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When Is 'No' The Right Answer? | Being an entrepreneur takes tenacity, drive, and a never quit attitude. You must be relentless, you cant give up, and you must never take no for an answer. Its basically page one of the entrepreneurial guidebook. You dont want to dive unyielding on an idea or project that ultimately has no chance of success, yet you cant be so malleable that you change directions at the slightest resistance or adversity. Welcome to yet another paradox of being an entrepreneur. Ive been working with some of the worlds top business minds and successful entrepreneurs, and make no mistake, they do not take no for an answer when there is a certain path to an eventual yes. Yet very few of them will ever advise you to follow their path. Thats because the road to success is often paved with an unpredictable combination of talent, opportunity, hard work, good fortune, bad luck, repeated failures and painful mistakes. When I speak at high schools or colleges Im often asked about how I broke into the entertainment industry. After failing miserably to get my TV show made in Canada, I was determined to sell it in Hollywood. While I saw this as a huge opportunity, everyone else in my world saw it as continuing a futile exercise. At the time, I was living in my parents basement with my wife and 2 year-old son, so when my Dad sat me down and told me to give it up and get a real job, it wasnt unreasonable advice. But I refused to accept it. I remember making a chart of possibilities on a dinner napkin to help convince my wife to let me max out our last credit card for the flight to Los Angeles. One month later, I sold the show to NBC, and the rest is a beautiful ending to a very rough and rocky journey. I framed that napkin and its hanging in my office today. Its an inspiring story but its also a cautionary tale. Never give up, but dont do things like I did. brant pinvidic I recently interviewed Kathy Ireland about her incredible journey from supermodel to super mogul. 25 years ago, as the modeling jobs started to fade, Kathy decided to go back to her entrepreneurial roots and launch her own company. She decided to start with a pair of socks. I believe growing up I saw (dare I say studied) every picture of her and I certainly dont remember her wearing any socks. Several condescending doubters told her to stick to swimwear and hair care, and Kathy heard no over and over. So Kathy looked critically at her idea and the brand and asked herself, why are they saying no? Only after she couldnt find anyone with a valid answer did she feel confident enough to turn it up to 11 on the relentless scale. Eventually, Kathy got those socks into stores and managed to sell a few pair. By a few, I mean 100 million pairs. Yes, you read that correctly, 100 million pairs of socks. For more than 20 years kathy ireland Worldwide has continued to be one of the top licensing companies in the world with more than 2 billion a year in retail sales on products from home furnishings to jewelry. When Kathy believes in something she absolutely will not take no for an answer. But she objectively asks why are they saying no? and shes always open to the idea of not being right. Five minutes with her and you realize shes a top level CEO that happens to be a supermodel, not the other way around. If you cant say yes to both these questions, you most likely need some perspective. You have to be prepared to accept defeat in the battle so you have the ability to come back and win the war. I know this is counterintuitive to what most self-help gurus, motivational speakers and celebrity award speeches tell you, but youd be wise not to only take advice from those whove found success. Try talking to the failed restaurant owner that set up in a questionable location, or someone who continued to try and launch a product until they went bankrupt. They probably pushed passed the no dozens if not hundreds of times. Its crucial to know the difference between self-doubt and situational doubt. Self-doubt is self defeating, situational doubt is self preserving. One of the most influential forces in my career transition has been Tony Robbins. His methods have helped me silence the noise of useless self-doubt and negativity. By doing so Im able to hear the situational factors, things like analysis, gut instinct, intuition, and risk/reward. Those are the inner voices you want to pay attention to. Jason Goldberg Tony doesnt say that you can be successful at anything. No, he teaches you not to be your own limiting factor. He will guide you to unleash the best version of yourself so you can achieve the absolute highest level of your potential. But where you point that unstoppable energy is rather important. If youre going to fire the cannon, make sure its aimed at the right target. Even Tony Robbins wouldnt try to overcome market conditions or consumer buying habits with just a positive attitude. So if you are struggling to break through and facing an onslaught of naysayers, its ok to pump the break, take stock, and make sure that youre on the right track. Just because everyone is telling you no, it doesnt mean that theyre all wrong. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/brantpinvidic/2019/04/09/when-is-no-the-right-answer/ |
What is Cincinnati's best view? | Buy Photo From the building that houses the Primavista restaurant: Fireworks light up the sky over the City of Cincinnati with a vantage point from the Queens Tower in East Price Hill celebrating Labor Day with a Riverfest celebration Sunday Sept. 5, 2010. (Photo: The Enquirer/Jeff Swinger) Well, hey there, Cincinnati, you look great in your spring colors. Please pay no mind to us taking in your beauty from several angles. We swear it's not creepy. You see, there are so many ways to take in the Queen City's majesty that we have to narrow down which of the Tristate's resplendent views does it justice. There's Ault Park, Mount Adams, Mount Echo, Bellevue Park and even the Cut in the Hill that offer most pleasing vistas. That's up to you. The Enquirer is asking its readers, who know better the kaleidoscope of the Cincinnati landscape than anyone, which perspective is best. The view doesn't necessarily have to include the Downtown skyline or the Ohio River, but simply provide a framing of the complexity of our home in the most engaging, captivating way. Here's our bracket of contestants. Let us know on Twitter @Enquirer and we will add a play in bracket of the two best views we missed. Ault Park Prospect Hill Cut in the Hill Carmel Manor Shawnee Lookout Eden Park Mount Adams Devou Park Mount Echo Olden View Park Top of the Radisson Hotel Prima Vista/Incline Public House Carew Tower Olden View park Bellevue Park Fairview Park Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2019/04/09/what-cincinnatis-best-view/82979092/ | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2019/04/09/what-cincinnatis-best-view/82979092/ |
Could Dogs Be the Secret to Early Cancer Detection? | Scientists have discovered a breakthrough that could lead to earlier lung cancer diagnosis. According to a new study conducted by BioScentDx firm researchers, a group of beagles were able to identify 96.7 percent of lung cancer cells in blood samples from human subjects, while maintaining a 97 percent success rate of identifying healthy blood samples in a separate control group. You may already be familiar with the fact that dogs have one of the most advanced senses of smelltheir smell receptors are 10,000 times more accurate than humans, making them highly sensitive to scents that humans could never perceive. While dogs are commonly used to sniff out illicit items in law enforcement and troublesome allergens for special needs owners, previous research has found that dogs can correctly identify the scent of Parkinson's disease and can tell when diabetics are suffering from dangerously low blood sugar levels. The fact that dogs are able to sniff out cancerous cells in the bloodstream is a new discovery, however: The study, which included four dogs in trials, used a form of clicker training to teach these dogs how to distinguish between normal blood and blood with malignant lung cancer. Only one of the dogs, who goes by the name Snuggles, didn't feel like participating, but the other three dogs then correctly identified lung cancer samples in a series of tests. "Although there is currently no cure for cancer, early detection offers the best hope of survival," Heather Junqueira, the lead researcher at BioScentDx, told The Telegraph. "A highly sensitive test for detecting cancer could potentially save thousands of lives and change the way the disease is treated." Researchers hope to use canine scent detection to develop a new way of screening for cancer and other life-threatening diseases. They've launched a new study targeting breast cancer last November, and they hope to recreate similar results once more. Junqueira and her team will present the study at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual symposium during the 2019 Experimental Biology convention later this week. | https://news.yahoo.com/could-dogs-secret-early-cancer-142429352.html |
Will Functional Genomics Cure Big Pharma's Failure Rate? | Drug discovery is a notoriously expensive and inefficient endeavor. Nine of 10 drug candidates that go through the cost-intensive, years-long clinical trial process never make it to market. That 90% failure ratea drag on medical progress and a factor often cited by pharmaceutical companies to justify sky-high drug priceshas proven frustratingly sticky even in an era of breakneck scientific and technological advancements. Consider: its been nearly two decades since President Bill Clinton announced the completion of the first-ever survey of the human genome, an epic-making triumph of science and reason that Clinton said would bring immense, new power to heal and cure diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinsons, diabetes, and cancer by attacking their genetic roots. Those lofty goals are still very much a work in progress, but Hal Barron, the head of R&D for the U.K.-based pharmaceutical giant GSK, thinks the industry may at last be on the cusp of a meaningful and productive genetic revolution. Though Barron, a cardiologist who previously held leadership roles at Genentech and Alphabets immortality lab Calico, hesitates to make such sweeping claims, he said at Fortunes Brainstorm Health conference in San Diego last week that this moment feels different. The genome sequencing efforts of the past, while foundational, offered limited structural insight he explained. Scientists could decode the DNA and identify mutations in a chain of base pairs, but the sequencing did little to explain the resulting biologyor how those mutations affect the way genes function (and in turn, impact the humans who hold them). Hes optimistic about the current moment because of a handful of technologiesnamely cheaper, high-throughput DNA sequencing and deep learninghave recently and simultaneously made the study of functional genomics feasible for big pharma companies like GSK. Functional genomics, he explained, can help link the genetic variant to function, solve the genetic mysteries that have piled up in recent years (why 30% of individuals with a certain mutation get Parkinsons Disease, but the other 70% does not, for example) and pinpoint drug targets. Barron says data shows drug development is twice as likely to succeed when the drug target is genetically validated. A handful of genetic databases, from the UK Biobank to 23andMes consenting customer pool (GSK did a deal with the genetic testing company last summer), have made the validation work more possible. As has deep learning, with its power to analyze the massive, multidimensional, wildly complicated data sets that make up human biology said Barron. The research chief said its early days for functional genomics and that GSKs program is in its infancy, but he plans to move quickly. Said Barron: Were hoping to be the leaders. For more coverage of Fortunes Brainstorm Health conference, click here. For news delivered daily to your inbox, subscribe to Fortunes Brainstorm Health Daily newsletter. | https://news.yahoo.com/functional-genomics-cure-big-pharma-155751638.html |
Is Lyme Disease Curable? | In much of the country, spring and summer mean warmer weather and spending more time outdoors. Unfortunately, it also means that the ticks that carry Lyme disease bacteria may be out in full force, especially in wooded or grassy areas. About 30,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported each year to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although experts estimate that 10 times that amount may actually be infected. Thats concerning, because if left untreated, Lyme disease can cause nerve damage, memory loss, dangerous inflammation around the heart, and other permanent health problems. But the good news is that Lyme disease is also very treatableespecially when its diagnosed soon after symptoms begin. Lyme disease is always curable, Daniel Kuritzkes, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, tells Health. The medications we have are very effective at getting rid of the infection. Heres what else you need to know. Lyme disease is usually diagnosed when a person develops a bull's-eye rash, flu-like symptoms (like fatigue, fever, chills, and muscle pain), or both. These symptoms usually start a few days or weeks after the person is bitten by an infected tick. A two-step blood test can verify the presence of Lyme disease antibodies, although it does take a few weeks for those antibodies to develop. And despite what some physicians and advocacy groups claim, a blood test is the only way Lyme disease can be confirmed, Larry Zemel, MD, head of rheumatology at Connecticut Childrens Medical Center, tells Health. Some doctors say they can diagnose Lyme even when patients test negative repeatedly, but that has not been borne out by any scientific study, he says. When people are diagnosed with Lyme disease in its early stages, a 10- to 20-day course of oral antibioticsusually with a drug called doxycyclinewill clear the infection and help them feel better fairly quickly. This cures the vast majority of people, and they have a 100% recovery with no lasting effects, says Dr. Zemel. If Lyme disease isnt diagnosed right away, it can cause more serious symptoms like arthritis and memory problems. These people may need a full month of oral antibiotics, says Dr. Zemel. About 20% of these patients will need IV antibiotics (if oral drugs dont help), and they may also need other medications to treat symptoms like pain and muscle stiffness. Sometimes, a shorter course of antibiotics can be given preemptively, before symptoms of Lyme disease begin. Doctors may prescribe this treatment if a person knows they were bitten by a tick within the last 72 hours, suspects that the tick was attached to their skin for at least 24 hours, and was in an area where Lyme disease is prevalent. Theres roughly a two-day window in which preventive antibiotics can work, says Dr. Zemel. Its certainly possible for people to get Lyme disease and to clear the infection on their own, without treatment, says Dr. Kuritzkes. But its better to be treated, because some of the complicationslike arthritis and myocarditis and damage to the central nervous systemcan be very serious. The type of bacteria that causes Lyme disease is in the same general family as the type that causes syphilis, Dr. Kuritzkes explains. That doesnt mean anything similar in terms of transmission, but syphilis has several different phases, with primary and secondary and tertiary symptoms, he says. Lyme disease symptoms can begin anywhere from three to 30 days after transmission of the infection from a tick. If treated early on with antibiotics, most people feel better within a few weeks, says Dr. Zemel. According to the CDC, its not uncommon for people to experience lingering symptoms like fatigue and joint or muscle pain for a few weeks or months after treatment. Additional antibiotics wont help these symptoms, however, and most people improve on their own over time. In a small percentage of cases, people continue to experience symptoms for more than six months after their recommended course of antibiotics is completed. This is sometimes referred to as chronic Lyme diseasebut that name is misleading, says Dr. Kuritzkes, because there is no evidence that the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is still present in the body. Instead, the CDC refers to this condition as post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS). As with many other kinds of infectious diseases, some people are left with some debilitating symptoms that dont go away, says Dr. Kuritzkes. I like to compare it to polio: Some people who had polio are left paralyzed, but that doesnt mean they have chronic polio; they have permanent damage from the infection, even after its gone away. Its possible that Lyme infection leads to some damage that we dont fully understand yet, Dr. Kuritzkes adds. But we do know that long-term or repeated courses of antibiotics have no benefit in these cases. (Be wary of doctors who call themselves Lyme literate and recommend ongoing antibiotics or other unproven treatments, he adds, since these techniques are not backed up by science and can sometimes be harmful.) If you're treated for Lyme disease and don't feel better after youve finished your treatment, talk to your doctor. He or she may recommend a longer course of antibiotics or may be able to prescribe another medication to help with symptoms like joint or muscle pain. You might also want to seek a second opinion, especially if your Lyme disease diagnosis was not initially confirmed via a two-step blood test. If your body has not responded to antibiotics, its possible that something else besides the bacteria that causes Lyme disease is making you sick. In 2017, for example, the CDC reported on a woman who was given antibiotics and herbal remedies to treat her chronic Lyme disease, when she actually hadand eventually died fromamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Even if you do recover completely from a Lyme disease diagnosis, your immune system may continue making antibodies to fight Lyme disease bacteria for months or even years after the infection is gone. (Because of this, you may continue to test positive for these antibodies even if you are no longer sick.) Those antibodies wont protect you from getting a second Lyme disease infection, however, so be sure to take steps to protect yourself from ticks in the future. Get more on Lyme disease here. | https://news.yahoo.com/lyme-disease-curable-152350957.html |
Did Justin Trudeau break the law by kicking Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott out of caucus? | OTTAWA Former cabinet minister Jane Philpott rose in the House of Commons Tuesday morning to speak on a point of privilege, asking the Speaker of the House of Commons to consider whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau violated the law by unilaterally removing her and former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould from the Liberal Party caucus last week. She appealed to Speaker Geoff Regan to rule that their rights had been denied and their privileges as members of Parliament breached on the basis of the 2015 Reform Act, which set rules around the administration of party caucuses. This matter is urgent. Procedural fairness and the rule of law demand this. Secret in-camera meetings or private notices should not be a shield to prevent the upholding of the law and members rights, Philpott told the Commons. This is very concerning. It speaks to the rule of law at the heart of our democracy, Conservative MP Michael Chong, who authored the Reform Act, told the National Post in an interview shortly after she made her arguments. In a brief speech last Tuesday Trudeau announced his decision to remove Philpott and Wilson-Raybould from caucus after both resigned from cabinet in the wake of the SNC-Lavalin scandal. Wilson-Raybould testified that Trudeau and his top officials tried pressuring her, for political reasons, to cut a deal for Montreal engineering firm SNC-Lavalin so it could avoid criminal prosecution for fraud and bribery. Both initially stayed members of the Liberal caucus, citing their faith in the partys policies despite a lack of confidence in the prime ministers handling of the affair. But Trudeau said last week the caucus has lost trust in the two former ministers. Weve taken every effort to address their concerns but ultimately if they cant honestly say that they have confidence in this team despite weeks of testimony, face-to-face conversations and phone calls with myself and other members of caucus, then they cannot be part of this team. Trudeau announced the decision as his own, and Philpott argued Tuesday Liberal MPs never had a chance to have their say even though the Parliament of Canada Act was amended in 2015, with Chongs Reform Act, so that these types of situations could be avoided. The Reform Act, which amended the Canada Elections Act and the Parliament of Canada Act, spells out rules around expulsions and readmissions of caucus members, the election or removal of caucus chairs, leadership reviews and the election of interim leaders. The act requires caucuses, after each general election, to hold four votes on whether or not a majority of MPs in each party wants to abide by the rules it sets out on its four topics. Neither the Liberals nor the NDP did so after the 2015 election. On expulsions, heres what it has to say: A member of caucus can only be expelled, according to the Reform Act, if the caucus chair has received a written notice signed by at least 20 per cent of the members of the caucus requesting that the members membership be reviewed and if the expulsion of the member is approved by secret ballot by a majority of all caucus members. Neither of those things happened in this case. Philpott said it would have taken a recorded vote in which 90 Liberal MPs voted to expel her and Wilson-Raybould, according to the rules laid out in the law yet no such vote took place. We were expelled prior to the commencement of the Liberal caucus meeting, she argued in the House Tuesday. To fail to allow Liberal MPs to vote on those rules was inherently an illegal act, said Chong. Ive been concerned about it for three-and-a-half years, he said, since the Liberals held their first caucus meeting without recording those votes and reporting the results to the Speaker, which the law required them to do. What shes arguing is that Trudeau breached the privileges of his Liberal MPs by not allowing them to vote on the administration of their own caucus back in November 2015, after the federal election, in accordance with the law. As a result, she is arguing, Philpotts and Wilson-Rayboulds privileges were breached when Trudeau made a unilateral decision to remove them. And the rights of the entire Liberal caucus were breached because they didnt have an opportunity to vote on that decision by secret ballot. Chong said Philpott spoke with him about the topic before going ahead with her arguments on Tuesday morning, and he told the Post he is fully on board with them. This point of privilege she has raised is vitally important because if there is no recourse here to enforce the rights of members, there is no other place, he said. Courts have repeatedly ruled they do not have jurisdiction over matters of parliamentary administration, so he believes this is the only way for it to be enforced. Two weeks ago, a Conservative MP raised similar issues when he complained that it seemed MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes had resigned from the Liberal caucus because she was forced out. Had the Reform Act rules been in place, he argued, there wouldve had to have been a vote. If you, Mr. Speaker, decline to exercise jurisdiction to entertain breaches of the statute here, then members of caucuses, like the Liberal caucus who flagrantly ignore the law, have no protection and no recourse when their rights are trampled. Because of the lack of judicial recourse, general restraint on speakers interpreting the law and the Houses privilege to manage internal affairs, I respectfully submit that the way forward, indeed the only way forward, is to allow the House to deal with this matter, John Nater argued. Caesar-Chavannes ultimately confirmed that she had left of her own accord. And the speaker had come back on Monday, the day before Philpott made her arguments, with a ruling that he didnt have the jurisdiction anyway. As relayed by Deputy Speaker Bruce Stanton, Regans ruling said asking the House to deal with an expulsion from caucus was not a proper subject for a question of privilege. Further, I as speaker have no role in the interpretation of statute nor in the conduct of these 2015 provisions. Philpott acknowledged that ruling on Tuesday morning. But with respect it is our view that this does not relieve you of your responsibility to ensure that all members are aware of their rights in this place. This is our privilege. Accordingly, a remedy is required for our situation, she said. The House will have to wait for Regan to come back with an opinion on the issue. If he does find a prima facie breach of privilege, Philpott will be able to move that the matter be referred to a parliamentary committee. Liberals have a majority in the House and on committees including the two committees that recently decided not to pursue any further investigation of the SNC-Lavalin issue. Asked whether hes hopeful that some of them will vote to look at what happened here, Chong said, We have to try. We cant give up. I hope that our House of Commons is strong enough to adjudicate this and to seek justice. with files from The Canadian Press Email: [email protected] | Twitter: mariedanielles | https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/did-justin-trudeau-break-the-law-by-kicking-jody-wilson-raybould-and-jane-philpott-out-of-caucus |
When mining companies work abroad, should justice follow them home? | Growing up, Irma Yolanda Choc Cac recalls hearing stories about the government-backed violence that tore apart her verdant, mountainous community of Lote Ocho. Her grandparents were killed there during Guatemalas 36-year civil war, which took the lives of 200,000 people most of them indigenous, like the Maya Qeqchi residents where Ms. Choc Cac lives. If Im ever in a situation like that, I will fight back, she says through a Qeqchi interpreter, sitting by the calm waters of Lake Izabal in eastern Guatemala. Since 2007, that pledge to stand up for her heritage and land has been put to the test. Recommended: After California wildfires, what survivors say they gained from loss Ms. Choc Cac and 10 women from her subsistence-farming community say they were gang-raped by police, military, and security personnel from the nearby Canadian-owned nickel mine as they were evicted from their ancestral lands outside El Estor. After the rapes some of which the women say occurred in front of their children their homes and belongings were burned to the ground. We were left without anything, sleeping under the mountains, Ms. Choc Cac says, tugging on her purple woven huipil tunic. She never considered herself an activist: married at 14, she didnt study, and says she lived a traditional life like my mother and grandmother before me, growing corn and beans and tending to animals. But today, her battle on this patch of land in Guatemala is one of several cases pushing through the Canadian justice system, with the potential to set groundbreaking precedents on what responsibility Canadian headquarters bear for subsidiary operations on the ground. Accusations abound of international companies behaving abroad in ways that would not be tolerated on their home turf, from the targeting of high-profile environmental activists, to widespread intimidation in resource-rich communities, particularly in places with weak justice systems. Often, a string of subsidiaries separate the parent company from day-to-day operations, further complicating legal responsibility. But todays cases are shifting expectations both at home and abroad about holding foreign companies to account for allegations of abuse and negligence outside their borders. Canada is home to almost half the worlds publicly listed mining and exploration companies meaning the countrys legal resolution will have consequences around the world. Canadian mining operations are present in more than 100 nations, according to government statistics. The cases come as shareholders and consumers have been pressing companies for more ethical practices. But these cases are also raising questions, from Canadian judges to rural Guatemalan communities, about current disparities regarding whats lawful and acceptable. Youre starting now to see the lawyers ... understand how the Canadian system deals with human rights and consultation and comparing that to the Guatemalan approach, says Joe Fiorante, the lawyer for plaintiffs in two of the three cases moving through Canadas justice system. More people are asking, If Canada has rules to protect their indigenous people or give them proper consultation, why would indigenous Guatemalans have fewer rights when theyre dealing with a Canadian mining company? CROSSING COUNTRIES Canadian mining firms account for 40 percent of large mining operations in Latin America, and there have long been accusations of abuse at their operations on the ground. But conflicts have grown as exploration has intensified, says Shin Imai, a law professor at York University and director of the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project. Mining Association of Canada (MAC) figures from 2017 show that Canadian direct investment in mining abroad more than tripled from 1999 to 2016. From 2000 to 2015, meanwhile, there were alleged cases of violence and criminal acts involving 28 Canadian mining companies in Latin America, including 44 deaths and 403 injuries, according to tallies by Professor Imais group. A decade ago, Canadian courts were reluctant to try these cases domestically, says Ian Binnie, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice whom lawyers cite as an influence on their arguments about accountability. | https://news.yahoo.com/mining-companies-abroad-justice-them-home-154635113.html |
Why does the City hate brown shoes? | And so the big brown-shoe debate rages on. Speaking at a conference, an unnamed lawyer has told trainees never to wear brown shoes with a blue suit. A study by the governments Social Mobility Commission in 2016 found that investment banks are less likely to hire men who wear brown shoes to an interview. The former editor of the Daily Mail Paul Dacre hated them (although, to be fair, Dacre hated a lot of things and probably still does). Its the old no brown in town adage. I admit Im not totally up to speed on this, as well as being an offender: Im currently in town in brown, although this being the Guardian offices, perhaps thats OK. Peter York, cultural commentator and arbiter of style, class and everything else is on hand to help. It was always considered a bad thing to wear brown shoes in the City, he says. In the country, everything is different, but in town you had to be sensible, you had to be formal, you had to observe a palette that had to be dark blue or grey with black. No other considerations were possible. And, although the shoe situation has become more nuanced (if youre in a less formal part of town or a less formal profession, you might get away with brown), the rulebook hasnt yet been booted out entirely. Brown loafers, with navy-blue corduroy jeans. But that is because hes at home. If he was visiting an analyst at a big bank (I dont think he means the Co-op), he would be wearing a very plain and tremendously boring blue suit. And plain, black Oxfords. Unless you do! You dont want to accidentally distract people with your footwear, when you want them to concentrate on what you say and what you are proposing. Justin Myers, an author and GQ columnist, isnt a lover of black shoes because theyre boring and safe, and they remind him of school. And they have a tendency to look cheap even when theyre not. Myers doesnt like rules such as no brown in town either. Its always about trying to make someone feel left out. Usually, these weirdo rules are born out of peoples own insecurities. Its all about the British obsession with class and keeping people out. When you cant find anything else to fault someone on, then look at the shoes. He is wearing bright green trainers, but thats because he has been to the gym. There is a lot more brown than black in his shoe arsenal, he says. Brown shoes show someone more at ease with themselves because of that old rule: the height of class is breaking the rules. Now, Im feeling better, looking down, in town, proudly wearing the brown. Although I could probably do with some new ones. | https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/apr/09/why-does-the-city-hate-brown-shoes |
Is the bill to ban red light cameras in Texas dead? | The bill, authored by Bedford Rep. Jonathan Stickland, would prohibit cities from operating "a photographic traffic signal system" or issuing civil or criminal fines based on a "recorded image," and repeal state laws that allow for these systems. Outlawing traffic cameras is popular with voters, and, this year, also top politicians. Gov. Greg Abbott supports it, and, by February, Stickland's bill had more than 100 House members signed on, far more than it needs to pass the House. Canales is one of them. But he changed his mind about supporting the bill, Canales said this week, after hearing from law enforcement officers who support traffic cameras. They pointed to studies that show deadly "angle" or T-bone crashes decrease when these cameras are in place, studies that also include the caveat that the presence of red light cameras could result in more rear-end collisions. Last week, Stickland grabbed headlines when another of his bills was declared dead after an activist showed up at the home of Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen to pressure him for his support. Bonnen's home, where his wife and children were at the time, was placed under surveillance. Stickland issued a statement criticizing such behavior soon after the news broke Friday. Canales said this incident did not affect his decision to hold up the red light camera bill: "At this point, it's not anything related to the apology or his behavior that's holding his bill. I am. I am holding the bill because I've got policy concerns." | https://www.dallasnews.com/news/texas-legislature/2019/04/09/bill-ban-red-light-cameras-texas-dead |
How Have Trading Functions Changed Since The Global Financial Crisis? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Olivier Bossard, Exec Director of the MSc Finance, HEC Paris Business School, on Quora: Since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008, trading functions have seen more than an evolution, I would rather call it a R-evolution! This revolution has accelerated over the last three years, and especially today as we get into the eleventh anniversary of the GFC. First of all, from a prudential perspective, trading activities are increasingly regulated, enabling financial participants, starting with banks, to identify and apprehend potentially risky trading activities earlier and with less disruption than before. In particular, the Basel Committee has implemented a revision of the Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB), which has come into full force 3 months ago, in January 2019. Meanwhile, the rules published in 2016 under the title "Minimum Capital Requirements for Market Risk" have already changed the way traders operate in their risk management activities. Without going into too much technical detail, a financial market trader must now calculate risk indicators (Delta, Vega and Curvature in the jargon) according to methodologies that are now standardized. Previously, traders did not have to calculate their Expected Shortfall (ES), however now this must be calculated on a daily basis in addition to the conventional Value-at-Risk (VaR). Not only is it now a mathematically-consistent risk-measure, but in addition the effects of diversification of a portfolio can finally be modeled there. The second revolution of the trading functions in recent years is that a trader must now have very advanced technical skills. On one hand, this has become necessary in order to calculate the aforementioned risk indicators - with sophisticated mathematical methods such as Monte Carlo simulations or "Peaks Over Threshold" that require advanced skills in mathematical modelling and financial engineering. On the other hand, access to electronic markets in near-real-time (with latency well below one millisecond) has led to the emergence of new "high-frequency" trading techniques which require advanced computer skills. Financial transactions are now processed a million times faster than in 2008, eleven years ago. The ability to design and implement complex algorithms, and programming in Python language, has become essential to the trading functions. 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/2019/04/09/how-have-trading-functions-changed-since-the-global-financial-crisis/ |
What Can Men Do To Support Their Women Counterparts In Tech? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Male or majority-group allies are key for successful change efforts in technology for at least two reasons. First, to date, in technical organizations, men hold the majority of formal leadership positions, so they are often in a better position to make change whether it be in subtle everyday moments or in changing larger business systems. Second, increasing diverse participation is not a womens issue or an issue that is only relevant to women and other underrepresented groups. Diversity and inclusivity are business issues, and they are human issues. People of all genders are held to restrictive standards around gender, racial, and other identities that limit their potential and the kinds of things they are able to do. Research also shows that businesses profit from diverse perspectives that bring innovation and company competitiveness. In general male allies advocate for and work to create more inclusive environments or technical cultures that will ultimately benefit everyone. Avoid approaches that focus on helping or sometimes even fixing individual women. These approaches are not research-based and can come across as patronizing, even when well-intentioned. (See the NCWIT Critical Listening Guide for more information on why the Fix the Woman/Person approach, rather than a Fix the Environment approach, is problematic, as well as tips for avoiding approaches not backed by research [www.ncwit.org/criticallistening].) The NCWIT Male Allies and Advocates Toolkit equips change leaders in setting the stage for success and raising initial awareness, and also identifies concrete research-based actions male allies can take to advocate for changes in technical environments. Ultimately these changes will create workplaces that are more inclusive for all employees, not just women [www.ncwit.org/ma-toolkit]. Additional resources include The Tricky (And Necessary) Business of Being a Male Advocate for Gender Equality, available at http://bit.ly/1JXbQTc, Top 10 Ways To Be a Male Advocate, available at www.ncwit.org/top10maleadvocate, and the Male Advocates and Allies report, drawing from interviews with 47 men in technical companies and departments, available at www.ncwit.org/maleadvocateindustry. 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/2019/04/09/what-can-men-do-to-support-their-women-counterparts-in-tech/ |
Why hasnt Ndamukong Suh signed with a NFL team? | Ndamukong Suh surprisingly remains a free agent more than a month after free agency began in the NFL. The defensive lineman and former Grant High School Generals star continues to wait to sign a contract. With the NFL draft occurring later this month, Suhs wait could extend into the month of May. Theres little question the 32-year-old Suh isnt the dominant force he once was. Suh, who signed a one-year, $14 million contract with the Los Angeles Rams, struggled at nose tackle in the Rams defense early in the 2018 season. However, he came on strong after defensive coordinator Wade Phillips began to move him around on the line of scrimmage. Suh finished with 59 total tackles and 4.5 sacks in 2018. Suh stepped up his performances during the playoffs, posting 10 total tackles and 1.5 sacks, and he was major factor in the Rams run defense which held the Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints to a combined 98 yards of rushing in the NFC playoffs. The Rams wanted to re-sign Suh for 2019, but they indicated Suhs contract demands will be more than theyre willing to pay and dont expect him to return. Suhs contract demands may not be the only reason hes still waiting to sign. The 2019 draft has one of the strongest contingent of defensive linemen in many years. The group is filled with top-flight defensive tackles and edge rushers, and teams know they can select an impact lineman who is much younger and will come far more cheaper than Suh. In addition, NFL teams are increasingly willing to wait and sign free agents so they dont lose compensatory draft picks. The league takes away and awards comp picks - the third through seventh rounds - for the following year based on how much teams have gained or lost in free agency the previous season. If Suh signs with a team today, the team signing him would lose comp picks. However, May 7 is the date when a free agent signing no longer counts against the compensatory pick formula. With teams wanting to stockpile as many draft picks as possible, Suh and other free agents will probably have to wait until next month to sign a contract. -- Geoffrey C. Arnold | @geoffreyCarnold | https://www.oregonlive.com/highschoolsports/2019/04/why-hasnt-ndamukong-suh-signed-with-a-nfl-team.html |
What happens next with Brexit? | As Theresa May heads to Brussels with the UK currently due to crash out of the EU without a deal on Friday, the Brexit endgame appears to be approaching, although it remains uncertain how the coming days will pan out. May will arrive at the emergency European council summit on Wednesday evening without a new plan to present, following the breakup of cross-party talks with Labour, which are not due to resume before Thursday. So she will be asking the EU27 for a brief extension until 30 June, but without any evidence a departure deal could be made in the intervening weeks. Labour and Tories reluctantly prepare for European elections Read more While some reports suggested EU leaders could agree to a brief delay, or even cut the UK loose on Friday, the consensus prediction is that May will be offered a longer extension to Brexit, perhaps until the end of 2019, or even for a year. Yes. The backbench bill led by Labours Yvette Cooper, which came into law on Monday evening, says she must endeavour to avoid a no-deal departure by seeking an extension to article 50 as needed. During a House of Commons vote on Tuesday afternoon, MPs passed a motion telling May to do this by a majority of 310. But in practice this makes little difference, as the prime minister was planning to seek an extension anyway. The prime minister has previously said she could not consider a delay beyond 30 June, which would mean the UK having to participate in European parliament elections next month. But she might have little realistic choice, and her spokesman on Wednesday repeatedly refused to rule out a longer wait, saying only that No 10 was focused on the date that the prime minister is seeking. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Labours Keir Starmer and Rebecca Long-Bailey leave cross-party Brexit talks at the Cabinet Office in London. No the Cooper bill was amended in the Lords so the prime minister maintains the prerogative power to unilaterally agree an extension, not least as the EU summit would have broken up by the time MPs said yes or no. But May does usually give a statement to the Commons after European summits, so one could happen on Thursday, or else next week. This seems increasingly likely, and will become a certainty in the event of a longer Brexit delay. Officials are preparing for them, with parties busy recruiting candidates. But the caveat remains that a sudden deal will see them called off. It is very difficult to know. Both sides are still publicly praising the discussions as positive, even though Labour say they have yet to see any government compromise suggestions. The fact they will now not resume until Thursday indicates no breakthrough is imminent. To oversimplify slightly: mutinous and nervous, respectively. On the Conservative side, party discipline has largely vanished, as shown by Tuesdays motion on seeking an article 50 extension. Of the 420 MPs in favour, only 131 were Tories, despite it being a whipped vote, meaning May effectively relied on the opposition. Labour MPs are slightly less angst-ridden, but many are watching the cross-party talks warily in case Jeremy Corbyn and his team agree a deal without a plan for a confirmatory referendum. | https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/09/brexit-what-happens-next |
Will Chuck E. Cheese's IPO Lure More Restaurants Back To The Market? | That question arises after the parent of the Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant/arcade brand announced plans this week to return to the public market -- a move few restaurant brands have made in the past four years. Irving-based CEC Entertainment, Inc. and Londons Leo Holdings, Corp. said the two plan to execute essentially a reverse merger that will return the kid-themed house o mouse to the public markets for the first time since it was acquired by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in 2014. The new stock would trade on the NYSE under the ticker CEC, the company's previous symbol. Both sides expect the deal to close in the second quarter, which is when the real watch party begins. Earlier in the decade, new restaurant stocks started with sizzle only to fizzle as sales and growth failed to keep pace with Wall Streets expectations. Aside from the parent of Fatburger, which went public in 2017, no major restaurant brands have gone public in recent years. But between 2017 and 2018, nine brands with an enterprise value of more than $14 billion fled the markets, one study showed, as private equity went on a buying spree. Investors will be watching to see whether the new and improved Chuck E. can flourish, and give encouragement to other brands to come off the sidelines. There's going to be quite a bit of watching this one to see how it does, said Aaron Allen, chief strategist and owner of restaurant consulting firm Aaron Allen & Associates, whose company gave the $14 billion estimate. If this one goes public ... if it does better than might be expected, given the history of the brand and the potential going forward ...If that happens, it could encourage and excite others about public markets. Generally this is going to be kind of a wait-and-see approach. Leo, a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, intends to change its name to Chuck E. Cheese Brands Inc. immediately following the closing of the proposed transaction. CEC also owns the Peter Piper Pizza chain. CEC Entertainment Apollo is not selling its shares and will continue to be the majority owner. So the deal isnt as much exit strategy as it is an approach to gain money to pay down debt. CEC estimates the newly public company will have an initial enterprise value of about $1.4 billion. For its 2018 fiscal year, the company said it saw revenue of $896 million and said it started 2019 with an enviable 7.7 percent gain in same store sales, a key chain metric. Chuck E. Cheeses has 606 locations in 47 states and 14 countries. Some 15% are franchised. Thats a low percentage in todays restaurant industry and increases the companys need for cash to continue to grow. Peter Piper Pizza has 144 locations across six southern and southwestern states, including Texas and Arizona, and Mexico. By comparison, 73% of locations are franchised. The Leo deal will help the company aggressively pursue opportunities in the next stage of our company's evolution, Tom Leverton, CECs chief executive said in a statement. Our future growth plans are based on enhancing the total guest experience, unlocking operational investments, growing and upgrading our venues, and opportunistically pursuing [merger and acquisition] initiatives, he said. About $200 million in cash held in a Leo Holdings' trust account, and $100 million in new private placement proceeds, will be used to pay transaction expenses and pay down company debt. Under Apollos ownership, CEC has invested in store remodels and launched a value-focused All You Can Play initiative which eliminates the need for the formerly ubiquitous Chuck E. coins, which most parents still have lining the bottom of a kitchen drawer. The updates have helped the decades-old brand retain relevance, even as its original customers shepherd their grandkids through a maze of color and sound. Launched in 1977 in San Jose, Calif. as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, the brand has morphed more than once since Atari inventor Nolan Bushnell looked to merge family-friendly food and the then-new field of video games. The chain has revamped some of its locations to make room for an interactive light-up dance floor. That has meant removing the signature animatronic animal bands that have inspired TV and video game parodies, along with some childhood anxiety, since the earliest days of the brand. The company has updated the menu to be more chef-driven and thus less of a sacrifice for parents. The brands long tenure separates it from some of the younger companies that made the public-to-private transition in the past few years, a roster that includes North Texas-based Jamba Juice and Zoes Kitchen. I think one thing that makes this one a little bit different is the segment of the industry that CEC is in, said Mark Kalinowski, a restaurant industry analyst and founder, president, and CEO of Kalinowski Equity Research. Some of the ones that maybe didn't fare so well in the public market were more fast- casual brands. Some of them just in hindsight maybe weren't ready for prime time. But no one looks at the brands CEC Entertainment owns and confuses them with fast casual. They're very different segments of the industry, and in its own way that's not a bad thing," in terms of attracting investor attention. If something wasn't working in the past, generally speaking, you don't necessarily want to lead off the new wave with what's very fresh in investors minds as 'hey this doesn't work.' You want to maybe try something different and CEC is different than a lot of things that are out there. With so much private equity money chasing restaurants, operators have had less of a need to approach the public markets, analysts said. Things tend to come in waves you know, Kalinowski said. We're definitely somewhat in [an IPO] drought right now, but that'll end eventually. And who knows, maybe this is the one that kind of get things going again. It will be interesting to watch. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenrobinsonjacobs/2019/04/09/will-chuck-e-cheeses-ipo-lure-more-restaurants-back-to-the-market/ |
Are $21 cocktails becoming the norm in San Francisco? | At Niku, a new Design District steak house that focuses on Japanese beef, the young and moneyed of San Francisco eat tomahawk cuts of steaks the size of tennis rackets and wash them down with negronis topped and flavored with Wagyu. If you sit in one of the ringside seats around the restaurants wood-fired grill, the parade is mesmerizing, racket after racket facing the scimitars upturned blade. Glistening slices of Imperial Wagyu lean into the arc of each 15-inch bone. The bone is good for selfies. The group to my left passed phones to a kindly waiter who hopped behind the counter to get a better angle, then they paused to do a little gnawing. At $225, theyd paid dearly for that well-salted bone. I tried to sip my drink slowly; Id paid dearly, too. The clarified milk punch in my hand cost $21. Steak house drinks are rarely cheap, but Niku is a flashy Ill have TWO $100 steaks tonight kind of spot, full of young men performing their richness for dolled-up dates. Its not the kind of place I'd take Grandpa for a birthday dinner. Looking around, I found myself wondering if $21 cocktails could soon become the norm in San Francisco and if theyd ever feel worth it to the rest of us. Niku is not the citys only spot where drink prices might raise an eyebrow. High-end restaurants like Alexanders Steakhouse, Quince and Mourad start their cocktails at $16, then climb higher. At Saison, that starting point is $19. Lovers of expensive scotch may shell out for Nooshs Royal Bobby Burns, which goes for $40, or Cold Drinks Royal Salute Rob Roy for $52. Bartenders say that customers do buy these drinks and even order a second round. Especially at bars that offer a range of price points, top-flight drinks can do justice to upgraded ingredients. Sometimes, though, an expensive cocktail list means youre largely paying for a fancy setting. Either way, at Niku, not every drink tastes like its worth its price. First, the good news: The restaurant is a stylish, polished spot, and my favorite cocktails from bar manager Julien Bertrand were stylish too. Le Magnifique ($19), a sous-vide single-cru Cognac drink dosed with a particularly aromatic eau de vie from Armagnac, arrived in a lofty coupe, its surface releasing a puff of cherry-scented fog. Its thoughtful magic. Bertrand rigged a vape pen with a hand pump in order to produce the fog out of black cherry and bay leaf essential oils, delicately perfuming the first few sips of the drink while avoiding a heavy smoke flavor. As the cherry cloud dissipated, the cocktail evolved, its spirits coming forward without getting fiery, its finish softly floral with a lingering touch of star anise. While bacon-fat infusions can dominate a drink, theres so much Wagyu aroma in the air at Niku that the addition of beef fat to a negroni here winds up feeling subtle, even elegant. (After a few hours sitting near the grill, I felt pretty fat-washed myself.) Called Arthur and the Grail ($18), Betrands excellent version starts with Botanist gin from Scotland, warmed sous vide with fat trimmed from the prized steak. The mixture is frozen so the fat separates out for easy removal, rendering the gin mellow and creamy-textured but not overly savory. Mixed with bittersweet Punt e Mes and Campari and infused with tea, the velvety cocktail is garnished with a square of tender soy-glazed Wagyu jerky, which emphasizes the richness of the drink and cuts its robust flavor with a much-needed bit of salt. If Id had just these two cocktails plus the mini-globe of warm brioche, served atop cultured butter thats been whipped with chickpea miso and, you guessed it, rendered Wagyu fat Id have been pretty happy at Niku. If Id had just these two drinks and the Wagyu tartare ($26), punchy with kimchi and crusted with puffed beef tendon chips, plus the cheapest steak on the menu ($42), Id have been very happy. But I was curious about those $21 drinks. And thats where things got uneven. The name of the $21 Seek Discomfort should have warned me. Made with caraway-tinged Aalborg aquavit, plus triple sec and lemon, its flavored with a syrup thats quick-infused with fresh parsley, dill and the bars leftover pineapple peels. Shaken with aquafaba (the liquid from cooked chickpeas), the foamy cocktail is garnished with shaved black cardamom and a drop of truffle oil. Its a lot of elements and many laborious steps. But as I brought the heavy glass-and-brass sake cup to my lips, I couldnt make sense of it. The savory truffle scent went well with the beef aromas in the air, but not the drink I was sipping, which teetered between tasting like a pickleback shot and a bracingly tart, slightly tropical gimlet. Id later learn that the cup itself cost the restaurant $35. I might have been more open to an oddball aquavit drink if it hadnt been saddled with that cost. I also had trouble with the clarified milk punch, called the Shinki Chen ($21). The ingredients sounded intriguing enough: 16-year old peaty single malt Lagavulin scotch, extra-anejo Venezuelan rum and Harper bourbon. Combined with earthy, sesame-tinged oolong tea and nutty oloroso Sherry, the pungent-savory whiskey mix gave off a cereal note laced with an almost mossy funk. The pristinely clear ice was cut just a bit too tall, emerging from the glass and bonking me in the lips and teeth each time I tried to take a sip. I gave up after a few. Expensive drinks can certainly be exquisite, highlighting rare, high-end spirits and many hours of labor-making infusions, clarifying punches and, yes, hacking vape pens. And as we all know, in San Francisco were also paying a premium for the setting everything from high rent to highly trained staff to high thread-count linens. Places like Niku are experiments in what the market will bear, and the packed room suggests its doing just fine. As $21 cocktails proliferate around town, I just hope the good drinks will outnumber the less-delicious ones. For now, with so many great-tasting, more affordable cocktail options in town, Ill spend my beverage dollars elsewhere. But Id be glad to have a bite of that Wagyu tomahawk, if someone else is buying. Maggie Hoffman is the author of the new book Batch Cocktails. Twitter: @maggiejhoffman Email: [email protected] More Information To try: Le Magnifique ($19), Arthur and the Grail ($18) Where: Niku, 61 Division St., S.F. 415-829-7817 www.nikusteakhouse.com When: 5:30-10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday | https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/Are-21-cocktails-becoming-the-norm-in-San-13753921.php |
