 1.33% 7 Delta Air Lines 36 1.29% 8 Marriott 34 1.22% 9 Southwest Airlines 33 1.19% 10 Uber 33 1.19% 11 PayPal 31 1.11% 12 WOW Air 31 1.11% 13 Enterprise 30 1.08% 14 American Express 29 1.04% 15 Lufthansa 29 1.04% 16 Priceline 27 0.97% 17 British Airways 25 0.90% 18 Iberia Airlines 25 0.90% 19 Air Canada 24 0.86% 20 Facebook 24 0.86% 21 Walmart 24 0.86% 22 Amazon 23 0.83% 23 Sprint 22 0.79% 24 JustFly.Com 21 0.76% 25 Spirit Airlines 21 0.76% Total Cases 1/1/2019-4/7/2019: 2,781 Total Cases 1/1/2018-4/7/2018: 1,429 Percent Difference: 94.61% Yep, that's a lot of airline complaints. And look, there's Air Canada at number 19! Here are the best airline ratings and here's how they do it Based on my observations, there are only a handful of airline quality measures to which I regularly refer. Airline Quality Rating The annual Airline Quality Rating (AQR), which will be released tomorrow morning, is a compilation of government data on airline performance. The rating is a multifactor examination of the airlines based on mishandled baggage, consumer complaints, on-time performance and involuntary denied boardings, reported to the U.S. Department of Transportation. American Customer Satisfaction Index The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which normally releases its airline index in late April, is a rigorously researched measure of customer sentiment. Each year, ACSI surveys 300,000 customers, using the results to benchmark customer satisfaction with more than 400 companies in 46 industries and 10 economic sectors -- including airlines. Routehappy Routehappy doesn't rate airlines. Instead, it gives you the information you need to rate an airline. When it's integrated into a booking engine like Expedia, Google Flights, or Hipmunk, you can quickly pull up comprehensive information on flight amenities such as Wi-Fi, in-seat power, entertainment, seats, food, beverages, and aircraft type. I like Routehappy because airline quality is personal, and in the end, it's your seat and onboard amenities that matter the most. Well, no. There are numerous other airline ratings, and a few of them are worth paying attention to. Most of them are complete nonsense, of course. To find out how to separate the wheat from the chaff, I consulted the experts. How to tell if you've found the best airline ratings "Travelers should definitely read the methodology to understand how the study defined quality," advises Haley Berg, an economist at Hopper, a flight search engine. "You want to make sure the variables they looked at match what you value most when selecting a flight." But that can be tricky. If you take mostly short-haul flights, you may be willing to compromise on comfort, but on-time arrival may be a priority. If you're a business traveler, you may be less price-sensitive but care about service. "Its easier to utilize these rankings when theyre only looking at the factor you care about most instead of an overall ranking," says Berg. David Van Amburg, managing director of the ACSI, says you should also look at who's behind the study. "Any study directly affiliated with an airline should be viewed suspiciously," he says. If possible, find out what the survey asked. "Any of the popular one-question studies implemented to measure consumer experiences should be viewed with suspicion as well; they're cheap and easy, which means the data probably isn't as reliable," he adds. Finally, check the survey's track record. "Look at longevity," says Brent Bowen, the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor who publishes the AQR. "There seems to be a top 10 rating of everything today. Look to see if the survey is just a popularity poll or hard data." If you start applying these hard templates to the airline ratings out there, they start to fade to irrelevance. Some reader polls don't bother to ask if the respondents even flew on the airlines they're rating. Others have only been around a few years or were published on a whim by a blogger who wanted to make a quick buck. And others are commercial enterprises that want to sell their awards to the industry but do the bare minimum to keep out of trouble with the statistics police. How to use the best airline ratings A minimalist approach to the best airline ratings may help you select the best flight. Use a few trusted sources to make your next booking decision -- if you have a choice of carriers -- and you can't go wrong. Which is to say, check the ACSI, AQR and the Routehappy data before reserving a seat on the most convenient flight for you. Don't be swayed by overhyped lists with questionable methodologies, and you're more likely to end up on the right flight. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherelliott/2019/04/07/what-are-the-best-airline-ratings/ |
Can A Caregiver Be Too Devoted? | By Randi Mazzella, Next Avenue Contributor Getty Stacey G.s (she asked that we use her last name initial only due to the personal details in the story) parents had a storybook romance. Married for over 60 years, her father still called her mother sweetheart. Staceys mother developed dementia. As it progressed, her father tried for several months to take care of his wife at home with the help of health care aides. But then her behavior become explosive and irrational. Stacey, who lives in Voorhees, N.J., was faced with the painful decision of placing her mother in a nursing home. It was an extremely difficult decision and I still struggle with it, even though I am certain it was the right decision for everyone especially my dad, she says. Her fathers devotion did not waver. He visited his wife twice daily, with just brief midday respites. "He would call at the same time every day to give me an update me on how my mother was doing, Stacey says. He rarely deviated from his routine." Also on Forbes: It didnt matter that his wifes dementia made it impossible for her to know if he was there or not. He continued to visit his sweetheart daily for more than three years, until she passed away. While Stacey found her fathers devotion to her mother admirable, it was also concerning. Her father was in his mid-80s and had given up doing any of his traditional leisure activities, including playing poker and twice-per-week trips to Atlantic City with friends. He worried about my mother constantly, Stacey says. I was sad for my mother, but I didnt worry because I knew she was being well cared for by the staff and by him. But I worried about my father. No! says Rick Lauber, and author of the book, The Successful Caregiver's Guide. Lauber, who lives in Alberta, Canada, helped care for his parents until they passed away. Caregivers are no different. Caregivers helping and supporting aging loved ones routinely give too much of themselves while overlooking their own health and wellness." Clinical gerontologist David J. Demko adds, "Caregivers tend to get reduced sleep, including much-needed REM sleep. They have muscular aches from the physical demands of caregiving and neglect their personal nutritional needs." Staceys father eventually wound up hospitalized for five days with pneumonia. The thing that really troubled me was that he still went to the care facility disregarding the fact that he was starting to feel pretty sick, she says. But his needs were unimportant to him. Some care partners actually become ill and die before the person they are caring for, says Rachael Wonderlin, a gerontologist and founder of a consulting business called Dementia By Day in Pittsburgh. And its no wonder they are highly stressed and consumed in their newfound role, she says. Strain On Relationships Caregivers have decreased time for social outings and become emotionally drained. Even when they do take a break, they experience guilt. When my father came to my house for holidays, he tried to enjoy himself, but I could tell he felt guilty that my mother was alone, Stacey says. He seemed lost and sad. He was much happier when I would bring my kids to him at the nursing home, but this was a hard environment for my young son. It was stressful for me to balance my fathers needs with my sons. What Staceys father experienced is common, says Katie Ziskind, a family therapist at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic, Conn. The (caregiver) often can develop codependency and depression as a result of caring so much for their loved one, even with the best intentions, she says. Stacey says her father is a very warm and kind man, but when he was away from the nursing home, he was usually distracted and anxious due to worrying so much about her mother. When we spoke, he would tell the same stories over and over again and was not really focusing on what was going on with me, my kids, she says. It wasnt until after her mother died that her father said, I just realized, you lost your mother. How to Help a Caregiver "Self-care is absolutely essential to be a good (caregiver) because you can't give from an empty bucket, Ziskind says. Explaining this to devoted caregivers can be difficult, but try stressing that if they don't care for themselves, they won't be as helpful to their loved one or to the other people in their lives who love and worry about them. Yoga, meditation, writing in a journal or going for a daily walk can all help to replenish a caregiver's energy and mental well-being. Socialization for caregivers is also crucial. Encourage them to spend time with friends, connect with family or attend support groups with other caregivers. Looking back, Stacey says her one regret is that she didn't insist her mother be placed in a facility closer to her home, instead of over an hour away. It was difficult for her to visit her mother more than once a week while balancing work and childcare responsibilities. My father didnt have a lot of support in the area. If she were closer to me, I could have visited her more often and I could have tag-teamed with my dad instead of him going twice a day, Stacey says. He also could have spent more time with his grandchildren and me without feeling guilty that my mother was alone." During her mother's illness, Stacey feared that her father would die from the pace and intensity of his devotion to her mother. She says her father was a beautiful role model to her and to her kids. She is thankful that he now appears to be doing more things for himself. He has no regrets about the time he spent taking care of my mother. Even though he is sad that she is gone, he is also calmer and less anxious knowing she is at peace. He is taking better care of himself and is back to his twice a week Atlantic City trips. We still talk daily about my mother, but about other things too, she says. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2019/04/07/can-a-caregiver-be-too-devoted/ |
What time does WrestleMania 35 star? | CLEVELAND, Ohio Today is the biggest day of the year for WWE with the historic context to back it up. Even without a groundbreaking main event, WrestleMania 35 would still be the biggest event of the year for wrestling fans. But the showcase comes with the first womens main event WrestleMania history. The main card for WrestleMania 35 kicks off at 7 p.m. EST from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. Subscribers can watch the event on the WWE Network. If you dont have WWE Network, you can still start you free trial and watch the show. Match Card: Ronda Rousey vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair (Raw Women's Championship and Smackdown Women's Championship match: winner takes all match) Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston (WWE Championship match) Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins (Universal Championship match) Finn Balor vs. Bobby Lashley (Intercontinental Championship match) Samoa Joe vs. Rey Mysterio (United States Championship match) Usos vs. The Bar vs. Ricochet and Aleister Black vs. Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev (Smackdown Tag Team Championship) The Revival vs. Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder (Raw Tag Team Championship) Sasha Banks and Bayley vs. Nia Jax and Tamina Snuka vs. Beth Phoenix and Natalya vs. The IIconics (Women's Tag Team Championship match) Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles Roman Reigns vs. Drew McIntyre Batista vs. Triple H Kurt Angle vs. Baron Corbin Shane McMahon vs. The Miz Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal* WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal* Buddy Murphy vs. Tony Nese (WWE Cruiserweight Championship match)* *Match to take place on the Kickoff Show | https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/04/what-time-does-wrestlemania-35-star.html |
Does collagen truly slow signs of aging? | From granola bars and bone broth to skin creams, vitamins and powders, collagen consumption has risen in popularity. Celebrities have praised it for making their skin, joints and body radiate youth. Some are even dubbing collagen the new Fountain of Youth, and it seems all the rage with health and beauty experts. Let's take a look. Types of collagen There are 16 types of collagen, but 80 to 90 percent of the bodys collagen is made of types I, II and III, according to National Center for Biotechnology Information. Collagen is the term for the building-block proteins that make up the skin, tendons, joints, muscles, nails and more in humans and animals. Our bodies produce it naturally until that production begins to decline around the age of 25. Our joints slowly lose strength, and our skin thins. This is why you begin to see those pesky signs of aging in the form of wrinkles and why some people battle aches and pains. Its also why many are looking to boost their collagen intake via beauty products and their diet. Collagen. It depends, but many supplements are not vegetarian or vegan. Theyre usually made from ground-up parts of cow, chicken, pig or fish. It might sound gross, but its actually often flavorless. Vegetarian and vegan supplements do exist, but instead of containing collagen itself, these supplements actually support and aid your bodys natural collagen production, The New York Times reports. If youre interested in making your skin look better, Dr. F. Victor Rueckl says one of the best things you can do is use sunblock every day and stay hydrated. In Las Vegas especially, its nearly impossible to avoid UV rays, which break down the skins elasticity and wrinkle it. Smokers lines around the mouth and face are not usually a result of smoking, but rather from the sun, Rueckl says. Preliminary studies by the National Institutes of Health do show that some oral supplements can slightly reduce the signs of aging and aid in joint health, although the organization is quick to note that more studies are needed. Ejiao In traditional Chinese medicine, people use ejiao, or donkey gelatin made from the hide of the animal, to relieve physical ailments, slow aging and boost libido, Newsweek reports. In fact, demand for ejiao was so high in 2017 that the donkey population in South Africa became threatened. Some farmers were forced to protect their herds from poachers, while others took it upon themselves to kill their animals to meet the demand. In regards to digestive health or muscle repair sought after by athletes, not many scientific studies have been conducted, so the verdict is still out, despite the many health food claims. For your skin, its also too soon to tell, said Dr. F. Victor Rueckl, a dermatologist at Lakes Dermatology. Companies can claim a product increases collagen, but the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate many of them. For the most part, a company can write whatever it wants on a product label, and catchphrases are attracting millions of customers regardless of a products efficacy, Rueckl said. He does note one product that has been proven to work for skinA.G.E. Interrupter from SkinCeuticals. The anti-aging cream is made of blueberry extract, proxylane and phytosphingosine, a chemical found naturally in your body. Rueckl said the company has taken biopsies of customers and measured the amounts of collagen before they started applying the cream and three months after. Results showed an increase in collagen. Potential risks of collagen supplements have been at the center of many debates between doctors. Some medical practitioners believe its just protein and therefore safe. Time magazine reports that others are concerned that collagen supplements could have increased levels of contaminants and heavy metals because they are an animal product. And just as consuming anything can have its risks, The New York Times reports that collagen supplements can cause allergic reactions or digestive discomfort. If youre considering supplements, consult your doctor and start slowly. While its hard to truly say, Rueckl thinks this isnt a fad that will pass quickly. Companies might start to invest in studies to prove whether or not supplements work to increase collagen to support a market that will likely continue to boom. In 2018, it was worth about $3.5 billion and is estimated to increase to $4.6 billion by 2023, according to The Associated Press. Bone broth basics If you're considering collagen but feeling nervous about consuming supplements from the store, give this collagen-packed food a try. The options here are endless when it comes to vegetables and herbs. Have fun and mix and match to create your desired flavor. Here are some basics to get you started, but add to the list as you see fit. Organic bones from poultry, cows or fish. The more cartilage the better. Think: knuckles, marrow, chicken feet, neck bones, etc. This is how you get your collagen. Pro tip For a richer, cleaner flavored broth, Bon Apptit recommends blanching the bones first and then roasting them in the oven until browned before simmering in your broth. Play with parsley, thyme, rosemary and more. Method tips The quantity of veggies, herbs and aromatics depends on your desired flavor. Maintain a proper bones-to-water ratiothere should be just enough water to cover the bones without making them floatand the rest is up to you. In a large kettle or slow cooker, add water, bones, veggies, seasonings and aromatics. Simmer on low for eight-plus hours. The longer the better. Strain when done. Bone broth with collagen benefits will be gelatinous when cooled. This story originally appeared in the Las Vegas Weekly. | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/apr/07/does-collagen-truly-slow-signs-of-aging/ |
Should congressional districts be drawn by non-partisan groups? | by Cait Bladt Gerrymandering is a strategy by which a political party redraws congressional districts in order to unfairly favor one party or candidate. Using either packing (filling a district with every voter of a particular demographic) or cracking, (dividing up consolidated groups of voters of a specific demographic so as to diminish their voting power) lawmakers are able to exert overwhelming control on elections. Many citizens are pushing for districts to be drawn by non-political committees rather than politicians. The Supreme Court is currently hearing several cases regarding the constitutionality of gerrymandering. One involves a map drawn after the 2010 census in North Carolina. In the state, voters cast ballots for Republicans and Democrats in roughly equal numbers. However after the election, 10 districts sent Republicans to Congress and three sent Democrats. Per the Charlotte Observer: Rep. David Lewis, a Harnett County Republican and House redistricting leader, said at a meeting that he wanted the maps drawn to give a partisan advantage to 10 Republicans and three Democrats because I do not believe its possible to draw a map with 11 Republicans and two Democrats. ...The League of Women Voters and the Democrats who brought the suit with the nonpartisan organization contend that the redistricting plan violates free speech and equal protection rights. The Constitution guarantees everyones right to participate equally in an electoral system that does not discriminate against them because of their beliefs, said Anita Earls, executive director of the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Its clear that the intent and effect of creating North Carolinas 2016 congressional maps were to manipulate the democratic process. The result disparages voters and ensures that one party can maintain political power even when a majority of the states voters do not support them. The New York Times reports the issue not only divides voting blocks but also discourages people from donating to candidates in parties where they are heavily outnumbered. The map eliminated any competition for House seats in all but the most exceptional circumstances. In November, amid the strongest national Democratic electoral performance since Watergate, only one of the 10 Republican-held House seats was in serious jeopardy (that race, in the 9th Congressional District, was marred by election fraud complaints and will be rerun this summer). Democrats won the three districts that were gerrymandered in their favor by an average of 45 percentage points. That highlights collateral damage from gerrymanders that is sometimes overlooked: Not only do they entrench a majority party, but they weaken the opposition as well. Candidates dont want to run losing races, and donors and parties dont want to support them. ...The case against partisan gerrymanders is not merely a Democratic one. Republican candidates in North Carolinas three safe Democratic House seats also were disenfranchised, along with their supporters. So were Republicans in Marylands 6th District. One solution many opponents of gerrymanders support is taking redistricting duties from politicians and giving it to non-partisan committees. The Concord Monitor reports New Hampshire has recently passed such legislation. The Democratically controlled Senate voted 14-10 along party lines Thursday to create a 15-member independent commission to redraw the states two congressional districts, five Executive Council districts, 24 state Senate districts and districts for the 400 House seats. The bill now goes to the House, which has already passed a similar bill. Republican Gov. Chris Sununu opposes the idea. Supporters argued the current system that puts lawmakers in charge of redistricting allows for gerrymandering, in which boundaries are drawn to benefit the party in power. Representatives and senators should not choose their voters, voters should choose their representatives, said Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst. Please vote for Senate Bill 8, so we can say firmly to all our constituents that we respect you as a voter, we respect our democracy and we stand for fair elections. A 2015 piece by Politico argues the effects of gerrymandering have been dramatically exaggerated. A 2014 study by McGhee and Nicholas Stephanopolous tallied the wasted votes for each party in each redistricting plan over the past 40 years. Wasted votes are those votes cast that didnt help a party win a seatvotes in excess of the 51 percent the party needed to win, plus all the votes it received in the districts it lost. If partisan gerrymandering were ubiquitous, you would expect to find an imbalance in wasted votes statewide, with the gerrymandering party wasting far fewer votes than the other party. This is because the gerrymandering party would create districts with narrower, but potentially decisive, advantages (as in the hypothetical 55-45 district weve discussed), while the other party would be forced to waste a lot of votes packed into a smaller number of lopsided districts. The statisticians at FiveThirtyEight did an expansive study on the effects of partisan gerrymandering. As the Washington Post reported, they found few ways to effectively solve the gerrymandering problem. Harry Enten of FiveThirtyEight, another member of the team that spent months on the project, writes that gerrymandering "is a far more complex topic than some analysts and partisans care to acknowledge. . . . There's no 'right' way to draw a district. Prioritize one goal competitiveness or nonwhite representation, for example and you have to sacrifice others." The team set out to show how different goals produce dramatically different maps. In all they drew 258 different state congressional district maps and a total of 2,568 district maps, using a free, Web-based application. The results are all available for viewing at FiveThirtyEight.com. They produced maps that heavily favored Democrats, with 263 districts where that party would have a clear advantage. They did another that heavily favored Republicans. In that case, there were 275 districts tilted toward the GOP. In both cases, fewer than 30 districts of the 435 were considered competitive. The National Conference of State Legislatures filed an amicus brief in an Arizona case supporting the continuation of having politicians draw congressional boundaries, saying to do otherwise would be stripping politicians of a constitutionally protected power. In 37 states, the legislature draws the congressional redistricting plan. The other thirteen states involve both the legislature and some form of redistricting commission. All but two of these thirteen states respect the Election Clause's delegation by maintaining a substantive role for the legislature. But Arizona and one other state provide the legislature no substantive involvement in redistricting. ... Excluding the legislature from substantive involvement in redistricting contravenes the Elections Clause. 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.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/04/should-congressional-districts-be-drawn-by-non-partisan-groups.html |
Does North Korea Have Any Chance of Killing an F-35? | Charlie Gao Security, Asia With South Korea getting the F-35A this month it's time we ask the question. The ROKAF, South Koreas Air Force received their first F-35A fighter jets in April 2019. The ROKAF hopes to eventually buy forty F-35As and should have ten F-35As by the end of the year. The ROKAF already fields a variety of advanced American fighters, including over one hundred KF-16Cs and around 60 F-15K Slam Eagles. The KF-16C is fully integrated with the American AMRAAM air-to-air missile, which the ROKAF fields in the AIM-120C-5 and AIM-120C-7 variants. The combination of the KF-16C and AMRAAM vastly outclasses the majority of fighters the KPAF can field. The bulk of the KPAF fighter fleet is built out of MiG-21 variants and the J-7 fighter, which can only mount short-range infrared air-to-air missiles. KF-16Cs could just fire AMRAAMs, turn around and bug out before the KPAF MiGs lock on, though individual conditions could dictate engagement at shorter ranges. While the KPAF do have more advanced MiG-23 and MiG-29 fighters (which variants and specific numbers vary from source to source), the quality of the radars and missiles on these fighters still falls far short of the KF-16C and AMRAAM combination. The F-15K Slam Eagle, while an excellent air-to-air fighter in its own right is more focused on air-to-ground operations, being built on the base of the USAFs F-15E Strike Eagle. The F-15K has been seen with the Sniper targeting pod, which allows it to self-designate targets for laser-guided bombs and more efficiently detect and engage both tactical and strategic ground targets. The answer probably lies in the F-35s sensors. The F-35 has powerful electro-optical sensors that can be used to target aircraft. In Red Flag 2019, the F-35s optical sensors played a large role in its success in a heavy electronic warfare (EW) environment, where fourth-generation fighters like the F-16C were blind. North Korean MiG-29s also have forward-facing electro-optical sensors of their own, although these are systems from the 1980s that dont have the sensitivity or resolution of modern Russian and American sensors. A potential engagement with North Korea would likely involve heavy EW and jamming. In the border skirmish in early 2019, India and Pakistan both claimed to have used EW to their advantage in aerial combat. India claims to have totally jammed the radars of Pakistan Air Force aircraft during the February 26 raid, and a controversial article suggests that the loss of an Indian MiG was caused due to Pakistan jamming of radio links to the command. The F-35As advanced communications and sensors would prevent similar incidents from happening. The ROKAF might opt to fly the F-35A in formations with fourth-generation aircraft to provide better situational awareness and communications capability, enhancing the ability of the entire formation to fly and fight. Usage in such a role would mitigate one of the biggest criticisms of the F-35, the limited onboard weapon capacity. Alternatively, the F-35A might be assigned to dangerous suppression or destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) missions. The stealth and onboard jamming capabilities of the F-35 would make it more survivable than the ROKAFs 4th generation aircraft in such a role. Charlie Gao studied Political and Computer Science at Grinnell College and is a frequent commentator on defense and national security issues. Image: Wikimedia Commons Read full article | https://news.yahoo.com/does-north-korea-chance-killing-114500288.html |
Does Great Wine Terroir Exist If No One Is There To Appreciate It? | D.O.P. Cariena There is a well-known philosophical thought experiment that provokes questions about peoples perceptions: If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" As globalization and automation take over parts of the Western world, many are finding themselves in an existential crisis as they feel their sense of value as well as their purpose in life dwindle. It is interesting to think of this idea in terms of well-regarded grape growing areas for wine and the legend of their terroir their sense of place. Cariena Cariena is a town in Northeast Spain that is both the name of a delineated wine zone (DOP or DO) as well as a grape variety, also known as Carignan in the South of France. But in this case it is being addressed as the wine zone Cariena DOP that mainly grows Garnacha grapes. Despite the Garnacha (a.k.a. Grenache) variety being grown around the world, the town of Cariena is considered one of the areas where it first originated. D.O.P. Cariena Pedro Ballesteros Torres, who is not only a Master of Wine but also an expert in Spanish wines, noted that the idea of a great terroir cannot exist if it doesnt have a customer. Pedro talked about Spains poverty during most of the 20th century and that it was not modernized until it joined the European Union in 1986; in his own words, the country was modernized less than 33 years ago. He continued to emphasize that those areas that have had a decent track record selling wines were helped by infrastructure such as Alicante having a port, Catalonia having Barcelona as its cosmopolitan capital and the construction of a train that went through Rioja; Pedro remarked, Rioja became Rioja when there was a train implemented. Before, Rioja had no possibility of having good wines because there were no customers willing to pay for those wines. He continued by describing Cariena as a remote area in Spain: For many, many years Cariena has been isolated and there was no way of selling those wines so they [Cariena wine producers] were making basic wine with very old vines. Garnacha Pedro was not saying that the climate, soil and aspect of a terrain had no importance for top quality wine, as he listed it as being a number one factor. He further illustrated the importance of terroir by talking about the factors needed to make great Garnacha wine. Garnacha does not like too much water, likes poor soils (low nutrient soil) and it needs a warmer climate to ripen, as well as has the ability, as old vines, to thrive during heat waves. The area of Cariena has a long, dry season coupled with the poorer soils that are needed for quality Garnacha as well as another special factor: old vines. According to Pedro, it is possible to make interesting wines out of grapes such as Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot at high yields but Garnacha needs low-yielding vines such as those old vines found in Cariena. The wine producers in Cariena did not have the money to replant their vines hence keeping many old vines that produced miniscule quantities. They did not have the funding for technology to make quality wines as there was no interest, as Pedro pointed out as being important to express terroir, and so the wines were mediocre; although now, there are not only resources for these producers but an interest in these wines and so the addition of new technology has made it possible to finally express their terroir. D.O.P. Cariena Pedro talked about Garnachas ability to express sense of place and that it is a humble and generous grape variety that is a chameleon and will subdue its own genetic character to express its origin. This explains why Garnacha can be vastly different (as well as vary in quality) depending on the conditions in the vineyards. It is argued that Garnachas homeland is in Aragon where the town of Cariena is located; it is hypothesized that one of the grape varieties that the Romans brought during the Middle Ages naturally crossed with a Spanish indigenous variety creating Garnacha. It survived so long in the Aragon area of Spain because the place was well-suited for this grape. Fighting for the Forgotten It was a fascinating alternative perspective that great terroir cannot exist without having customers who are willing to pay for it, just like the idea that some people will never know their potential because they werent supported throughout their life. Many women, men and children feel that they are not being seen for various reasons and unfortunately they are pitted against each other in a desperate cry for acknowledgment. Whether someone feels that she cannot be seen past her superficial shell or someone feels that he is not seen at all, there is a profound desperation that goes along with such aches that pull at the core of the fabric of many societies. Contemplating ones own sense of invisibility draws into question all the things that go unnoticed in the world; those places that are well-suited to produce fine wines from a particular grape that is grown in a conducive environment is one such example. In a way, searching for those undervalued, high quality wines is an act of defiance against what has already been given validity to seek out that which is invisible, and hence, actively fighting the notion that any place or person will be forgotten. Cathrine Todd 2012 Bodegas San Valero, Particular Garnacha, Vias Centenarias, Cariena DOP, Spain: 100% Garnacha coming from vines that are over 100 years old planted in limestone soil. A rich wine with rounded tannins and ripe red cherry fruit that had a long finish with spice and minerality. 2015 Bodegas Paniza, Garnacha From Slate, Cariena DOP, Spain: 100% Garnacha from older vines (age is not noted) planted in slate soils. Brooding, dark fruit that is intensely concentrated and powerful with a long, flavorful length that had an underlying earthy quality. 2017 Grandes Vinos, Anayn, Parcela 81 Garnacha, Vias Viejas, Cariena DOP, Spain: 88% Garnacha, 8% Cariena and 4% Macabeo coming from vines over 60 years old planted in stony soil with clay in part of the subsoil. Lots of perfume on the nose with wild flowers and high-toned red fruit that is fresh and elegant with silky tannins, finishing with a note of wet stones. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cathrinetodd/2019/04/07/does-great-wine-terroir-exist-if-no-one-is-there-to-appreciate-it/ |
Can Killing Eve Season 2 Top Season 1? | As for what happens next, we already heard that the first episode will start about 30 seconds after the end of the season one finale, when Eve stabbed Villanelle, and then Villanelle disappeared, but get ready to go deeper, darker, and for the stakes to be "extremely high." Eve didn't really know what she was doing as she was tracking down Villanelle in season one, and you can expect her to similarly not know what she's doing now that Villanelle has taken off, bleeding. "She's more blindly confident in her skills of what she thinks she can handle, and for me, the word is darkness," Oh told us. "It's to the limit, and then over it. So even more transparent, even more vulnerable, in both cases." Oh says we'll even see Villanelle "in a situation where you can see that she's never imagined the possibility of having been in that situation," which we can tell you is both entertaining and terrifying to watch. In fact, that's pretty much what we're all in for with this show in general, especially as we jump into season two and watch Villanelle deal with having been stabbed in a way that only she could. | https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1030286/can-killing-eve-season-2-top-season-1 |
When was Batista's last WWE match before WrestleMania return? | Batista will wrestle in his first matchup in five years when the six-time world champion takes on Triple H at this year's WrestleMania 35 on Sunday, April 7 at MetLife Stadium. On the June 2, 2014, episode of Raw, Batista quit WWE after Triple H denied him a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship. He legitimately quit the WWE due to creative differences soon after. Batista has since starred in several acting roles and has become best known for his role as Drax in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, portraying the character in the films Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). On Feb. 25, Batista returned to Raw and attacked Ric Flair backstage prior to Flair's 70th birthday celebration. He subsequently called out Triple H, and on March 11, the two came face-to-face for a confrontation that culminated in Batista challenging Triple H to the WrestleMania 35 match. Triple H not only obliged, but he also tied the no holds barred stipulation to it. Batista upped the stakes by making sure Triple H also put his career on the line. WrestleMania 35's main card is set to start at 7 p.m. ET. | https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/04/07/batista-last-wwe-match-date-wrestlemania-35 |
Why Are Rear-Seat Entertainment Systems Behind the Times? | It's not a new problem; think back to the days when you'd uniformly go to Circuit City or its competitors to get an aftermarket stereo put in the car. These places stayed in business because automakers couldn't bring themselves to install powerful stereos from premium audio brands. Every factory stereo was garbage, and everyone who cared about music trashed them. Thieves would break into cars to steal head units and the entire radios, which would require a second trip to Circuit City. You'd pick out everything, and guys in red shirts would strip your car and rewire it. My mom threw subs under both front seats of her Volvo 240. My uncle's Alpine system in his Ford Probe let everyone in Connecticut hear the rains down in Africa. You were balling if you had a pop-out video screen. Modern car entertainment is brilliant, which helps explain why Circuit City is out of business. It's so brilliant, in fact, that you can't replace the hardware yourself unless you want to trigger a slew of warning lights from a half-dozen ECUs on the same wiring harness. So you don't touch stereos anymore. Automakers tune them to the exact cabin layout and compensate for interior materials. The best ones filter road noise, enhance poorer-quality signals, offer multiple surround modes, and make your home equipment feel inferior. Screens stuffed into the backs of the front headrests used to scream technology. Now these displays look as nostalgic as portable DVD players. Look at how Buick charges $1750 for two tiny eight-inch screens-not so much installed as carved and glued-with two pairs of headphones on the Enclave. The Ford Expedition offers just about the same for $1995. There's coach-class entertainment in the back of the Infiniti QX80, too (pictured above), also featuring a pair of eight-inch screens. Even the best luxury cars don't attempt to integrate them with any class. They just enlarge the screens and stick them on the seatbacks like mall kiosks. You've just spent top money for an interior worthy of an art museum, and the automaker's finishing touches are two big black rectangles with the surface detailing of a microwave oven. Photo credit: Chris Doane - Car and Driver More Granted, it may be worth watching Game of Thrones (or SpongeBob SquarePants) on a long car ride and set the navigation like a boss from the back seat. On the 7-series, BMW offers a removable tablet in the central armrest to operate the massage without using the main screens. That's a step up. Parents may swear by these systems to keep the children quiet and happy, even though the children are likely to have their own phones and tablets that are newer, faster, and better than anything in the car. The only exceptions to the industry's middling rear-seat entertainment systems are the innovations from Chrysler and Honda. Unsurprisingly, minivan engineers know how to coddle the most discerning rear passengers better than anyone at Bentley. Not only do they pack the latest high-res inputs like Blu-ray and HDMI, their screens can hide. On the Pacifica, they swivel 180 degrees upward from the seatback. | https://news.yahoo.com/why-rear-seat-entertainment-systems-143000291.html |
Do C-section bubs miss out on bacteria benefits? | A world-first study aims to reveal the health benefits that conventionally-born babies may get in early life - and which babies born by Caesarean-section miss out on. Babies born by C-section have a greater risk of becoming overweight and developing obesity, asthma, eczema and other allergic disorders in childhood. And the rate of C-section births in New Zealand is rising, with nearly half of births in some main centres involving the procedure. Scientists say it's possible that the bacteria that babies are normally exposed to during vaginal birth play a role in establishing normal gut bacteria in infants - and in doing so, assist in the development of their auto-immune system. Advertisement "For millennia we have viewed bacteria as essentially bad for us, causing infections and death," explained Celia Grigg, a midwife and a research fellow at Auckland University-based Liggins Institute. "However over the past 15 years studies in mice suggest that our gut bacteria - gut bugs or gut microbiome - are essential for normal health and wellbeing." Not all bacteria are bad for us, and a healthy balance of gut bugs are important for good health. Conversely, disordered gut bugs are associated with a wide range of serious diseases that include obesity, diabetes, asthma and eczema, inflammatory bowel disease, autism and Parkinson's disease. Today, C-sections are an increasingly common mode of delivery, accounting for around a quarter of New Zealand births - and as many as 40 per cent of births at Auckland City Hospital. Studies of children born by C-section have found that they have a 20 per cent increased risk of several important childhood conditions such as obesity, asthma and eczema. Grigg pointed out that babies were born with few if any bacteria in their gut. The initial bacteria that establish a baby's gut bugs came from mothers' bacteria in and around her birth canal. "Thus it is proposed that babies born by C-section have their gut bugs established from exposure to environmental bugs which are less healthy," she said. "Thus the less healthy gut bugs lead to later obesity, asthma and eczema." Findings from previous studies suggest that what's commonly called "vaginal seeding" might help babies born by caesarean establish normal gut bacteria. One such study was well publicised and led to people trying vaginal seeding themselves, despite a lack of high quality evidence on benefits and risks. A new trial, being led by the Liggins Institute, aimed to fill this gap. The ECOBABe study (Early Colonisation with Bacteria After Birth) involved 40 sets of twins born by C-section in Auckland over the next 15 months. In each set, one twin only will swallow an oral infusion containing bacteria swabbed from the mother. The study also included a separate "control" group of mothers having only one baby vaginally. Researchers planned to measure the range and number of gut bacteria in all the babies by analysing their stools. They would also compare the gut bacteria of C-section babies and vaginally born babies, to see whether there are differences, along with babies' weight, height and body fat composition. "If the treatments with the mothers' microbiome actually improves the health and wellbeing of the children in terms of obesity and asthma, it's going to be a simple thing to scale up and do," said the study leader, Professor Wayne Cutfield. Grigg added that many women and midwives were aware that caesarean section disrupted the normal process, and when it is necessary, they want to minimise negative impacts for babies, where possible. "People have said to me 'it just makes sense, even if it sounds a bit weird or artificial'." But she added there was no evidence to date that the practice was unsafe. "The babies would have been exposed to the same bacteria for a much longer period if they had been born vaginally," she said. "Although, as this is research, we are doing extra screening for women in the study, as some have expressed concern about this aspect." The research team was recruiting twins for the trial with the help of local obstetricians and midwives. Auckland women interested in learning more about the study could visit the study page or call/text 027 606 5140. BY THE NUMBERS Latest provisional figures from the Ministry of Health show there were 16,423 C-section births in this country last year - 25 per cent of all live births. C-section births have reached 40 per cent in Auckland City Hospital, a large referral centre. Studies of children born by C-section have found that they have a 20 per cent increased risk of several important childhood conditions such as obesity, asthma and eczema. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12220037&ref=rss |
Can Tiger Roll become first horse to win three straight Grand Nationals? | Tiger Roll succeeded where 17 other National winners since Red Rum in 1973/74 had failed and won consecutive races. The manner in which he won suggests Tiger Roll can go on and achieve something not even 'Rummie' did, and win three straight. One bookmaker is already quoting odds of 8/1. Scroll to continue with content Ad After winning in 1973 and 1974, Red Rum finished second in 1975 and 1976 but remarkably won a third in 1977 ridden by Irishman Tommy Stack. Jockey Davy Russell called Tiger Roll a "devil" for his habit of barely clearing fences, but the horse has an aura. Nothing fazes him and although he made a couple of errors, his 39-year-old Irish rider did brilliantly to rescue him from disaster. Tiger Roll will still only be 10 when the National comes round again next year. His trainer Gordon Elliott, however, did not sound overly enthusiastic of a triple. "I don't know about next year," said Elliott, who was winning his third National. "Cheltenham again will be the plan," added Elliott. The Cross Country race is the most likely destination at the Festival. Elliott originally did not want to buy Tiger Roll at the sales, preferring another horse but eventually gave in and paid 80,000. Owner Michael O'Leary, the head of Ryanair, also would not commit, though, he revelled in having a horse mentioned alongside Red Rum and, with his renowned competitiveness in business, a third tilt may prove be irresistible. Victory next year would also make O'Leary the most successful owner in the race -- he has a joint record three to his name having won in 2016 with Rule The World. Story continues "He has improved even on last year," said O'Leary. "He is a legend of a horse to be in the same bracket as Red Rum is unbelievable. "It is a phenomenal training performance by Gordon." - 'Once in a lifetime horse' - Tiger Roll has been described as a "little rat" by O'Leary but that was long forgotten as he eulogised the horse. "He is a once in a lifetime horse who has given us a twice in a lifetime experience." Elliott said he sees similarities between himself and Tiger Roll's relaxed aura. "He is a little like myself. He likes the good things in life -- eating drinking and sleeping," the stocky Irishman said before adding, laughing: "though he is a little more athletic than me!" Russell, who was once fired as first-choice jockey by O'Leary, will perhaps want Tiger Roll to give him less of a rollercoaster ride. "He is a devil, he barely gets over, he flicks over them," said Russell. "I say to him 'jeepers can you lift the legs a bit!'" Russell said Stack, who rode Red Rum to a third victory, had been an inspiration. "I was in awe of Tommy Stack, in fact I still am, because of this race," said Russell. Even Elliott's great Irish rival in Ireland, Willie Mullins, whose Rathvinden finished third but whose Up For Review suffered a fatal injury at the first fence, could not fail but be impressed. "Tiger Roll is a phenomenon," said Mullins. "He's got some appetite for racing with a great eye for jumping. He's once in a lifetime." | https://sports.yahoo.com/tiger-roll-become-first-horse-win-three-straight-012257991--rah.html?src=rss |
