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http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Alex-Nieto-case-Taser-trigger-pulled-around-time-6875936.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712165215id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/Alex-Nieto-case-Taser-trigger-pulled-around-time-6875936.php | Alex Nieto case: Taser trigger pulled around time of killing | 20160712165215 | A Taser stun gun carried by Alejandro “Alex” Nieto registered three trigger pulls at about the same time he was fatally shot by San Francisco police officers in a park, an expert from Taser International told a jury Monday.
City attorneys defending police in a wrongful death lawsuit believe the testimony by Bryan Chiles, a technical compliance officer with Taser, supports the police account that Nieto pointed the stun gun at officers on March 21, 2014, at Bernal Heights Park.
The officers say they had to fire in self-defense because Nieto threatened them, and they mistook the gun-shaped Taser for a pistol.
But lawyers for the family of Nieto, a 27-year-old security guard and City College of San Francisco student, pushed back hard as the civil trial in U.S. District Court entered its second week.
They attacked the accuracy of the Taser’s internal clock, which had to be calibrated by Taser, and questioned why the weapon was recovered with its safety switch activated in the on position — which would have prevented it from being fired.
Whether Nieto pointed the Taser has been the key point of contention at the trial, in which jurors must decide whether four officers used excessive force when they fired 59 shots at Nieto.
Last week, Nieto’s attorneys called a witness who said Nieto’s hands were in his jacket pockets when officers opened fire. City attorneys, however, suggested that witness was not credible, and they said Nieto’s Taser was found with its barb-like electrodes protruding from being fired.
Chiles had examined the weapon at the request of the San Francisco district attorney’s office, which was looking into criminal charges against the officers. The officers were eventually cleared.
Chiles told the jury that in his examination of the stun gun he had to add roughly four minutes to the internal clock to correct for “time drift.” The Taser’s clock, he said, lost approximately 2.3 seconds per day from its factory settings.
After also adjusting the clock to Pacific Daylight Time from its default setting of Greenwich Mean Time, Chiles said, he found that the weapon’s trigger log indicated it was pulled three times. Each pull was within seconds of when the officers opened fire, according to time-stamped recordings of police radio traffic.
But under questioning by Adante Pointer, an attorney for the Nieto family, Chiles said he initially gave the city a different set of times, each about four minutes earlier, for the trigger pulls.
Chiles said he initially failed to test the Taser for time drift, but corrected the mistake after someone from the city — he couldn’t say who it was — contacted him and told him the original set did not match with the officers’ account of the incident.
Pointer also called into question how the Taser could have been found with its safety switch on. Chiles told the jury that it’s impossible to fire the stun gun with the safety on, and that the Taser’s red laser sight would not have activated, either.
Three of the four officers have testified they opened fire because they feared for their safety after seeing the red laser beam. Police were called to the scene by park visitors who reported that Nieto was acting strangely and possibly carrying a gun.
Pointer also raised the possibility that the Taser’s internal clock could have been reset by Nieto, which would throw off Chiles’ calculations. Chiles suggested that was impossible, because the cord needed for such a reset didn’t come with the weapon and because the clock was still on Greenwich Mean Time when he examined it.
Later Monday, Nieto’s mother, Elvira Nieto, took the stand and recounted tearfully how proud she had been of her son for his work on political campaigns. Pointer displayed pictures of Alex Nieto posing with former President Bill Clinton and former Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.
Elvira Nieto said that after her son’s death, she received a certificate he had earned at City College.
“This was the outcome of all the effort he had put into this,” she said through an interpreter. “When I got this, I felt very sad and I began to cry, but my husband told me it was a gift from him ... because he never got to see it.”