Who Will Be Trump's New Immigration Enforcer? | WASHINGTON Lady DACA is out, gloats a veteran Republican activist close to the White House on the resignation of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who in her tenure accomplished the notable feat of courting widespread scorn from both right and left. When we met Sunday night, my source stepped out to take a call from Kris W. Kobach, President Donald Trumps aspirant immigration stickler, and folk hero of the border-hawk right. The presidents opponents are trying to preempt the worst. Kirstjen Nielsen enforced cruelty at the border, opined the New York Times editorial page. Her replacement could be worse. If Nielsens downfall was sitting on both sides of the fence so much so that she was impaled by it, Kobach is making no such mistake. And if the president indeed taps the former Kansas secretary of statelast year he pledged to hire Kobach if he lost his bid for Kansas governor, which he didit will be a declaration of war. Read full article | https://news.yahoo.com/trumps-immigration-enforcer-100300185.html |
Are school officials really going to get the courts involved in a student water fight? | An unspecified number of seniors at Sophie B. Wright High School were given 5-day suspensions and banned from prom and commencement activities after they participated in a water fight at the school April 5, and school officials are defending the draconian punishment by saying that the students prank caused injuries. Plus, those officials say, the students were forewarned there would be consequences. But a press release at the school website by James Watson, president of the board that manages the school, isnt as clear as it needs to be. Its frustratingly vague and suggests that the water fight caused significant damage without actually saying so. And its authorship is unclear. Sharon Clark, the schools director, released a statement Monday. The statement on the website is identical to Clarks, but its attributed to Watson. On top of all that, the Clark/Watson statement suggests that school officials not only overreacted to the students water fight but that they also overreacted to the news that students were planning one. When we remember, though, that Louisianas Department of Education sanctioned Sophie B. Wright in 2017 for turning away homeless students for uniform violations, then these overreactions wont surprise us. The incident on April 5 caused injury to at least one teacher and one student, Watson wrote in a Monday press release. Additionally, school property was sprayed with water and a restroom was compromised. Both personal injury and effects on property are currently under investigation. It is possible that damage caused by these students will result in criminal and civil actions. Sophie B. Wright students suspended after school says senior prank caused injuries Sophie B. Wright's principal says three people were injured during the prank on April 5. Clark says two teachers and a student slipped on the floor and fell. Such falls certainly have the potential to cause injury, but it would be helpful if a school official would elaborate on what the injuries were. It shouldnt escape our attention that the press release says school property was sprayed with water and not damaged by water. Its just as noteworthy that the word compromised is used to describe the restroom. That press release was issued April 8, three days after the senior prank. I sent the questions above to both of the email addresses for Watson that are listed on the schools website, but one of those email addresses is no longer valid, and he didnt respond to the email that apparently went through. Also, the phone number listed next to the board presidents name rings the school, not the board president. When I explained that I was trying to contact Mr. Watson, I sat on hold for 12 minutes. Then the call disconnected. Clark spoke to my colleague Wilborn Nobles Monday, but didnt immediately respond to his follow-up questions Tuesday morning. Perhaps the most jaw-dropping revelation in the press release is the claim that the students were not only warned not to go through with their planned prank, but that they were specifically warned that the police had been made aware of their plans. Some adult from Sophie B. Wright better step forward to say that they thought the students were planning something more nefarious because any adult who warns an understaffed New Orleans Police Department that teenagers are about to have a water fight isnt mature enough to be watching children. Over the last year, social media feeds have been full of stories of busybodies who got stuck with alliterative nicknames after summoning the police for trifling reasons. In most, if not all, of those cases, the tattletale has been white. Barbecue Becky reported a black man using a charcoal grill in a restricted area in a park. Permit Patty reported an 8-year-old black girl selling bottled water on the sidewalk without a permit. Coupon Carl accused a black woman, wrongly, of trying to use a counterfeit coupon at the drugstore. Clark is black, as are 91 percent of Sophie B. Wrights students, but if she called the police to say that this particular prank was imminent, we might have to call her Water Fight Wanda, Super Soaker Sally or Water Balloon Beulah. The communications director of the Police Department said Tuesday that he wasnt aware of such a communication but that he would look to see if the school had reached out. The schools board of directors is scheduled to meet Wednesday evening, and one imagines that parents will demand a more thorough explanation to the response to this senior prank. Because the response weve seen so far doesnt cut it. If the school is going to strip the students of all the joys associated with finishing high school, they need to make a much stronger case for such harshness. Jarvis DeBerry is a columnist on the Latitude team at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. Latitude is a place to share opinions about the challenges facing Louisiana. Follow @LatitudeNOLA on Facebook and Twitter. Write Jarvis at [email protected] or @jarvisdeberry. | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/04/are-school-officials-really-going-to-get-the-courts-involved-in-a-student-water-fight.html |
Can Biopics See Beyond Male Genius? | Question asked and answered: Fosses personality in the show is so overpowering that it tends to engulf everything around it. Scenes play out as if viewers are seeing them from inside the directors head, experiencing the swings between his hyper-ego and his crashing insecurity. In one scene, after a box-office failure, we see him dart nimbly out of a chair, across the room, and out an open window, as if hes imagining the choreography of his own suicide. In another, Fosse arrives at a studio to edit Cabaret, and interprets his walk down a hallway as a dance sequence, complete with women in candy-colored dresses revolving around him, and a jaunty moment of hat play. Minutes later, after a disappointment, Fosse leaves, but instead of walking out, hes dragged by editing equipment that wraps around his feet like an anchor. These moments are ingenious, and they bring a vibrant theatricality to the series. Other interludes communicate Fosses various addictions: pills (uppers and downers rattle as reliably as percussion in his hand), unfiltered cigarettes, and women. Even as Fosse/Verdon considers why Fosse might have been so obsessively priapichis early sexual history, for what its worth, is remarkably similar to Don Drapersit never expects you to sympathize with him. In one scene, Fosse tries to force himself upon a dancer whos rehearsing Pippin with him, only to cut her from a number after she knees him in the crotch. When Verdon confronts him after discovering that hes having an affair with a German translator, he tells her that all he wants is to be able to see Hannah and then come home and not bullshit you. Maybe I should find a lover too, then, she replies. Thats not your style, he says, primly. Rockwell, counterintuitively, tends to downplay Fosse, making the character feel more like an observer than anything else. Everything he says and does is conducted at a relatively even tempo, which somehow makes the contrast between highs and lows feel more disturbing. Even when Fosse is in a psychiatric institution and heavily medicated, he sees the world as a backdrop, watching the other patients raise their heads in synchronized grace. Whats most striking about Fosse/Verdon is how it captures Fosses motivationshow fiercely he wanted to take the edge off Broadways megawatt, sanitized cheeriness. In his hands, a mambo for Damn Yankees becomes a testament to the physical ordeal of performing. Thats what we do, isnt it? Fosse asks Verdon. We take what hurts and we turn it into a big gag, and were singing, and were dancing, and the audience, theyre yukking it up, theyre laughing so hard they dont realize that all theyre laughing at is a person in agony, a person whos peeled off his own skin. Williams inhabits her role as Verdon, reconstituting herself so thoroughly as a middle-aged, disappointed stage actress that shes hard to recognize. Her voice is pitch-perfect, mannered and illusive, and her physicality as a dancer conveys Verdons understated magnetism. But its hard not to feel like shes underserved by the material, which presents her as a partner first and a performer second. With Fosse, the show is clear that theres no boundary between the artist and the man: The scenes in which his memories and daydreams bleed into the reality the audience perceives make that much clear. The show offers flashes inside Verdons headimages of her and Fosse together, and glimpses of a lost friendbut they lack the defining aesthetic of Fosse himself, the caustic, sleazy, bewitching glamour that Fosse/Verdon has shaped itself around. Verdon helped shape Fosses career, the series makes clear. Whats less easy to see is how she might have shaped her own. We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to [email protected]. | https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/04/fosse-verdon-review-fx/586732/?utm_source=feed |
Is A U.S. Recession Likely, Even Imminent? | The U.S. economy hit a small bump, with lower GDP growth in the fourth quarter, and suddenly we hear rumbles of a recession. But relying on data, not emotion, shows there is no such threat not immediately. Even after initial signs of economic weakness, recessions can take time to develop, their stresses often building up over several years. Economists and market watchers follow the evolution of recessions because they tend to coincide with bear markets, and signals of a downturn can help investors prepare for likely volatility. Now, as investors commemorate the tenth anniversary of the bull market that started in March 2009, it is instructive to review the multi-year evolution of the Great Recession, as tracked by economic and market activity data. To gauge the likelihood of an economic recession occurring over the next six to 18 months, it is advantageous to assess 12 widely-reported economic indicators that fall into four key areas, with three in each: business activity, consumer, financial and inflation. Based on a traffic light concept, each indicator can signal expansion (green), caution (yellow) or recession (red). These signals and their changes are based on analysis and data interpretations. I call the result a recession risk dashboard. While not a crystal ball, but it can help investors evaluate the risk of recession. To wit: the dashboard would have flashed yellow in October 2006 and red in August 2007, which was four months before the last recession officially began. Today, eight of the 12 dashboard indicators are green, three yellow and one red. Business activity and consumer display few signs of stress, but after showing significant strain over several months, resulting in indicator changes, financial markets are now sending mixed signals. Following a sharp fourth-quarter drawdown, investors appetite for risk has returned. Nowhere is this more evident than in credit spreads, which measure the difference or spread between yields on corporate bonds and risk-free U.S. Treasury securities of similar maturities. The credit spreads indicator in the dashboard tracks the spread between the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate High Yield Index and the 10-Year Treasury. After moving from green to yellow in the fourth quarter of 2018, as credit markets began to price in the increasing likelihood of recession, high-yield spreads came in quite a bit as the outlook for equity markets and the U.S. economy stabilized. This merited an upgrade to green as February ended. Judging recession risk by credit spreads alone, the U.S. economy appears to be all clear. But it is this type of variability what basketball fans might call a head fake that makes it critical to judge the trajectory of the economy from several angles. As the U.S. economic cycle continues to mature, the dashboard can be expected to worsen, with stress signals broadening beyond inflation and financial markets. Todays economic landscape appears healthy, suggesting the next recession will likely take time to develop. I believe this absence of near-term recessionary risk should give investors the confidence to stay invested in equities or return to the markets. Simply put, the data shows that near-term recession risks are low. I believe exiting equities based on one negative economic indicator would not be a prudent move. Jeffrey Schulze is an Investment Strategist at ClearBridge Investments, a subsidiary of Legg Mason. His opinions are not meant to be viewed as investment advice or a solicitation for investments. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffreyschulze/2019/04/09/is-a-u-s-recession-likely-even-imminent/ |
Is our political divide, at heart, really all about abortion? | When Kristen Day joined the nonprofit Democrats for Life of America in 2002, she wanted only to be put out of business. A new mom at the time, she had dreamed of a day when abortion would become a nonpartisan issue; when people who called themselves pro-life could support the cause regardless of whether they identified as Democrat or Republican; when a lawmakers career would no longer hinge on how he or she voted on an abortion bill. She says she believed that moment was near. I was so naive, Ms. Day says in a phone interview. Recommended: After California wildfires, what survivors say they gained from loss In the years since, as the two political parties have doubled down on ideological purity, liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats have essentially become oxymorons. The partisan divide has grown into a chasm. And abortion is often the issue that most sharply cuts in between. Each party has used abortion with its intensely personal, life-and-death stakes to motivate voters. Folks like Ms. Day now find themselves shunned by activists on both sides. Attitudes toward abortion, perhaps more than ever, are directly and indirectly shaping the highest reaches of United States politics. The 2016 election, for instance, turned on factors such as public frustration with politics as usual, the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails, and the maturing of social media as a tool for political messaging. But exit polls also showed that among voters who said that the Supreme Court was the most important basis for their decision, nearly two-thirds voted for Donald Trump. That included evangelical Christians, many of whom were willing to put aside concerns about the presidents personal life in pursuit of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. You can make the argument that a nontrivial reason that Donald Trump is president is because of abortion, says Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University who specializes in family, sexuality, and the legal history of reproduction. Some voters saw a Supreme Court vacancy, and they held their noses and voted for Trump. Thats a direct example of abortions political impact. A MEDICAL NOT POLITICAL ISSUE Abortion wasnt always viewed through a political lens. When it first surfaced as a subject of public debate in the mid-19th century, it was against the backdrop of the medical industrys effort to professionalize itself and chip away at midwives authority in the process, says Karissa Haugeberg, an assistant professor of history at Tulane University in New Orleans. Then, as the century turned and new immigrants began streaming into the country, concerns over abortion began to center around the declining birthrate among white Americans. But the issue, while polarizing, was not partisan. Even in the 1940s and 50s, it would have seemed strange to ask someone running for president what their view on abortion was, says Professor Haugeberg, who traces the history of abortion opponents in her 2017 book, Women against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century. Some of the earliest supporters of modern abortion rights were Republican women like Constance Cook, the state assemblywoman who co-wrote the bill that legalized abortion in New York three years before the Roe ruling. Catholic Democrats, meanwhile, were early opponents of abortion; among the holdouts against pre-Roe legalization were heavily Catholic states like Rhode Island and Massachusetts. It wasnt until the 1980s that the parties began to realign according to abortion. The GOP, in an effort to win new voters, backed abortion opponents like televangelist Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority in their bid to pass a constitutional amendment banning abortion. When the proposal failed in 1983, the two groups, instead of ending their partnership, settled on a new one: the quest for a reconfigured Supreme Court that could undo Roe. | https://news.yahoo.com/political-divide-heart-really-abortion-204142463.html |
What Does It Say That Mrs. Bush Gets Her Final Say? | Ill confess: I cant decide whether to buy the new Barbara Bush biography (The Matriarch: Barbara Bush And The Making Of An American Dynasty) released last week. My quandary: I have sentimental memories of working on the (failed) re-election campaign in 1992, have treasured friends who live not too far from the Bush family compound in coastal Maine, and consider the former First Lady and the 41st President exemplars of dignity and grace. Ordinarily, anything new I can learn about the late First Couple how they lived, how they dreamed, how they fit into the American landscape Im all in. This is not a knock against Susan Page, whos an accomplished journalist and, from what I can glean, respectful of her subject (shes also writing a Nancy Pelosi biography). Evidence of that: this classy remembrance of Mrs. Bushs controversial appearance at Wellesley College during her husbands presidency. About that essay: it covers Mrs. Bushs steeliness, her sense of humor, her initial reluctance to address an audience who cared not for the First Ladys life choices, her disinterest in turning a college commencement address into a larger political kerfuffle, her satisfaction in surpassing expectations and her frustration (which she kept to herself, in diary form) of not getting the credit she deserved as a champion of literacy and hospital bonds. Thats a pretty good start for remembering all that made Barbara Pierce Bush unique. The Matriarch, in fact, tells us much more that was beneath the faux-pearl surface. To wit: Mrs. Bush battled depression and entertained suicidal thoughts. She loathed Donald Trump (no surprise, given how Trump treated sons George and Jeb), so much so that she kept a clock counting down Trumps time in office. She considered herself no longer a Republican. She had a poor relationship with Nancy Reagan, stemming from slights real and perceived between the two women. She didnt think abortion had a place in presidential politics. Lets assume these are facets of Barbara Bush that she wanted the world to see. Or so Page told an interviewer the other day: [S]he felt she had a story to tell, said Page, and letting me read her diaries was a way to continue the conversation. Still, its quite the contrast to the last days of another political icon who passed away four months after Mrs. Bush: John McCain. Not to mention to Three months before his death, McCain produced his last literary remembrance (Im freer than colleagues who will face the voters, he wrote). Typical of McCain books, its candid and feisty. Not surprising for a dying man with an eye on his legacy, it also drifts into self-mythology knowing exactly what the media were hoping for. In that final book, McCain regrets putting Sarah Palin on the ticket in 2008 and defiantly defends passing along the Steele dossier (Anyone who doesnt like it can go to hell). And he gets in the last word against those who offended his Maverick sensibilities. Coupled with the HBO biography/hagiography that came out on the heels of the book, its how McCain wanted to be remembered and successfully orchestrated. Perhaps The Matriarch is also political orchestration in that its how Barbara Bush planned to be remembered for the richness of her life story, but also as a woman whose storyline was more complicated than it seemed. As well as a rugged soul who neither suffered fools gladly nor wanted to suffer in silence. After nearly 93 years on the planet, 73 years of marriage and 55 years in the public spotlight as three generations of her family served in and sought public office, Mrs. Bush earned the right to speak her mind. I invite you to follow me on Twitter: @hooverwhalen | https://www.forbes.com/sites/billwhalen/2019/04/09/what-does-it-say-that-mrs-bush-gets-her-final-say/ |
How Do The SF Giants Become The Padres? | ASSOCIATED PRESS The San Francisco Giants are in the midst of a three-game set against the division rival San Diego Padres. Despite both spending the last two seasons in the basement of the NL West, these two California teams are a study in contrasts. The Giants are the oldest team in baseball with an average age of 30.6 years. The Padres are the youngest at 27.1. The Giants have two top 100 prospects by most lists, while the Padres boast nine with additional depth beyond that. The Giants chased a big fish this offseason, losing out on Bryce Harper. The Padres landed one, signing Manny Machado to a $300 million deal. To be fair, a decade ago, the Giants were something analogous to what the Padres are now an exciting young team loaded with potential stars and solid contributors. San Francisco kept the core together, and now the core is getting into its thirties. Its not so much mismanagement that has the Giants where they are, it is the comedown from a long, wild trip. Sell The Giants have assets to deal. I went over them in a recent article, but Will Smith, Madison Bumgarner and Tony Watson will all be in high demand, and there may be a market for players like Drew Pomeranz and Brandon Belt, depending on what they show in the first half. Evan Longoria has shown flashes of his younger self, but the Giants would mostly be happy to have someone take that contract off their hands. Buy Prospects The luxury tax line has acted as a de facto salary cap for many teams, and some have shown a willingness to pay in talent to take money off of the books. This is best exemplified by the game of hot potato that the National League has played with the Matt Kemp contract (he started with the Dodgers, then went to the Padres for Yasmani Grandal (insane), over to the Braves, then back to the Dodgers, and now onto the Reds). The Braves acquired Touki Toussaint as a young prospect in exchange for taking Bronson Arroyo and his remaining contract off of the Diamondbacks ledger a move that is starting to pay dividends (the Braves sent utility infielder Phillip Gosselin to Arizona in the name of sending a warm body back the other way). The Giants will need to clear some money before doing one of these moves, but if they can shed a few big contracts, they could open up some payroll space for the deadweight of other teams. The Angels would surely offer up some decent talent if the Giants would take Albert Pujols off their hands (owed $87 million at the start of 2019). Same goes for the Tigers and Miguel Cabrera (owed $162 million), the Cubs and Jason Heyward ($106 million), and any number of big deals that could go south at any moment. If the Pillar trade is any indication, the Giants want excellent defenders patrolling their outfield, and one wonders if they might be able to match up on a deal that would send Heyward and a prospect in exchange for Evan Longoria. Double Down on Scouting Here are the Giants top draft choices since selecting Buster Posey fifth overall in 2008. 2009: Zack Wheeler (traded for a half season of Carlos Beltran) 2010: Gary Brown (out of baseball) 2011: Joe Panik 2012: Chris Stratton (traded for relief prospect Williams Jerez) 2013: Christian Arroyo (traded for Evan Longoria) 2014: Tyler Beede 2015: Phil Bickford (traded with Andrew Susac for Will Smith) 2016: No pick 2017: Heliot Ramos 2018: Joey Bart Thats not a terrible haul, especially considering that the Giants were drafting late in the first round for many of those years. Still, the end result is the Giants have two promising youngsters in Bart and Ramos, Smith, who could turn into prospects who are as exciting as the ones he was traded for (Bickford and Susac was considered a heavy price to pay at the time) and some veterans looking to stay relevant. You can add in Chris Shaw, Steven Duggar, Andrew Suarez and Reyes Moronta as other young talent the team has accumulated. Its not a bad group, but it also doesnt scream World Series champs in 2021. The Giants had the second overall pick when they drafted Bart. They are likely to pick in the top ten in coming years, especially if they execute the first part of this plan. Finding top talent in the draft will be key to their success. Theres no easy answer to how a team can rebuild. For every Cubs and Astros, who had hugely successful rebuilds, there are teams like the Rangers, Reds and Orioles, who have trouble getting out of second gear (or starting the car, in the case of Baltimore). The long-term goal is another run at the World Series. As for how to get there, the Giants can spend this series looking at the opposing dugout. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/owenpoindexter/2019/04/09/how-do-the-sf-giants-become-the-padres/ |
Will the Pacers rest in the season finale or try to end on a high note? | CLOSE A first-round series opens in Boston this weekend, and the Pacers will have to get back to what made them the NBA's best scoring defense to win. J. Michael, IndyStar Story Highlights Pacers at Hawks, 8 p.m. Wednesday, Fox Sports Indiana INDIANAPOLIS Thad Young has played in all 81 games this season for the Indiana Pacers, logging at least 21 minutes in all but one. After Sundays 108-96 loss to Brooklyn in the regular-season finale, Pacers coach Nate McMillan sounded like he was in favor in resting players with nothing tangible on the line Wednesday in the final regular-season game at Atlanta. McMillan said after Tuesdays practice that details on who will rest and how much have yet to be decided. Young, a 12-year NBA veteran, said he is preparing to play until told differently. He was in a similar situation a year ago, starting all 81 games until sitting the final game to rest for the playoffs. Im definitely OK with (sitting out), Young said. Weve obviously locked up a playoff spot. Whatever they see fit to do, Im happy with it. Playing 81 or 82 games, it doesnt really matter to me. Ill be ready to go. There are clearly bigger concerns for the Pacers than the Hawks. Indiana has lost 12 of it's last 19 games, including a decisive 117-97 home loss on Friday to Boston, the team the Pacers will see on the road this weekend in the first game of the No. 4 vs. 5 playoff series. The worst record by a 4 or 5 seed over the last 20 games of a season in the past 10 years was the 2010-11 Atlanta Hawks, who finished 7-13 ... then won their first-round playoff series. Mar 27, 2019; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Thaddeus Young (21) passes the ball over Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) during the first quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports (Photo: Alonzo Adams, Alonzo Adams-USA TODAY Sports) You kind put that behind you and just move on, McMillan said of the home losses to the Celtics and Nets. You try to forget about it and move on to (Wednesdays) game. Were trying to work and get our guys in some type of rhythm. McMillan said Wesley Matthews was the only player held out of practice on Tuesday. Matthews returned from a hamstring injury last week, but is now slowed by a sore right toe and will not play against the Hawks. Myles Turner said his ankle injury suffered Sunday against the Nets was just an awkward land and not a sprain, though it would not be a surprise to see Turner sit out Wednesday. The Pacers, at 47-34, would equal last seasons win total with a victory at Atlanta. But in order to avoid a fourth consecutive first-round playoff exit, the Pacers will have put together a more consistent stretch of basketball than they have shown in more than a month. The vibe around the Pacers after practice on Tuesday was upbeat. CLOSE J. Michael, Pacers insider, talks about how Indiana lost to Boston in convincing fashion and gave away seeding for their future playoff matchup. Robert Scheer, [email protected] Its a new season once you get into the playoffs, McMillan said. I dont think a lot of people will be picking us to win that the way we have played against Boston (losing season series 3-1). But that has been the talk about us all season long. Its a new season and you can forget the regular-season record and all of that. McMillan called Wednesdays game one more dress rehearsal before the dance. The Pacers will need to turn it around in short order for that dance to last more than a song or two. Our confidence is high, Domantas Sabonis said. Everybody believes in each other. Were a team that fights until the end. The playoffs is the most fun time of year so we are going to come out and enjoy it. >>Doug McDermott said he fought off some much-needed sleep for a bit to watch the Virginia-Texas Tech national championship in its entirety Monday night. The former Creighton star said he was pulling for Virginia and coach Tony Bennett, along with former Lawrence Central star and 2016 IndyStar Mr. Basketball Kyle Guy, the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. Kyle Guy, McDermott said. Thats my guy. Indianapolis finest. Call Star reporter Kyle Neddenriep at (317) 444-6649. | https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2019/04/09/pacers-rest-season-finale-try-end-high-note/3409345002/ |
How can an elected official be on the payroll of a foreign government? | It should surprise no one that the head of President Donald Trumps presidential campaign in Washington state pocketed half a million dollars to represent Cambodia, a repressive regime for which he provided a fig leaf of legitimacy by whitewashing electoral irregularities. Sen. Doug Ericksen learned from the master of conflicts of interest. This is not a partisan matter. It should be a wake-up call to our state lawmakers to immediately write and prioritize legislation to prevent anyone on the payroll of a foreign government, be it friend or foe, from serving in elected or appointed office in Washington. We should never have reason to question the loyalty of our public sector. Serving the people of our state should be the highest honor, not a conduit to the feeding trough of a foreign entity with suspicious motives. Furthermore, the federal government must do the same. John Wright, Kenmore | https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/how-can-an-elected-official-be-on-the-payroll-of-a-foreign-government/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Who's behind the Trump 2020 float playing the 'Macarena' and moving through Arizona? | A float called the Trump Unity Bridge was seen moving through Arizona this week. The creator, Rob Cortis, is taking the float on tour to support the president and stress the importance of securing the southern border. I thought I was hallucinating, someone else responded on social media. About 10 others also reported seeing a float emblazoned with signs saying Trump 2020: Build The Wall and music playing as it rolled through metro Phoenix Monday night. There were sightings on the Arizona State University campus, then Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Snapchat lit up with video of the float's journey. By Tuesday, a Tucson man made a similar post. For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral.com. "I swear this was not a mirage: In downtown Tucson, a truck just drove past our office pulling a big float decorated in red, white and blue that said 'Trump 2020, Build The Wall,'" Arizona Daily Star columnist Tim Stellar wrote on Twitter. I swear this was not a mirage: In downtown Tucson, a truck just drove past our office pulling a big float decorated in red, white and blue that said "Trump 2020, Build The Wall." When I ran outside, they had passed, but I could see them and hear their stereo blaring the Macarena. Tim Steller (@senyorreporter) April 9, 2019 He said he ran outside, but the float had passed, although strains of "Macarena" could still be heard blaring from the stereo. Apparently, a Michigan man has been touring the country with the trailer hitched to a truck since 2016. Rob Cortis, the man behind the float, says on his website that he's been to the 48 contiguous U.S. states to support the president and stress the importance of securing the Southern border. Tf Annie (@AnnieNicoloff) April 9, 2019 Cortis could not immediately be reached for comment, but he posted on Facebook that he was touring several Valley cities including Mesa, Phoenix, Tempe and Scottsdale. Immigration, and the effectiveness of building a border wall, has been a divisive issue in Arizona and across the nation. The government was shut down in January as Trump and Congress couldn't reach agreement on the issue, and the president recently threatened to close the border and shutoff trade with Mexico. According to his website, Cortis created the float, called the Trump Unity Bridge, the night of the final 2016 presidential debate in an attempt to bring people together on common issues from border security to healthcare. Reach the reporter Lorraine Longhi at [email protected] or 480-243-4086. Follow her on Twitter @lolonghi. Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2019/04/09/why-trump-2020-float-moving-through-arizona/3414311002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2019/04/09/why-trump-2020-float-moving-through-arizona/3414311002/ |
Why is PETA going to hand out fish before Predators vs. Stars playoff game in Nashville? | Predators right wing Viktor Arvidsson (33) looks at a catfish thrown on the ice before game 1 of the first round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bridgestone Arena Thursday, April 12, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Andrew Nelles / Tennessean.com) PETA doesn't want to let the catfish out of the bag -- or whatever wrap people use to sneak them into Bridgestone Arena. The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals is discouraging Predators fans from bringing catfish -- and throwing them on the ice, as is tradition -- ahead of the Nashville's first-round playoff series against the Stars. PETA will hand out squeezable fish -- which look more like bass -- before the series opener Wednesday night (8:30 p.m. Central; Fox Sports Tennessee/USA; 102.5-FM). They're encouraging fans to throw those on the ice in lieu of the tradition of hurling catfish onto the playing surface. GO TIME: Predators GM David Poile confident pieces are in place, just in time for NHL playoffs Titans offensive tackle Taylor Lewan kisses a catfish during pregame festivities before Game 2 against the Jets of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Bridgestone Arena Sunday, April 29, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: George Walker IV / Tennessean.com) GAMES ON: Predators start Stanley Cup Playoffs Wednesday at home vs. Dallas Stars "Catfish are unique individuals who feel pain and fear, value their own lives, and deserve our respect," PETA executive vice president Tracy Reiman said in a statement. "It's no more acceptable to throw catfish corpses onto the ice than it would be to throw cat corpses, and PETA hopes these squeezies will help keep the game fun for fans and fish alike." PETA suggested that any fan caught trying to bring a catfish into the arena be ejected, banned for life from attending games and fined $5,000. Reach Paul Skrbina at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @PaulSkrbina. Tom Dennis holds a catfish that he and Caleb Daniel and his father Zach threw onto the ice at the beginning of Game 5 of the second round NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Bridgestone Arena, Saturday, May 5, 2018, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: Tom Stanford / Tennessean.com) FISH STORY: The catfish, a Predators tradition that dates back to 2003, is back A FAN'S GUIDE: Understanding Predators chants and Stanley Cup Playoffs traditions at Bridgestone Arena PARTY TIME: Predators watch parties in downtown Nashville: Schedule set for Dallas Stars series | https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/nhl/predators/2019/04/09/peta-predators-catfish-tradition-nhl-playoffs-first-round/3416370002/ |
What happens to Debenhams now? | Debenhams' much anticipated slide into administration has finally come to pass. The chain is now in the hands of its lenders. Not for long though - those lenders, Barclays and Bank of Ireland, as well as hedge funds Silver Point and GoldenTree, will now try to sell the business as soon as possible. Barclays and Bank of Ireland are familiar names in the UK and need little introduction. But Silver Point Capital and GoldenTree Asset Management are less well known. GoldenTree was set up in 2000 and has offices in New York, London, Singapore and Sydney. It specialises in high-risk, high-reward investments. Last November, it bought Johnston Press, after the owner of the i newspaper and the Scotsman went into administration. GoldenTree was the firm's biggest lender. Silver Point Capital is of a similar ilk. It is a newer business than GoldenTree, and was formed by two former Goldman Sachs partners. It also focuses on the type of special situations investments favoured by its fellow Debenhams-backer. Mike Ashley has made clear his interest in buying the store chain all along, despite being repeatedly rebuffed by Debenhams' board. He isn't giving up. Sports Direct has formally registered its interest with the chain's interim owners, deputy chief financial officer Chris Wootton told the BBC. However, Mr Wootton doesn't expect them to succeed at this stage either. "The way this has all been set up suggests to us [the owners] already have a plan in place to sell it to a third party, not us." Image copyright AFP Mr Wootton suggests "various retailers" would be interested in buying Debenhams, including another big name from the UK High Street, Topshop-owner, Sir Philip Green. A BBC source says Sir Philip is not interested in buying the chain, however. Maureen Hinton, retail research director at GlobalData, suggests Philip Day, owner and chief executive of Edinburgh Woollen Mills as a potential bidder. Mr Day owns a number of other well-known brands, including Peacocks and Jaeger, and earlier this month he put in a bid for struggling fashion chain Bonmarch. "Philip Day is developing a department store concept, so he might want to take some of their stores," says Ms Hinton. However she says the whole chain might prove too big for Mr Day. That's the problem, agrees Diane Wehrle, marketing and insights director at retail intelligence experts Springboard. It's a tall order expecting anyone to take on a chain the size of Debenhams at a time when bricks and mortar retail is struggling. They're putting their toe in the water," says Ms Wehrle. But Amazon takes a "pragmatic" approach, she says, and might not have the appetite for a large network of stores. Instead some stores, in particular the smaller ones, could be sold off piecemeal to retailers who want to expand, such as Primark, Aldi or Lidl, she suggests. Mr Wootton says that if Sports Direct took over the chain, they would keep more than 90% of stores open. "We'd obviously look to invest in the stores, because they look very tired," he said. He suggests thousands of jobs could be saved. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chris Wootton, deputy chief financial officer at Sports Direct, says they wanted to keep stores open The chain has 166 stores, which initially at least will all continue to trade. But it also has 621m of debt. The current plan is to renegotiate the rents on some its stores, while around 50 have already been earmarked for closure starting next year. Ms Wehrle says any purchaser would be looking at slimming down the "huge number of stores" in the chain. GlobalData's Maureen Hinton agrees that even Mike Ashley would thin store numbers, and argues Debenhams would need significant investment if it wants to compete with John Lewis. "Merging it with House of Fraser could be a benefit [thanks to] the economies of scale... [offering] greater bargaining power with suppliers and landlords," she suggests. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47868020 |
Is Scotland ready for EU elections? | Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption If Brexit is not resolved soon, the UK could have to take part in European Parliament elections It is the election that was not (and is still not) supposed to happen. Brexit was to exempt Scotland and the rest of the UK from taking part. But delays to our EU departure mean the 2019 European Parliament elections are still in the diary for 23 May. Scottish parties are busy preparing for the contest knowing that it could still be cancelled. It is, therefore, the mibbes aye, mibbes naw election. Whether or not it goes ahead depends, in part, on how Theresa May gets on at the special EU summit on Brexit in Brussels. The prime minister's asking to delay Brexit until 30 June, with the option of pulling out earlier if a deal and the necessary legislation is approved by MPs. If that happens by 22 May, Mrs May has said the European elections would not go ahead in the UK. The terms of any Brexit extension must first be agreed by all 28 EU countries. The SNP was first among the Scottish parties to seek candidates for EU elections back in January, just in case they might be required. Sitting MEPs Ian Hudghton - the party president - and Alyn Smith are both standing for re-election. They hope to be among the three men and three women chosen by electronic ballot around the time of the SNP conference. It's thought the former MSP and minister Aileen MacLeod and Mr Smith's chief of staff, Laura Rayner, have also put their names forward. Image copyright PA Image caption Four of the group of Scottish MEPs elected in 2014 are seeking to be on the ballot paper again in 2019 The UK's longest serving MEP, David Martin, with 35 years experience, has agreed to stand again for Scottish Labour. He will top the party's list. Other potential candidates have until 10 April to put their names forward. A special panel of Scottish and UK party bosses will then interview and select five more hopefuls. The second placed candidate will be a woman, replacing Catherine Stihler who stood down as an MEP last month. Scotland's newest MEP, Nosheena Mobarik, is expected to be the main candidate for the Scottish Conservatives. She replaced Ian Duncan in the European Parliament in 2017 when he quit to take up a seat in the Lords and become a Scotland office minister. The Tories second placed candidate is likely to be Iain McGill, who campaigned for Vote Leave in 2016. Others will be invited to put their names forward this week for consideration by the party's management board. The former leader of UKIP Scotland, David Coburn, is one of Scotland's six MEPs. He is expected to stand for Nigel Farage's Brexit party this time. The Scottish Greens, who have never had an MEP, have made it their goal to replace him. Their members will whittle down a list of seventeen potential candidates over the next two weeks. Scottish Liberal Democrat members are currently ranking twelve potential candidates, with party convenor, Sheila Ritchie, considered the favourite. 'Contingency preparations' The UK government has formally tabled the legal order to allow European elections to go ahead on 23 May. It has also written to returning officers offering to reimburse "reasonable and appropriate spending on contingency preparations". The Scottish government has raised concerns that EU nationals from outside the UK might not have enough time to complete the appropriate paperwork to take part in the poll. Scotland has six of the UK's 73 seats in the European Parliament. These seats are to be shared between the EU's 27 remaining states if and when the UK leaves. The EU has made clear that the UK must take part in this year's elections if Brexit has not happened by the time they take place. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-47865828 |
Why do we like magic when we know it's a trick? | Everyone knows these are tricks and not "real". It's not as though we don't know our senses are being deceived. But we still watch and wait for the reveal. It might be more of a surprise to find there is a university laboratory dedicated to understanding magic - the Magic Lab, part of the psychology department at Goldsmiths, University of London. It's part of a growing interest in putting magic under much more rigorous, scientific scrutiny. Gustav Kuhn, reader in psychology at the university, is head of the Magic Lab - which stands for Mind Attention and General Illusory Cognition. 'Misdirection' As the title suggests, the principles behind magic are rooted in areas that overlap with psychology - perception, attention and how we process information. Image caption Gustav Kuhn (third from left) and psychology students. They can learn to perform tricks as part of their degree course Magic is about manipulating our perceptions, "exploiting cognitive loopholes," says Dr Kuhn - and understanding how magic works is being recognised as having wider implications. "Misdirection" is a key part of magic - getting people to not look at what's important, but to distract them, change the subject, use a dramatic prop and push their attention elsewhere, so they do not see what is happening in front of their eyes. It's being used to to examine areas such as road safety, says Dr Kuhn, looking at how to make sure drivers can really focus on what's important. "How do people fail to see something even though they are looking at it?" he says. Fake news It's also applicable to bigger social and political questions, he says, such as how to respond to "fake news" and false information on social media. The lesson of magic, says Dr Kuhn, is that even if something is recognised as false, it still makes an impression and steals our attention, and researchers are looking at how understanding magic can help to investigate the world of conspiracy theories and fake information. Image copyright PA Image caption The magician, Dinamo, puts a modern spin on keeping the crowd's attention Another key part of a magic trick is the "forcing technique". This is where someone thinks they are choosing a card at random, but the magician is really manipulating their decision and the "choices" are false. "Free will is an illusion. People are much more suggestible than they think. All of our perceptions are very malleable," says Dr Kuhn. This suggestibility and use of false options can be misused in a political sense, he says. But it's also important in understanding how eye-witness evidence can be so "highly subjective", with implications for the legal system. 'Nature of perception' The attitude towards examining the connections between magic and science has gone from scepticism to becoming one of the hottest research topics, says Dr Kuhn. Image caption Magic was one of the earliest acts on television: the trick of "sawing" someone in half, broadcast in 1937 This week the Wellcome Collection in London is launching an exhibition into the Psychology of Magic, looking at what conjuring can tell us about the human mind and the "nature of perception". The University of London is also running an exhibition "Staging Magic - The Story Behind The Illusion". Dr Kuhn says he was interested in magic before he became interested in studying psychology. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A modern version of the illusion of cutting someone in half "I loved watching magic, the clever puzzles and techniques, trying to understand how it worked," he says. When he learned how to perform magic, he says he enjoyed the sociability, with the tricks becoming ice-breakers for the awkward years of growing up. Great art Great magicians can perform tricks in a way that moves people like great art, he says. He mentions watching a card trick from the Spanish magician, Juan Tamariz. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Juan Tamariz's magic is likened to Jimi Hendrix playing guitar "I still don't know he did it, it was so beautiful. It almost connects you to childhood, when the world seems very magical." Watching him show a card trick was like seeing "Jimi Hendrix performing a guitar solo". He says that performing magic seems to have a particular appeal to people who are otherwise shy or introverted. Image copyright Wellcome Image caption A fake pneumatic hand once used in tricks is part of the Wellcome Collection's exhibition on magic and psychology In the psychology department, all the students can take an option in magic, and Dr Kuhn says learning to perform tricks has proved a big help with confidence. "It really boosts self-esteem," he says. Hannah Laurence, a first-year student on the course, said that learning a range of tricks helped her to meet other students and to "step outside of my comfort zone". Dr Kuhn says part of the fascination is trying to reconcile something that we've seen, with what we know is not really possible. Image caption Tommy Cooper combined magic and comedy for huge audiences Rabbits don't suddenly appear in top hats from nowhere. People can't get sawn in half and walk away. He says it's a sensation that produces a deep-rooted response, trying to reconcile this "cognitive conflict" and triggering part of the brain, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. From a very early age we are drawn to what we don't understand, says Dr Kuhn, with an evolutionary incentive to try to make sense of what seems to be unexplained. "We learn to develop this way," he says. Image copyright Getty Images Dr Kuhn likens the appeal of a magic trick to that of a horror film. If such bloodshed was seen in real life, he says, it would be traumatic and awful, but when it's shown in the safety of a movie, the fear becomes something that people can enjoy. Likewise, if we were confronted with something which disorientated and distorted our senses, it would be deeply disturbing, but when it's put into the context of a magic trick, it becomes entertaining and amusing. The fact that we know it's not real is an essential part of making it an enjoyable sensation. "It's an exciting time to be researching magic," says Dr Kuhn, showing how trickery can give "fresh insight into the strengths and weaknesses of our own minds". | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-47827346 |
Are rowdy basketball fans to blame for vandalized "M" at Gold Medal Park? | When the "M" from the Gold Medal Park sign went missing this weekend, some speculated it had been stolen by rowdy basketball fans. The 3-foot stainless-steel letter had mysteriously disappeared Saturday night, shortly after Texas Tech defeated Michigan State in the semifinal round of the Final Four. "Fortunately, they didn't take it," said Luther Hochradel, general manager of Windsor Cos., which manages the downtown park. "They just busted it off." Vandals appear to have stood on the letter and pulled like crazy, he said. Eventually, the welded bottom broke free. Maybe the "M" was too bulky to cart off it weighs between 50 and 70 pounds. So the culprits left it lying in the grass near the Guthrie Theater and the Mississippi River. City Council Member Steve Fletcher noticed the absent "M" Monday night while walking his dog. He quipped on Twitter that visitors were to blame: "Whoever took our 'M,' please return it to Gold Medal Park on your way out of town." Fletcher called the Final Four a very positive experience but said no one wants to see property damage. "We'll just get the 'M' fixed and move on," he said Tuesday. Four days of partying did not cause any serious public-safety incidents downtown. That's a testament, Fletcher says, to his theory that if "we make downtown fun it's harder to commit crimes and safer for everybody." This isn't the first time letters from the sign have been targeted. In 2011, thieves nabbed the "O" before it was eventually recovered. A "D" also disappeared earlier that year. The injured "M" is expected to rejoin its teammates within two weeks. "It's just one of those things," Hochradel said. "We just try to get it repaired and make everything look beautiful again." | http://www.startribune.com/are-rowdy-basketball-fans-to-blame-for-vandalized-m-at-gold-medal-park/508351512/ |