Who has the most WrestleMania appearances? | In the history of WrestleMania, one superstar has stood above all others when it comes to appearances and winning percentage at the famed event. The Undertaker has the most WrestleMania appearances of all-time with 26 matches in the previous 34 events. In those matches, Undertaker is 242 with the losses coming to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 33 in 2017 and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XXX in 2014. At WrestleMania 34 last year, The Undertaker defeated John Cena. Triple H has the second-most WrestleMania appearances with 22 while Kane and Shawn Michaels are tied for third with 17 each. The Big Show has 15 WrestleMania matches to his name while Bret Hart, Chris Jericho, John Cena and Randy Orton are all tied with 14. Hulk Hogan is 10th all-time with 12 WrestleMania matches. On Sunday, WrestleMania 35 will be hosted at MetLife Stadium, and Triple H, Orton and perhaps Cena will get to add to their totals. | https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/04/07/most-wwe-wrestlemania-appearances-all-time |
Will The Enrollment Scandal At U.S. Colleges Impact International Student Applications? | The recent scandal involving U.S. college admissions may include implications for international students as well. In the scandal, parents of college students admitted to some of the most prestigious colleges in America are alleged to have bribed college officials to gain enrollments for their children. The implication for foreign students is that American colleges and universities are not free from corruption in terms of gaining admissions. This is unwelcome news for the U.S. academic world in its efforts to stem the decline in foreign enrollments observed recently. For many years, the United States has been the largest recruiter of international students in the world. In fact, the United States is home to over one million of the 4.6 million international students worldwide. They come from every continent, representing over 230 countries. Of course, this comes as no surprise since the U.S. is home to some of the worlds most prestigious educational institutions. Nonetheless, not enough attention is being paid to the fact that international students bring immeasurable academic, cultural, and economic value to U.S. campuses and communities. Indeed, too few people realize that education is a vital part of the American economy, especially because of the income America earns from international students. This service export contributed almost $40 billion to the U.S. economy in the 2017-2018 academic year alone and created over 455,000 jobs . Not only is the revenue from international student enrollments used to create jobs, but it also backs the growth and development of U.S. educational institutions and subsidizes the cost of domestic student enrollment. Unfortunately, however, international student enrollment in American colleges is declining. According to a Council of Graduate Schools survey of more than 240 institutions, international graduate student applications fell by four percent between the fall of 2017 and the fall of 2018. While the total number of international students in the U.S. grew last year to a total of over 1 million, new student enrollment declined by over six percent over the same period. Corruption at U.S. educational institutions may factor into future foreign student choices about coming here. While some people believe international students crowd-out classes and campuses, reducing the opportunity for others, the reality is quite the opposite. They increase overall domestic enrollment, ultimately creating more opportunity. When it comes to science and engineering, where America falls short due to a lack of domestic students enrolling, international students step in and fill the available seats. With an expected continuous increase of only 0.2% over the next nine years in the American college-aged population, international students are essential to keeping class sizes and revenue up. Failure to promote international student enrollment may result in budget cuts that could eliminate programs or downsize overall student enrollment, including domestic enrollment. Multiple factors have contributed to these recent declines. The Institute of International Education cites visa delays and denials, the cost of attending a U.S. school, and the Trump administrations hard-right immigration policies as the primary reasons for enrollment decreases. Being granted a student visa is hard enough, but international students are taking a long term view of the situation and the scene isnt pretty. The current green card approval process has a massive backlog of applicants from India and China, two of the biggest exporters of international students to the U.S. The proposed bill H.R. 1044, also known as the Fairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act, would seek to alleviate this backlog by removing the per-country limit on green cards. However, while this may easy the pressure on Indian and Chinese students somewhat, the proposed new system would only end up subjecting applicants from all the other countries to long, strenuous wait times, thereby causing foreign talent from a wider array of countries to look elsewhere. When you consider just how many of the most successful American companies were founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs, losing out on so much talent now will hurt American innovation in the long run. AT&T, Capital One, Google and Tesla are just some of the worlds largest and most successful Fortune 500 companies founded by foreign-born entrepreneurs. Despite 216 of Fortune 500 companies being founded by immigrants, America seems to have forgotten its rich history of foreign-born entrepreneurs. First-generation immigrants who once relocated to the U.S. in search of opportunity, have given life to companies like Google and Facebook. Others like Apple and Amazon are founded by second-generation immigrants. These four companies have a combined market valuation of roughly three trillion dollars. In fact, a large percentage of U.S. startup companies first came to America to pursue a quality education. Especially since studies show immigrants are more likely to start their own businesses in the U.S. than native-born people. Getty There are certainly real risks if the U.S. continues on its current path. A decline in international students may mean fewer outstanding new companies, less creative research, a drop in innovation, an erosion of prestige in education, and less employment. In short, going forward, policymakers need to prioritize marketing the U.S. as a welcoming study destination for international students, and removing the impediments in the way, or risk losing Americas hard-earned reputation as a world leader in education. Getting to the bottom of the corruption scandal is another element that needs to be addressed so as to reassure foreign students of their eligibility and the value of an American education. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get this house back in order. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2019/04/07/will-the-enrollment-scandal-at-u-s-colleges-impact-international-student-applications/ |
What Is The 'Mushroom Of Immortality'? | Nicknamed the "mushroom of immortality" in English, Ganoderma mushrooms are known as "reishi" in Japanese and as "lingzhi" in Chinese. Ganoderma is a group of fungi that break down wood or cause white rot on certain tree species in the environment. Humans use Ganoderma fungi to treat anything from the flu to cancer. Some consume it as a preventative anti-inflammatory treatment. It's even marketed as a superfood. Reishi/lingzhi has been referenced as far back as 100 B.C. as a supplement used to improve human health. Getty Studies have found promising immune-boosting effects of the mushroom of immortality, particularly for those who are ill and less so for those that are healthy. Unsurprisingly, the reishi/lingzhi trade industry has a global market of more than $2.16 billion or approximately 2% of the worldwide dietary supplement sales. Recently, scientists tested 20 manufactured products of Ganoderma, including pills, tablets, teas and other consumables as well as 17 grow-your-own kits that were labeled as containing the species Ganoderma lucidum. The scientists discovered that none of the manufactured reishi/lingzhi products were pure (i.e., only contained G. lucidem and no other fungal species). Only one grow-your-own kit actually contained purely G. lucidum. 86% of all the products, including the grow-your-own kits and manufactured supplements, had a product substitution which was typically another Ganoderma species called G. lingzhi. The study highlights issues with medicinal marketing of Ganoderma fungi, particularly incorrect labeling of fungal species on the labels. The researchers believe the results are non-intentional and acknowledge that "as a medicinal product, this reishi/lingzhi 'substitution' is probably more appropriate than the G. lucidum indicated on the label." They assert that G. lingzhi is likely the species that is associated with the common names reishi/lingzhi. Based on the genetic diversity of the fungi sold in reishi/lingzhi products, it is likely that there are significant differences in the quality and quantity of medicinally relevant species in the products being sold as reishi/lingzhi and labeled as G. lucidum. Getty Finally, the scientists raised concerns that if commercial Ganoderma fungi escape into the environment, they could damage local ecosystems. Ganoderma could outcompete or displace other wood decaying fungi. They could also start to damage trees used in agriculture. In fact, one Ganoderma species has already started to damage the roots of almond trees in California, causing them to fall easily in the wind. Those buying or consuming reishi/lingzhi should take care and not dump unused product in their yard or in a place where wind could carry it to local ecosystems. Most of the time it's G. lingzhi mislabeled as G. lucidum (but is still likely the mushroom species you are looking for). However, quality and quantity of G. lingzhi in grow-your-own kits as well as manufactured products such as teas and pills can vary widely. Buyers of reishi/lingzhi may want to do their research before buying the mushroom of immortality. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/linhanhcat/2019/04/07/mushroom-of-immortality/ |
What is a no-holds barred match? | After over a decade of tension and animosity, Batista and Triple H will collide at WrestleMania 35 on April 7 at MetLife Stadium, this time in a no-holds barred match. In WWE, a no-holds barred match is a no-disqualification match or "anything goes" match. Neither wrestler can be disqualified during the contest, allowing for weapons and outside interference. On Feb. 25, Batista returned to Raw and attacked Ric Flair backstage prior to Flair's 70th birthday celebration. He subsequently called out Triple H, and on March 11, the two came face-to-face for a confrontation that culminated in Batista challenging Triple H to the WrestleMania 35 match. Triple H not only obliged, but he also tied the no-holds barred stipulation to it. Triple H has had his fair share of no-holds barred matchesin which is signature sledgehammer is completely legalmost notably against The Undertaker at WrestleMania XXVII. Batista upped the stakes by making sure Triple H also put his career on the line. If Triple H loses, he will be forced to retire from in-ring competition. It'll be Batista's first match since June 2014. WrestleMania 35's main card is set to start at 7 p.m. ET. | https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/04/07/wwe-no-holds-barred-match-explained-wrestlemania-35 |
When did Ronda Rousey start wrestling? | Ronda Rousey will headline Wrestlemania in a triple threat match vs. Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch on April 7. It's the first time in show's history a women's match will serve as the main event. But the event is still relatively new as Rousey, 32, has only been full-time wrestler for over a year now. She only made her WWE debut at the 2018 Royal Rumble in January and didn't wrestle her first match until WrestleMania 34 that April, in a mixed tag match. Rousey won the Raw Women's Championship in June 2018 by defeating Nia Jax at Money in the Bank in her first ever singles match. She'll now look to defend her title at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. in the historic main event. Rousey started wrestling after a career in MMA. She won an Olmypic bronze medal in judo at the 2008 games and then became the women's bantamweight champion in UFC, before losing the last two fights of her UFC career to Holly Holm in 2015 and Amanda Nunes in 2016. She then stepped away from MMA at the age of 29. Rousey first appearance in WWE came at WrestleMania 31 in March 2015. She appeared in promotonal videos in 2017 but was noncommittal about her own wrestling future at the time before making the announcement in 2018. She made her debut at Wrestlemania 34. | https://www.si.com/wrestling/2019/04/07/ronda-rousey-wwe-career-history |
Can Rocky Colavito get a statue in Progressive Field? | CLEVELAND, Ohio It has been almost 59 years exactly since the trade that jettisoned Cleveland Indians slugger Rocky Colavito, a fan favorite if ever there were one, to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. Colavito remains beloved - a hard-hitting player, good-looking, nice guy. Even though he retired in 1968, he's remembered by those who saw him play and known by fans who came along years later. He endeared himself to the city during his stints with the Indians, 1955-59 and 1965-67. That love for Colavito continues with fans like Ida Pocci. And Pocci wants to make sure others don't forget him, either. She is spearheading a drive to urge the Indians to erect a statue in his honor. She started an online petition last year via gopetition.com (type "Rocky Colavito" in the search). This season, she has started toting a printed petition that she hopes people will sign at the 20 to 25 games she attends. She has a few dozen so far, 160 or so online, and wants to collect 5,000. "There are many reasons that I think he deserves it," she said Sunday as she took in the ballgame and sought signatures. "I think he was a role model for kids. He had a rapport with the fans." Colavito hit .266 over 14 Major League seasons and pounded out 374 home runs. Bob DiBiasio, the team's senior vice president of public affairs, agrees on an emotional level with Pocci. But team policy keeps Colavito out. "Every kid in the neighborhood put their bat behind their neck," emulating Colavito, remembers the 64-year-old DiBiasio, who grew up in Lakewood. "We think the world of Rocky. Which is why around the ballpark you will see salutes to Rocky in various ways - upper-deck mural, historical moments." He added: "I love Ida's passion. I would probably sign the petition myself as Rocky was my hero growing up. He's the reason my favorite number is 6. He's an absolute generational hero. "Unfortunately, when it comes to honoring the legends of our past, things become a little more complicated." DiBiasio said the Indians honor past players four ways: The top 100 team, compiled for the organization's 100th anniversary in 2001; the team's hall of fame, which has more than 40 players; retired uniforms, and statues. Eight former Indians have numbers retired: Earl Averill, Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Mel Harder, Bob Lemon, Frank Robinson and Jim Thome. Statues outside Progressive Field are of three Hall of Famers - Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby and Bob Feller. The team-policy barometer for which players are honored is stringent. For a jersey number to be retired or a statue to be erected, the player must be in the Baseball Hall of Fame. (Harder is an exception because, as DiBiasio says, he spent 36 years with the Major League club - 20 as an Indians player, 16 as a pitching coach.) And, DiBiasio added, he should be in the (National Baseball) Hall of Fame. For the team hall-of-fame consideration, he said, minimum requirements are that a player have played for the Indians for three full seasons and be retired at least one year. It would be prudent for the team to revisit the top 100 because with each passing season players come along who might merit inclusion. In the mid-1970s, Colavito was voted as the fans favorite all-time Indian. Statutes outside the centerfield gates honor a trio of Indians greats: Lou Boudreau, Larry Doby and Bob Feller. Inside stands an image of Jim Thome. A few feet away, Robinson's statue is amid the semi-circle of plaques in Heritage Park's upper level. While the Indians respect the past with the memories enshrined in Heritage Park and other places, the Colavito trade remains as a dark cloud over team history. On April 17, 1960, General Manager Frank Lane dealt Colavito to the Detroit Tigers for Harvey Kuenn. That deal ignited an onslaught of hate mail for Lane - who Colavito wasn't particularly fond of - as well as the supposed curse Plain Dealer columnist Terry Pluto posited in his 1994 book, "The Curse of Rocky Colavito." Colavito left Cleveland, and the team sunk into the mire of the American League for much of three decades. It was a monster deal, and a strange one: The teams swapped heavy hitters straight up. In 1959, Kuenn won the American League batting title while Colavito led the league with 42 home runs. (Colavito lives in Pennsylvania. Kuenn, who was the 1953 American League Rookie of the Year, became a manager and died at 57, in 1988. Lane died in a Texas nursing home at age 86 in 1981.) Colavito was so beloved that two days after the trade Emily Fitzgibbons, president of the Rocky Colavito Fan Club, told The Plain Dealer the club would go on, 632 members strong. She had started the club in 1956. At one time it was believed to have the largest membership of any fan club for a Major Leaguer. Dues were 50 cents and included a subscription of The Rocket, a newsletter. While Colavito is not in the baseball Hall of Fame, fans - especially Baby Boomers - cherish their memories. A Facebook Rocky Colavito fan club was created in 2008. Pocci is a pleasant person and shows a hint of impatience only when talking about the Baseball Hall of Fame's Golden Days era committee's consideration of those who played from 1950 to 1969. That vote rotates with other era committees and will next consider players in 2020 for induction in 2021. "I'm not willing to wait for that," Pocci said. "That's why I think we should persuade the (team owners) Dolans to make an exception because of how beloved he is and how important he was to team history." The Rocky Colavito Fan Club was started in the 1950s. Pocci, who was not a member of the fan club when Colavito played, was just a big fan growing up on the West Side of Cleveland. She was 9 when Colavito was traded. But when he was traded back to the team in 1965, something clicked. What she found was a "gracious" ballplayer who made time for her and other fans. Her parents would drive her to the airport to gather with fans to greet the team when it arrived. She would bake cakes for Colavito and deliver them to the clubhouse. Afterward, she said, he would seek her out to say how much he and his teammates enjoyed them. He'd take time to sign autographs. It's those sentiments, she said, that are pushing her campaign. "The statues around Progressive Field should reflect every era, and they don't," she said. "For those of us who grew up watching baseball in the late '50s, early '60s, there wasn't a bigger hero. He was baseball, he was the Cleveland Indians." Dolan and DiBiasio were "gracious enough to answer me" when she wrote them. But now, she is stepping up her campaign. "It's time for us to push and let them know how many people are behind this and really want this for Rocky." "All I have to do is hold the sign and people come up to me," she said. I know the support is there. Its letting the Indians organization know its there. | https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/04/can-rocky-colavito-get-a-statue-in-progressive-field.html |
Do the results of government questionnaire on handguns truly reflect how Canadians feel? | Doubts are being raised about the reliability of an online government questionnaire last fall that gauged how Canadians feel about possible new restrictions on handguns and assault-style weapons. Recently released documents show a large majority of the 130,000-plus respondents said they were opposed to tightening restrictions. But proponents of stricter gun control say the questionnaire was highly vulnerable to manipulation and dont believe the results represent the views of most Canadians. I suspect that we shouldnt put too much stock in that particular poll, said Dr. Alan Drummond, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians, which last week issued a called for comprehensive legislation to end firearms violence in Canada. Following mass shooting in Toronto last summer that killed two people and injured 13 others, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tasked Bill Blair, the minister of border security and organized crime reduction, with exploring a full ban on handguns and assault weapons, while not impeding the lawful use of firearms by Canadians. Consultations began last October with the minister holding roundtable discussions across the country and launching a public online questionnaire from Oct. 11 through Nov. 10. Dennis Young, an Alberta firearms researcher and blogger, recently obtained through an access-to-information request the results of that questionnaire. Of the 133,539 people who responded, 107,448 or 80 per cent answered no to the question, Should more be done to limit access to handguns? Similarly, when asked whether more should be done to limit access to assault, or rapid-fire, weapons, 102,221 or 76 per cent said no. To further restrict handguns for law abiding firearms owners is like trying to prevent drunk driving by making it harder for sober drivers to own cars But Drummond, who himself is a gun owner, said the results do not jibe with recent public opinion polls that show a majority of Canadians favour tighter restrictions. He suggested the most vociferous opponents mobilized to sway the outcome of the questionnaire. They have used a fairly aggressive social media campaign. Everyone in their right mind suspects there is (National Rifle Association) support for their effort, he said, referring to the large gun lobby in the United States. Drummond also noted that a Quebec engineer, Francois Bellemare, has publicly admitted he used software to send more than 25,000 automated responses to the questionnaire. Bellemare, who is a member of the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights, told the National Post his responses were submitted over 11 days from Oct. 23 through Nov. 2. But he said he doubts all those votes were actually counted given that there was only a small uptick in votes cast during that period, according to the records. Whatever the case, my actions just proved that an open survey that can be answered by anyone, even outside Canada, multiple times is not the way to base future law, he said. Im an engineer, I believe that law shall be based on fact and science, not fear or survey. The survey was biased and will be forgotten quickly. Tony Bernardo, executive director of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, said he still believes the results accurately reflect the sentiments of most Canadians that there are sufficient restrictions on firearms. The medical literature is very clear that reducing access to firearms reduces the risk of homicide, fatal intimate partner violence and suicide I really believe the average Canadian does not think these crime guns are coming from sports persons, he said. The records released include a number of emails from gun enthusiasts who expressed concern about government overreach. Such bans would be an unjust punishment inflicted on law abiding individuals, which would accomplish nothing. Meanwhile those who commit the crime, will ignore them, as they always have, one person wrote. Another person wrote: To further restrict handguns for law abiding firearms owners is like trying to prevent drunk driving by making it harder for sober drivers to own cars. Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux, a spokeswoman for Blair, said in a statement the government is considering a number of actions to help reduce firearms violence up to, and including, a handgun and assault-style firearms ban. We will carefully consider all feedback to determine if any changes are required to firearms legislation and/or the Criminal Code to keep our communities safe. Asked about the legitimacy of the questionnaire results, Cadieux said the questionnaire was designed to be an open, anonymous and barrier-free tool for soliciting opinions and was equipped with tools to block computer scripts from manipulating results. She added that separate roundtable discussions were held with a range of people, including subject-matter experts, advocacy groups, representatives from womens groups, victims groups, public health officials, business owners, sports shooters, and individuals with a vested interest in this issue. After having previously told reporters that the results of the public engagement would be released in early 2019, Cadieux now says they hope to release a report as soon as possible. Some observers have speculated that any new measures for dealing with handguns and assault-style weapons likely wont be introduced before the fall election. There is also growing uncertainty over whether a more moderate suite of gun reforms, under Bill C-71, will get passed during this parliamentary session. Introduced last year, the bill proposes more stringent background checks and new rules for transporting guns and record-keeping. There are an estimated 900,000 handguns registered to individuals in Canada. Most fall into the restricted classification and are typically used in the context of sport shooting or form parts of gun collections, according to a background paper posted by Public Safety Canada. While the rate of violent crime in Canada has trended downward over the years, the rate of firearm-related violent crime has gone up with handguns being involved in about 60 per cent of cases in 2016, the paper states. Most of the gun violence in Canada involves so-called illicit firearms, which the government describes as those that have been stolen from law-abiding individuals and businesses, those that were purchased legally and then diverted to the illicit market (an act known as straw purchasing), or those that were smuggled. Bernardo says the government would be better off devoting its resources to tackling the sociological factors contributing to gun violence. Drummond, who is also on the executive of the newly formed group Doctors For Protection From Guns, says he doesnt disagree that root causes need to be addressed. But there is also something to be said for limiting access to guns. The medical literature is very clear that reducing access to firearms reduces the risk of homicide, fatal intimate partner violence and suicide, he said. Email: [email protected] | Twitter: dougquan | https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/do-the-results-of-government-questionnaire-on-handguns-truly-reflect-how-canadians-feel |
What are the effects of air pollution? | Video Air pollution is everything from the gases produced from burning fuels to the very fine particles that come from damage to brake pads, wear and tear on the roads, building sites and general dust. Research shows gases like nitrogen dioxide and tiny particles, known as particulate matter or PM, can reach deep into the body with the danger of causing lasting damage. The most obvious effects are on our breathing: increasing the risk of asthma attacks and inflammation of the lungs. The BBC's Science Editor, David Shukman, explains how air pollution has also been linked to strokes, lung cancer, heart disease and possibly dementia. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/science-environment-47829136/air-pollution-what-are-the-effects-on-humans |
Will Ervin Santana join the White Sox starting rotation soon? | It's seemed like just a matter of time - a matter of the schedule, to be exact - before the White Sox needed to summon the veteran right-hander from Arizona to join the major league rotation. His jersey was already hanging in the White Sox clubhouse Friday ahead of the team's home opener. Scroll to continue with content Ad Perhaps the call is coming very soon, with Hector Gomez reporting that Santana is getting brought up to join the big league roster. The White Sox didn't list a probable starting pitcher for Tuesday's home game against the Tampa Bay Rays, and it took little imagination to guess that Santana would be the one to fill that slot. Santana, who the White Sox signed to a minor league deal after the start of spring training, only made two Cactus League appearances, giving up six runs on 12 hits in nine innings. Given his late start, he's remained in Arizona to keep working to get ready for when the White Sox would need a fifth starter. That need is approaching, and it's no shock that Santana would be the leading candidate for the gig. Story continues Santana barely pitched in 2018, making just five starts for the division-rival Minnesota Twins while dealing with a finger injury. But the 36-year-old is just two years removed from an All-Star season in the Twin Cities. In 2017, he had a 3.28 ERA and struck out 167 batters in 211.1 innings of work. Should Santana be added to the active roster next week, there would be a need to create a spot. The White Sox have already made their first bullpen swap of the regular season, trading out Dylan Covey for Jose Ruiz, with manager Rick Renteria saying Friday that the team wants Covey to get work as a starter at Triple-A Charlotte. The outfield could be the group that gets trimmed when Santana arrives, with the team carrying five outfielders right now and Jon Jay yet to return from his season-starting stint on the injured list. Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the White Sox easily on your device. | https://sports.yahoo.com/ervin-santana-join-white-sox-002852916.html?src=rss |
How did US and Ethiopia become so close? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Flatbread making at an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington A high-level US delegation just returned from Ethiopia, which is arguably America's closest ally on the continent of Africa. Journalist James Jeffrey explains. It's noticeable soon after you land in Washington - the city is full of Ethiopians. Their ubiquitous presence - behind the counter at Starbucks or the wheels of taxis - in the bastion of American government symbolises the two pillars of this alliance. The Ethiopian diaspora across America - the second largest community after Nigerians - has played an enormous role in influencing ongoing political reforms that have rocked Ethiopia since the beginning of 2018. These have included the opening of borders, the freeing of political prisoners, the lifting of restrictions on media, and the opening of political space to previously banned groups, as well as a significant redistribution of power within the ruling coalition government. Expatriate Ethiopians run numerous TV stations and online media which are beamed into Ethiopian homes or to smartphones more than 11,000 kilometres away in the motherland - often, in the past, with a message critical of the government. At the same time, US foreign policy significantly influenced last year's seismic events and is helping the Ethiopian government prepare the country for crucial national elections in 2020. A US House of Representative Congressional Delegation (Codel) has recently returned from a visit to Ethiopia and Eritrea. During that visit, US Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor announced the US will be "embedding senior US government officials at key Ethiopian economic ministries and operations for a sustained period of time". Image copyright US Embassy in Addis Ababa Image caption United States Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Raynor meeting Ethiopian Orthodox Church clergy. Last month, the ambassador also visited the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash to pay respect to the lives lost and offer messages of condolence and support to those working on the investigation. A unique relationship "No other African country has this sort of relationship with the US," says Tewodrose Tirfe, chair of the Amhara Association of America, a US-based advocacy group for the Amhara, Ethiopia's second-largest ethnic group. "Because Ethiopia was not colonised, it was able to have a formal direct relationship with the US that goes back to 1903 when the US representative handed his papers to Emperor Menelik." US influence in Ethiopia includes a sizeable financial component. Not including funding for security - the size of which isn't known - Ethiopia has received about $4bn (3bn) from the US government over the last five years towards humanitarian issues and development. Meanwhile, remittances from Ethiopia's global diaspora was estimated in 2017 at $4.6bn, according to a report commissioned by the European Union. The largest portion originates from the US because of the number of people and the fact they are more wealthy than diaspora elsewhere, says Mr Tewodrose. Flowing through informal channels, much of that money moves between relatives but some goes towards supporting political opposition in Ethiopia - including armed resistance - all in the name of freedom. Image copyright ESFNA Image caption Ethiopian Day celebration in Dallas, Texas "Living in the US has a tremendous influence on how I perceive democracy and freedom of speech," says Gennet Negussie with the Ethiopian Advocacy Network, a grassroots collection of organisations promoting democracy, human rights and justice in Ethiopia, who has lived in the US since 1988. "My experience in the US has opened my eyes and created a desire to get involved in changing the authoritarian government in Ethiopia and helping with the democratisation of Ethiopia so people have a say in the political system." Successive waves of emigration during decades of tumult in Ethiopia have formed a worldwide Ethiopian diaspora of around two million people. Though there is no census data, a million are estimated to live in the US, of whom about 250,000 are concentrated across Washington DC, Virginia and Maryland. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Little Ethiopia in the US capital "Ethiopians came to the US for the same reasons as others, because it symbolises the ideals of freedom, respect for human rights, better opportunities for their children and that notion that if you work hard enough, there's no limit to what you can accomplish," says Mr Tewodrose. "And the stories of those who are successful, becoming engineers, professors, doctors, go back to Ethiopia and encourage others to try for the same experiences." Ethiopians entered the US through various means ranging from the granting of political asylum and student visas to sponsorship from US organisations. While some entered through undocumented channels or on travel visas and stayed afterwards, official immigrant applications from Ethiopians have done well historically. More voices on Ethiopia: "The Ethiopian diaspora established a good reputation for being hardworking and enterprising, excelling in performance, valuing education, providing community service and establishing churches," says Bonnie Holcomb, an anthropologist affiliated at George Washington University who has researched the Ethiopian diaspora for decades. "They integrated well, were not isolated, and showed they were not going to be a drain on the US coffers." Diaspora politics Across all generations the Ethiopian diaspora includes the likes of myriad journalists, bloggers, activists and academics, all closely following and often commenting on events in Ethiopia. Last year's reforms mean some of them who previously couldn't return to Ethiopia are now doing so, including exiled leaders of previously banned political parties. Ginbot 7, one of the most prominent, was founded in 2008 by Berhanu Nega, a university professor at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania, and another Ethiopian exile, Andargachew Tsege, in Washington DC, before the group based itself in Eritrea. Similarly, the Oromo Liberation Front, another major opposition group, maintained an office in Washington DC while operating a military camp in Eritrea. During protests between 2015 and 2018, Ivy League-educated Jawar Mohammed played a pivotal role in orchestrating Ethiopia's National Youth Movement for Freedom and Democracy - popularly known as the Qeerroo - young Oromo activists at the heart of protests and strikes that brought down Ethiopia's previous prime minister. Throughout these protests the US-based diaspora also lobbied the US government - while reaching out to human rights organisations and international media - to put additional pressure on the Ethiopian government. Finally, in 2018, a week after the 2 April swearing-in of Abiy Ahmed as Ethiopia's new prime minister, the US House of Representatives unanimously adopted a resolution that was unusually outspoken for US public policy in its criticism of Ethiopia's government. Image copyright James Jeffrey Image caption Though Abiy Ahmed (pictured on television) has his critics, he is enormously popular in Ethiopia and internationally for his rapid-fire reforms since coming to power in April 2018. The resolution - known as HR-128 - condemned excessive use of force by Ethiopian security forces; the detention of journalists, students, activists and political leaders; and the regime's abuse of anti-terrorism laws to stifle political and civil dissent and journalistic freedoms. "If you look at the reforms that followed in Ethiopia, they basically matched one for one the points in the resolution," says Mr Tewodrose, whose organisation collaborated closely with US lawmakers supporting the resolution. "We the diaspora know that by being here, in the world's most powerful country, we can try leverage that to influence things in Ethiopia, because the policy the US takes will likely be followed by other countries." A country of enormous consequence That said, the US diplomatic relationship with Ethiopia has had its ups and downs. The US was a strong ally of Emperor Haile Selassie - Ethiopian soldiers fought with the allies during World War Two and alongside Americans during the Korean War - but after he was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, Ethiopia pivoted to Russia for arms and financial and ideological sustenance. Image copyright James Jeffrey Image caption The message of this billboard in Addis Ababa - "Ethiopia, A Blessed Country, A Nation Bless by God, A Land of Blessing" - captures much of the current optimism and hope for the country. Following the 1991 revolution that defeated the military regime and brought in the present government, Ethiopia was back with the US. Since 2001 and the 9/11 attacks, the US-Ethiopia relationship has strengthened with Ethiopia viewed as a vital bulwark against the spread of radical Islam and terrorism in the Horn of Africa. "The US has understood for many years that Ethiopia is a country of enormous consequence," says Mr Raynor, the US ambassador to Ethiopia. "A country with a large territory and a large population; a country with enormous potential and a rapidly growing economy; and a country that has played an outsized role in keeping the peace in Africa - and beyond - for many years," But some commentators say the ongoing shake-up in Ethiopian politics could affect US-Ethiopia relations, added to which US foreign policy in Africa has shifted to looking more at the rise of China and Russia, and not terrorism, as the biggest threat. Image copyright US Embassy in Addis Ababa Image caption Intercultural event organized by US embassy in Addis Ababa, featuring Native American dancing and traditional Ethiopian dancing. The relationship remains very strong, says Sandy Wade, a former European Union diplomat in Addis Ababa. "US diplomats have won the respect of Ethiopian authorities by not speaking out publicly while making constructive criticisms in private." That has never been the style of US-based Ethiopian media, which has a history of being one-sided and virulently anti-government. This has led, some argue, to worsening ethnic tensions, especially negative perceptions of the Tigrayan minority group due to its association with the Tigray People's Liberation Front party that formerly dominated the government. Ethnic tensions are one of the biggest of many challenges facing Ethiopia's reforming government, Mr Tewodrose says. But he remains, like those at the US embassy in Addis Ababa, buoyant about the country's emerging prospects. Image copyright US Embassy in Addis Ababa Image caption Ethiopian students at the launch of a scholarship programme run through the US Embassy "Ethiopia is in the midst of a moment unlike anything I've seen in my career - the opportunity to reinvent a country of great size and consequence into a true democracy," Mr Raynor says. "We feel strongly that the US has both an opportunity and an obligation to do everything we can to support the success of this moment. "Ultimately, it'll be up to the Ethiopian people to see it through," Mr Raynor adds, "but we will be absolutely be by their side, every step of the way." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47203691 |
What would be the Warriors best first-round matchup? | Guard Klay Thompson, who is well-known for his candid interviews, conceded that hed like to see the Clippers simply because hed like a short fly to Los Angeles. Others have been coy, opting not to specify a preferred opponent out of fear theyd provide a team bulletin-board material. What is clear is that the Warriors will match up in the first round with the Clippers, Thunder or Spurs. Although none of those potential opponents figure to seriously test Golden State in a seven-game series, the Warriors recognize that a relatively easy first round would allow them to preserve necessary energy for another championship pursuit. "I do know that all three teams that are all possibilities are all playing at a really high level," said Golden State head coach Steve Kerr, whose team can clinch the Western Conferences No. 1 seed with a win Sunday over the Clippers. "This is not going to be your typical one-eight matchup, assuming we take care of business and get the one seed. Theres going to be a difficult matchup no matter how it plays out. Well see what happens." Certain matchups seem to bode better for the Warriors than others. The Spurs, who are 2-1 against Golden State this season, will be competitive as long as Gregg Popovich is patrolling the sideline. But talent is paramount in the playoffs, and San Antonio probably doesnt boast enough firepower to push the Warriors. It seems that the Spurs are already starting to tire. With a cast of little-name role players surrounding the likes of LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan, San Antonio is 5-5 in its past 10 games. The Thunder likely scare the Warriors more than the Spurs. Although it is just 10-14 since Feb. 14, Oklahoma City touts a former MVP (Russell Westbrook), a Defensive Player of the Year candidate (Paul George), an elite young center (Steven Adams) and one of the leagues most potent bench scorers (Dennis Schroder). The Clippers, however, might be the biggest mystery. Despite touting few household names, they have ridden a rugged playing style to 13 wins in their past 17 games. "Do we want to see the Warriors in the playoffs?" Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said. "Yeah. Probably not." Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Con_Chron | https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/What-would-be-the-Warriors-best-first-round-13748836.php |
