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The Author seems to think marriage is a guarantee of happily ever after. One in two marriages doesn't last, so even if it is statistically better than de-facto it's still not exactly an impressive success rate.
Broad brush comparisons between marriage and de facto relationships are ill-founded as they are based on assumptions about intent that are very likely wrong. Marriage is a participant instigated legally declared life-long commitment so there can be a reasonable assumption that many people entering into marriage start with some kind of intent to commit for life (or thereabouts). De-facto relationships are legally declared (by the government) after one year of cohabitation regardless of the intent of the participants. No doubt many participants do not wish to be declared “de facto”. They simply cannot avoid it (without doing something illegal). There may be a huge proportion (possibly way more than 50%) of “de facto” relationships in which there is no intent to commitment or formal relationship status at all, simply a legal assessment for government administrative purposes (taxation, welfare and so on). For this reason, you can’t compare the two on an equal footing. What needs to be compared is: those married people who willingly became married and have an intent to a life-long commitment against those “de facto” couples who willingly remain unmarried and have an intent to a life-long commitment against those people who have been declared “de facto” due to their living arrangements regardless of their intent (I’m thinking on the run here – no doubt this could be refined). Come on researchers – no guts no glory. Sure, its far, far, far more work to do this research but you’d get much closer to the truth.
China announced Friday that it's investigating its own tech companies, like Tencent and Baidu, for giving users an avenue to spread violence and terror. The announcement follows government campaigns earlier this year in the UK, France and Germany that intend to place legal liability on tech companies for failing to control the presence of terrorist-related content on their platforms.
Why it matters in general: U.S. regulators have largely remained silent when it comes to policing the role of tech giants in distributing terrorist content, leaving the companies to police themselves in accordance to their own standards.
Why it matters now: In the past, tech companies have reacted to crises in a uniform fashion, but the attack in Charlottesville shows a a split. Some sites, like Google and GoDaddy, announced Monday that they would cut ties to a white nationalist website, while others have yet to comment. Neither Facebook nor Twitter updated their policies in response to the attack, although both groups do already have policies about violence.
The Facebook issue: Critics argue that Facebook didn't do enough to prevent the attack, as the marches had apparently been organized through Facebook (see the image below). In a statement, Facebook tells Axios it "does not allow hate speech or praise of terrorist acts or hate crimes, and [it's] actively removing any posts that glorify the horrendous act committed in Charlottesville."
Sound smart: Facebook's business model is built around scale. It's corporate vision is based on inclusivity of all voices and perspectives. These goals are directly challenged when the company filters out content or restricts user privileges.
Facebook says it uses both technology and people to determine whether users take advantage of that openness with posts that glorify violence, or otherwise violate their community standards. In this case, the tech company didn't find that the event that brought together the Charlottesville rally violated community standards until the weekend of the event. Posts related to the "Daily Stormer" website Google and GoDaddy have disassociated with have mostly been removed by Facebook.
Nearly 60 veterans take part in the annual event, which showcases passions born of creativity.
CHELSEA — Combat medic Shawna Barnes experienced a lot during her time in the Army. Since leaving the service in 2011, Barnes has found sculpting therapeutic as she battles numerous medical conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and a neuromuscular autoimmune disease.
Barnes was one of nearly 60 veterans who participated in the 2018 Maine Veterans Creative Arts Competition in the theater at VA Maine Healthcare Systems-Togus, the federal hospital outside Augusta.
The contest, put on by Togus and the American Legion Auxiliary, featured 73 entries in the creative arts division, which includes pottery, photography, assemblage, painting, quilting, drawing and creative writing, and about 30 in the performing arts, including music, drama and dance.
Courtney Oliver, one of Togus’ recreation therapists, said the creative arts are important to a veteran’s care. This year’s contest – the 13th held at Togus – was the largest and had two-thirds of the participants taking part for the first time.
Barnes’ sculpture of an Airedale terrier – “Big Wook the Pigeon Carrier” – took her 60 hours to complete with clay, acrylic paint and pastels. The piece is part of a series of sculptures called Animals of War that came about after a conversation with her husband about wanting her art to spark conversation. Her husband said it’s a way for her to connect with other people.
Throughout the performing arts competition, veterans representing every major conflict since World War II took the stage and shared their stories in the form of a song, poem, performance or story. As has become tradition, the show opened with the Windy Ridge Band, which has won several awards at the national competition the last few years.
One of the earlier performances was original poetry written by Stanley Munson, a returning participant who won a gold medal at the national competition last year. He was emotional as he began reading a poem called “A Soldier’s Mom,” and Oliver had to finish reading it for him.
Munson, of Belfast, was blinded permanently more than 37 years ago when he drove his vehicle into the back of a truck as a U.S. Army soldier in Germany. His creative writing, including children’s books and books of poetry, helps him deal with his significant brain injury.