Who the hack thinks theres no pipeline to Massport? | Once you go hack, you never go back. Today, we study the extinguished careers of even more Massport payroll patriots, most of whom have had their snouts buried in the public trough for most of their lives. Yesterday I asked Massport a number of questions about more than a dozen of their, ahem, public servants. Out of professional courtesy, I suppose, Massport refused to answer any of my questions about their hack backgrounds, instead responding: It makes sense that some employees have previous state or local government experience. It does make sense, dollars and cents. Mostly dollars, lots and lots of them. On Monday, the agencys hack boss John Pranckevicius was asked about the endless stream of hacks going onto the Massport payroll from City Hall and the State House. Check out the social media of a guy named Hodari Cail. He doesnt seem to be on the Massport payroll right now, but until 2017 he listed himself as director of community affairs for Gov. Charlie Baker, after which he became senior administrator diversity/inclusion and compliance at Massport. But theres no pipeline. You know the old saying, forgotten but not gone. A lot of these hacks used to work for pols hardly anyone can even remember anymore. Consider Michael Grieco, assistant secretary treasurer for $151,144.25 a year. Thirty years ago, he worked for John Nucci at the Boston School Committee. Nucci, by the way, is now on the board of, you guessed it, Massport. Most of these hack agencies have someone whos a kind of liaison to grease the pipeline they claim doesnt exist, some connected person with a fancy title like acting senior deputy chief of staff. Until recently, at Massport that was Ashley Stolba, for $150,000 a year. She used to work at the State House for GOP House minority leader Brad Jones. Now shes at Harvard, no longer acting senior deputy, just chief of staff, Harvard Allston Land Company. John Affuso used to work for the late Boston Mayor Mumbles Menino. He is now senior legal counsel, transactions, for $150,000 a year. Bob Travaglini was once the Senate president, from East Boston. One of his Massport legacies is Tommy Domenico, now the acting chief information officer for $200,000 a year. I wonder if Trav can still get anybody he wants on the payroll. Give me a call, Trav! Long time, no see. Before Trav was Senate president, the boss was Tom Birmingham of nearby Chelsea. Meet Toms guy, Anthony Guerriero, assistant director community relations and federal affairs, $113,405 a year. Like Trav before him, Paul Scapicchio was a Boston city councilor from the Eastie district. Meet cousin Lou Scapicchio, communications specialist, $75,712. When he quit the council, Paul Scappichio went to work at Mintz, Levin, where he ran into Steve Tocco, who used to run Massport. While I was perusing the Massport payroll, I noticed a guy by the name of Gordon Carr no relation. Like all the rest, his title is a mouthful: deputy director, real estate strategy and policy, for $166,909.38 a year. What are Carrs qualifications, you ask. He been around since Jane Swift days, and according to the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, over the years hes donated $20,158 to local elected hacks, including $1,500 to Charlie Baker, $1,750 to Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and $1,000 to the Republican state committee. Eminently qualified, in other words. Another nationwide search! Check out the payroll for yourself it reads like a roll-call vote from both branches of the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1980s. Massport is a lot like the federal bureaucracy as described by Thomas Jefferson more than 200 years ago Vacancies by death are few, by resignation, never. The most amazing thing about Massport is that most of these hacks have never even run for office. They just sort of hung around, got taken care of, and now theyre millionaires. I look at this one guy, hes making 200 grand, said one grizzled denizen of the political demimonde. I know him hes never taken a bullet, never skinned his knee and hes making a helluva lot more dough than Ill ever see. Get three of Howies autographed books now for just $14.95 at howiecarrshow.com. | https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/04/09/who-the-hack-thinks-theres-no-pipeline-to-massport/ |
Is there a beautiful, briny solution to the worlds clean water crisis? | Desalination is often dismissed as being expensive and polluting. But advances in tech are putting it back on the agenda Its tipped to be the key environmental challenge of the century and theres plenty of competition for that accolade. Water. The planet has plenty of it, but most of it is unusable, locked up in salty oceans. But demand is soaring and the strains are starting to show, from China to Latin America, India to California. Almost a billion people lack access to clean water, and the forecast is for this number to grow sharply in coming decades. Last year, Cape Town came dangerously close to running out of water. Even rainy England has been told: carry on like this and youll run out of the stuff in 25 years. There are no easy solutions but one technology that has proved controversial in the past may be on the cusp of a new dawn. Call it desalination 2.0. Freshwater supplies are under increasing pressure across the world, with the 4 billion people currently living in water-scarce areas predicted to rise to 5 billion by mid-century. Climate change, growing populations and our consumption habits are all key factors, while the technology we use relies on groundwater being extracted at a faster rate than it can be naturally replenished, which just stores up problems for the future. The process of converting seawater to something less briny that could be used on farms and in homes has long been viewed as a last resort for meeting our water needs. The technology is expensive, energy-intensive and only suitable in some areas. It also generates a potent byproduct: highly salty brine, which is usually released back into the sea, and the process has the unfortunate effect of disrupting local fish populations by sucking them into the inflow. This series is an antidote, an attempt to show that there is plenty of hope, as our journalists scour the planet looking for pioneers, trailblazers, best practice, unsung heroes, ideas that work, ideas that might and innovations whose time might have come. Readers can recommend other projects, people and progress that we should report on by contacting us at [email protected] Sign up here for a weekly roundup from this series emailed to your inbox every Friday David Binns of early-stage innovation company Epicuro believes that advances in renewable energy technology could make small-scale desalination units a revolutionary advance for poor communities in the developing world, particularly in hot countries. Its a life-saver, he says. It could make an enormous difference to a terrible problem. In a prototype he co-invented with seed funding from the drinks and property tycoon Howard Raymond, Binns uses solar collectors which heat water to boiling point, then condense it separately from the salt or dirt that rendered it undrinkable. A small photovoltaic system is attached to power the processors necessary to regulate the machine. This method can be used not just for desalination, which requires the users to be near the coast or another source of saltwater, but also in areas where water is available but grossly contaminated, which involves a much bigger slice of the global water-stressed population. Binns is now seeking government and charitable partners to make the technology widely available, and estimates that between 2m and 3m would enable the company to start manufacture. He envisages the devices being used on a small, local scale, with each unit enough to supply the drinking-water needs of an average family. Desalination: the quest to quench the world's thirst for water Read more Other innovators are also exploring the possibilities of renewable energy, as one of the biggest handicaps for traditional desalination is its huge consumption of fossil fuels. For instance, US engineering and technology company Honeywell has supplied water stations (which clean water contaminated with fluorides, nitrates and salinity to 480,000 people) in India, where as much as 70% of water supplies are contaminated and 200,000 people die each year from lack of access to safe water. Along with Safe Water Network India, Honeywell has installed 150 stations that rely solely on solar energy. Newer technology is also coming to the assistance of desalination advocates. The wonder substance graphene is inevitably one avenue being explored. A graphene sieve was created two years ago at the University of Manchester which cleans salts from brine and, if it can be scaled up, could be used for cheap desalination. Reporting on the work in the peer-review journal Nature Nanotechnology, Professor Rahul Raveendran Nair said: Realisation of scalable membranes with uniform pore size, down to the atomic scale, is a significant step forward and will open new possibilities for improving the efficiency of desalination technology. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Israel holds the crown for long-term investment in the technology as a strategic public service. A transportable desalination system in Hadera. Photograph: Nir Elias/REUTERS Separately, the British company G20 is working on an alternative way of using graphene oxide filters for desalination, with a process used to apply a coating of graphene oxide to existing polymer-based water filtration membranes. More traditionally, the $1.75m XPrize Water Abundance was awarded last year to technology that uses distillation to take the water content out of humid air. Skywater machines use a distillation process to turn water vapour to liquid, then treat the water with ozone to prevent contamination with micro-organisms. The more humid the air, the more water can be extracted. However, the technology is still expensive, with prices of $18,000 (14,000) to $28,000 for units that can process up to 300 gallons a day. For some large urban areas, desalination offers an urgent way out of an increasingly pressing problem. Cate Lamb, the director of water security at CDP, which measures companies environmental performance, points to the success of Cape Town, which last year managed to stave off the worst of its water crisis by investing in desalination, as well as restricting water use. Some businesses are also investing in the technology on a smaller scale to supply their operations in water-scarce regions. Lamb says: Desalination is already having a role to play in aiding cities and companies to respond to water challenges. The deployment of the technology in Cape Town is one of the primary ways in which the city is aiming to enhance resilience. A recent positive report by financial analysts at Moodys Investor Service found that the success of Cape Towns desalination, along with demand management and increased investment in water, was paying off in economic growth and stability, too. A resilient water sector is critical for the health of Cape Towns economy and the citys fiscal position, said Zoe Jankel, senior analyst. New investment will enhance that resilience. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A farmer uses desalinated water to tend to his crops in the Atacama desert, Chile. Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images If Cape Town is the most recent prominent example of desalination being used to plug an urgent gap, Israel holds the crown for long-term investment in the technology as a strategic public service. The country is home to the worlds biggest reverse-osmosis desalination plant, and can now produce more water than it needs from desalination and water recycling. This could potentially allow for freshwater exports to the surrounding region, and more importantly for the export of virtual water that is, agricultural goods from vegetables and grains to clothing fibres, and manufactured products to boost its economy. As much as 80% of Israels drinking water comes from coastal desalination plants, depending on the time of year and the weather. This is proving so energy-intensive that the biggest plants operate mainly at night, to avoid overloading the power grid. Crucially, however, the country has also invested heavily over decades in the treatment of waste water, recycling nearly 90% of its waste water through sewage treatment plants which then redirect the treated water to irrigation. Even with advances in desalination technology, there will still be drawbacks to its widespread use The sludge byproduct is also used as fertiliser and to generate biogas. This strategy highlights the need for desalination, as it is in Cape Town, to be integrated into an overall water management plan. There is no point in relying on such an expensive way of generating water while wasting the resource in other ways. But where desalination is used without renewables on a large scale, there are always accompanying problems. It does come with a cost a carbon cost, says Lamb. Further, there are risks associated with the discharge of the large quantities of salt generated. Finally, its important to realise that this is a technology that is really only applicable close to the sea. For those that dont have this luxury, other interventions will be required. The use of large-scale desalination plants is posing an increasing threat to the health of the seas, a recent report from the UN University found. For every litre of freshwater created from a conventional desalination plant, an average of 1.5 litres of brine is also made. Globally, desalination plants now discharge 142m cubic metres of highly salty brine every day, which is about 50% greater than previous estimates. In a year, that quantity would be enough to cover an area the size of Florida with 30cm of brine. The reports authors warned that the outflows of brine were depleting the dissolved oxygen in the surrounding seas, with damaging effects on marine life. They called for investment in promising new technologies which could reduce the amount of effluent that is wasted, by converting the metal byproducts such as sodium, magnesium, lithium, calcium and potassium to a useful form, which is currently uneconomic to do. They also suggested the saline byproducts could be used in fish farms, where saltier water can result in bigger fish, and in the irrigation of salt-tolerant crops. Read more Even with advances in desalination technology, there will still be drawbacks to its widespread use, not least issues of scaling up technology to the size of the water shortage problem. Virginia Newton-Lewis, senior policy analyst for water security at the charity WaterAid, says governments need to focus on myriad ways of providing the most fundamental service clean water to their populations, before becoming mired in what could be expensive and hi-tech desalination equipment. What we need to see is universal provision of household drinking water to become a top political priority, she says. Lack of access to safe water supplies is often down to insufficient finance or political will to support basic services, rather than a physical absence of available water. Even in areas where water is physically in short supply, there are alternatives that should be explored as a matter of urgency. Improved water management that prioritises household water supplies could have a huge impact, with very low economic costs, she says. Its a matter of prioritising communities clean water supplies ahead of industry and agriculture. Desalination is expensive, causes pollution and has a number of limitations. Therefore, although it definitely has a role to play in certain areas, there are often much more appropriate solutions available. Fiona Harvey is an environment correspondent for the Guardian This article is part of a series on possible solutions to some of the worlds most stubborn problems. Email us at [email protected] | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/10/desalination-world-clean-water-crisis |
What picks do the Cowboys have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Dallas Cowboys, who went 11-7 last season, do not have a pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Cowboys have in the draft: First round: None (traded to Raiders). Second round: 26th pick, 58th overall. Third round: 27th pick, 90th overall. Fourth round: 26th pick, 128th overall. Fourth round: 34th pick, 136th overall (compensatory). Fifth round: 27th pick, 165th overall. Sixth round: None (traded to Bengals). Seventh round: 27th pick, 241st overall. See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-cowboys-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Eagles have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Philadelphia Eagles, who went 10-8 last season, have the 25th pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Eagles have in the draft: First round: 25th pick. Second round: 21st pick, 53rd overall (via trade with Ravens). Second round: 25th pick, 57th overall. Third round: None (traded to Lions). Fourth round: 25th pick, 127th overall. Fourth round: 36th pick, 138th overall (compensatory). Fifth round: 25th pick, 163rd overall. Sixth round: None (traded to Buccaneers). Seventh round: None (traded to Patriots). See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-eagles-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Giants have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The New York Giants, who went 5-11 last season, have the sixth pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Giants have in the draft: First round: 6th pick. First round: 17th pick (via trade with Browns). Second round: 5th pick, 37th overall. Third round: 32nd pick, 95th overall (via trade with Patriots through Browns). Fourth round: 6th pick, 108th overall. Fourth round: 30th pick, 132nd overall (via trade with Saints). Fifth round: 4th pick, 142nd overall (via trade with 49ers through Lions). Fifth round: 5th pick, 143rd overall. Fifth round: 33rd pick, 171st overall (compensatory). Sixth round: 7th pick, 180th overall. Seventh round: 18th pick, 232nd overall (via trade with Vikings). Seventh round: 31st overall, 245th overall (via trade with Rams). See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-giants-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Redskins have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Washington Redskins, who went 7-9 last season, have the sixth pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Redskins have in the draft: First round: 15th pick. Second round: 14th pick, 46th overall. Third round: 13th pick, 76th overall. Third round: 33rd pick, 96th overall (compensatory). Fourth round: None (traded to Packers). Fifth round: 15th pick, 153rd overall. Fifth round: 35th pick, 173rd overall (compensatory). Sixth round: 34th pick, 206th overall (compensatory). Seventh round: 13th pick, 227th overall. Seventh round: 39th pick, 253rd overall (compensatory) See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-redskins-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
Can electric cars survive Trump? | WASHINGTON - With car manufacturers racing to introduce new electric vehicle models, the age of the gasoline-powered engine would seem to be quickly approaching its end. But the much-hyped industry is now facing a major test, as President Donald Trump plans to freeze automobile efficiency standards next year, delaying what had been a major incentive for automakers to go electric. Instead, automakers will be free to sell electric vehicles at whatever pace American consumers are willing to buy them, pegging the cars efficiency and environmental benefit against their relatively high price compared to gasoline-powered engines and lengthy waits for recharging. For the car companies, lessening the regulations lessens the incentive to deliver electric vehicles in the United States, said Brett Smith, a researcher at the Michigan-based Center for Automotive Research. What Trump is saying is if the consumer wants to have one they can have one. And if the consumer doesn't, then pull it, it wont happen. The transition away from internal combustion engines represents an existential threat to Houstons oil and gas industry, which for years has enjoyed near monopoly-status on the energy that drives cars and trucks along the nations roadways. But forecasts on the speed at which motorists will make the switch to electric vary widely, and the transition is not materializing as quickly as some predicted. As prices on electric vehicles decline, U.S. sales totaled around 360,000 last year, an increase of more than 80 percent from 2017, according to the trade group Advanced Energy Economy. Still, that represented only 2 percent of total vehicle sales. Under a deal the Obama administration cut with automakers in 2011, the imperative for manufacturers to get more electric vehicles on the road was about to get a lot more pressing. By 2025 new model cars were required to get between 45 and 61 miles per gallon on average - up from a standard of between 35 and 47 miles per gallon this year - as part of wider push to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Then came Trump While more efficient internal combustion engines would get automakers part of the way there, a wide scale expansion of electric fleets was essential to meeting the regulation, Smith said. Then last year, Trump announced his intent to freeze efficiency standards in 2020, largely letting automakers off the hook. There is growing evidence automakers cannot comply with the trajectory of [efficiency] standards, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said at the Washington Auto Show last week. Standards need to be achievable. With California and other states fighting Trumps rollback of fuel-efficiency standards, the matter is likely headed to court, with most expecting a resolution not until after the 2020 presidential election. In the meantime, that leaves automakers with an unclear mandate, one that could very well hinge on who wins the White House next year, as Democrat candidates push for greater reductions in carbon emissions. So far U.S. car manufacturers are holding back in shifting their fleets to electric, even as they invest in new electric-powered models, said Devin Lindsay, an automotive analyst at IHS Markit. Right now theyre really hedging their bets depending on which way the market goes, he said. Anyone walking around an auto show these days might find such an observation confusing, as sales representatives show off an increasing variety of electric-powered vehicles. Standing next to a new electric-powered Audi SUV at the Washington Auto Show last week, Brad Stertz, director of government affairs for the German carmaker, said the company is planning for electric vehicles to make up 30 percent of their sales within six years. We're making government aware of our significant investment in electric vehicles, he said. If people want an Audi, they want an Audi. And if its electric even better. For European and Asian manufacturers, the future of U.S. car efficiency standards is a secondary concern to whats happening in China and Europe, where crackdowns on carbon dioxide and other emissions are creating ripe markets for electric vehicles. Last year, the research firm Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast electric vehicle sales would reach 11 million a year by 2025 up from 1.1 million in 2017 with China and Europe combining for more than 60 percent of the market. This market is not being driven by the United States, said Matt Stanberry, vice president of market development at Advanced Energy Economy. China is the largest auto market in the world, and theyre heading toward banning internal combustion engines. EV fees But any move to increase electric vehicles in the United States remains deeply divisive. Earlier this year, Republicans led by Sen. John Barrasso, of Wyoming, the nations eighth largest oil-producing state, introduced legislation to repeal existing federal tax credits for buying electric vehicles - worth between $2,500 and $7,500 a vehicle. At the same time, close to 20 states, such as Oregon, Oklahoma and West Virginia, have imposed fees on electric vehicles, something proponents say is necessary to fund highway repair, which is primarily financed by taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel. But many electric vehicle advocates see it as a move to slow adoption. Among those pushing for the fees is the American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industrys lobbying arm. The electric vehicle tax credit has allowed the government to pick winners and losers at the expense of taxpayers, and it is time for that to end, Frank Macchiarola, downstream vice president at API, said in a statement earlier this year. For the time being, the future of electric vehicles in the United States is firmly in the hands of American consumers. And for now, they remain a tough sell. We always skew to a worst case scenario, where [people believe they] need a vehicle that can travel 600 miles when the average commute is less than 30 miles, said Amelia Fine-Morrison, an Audi communications manager. There's a consumer education component that has to be done. [email protected] Twitter: @osborneja | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Can-electric-cars-survive-Trump-13754755.php |
Who has won the Israel election and what happens next? | With 97% of votes counted, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahus Likud party and Benny Gantzs Blue and White party appear to be tied. Most likely Netanyahu. With a grouping of nationalist, religious and far-right parties that gathered up parliamentary seats, the incumbent leader has the clearest path to forming a coalition government out of the 120-seat Knesset. More numbers will arrive later on Wednesday but an official tally may not come in until Friday. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Benny Gantz (left), the leader of the Blue and White party, and Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, voting during the election. Israels political system is based on delicately formed and unstable coalitions crafted by a majority in the Knesset. No party has won a majority since Israels first election, in 1949. After the votes are counted, the president, Reuven Rivlin, will start consultations to see which party has the highest chance of forming a coalition. This is not necessarily the party with the most votes, but the one most likely to be able to win the support of other parties to form a government. Once the president tasks a candidate with creating a coalition government, they have 42 days to do so. And in 2015, it took Netanyahu more than a month to play the political game and gather enough seats. If a candidate fails to form a government, the president asks another politician to try. This year, Netanyahu already has unofficial support from some parties. If Netanyahu is able to secure a victory, this summer he will become Israels longest-serving leader ever. But he also faces three separate corruption cases in which the attorney general has announced his intention to indict, a process that could start in the next few weeks. | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/10/has-benjamin-netanyahu-done-enough-to-win-israeli-election |
Can prepaid debit cards for kids make them smarter about money? | Sydney Baig pays a merchant with her Greenlight Mastercard debit card. (Photo: Edward C. baig) I wish I could tell you that I finally gave in to my teenage daughters relentless request for a debit card so that I could impart fatherly financial wisdom. The truth is, I would slip Sydney a few bucks here and there when she went to the mall with her friends and I wasnt exactly keeping a tight accounting of her cash or spending habits. Nonetheless, I fell for the pitch behind the Greenlight Mastercard that I got for her. Namely, that this $4.99-a-month card, one of several plastic debit or prepaid cards aimed at younger spenders FamZoo, Current, and gohenry, are among other variations would help me set spending limits and raise a financially-smart kid. And maybe, just maybe, teach her everything from operating within a budget to learning about the concept of compound interest. The short answer is that every family and circumstance are different. Ask yourself honestly if your kid is conscientious, mature, and independent. Then consider what kind of shape your own finances are in. Another tax headache: Another tax headache ahead: IRS is changing paycheck withholdings and it'll be a doozy AT&T 5G expands: AT&T expands mobile 5G rollout with seven new cities, total rises to 19 Frankly given how much credit card debt so many adults have racked up, its not lost on me that even grown-ups dont always take the fiscally prudent path. The sweet spot for when it is appropriate to give kids their card tends to be around the time between middle and high school, says Bill Dwight, the founder of FamZoo.com, which combines a prepaid card with a family finance app. Greenlight co-founder and CEO Tim Sheehan sees a similar starting age. But some kids get cards when they're younger, others older, and there are no specific minimum age restrictions. Debit cards are obviously not credit cards, and the distinction is very likely lost on kids who mistakenly may see all the plastic in your wallet as being equal. Its up to you to right off the bat explain the difference and let them know that the card youve given them has those finite spending limits. Greenlight debit card is a Mastercard. (Photo: Greenlight) While not endorsing any one particular debit card for kids, Laura Levine, CEO of the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy in Washington, D.C., is a fan of the concept. But there are caveats. What I remind parents is you dont just hand the card over and walk away and say this experience will teach them, she says. I think these debit cards created for young people are a wonderful practice tool with a lot of parent guidance. Setting spending limits The Greenlight card has several features I really like that likely would appeal to other parents, too, all managed via the parent version of the Greenlight app. After funding the Parents Wallet through your own bank account, you get to dictate how your kid can spend. You can direct funds, for instance, into a Spend Anywhere bucket that is just that; the kid can use the plastic card in any store that accepts a Mastercard. But you can also apportion a set amount of money that can be spent only in stores or types of stores (any restaurant, any gas station, etc.) that you specifically approve of in advance. You can also allow the kid to withdraw cash from an ATM, up to an amount you designate. Parents can view the childs spend history through the app. On their version of the app, kids can check their balance and permissions. You can also arrange to receive notifications that tell you where and when your kid spends money or in case a merchant declines a purchase. And yes, you can allow your kid through the app to request more money on the spot allow such requests at your own peril. Both parents can manage the kids accounts. And the $4.99 monthly fee covers up to five children in your family. (I haven't gotten one for my 12-year-old son yet). One nice feature encourages your kids to put money into a Giving category where they can make charitable donations. You can automate giving the child an allowance via the app, though how much money to give them is of course up to you. According to Levine, the old rule of thumb of giving a kid $1 a week for every year of their age may be outdated. "If the amount that we allocate them for their allowance is so little that it takes them so long to accumulate enough for anything meaningful, they won't make it and give up and get frustrated and it'll leave a bad in taste in their mouth," she says. "We don't want to be so generous that it's not a struggle; we want them to learn delayed gratification. But if it's an impossibly long difficult delay it may not be the outcome that we want." Inside Greenlight, you can tie an allowance to a set of designated chores. Since parents may disagree on whether you should make your kid work for the allowance or that you should pay them for helping around the house, you can debate this one amongst yourselves. The only thing that is important is that you have a thoughtful system that you roll out with your kid and you have conversations about money, says Dwight of FamZoo. Paying your kid interest Both FamZoo and Greenlight encourage a kid to save through a parent-paid interest rate feature. In Greenlight, the annual percentage yield interest rate of this feature is calculated and paid monthly based on the average daily balance of your childs total savings in the previous month. The money comes out of your own parent account, and hopefully gives the kid the sense that left alone, their savings balance will grow. If your kid wants to purchase a bigger ticket item than youve given them the money for, they can put money into a savings goal account. The kid would then need your permission to move money out of that account. Parents can try to encourage their kids to save through a paid interest rate inside Greenlight. (Photo: Edward C. Baig) Greenlight has built-in safety features. Data and any pictures of your kid that you uploaded are encrypted. Theres a PIN associated with the Greenlight card, and the accounts are FDIC insured. The company also says it has disabled card usage in any store or website that handles or does business in wire transfers, money orders, escort services, massage parlors, lotteries, gambling, horse racing, and dog racing. Keep in mind that any responsible message you want to teach your kid about finance isnt going to happen overnight. And recognize that when kids first get a card, it could burn a hole in their pocket. I started Syd out with what was to my mind a generous $100 contribution. I tried to stress that she shouldnt blow it all in one place at one time because shed have to learn to budget. Lets just say this concept is a work in progress. I also made a tactical error when I chose to surprise her with Greenlight. She freaked out when she received an unexpected text on her phone that, Your Dad would like you to join him on Greenlight and supplied a link she should click on. Greenlights Sheehan hopes to launch a custodial brokerage account in the second half of the year to teach kids how to invest. I'm not there yet with my own kids. Parents, let us know how you manage finances with your kids. Email: [email protected]; Follow @edbaig on Twitter Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2019/04/10/greenlight-debit-card-kids-can-teach-them-money/3365502002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2019/04/10/greenlight-debit-card-kids-can-teach-them-money/3365502002/ |
How Far Will The Euro Go Today? | Today is the most important day for traders. The European Central Bank (ECB) will deliver its verdict on their monetary policy for the Eurozone. The economic clouds have become dark and the ECB is under pressure to respond accordingly. ASSOCIATED PRESS The economic data out of Eurozone show that growth has become feeble and there is a strong need for more support from the ECB. The bank has lowered its growth forecast for the Eurozone but still the economic situation doesnt warrant another quantitative easing package from the ECB. Having said this, the policymakers do have every right to take all the precautionary measures in order to handle the situation. Two Important Factors This argument becomes even more compelling when we start to factor in two important elements. Firstly, Donald Trump is ready to start another trade war. He hasnt learned any lesson from the current trade war with China. The war has not only impacted the US economy but also the world growth as well. Despite all that, he is ready for more. In his latest comments, the president has said that he is prepared to slap tariffs of $11 billion worth of imports from the EU. This is surely a matter of concern for the ECB who has fought hard to revive the growth in the Eurozone. Secondly, the Italian growth and debt conditions have become dire. The countrys growth shows that the recession is on its doorsteps and there is a serious political turmoil as well. The current government is in a battle with the European Commission over its budget deficit. Evidently, there is a strong need for structural reform, but no one is ready for austerity. No Fireworks Expected Despite all of this, I am not expecting any major shift in the economic policy from the ECB today. Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB may increase the volume on his warning about the risks to growth and inflation. Looking at the three different manufacturing PMIs (chart below), it clearly shows that the Eurozone is lagging well behind the U.S. and China. Source: Bloomberg, ThinkMarkets, Twitter:@NaeemAslam23 The ECB can no longer afford to remain the weakest link. The structural problems in the five bigger economies in the eurozone have become troublesome for the banks. I expect them to send a clear message to the governments that they need to play their part with respect to the structural reforms otherwise countries like Italy would continue to weigh on the growth. Since the start of this year, we have seen one clear dominant trend for the currency: it is skewed to the downside against the dollar. Traders have sold the Euro on every recovery . They have used this as an opportunity to increase their short positions. The economic data doesnt warrant the ECB to stay positive, so there is little to no hope for the bulls today. If the overall focus of the speech is on the negative factors, the Euro could test the support of 1.1174 against the dollar today. On the flip side, if the Bank shows its optimistic side, although hard to think of reasons why they would do that, the Euro could trigger a large number of stop losses. This could result in pushing the Euro-Dollar pair higher to test the resistance at 1.1350. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/naeemaslam/2019/04/10/how-far-will-the-euro-go-today/ |
Can We Touch? | Attributing situations like Bidens to an overall change in peoples willingness to be touched is a sweeping claim that stands to make a physically isolated culture even more so. As we get more isolated, Field argues, we need platonic touch more than ever, even if we dont realize it. There is a vicious cycle there, where the less people initiate, the more abnormal it seems when someone does, and the more likely it is to be upsetting. I think Bidens got it right that its generally good to show physical affection as a way of supporting people, says Fieldwith the caveat that any touch is imbued with meaning, and every person brings different histories to their responses. Its not that there are new, mysterious rules that are constantly changing, Field says. There have always been limits of acceptability. The key to practicing touch well is to appreciate the emotional powerwhich is the basis of all the positive effects and, so, the basis of much potential for negativity. If anything, knowing that people bring a history of emotional experiences to each new touch can inform better, healthier interactions. The phenomenon of reacting to touch is often described as an autonomous pathway, which it technically is: Receptors in the skin detect pressure and temperature and movement, and these signals shoot up the spinal cord and into the brain, which adjusts its chemical output accordingly. That the emotional responses become physical in predictable patterns suggests that our bodies evolved to respond favorably to touchor at least, to miss out on benefits when we are physically isolated. MRI scans show physical touch activating areas of the cerebral cortex, and other studies show decreased heart rate, blood pressure, and the stress-related hormone cortisol. Massage therapy has proven effective for depression, and neurotransmitters that modulate pain are stimulated by touch. Its like all the things were promised in bottles of dietary supplements and luxury serums is right there in one act which can be costless and readily available. But even for all the benefits show in research, its not so simple as to say that hugs are good or hugging is healthy. If it were, wed all have hug robots that wed hug all the time. Some of us would get addicted. Some would die of dehydration in the arms of the machine. Even people who have no memory of being touched can be affected by it. A hand on the shoulder, one study found, made subject more likely to agree to a request. Though the firing of synapses in the skin that fly up to the brain is an automated process, its modulated by other inputs. The exact same touch would likely be received differently from a person who is smiling versus a person who is laughing maniacally. The simplistic message that personal boundaries are being redrawn is a missed opportunity to think about how touch is supposed to work. This doesnt need to draw on some idea of political correctness; its right there in the studies. None of the touch studies involved unwanted, unexpected, or unpredictable touch. For example, Field did a study to see if the effects of massage therapy were different in people who had and had not experienced past sexual abuse, and there was no apparent differenceboth groups saw similar benefits. But this should not be expected to apply to the way both groups would react if a man on the subway initiated a shoulder massage. | https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/04/on-touch/586588/?utm_source=feed |
Did Theresa May just put a second referendum on the table? | Ian Blackford, the Scottish National Party's leader in Westminster, says it has been a week since cross-party talks between the UK government and opposition Labour party began. He asks whether the notion of a second referendum has been floated from "the government side of the negotiating table" at any point. May dodges the question saying the government's position on a second referendum has not changed, and reminds Blackford that the House of Commons has twice rejected a motion calling for a second vote. When pressed by Blackford, May notes MPs would be able to propose a second referendum by proposing amendments to any Brexit deal that results from cross-party discussions when it comes back to the House of Commons for approval. There may be those who wish to press this issue as it goes through but my position remains unchanged." Commentators note that May did not say that she would oppose it, were the issue to come to a vote in the future. | https://www.cnn.com/uk/live-news/brexit-delay-eu-summit-gbr-intl/h_0f73b6c2eb1173820ae961543bb8a35a?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+CNN+-+Top+Stories%29 |
What's The Purpose Of College? | Getty Many Americans have begun to ask whether college is worth it. With college tuition rising at astronomical levels, its reasonable to think prospective consumers will do a more careful return on investment calculation. Without nailing this answer, its impossible to discern whether it will be or was worth it. Even more importantly, being clear about the purpose of college also helps us make the most of it. The problem is that our national narrative about college has created a decidedly false dichotomy between the two primarily professed purposes of college. There is the camp that says college is about preparing a person for work to help them get a good or better job. In fact, this is by far the most commonly cited reason for why Americans value higher education to get a good job. The other camp says college is about more broadly preparing a person for success in life - to be an engaged and enlightened citizen capable of thinking critically and communicating clearly, ultimately able to thrive in their well-being. Make no mistake, many of us see the purpose of college as both a job-driven and a life-driven purpose. But our dialogue is horribly stuck in the muck of an either/or debate on these two fronts. Its time to end the either/or debate and embrace the reality that college's purpose is both. College is about BOTH preparing people for a job (and helping them advance their careers and earnings) AND to thrive in their overall lives. Findings from a Gallup-Bates College study released today give us convincing evidence of the importance of both/and as well as point us toward an improved framework for thinking about the purpose of college. Here are the study highlights: Eighty percent of college graduates say its important to derive a sense of purpose from their work. Yet, only 38% of graduates strongly agree they have discovered work that has a satisfying purpose. For graduates with low levels of purpose in their work, only 6% are thriving in their overall well-being. But graduates with high purpose in their work are ten times more likely to be thriving in their well-being (59%)! to be thriving in their well-being (59%)! The top two drivers of a graduate achieving purpose in their work are whether they had an applied job or internship and someone who encouraged their goals and dreams during college. These findings are true for all generations of graduates, but especially true for millenials who are more likely to derive purpose from their work than other sources and in looking back on their college experience are more likely to regret not having had real-life work experiences. Finally, graduates who are reflective are 67% more likely to have purposeful work. It tells us that graduates value both purpose and work and in fact, find the most purpose in and from work. It tells us that we still have a lot of room for improvement in helping graduates achieve purposeful work. It tells us that if you care about ones well-being, youd be smart to help them find purposeful work because that boosts their odds of thriving by ten times. It tells us there are two very, very important aspects of college that we should ensure no graduate misses the mark on: applied work experience and faculty, staff, and students who embrace a culture of caring about one anothers goals and dreams. And it tells us that a classically liberal arts element of college (teaching students how to be reflective) is powerfully linked to their job success. If we view it too narrowly as job training, we miss the purposeful elements that bring work to life. And if we view it too broadly as life preparation, we lose focus on the single most important aspect of bringing life to its fullest through work. Work is not just about a paycheck; its also about a purpose. Helping graduates achieve purposeful work may indeed be the purpose of college. If we want to answer the question of whether college is worth it, we need to start by asking what is the purpose of college? Reflecting on that may very well be the key to unlocking the next era of higher education, economic and well-being prosperity for our nation. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/brandonbusteed/2019/04/10/whats-the-purpose-of-college/ |
Is There A Way For Republicans To Become The Party Of Healthcare? | 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP President Trump has vowed to make healthcare a top 2020 campaign issue. Conventional wisdom suggests this is a risky venture as Democrats appear to have the upper hand on healthcare. It was cited as one of several factors propelling Democrats in the House to victory in last November's midterms. On Tuesday last week, the House passed a mostly symbolic resolution that condemns the Trump Administration for supporting a lawsuit that would invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Earlier, the Department of Justice had asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the ACA, affirming a Texas federal judge's ruling in December that the ACA violated the constitution. The problem for Republicans who want to get rid of the ACA is that the law contains provisions that are popular with voters. According to Kaiser, while most Republicans have an unfavorable view of the ACA as a whole many endorse key provisions. These include guaranteed coverage along with community rating for people with pre-existing health conditions; subsidies for people who purchase health insurance on the federally run state exchanges; expansion of Medicaid eligibility in participating states; measures to close the gap in coverage (`donut hole') in the Medicare prescription drug benefit; and permission for those under 26 to remain on their parents' insurance plans. Perhaps the biggest concern is returning to the bad old days of large numbers of uninsured citizens. According to the Urban Institute Health Policy Center, approximately 20 million people would lose healthcare coverage if the ACA is eliminated. Complicating matters for Republicans is the fact that they have not been able to agree on a replacement plan. While the repeal part came close to fruition but proved to be a bridge too far, coming up with a replacement for ACA has been totally elusive. President Trump has always been an iconoclast on healthcare. His gut instinct appears to be at odds with most Republicans on this issue. In the lead-up to the 2016 Republican primaries, Trump declared that "everybody's got to be covered. This is an un-Republican thing for me to say, but I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not." Just prior to being inaugurated in January 2017 he again asserted that "were going to have insurance for everybody." In 2000, Trump offered a glimpse into his vision of healthcare reform. "Im a conservative on most issues but a liberal on healthcare We must take care of our own. We must have universal healthcare. It is unacceptable the number of uninsured in this country ... There is already a system in place - the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) - that can act as a guide for healthcare reform. It operates through a centralized agency that offers considerable range of choice. While this is a government program, it is also very much market-based. It allows 620 private insurance companies to compete for beneficiaries. Once a year participants can choose from plans which vary in benefits and costs. Well, perhaps. Interestingly, both sides of the aisle have held the FEHB program as a model for national healthcare reform. In the early 1990s, the health economist Alain Enthoven constructed a framework for a nationwide system of "managed competition," modeled in part on the FEHB program. This formed the foundation of the healthcare proposal President Clinton unveiled in 1993. In the early 2000s, Congress designed changes to Medicare Advantage as well as the Medicare Part D benefit on the basis of the FEHB program. A few years later, Senators Wyden (D-OR) and Bennett (R-UT) drafted their bill called the Healthy Americans Act, with the FEHB program as a framework. And, since 2011 House Republican Darrell Issa (R-CA) has pushed the idea of FEHB for all Americans. His series of legislative initiatives would repeal the ACA and replace it with open access to the FEHB. Employers would subsidize coverage of their employees who choose an FEHB plan, and states would offer Medicaid coverage through the FEHB. Thus far, none of Issa's bills have advanced. Currently, FEHB health plans are only available to Federal employees. At present, federal employees and retirees pay an average of between 25% and 28% of the total premiums, with the government picking up the rest of the tab. FEHB plans offer comprehensive benefits and broad networks of healthcare providers, and are sold without age, gender, or pre-existing health condition underwriting. One of the most prominent features of the FEHB program is the choices it allows. There are four types of plans: fee-for-service, similar to traditional Medicare; preferred provider organizations; health maintenance organizations; and high-deductible or what are called "consumer-driven" plans. Notably, regarding costs, the Congressional Budget Office indicated in 2008 that the Wyden-Bennett bill would be budget-neutral in its first year of operation. Overall, the FEHB model stands in sharp contrast to the one used by traditional Medicare. It would therefore offer a potentially constructive alternative to calls for Medicare for All. Maybe. Adding beneficiaries with the potential for adverse selection to the pool of enrollees in FEHB would likely lead to rate increases by participating plans. This is especially likely given that there will be no underwriting. Moreover, if FEHB opens up to all Americans the government will probably pay a smaller percentage of the premiums for both federal employees and non- federal employees. Still, from the Republicans' perspective, FEHB expansion may be worth revisiting. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshuacohen/2019/04/10/is-there-a-way-for-republicans-to-become-the-party-of-healthcare/ |
Should the government break up Big Tech? | by Cait Bladt Sen. Elizabeth Warren is running for president and her platform includes a comprehensive plan to diminish the overwhelming power tech companies currently wield. Warren, who has released a truly impressive number of policies, proposes breaking up tech companies using anti-trust laws and updating regulatory rules. Tech companies claim this type of oversight will increase consumer costs and diminish service. Warren delineated her proposal in a Medium post in early March. Warren claims tech companies have created monopolies which never would have been allowed in other industries, using their total control to cull massive amounts of information from unwitting users and put competitors out of business. Todays big tech companies have too much power too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy. Theyve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else. And in the process, they have hurt small businesses and stifled innovation. I want a government that makes sure everybody even the biggest and most powerful companies in America plays by the rules. And I want to make sure that the next generation of great American tech companies can flourish. To do that, we need to stop this generation of big tech companies from throwing around their political power to shape the rules in their favor and throwing around their economic power to snuff out or buy up every potential competitor. Her proposal includes two stepsbreaking tech companies apart so they can no longer own both the platform utilities and programs using that platform. Per the Verge: Warrens proposal includes a plan to pass legislation designating platforms with more than $25 billion in revenue as platform utilities, which would be barred from owning both the platform and participants on the platform at the same time. Smaller companies would not face the same requirements. A law like that would have immediate effects on the digital economy, the proposal continues, as Google is forced to spin off Search and Amazon spins off Marketplace. Warren isnt alone in looking for ways to reign in tech companies. Politico reports numerous other Democratic presidential candidates, including Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker and Bernie Sanders have voiced support for reforming the tech industry. Klobuchar sounded the theme at the very start of her campaign, during the announcement speech in February where she stood in blowing snow in Minneapolis. For too long the big tech companies have been telling you Dont worry! Weve got your back! while your identities are being stolen and your data is mined, the Minnesota senator said. ...Sanders, who declared his White House bid in mid-February, has railed against Amazon and CEO Jeff Bezos over everything from the wages the company pays its workers to its low aggregate tax. While Trump has raised the latter issue in the context of veiled threats against Bezos' Washington Post, Sanders has inveighed directly against Amazon's tax minimization efforts. "I think most Americans would agree that it is a bit absurd in that you have in the case of Amazon a company owned by the wealthiest person in the world that made, I believe, 11 billion in profits last year and didn't pay a nickel in federal taxes," Sanders told POLITICO. "I don't think too many Americans think that makes sense." Tech companies, however, claim the new regulations would dramatically increase operating costs for consumers. According to the Washington Post: Carl Szabo, vice president of the free-market tech trade group NetChoice, said in a statement that the proposal would increase prices for consumers, make search and maps less useful, and raise costs to small businesses that advertise online. Szabo, whose group counts Google and Facebook as members, said that consumers have never had more access to goods, services, and opportunities online. Slate reports there are concerns about whether this type of legislation could garner enough public support to succeed. Despite numerous scandals regarding fake news, security breaches and data mining in the last year, many sites have not seen a dramatic decrease in daily active users as there are no alternatives available to consumers. If Amazon, Google, and Facebook become political punching bags for Democratic candidates this election cycle, it wouldnt be beneath those companies to mount ad campaigns in their own self-defense, like how Facebook ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal as the Cambridge Analytica scandal reached a boil. Even last year, though, usership didnt appear to drop overall and the company remained profitable despite the scandal (and a huge hit to its stock), probably because Facebook is so dominant that users had nowhere else to go. Not to mention the fact that antitrust, while an important issue for anyone concerned with structural inequities in the economy, isnt likely to be the thing that voters hang their hat on. TIME reports some anti-trust experts do not believe existing laws can be used in the ways Warren is proposing. As the laws and regulations were written long before tech companies were created, they cover what is now a relatively narrow set of circumstances. Part of the issue is that the some of the concerns Warren seeks to address, particularly around data use and privacy violations, do not fall under traditional antitrust law, according to experts. Undoubtedly we should have serious concerns about privacy. But this is not an antitrust issue, says antitrust expert and University of Arizona law professor Barak Orbach. The main law that applies to antitrust cases is the Sherman Antitrust Act. Over the past several decades, the courts have interpreted antitrust law conservatively, Fox says, so finding violations typically requires a situation where a companys actions are lowering output or raising prices. These two concerns dont necessarily cover the issues raised by big tech companies operating on the internet in 2019. Antitrust or competition policy has to catch up with the fact that we have these forms of restraint that are not about lowering output and raising price, but they are about amassing huge amounts of data and using it very profitably and amassing it often deceptively, Fox said. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/04/should-the-government-break-up-big-tech.html |