Can Kamala Harris Win? | No other matchup would be as rivetingor as revealingas Harris versus Trump. But first she has to get through the primaries. So heres the plan: Kamala is going to walk up to Rodney Scotts Whole Hog BBQ from the left. At 12:50 p.m., Rodney Scott will greet her. Shell enter through the side door and order at the second register, from the woman in the red shirt. Kamala, Scott, and Maya Harristhats Kamalas sister and campaign chairwill sit and eat. Kamala will then exit through the front door and walk around back to look at the smoker. Shell reenter through the front, cross the dining room, and exit through the side door to take reporters questions. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app. Rodney Scotts Whole Hog, on the corner of King and Grove Streets in Charleston, South Carolina, is perfectthe kind of fast-casual, deeply American spot almost any voter can get behind: local pit master anointed by Anthony Bourdain, outdoor seating under tasteful white Christmas lights, wooden tables with wrought-iron legs, red stools. In the hour leading up to Kamalas arrival, men walking and biking slowly down Grove Street give way to police cars, followed by unmarked cars. At T minus 10, the campaigns 23-year-old South Carolina communications director, Jerusalem Demsas, asks, Can we get Rodney out here? She places Scott, handsome and regionally beloved, on his mark to the left of the door. After Demsas leaves, Scott mutters, People with warrants must be running off the block. Its all happening before you can even see her, so thick and aggressive is the press: the 20-plus reporters with TV cameras, boom mics, lenses larger than some dogs. Kamala shakes Scotts hand; touches his arm; smiles her big, open, I-am-so-happy-to-be-with-you-right-now smile. Shes shorter, even in heels, than one expects. But shes magnetic, authoritative, warmleaning in, nodding, gesturing with both hands, moving those hands from a voters biceps or shoulder to a position of deep appreciation over her heart. Kamala wends through the scrum of press, makes her way to the counter, and finds the woman in the red shirt, who happens to be Scotts wife. Kamala greets her with a two-handed clasp (a simple shake would come across as too formal and masculine). Kamala Harristhe Democratic presidential hopeful and 54-year-old junior senator from Californiais a prosecutor by training. She knows well that any misstep, anything you say or do, can and will be held against you. Her fundamental, almost constitutional, understanding of this has made her cautious, at times enragingly so. Harriss demographic identity has always been radical. She was San Franciscos first female district attorney, first black district attorney, first Asian American district attorney. She was then Californias first female attorney general, first black attorney general, first Asian American attorney general. She was the second black woman, ever, to win a seat in the United States Senate. But in office, shes avoided saying or doing much that could be held against her. As attorney general, she declined to support two ballot measures to end the death penalty. She declined to support making drug possession a misdemeanor. She declined to support legalizing pot. She declined to support a ballot measure reforming Californias brutal three-strikes law. The point is: She had power. She kept most of it in reserve. More important than fixing the broken criminal-justice system, it seemed, was protecting her status as a rising star. She had earned that reputation by the time the first major profile of her was written: San Francisco Magazine, 2007. The article also described her as maddeningly elusive. Growing up at protests, Harris writes, shed seen the mechanics of fighting for justice from the outside. She wanted insider power, establishment power. It takes Harris a minute, but she decides on a pulled-pork sandwich, with corn bread and collard greens, and a banana pudding to split with Maya. They sit and eat, ignoring the two dozen recording devices in their faces, talking about Scotts vinegar-based BBQ sauce and his recipe for banana puddinggood territory for Harris, as shes a serious cook. Nearby, there are a few appalled customers, including a family that has driven 40 minutes to celebrate the fathers birthday and has no idea whats happening, no idea even who Harris is, and would just like this rugby squad of reporters to move aside long enough for their son to refill his drink. But for the most part, the patrons are dazzled by Harris, whose star quality drew 20,000 people to her kickoff rally in Oakland. The dynamism she displayed there made the event feel like a cause, or a concertKamalapaloozaand gave her campaign significant momentum. (Laurene Powell Jobs, the president of Emerson Collective, which is the majority owner of The Atlantic, has provided financial support to the Harris campaign.) After 15 minutes, right on schedule, Harris sets down her napkin and walks around back. She takes some photos near the smoker with Scotts family and looks deeply into the eyes of his adorable 10-year-old son. She tells him shes giving a speech later and shed like him to let her know what he thinks of it. Then she walks back through the restaurant and exits, as planned, through the side door so she can gaggle with the press. (NB: Gaggle is now a verb in American politics, meaning to answer questions shouted at you by a group of reporters.) Here, again, Harris is graciously, militarily on point. All good politicians stick to a script, but Harris speaks like a woman who knows that facts are ammunition. Everything you say can and will be used against you. Just this week shes been in the weeds, so to speak, with Reefergate, a kerfuffle that arose when Harris was asked on the Breakfast Club radio show what music shed listened to when she smoked pot in college and she said Tupac and Snoop Dogg. Social media erupted with gotchas, as those artists didnt release songs until after shed graduated. Harriss spokesperson said that shed been answering a different question, about the music she listens to now, but even so The New York Times, The View, MSNBC, and Fox & Friends all picked up the story. Harriss own father, who is Jamaican, flamed her on Jamaica Global Online for insinuating that she supported legalized pot because she was Jamaican: My dear departed grandmothers as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their familys name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker. The uproar caused the former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau to flip out on Pod Save America: Donald Trump is president We cannot be talking about this fucking shit again with the Democratic candidates. But Harris, today, gaggling, is in top form: We dont need a tragedy to enact commonsense gun reform. This economy is not working for working people. Every American needs a path to success. We need to speak truth. If Harriss campaign has a mantra, thats it: truth truth truth truth truth. She delivers her talking points while dressed, as she always is, in her uniform of dark suit, pearls, black heels. I knowyou think I shouldnt be writing about her clothes. But the clothes themselves are a smart, cautious play, one that Hillary Clinton, frankly, could have benefited from. If you wear the same outfit every single day, pretty soon the haters will run out of snarky things to say about your appearance and move on. Jemele Hill: Kamala Harriss blackness isnt up for debate Among Harriss core traits, arguably her Shakespearean-tragedy trait, the one so central to her character that it has the potential to lift her to the highest post in the land but could also take her down, is her discipline. It is what has allowed her to play the long game, to protect her future. It has also infuriated constituents over the years who wanted Harris to take a stand and fight for them today, not when she reached a higher office. Yet Harris, on the trail, seems bolder than she has in the past. Shes declared that shes for reparations, for the Green New Deal, for decriminalizing sex work and legalizing pot. She comes across as a woman who is cashing in her chips, taking all the political and social capital she was safeguarding for all those years and putting it on the table, declaring that her moment is now. Shes a black female prosecutor; we have a racist, misogynist, possibly criminal president. By Harriss side, on the road, is not her husband, Doug Emhoff, a Los Angeles lawyer she married in 2014, but her sister, Maya, who was a top policy adviser for Hillary Clintons 2016 presidential campaign and, before that, the vice president for democracy, rights, and justice at the Ford Foundation and the executive director of the ACLU of Northern California. When the world is following you with boom mics and long knives, Maya told me, its good to know there are people with you 100 percent. Ride or die. Not going anywhere. Harriss parents, Shyamala Gopalan and Donald Harris, met in Berkeley, California, in the early 1960s, in the civil-rights movement. Theyd both come to the United States to study at UC Berkeley: Shyamala, at age 19, from a Brahman family in India, to pursue a doctorate in endocrinology and nutrition; Donald, from Jamaica, for a doctorate in economics. As with almost everything else in her life, Harris has a set of stock stories she tells about her upbringing, all of which are laid out in her heavily vetted, surprise-free memoir, The Truths We Hold, which was released two weeks before she announced her candidacy. (The big vulnerable reveal in it is that Harris had to take the bar exam twice.) As a girl, she loved the outdoors; her father yelled at her, Run, Kamala! As fast as you can. Run! Her mother sang along to Aretha Franklin; her dad played Thelonious Monk. They divorced when Harris was 7. Before that, the family attended protests together. At one, Harris, a toddler, started fussing. Her mother bent down and asked, What do you want? Harris said, Fweedom! Shyamala, the daughter of a diplomat father and a mother who educated fellow Indian women about birth control through a bullhorn, was barely 5 feet tall, and formidable. She was supposed to return to India for an arranged marriage. She refused. She had literally no patience for mediocrity, Maya said. Her outlook was: Be your best. If youre going to do something, be the best. Work hard, the whole way. En route to becoming a prominent breast-cancer researcher, she raised her girls primarily as a single mother. She took Harris with her to her lab when necessary and directed her to wash test tubes. She covered the kitchen in their small apartment with waxed paper and made lollipops and other candy. If she bought gifts, she set up a game in the style of Lets Make a Deal. What do you wantDoor No. 1 (the bedroom) or Door No. Inside, the girls would find a blue bike with tasseled handlebars or an Easy-Bake Oven. In Harriss telling, Shyamala didnt coddle. If her children came home from school with a problem, she would ask, Well, what did you do?, in order to push them to solve it themselves. She raised her daughters in the black community, taking them to Berkeleys black cultural center, Rainbow Sign, where Maya Angelou read poetry and Nina Simone sang. In 1971, when Harris was 7, Shirley Chisholm dropped by. She was exploring a bid for president. When I asked Maya about her relationship with her sister, Kamala raised her eyebrows and cocked her head, like, This had better be good. Well, shes a big sister and Maya paused and turned to Harris. Are you going to qualify that? Harris, laughing, declined. So Maya continued: She was protective Maybe just a liiiiiiiittle bossy. If there was a problem in the schoolyard, Harris would assess the situation and make sure Maya was okay. The two organized a childrens protest to overturn a no-playing policy in their apartment buildings empty courtyard. They won. When Harris was in middle school, Shyamala took a post at McGill University and moved with her daughters to Montreal. Harris attended high school there. At Howard University, in Washington, D.C., she chaired the economics society, argued on the debate team, and pledged the AKA sorority, the first black sorority in the country, whose alumnae show up at Harriss campaign events in force, dressed in AKA pale pink and green, a squadron of extra aunts. At UC Hastings College of the Law, in San Francisco, Harris found her calling, as she writes in her memoir, and decided to become a prosecutor. This was not an easy sell for her parents. Shyamala believed, as Harris writes, that America had a deep and dark history of people using the power of the prosecutor as an instrument of injustice. Among Shyamalas closest friends was Mary Lewis, a professor and public intellectual who helped lead the black-consciousness movement in the Bay Area. Donald Harris, meanwhile, had become an economics professor at Stanford University, the first black man in his department and one of about 10 black faculty members total. He was a left-leaning iconoclast who wrote and taught about uneven economic development around the world, particularly across racial lines, long before many Americans had ever heard the phrase income inequality. Colleagues found his progressivism threateninghe was called too charismatic, a pied piper leading students away from neoclassical economics, in The Stanford Daily. Yet growing up at protests, Harris writes, shed seen the mechanics of fighting for justice from the outside. That dynamic did not appeal to her. She wanted insider power, establishment power. When activists came marching and banging on doors, Harris writes, I wanted to be on the other side to let them in. Shyamala interrogated this logic. As Harris says, both in her book and in speeches, I had to defend my choice as one would a thesis. It was the choice of a woman who likes control. Even sitting with Maya, post-barbecue, in a corridor of a black church in South Carolina before a town hallwhen Harris is laughing and slightly slouched in her chair, seemingly relaxedshes a woman who maintains a tight grip on the narrative. No detail is too small. When Harris was district attorney, if staffers tried to leave for the evening before she thought they should, she shouted, Well, I guess justice has been done! Everybodys going home. I stay with her a lot when Im in D.C., Maya says, trying to tell me a story about how Harris likes to take care of people. (I experienced this myself. I showed up that day with a cough, and Harris instantly offered me cough drops and green tea.) Harris corrects Maya, quietly but firmly: Always. Always almost always, Maya says. Okay, mostly. Harris stands her ground: Always. Mayaa Stanford Law School grad and one of the youngest people ever appointed dean of a law schooldrops the point. Harris will talk about cooking, specifically and in great detail, if you ask her. Shell even get out her iPad and show you the recipes shes marked from The New York Times cooking section, which she reads in the campaign van, after events, to relax. I can tell you that her go-to dinner is roast chicken and that shes cooked almost every recipe in Alice Waterss The Art of Simple Food. In the kitchen, shes a fundamentalist. Salt, olive oil, a lemon, garlic, pepper, some good mustardyou can do almost anything with those ingredients. But turn the discussion to this moment in her life, to taking her shothow shes going to both protect this opportunity and go all out; where the line is between being too cautious and too openand the specificity disappears. First she pivots away from caution. I wouldnt say cautious as much as smart. We have to be smart. We have to be strategic. (This is a favorite move. For more than a decade Harris has talked about being smart on crime rather than tough or soft.) Then she turns to truth. We have to speak truths, and in speaking those truths, some people are surprised that Im actually saying that on a stage So we have to push it. Lord knows we are all desperate for a president who values truth. But that wasnt what I was getting at. There are a great many truths in the world. I wanted to know which ones were on her mind. Read: How Kamala Harris is running against 2020 democrats I guess a lot of how I decide [what to] talk about is based on what people tell me they want to discuss, Harris says. Not so much what they want to discuss as what are the concerns for them. This is going nowhere. Certainly I do think in specifics. And when Im in a smaller group where theres more latitude to have a real conversation I have limited time. I drop the question and move on, which of course was Harriss goal. It is truly a shame that Shyamala Gopalan isnt here for thisher two daughters together, Kamala running for president of the United States. She died 10 years ago. She had colon cancer, and when the end was near, Harris visited her in the hospital while running for attorney general. She was starting to tune things out. Shed stopped watching the news and reading the paper, which was so unlike her, and she was tired. She was sleeping a lot. And I was with her in the hospital. I was sitting next to herheres the bed, Harris says, motioning to her side, and she was turned that way. We were just spending time together. And she said, looking away, with her eyes closed, Im sure: Whats going on with the campaign? I said, Well, Mommy, they said theyre gonna kick my ass. My mother leaned over and looked at me and had the biggest smile. Just the biggest smile on her face. Harris laughs. I ask what the smile meant. She says, Bring it on. Good luck to them. Americaat least the blue partscame to see Harris as its potential savior in June 2017, when she questioned thenAttorney General Jeff Sessions about the Russia investigation. Sessions sat at a desk before the Senate Intelligence Committee, his mouth pursed in a boyish smirk, his white hair looking as though his mother had combed it for him, Harris regal on the dais above. Here was a man thinking he was going to get away with something, as he nearly always had. Then, in view of the world and this very smart black woman 18 years his junior, he began to realize he was not. Harris, detailed notes in hand, had no patience for his I do not recalls and his long-winded responses to run out the clock. She just calmly and repeatedly demanded an answer to her question: Did you have any communication with any Russian businessmen or any Russian nationals? Her mental clarity was terrifying. Sessions broke down after three and a half minutes. Im not able to be rushed this fast!, he said. It makes me nervous. Justice Brett Kavanaughs Supreme Court confirmation hearings, in September 2018, cemented many Americans belief that Harris was the woman to go after Trump. Have you discussed [Special Counsel Robert] Mueller or his investigation with anyone at Kasowitz Benson Torres, the law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, President Trumps personal lawyer? Harriswho, like any good prosecutor, knows not to pose a question to which she doesnt already have the answerasked this nearly verbatim six times, shining a hot and unflattering spotlight on Kavanaugh, who responded, in order, as capillaries appeared to burst all over his face: 1. Ah 2. Im not remembering, but if you have something 3. 4. Is there a person youre talking about? 5. Im not remembering, but Im happy to be refreshed or if you want to tell me who youre thinking of 6. I might know I would like to know the person youre thinking of. Harris then said, I think youre thinking of someone and you dont want to tell us. Finally Senator Mike Lee of Utah raised an objection and stalled her line of questioning. Historically, the prosecutors office has been a hard place to run from on the left. You will never really be the progressive. By definition, you are defending the state. On the stump, Harris reframes her prosecutorial role: My whole life, Ive only had one client: the people, which sounds nice coming from the mouth of a public servant. Yet when Harris entered a courtroom stating that she was there to argue for the people, she was not the voice of the underdog. She was the voice of enforcement, the voice of the law. Jeff Adachi, the citys longtime elected public defender (who died of an apparent heart attack at age 59 not long after I interviewed him for this article), met Harris when she was a first-year law student at Hastings. Yeah, he told me. Adachi was a little surprised, he said, when Harris aligned herself with law enforcement and wanting to put people behind bars, because we had probably talked about politics before and she was always seen as more of a liberal progressive. But there were very few prosecutors of color at the time, and very few women, and, Adachi said, the prosecutor path was seen as a stepping stone to do something bigger or greater. When Harris ran for district attorney, in 2003, she challenged Terence Hallinan, her former boss, from the right. He was entangled in Fajitagate, a preposterous scandal that involved three off-duty police officers beating up two residents and then demanding their takeout fajitas. The public saw the department as an unprofessional and incompetent bunch of good ol boys. (Hallinan had a low conviction rate, and he did not help his reputation when he handed members of the Fajitagate grand jury a blank indictment form and asked them to fill in the names of the officers they thought should be charged.) Harris enlisted her mother to stuff envelopes and brought an ironing board to neighborhood campaign stops, to use as a portable table. She wasnt a natural. She felt awkward talking about herself with strangers. Shed had a much-discussed relationship with future San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who was 31 years older and estranged from his wife. Brown was a local kingmaker. Still, Harris did not assume that he would anoint her. During the campaign, her longtime mentee Lateefah Simon took a BART train into the Mission early one weekday. Its, like, 7:30 in the morninglegit, she told me. Im coming up the escalator and I see Kamala Harris, by herself, in a suit at 16th and Mission. The intersection then smelled like feces and was filled with drug dealers. Im trying to win this race! Harris told her. She had on pearls!, Simon said. Once in office, Harris got straight to work cleaning up Hallinans mess. She painted the office walls, which no one had done in years. She replaced the jam-prone copy machine. If staffers tried to leave for the evening before Harris thought they should, she shouted, Well, I guess justice has been done! Everybodys going home. She endured one major scandal, over a rogue tech in her crime lab. The tech stole cocaine and mishandled evidence, which was bad enough. But then Harris, likely thinking she could address the issue quietly, failed to follow procedure and inform the defense lawyers in the cases involved. One thousand cases had to be thrown out. Nevertheless, in her first three years as DA, San Franciscos conviction rate rose from 52 to 67 percent. She even created a new category of crimetruancyand punished parents who failed to send their children to school. Then, as now, no one contested the link between high-school graduation and a persons future in a well-paying job as opposed to jail. Harris still talks about this. She stirs outrage at Americas collective failure to invest in the education of other peoples children, often citing the statistic that nearly 80 percent of all prisoners are high-school dropouts or GED recipients. Many, particularly in the black community, answered no. They still do. Identity politics is stupid, says Phoenix Calida, a co-host of The Black Podcast, if youre not going to enact identity policy. Harris ran against the death penalty, and, in what was arguably the first and last truly controversial decision shes made in her political career, she stuck to her position and did not seek capital punishment when a San Francisco cop was killed in the line of duty several months into her tenure. The pressure to reverse her campaign promise was intense. Senator Dianne Feinstein, whod served as San Franciscos mayor from 1978 to 1988, chastised Harris for not doing so at the slain officers funeral. Still, Harris kept her promiseand paid for it. No police union endorsed her for 10 years. One plausible read of her political history suggests that this experience, less than a year into elected office, taught her to fear and avoid taking a stand. It doesnt matter if youre black or not if your policies are not for black people. And her policies are not supportive of black families, Tanya Faison, of Sacramentos Black Lives Matter chapter, says. Harris calls herself a progressive prosecutor, which shes not, though she did lift up individual lives. She started one of the first prisoner reentry programs in the country, Back on Track. It helped young, first-time drug offenders find jobs and services and earn high-school degrees. But Back on Track served only 300 people; Harris never took the program to scale. She also mentored young women, among them Lateefah Simon, who went from being a high-school dropout to becoming a MacArthur genius-grant winner in 10 years, which has got to be a record. Simon now runs the Akonadi Foundation, in Oakland, dedicated to eliminating structural racism. The two met when Simon was 22 years old, with a 4-year-old daughter. At the time, Harris was running a child-exploitation task force; Simon showed up at a meeting to advocate for young women whod been trafficked by pimps and then charged with prostitution instead of being treated as victims of rape. Harris listened to Simon, recognized her intelligence, and took her potential seriously. No one listens to us, Simon told me. People hate us. Were garbage, in policy and in public. Harris helped Simon raise money and throw events for her organization. She insisted that Simon enroll in college, and when Simon said that was impossibleshe was already working and raising a daughter aloneHarris talked about Maya, whod had a daughter herself at age 17 and then graduated from UC Berkeley and Stanford Law School. The powerful, polished black woman who believed that Simon could be a powerful, polished black woman too blew Simons mind: This was before Olivia Pope! But Harriss role as DA took some getting used to. Why would you want to do that? Simon asked. I so deeply knew what was happening with girls in the system, and the DA was our nemesis. The DA and the pimp. Harriss race for California attorney general was extremely tightso tight that her opponent, Steve Cooley, gave a victory speech on Election Night, which he had to retract the next day. She campaigned as a progressive, figuring, perhaps, that many people think they support criminal-justice reform more than they actually do. They like these talking points and these platitudes, Phoenix Calida says. Lets be smart on crime. But her tough-on-crime policiesnobodys really gonna complain, because they feel safe. Harriss record in that office is marked more by what she didnt do than what she did. She did not support a ballot initiative reforming Californias three-strikes law, which incarcerated people for life for petty crimes (an interesting family moment, because Maya, while working at the ACLU of Northern California, had championed a proposition to take three strikes down). She did not join the fight against solitary confinement. She did not support two state ballot propositions to end the death penalty (and when a federal court in California struck down the death penalty as unconstitutional, she appealed the decision). She did not support legalizing pot. She did not advocate for reopening several high-profile cases, including a capital one widely suspected to have resulted in a wrongful conviction. She did not prosecute Steven Mnuchin, the CEO of OneWest Bank and Trumps pick for Treasury secretary, for more than 1,000 foreclosure violations. She did not take an aggressive stance on officer-involved shootingsmost notably, she did not endorse a bill requiring independent investigations of them and declined to use the power of the office to investigate the killing of Mario Woods, who was shot 26 times by five police officers in 2015. Harris has since taken strong progressive positions. But some of her constituents still feel burned. California has had the most police killings, and we havent had any officers ever charged, Tanya Faison, the lead organizer for Sacramentos Black Lives Matter chapter, told me. That was on her watch. Sure, it would be beautiful to have a black woman as the president, Faison continued. But it doesnt matter if youre black or not if your policies are not for black people. And her policies are not supportive of black families. To be fair, while in office, Harris did institute implicit-bias training for police officers. She did test a large backlog of rape kits. And she did negotiate well with the nations five largest mortgage firms in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis. She walked away from an offer of $4 billion of debt relief for California homeowners and called Jamie Dimon, the chairman of JPMorgan Chase. She told him his side needed to come up with more money, much more. She ended up with $20 billion. She won her Senate seat on the night Trump was elected. By then Harris was walking the line shes on now: using fearless as a campaign slogan despite letting fear stop her from taking positions. Trump has been a productive foil for her, highlighting the value of her legal training, casting her discipline as flattering and calm rather than pinched and nervous. She introduced a few bills: one, with Kentucky Republican Rand Paul, to study reforming the cash-bail system; another, with 13 Democratic colleagues, to begin addressing the high mortality rates black women face in childbirth. She also introduced, with fellow Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker and Republican Tim Scott, a bill to make lynching a hate crime. This last one was classic Harris: tough on crime, seemingly progressive, entirely risk-free. It passed the Senate unanimously. By 4:30 p.m., 1,000 people had packed into the gym of Charlestons Royal Missionary Baptist Church, where the scoreboard read 2020 and AKA sorority sisters rolled in wearing full pink-and-green dress uniform. They are not even a little ambivalent about their candidate. Shes theirs; they love her. They asked where the reserved AKA section was. Backstage, Harris chatted her way through the photo line, a mainstay of the contemporary American political campaign: local officials and other VIPs get what is basically a school photo with the candidatein this case, next to a state flag, backed by a royal-blue drape. She has an amazing ability to focus on the person right in front of her, even as a large and impatient crowd claps and shouts KA-MA-LA for her to come onstage. I ate with Rodney Scott today, so Im happy, Harris announced to cheers when she finally appeared. Microphone in hand, she slipped into a subtle southern accent. We have to restore in our country truth and justice, truth and justice, she said. The crowd, right there with her, called out: Amen! Thats right! This Charleston event was a 1/20th-scale model of Harriss campaign-kickoff rally in Oakland. There, Harris had clapped along with her 20,000 supporters as she made her way to the podium. Just the sight of a strong female candidate who was not Clinton came as a relief. Many Democrats remain traumatized by 2016, the matchup of a deliberate and dutiful woman, straining to mop up all messes, against an impetuous, state-trashing bully. But in dropping her guard a little, Harris has been trending away from Clinton and toward Michelle Obamaadopting a persona thats less programmed, hipper, and more relaxed, all of which is more likable. Of course, we care intensely about likability, especially in our female candidates, so perhaps shucking the appearance of restraint is a prudent A-student decision as well. Among the many lines Harris offers on the stump is: I intend to win this. You dont quite expect to hear a woman to say that. Harriss campaign is shorter on specifics than Clintons was (perhaps, again, in reaction to Clinton). Its shorter on specifics than some of her fellow 2020 candidates campaigns, though she did lay out, in her Oakland speech, a basic platform, designed to appeal to a liberal base, not attract independents: Medicare for all; universal pre-K and debt-free college; a $500-a-month tax cut for low-income families; womens reproductive rights; a path to citizenship for immigrants. Then, at minute 32 of the speech, in a moment that managed to be both subtle and shocking, Harris addressed the thing almost nobody wants to say but everybody who is close to Harris thinks about: her personal risk. As Robert Kennedy many years ago said, Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. He also said, I do not lightly dismiss the dangers and the difficulties of challenging an incumbent president, but these are not ordinary times, and this is not an ordinary election. That line passed, and Harris moved on to pablum like Lets remember: In this fight we have the power of the people. But Harris is a target. She knows it. Reports of hate crimes increased 17 percent during Trumps first year in office. In late February, a Coast Guard officer was accused of plotting to kill Harris, along with 19 others, including journalists, activists, and Democratic politicians. The very fact of her campaign, Harris standing out there every day before crowds of thousands, presenting herself to the American peoplesome of whom will merely dissect her record; others of whom will see her female body and her brown skin, and want her deadis bold and brave. Through her career its been a very serious thing, Harriss close friend and adviser Debbie Mesloh told me. She and I talked about it [regarding] Obama The first day he had Secret Service. The first time I saw him in a bulletproof vest. Even at the relatively small book talk Harris gave at the cozy Wilshire Ebell Theatre, in Los Angeles, a security guard stood behind her, not even off in the wings, visible to the audience the whole time. After Harris finished speaking in Oakland, her family joined her onstage: her husband, Doug, who is white; her sister, Maya; Mayas husband, Tony West, who is black (and currently the chief legal officer at Uber, formerly the third lawyer from the top in Obamas Justice Department); Mayas daughter, Meena; Meenas partner and children. The family is beautiful and the family looks like the futureand not the future in which white nationalists win. Its hard not to be ambivalent about a cautious person, particularly a person who has been working for you but holding back, saving for the future. In truth, its hard not to feel ambivalent about all the candidates. There are so many contenders, more of them popping up like white-haired crocuses every day. One is too old. (Well, two are too old.) Ones too mean to her staff. One said she was Native American and shes not. One Instagrammed his trip to the dentist. So many Americans have conflicting desires for this election. They want a transformative leader who will push this country forward. They want a rescue, a captain to steady our faltering ship of state and restore the rule of law. Most of all, they want a winnerwhoever that is, just tell them, theyll vote that way. They want a sure thing. They need a sure thing. And then they feel scared and frustrated by all the options, because thats not how the system works. | https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/05/kamala-harris-2020-campaign/586033/?utm_source=feed |
Which hot-hitting slugger will Mariners start Monday, Daniel Vogelbach or Jay Bruce? | Or, maybe, they will both start and the odd man out of this three-man weave at first base and designated hitter will be the guy who also hit a homer Sunday and has the most career homers of the threesome Following the Mariners 12-5 victory over the White Sox on Sunday, manager Scott Servais was asked if Daniel Vogelbach had earned a start in the series opener against the Royals at Kaufman Stadium after going 3 for 4 with a three-run double, a two-run homer and a solo homer while driving in a career-high six runs in the game. Well, the guy he replaced hit two home runs the day before, he said. At the end of the day, my team is not going to be happy with me and you cant play them all. But as long as they are producing like this, its a good problem to have. Games AB AVG OBP SLG R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K Jay Bruce 10 38 .184 0.289 .605 9 7 1 0 5 10 5 13 Edwin Encarnacion 8 30 .300 0.447 .500 8 9 0 0 2 5 6 7 Daniel Vogelbach 6 15 .467 0.579 1.400 5 7 2 0 4 8 3 4 Indeed, Jay Bruce hit a pair of solo homers in the victory Saturday over the White Sox and got the day off Sunday, which had been scheduled coming into the series. Servais is quite organized in that way. He likes to give starters an idea of when he would give them off days and bench players early notice when they will start. He tried to outline the process before the game Sunday when Bruce was out of the lineup with Edwin Encarnacion starting at first base and Vogelbach getting the nod at DH. When I told my coaching staff yesterday that Im going to give Jay Bruce the day off (Sunday), I said, Watch hell probably hit two home runs today, Servais said. As soon as he hits the second one, they were all looking at me. It was crazy. Advertising But Coming into a series, you look at the matchups and you see who might need a day, but you want to stick to the plan, Servais said. Certainly Jay had a good day yesterday, but the plan was to give him the day off. Sometimes. If he hit three I might have changed my mind, Servais said laughing. No, I really cant say that. But you have to have a plan going into it. Sometimes you change, but 90 percent of the time I stay with it. In the clubhouse after the game, as the players ate and readied themselves for the short trip to Kansas City, a voice could be heard saying, Vogey hit two homers today and going to be on the bench tomorrow. Well, that hasnt been determined. Servais didnt share his plan for Kansas City. The Royals have three right-handers and one to be determined listed as probable starters. So its likely the left-handed swinging Vogelbach will get at least one start. Servais had a meeting with Vogelbach during the first homestand to discuss his playing time or lack of it early on. The exact details werent shared with the media. But for now, Vogelbach likely wont play as much as the two veterans. Part of the motivation for this scenario is to keep Bruce and Encarnacion playing and hopefully producing so they could ultimately trade the veterans later in the season in hopes of getting some prospects in return or salary relief. Neither veteran is part of the future beyond this season. Encarnacion is in the final year of his contract while Bruce has two years left, but is probably more tradable of the two. Yes, its odd to speak about trading productive players when the team has the best record in baseball and is off to its best start in franchise history. But the teams trajectory could change in the coming months. The logjam will grow worse when Kyle Seager returns from the injured list in mid-June to early July. Advertising As for Vogelbach, he hasnt complained or shown frustration about his staccato playing schedule. He embraces the starts when he gets them and tries to be ready for a mid-game pinch hit. Its easy to stay in the game and stay focused with this group because its always fun, Vogelbach said. Theres always something going on. Every inning is exciting and we are always scoring runs. So its easy to stay focused and stay in the game and not let your mind zone off. Vogelbach has homered in the past three games he started the homestand finale against the Angels on Tuesday, the defeat Friday against the White Sox and his two Sunday. But he wasnt even scheduled to start against the Angels. He was inserted after Encarnacion complained of a sore hand/wrist. The Mariners then gave Encarnacion an extra day off to start the series in Chicago. Well, he might need to hit three homers in a game to be certain. Also Second baseman Dee Gordon returned to the lineup after exiting the game early Friday and missing the game Saturday with groin tightness. Shortstop Tim Beckham was lifted from the game Sunday with tightness in his hamstring. Servais said it was a precaution. Beckham said the hamstring would be fine and expected to play Monday against the Royals. | https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/mariners/which-hot-hitting-slugger-will-mariners-start-monday-daniel-vogelbach-or-jay-bruce/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
What's at stake as India's 900m voters head for the polls? | Consider what is involved: more than one-eighth of humanity will have the opportunity to vote in April and May. Those voters will speak 22 official languages and thousands of dialects. Tens of millions will never have learned to read. They will vote from the shadow of the Himalayas right down to the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago; in tribal communities without running water or electricity; in Delhis genteel southern neighbourhoods and in the teeming slums of Mumbai. If that werent complicated enough, Indian law mandates that no voter be forced to travel more than 2km to their nearest polling station in the worlds seventh largest country by landmass. Faced with this logistical challenge, Indias Election Commission holds votes in phases over the course of a few weeks, with results due on 23 May. That allows its 11 million poll workers and security officers to administer the more than 800,000 polling stations that are required. Most importantly, it allows every voting booth to be secured by federal security forces who are considered harder to influence or intimidate than local police. These caravans of workers and election machinery shuttle across the country by vehicle, helicopter, camel, elephant, bullock cart and boat. The total cost is put at more than 5bn. Every Indian citizen over 18 is eligible to vote, provided they are not in prison, have not been declared mentally unsound or been convicted of electoral crimes such as bribery. The electoral roll this year includes 900m people about three times the population of the US. More than 84 million of them will be first-time voters, making the aspirations of young India a key election issue. The franchise has been extended in recent years to include Indian citizens who reside overseas. The Election Commission touts its commitment to ensuring everyone gets to vote. In a district in Kerala, just a single man was registered to vote. Officials tried to persuade him to travel to a nearby booth. He refused, and so in the 2004 polls, a team of six people established a voting booth for him alone. (He kept them waiting about five hours before he showed up.) People cast their ballots using a briefcase-sized, battery-powered electronic voting machine. The devices are highly controversial. Parties routinely claim the machines are being hacked, programmed to favour the party in power, or deliberately slowed in districts where the ruling party is weak. None of these allegations have ever been proved. In 2017, the Election Commission invited parties to prove they could hack the voting machines none were able to do so. Staff from the commission say the voting machines are more environmentally friendly and prevent sabotage such as ballot stuffing or the theft or destruction of boxes of voting slips. After voting, each persons finger is marked with indelible ink, preventing them from voting twice. The voting system for Indias lower house is first past the post (FPTP), meaning whoever gets the most votes in a particular seat is declared the winner, even if their share is well short of 50%. Critics of the system say it leads to discrepancies between a partys vote share and the number of seats it wins in parliament. In the last election, for example, the Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) won 31% of national votes and captured 282 seats 114 more seats than it would have won under a proportional representation (PR) system, where seats are allocated based on a partys share of votes. Its main opponent, the Congress party, won 19% of the national vote but just 44 seats 61 fewer than it would have won under PR. Turnout is normally around 60%, but in 2014 a record high 66.4% cast ballots, reflecting the momentum kicked up by prime minister Narendra Modi and his BJP. For the vast majority of the country, the elections pass without a hitch. No poll is perfect, and parties are frequently accused of breaking the model code of conduct that governs how candidates should campaign, but Hilary Clinton echoed the views of many in 2011 when she called Indias elections the global gold standard. Nonetheless, since the 1970s, violence has been a persistent feature of the polls, though never at a high enough intensity to seriously threaten the process. The most significant threat is in Indias so-called red belt, areas where the government has been fighting a Maoist insurgency for more than 50 years. Indias online population is now 500m people more than double what it was in 2014, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India. The big political parties have built up networks of tens of thousands of online activists who help to push their messages out over Facebook, WhatsApp and newer apps such as the short-video service TikTok. A lot of what is shared is fake, for example, photos currently making the rounds of a woman in a bikini that some claim is Sonia Gandhi, the matriarch of Congress. (The pictures actually show Ursula Andress, the first Bond girl.) There is little Indias election authorities can really do to stem the flow of misinformation. But it has drawn up an agreement with major social media companies so try to take down fraudulent information as quickly as possible. The apps themselves are trying to partner with media companies to fact check information, and are warning their users not to believe everything they read. Counting day is 23 May. Each district will begin counting ballots around 8am. In case of a clear result, as in 2014, we are likely to know the shape of the new government by noon. Counting in closer booths may extend to the evening. If no party claims a majority, we may see days of squabbling to form a governing coalition. The process of building coalitions can be even messier than the campaign. Parties are frequently accused of trying to lure opponents to cross sides with promises of ministries, projects for their constituents or old fashioned suitcases of cash. The past few years has seen the rise of resort politics, in which party leaders sequester their members in five-star resorts, often taking their phones away, to prevent them from being poached by the other side. After crossovers became endemic in the 1960s and 1970s one Haryana state legislator changed parties three times one day in 1967 an anti-defection law was inserted into the Indian constitution. On paper, it bans elected members from changing parties or joining new ones after the polls, but in practice, the law is inconsistently applied and party-shopping still occurs. The elections decide the makeup of the Lok Sabha, Indias lower house. The group that can form a governing coalition becomes the government and their leader becomes the prime minister. Indias upper house, or Rajya Sabha similar to Britains House of Lords is made up of notable people chosen by the Indian president and people elected by members of Indias 29 state assemblies. Modi and his supporters would say that India is finding its feet as a world power. It has a leader who has used his big majority to cement some important and long-delayed reforms, such as a goods and services tax, the worlds largest free medical scheme for the poor and a national bankruptcy law. But all the pillars of new India are yet to be laid. Modi supporters say he needs another term to implement land reform, bring in a national social security scheme and continue rolling out Aadhaar, the worlds largest biometric identity database. His Hindu nationalist base would add: he needs more time to reshape the nations character and institutions from the secular, multicultural vision of Indias first prime minister, Jawarharlal Nehru, into the essentially Hindu nation the country really is at its core. His opponents, including the Congress party president Rahul Gandhi, say Modi has spent five years undermining the countrys free institutions: meddling in the supreme court, intimidating the media, undermining the reserve bank and encouraging police to look the other way as Hindu mobs target Muslims and other minorities. They say he has failed to create jobs, is ruining Indias reputation as a tolerant country, and is running a billionaire Raj, favouring some of the countrys wealthiest corporate titans over the poor. Modis strongman style has prompted a fierce backlash. Opposition leaders with divergent agendas have put them aside to form anti-Modi alliances. Regional politicians such as Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal say they are now campaigning to save democracy. In Utter Pradesh, the countrys most populous state, bitter arch-rivals Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati have banded together to try to deny Modi another majority. It is clear that no one party will be able to dethrone the Indian prime minister, but a broad coalition of leaders may be able to pull it off. Indias political scene is extraordinarily complicated, with thousands of candidates and hundreds of parties jostling to forge alliances that cut across caste, religious and linguistic divisions. Even pollsters struggle to comprehend it, and few have been able to accurately predict the result of the last three national elections. In December, Modis BJP lost three state elections in a single day. Echoing that downturn, most polls in the first two months of this year showed the BJP shedding seats and failing to win a majority of parliament, though it was still in the largest party in the house. But since Indian jets crossed into and bombed Pakistan last month, in the worst clashes between the neighbours in decades, Modis support appears to have rallied. Three polls so far in March have shown him winning a narrow majority, though the wisest observers treat the opinion data with scepticism. The issues that matter to Indias 1.3 billion citizens can vary from district to district. Campaigns are finely tuned to appeal to particular constituency. In one notable example, members of the Hindu nationalist BJP were arguing they would try to curtail the slaughter of cows in a majority Hindu region of the country, while arguing they would improve the quality of beef in a majority Christian one. But there are some broad national issues: | https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/08/whats-at-stake-as-indias-900m-voters-head-for-the-polls |