Kale Williams is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kwilliams@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @sfkale | A Taser stun gun carried by Alejandro “Alex” Nieto registered three trigger pulls at about the same time he was fatally shot by San Francisco police officers in a park, an expert from Taser International told a jury Monday. City attorneys defending police in a wrongful death lawsuit believe the testimony by Bryan Chiles, a technical compliance officer with Taser, supports the police account that Nieto pointed the stun gun at officers on March 21, 2014, at Bernal Heights Park. [...] lawyers for the family of Nieto, a 27-year-old security guard and City College of San Francisco student, pushed back hard as the civil trial in U.S. District Court entered its second week. Whether Nieto pointed the Taser has been the key point of contention at the trial, in which jurors must decide whether four officers used excessive force when they fired 59 shots at Nieto. Last week, Nieto’s attorneys called a witness who said Nieto’s hands were in his jacket pockets when officers opened fire. Chiles had examined the weapon at the request of the San Francisco district attorney’s office, which was looking into criminal charges against the officers. Each pull was within seconds of when the officers opened fire, according to time-stamped recordings of police radio traffic. Chiles told the jury that it’s impossible to fire the stun gun with the safety on, and that the Taser’s red laser sight would not have activated, either. | 3.017986 | 0.967626 | 34.111511 | low | high | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2011/05/29/we-got-the-tweet/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712174021id_/http://nypost.com:80/2011/05/29/we-got-the-tweet/ | We got the tweet | 20160712174021 | When Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine was 15, she and a “friend” met a pair of suave, cowboy-hat-wearing drug dealers who were 24 and 38 years old. While her friend began dating the 24-year-old — a man who had recently escaped from Leavenworth prison — Valentine became an item with the 38-year-old, and the four became a tight, wild hangout crew.
That “friend,” by the way, was her mother.
Since February 2010, Valentine has been recalling tales of her youth gone wild and even some hellacious survival experiences — including a teenage rape and a home invasion — 140 characters at a time, in more than 1,750 tweets to date, on her “@kvmemoir” Twitter account.
When her bandmate, vocalist Belinda Carlisle, released her own memoir earlier that same year, Valentine was inspired to tweet hers, becoming the first celeb to “pen” a memoir on Twitter. She began with: “Mom @ 17 met Dad in Hyde Park/London. He was in USAF. She always said I was born coz she ate a sandwich in the park 4 lunch 1 day.”
Many of her tweets convey a literary flare, as with, “Stepmom had eyes like little black stones, when she smiled there was no sparkle.”
She also doesn’t shy away from her tragedies. A tale from when she was about 14, of a night when she was with a friend who picked up two guys at a bar, includes the tweet, “They took us to apartment, she went in bedroom w/1 guy. The other one forced me. Wasn’t 1st sex for me but was rape. He got mad I was crying.”
The memoir’s other harrowing passage comes when she recalls, over 39 tweets, a 1985 home invasion where she and musician friends Carlene Carter and Charlie Sexton were tied up and terrorized in her home. One read as follows: “Lunged at him. Carlene was sobbing & screaming. He dodged me, grabbed my arm & twisted it until I dropped the knife. Then I started crying.”
“What I was trying to convey is that it was a devastating occurrence,” Valentine tells The Post. “I’d bought the house in January, and that happened in July. I moved out. I couldn’t be there anymore.”
Luckily, all escaped unharmed, but the perpetrator was never caught.
“Your house is where you’re supposed to feel safe. I never stayed in that house again,” she adds.
Valentine also caused controversy when she tweeted about an abortion she had in the ’80s, two days before the Go-Go’s played Madison Square Garden.
“[Some people tweeted], ‘Why don’t you use the real word’ — because I said ‘terminated’ — or, ‘I feel bad for you. That was a terrible mistake,’ ” says Valentine.
But worse, she had never told her husband about the abortion, and he learned about it by reading her tweets.
“He was like, ‘Oh my God. You didn’t tell me that,’ ” she says. “It was uncomfortable. You love somebody and think you know them really well, and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘Blammo!’ They feel like they should know.”
Valentine — whose band releases a remastered version of its 1981 debut, “Beauty and the Beat,” on Tuesday and performs at Irving Plaza on Friday — posts anywhere from two to 15 tweets several times a week, taking care not to overwhelm the feeds of her 1,100 followers. Her story is currently in 1999, and she’ll continue until it catches up to the present.
While there are several frustrating aspects to the project — it’s difficult to read from the beginning, and it’s impossible for her to edit posts without completely deleting them — Valentine is thrilled to help deepen the perception of what Twitter can do.
“People shake up the genre from time to time, and attention spans are shorter. So why not do it on Twitter?” she says. “If I do make it a book, I’m gonna keep it like it is — except in reverse order.” | ( )When Go-Go’s bassist Kathy Valentine was 15, she and a “friend” met a pair of suave, cowboy-hat-wearing drug dealers who were 24 and 38 years old. While her friend began dating the 24-year-old —… | 16.27451 | 0.941176 | 45.176471 | medium | medium | extractive |
http://www.cbsnews.com/media/11-best-u-s-cities-for-job-seekers/7/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712203910id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/media/11-best-u-s-cities-for-job-seekers/7/ | 11 best U.S. cities for job seekers | 20160712203910 | College grads and mid-career professionals alike may find themselves in search of a city that offers the best of both worlds: great job opportunities and a healthy work-life balance.