Do the Portland Timbers have the personnel to turn things around? | The Portland Timbers made limited changes to their roster this offseason after making an unexpected run to the MLS Cup final last December. With a core of veterans to build around and a handful of promising young players, the club seemed to believe it already had a group in place that could find success in 2019. If anyone in the front office had concerns about the state of the roster, they didnt let on. After saying goodbye to veteran center back Liam Ridgewell and longtime right back Alvas Powell, the Timbers took steps to address only four positional needs. The club signed center back Claude Dielna, right back Jorge Moreira and goalkeeper Aljaz Ivacic. They also inked T2 products Renzo Zambrano and Marvin Loria to first team contracts. Portland then set its sights on signing a pricey designated player in the attack. When a deal didnt immediately pan out, the Timbers didnt panic. General manager Gavin Wilkinson, head coach Giovanni Savarese and owner Merritt Paulson praised the clubs current attacking depth, saying the team was in a position to wait for the right DP, even if the move didnt come to fruition until the summer. Weve got a lot of really good attacking depth, Paulson told Timbers in 30 at the end of February. Its a luxury for us and when we add there, were going to make sure its the right fit. If we wanted to add somebody by March 1, we would have done it a while ago. But again, its about getting the right guy. Looking ahead, I feel like we have a really good team. We had a good offseason. But a month a half later, there are real questions as to whether the Timbers should have done significantly more in the offseason. Portland (0-4-1, 1 point) is off to a horrific start to 2019. The club has lost four straight games and currently sits in last place in the MLS standings. The Timbers have conceded 15 goals in five games and posted a league-worst -10 goal differential. Portland hasnt had a stretch this bad since 2012, when the club finished second-to-last in the Western Conference before going through a complete overhaul in the offseason. The Timbers have a lot more talent than they had in 2012 and the group should be capable of performing at a much higher level than it has this season. Portland has had to deal with a tough schedule to start the year, which has certainly contributed to the poor form. The Timbers are playing an MLS-record 12 consecutive games on the road to start the season, due to construction at Providence Park. They will close out the year by playing 11 of their final 12 games at home. But while the Timbers can and have played better with their current roster, its fair to ask at this point whether Portland has the personnel to turn things around and make a return to the postseason this year. The Oregonian/OregonLive posed that question to Savarese after the Timbers fell 3-0 to a weak San Jose Earthquakes side Saturday. Savarese didnt respond by praising his roster. Instead, his response was short and vague: We try to do the work that we can to try to help as much as we can, Savarese said. Whether that work will be enough remains to be seen. Portlands performance early this season has been particularly concerning because the Timbers have struggled in multiple areas on the field. On defense, the Timbers have lacked leadership and consistently looked disorganized. Ridgewells absence has been noticeable. While Ridgewell missed significant time due to injuries during his four and a half seasons with the Timbers, he was clearly the clubs best and most vocal defender when he was on the field. Dielna, who was signed following Ridgewells departure, has earned just two starts and has looked shaky in his performances. Other defenders, most notably left back Jorge Villafana, have looked poor as the Timbers have struggled to find an effective backline. Things havent been much better in the attack. Jeremy Ebobisse claimed the starting forward role last September and has shown promise. But Ebobisse has yet to prove that he can be the type of goal scorer that Portland needs. In previous seasons, the Timbers were able to count on Fanendo Adi, who the club traded to FC Cincinnati last July, to score upwards of 10 goals a year. Last summer, the Timbers were aided by a tremendous stretch from Samuel Armenteros as well. Ebobisse has more work to do to get to that level. Lucas Melano hasnt provided much competition behind Ebobisse and wingers Dairon Asprilla and Andy Polo havent been goal scoring threats either. Portland is still aiming to sign a designated player in the attack, but, with each passing day, it seems more and more likely that the Timbers will have to wait until the summer to make a big move. The Primary Transfer Window closes on May 7. Some of Portlands biggest problems have been in the midfield, an area where the Timbers have historically excelled. Superstar Diego Valeri, who will turn 33 next month, hasnt been nearly as impactful in the attack this year and has struggled to maintain possession while under pressure. His turnover in midfield led directly to San Joses third goal Saturday. Sebastian Blanco is still arguably Portlands most important attacking player, but has netted just one goal this year. Diego Chara remains one of the top central midfielders in MLS, but is coming off an unexceptional performance against San Jose. Alongside Chara, David Guzman has been a liability at times in central midfield. It is still early and things could change quickly for the Timbers. Maybe Valeri regains his form, like he did late last season when he helped lead the Timbers to the MLS Cup final. Maybe Ebobisse seizes the moment and becomes the goal scorer that the Timbers need. Maybe the club finally turns a corner on defense. Or maybe this poor stretch has exposed holes in the Timbers roster that can only fixed through personnel moves. -- Jamie Goldberg | [email protected] 503-853-3761 | @jamiebgoldberg Visit subscription.oregonlive.com/newsletters to get Oregonian/OregonLive journalism delivered to your email inbox. | https://www.oregonlive.com/timbers/2019/04/do-the-portland-timbers-have-the-personnel-to-turn-things-around.html |
When A Nurse Is Prosecuted For A Fatal Medical Mistake, Does It Make Medicine Safer? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Mark Humphrey/AP Images Mark Humphrey/AP Images A former nurse at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., was arrested and charged with reckless homicide and abuse in February for making a medical mistake that resulted in an elderly patient's death. Criminal charges for a medical error are unusual, patient safety experts say. Some are voicing concern that the move sets a precedent that may actually make hospitals less safe by making people hesitant to report errors. The nurse, RaDonda Vaught, pleaded not guilty. Her next hearing is scheduled for April 11. She told NPR in an e-mail statement from her lawyer that Vanderbilt terminated her employment after the incident. The district attorney's decision to charge Vaught comes after both the Tennessee Department of Health and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services investigated the incident. The state health department investigation, which concluded in October 2018, did not revoke Vaught's nursing license. The CMS report emphasizes the hospital's responsibility in the mistake. "The hospital failed to ensure all patients received care in a safe setting," the report says. Vanderbilt University Medical Center officials would not comment on the case. The report details how Vaught mistakenly took the wrong medicine out of a dispensing cabinet. She was trying to give the patient, Charlene Murphey, a dose of an anti-anxiety medication, midazolam (brand name Versed), before an imaging scan during a December 2017 hospital stay, the report states. Vaught instead gave Murphey vecuronium, a paralytic drug used during anesthesia that had the same first two letters, according to the report. Murphey died in an intensive care unit the following day. The Nashville District Attorney's office told the Tennessean it made the decision to bring criminal charges against Vaught specifically because she administered the fatal medication after overriding the safety mechanism in the dispensing machine. Medical errors are common. Some researchers estimate they're the third leading cause of death in the United States. And many in the patient safety community say they don't understand what prompted the DA's office to prosecute this case in particular. DA spokesperson Stephen Hayslip told NPR in an e-mail statement that "the actions of this office will become more evident as the evidence is presented to the court." He declined to comment further. Nurses around the country have come to Vaught's defense, speaking out on social media and on opinion pages. The American Nurses Association issued a statement criticizing the charges, saying that "the criminalization of medical errors could have a chilling effect" on health care workers' willingness to report errors. The phenomenon of criminally charging health care providers after a patient is harmed is rare, "but it grows less unusual every year," says Stephen Hurley, a Wisconsin lawyer who has defended nurses in similar cases and advised hospitals on the topic. Most high-profile cases tend to involve death, a significant injury, or a patient well known to the community, he says. And prosecutors tend to focus on nurses, he says, rather than physicians or hospital administrators, though he's not sure why. Suen Ross, the ANA's director of nursing practice and workplace environment, thinks that it's unusual for health care providers to be charged with a crime after a medical mistake that didn't involve malicious intent or intoxication. She calls Vaught's case "unprecedented" because neither of these factors are cited in the CMS report. Ross says it's important for health care workers to feel free to report errors without fear of retribution. All health care mistakes even small ones should be analyzed to understand the underlying issues that caused them, Ross says. A non-punitive approach encourages transparency, she says, and "that prevents future mistakes or errors from happening." This approach to preventing errors is well-accepted in the medical and nursing communities, which makes a criminal case like Vaught's all the more surprising, says Kirstin Manges, a nurse and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania who studies patient safety. "That could have happened to me, or it could have happened to my friend," Manges says. "Nurses aren't superheroes. We're people." Manges say that most medical errors occur because of systemic problems. Human error is inevitable, she says, and hospitals should account for that by instituting safety checks and protocols. Problems tend to happen in busy, unpredictable circumstances, Manges says. When nurses are fatigued or have many tasks occupying their attention, that's when safety checks are most important, she adds. "We work in environments that are fast-paced," she says. "We may not always work in ideal situations." The safety checks Manges describes can take many forms, and are designed under the assumption that doctors and nurses will have occasional slip-ups. For example, many hospitals require a nurse to scan a bar code from the pharmacy and on the patient's identifying bracelet before giving a medication, or to use preprogrammed intravenous pumps that prevent medications from being administered too quickly. Even the medication override function that Vaught used, Manges says, can have an important function: Nurses need to be able to quickly access medications in an emergency situation when they can't wait for verification from a pharmacist. And when health care workers do make mistakes, Ross argues hospitals usually shouldn't punish staff. Disciplinary action is warranted, she says, only when there's evidence that staff acted irresponsibly. When the Institute of Medicine now known as the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine put out a major 1999 report titled To Err Is Human, Manges says, it became the norm to focus less on punishment and more on learning from mistakes. But Vaught's case has the potential to change that, she fears. "It shifts that conversation from 'to err is human' to 'to err is criminal,'" Manges says. | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/04/10/709971677/when-a-nurse-is-prosecuted-for-a-fatal-medical-mistake-does-it-make-medicine-saf?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
What Will Drive Lowe's Revenue Growth Through 2021? | Trefis estimates a continuous increase in the revenue per square foot covered metric will take Lowes (NYSE: LOW) revenue to more than $78.8 billion by 2021. The company posted revenue of $71 billion and earnings of $2.84 for 2018. We have created an interactive dashboard wherein you can edit the drivers to arrive at your own conclusions, How has Lowes revenue performed over the past few years and what is its outlook for 2021?. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Total Revenue: Lowes has had a stable growth in revenue over the years where it has increased from $65 billion in 2016 to $71.4 billion in 2018. We expect the growth to continue and revenue to be more than $78.8 billion on the back of the revenue per square foot metric in 2021. Revenue per Square Foot: This the fastest growing metric for the company and the one which is propelling the revenue forward. In the recent past it has increased from $305 in 2016 to $332 in 2018. Trefis expects the growth to remain steady and the metric to be more than $367 in 2018 due to better market conditions and growth in digital comps. Square Footage per Store and Number of Stores: These metrics have remained flat in recent years as the company consolidates its operations and focuses on the existing stores and revenue growth from them. Trefis estimates the metrics will continue to be flat in the near term. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/04/10/what-will-drive-lowes-revenue-growth-through-2021/ |
Did too much licorice lead to horrific leg cramps? | Q: I have always enjoyed black licorice sticks as a special treat. It never bothered me until I started eating bagfuls of German salted licorice. Eventually my heart started racing because of a drop in potassium levels. I havent had licorice for a few years now, but last week I bought a bag of licorice sticks on a whim. I cut them into 3-inch pieces and grabbed two large handfuls as an evening snack. I was awake all night with the worst leg cramps I have ever had. I drank electrolyte water, ate a banana and took cramp pills, and the fixes worked temporarily. Then the cramps came back. The next day my legs were still extremely sore. I am now off licorice for good. Its not worth the pain or the risk to my heart. A: Natural black licorice contains an ingredient called glycyrrhizin (Glycyrrhiza glabra). It can deplete the body of potassium, trigger irregular heart rhythms, raise blood pressure and cause fluid retention (edema). We suspect your leg cramps may indeed have resulted from an electrolyte imbalance. Your decision to avoid licorice makes sense since you appear to be especially vulnerable to the serious side effects of this treat. Q: I have horrible allergic reactions to insect bites. I am so sensitive that bites cause a level of itching that has me in tears. They almost always blister and look terrible. Today, my brother told me about hot water for itching. It is my saving grace. A: We first read about hot water for itching over 40 years ago in a textbook called Dermatology: Diagnosis and Treatment, edited by a renowned expert, Dr. Marion Sulzberger. Water needs to be hot (120 to 130 F) but not so hot that it will burn skin. A few seconds is all that is needed. A hot washcloth can also help. The theory is that heat overwhelms nerves in the skin that trigger itch sensations. The relief can last for a few hours. There are even battery-powered devices that deliver heat to the bite. One is Therapik. Another is Bite Helper. Q: Im skeptical by nature. I was hesitant to try Vicks VapoRub on my feet, but for the past three days I have had the worst cough ever. Ive been coughing nonstop. My ribs feel like Ive been in the ring with Mike Tyson. Two nights ago I was really struggling to get any rest. My husband suggested putting Vicks on the soles of my feet. I was desperate, so I slathered on the Vicks, put on socks, and within five to 10 minutes the coughing STOPPED. I was able to sleep all night! In the morning the coughs started up again and lasted all day long. A few hours before bedtime I tried a prescription cough medicine. Nothing. If anything, my coughs seemed to be getting worse until I was almost vomiting. Hubby to the rescue again: Try the Vicks. I did and had the same results. Within five to 10 minutes the coughing subsided. I was able to rest comfortably. I wish I knew the science behind this. Whatever it is, its worked for me like a charm two nights in a row. I am a believer. A: You and many other readers agree that this remedy works. We have even come up with an explanation for why Vicks and many other remedies work for common ailments. You can read about the science behind many such approaches in our eGuide to Favorite Home Remedies at PeoplesPharmacy.com. It is in the Health Guide section. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/did-too-much-licorice-lead-to-horrific-leg-cramps/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Can Clippers surpass LeBron James, Lakers in next decade? | The lights will stay on in the Staples Center through mid-April, but not because of LeBron James and the Lakers. It will instead be the Clippers hosting the arenas first NBA playoff series since 2017, when they face a top-three seed in the West playoffs. The home festivities will likely be spoiled by Golden State, Denver or Houston, but that shouldn't cheapen the accomplishment of Los Angeles' playoff appearance. Surviving the Western Conference gauntlet is an achievement in itself, even if it comes with only a brief cameo. We wont spill too much ink on the Clippers playoff outlook. A round-one exit is expected barring a week-long eruption from Lou Williams. The list of challengers to Golden State is short, and the Clippers dont make the cut. We can't completely assume that will continue be the case as we turn to the next decade, though. Based on their prime free-agency positioning, a post-Lob City contender could arrive sooner than we think. The power players are beginning to reveal themselves for one of the most anticipated free-agent classes in recent memory, and we could be in for an bicoastal summer. The Lakers, Clippers, Nets and Knicks all boast significant cap space, while contenders in Boston, Golden State and perhaps Philadelphia will fight to retain their max stars. The four teams in New York and Los Angeles each present an appealing free-agent pitch. Rick Madonik/Getty Images Cap considerations wont restrain Los Angeles on July 1. The Clippers enter free agency with just under $60 million in salary cap space, enough for two max contracts. Jerry Wests cap cleanse has been historic, shedding $65 million in two offseasons. After one Big 3 stalled, a new superteam might be within reach as the calendar turns to 2020. The field is wide open. Kawhi Leonard has been whispered as the most likely candidate, able to return to Southern California while avoiding the spotlight as a member of the Clippers. Leonard is no sure thing, of course, as maintains a blank slate with the media and a strong basketball fit with the Raptors. Torontos culture may persuade Leonard to stay north of the border. The Clippers could be a logical fit for Kevin Durant after his reign of terror in Golden State. Durant, who has always lamented being No. 2, could attempt to outshine James in the same building, chasing an MVP with a team that is fully his own. Its hard to imagine an ego clash with Danilo Gallinari or Montrezl Harrell. Leonard and Durant sit atop the wish list, no-brainer additions the moment they wish to sign. The rest of the class is more complex. Weve seen the complications wrought by the supermax era, and a long-term commitment to the wrong guy can set a franchise back a half-decade. Los Angeles recognized as much in January 2018 when it shipped Blake Griffin to Detroit. The move was a touch cruel, but it shattered the Clippers ceiling. Shelling out $36 million to Blake Griffin in two years is no way to compete for the conference crown. That lesson will apply to this years class, too. Kemba Walker could launch triples for Los Angeles as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander takes the toughest defensive assignments. Jimmy Butler falls into a similar range. Hes still a quality crunch-time scorer and a top-tier defender, and his more toxic tendencies should fade as he gets paid. Hes been quietly impressive in Philadelphia, contributing despite limited usage after some early unrest. Los Angeles would be markedly better with Butler. The balancing act is difficult. There is the off chance the Anthony Davis sweepstakes expands past the Lakers and Celtics, yet the likelihood of Davis donning anything other than purple and gold in Los Angeles is minimal. Even the greatest Gilgeous-Alexander evangelizers would concede the rookie is a step below potential trade headliners Jayson Tatum and Brandon Ingram. Harrell moves the needle more for a contender than a rebuild. Ditto for Gallinari and Williams. Barring a drastic drop in price, the Clippers best path runs through free agency. Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images The Clippers could very well end Julys musical chairs without a seat, slinking back to the crowd of non-contenders as the Lakers or Knicks celebrate their new acquisitions. But like a potential first-round exit, the outcome is nothing to be ashamed of. The Clippers can re-sign Patrick Beverley and decide if they wants to re-up on Ivica Zubac, Wilson Chandler and JaMychal Green. No deal will break the bank, and financial flexibility will remain intact. A new class of free agents will arrive 12 months later, and a star with a price tag below Daviss high bar could enter the trade market. The disparity between the Clippers and Lakers is startling as we approach the postseason. The Lakers have their superstar in place, and are by all accounts a disaster otherwise, entering July praying for a massive mulligan after missing the playoffs and watching the resignation of Magic Johnson. The Clippers are presently without any marked star, let alone one of LeBrons stature. Yet they stand as a paragon of stability from ownership to management to their head coach. Its an appealing pitch to a prospective free agent. Joining the Knicks is a blind leap of faith. Joining Doc Rivers and Co. is a calculated decision. Lob City could become a distant memory after this summer, with a new superteam outshining LeBron in Los Angeles. | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/04/10/clippers-nba-playoffs-free-agency-kawhi-leonard-kevin-durant |
Shouldn't it be easier and cheaper to file taxes? | CLOSE More people are filing taxes online than ever. USA TODAY The closer you get to April 15, the more you might wonder why, exactly, we are paying someone to help us pay money to the federal government. Even if you're getting a tax refund, you might wonder why you have to take on this extra cost of buying tax software. After all, we've moved far away from the days when most of us filled out paper returns and stuck them in the mail. About 90% of individuals electronically file their tax returns. Good luck with that taxpayer-friendly dream. (Photo: Getty Images) This month, Congress moved closer to making it illegal for the Internal Revenue Service to create its own online system of tax filing. The measure is tucked into the Taxpayer First Act, a bill supported by both Democrats and Republicans. The House passed the bill aimed at modernizing the IRS on Tuesday by voice vote. The vote was one week after the House Ways and Means Committee advanced the bill. Among other things, the legislation tackles identity theft protection and taxpayer rights during the enforcement process. Its unknown when the bill would be considered by the Senate. According to a ProPublica report on Tuesday, companies including Intuit, the maker of TurboTax, and H&R Block have lobbied for years to block the IRS from creating an expansive, free, consumer-friendly online tax filing system. And it has worked Congress now is formally siding with them. What we have now instead is a little-used, limited system called Free File at www.irs.gov. Make no mistake, Free File can work for some people who know how to use it. Free, easy-to-use software for those with incomes below $66,000 is available at www.irs.gov. Free state return options are available too. But this isn't open to everyone. NEWSLETTERS Get the Managing Your Money newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong A collection of articles to help you manage your finances like a pro. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-872-0001. Delivery: Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Managing Your Money Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters 70% could use Free File The National Taxpayer Advocate, an independent office within the IRS, has criticized the system, noting that Free File, which comprises different software programs provided by private tax-preparation companies, is underutilized and the IRS has failed to set standards for improvement. The IRS rolled out a news release in early March titled "Free File is Growing." The release noted that more than 55 million returns have been completed via Free File get this, that's since the program, now in its 17th year, began. While 70% of taxpayers could qualify to use Free File, we're looking at a tiny fraction of people who actually use it. The National Taxpayer Advocate's 2018 report to Congress noted that only about 2.5 million people filed returns using Free File software in fiscal year 2018. 15. Don't worry about taxes and taxes only! While tax deferral and tax minimization strategies in investing are important, perhaps the biggest lesson for investors is that they should not worry about taxes alone. It is easy to get hung up on all the advantages of tax deferral and tax-free strategies. If the returns are very low, having tax-free or tax-advantaged investments means very little. Sometimes, the best course of action is to lock in a big profit, or even a big loss, without worrying about tax ramifications. Imagine if investors who owned Worldcom, Enron, or the myriad of dot-com stocks that have gone bust in years past held and held these just for some tax implications. They might have lost their whole investment just trying to be as tax efficient as they thought they could be. (Photo: scyther5 / Getty Images) "The IRS is devoting minimal resources to oversight and testing of this program to understand why taxpayers arent using it and how the services offered could be improved," the report stated. Such a lack of oversight "can further erode taxpayers trust in fair tax administration," the report added. "Electronic filing has increased greatly since 2002, but the goals of the Free File program have stagnated and use of the program has steadily declined," the taxpayer advocate wrote. "In tax year 2016, only 2.3% of eligible taxpayers used Free File software, and only 0.20% of eligible taxpayers used Free File Fillable Forms," according to the report. No money is put toward marketing the program. The IRS no longer conducts satisfaction surveys, which the agency claims is because of budget constraints, the taxpayer advocate said. Mandi Matlock, of counsel for the National Consumer Law Center, said many taxpayers don't even know about the Free File program. And many who know about it often are discouraged by the limitations and complex rules. Matlock said users must contend with an online maze to figure out which alliance member's criteria they can meet. (Free File alliance members have varying criteria to qualify.) Some software programs on the platform, for example, apply only to people of a certain age or income. The IRS site provides a form that you'd fill out that includes your age, income, state of residence and other information to help you find the software that could be available to you. Age restrictions According to the IRS, the online tool is designed to help match the user with the available software products offered by private companies, including firms such as FreeTaxReturns.com, H&R Block's Free File, or TaxAct Free File. You'd go to www.irs.gov to get started. "The choices are limited now," Matlock said. "And that suits the industry just fine." For example, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate's report, age restrictions sharply curtail the number of Free File options available to taxpayers who are 60 and older. Only three of the 12 Free File providers offer services to taxpayers of all ages, the report stated, and five have age limitations that won't cover someone who is 60 or older. The IRS notes that brand-name software is available through Free File for workers, families with children, first-time filers, seniors and members of the military who meet the income requirements. It should be easy Ideally, it's best to make filing taxes as cheap and easy as possible to encourage compliance, not discourage it. Some consumer watchdogs say that the IRS should even be able to provide many people with pre-filled tax forms containing salary data that the IRS already has in place. Personally, I doubt it. People paid to have their taxes done by someone else when we all did it by paper. But the notion of the IRS one day being able to create its own program goes out the window, Matlock said, as part of a wide-ranging bill in Congress that would make several changes to the IRS. "Why take the possibility away from them?" Matlock said. "The potential is there but we are looking at a bill that will cut it off at the knees." Other countries, she said, have made it easier for people to file their taxes via free electronic systems. Sadly, the free online filing issue is viewed as a Trojan horse or sleeper provision that is tucked into the Taxpayer First Act, which has some provisions that would help taxpayers, Matlock said. The bill, for example, restricts the IRS from turning over some past due tax bills to private debt collectors if the person cannot afford to cover their basic living expenses. Consumer advocates favor such changes. The National Taxpayer Advocate Nina Olson stated in her report that the IRSs effort to expand its private debt collection program continues to burden taxpayers who are likely experiencing economic hardship. "It is true that taxes are the 'lifeblood of government,' but as Ive written elsewhere, it is the taxpayers of the United States who pay that lifeblood," Olson wrote. "We need to honor our taxpayers by providing them the best tax administration possible." I'd add that we need to recognize that technology has changed everything and in some ways has even made it easier for Congress to keep the tax code complicated. After all, we can just go out and buy some software to figure out what to do. Contact Susan Tompor:313-222-8876 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @tompor. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter. CLOSE You finally got your tax refund! Treat yourself and here are the best ways to spend it. Reviewed.com Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/10/taxes-refund-irs-free-software/3422631002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/04/10/taxes-refund-irs-free-software/3422631002/ |
Will We Ever See Trumps Tax ReturnsAnd Does It Matter? | Ever since President Richard Nixon was found to have understated his tax liability in the early 1970s, it has become common practice for presidents to release their tax returns. Donald Trump is the only president since Nixon to refuse to do so, but Congress does have one law at its disposal. Section 6301(f)(1) of the tax code stipulates that upon official written request, the Treasury Secretary shall furnish such committee with any return or return information specified in such request. On April 3, the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal did exactly that and sent a letter to the IRS formally requesting President Trumps tax returns. But many legal experts agree that this law is intentionally open-ended, meaning Congress still needs a legitimate legislative purpose to make that request. Neal made a case for this in his letter, writing that the request was part of his committees oversight role, with the objective of determining whether the IRS is fairly and impartially auditing Trump. Consistent with its authority, the Committee is considering legislative proposals and conducting oversight related to our Federal tax laws, including, but not limited to, the extent to which the IRS audits and enforces the Federal tax laws against a President, the letter reads. Individual income tax returns of a President are subject to mandatory examination, but this practice is IRS policy and not codified in the Federal tax laws. Considering Nixons issues, that argument could be enough. What We Learned From the Nixon Audit When Nixon was first audited by the IRS, he was given a clean bill on his returns, but a subsequent audit of the same returns found that he owed nearly $500,000 in additional tax on interest. This highlights the fact that theres an inherent conflict of interest for the agency to appropriately audit its boss, George Yin, a University of Virginia School of Law professor and former Joint Committee on Taxation chief of staff tells Fortune. Ironically, the very reason that Trump says he wont hand over the information is one of the very reasons that Congress should rightfully be requesting that information. Trump has said numerous times that his being under audit precludes the release of his returns, a refrain he has used numerous times since 2016. I would love to give them but Im not going to do it while Im under audit, Trump told reporters outside the White House Wednesday, the deadline for Trump to respond to Neals letter. I have no obligation to do that while under audit. But some experts dont buy Trumps argument. Every president since Nixon has been releasing their taxes and facing an audit simultaneously, Steve Rosenthal, a senior fellow in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, tells Fortune, adding that it was Trumps choice to run for president. Trump is the commander-in-chief and leads our executive branchthis is just legislative oversight of the executive branch. Requesting Trumps returns is particularly legitimate, he says, since the president is effectively the boss of the IRSthe same organization responsible for impartially auditing him: Weve seen [Trumps] willingness to fire subordinates who dont do his bidding. How Trump Could Legally Avoid Releasing His Tax Returns There are two legitimate ways that the president can refuse to disclose his returns: by demonstrating that the request is outside the committees legitimate purview, or that the request itself is unconstitutional, according to Harold Krent, dean of the Chicago-Kent College of Law. Nevertheless, it should be noted that the law itself does not stipulate a basis to refuse the request. Trumps recently appointed lawyer, William Consovoy, appears to have taken the first approach in his April 5 letter to the Treasury in which he claims Neals request flouts numerous fundamental constitutional constraints. Consovoy argues that even if the Ways and Means Committee had a legitimate reason for making the request, it is a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech. He also says that the stated reason for the request doesnt match the request itself. If Chairman Neal genuinely wants to review how the IRS audits Presidents, why is he seeking tax returns and return information covering the four years before President Trump took office? Consovoy writes. Why is he not requesting information about the audits of previous presidents? Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney suggested that the American people will never see Trumps tax returns. Thats an issue that was already litigated during the election, Mulvaney said on Fox News Sunday. Voters knew the president could have given his tax returns. The deadline for the Trump administration to respond to Neals request is Wednesdaybut it appears unlikely that they will comply. And technically they dont have to. The law Neal cited has no penalties for noncompliance. Neal may send another letter to the IRS reiterating his request. It is possible, albeit unlikely, that he would issue a subpoena. The issue could also find its way to court. But theres one important thing to keep in mind even if Neals request is granted: we, the American public, might very well never see Trumps returns. While it is within Neals legal purview to request the information, the Committee is required to hold this information in confidence, according to Yin. It can only be disclosed publicly if the committee submits the information to the full House or Senatea matter that would need to be held to a vote. And even if we were able to get our hands on Trumps returns, the likelihood of finding anything criminal is somewhat unlikely. While tax returns sometimes expose something marginally embarrassing, most are far too boring for anyone to look at, University of Iowa law professor Andy Grewal tells Fortune. They simply provide the service of allowing people to have the sense that if theres something wrong, then someone would have said something. Theres comfort in knowing that theyve been exposed to scrutiny, Grewal says, adding that 90% of congresspeople dont release their returns. It cant be the case that everyone is cheating. The fact of nondisclosure doesnt tell me that much. Rosenthal, on the other hand, thinks seeing Trumps returns could potentially provide a wealth of information, including whether he is paying his fair share of taxes, whether he is deriving income from abroad, and to what extent Trump has foreign partners and foreign accounts. Only time will tell. | http://fortune.com/2019/04/10/trump-tax-returns/ |
Does Staples Rebranding Foretell the Fall of Another Retailer to Private Equity? | Staples Press Release Staples announced a major rebranding effort which was accompanied by flurry of snazzy new product offerings, and the customary PR push. At front and center was a handsome new logo featuring a highly stylized staple, which (not accidently) could also be construed as a table. The promotion declares "It's not just copy paper, it's not just a chair, it's a comfortable, happier and more productive colleague." At the same time a new brand watchword emerged, that of Worklife. This is a gesture to anti-commoditization; a moving from away from pushing product and toward creating solutions. A higher-level calling. Immediately my store designer alter ego began calculating the cost of applying this tasty new logo to new signage across the estimated 1200 stores in North America, along with the package redesign of the tens of thousands of private label SKUs that fill their stores. Two things resulted. First, my calculator couldnt produce numbers that large, and second, my healthy skepticism (or cynicism) caused me to come to full stop. Lets rewind the tape. Sanford Stein Context Please In attempting to contextualize the Staples news, I did a memory refresh back to when an antitrust action prevented the merger of Staple and Office Depot, several years back. A move that would have resulted in trimming back the significantly over-stored sector. Not long after, the private equity group Sycamore Partners made a successful bid of $6.9 billion to purchase Staples, which up to that point had a very manageable $1 billion in dept. Sycamore anteed-up $1.6 billion and the rest came from debt. Its also important to know that at the point of the purchase in 2017, $10.6 billion of Staples sales were delivered, compared with about $6.6 billion being sold in its stores. Business to consumer sales had been in contraction mode, while business to business was growing. The internet, and more specifically Amazon had been wearing away at store sales, as well as margins, and the office supply category killers were getting killed; so, they began fortifying their business to business sales. Additionally, they initiated other business solution offerings to compensate. Kantar Retail, eMarketer Bulking Up on B2B Digging deeper into the Sycamore deal, its noteworthy that immediately after the Staples purchase, they announced plans to break the company into three separately financed entities: U.S. retail, Canadian retail, and corporate-supply businesses; the latter already generating the lions share of income. The three groups were to remain under the same corporate umbrella. Sycamores structured acquisition of Staples was the strongest indication that it would eventually wind down Staples weaker retail operations. The dye had been cast, and every subsequent move only served to support the writing on the walls. In September of 2018 it was announced that Staples $600 million, North American Promotional Products (the corporate division), would buy Essendant, the largest U.S. wholesale distributor of office, technology, janitorial, and office furniture products, generating $5 billion a year. Initially the deal faced antitrust charges but after some back and forth, an agreement was reached with the FTC, giving the go-ahead. Staples had become the largest vertically integrated reseller of office products in the country. Exploring a Fix for Over-Storing Its fair to say the internet has disproportionately impacted the entire office supply retail business. Overstoring and the shift toward B2B yielded anemic near $200 per square foot sales across the category. All the players were closing scores of stores by mid-decade. Besides store closures, the category was searching for other means of store downsizing. Just prior to Sycamores 2017 take-over, Staples cut a deal with Workbar, a co-working company, in a move intended to repurpose excess store square footage into complementary, co-working space. Some industry experts noted that while the idea was timely, the stores predominantly suburban locations and discount feel couldnt compete with the ambiance and co-tenant profiles of the more successful, urban co-working ventures. In late February of this year, Staples and Workbar announced a separation, and press accounts indicated that both groups would continue their co-working offerings. We look forward to building upon our current platform by integrating coworking into a broader range of small business service offerings, including onsite legal, marketing and human resources consultation, among other features. said Staples Chief Merchandising Officer, Peter Scala. Staples TheLoop Decoding the Brand Speak On April 2, when Staples unveiled its new logo, and brand repositioning, it also announced the creation of a bevy of new co-brands, tied to both product and service offerings. It also introduced TheLoop, a carefully choreographed digital guide; the stated purpose was to inspire creativity and energy throughout the everyday Worklife experience. Again, brand speak for the shift from commodity/product focus to a solution/service-based positioning. The whole initiative was beginning to look like preparation for a roadshow. What was missing from the whole kit and caboodle was any reference to the companies stores. Even the sole application of the new logo was on an office building and not on a store. Taken together this is a very clear reinforcement of their B2C to B2B transition. Since the Sycamore takeover 18 months ago, there has been reporting of the retailers focus on reducing the companies brick and mortar sales from 40% to 20% by 2020; which is likely to be realized. Seen This Movie Before Almost simultaneous with the new PR media splash, were murmurs that Sycamore Partners was looking to cash out of Staples altogether, beginning with a $1 billion recapitalization. This would leave the firm with about $600 million in equity, along with a corporate debt load of approximately $5.3 billion. Observers believe a 2020 IPO is in the offing. The recapitalization and IPO would focus on the North American Promotional Products division. In an IPO scenario, its hard to envision that the thousand plus stores would be a highly valued asset, at least as they currently exist. The more likely scenario is that a lions share of stores would disappear. Perhaps a new, considerably smaller prototype evolves, one with a highly edited suite of products and business services offerings. Maybe even a co-working component annexed to it, like their recently launched Canadian Staples Studio. I simply dont believe there is any scenario where the sexy new logo and brand identity gets emblazoned on a thousand plus U. S. Staples stores. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/sanfordstein/2019/04/10/does-staples-rebranding-foretell-the-fall-of-another-retailer-to-private-equity/ |
Who Really Created Income Inequality? | Among the rallying cries of 2020 progressives, perhaps none is louder than the protests against income inequality. Before we accept the general consensus that the Democratic party represents the average American and the Republican party represents the rich and powerful, its important to analyze why the income disparity has widened in past years and who is truly responsible. Following the wreckage of the 2008 financial crisis, both financial markets and household income figures collapsed. Thanks to a particularly bad economic and monetary policy mix from the left, only one of these recovered. Wall Street quickly regained its footing, while Main Street remained in the gutter for much of the next decade The culprits are simple. The Obama administration followed the usual Democratic playbook of raising tax rates and increasing government regulation. The regulatory apparatus in particular became antagonistic to economic growth and production, like a wet blanket extinguishing the fires of commerce. From the ACA incentivizing employers to cut their workers hours, to a tidal wave of banking and environmental regulations, to the mass expansion of entitlement benefits, the numbers reflect a bleak picture of lower and middle-class America. Average hourly earnings dragged, fluctuating between 1.5% and 2% growth between 2010 and 2016, a significant downturn from previous trends. Perhaps more alarmingly, real median household income growth shrank continuously throughout these same years, plummeting as far as -9.6% between 2011 and 2012. (See charts below) Additionally, real GDP growth averaged a mere 2.2% over the same years, displaying a historically sluggish economic recovery. FRED In a futile attempt to make up for the naggingly weak economy, The Federal Reserve began multiple waves of quantitative easing, pumping massive amounts of liquidity into the markets and inflating asset prices. In November 2010, The Fed announced QE2, a $600 billion capital injection which largely failed to jumpstart the economy via consumer spending. Fed Chairman Janet Yellen nonetheless doubled down with the announcement of QE3 in 2012, another expansion of the monetary base by nearly 58%. Financial assets were set ablaze. As a result, from first quarter of 2009 to the fourth quarter of 2016, the S&P 500 saw gains of approximately 228%. In the same time period, the NASDAQ skyrocketed an even more whopping 316%. Those whose incomes were largely tied to financial assets (the rich) saw their wealth soar. As the rich soaked up the profits from their asset gains, however, the Obama administration maintained its regulatory chokehold on industry, ensuring that the condition of the average American remained far darker. Wall Street and the wealthy flourished from the Feds artificial growth policy, while Main Street was left in the dust. The lefts economic policy prescriptions have helped create the monster they now claim to fight. A number of wildly ambitious solutions have been proposed to combat this issue, all from the same Democratic playbook that caused the problem in the first place. Thus, there lies a blistering irony in Democrats call for an end to income inequality, a problem which the Obama administration largely exacerbated in the post-2008 economy. I would urge readers to treat the Democrats calls for income equality with skepticism. If progressives take hold in 2020, the regulatory crusade will resume and the Fed will once again be called on to remedy the situation with money printing, further punishing workers and rewarding the rich. Editorial Assistance by Charles M. Grimes | https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomaslandstreet/2019/04/10/who-really-created-income-inequality/ |
Why Are Family Caregiving Questions Missing From The 2020 Census? | By Sig Cohen, Next Avenue Contributor Getty As our nation awaits for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, two important questions affecting more than 43.5 million Americans wont be asked at all. The missing questions address whether a U.S. resident is a caregiver for an adult family member or a disabled child and whether a resident is receiving care from a family member. The 2020 Census does include questions about grandparents caring for their grandchildren (up to age 18) in their homes. Nothing. Nor did the U.S. Census Bureau include caregiving (other than for "co-resident" grandchildren) in its American Community Survey Report titled: The Population 65 Years and Older in the United States: 2016. A Census Bureau spokesperson told me he couldnt come up with any other Bureau data on family caregiving. Also on Forbes: Family Caregiving Topics Didn't Make the Cut for the 2020 Census A February, 2016 Census Bureau blog noted: from 2012 to 2015 the Bureau conducted seven census tests across the country to study a wide range of topics from race and ethnicity to automating field operations to internet response. The Census Bureau even incorporated criticism from experts, Congress, advisory committees and the public in its decision-making process. Somehow, family caregiving didnt make the cut. But check out family caregiving statistics. They are staggering: The National Alliance for Caregiving and AARP estimated that in 2015, 43.5 million family caregivers provided uncompensated care for an adult or child in the preceding 12 months. Some 60% of these caregivers were women. Thirty-nine million provided care to an adult with a disability or illness. This is just the tip of the caregiving iceberg. As Americans longevity increases, so are chances of our becoming family caregivers or being cared for by a family member. Few caregivers know how long their responsibility will last. Most caregivers Ive spoken with said the responsibility came as a shock. And it's a responsibility for which they were unprepared and never trained. Ignoring 13% of the U.S. Population Omitting questions relating to more than more than 13% of the U.S. population ignores a huge number of unpaid, family caregivers who bear an enormous physical, emotional and time-consuming burden. InThe Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America, author and Next Avenue Influencer in Aging Ai-jen Poo wrote: The average caregiver for an older adult is a fifty-year-old woman who provides nineteen hours of care per week essentially a part-time job for an average of four years. The financial ramifications of these numbers are significant. The same 2015 National Alliance for Caregiving/AARP Public Policy Institute study found that 36% of caregiving adults older than 50 reported moderate to high levels of financial strain. AARP reports that in 2016, annual out-of-pocket expenses for family caregivers averaged $6,954. In 2017, the Alzheimers Association estimated that 16 million Americans provided 18.4 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $232.1 billion. The Problem With Not Asking About Family Caregiving Failure to include questions about family caregiving deprives the U.S. government of information about the financial impact of family caregiving on the national economy. It also creates a knowledge vacuum about how the government can better allocate resources to support family caregivers. What States Are Doing for Family Caregivers Some states are taking steps to reduce the financial burden on family caregivers. Last year, AARP reported that Hawaii provides up to $70 a day worth of services to caregivers who assist a loved one over 60 and is employed in another job for at least 30 hours weekly. Washington, California, Rhode Island, New Jersey and New York and the District of Columbia require employers to provide paid family leave for employees who need time off to care for a sick or disabled family member or a new child. Other states are considering similar measures. As our longevity increases and chronic diseases incapacitate more older Americans, the human and material costs of family caregiving merit greater attention. Most troubling is whether the absence of questions on family caregiving in the 2020 Census may be another sign that older Americans are becoming invisible. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2019/04/10/why-are-family-caregiving-questions-missing-from-the-2020-census/ |