Will Kristin Cavallari Forgive Jay Cutler After His Alter Ego "Les Mis" Ruins Her Weekend With Friends? | Kiss and make up! On Sunday's all-new Very Cavallari, Kristin Cavallari found herself at odds with husband Jay Cutler during the most inconvenient time. Specifically, Kristin's closest friends from out of town flew in to Nashville for a bonding weekend. "My whole life right now is work and family. Work, family, work, family, work, family," the lifestyle guru admitted in a confessional. "So, I need my friends to come in just to have some fun. I need to decompress and we're just gonna laugh and have a good time." Unfortunately, the Uncommon James boss' besties weren't exactly aware of situation they were flying into. During a sleepover at the old house, Cavallari pal Justin Anderson claimed Kristin and Jay have "figured out what works." This sentiment was laughable to The Hills alum, who was very candid about the "issues" in her relationship. | https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1029801/will-kristin-cavallari-forgive-jay-cutler-after-his-alter-ego-les-mis-ruins-her-weekend-with-friends?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Why does the government charge processing fees on student loans? | Forgive us if were a little incredulous about one aspect of the federal student loan program. A decade ago when the role of the federal government was greatly expanded in the student loan market reducing the role of private lenders in the process one prevailing argument was that the government would be a more benevolent lender than private banking institutions. So as students and parents look at financing college this fall, it should bother them as it bothers us that the federal government charges origination fees on student loans. These are the insidious charges tacked onto your loans for processing paperwork and other such overhead costs. These fees come in addition to the interest that will come due, and because fees can often be rolled into the principle of a loan, they contribute to the mountain of debt that many students will have to ascend after school is over. The fees on one loan might look small, for example, $150 for a $10,000 loan (though graduate loans may have higher fees). But because students often take multiple loans over the course of a college career, students pay this same fee over and over again. That increases the principle, and over the lifetime of the loan, students end up paying interest on these fees. Thats one of the many reasons why about 45 million borrowers owe more than $1.56 trillion in student loans, a three-fold increase since 2006. And, by the way, about 11 percent of student loans are 90 days or more delinquent or are in default. | https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2019/04/07/government-charge-processing-fees-student-loans |
Can my brother force me to sell our late father's cottage? | Q My brother and I inherited a cottage from my father. The cottage is of great sentimental value to me and I would like to keep it as a holiday home. My brother just wants as much money as possible from his inheritance. Id like to buy his share, but we are unable to agree on a price. I obtained a surveyors valuation on the cottage, which valued the property at 120,000. My brother claims that the cottage is worth 250,000 which is supposedly based on an estate agents estimate. The property needs about 45,000 of structural repairs and another 40,000 spending on modernisation. My brother has refused to negotiate with me and now wants to take me to the county court to force a sale of the house and its contents on the open market. PN A You may be thrilled to hear that your brother cant force you to sell your fathers cottage. The sale of a property inherited by more than one person cannot be undertaken without the agreement of all or both in your case the owners of it. If you and your brother each own a distinct share of the property (and so are tenants in common) your brother can go ahead and sell his share without your permission but he would be very unlikely to find a buyer (that wasnt you) who was willing to invest in a portion of a house jointly with someone unwilling to sell his or her share (you, again). What your brother can do, however, is ask a court to order a sale. But he can only do this after he has formally written to you (and any other co-owners if there are any) or get a solicitor to do the writing setting out his case for selling the property and giving you the chance to reply with the reasons that you dont want to. Your brother would have to make a very compelling argument for the court to come down on his side. Given that you have offered to buy him out, the court may also refuse his request to force a sale on the grounds that there is already a solution in place for him to get at the cash value of his share in the property. You may be less thrilled to hear that Im not convinced that you are approaching negotiations with your brother over the possible sale price in a particularly fair-handed manner. I can see that using a surveyors valuation of the cottage works in your favour. But it is more reasonable to use an estate agents view of what the property would fetch on the open market. (this simply means open to all potential buyers and does not mean that the property will necessarily be put up for auction). Perhaps it would be more fruitful to ask your brother to name three estate agents that he would be happy to trust to give a reasonable valuation and then take it from there to find a figure that he would find acceptable for you to buy him out. | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/08/can-my-brother-force-me-to-sell-our-late-fathers-cottage |
Does Taking Time For Compassion Make Doctors Better At Their Jobs? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF Cavan Images/Getty Images/Cavan Images RF For most of his career, Dr. Stephen Trzeciak was not a big believer in the "touchy-feely" side of medicine. As a specialist in intensive care and chief of medicine at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, N.J., Trzeciak felt most at home in the hard sciences. Then his new boss, Dr. Anthony Mazzarelli, came to him with a problem: Recent studies had shown an epidemic of burnout among health care providers. As co-president of Cooper, Mazzarelli was in charge of a major medical system and needed to find ways to improve patient care. Trzeciak wasn't convinced. Sure, compassion is good, Trzeciak thought, but he expected to review the existing science and report back the bad news that caring has no quantitative rationale. But Mazzarelli was his colleague and chief, so he dove in. To find more stories about how to live well, sign up for the Life Kit newsletter. Life Kit is NPR's family of podcasts for helping you get your life together. Every two weeks, we drop new episodes and publish a newsletter with helpful stories like this one. After considering more than 1,000 scientific abstracts and 250 research papers, Trzeciak and Mazzarelli were surprised to find that the answer was, resoundingly, yes. When health care providers take the time to make human connections that help end suffering, patient outcomes improve and medical costs decrease. Among other benefits, compassion reduces pain, improves healing, lowers blood pressure and helps alleviate depression and anxiety. In their new book, Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence that Caring Makes a Difference, Trzeciak and Mazzarelli lay out research showing the benefits of compassion, and how it can be learned. One study they cite shows that when patients received a message of empathy, kindness and support that lasted just 40 seconds their anxiety was measurably reduced. But compassion doesn't just benefit its recipients, Trzeciak and Mazzarelli learned. Researchers at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that when people spent time doing good for others (by writing an encouraging note to a gravely ill child), it actually changed their perception of time to make them feel they had more of it. For doctors, this point is crucial. Fifty-six percent say they don't have time to be empathetic. "The evidence shows that when you invest time in other people, you actually feel that you have more time, or that you're not so much in a hurry," Trzeciak says. "So when 56 percent say they don't have time in that survey, it's probably all in their heads." The good news is, the same study that found doctors didn't have time for empathy, also showed that a short training in the neuroscience of empathy made doctors interact with patients in ways patients rated as more empathetic. Compassion also seems to prevent doctor burnout a condition that affects almost half of U.S. physicians. Medical schools often warn students not to get too close to patients, because too much exposure to human suffering is likely to lead to exhaustion, Trzeciak says. But the opposite appears to be true: Evidence shows that connecting with patients makes physicians happier and more fulfilled. "We've always heard that burnout crushes compassion. It's probably more likely that those people with low compassion, those are the ones that are predisposed to burnout," Trzeciak said. "That human connection and specifically a compassionate connection can actually build resilience and resistance to burnout." Trzeciak and Mazzarelli hope their evidenced-based arguments will spur medical schools to make compassion part of the curriculum. For those outside the health care system, acting with compassion can be a kind of therapy as well, the authors say. They cite the phenomenon of the "helper's high," the good feeling that comes from helping others, and explain how giving to others benefits the givers' brains and nervous systems. "I can say this with confidence," Trzeciak says. "Other-focused behavior is beneficial to your own mental health." For Trzeciak, the research had a personal effect. When he started into the project, he'd been going through his own existential crisis, triggered by his son's middle school homework assignment that asked, "What is the most pressing problem of our time?" While he believed his work to that point was meaningful, it was definitely not the most pressing problem of our time. Along the way, he says, he realized he was feeling burned out after 20 years of practicing medicine. So, armed with data from his book research, he decided to test his own hypothesis. "The recommended prescription is what I call 'escapism' get away, detach, pull back, go on some nature hikes or whatever but I was not believing it," Trzeciak explains in a TEDxPenn talk. Instead, he says, he applied the techniques he'd been studying, including spending at least 40 seconds expressing compassion to patients. "I connected more, not less; cared more, not less; leaned in rather than pulled back. And that was when the fog of burnout began to lift." He prescribes the same for anyone, not just health care providers, suffering from mental or emotional exhaustion. "Look around you and see those in need of compassion and give your 40 seconds of compassion," he says. "See how it transforms your experience." | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/26/717272708/does-taking-time-for-compassion-make-doctors-better-at-their-jobs?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=shotshealthnews |
Which school had the most players drafted in the first round? | 32 NFL hopefuls's dreams came true on Thursday night in the first round of the draft. Arizona took Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray with the No. 1 overall pick like they were expected to and the 49ers snagged Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa with the second. After Alabama and Clemson met in the national championship this year, the programs rocked the first round and each had three players selected. Surprisingly, Mississippi State also tied the two schools for most players taken in the first round. Thursday night marked a new draft record for the Bulldogs, who previously had two first-round players drafted in 1996. Here's the first-round picks from each school: Alabama: DT Quinnen Williams, OT Jonah Williams and RB Josh Jacobs Clemson: DE Clelin Ferrell, DL Christian Wilkins, DT Dexter Lawrence Mississippi State: DL Jeffrey Simmons, DE Montez Sweat, S Jonathan Abram Other schools that were close behind them with two players taken in the first round included Ohio State, Oklahoma, Iowa and Michigan. | https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/04/26/most-schools-players-drafted-first-round-clemson-alabama-mississippi-state |
Will Warriors Steve Kerr shake up center rotation in Game 6? | LOS ANGELES In the wake of the Warriors Game 5 loss to the Clippers, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr pored over possible tactical tweaks. I got to consider all of our options in terms of the rotations and whos playing with whom and for how long, and all that stuff, Kerr said. Thats our job. Asked whether hell change the starting lineup, Kerr conceded, We could. You never know. If he does reshuffle that group, Kerr would probably replace Andrew Bogut at center with Kevon Looney, given that Looney seems the better matchup for this iteration of the Clippers. After watching the 7-foot-1 Ivica Zubac struggle in the series first three games, Clippers head coach Doc Rivers replaced Zubac in the starting lineup with the more mobile JaMychal Green. At 6-foot-9, 227 pounds, Green is a tricky matchup for Bogut, who was brought in largely to match the size of some of the leagues top 7-footers. In Game 5 on Wednesday, Green had few issues getting by Bogut, finishing with 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting (3-for-6 from 3-point range), four rebounds and two assists. In his 17 minutes, Bogut was a minus-15. Meanwhile, Looney was a stabilizing force, corralling six offensive rebounds and posting a plus-15 in 22 minutes. This was more of the same for Looney, who has been Golden States most reliable center this season. Im really, really hoping that we can keep (Looney) long-term, and we can give him the contract that he deserves so he can make some good money, and we can enjoy having him on our team for many years, Kerr said last week. Thats the plan. Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Con_Chron | https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Will-Warriors-Steve-Kerr-shake-up-center-13799355.php |
Can China's plane-maker take on Boeing and Airbus? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Comac's first large passenger jet, the C919, carries out a test flight in Shanghai in 2017 For the past decade China, soon to become the world's largest aviation market, has been developing its own planes as it seeks to loosen Western manufacturers' grip on the sector. The planes made by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, have drawn plenty of criticism. Few in the industry believe Chinese-made jets will rival those of Boeing and Airbus in the near-term. But analysts say that over time, state-backed Comac - part of China's wider push into high-tech manufacturing - could challenge the established players. "Do not underestimate Chinese ability to penetrate markets," says Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation advisory firm Endau Analytics. He says the landscape is likely to shift from a European-US manufacturing duopoly to accommodate a third party - "and that's probably the Chinese". So far it has built two jets - the ARJ21 and the C919 - and is working with Russia on a third. Only the 90-seat, ARJ21 jet is in service. However, after suffering from delays, and being plagued with noise and other problems, the aircraft has been roundly rejected as inferior to planes from competitors such as Brazil's Embraer and Canada's Bombardier. Among the critics is Teal Group aviation analyst Richard Aboulafia. He says that while the aircraft was touted as proof China would be the next big jet maker, it turned into an "overweight and stunningly obsolete product that has no relevance outside of China's tiny regional airline sector". Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A Chenghu Airlines ARJ21 jet Comac has bigger ambitions for the C919. Seating up to 168 people, China's first large passenger jet is designed to compete with Boeing's 737 Max and Airbus's A320neo. Its third test flight was completed in December and first deliveries are scheduled for 2021. Comac did not respond to BBC requests for comment. But data from consultancy Frost & Sullivan shows the firm has received nearly 1,000 commitments for the C919, mostly from Chinese airlines and domestic leasing firms. The order book includes the country's three major carriers Air China, China Southern and China Eastern. Still, some remain sceptical that Comac will hit its 2021 target given the problems that surrounded its first plane. Teal Group's Mr Aboulafia says there is a "serious risk" that by the time the C919 enters service Airbus and Boeing will have far better models on offer. In partnership with Russia, Comac is also developing the CR929, a wide-body aircraft with a range of 12,000km that seats 280 passengers. Right now, only China's aviation regulator has certified Comac jets to fly. Its aircraft may also operate in parts of Asia, Africa and South America that recognise Chinese certification. However, to expand beyond those markets it needs the green light from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Those approvals are far from certain. "There is still a big question mark over whether it will receive a Western certification," Flight Global's Asia finance editor Ellis Taylor says. He says Comac had hoped the ARJ21 would get FAA certification "but that has been shelved indefinitely". Even if those doors remain shut, Comac has access to a huge and growing market. By the mid-2020's, China's aviation market is expected to overtake the US as the world's largest by traffic. It's a major buyer of Western planes, but the crisis facing Boeing could generate more interest in locally-made alternatives. The country operates the largest fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft and was the first to ground the troubled jet after the deadly Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max crash in March. The same model was involved in a Lion Air crash that killed 189 people less than five months earlier. Frost & Sullivan aerospace consultant Ramesh Tanjavuru says, provided Comac secures certification, Boeing's troubles could fuel the growth of the C919 in China and abroad. "They could definitely fill the gap and be a significant player in China's market." Comac also has its sights set on emerging markets in parts of Africa and Asia. Its planes are more affordable, with the C919's list price of reportedly about $50m (38.8m) roughly half the price of the Airbus A320neo. But the push into these regions also supports Beijing's broader foreign policy goals. China, through its Belt and Road initiative, is pouring as much as $1 trillion into infrastructure projects around the world. Endau Analytics' Mr Yusof says China's entry into plane manufacturing is part of this drive. He says some countries in Africa have received loans to build airports that are designed to meet the requirements of the ARJ21. Aiding poorer countries with infrastructure development, Mr Yusof says, is another way of building Comac's customer base. "We can't just underestimate the Chinese ability to go into markets and carve a niche where Airbus and Boeing aren't interested [such as] Africa or central Asia." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47689386 |
Can Milwaukee's communities of color cash in on the DNC? | MILWAUKEE (AP) It's more than a year away, but Milwaukee is preparing for perhaps the biggest party it's ever thrown. More than 50,000 visitors are expected to attend the Democratic National Convention at the Fiserv Forum from July 13-16, 2020, bringing with them an estimated $200 million in convention dollars. And the city's minority business leaders are making sure their communities won't be left out. Thirty community members attended a recent workshop sponsored jointly by the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce and the American Indian Chamber of Commerce on how to prepare for the city's moment in the national spotlight. ___ The nonprofit news outlet Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News. ___ "We want to take full advantage of the DNC coming here next year," said May Yer Thao, executive director at the Hmong Wisconsin Chamber of Commerce. Milwaukee has the third-largest Hmong community in the U.S., behind California and Minnesota. With most of the community's businesses located on the northwest side, Thao said, her organization is looking for ways to entice visitors from downtown to attractions such as the Asian Market Phongsavan. Ossie Kendrix, who leads the African American Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin, also envisions offering a series of sessions to help business owners get their piece of the convention dollars. Others see the convention as a chance to influence national discussion. Denise Thomas, owner of The Effective Communication Coach, LLC, said the DNC offers African Americans the chance to shift "the negative mindset that Milwaukee is a terrible place for black people to live." Thomas, who has held corporate executive positions at MillerCoors and several other large companies, noted that across the U.S., there is "inequality across education, across mass incarceration, across workforce development" that needs to be addressed. Milwaukee's African American community needs to "take advantage of having an audience that will be in Milwaukee for at least two weeks, who are the most influential decision makers in our government, both African American and non-African American," she said. Thomas would like to see the community engage the political leaders socially through conversations, through panels, through dinners, through community forums to build "interest and respect for our community." There's at least one group in town, however, that's too busy to even think a year ahead. Nelson Soler, president of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of SE Wisconsin Inc. and CEO of the Multicultural Entrepreneurial Institute Inc., has his hands full with a more immediate concern: The League of United Latin American Citizens. The largest and oldest Hispanic organization in the U.S. is holding its 90th annual national convention in Milwaukee in July. That convention is expected to draw 17,000 to 20,000 people over five days. The nonprofit news outlet Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service provided this article to The Associated Press through a collaboration with Institute for Nonprofit News. | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/article/Can-Milwaukee-s-communities-of-color-cash-in-on-13798801.php |
Why has Tarantino turned The Hateful Eight into a Netflix miniseries? | A chill was felt on the strange, slightly obsessive corner of social media known as film Twitter. First a breeze, then a blizzards howl. Netflix had taken Quentin Tarantinos The Hateful Eight and done something to it. No, wait! Heads exploded like Channing Tatums at the end of the gruesome (but strangely hilarious) post-civil war western. From Quentin Tarantino to Hilary Duff: why Hollywoods Tatesploitation rush is wrong Read more A quick glance on Netflix shows that The Hateful Eight: Extended Versions season one is four chapters at a respective running time of 50, 51, 53 and 56 minutes. The version that was already on Netflix (and the one that still shows up first when you do a search, at least on my Roku) is 167 minutes. Even a period-appropriate abacus will show you that there is a differential here of 43. So the answer to both questions of is it changed? and is it longer? is an annoying yes, technically, but not really. Lets walk through this in a slow and methodical way like Samuel L Jackson negotiating a carriage ride from Kurt Russell. The Hateful Eight, perhaps the final substantial release from The Weinstein Company (its logo now the most hateful thing about the damn movie), had a unique rollout back in 2015. Anything to keep its in-house genius happy. As such, Quentin Tarantino shot the film in the rare Ultra Panavision 70 format. Perhaps you saw him on the press tour, boasting about cinematographer Robert Richardson finding old lenses that hadnt been used since the 1966 Charlton Heston picture Khartoum. (Cool lenses, bad movie.) To add to the 60s nostalgia vibe, and also to goose the movies mystique for marketing purposes, The Hateful Eight enjoyed what was called a roadshow release a week before the general one. Technically, this was not a real roadshow rollout, as it did not travel from town to town, but a sneak peek at 100 theaters that had the capacity to project 70mm film. Old projectors were sourced just for this event. Weinstein struck prints actual physical prints of the sort that make film purists wobbly at the knees and sent them hither and yon. I had the good fortune to see it at New York Citys Village East cinema, a converted 1920s Yiddish theater in lower Manhattan. The Hateful Eights roadshow featured an overture of Ennio Morricones lush score and an entracte after the intermission. The official running time for this version is 187 minutes, so a full 20 more than the mainstream theatrical lame-o digital cut. The shorter version was, until now, the only one available on home video or Netflix. This differential represents more than just the musical sections. Reddit scholars have put together that there are also a few moments that were present in the roadshow version. (Without a later release, it took some piecing together from the collective fanboy memory.) Some of the differences are literally just alternate takes or camera angles for reasons we can only guess. But the longer cut does include a bit of business with Demin Bechirs character plucking a chicken. Its not vital, but part of The Hateful Eights appeal, as with so much of Tarantinos writing, is the slow build to violence from seemingly unimportant minutiae. When the film does flashback to earlier this morning toward the end, there is an aha! moment when you discover why the chicken was only half-plucked. Its a nice addition for those that were playing CSI: Wyoming. OK, so lets grab that abacus again. Well, no. By cutting this up into four episodes, it means opening and closing credits in each chapter, plus a short replay of the last scene in episodes two, three and four. Each is around four and a half minutes. Thats it, really. The new stuff that we thought we were getting, if for only a brief glorious film Twitter moment, is nothing but rerunning the credits. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Tim Roth in The Hateful Eight. Photograph: Allstar/The Weinstein Company On the one hand, they are cool credits! And its great to get more opportunities to listen to Morricones music; however, there is a dark, final punchline: Netflix automatically jumps away from closing credits and skips the opening unless you tell it not to. So these added minutes, if you want to experience them, dont even occur naturally. Lets check that math. The credits come to about 27 minutes, which is more than the difference between the roadshow and theatrical releases. This doesnt quite make sense, I know, but I swear there is nothing new here. There is, however, a different vibe. For starters, the four episodes are a change from the originals six delineated chapters. As such, the breaks come at new spots. The end of episode one doesnt feel right it just plays like the story ran out of gas. The other two breaks work well. It also means that the late-in-the-game introduction of the narrator happens at the same point in the story, but at a different point relative to a chapter break (or the intermission if you saw the roadshow.) Wed need to do blind side-by-side comparisons to measure the emotional impact of this alteration. I can say, though, that despite Netflixs presentation, this doesnt feel like a typical binge-watch. Take Russian Doll, the success from earlier this year. I gobbled that up in one go because each chapter ended with an oh my God, what will happen next? The broken-up sections here do not have anywhere near the same impact. It plays like a movie where God came down to hit pause. Luckily, its a good and juicy movie, so you want to keep going. But the stopping-and-starting is probably the last thing you want to do to a movie where so much is dependent on a slow-burning vise-grip. This so-called Extended Edition was the first time I had rewatched the movie since December 2015 and I found myself laughing at the comedy more than I remembered. (Jennifer Jason Leigh is particularly outstanding.) Its a bleak and vicious picture reveling in extremes and, even though Jackson is the closest thing to a good guy, its repeated use of racial slurs is an understandable bridge too far for some viewers. (Im hoping Tarantino gives this a rest in future films. Enough already.) For those crying sacrilege, there is no way this is happening without Tarantinos approval. Maybe its his salute to Francis Ford Coppolas The Godfather Saga miniseries that aired on NBC. Its certainly a good way to tap pop culture on the shoulder and say remember me? just a few weeks before the Cannes debut of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Maybe this is to measure our expectations for the new one, to remind us that recent Tarantino movies, while never boring, have been deliberately paced and low on plot. Either way, its amusing to think that a movie that began its life with the resurrection of old lenses and 70 mm projectors has achieved its final form as a death of cinema streaming platform miniseries. Tarantino does indeed have a sick sense of humor. | https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/apr/27/quentin-tarantino-hateful-eight-netflix-miniseries |
Is 'contraception jewelry' about to have a moment? | Imagine wearing your contraception on your wrist, on your ears, or around your neck, concealed or flaunted in your favorite piece of jewelry. Thats the idea behind a recent study published in the Journal of Controlled Release. Researchers developed miniature skin patches that can provide up to a week of contraception and are small enough to be worn on the back of earrings. Its an idea that builds on existing skin patch technology to give people more contraceptive choice, but experts have concerns about whether it would be workable in reality. What to know The study created small skin patches infused with the hormonal contraceptive levonorgestrel. COUPLE SHOCKED BY SURPRISE BABY AFTER GOING TO HOSPITAL FOR 'KIDNEY STONES' We discovered that the dosage you need of the contraceptive hormone is very low, lead study author Mark Prausnitz, PhD, whos a regents professor, J. Erskine Love Jr. chair in chemical and biomolecular engineering, and director of the Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery at Georgia Tech, told Healthline. The scientists behind the study fashioned miniature patches that could be worn under rings, choker necklaces, watches, or the backs of earrings. They then applied them to pig ears and hairless rats. The patches provided contraceptive protection for seven days, even when they were worn for 16 hours a day and then taken off for eight, reflecting the fact that many people take off their jewelry overnight. While the research is in the early stages, experts think theres great potential for contraceptive jewelry patches. Having more contraceptive options is beneficial for women, Prausnitz told Healthline. Beyond added choice, however, the team was targeting two other issues: discretion and compliance. Discreet contraception which can be used without anybody else knowing can be valuable in cultures where contraception is frowned upon. In many scenarios, contraceptive use is something that youd want to keep private, Prausnitz said. Dr. Deborah Bateson, associate professor of gynecology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and director of Family Planning New South Wales, who wasnt involved in the study, agrees. Were aware of the concept of reproductive coercion, where sometimes women do need to have a method thats not detected by other people, she told Healthline. Compliance, or taking your medication correctly to make it effective, can also be an issue with contraception, depending on what method you use. If you have an implant, compliance is easy. If you take a pill every day, its easy to forget one and lower its effectiveness. However, jewelry might not improve compliance. The idea that it might be easier to remember to put on jewelry than take a pill is slightly sexist, Bateson told Healthline. BABY BORN USING CONTROVERSIAL 3-PARENT IVF TECHNIQUE IN MEDICAL FIRST, DOCTORS REPORT The concept might not be viable for human use, according to Lois Salamonsen, PhD, professor and research group head at the Centre for Reproductive Health, Hudson Institute of Medical Research, Australia, who wasnt involved in the study. Pharmaceutical delivery, including that of steroid hormones, requires full contact between the patch and the skin, she told Healthline. Delivery must be consistent and continuous. I cannot see how delivery via a piece of jewelry could achieve either of these absolute requirements. Its also unclear if women will want to wear contraceptive jewelry. Any new ideas for how to make contraception more acceptable, easy to use, and effective are good, Dr. Kimberly Gecsi, program director of obstetrics and gynecology at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, who wasnt involved in the study, told Healthline. It comes down to whether patients will use the method and find it acceptable. That wasnt addressed in this study at all, she said. The amount of women for whom contraceptive jewelry is an appealing option might be small. Reproductive biologist Bryony McNeill, PhD, at Deakin University School of Medicine, Australia, who wasnt involved in the study, told Healthline that it might appeal to a small subset of women for whom neither a medically administered long-acting contraceptive (for example hormone-releasing intrauterine device or implant), or a self-administered method (patch or pill) is desirable, and who are able to access the jewelry and wear it every day. Women outside those groups, she says, might have better options. What this says about contraception today The study reflects a shift in how we think and talk about contraception: Its becoming less taboo to discuss. There is a demedicalization of contraception, which I think is a good thing, Bateson said. However, that demedicalization might not help prevent pregnancies. Salamonsen has concerns that jewelry could actually lead to women paying less attention to their contraception. It could lead to unwanted conceptions by proving false expectation of protection from conception, she said. It will take years of further testing before we know if contraceptive jewelry would actually work for humans. Right now its an interesting concept. In the future, it may be a new class of fashion statement. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The bottom line A new study published in the Journal of Controlled Release studied how miniature skin patches can provide up to a week of contraception and are small enough to be worn on the back of earrings. The patches provided contraceptive protection for seven days, even when they were worn for 16 hours a day and then taken off for eight, reflecting the fact that many people take off their jewelry overnight. Click here for more from HealthLine. | https://www.foxnews.com/health/contraception-jewelry-about-have-moment |
Where is Xavier Becerra on the Orange County jail snitch probe? | Now Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer is starting his own investigation, and good for him. He ought to be able to find out how his own office (under his predecessor, Tony Rackauckas) contributed to a pattern of misconduct that led to a number of otherwise valid criminal prosecutions being thrown out. Of course, theres a built-in conflict in investigating ones own office, and it could cut in either direction: Critics might wonder whether Spitzer was being less than thorough in an effort to protect his troops, but theres an equal concern that he could be overzealous, given the fact that the scandal occurred under Rackauckas, Spitzers longtime adversary whom he defeated late last year. | https://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-jail-snitch-becerra-20190427-story.html |
Are These 90 Day Fianc Couples Living Happily Ever After? | on Sunday, April 28 with six couples in the spotlight. follows Chantel and Pedro , Elizabeth and Andrei , Nicole and Azan , Russ and Paola , Ashley and Jay , and Colt and Larissa . But not all of those couples are still together. Depends on the couples on 90 Day Fianc. Each couple appeared on 90 Day proper, which has produced six seasons of drama. Find out below! Russ and Paola (Season 1) Status: Married Russ, who hails from Oklahoma, met Paola while he was working in Colombia. They married, and she moved to Oklahoma, but eventually relocated to Miami for modeling work. Russ later joined Pao in the Sunshine State and the couple continued to have cameras follow them for the 90 Day Fianc spinoff series. On the spinoff, Paola revealed she had a miscarriage, but in the 2018 reunion special the couple revealed they were expecting again. "We are making big changes and realigning our goals as we prepare for the birth of our son," the couple exclusively told E! News in a statement ahead of the birth of their baby. "We are focused on bringing our son into a calm and loving environment while putting aside our differences and problems from the past. This pregnancy has brought us closer together and we are doing our best to remove any negativity whether that be people or situations. We are grateful that God has given us another chance and are anxious at this point of the pregnancy as we are more than ready to meet our baby boy!" They welcomed son Axel in early January. Alan and Kirlyam (Season 1) Status: Married Alan, who is from Los Angeles, met Kirlyam while on a Mormon mission in her hometown in Brazil. The couple married and are still together and have a son, Liam. Louis and Aya (Season 1) Status: Married The couple met via an online dating service. Louis, who has two sons, is from Indiana and Aya the Philippines. In February 2018 they announced they were expecting their first child. Article continues below Mike and Aziza (Season 1) Status: Married Mike, who is from Cleveland, and Russian Aziza met via a language website and are still married. In September 2018 they announced they were expecting their child. Chelsea and Yamir (Season 2) Status: Divorced Chelsea, who is from Illinois, met Yamir, a member of a boy band, when she was volunteering in Nicaragua. The two married and moved in with her parents, but Yamir wanted to pursue his music career in Chicago. The two split in 2017. Yamir posted a tribute to his ex-wife on what would've been their anniversary in September 2017. "Although we no longer have the bond that united us, there's no hate! I spoke with you a week ago to catch up and say hello, and you told me you were so happy, and that warmed my heart," he wrote on Instagram. Danielle and Mohamed (Season 2) Status: Divorced Danielle met Mohamed in an online chat room. The two got engaged and Mohamed moved to Ohio from Tunisia. The two had issues almost from the start, with aspects of their lives being kept from one another. They married, but Mohamed soon left. Danielle tried to annul the wedding, but eventually divorced him in 2017. Article continues below Justin and Evelyn (Season 2) Status: Married Californian Justin met Colombian Evelyn at the rugby match at the 2103 World Games in Colombia. They spent a week together before parting ways and Justin brought Evelyn to the United States for marriage. Brett and Daya (Season 2) Status: Married Brett, who lives in Washington, met Filipino Daya via online dating. The couple is still married and welcomed a daughter. Jason and Cassia (Season 2) Status: Divorcing Jason and Cssia met through Facebook, this was while Cssia was in an online relationship with Jason's friend. The two started dating after that relationship ended and Brazilian Cssia moved in with Jason and his father. They separated in 2017, filed for divorce in 2018, dismissed that file, but eventually filed once again. Article continues below Danny and Amy (Season 2) Status: Married The couple met in Australia during a bible study trip. The couple had a rough go of things when some of Danny's family members didn't accept Amy because she was black. The couple is still married and living in Texas with two children. Mark and Nikki (Season 3) Status: Married Mark and Nikki, who have an almost 40-year age difference, met via an online dating service. The couple had some friction on the showNikki is a year younger than Mark's daughterbut seem to still be together. Loren and Alexei (Season 3) Status: Married Loren met Alexei while on a Birthright trip to Israel. Loren moved from New York to Florida in an effort to save money and Alexei joined her in the United States. The two married both in the Us and Israel and are still together. Article continues below TLC Kyle and Noon (Season 3) Status: Married These two met via Facebook while Kyle was researching a vacation. They met in Thailand, but only became engaged when Noon came to America. They married after and are still together. Melanie and Devar (Season 3) Status: Married Melanie was on vacation in Jamaica when she met Devar, the two got engaged during that trip. Initially, Melanie's family was skeptical of Devar, but the two are still together and welcomed a child in 2017. Fernando and Carolina (Season 3) Status: Married Floridian Fernando met Carolina in Colombia while they were both on other dates. Her proposed before his trip wrapped up. They've had some bumps in the road, but are still together. Article continues below Josh and Aleksandra (Season 3) Status: Married Josh met Aleksandra while on a Mormon mission in Prague. Aleksandra, previously a go-go dancer, converted to Mormonism. The two started dating in 2015 and Josh proposed when he visited her in Russia. They married in the United States after Aleksandra came over, and eventually welcomed a daughter. Jorge and Anfisa (Season 4) Status: Married Another couple who has been back in front of the 90 Day cameras more than once, these two met via Facebook. They've had many bumps in the road, but married, and then separated, then reconciled. Jorge was arrested and sentenced to prison for transporting close to 300 pounds of marijuana. Narkyia and Olulowo (Season 4) Status: Married No shortage of drama here, these two met via online dating. They're still together, despite having broken up once before when Olulowo lied about a past relationship. Article continues below Matt and Alla (Season 4) Status: Married This couple met via an online dating service, but lost contact when Matt married for the third time. They reconnected after that divorce and eventually marry, despite concerns from family members. Chantel met Pedro while on a trip to the Dominican Republic and the two kept up dating after the initial meeting. Chantel initially lied to her family about Pedro's citizenship, but the two married. The families immediately had friction and fought on both 90 Day and Happily Ever After?, including a physical altercation. E! fight and dealing with ongoing family issues. These two have had some bumps in the road, to say the least. Nicole and Azan met via a dating app, and Nicole traveled to Morocco to meet Azan. Last time they were on screen, they were still together, not married, and Nicole was in Morocco, despite reports that they'd broken up. Article continues below Elizabeth and Andrei (Season 5) Status: Married Elizabeth met Andrei, who is from Moldova, while visiting Dublin where Andrei worked as a bouncer. Andrei had friction with Elizabeth's family, but the two eventually married are are expecting their first child. "Married life is so rewarding. We are coming up on our one-year wedding anniversary and are so excited that we are expecting a baby girl! Being married is amazing and everything we thought it would be! Expecting a child and growing our family is a true blessing! We are currently awaiting Andrei's permanent residency approval so we can travel back to Moldova to visit our family and get started on our Moldavian wedding plans! In the meantime, we are getting our little girl's nursery in order and planning our baby shower! We cannot wait to be parents! We're so happy to have the continuous love and support from our viewers and fans," the couple told E! News. Evelyn and David (Season 5) Status: Married Evelyn met David via Facebook when she was 18 and he was 27. David found Evelyn's band's Facebook page. The religious couple got married in New Hampshire. David and Annie (Season 5) Status: Married David, who is twice her age, met Annie while living in Thailand. His financial problems prevented him from sponsoring Annie in the United States and from paying the dowry, however they still got married (mostly thanks to David's former friend). Life after marriage hasn't been without drama, but the two have overcome obstacles, including losing their home in an old firehouse. Article continues below Josh and Aika (Season 5) Status: Married Drama for the couple involved Josh not being keen on reversing his vasectomy, but they did get married. Molly and Luis (Season 5) Status: Divorced Molly met Luis when she was in the Dominican Republic on a vacation. The two got married in secret during the 90-day visa period, complicating their eventual breakup. and subsequent reunions. Luis remarried five months after his divorce from Molly. "I am doing so very great. I am working out, losing weight, feeling great and helping women all over the world from my bra shop LiviRae Lingerie. I am not dating anyone because I really am focused on my kids, myself, and my business," Molly told E! News. "As far as Luis and I, we're divorced and he is remarried which leads me to believe he totally scammed me to get here on my money even though we were together for almost two years prior. People think I am jealous according to social media, but I really am not. I am more upset about the fact that someone would do this to a person who takes care of their kids by them self and is self-employed. I think it is really a devilish move to scam people like that where hearts and kids are involved. I do not wish ill will towards him because I want to continue to receive my blessings, but I do want the truth about the situation to prevail because I am a good person." TLC Colt and Larissa (Season 6) Status: Divorced Larissa, who is from Brazil, met Colt via social media. The duo met up in Mexico and Colt later proposed after just a number of days. Clark County Court records confirm that Colt and Larissa married on June 24. In November, Larissa was arrested for domestic battery. The couples remained together until early January 2019. After an altercation and another arrest, Colt filed for divorce. Article continues below TLC Steven and Olga (Season 6) Status: Engaged During his visit to Olga in Russia for the birth of their child, Steven revealed she never filed for Olga's visa when he told her did. Steven explained he wanted to make sure they were compatible and spend more time together since their courtship in the United States was so short before Olga became pregnant. She forgave him. TLC Kalani and Asuelu (Season 6) Status: Married Kalani and Asuelu walked down the aisle during season six of 90 Daywith a secret. Kalani was pregnant with their second child when they wed. TLC Ashley and Jay (Season 6) Status: Divorcing Ashley caught Jay using a dating app three days after their wedding in Las Vegas. Their relationship status has been rocky since then, to say the least. During the reunion, Ashley spoke candidly about her feelings. "I mean, when someone cheats on you, you don't automatically fall out of love with them. I know the smart thing to do is to leave him and that's what I'd tell anybody in my shoes," she said. "I really diddolove him, but maybe he really did just want a green card," she added. In April 2019, E! News confirmed through a Pennsylvania court that Ashley had filed for divorce again. Article continues below TLC Eric and Leida (Season 6) Status: Married Eric and Leida tied the knot during season six of 90 Day, despite the repeated clashes between Leida and Eric's children. During the reunion, Eric and daughter Tasha revealed they do not have a relationship at this point because of Leida. | https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1036021/are-these-90-day-fiance-couples-living-happily-ever-after?