The lobby of Building 210 featured pieces of pottery, drawings, paintings and other artwork submitted by veterans hoping for a chance to move on to the national competition, which will be held in October in Des Moines, Iowa. One of the pieces was an assemblage depicting the Togus community garden by its caretaker and veteran, Harold Massey.
Army veteran Melissa Chason of Saco entered a collage made up of screen-printed still photos of veterans; a ceramic bowl; and a sculpture of her Army footwear, including combat boots and high heels.
Herb Macomber, an Army veteran who suffers from chronic depression and chronic pain, submitted a piece he sewed and quilted honoring the memory of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. He also entered a denim messenger-style bag he made from a pair of old, size-50 jeans he wore before he underwent weight-loss surgery.
Togus Associate Director Dan Dücker told the audience before the event that organizers will continue to reach out to community partners to make the event an even bigger success.
“I think we’ve only just begun,” he said.
SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux will finally have his day in court. Roux face charges of misappropriating R32m while he was a senior director of the University of Stellenbosch's finance department between 2002-2010.
The long-running alleged fraud dispute between the University of Stellenbosch (Maties) and SA Rugby chief executive Jurie Roux finally has a court date.
Maties accused Roux of misappropriating R32m while he was a senior director of the university’s finance department between 2002 and 2010.
There is also a joint R5m claim against Roux and former Maties finance department employee Chris de Beer.
This was based on the conclusions of an independent audit by accounting firm KPMG commissioned by the university and completed in 2013.
On Thursday the Western Cape High Court set Monday‚ May 13‚ 2019‚ as the trial date.
After years of claims and counterclaims it seems the matter will come to head at some stage this year.
Transformation has been the buzzword since the attainment of the democratic order in SA since 1994.
Increase coopration in the industry: We now have a global problem but it cannot be solved by one person, one single organisation or any one nation. The waste management industry is currently fragmented along regional and ideological lines. This can be observed from the fact that there are no truly global waste management companies or organisations which have an incentive for improved waste management.
Bury waste misconceptions: I would say that one of the most basic misunderstandings of the waste issue is that recycling isn't always better than just burying waste. There are many places in the world where sand is plentiful, and it is easier, cheaper, less energy and carbon intensive to just bury glass than to have it sorted and reprocessed. The same is true about repurposing shipping containers, especially for housing. Depending where you are in the world, it can be much more ecological to use new materials for housing, and use old containers for storage and other non-housing purposes.
Address consumption issues as part of the solution: 150 million tonnes of plastic is thrown away after using it just once. Plastic production accounts for 8% of the worlds oil reserves and that is likely to increase. Our throw away lifestyle has to change.
Listen to the global south: We hear about the concept of zero waste constantly, but there are few people who know more about this than many of the communities in the global south. There is a real opportunity for the north to learn from the south.
Streamline research networks: The research on waste is uncoordinated and inefficient in identifying research priorities, simply because so many people are involved. The standard of research and the ideas out there are excellent but we need to improve research networks.
Reduce the waste going into landfills: In Lagos the state generates about 10,000 of waste daily and 70% of this ends up in landfills.
Tailor solutions to local needs: If we have to act locally, then we must think locally. What can be implemented successfully in the UK might not work in Nigeria or Lagos state for instance. For example, despite the talk about waste-to-energy globally, this hasn't worked as a solution in Lagos.
Delphine Arri, environmental specialist, International Finance Corporation, Washington DC, US.
Don't waste time striving for all solutions to be unique: Waste is too complex for all solutions to be distinct. In an ideal word, solutions would be tailored to the immense diversity of waste. In reality, the pragmatic approach is to prioritise management systems depending on the types of waste, its volume and how dangerous it is.
Encourage communities to get creative: What really interests me is how we can help communities across the world to deal with their own waste. Three billion people receive no formal waste management. While there are moves to remedy this in some of the megacities, this is likely to take much longer to address in rural areas.
Work with the informal sector: In Delhi there is a 27% recycling rate from the informal sector alone, at no cost to the public purse whatsoever. This compares favourably with a city like London, with a waste management budget of millions.
An interesting model for this is the city of Cuenca in Ecuador, where the municipality sat down with the waste pickers living on the local landfill site, understood their key target materials and implemented a recycling scheme focused on these. They built them a basic recycling shed, so they could do their work away from the elements and provided basic housing adjacent to the landfill site with electricity and running water. They also helped them organise into a co-operative to get better prices for the materials they collected.
Engage both the winners and the losers in the waste industry: Make sure you understand all the pieces in the puzzle including which groups gain and lose from waste activities. From this base you can identify their relative drivers and motivations. The industry needs to ask itself, how do you engage all in the process of designing a waste management system, from the local rubbish picker to the large businesses?