How Is Union Pacific's Industrial Freight Business Faring? | 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP Union Pacifics (NYSE: UNP) industrial freight segment includes transportation of industrial products and utilities, such as lumber, steel, and construction products, metals and minerals, paper, furniture and appliances, and waste products by rail. Segment sales grew at a CAGR of 7% from $5 billion in 2016 to $5.7 billion in 2018, accounting for 25% of the total revenue mix. This compares with a CAGR of 14% for Norfolk Southerns industrial freight, and a CAGR of 6% for CSX Corporations merchandise freight segments during the same period. The growth for Union Pacific in the recent past was led by higher construction related commodities shipments. The segment saw 6% volume growth and 3% ARPU growth in 2018. ARPU growth was also aided by higher fuel surcharge, given the y-o-y uptick in crude oil prices in 2018. We forecast the sales to grow in mid-single-digits in 2019, and beyond. The growth will be led by gains in both volume and ARPU. The near term growth can be attributed to trends in the U.S. industrial production, which was up 4% (y-o-y) in the previous two quarters. Also, the U.S. construction sector is forecast to grow in mid-single-digits over the next three years, according to a research report. This should result in higher shipments of metals, construction products, plastics, and industrial chemicals. The companys overall revenues will likely grow 3% in 2019. The company also launched Unified Plan 2020 aimed to boost efficiency. This plan should help improve margins and create more reliability for customers, and aid the companys overall earnings growth in the coming years. As such, we expect the companys EBITDA margins to improve by 100 basis points in 2019, resulting in mid-single-digit growth in EBITDA to $11.40 billion. We forecast the companys earnings to be $9.05 per share in 2019, reflecting a low teens growth over the prior year. Our price estimate of $159 for Union Pacific is based off a 18x forward price to earnings multiple. You can modify key drivers to arrive at your own estimates for the companys EPS and valuation. In addition, you can also see more of our data for Industrial Companies here. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/04/10/how-is-union-pacifics-industrial-freight-business-faring/ |
What Should CEOs In Self-Regulated Industries Learn From UK Web Crackdown? | Shutterstock The era of self-regulation for online companies is over, said culture secretary Jeremy Wright on 8 April, as he and his colleague, home secretary Sajid Javid, unveiled their joint white paper Online Harms: a set of proposals for extensive, new controls on internet-based firms that allow dangerous content to prosper on their platforms. The measures outlined in the document are the world's first online safety laws. Voluntary actions from industry to tackle online harms have not been applied consistently or gone far enough, Wright stressed. Tech can be an incredible force for good and we want the sector to be part of the solution in protecting their users. However those that fail to do this will face tough action. In the nitty-gritty of the white papers text, Her Majestys government states: We are exploring possible options to create new liability for individual senior managers. This would mean certain individuals would be held personally accountable in the event of a major breach of the statutory duty of care. This could involve personal liability for civil fines, or could even extend to criminal liability. While the proposals have ostensibly been devised and announced with online giants such as Google, Twitter and Facebook in mind, the white paper does indicate that small firms are also on the governments radar. Indeed, some commentators have already suggested that any site outfitted with crowd-sourced reviews, comments-thread functions or profile pages for individual users, could fall under the purview of the new, state regulator that looms at the heart of the proposals. Its a tense moment for senior figures in the digital industry and places them immediately in unfamiliar, counter-intuitive terrain. The main reason for the unease that those leaders may be feeling is that they have traditionally relied upon three, blanket layers of deniability as waivers for the material that appears on their sites: i) the open-web ethos championed by Sir Tim Berners Lee, ii) a free-speech defense and iii) the argument that their sites arent actually publishers merely venues for curating other peoples content. For a long time, those articles of faith have effectively cushioned digital leaders against notions of liability. In the UK, a variety of self-regulatory bodies exist to monitor industries such as the media (the Advertising Standards Authority, the British Board of Film Classification and the journalism-focused Independent Press Standards Organisation and IMPRESS), finance (the Financial Conduct Authority) and the legal sector (the Bar Standards Board and Legal Services Board). Typically, those organisations are funded from within the industries they regulate, requiring their senior teams to maintain high ethical standards to forestall notions that the businesses in those sectors are effectively marking their own homework. In the case of digital corporations with particularly large user bases such as Google and Facebook the expectation up to now has been that they would regulate themselves by tasking internal departments with the relevant watchdog functions. That time has now passed. Businesses in self-regulated industries have much to learn from the digital sectors sudden emergence into a new reality particularly in terms of how to maintain their customer relationships, manage risk and conduct themselves as corporate citizens. In the Institute of Leadership & Managements 2017 report The Five Dimensions of Leadership: Authenticity, we quoted Deloitte CEO James H Quigleys take on the relationship between trust and the bottom line. Simply put, he said, those who bend rules are not considered trustworthy, and without trust an individuals value is severely diminished. Without trust and confidence, markets do not function, and value is destroyed. If one defines authenticity as we at the Institute do by business philosopher Charles Hampden-Turners notion of what lies between people then, as I see it, that space is where you want trust and integrity to find a natural home, and flourish. It is also the space in which you make a conscious commitment to want the very best for people, and to put in place systems and processes that will bear that out. This applies in particular to how you interact with those who are crucial to your organisations performance. As Hampden-Turner notes: To be authentic you must communicate to others what you think and what you feel without disguise or tactical cunning. So, you want the best for your customers. You want the best for your suppliers. You want the best for your staff. And youre determined to prove that in practice. Now, with that outlook as your starting position, self-regulation becomes quite a straightforward matter. Indeed, there would be no need for organizations to be regulated at all if everyone worked from the underlying principle of safeguarding the best interest of their stakeholders. The line that we have heard so frequently from internet companies is, Oh, were not publishers we just support free speech and provide a platform for people to share their content. Its hard to deny that there is something seductively liberal about that. And of course, given that free speech is such an important part of democracy, you can see why it makes such a compelling argument. No, they dont. They exist to provide some sort of service to their customers. And if they want the best for their customers, then they will do the right thing by them, which is to protect them from harm. Not exploit their customers; not allow third parties as we saw with Facebooks Cambridge Analytica scandal to take advantage of their customers, or any other group in their sprawling networks of stakeholders. So, if our intentions are genuinely honorable, what lies between people is about having individuals best interests at heart. From a leadership perspective, the key here is to frame that commitment as something personal, rather than some remote, vague, idealistic concept. Is the availability of that function or content doing the best for the businesses in our network, who rely upon us for infrastructure? In my view, whether or not there is a regulator watching over your business, you should welcome any opportunity to be scrutinized for if you have taken time to think about the values system that lies between people, your standards will be at least as good as what a regulator would expect to see. And that will be because your values drive the organization. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/katecooper/2019/04/10/what-should-ceos-in-self-regulated-industries-learn-from-uk-web-crackdown/ |
Where is the Masters Tournament Played? | The Masters is played at Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Ga each year. Augusta is located in the state of Georgia, about 150 miles east of Atlanta near the South Carolina border. The tournament has been played in the city since 1934, one year after the famous course opened for play. Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts founded Augusta National. The course was designed by designed by Jones and Alister MacKenzie. Last year, Patrick Reed won his first Green Jacket, edging out Rickie Fowler by one stroke to finish at -15 overall. Jordan Spieth finished third at -13. It was Reed's first major championship and his sixth PGA Tour win. The 83rd edition of the tournament begins in April 11. | https://www.si.com/golf/2019/04/10/masters-location-augusta-national-golf-course-info |
Should ASU basketball be worried about losing coach Bobby Hurley to St. John's? | College basketball writers and personalities have weighed in on the choice the Arizona State head coach is facing. Chris Mullin resigned as the coach of the Red Storm on Tuesday and the ASU coach's name continues to come up as a possible replacement. Hurley is currently paid $2.4 million per year with incentives. In January of 2018 his contract was extended through 2022. His Sun Devils were 23-11 overall and 12-6 in the Pac-12 this season and finishing second in the conference. That was an improvement of four games over their eighth-place finish the previous season. Hurley played at Duke and is from New Jersey, close to St. John's campus. St. John's athletic director Mike Cragg worked at Duke for 30 years and was in the school's media relations department when Hurley was a player there and helped lead the Blue Devils to national titles in 1991 and 1992. Hurley is 73-58 in his ASU tenure and 115-78 overall, including his two seasons at Buffalo before he arrived in Tempe. This year the Sun Devils made the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year, the first time the school has done that since 1981. ASU basketball coach's own words could offer hint New York Post: It will be an uphill battle for St. Johns to land Bobby Hurley Zach Braziller writes: "According to sources, he enjoys life out West. He has led the Sun Devils to consecutive NCAA Tournaments and defeated Mullin and St. Johns in the First Four last month. One source said Hurley will listen to St. Johns, but the offer would have to be significant for him to consider making a change. It could take close to $3 million a year. 'If Arizona State extends him or gives him more money, I dont see how he leaves to go to St. Johns,' a source said. If that doesnt happen, the source believes Hurley would seriously consider St. Johns." The Bobby Hurley situation is fascinating. I could see him taking the St. John's job, and I could also see him sending out a tweet at any moment informing ASU fans that he's not going anywhere. Shane Dale (@ShaneDaleABC15) April 9, 2019 ESPN's Fran Fraschilla: ASU should be concerned about losing Bobby Hurley Fraschilla, on Bickley and Marotta on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, said: (ASU) should be concerned. If you ask me if its a better job (than ASU), I dont really think it is. I think Bobbys got a great job. I think its a great place to live, Fraschilla added. I think the expectations of Sun Devil basketball are extremely high, and he certainly has met those. You can argue about whether they should be better but I think its in a good spot right now. Unless he just feels the need to come home to the New York, New Jersey area, I would council him to stay where he is. ... St. Johns does not have the facilities in many ways that a place like Arizona State has, especially if I hear that theyre going to remodel or at least re-do the inside of Wells Fargo (Arena), which definitely needs work, Fraschilla said. I cant imagine that they wont under (vice president for university athletics) Ray Anderson. Stay in the know. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. Jeff Borzello writes: "This has been the name buzzing in the industry since the rumors about a potential parting of ways between Mullin and the Red Storm started last week. It makes sense on a number of levels. Hurley is a New Jersey native whose father, Bob, won 28 state championships at high school powerhouse St. Anthony (New Jersey) and whose brother, Danny, coaches at UConn. Hurley also played at Duke, where Cragg spent more than 30 years before going to St. John's. Hurley has spent the past four seasons at Arizona State, leading the Sun Devils to the NCAA tournament each of the past two seasons." Arizona State is a better job than St Johns IMO Doug Gottlieb (@GottliebShow) April 9, 2019 Fansided: Chance to return home could intrigue Bobby Hurley Brad Berreman writes: "Hurleys New Jersey ties easily put him in the mix for the job at St. Johns. He was born in Jersey City, and his father is legendary New Jersey high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. The younger Hurley always seemed a little miscast in a Pac-12 job, despite the success hes had in Tempe over the last couple seasons, and the chance to return home may appeal to him." azcentral sports' Michelle Gardner contributed to this story. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/asu/2019/04/10/bobby-hurley-coach-rumors-asu-basketball-st-johns-speculation/3424127002/ |
Who says chardonnay cant be cool? | On a recent Saturday evening at All Time, a flourishing neighbourhood restaurant in east Los Angeles, the waiter was advocating a particular white wine available by the glass. Im not going to tell you what it is, because then you wont want it, he said as he poured. Just try it. The wine in question was a chardonnay from Bret Brothers, which specialises in wines from the Mcon region in southern Burgundy, where the vines grow on east-facing slopes in clay and limestone-rich soil. It was golden and crisp and tasted of stone fruit and flowers and, beneath that, something heavier and riper and more opulent. It was delicious. But it was also faintly surprising to find it there on the wine list at one of LAs hippest young restaurants, alongside the menu offerings of Good Ass Salad, Mels Jalapeno Cornbread and A Whole Dang Branzino. It is almost 25 years since chardonnay became unfashionable. In 1995, the New York Times reported on the ABC Anything But Chardonnay movement. That same year, Alanis Morissette referenced the wine in her colossally successful song Ironic, and the Independent began running Bridget Joness Diary, a column that followed a thirtysomething woman as she steered her way uncertainly through London life, complete with career mishaps, dating catastrophes and a steadfast devotion to chardonnay. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bret Brothers Mcon-Chardonnay. The wine had been everywhere since the 1980s. In part, this was a result of the Judgment of Paris the famed Paris Wine Tasting of 1976, at which a Californian chardonnay had triumphed over its French counterpart in a blind taste test. The surge of interest that followed meant that by 1988 there were more chardonnay vines planted in California than in France. It was also aided by the widespread introduction of varietal labelling (rather than labelling by brand or geography), which meant consumers were now able to ask specifically for a glass of chardonnay. But such ubiquity took its toll. By 2001, the wine arguably reached its reputational nadir with the introduction of a character named Chardonnay to the cast of the trashy British TV series Footballers Wives. And in 2008, the retail analyst TNS reported that 200,000 fewer Britons had bought chardonnay in the previous 12 months. The wine critic Oz Clarke noted its decline, pointing the finger firmly at our favourite diarist: Until Bridget Jones, chardonnay was really sexy, he opined. After, people said: God, not in my bar. Order a glass of dry white wine in a UK bar today and you will probably be served pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc. While Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) figures for supermarket white wine sales for the past 12 months show chardonnay stands in second place (behind sauvignon), totalling 82m bottles worth 421m, in pubs, bars and restaurants it languishes in third. And though there were 22.3m bottles of chardonnay sold in such establishments, at a cost of 331m, sales have fallen 16% over the past year. To soften this with a little context, UK white wine sales in general have fallen 10% over the same period, but chardonnay seems to be falling faster than most. Chardonnays fall from grace had less to do with fictional diarists and Wags and considerably more to do with taste. To order a glass of chardonnay is perhaps to do a disservice to the exquisite diversity of this grape. The grape itself is a green-skinned blank slate, a neutral that will take on the flavours brought by terroir and oak barrels. In its native France, it is used in everything from champagne to gamay via white burgundy, Montrachet, Pouilly-Fuiss and more. It may taste of marzipan or hazelnuts, butter or liquorice. Its a grape that can parade different flavours, it can be oaky, it can have more of a flinty, chablis flavour, says Lucy Panton from the WSTA. Theres a different chardonnay for every palate. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Napa Valley chardonnay vineyard. Photograph: Getty But, from the late 70s, the grapes swell of success led to a generation of mass-produced, one-note New World wines that increasingly lacked the nuance of their Old World counterparts. Between 1990 and 2005, US producers were chasing super-ripe styles, with horrendous levels of oak, says Adam Lechmere, editor of British wine and spirits magazine Club Oenologique. This in turn led In Pursuit of Balance (IPOB), a group of California wineries that came together in 2011 concerned that too many US wines particularly chardonnays were overripe, over-oaked and excessively alcoholic. In Pursuit of Balance really concentrated on pulling back from oak and making chardonnay a lean, stripped-down wine, says Lechmere. But then the pendulum swung back the other way and it became too lean. He is all in favour of acidity and lip-smacking steeliness, he says, but also chardonnay has to have fruit. IPOB disbanded in 2016, perhaps because it was no longer needed. Chardonnay has grown up no longer swinging wilfully between extremes of oak and mineral, no longer mass-produced, boisterous slosh, but considered, cared-for, crafted and is now being celebrated by a new generation of wine-lovers. The appearance of the Bret Brothers chardonnay on the All Time wine list was the result of a trip to Burgundy that owners Ashley Ragovin and Tyler Wells made last July. They are making pure, clean, beautiful, drinkable wines, Ragovin says. The purity and the focus and soulfulness expressed chardonnay at its truest. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ashley Ragovin (left) and Tyler Wells of All Time. Photograph: Robert Morley Among the chardonnays on the All Time list few, so far, have been Californian. I think theres more interesting things being done in California zinfandel and carignan, she adds. She would sooner choose something from France, Italy or, increasingly, Austria. She rhaphsodises about the joys of an old world white burgundy. It might sound antiquated, but its a beautiful, honest, expressive way of drinking chardonnay, she says. Its still in the place where it sings, where it fulfills its chardonnay potential. It is also, she argues, a world away from the chardonnays of yesteryear, that oaky, heavy trend where they were trying to mimic what was seen as happening in Burgundy but without the history and the soil, she says. As if they thought White burgundy! Lets copy that! without any contextual understanding. Today, she has noticed an increasing number of customers willing to drink white wine, and while many still cling to their big-boned, old-school chardonnay, and still others recoil at the thought, she is finding a new openness. There is a bracket that says: I dont drink chardonnay! she says. I encounter that a lot at the restaurant. Theyre hesitant to drink it. And then it surprises them. For years now, there have been rumblings of a revival, although it has never quite come to pass and, as the figures show, sales are falling. But consider that when gin dropped out of the Office for National Statistics shopping basket, replaced by vodka, in 2004, it paved the way for the great craft gin revival we see today. Arguably, if the dreariness of chardonnay came in its mass-manufacturing and over-exposure, its rebirth might begin in its small, quiet reimagining. When Club Oenologique launched recently, it used its first issue to reconsider chardonnay. The reason we did that piece is because its safe to go back into the water again, says Lechmere. Weve just been a bit slower over here. But chardonnays time is coming. | https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/apr/10/who-says-chardonnay-cant-be-cool |
Is John Ramsey Prepared to Never Learn the Truth About JonBent's Death? | Elizabeth Vargas is Hunting JonBent's Killer for her new A&E series The Untold Story. In the exclusive clip above, Vargas interviews JonBent Ramsey's father, John Ramsey, in Utah, and point blank tells him there are still people who believe he, or his son Burke Ramsey or late wife Patsy Ramsey had something to do with his daughter's murder. "How could they have believed otherwise because that's what they're told. Even if we have a conviction, a confession and this person's in prison, there's going to be 5, 10 percent of the population that still thinks we're guilty. That's a given," Ramsey says in the exclusive preview above. | https://www.eonline.com/ap/news/1031389/is-john-ramsey-prepared-to-never-learn-the-truth-about-jonbenet-s-death |
Has Jordan Peterson finally gone too far? | Its being called the hottest event in Toronto these days, with tickets costing as much as scalpers are charging for Toronto Maple Leaf playoff tickets. The event is a debate between Jordan Peterson, the University of Toronto psychology professor, who has become the darling of the far right, and Slavoj Zizek, a famous Slovenian philosopher. Twitter reaction to Toronto psychologist and best-selling author Jordan Peterson posing with a man with "Proud Islamaphobe" T-shirt in New Zealand recently. ( Twitter ) Tickets for the April 19 event went on sale in March for the 3,100-seat Sony Centre venue and instantly sold out. Online ticket resellers are now charging up to $950 for a seat. So popular is the debate that Peterson and Zizek are live-streaming it around the world at a cost of $14.95 per view. Its another in a long line of sold-out shows for Peterson, who shot to fame in 2016 when he criticized legislation aimed at protecting gender identity and openly refused to use peoples preferred pronouns. Overnight, Peterson became an international hero for those who believe political correctness has gone too far, especially young white men who feel the world is stacked against them these days. Article Continued Below In interviews, podcasts and YouTube videos he has railed against such topics as the radical left, socialism, Justin Trudeau, feminism and the idea that women have been oppressed throughout history. Peterson has also become insanely rich touting what some critics have called half-baked ideas and the greatest scam of our time. He has 1.16 million followers on Twitter, 1.5 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 3 million copies have been sold of his book, 12 Rules of Life. But Peterson may finally have gone too far. For years, he has insisted hes done nothing to promote racism, misogyny, Islamophobia or a stream of other issues that stoke the fires of the far right. That may be true in a strict sense. Troubling, though, is the fact Peterson has done little if anything to distance himself from white supremacists, racists and bigots. Nor has he done anything to silence those who spread their hate on social media and who cite his writings and lectures as proof that they are on the right path. The worst example of this is a photo taken in New Zealand a few weeks before a white nationalist murdered 50 Muslims in terrorist attack last month on two Christchurch mosques. The photo shows Peterson with his arm around the shoulder of a man wearing a T-shirt with the words Im a Proud ISLAMAPHOBE on the front. Petersons apologists say it was just one of thousands of photos taken each year with fans. They also say Peterson now insists on measures to avoid such photos from happening again. Not at all. Instead, Peterson ranted about how unfairly he was treated when a New Zealand chain of booksellers temporarily pulled copies of his book from its shelves in protest and when Cambridge University withdrew its offer of a visiting fellowship. Cambridge vice-chancellor Stephen Toope said the New Zealand photo was a casual endorsement by association of Islamophobia and the message was antithetical to the work of the Faculty of Divinity, which made the fellowship offer. Outraged, Peterson accused the school of signalling their solidarity with the diversity-inclusivity-equity mob, adding it was kowtowing to an ill-informed, ignorant and ideologically addled mob. Such fury! No wonder Peterson has been called the patron saint of those perpetually angry. Never one to criticize his cultlike followers on the far right, Peterson insists the suggestion he is appealing to disaffected, angry young white men is false. At next weeks debate Peterson has an opportunity to stand up straight with his shoulders back his Rule No. 1 and denounce and shut down the haters and far-right thugs who have turned him into their idol. He should do it before their hatred and violence goes any further. Bob Hepburn is a politics columnist and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @BobHepburn | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/04/10/has-jordan-peterson-finally-gone-too-far.html |
Did Delta just put air between it and rivals American, Southwest and United? | A new credit card deal and rising corporate travel boosted profits for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines in the first quarter, a trend it predicts will continue this spring. Delta executives said Wednesday that corporate-account revenue is up 10% from this time last year, helping offset choppy demand from vacation travelers. That was one of several factors that pushed Delta's first-quarter profit up by 31% to $730 million. Delta has been leading its closest U.S. rivals -- Fort Worth-based American Airlines and Chicago-based United Airlines -- in financial measurements such as profit margin and operational ones like on-time flights and fewer cancellations. Delta executives say it helps them win corporate travelers. On top of that, Delta cut a revamped credit card deal with American Express that Delta says will produce $500 million in additional revenue this year and even more in the future. AmEx will pay Delta up to $7 billion a year by 2023, compared with $3.4 billion last year -- a better deal for the airline than analysts were expecting. Delta gets an increasing share of revenue, now 55%, from premium fares and non-ticket sources such as the credit card deal and a growing aircraft-maintenance operation, which might partly insulate it from an economic slowdown. | https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2019/04/10/delta-just-put-air-competitors-american-southwest-united |
Will Technical Factors Push Bitcoin To $50,000 In The Coming Years? | Getty Veteran trader Peter Brandt recently made a bold prediction, stating that bitcoin could reach $50,000 in the next two years. Credited with forecasting bitcoin's more than 80% decline in 2018, Brandt cited market history and technical analysis when providing this estimate. "I believe that charts reflect underlying supply and demand fundamentals and that's how we have to look at it," he stated on Yahoo Finance YFi PM. After bottoming out in 2015, bitcoin prices enjoyed a parabolic advance, emphasized Brandt. Now, he expects cryptocurrencies will once again enter a parabolic bull market. [Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.] Analyst Skepticism While several analysts emphasized that Brandt's prediction certainly could materialize, many were understandably skeptical, emphasizing their wariness of price forecasts. "Peter Brandt's assessment is purely based on technical indicators and market history," noted Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency fund of hedge funds BitBull Capital. "While technical analysis has a place in all markets, past performance is no guarantee for future results," he stated. "Meanwhile, however, the current rally is consolidating nicely and we can expect further price appreciation if the trend continues," added DiPasquale. Marouane Garcon, managing director of crypto-to-crypto derivatives platform Amulet, urged caution. "We have to be careful when trying to predict markets," he noted. "Parabolic movements happen once in a blue moon," said Garcon. As a result, "we can't depend on them as they tell us more about the crowd's sentiment than the actual value of the asset." He emphasized that while market history can prove helpful, "going forward we have to be more careful because the market has matured and the participants have changed." Adoption's Key Role Several analysts emphasized the key importance of bitcoin expanding its user base, emphasizing that if the digital currency makes enough progress on this front, it could hit $50,000 in the coming years. "The focus, I believe, should be on adoption instead of price, because the latter follows the former," said DiPasquale. "If Bitcoin adoption continues to grow exponentially in the next two years, we can easily see it hitting the $50,000 mark," he noted. "On the other hand, if adoption drives fail and there is no meaningful traction, even $5,000 will be difficult to hold." John Hargrave, publisher of Bitcoin Market Journal, also weighed in on this subject: "As a blockchain gains more users, the price moves up on a quadratic growth curve -- similar to [Brandt's] idea of a parabolic advance." Charles Cascarilla, cofounder & CEO of Paxos, offered a similar take. "The next wave of growth in this cycle will be driven by adoption from mainstream retail and institutions, markets that are order of magnitudes larger than the current users. In that context, $50k seems possible." Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ether. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cbovaird/2019/04/10/will-technical-factors-push-bitcoin-to-50000-in-the-coming-years/ |
What's The Difference Between A Short Sale And A Foreclosure? | Getty At first glance, a foreclosure and a short sale can seem similar. After all, they both occur when you're having trouble covering the costs of owning your home. However, if you're facing one of these two scenarios, you need to know that some important differences exist between them. I've laid them out below. Keep reading to learn how they both work and what those differences could mean for you. A short sale occurs when you sell a home for less money than you currently owe on the mortgage. It happens when the property has, for whatever reason, substantially depreciated in value since it was purchased. For example, if you sell a home for $200,000 when you still owe $250,000 on the mortgage, that would be a short sale. In that example, you're technically coming up "short" by $50,000. For the most part, a short sale functions in much the same way as a traditional home sale. You work with a real estate agent to put the home on the market and to find a suitable buyer. However, as the seller, you don't have the final say in who gets to buy the home. Instead, since the bank is accepting a loss on the mortgage, they have to approve the short sale and the winning offer, which can take a while. Once a short sale goes through, ideally, you'll be free of any financial responsibility for the home. However, that isn't always the case. Sometimes the lender can file what's known as a "deficiency judgement" against you to make up the loss. Fortunately, many states have laws against this. However, you'll still want to read over your short sale approval paperwork carefully to ensure that you won't have any personal liability. A foreclosure, on the other hand, takes place when you stop making payments on your mortgage. After three to six months of missing payments, your lender will file a "notice of default" with the county recorder's office. The notice is to let you know that foreclosure proceedings have begun and that you could be at risk of getting evicted if the proceedings go through. After you receive the notice of default, you'll enter what's known as the"pre-foreclosure period," which can last anywhere from 30 to 120 days. During pre-foreclosure, you'll have the opportunity to work with your lender to resolve your debts. Usually, this occurs either by agreeing upon a repayment schedule or through a short sale. Unfortunately, if the debt isn't resolved by the end of the pre-foreclosure period, the lender will move forward with foreclosing on the home. If your home is foreclosed on, you'll be evicted and the bank will put your home up for sale, either through traditional methods or at an auction. Though short sales and foreclosures are both methods of resolving financial difficulties with your home, there are significant differences between them. They are as follows: The timing In general, short sales take much longer to complete than foreclosures. In a foreclosure, the bank is intent on finding a way to recoup as much of their investment as possible, so proceedings have a tendency to move quickly. With a short sale, on the other hand, banks often need to get several levels of approval before they can move forward with the sale. That's why short sales can often take several months to a year to close. The financial impact As the seller, your financial situation will be impacted negatively by having to utilize either a short sale or a foreclosure. However, the impact varies. With a short sale, though your credit score could drop up to 150 points, you should be able to buy a new home right away if that's something you're interested in doing. After a foreclosure, you have to wait up to five years before you can buy again and the foreclosure will stay on your record for seven years. The seller's involvement In a short sale, the seller is very involved in the sale process. Aside from making the final determination of who buys the home, it proceeds similarly to a traditional sale. In a foreclosure, the bank drives most of the process. Aside from being able to negotiate repayment with the bank during the pre-foreclosure period, the seller doesn't have much of a say in what occurs. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/taramastroeni/2019/04/10/whats-the-difference-between-a-short-sale-and-a-foreclosure/ |
When Calls the Heart Returning to Hallmark in May, But What About Lori Loughlin's Character? | Hallmark Channel is ready to return to Hope Valley with the return of When Calls the Heart season six on Sunday, May 5 with a bonus episode following on Monday, May 6. The fan-favorite show was put on hiatus following series star Lori Loughlin's arrest. "We are saddened by the recent news surrounding the college admissions allegations," Crown Media Family Networks said in a statement on Thursday, March 14. "We are no longer working with Lori Loughlin and have stopped development of all productions that air on the Crown Media Family Network channels involving Lori Loughlin including Garage Sale Mysteries, an independent third-party production." In a video message, When Calls the Heart start Erin Krakow announced the show's return to air and noted more information regarding the show will be revealed on Saturday, April 13 during an airing of Bottled With Love. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1031458/when-calls-the-heart-returning-to-hallmark-in-may-but-what-about-lori-loughlin-s-character?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
How Can Managers Inspire Strong Performances From Their Employees? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Ajeet Singh, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, ThoughtSpot, on Quora: As an entrepreneur, theres only so much you can do to turn your vision or idea into a reality. Inherently, you have to rely on the team around you in order to succeed. As your company grows, this will include people who report to you, as well as people managed by others in your organization. Thats why inspiring performance at all levels is so critical, for leaders and managers. The specifics can vary based on the context but here are some common principles that I have found to work well: Having and communicating a high-level purpose. To really inspire the best people to give their best, they need to be excited about the purpose of your organization. They need to know the why more than they need to know the what or the how. This helps them know the work they do has a higher purpose that may be hard to visualization on a day-to-day basis. Clearly articulating goals and helping people connect the dots. Whatever your business planning horizon (monthly/quarterly/annual/etc. ), your teams need to know the goals of the organization. In fact, they want to participate in helping define those goals at some level. Leaders also need to create a framework that helps their teams see how their work impacts the organizational goals to keep them engaged. OKR is a good example of such a framework (like anything else, its not perfect - one can use it well or poorly). Celebrating failure as much as success. Most leaders do a great job of celebrating success. But not many teams celebrate failure - by that I mean openly discussing what didnt work and figuring out how to do better without any blame game is a very powerful tool that the best leaders employ. Enabling people to try new roles. Sometimes you have high performers that stay in the same role/department/team for too long. They become too critical for the team in that specific role. But any individual cannot sustain peak performance doing the same thing for too long. Their pace of learning reduces, they stop growing personally and their impact on the organization hits a ceiling. Leaders should actively plan for and encourage their critical employees to find a new dimension of growth every couple of years or so - this helps them grow personally and also increases their impact on the organization. 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/2019/04/10/how-can-managers-inspire-strong-performances-from-their-employees/ |
How Can Tech Startups Compete In Deep Learning? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Eric Vishria, General Partner at Benchmark, on Quora: There is this narrative out there that it is all about the data, whoever has the most data wins I may have subscribed to that theory in the past but I now think it is largely wrong, and may have been perpetuated by the big companies to tout their advantage. Deep Learning tools and frameworks are so nascent, and the skill set so rare, that meaningfully better algorithms are possible, and make a huge difference. For example, I believe Blue Hexagon has those. When there are literally 100s of thousands of new malware variants PER DAY, it just makes sense that IF you could get neural networks to analyze the traffic, at line speed, it would be order of magnitude better than the current signature and sandbox based approaches. But getting the algorithms right are hard and matter a lot. Another example Benchmark has invested in (not Deep Learning specifically but related) is DeepL, a machine translation company. Google Translate is widespread and obviously has way more data and compute than just about anyone you could imagine, and yet a small company, DeepL, produces meaningfully better translations almost every time - try it for yourself. The large incumbents do have real advantages when it comes to talent, and paying really high salaries for talent, and access to nearly unlimited compute. But even those advantages can be overcome with novel technical approaches, and I believe engineers who have that rare technical capability AND desire to have a huge impact on the world will continue to choose the startup path rather than be a cog in a huge machine. 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/2019/04/10/how-can-tech-startups-compete-in-deep-learning/ |
How Has Dunkin' Brands Revenue Performed And What Is Its Potential? | Dunkin Brands (NASDAQ:DNKN) reported revenue of $1.32 billion and EBITDA was $452.9 million in 2018. The revenue consists of five key components: Dunkin Donuts US Dunkin Donuts International Baskin-Robbins US Baskin-Robbins International Advertising fees and related income As we detail below, we expect Dunkin Brands to grow by 3.8% in revenues and reach $1.37 billion in 2019. The EBITDA in the same period is expected to increase by more than 7% and reach approximately $487.8 million. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. Trefis Total Revenue: Dunkin Brands has seen a steady growth in revenues and has increased from $1.25 billion in 2016 to $1.32 billion in 2018. We expect the the revenues to grow in 2018 by around 3.8% and reach $1.37 billion on led by increase in Dunkin Donuts US revenues. Dunkin Donuts US: The decrease seen in 2018 is due to the change in the presentation of financial statements as the company started to recognize advertising fees and related income. Overall, we expect the segment to continue growing in 2019 and reach $643.9 million, led by the continuous increase in the number of outlets in the geography. Dunkin Donuts International: The segment saw a small drop in revenues in 2017 but recovered in 2018 to grow by 8.6% and post $22.34 million in revenues. In 2019 we expect the segment to post revenues of about $23.3 million and the growth is expected to be led by the increasing number of stores in the geographies. Baskin-Robbins US: Baskin-Robbins US segment has been nearly flat the past 3 years with the revenue seeing a slight fall from $47.5 million in 2016 to $47.4 million in 2018. In 2019 we expect the segment to have revenues of $48.1 million, up by 1.5%, driven by the small increase in revenue per outlet. Baskin-Robbins International: The Baskin-Robbins International segment has seen a small fall from $119 million in 2016 to $115 million in 2018. This was primarily driven by the decrease in franchise fees and royalty charged by the company. In 2019 we expect the segment to be on the recovery track with revenues reaching $118.7 million. The growth is expected to be driven by both an increase in revenue per outlet and total number of outlets. Advertising Fees and related Income: The company started recognizing this separately in 2018. These are advertising fees paid on a weekly basis based on a percentage of franchisee gross sales as per the franchise agreements both in US and internationally. In 2019 we expect the revenue from this segment to continue its growth and reach around $498.5 million. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/04/10/how-has-dunkin-brands-revenue-performed-and-what-is-its-potential/ |
Which foreigners spend the most on Miami real estate? | Mural with the image of the Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos, known simply as, is seen on a building at the corner of SW First Avenue and Eighth Street in Miami. Brazilians rank first among foreign buyers in South Florida. [email protected] Brazilians have replaced Argentines as the biggest investors in South Florida real estate, according to a recent report by the Miami Realtors Association based on sales from August 2017 to July 2018. Miami-Dade remains an attractive destination for foreign buyers, who accounted for 65 percent of the real estate purchases. The largest group are the Latin Americans, who continue to trust in the city as an investment opportunity. Brazilians, who accounted for 17 percent of the buyers, were followed by Venezuelans at 13 percent, Argentines at 10 percent, Colombians at nine percent and Dominicans and Canadians tied at four percent. The total value of the properties sold to foreigners rose in 2018 to $8.7 billion, compared to $7.1 billion in 2017. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to Miami Herald content across all your devices. SAVE NOW #ReadLocal Condominiums remained a favored purchase by foreigners, although the number of condos sold dropped to 14,300 in 2018, compared to 2017 when 15,300 were sold. Foreigners usually buy more expensive properties, and the average price of the apartments and houses they bought rose from $339,300 in 2017 to $373,000 last year. The report by the Miami Realtors Association measured the number of purchases by foreign buyers handled by association members and split it into two categories: 1). Those who live outside the United States and buy properties as investments or for vacations or visits of less than six months. 2). Immigrants who have lived less than two years in the United States at the time of purchase, and those holding U.S. visas that allow them to stay more than six months for work, educational or other reasons. In Broward, Brazilian buyers were in third place as investors after Colombians with 18 percent and Venezuelans with 13 percent. Palm Beach is popular with Canadians, who accounted for 57 percent of the foreign purchases. Brazilians were in second place with 10 percent, followed by Argentines at five percent. The associations previous report put Argentines at the top of the buyers list for South Florida from 2016 to 2017, and Venezuelans at the top of Miami-Dade. Brazilians were in fourth place among South Florida buyers. Although this is not reflected in the associations latest report, it appears that an increasing number of Mexicans are interested in buying properties in Miami. They are investing their money in Miami because they dont like their government, said Oliver Ruiz, an agent with Related ISG International Realty. Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador took office in December 2018. Ruiz, a 23-year veteran of Miami real estate, said he has seen the preeminence of Brazilian buyers and their shrinking status in later years as their countrys economy stumbled and their currency dropped. Ruiz noted that Mexicans bought 62 apartments in the Okan Tower, a luxury condo building in downtown Miami, due to be finished in 2022. Association reports show the number of Mexican buyers remained stable at four percent since 2016. | https://www.miamiherald.com/real-estate/article229076464.html |
What's actually going on in that cryptic black hole photo? | "We have now seen the unseeable." These are the words spoken by astrophysicist Avery Broderick on Wednesday morning, one of some 200 scientists of the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration who captured humanity's first image of a black hole a zone of space so gravitationally powerful that whatever light falls in can't possibly escape. "Black holes are gravity run amok," said Broderick. Yet, we now have a picture of "the unseeable." More precisely, we can see a prominent ring of super-heated gas around the very edge of a black hole. This final boundary between space and the black hole, the point of no return, is called the "event horizon." "What this brings to the table is the event horizon," astrophysicist Erin Macdonald, who had no role in the project, said in an interview. "It's the last possible point that we could see until you're so close to the black hole that nothing can escape." So, although the black hole is itself invisible a black mass that consumes light we can see exactly where this giant spherical object begins, and where it lies. The @ehtelescope team built an Earth-sized telescope by linking radio dishes around the world. In April 2017, all they all swiveled to look at the supermassive black hole at the center of Messier 87, a galaxy in Virgo constellation. #RealBlackHole #EHTBlackHole pic.twitter.com/0hUPpDbYkH National Science Foundation (@NSF) April 10, 2019 This particular black hole is "supermassive." It's located some 54 million light years away at the center of a galaxy us Earthlings call Messier 87, or M87. This black hole contains the mass of 6.5 billion suns, and is 38 billion kilometers across. And its picture is scientifically priceless. Before today, astrophysicists often called black holes "putative black holes," meaning something that's supposed or presumed to be a black hole. Not anymore. SEE ALSO: The secretive lab that built the bomb now scours Mars for signs of life "We learned that we dont have to say 'putative black hole'," said Misty Bentz, an astrophysicist who researches black holes at Georgia State University. "We dont have to couch it in those terms." "The fact that we see the evidence of the event horizon means the thing we call a black hole actually exits in nature," added Bentz, who had no role in the collaboration. "Thats something we didnt know before today." The event horizon Without a clear view of the event horizon, we wouldn't have an image depicting a conspicuous, circular (though somewhat blurry) ring around the black hole. The center of many, but not all, galaxies swirl with lots of matter, specifically gas. Inevitably, this hot gas rotates around the great black hole. This is the nature of gravity, somewhat similar to the way the moon orbits around a more massive Earth, explained Dong Lai, an astronomer and black hole expert at Cornell University. Gases get condensed as they speed around the black hole, and all this friction creates heat. "It's like moving your hands together in the wintertime," said Lai, who was also not involved in the project. An illustration of a black hole surrounded by hot gas. This black hole is pulling in matter from a nearby star. More Image: NASA / CXC / M.Weiss The hottest, most squeezed, and compressed gas lies just at the edge of the event horizon. "Whenever you squeeze something down you end up heating it up and hot gas glows," said Bentz, noting that the brightest gases will soon fall into the black hole. "It's the last little scream of the gas until we can't hear it scream anymore." | https://news.yahoo.com/apos-actually-going-cryptic-black-213745553.html |
Is Goldman Sachs Giving Talking Points To Democratic Socialists? | Some recent articles in Financial Advisor, most notably one dated April 2019, raise serious questions about the potential unintended consequences of views propagated by Goldman Sachs, which recently wrote a paper called A World Without Buybacks. Can Stock Photo / studiostoks According to the summary by writer Lu Wang, Goldman believes stock valuations would be threatened if buybacks are outlawed, as some big name Democrats propose: Thats because corporate demand has far exceeded that from all other investors combined, according to strategists led by David Kostin. Since 2010, net buybacks averaged $420 billion annually, while buying from households, mutual funds, pension funds and foreign investors was less than $10 billion for each, Federal Reserve data compiled by Goldman showed. Repurchases have consistently been the largest source of U.S. equity demand, the strategists wrote in a note Friday. Without company buybacks, demand for shares would fall dramatically. On behalf of those who dont speak politics-ese, allow me to translate: Thats because corporations aside, demand for equities is nowhere near where it needs to be in order to justify current valuations. In terms of actual financial and economic logic, no. And Goldman, among others, has said much regarding the underlying realities (efficient capital allocation, the reality that corporations are actually reinvesting, etc.). But what I offered was a translation of Goldmans pro-buyback thesis (not necessarily what Goldman meant to say but definitely what many proponents of outlawing buybacks will hear). Optics Matter Picture two candidates for an important public office. One gestures to and addresses members of a live audience and/or TV cameras and rails about inequalities in income and wealth distribution and prompts listeners to compare their own circumstances with those of the 1%. The other says things like Executives whose compensation depends on EPS . . . did not allocate a higher proportion of 2018 total cash spending to buybacks than companies where management pay is not linked to EPS and Growth investment has accelerated sharply since the tax reforms passed, contradicting the widespread belief that the changed policies led only to a surge in share repurchases . . . . Companies have boosted buybacks relative to dividends to repatriate overseas profits and because of greater flexibility to match earnings volatility . . . . (These quotes come from Joanna Ossingers March 8, 2019 Financial Advisors article discussing Goldmans views.) Which candidate is more likely to inspire a crowd. The first one of course, even though the soundbite has a dubious economic basis. Capitalism works, and socialism has a track record of failure, but socialism sounds better and is far easier to understand. From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. And as we look around us, we see how easy it is for democratic socialists. whatever those are, to subtly advocate such notions while avoiding references to Venezuela and the like. Speaking for myself, I never did figure out during my initial undergrad economics course what happens to people who demand food but cant get any because the price at which they demand it is below the price at which supply and demand are in equilibrium. I didnt really start dialing in until my first year of grad school, when the professor I had was an exceptionally great explainer. How far might a candidate at a televised debate get in explaining elasticity, the Philips Curve, etc. I presume you get the picture. (If not, I suggest reading All The Kings Men, at least far enough to see how Willie Stark, a fictional version of Huey Long, started winning at the polls, and if youre not into literature, go on Google and acquaint yourself with Amazons misadventures in New York City.) Freedom Versus Sensibility Of Speech We live in a culture that places extremely high value of freedom of speech, so much so that we often think the First Amendment applies even when it doesnt (it prohibits government restraints on speech, not restraints imposed in the private sector). Goldmans views on buybacks are objectively correct. Sometimes, its better to be strategic than to be right. (See, e.g., the role of Odysseus in The Iliad, Machiavelli, Three Kingdoms). | https://www.forbes.com/sites/marcgerstein/2019/04/10/is-goldman-sachs-giving-talking-points-to-democratic-socialists/ |