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Why does his wife have to make their kids lunches so complicated? | Dear Carolyn Adapted from a recent online discussion. DEAR CAROLYN: My kids are in elementary school and they bring lunch most days. My wife usually packs their lunch with the kids help, and we have a lunchbox that divides things basically into snacks, a spot for fruit, vegetables, etc. My wife follows a bunch of Instagram accounts on getting creative with these lunches, using cookie cutters to cut out sandwiches, not repeating items in the lunchbox, using various themes. She involves the kids by allowing them to pick certain parts of it. This is a hit-or-miss. Sometimes it simplifies it, sometimes they engage in a 10-minute conversation about having an orange or grapes in their lunch. We also fix them breakfast and dinner every day, obviously, and we make it as balanced as we can. I think the energy my wife puts into these lunchboxes is a waste of time. I dont see what the problem is with just giving them a sandwich and a piece of fruit, or even just having them buy hot lunch. Last year my wife said I didnt have to do anything with lunch, but at the end of the day, I am still listening to her pack the lunch, washing the lunchbox, etc. ; we all live in the same house, its hard to clearly delineate this stuff. I think this is part of a larger pattern where she makes the simple complicated and I just really dont want to be around it, even if Im just observing. Anonymous DEAR ANONYMOUS: We being you. Or step back to get some perspective. This is who your wife is. And shes entitled to her ways. Maybe theyre not the most efficient way to operate, and maybe a parenting expert would look at the blurred authority lines that create a lunchbox-fruit equivalent of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce and need to self-medicate, but simplification isnt the only worthy goal here, not even in the morning get-to-school crush. This could be the source of the warmest memories your kids have of their mom. Or, a useful education on nutrition, one compartment at a time. Or just a little bonding. You dont know nor does she, nor does any of us what parental quirks will drive your kids nuts or screw them up or age into their loving nostalgia. All you can do is ask: Is there risk of significant harm? And then answer it the best you can, knowing your own biases. And when you dont find any real risk of harm, use that as your motivation to find something to love about her ways. (Or just to like about her; you dont sound too fond of her at the moment.) Shes all-in with your kids! And has offered to do all the work! And is patient like some of us (ahem) can only dream about. Thats got to have benefits for all of you, if you take a moment to look for them. If the simple she makes complicated generally involves expressions of love, then leave her be. If theres more to it, then address it for what it is and leave the lunches alone. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/why-does-his-wife-have-to-make-their-kids-lunches-so-complicated/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Why is it bumpy flying in and out of Denver International Airport? | If youre a regular flier, youve probably had a nervy flight or 10 coming in or out of Denver International Airport. Denver International Airport is regularly mentioned by pilots and passengers alike as one of the bumpiest airports to fly in and out of in America, if not the world. While hard statistics of this are hard to come by plane turbulence is, after all, partially subjective there are plenty of tangible reasons that these annoying, invisible air potholes happen more often above Colorado. While turbulence is a normal and generally non-dangerous part of air travel since 1980, only three deaths have been attributed to plane turbulence for many passengers, its also an unpleasant part of the reality of traveling. In more extreme cases like a plane diversion into Denver in February 2017 turbulence can go beyond unpleasant and turn into a real-life rollercoaster ride. And butted up against the Rocky Mountains, Denvers geography makes white-knuckle rides more commonplace than many other locations. Above all else, blame the mountains. The best way to think about how air turbulence works is to think of the atmosphere as a liquid, filled with waves and bumps. Colorado, however, is unique in the fact that huge mountains slice through most of the state, creating more of a topsy-turvy nature to the air above our heads as air climbs and descends in response to the terrain. In short, thats a large part of why Colorados air tends to be a bit bumpier than most other non-mountainous locations. RELATED: Colorado tornadoes: Everything you need to know about severe weather season During the winter and early spring, however, the air often moves a bit faster and more violently. The jet stream, a narrow ribbon of especially strong winds at the upper levels of the atmosphere, often moves over Colorado during this time of the year. That creates stronger and more unpredictable air flows in and through the mountains, further rattling nerves and beverage carts above the choppy Rockies. For the Front Range specifically, though, theres an extra element that can enhance or create air turbulence: mountain waves. As air rises up and over the mountains, it accelerates and sinks on the lee side of the Rockies. That sinking motion, though, isnt a smooth ride. Its usually filled with eddies and bumps, particularly if the wind direction is perpendicular to the ridge line as in a westerly wind coming off a north-south oriented range. To whittle that all down: If you see stationary clouds in the shape of a flying saucer above your head, known as lenticular clouds, strap those seat belts tight. Youre probably in for a rough ride. Think about a boat in an intense sea. Waves up and down, said Kurt Huerta, a Denver-based pilot for SkyWest Airlines. For us, going up (into the mountains) means a decrease in airspeed and an increased angle of attack. On the way down, our airspeed increases and our angle of attack as well. During the stormier spring and summer months, wind shear is often prevalent along the Front Range, helping create a bumpy ride in or out of Denver. Wind shear is the change in wind speed and direction with height that creates spin, and it often makes for a turbulent ride along the Front Range. The trip between Denver and Colorado Springs is especially bumpy during storm season, Huerta said. Coming into Denver is always challenging on those days. Of course, the winds directly produced by a summertime storm can also shake a plane or divert flights altogether. And sometimes, theres simply Clear Air Turbulence known as CAT that comes without visual clues or hints. Planes are specifically built to withstand all different types of turbulence, and pilots are trained and experienced in dealing with it. Finger-chewing fliers, however, might also be pleased to know that airlines are in the process of testing technology that may help planes better avoid turbulence. For now, however, fliers will simply have to take comfort in the fact that turbulence is par for the course of flying especially in and around Denver. Chris Bianchi is a meteorologist for WeatherNation TV. | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/04/27/denver-turbulence-bumpy-flights-dia/ |
What do European hockey players think of Brexit? | Video We hear daily doses of what politicians and punters from all over the UK and Ireland think about Brexit. For the eighth year in a row, all-Ireland indoor champions Newtownards Ladies Hockey Club set off to the national European indoor tournament to represent Ireland against teams from all over Europe. The Ards Oranges came fifth in the Euro Hockey Club Challenge against teams from Slovakia, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Wales, Portugal, Turkey, and the winner and tournament host, Doaui Hockey Club from France. BBC News NI asked the players what they think of Britain's decision to leave the EU and whether or not it will have an impact on their futures and the future of hockey. Video journalist: Faye Kidd | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-47896712/what-do-european-hockey-players-think-of-brexit |
Is Nashville a potential target to regularly host the NFL Draft? | The 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville could only be construed as a city-wide success. You could not script better scenes than the ones shown through Lower Broad on Thursday and Friday night. As the Titans were on the clock in the fourth round, NFL Network host Rich Eisen said that he would not be surprised to see Nashville earn a spot in a rotation for the draft, should an arrangement be desired by the NFL. Interesting point from @richeisen, says he would like Nashville to be put into a rotation to host the #NFLDraft moving forward, they've delivered spectacularly Jack Rathborn (@JackRathborn) April 27, 2019 Currently, the NFL is six years into the traveling draft rotation through different cities, though Chicago did host twice, in 2015 and 2016. The 2020 draft is set for Las Vegas, the city that will welcome the Raiders in full that same year. After that, the slate is clean in terms of hosts. Canton/Cleveland and Kansas City were finalists for the last two seasons and would be targets for 2021 and 2022. And given the renovations in recent years to the Hall of Fame and its stadium in Canton, Northeast Ohio is an attractive destination soon. Philadelphia and Dallas did a fine job in previous years, and the first year in Chicago was a fun one. Outside of New Orleans and the French Quarter, or putting on the draft in the middle of Times Square, it will be difficult for the NFL to pull off a similar scene. Eisen also mentioned the Super Bowl, though more as a loftier goal in the long term for the city. Tell you what. I just turned on the NFL Draft again to watch a few picks. The city of Nashville has had a helluva week. Although my friends who live there worry that the rest of the world now knows their secret. #Nashville Tony Barnhart (@MrCFB) April 27, 2019 I havent been to an NFL Draft before so I have nothing to base this experience off of, but I cant imagine a better venue than Nashville. Broadway is wild. Charlie Lohoff (@thachuckSTAR) April 27, 2019 Nashville, Tennessee is on fire the last 3 days... #NFLDraft Demitirus McNeal (@demitirusmcnea7) April 27, 2019 A big day three crowd in Nashville for the #NFLDraft. I would have the draft in Nashville at least every other year. Nashville is the kind of party you can't have in New York, Chicago or Philadelphia without getting robbed or being smothered by state & local ordinances. Roger (@_R0GER__) April 27, 2019 | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/2019/04/27/nfl-draft-nashville-host-regular/3599352002/ |
When did gender reveal parties and other rituals become a thing? | Christenings, engagement parties, 21sts, capping ceremonies, housewarmings, baby showers, bah mitzvahs, pwhiri, weddings and funerals. We are a society built on rituals, whether we recognise them as such or not. To some that list represents a litany of transitional events calling for ceremonial structure. To others, they're an excuse to get drunk. But all mark some kind of major life change. Particular rituals come and go in popularity, but we're never short of an excuse for a traditional event calling for ceremonial structure. Some kinds of rituals are trending: gender reveal parties, one-off rites made to order for people's own needs, and those incorporating Mori tradition into non-Mori occasions are all on the up. Kate Hudson at her baby shower. Advertisement Gender reveals are the hottest new thing on the ritual scene. It's only since the 1980s that parents have been able to take the advice of ultrasound scans as to the sex of their child. The merch has taken a lot longer to come onstream but it's here now, and yes, social media has to accept a lot of the blame. Actress Kate Hudson last year revealed she was pregnant, and having a girl, when she posted a video to Instagram of her and partner Danny Fujikawa popping balloons which release pink confetti. Our own Dame Valerie Adams melted hearts with an Instagram post revealing she was pregnant with her second shild. Her baby daughter Kimoana, wearing a tiny Comonwealth Games top, was seen holding a sign saying, "I'm going to be a sister". Another post revealed the gender - Kimoana held another sign announcing, "baby bro is on the way". But sometimes announcements don't go according to plan. Earlier this month, a man's car was confiscated and four people charged over a burnout in Sydney which saw blue smoke fill a quiet cul-de-sac. The car released the coloured smoke to reveal the sex of the expectant parents' baby, but the neighbours weren't impressed and posted a video online. Police were alerted. Jenny Davison of Pixie Party Supplies in Mt Eden offers a range of products to make your gender reveal go off with a bang. Perhaps you'll issue your friends with champagne poppers that release pink or blue confetti on your signal. "Mainly what we sell and how we help people announce whether they're having a boy or girl is the big black balloons filled with pink or blue confetti," says Davison. "There's also an increase in people getting confetti cannons and smoke cannons and we've also recently brought in gender reveal piatas in the shape of a question mark." Not that this means you get away without a baby shower. On the contrary. "The baby shower is still the more traditional place for people to give gifts. If you've done a gender reveal you know whether you are buying for a boy or girl." It's super social-media friendly, made for that live Facebook feed with family and pals so everyone gets the news at once. But if you want to host an IRL affair, Pixie Party Supplies also has invitations cards that say "Little Man or Little Miss?". As that suggests, the gender reveal crowd tends to have pretty fixed ideas about male and female, boy and girl. Not for them the notion that gender is a social construct imposed on individuals. Which is why Ciara Cremin, senior lecturer in sociology within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Auckland, is not a fan, although she has strong views about the role of rituals in society. Valerie Adams' daughter Kimoana announces she has a sibling on the way. Photo / Instagram Dame Valerie Adams' daughter Kimoana during her gender reveal of her son last year. Photo / Supplied "Gender reveal parties reinforce norms that are in themselves damaging," says Cremin. "You're defining the gender of a child before they are born, which sets them on a pathway through life that has the defect of reinforcing divisions that structure patriarchy. A gender reveal party is not an innocent way in which people get together and celebrate each other." But she's not surprised that new rituals are coming on-stream. She says we need them. "The proliferation of rituals today is symptomatic of our alienated condition as people in a more secular society become more divorced from church and community and perhaps even family, there is an increased need for some kind of mechanism by which they can actually come together. They are symptomatic of the need that all of us have for association." That's the psychological basis for our rituals, but Cremin also sees a strong commercial imperative at work. Blue smoke emanates from a car during a gender reveal by a New South Wales man for his yet-to-be-born baby. Photo / Channel 7 "I don't suppose many of these rituals are the product of the imagination of these isolated individuals. They are often the product of commercial manipulation means by which various businesses or enterprises can make money. Where rituals are modern-day inventions, business tacks on to them - for instance, organising events at which alcohol is served to make money." Cremin says rituals also reinforce conservative values in other areas: "In Britain and here, in this colonised land, you've got the monarchy and rituals around weddings." She's suspicious of events such as Anzac Day that focus on national sacrifice and loss. "We need to be careful of turning these events into celebrations of society as it is, which is full of problems and contradictions." Dr Ciara Cremin, sociology lecturer at Auckland University. Photo / Dean Purcell NOT that all the new rituals have to be communal. You won't spend long talking to a celebrant before you hear them complain that they're stuck in a hatched, matched and dispatched ghetto when they have so much more to offer, being trained to provide tailor-made ceremonies for any occasion. Celebrant Kelly Townsend devised her own ritual as part of dealing with "a really painful year" that included the end of a relationship. "I did a transition ceremony, which was really helpful," says Townsend. "I drew a line in the sand on Orewa Beach with a couple of stick figures. I said my thank-yous, acknowledged and celebrated where I'd been, then stated my intention of moving forward and stepped across just as the tide came up and wiped out the line. The process of designing the ceremony is just as healing, if not moreso, than the ceremony itself." That's how most rituals work a simple act often symbolising something complex. Many rituals, for instance, involve water, as cleansing is often part of their aim. Examples are everywhere from that happy day in which Jesus "washed my sins away" to that moment in South Pacific when Mitzi Gaynor told us she would "wash that man right outta my hair". Sandy Millar recently qualified as a celebrant, and had to devise a non-traditional ritual as a component of her Certificate in Celebrant Studies. Jenny Davison, owner of Pixie Party Supplies, with a gender-reveal balloon. Photo / Doug Sherring Her friend was getting a tattoo of the Chinese goddess Quan Yin, known for both her compassion and warrior-like characteristics. Millar devised a ceremony that acknowledged these conflicting elements, and sought support from friends and family for the application of the tattoo, a significant physical and emotional investment for her friend. Of course, tattoos themselves are a rite of passage for many which is part of the reason why you have to be a legal adult to get one - so this was a ritual about a ritual. And while pre-natal rituals may be all the go, other age groups are missing out. One obvious gap in the celebrant market, so to speak, is anything much that acknowledges the transition from childhood to adulthood, an area in which the consequences may be more obvious and serious than making sure your tattoo goes okay. Kathrine Fraser is director of The Celebrant School. She notes that "some people say the reason we have high rates of gang membership or antisocial behaviour is because there is nothing to acknowledge that adolescence is a transition with new responsibilities or roles." The act of transitioning gender itself might seem something that is well worth marking ritually, but that seems slow to catch on. Trans support group Agender spokesperson Paula Beckham says some people might take their old clothes and burn them, symbolically casting out the old gender. And some people celebrate the day on which they received legal recognition to their gender as their trans birthday, although, says Beckham: "Personally I still remember it as the day I was born." She thinks things will change. "As time moves on and as people come through the process and we become more visible, these kinds of things will become more mainstream." In January, Kentucky mother Heather Green celebrated her son's 20th birthday with a Facebook gender reveal. Kentucky mum Heather Green posted this picture of her son after he transitioned. Photo / Facebook Adrian Brown had come out as transgender a few months prior and Green wanted to tell friends and family in a fun way without having to repeat the conversation. The series of heartwarming photos including one of Brown swaddled in a blanket which read "it's a boy", one of him sitting in a box holding blue balloons, and others of him being embraced by his mother and younger brother. The photoshoot led to an outpouring of support on social media. Green with Adrian and her other son Lucas. Photo / Facebook ACROSS all kinds of rituals, old and new, for all genders and ages, one trend cutting across other divisions is the increasingly mainstream incorporation of a Mori component. Pkeh funerals have been strongly influenced by tangi, and a pwhiri, at least, has been standard practice in the likes of government departments and local bodies for some time. Scotty Morrison, broadcaster, author and warrior for all things Mori, is frequently asked to perform traditional ceremonies for contemporary events. And although rituals in general evolve to keep up with social change, Morrison deviates as little as possible from words that go back millennia. Stacey Morrison and husband Scotty Morrison with their three children. Scotty is asked to perform Maori ceremonies at traditional events. Photo / Doug Sherring "Adhering to the responsibility of our ancient incantations and using them in modern settings is quite a challenge," says Morrison, who has been asked to help inaugurate everything from schools and housing developments to a Mercedes Benz facility. "The impetus usually comes from the people in control of the business - a CEO or high-ranking manager who wants it to be done. I have a conversation with them and ascertain whether people are genuine and why they want it. Attitudes are changing and people are starting to realise there is a lot of value in embracing aspects of Mori culture." Although he still gets asked "why it has to be done at 5am rather than 10am". Much discussion of the March 15 Christchurch mosques massacre centred on how comfortably Muslim custom was incorporated into the response. But Morrison notes also that "people were using Mori terminology to express how they felt. There were a lot of haka performed and a lot of people across the country were relying on Mori incantation and karakia to support them and give them a place to put their grief." Te Waimaarino Patena and Tama Hata with daughter Te Aroha, during the gender reveal of their second child. Photo / Supplied All in one Tama Hata is a lecturer in the Faculty of Mori and Indigenous Studies at the University of Waikato and a one-man compendium of contemporary ritual practices. He combined a gender reveal, relationship anniversary, romantic weekend away (also a ritual, in the realm of coupledom), marriage proposal and haka. And he did it for the best of reasons to mark all those occasions in a ritual way. He and partner Te Waimaarino Patena had a daughter, Te Aroha Hanenepounamu Roselyn Hata, and were expecting a second child. At their scan, Te Waimaarino said she didn't want to know the result but he did and found out after she left the room. He plotted a mystery weekend in Queenstown for the three of them at which he would tell her what they were having and ask her to marry him. In order to organise everything, he spent the night before they were due to fly out at a friend's, to his partner's chagrin. But a night apart or in isolation is traditionally part of many rituals. Tama Hata surprised his partner on their 10th anniversary with the most heartwarming gender reveal and marriage proposal you'll see today, with Queenstown as the backdrop and an original Haka to celebrate their love. Making the proposal a haka was something that occurred to him just an hour before it was due to happen. "It didn't come from a tikanga or Mori aspect," says Hata, who decided to "make words up on the spot and let my emotions and the wairua take over". Hata is not a balloon guy. His reveal was in the form of "a box full of blue items, Nike socks and pants, a little blue package of apparel and shoes". And for the icing on the cake (another component in many rituals), video of the event went viral, with more than 10 million YouTube views and an approach from an international licensing company that has seen his online IP protected. Oh, and she said yes. Tautrangi Okuratawhiti Nui Marire Hata is 1 month old. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12220885&ref=rss |
Will Amazon Beat Apple To The Hi-Res Music Streaming Punch? | ASSOCIATED PRESS I've been predicting for some time that one of the major streaming services would begin to offer higher resolution music, if for no other reason than for brand differentiation. A recent post from Music Business Worldwide states that Amazon is in active talks with record labels for license agreements for better-than-CD quality music material, and that one (still unnamed) is onboard. What makes the rumor even better is that the proposed new Amazon hi-def music tier will reportedly be available for $15 a month, which is cheaper than what's become the standard $19.99 per month of Tidal, Deezer, and the latest entry into the field, Qobuz. Qobuz goes a step further by offering a $24.99 per month "Studio" tier that offers 24 bit/up to 192kHz FLAC-encoded material as well. Now the biggest surprise in all of this is that Apple isn't the first in on the hi-res music market since it's been ingesting almost everything into its library at 24 bit and up to 96kHz since 2011. Technically one would think that it would be relatively easy for the company to just turn the spigot on with higher-resolution audio in Apple Music either on its current paid tier or a new more-expensive offering. Of course, the company can't just do that without permission from the rights holders, and word has it that the labels have resisted so far. The fact that Amazon is making headway on this point probably means that they're offering something that Apple is not. While money is no doubt an issue here, Amazon does potentially offer something that neither Apple Music or Spotify has - expanded distribution up and down buyer demographics and leads into physical product. Should Amazon procure the proposed hi-def licensing, it will be able to offer a free entry-level tier, paid tiers at multiple levels (the standard $9.99 per month, $7.99 with Prime membership, and $3.99 with an Echo device), and a premium hi-def tier. Plus there's the substantial marketing on all levels (especially Prime) that goes with it, and the easy entry into high-margin CDs, Blu-Ray or Vinyl for the cream-off-the-top impulse buy. Apple is powerful and it may have 850 million credit cards on file worldwide, but it doesn't have the total potential product reach of Amazon. Now the thing to remember is that while Apple has all those high-resolution master song files in house and ready to go, so do the record labels, since Apple tasked them with providing the highest quality source material they could years ago now. That said, record labels have been traditionally bad about maintaining assets, and often can't find important artist catalog material when needed. That said, there are now several third party companies that help with source and delivery logistics, so you can be sure that at least the hi-res versions of the recent hits are pretty much easily available from the major labels. What that means is that Apple might have waited too long and lost its built-in advantage, which Amazon is now threatening to scoop right out from under it. Keep in mind that Amazon Music's high-resolution hopes may be only just a serious inquiry that might not come to fruition. It might be just the thing to get Apple and other services to up the ante in music resolution though, and music consumers everywhere will be the winners. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobbyowsinski/2019/04/27/amazon-hi-res-music/ |
What did biologist find in belly of stranded baby dolphin? | FORT MYERS BEACH, Fla. (AP) A rare deep-water dolphin stranded on a Florida beach and later euthanized had a stomach full of trash. Biologists said they found two plastic bags and a shredded balloon during a necropsy of the young rough-toothed dolphin after it washed ashore in Fort Myers Beach earlier this week. Animal experts said the rough-toothed dolphin was emaciated and in poor health. Florida Today reports such a young dolphin should have still been with its mother but somehow wound up far from her deep-water home. Biologists and bystanders worked to help the struggling animal, but wildlife official decided to euthanize the dolphin on-site. Scientists are still trying to find a cause of death but the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the finding highlights the need to reduce single-use plastic and to not release balloons into the environment. ___ Information from: The (Fort Myers, Fla.) News-Press, http://www.news-press.com | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/What-did-biologist-find-in-belly-of-stranded-baby-13800894.php |
Could Formula E Put The Brakes On F1's Key Contracts? | Getty Commercial partners of Formula One would be entitled to give the red light to their contracts if it ceases to be the premier auto racing series for open wheel single-seater cars according to its company documents. There is little doubt that F1 is currently the premier racing series full stop as it had 490 million viewers worldwide last year and revenue of $1.8 billion. The series is listed on the Nasdaq with the ticker FWONK and recently celebrated its 1,000th race. F1s first round took place in 1950 and it still races at a number of tracks which were on the calendar then including Italys Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monaco and Silverstone in Britain. This heritage attracts teams run by some of motorings most storied brands such as Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren. In recent years their options have accelerated. Next month McLaren will compete in the Indianapolis 500, IndyCars flagship race, for the first time since 1979. At the wheel will be former F1 champion Fernando Alonso who sacrificed racing in the Monaco Grand Prix two years ago for a drive with Andretti Autosport in the 500. Although it was his first time in the race, he spent the third-highest amount of time at the front by leading for 27 laps. An engine failure put the brakes on his chances but didnt diminish his enthusiasm. Not only is Alonso returning next month but he has also said that a full IndyCar season isnt out of the question in future. Likewise, McLaren has admitted it is thinking about entering the series full-time and IndyCar itself is also considering expansion by holding international races for the first time since 2013. At the moment all of its races are in the United States making it the countrys leading open wheel single-seater series. Unlike their NASCAR counterparts, cars in IndyCar have no bodywork around their wheels and only have space for one person inside. According to the IndyCar website its cars have top speeds of approximately 235 mph which is faster than those in NASCAR and one mile per hour ahead of F1s fastest-ever race pace. At the other end of the spectrum is Formula E, the worlds first all-electric race series which was launched in 2014. As we revealed, ahead of its inaugural season, Formula E forecast that it would have 205 million viewers but this projection seemed to skid off track. In 2017 regulators in Britain claimed that Formula E does not pose a threat to F1 due to its very minor share of viewed hours and fees. However, it has revved up significantly since then. Formula E is now home to more auto makers than F1 including Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Nissan and PSA Peugeot-Citron. That tally will get a boost later this year with the dbut of teams run by Porsche and reigning F1 champions Mercedes. Formula E isnt just attracting F1 teams but also brands. Over the past few years it has poached a number of F1s sponsors including insurer Allianz, clothing company Hugo Boss and footwear manufacturer Geox. The scale of the opportunity presented by Formula E hasnt been lost on industry experts. Theres more chance there of big, big expansion and more chances commercially than there is of changing things in Formula One, said F1s former boss Bernie Ecclestone in a recent interview with Reuters. Formula E will begin to get much, much bigger and better, which is slowly what they are doing anyway, he added. And Formula One will suffer because of that. It reflects comments from Sir Richard Branson whose Virgin Group sponsors one of the Formula E teams. In 2015 he forecast that in four or five years you will find Formula E taking over from F1 in terms of number of people. That prediction appears to be on track and environmentalism is the driving force behind it. In 2012, there were 190,000 electric cars on the road around the world. In 2019 the forecast, more or less, is that we're going to end up very close to or maybe a little bit above eight million, said Formula Es chief executive Alejandro Agag in an interview with the BBC in March. So we're going from 190,000 to eight million, of course eight million is very small compared to a billion cars or vehicles in general out there. But from 190,000 to eight million is a huge growth. If you look at all the car brands modifying their production lines to adapt to electric and putting in electric motors, if you look at the Paris Climate Agreement, if you look at the rules in European Union about CO2 emissions, the world is changing and the world is changing in our direction. Its not changing in any other direction, its changing in our direction. Having said that, F1 has something that is impossible to replace and that is its history. He added that I think it is inevitable that F1 will eventually become electric, and we have the licence. Im not putting my hat in the ring or anything like that, but I just think that is what will happen. F1 could have a rough ride if it heads in that direction. In October last year Agag said I think in five years they are going to start feeling a lot the heat. He added that in 10 years its going to be very difficult that they dont switch to electric because traditional gasoline engines will be increasingly out of step with the rest of the automobile industry. I think when the industry is electric, Formula E will happen to be the main motorsport in the world. If that happens it could be the end of the road for some of the contracts at the heart of F1. As shown on the following link, buried amongst the risk factors in F1 company documents is the revelation that certain of Formula 1s commercial contracts could be terminated if Formula 1 ceased to be the premier motor racing series for open wheel single-seater cars. It isnt known which contracts this is referring to but it seems safe to assume they would not have been mentioned if they werent in some way significant. Perhaps mindful of this clause, Jean Todt, president of auto racings governing body the Fdration Internationale de lAutomobile (FIA), has repeatedly stressed that F1 and Formula E are not rivals. In 2015 he said its a nonsense to think they are competing against each other. Likewise, at this weekends Formula E race in Paris Todt told German publication Auto Bild that Formula One is and remains the premier class of motor sport. If the success of Formula E dents F1 commercially it wouldnt help the FIA. This is because it ultimately owns the commercial rights to both Formula E and F1 which is why the official name of the latter is the FIA Formula One World Championship. It explains why Todt described the series as being in the same family. There is no doubt that the question of what constitutes the premier motor racing series is up for discussion and that wording may well be deliberate. Nevertheless, it is clear that having faster cars with complete technical freedom could bring a rival series into contention. It perhaps presents an opportunity for a billionaire like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos to create a new platform where auto makers can showcase the most cutting edge race cars with no spending or technical restrictions. It could attract manufacturers from F1 where repeated changes to the regulations have boosted their costs. Although a budget cap is due to be introduced from 2020 that could stifle innovation. The freedom of a completely open playing field would surely foster it and give performance advantages to teams which arent even spending the most. Ironically, the FIA would have no choice but to allow a rival series like this to proceed. It was one of the guarantees made in the 2001 settlement of an anti-trust investigation by regulators at the European Commission. They claimed that the FIA favored F1 but the settlement stated that it will allow the creation of potential inter- and intra-brand competition between Formula One and similar races and series. Time will tell when it next has to do this. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/csylt/2019/04/27/could-formula-e-put-the-brakes-on-f1s-key-contracts/ |
Who Are The Top Online Grocery Shoppers In Europe? | Getty The online food and grocery market in Europe has been growing in the past years, as people are looking more and more to make use of the convenient ways of grocery shopping and save time. However, the food and grocery industry is maybe one of the hardest to manage (having in mind the perishability, delivery, huge assortment, etc.) for businesses. At the same time, it requires a very good UI and UX so that it can really be enjoyed with ease by the end-users. In Europe, in 2009 the online food and grocery shopping accounted for 13% of the ordered goods and services online. Since 2009 until 2018 the share of food and grocery e-shopping has almost doubled (92% growth)--and in 2018, 25% of online orders were made for food and groceries (Eurostat, 2018). This indicates that this sector holds potential for growth as consumers are starting to embrace online shopping of FMCG and other essentials. There are six e-retailers in the food sector that are ranked among the top 25 in Europe. Only one of them, Ocado Ltd from the UK, is doing all of its sales online. At Sainsbury's also from the UK, 20% of the sales are made online, while the rest four companies are making only a small percentage of their turnover online. For example, UK based ASDA (Wallmart) and Tesco are doing only 8% and 7% of their sales online, and France based E.Leclerc and Carrefour 8% and 4% respectively. The growth in online sales of the grocery sector can foster further growth of the e-commerce industry. In addition, the analysis of this market can provide useful information for e-retailers as well. First of all, let's take a look at the growth of online sales of food and groceries as a share of ordered goods and services online in 2009 and 2018, by European countries. As we can see in the chart below in some countries the growth has been exponential. Nina Angelovska (Source: Eurostat) The countries with the highest growth in online purchase in this sector are Greece, Czechia, Malta, Latvia and Sweden--they increased e-food and grocery orders by 11 to 5 times in 2018 compared to 2009 as a percentage of online ordered goods and services. Slovakia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania also did well and were doing online orders for food and grocery by over 3 times more. The top 4 countries where the share of online purchases is above 30% as a share of all online orders as the UK, Czechia, Estonia and Lithuania. In terms of market size, according to the research agency IGD, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Spain are predicted to have the highest online grocery market sizes in Europe. Here are some additional findings regarding online grocery shopping in Europe, according to Eurostat data: 1. The heaviest e-shopper of food and groceries is between 25 and 44 years of age. While we can assume that the convenience of online shopping of daily supplies might be more attractive to older people, at the same time the older group has a lower level of digital skills. Turkey and North Macedonia are the exceptions--older people aged between 65 and 74 years were doing most of the online orders for food and groceries compared to the younger groups. Also, Estonia, Czechia, and Greece are exceptions--young people aged between 20 and 24 years are buying more food and groceries than the other groups. 2. Families with higher household income are bigger shoppers of food and grocery online than families with lower income. For the first group, 27% of the online ordered goods or services were for food and groceries, while 20% for the second group. Hungary and Slovenia are exceptions--individuals with lower household income made more online purchases for food and grocery as a percentage of ordered goods and services than individuals with higher income. 3. People who live in cities are buying more food and grocery online than the ones living in towns, suburbs and rural areas. In 2018, individuals living in cities made 27% of their online purchase for food and grocery and 23% was made by individuals living in towns and suburbs, as well as living in rural areas. France is an exception--people living in rural areas purchased a bit more online food and grocery than citizens of towns and suburbs and cities. 4. The higher the education of the individual the bigger the online shopper he/she is. In 2018, individuals with high formal education made 30% of their online purchase in food and grocery. Individuals with medium formal education made 23% and individuals with no or low formal education made 17% of their online purchases in food and groceries. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ninaangelovska/2019/04/27/who-are-the-top-online-grocery-shoppers-in-europe/ |
Which school had the most players drafted in 2019? | The 2019 NFL draft has come to a close, and 254 college football players will now start their professional careers. The Cardinals kicked off and closed the event by selecting Heisman Trophy winner Kyler Murray with the first overall pick on Thursday before taking UCLA tight end Caleb Wilson as 2019's "Mr. Irrelevant" on Saturday. Powerhouse Alabama dominated the draft by having 10 players selected this year, the most of any collegiate program. Top Crimson Tide players like defensive tackle Quinnen Williams (Jets), offensive tackle Jonah Williams (Bengals) and running back Josh Jacobs (Raiders) were among those drafted. Ohio State was next with nine players selected, Oklahoma and Washington each finished with eight players taken, while both Texas A&M and Georgia had seven. | https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/04/27/most-players-drafted-school-alabama-nfl-draft-2019 |
What might the missing Panchen Lama look like today? | Video In May 1995, six-year-old Gedhun Choekyi Nyima from Tibet was identified by the Dalai Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama. For Tibetan Buddhists the Panchen Lama is one of the most important figures after the Dalai Lama and plays a vital role in the spiritual, political and religious life of the country. Within a few days of being chosen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima mysteriously disappeared, and soon afterwards so did his parents. None of them has been seen since. In his place the Chinese government installed their own replacement. They deny removing Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and say he is safe, but others believe the Panchen Lama is missing. Now, 30 years after Gedhun Choekyi Nyima's birth, as part of an on-going international effort to find him, the Tibetan Network has turned to a UK expert in facial ageing to work on an image of what Gedhun Choekyi Nyima might look like today. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/stories-48029740/what-might-the-missing-panchen-lama-look-like-today |