Using those measures, as well as the cost of living and job satisfaction, employment site Glassdoor has crunched the numbers and come up with the top U.S. cities offering the best opportunities for workers. While some of the biggest American cities made the list, many of those top-rated are midsize metropolitan areas that are transforming their economies with tech and health care jobs.
That may provide some relief to job seekers who worry that opportunities exist only in expensive cities such as New York, which didn't make the cut in Glassdoor's rankings because of its high cost of living and so-so job satisfaction and work-life balance.
Those on the hunt for new career opportunities may want to consider some of the smaller cities that rose to the top of the rankings because they're places where typical workers can afford to buy homes and get a foothold on the economic ladder.
"These are smaller, midsize cities that have really great job markets that are growing," said Allison Berry, a spokeswoman with Glassdoor. "The thing that's standing out for us in the list is that bigger doesn't necessarily mean better."
Two cities famous for their high cost of living are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 on the list, primarily because their high scores for work-life balance and job satisfaction outweighed the pain of their sky-high real estate prices.
Read on to learn about the top 11 cities ranked by Glassdoor for jobs. | They offer a combination of strong hiring, solid pay and good work-life balance -- but some are rather costly | 14.5 | 0.5 | 1.045455 | low | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/10/wall-street-blockchain-technology-banking/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160712212928id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/10/wall-street-blockchain-technology-banking/ | What Wall Street’s Obsession With Blockchain Means for Banking | 20160712212928 | Howard Yu is professor of strategic management and innovation at IMD. He specializes in technological innovation, strategic transformation and change management. In 2015 Professor Yu was featured in Poets & Quants as one of the Best 40 Under 40 Professors. He received his doctoral degree at Harvard Business School.
Anyone who sends money abroad knows how inconvenient it is. Banks take days, sometimes weeks, to clear payments, and they collect a hefty fee in between. And God forbid, when errors occur, money vanishes into thin air. “Banking now is like sending a letter—you send it [and] you don’t know if it reached [its destination],” observed Chris Larsen, CEO and co-founder of Ripple, a San Francisco-based startup. His vision is simple: Money transfer should be like sending an iMessage, where you immediately know if and when it arrives. It’s a bold, disruptive idea for sure, but it’s a vision eagerly embraced by heavyweights on Wall Street.
Just last month, IBM IBM and Crédit Mutuel Arkéa announced the completion of their first blockchain project. The week before, a group of seven banks, including UBS UBS , Santander SAN , and UniCredit, were trying to move money across borders using a blockchain platform that Ripple created. Goldman Sachs GS and Barclays BCS had similarly invested in yet another venture, aiming to make real-time money transfer possible. Even JPMorgan Chase JPM , an initial blockchain skeptic, has now joined Citigroup C , Bank of America BAC , and Credit Suisse CS to test out application in the credit derivatives market. Blockchain, a record-keeping technology that powers Bitcoin—the first digital currency—has irrevocably gone mainstream.
Until most recently, Bitcoin was infamously associated with drug dealers, pornography, and the illicit weapons trade. To possess the kind of eagerness Wall Street has in experimenting with blockchain is like Sony Music Entertainment SNE or Warner Music Group dabbling in peer-to-peer music sharing when Napster was at its height in the late ’90s. Little wonder that some observers likened blockchain to an unregulated open field. Jamie Smith, former spokesperson for President Obama, argued for the need to engage policy makers more widely, calling educating regulators a top priority.
In short order, an unlikely alliance was forged. Startups with names that have barely entered the public conscious (e.g. BitFury, BitGo, Bitnet, Bitstamp, itBit) are now working with the U.S. Justice Department, the FBI, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Still, the most ardent supporters of blockchain came not from Silicon Valley, but from Wall Street. Unlike major music labels who ignored, shunned, and deplored peer-to-peer file sharing, the pinstripe suit–wearing bankers suddenly turned into adventurous entrepreneurs. What changed this time?