Is The New Digital Editor On 'The Bold Type' Season 3 A Friend Or Foe? | Freeform Freeform's The Bold Type premiered its third season last night, and introduced major changes to the basis of the show. The episode is, after all, appropriately titled, "The New Normal." For one thing, Richard (Sam Page) and Sutton (Meghann Fahy) are finally out, and thinking about moving in with each other, while Kat (Aisha Dee) deals with her break up with Adena (Nikohl Boosheri). The biggest change, however, is obviously Scarlet's new digital editor. The show centers on three best friends, Jane (Katie Stevens), Sutton, and Kat, as they try to make their careers at a women's magazine, which is loosely based on Cosmopolitan while under the reign of former Editor-in-Chief Joanna Coles. Melora Hardin's character, Jacqueline Carlyle, represents Coles on the show, and is a warm and supportive boss to her employees. We've gotten comfortable with Jacqueline's rapport with the girls, but that's all changed now that a new editor for the digital portion of the magazine has been hired - clearly in retaliation to Jacqueline pissing off the board last season. The new editor is "wunderkind" Patrick Duchand (Peter Vack), who's bike Jane accidentally hits when opening her cab door, so that's a great start. (I'm still confused why Jane, Sutton, and Kat are taking a cab to work. Is the subway mysteriously out of commission that day?) Jane seems compelled to hate Patrick from the start just because he's a man hired to run a major portion of a women's magazine (and apparently doesn't use bike lanes), but there is something prickly about Patrick. For one thing, he's ridiculously arrogant. He's one of those people that's so obviously full of himself, that you just kind of want to punch him in the face. He also makes a lot of demands. As he goes around meeting the employees, he quickly shoots off a bunch of loaded commands without getting the person's reaction. He doesn't ask for things, he just tells. He instantly assigns Alex (Matt Ward) a new column without discussing how Alex feels about the idea, berates Kat for not posting as much on her personal social accounts lately, and later in the episode he tells Kat that she has to make a big speech at the Scarlet summit the very next day, and then walks away even though she's clearly blindsided. Sitting down with an employee and actually discussing something doesn't seem to be his strong suit, though a lot of the drama this episode could've been avoided if he had. Maybe he's new and just trying too hard. As Oliver (Stephen Conrad Moore) says, Patrick's fashion style is sprezzatura - studied carelessness, carefully planning every detail of his image to look casual. There are moments that the episode gives to make us like Patrick, at least a little bit. While Jane is chasing down sources for her profile on Patrick (an article he assigned her), she finds out about an incident where Patrick fought against gender discrimination at a previous job. He found out he was getting paid more plus perks than a female coworker with the same position. When he brought it up to HR and they denied it, he said "the only difference between me and Stacy is this," and he pulled down his pants. There's another moment, at the Scarlet summit after Kat gives a fairly generic speech, and he confronts her about it. She tells him about her break up with Adena, and how she's still a mess, and so she doesn't feel like pretending everything's fine on social media and in her speech. He tells her to just be herself, and it inspires her to open up about her emotional journey on social media. However, they could've had this conversation a lot earlier, and saved Kat a lot of heartache and her speech, if when Kat had told him that she was taking a social media break for her mental health, he had asked her what was wrong. Instead, he railroaded her and told her that she had to begin posting on social media a lot more, immediately. We also have to consider the promo for next week's episode that shows Patrick trying to convince Jane that she and her boyfriend should write about her egg-freezing procedure together, though Jane is very resistant to this idea. "There are some lines I'm not willing to cross, and having my boyfriend witness my trans-vaginal ultrasound is one of them," Jane says. This is a very private procedure, and if Jane doesn't want to make it public, I totally understand. While we don't know how this will turn out yet, it doesn't look good for Patrick's respect of boundaries. They don't want us to completely hate him. I guess it would've been too easy to make the guy who took over part of Jacqueline's job a villain, but I think we're meant to be irked by him. I'm not even fully comforted by the story of his fight against gender discrimination - it seems very calculated to make him look like a good guy, rather than just being one. It's possible Patrick will get better, as we get to know him in future episodes. However, it's just as possible that Patrick is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and we should be very wary of him. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindamaleh/2019/04/10/is-the-new-digital-editor-on-the-bold-type-season-3-a-friend-or-foe/ |
Who's the most talked about 'Game of Thrones' character in Arizona? | A scene from "Game of Thrones" (Photo: HBO) Winter has come. After seven long, bloody seasons and the deaths of too many beloved characters, 'Game of Thrones' returns Sunday for its final season. But which character of the ones who are somehow still alive in the HBO series is No. She's small. She's deadly. She's quick with the needle. She was taught by No One. It's Arya Stark, according to a Twitter analysis by Daring Planet. The travel website used GeoTagging to rank the most talked about Game of Thrones characters by state. The month-long analysis of more than 200,000 tweets found Arya Stark, played by actress Maisie Williams, had nearly 900 Twitter mentions in Arizona. Arya Stark was also a crowd favorite in 18 other states, where she ranked as the most talked about character, according Daring Planet representative Ryan Taylor. Here are the most talked about Game of Thrones characters by state, based on Geotagged Twitter data. (Photo: Daring Planet) How other characters ranked "The top 10 characters with the most tweets were tracked, however only a handful consistently won states," Taylor said in an email. Jaime Lannister, Bran Stark, Brienne of Tarth, and The Hound didn't win any states, Taylor added. Here's how the rest of the characthers ranked in Arizona: Arya Stark - 880 mentions Jon Snow - 660 mentions Sansa Stark - 470 mentions Cersei Lannister - 320 mentions The Hound - 320 mentions (tied with Cersei) Brienne of Tarth - 310 mentions Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, First of Her Name, the Unburnt, Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons - 290 mentions Jaime Lannister - 150 mentions Bran Stark - 120 mentions More: Game of Thrones MLB bobbleheads unveiled before final season of hit HBO show Time to debate NEWSLETTERS Get the Things to do this weekend newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Best Things to do this weekend Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Thurs Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Things to do this weekend Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. You can debate the most buzz-worthy character among fellow Game of Thrones fans at a Phoenix watch party organized entirely on Reddit for the season premiere. When: April 14 at 6 p.m. Where: Verdura, 5555 N. Seventh St., Suite 108 Reach reporter Angel Mendoza at [email protected] or on Twitter @angelmendozaAZC Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral today. Subscribe to azcentral.com for guides, reviews and expert advice. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/television/2019/04/10/here-most-popular-game-thrones-character-arizona/3426279002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/television/2019/04/10/here-most-popular-game-thrones-character-arizona/3426279002/ |
Why did one of John Bel Edwards opponents sponsor the governors prayer breakfast? | Of the 80 donors to the annual Louisiana Governors Prayer Breakfast, held Wednesday (April 10) at the Raising Canes River Center in Baton Rouge, one stood out from the rest. ISC Constructors was a silver sponsor, among the 21 most generous donors, for the event, according to its program. Baton Rouge businessman Eddie Rispone, founder of the company, is one of two Republicans running against Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, in the October election. Rispone, a devout Catholic who prays every morning, said his company has been sponsoring the prayer breakfast for decades, regardless of who the governor is. ISC Constructors started sponsoring the event in the early 1990s when Edwin Edwards was in office, though Rispone couldnt provide a specific year. The prayer breakfast is one of the largest annual gatherings of politicians, lobbyists and state government officials. This years organizer, Charles Harper, said approximately 1,000 people attended. Kenneth Boa, a Christian minister and theologian, was the keynote speaker. The prayer breakfast is nonpartisan, run by an independent nonprofit that isnt connected to the Edwards administration or his campaign. In addition to Rispone, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidys political action committee and state Rep. Mike Johnson, R-Pineville, were sponsors, albeit at a lower level than Rispones business. State Reps. Katrina Jackson, D-Monroe, and Thomas Carmody, R-Shrebveport, and state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell participated in the breakfast with prayers and Bible readings. One the main attractions of the breakfast is the governors remarks. Edwards was the final speaker, right before the parting benediction. First lady Donna Edwards, who introduced her husband, said the couple prays together every morning. While the the governors prayer breakfast isnt partisan, it is political. Alert FM, another main sponsor, is a product of Global Security Systems, which holds the contract for Louisianas emergency alert system. Several other event contributors -- Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, ExxonMobil, Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO, the Louisiana Sheriffs and Deputies Political Action Committee, Lamar Advertising, LSU AgCenter and the head of Louisiana District Attorneys Association -- will be actively lobbying the lawmakers in the Louisiana Legislature. Their 2019 session started Monday and ends June 6. | https://www.nola.com/news/2019/04/why-did-one-of-john-bel-edwards-opponents-sponsor-the-governors-prayer-breakfast.html |
What next for Sudan and its master manipulator Omar al-Bashir? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Some army officers want to avoid violence and have supported protesters Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir is the master of tactics, but the tidal wave of popular protest is beyond anything he has faced before, writes Sudan expert Alex de Waal. Protests against the government of President Bashir reached a climax on the symbolic date of 6 April, which is the anniversary of a non-violent uprising that removed the dictator Jaafar Nimeiri in 1985. They began in the northern town of Atbara on 19 December 2018, focused on high food prices, and quickly spread to other towns and cities across Sudan. The demonstrations changed from a narrowly economic agenda to demanding that President Bashir, who took power in a coup in June 1989, step down. The protests have continued for close to four months, gaining in numbers and organisation, almost entirely non-violent. According to who is counting, between 45 and 60 people have been killed by government forces firing on the demonstrators, and hundreds have been arrested - some of them tortured. Omar al-Bashir at a glance: Image copyright AFP Fights in Egyptian army in 1973 Arab-Israeli war Seizes power in Sudan in 1989 in an Islamist-backed coup Gives asylum to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 1990s First head of state indicted by ICC in 2009, but denies accusations of war crimes in Darfur Makes peace with southern rebels in 2005 Oversees secession of the south in 2011, leading to Sudan losing three-quarters of its oil wealth Little is known about his private life. He has no children Read more: Profile: President Bashir President Bashir declared a state of emergency on 22 February, replacing civilian governors and other high officials with army officers. This move was sparked by a power struggle within the top echelons of the regime - the army, the ruling National Congress Party, and the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS). Mr Bashir agreed that he would stay in office until his presidential term expires in April 2020 and not seek re-election. But his promises carried little credibility with the demonstrators. Strength in numbers The groups leading the protests - the Sudanese Professionals Association and a number of opposition parties - have become more organised and are developing a political platform. But their basic demand has not changed. They say they are ready to talk to the army - but not to Mr Bashir. Over the last weekend, the protesters converged on the Ministry of Defence, the army headquarters and President Bashir's personal residence - all within the same huge compound near the airport. Participating in shifts, they have stayed all day and all night. Their numbers are growing every day. A campaign of defiance: Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A woman dubbed 'Kandaka', which means Nubian queen, has become a symbol for protesters Mr Bashir has ordered the demonstrators to be dispersed, but according to reports from the notoriously leak-prone ruling elite, opinions differed as to how this should be done. Army officers want to avoid violence, but some security chiefs and paramilitary groups are ready to use lethal force. On at least one occasion, when security agents and paramilitaries started firing on the protesters, army units rallied to defend the crowds. There have been reports of shots exchanged between different security units. At least one junior army officer has defected to join the protesters. Avoiding a massacre There are fears of a massacre, akin to the killings in Tahrir Square in Cairo that heralded the collapse of the Husni Mubarak regime in Egypt. Both sides are keenly aware of what this might entail. One thing that the opposition has not demanded is that Mr Bashir be handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), where he faces prosecution for crimes committed in Darfur 15 years ago. Image copyright AFP Image caption Paramilitary forces have been accused of shooting at the protesters For them, the fate of the country is bigger than bringing one man to justice. But that would change if the protesters were to be gunned down in large numbers. In the aftermath of large-scale bloodshed, the clamour for accountability would become deafening, which would put Mr Bashir in a corner with no peaceful way out. Ever since Luis Moreno Ocampo, when he was the ICC prosecutor, demanded an arrest warrant for Mr Bashir in July 2008, the Sudanese president has known that his only safe place is in Khartoum's presidential palace. Mr Bashir is ageing and unwell and has repeatedly said he would rather step down - but no-one has been able to guarantee his personal future should he do so. The UN Security Council can suspend the ICC arrest warrant, but only for one year, and the UK and France are unwilling to offer that concession. Mr Bashir's power base lies in the armed forces; over the years he has built up strong bonds of loyalty from the officer corps. He is now seeing that allegiance slipping away as his most senior generals openly speak of taking over. Civil war fears The other fear is that Sudan no longer has a unified security sector. The country has two inspiring precedents of peaceful popular uprisings removing military rulers Gen Ibrahim Abboud in 1964 and Nimeiri in 1985. In both cases, a swift, decisive and peaceful revolution was possible because the army command ordered their troops to side with the people. Today it is different. The NISS, headed by the veteran ruthless spy chief Gen Salah Gosh, has powerful forces within the capital. There are numerous paramilitary groups such as the Central Reserve Police and the Rapid Support Force (originally a Darfurian militia) and Islamist militia associated with the ruling party. Image copyright AFP Image caption Protesters been outside the military headquarters in Khartoum since Saturday Each of these has its separate command and control; many of them run private businesses; and some of them have their own links to foreign countries. For example the Rapid Support Force is paid directly by Saudi Arabia to deploy battalions to fight in Yemen; Salah Gosh has close links with the United Arab Emirates; and the Islamist militia have links to sponsors in Qatar and possibly elsewhere. At present, Mr Bashir is the spider sitting at the centre of this web: only he has the means to keep the various groups in check. One of the worst fears of Sudanese is that, should these armed groups fragment when he goes, the country will face civil war. Currently there's a stalemate with everyone in Sudan and abroad positioning themselves tactically. Voices of protest: The possible brokers of a deal that manages a transition to democracy and avoids the perils of massacre or civil war - the US, the Arab League and the African Union - are calling for restraint, and hoping for the best. Until now Mr Bashir has been able to manipulate and manoeuvre and keep afloat amid Sudan's turbulent elite politics. It's been Sudan's misfortune that their large-scale popular uprisings - in 1964 and 1985 - have been staged when the international community has not been ready to support democratisation. The same counter-cyclical mismatch appears to be happening today, when there is little international appetite for such democratic movements. Fearful of the possibility of chaos, as followed uprisings in Libya, Syria and Yemen, Western powers are cautious, focusing on stability. This caution risks missing the slender opportunity for snatching a solution from the teeth of potential calamity. Alex du Waal is the executive director of the World Peace Foundation at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47869178 |
Is the honeymoon period over for Brazil's Bolsonaro? | Image copyright AFP Image caption Jair Bolsonaro was sworn in on 1 January after being elected in October Jair Bolsonaro won Brazil's presidential election last October on a platform of change. He said he would deliver a safer Brazil to appease those worried about rising violence, an economic turnaround after several years of crisis and - perhaps most central to his campaign - an end to old-style corrupt politics which have seen dozens of high-ranking politicians, including a former president, jailed. For millions of Brazilians fed up with the status quo, the gun-loving former army officer was the only man for the top job despite sexist, racist and a homophobic remarks he made during the campaign. Reality sets in While 100 days in office may not be long enough to judge the president's performance, some of his erstwhile supporters are now expressing doubts about his ability to lead the largest democracy in Latin America. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some supporters think Mr Bolsonaro is not moving fast enough, but others remain loyal And among his detractors, there is definitely a feeling of "I told you so" after his first months were beset by a series of problems. Late last month, the president caused outrage by suggesting the armed forces commemorate the start of military rule 55 years ago. His anti-corruption image has been tainted by allegations that his son Flavio was involved in financial scandals and death squads. And then of course, there was that awkward time during carnival when he posted a video on Twitter of a sex act performed by two men at a street party that he felt was bringing the reputation of the country down. He has now got the lowest approval rating recorded by a first-time president in the initial 100 days in power since the country returned to democracy in the 1980s. Lack of change "The feeling is that the situation is worse than it was before the elections," says Rafael Alcadipani, an associate professor at the Getulio Vargas Foundation. "Everyone wanted change in society but the commander-in-chief hasn't shown himself to be capable of delivering any type of change." Image copyright Reuters Image caption Detractors of Mr Bolsonaro feel vindicated "He's failed to show Brazilians confidence in his plan for government," says Roberta Braga, associate director at the Atlantic Council's Adrienne Arsht Latin America Centre in Washington DC. "He's losing a lot of support. It clearly takes time to implement these very complex reforms but Brazilians expected a lot from him." One of Mr Bolsonaro's campaign commitments was to bring down violence by making it easier for people to own guns. Within a couple of weeks of being sworn in, he had loosened regulations to make it easier to keep guns at home. This was music to the ears of people like gun club member Natasha Imata, whom I met at LAAD Expo, Latin America's largest security and defence show in Rio de Janeiro last week. Image caption Natasha Imata and her husband Vitor think President Bolsonaro should have achieved more by now But despite his swift action on gun ownership, Ms Imata thinks that the new president is "not focussed on security". Her husband Vitor agrees. "His whole campaign was focussed on helping Brazilians but that's not happened. It's been a weak start," he says. From bullish to confused Brazil's stock market and currency soared after Mr Bolsonaro's election in what some dubbed the "Bullsonaro wave". But since he took over power on 1 January, signals have been more mixed. Image copyright Reuters Image caption The stock exchange has fluctuated While many in the industry point to a strong economic team led by market-friendly economy minister Paulo Guedes, unemployment levels have remained stubbornly high. There is also a reluctant acceptance that the government may not be able to push through much-needed reforms such as pension cuts as easily as it had hoped. "We have serious doubts about the capacity of the government to continue to do these reforms," says Andre Perfeito, chief economist at Necton brokerage in So Paulo. "Bolsonaro's main promise was pension reform. And he's not doing the political job to deliver that." Others though, are more upbeat. Walter Maciel is the CEO of independent asset management company AZ Quest: "Most of the old political leaders were not re-elected and went home. There is a major renovation in congress, a new government that was elected by people who desired a huge change, not only in the way the country was led but also in the way that politics was done." "So you have a lot of new people coming in, many of them coming in without any political experience. Of course there's some kind of externality and undesired volatility but it's part of the learning process," Mr Maciel says. Change of heart Government worker Gabriel Moraes voted for Jair Bolsonaro but says he would not do so again. He thinks the president needs to be more statesman-like and has so far failed. "As a head of state, any message he sends out is a reflection of society today," Mr Moraes argues. "Life in civil society isn't like an army barracks. Sure there has to be order and discipline but there have to be principles, rules and respect too." But his cousin Alessandra Guadelupe Regondi disagrees. A big fan of President Bolsonaro, she says he represents something very different, something that Brazil needs. Image caption Alessandra Guadelupe Regondi is a big fan of President Bolsonaro With a military background in her family, Ms Regondi warmed to the politician during the campaign. His promises of cutting ministries in the government and making it more efficient, for example, appealed to her and she has even got a photo of the two of them together, in pride of place on her bookshelf in the living room. Ms Regondi does not see any problem with the president's social media habit. "It helps him get closer to the people," she argues. "Leaders were always from the same parties," she says. "He's a new hope, like Donald Trump was. He went against everything - and still won." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-47865386 |
Does air fryer deliver on its golden promise? | Browned and crisp french fries, craggy chicken wings coated in hot sauce, breaded calamari that crunches audibly when you bite down all without the unctuous mess, wafting odour and calorie count of deep-frying. Home cooks celebrated the appliance not just for its faux-frying capabilities, but also for its ability to cook small amounts of food (potato wedges, broccoli spears, chicken) much faster than their regular ovens. The golden promises of the air fryer were just too tempting to ignore. The only way Id find out if an air fryer was worth my precious counter space would be to try it for myself. After extensive testing, my colleagues at Wirecutter, a product review site owned by The New York Times Co., panned the appliance as overhyped and overpriced. The Kitchn, a home-cooking website, firmly agreed with that assessment, while Cooking Light magazine reported uneven results. Then I set some parameters. I wanted to determine what the machine did best, not everything it was capable of, so I nixed the entire category of baking recipes. I also skipped frozen prepared products like french fries, breaded fish sticks and chicken nuggets: Since I was testing to see if the machine warranted a spot on my counter, I stuck to foods I wanted to eat. For my own testing, I chose a small (2.75-quart) free-standing model by Philips, the one recommended by Wirecutter, which wouldnt require as much valuable counter space as some of the other models. These numbers account only for stand-alone air fryers, and not countertop convection ovens with air-frying functions, such as the Breville Smart Oven and the Cuisinart AirFryer Toaster Oven. Air fryers have been one of the fastest-growing items in the category of small home appliances since they were introduced in Europe in 2010. According to Joe Derochowski, home-industry adviser at the NPD Group, a market research firm, nearly 10 million air fryers were sold in the United States from late May 2017 to mid-March 2019. He likened their growth to that of multicookers such as the Instant Pot, of which about 13 million were sold in the same time period. And growth is accelerating over the past 12 months: Air fryer sales increased 69 per cent, year over year, in 2018. If it sounds too good to be true, well, maybe it is. Like convection ovens, every model is equipped with high-speed fans to circulate hot air around your food. But air fryers blow air more forcefully and at hotter temperatures than regular convection, in an attempt to mimic the browning of deep-frying, using teaspoons of oil rather than cups. An air fryer is basically a shrunken countertop convection oven. Some models are smallish and egg-shaped, with a footprint similar to that of a coffee maker. Others resemble large toaster ovens, boasting a bevy of functions roast, convection bake, toast, dehydrate, proof in addition to air frying. That definitely does, however, include french fries made from fresh potatoes. Ill happily devour a plate of extra-crisp, darkly browned fries as my dinner, along with a salad. Deep-frying french fries in the standard way is particularly messy, though, because you need to fry them at least twice for maximum crispness. After air frying nearly a dozen batches using different techniques, I found that cooking them in stages at two different temperatures (350 degrees, then 400) yielded a solid A-minus batch of fries: not as good as deep-fried, but better than my oven-baked fries and easy enough for a Tuesday at home when the craving struck. Next, I moved on to chicken wings, turning to Ben Mims cookbook Air Fry Every Day (Clarkson Potter, 2018) for guidance. Using a trick he picked up from J. Kenji Lpez-Alt, of the website Serious Eats, Mims coats the chicken skin with baking powder before air frying. The baking powder expands in the heat and causes the skin to bubble up and turn supremely crisp, he explained. It worked perfectly, yielding ultra-crunchy, golden wings that soaked up the sweet and spicy butter sauce I tossed them in when they were done. I also made the same wings in my regular oven using the convection setting, and they were almost as crisp-skinned, although they took longer. The Southern-fried chicken legs I made in the air fryer were some of the worst of my experiments burned yet soggy and thoroughly rubbery. Slightly more successful, but still not worth eating were breaded shrimp and calamari, doughnuts and jalapeno poppers, all of which cooked unevenly and failed to brown and crisp to a satisfying degree. Pizza was also a bust. Vegetables! he said before Id even finished the question. Especially the soggy ones. The air fryer fan wicks away excess moisture, almost dehydrating food, so its really great for notoriously soggy vegetables like zucchini, summer squash, eggplant and okra, he continued. The pieces get dried and crunchy on the outside and tender within. I tried his suggestions, tossing the vegetables with a tiny bit of oil and air frying until the pieces were burnished, glistening and tender-crisp. They were all a bit better than if Id run them under my broiler and far easier and less messy than frying. Brussels sprouts and eggplant were especially compelling because they were able to retain the most oil, either by absorbing it, as in the case of the eggplant, or by being trapped within the layers of the Brussels sprout. This extra oil in turn made the vegetables fantastically crisp. (With other vegetables, the fans force caused the oil to slide right off.) People come to air fryers thinking theyre going to do fried chicken, chicken wings and french fries all the time, but then they end up using them more for weeknight meals, said Dean Brindle, vice-president of category strategy and product development at DeLonghi NA, a home-appliance manufacturer based in Italy, which unveiled its version of the air fryer in 2015. Theres been an evolution in what consumers want, he said, there are the slow-cooker dump recipes, the sheet-pan recipes and now those same folks are turning to air fryers for speed and convenience. If youre in the market for a tiny, speedy countertop oven, youll probably be happy. But I already have a big oven that I dont mind using on a daily basis. And while the air fryer was brilliant with Brussels sprouts and eggplant, the results from my broiler were very close behind. But what was even worse was that all that air-fried food only made me crave real fried food, aggravating the itch rather than scratching it. With just a little sadness, I gave my air fryer to a friend, who uses it to make meatballs and sweet potatoes for her 5-year-old. And Im glad to have my countertop back, which leaves me plenty of room to wield my sheet pans without knocking into my Instant Pot. 6 Tips for Using Your Air Fryer The air fryer the latest it kitchen appliance is a wildly popular countertop convection oven that uses circulating hot air to cook food quickly. I put one through its paces to see if it could really mimic the taste of deep-fried foods without all the fat. I also picked up a few tips along the way, which Im passing on to you. Dont Overcrowd If you stuff the air fryer basket or rack, your food will steam rather than crisp. For a smaller model, this could mean cooking food in many, many batches. (If you are routinely cooking for more than two or three people, consider buying a larger-capacity model.) Dont Overcook Take care not to cook food too long: The fan may dry things out, turning ingredients from crisp to hard and leathery. Use Dry Breading Dry coating works much better than a wet batter, so cloak ingredients in flour, egg and bread crumbs, in that order, for added crunch, and to help ensure that the breading sticks. (Air fryer fans are very powerful, and if an ingredient is not well-coated, the breading could fly right off.) You could also try pressing down on the crumbs so they adhere. Add a Little Oil Unless a food is inherently fatty (such as bacon, skin-on chicken or a batch of meatballs made from beef that isnt too lean) always add at least a little oil, which encourages browning. Otherwise, the fan could dry out the food before it browns. Prevent Smoking If youre cooking really greasy food like bacon, put a tablespoon of water or a piece of bread in the bottom of the air fryer to catch the grease and keep it from potentially smoking. Give It a Shake Always turn your food or shake the basket to ensure even cooking. | https://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2019/04/11/does-air-fryer-deliver-on-its-golden-promise.html |
Should I maintain contact with my daughters ex-boyfriend? | Adapted from a recent online discussion. Dear Carolyn: My college-age daughter dated a very nice college-age guy for a year. He and I became close. His mother had died about a year before and I think I was a nurturing mom figure for him. They recently broke up and are trying to do the friend thing. He continues to text me about things he is doing, sharing successes, etc. It is never about the two of them. My daughter thinks I should be her mom and not his, and I need to cut him off. I dont think there is some absolute. Mom Tough one. On its face, it looks easy to compartmentalize: Your relationship with your daughter stays as-is, and you provide a little momming on the side on issues having nothing to do with her. Cozily ever after. Imagine one of his successes was at something your daughter expressed doubts about when they were together. Your mom knows I can do this you were wrong. And it could be much simpler his connection to you keeps alive a connection to her, and maybe hes not ready to lether go. Among other unhealthy possibilities. Read more: This is why boundaries matter the subtle stuff. The hazards we tend to miss when we start looking for ways to serve our self-interests even though a little voice is trying to tell us not to. You like this guy! You like being supportive and you like being needed. But your daughter is telling you, quite possibly, that hanging on to that role is undercutting your primary mom role, in ways you cant fully see. Or undercutting his ability to get over her. Or both. Ask her. Think through what health and emotional consequences come with your right to pick my own friends. Re: Ex: When my daughter got divorced from a man who had a very unsupportive family, I continued to have a social media relationship with him. At one point my daughter mentioned that a comment I made seemed a bit too much like he was still family and I backed way off. Because he is the past and my daughter is forever. He has moved on and created a new support system. Good all around. Ease Off, Mom Re: Ex: OMG. Please stop communicating with him. Please. My mom became besties with my first boyfriend. I would come home to find him and my mom hanging out. That was a little weird when we were dating, but grossly improper after we had broken up. She told me I was being selfish for asking her to give up a friendship. It only stopped when he moved overseas. You have to choose between your daughter and her ex. My mom chose my ex over me. Please, dont do that to your daughter. Anonymous Email Carolyn at [email protected], follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/carolyn.hax or chat with her online at noon Eastern time each Friday at www.washingtonpost.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.freep.com/story/life/advice/2019/04/11/daughter-boyfriend-mother-relationship/3351290002/ | https://www.freep.com/story/life/advice/2019/04/11/daughter-boyfriend-mother-relationship/3351290002/ |
Why are we so bad at planning cities? | Here is something you might try if you live in Britain. Go to your favourite urban place, whether it be the centre of a large city or a small market town. Close your eyes, turn around three times and walk in that direction for 15 minutes (or an hour if youre in London). I can predict with a reasonable degree of confidence that the place where you end up will be crap. You may be stuck in the no-mans-land around the ring road, or in a brutally functional industrial estate, or among the endless rows of parked cars in a retail park, or lost in a tangle of suburban cul-de-sacs. Wherever you are, the environment will generally be bewildering, illogical and ugly. Planning has gone too far. It has dissolved the pattern of the traditional town It is likely that your favourite place, where you started, was built before 1947 quite possibly long before and the place you ended up has been created since. This is not an argument against modern architecture. I love modern architecture and, with the possible exception of the council estate, it cant be blamed for the problems of the place where you are now standing. Town planning is a different story. My reason for choosing 1947 is that it was the date our modern planning system was conceived, the result of the Town and Country Planning Act part of a raft of postwar legislation to, among other things, establish the NHS, set up the welfare state and tackle the problems of our cities: chiefly congestion, slums and pollution. It is a sad indictment of this system that most of the places it has created have been a disappointment. They may be healthier, safer and more efficient but they lack the character, diversity and human scale of a city street, market town or village. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Retail parks: the unwitting result of a set of planning rules that have led to a result no one foresaw. Photograph: Michael Heath/Alamy We cant blame designers for this, because the reality is that most of these suburban estates, retail parks and highways schemes were never really designed at all. They are the unwitting result of a set of planning rules that have led to a result no one foresaw. Most of the rules were well-intentioned. They were designed to stop us getting killed by cars while allowing traffic to flow, to improve the quality of our environment and give us access to green space, to separate housing from polluting industry, to make business more efficient, to encourage light and healthy housing, and to give places for our children to play. All worthy aspirations, and all the responsibility of different professionals who have likely done a good job in their particular area of responsibility. It is just that no one has been looking at the bigger picture, at what sort of environment is created by the combined effect of all of these well-meaning rules. Take the late 20th-century housing estates which encircle most of our towns and cities, and of which the sprawling Bradley Stoke district of Bristol is perhaps the most infamous example. These were largely the result of rules set out in the innocuous-sounding Design Bulletin 32 from 1977. Design Bulletin 32 stipulated, for example, that all new estates should have a hierarchy of roads, or that houses could only front on to the most minor roads. Mix in rules about every house having two off-street parking spaces, privacy distances between windows and the complex arrangements for ongoing maintenance, and hey presto: you get the cul-de-sac. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A cul-de-sac in suburban London, a result of 1977s Design Bulletin 32. Photograph: Dan Chung/The Guardian In the early 2000s, government did try to reform Design Bulletin 32, first publishing a companion guide called Places, Streets and Movement, and then a new version called Manual for Streets in 2007. But research last year by the Urban Design Group showed that fewer than 20% of highways authorities had updated their guidance. I dont deny that many people like suburbs. But it is undeniable that the UK suburb a tree with cul-de-sacs branching off the stem, unconnected to each other is confusing, makes walking inconvenient and unpleasant, suffocates local shops and makes public transport unviable. Planning incentives 'lead to housing estates centred on car use' Read more Contrast this to that favourite urban place of yours, where we started. Its spaces are likely to be human in scale, with walkable streets that connect to each other and make it easy to get around. It is probably quite busy, supporting all manner of shops, bars and restaurants. It is made up of lots of different buildings, many of which are not particularly interesting in themselves but frame streets and spaces that are a pleasure to be in. Some of this may have been designed, but there are many attractive urban places that never were. The Academy of Urbanism gives out awards for these good urban spaces each year: last year, the shortlist included places as diverse as Barnsley, Chelmsford, Paisley, Kelham Island in Sheffield and Hackney Wick in London. These are not pretty or quaint, but they have a satisfying, self-organised urbanity that we humans used to be pretty good at. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kelham Island Quarter in Sheffield: not pretty or quaint, but with a satisfying, self-organised urbanity that we humans used to be pretty good at. Photograph: Alamy In Britain, any piece of land left undisturbed will first be colonised by small plants, then shrubs and then trees. After a hundred or so years, it will become mature broadleaf woodland and, having reached that steady state, will remain that way for ever a state known as climax vegetation. People come together to live in a particular place, negotiate their relationship to each other, build homes and businesses that combine to create streets and squares that are just the right size to accommodate urban life. We might call this climax urbanism. In the 1960s the great urbanist Edmund Bacon, describing the Umbria hill town of Todi in Italy, wrote: The collective mind of the citizens must have conceived the space volumes of the two squares as abstract entities, and then brought them into being by the construction of individual buildings over many years. It is a process that can be seen at work in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, as documented by Husam Alwaer at Dundee University. In the Zaatari camp, residents have invented a contraption with wheels that allows them to rearrange their UN-provided cabins. What started as regimented rows of cabins has gradually been reconfigured into family groupings, with those cabins on the main street turned into shops, so the result is not unlike a traditional Syrian town. The same process can be seen in Indian slums, which, despite their often dreadful living conditions, could be seen as a form of proto-urbanism: they may be built out of corrugated sheeting and tarpaulin, but their function and form is not so different from a historic Indian city such as Jodhpur. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zaatari refugee camp, north Jordan, close to the border with Syria. Maybe planners need to understand that urban areas are grown, rather than wished into existence under their blue utopian skies. There is an academic field that explores these ideas. Complexity theory was originally developed to explain the design of insect colonies or slime mould communities, but groundbreaking work in the 1970s by people like Lewis Thomas and Christopher Alexander sought to apply these ideas to cities. Ants live in hugely complex and beautifully regulated colonies without any form of leadership. A small number of pheromone signals by which ants communicate, combined with a millennia of natural selection, have fine-tuned these colonies to perfectly meet their needs. It is an appealing thought, though there are a few problems with the idea. The first is that humans no longer seem to be very good at optimising their settlements. Entirely unplanned development is more likely to create a slum, barrio or shantytown than an attractive neighbourhood. The journalist Peter Popham, in the book City of Darkness, summed it up well when he wrote about the Walled City settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong: All this intensity of random human effort and activity, vice and sloth and industry, exempted from all of the controls we take for granted, resulted in an environment as richly varied and as sensual as the heart of the tropical rainforest. Except, as he points out, it was so obviously toxic, full of brothels and drug dens, pollution and poverty. Facebook Twitter Pinterest The slums of the Walled City, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The settlement was demolished in 1992. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Maybe the Walled City just needed more time to reach its idealised or climax state. But what is perhaps more likely is that humans are no longer very good at acting in societys (or even their own) best interests. The terrible conditions in the unregulated city were the reason that planning was invented and why it is still needed. The second problem with the application of complexity theory to cities is the fact that humans fail one of the basic tests of a complex system. As Stephen Johnson, whose book Emergence is one of the best overviews of the field, writes: The relative stupidity of the individual ant is, as the computer programmer says, a feature not a bug. If a group of ants (lets call them planners) were to become sentient and start trying to direct and shape the colony, they would cause havoc and probably destroy the system. It may be true that planners do not understand the natural process by which traditional places were built. But that is not the lesson to be drawn here. There have always been authorities with an overview of human settlements. As my colleague Shruti Hemani shows in her research, even in slums there are founder families that exercise a degree of control. The point is that planners do not sit above the system, bending it to their will: cities are complex, emergent patterns that result from the interaction of a huge number of variables, including societys norms and values, the working of markets and the impact of technology. Planning is just one of the inputs to the system, and probably not the most important one. But planning has gone too far. In attempting to create cities by regulating every tiny facet of them, it has unwittingly caused what complexity science calls a phase transition: it has dissolved the pattern of the traditional town and turned it into the retail park, the suburban cul-de-sac and the industrial estate. These are not places that anyone designed, but a new, emergent climax state that the people drawing up the rules never even envisaged, let alone intended. Calling for a master plan in urban living archive, 19 December 1959 Read more There is a place in Holland where an experiment is taking place to rewrite these rules. The Homeruskwartier district of Almere in the Netherlands has been divided into plots that are being sold to individuals and groups to build their own homes. The rules of the plot, like the pheromone signals of the ant, are very simple: they can be written on one side of A4 paper regulating the position, size, and use of what can be built on the plot. The neighbourhood is being built one house at a time and no one knows quite what the result will be. There is a masterplan that gives it structure, but provided they stay within the parameters of their plot passport, and are able to negotiate with their neighbours, residents can build what they want. This is a neighbourhood that has been coded rather than planned, and ideally over time the programme parameters would be tweaked to create the neighbourhood residents want. It may seem radical, but actually it is the way that we used to do things, before 1947, when the well-meaning planning system planned away the art of building good places. Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter | https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/apr/11/why-are-we-so-bad-at-planning-cities |
Why am I getting demands for 7,000 for a meter we dont have? | For eight years my elderly mother has been receiving final demand letters for 7,000 and more from ScottishPower, despite never having been a customer. At first they were addressed to a name we didnt recognise. My mother has lived at her property for over 40 years. We repeatedly explained to ScottishPower that my mother was, and always had been, a British Gas customer. Then the demands began to arrive in my mothers name. Eventually, it transpired there is a mistake with the national database meter number and it was confirmed British Gas was the supplier. However, the demands continued along with threats of bailiffs, so we complained to the ombudsman who ruled ScottishPower should stop contacting my mother and pay 150 compensation, a miserly sum which my mother refused. Three months later, another bill for 7,000 arrived with the threat of bailiffs knocking at her door! The situation has made her so stressed she doesnt want to leave the house. AF, London It took three weeks to prompt a response from ScottishPower to this disgraceful saga. It admits it should have blocked the correspondence eight years ago. The problem is rooted in the fact your mothers flat, number 21a, is listed differently on the national database, the Post Office database and council records and it was linked to a meter in flat 21, which is supplied by ScottishPower. ScottishPower says it cant change the listing on the national database since its not the supplier but its increased its compensation offer to 500. If you need help email Anna Tims at [email protected] or write to Your Problems, The Observer, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Include an address and phone number. Submission and publication are subject to our terms and conditions | https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/apr/11/scottishpower-bills-meter-bailiffs-final-demand |
Why do we have Easter eggs and the Easter bunny? | Easter is a Christian festival that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says that Christ died on the cross on a day called Good Friday, which this year falls on 30 March. Then he resurrected and came back to life on Easter Sunday. This is the most important day in the Christian calendar. Easter is on different dates each year, between 21 March and 25 April, depending on when there's a full moon in Spring. Many Christians will spend time at church in thought, prayer and celebration of Jesus Christ's life, and may get together with friends and family for a special meal. There are also some more modern traditions to mark Easter which are very common - such as Easter eggs, the Easter bunny and chocolate. A lot of us may chomp on chocolate eggs at Easter, but originally eating eggs was not allowed by church leaders during the week leading up to Easter (known as Holy Week). So any eggs laid that week were saved and decorated to make them Holy Week eggs, that were then given to children as gifts. Victorians adapted the tradition with satin-covered cardboard eggs filled with Easter gifts. This has now developed into the tradition that many people enjoy today. Getty Images The first chocolate eggs appeared in France and Germany in the 19th Century, but they were bitter and hard. As chocolate-making techniques improved, hollow eggs like the ones we have today were developed. They very quickly became popular and remain a favourite tradition with chocolate-lovers today. iStock The story of the Easter Bunny is thought to have become common in the 19th Century. Rabbits usually give birth to a big litter of babies (called kittens), so they became a symbol of new life. Legend has it that the Easter bunny lays, decorates and hides eggs as they are also a symbol of new life. This is why some children might enjoy Easter egg hunts as part of the festival. It doesn't do all the work alone though! In Switzerland, Easter eggs are delivered by a cuckoo and in parts of Germany by a fox. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/17597617 |
What If Teachers Could No Longer Give B-Minuses? | Getty In her bestselling book The Gift of Failure, Jessica Lahey tells the story of talking to parents who were unhappy because their child had received a B-minus. The story hits home, as Lahey explores the perils of not letting children fail because it robs them of opportunities to learn and develop. The vignette left me with a different question. Im not encouraging grade inflation or having students avoid failure, but rather reducing the stakes of failure and embedding failure in the process of learning. I am talking about competency-based learningwhich also goes by the names mastery learning, standards-based learning, or proficiency-based learning. Lahey has talked about the merits of the idea as well, while also acknowledging that its a far way off. But that doesnt mean we shouldnt push for it. In todays system, time is held as a constant and each students learning is variable. Students move from concept to concept after spending a fixed number of days, weeks or months on the subject. Educators teach, sometimes administer a test, and move students on to the next unit or body of material regardless of their results, effort and understanding of the topic. Students typically receive feedback and resultsin the form of a letter grademuch later and only after they have progressed. And that grade communicates very little. It doesnt tell you what students have mastered or where their gaps are. A grade of B-minus, for example, means that the student is likely developing big holes in her learning as she moves past building-block concepts without having mastered them. These holes are also likely to haunt her later on in a way that the traditional letter grade system doesnt communicate. This system also signals unambiguously to students that it doesnt matter if you stick with something because youll move on either wayand youre best avoiding hard things because if you fail, it will just go on your so-called permanent record. This obsession with students permanent record explains a lot of behavior in places like Lexington, Mass. where I live. In the district, educators talk often about how students and families will do everything they can to avoid failurenot recognizing the critical role failure plays in learning. Contrast this with a competency-based learning model in which time becomes the variable and learning becomes the constant. Students only move on once they demonstrate mastery of the knowledge and skills at hand. If they fail, thats fine. They stay at a task, learn from the failures, and work until they demonstrate mastery and then move on. Instead of receiving a B-minus, students keep working at something until they demonstrate mastery. Failure is embedded in the process. A student might struggle for a long time with a concept and fail repeatedly until the proverbial light bulb goes off. And that failure is no longer attached to a high-stakes outcome. At this point, many people will point out that failure is part of the real world, and its best if we help students to learn it now. But thats overly simplistic. As Jason Fried, CEO and cofounder of Basecamp, the project management and team communication software company, said on the Tim Ferriss podcast: The thing that is not taught in schools is iteration. Iteration is everything outside of school. Where you do something and you launch it or ship it or whatever and then youre on to making a better version of that thing pretty quickly. In school, we would always do something and then sort of hand it in and the assignment would be done. Then youd go on and do another assignment. You never get to revisit things. In the professional world, youre revisiting things all the time. Frieds vision also moves far past another chief worry people have about competency-based learning: that it will be reductionist, in which standards are items to be checked off simplistically one by one, as opposed to in the context of a deeper, more contextualized and connected fabric. Ted Mitchell, now the president of the American Council on Education, was formerly a professor at Dartmouth where he taught a class on the history of education. Students had four papers to write for the class. They couldnt move on to the second paper until they had earned at least a B on the first paper. Which meant they kept revising until they received that grade. And then they had the option to continue to revise if they wanted to earn an A. It was not precisely competency-based learning, but it was in the same spirit. And it shows that the demonstration of mastery canand shouldbe on complex projects and assignments. Right now we have a sorting system that allows students to learn. I vote for a learning system in which we can figure out other ways to sort where that is necessary. As we wrote in Disrupting Class, we can find other ways to compare students. For example, because learning will no longer be as variable, we can compare students not by what percentage of the material they have mastered, but by comparing how far they have moved through a body of material. In other words, we can look at the rate of learningwhat Gunnar Counselman, COO of the Entangled Group, calls learning velocity. Or we could look at what choices students have made around what to learn and how much they have mastered in those different pursuits. Or we could look at each students portfolio of projects. In other words, there are lots of ways to still compare where comparison is important. One note of caution though for any school going down this path: although this would eliminate the flawed grading system we have todayand mean that teachers would no longer have to give students B-minusesdont start by overturning the grading system itself. As this piece by Chris Sturgis for CompetencyWorks warns, doing so will draw headlines and likely cause the community to focus on grading not learning, which means people will fail to understand why schools must change. Instead educators and communities should start with the why for changewhich includes embedding the gift of failure in our education system. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2019/04/11/what-if-teachers-could-no-longer-give-b-minuses/ |