Should a Utah teen who recorded his friend's suicide be held responsible for her death? | Produced by Josh Gelman When the body of 16-year-old Jchandra Brown was found deep in the woods of Payson Canyon, Utah, in 2017, authorities thought the scene initially looked like a clear-cut case of suicide; it was anything but that. There were clues that something wasn't right. Nearby, police found a note. "It says, 'My name's Jchandra Brown and I hated my life,'" Utah County Sheriff's Detective Quin Fackrell tells CBS News correspondent David Begnaud. "'Watch the video. It's on my phone.'" Brown's phone, also found nearby, contained a 10-minute video of her suicide that was recorded by someone she knew. They also found two grocery bags, one of which had a receipt for rope purchased with a debit card belonging to Tyerell Przybycien. As police continued searching the area where Brown was found, Przybycien walked up. "He introduces himself to me as Tyerell Przybycien," recalls Sgt. Josh Chappell. "And he goes, 'I think you want to talk to me. I need to tell you the whole story.'" Przybycien told police he was just helping Jchandra do what she wanted to do, but detectives later discovered new evidence that showed this may have been Tyerell's plan all along such as a text he sent to a friend stating, "It's like getting away with murder." And with that, Utah County prosecutors decided to charge Przybycien with first-degree murder. "In his mind, I don't think that he was committing murder. He was helping her do what she wanted to do," says Neil Skousen, Przybycien's attorney. "This goes beyond making bad mistakes," says Prosecutor Chad Grunander. "This was criminal behavior. There's no doubt in my mind that Jchandra does not die on May 5, 2017, if she had never met Tyerell." "ONE OF THE HAPPIEST KIDS IN THE ROOM" It's been almost two years since Sgt. Quin Fackrell and Sgt. Josh Chappell of the Utah County Sheriff's Office were called up to Maple Lake in Payson Canyon -- about 20 miles south of Provo, Utah. Det. Quin Fackrell: We cover the areas that people go to get away from people. Those are our areas. It's a popular location with snowmobilers and back country skiers in the winter and hikers and hunters in the warmer months. Unfortunately, this remote area attracts people for other reasons as well. Sgt. Josh Chappell: We get a lot of people that like to go to the mountains or to the areas outside of the city and cause harm to themselves. So, we see a fair amount of suicides that we investigate. One of those investigations was the suicide of 16-year-old Jchandra Brown, which occurred on May 5, 2017. Sue Davis says her daughter's vibrant blue hair matched her super vibrant personality Dustin Lewis Sue Bryan relishes the visits that she has with her son Dustin and her grandchildren. But missing from the family is Bryan's daughter Jchandra. David Begnaud: Tell me about the blue color in your hair. Sue Bryan: It's in honor of my daughter, 'cause she loved having her vibrant blue hair which matched her super vibrant and bubbly personality. Sue Bryan: Her nickname was when she was little was Jelly Bean. Jelly Beanies. Sue Bryan: I called her both. As a young girl growing up in Twin Falls, Idaho, Bryan says Jchandra always seemed to be one of the happiest kids in the room. Sue Bryan: If you met Jchandra, you just fell in love with her instantly. She was very active and adventurous. and she wanted to try and do anything. So she would do the water slides She was in volleyball. We went picnicking, dancing. She loved skiing and tubing. She was a cheerleader. She won so many awards, she was so good. In 2016, Jchandra's mother and stepfather moved her from Idaho to Spanish Fork, Utah. They wanted to be closer to Jchandra's brother Dustin and his family. Dustin Lewis: Great. I mean they adored her. "Jchandra, Jchandra's coming?" Oh, just super excited. With the move to a new town came a new school and, of course, new friends. Hannah Baldt: Me, Grace and Jelly usually called ourselves the Three Musketeers. Though they didn't know Jchandra very long, Hannah Baldt, Grace Jackson and Ashton Wall say they were lucky to have known her at all. Hannah Baldt: She connected to me in a lot of ways that other people didn't. She David Begnaud: She got you. Hannah Baldt: She, she got me. I've never met anybody like her. Grace Jackson: There was never a dull moment or boring moment when I was with her. We always found something to do. We always had fun doing it. Ashton Wall: She was always hopping around the place. she was like jelly holding everyone together, you know, PB and J. Hannah Baldt: She was outta this world, she really was. But after living in Utah for just a few months, Jchandra seemed to need someone to hold her together. Sue Bryan: I got the sense she was sad and having problems she just wasn't herself. Sue Bryan: She wasn't happy all the time. And she was frustrated very easily. She wasn't feeling good. And I actually took her to a doctor. Jchandra was prescribed an antidepressant. She had been treated for depression a year earlier back in Idaho. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: Depression really affects the way you think. It affects the way you behave. It affects the way you experience the world. Dr. Harold Koplewicz is one of the leading innovators in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. He never treated Jchandra, but "48 Hours" asked him to take a look at her case. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: I think that what all young adults struggle with is impulse control and the intensity of their feelings. They freeze or they're boiling or they hate you or they love you. David Begnaud: Zero to 60 quickly. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: Right. Grace Jackson: All the time. Hannah Baldt: All the time. Sue Bryan: I think in my heart what depressed Jchandra was not being close to her friends and family in Idaho. Grace Jackson: Yes. Hannah Baldt: Yeah. David Begnaud: She did. Grace Jackson: All the time. All of her memories are from Idaho. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: I think the move from Idaho to Utah was much more problematic for her than we would expect. Grace Jackson: I know that she self-harmed. Grace Jackson: Cutting. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: Cutting has become much more frequent than it was 20 years ago. And so, very often when you do talk to cutters, they will tell you, "I feel nothing. And when I cut I feel something." But that's a sign of depression. That's a sign of someone's really reaching out for help. Symptoms and treatment of teen depression: Advice for parents And then came the events of May 5, 2017, which turned out to be the last day of Jchandra's life. Sue Bryan: Having it, not smoking it. Getting caught with it. And this wasn't the first time she got caught. It happened once before, in Idaho. This time, though, she got suspended from school. Ashton Wall: She was so worried and freaking out about, you know, what her mom would do because she was so upset that her mom might be mad at her. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: She's shamed and she feels hopeless. "And now I'm caught with weed." So these seemingly insignificant events for someone who's very vulnerable can mean something. Sue Bryan: She came home from school that day and she goes. "Alright, aren't you going to yell at me?" And I said, "No, I'm not. I figure you've been in trouble enough at school that there's no reason for me to yell. And we can talk about it when we're calm." And I said, "If you have homework, you better get it done because you have work." Bryan confiscated her cell phone. Later that afternoon, she drove Jchandra to her night job at a nearby Wendy's. Sue Bryan [emotional]: And that was the last I seen her. I don't know if she thought that I was mad at her or that I didn't love her. I don't know, 'cause I didn't get to talk to her again. Sue Bryan: So she was supposed to get off around 1:30. David Begnaud: In the morning. Sue Bryan: Yeah. But Jchandra never made it home. Sue Bryan: And it's kind of weird. I sat straight up in bed and said, "Jchandra." And I freaked out. And I can't call her because I took her phone away. David Begnaud: Oh, right. Sue Bryan: And, so, I called the police. And I told them that I guess my daughter had run away. And, so, they put a report out and they went looking for her. The police didn't find Jchandra that morning, but someone else did. FINDING JCHANDRA Getting "48 Hours" up to the spot where Jchandra Brown's body was discovered was not an easy task. It took two search and rescue vehicles, three pairs of snowshoes and some pretty careful trekking in the March snow. But we wanted to show just how far Jchandra went to leave her life behind. It was May 6, 2017. A turkey hunter was walking right through the area of Maple Lake around 7:15 a.m., when he noticed the body of a young girl hanging from a tree branch. He's the one who called 911. And to the detectives who first responded, they thought it was a pretty clear-cut case of suicide. When, in fact, it was anything but that. Sgt. Josh Chappell: [at the site where Jchandra was found]: It was about right here where the rope was hanging off of the tree. Sgt. Josh Chappell: It brings back a lot of memories. In my mind I can visualize Jchandra hanging in that tree. When sheriff's officials arrived early that morning, there were the clues that Jchandra did not die here alone. Sgt. Quin Fackrell [at the site where Jchandra was found]: There was two grocery bags just right over here on the ground. When I went through everything, that's when I discovered a crinkled-up receipt for a purchase of rope and on that receipt was Tyerell's name. Detectives found a debit card receipt for the purchase of 20 feet of nylon rope from a C-A-L Ranch store with Tyerell Przybycien's name on it. Utah County Attorney's Office It was a debit card receipt with the name Tyerell Przybycien. Sgt. Josh Chappell: Yeah. When we saw that receipt we knew that we needed to contact Tyerell. Also, in one of the bags was Jchandra's note pointing them to a cell phone video. Jchandra's note read in part: "My name's Jchandra Brown and I hated my life. Goodbye f----d up world. Watch the video. It's on my phone." Sgt. Josh Chappell: This was the phone that was left at the scene. David Begnaud: Now her mom had taken away her phone. Sgt. Quin. Fackrell: This was a spare phone that she had. The phone could be the answer to many of their questions, but there was a problem. Sgt. Quin Fackrell: I tried to power the phone on, it wouldn't power on. Sargeant Fackrell decided to leave and charge the phone in his car while he drove back to Spanish Fork. And when it finally powered up Sgt. Quin Fackrell: That's when I saw the video that was recorded at that time of the incident. Sgt. Josh Chappell: This is a 10-minute video of Jchandra dying. Sgt. Quin. Fackrell: I was shocked. Absolutely shocked. Sgt. Quin. Fackrell: I was shocked for the fact that somebody could sit by and let somebody lose their life and not do anything. Fackrell suspected that the person who bought the rope may have shot that video, too. Sgt. Quin. Fackrell: He was obviously a person that we wanted to talk to. Well, as it turned out, Tyerell found them first. Sgt. Josh Chappell: I kind of look up the hill and I notice that there's somebody walking to us. So, I actually walked back up the hill. Immediately he tells me who he is I recognize his name from the receipt. Sgt. Josh Chappell: His initial statement to us was he was going to make sure that Jchandra was dead. Sergeant Chappell wanted to hear more. So, he suggested they ride together to the Utah County Sheriff's Office to continue the conversation. Sgt. Josh Chappell: No. I certainly thought that there might have been a crime committed. Sgt. Josh Chappell: As we drove to the sheriff's office we just talked generally about who he was and what his interests were. Tyerell's mother Brittney Johnson says he always made her proud. Brittney Johnson: He was a quiet kid. He always cared of others. He's very smart, very smart child. Was always ahead in his reading. Always ahead in his math. Loved science. He was very active. Did a lot of sports. He tried soccer, baseball, basketball, wrestling. Tyerell Przybycien and his mother, Brittney Johnson. Johnson said she never heard of Jchandra Brown before the teen's death. Brittney Johnson But as Tyerell got older, Johnson started to see some changes in her son. Brittney Johnson: He just pulled quite a bit of negative thoughts, um, into everyday life and it was shocking to me so I took him to the doctor was thinking he was depressed. You know, something is not right. the doctor told me that he just is a pessimist. And that's [emotional] hard to be told. Brittney Johnson: I had never heard of her. David Begnaud: Tyerell never mentioned her. Brittney Johnson: No. David Begnaud: Never saw him with her. Brittney Johnson: No. Tyler Hughes-Millman: Actually, I was the one who introduced her to Tyerell. I told Tyerell, "Hey, I have a new friend." And he said he wanted to meet her. Tyler Hughes-Millman was good friends with both Jchandra and Tyerell. Tyler Hughes-Millman: Not really. He was a little bit depressed it seemed like sometimes, but he wasn't that bad. Hannah Baldt: Jchandra hung out with him all the time. Tyler Hughes-Millman: I actually have no clue. She liked hanging out with him a lot. Grace Jackson: No. Hannah Baldt: No, she did not see him as a relationship kind of guy. Grace Jackson: She wanted to try and help him. David Begnaud: She thought she could change him. Grace Jackson: Yes. She thought that he could she could make him want to join other people and actually have fun instead of sitting by himself. "Jchandra was my world. She was my life," Sue Bryan said. "When Jchandra died, my heart shattered." Sue Bryan Sue Bryan: She knew when people were upset or sad. She would go up to 'em, talk to 'em and make 'em feel comfortable. Sue Bryan: No. Sue Bryan: Nope. The Utah County Sheriff's investigators were about to get to know Tyerell very well. QUESTIONS FOR TYERELL On Saturday morning, May 6, 2017, hours after she reported her daughter Jchandra missing, Sue Bryan went to work. Not long after she got there, her manager wanted to see her. Sargeant Fackrell was waiting, too. Sue Bryan: They had me sit down. And he says, "Jchandra's gone. And she's not coming home." Where's she gone to?" And then he said, "she's gone. She's passed away. We found her in Payson Canyon." Sgt. Quin Fackrell: She was devastated. As any parent would be. Obviously, it's like dropping a bomb on the family and it's not easy for them to process. Sue Bryan [crying]: What I said was, "I should have loved her more. I should've gave her more love," because now I thought she'd completed suicide. I -- I didn't know. That's what went through my mind. David Begnaud: So, suicide was the first thing you thought. Sue Bryan: Yeah All I could think was she's at the bottom of a canyon. Just across town, Tyerell Przybycien was talking to sheriff's detectives, too: SGT. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I wouldn't say close friends, but, just, you know, we knew each other For the next five hours, Tyerell described just how Jchandra ended up in Payson Canyon the night before: TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN [to Sgt. Chappell]: She kept saying, "I want to die. I want to die. Kill me. Kill me." So I eventually said, "OK, I'll make that happen for you." Sgt. Quin Fackrell: He described how he got a text from Jchandra that said, "let's do this tonight." TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN [to Sgt. Chappell]: So, Friday, I get off work, I get home, get a message from her. Investigators would later discover that Tyerell and Jchandra had been texting each other for weeks about suicide. Sgt. Quin Fackrell: That Tyerell had been planning this from probably the first week that he'd met her. He had researched this. He wanted this to happen and he carried it out. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN [to Sgt. Chappell]: She said she was at work I went to Wendy's, picked her up. Sgt. Quin Fackrell: And they left and went to C-A-L Ranch and he bought the rope. Tyerell Przybycien can be seen purchasing rope in store surveillance video. Utah County Attorney's Office Store security video and the receipt found at the scene both show that Tyerell purchased 20 feet of nylon rope: TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN [to Sgt. Chappell]: I know I'm guilty now because I bought everything for her. [starts to cry] And I asked her right there too, "Are you sure you want to do this?" She said "Yeah." Sgt. Quin Fackrell: And then the two of them proceeded to drive towards Payson Canyon. SGT. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I did Then we got done tying the noose, I kinda just like pulled on it, I was like, "OK, that's pretty tight." "I started recording and I said, "Please, please, please!" Tyrell told Sgt. Chappell. "I waited 10 minutes and I checked her pulse. I just got out of there, I was scared out of my mind." Utah County Attorney's Office Tyerell says that's when he picked up her phone: TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I started recording and I said, "Please, please, please!" I waited 10 minutes and I checked her pulse. I just got out of there, I was scared out of my mind. SGT. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I didn't try to talk her out, I just said, "that's what you want to do. If this is what you want." Sgt. Quin Fackrell: He did. But Sgt. Fackrell says Tyerell also told him several times that he had no intention of completing suicide that night: DETECTIVE: You talked about her talking to you and you understood what it was like to be suicidal. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I was fascinated by death, OK ... DETECTIVE: That's the word I'm looking for. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I was like, "this might be good." Sgt. Josh Chappell: Yeah. Sgt. Josh Chappell: Well possibly murder. Possibly. But that wasn't their decision. Ryan McBride: So I told the officer, I said keep digging keep learning about what happened and the circumstances but if all we have is just him recording this and it's her act we might not have anything. Deputy Utah County attorneys Chad Grunander and Ryan McBride were assigned to evaluate the case for possible prosecution. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: Ryan was the initial contact with the county sheriff's office I was a supervisor at that time. From the start, they faced a unique challenge. In 2017, Utah had no law against assisted suicide. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: We were one of only a handful of states in the country that did not have an assisted suicide crime. And, so, this was either going to be murder or potentially manslaughter or nothing at all. Sgt. Josh Chappell: And that's when another detective sends me a text message recovered from an acquaintance of Tyerell's. "What would you do if you had a friend that wanted to kill themselves?" This friend said "I would talk them out of it of course." And he responds back "I would help them do it. Its [sic] like getting away with murder!" Prosecutor Chad Grunander: When we got that message it was very clear in our minds that he was acting intentional. He was wanting to help cause her death. We felt like we had enough. That was the break for us. Five days after introducing himself to Sgt. Chappell in Payson Canyon, Tyerell Przybycien was charged with first-degree murder. Utah County Sheriff's Office Just five days after introducing himself to Sgt. Chappell in Payson Canyon, Tyerell Przybycien was charged with first-degree murder. Sgt. Josh Chappell: He told us later part of his reasoning for going back to the scene was to want to make sure that she was dead. And then he had plans to collect the noose, the rope, and save it and keep it. Sgt. Josh Chappell: Like a souvenir or a trophy. And there was something else Tyerell wanted the detectives to know. Sgt. Josh Chappell: He described that Jchandra had written a note to her mother and he left it in the mailbox outside the home. Sue Bryan: I haven't read the note since the first time that it was read to me. Sgt. Quin Fackrell: It was your typical emotionally-charged letter, basically saying she's sorry. Jchandra also wrote something else in that letter: "This was all my decision." David Begnaud: When you found out what he did. Brittney Johnson: They have the wrong person. There is no way Tyerell would do anything like this. Brittney Johnson says she never imagined she'd find her son in jail, awaiting trial for murder. Brittney Johnson: I truly felt like I was living a nightmare that I would wake up from. I just couldn't process Tyerell participating in anything like this. Brittney Johnson: No. Neil Skousen: In his mind I don't think that he was committing murder. He was helping her do what she wanted to do. Neil Skousen and Greg Stewart were hired to defend Tyerell at his upcoming trial. Neil Skousen: Nothing compares. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I feel guilty. I feel like I did murder her. That's what it is. TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: Because I helped her so much, and that was my plan. Neil Skousen: We had the words of Jchandra. In her suicide note she told her mom this was all her decision. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: We could not escape the fact that Jchandra participated in her own death -- that she wanted to die. That was a real factor that we had to consider in prosecuting this case. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: There's just no doubt that she was determined. That doesn't mean we couldn't just had another outcome. Child and adolescent Psychiatrist Dr. Harold Koplewicz. Harold Koplewicz: The leading cause of death worldwide for 15-to-19 year old girls is suicide. It's it's unacceptable. Hannah Baldt | Jchandra's friend: No. Those were things that she'd keep to herself, mostly. David Begnaud: Even though you guys were some of her closest friends. Hannah Baldt: Yes. She -- everybody has their secrets. Grace Jackson | Jchandra's friend: She didn't let anyone know. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: When you read the texts, you start to think that this has become part of the game they play, except it's a very dangerous game. In one of the texts Tyerell asks Jchandra: "You want the quick and painless, no chance of escaping or returning to this life?" Jchandra responded: "I just want to die. I've been trying too long." "I just want to make sure I end it." Grace Jackson: Yes. Hannah Baldt: Most definitely. She'd get more and more depressed the longer she hung out with him. That was obvious. At least to me it was. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: He was feeding her. She had these thoughts. She had these plans And he was he was encouraging it. He was scratching the itch. And it went further and further and further. Grace Jackson: Without his support and his help for doing that, she wouldn't have been able to do it. Hannah Baldt: She'd still be here. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: I think it's true he didn't push her off the cliff. But he kept his arm around her and encouraged her to keep moving forward. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: The prosecution has the burden to show the necessary intent to commit a crime. And the best way to show that is through the defendant's own words. And Tyerell gave them a lot to work with -- all of those text messages between him and Jchandra. Prosecutor Ryan McBride: You have Tyerell talking about how he's gonna help Jchandra die. Different ways of taking her life. Recording her do it. David Begnaud: This is a text that Tyerell sends to Jchandra: "Can I mutilate your body and cut your head off and dispose of your body?" Sgt. Quin Fackrell: Yes. Very disturbing. Prosecutor Ryan McBride: All these messages just add up to this depravity -- not caring about human life. And our argument is an intent to kill and a desire to participate in causing someone else's death. Greg Stewart: I think some of -- of the text messages that came out when he was talking about getting away with murder. As the father of a 15-year-old daughter and as a defense attorney that was one thing that, that I guess troubled me. I wish those types of statements hadn't been out there. It would've made defending the case I think a lot -- a lot easier. Neil Skousen: If we could keep our client's mouth shut that's really a big part of this. But Tyerell still had a lot to say, reaching out to family and friends with letters and phone calls from jail. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: He bragged about his conduct, his accomplishment, if you will. He talked about, when I get out, I want to get a noose tattooed all over my arm. Prosecutor Ryan McBride: He asked a friend of his to set up an Instagram page and use the media to enhance his notoriety and somehow profit off of this. Tyerell also wrote that he wanted to get in touch with Michelle Carter. She caught the nation's attention during her precedent-setting trial for encouraging her friend Conrad Roy to kill himself. Tyerell wrote: "We'd get along great!" David Begnaud: Did you ever pay him a visit to jail and say to him, "you have to stop writing?" Greg Stewart: Every time we saw him. Just weeks before his trial was set to begin, Tyerell reached out to his friends again: Davis Begnaud [reading letter]: "I will encourage you to use your right to remain silent as anything you say is held against me in court." Sgt. Josh Chappell: He writes a letter telling them that they don't have to testify against him, they shouldn't testify against him. Tyerell's letters to friends telling them they should not testify against him would lead to more trouble for the teen Utah County Attorney's Office Davis Begnaud [reading letter]: "It would help my case if you'd inform everyonethat is subject to interrogationto use their right to remain silent." Prosecutor Chad Grunander: He was telling them, essentially, to not cooperate with the police. You can't do that. That's witness tampering. In fact, that letter changed everything. No. Yes. MORE TROUBLE FOR TYERELL In the fall of 2018, the Utah County prosecutors and Tyerell Przybycien's defense team were getting ready for trial. Greg Stewart | Tyerell's defense attorney: Tyerell had been adamant about going to trial. Greg Stewart: That he hadn't committed murder. Prosecutor Ryan McBride: I'd planned my closing argument. Chad had planned a lot of his opening statement. We had our trial strategy. David Begnaud: And then he changed his mind. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: Well, I think one thing that changed his mind was an additional case that we filed against him for witness tampering. After prosecutors found out that Tyerell asked his friends not to testify against him, they charged him with witness tampering in addition to murder. And that's when Tyerell asked for a deal. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: We sat down and talked and they asked us if we were open to a plea deal. We said, certainly, if we think it satisfies the interest of justice. This was the deal: Tyerell would plead guilty to a lesser first-degree felony of child abuse homicide. Prosecutor Chad Grunander: Murder was 15 years-to-life. We compromised and offered child abuse homicide, which was five-to-life. Greg Stewart: I think it was thinking more clearly about the situation and realizing the predicament he was in. JUDGE AT PLEA HEARING: Mr. Przybycien, as to the amended charge of count one, child abuse homicide what is your plea TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: Guilty. Hannah Baldt: I wasn't surprised. Grace Jackson: I'm glad. I'm glad that he fessed up. I'm glad that he didn't try and keep denying it. Sue Bryan: It was child abuse. He did take a child. And in my eyes child abuse homicide is as bad or worse than just murder. Six weeks later, Tyerell was back in court for sentencing. As statements were read, it was clear how many lives had been damaged by this one event: GREG STEWART | TYERELL'S ATTORNEY: Obviously, Tyerell has made some -- some poor decisions in his life. May 6th was a day I'm sure he wishes he could, could undo. HANNAH BALDT | JCHANDRA'S FRIEND: She was the brightness to anybody's day. BRITTNEY JOHNSON | TYERELL'S MOTHER: Tyerell always cared for others more than himself. I am truly sorry for the loss of Jchandra. I wish we could all go back to that day and get a do-over, but I know that we can't. Sgt. Quin Fackrell: Two families now have been torn apart. I feel really bad for the Przybycien family. I really do. They lost a son. And I've always felt bad for the Browns. They lost their daughter. DUSTIN LEWIS | JCHANDRA'S BROTHER: There's a hole in our lives and our hearts that she used to fill, and we suffer greatly without her. SUE BRYAN | JCHANDRA'S MOTHER: I believe there will never be true justice for Jchandra, because Jchandra will never get to come home to me. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: If you listen to this story, what makes you cringe is the fact that there's so many missed opportunities to help her. So many missed opportunities to change the outcome. PROSECUTOR CHAD GRUNANDER: It is clear -- very clear -- that Jchandra's death was avoidable. Before the judge handed down his sentence, Tyerell was also given a chance to speak: TYERELL PRZYBYCIEN: I would like to directly apologize to the victim's mother, Sue Bryan, for my irresponsible and irrational behavior What I did I am not proud and it doesn't deserve pity. As a result of this case, the state legislature passed a new law, which now includes assisted suicide in its definition of manslaughter. The-Salt-Lake-Tribune/Scott-Summerdorf Judge: Mr. Przybycien you were charged with child abuse homicide, in which you plead guilty to. I'm required by law to sentence you to an indeterminate sentence of not less than five years, but which may be for life. Tyerell is now serving out his sentence at the Utah State Prison in Draper. As a result of this case, the state legislature passed a new law, which now includes assisted suicide in its definition of manslaughter. Greg Stewart: Assisting somebody, providing the means or the opportunity to help somebody kill themselves, is now a second-degree felony in the state of Utah. Sue Bryan: Justice for Jchandra would be he didn't do it. He didn't record. He stopped and saved her. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: I think I think it's completely understandable that her parents and her friends blame him. But in the same way that I don't think we would have this outcome without Ty, I don't think we'd have this outcome without Jchandra. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: I think the takeaway is that we have to take this more seriously when kids start having difficulty at school, when they are changing their behavior, when you start to suspect that something is wrong, that we take it seriously. Sue Bryan: Love your family, love your children. If they're sad, find out if they need help. Ask every day. Ask them questions. Those are the things I regret that I didn't do with Jchandra. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: So, I think that's a very important question because, remember, if you're a teenager, you feel terrible for the moment. And if you find someone who says to you, "Stop, wait, let's think about this. It's not that bad. I'm sure I can help you get out of this." But Jchandra never got that help from Tyerell. Dr. Harold Koplewicz: This is an unacceptable outcome. Suicide is not acceptable. That has to become the nation's thought about this. That suicide, particularly in teenagers, is not an acceptable outcome. You're not supposed to die when you're 16 years of age. And especially by suicide. Jchandra Brown Dustin Lewis Jchandra Brown was returned to her hometown of Twin Falls, Idaho. She is buried near her great-grandmother. Sue Bryan: My faith says that I should forgive him. My heart says how could you forgive someone and just accept I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I made a bad decision and that I took your beautiful, loving, kind daughter away from you. How -- how can someone forgive someone for what he did. HELP IS AVAILABLE If you are thinking about suicide or know someone who is, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 You can also reach out to the Crisis Text Line --a free, 24/7, confidential text message service for people in crisis. Text HOME to 741741 | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jchandra-brown-should-a-utah-teen-who-recorded-his-friends-suicide-be-held-responsible-for-her-death/ |
Is a cheaper but longer mortgage worth it to get on the ladder? | As the cost of buying a property continues to exceed the budgets of many homebuyers, the prospect of paying less but for much, much longer than previous generations has emerged. Recent research from Santander suggests that almost half of buyers would consider taking out a mortgage for a 40-year term in order to get on the property ladder. And mortgage lenders appear more than happy to cater for this willingness to commit for many more years than usual a separate study has shown that more than half of mortgages can now be taken out for a 40-year term. But the apparent move towards longer mortgages has prompted worry about whether people are fully aware of what they are committing themselves to and if lower repayments add up to more in the long term. The growth in lenders offering mortgages of much longer terms has been swift. Just five years ago, less than 36% of mortgage products had a maximum time of 40 years, according to financial website Moneyfacts.co.uk. This has now risen to almost 51%. Typically, a term has lasted for 25 years but that has been steadily extended, according to Darren Cook from Moneyfacts. While the number of products with a longer life were increasing, those with a shorter term were decreasing, he said. Between March 2014 and today, the number of 25-year mortgages has fallen by 152, now accounting for only 2.97% of all residential products available [down from 7.54%]. The number of mortgages with a 30-year term have dropped even more significantly, falling from 606 to 140 over the period and now account for just 2.74% of the market, down from 19.87%, he said. The timescale of this turnaround has been less than two decades. Sara Williams, a debt campaigner and author of the blog Debt Camel, said that in 2006 fewer than 40% of people had a mortgage that was for longer than 25 years. At the same time, lenders are extending the maximum age that a borrower can be when the loan ends. Five years ago, about half of mortgages allowed someone to be 75 or older. Now 71% can end at this age, according to the Moneyfacts research. With these trends taken together, young people struggling to get on the housing ladder when they are in their 30s could still be repaying until they are in their 70s and long after retirement. For many borrowers, the attraction of a longer mortgage will be the reduced monthly repayments. In some instances, the affordability checks carried out by lenders, especially on first-time buyers, will mean that they may not be able to pass the requirements to get a 30-year mortgage, even if their rent payments are similar. As a result, the borrowers might be directed towards a longer term, said Williams. The drop in repayment amounts on longer mortgages will be seen as significant for most borrowers. A monthly repayment on a 100,000 mortgage over 25 years at 4% APR will be 528, according to Williams. This drops to 443 over 35 years and 418 over 40 years. It is at this stage that borrowers may need to stop and examine their position. Steve Webb, director of policy at life and pensions company Royal London, said that if someone cant afford a 25-year mortgage, then they need to be sure that they are not over-stretching themselves when they borrow for 40 years. Over such a long term, household circumstances are likely to fluctuate considerably, and it is important to be sure that any such product has the flexibility to allow a borrower to move to something more suitable as their situation evolves, he said. The interest problem While it may appear that lower repayments will be easier on the budget, they will of course be leaving the bank account for a lot longer. More importantly, people will be paying a lot more for their finance. By Williamss figures for a 100,000 loan at 4%, someone borrowing for what was the standard of 25 years can expect to pay in the region of just over 58,000 in interest. Extend the loan period to 40 years and the total interest paid goes up to more than 100,000. If they want to change providers after a few years, then borrowers may be horrified at the lack of capital they have repaid after five years, a 25-year term loan can expect to have repaid almost 13,000 but this drops to 5,600 at 40 years. This highlights the importance of being able to switch providers with little or no penalty, according to Webb. In the event that income improves, better deals may be available. There may also be other options when the level of capital is reduced. Moving on Last August, the Bank of England raised its interest rate for only the second time in a decade to 0.75%. The continuing uncertainty around Brexit has led to suggestions that the Bank will not raise rates again until 2020 but it is expected that they will go up, and borrowers need to accommodate that in their budgets after years in which low borrowing costs have been the norm. In addition, it may be that as people in their 30s grow out of their starter home, they will need to progress to a bigger property as a family expands. Williams warns of the potential for a double hit when interest rates have risen and there is the need to move to a bigger home. The prospect of continuing to make repayments after retirement will be daunting for many. The longer a borrower extends their mortgage term, the older they will be when they have finally repaid their mortgage, said Cook. An extended mortgage term may go beyond pension age, so it is imperative these borrowers consider their options and attempt to make provisions if their personal circumstances change. It is believed that some 12 million people have not saved enough for their retirement, so paying into their 70s may only be the preserve of those with a healthy retirement income, said Webb. Webb welcomed the longer terms but cautioned that people needed to seek help when making a decision. The growth of 40-year mortgages offers welcome additional choice to borrowers but reinforces the need to take impartial advice before taking out any long-term financial product, he said. For those who can expect to see significant pay rises through their career, the longer mortgage may be perfect, said Williams, as it can be for anyone who may get bonus payments which can be used to overpay the debt. Others may be buying their forever home and dont intend to move again, in which case they may not be worried about larger interest payments. Future shock Borrowers who have been on low fixed rates for the last two years could be in for a nasty shock when they are switched to a standard variable rate later this year. Research from Moneyfacts.co.uk has found that people coming out of a two-year fixed-term could see their rate doubled. The average rate for a two-year fixed-rate deal in May 2017 was 2.3%. But the average standard variable rate, which they are likely to move to after a fixed period, now stands at 4.89%. The result could be that a whole swath of people move to remortgage their home finances. Over the next six months, it is likely that many mortgage borrowers who secured a two-year mortgage deal two years ago may see their record low interest rate expiring and will have no intention to revert to a rate that could see their interest rate double overnight, said Cook. For instance, a borrower on a repayment mortgage of 250,000 who locked into the average two-year fixed rate of 2.20% in October 2017, if then transferred on to the predicted average lenders SVR of 4.89% in October 2019, will see their mortgage repayments increase by 4,336.20 per year. | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/28/is-a-cheaper-but-longer-mortgage-worth-it-to-get-on-the-ladder |
Are cleaning gurus sweeping an epidemic under the carpet? | Good morning, how are you, the world is ending. Evidence: in three days, cleanfluencer Mrs Hinch sold more than 160,000 copies of her first book, revealing How a spot of cleaning is the perfect way to cleanse the soul. Working backwards, its clear the end started not with a bang, but with a cupcake. Those were gentler days, malleable and doughy, when, without anybody really noticing, fairy cakes graduated from childrens party snacks to fancy ladies treats. They looked the same a soft, disembodied knee of dough, painted blue and scattered with sugar beads but fundamentally, cupcakes were a very different proposition. They were playful but naughty, camp nods to childhood from the lofty lifeguards chair of adulthood. They were comically feminine, like tiny iced drag queens. It's on Instagram that the bleach preachers really clean up They were expensive and beyond sweet they passed sweet three miles earlier and continued on, over a caramelised cliff. To bite into one was to have already succumbed to three long minutes of I couldnts and I really shouldnts, having arrived at I, a professional lady who has navigated the world of work and love and emerged, limping but alive, deserve such a thing. But crucially, the success of the expensive cupcake ushered in a glamorisation of baking, and then (in reaction, perhaps, to more men staying at home so their partners could concentrate on careers) of housewifery. Into this ancient drudgery crept a wolf in grandmothers nightie, today revealing its teeth again in the form of cleaning. Marie Kondos Netflix series led to charity shops overflowing with joyless jeans, but its on Instagram that the bleach preachers really clean up. Alongside stories of running achievements and pub gardens and babies first steps, a woman will cheerfully introduce her cloth and duster by name before cleaning her windowsills. Adverts for dinner plate organisers and handheld Hoovers appear after advice to replace the photo frames in a different order once youve cleaned, because then it feels like you have a whole new windowsill. Such is Mrs Hinchs charisma that its possible to lose whole afternoons to her videos about understair storage. Her #HinchArmy share selfies of themselves holding Dettol bottles and pictures of their living rooms, modelled on Sophie Hinchliffes all-grey home, the sweet stench of Zoflora vibrating through the photos. Thousands queued at her book-signings many cried when they reached the front of the line. Hinchliffes origin story is familiar a woman with an anxiety disorder who found a way to silence it with repetitive tasks. And while I dont doubt either the anxiety or the use of cleaning as therapy, when I read about her I cant help but hear again the beat of apocalyptic drums. Recent books about running or swimming away from anxiety are inspiring and beautiful enough to have created a new genre, a rebranding of self-help with sad young women in mind. Its a template that Mrs Hinchs agents have capitalised on, marketing another return from ill mental health through an exhausting and obsessional hobby. Often when discussing mental health, it feels as if influencers have been given the job of doctors or politicians, doing the best they can to stem the bleeding of an amputated arm with a variety of unicorn plasters. Swipe up to buy. Feminism and housewifery are not mutually exclusive, but true equality will never happen if we arent equal in the home. Cleaning is a skill everyone should learn, along with how to cook a meal and wire a plug things that have too cutely been described as adulting. But to focus on it as a wellness cure is to swerve into dark bushes, especially when Mrs Hinchs fans are exclusively women, looking for release from panic, or meaning in lives undone by motherhood, or perfection in the form of a sparkly sink or all of the above. Cleaning is an endless task that can never be completed. Housewifery in 2019 requires its women to focus only on the spot in front of them, ignoring the world being repainted outside. But it is not possible to distract yourself with a single stain forever. Mrs Hinch finds increasingly obscure places to dust today I saw her spray the underside of an open window tomorrow the throw cushions will inevitably have sunk, and there will be plates to wash. A mark will appear on the wallpaper, and spread extremely slowly. Dust will swarm in the spring light and settle silently on the blinds. A chair will move. In the plughole, hair is knotting. Email Eva at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @EvaWiseman | https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/apr/28/are-cleaning-gurus-sweeping-an-epidemic-under-the-carpet |
What Can West Ham United's Declan Rice Offer Manchester United? | Manchester United are at a crossroads this summer in terms of how successful the future will be for them in the coming years. With a new coach in charge, the clubs board will either back Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to bring in the players he desires, or carry on with their ineffective transfer model that is based upon sentimentality. While there is no mistake to be made with how much Man United have spent since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013 a cool 803 million in six years but it has been evident to see that this type of reckless, galactico-style template has not worked, and nor will it if they continue to go down this road. It is time for new beginnings at Manchester United and what better time to enforce that than with their new Norwegian coach. Solskjaer understands the standards and quality the club need, with also the preference on younger players who can add to the squad and also develop into world beaters. Radamel Falcao, Angel di Maria, Bastian Schweinsteiger and most recently, Alexis Sanchez, had been signed as players with experience but can also deliver on the big stage, with enormous contracts that changed how the club operated. It is fair to say that all were disappointing and not one justified their transfer fee nor their wages it was a resounding failure. Getty And so ahead of this summer, the Red Devils need be cautious with who they sign and alter their transfer policy to those players who are on the rise but still hungry enough to be one of the best in their position. West Hams Declan Rice is one of those. Rice, who has controversially declared for England as his national team over the Republic of Ireland after playing friendly games for the latter, has been a breakthrough star for the Hammers this season. The defensive midfielder, at only 20-years-old, has shown his composure in the heart of Manuel Pellegrinis team and the ability to pick his passes creatively. Unlike Nemanja Matic at United, who is now entering into the latter stages of his career, Rice has the foresight and vision to unlock defences and transition quickly from defence into attack. Man United have struggled in the defensive midfield department this season, with the Serbia international being overused at the beginning of the campaign and are now paying for that with his tired legs. Against Everton, last weekend, Matic was at fault for one of the goals, standing off Gylfi Sigurdsson and being spun inside and out. Getty It has been clear that Matic is not the athlete he once was. His legs are failing him and someone like Rice is needed to enforce Uniteds midfield for the better. There should be no suggestions stating that the England international is the finished product, because he is not, but he would be considered an improvement on what the Red Devils currently have. The difficulty, however, is West Ham will not part ways with Rice easily. The midfielders contract does not expire until 2023 and with the way the transfer market has become inflated, the Hammers will be looking for a figure north of 50 million. Getty With Ander Herrera also potentially leaving on a free transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United simply have to improve on their midfield options or it is going to be the same story next season with fans questioning the clubs recruitment department once more. It is time for the Red Devils to put together a cohesive plan moving forward and back Solskjaer to at least give him a fighting chance of regaining the position they were once in. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/liamcanning/2019/04/28/what-can-west-ham-uniteds-declan-rice-offer-manchester-united/ |
