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The really sad part is that here is an app that might get people interested in who represents them in Washington, especially kids and young adults, and connects people to their senators and representatives via fun and PARTISAN FREE way. Yet Apple has decided it’s not appropriate. There needs to be more of that in this world of right versus left, especially as that applies to young kids who are being raised to consider politics the public equivalent of professional wrestling. Ray’s documentary “I Want Your Money” is distinctly right wing (and my own political views are mostly left of center) but the app is totally partisan neutral.
Please spread the word how stupid this rejection is. Apple of course does not care what its customers think… apparently they consider us idiots at best anyway (appropriate on my part, as I am a member of MAD‘s “Usual Gang of Idiots”), but it’s worth a laugh and a shake of your head.
EDIT- Thanks for all the comments, support and suggestions from everyone. Ray and his programmer Stevo Brock are working on other options, including other platforms… but that’s all in their hands. I just draw funny pictures. I’m going to close down comments on this thread, but feel free to e-mail me with further comments or suggestions.
Also, for those who have written and asked about seeing all 540 of the congressional caricatures, one way or another I will make sure we publish those… either via the app on another platform or here on my website if nothing else.<|endoftext|>The Birth of the New World (colloquially known as La Estatua de Colón, literally meaning "The Statue of Columbus") is a 360 foot (110 m) bronze sculpture located on the Atlantic coastline of Arecibo, Puerto Rico. When completed in 2016, it became the tallest sculpture in North America,[citation needed] surpassing Mexico's Guerrero Chimalli, which measures 200 feet (61 m) including its base.
History [ edit ]
Originally conceived by Georgian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli as a monument to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's first voyage, Birth of the New World was constructed in 1991. The statue prominently depicts Columbus controlling an anachronistic depiction of a steering wheel, with a backdrop featuring the Niña, Pinta and Santa María traversing the Atlantic Ocean.[1] Made of 2,750 bronze and steel pieces and weighting more than 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons), the monument's 360 ft (110 m) height made it the tallest in the Western Hemisphere during the last decade of the 20th century, dwarfing the Statue of Liberty and the Monumento a la Paz (also known as Virgen de la Paz).[citation needed] Tsereteli offered Birth of the New World to the cities of Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, New York City and Columbus, Ohio, but none of those cities accepted it, considering it an eyesore due to its disproportionate features or because its size would affect their skylines. The statue gathered the derogatory nicknames of "Chris Kong" and "From Russia with Ugh" while searching for a base.[2] This, combined with the magnitude of undertaking such a project kept the monument from finding a home for several years. Despite the hindrances, the monument was featured in a stamp.[citation needed] A smaller and modified version, named The Birth of a New Man and meant to be the European link of a two-part composition along with Birth of the New World, was adopted by Seville, Spain, and dedicated there in 1995.[3]
Finding a home in Puerto Rico [ edit ]
In 1998, Edwin Rivera Sierra, mayor of the municipality of Cataño in Puerto Rico, decided to acquire the monument. Despite being donated by Tsereteli, the cost of importing the statue was 2.4 million dollars, all of which was taken from the public treasury with the approval of governor Pedro Rosselló.[4] Rivera Sierra insisted that the municipal treasury would not lose a single cent on the project, and planned to erect the monument near the entrance of Cataño Bay. The unassembled pieces of the statue were relocated to an adjacent recreational park upon arriving on November 12, 1998. In its original plan, construction would have begun in 1999, with the dedication taking place in October 2000. However, the project caused immediate controversy; several homes would have to be destroyed to make way for it and the cost of its assembly was deemed excessive with only the statue's base being estimated to be worth around 150 million dollars. The Oficina del Contralor (Office of the Comptroller) opened an investigation into the transaction and found that the 1.6 million dollars in taxes that were due when the statue entered the port were not paid. The auditor also investigated the use of public funds to cover the travel expenses of Rivera Sierra when personally meeting Tseretelli in Russia.
The height of the monument raised concerns that it would interfere with air traffic to nearby Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport.[4] Ultimately, the Puerto Rico Port Authority denied Cataño the permits required to advance, citing "security concerns". The central government decided to stop providing any funding for the project. The unassembled pieces remained stored near Cataño Bay for several years. Rivera Sierra's successor, Wilson Soto, declared that the municipality would not invest any public funds in the project. By this time, some of the pieces were beginning to show signs of rusting, and storing the pieces was costing $1.6 million in taxes per year, not including the salaries of several security guards.[5] The municipality also lost an estimated income of $200,000 that the recreational park would have provided were it open to the public. The total cost of the project was re-estimated due to the necessity of replacing several parts and some of the supporting steel structures, fixing exposure damage and the additional need for a sandblasting procedure. In early 2005, Tseretelli began searching for developers that would take over the project. However, these efforts were interrupted by Soto, who considered that simply assembling the statue was not enough to attract tourism. He suggested that the entire area would need to be developed.[6] The size of the project caused potential developers to lose interest.