What picks do the Bears have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Chicago Bears, who went 12-5 last season, do not have a pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Bears have in the draft: First round: None (traded to Raiders). Second round: None (traded to Patriots). Third round: 24th pick, 87th overall. Fourth round: 24th pick, 126th overall. Fifth round: 24th pick, 162nd overall. Sixth round: None (traded to Jets) Seventh round: 8th pick, 222nd overall (via trade with Broncos through Eagles). Seventh round: 24th pick, 238th overall. See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-bears-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Lions have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Detroit Lions, who went 6-10 last season, have the eighth pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Lions have in the draft: First round: 8th pick. Second round: 11th pick, 43rd overall. Third round: 25th pick, 88th overall (via trade with Eagles). Fourth round: 9th pick, 111th overall. Fifth round: 8th pick, 146th overall. Sixth round: 11th pick, 184th overall. Sixth round: 32nd pick, 204th overall (via trade with Patriots). Seventh round: 10th pick, 224th overall. Seventh round: 15th pick, 229th overall (via trade with Dolphins). See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-lions-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Vikings have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Minnesota Vikings, who went 8-7-1 last season, have the 18th pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Vikings have in the draft: First round: 18th pick. Second round: 18th pick, 50th overall. Third round: 18th pick, 81st overall. Fourth round: 18th pick, 120th overall. Fifth round: None (traded to Broncos). Sixth round: 18th pick, 190th overall. Sixth round: 37th pick, 209th overall (compensatory). Seventh round: 33rd pick, 247th overall (compensatory). Seventh round: 36th pick, 250th overall (compensatory). See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-vikings-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What picks do the Packers have in NFL Draft 2019? | CLEVELAND, Ohio The Green Bay Packers, who went 6-9-1 last season, have the 12th pick in the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft, which is April 25-27 in Nashville. Here are all the picks the Packers have in the draft: First round: 12th pick. First round: 30th pick (via trade with Saints). Second round: 12th pick, 44th overall. Third round: 12th pick, 75th overall. Fourth round: 12th pick, 114th overall. Fourth round: 16th pick, 118th overall (via trade with Redskins). Fifth round: 12th pick, 150th overall. Sixth round: 12th pick, 185th overall. Sixth round: 22nd pick, 194th overall (via trade with Seahawks). Seventh round: 12th pick, 226th overall. See the picks the Browns have in the 2019 NFL Draft. For team hats, shirts or other gear: Visit Fanatics, Lids, Champs Sports or Dicks Sporting Goods. For game tickets: Visit StubHub, PrimeSport, SeatGeek or TicketMaster. To stream this teams games: CBS All Access: With CBS All Access you can watch live TV and more than 7,500 on-demand episodes across many devices. The first week of CBS All Access is free. Fubo.TV: Get a free trial and watch sports from across the globe. Hulu: The best in sports and drama shows. | https://www.cleveland.com/browns/2019/04/what-picks-do-the-packers-have-in-nfl-draft-2019.html |
What next for Brexit, May's deal and the European elections? | In the small hours of Thursday morning, the EU agreed with May to extend article 50 for a second time, delaying Brexit until 31 October. What happens until that deadline, said Tusk, will be in the hands of the UK. This extension is as flexible as I expected, but a lot shorter than I expected, but its still enough to find the best possible solution. Please do not waste this time, said Tusk. Catch up with all the events of the night here in Andrew Sparrows live blog. Not necessarily. It will be a flextension. After what Merkel described as intense discussions, it was agreed the UK still had three choices: it could ratify the existing withdrawal agreement and leave at any time between now and Halloween; it could revoke article 50 and remain in the bloc; or it could leave without a deal. But Tusk also made clear that the EU could extend article 50 again in October. Show Hide European parliamentary elections The EU, including the UK, will vote for a new set of MEPs. The decision to hold European elections, which the prime minister had repeatedly said she was against, will come at some political cost for Theresa May. Break clause moment The extension carries a break clause. At the end of June, the EU27 want to be satisfied that the UK is meeting its obligations, including holding those European elections properly. New departure date The new date that the EU27 have agreed for the UKs departure is Halloween. It is further away than May had hoped, and sooner than Donald Tusk had proposed, suggesting that Emmanuel Macrons hardline tone won the day in the European council. At a press conference at 3am in Brussels she vowed to carry on to fight to get her withdrawal agreement over the line before 22 May to avoid the need for elections to the European parliament. She said: The choices we now face are stark and the timetable is clear. Theresa May stands by pledge to cling on until Brexit deal is done Read more But the six-month extension is also perilous. It immediately puts her in the danger zone, allowing enough time for a leadership challenge, a general election and a second referendum. Yes. The EU will not reopen the withdrawal agreement but it can discuss changes in the political declaration. There will be a review at the end of June to take stock of progress. The UK must continue to be a member of the EU with sincere cooperation in the process and will remain a full member of the bloc with all voting rights. The sincere cooperation is not legally binding but Tusk warned that the UK could not use any political blockings or tricks to be destructive or to stop our work. Tusk dismissed Rees-Moggs warning that the UK should be as difficult as possible if it had to remain in the EU any longer, describing it as nothing new. Tusk said the possibilities for the UK to block are very, very limited because of the qualified majority voting system. No. The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, insisted this would not be another cliff-edge. The UK will also be required to hold elections if it is still in the EU on 22 May. The government must inform the Electoral Commission and the European parliament of its intentions to hold electionson 12 April. May hopes that even if new MEPs are voted in, they will not take up their seats when the new parliament convenes on 2 July if she can get her deal ratified before 30 June. Yes, but it took two rounds of talks after the French president, Emmanuel Macron, enraged fellow leaders by opposing a long extension, with only three states, including Belgium, showing any support. The majority, 17 member states, favoured a long extension until the end of December or March next year. Macron said the extension should be short enough to avoid any blocking of the EU renaissance project. May finds a note of harmony in Brussels as Macron sings out of tune Read more Positive in the scheme of things. She even had a laugh with Merkel over a montage someone had created on Twitter of the two leaders preparing for a Brexit-Krimi-nacht or thriller night. Kristina Dunz (@WaltrautDunz) #May und #Merkel zeitgleich in London und Berlin, bevor sie wieder gemeinsam in Brssel eine Brexit-Krimi-Nacht durchmachen. @phoenix_de pic.twitter.com/aezOzrSKOo May emerged at 3am to tell reporters she was fighting to get much better reviews from fellow leaders than at previous summits. She spoke for an hour but a diplomatic dash the previous day to Berlin and Brussels had already convinced Merkel an extension was the right thing for the EU to grant, even though May appeared as far away as ever from ratifying the withdrawal agreement. These are still on the table, but the pressure is now off Labour to sign up to anything anytime soon, giving dangerous breathing space to Mays opponents. Expect fire and brimstone. Iain Duncan Smith has already called on May to stand down before the October Tory party conference to avoid further humiliation while the lifelong Brexiter Bill Cash has warned of a legal challenge to any further extension to article 50. On Thursday, the former Brexit secretary David Davis told BBC Radio 4s Today programme it would be very difficult for her to be leader at the next Tory party conference in October. If she does go, there will be a new leader and there will be a reset, he said. | https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/apr/11/brexit-may-deal-european-elections-what-next |
Will Amazon, Google or Sofi Drive ETF Fees Below Zero? | In the world of asset management, ETFs have been Wall Streets latest darling, and for good reason. The low fees, transparent investment strategies and tax efficiencies of ETFs have driven enormous investments in this vehicle as an attractive alternative over comparatively cumbersome, expensive, and tax inefficient mutual funds. Getty The Investment Company Institute reports US ETF assets have soared from $500 billion in 2008 to almost $3.5 trillion in 2018, over 15% of the US open-end fund market. Moreover, most of the new money coming into funds is going into ETFs. In 2017 (the last year for which the ICI has published data), funds recorded net inflows of $645 billion, of which $471 billion 73% went to ETFs. At that pace, ETFs will one day eclipse mutual funds as the dominant fund structure. There is no doubt the low fees offered by ETFs remain a strong driver of capital inflows. The intense competition to attract investors has fueled the oft-discussed fee war among the largest products. When it comes to fees, the last few years have been a race to the bottom, with asset managers leveraging any potential opportunity to customers by reducing fees. Even minor decreases have seen large effects. In 2016, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF reduced its fee to 0.04%, becoming the lowest S&P 500 ETF by one meager basis point. The move paid off, with the fund leading inflows among competitors to the tune of tens of billions of dollars. Other funds are on similar tracks. Gold bullion ETFs are in the midst of a fee-driven cage match, with several funds offering ever-decreasing expense ratios to outcompete the dominant SPDR Gold Shares ETF. Investors, facing a field of ETFs pegged to identical indexes, have few reasons not to seek out the funds with the lowest fees (though tax considerations and structure of the funds are such reasons, and not to be discounted). With such intense competition, the prospects of new entrants can be described as tenuous at best. One recent analysis saw 1,050 ETFs created over the last five years, while 950 ETFs closed in the same period. Among this Darwinian landscape, the major institutions are leveraging their scale to retain market dominance by offering no-fee options for ETFs. Last month, Fidelity and Charles Schwab, which had both made experimental forays into this fund structure, announced they would be expanding the number of no-cost ETFs to hundreds of funds each. Major institutions clearly see a long-term benefit to this strategy, comparable to retail giants like Amazon and Walmart offering loss-leaders to entice customers into considering other products and services. Lest you worry for these financial giants, they still make money from securities lending and cash management, both of which can be surprisingly profitable. This commoditization of ETFs, like so many other industries, has inevitably paved the way for technology to play an increasing role. Fintechs have taken notice, with the online lending platform SoFi, which targets millennials, announcing the creation of a zero-fee ETF on its platform, and a new issuer, Salt, has announced an ETF with negative fees. Of course, like many digital platforms, the details in the fine print may not perfectly align with the advertising, with a fee waiver temporarily in place, after which these issuers collect fees on portfolios. Yet one fact is certain: an eight-year old online personal finance platform with most of its userbase under 35 has convinced its investors it can earn market share against industry behemoths. This move should reverberate through the industry. Just look at the relative successes of robo advisors Betterment and Wealthfront, which have much higher effective fees than the big ETFs each has drawn in more assets than many of the newer entrants in the ETF field (but still a small fraction of any of the behemoth ETF issuers). A clever blend of marketing, technology and good design has enabled these companies to attract new customers by offering a streamlined experience. Yet, the giants appear to pay them little mind, instead focusing on the slugfest over incremental basis point differences. In a prescient column, ETF.com managing director Dave Nadig offers a glimpse of a future that is either optimistic or disconcerting, depending on your perspective. When ETF fees have gone to naught, as many industry experts predict happening in the near future, institutions will have to look to other value propositions to attract and retain customers, and to be frank, most consumers know very little of Blackrock, Vanguard and State Street. These companies already have dominated the market on personal devices and home assistants, and it only takes a (relatively) few lines of code for these corporate kiosks to advertise the New generation of investing for a new generation of thinkers. As Dave states, It could be a new kind of robo, or a subscription-based direct indexing service. It could start with a little light banking and grow into financial education. But its going to happen. While fee structure is important, complacency will be the real killer in the hyper-competitive world of ETFs. Tech companies already upended industries once thought untouchable, including retail, advertising, publishing, telecommunications and transportation, and there is no sign any industry is immune to their disruption. Former BGI CEO and Blackrock Vice Chairman Blake Grossman said, The markets are very efficient, very dynamic, constantly reaching greater levels of efficiency that makes them more and more difficult to beat. The half-lives of our strategies are shrinking. Ironically, it may be the steady march downward of fees that becomes the barrier to entry for new competitors making money from the ancillary revenue streams of cash management and securities lending truly is a scale game, and hard for a new entrant to get amass the assets necessary to do so. On the other hand, Amazon, Google and the like have been willing to sacrifice profits to drive yet more users to their platform, and the ETF market has a large and profitable user base for them to access. Disclosure: I am an investor in Granite Shares, the issuer of Granite Shares Gold Trust. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/benjamincukier/2019/04/11/will-fintechs-drive-etf-fees-below-zero/ |
What's the Correct Synthetic-Oil Change Interval? | From Car and Driver The synthetic oil in your car's engine has an incredibly challenging job. From lying cold in the bottom of the engine's oil pan, it needs to surge up to the valve gear at the very top, then flow all the way back down down, and that has to happen almost instantly when you start the engine. The oil protects everything inside your engine: bearings, pistons, cylinder walls, and all the other parts that that move or touch something that does. Then, after the initial cold startup, the oil must continue protecting no matter how hot it gets and how hard the engine runs. It has to do that for a period of months, if not years, through numerous short trips, long cruises, and (for some) occasional racetrack or twisty two-lane flogs. You depend on your car's oil to do its job flawlessly through the bitter cold of northern winters and the sticky hot of southern summers-all while fighting rust, contaminants, and passage-clogging deposits. That depends, so we'll explain the facts behind the proper synthetic-oil change interval. Synthetic Oil's Advantages Today's engine oils have evolved into brilliantly engineered blends of refined petroleum and sophisticated additives that enable them to retain their protective properties through all those months and miles and inhospitable conditions. Some are suitable for light usage through reasonable periods of time, while others are better for harder and longer-term use. Today's highest-performing, longest-lasting engine oils are synthetics, which means they are typically engineered and manufactured from chemically modified petroleum components (and some other materials). Synthetics can provide better startup performance and flow at temperatures down to -40 Fahrenheit, then endure extremely high temperatures without oxidizing, thickening, or turning black. With automakers increasingly using thinner, ultra-low-viscosity (thickness) oils to reduce running friction for better fuel efficiency, synthetics can be formulated to much lower viscosities while retaining their protective and lubricating properties. They are typically tw0 to three times more expensive than regular oils, but they are cleaner and more robust, have superior chemical and mechanical properties, especially in extreme temperature ranges, and can retain those properties longer between changes. Photo credit: Getty Images More The Correct Change Interval for Synthetic Oil There's a lot of nonsense floating around about when to change your synthetic oil. If your vehicle runs synthetics-and most do these days-the best place to find the correct oil-change interval is the owner's manual. Manufacturers' recommended synthetic-oil change intervals vary greatly. For the vehicles in Car and Driver's long-term test fleet, those intervals range from 6000 to 16,000 miles (and almost always include oil-filter changes). Most modern vehicles have change intervals in the 7500-to-10,000-mile range-generally a good schedule to use if you absolutely cannot find any information on the oil-change interval for your vehicle. Manufacturers also have a special set of recommended synthetic oil-change intervals for vehicles driven in severe conditions like Mojave Desert heat or Alaskan cold-or for vehicles that spend most of their time on dusty roads. Many newer vehicles have oil-quality monitoring systems that keep track of driving conditions-the length of your trips, engine temperatures, and other engine parameters. The algorithms in those systems calculate when your oil should be changed and alert you when it's time. | https://news.yahoo.com/apos-correct-synthetic-oil-change-093000831.html |
Why is Donald Trump obsessed with Bane in The Dark Knight Rises? | There are many superheroes an ailing American president might choose to associate with in an effort to pick up some much needed kudos. Frank Millers seminal graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns features a version of Superman who is in thrall to Ronald Reagan. In the film Iron Man 3, the fictional President Matthew Ellis is protected by Don Cheadles stars and stripes-sporting Iron Patriot. Theres even a version of the Avengers in Marvel comics that was put together by George W Bush. With so many virtuous options available to him, it seems bizarre that Donald Trump has chosen the Batman supervillain Bane to cosy up to. Observers first noticed Trumps fascination with Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight Rises, in which Tom Hardys hulking, masked brute seizes Gotham, when the president stole one of the villains lines for his 2017 inaugural speech. This week, Warner Bros threatened legal action after Trump borrowed the films score for a 2020 campaign video featuring a number of famous figures he has figuratively crossed swords with, such as Bryan Cranston, Amy Schumer, Rosie ODonnell and the Clintons. We can ask ourselves why Trump is such a big fan of the movie, which he reviewed positively on his YouTube channel on its release in 2012. But the more interesting question is why on Earth the president thinks this is the film score to soundtrack his fight for re-election. Batman-News.com (@BatmanNewsCom) Last political post (unless Trump quotes another Batman movie) Donald Trump reviews The Dark Knight Rises in 2012: https://t.co/iynBBmBohW pic.twitter.com/o5gucAzV1E Seven years ago, when Nolans final Batman film hit cinemas, critics compared Banes activities with those of the then current Occupy movement there was even a (sadly ill-founded) rumour that Nolan was going to use the New York protests as a backdrop for his shoot. Hardys villain, like Occupy, seems determined to overturn the established order and replace it with something new. And yet, while much of the audience may have had some sympathy for Occupys causes, Bane is quickly exposed as a baddy. As well as breaking the caped crusaders back and throwing him in a large hole, from which Bruce Wayne spends a large, and fairly tedious, portion of the film trying to escape, Bane threatens to blow up Gotham, murdering millions of innocents in the process, if anyone tries to mess with his newly built bad guy republic. If anything, the supervillain and his cronies can be compared more accurately to Isis, for their brazen ambition and willingness to use human shields to hold on to power at any cost. He is the false prophet who spouts populist rhetoric in an effort to convince the people he is on their side The other problem with cosying up to Bane is that the he epitomises everything Trumps critics accuse him of being. He is the false prophet who spouts populist rhetoric in an effort to convince the people he is on their side, but in reality only holds their worst interests in his cold, black heart. The line many recognised from the presidents 2017 inaugural speech is this one: Todays ceremony, however, has a very special meaning because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people. The earlier Bane speech, delivered on the steps of Gothams Blackgate Prison was: We take Gotham from the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity. And we give it to you, the people. Not long after giving this speech, Bane is hatching a plan to destroy Gotham and all its people in a League of Shadows-inspired massacre. But theres worse for Trump, for the masked menace is eventually revealed as nothing more than a lovelorn lackey of the real baddie, Marion Cotillards Talia al Ghul (the daughter of Batmans defeated rival in 2005s Batman Begins). So not only is Bane an out-and-out villain, he is only a relatively minor one designed to obscure the identity of the real (female) power behind the throne, which doesnt sound like the sort of role model the president would admire at all. But hey, this isnt the first time Trump has got Batman wrong. | https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2019/apr/11/donald-trump-thomas-hardy-the-dark-knight-rises-christopher-nolan-batman |
Where are Dallas Cowboys and quarterback Dak Prescott in contract negotiations? | FRISCO, Texas Dak Prescott knows hell likely have a new contract before the 2019 season opens. The Cowboys have tendered Prescott an offer for a long-term extension. His team of agents has returned a counteroffer. Still, the quarterback says, give him a few years before asking him for details. Its one (proposal) from each side, Prescott said Wednesday from his locker after the Cowboys second OTA practice. Its my first time doing this. Ask me in a few years and Ill be able to tell you, OK, we sent this one, theyve sent that one, were about to get it done. Right now, Im learning the process too and just letting my team handle their business. Prescott insists hes focused on the locker room as agent Todd France leads his team of advisers to finalize a deal expected to range around $30 million a year. Russell Wilson reset the average annual quarterback salary this offseason when agreeing to a four-year, $140 million extension with the Seahawks. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, at practice Wednesday, conitnues to rise. (Photo: Michael Ainsworth, AP) NFL DRAFT: League selects host cities for 2021 and 2023 drafts OPINION: Don't hold your breath for quick NFL action to allow medical marijuana His $35 million average salary ranks highest in the league, followed by the Steelers Ben Roethlisberger at $34 million and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers at $33.5. Each has won a Super Bowl. Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said after Wilsons extension that hes wearing a Super Bowl ring so he deserved the money. Prescott has won two NFC East titles in three seasons, but the Cowboys havent advanced to a conference championship since the 1995 season. Super Bowl rings are far from the only factor in negotiations, though. When you look at the numbers, a lot of its about the market, Prescott said. So I dont really pay attention to any of that. Itll get done eventually. In the meantime, hell focus on working toward Year 4. Prescott owns a 32-16 regular-season record, completing 66.1 percent of his passes for 10,876 yards since rising from fourth string to starter as a fourth-round rookie in 2016. He has thrown 67 touchdowns to 25 interceptions, rushing for another 18 scores. In 2018, Prescott completed 67.7 percent of his passes for 3,885 yards, 22 touchdowns and eight interceptions. Those numbers improved drastically after the Cowboys traded for Amari Cooper in the bye week. With a true No. 1 receiver back in the offense, Prescott raised his completion percentage from 62 to 72 percent and accounted for 18 total touchdowns to four interceptions. Entering 2019, Prescott expects even more improvement. He said he feels crazy comfortable reading the field, an understanding of scheme that Prescott traces to late in the 2018 season when the Cowboys won seven of their last eight games. It started coming way more clear, Prescott said. Seeing and knowing not seeing and thinking but seeing and knowing. You look at it and, OK, I need to go here, there, exactly. A quicker release is among goals for Prescott in 2019. He took 56 sacks in 2018 after combining for 55 his first two seasons. Some resulted from receivers struggling to separate from coverage and offensive-line play declining with All-Pro center Travis Frederick sidelined by an autoimmune illness. But some sacks came when Prescott took too long to get a play off. New quarterbacks coach Jon Kitna, who played 14 seasons in the league including two as Cowboys quarterback, will work to alleviate those sacks. Hes emphasized footwork with Prescott this offseason, as well as the importance of becoming a pocket engineer. Kitna is showing Prescott that sometimes an inch or two readjustment in the pocket will change his strength, release and accuracy. A lot of times pressure that a quarterback is under can be self-inflicted because youre not where youre supposed to be in the pocket, Kitna said Wednesday. The good quarterbacks over time, the ones that last, they know how to create their own space like a jump shooter gets their own shot off in basketball. Same thing in football: How do I create space so I can be on time and get this throw where I want it to be? Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott listens to offensive coordinator Kellen Moore during practice Wednesday. (Photo: Michael Ainsworth, AP) Prescott has paired guidance from coordinator Kellen Moore, in 2016 Prescotts backup, and Kitna alongside throwing sessions this offseason with quarterback and pitching guru Tom House. Cowboys coaches teach him the how, while House teaches Prescott the scientific why of his mechanics. After one March session in California and another pending in June, Prescott will take his receivers to House before training camp. Prescotts weapons include recent and past Pro Bowl players in Cooper, Randall Cobb, tight end Jason Witten and running back Ezekiel Elliott. Prescott and Elliott will continue to implement run-pass options, which Prescott has thrived with the last three years. And the Cowboys will stick to their run-first principles. But Moores offense will likely include more pre-snap activity and versatility, aiming to run five or six plays from the same setup to keep defenses on their toes. Prescotts preparing for those changes drilling dropping back from center, seven-step drops and pocket fundamentals. Kitna says he already sees improvement through five months with the Cowboys. He compared Prescotts spiral to Hall of Famer Warren Moons. I dont know what to say. I just take it, Prescott said. He played forever, Hall of Famer, he can throw it. I dont know what to say. Appreciate it, keep getting better. Warren could throw. Twitter: @JoriEpstein. If you love talking football, we have the perfect spot for you. Join our new Facebook Group, The Ruling Off the Field, to engage in friendly debate and conversation with fellow football fans and our NFL insiders. | https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nfl/cowboys/2019/05/22/nfl-dallas-cowboys-qb-dak-prescott-gives-update-contract-situation/1197864001/ |
Can Dundee contraception scheme break the cycle of children in care? | Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The contraception is usually offered in the form of an implant A programme which supports women with drug addiction and mental health issues if they agree to take contraception is being introduced in Dundee. The Pause initiative claims that it helps break the cycle of women having children who then end up in the care system. But critics said the scheme raised "big ethical questions" about conditional welfare and reproductive rights. Pause was founded in London by former social worker Sophie Humphreys, after working with women who had several children in care. Run by a London-based charity, it has been rolled out to 31 council areas across England since its launch in 2013 in Hackney. Under the scheme, women are offered intensive counselling and support if they go on long-term contraception. This is usually a contraceptive implant, although injections are also encouraged. The measures are always long-acting but reversible. The women work with a practitioner to address their harmful behaviours. They receive practical help with housing and health problems, as well as counselling to reflect on past trauma. Dundee will become the first place in Scotland to start delivering the programme, which will be offered to 20 women from some of the city's poorest areas next month. The aim is to help women who have had multiple children taken from them by social services. Between 2012 and 2017, 341 children were removed from the care of 113 mothers in the city. A Dundee City Council report estimated that Pause could help avoid between six and 10 pregnancies during the 18-month scheme. It says that it could save up to 1.6m over five years if fewer children enter the care system. Many of the women who will take part in the scheme have problems with drug addiction, mental illness and homelessness. The 450,000 cost of the programme is being funded by the Robertson Trust charity, lottery cash and the Scottish government. 'Different approach needed' Image caption Jane Martin said services struggled to engage with women who have lost children to the "system" Jane Martin, Dundee City Council's head of social work, told The Nine that services often struggled to engage with women who have lost children to the "system". She said: "Within that cohort, there is an average of three children per woman. "Obviously, we had some women who lost significantly more than two. "I think for us that it was shocking statistic and it confirmed we really need to develop a different approach to the women we are working with." 'The bairns don't ask to be here' Image caption Jay has had multiple children removed from her care Jay (not her real name) is in her mid-30s and has had multiple children removed from her care. She grew up in care, has been hooked on diazepam from the age of 12, and has been taking heroin since her early 20s. Because of her profile, she could be a candidate for the programme. She has already had a long-term contraceptive implant fitted, and would take part in the scheme if offered a place. "I don't want a bairn going down the same road I went down," she said. "The bairns don't ask to be here." 'Pregnancies being prevented' Image caption Derek Long said the scheme had saved St Helens council millions of pounds Since its launch in 2013, Pause has attracted more than 13m in donations, including 6.8m from the UK Department for Education's Innovation Fund. The Nine visited a Pause practice in St Helens, Merseyside, where 21 women have just completed the programme. The local council views the programme as a success and has renewed the programme for another 18 months. Former council leader Derek Long said the scheme had saved the authority millions of pounds due to pregnancies being prevented. He said it cost about 158,000 a year to bring a child into care. "If it can be avoided, we should avoid it," he added. 'I want to be a better person' Image caption Casey has just completed the Pause programme in St Helens Casey (not her real name) has just completed the Pause programme in St Helens. She is in her 20s, has suffered with mental health difficulties and has lost three children to the care system. However, she is now hoping that she can play a part in their lives. Casey told The Nine: "If you're constantly getting pregnant, you are only going to hurt yourself, make it harder each time, break your heart more. "But having that Pause actually helps you to breathe, to just sit there and think: 'I can do it, I can get through this day.' "I want to be a better person for myself. I want to be there fully of sound mind for my children and prove to them I can be an amazing mum if they give me the chance." 'Desire to bring about change' Image caption Former social worker Sophie Humphreys founded the scheme Former social worker Sophie Humphreys, who founded the programme, said she knew of one woman who had 10 children removed from her care. "It would be about her as an individual, not just as a mother, or a drug user, or someone who has mental health problems." She said Pause was more about the women than about councils looking to make savings on supporting children. Ms Humphreys said: "I've only ever seen people being driven by the absolute desire to bring about change for the women, and also for the children." 'Big ethical questions' Image caption Prof Brid Featherstone said Pause "links to a notion of conditional welfare" Prof Brid Featherstone, an academic in the field of social work at the University of Huddersfield, is a critic of the programme. She argues that Pause is too expensive, diverts money from other local programmes and "links to a notion of conditional welfare". She said: "You can't access a particular programme unless you take a particular form of contraception. "We need to think about this and talk about this, particularly because there are other projects that work with this group of women that achieve good results without requiring them to take contraception." She added: "It opens up big ethical questions. I think it's a fundamental human right being able to have a child." Prof Featherstone said the state should support parents to bring up children. She said: "I would be very worried if we started going down the road of saying that people should have fewer children - particularly in Scotland, where I understand you need more children." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48366337 |
Could TE Kyle Rudolph be a good Patriots fit in their post-Rob Gronkowski world? | Sometimes, a player-team fit seems too perfect. The New England Patriots need a tight end after Rob Gronkowskis retirement. The Minnesota Vikings seem determined to move on from Kyle Rudolph. There shouldnt be any surprise that the Patriots have had some discussion with the Vikings about Rudolph, according to Michael Giardi of NFL Network. Scroll to continue with content Ad [Join or create a 2019 Yahoo Fantasy Football league for free today] And with that, Patriots haters groan, knowing the pairing fits so well, and the Vikings are likely to sell at a lower price than Rudolph should get. Kyle Rudolph wont take a pay cut Rudolph is in the final year of his contract with the Vikings, and refuses to take a pay cut. He is slated to make $7.275 million, and the Vikings need to free up cap space. Still, the Vikings should consider themselves a contender if everything falls right, and it would hurt to sell low on Rudolph. Usually teams can get creative with the cap to clear space, in ways that dont include dumping a two-time Pro Bowl player in his prime. Rudolph is 29 years old, coming off a 634-yard season. He has 41 career touchdowns in eight seasons. Rudolph is not Gronkowski, but he is a viable tight end. And the Patriots could use that. New England has excelled at acquiring veterans for cheap, and getting a lot from them before they move on. Getting offensive tackle Trent Brown from the 49ers last offseason is a great example. We dont know how serious the Patriots are about getting Rudolph, but it would make sense. Rudolph would seem to be a good fit for New Englands offense. Even if he cant do many of the things Gronkowski could, hes still a quality target, especially in the red zone. Story continues The Patriots are always examining options, and trying to find a good deal. Making a run at Rudolph, if the Vikings follow through and trade him, would be a typical Patriots move. Minnesota Vikings' Kyle Rudolph said he will not take a pay cut. (AP) Frank Schwabis a writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab More from Yahoo Sports: | https://sports.yahoo.com/could-te-kyle-rudolph-be-a-good-patriots-fit-in-their-post-rob-gronkowski-world-173019731.html?src=rss |
Will NFL take action against Ezekiel Elliott? | Two years ago, the NFL aggressively disciplined Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott under the Personal Conduct Policy, suspending him for six games despite no arrest, no charges, and not even a civil lawsuit alleging assault or battery in a domestic relationship. Regardless of any flaws in the NFLs investigation or internal prosecution (and there were plenty), Elliott eventually served the suspension in full after dropping his legal fight. And the suspension of Elliott came with this stern admonition: You must have no further adverse involvement with law enforcement, and must not commit any additional violations of league policies. In that respect, you should understanding that another violation of this nature may result in your suspension or potential banishment for the NFL. Scroll to continue with content Ad Now, a video has emerged showing Elliott in the face of a security guard at a music festival in Las Vegas, moving toward the guard and either causing the guard to fall down or, possibly, shoving him toward the ground with a right arm that potentially extended elbow first in the direction of the guard. Elliott was not arrested or charged with any sort of crime, and the Cowboys have no issue with what has come to light. But thats not the end of it, as Elliott and the rest of us learned in 2017. The league will do whatever the league is going to do, and the league typically does whatever it wants to do. Story continues In this case, the league could take action, if it chooses to. The first specific example of prohibited conduct in the Personal Conduct Policy targets [a]ctual or threatened physical violence against another person. (Emphasis added.) Even if the league determines that Elliott made no contact with the guard, the league could conclude that Elliott converged on the guard uttering you got something to say? in a threatening manner, which prompted the guard to back away until he fell down. If the league finds a violation of the Personal Conduct Policy, it would be a minor one at worst. Given Elliotts history, however, that could still lead to a major problem. Repeat offenders will be subject to enhanced and/or expedited discipline, including banishment from the league with an opportunity to reapply, the Personal Conduct Policy states. Given the suspension from 2017, the warning communicated to Elliott at the time, and the leagues proclivity to take aggressive action against players accused or any type of violence regardless of criminal consequences or lack thereof, it makes sense to pay close attention to what the league does or doesnt do in response to the emergence of a video that arguably shows enough to cause the league to conclude that Elliott is a repeat offender under the Personal Conduct Policy. | https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-action-against-ezekiel-elliott-150532424.html?src=rss |
Which devices play Audible audiobooks but can't surf the web? | Amber wants her son to be able play Audible stories but does not want him to have internet access As a child I had a cassette tape player. I could choose the music and stories I wanted to listen to alone in my room without my parents worrying about me accessing the internet. My son loves listening to Audible stories on an old iPhone. I have blocked certain features but he keeps finding things to do that I havent blocked. I want a device that can download a lot of Audible stories so he can choose what to listen to, but without all the other temptations of an old phone or the risk of him going online. Amber This is the age of the internet, and the trend is for every device to be online all the time. This started with PCs and then smartphones, followed by TV sets, games consoles and digital video recorders. Now were getting connected cameras, fridges, doorbells and smart speakers, and the choice of products that cant connect to the internet is rapidly diminishing. You can still turn back the clock to a time when people used cables to transfer files including ripped CDs and DVDs from PCs to handheld devices such as PDAs, phones and MP3 players. Many of us still do this. However, the trend is towards synchronising devices with the cloud, and streaming content from online services such as Spotify and yes Audible. Amazon, which bought Audible in 2008, runs the worlds largest cloud in the form of AWS (Amazon Web Services), but you can still download Audible files for offline use. I guess you are supposed to protect children via a mixture of the UKs sometimes heavily censored internet, services like OpenDNSs FamilyShield, blocking specific IP addresses on your router, and device-level parental controls. But none of these stopped a flood of evil videos from being shown to young children on YouTube, for example, and even good content can have bad effects if used unwisely or to excess. Unfortunately, removing internet access completely would now eliminate all the products that Audible lists on its how to listen page, which nowadays doesnt even mention MP3 players. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian Audible may have lost interest in old-school MP3 players ones without wifi but they are still an option. The main points to look for are compatibility with Audibles copyright-protected file format, and the ability to bookmark files such as MP3 audiobooks and podcasts. (Remember there are many other sources of audiobooks, such as LibriVox and OverDrive, and your local library may have some.) A diminishing number of MP3 players meet these needs, and you are most likely to find them in SanDisk and Creative ranges. Most MP3 players can, of course, handle several audio formats including MP3, Microsofts WMA (Windows Media Audio) and AAC. However, if you bought one of these, youd have to convert Audible files to MP3 or whatever, to remove the DRM (digital rights management), which would be an extra job. You would also lose the special features built into Audible files, though some converters can at least split files into chapters or segments of a chosen length. Either way, a player must be able to resume the audio where you stopped listening. Otherwise, trying to find your place in a five- or 50-hour book can be a nightmare. (Ideally, an MP3 player should also remember the bookmarks place in a playlist, though this is harder to tell from the sales pitches.) The 8GB SanDisk Clip Jam is a basic option at 24.37. The user manual (pdf) says it can handle MP3, WMA (no DRM), AAC, WAV and Audible (DRM only) files, and it also offers FM radio. However, comments suggest its not as good for audiobooks as the discontinued SanDisk Sansa Clip+ version, which can fetch up to 75 on eBay, in mint condition. (Most go for less.) Audible has some tips on getting a Sansa Clip or Sansa Fuze to work with its audiobooks. You can also play Audible audiobooks on iPods, if you use Apples iTunes software to transfer the files. Some iPod users have had problems that may be solved by re-downloading books in Audibles Enhanced format (.aax) instead of Format 4 (.aa). Kindles are compatible Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amazons Kindles can play Audible audiobooks, syncing them with text ebooks so that you can seamlessly switch between listening and reading. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian You can also listen to Audible audiobooks on many of Amazons Kindle e-readers. The cheapest option is this years all-new Kindle (9th Generation) at 69.99. Alternatives include the 8th generation Kindle and Kindle Oasis (from 229.99), and the 10th generation Kindle Paperwhite (from 119.99). Some older models are also compatible, including the Kindle Keyboard and the Kindle Touch, but Audible no longer supports them. The quoted prices include special offers and sponsored screensavers, AKA adverts. Prices are 10 higher without them. The main drawback with the all-new Kindle is the limited amount of memory: its nominally 4GB but only about 2.7GB is available for books. The solution is to use the free cloud service to store extra books instead of keeping everything on the device. All these Kindle e-readers have wifi connections to download books and essential software updates, plus Bluetooth for connecting to headphones and loudspeakers. However, I dont think the wifi is much of a problem, because Kindle browsing is very slow, and because you can use the parental controls to block access to the browser. So are some smart speakers Facebook Twitter Pinterest Amazons Echo Dot is an affordable way to play Audible content via the Alexa voice assistant. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian Amazon and Sonos Alexa-powered smart speakers can also play Audible audiobooks. Amazon currently sells five different Echo smart speakers. These range from the Echo Dot (49.99 but currently discounted to 29.99) to the Echo Show (219.99), which has a 10in screen that can play Amazon Prime videos. The standard Echo (89.99) does a decent job of playing music so audiobooks should sound good. One point to watch is that Echos dont recognise Audible account names, so you have to merge that with your Amazon account. Echo devices can do lots of useful things for children. These include playing music from Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn and other services, playing live radio stations, setting reminders, timers and alarms, predicting the weather and making Skype calls. You can add various educational skills, such as learning foreign languages. Alexa, Amazons virtual assistant, can also answer some homework queries, usually by quoting from Wikipedia. There are two bonus features. First, Amazon Storytime provides free stories for children aged five to 12. Second, Alexa will read ordinary Kindle books aloud, though this text-to-speech rendering is nothing like as good as a human narrator. Theres an Audible help page with a list of the voice commands used for listening on Alexa devices, starting with Alexa, read my book. A quick scan should help you to decide whether its worth pursuing this route rather than buying an MP3 player or a Kindle. Email it to [email protected] This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/may/23/which-devices-play-audible-audiobooks-but-cant-surf-the-web |
Will FAA's plan for 737 MAX fly outside US? | The global fleet of Boeing 737 MAX planes has been grounded after two deadly crashes, including this group of Southwest Airlines planes photographed in California in March (AFP Photo/Mark RALSTON) New York (AFP) - Getting Boeing's top-selling 737 MAX back in the skies faces a critical test this week as the company and US regulators each seek to restore their reputations after two deadly crashes. The US Federal Aviation Administration convened a summit of global aviation regulators on Thursday to walk through the steps taken to address concerns with the MAX following criticism the agency dragged its feet on the decision to ground the jets. Most agencies around the world have said little or nothing about the situation since the 737 MAX was grounded following the March 10 Ethiopian Airlines crash, which together with a Lion Air crash in October, claimed 346 lives. So the gathering in Fort Worth, Texas is expected to provide clues as to whether the aviation safety authorities will be willing to set aside any skepticism about the FAA, which has not yet given the green light for the 737 MAX to fly again. Regulators "are going to want a lot of explanation," said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. "We're going to learn a lot." The FAA would prefer to have other agencies quickly follow its lead -- which previously would have been likely -- but several aviation experts think that is improbable. Europe and Canada could follow the US by weeks in allowing the MAX jets to return to the skies. China is a wildcard. It was the first country to order the planes grounded in March, and has been sparring with the US for months over trade policy. China's three largest airlines filed claims seeking compensation from Boeing over the grounding and delayed delivery of the jets, state media reported Wednesday. - The FAA said 57 agencies from 33 countries will attend the summit, including China, France, Germany, Britain, India, Indonesia and Ethiopia, as well as the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization. The meeting comes after Boeing announced on May 16 that it completed a software update to address a problem with the flight handling program known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System. In both of the MAX crashes, the MCAS pointed the plane sharply downward based on a faulty sensor reading, hindering the pilot's effort to control the aircraft after takeoff, according to preliminary crash investigations. Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has said repeatedly that there was no design flaw in the 737 MAX, and has described changes to the MCAS system as an "update" rather than a fix. Still, the company's reputation has taken a hit amid reports it knew of the issue before the Ethiopia Airlines crash, and received complaints from US pilots. Boeing said it is providing additional information to the FAA in anticipation of a certification test flight, a key step in winning regulatory approval. Long considered a "gold standard" internationally, the FAA's reputation has suffered, amid scrutiny of the oversight process and reports it allowed Boeing to effectively self-certify some features of the MAX. US lawmakers last week once again castigated acting FAA Administrator Daniel Elwell for lagging behind virtually all other regulators in grounding the planes, acting only after seeing data linking the two crashes. "So the opposite of data is common sense," bellowed Representative Steve Cohen, a Tennessee Democrat, bellowed during a hearing. "Data is fine but it's something that's right before your eyes," he said, noting that non-US regulators reacted with appropriate urgency. Elwell told the panel the agency would permit the 737 MAX to resume flights "only when the FAA's analysis of the facts and technical data indicate that it is safe to do so." - Aviation experts expect the US agency to clear the way for the 737 MAX in time for major American airlines to resume flights in mid-to-late summer, as they have publicly announced. Elwell said he hoped other regulators "make their un-grounding as close to ours as possible." Thursday's gathering will offer clues as to whether that is likely. "We'll have a much better idea of the timeline for the return of the 737 MAX," said Michel Merluzeau of aerospace consultancy AIR. The process would be slowed if other regulators break with precedent and insist on conducting their own test flights with the upgraded 737 MAX rather than deferring to the FAA's judgment. | https://news.yahoo.com/faas-plan-737-max-fly-outside-us-012905013.html |