What does the SNP's currency vote mean? | Image caption SNP delegates narrowly defeated their party's leaders over the timetable for switching currency The SNP's currency plans for an independent Scotland have been approved by its party conference - although grassroots members forced changes to the leadership's original proposals. With one eye on a future independence referendum, the SNP has been working on its economic arguments - including those around currency, which became a major issue ahead of the first referendum in 2014. To that end, former SNP MSP Andrew Wilson was tasked with heading a Growth Commission to put together a prospectus of economic arguments. His proposal - heartily embraced by the party's leadership - was that an independent Scotland should retain the pound initially, before shifting to a new Scottish currency if and when six stringent economic tests were met. Mr Wilson initially said it could take up to a decade for one of these tests - a manageable budget deficit - to be met. His aim was to offer a medium-term assurance to people over things like mortgages, pensions and investments. After SNP members held a series of National Assembly meetings, the version which ultimately ended up being put to the party's conference in Edinburgh said an independent Scottish Parliament should take a decision on whether to establish a new currency by the end of its first term. So the party leadership might have made a subtle shift there already - but some delegates came to conference looking for more. Image copyright PA Image caption It was all smiles for Nicola Sturgeon before the currency debate started To start with, the currency plan passed. That's not an insignificant detail in itself; the SNP's official policy is now, for the first time, to move on from the pound post-independence. That is a big change from 2014, when the Yes campaign headed by then-First Minister Alex Salmond proposed keeping the pound in a formal currency union with the rest of the UK - which was ruled out by Westminster. The other story from conference was the debate, and the amendments put forward by members. The leadership really wanted to get these plans past the conference. Deputy leader Keith Brown was visibly nervous putting them forward, and he was followed by a whole series of speakers who came forward to voice concerns. There were worries about leaving monetary policy in the hands of the Bank of England after independence, and about how easy the plan would be to sell to voters. Ministers and party veterans tried to offer reassurance, urging delegates to vote down the four amendments and leave the leadership's original motion unchanged. In the end, three of these amendments were substantially defeated. But after a lengthy count of cards, a fourth was passed by a narrow margin of 52 votes. This was perhaps the most minor amendment proposed. It only changed one paragraph, and committed the party to introduce a new Scottish corrency "as soon as practicable" after independence. The party leadership insist that this is fine, and that Nothing Has Changed. Skip Twitter post by @NicolaSturgeon Great debate at #SNP19 on economy and currency. Amendment urges progress as quickly as practicable, and six tests to ensure solid foundation for decision are endorsed. Image caption Timothy Rideout won over delegates to his amendment with a speech attacking the six tests Timothy Rideout, who moved the successful amendment, was scathing about the six tests. He said trying to explain them to voters on the doorstep could "lose votes, not get them". And others agree - MP Angus MacNeil tweeted that "delegates clearly voted to get rid of the six tests - they were demolished to the sound of comedic laughter". But ultimately, the amendment didn't actually remove the Growth Commission tests from the motion, which still says the transition to a new currency should be "guided" by them. All that was removed was a commitment for an annual update from a new Scottish central bank on progress towards meeting the tests, while the commitment to progress the plans more swiftly was added in. The way the leadership has reacted suggests they would not. And of course as one speaker pointed out, this will ultimately be a decision for a post-independence government. If we actually get to that point, the minutiae of a conference debate years previously might not seem hugely relevant. Image copyright PA So maybe the real question is how this might impact on whether that independent government comes to pass. Those who pressed the amendment argued that this will be a simpler proposition for them to put to people on the doorstep. Moving to a new currency as soon as practicable is an easier sell than explaining the six tests, they say. However, there is also the chance this could send a different message to the one Mr Wilson was originally aiming for, of medium-term stability. Mr Brown, the SNP deputy leader, told delegates that "going harder and faster would damage the case and fail to win new support". So on the other side, pro-Union campaigners will say this is proof that a Yes vote will see the pound "ditched". Of course, they were planning on saying that anyway. Image caption Nicola Sturgeon and Keith Brown voted against the amendment on the conference stage - but saw it pass The final question is about what message the vote sends to the party's leaders. Ever since Nicola Sturgeon "reset" her indyref2 plans after the 2017 election, journalists and commentators have been coming to SNP conferences looking for signs of discontent, of the grassroots champing at the bit and wanting to move faster. What we've mostly seen so far though - at least in the conference hall - is a party broadly behind the strategy of its leaders. In fairness, that hasn't really changed. Nobody has really turned against the leadership. But the fact is that a room packed full of SNP activists looked up at a stage where Nicola Sturgeon and all of her allies were voting one way, and a majority of them went against her. The one goal the leadership had for this conference was to get the growth commission past the membership relatively unscathed, and their relief at dodging more substantial changes is genuine. But just because they can live with the result doesn't mean this wasn't a defeat. And it may yet prove to have deeper significance. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48077803 |
Does California's commitment to happiness end up leaving us bereft? | Then, to my joy, my parents were invited to teach in Santa Barbara, and suddenly I had a foot in not just the Promised Land, but the epicenter of unending promise. When my friends visited from England, wed pile into my fathers red-and-black Plymouth Duster and drive up to Berkeley or the Haight, stopping off to gaze at the sunlit lawns and great expanse of Pacific Ocean behind the guardhouse at the Esalen Institute. Human potential was a phrase we hadnt heard much in the Old World; reality was the watchword there, even as we sang hymns in Latin and wore tail-coats to class because that was what students had done since the 15th century. | https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-iyer-california-japan-dream-reality-20190428-story.html |
Why Do Tweets From Trump Move Oil Prices? | ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday saw one of the largest oil price drops in recent years, with WTI falling $2.41/barrel. Many attributed the move to President Trumps tweet that he had spoken to Saudi Arabia and others about raising production to lower prices, and his comment that he had called up OPEC and told them to lower oil prices. Unsurprisingly, there is little evidence that he undertook any action other than his comments, something the public is used to by now, so some are puzzled by the sharp price move. When people ask how the oil price is set, I often suggest not studying microeconomics but watching the great movie, Trading Places, which includes the memorable line spoken by Eddie Murphys character, being told how futures markets work, I get it. You guys are bookies. The investment banker nudges his brother and says, I told you hed understand. Needless to say, this is not the lesson to be learned. Instead, the view of the trading floor with brokers yelling buy and sell and reacting as a herd to news and rumors captures the way prices are set in the very short-term, seconds, minutes and hours. No one on the trading floor is thinking about the marginal cost of production, the long-term cohesion of OPEC, or pressure from new technologies like electric vehicles. The immediate response to any piece of news or rumor is based primarily on the expectations of how other traders will respond. For example, if the estimate for GDP in the previous quarter is announced and is higher than expected, traders know that the standard interpretation of this is bullish, and that even those who dont think it means higher demand (it is a lagging indicator after all) recognize that others will treat it as such and push prices higher. But such moves are often temporary, as markets (read traders) digest the news more fully and read varying interpretations of the data. Thus, the next days trading might see a reversal or pullback from the original moveespecially if there is no other news to drive the market. This explains why news or events that might seem irrelevant to the world oil market can move prices. Violence in the West Bank is highly unlikely to change the number of barrels of oil on the market, but traders are prone to react to Middle East violence wherever it occurs. Similarly, threats from Iran to close the Straits of Hormuz (more accurately, threats from an Iranian official) might be shrugged off as empty verbiage, just as President Trumps tweets often are, but that makes little differencein the very short term. Fridays move did appear to be about much more than just the relationship between the U.S. president and OPEC or OPEC+, because when the market has moved steadily in one direction for a period of days, there are those who are waiting to take profits from their positions. One of the most important factors in momentum trading is spotting the turning point, even if the momentum appears to be based on fundamentals not psychology. News about Iranian sanctions, fighting in Libya, Russian oil quality problems and more had been pushing up prices all week, but by Friday, there was not only some pushbackdowngrading of estimated supply losses, for examplebut the bulls had made good money and were looking to take profits before others pushed the price down. Thus, President Trumps comments were simply a trigger for bulls to sell off. And with falling prices, there was apparently a lot of long-covering, that is, traders with long positions that needed to be closed out, by selling into the market, which made the downward price move that much sharper. The closed weekend market also encourages Friday traders to get out of their positions to avoid losses should news over the weekend be unfavorable. All in all, the Friday selloff suggests that the market was somewhat overbought, but while the media (and bloggers) must of necessity explain what happened in near-real time, it seems likely that traders will digest last weeks developments over the weekend and come to the market on Monday with a new perspective. Some rebound might be expected in prices Monday, but could easily be overwhelmed by other news, data, or rumors. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellynch/2019/04/28/why-do-tweets-from-trump-move-oil-prices/ |
What led Canadas Conservatives to turn against carbon taxes? | Look back upon the 20th-century wars and the victory-bond drives that cajoled every spare dollar from Canadian pockets. Right-wing, left-wing, Conservative, Liberal none of it mattered. National unity transcended. It wasnt the preferred action of Canadas environmental left, but it was the one that Canadas right could embrace: a market-driven, small-c conservative approach to decarbonization that had already been working effectively for a decade in British Columbia, where the sky had not fallen. Conservative stalwarts like Albertas Preston Manning were onside. Fast-forward to 2019 and a growing swath of Canadians a majority, in fact see the threat of climate change in such non-partisan terms. And barely a year ago, it looked as if serious action was imminent, and here to stay, rooted in the widely accepted compromise of a revenue-neutral carbon tax. Look back farther still, to Confederation. The partisans of 1864 were every bit as polarized as those who rule today. It took nothing less than a Great Coalition the total suppression of partisanship in service to something greater to forge, three years later, a brand new country from the caterwauling colonies of Canada East, Canada West, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. But the conservative tent has shifted rightward Manning and like-minded conservatives now stand alone as a nexus of gas-pumping populism from Alberta to Ontario and everything in between declares war on Justin Trudeaus newly imposed carbon tax. And its working. For reasons that have almost nothing to do with climate change, populism and partisanship now appear to have every chance of crippling the fragile national effort to curb carbon. With this falls federal election, Canadians will have their answer. Heres the really odd bit if Andrew Scheer ultimately rides the populist wave to a Conservative victory over Trudeaus Liberals without a carbon plan of his own, some within his own party worry as much about winning as they do about losing. I know Preston Manning is concerned a lot of people in the party are concerned that going to war in such a populist way is going to involve short-term gain at the risk of long-term pain, said a policy insider with first-hand knowledge of how the conservative debate on climate has shifted. It may be the popular thing to do right now it certainly is popular with the Conservative base, and it might even be popular with ordinary voters. But if the populist strategy wins, you end up hostaging the future because younger voters, women, suburban voters, university-educated voters, they all want the party to look serious on climate. Theres probably a 50-50 split on carbon price. But a clear majority is saying, Climate change is real; youve got to have a reasonable position on climate. So the danger is Conservatives dont look like they have any reasonable position on climate change. Many climate-conscious conservatives are reluctant to go on the record as they work quietly from within to advocate for a longer-term climate strategy. But one who is more than happy to vocalize these frustrations publicly is former Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown, who, from the comfort of his afterlife as mayor of Brampton, is clearly disgusted that climate action has evolved into such a political piata. If Brown is out of the tent because it moved elsewhere, onto more populist ground, he now seems ready to hold a match against it. When I was Opposition leader in Ontario we had a caucus retreat on climate change and I took it to a vote its the only time I took a vote in caucus on an issue. All but two supported my position that we should be part of the national climate change accord, Brown told the Star. We had a 20-point lead in the polls and (after the replacement of Brown with Doug Ford and the abandonment of carbon pricing) they ended up winning by six. So in the change of direction, the more hard-right approach almost squandered the lead. Its a shame, continued Brown. To be able to get change in Canada, it takes non-partisan consensus, and thats what we wanted to do on climate change. Look at the Charter of Rights and Freedoms Pierre Trudeau had Bill Davis in Ontario, a Conservative, to help broker that, and now we look back on 1982 as a shining moment for Canada. It took a Conservative premier who was moderate and a Liberal prime minister who was moderate to bring together national consensus. And thats what we wanted to do on carbon. I cant help but think we owe it to the next generation of Canadians, and now we have a national setback in our battle on climate change. Brown points out that members of Fords cabinet including Environment Minister Rod Phillips, Attorney General Caroline Mulroney and Finance Minister Vic Fedeli signed up under Browns platform on climate, including support for the federal carbon tax. Now they are leading the challenge against a carbon tax, said Brown. The tune has changed. Sometimes politics is about stunts and photo ops but sometimes it needs to be about whats right. Brown said he believes many Conservatives still believe in carbon pricing. Its the same approach that Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan took against acid rain its about letting the markets dictate behaviour. Youd think modern conservatives would adopt those principles, he said. Under Browns leadership, Ontarios PCs interacted carefully with their Manitoba counterparts, looking at ways to fall in line with carbon taxation. But in the switch to Doug Ford and with Ford and Albertas Jason Kenney aligning hard against the policy Manitobas Premier Brian Pallister found himself circumscribed by populist pressure, ultimately turning against Trudeaus carbon plan. It all comes down to leadership, Brown said. Ultimately, if Andrew Scheer is unsuccessful in the federal election, and if Doug Ford is defeated in three years ... the issue of climate will be taken up by the next party leaders. The phrase carbon tax is, if not ancient, something that first entered the Canadian lexicon 30 years ago. In the summer of 1989 just as the Berlin Wall was about to fall and the internet was about to rise just as Gord Downie and the Tragically Hip introduced New Orleans Is Sinking as the first signature song of their Canadian canon a coalition of 28 environmental groups made front page news calling for a national carbon tax to address global warning. Today, environmental economists look back on the ensuing decades as more than a collection of false starts, failed ambitions and unmet climate pledges. Real gains were made. And when they unpack the policy details, they see, even in Doug Fords Ontario and Jason Kenneys Alberta, signals of a willingness to act if not at the retail consumer level, then at least in maintaining regulatory controls on large industrial emitters. There was a point, in 2006 and 2007, when Stephen Harper was talking about some pretty aggressive carbon policy. But then along came (Liberal Leader) Stphane Dion with his green tax shift including a carbon tax plan in 2011 and so Harper pivoted against that and it proved electorally very successful, said Dave Sawyer of EnviroEconomics, an Ottawa-based consultancy. In that same election of 2011, the NDP leader, Jack Layton, proposed a cap-and-trade system to harness carbon. Harper went after Layton hard on the job-killing carbon tax and it was, electorally, a successful policy. And from there, Conservatives have used it as a pocketbook issue that has served the right really well in Canada. My view is that along the way, they changed the values of the Conservative base. The base looks at it and says, This is really bad and that brought us to where we are now, Sawyer told the Star. Yet Sawyer emphasizes that for all the grassroots attention the Ford government has aimed at federal carbon taxation, Ontario also dismantled the former Liberal governments provincial regulations on large industrial emitters only to then announce it would reimpose regulations that look very much like those of former premier Kathleen Wynne. Thats whats so interesting to me the contradiction, Sawyer said. The Ford government is still rolling out the details, but their biofuels policy alone is likely to have the impact of a couple of cents a litre at the gas pump. Something isnt fully reconciled here and the big industrial emitters the big 150 companies that just happen to be our export engines it has left many of them scratching their heads. Canadian policy organizations that specialize in carbon pricing issues non-partisan NGOs such as the Alberta-based Pembina Institute and Torontos Canadians for Clean Prosperity point to the success of British Columbias revenue-neutral carbon tax as a milestone that awakened interest among fiscal conservatives throughout Canada. Of all the climate policy options, revenue neutrality ensuring every tax dollar is cycled back to families that need it most holds appeal for a swath of conservatives who agree action is necessary but are wary of heavier market invention. One source familiar with the building of the Patrick Brown campaign platform told the Star that though much of the Ontario party was nervous about the move to support a carbon tax, everyone understood how strongly such a policy would appeal to centrist swing voters the party hoped to capture. But at least one conservative insider told the Star many Canadian conservatives remain uneasy about the prospect that once carbon taxes are established as the norm, future governments may eventually strip away the all-important revenue-neutral element, instead spending the cash on expensive environment projects the Canadian right tends to despise. As criticism of Ontarios current approach grows, Phillips, the environment minister, last week pushed back, insisting the Ford government has put forward some very pragmatic solutions and that Ontario remains on track to meet federal targets set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, designed to stop global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees Celsius. The confusion and mixed messages extend also to the federal electoral map, where Scheers Conservatives and Trudeaus Liberals now are engaged in all-out Twitter war over who is in the pocket of Big Oil versus who has no interest in the everyday struggles of Canadians trying to fill their tanks. One hopeful sign: Scheer on Saturday gave himself a deadline, pledging to supporters in Victoriaville, Que., that he would release his partys climate change plan by the end of June. He gave no details, other than saying it would address the environmental challenges of the 21st century. Its difficult to envision how the two plans will measure up. Its even more difficult to envision, with the debate already polluted by so much hyperpartisan rhetoric, that either party will elevate the issue to something bigger than politics. But if nothing else, Canadian voters now can expect to see details before they make their own decisions on the approaching quest for power in Ottawa. Mitch Potter is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @MPwrites | https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2019/04/28/what-led-canadas-conservatives-to-turn-against-carbon-taxes.html |
Who could replace Zack Godley in the Diamondbacks' starting rotation? | If the Diamondbacks are planning to make a change to their starting rotation in wake of Zack Godleys struggles, they are playing it close to the vest. Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told reporters Sunday that no decision has been made on Godleys rotation spot and did not disclose who the potential candidates could be if the club decides to shift Godley out of the rotation. In 2017, Godley posted a 3.55 ERA in 155 innings but has come nowhere close to those numbers since. Godley has a 7.58 ERA in six starts this season. He has allowed six runs or more on two occasions and has allowed four or more runs in four of his six starts. Saturdays 9-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs was the latest example of Godleys inability to find the strike zone. And even when he did pound the zone, he was pounded back. Stay in the know. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. I have to be better than that, Godley said after Saturdays game. I have to be able to work ahead of guys and get guys out. Im not doing that right now and Ive got some stuff Ive got to figure out and get back to what Ive been doing for the last couple of years. Honestly, Godley said, I just couldnt throw strikes. Apr 5, 2019: Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Jon Duplantier against the Boston Red Sox during the home opener at Chase Field. (Photo: Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports) The Diamondbacks do have some relief in the form of two off-days next week, meaning they will not require a fifth starter until May 7. It is unclear whether Godley would remain in the rotation or shift to the bullpen; if Godley were designated for assignment, he would almost certainly be claimed by another team. If the Diamondbacks elect to go away from Godley in the rotation, the most-likely replacement would seem to be right-hander Taylor Clarke, who pitched three innings in relief for the Diamondbacks earlier this season and currently sports a 7.65 ERA for Triple-A Reno. Lovullo told reporters Sunday he had neither considered right-hander Matt Andriese, who has pitched well in relief this season, nor top prospect Jon Duplantier, who has not been fully stretched out into starting capacity. It is possible that right-hander Taylor Widener could get the call, but the former 12th-round pick has a 10.53 ERA through five starts with Reno. Other options currently on the clubs 40-man roster are right-handers Emilio Vargas and Bo Takahashi. We have a lot of really good internal options and Ill say that, Lovullo said. We would consider something internal and some of our youthfulness we have in this organization. Get crucial breaking sports news alerts to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters The Diamondbacks announced on Sunday they had designated right-hander Matt Koch for assignment. The club has 10 days to either release him, facilitate a trade, or place Koch on waivers. One thing I want to make sure I hit on is that it was a tough decision, Lovullo said. For the time (Matt has) been here he has given 110 percent of his effort to the Arizona Diamondbacks and done whatever we asked. We are going to have to make some decisions with guys getting healthy and it is about performance. Koch, 28, pitched 4 1/3 innings in Saturdays blowout loss to the Cubs and ended the night with a 9.15 ERA in 20 2/3 innings this season. Duplantier was recalled in a corresponding move. When you drill down and make the decision like we made on Matt Koch, its a tough day, Lovullo said. Hes going to land on his feet and that was one of the themes I shared with him, that hes going to fall into a role with another organization perhaps as a starter and I think thats what he loves to do. That being said, Duplantier will join us once again and give us a little bit of coverage down there which is what we need. Defying gravity Diamondbacks catcher Caleb Joseph said he threw a "gravity ball" in his first professional pitching appearance in Saturday's game. Joseph tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning. Joseph, who said he had not pitched since he was 12 years old, was trying to throw it as slow as he could to disrupt the hitters' timing. "It was pretty cool to get back on the mound again," Joseph said after Saturday's game. "It was pretty intimidating, though, getting on that mound and seeing how close that batter was. I forgot about that. Not to mention the first batter being Javy Baez. It was a little intimidating. "... Youre just trying to throw it under the hitting speed. Ive been around long enough to know that the guys who try to throw hard, they get crushed." Short hop Right-hander Taijuan Walker (Tommy John rehab) threw a 33-pitch bullpen on Saturday at Chase Field and is scheduled to throw a simulated game on Monday at Salt River Fields. Lovullo said Walker could throw around 50 pitches. Richard Morin covers the Coyotes and Diamondbacks for azcentral sports. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ramorin_azc. Subscribe to azcentral today. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/mlb/diamondbacks/2019/04/28/arizona-diamondbacks-face-decision-zack-godley-rotation-replacement/3610459002/ |
Who Is Too Old To Be President? | US Census A recent poll is bad news for Biden (76), Sanders (77), and even Trump (72) and very bad news in progress towards stamping out age-bigotry. More voters in a poll don't want someone over 75 compared to other factors like being black, or gay, or a woman...or even a Muslim. Being a "socialist" is the most undesirable characteristic listed. The NBC/WSJ poll tested 11 different presidential characteristics and there acceptability as a person who is President. The most popular: An African American (a combined 87 percent of all voters say they are enthusiastic or comfortable with that characteristic), a white man (86 percent), a woman (84 percent), and someone who is gay or lesbian (68 percent up from 43 percent in 2006). The least popular: a Muslim (49 percent are enthusiastic or comfortable--up from 32 percent in 2015), someone over the age of 75 (37 percent) and a socialist (25 percent)." Those polled may be overstating their tolerance for African Americans and women, they dont want to look bad to the pollster. But saying being over 75 is an undesirable characteristic is not viewed as bigotry and an act of discriminatory prejudgment is notable. Every hire (and an election is a hiring decision) is a judgement about the potential productivity of a candidate. Age Discrimination is Harmful The harm of age discrimination on the campaign trail is trivial to the widespread pain and damage which lies beneath the ageism. Though illegal, age discrimination in employment, pay, training and promotion, persists. Ageism makes older workers struggle to get raises and jobs. A recent study indicates employer bias against older workers and muddies the issue about whether someon over 75 is too old to work. A majority of employers surveyed by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies answered that age 64 was too old to be considered for employment (this was the median age given by employers, though most refused to give an age wisely, since it's against the law to consider age in hiring and promotion and pay). On the other hand, the median age that workers gave was too old to work was 75. The workers answer still makes it complicated for the candidates over age 75. I am an expert in labor economics and the economics of aging. The range of opinions from my colleagues who are professionals in the field fascinates me. History professor, James Chappel at Duke and English Professor, Sari Edelstein, of University of Massachusetts, Boston wrote last week in the Washington Post that no one is too old to be president. They argued firmly that older people are varied, much more healthy than in the past, and are falsely viewed as having cognitive decline that affects their real world capacity (measured by a WWW score) to do a job in the real world. Modern cognitive tests of capacity show many times that older people do not significantly differ in their overall WWW score and some older people performing as well as or better than most younger people. Chappel and Edelstein report disapprovingly on comedic poop jokes directed at Bernie Sanders, age 77, the insult and bigotry masquerading as a joke is that Senator Sanders is sponsored by Metamucil and was present for the signing of the American Constitution. My colleagues are divided. One writes, and I will report their comments anonymously because they were privately made on a listserve: At some point something is a risk and a greater risk for some demographic categories than for others. As any insurance company could tell you. So it's reasonable to worry about Biden,without making that a determining factor. Another wrote, Age can also be associated with experience and wisdom and perspective. Another wrote that so-called signs of aging could be just an ageless characteristic of someone. It is just Biden-Being-Biden. The experts seem to be about split evenly between those fighting back against the ageism and defense of it. Here is a defense, But suggesting that someone who would be well into his ninth decade if he served two terms is too old to run for president is not ageism. This comment was met by a practical response, The obvious solution, as it always is with candidates of any age, is to make sure there's a good succession in place (i.e., a proper VP pick). It certainly isn't to avoid elevating an otherwise good or preferable candidate because of what might happen in the future cause', well, it's the future. The author of Ending Ageism, or How Not to Shoot Old people, sums up the ageism debate with common sense. She argues the rigors of campaigning is a good qualification screen and the bottom line qualifications of a President. Weathering a presidential campaign proves the contestant has far better health and stamina than anyone of any age who hasn't done it. A presidential candidate should be judged on verbal agility, reasoning power, historical knowledge, and vision of the common good. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2019/04/28/who-is-too-old-to-be-president/ |
Should these school clubs be kept secret from parents? | In one Canadian province, that question has sparked fierce debate. Gay-straight alliances - or GSAs - were first established in the US in the 1980s. The student-run clubs are meant to be a place where LGBT and other students can socialise and offer peer support. Research on GSAs suggests they create a "safe space" for students at a greater risk of mental health issues and discrimination, and can reduce bullying and harassment in schools where they're established. Some 30 years after the first one was founded by a history teacher and a student at Concord Academy in Massachusetts in 1988, thousands of GSAs exist in middle and high schools across North America. Despite their proliferation, these peer support groups have also faced resistance. One protracted battle over GSAs has been playing out in the Canadian province of Alberta - an issue debated in the provincial legislature, in the courts, and in the media. The latest flare up began during the recent provincial election in the province. Image copyright Reuters Image caption UCP leader Jason Kenney is to become Alberta premier on April 30 At issue was a policy proposed by United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Jason Kenney to undo some legal protections for the school clubs, notably one that bars school officials from telling parents if their child has joined such a group. Critics of Kenney's plan say school staff could "out" LGBT students to parents who might not be supportive of, or might even be discriminatory of, their sexuality or gender identity - with potentially damaging consequence. Kenney - whose UCP swept the election and who will soon be premier - argues his proposal is a compromise between supporting GSAs and respecting parental authority. In his election night victory speech, he said that "parents know better than politicians what is best for their kids". GSA lawsuits in the US Alberta is not the only place GSAs have caused social friction. In the United States, where the federal Equal Access Act guarantees that public school students have a right to form GSAs, the American Civil Liberties Union says the groups have prevailed in at least 17 federal lawsuits under the act between 1998 and 2015. Most of the US lawsuits were over obstacles put in place by school officials opposed to the clubs, like making last minute changes to school rules to prevent a GSA from being established. Concerns about the activities in GSAs has also cropped up in the US, with one California student battling his school telling the BBC in 2000: "This whole thing has stopped being about my club. It's become this debate about sex". Albertan Dylan Chevalier, executive director of Sexual and Gender Acceptance Edmonton, says GSAs are about "having a place where you can be safe, relax, and take your walls down for half an hour". Chevalier was the president of a GSA at his former high school, and he said the club hosted discussions and pizza parties, held bake sales to fund LGBT awareness campaigns and once organised a "drag and dance show". Local skirmishes over the clubs have also been seen in the UK and in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, which also protect a student's right to start a GSA. University of Calgary's Darren Lund, who teaches social justice education, says that the issue has always had "the potential to be polarising". He says there's been a rapid cultural shift towards a greater acceptance of LGBT issues in the last 15 years or so - one that makes some people feel "discomfort". "And then politicians are quick to jump on that fear and use that fear to play into people's insecurities about these issues," he says. In 2014, legislation was first proposed to require all the province's public schools to establish a GSA on the request of a student. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Alberta's legislature building The right-leaning provincial government at the time eventually passed a law - Bill 10 - establishing that protection. It received support from all the provincial political parties. Some cheered the move, but it also led to protests. Advocates argued the law didn't do enough to protect LGBT students. Others called it an infringement on freedom of religion and parental rights. In 2015, the left-leaning NDP swept to power in Alberta and added more protections for GSAs. It passed Bill 24, which required schools, both public and private, to have a policy in place to allow for it to comply "immediately" with a student's GSA request. Further, school officials would not be allowed to disclose a student's involvement such a club. "No students will be outed for joining a GSA or a QSA [queer-straight alliance] in the province - it's against the law," the provincial education minister said at the time. Schools were put on notice - if they don't follow the law they risk having accreditation and funding stripped. Image copyright NurPhoto/Getty Images Image caption Albertans walk along an 'LGBT road crossing' in Calgary downtown Lindsay Peace, who has a son who is transgender and who is an advocate for trans youth in the province, has been a vocal supporter of protecting GSAs. "I think it's important for kids to know that they belong," she says "And sometimes it's the only place [where they do]." And as for parents who want to know what their children are up to at school: "they should ask them", she says. The student-run clubs are meant to be a place where LGBT and other students can socialise and offer peer support The first gay-straight alliances were established in the US in the 1980s There are 80 registered clubs in Alberta, and they were first established in the province almost 20 years ago Thousands of GSAs exist in middle and high schools across North America In Alberta, the second GSA law was contentious from the get-go. "This legislation would create a void of care for our children, into which anyone can set up shop, without proper oversight or accountability," one parents rights group stated in an op-ed. The Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) filed a court challenge on behalf of a coalition of parents and 26 faith-based independent schools, arguing bills 10 and 24 breach multiple constitutional rights, including by failing to protect a parent's right to educate based on his or her own conscience and religious beliefs. It says the law further "undermines parental rights by prohibiting parents from knowing if their child is being exposed to sexual content through a GSA". Court documents filed by the legal group warn that "the parents are alarmed and frightened at the climate of secrecy that the School Act has created around ideological sexual clubs and related activities". JCCF president John Carpay summed up the tension up way: "The fuss is about making these clubs mandatory in schools where the parents disagree completely with the perspective or the belief system that is being advocated by these clubs". "It's the difference between voluntary versus coercive." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption There are thousands of GSAs in schools across North America, including this Florida school The fight continues Kenney's proposed policy - to roll back some GSA protections but to keep Bill 10 in place - looks unlikely to satisfy either side. Says Chevalier: "He's playing a game. He's pandering to the social conservative side of his base and playing a fast one [with everyone else]." The JCCF is waiting for a court decision on whether an interim injunction it's seeking on Bill 24 will be granted. Carpay told the BBC he's uncertain whether the schools his organisation represents will want to continue with the court challenge and fight the 2015 GSA protections that would remain in place if Kenney's government does roll back Bill 24. Meanwhile, campaigners like Peace and Chevalier say they'll continue to fight for GSA protections in all Alberta schools. Peace says she thinks it's students themselves who will end up creating more inclusive schools, regardless of how fierce the GSA fight might get between parents and politicians. Calgary high school students are now organising a province-wide school walkout next month - a few days after Kenney is to take office - to protest his party's GSA plans. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47901707 |
Why didn't it snow more on Saturday? | The National Weather Service predicted as much as 8 inches of wet, sloppy snow but Milwaukee got only 1.7 inches, and 1.2 inches fell in Madison. Both snowfalls broke records. It is late April, after all. But it was nowhere near what folks were hyperventilating over. The reasons for the snow dusting instead of snow piling are twofold: a lot of dry air in the atmosphere acted as a sort of brake, and the storm veered farther south than expected. So northern Illinois caught more of the brunt, which is why the Chicago White Sox canceled Saturday's game in their roofless stadium. Very brisk northeast winds across southern Wisconsin reinforced a large amount of dry air in the atmosphere, which slowed the storm as it moved from west to east, said J.J. Wood, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Sullivan. That's why snow originally forecast to start falling in the Milwaukee area in mid- to late morning didn't show up until mid-afternoon. "When you have precipitation trying to move in to a very dry air mass, sometimes it will be delayed by several hours," Wood said Sunday. Eventually the surge of moisture moved in and began dropping big fat flakes that accumulated on grass and turned pavement wet. But by then the storm system wasn't as strong as originally expected and didn't linger as long as expected. Milwaukee smashed its snowfall record for Saturday of half an inch set in 1913, Madison's old record of 1 inch dated to 1988. Madison also broke its low record for Sunday when it temperature dropped to 25 degrees, eclipsing the old record of 27 set in 1966 and equaled in 1982 and 1988. More precipitation is in the forecast in southern Wisconsin this week, though only rain. Hopefully we're done with snow until next fall. Rounds of rain are forecast Sunday night into Monday morning, possibly sticking around until Monday afternoon, then again late Tuesday afternoon throughout the evening and into Wednesday morning, plus possibly a third batch of rain Thursday. Read or Share this story: https://www.jsonline.com/story/weather/2019/04/28/wisconsin-weather-why-didnt-snow-more-saturday/3612345002/ | https://www.jsonline.com/story/weather/2019/04/28/wisconsin-weather-why-didnt-snow-more-saturday/3612345002/ |
How many Labour supporters voted Leave? | Image copyright AFP The claim: Five million people who voted Leave in 2016 voted Labour in 2017. Reality Check verdict: Although precise figures do not exist, most estimates for this figure fall between three and four million. Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has repeatedly said that his party is targeting the five million people who voted to leave the EU in 2016 and voted Labour in the 2017 General Election. The ballot paper in 2017 did not ask for voters' views on Brexit, so we do not have a definitive answer to whether this is an accurate number. But several organisations have attempted to answer the question. The widely respected British Election Study (BES) conducted a face-to-face survey of 2,194 people across the country. Its central estimate for the 2017 election was that 30% of Labour voters had voted Leave in the referendum. Labour received 12,877,918 votes in that election - 30% of that would be 3.9 million. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Labour MP Gisela Stuart was chair of the Vote Leave campaign in the 2016 referendum As this figure is based on a survey, there is a margin of error involved. In this case it is four percentage points, so the survey estimate is actually between 26% and 34% - between 3.3 million and 4.4 million. "Nigel Farage's figure suggests that almost one third of Leave voters were Labour supporters, but the reality is that almost one third of Labour supporters voted Leave, which is, of course, not the same thing," said Prof Jane Green, co-director of the British Election Study. The BES figure is somewhat higher than the estimate from Ipsos-Mori, which put it at 24%, or 3.1 million. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kate Hoey MP was originally involved with Labour Leave but later was one of the founders of Grassroots Out Lord Ashcroft polls conducted a poll on election night in 2017 in which 25% of those who said they had voted Leave in 2016, said they had voted Labour - that would be 3.2 million. The latest estimate from Comres is that 26% of those who voted Labour in 2017 voted Leave in 2016 - that's 3.3 million people. And YouGov reckons that 29% of those who voted Labour in 2017 and voted in the EU Referendum, voted Leave - that's about 3.5 million. So there is a range of estimates for this figure, but even the top end of the range of the highest estimate does not get to five million. Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party have not responded to requests for details about how he reached that figure. Get in touch Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48039984 |
Is 2019 The Beginning Of A New Era Of Profit In Micro Mobility? | Getty Roughly six weeks ago I discussed how the unit economics for Bird and Lime were structured, and how there was significant room for an uptick in pricing for shared electric scooters. The original pricing for dockless e-scooters was tentative and aggressive at the same time: $1 (USD) to unlock, and 15 per minute. This translated into a small but generally profitable revenue stream, given the expected overhead and related costs. But what was expected wasnt necessarily what occurred. Scooters were stolen, vandalized and generally abused at a wide variety of rates. Municipalities imposed a broad range of permit fees and ride taxes. There were multiple operational costs that differed from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Birds (and Limes, and Spins, et. al.) approach from the beginning has been based on a top-down, one-size-fits-all model. The challenges they have been running into are unsurprising; markets being what they are, expecting a generic solution to fit all possible markets was bound to meet with disappointment. Micro mobility is a practical, useful concept with huge potential upside, but this is only fully realizable if shared scooter deployments are carefully tuned to be reflective of the markets they serve. In other words, one size most decidedly does not fit all. This was confirmed earlier this month by Bird, who has elected to respond to market factors within each jurisdiction: But Bird this weekend increased its rate to 33 cents per minute, according to the California-based company's app. It previously cost 15 cents per minute. The company said it has updated its pricing range from 10 cents to 33 cents per minute. "Similar to ride-hailing, Big Macs and cups of coffee, our pricing now varies by city," the company said in a statement. This initial upward push on scooter ride prices immediately makes e-scooters as a business sustainable across multiple jurisdictions where before it might have been a losing proposition. That an 800-lb gorilla like Bird has acknowledged this need explicitly heralds the beginning of what might be a new era of profit in the micro mobility space. This shift in pricing supports the argument for community-based micro mobility I made four months ago. Each community is unique in its needs and wants, in its spending, and in its transport corridors, which is something that should be acknowledged. Empowering local residents to provide micro mobility services to their own neighbourhoods could result in a wonderfully tuned offering for everyone involved, from riders to service providers. Getty The change in service fees should come as no surprise as the world is arguably moving towards a sharing economy supported by a gig economy. It isnt unreasonable to expect further adaptations as regulations, market demand and services catch up to the opportunities that present themselves in this vertical. Birds increase in per-minute pricing is a step in the right direction. As the urban populace around the world moves away from private vehicle ownership and towards less expensive, multi-modal transport solutions, the willingness to spend more on transit and first-and-last mile mobility services will expand. Markets are already showing signs of being able to absorb higher prices for scooter rides. The next five years may see micro mobility adoption rates form the famous hockey stick curve as social pressures and market forces conspire to find the path of greatest utility and convenience for urban dwellers. By the time the world realizes were in a new era, shared scooters under dozens of different brands might be as commonplace as pizza outlets in any downtown core. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2019/04/28/is-2019-the-beginning-of-a-new-era-of-profit-in-micro-mobility/ |