On August 16, 2008, the municipality confirmed that Birth of a New World had been transferred to Holland Group Port Investment (HGPI), a private group that was involved in the development of the Mayagüez port. Soto justified the action by claiming that simply storing the pieces was costing the public treasury 4 million dollars, and that Cataño could not afford a project that would exceed $100 million.[7] The private entity transferred the pieces to its facilities in Mayagüez, announcing its intention to assemble the statue near the coastline in time for the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games that were being held in that municipality. HGPI devised a plan to attract an estimated 500,000 tourists to with Birth of a New World as its cornerstone. A regional plan would include the establishment of a museum of history near the statue. The possibility of establishing a cruise route between Mayagüez and Seville was also explored. Once there, a Russian team examined the condition of the pieces and ensured that it could still be assembled.
Assembly in Arecibo [ edit ]
Birth of the New World (statue of Columbus)
HGPI was unable to fulfill its plan in time, citing disinterest by the municipal government, and the statue was reassigned for a different project. Arecibo became a frontrunner, and Mayor Lemuel Soto began the permit process for a project that would combine the statue with other attractions, such as the Arecibo Observatory. However, the municipality faced competition; Representative David Bonilla Cortés requested that the statue be assembled on Desecheo Island[4] and the newly elected mayor of Cataño, José Rosario, proposed using the statue as part of an eco park that would be constructed in the swampy region of Ciénaga las Cucharillas.[8] San Juan also tentatively considered the project, but lost interest due to the condition of the pieces.[9] Ultimately, Tseretelli decided that it was "too late" to consider other venues and settled for Arecibo. However, once there the monument faced more controversy, this time by activists that condemned Columbus' role in opening the door to the Spanish genocide of indigenous peoples and by groups that opposed its impact in the maritime-terrestrial zone.[10] Eventually, the Luis Fortuño administration began processing the respective permits.
In 2012, Rosario denounced the Puerto Rico Department of Treasury for imposing nearly 3 million dollars in retroactive taxes for the original transaction and unfinished projects related to it, resulting in an embargo of the municipality's income.[11] In June 2012, the first pieces began arriving at Barrio Islote in Arecibo.[12]Once there, Birth of the New World became the main attraction of a tourist project called Columbus Theme Park developed by Panamerican Grain, which the administration expected would produce 4.6 million dollars in income per year and recruit 900 new employees. The assembly investment was now estimated at 98 million, with only the reclassification of the zone preventing the project's advance. This process was completed by January 2013.[13] On February 11, 2014, a contemporary-Taíno movement, named del Movimiento Indígena Jíbaro Boricua, joined other anti-Columbus factions in protest the impending assembly of the monument.[14]
Economic impact [ edit ]
Prior to the inauguration, an economic study by consulting firm Estudios Técnicos, estimated that the statue would attract at least 300,000 tourists per year to the municipality, with additional income from taxes related to the project.[15]
See also [ edit ]<|endoftext|>Easy and quick beets in the instant pot. 15 minutes on high pressure and they are prefectly done. The skin just slids off! Use them in a salad or pilaf.
Beets are so flavorful and healthy. We will cook Beets in the Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot. Usually beets take very long to cook, however they are a breeze in the pressure cooker.
I love beets, especially after knowing their nutritional value. Also, how can one not love the bright colors? Red is my favorite color. My husband on the other hand, is not a big fan of beets. But guess what? I mostly do the cooking, so I get to choose what we eat 🙂 To his credit, he never frowns on anything that is on the table. In fact I think he completely relishes any new dishes I try.
I have been using Imperfect produce a lot lately and they always have beets in the box. So I am cooking beets more regularly now. Check out imperfect produce if you have not already, it is a great concept.
Beets Nutrition
“Beet is of exceptional nutritional value – low in fat, full of vitamins, minerals, iron, and packed with powerful antioxidants – a health-food titan“. They are also an excellent source of folic acid and a very good source of fiber, manganese and potassium. Although I don’t use the beet greens in this recipe, they are also very nutritious and can be cooked up and enjoyed in the same way as spinach.
How to cook Beets in Instant Pot?
The first step is to trim the beets. It depends where you buy the beets from, they might have leaves with them or leaves might have already been removed. Trim the leaves leaving the root. Then rinse the beets under running water to remove any dirt.
I used 3 beets this time, but you can easily double or triple the number of beets. The main thing to note is have almost equal sized beets when cooking. This is one recipe where the cooking time varies based on the size of the beets. Small to medium sized beets can all go in as is. If there are some large beets, then cut them in half.