Don't alientate groups which depend on waste for their income: It is important to learn from these groups both from a social and an operational perspective. The consideration of new, more mechanised, government-run recycling technologies or collection systems that exclude access to recyclables for informal recyclers has met resistance. In many cases it is necessary to strike a balance between a technology that boosts efficiency and productivity without taking away jobs from the informal recycling sector. Many cities in Latin America have tried to strike this balance by installing manual or semi-mechanised separation plants in which informal recyclers are employed or in which a cooperative is contracted to operate the plant.
Read the rest of the advice shared on the live Q&A here.
• A third of the world's food is wasted – how can we stop the rot?
The Costa Rican Attorney General’s Office revoked an environmental viability study granted to a marina project in the Caribbean port of Moín, saying it would damage protected areas in the Cariari National Wetlands.
The study issued by the Environment Ministry’s National Technical Secretariat in 2008 “contradicts provisions stated by the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR) and also local regulations including in the country’s Environment Law and Forest Law, among others,” the Attorney General’s Office stated.
Advertising published by developers – the Florida-based Soler Pazos Group – presented the project, Isla Moín, as the largest proposed marina in the Caribbean, with a planned investment of some $450 million.
The project, currently on hold, offered slips for 239 vessels, plus real estate development consisting of 600 condominiums, a hotel with 250 rooms, 100 sea-view villas, 100 apartments and 10,000 square meters of space for businesses.
The total projected area covered is 88 hectares surrounded by 2.7 kilometers of beach and 2.7 kilometers of river.
According to RAMSAR data the Cariari Wetlands include valuable ecosystems that remain almost unexplored and are some of the last sites of refuge for endangered species such as the manatee.
Her life has turned upside down after it was revealed she was one of 50 people charged for participating in a massive college admissions scandal.
And while Lori Loughlin lost her role on Hallmark's When Calls the Heart, her costar Paul Greene has offered his full support 'no matter what happens' in the legal proceedings surrounding Operation Varsity Blues, according to People.
The 54-year-old actress, along with her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded not guilty to federal charges on Monday stemming from their involvement in the scam where they allegedly paid $500,000 in bribes to secure their daughter's spots at the University of Southern California.
The Full House star was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud with an additional charge of money laundering.
Loughlin and her husband were among the 50 people — including Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman — indicted in the wide-ranging college bribery scandal.
The Hallmark Channel show 'severed ties' with Lori after the news broke that her family was apart of the scam.
The show will still go on as planned, with a few minor changes now that Lori's no longer a part of the program.
Lori starred as Abigail Stanton for six seasons of the television drama based on Janette Oke's book of the same name.
The show, which premiered in 2014, was recently renewed for a seventh season and returns to the network on May 4, with a brand-new episode the following day.
IRELAND HAS GONE bread mad (Brad? Mead?).
With the polar vortex known as The Beast from the East imminently expected to leave all corners of the land covered in snow, social media has been awash with posts showing supermarket shelves stripped bare of essentials like bread, milk, fuel, and fresh vegetables and food produce.
And the yeast-product enthusiasm, which kicked off with gusto yesterday evening, showed no sign of abating this afternoon. No sooner were shelves restocked than they’ve been depleted by the hordes of ravenous bread-piranha.
Not that the various retailers, nor the bread producers, have been slow on the uptake. They appear to be well aware there’s a bread rush afoot.
A spokesman for bread suppliers Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien told TheJournal.ie that the company has “significantly increased our production to meet the dramatic increase in sales being experienced” due to the “unprecedented demand levels experienced yesterday and today”.
We will continue to monitor demand over the coming days and react accordingly, within available capacity, to ensure market demand for our products is fully met.
Two of the other main bread producers, Pat the Baker and Brennans Bread, could not be reached for a statement this afternoon. Possibly because every available hand is being utilised to maximise dough output before Thursday.
No potatoes left in SuperValu, Firhouse Shopping Centre.
It’s understood however that both suppliers have radically increased bread production however in the face of the current demand.
Meanwhile, Tesco says it has increased the availability of its “core grocery essentials” in the face of the unprecedented demand – the company has upped its bread availability by 20% and its supplies of milk, fuel, and fresh food by 10% overnight.
“Tesco has increased the number of colleagues working in our in-store bakeries to ensure we have as much fresh bakery available as possible throughout the day,” the company said in a statement, adding that “our teams are working around the clock to ensure that stock reaches our stores to help customers prepare for the bad weather ahead”.
Its stores are also stocking snow grips for shoes and “additional stocks such as radiators and heaters, batteries, bottled water, and de-icing materials”.
We advise the public to contact their local SuperValu stores to check the availability of specific items.