Is NI sport ready for the Brexit challenge? | Image copyright INPHO/Evan Logan Image caption The Candystripes of Derry City will continue to cross the border for every away match, even after Brexit Sport may dominate our thoughts at the weekend but, when it comes to Brexit, some Northern Ireland sports organisations fear they may be forgotten. In Londonderry, many clubs play on an all-Ireland basis, with teams travelling to Cork, Dublin or Galway in the hopes of claiming silverware. Peter McCartney, general manager of the North West Cricket Union, believes that it is a concern for many organisers. "At the moment, players can travel with no problems at all, so anything that will impact the freedom of the players to move between different clubs and leagues, we're quite wary of any impact on that," he said. "It's not just a cricket issue, it's golf, rugby, triathlon, horse racing, sport's very much an all-island system and, given the size of the economy it generates, we definitely would see it as high priority." Cricket is well established in the north west, with local clubs regularly producing players who go on to represent Ireland internationally. But compared to others, the pre-planning they can do can be hampered by a lack of funding. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Rugby is one of the many sports organised on an all-island basis "The national governing body, Cricket Ireland, is looking into it, but we're not on the same scale as the larger sporting bodies so we can't look at it in the same level of detail," said Mr McCartney. "Our NW Warrior team play in All-Ireland competitions in Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and then in a few weeks they'll be in La Manga in Spain, so we have been taking a few practical steps checking visa applications, making sure all passports are up to date, just to make sure there will be no issues coming through." "Definitely," said Mr McCartney. "I can understand from the government's point of view that they're looking at the higher impact, the movement of people, tariffs etc, but certainly the knock-on effect for sport, leisure, well-being, I would think these things should be key." Friday is game night At the Ryan McBride Brandywell Stadium, Friday is match night, and with a match to win, thoughts of Brexit are far from many supporters' minds. Derry City is the only team from Northern Ireland to play in the League of Ireland, a competition that sees players and fans travel across Ireland to compete in the "greatest league in the world". The club's director, Andrew Cassidy, believes fans will continue to travel to both home and away fixtures, regardless of the outcome of Brexit. For Mr Cassidy, the "best case scenario" would be for nothing to change in terms of the border. "It's the same as any other business in the town that has cross-border workers or premises, the fact of the matter is, we just don't know," he said. "It could affect things like signing players from the south, if there's any impact on them moving to Derry, or vice versa, but any delays at the border are the only thing that will worry fans at this point." Image caption Players from County Down hockey team Lisnagarvey celebrate victory in the Irish men's hockey league From its home close to the border, City of Derry RFC has forged close ties with rugby clubs in Donegal, even attracting star players from the neighbouring county. Made up of youth, women's and senior men's teams, players and coaches travel every weekend to play matches in both the Ulster and All-Ireland leagues. PRO Michael O'Kane's main concern is player welfare. "If we are playing in Letterkenny (in County Donegal) or Galway, is our health insurance going to be catered for," he asked. "At the minute, under EU regulations, we enjoy the back-up of knowing that if an injury does happen then we are covered, so if players are travelling do we need extra insurance?" Headache Like many sports clubs, volunteers are at the heart of City of Derry RFC and Michael O'Kane fears that changes or additional paperwork could lead to an "administrative headache" for clubs. "Everybody has concerns because of the unknown, we really don't know what lies ahead in terms of legislation and regulations," he said. "There is a lot of integration within the sporting community. Here in the North West the border is invisible, both physically and mentally. "I want to make sure that rugby, and sport in general, is at the top table and secure going forward." Despite fears around added costs and paperwork associated with Brexit, all-Ireland sport remains a source of pride for most clubs and the pinnacle of many players' career and this is unlikely to change. When it comes to sport, the result is only certain at the final whistle and Brexit is no different. As Andrew Cassidy said, sports fans are used to the highs and lows, and Brexit or no Brexit, they'll follow their team across any border. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-47977485 |
What is nuclear medicine imaging? | Bone scans and myocardial perfusion imaging (sometimes called a nuclear stress test) are common types of nuclear medicine imaging studies that help diagnose tumours, fractures, arthritis, heart problems and more. Nuclear medicine imaging can examine the whole body or a specific area of concern using a small amount of radioactive material (called a radiopharmaceutical) injected into a vein that travels through your bloodstream into your bones in the case of a bone scan, or to the heart in the case of a myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) study. A gamma camera detects this activity which is then analyzed by a computer that creates images of the areas of concern. In the case of a bone scan, areas which take up more radiopharmaceutical can show up as hot spots, indicating increased blood flow or bone healing, and could point to problems like arthritis, a tumour, a fracture or an infection. Depending on the area of concern, a bone scan can image the entire body or pay particular attention to a certain part. A bone scan could be used to pinpoint abnormal areas of activity around facet joints within the spine which may be the source of chronic back pain. The images produced could provide information to guide potential pain therapy injections, explains Krista Goldsmith, lead nuclear medicine technologist at Mayfair Diagnostics. A bone scan can be requested when X-rays are normal because a bone scan can be more sensitive to detect bone injuries or lesions. A standard X-ray may be able to confirm a fracture or arthritis, but sometimes a more detailed look or a more thorough evaluation elsewhere in the body requires a bone scan. During a bone scan study, the first appointment, often scheduled in the morning, involves receiving an injection of the radiopharmaceutical. A second appointment, or return visit later in the afternoon, allows time for the bones to take up the radiopharmaceutical and improves the image analysis. During MPI imaging, normal areas of the heart with good blood flow will take up the radiopharmaceutical, but areas which have poor blood flow or have been damaged by injury, such as a heart attack, will take up very little or no radiopharmaceutical. In this way, physicians can determine the amount of damage to the heart or the degree of blockage within a coronary artery, says Goldsmith. At Mayfair Diagnostics, MPI is traditionally a two-part exam performed over two days with each appointment taking about two hours. A bone scan involves two separate appointments booked on the same day; the first takes about 15 minutes, while the second takes between 30-45 minutes. If required, additional imaging called SPECT/CT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography/Computed Tomography) may also be performed towards the end of the second appointment during a bone scan. This imaging can help localize an area of abnormal activity. For the SPECT part, the gamma camera rotates 360 degrees around the body and measures the activity being emitted. For the CT portion, a low-dose CT image is obtained, similar to those from a classic diagnostic CT scan, but using less radiation. Then, these images are electronically fused to obtain a SPECT/CT image. After a nuclear medicine imaging exam, the radiopharmaceutical for these studies is excreted through urine and will decay within a few days following the exam. These studies involve a small amount of ionizing radiation. In the workup of a persistent symptom or finding from a previous study, the benefits of diagnosis and management usually outweigh the risks of this small amount of radiation. If you are pregnant, these studies are typically not performed. Feel free to discuss this with your referring physician or health care team if there are concerns. Nuclear medicine imaging is covered under the Alberta Health Care Insurance Plan and must be requested by a health care practitioner. To determine whether it is appropriate, your health care provider will often review your medical and family history, how long your symptoms have been present and how they affect your daily activities. If this exam is indicated as the best next course of action, he or she will provide a requisition and the appointment can be booked. Mayfair Diagnostics has five locations which offer nuclear medicine imaging: Castleridge, Market Mall, Mayfair Place, Riley Park and Sunpark. For more information, visit radiology.ca. This story was provided by Mayfair Diagnostics for commercial purposes. | https://calgaryherald.com/sponsored/health-sponsored/what-is-nuclear-medicine-imaging |
Are the hyper-specialist shops of Berlin the future of retail? | On the first floor of a nondescript 1,000 sq metre industrial unit in Berlins Steglitz district, four workers are cautiously placing pregnant queen ants into test tubes in order to dispatch them across Europe. This is Antstore, the worlds first specialist ant shop, a business with around two dozen employees, a glass-cutting workshop, plastic and plaster modelling studios and a full-time social media manager. It is just one of the surprisingly large number of shops in Berlin that sell only one thing, be it crawly insects, salty sweets, sticky tape or miniature string instruments. With online retail sales changing the face of high streets in cities around the world, many wonder if this hyper-specialisation could be more than an accidental side effect of the German capitals tumultuous history, and also a blueprint for the high street of the future. Q&A When Europe gets it right Show Hide As a series of crises puts Europe under strain, some cities are fighting back with innovative solutions. From hyper-specialist shops beating the online threat in Berlin to the Bulgarian city reversing the country's brain drain, from the Italian city finding new ways to tackle addiction to gambling to the Swedish town that has found innovative ways to combat extremism, we look at what European cities are doing to live better in our increasingly urban world. Martin Sebesta started Antstore in 2003, frustrated that his citys pet shops lacked either the expertise or enthusiasm to tell him how to build his own ant farm. Having faced a battle with cancer in his 20s, he chucked in a promising career at Siemens and rented a small shop from which he worked part-time to build and sell his own ant terrariums, which he calls formicariums, from the insects Latin name. We made this area attractive now we could be punished for it Ilse Bge With ants I can see how they start small and build something big Martin Sebesta of Antstore The majority of Antstores sales take place via the companys website, but Sebesta reckons the shop itself is still key to its success. First-time customers can choose between anything from a 50 (43) starter set containing the robust Lasius niger, or common garden ant, to a tripartite formicarium with the South American Atta cephalotes, a species of leafcutter ant, for a starting price of around 500. Of course, you could get a goldfish and watch it swim from left to right all day, says Sebesta as a trail of leafcutter workers diligently carries the remains of a wilted orchid through a glass skywalk over his head. But with ants I can see how they start small and build something big. He considered branching out into stick insects and terrariums for lizards, but soon realised teaching his staff the required expertise would stretch the companys capacities. These days, if you want to keep your head above the water as a medium-sized business, you cant afford not to specialise. Paul Knopf and his buttons at his shop in Kreuzberg I have more buttons than I can sell before I die According to Nils Busch-Petersen, CEO of the Berlin-Brandenburg trade association, the high number of hyper-specialists is the result of historical chance. Our city is home to these special kinds of shops not because of the senates efforts, but in spite of them, he argues. Germanys Mittelstand, roughly defined as businesses with between 50 and 500 employees, may be commonly hailed as the hidden champions of nations economic success, but in Berlin retail, medium-sized businesses have traditionally been less hidden than absent. Two-thirds of the citys 9,000 Jewish-owned Mittelstand retail companies were lost in the wake of the Reichskristallnacht pogroms in 1938. In 1972, during the Cold War, East Germany nationalised even small businesses with more than 10 employees. In such a skewed retail landscape, many small shops found they could compete by specialising in goods neglected by generalist department stores, especially since retail space was cheap and in plentiful supply behind the Iron Curtain. Its one thing to take a typewriter apart Bernd Moser in his typewriter store in Kreuzberg Bernd Mosers shop on Kreuzbergs Gneisenaustrasse 91 illustrates this tradition: aged 76, Moser, who proudly sports a white walrus moustache, has for over a quarter of a century only sold and repaired typewriters. Although already deep into retirement, Moser unlocks the glass door to his sparse premises from 11am until 4pm during the working week mainly because demand remains high. After a 60-year career as an office machine mechanic, Moser owns boxes full of spare parts by long-bankrupt manufacturers and still has reams of instruction manuals stored away in his head. Its one thing to take a typewriter apart, he says. But I also know how to put them back together again. They dont call the violin a cello for kids, do they? Harald Truetsch in his ukulele shop A hundred metres around the corner, lies Paul Knopf, a shopping emporium spanning two shop fronts and several storage units. It is named after its owner, who is himself named after the only product he has sold over its counter for 32 years: buttons, millions of them, intricately filed by material, size and colour in drawers reaching up to the stuccoed ceiling. I dont know exactly how many buttons there are in this building in total, says Knopf, but I know there are more than I can sell before I die. A short walk east, at Gneisenaustrasse 52, Harald Truetsch has for almost 10 years sold only miniature string instruments: ukuleles made of wood or metal, banjoleles with plastic membranes, mandolins, South American cavaquinhos and tiny bass guitars. Big music shops often treat the ukulele as a second-rate instrument, as if it were just a guitar for children, says Truetsch, his long white hair flowing as he picks up his own uke from behind the counter. They dont call the violin a cello for kids, do they? Knopf, Moser and Truetsch have all survived the ongoing gentrification of their neighbourhoods in part because of lenient landlords. But they also run lean operations with low expenses Knopf has three employees to help tackle his intricate filing system, while the other two are one-man shows. Germanys strict laws around shop opening hours have allowed them to work solo without risking burnout: many hyper-specialists remain closed not just on Sundays but Mondays too. One sausage gave birth to another Silvia Wald in Aufschnitt Berlin, her textile meat shop in Friedrichshain And the threat online retailers pose to their business model is limited: Truetschs shop may be called Leleland.eu, but typing the url into a browser draws a blank page. When he tried selling his wares via an online shop he found the postal work overwhelming (With instruments, people want to try before they buy). Over the holidays, leleland.eu fills up with customers who have travelled from as far away as Argentina or Israel, and unlike with an adult-sized guitar, they know they will be able to take their purchases back on the plane. With the old guard of Berlins hyper-specialists proving surprisingly resilient, younger shop owners are taking a leaf out of their books. On Boxhagener Strasse in bustling Friedrichshain, the 38-year-old garment engineer Silvia Wald has set up shop in an old butchers store to sell the kind of wares older customers used to see behind the counter: legs of pork, chains of sausages, mortadella ham, bacon rashers but all made of fabric, to be used as decorative cushions. The shop was borne out of a marketing gag for her textile company, Aufschnitt (cold cuts). One sausage gave birth to another, says Wald, who ironically has been a vegetarian since her teens. She soon realised the shopfront was an excellent showroom to advertise the made-to-commission work taking place in the studio part of her 70 sq metre unit. In the year of her businesss 10th anniversary, she is also realising that specialists can sometimes specialise too much. Recently, Wald was commissioned to make a giant cushion in the shape of a currywurst, Berlins famed street food snack. Her client, the German capitals branch of Madame Tussauds, asked her if she knew a tailor who could make some fries to add as a side. Of course I can make some fries, I told them. They literally thought I could only make cushions that look like meat. I have sticky tapes mere mortals would never dare to dream of Hyper-specialists usually make for popular neighbours because they add character to an area. Since Ilse Bge opened Kad, Germanys first specialist liquorice store, on Kreuzbergs Grfestrasse 20 years ago, she has seen the entire area blossom. Known as the Grfekiez, the network of tree-lined cobbled streets has also attracted property investors from around the world, and some of the shops neighbours closed down when their landlord suddenly doubled the rent. We made this area attractive, now we could be punished for it, worries Bge. Katrin Lompscher, Berlins Die Linke (The Left) party senator for housing, has proposed extending the milieu protection measures, which currently protect low-income residents in select parts of the city from being pushed out by aggressive rent increases, to also apply to local shops. But Bge, who first started importing salty Dutch sweets for her personal cravings while studying economics, is in two minds. | https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/apr/29/are-the-hyper-specialist-shops-of-berlin-the-future-of-retail |
Why have America's black farmers disappeared? | John Boyd Jrs grandfather Thomas, the son of a slave, slept with the deed to his farm under his mattress. He worried constantly that his land would be taken away. Twenty miles away and three generations later, Boyd lives on his own 210-acre farm, in a big white colonial house with rows of soybeans that go almost up to the front door, like other people have grass. One hundred cattle, a cluster of guinea hogs, three goats and a small herding dog named Fatso, whom Boyd calls his best friend, live there. He feels more secure on his plot of land than Thomas did. But Boyd is an aberration. The number of black farmers in America peaked in 1920, when there were 949,889. Today, of the countrys 3.4 million total farmers, only 1.3%, or 45,508, are black. according to new figures from the US Department of Agriculture released this month. They own a mere 0.52% of Americas farmland. By comparison, 95% of US farmers are white. The black farmers who have managed to hold on to their farms eek out a living today. They make less than $40,000 annually, compared to over $190,000 by white farmers, which is likely because their average acreage is about one-quarter that of white farmers. As a fourth-generation farmer, Boyd has witnessed other black farmers do the same thing hes done: claw at the dirt in an attempt to hold on to it. And Boyd has devoted himself to helping other black farmers, always remembering the words he heard his grandfather Thomas mumble over and over: The land dont know color. The land never mistreated me, people do. Today hes come to understand two things: how the long fight he put up is just a drop in a rusted-out bucket, and exactly why there are so few black farmers left. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cattle graze near the pond on John Boyd Jrs farm just after sunrise in Baskerville, Virginia. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian In Baskerville, Virginia, huge sunrises turn ponds into fiery gulfs. Strangers in cars wave as they pass. Food is fried and smothered. Things move slowly. This is also Trump country, with support displayed on bumper stickers and hand-painted roadside signs. Dixieland, as Boyd calls it, has palpable racial tension. He is a big man with deep-set eyes usually in the shadow of a cowboy hat brim. His voice could rumble floorboards. Boyd, 53, seems most content bouncing in the seat of his tractor, smoke tufts marking his trail. Hell harvest the soybeans hes busy planting today in the fall, once theyre about knee-high. He needs 45 bushels from each acre to make a profit. To avoid being docked getting priced down for moisture or debris in the bushels he will ask his wife, Kara Brewer Boyd, to enlist her white stepfather to sell the beans for him. When the other man takes Boyds beans, hes not docked but complimented. I lose money if I sell them myself, he says. In 2019, that shouldnt be happening. I shouldnt be losing money because Im black. Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Boyd Jr takes his new Kubota cab tractor for a spin to see how well it prepares his land for planting soybeans. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian Boyds had time to get used to this mistreatment. His struggle for equal footing started as soon as he bought his first farm for $51,000 at age 18 in 1984. He went to the Farmers Home Administration, a lending branch of the USDA, about 90 miles from Baskerville to apply for operating loans. Year after year, his applications were denied or delayed. Looked at your application and we aint gonna be able to help you this year, he says the loan officer would tell him. Once, Boyd says, a white farmer interrupted their meeting, exchanged quick pleasantries with the loan officer, and walked out, having not even applied, with a check for $157,000. And Im begging for $5,000, Boyd recalls, shaking his head. In subsequent visits, the loan officer told Boyd he better learn to talk to him like other black folks did, took naps during meetings, threw Boyds applications straight into the trash and spat his chewing tobacco on Boyds shirt, claiming to have missed his spitoon. 'It's not fair, not right': how America treats its black farmers Read more The officer only took meetings with the nine black farmers in the county on Wednesdays. He would leave the door open and speak loudly and boastfully so that we could hear just how bad he was talking to each one of us, Boyd says. Boyd filed six complaints against the officer for discriminatory treatment and eventually the USDA Civil Rights Office of Virginia investigated the officer, who admitted to the treatment Boyd noted in his complaints. Boyd then filed and won the first-ever discrimination lawsuit against the USDA. Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Boyd Jr, at his 210-acre farm in Baskerville, Virginia. Boyd is a fourth-generation farmer, still fighting for black farmers rights and equal treatment. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian The successful investigation on Boyds behalf prompted other black farmers to come forward with their stories, and in 1995 Boyd founded the National Black Farmers Association after meeting with many black farmers and hearing similar USDA experiences. You should hear my story! he says. I was just trying to save my farm. But then I saw this was a huge national issue. In 1997, Boyd and 400 other black farmers sued the USDA in the landmark lawsuit Pigford v Glickman, which alleged that from 1981 to 1997, USDA officials ignored complaints brought to them by black farmers and that they were denied loans and other support because of rampant discrimination. In 1999, the government settled the case for $1bn, and over 16,000 black farmers received $50,000 each. But Boyd didnt know his work was just beginning. Facebook Twitter Pinterest John Boyd Jr greets one of his four horses on his farm in Baskerville, Virginia, on 22 April 2019. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian After that settlement made news, more black farmers came forward saying they didnt know about the lawsuit in time to apply for the money. This time, Boyd wasnt a plaintiff but an advocate on behalf of over 80,000 late claimants. In 2000, he began making trips to Washington to wait in hallways for politicians whose faces hed studied in congressional dictionaries, hoping to find a sponsor to push to reopen the case. That was a lonely battle out there on Capitol Hill. That was a bunch of lonely meetings, he says. He drove his old Mercedes the 200 miles to Washington, sometimes two or three times a week. When that approach seemed too subtle, the trip by mule and wagon took 17 days. By sputtering tractor, it took five. Sometimes he slept outside Capitol Hill in the wagon. Sometimes his cousin Ernest kept him company on the trip. Other times, farmers and their wives came with signs bearing slogans like, Black farmers have waited long enough. Meanwhile, he went to funerals of older black farmers who died hoping for compensation. His own crops and relationships suffered, most notably with his children. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Farm assistants Ernest Lambert, left, and Ira Gregory, right, hook up the cables for a disc harrow to John Boyd Jrs new tractor. Photograph: Greg Kahn/The Guardian There were a lot of down times where I would go home and [Congress] would have recess and I would see family members. Man, you need to give that up. You aint never going to win that, Boyd recalls them telling him. There were many times where I said, I dont know if I want to do this anymore. Finally, after eight years, Boyd got then-Senator Barack Obama to be the lead sponsor of the measure to reopen the case, and Congress set aside $100m to assess the late claims. In December 2010, as president, Obama signed a bill authorizing $1.25bn in compensation to the late claimants, settling the lawsuit known as Pigford II. The bill and a photo of Boyd shaking hands with Obama hang framed near the fireplace in his brick-floored living room. The pen Nancy Pelosi used to sign it is around the house somewhere, too. For Boyd, that moment, the ink absorbing into the paper, was the peak, the reward. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kara Brewer Boyd works in the living room of their home in Baskerville, Virginia. Some days I dont leave this chair, said Boyd, the event and program coordinator for the National Black Farmers Association founded by John. Photograph: Greg Kahn/GRAIN One night last November, Kara Boyd fell asleep in the recliner in the living room with her laptop open the night before the NBFA conference that month. She was in the throes of a near-all-nighter, getting last-minute details set. Into the evening, shed been on the phone with the printer making sure the welcome letter from Shreveports mayor, boasting that the conference would draw over 700 members from 42 states, was in the conference booklet. The Boyds see this free annual gathering as a chance to forge a support network for black farmers, and outline the USDA resources available to them. Their intentions and those of attendees havent always aligned. Inside the lobby of a hotel in downtown Shreveport, Louisiana, Boyd wore his favorite hat the rigid black size 7.5 Stetson and a pressed black suit. He was holding a cup of coffee, as usual, and shaking hands. But he was distracted and looking around, seemingly to gauge whod shown up. The audience of mostly men sat at half-full or empty linen-covered banquet tables. Some had put on suits with their cowboy boots, some of the wives were dressed for church. Throughout the two-day conference, Kara and USDA and bank representatives, who by design were mostly black, led discussions on how to apply for various loans, how to obtain a farm serial number and get wills in order. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/29/why-have-americas-black-farmers-disappeared |
Is The Financial Stability Board On Point With Enterprise Blockchain Adoption? | Getty Established in 2009, the Financial Stability Board is an international body that monitors and advises on global financial systems. When such a body declares that crypto assets are a development that could challenge existing global financial frameworks, even after the steep decline in the crypto market over the last few months, its a reminder to look beyond exchange prices. When one considers blockchain adoption and development, its understandable that the resurgence of crypto could disrupt the international economy. The chair of the Financial Stability Board, Randal K. Quarles, said in a February speech in Hong Kong that the Board would be reviewing its framework in order to stay ahead of potential vulnerabilities when it comes to financial stability. This will not be easy, he said. Developments like the emergence of crypto-assets may challenge any framework; but that makes the goal of a robust framework all the more important. Already in 2019, weve seen enterprise companies wade further into the blockchain space. Last week, GM announced its partnership with blockchain startup Spring Labs to develop solutions for identity verification and protection. At the same time, IBM announced that it would partner with several organizations to offer an IoT-meets-blockchain solution for groundwater management, in an area of California highly-susceptible to droughts. First, we have to remember that the blockchains utilized by these major players are, for the most part, private. This means that they do not rely on crypto to operate, because they do not require miners. However, this is still a step forward for the industry, because the usage of private blockchains will inevitably lead to usage of public blockchains. Permissioned blockchain deployments will inevitably transition into a 'hybrid approach' - permissioned blockchains anchored to a public-permissionless chain," told me Phil Zamani of the board of Samsung-backed Blocko, and CEO of AERGO, "and this will expose users and companies to crypto assets." Using crypto to pay for fees for business operations on a network, will slowly transition into using crypto to pay suppliers, said Zamani. Ultimately, it could lead to less of a reliance on fiat currencies. This means bad news for governments and central banks. Perhaps the effect of private, to hybrid, to public blockchains and the economic tsunami that would seem to ensue, is what the Financial Stability Board has in mind. After all, once enterprises fully adopt public blockchains, crypto-fans claim that the structure of banks and traditional stock trading as we know it might alter all-together. Though we need to remember, that if fiat eventually devalues as a result in the rise of crypto usage, this could cascade into a number of serious problems for world economies, including shifting the value of international debts. Financial networks are definitely low-hanging fruit in terms of potential disruption by crypto. But, so far, it's a lot of smoke and mirrors where gain is limited to the owner of these projects, until they embrace a public, decentralized application of the technology, said Pedro Anderson, Co-Founder of Winding Tree. We're not that far off, however. Some enterprise players, like Lufthansa, are catching on to blockchains real disruptive potential, taking the plunge. " History has shown that any attempt to fight technological progress is generally futile. Good or bad, the world is bracing for impact. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/yoavvilner/2019/04/29/is-the-financial-stability-board-on-spot-with-enterprise-blockchain-adoption/ |
Should Boeing Commit To New '797' NMA Now, While Addressing 737 MAX Issues? | During the Q1 call last week, Boeings Chairman, President and CEO, Dennis Muilenburg was reserved addressing questions over the New Middle-of-the-Market Aircraft (NMA), also known by industry watchers as the 797. The company is rightly focused on getting the 737 MAX back in the air, but the circumstances surrounding the 737 MAX may be an argument in favor of moving forward with the 797 program. Some industry analysts believe that Boeing would be smart to commit soon. Boeing At the latest Boeing Capital conference in New York, Boeing reiterated their belief in the market for the NMA as they find a gap between the narrow body market (150-200 pax/3000 NM) and the wide body market (350 PAX/above 6,000NM) that could be filled by the NMA; an aircraft with 250 seats or so, that they estimate to be in the 2,000 aircraft need, says Mylne Scholnick, Senior Advisor at ICF Aviation Group. At the earnings call for 1Q19, they were a little less firm on announcing it at the Paris Air Show as initially planned as they are putting all resources and focus on the Max situation. It was actually the first time they mention that there is a potential effect on the NMA from the MAX. They are still targeting to making it available by mid 2020s, but have made it now a potential opportunity with the board to make a firm decision. Fleet data from aviation industry market intelligence site ch-aviation GmBH, reveals a strong replacement market for the 797 NMA to fill. These aircraft, because of cargo or passenger capacity and range constraints, may not be easily be replaced by a 737MAX or A321LR. As of April 25, there are 737 active Boeing 767 aircraft operating for 88 carriers. Of these, 422 aircraft at 61 carriers are set up in a passenger configuration, and 38 carriers use the B767 on scheduled passenger flights. There are 669 active Boeing 757 aircraft operating for 61 carriers. Of these, 357 aircraft at 38 carriers are configured for passenger service and 16 carriers use the B757 actively on scheduled passenger flights. Some of the key customers for both aircraft types are U.S. Airlines, with Delta Air Lines at the lead, operating 78 Boeing 767s and 122 Boeing 757s. United Airlines operates 50 Boeing 767s and 76 Boeing 757s. American Airlines operates 22 Boeing 767s and 37 Boeing 757s. Airbus may have made Boeings best argument in favor of the NMA 797 program, by pointing out additional NMA demand from smaller narrowbody replacement. When the European manufacturer said that Boeings NMA might bleed orders from the 737 model, they were acknowledging an overlap of demand in aircraft range and capacity that might also bleed orders from the competing A320 program. Airbus own argument that the new A321LR (long range) variant satisfies a potential NMA market confirms the overlap. The challenges that the 737 MAX is confronting now, may put Boeing's potential share of that overlap market in question, but there's no guarantee that Airbus could satisfy the need. While the A321LR is well received, current 757 and 767 operators have not been rushing to the Airbus alternative. According to ch-aviation GmBH, the A321LR variant has received 161 orders, 81 of them to lessors. With the exception of TAP, which currently wet leases Boeing 767 aircraft, there is no overlap in customers on the order books. The A321LR may perform better in the upcoming Paris Air Show, however, with Airbus gaining from the loss of confidence in Boeing. If anything, this creates a sense of urgency for Boeing to announce a commitment to the NMA, removing doubt for those potential NMA customers who have been more than willing to wait, including Delta, United and American. Addison Schonland, airline industry analyst and founder of AirInsight, believes the fate of the NMA is difficult to predict, given Boeings 737 MAX priorities. This is the $64m question, Schonland says. I think that the MAX faces an uphill return. Under normal circumstances, Boeing would proceed with 797, but its clear the case for 797 is tough. Boeing has taken a long time to get here. It would seem that the 787 delays have trickled down a long way. Last year, at the Farnborough Airshow, GE made the argument that the market extent [for the NMA] was a question. Given a tight market and uphill battle for MAX, Boeing might push 797 harder and faster, but Boeing seems determined to save the MAX. Other than the MAX 8, Airbus is cleaning up on the larger models. There a lot of moving parts and tough trade-offs. The question facing those airlines in the lower end of the middle market is whether their operational needs are best satisfied by stretching the engineering limits of existing designs, or by waiting to find the right fit. Boeing can help airlines answer that question. Airlines are using larger narrow-body aircraft and the order book for the A321 is high, which is why Boeing needs a response, says Scholnick. The NMA would be a revenue driver for Boeing and next source of success. The R&D and capital needed for the NMA would be around $5-7 billion and before MAX issue, it was not a problem, Scholnick says. It is still not a problem for Boeing but all will depend on the length of the grounding. I believe it is very much on the table, it will just be a matter of managing the timing of it as Boeing would not want to appear distracted by the NNA while solving the MAX, Scholnick adds. As soon as MAX issues are solved and confidence is regained, all these points are key drivers for Boeing to move ahead. Perhaps the strongest argument is that the NMA would give Boeing an opportunity to flex it engineering muscles, helping to shift the conversation away from the challenges of the 737 MAX as the manufacturer regains industry confidence. The demand is there, airlines want larger narrow-body aircraft and new technology in place. If the Max is resolved quickly, then it will be back on the table in a firmer way as Boeing needs to have a new airframe for the next decade, Scholnick says. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisagarcia/2019/04/29/should-boeing-commit-to-new-797-nma-now-while-addressing-737-max-issues/ |
Will Putin help or hurt situation with North Korea? | Vladimir Putin has just made the North Korean situation more complicated. But the Russian president may have also opened up a new pathway to sidestep the current impasse between North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and Americas Donald Trump. Putin has done this by the simple action of reinserting himself into the middle of the on-again off-again Korean nuclear crisis. His first-ever meeting with Kim last week in the Russian city of Vladivostok served as a signal that Moscow expects to be a part of any negotiations involving the Korean Peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attend a reception on Thursday following their talks at the Far Eastern Federal University campus on Russky island in the far-eastern Russian port of Vladivostok. ( KCNA VIA KNS / AFP/GETTY IMAGES ) Up to now, Putin has lain low and let others take the lead. Russia has supported, in theory at least, U.S.-led sanctions aimed at forcing North Korea to end its nuclear missile program. At the same time, Moscow has supported Chinese efforts to try and end the conflict between Washington and Pyongyang on a step-by-step basis in which each side agrees to give up something. Russias main interest to date has been to establish trade and infrastructure links with South Korea via the North. To that end, Putin has met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Article Continued Below But now the Russian president is suggesting a more direct role for Moscow in any future U.S.-North Korean talks. At Vladivostok, he said that North Korea will have to receive security guarantees from the U.S. and other unnamed countries before it gives up its nuclear arsenal. And he hinted that he would be amenable to the resumption of the so-called six-party talks on North Koreas nuclear future. Those talks, which collapsed in 2009 amidst mutual recriminations, involved North and South Korea, Japan, China, the U.S. and Russia. Russias reengagement in the Korean Peninsula comes at a time when relations between Kims regime and the Trump administration are once again at a stalemate. There had been a brief thaw, sparked by North Koreas surprise decision to take part in the 2018 Seoul Olympics and culminating in a summit later that year in Singapore between Kim and Trump. Indeed, for a while it seemed the stars were aligned for some kind of peace deal between the two sworn enemies. Kim seemed willing to take a chance on peace. So too, for different reasons, did Trump. In those heady months, South Koreas Moon Jae-in acted as a go-between, massaging Trumps ego with visions of a Nobel Peace Prize and at the same time assuring Kim that the Americans had become more flexible. But the two sides could never square the circle. Kim was unwilling to give up his hard-won nuclear capacity. The U.S. was unwilling to accept anything less. Americas obduracy increased when Trump, for reasons best known to himself, appointed Mike Pompeo as secretary of state and John Bolton as national security adviser. Both are notoriously hawkish on North Korea. Article Continued Below With these men in positions of power to advise the president, it should have come as no surprise that the second Trump-Kim summit this one in Hanoi would fail. And fail it did. Trump offered a so-called grand bargain that Kim could not accept an end to North Koreas entire nuclear missile program in exchange for lifting all sanctions against Pyongyang. Kim countered with a step-by-step deal that Trump would not accept halting some nuclear activities in exchange for lifting some sanctions. The Hanoi failure also tarnished Moons reputation as a useful go-between. The South Korean government seemed just as surprised by Trumps take-it-or-leave-it strategy as the North. In the weeks following Hanoi, the Norths attitude toward Seoul became visibly chillier. In this context, Putins decision to reinvolve Russia is a wild card. Like him or loathe him, the Russian leader is a skilful international operator. Depending on what he wants to accomplish, he could make matters worse. Or he could improve them by helping Kim come to some kind of arrangement with the rest of the world. Certainly, South Koreas Moon is optimistic. In a statement, he said he hoped the Kim-Putin summit would lead to more talks between the U.S. and North Korea. And he invited Putin to visit South Korea. Thomas Walkom is a Toronto-based columnist covering politics. Follow him on Twitter: @tomwalkom Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/04/29/will-putin-help-or-hurt-situation-with-north-korea.html |
Could our ongoing sixth extinction be called deliberate? | Over the past decade, a conversation has played out in the scientific community about the ethical implications of intentionally causing the extinction of disease-bearing mosquitoes. Many scientists believe the world could likely survive just fine without them, while others point to the many unknowns in functioning ecosystems. For example, researchers recently discovered that the biting midge is the only known pollinator of cacao. If it were eradicated, we would (gasp!) lose chocolate. There have been other intentional attempts at extinction. Witness the actions of the American army in the 1870s to wipe out buffalo on the Great Plains, as a way of forcing the Sioux, Kiowa and Comanche tribes onto reserves. The buffalo once numbered over 30 million but were very nearly driven to extinction as a result of commercial trade and a directive by the army to starve Indigenous peoples and destroy their traditional way of life. A Siberian tiger is seen at the Hengdaohezi Siberian Tiger Park in China in 2017. Runaway consumption has decimated global wildlife, triggered a mass extinction and exhausted Earth's capacity to accommodate humanity's expanding appetites, the global conservation group WWF warned on Oct 30. ( NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP/GETTY IMAGES ) Some historical extinctions blur the line of intentionality. Passenger pigeons, which summered in Canada, used to be plentiful, but North Americans hunted them until they became scarce, and continued to hunt them in the late 1800s when their population was in peril, until they were wiped out. Great thinkers have opined that apathy is not only a passive state; it can serve to enable negative actions. According to Albert Einstein, The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything. In the words of Martin Luther King, To ignore evil is to become an accomplice to it. In Jane Goodalls opinion, The greatest threat to our future is apathy. Article Continued Below While historical extinction events had natural causes (erupting volcanoes, or the impacts from meteors, comets or asteroids), the sixth mass extinction, which we are currently in the midst of, is the first one caused by one species upon its fellow creatures. One thing is certain: We currently face numerous crises climate, social and biodiversity. It is easy to tune out, but our apathy only serves to uphold the status quo. Action is the best antidote to despair, and the only path toward change. Its time to face the problem and call on our government to do better for wildlife. Rachel Plotkin is the Boreal Project Manager for the David Suzuki Foundation. | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/04/29/could-our-ongoing-sixth-extinction-be-called-deliberate.html |
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