Add a cup of water to the instant pot and place the trivet in it. Place the beets on the trivet. You could also use a steamer basket. For all small to medium sized beets, cook on manual or pressure cook at high pressure for 15 minutes. If all your beets are large, you can cook for 20 minutes. Do a 10 minute natural pressure release, which means release the pressure manually 10 minutes after the pressure cooker beeps.
The left picture below shows before they are cooked and the right one after pressure cooking. You can insert a knife through one of the beets to check if they are tender all the way through. Else cook them for a few more minutes.
Question: Do I have to peel beets before cooking? The answer is you can, but it is not required. I prefer to peel them after they are cooked. The skin just comes off with your fingers or a paper towel. No need for a knife or peeler. It can smudge your hands red, so if you are going to a party, don’t forget to wear gloves.
Transfer the beets to a plate/cutting board and let them cool down. Then you can easily scrape off the skin with your hands.
Slice or Cut the beets as you prefer. Transfer to a serving bowl, drizzle with some olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper. They are a perfect side dish or can be added to a salad. I made a Beet Caprese salad with the leftovers.<|endoftext|>As routine, in our party we use some kind of short-listing for almost every elected position when there are more than two candidates. We expect successful candidates to have a majority support amongst the membership, not just a plurality, even if this means that the candidate who was second in the first round of voting ends up being selected. I'm guessing (and please correct me if I'm wrong) that there is not a single Tory MP who has been selected using pure, unfiltered, FPTP.
I would have more sympathy with FPTP if we ever – and I mean ever – used it for internal party elections.
But the system is packed with history and tradition and we in our party love all that. Traditions like:
OK. I get it. We're the Conservative party. We think our title is an adjective rather than just a noun. So when a change is proposed to the voting system our instinct is to oppose unless there is a very good reason for changing it.
We do this because party members want to see candidates that represent majority consent. So why is it that we don't respect the electorate enough to give them the same benefits?
I cannot, for the life of me, understand why, when given the choice between a two-candidate election system and one that's designed to filter out less popular choices, that we should opt for the clapped out, unfit-for-purpose system that is FPTP.
I'm also guessing that our 'No' supporters don't really support the principle of choice through plurality.
Are they suggesting that an unfiltered list of candidates for the next by-election, for example, should be presented to the members of that constituency party on an FPTP basis without an exhaustive ballot or some kind of short-listing process?
Would they want to see a full list of leadership candidates presented to the membership and a leader selected on the basis of a simple plurality?
No, of course not. Though David Davis might.
Every internal election in which I have taken part in my 37 years of membership we short-list, we rank or we have exhaustive ballots. I cannot remember a single occasion where we presented a full list of candidates and voted on an FPTP basis. Why? Because to do so would be unfair; not unfair to the candidate but unfair to the electorate. Yet this is exactly what a 'No' vote would achieve. It would legitimise an hypocrisy.
AV provides for that short-listing, that exhaustive balloting, on one election day. In France they do it in two elections. For the Party leadership we have two elections with different constituencies but it all amounts to the same: reducing the number of choices down to two which can then reveal majority support.
The 'No' campaign compares AV to other systems of election but not FPTP. They know that FPTP is like tossing a coin on three possible choices - it doesn't work unless you do it more than once.
An increasing number of Tories will vote tactically to keep out their least favoured candidate. Some Conservatives believe this is close to heresy. I prefer to think of it as being close to reality. I know an ex-Tory MP who routinely votes LibDem in elections because he judges this the best way to keep the Labour Party out. I've lost track of the number of “Can't win here” graphs that I've put into election literature to encourage people to vote tactically. A tactical voter has to guess what her/his neighbours are doing and rarely vote for the party they really want. I want 3rd place Conservatives in Islington to be confidently vote Conservative AND help to keep out their least favoured option. I think it would reveal that they aren't third place after all.
This is probably our last chance for decades to change this rotten, unfit-for-purpose, clapped out system. And that's why I'm voting for AV. What's not to like?
> The website of Conservatives say Yes to AV.<|endoftext|>Update March 4, 4:50 p.m.: The city of Asheville gets “Rickrolled.” In a fun twist that no one checked at first, the QR code on the fake parking tickets doesn’t ask for money, and yet it doesn’t give you up or let you down either.
The latest news from the city of Asheville:
Someone is handing out bogus parking citations in downtown Asheville. Two were discovered today, once when a person who received the alleged citation contacted Asheville Parking Services, and another time when a parking enforcement officer noticed one on a car and removed it.
The false citations have the City of Asheville logo on them, making them look official, said Harry Brown, Parking Services Manager.
They also have QR codes on them. “That’s a dead giveaway,” said Brown. “Our citations do not have QR codes on them.”
The false tickets also sport alarmingly high fines on them, much higher fines than the City of Asheville charges. The false ticket says due now: $100 with a late charge of $200. The actual fine for overtime parking is $10.