At present all our stores will be open this week as planned. Already we are seeing increased traffic to our stores as people begin to stock up in advance of the storm and we have increased orders and deliveries to meet the rising demand. We will keep customers updated on store closures via our official Facebook page.
Aldi and Dunnes Stores had not replied to a request for comment at the time of publication.
So, broadly speaking, it seems the supermarkets have the situation in hand, or at least are doing their level best to get on top of things.
No shortage of bread there.
Email “'Significant increase in bread production' as consumers pick shelves dry in anticipation of The Beast”.
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The dudes over at LensRentals had too much time on their hands, so they staged a game of chess between their inventory of Nikon and Canon lenses. You can do the same too, for nearly $10,000/week.
LensRentals will ship you the entire set, which will cost at least $1,000 in shipping, but they point out that all the pieces have image stabilization.
The complete 32 piece set includes 70-200 f/2.8 pawns, 600mm f/4 Kings and 500mm f4 Queens, 400mm f/2.8 Bishops, 300mm f/2.8 Knights, and 200mm f/2.0 Rooks in black (Nikon) and white (Canon). If you don't already have an appropriate size chess board we will throw in a complete set of 32 white and 32 black stick-on 12" square vinyl tiles so you can create your own.
The OSCE should "immediately" send an observer mission to Ukraine, the US envoy said as the pan-European body met in Vienna on Monday.
"We call today for OSCE observers to be sent immediately to Ukraine," ambassador Daniel Baer said in a speech, released on Monday, to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
He said that the OSCE "should make the decision today to move forward with plans and preparation for a monitoring mission immediately".
He said this would "monitor and prevent conflict; ensure the protection of human rights of members of minorities; prevent border conflict; promote respect for territorial integrity; and to maintain peace, stability and security in the region."
His comments were made at a OSCE Preparatory Committee Meeting on Ukraine on Sunday afternoon in Vienna, followed Monday morning by a gathering of the OSCE Special Permanent Council.
Created during the Cold War as a forum for dialogue between East and West and now covering most of the northern hemisphere, the OSCE conducts election monitoring, arms control and conflict prevention activities worldwide.
ASUS today announced the ROG (Republic of Gamers) Xonar Phoebus Solo 7.1 PCI Express gaming sound card with precise positional audio and lifelike immersion for gamers. Xonar Phoebus Solo continues to exhibit the previous Xonar Phoebus hardware excellence, including clear 118 dB signal-to-noise ratio, a powerful 600 ohm headphones amplifier, Dolby Home Theater V4, and DTS UltraPC II surround sound.
The ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo sound card features an EMI shield and exclusive ASUS Hyper Grounding technology that significantly reduce the detrimental effects of the electromagnetic interference present inside all desktop PCs. Hyper Grounding technology brings the considerable motherboard expertise of ASUS to audio products, with a multi-layer PCB and high-quality power supply that help eliminate electrical noise from nearby components, resulting in cleaner, less distorted audio. Together with the high-fidelity PCM1796 digital-to-analog converter, the ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo delivers clear and crisp sound with a 118dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which means gamers will hear and experience every audio detail.
Many gamers play wearing headphones to avoid disturbing others and ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo is one of the few soundcards to use the top-flight TPA6120A2 with 600ohm impedance for superior sound clarity. Xonar Phoebus Solo also features Dolby Home Theater V4 audio enhancement for cinematic surround sound both with external speakers and headphones. Support for the new DTS UltraPC II audio technology also ensures superior audio quality for every PC application, including gaming, movie-watching and even internet telephone calls.
Genre-optimized game audio profiles allow gamers to choose from four different audio presets with ROG Xonar Phoebus Solo. Profiles for first person shooters, real time strategy, role playing and racing stimulation games mean gamers can enjoy audio tuned specifically for the game their playing.
Existing ROG Xonar Phoebus users can also enjoy upgraded audio gaming with the new genre-optimized gaming audio profiles and DTS UltraPC II suite via the Phoebus driver update.
Judge and Mrs. Stuart Namm of Stony Brook, L.I., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Suzanne Lizabeth Namm, to Richard Wolonick, a son of Mr. and Mrs. John Wolonick of De Land, Fla.
Her father is a judge of Suffolk County Court in Stony Brook. Her mother, Lenore Namm, is a Suffolk County probation officer. The future bridegroom's father is a physical therapist in De Land.
Who should replace Roy Hodgson?
England crashed out of Euro 2016 in humiliating fashion with a humbling defeat to a superior Iceland side.
Manager Roy Hodgson resigned immediately after the match, saying he was sorry that his four year tenure had to end like this but that "these things happen".
An early Wayne Rooney penalty gave early optimism to the England players that this match might not be quite as difficult as they had feared, but some dreadful defending a few moments later allowed Ragnar Sigurdsson to head in from close range.

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