Is it time for Alexa and Siri to have a "MeToo moment"? | United Nations -- More people will speak to a voice assistance machine than to their partners in the next five years, the U.N. says, so it matters what they have to say. The numbers are eye-popping: 85% of Americans use at least one product with artificial intelligence (AI), and global use will reach 1.8 billion by 2021, so the impact of these "robot overlords" is unparalleled. But (AI) voice assistants, including Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Assistant are inflaming gender stereotypes and teaching sexism to a generation of millennials by creating a model of "docile and eager-to-please helpers," with acceptance of sexual harassment and verbal abuse, a new U.N. study says. "I'd blush if I could" A 145-page U.N. report published this week by the educational, scientific and cultural organization UNESCO concludes that the voices we speak to are programmed to be submissive and accept abuse as a norm. The report is titled, "I'd blush if I could: Closing Gender Divides in Digital Skills Through Education." The authors say the is named based on the response given by Siri when a human user says, "Hey Siri, you're a bi***". That programmed response was revised in April, when the report was distributed in draft form. The report reveals a pattern of "submissiveness in the face of gender abuse" with inappropriate responses that the authors say have remained largely unchanged during the eight years since the software hit the market. Artificial intelligence poses ethical challenge to tech industry Dr. Saniye Glser Corat, Director of the Division for Gender Equality at UNESCO, conceived and developed the report, along with Norman Schraepel, Policy Adviser at the German Agency for International Cooperation with the EQUALS global partnership for gender equality in the digital age, a non-government organization of corporate leaders, governments, businesses, academic institutions and community groups that partners with several U.N. agencies, including U.N. Women, to promoting gender balance in the technology sector for both women and men. Bias in the code Both Alexa and Siri, the study says, fuel gender stereotyping: "Siri's 'female' obsequiousness and the servility expressed by so many other digital assistants projected as young women provides a powerful illustration of gender biases coded into technology products." The study blames a lot of factors but says programming is the main culprit, and it recommends a change to the programmers: "In the United States, the percentage of female computer and information science majors has dropped steadily over the past 30 years and today stands at just 18 percent down from 37 per hundred in the mid-1980s." "AI is not something mystical or magical. It's something that we produce and it is a reflection of the society that creates it," Glser Corat told CBS News. "It will have both positive and negative aspects of that society." Future of artificial intelligence becomes key topic at World Economic Forum Artificial intelligence "really has to reflect all voices in that society. And the voice that is missing in the development of AI at the moment is the voice of women and girls," she said. As CBS News sister site CNET reported last year, despite efforts to change the culture Silicon Valley still suffers from a lack of diversity. The UNESCO study aims to expose biases and make recommendations to begin "closing a digital skills gap that is, in most parts of the world, wide and growing." The study makes several recommendations: Stop making digital assistants female by default Discourage gender-based insults and "abusive language Develop advanced technical skills of women and girls so they can get in the game. "It is a 'Me Too' moment," Glser Corat told CBS News. "We have to make sure that the AI we produce and that we use does pay attention to gender equality." Docile digital assistants Glser Corat said the use of female voices is not universal in all voice assistants. The UNESCO study found that a woman's voice was used intentionally for assistants that help in the use of "household products," appliances and services, contrasting driving and GPS services that more often use male voices. The study also showed that the input languages in some cities around the world, for example in France, the Netherlands and in some Arab nations, use a male voice by default, leading the authors to hypothesize that these countries have "a history of male domestic servants in upper class families." Examples of AI responses Some sample language of AI assistant responses was included in the study: | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alexa-siri-other-artificial-intelligence-voice-assistants-gender-bias-unesco/ |
Is It Too Late to Save Christianity in the Middle East? | T he call came in 2014, shortly after Easter. Four years earlier, Catrin Almakos family had applied for special visas to the United States. Catrins husband, Evan, had cut hair for the U.S. military during the early years of its occupation of Iraq. Now a staffer from the International Organization for Migration was on the phone. Are you ready? he asked. The family had been assigned a departure date just a few weeks away. I was so confused, Catrin told me recently. During the years they had waited for their visas, Catrin and Evan had debated whether they actually wanted to leave Iraq. Both of them had grown up in Karamles, a small town in the historic heart of Iraqi Christianity, the Nineveh Plain. Evan owned a barbershop near a church. Catrin loved her kitchen, where she spent her days making pastries filled with nuts and dates. Their families lived there: her five siblings and aging parents, his two brothers. But they also lived amid constant danger. Everybody who was working with the United States militarythey get killed, Catrin said. Evan had been injured by an explosion near a U.S. Army base in Mosul in 2004. Catrin worried about him driving back and forth to the base along highways that cross some of the most contested land in Iraq. Even after he stopped working for the military, they feared he might be a victim of violence. That fear was compounded by their faith: During the war years, insurgents consistently targeted Christian towns and churches in a campaign of terror. Now more and more Christians in the region were deciding to leave. The graph of the religions decline in the Middle East has in recent years transformed from a steady downward slope into a cliff. The numbers in Iraq are especially stark: Before the American invasion, as many as 1.4 million Christians lived in the country. Today, fewer than 250,000 remainan 80 percent drop in less than two decades. The Almakos resolved to go. They spent their remaining time in Karamles agonizing over what to bring with them, and what to leave behind. You dont know what youre going to take, Evan told me. You have to discuss a lot of things: that one important, that one not important. In the end, choosing among their possessions proved too difficult. They decided to leave nearly every keepsake and heirloom, including boxes of pictures of their family and of their two young children, Ayoob, then 12, and Sofya, 10. Catrin insisted on taking one sentimental item, a small cloth weaving of Jesus made in Italy. On the Almakos last night in Karamles, the people of the town descended on their house. It seemed as if they all had a present they wanted Catrin and Evan to take to family members in America: sweets, spices, clothes. Nothing you couldnt find in the United States, but you cant tell them that, Evan said. People in Iraq see the U.S. as a place of bounty, he explained, but its still fundamentally foreign. Of the familys three suitcases, one was filled with these gifts from home. One by one, each of their family members tried to persuade Catrin and Evan to stay in Karamles. Her older brother Thabet is a priest, and the towns most dedicated defender. Dont leave, Catrin remembers him saying. Stay here. The last of the visitors, one of Catrins sisters, remained until past midnight. The family was set to depart in just a few hours, but Catrin couldnt sleep. She lay awake cataloging everything she would miss about her home and worrying about the journey ahead. She had never flown on a plane. She had never been far from Karamles. Once they departed, she thought, it would be for good. The family spent a few days in Baghdad. They had layovers in Jordan, Germany, and New Jersey. Finally they arrived, exhausted, in Detroit. They spent their first couple of weeks at a cousins house. Catrin was desperately homesick. Gradually, however, the family settled in. Evan found work in construction. Catrin got a job at the Salvation Army. They rented a condo. The shape of a new life emerged. The Almakos had been in Detroit for less than three months when they heard that the Islamic State was marching eastward toward Karamles. The terrorist group and its precursor had long been active south of the Nineveh Plain. Still, Catrin and Evan had believed that their town was safe. They frantically tried calling and texting their family members. They were now 6,000 miles away from everyone they loved. No one answered. T he precarious state of Christianity in Iraq is tragic on its own terms. The world may soon witness the permanent displacement of an ancient religion, and an ancient people. Those indigenous to this area share more than faith: They call themselves Suraye and claim a connection to the ancient peoples who inhabited this land long before the birth of Christ. But the fate of Christianity in places like the Nineveh Plain has a geopolitical significance as well. Religious minorities test a countrys tolerance for pluralism; a healthy liberal democracy protects vulnerable groups and allows them to participate freely in society. Whether Christians can survive, and thrive, in Muslim-majority countries is a crucial indicator of whether democracy, too, is viable in those places. In Iraq, the outlook is grim, as it is in other nations in the region that are home to historic Christian populations, including Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Christians who live in these places are subject to discrimination, government-sanctioned intimidation, and routine violence. They do, however, have an influential and powerful ally: the United States government, which, under President Donald Trump, has made supporting Christianity in the Middle East an even more overt priority of American foreign policy than it was under George W. Bush or Barack Obama. Since Trump took office, the Nineveh Plain has received significant amounts of investment from the U.S. government. In part, this foreign-policy position is grounded in domestic politics. The conservative voters who helped elect Trump care deeply about oppressed Christians, and they convey their concern through an exceptionally effective lobbying machine in Washington, D.C. But the plight of Christians in the region is also a natural cause for an administration that views foreign policy as a struggle to maintain the Wests global clout. For Trump, Christianity can be a bulwark of Western values in a region full of perceived enemies. Christians who want to stay in their home country, administration officials say, should have the choice to do so. But many families in the Nineveh Plain are ambivalent about their future there. They harbor the same fears that led Catrin and Evan to leave before the devastation visited by ISIS; life has only grown more difficult for Christian minorities since. When I interviewed families in the Nineveh Plain last year, almost all of them admitted that they would leave if they had the chance. Even those most committed to remaining worry that, no matter how much aid they receive from Washington, they are still vulnerable. Christianitys survival in one of the places where it first took root will depend on whether they decide to stay. N ight had fallen in Karamles. It was August 6, 2014the Feast of the Transfiguration, which marks the biblical story of Jesus being transformed and named by God as his son. For weeks, priests across the Nineveh Plain had been in contact with Kurdish military forces, called the peshmerga, about the imminent threat of ISIS, which had quickly advanced east. Earlier in the summer, it had taken control of Mosul, just 15 miles from Karamles. From inside Mosuls Great Mosque, the cleric Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had declared himself the head of a new Islamic caliphate. Nevertheless, some in the Kurdish military said that they would defend the area. On this night, however, ISIS was on the move, and the peshmerga decided to retreat. Around 11 p.m., Catrins brother Thabet rang the bell atop St. Adday, the main church in Karamles, which is loud enough to reach every house in the small town. Coming so late at night, the familiar toll could only be a dire warning. Within a couple of hours, nearly all 820 families were on the highway out of town, heading east toward safety in the large, predominantly Kurdish city of Erbil. Thabet waited until he believed that everyone had evacuated before leaving himself. Even as his people fled, Thabet had tried to remain optimistic. I had a small hope that maybe ISIS would not come, he told me recently as we drove on the dusty highway that stretches west from Erbil toward Mosul. But as Thabet watched the peshmerga fall back, leaving Karamles undefended, he realized his town was lost. Within a few hours, ISIS fighters would arrive. From a young age, Thabet felt called to the priesthood. He loved serving as an altar boy in his Chaldean church, which grew out of an ancient, eastern rite of Christianity that is today aligned with Roman Catholicism. After years of seminary education, including a stint in Rome, Thabet was ordained in 2008, when he was in his late 20s. Pictures of him and his family in the years before the ISIS occupation, and especially before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, suggest a relatively idyllic life. Politically, the situation was very different for Christians during that time: Saddam Hussein oversaw a series of brutal religious crackdowns while he held power, but his regime tolerated the countrys Christian minority. One of his most visible advisers, Tariq Aziz, was a member of the Chaldean Catholic Church. Now Thabet watched as everyone he knew and loved fled his town. A small Christian enclave on Erbils outskirts swelled with the arrival of 13,200 displaced Christians from across the Nineveh Plain. Some people, including Thabet, had left without collecting basic necessities. When I arrived, I was disoriented, because for two days, I didnt sleep, he recalled. I had to take a rest and buy some clothes. With nowhere else to go, some of the Christian refugees slept in the courtyard of a church. We gathered the people from the gardens, from the streets, and created a small place for them, Thabet said. Eventually, many of the residents of Karamles settled into the second floor of an unfinished apartment building; it had a roof but only two walls. For 40 days, Thabets parishioners lived in the building, along with hundreds of refugees from other towns. It soon became clear that the communitys displacement would not be measured in days. Families began dispersing around Erbil; some were able to rent apartments, while others moved into hastily constructed camps. Thabet became his peoples unofficial leader in exile: part priest, part beloved uncle, part unofficial mayor. As relief money and other assistance began arriving from groups such as the Knights of Columbus, it flowed through church officials like Thabet. When people needed clothes or a place to stay, they came to him. It took more than two years for the Iraqi military to recapture the Nineveh Plain. A few days before Karamles was liberated, Thabet ascended a small mountain above the plain as government soldiers fought across the region. Peering down through binoculars, he watched as smoke rose from his hometown. When the fighting was over, he was the first resident to reenter the town. The devastation that awaited was breathtaking. The hands of one life-size statue of Mary, robed in bright blue, had been chopped off at the wrists. The bell of St. Adday, which had ushered residents to safety the night ISIS arrived, now sat lopsided in its tower. The church itself had been partially burned black; Thabet believes that fighters may have set off explosives a few days before they made their retreat. Decapitated statues of Mary and Jesus surrounded the altar, along with the remnants of angels that had been shot off the walls. Thabet found a torn piece of his ordination vestments in the rubblethe only object he has to remind him of the day he vowed to serve his community. Slowly, Thabet and the other priests in the area began the process of reconstruction. Leaders in each town created detailed assessments of local buildings and calculated the damage across the Nineveh Plain. Thabet posted a large, color-coded map of Karamles by the door to the rectory. One little square represented his parents house, tinted red to indicate that it had been destroyed. Another showed Catrin and Evans houselooted, but largely spared. In total, 672 houses were damaged or burned. Nearly 100 had effectively been demolished. In the fall of 2017, the first of Karamless residents started coming home. Slowly, the streets filled with small signs of community life: people watering their yards and calling after roaming children, men sitting and talking in bright-red plastic chairs beneath string lights that crisscross at the center of town. As of this spring, 450 families have returned, though in many cases to unfamiliar housesthose of relatives, neighbors, or strangers who chose not to come home. A sign near the church, in Arabic and misspelled English, declares Wellcome Back. Yet even now, the towns liveliest blocks are dotted with empty homes awaiting owners who may never feel safe enough to return. Some Christians left the region entirely; others started new lives in Erbil. Some of the residents of Karamles view ISIS as an extreme expression of a hostility that predated the terror groups rise, and remains after its defeat. In Iraq, discrimination is written directly into the constitution. Drafted two years after the 2003 U.S. invasion, the document declares Islam the countrys official religion and forbids any law that contradicts the established provisions of Islam. This shapes life in mundane yet meaningful ways. ID cards designate citizens as Muslim, Christian, Mandaean, Yazidi. Non-Muslim men cannot marry Muslim women. Children of mixed parentage are automatically classified as Muslims if one of their parents is Muslim, even if they are born of rape. For many Christians living in northern Iraq, discrimination is a part of life: Many non-Christians wont hire Christians at their businesses. Families closely monitor their daughters out of fear that theyll be targeted for sexual violence. Faced with these daily indignitiesas well as Iraqs precarious political and economic environmentlarge numbers of Christians and other minorities have decided to flee. But opportunities to come to the U.S. are even rarer now than they were when Catrin Almako moved her family to Detroit. The Trump administrations commitment to supporting Christians in the Middle East has corresponded with a sharp drop in the number of Christian refugees admitted to the U.S. Under Obama, advocates howled that Democrats were refusing to take in persecuted Christians, but the number of Christians admitted from Iraq has dropped by 98 percent over the past two years. According to data from the U.S. State Department and the charity World Relief, only 23 Iraqi Christians were admitted to the United States in 2018, compared with nearly 2,000 in 2016. Families still in Iraq now look to Europe and Australia instead. Trump-administration officials argue that a smaller Christian population in the Nineveh Plain will result in long-term damage to the region. In certain respects, they are right. Fewer Christians means less representation in the Iraqi government and less of a chance that Baghdad will heed Christian concerns. A smaller Christian community might also embolden the enemies of diversity. Countries with more religious freedom tend to have lower levels of xenophobia and faith-based violence. Birnadet Hanna, a historian who lives in Karamles, said her supervisor, who is Muslim, was surprised to see her return to work after the Iraqi military pushed ISIS out of the region; he was concerned for her safety. Other colleagues told her that she should leave: Christians do not belong in Muslim Iraq, they said. She now believes that some of her Muslim neighbors may have been sympathetic to ISISs worldview. The rise of the caliphateand the sinking fortunes of Iraqs Christiansempowered them to be more open about their bigotry. C haldean worship services offer a rich sensory experience, filled with reminders that this tradition developed in the first few hundred years after Christ. The sexes usually sit separately, and women cover their head with lace as a sign of modesty. Acolytes swing sweet incense, trailing clouds of smoke through the aisles. Mass is celebrated in a dialect of Aramaic called Sureththe native language of Christians here and a sibling of the language Jesus spoke. Mass is also the venue where top clerics can flex their political muscle, making arguments meant to reach far beyond the pews. At a recent service in Ankawa, one of the most powerful bishops in Iraq, Bashar Warda, demonstrated his ability to influence his allies in the West. That Sunday, as parishioners sang and chatted softly, a line of men in dark suits filed in: the thenU.S. ambassador to Iraq, Douglas Silliman, and his staff. Warda, wearing vestments and a neat haircut and close shave, greeted the Americans confidently, making sure they had English copies of the sermon he was about to deliver. His message seemed intended more for them than for his own flock. If the rest of the world truly believes that there should be a multi-cultural Middle East, Warda said, it must also speak honestly in rejecting the ever-changing and conditional forms of Muslim tolerance towards minorities. He placed special responsibility for helping Christians on the United States. Iraqs non-Muslim minorities are the victims of the last regime change in Iraq and victims of the failure of the political system since 2003, when the U.S. invaded, he said. After the sermon, Silliman told me the U.S. is committed to providing support for these groups. I cant imagine this part of the world, especially the Nineveh Plains, without the diverse religious and cultural history, he said. Theyre very holy communities, they have deep histories here, and we want to make sure that they continue. He was soon whisked away to his next stop: a private meeting with Warda. Dating back to the Obama administration, Iraqi Christian leaders and their advocates in Washington have engaged in a protracted campaign to net more money for Christians in the Nineveh Plain. Foreign governments have funneled money for stabilization through the United Nations Development Program, which, until 18 months ago, was by far the biggest player in the regions development. Early on, however, Iraqi religious leaders, led by Warda, voiced discontent with the UNs performance. The organization hired workers who overcharged and underworked, they claimed. Their results were often shoddy. (The UNs deputy special representative for Iraq, Marta Ruedas, told me the organizations budget constraints were to blame for half-finished housing projects in the region. The UNDP has completed housing work in Bartella and Bashiqa.) Delegates from the regions churches worked with an international NGO to convene a group they called the Nineveh Reconstruction Committee, which hired local men to rebuild houses in their towns. Relief funds would be put to better use if they went directly to the churches, the group argued. Christian advocates started making this case in Washington. Soon, the Trump administration got on board. At the direction of the president, Vice President Mike Pence asked USAIDthe agency that finances development projects around the worldto set up a special funding process, which would stop relying as heavily on the UN. When that process did not meet the demands of the Iraqi Christian community, Pence issued a heated statement saying he would not tolerate bureaucratic delays, and condemned the governments failure to fulfill the commitments that had been made to Iraqs minorities. Mark Green, the head of USAID, snapped to attention, announcing that a trip to the region was imminent. It was around this time that Silliman showed up at Wardas Mass. (Pences office did not respond to requests for comment.) The Trump administration has adopted the position that protecting Christians and other minorities is a key feature of security in the Middle East. If Christians were to be eliminated from the Nineveh Plain, I think it would also hasten the ungoverned vacuum that is too easily filled by the bad guys, Green told me. They seek to exploit those kinds of openings. Fostering the health and the security and the leadership in these communities is also about stabilizing the area and creating a buffer against the return of violent extremism. Sam Brownback, the former governor of Kansas and the U.S. ambassador for religious freedom, told me that the administrations support for religious minorities (which includes both Christians and Yazidis, who were likewise targeted by ISIS) is a continuation of the project of the Iraq War, delicately avoiding the fact that the American war helped create the conditions for ISISs rise. The U.S. government is promoting democratic principles, he argued, including the protection of religious minorities. I think its important for Iraq, and I think its important for us. I think its important, really, for that region, he said. The ideological bridge between the Nineveh Plain and Washington has undoubtedly worked to Christians benefit. In October, USAID announced even more funding: a new investment of $178 million, bringing the total U.S. government investment to nearly $300 million. For the most part, American money has gone toward rebuilding schools, clinics, and water and electricity systems. In Erbil, Warda has also leveraged a powerful network of largely private Christian donors to build an array of civic institutions: a brightly decorated private school, where children study in four languages; a Catholic college, where Christian girls can attend free of harassment; a new hospital. Without infrastructure like this in place, clergy and aid workers argue, there is no chance that Christians will remain in the country. Infrastructure alone cannot rebuild social trust or stabilize the government, however, and it cannot guarantee peoples physical safety. Christians fear that theyll return to their lives only to be displaced again. Whether American support, and access to American largesse, will be sufficient to sustain Iraqs Christians is an open question. One State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to be interviewed by the press, told me that the U.S. efforts to help Iraqs religious minorities are unprecedented, but may also be unsustainable. The groups in northern Iraq are among many around the world that may merit protection from the U.S. government. Eventually, he said, the U.S. will have to evaluate whether it is actually making a difference in the long-term stability of Iraq, and whether other places, and people, are more in need of those investments. Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq, regional powers have vied to determine the countrys fate, and nearly all of them have laid claim to the Nineveh Plain. To the north is Kurdistan, a semiautonomous zone controlled by the countrys Kurdish ethnic minority. To the south is territory governed by Baghdad, which aggressively contests Kurdish autonomy. In the fall of 2017, around the time Christian families began returning to their homes, Kurds passed a referendum declaring total independence from Iraq. Baghdad retaliated, banning international flights from Kurdistans airports and moving to capture some of the ambiguous territory between the two regions, including portions of the Nineveh Plain. This has left some Christians stranded: In one town, Batnaya, people who had hoped to rebuild their homes after ISISs defeat had to leave again to avoid the new fighting. The east-west axis is no less fraught. To the west lies Syria, where, until recently, the last strongholds of ISIS remained. To the east lies Iran, which continually works to expand its influence on its longtime neighbor and frequent rival, and to support the interests of Iraqs Shiite majority. Shiite-affiliated groups have been gaining influence in the Nineveh Plain in recent years, as Iran has allegedly taken an interest in the area as a strategic foothold in the corridor that runs through Erbil and Mosul to Syria. This has left Christians fearful that their homeland is becoming a prime target in Irans efforts to become the dominant power in the Middle East. In May, the U.S. State Department ordered the evacuation of all nonessential personnel from the embassy in Baghdadand the consulate in Erbilbased on fears of possible attacks from Iran. Related Stories The Hell After ISIS What ISIS Really Wants 'Protecting Religious Freedom Is a Foreign-Policy Priority of the Trump Administration' What Palm Sunday Means to Egypts Copts In the middle of this tangle of conflicts, Christians and other minorities serve as chips for more powerful players in the region. Iraqs Christians must work constantly to navigate a complicated network of sectarian and political interests. Influential priests in Erbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government, are quick to praise their Kurdish neighbors. The KRG has an interest in protecting the religious minorities within its territories; part of the Kurds pitch to allies in the West is that they are more tolerant and committed to pluralism than Arabs. Cross the line into Arab-dominated parts of Iraq, however, and priests allegiance switches: Thabet told me he thinks the country should be under Baghdads unified control. Privately, Christians on both sides of the border complain about abuses by Arabs and Kurds alike, from land seizures to what they see as extremist sermons at local mosques. These regional tensions can also make minority groups deeply suspicious of one another. Christian leaders in the Nineveh Plain perceive an existential threat from a minority group that was likewise targeted and marginalized in recent years: the Shabak. The small ethno-religious group is syncretic and diverse, with various members identifying as Sunni, Shiite, Arab, Kurdish, or some combination thereof. Like other minority groups in Iraq, the Shabak have faced significant hardship. Some were forced to choose sides in the conflict between Arab and Kurdish nationalists that began in the 1970s and were violently punished during Saddam Husseins genocidal campaign of retaliation. After Husseins fall, the Shabak, like Christians and Yazidis, were terrorized and displaced under ISIS. But in recent years, Christian leaders claim, the Shabak have found a powerful backer in Iran. Shabak leaders have denied ties to the nearby Shiite regime, and the U.S. State Department hasnt found definitive evidence to suggest the alleged connection, according to the official. Nonetheless, Christian leaders believe that the group is trying to push their communities out of the Nineveh Plain. ALT_TEXT_GOES_HERE The road to Karamles (Alexandra Rose Howland) Ten minutes down an anarchic highway from Karamles lies Bartella, another historically Christian town, one that Thabet fears may represent the future of his own community. Traditionally, ethnic groups in Iraq have tended to stay within their own towns. For many years, the Shabak lived as neighbors of the Christians in the Nineveh Plain; the valley around Karamles and Bartella is dotted with small Shabak villages. But when Shiite political parties rose to power after the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, Shabak groups began buying up property in historically Christian areaswith the help, Christian leaders believe, of Iranian financial backers. Christians who have returned to Bartella report that life in their town has become more difficult than it was before the ISIS occupation. Businesses have reopened, but many wont hire Christians. Behnam Benoka, a Syriac Catholic priest, told me that a number of families have reported harassment by Shabak residents, something that would have been highly unusual in earlier years. One familys 10-year-old daughter was assaulted, and had her earrings stolen, on her way home from school. The girls family lives on an empty block across from two burned houses. Their home was destroyed by ISIS; they live now in a relatives home, and keep photographs of their lost possessions in a stack of colorful file folders. Theyre nervous about walking around town, nervous about sending their daughters to school alone. They dream of immigrating to San Diego, where they have family. The situation in Bartella is always in the back of Thabets mind as he tries to persuade his people to return to, and remain in, Karamles. In the West, integration and diversity are seen as laudable goals. In Iraq, according to Thabet, the mentality is different. The Shabak and Chaldeans have different cultures and customs. They interpret social cues and gestures differently. They speak different languages. Its better for us if they move to another village, Thabet told me. Elsewhere in the Middle East, Christians face similar existential threats. In Turkey, the government takes an active role in religious repression. Armenian Christians live with near-daily threats and vandalism from neighbors who are given impunity by local police. In Egypt, President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi proclaimed his desire to prevent violence and discrimination against Christians, but has largely proved powerless to do so. He recently celebrated the opening of a massive cathedral east of Cairo, declaring of Muslims and Christians, We are one, and we will remain one. Yet the Copts, Egypts largest Christian minority group, have been victims of routine bombings and mass shootings over the past several years. On Palm Sunday in 2017, explosions at two churches left more than 40 dead. This past November, Islamic militants attacked buses driving through the western desert, killing seven people and wounding others. Although the status of minorities differs across the region, these cases share an important quality: They have all taken place in countries that, at times, have stressed a singular religious identity. These countries failed to protect the rights of minorities, if they tried to at all. Christians, like other religious minorities in the region, are left with the same impossible choice Catrin and Evan wrestled with years ago: stay or leave. Families must balance a desire to remain in their homeand the home of their ancestorswith a desire to live free of discrimination and dread. For Christians reared in a church with such a deep sense of place, moving brings up the terrifying possibility that they will lose an essential connection to their faith. On a Sunday morning last fall, I joined Catrin and Evan for Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, a large Chaldean Catholic church in Detroit. The metro area is home to the largest Chaldean diaspora community in the world: 160,000 Christians from Iraq live there, according to the Chaldean American Chamber of Commerce. Middle Eastern Christians who belong to other traditions, such as the Assyrian Church of the East, also have a presence in and around the city, along with a large population of Iraqi Muslims. The lobby of the church bustled with families, including women wearing the same delicate lace hair coverings that women wear in Iraq, embroidered with the names of pilgrimage sites such as Lourdes and Jerusalem. The priests toggled between Arabic and Sureth, consecrating the Eucharist in a language close to their saviors ancient tongue. Catrin told me that many of the children in the community, including hers, speak English, Arabic, and Sureth, but families sometimes struggle to pass their native languages on to their children. This may be true of their faith, too. Catrins son, Ayoob, who is now 17, told me that most of his friends at school are Chaldean, but few of them attend church. Hes not that interested in religion, he said, and finds Mass long and boring. On the morning that I visited, Catrin and Evan went to church alone. Life in America is slowly becoming more familiar. At first, Catrin could hardly understand English, let alone a Michigander accent. Evan would translate for her in Walmart or Meijer, a midwestern grocery chain, although he now sheepishly admits that his translations were sometimes incorrect. After four years, they were able to buy a modest house, which Evan renovated with the help of relatives and friends. Theyre trying to save up for furniture; when I visited, the only item in their living room was a potted plant. Catrin and Evan told me they miss Karamles intensely: the smell of the air in spring, the taste of vegetables grown in its soil, the beauty of its streets decked out for Christmas. Most of all, they miss the people. Life in Karamles is largely organized around socializing with family and neighbors; Catrin used to spend hours chatting and laughing with her friends. Neighbors and cousins would sit in rows outside the shops, gathering news and shaking the hands of passersby. In Detroit, Evan said, he has found that most people keep busy and stay in their own home. Catrin works part-time, and he keeps long hours to make enough money to cover their mortgage and taxes. Yet they are resolute that leaving was the right decision. I think everyone should leave Iraq, Catrin told me. Its unsafe. You dont know whats going to happen. She doesnt know, however, whether her brother will ever leave. As long as there is a Christian community in Karamles, Thabet believes it is his duty to remain. Hes a leader, Evan said. The leader takes care of everybody. Thats the difference between me and him. Thabet feels a responsibility to rebuild the town and to instill in the next generation a sense of pride in its history. But he knows the dangers of staying in Iraq, and the limits of his power to keep his community intact. Since Catrin left for the U.S., more siblings have left Karamles. One sister departed for Jordan. Another sister stayed in Erbil after fleeing ISIS. She's scared to move home. | https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/05/iraqi-christians-nineveh-plain/589819/?utm_source=feed |
Has Seattle Found the Solution to Driving Alone to Work? | Erick Trickey is a writer in Boston. SEATTLEThree years ago, this fast-growing, hilly city of 725,000 people took a huge leap toward a longtime civic dream: becoming a place where its easy to live without driving every day or without owning a car at all. In March 2016, the regions Link light-rail system, which ran through 13 stations between the airport and downtown, added two stations, one in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and one at the University of Washington. All of a sudden, you could get from Capitol Hill to downtown in two minutes, says Keith Kyle, president of the advocacy group Seattle Subway. Compared to what people were used to, you might as well be teleporting. About This Series Our award-winning What Works series travels the nation to highlight cities finding fresh solutions to big national challenges. Starting this issue, were tackling one big idea every other month, starting with the plague of traffic. Read more. New riders flocked to the trains. Even though we extended only two stops, we brought light rail to two of the densest-populated sections of the entire state, says Peter Rogoff, CEO of Sound Transit, which operates the rail line. By tunneling under the ship canal that bisects Seattle, the light-rail extension created a connection to downtown from the north. The 4-mile trip from the university, which could take 20 minutes by car on a good day or 40 minutes on a gridlocked day, shrank to eight minutes. Buses from across North Seattle changed routes to end at the university station, where riders can switch to the train and speed underground into the central city at 55 miles per hour. People enter and exit a train in Seattle's SoundTransit system. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine The results of this project, the latest in a long string of mass-transit investments, have been remarkable, and Seattle loves to tout them: As the city has grown in population, adding jobs and buildings, its car traffic has actually gone down. City Hall says average daily traffic in Seattle proper has stayed flat, and even declined a little, since 2006and during that time, the city added more than 116,000 people, the second biggest percentage increase among Americas 50 largest cities. Meanwhile, its light-rail ridership is surging; after the most recent expansion, the number of daily users jumped 89 percent, to 65,100 people on an average weekday, compared with the year before. As other cities experiment with congestion pricing in their business districts and even banning cars from major thoroughfares, Seattle is trying another strategy: investing in more commuting options to take the pressure off its roadways. Delays on I-5, the Seattle regions main north-south freeway, have grown by two-thirds in the past several years. So the shift to carless commuting is transformational. And the push for change isnt slackeningits growing. In November 2016, inspired by Link light rails success, voters across Seattles tricounty area approved a staggering $54 billion tax levy to further expand the regions Sound Transit system. With the funding, the light-rail system is set to grow six-fold by 2041, to 117 miles, making it as large as Washington, D.C.s Metro system. Seattles enormous investment in mass transit comes after decades as a car-dominated city. Many larger cities, encumbered by 19th-century footprints and 20th-century car fixations, have paid for their booming economies with steadily worsening commute times. Census data from 2017 shows 14 million commuters spend an hour or more a day getting to and from work. Commuting timeoften spent alone in a caris getting longer every year. Seattle, as car-influenced and geography-bound as any city, has defied that trend. Top: Bicyclists disembark from a Seattle ferry. Bottom left: Pedestrians board a bus heading into downtown Seattle. Bottom right: Pedestrians cross the street at a downtown intersection. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine Seattles embrace of car-free commutes is a story of good fortune, a prosperous and progressive city whose rising fortunes make it easier to invest in managing its rapid growth. But its also an example of a virtuous circle, a city investing in the very things that make it attractive, its compact downtown and environmental ethic, and attracting more residents who value the same things. And its an example of a city voting to change itself, make up for lost time and opportunities, and catch up to other regions that made different choices decades ago. Story Continued Below Theres huge demand, says Dongho Chang, the citys traffic engineer, who measures his success not by reducing delays for cars, but by reducing car miles driven. People want transit here. People are willing to invest and pay for it. Theyre voting for transit investment. By POLITICO Staff Carless Cities: 5 Takeaways By Bill Duryea *** Twenty years ago, Seattle residents had few ways to get around: cars, buses, a few electric trolleys, and ferries across the Puget Sound. Amtrak and the 1962 Worlds Fair monorail a 1-mile ride between downtown and the Space Needle were the only trains in town. Now, a commuter standing in Seattles Union Station Square can choose from a 20-mile light-rail line, commuter-rail lines that run 34 miles north to Everett and 47 miles south through Tacoma, one of two downtown streetcars, double-decker regional express buses to far suburbs, electric trolleys climbing one of downtowns toughest inclines, and e-bikes rentable via smartphone apps. Dongho Chang, the City of Seattles city traffic engineer, sits on 2nd Avenue with his bicycle. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine None of this is cheap, but progressive Seattle is willing to pay for it. Beginning in 2014, residents voted to raise their taxes three times in three years, to expand bus service; build bus, bike and pedestrian street infrastructure; and vastly expand the regions light-rail system. Geography is a big reason Seattle residents want alternatives to cars. Seattle was built on a narrow isthmus between the Puget Sound and Lake Washington, with the Lake Washington Ship Canal cutting across it, so there are only a few routes in and out of downtown. Culture, economics and politics are other reasons: the Pacific Northwests environmental mindset, the young tech workers who like working in vibrant urban places and dont want cars to be their only commuting option. Since the 1990s, Washington state laws have required regional growth management and obligated large employers to encourage employees to take transit to work, car pool, walk, orthis is big in outdoorsy Seattlebike. In 12 minutes, cyclists can ride all the way through the citys downtown without fear. Riders whiz past glassy new buildings, construction cranes, classic theaters and the Seattle Art Museum along Second Avenues two-way protected bike lane. Rows of parked cars and plastic posts separate bikes from car traffic. Bike stoplights at rider's-eye level show green for go as red left-turn lights keep cars at bay. Chang, a committed cyclist, stood recently on Second Avenue with his red nine-speed steel bike and pointed to an intersection. Three concrete planter boxes, bursting with wild grasses and yellow flowers, formed a wall next to the white line where bikes stop for a red light. Scenes from Seattles many varied transportation options. Top left: A woman reads while sitting on the Bainbridge Island Ferry. Top right: One of the ferrys passengers brought a scooter, planning to use it once the boat arrives in Seattle. Bottom left: A traffic light in downtown Seattle gives instructions to riders in a bike lane. Bottom right: At a red light, bikers plant their right feet on a rest that abuts the bike lane. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine It becomes a buffer area for riders, so it feels a lot more comfortable, Chang told me. Seattle hasnt banished cars, nor does it want to. Rather, it is finally achieving a balanced multimodal system, remaking itself from a city built for cars into one built for all the ways people get around. And the need is growing. Local leaders talk of a Seattle Squeeze, as downtown construction and the demolition of an elevated freeway jam up streets and commuters await another expansion of light-rail and streetcar service. Its a huge transition from how the region operatedget in a carto an entire region where transit is a viable choice, says Dow Constantine, executive of King County, which includes Seattle, and former chair of the Sound Transit board. In less than a decade, peoples whole perspective has changed. *** Transit used to be a punchline in Seattle. In 1992, the Gen X love story Singles featured a transportation-planner protagonist whose dream transit system, the Supertrain, is nixed by the mayor. At that point, Seattleites had been proposing and rejecting rail systems since 1968. The Boeing bust, when the aerospace industry tanked in the early 70s, deflated the publics enthusiasm for major infrastructure projects. But by the mid-90s, the regions growing congestion clashed with its green ethos. The turning point came in 1996, when voters in three counties approved a sales tax hike and a tax on car registrations to fund Sound Transits plan for light-rail, commuter-rail and regional bus service. People are tired of just sitting around in traffic, the ballot efforts campaign manager declared on the victorious election night. The agency, mismanaged at first, lost some federal funding before a dynamic CEO, Joni Earl, whipped it into shape. In 2008, amid the Great Recession no less, voters approved a second sales tax increase to expand the system. By that point, the light-rail line was nearing its debut, and Amazon, the citys largest employer, had started building its headquarters near downtown, where it expected to move 6,000 employees. Top: Seattles tech-driven real estate boom continues, as a large new building is erected downtown. Bottom left: People lounge on oversized beanbags at a park. Bottom right: Shoppers outside an Amazon Go store in downtown Seattle. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine Linking transit and density isnt just good sense. Its part of a statewide vision for how to grow. Since the 1990s, Washington states Growth Management Act has required local governments in fast-growing areas to reduce sprawl and its Commute Trip Reduction law requires large employers to encourage employees not to drive to work alone. To combat gentrification, state law requires Sound Transit to attract affordable housing to the land it used for construction staging around new stations. Meanwhile, to encourage transit-oriented development, Seattle allows developers to build housing without off-street parking in areas with frequent transit service. Sound Transit has already bored a tunnel for the next extension and is building tracks and three stations in North Seattle that are set to open in 2021. Riders from those stations can take advantage of light rails new route to downtown under the ship canal. A lot of the imperatives for transit here are driven in part by geography, Rogoff says. Were surrounded by mountains and water. In 2016, the year light rail expanded, Seattles booming downtown was headed toward 300,000 jobs. Local officials had only to look at the clogged lanes of I-5 at rush hour to see demand for transit was escalating. Delays on the regions major freeways grew 7 percent between 2015 and 2017but rush-hour transit ridership grew twice as fast. The light rails success had superseded Sound Transits track record of overly ambitious timelines and overbudget transit projects. Polling showed more support for a big ballot proposal than a small one. Top: King County Executive Dow Constantine stands next to a SoundTransit train at Seattles Union Station. Bottom: Jon Scholes, head of the Downtown Seattle Association, in front of a colorful mural at his office. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine Peoples appetite had grown considerably, says Constantine. The more ambitious it was, the more people embraced it. They realized wed waited way too long. Seattle Subways activists capitalized on that, creating a vision map of seven light-rail lines crisscrossing the region. We made the point that bigger is better, and people want more, says Kyle, Seattle Subways president. The resulting ballot proposal, called Sound Transit 3, asked for 25 years of funding: a total of $54 billion in increased sales taxes, car taxes and property taxes. Campaigning for the ballot proposal as part of a broad coalition of alternative-transportation groups, Seattle Subway volunteers argued with opponents on the internet and promoted a yes vote at weekend festivals. They chalked potential commute times to downtown on sidewalks near proposed rail stations. The measure passed with 54 percent of the vote regionwide, led by 70 percent in Seattle itself. Despite their superambitious light-rail plans, Seattle residents dont see their city as a train-and-bike utopia. They say theyre still decades behind other cities, scrambling to catch up their transportation network to the citys job growth. Top: At the University of Washington light rail station, an elevator is packed with people. Bottom left: Passengers on the light rail system pay with an ORCA card. Bottom right: Travelers wait as a train breezes by them. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine We have a geometry challenge, says Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association. We want to continue to grow jobs in the downtown in a vertical way, but our horizontal space is limited. He gestures out the associations office windows at the four new skyscrapers of Amazons expanding headquarters complex, which now accounts for 45,000 jobs. The answer, for 70 percent of large downtown Seattle employers, is to offer discounted or free transit passes as part of their employee benefits package. ORCA cards whose names are a tribute to the Puget Sounds beloved, endangered killer whales, and an acronym for One Regional Card for All work on all Seattle area trains, buses and ferries. Commute Seattle, a partnership between the Downtown Seattle Association and local government, helps businesses set up ORCA card programs, showers and bike storage for cyclists and parking-garage pricing that encourages short-term stays over daily commuting. Employees dont want to be stuck in their cars for hours on end each day, says Scholes. They want some certainty of getting to work on time. And they value the ease of having that ORCA pass in their wallet. In 2014, Seattle voters approved a ballot proposal to buy increased bus service from King County Metro, the local bus agency. Thanks to a $60 vehicle license fee and a 0.1 percent sales tax increase, 67 percent of Seattle residents have bus service every 10 minutes within a 10-minute walk of their home, up from 25 percent of residents three years ago. Low-income residents can get discounted ORCA cards, and Seattle high-school students get them for free. Vicki Clarke, policy director for the Cascade Bicycle Club and Mike OBrien, Seattle city councilman, at the Westlake bike track. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine City Councilman Mike OBrien, who chairs the transportation committee, says Seattle cant keep up with the demand for expanded bus service. Were close to $50 million a year in extra service that the city buys on top of what Metro provides, and we would buy more if they had more to give, he says. But King County Metro is at capacity: Its hard to hire drivers, and the bus maintenance bases are full at night. I can tell my constituents that we have more bus service than weve ever had. And my constituent says, That doesnt sound right because my buses are fuller than theyve ever been. In 2015, Seattle voters approved a property tax levy, called Move Seattle, to remake streets to be more friendly to bikes, pedestrians and buses. But today, Seattles bike activists are growing impatient. Theyre unhappy that Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan has canceled some bike-lane projects after complaints from neighbors. Durkan, a former U.S. attorney elected mayor in 2017, says her administration has expanded bike access through the citys rapidly growing private bike-share system. Shes reevaluating the citys bike network plan after discovering, she says, that our predecessors had oversold people on what we could build with the dollars we had. Likewise, Durkan delayed a plan to connect the citys two streetcar lines, a priority of downtown businesses, out of concern about rising costs. Passengers get off the Bainbridge Island Ferry in Seattle. | Mark Peterson/Redux Pictures for Politico Magazine But Durkan is hardly a transit antagonist. Her administration, King County Metro and Sound Transit recently funded an on-demand, app-based shuttle van service that takes southeast Seattle residents to and from light-rail stationsa pilot program meant to help lower-income residents bridge what planners call the last mile between home and transit. And Seattle, like a number of major American cities, has committed to following the Paris climate agreement despite President Donald Trumps decision to take the United States out of it. To meet our climate goals, we have to reduce the number of vehicle miles traveled, Durkan says. We have to continue to move people and freight through and around our region. That means reducing congestion. Less cars on the road is healthier for everybody. | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/23/seattle-car-free-transportation-what-works-226935 |
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