Every intricacy of modern banking is an attempt to answer a fundamental question posed by capitalism: How do we get strangers to trust one another? Let’s say Mary, a mother living in New York, wants to wire $1,000 to her son, David, who is studying abroad in Madrid. Upon order, the U.S. bank immediately debits Mary’s account and puts the money on hold at the Federal Reserve, which waits to aggregate hundreds of thousands of daily transactions before sending them in a batch to the European Central Bank. The European Central Bank then dispatches the bundle and schedules the distribution of individual transactions to different local banks. After two to four days, David finds the equivalent of $900 appearing in his local account after the deduction of about 10% in administrative and exchange fees charged by every intermediary in the chain.
This maddening system isn’t that different from the original banking system invented more than a century ago. The advantage? Along this great chain of being, everyone needs to talk only to someone they trust. U.S. banks talk only to the Federal Reserve, the Federal Reserve talks only to the European Central Bank, and so on.
The last time some real innovation occurred was in 1871, when Western Union—a telegraph company—introduced a proprietary system that achieves near real-time money transfer. With 500,000 points of sale scattered around the world, Western Union WU allows Mary to bring cash to its counter, and in a few minutes, David can withdraw cash from another Western Union across the Atlantic. No more talking to multiple parties. This system requires massive scale, and it’s expensive, but it works. PayPal PYPL , in many ways, is simply the online version of the same ingenious design.
Now imagine a world where the identity of the account holder is masked, but everyone can see the money in every account. In other words, everyone owns the same ledger, and it can’t be easily altered unless you can gain control of the majority of all of the computing resources. When Mary’s money is deducted and David’s is added, the movement is completely transparent, so no reconciliations or double-checking is needed between multiple parties. The system is designed to be real time—instantaneous. Such is the basic logic of Bitcoin, and its technology blockchain—an open ledger that all can see effectively cuts out the need for central banking oversight.
Blockchain, it turns out, is just a universal banking protocol—a big idea to be sure, much like the Internet protocol that ushered in the World Wide Web. Everything blockchain needs is already here, from mobile phones to embedded sensors, from raw computing power to machine algorithms. The greatest achievement of Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, is to commit such an elegant design of a decentralized monetary system to paper that it inspired waves of hackers, technologists, and bankers to experiment in a number of different ways.
The enthusiasm of big banks is understandable. The regulatory pressure to record everything from stock trades to money transfer has caused compliance costs to escalate astronomically in recent years. From Basel III (509 pages including 78 calculus equations) to the Dodd-Frank Act (2,300 pages), our centralized system reeks of Soviet-style command and control. Just by eliminating the manual processes around reconciliation with customers, trading partners, and securities exchanges, it has been estimated that blockchain will deliver savings of nearly $20 billion per year by 2022—net profit straight to the bottom line.
This is why big banks are scrambling to explore new applications, such as unforgeable records of identity, to achieve straight-through processing, with transactions automated completely with no human intervention. Greenwich Associates, a market intelligence provider, reported in a survey that financial and technology markets will invest $1 billion in blockchain this year.
But doesn’t Wall Street care about job security? Not when it directly boosts the bottom line. When savings are tangible, big companies are willing to soldier through any wrenching change. American manufacturers have long shut down factories and outsourced everything to Asia for low-cost production. Executives are equally nonchalant when implementing SAP or CRM systems that demand re-engineering of innumerable workflows. Framed in this way, blockchain is actually less about new services or offerings that cannibalize existing businesses. Rather, it helps take costs out of a bulging baseline. Breakthrough innovation notwithstanding, blockchain is posed to support big banks in handling their voluminous transactions in years to come. And Wall Street knows this well.
So what will happen in the future after most banks have adopted blockchain? According to standard economic theory, a low-cost competitor enjoys cost advantage only when high-cost competitors still remain in the market. When everyone is using blockchain, the resultant saving will stop flowing in as corporate profit. Market competition will force all banks to pass on the hard-won saving back to consumers. Banking fees are set to plunge—which might as well be the greatest legacy of Satoshi Nakamoto. | And your wallet | 502.666667 | 0.333333 | 0.333333 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2014/04/26/all-the-stunning-looks-of-kate-middletons-tour-down-under/20876034/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713000800id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2014/04/26/all-the-stunning-looks-of-kate-middletons-tour-down-under/20876034/?swp=1 | All the stunning looks of Kate Middleton's tour down under | 20160713000800 | Before you go, we thought you'd like these...
All the stunning looks of Kate Middleton's tour down under
Goodbye Australia! The royals head home to London.
The royals at the ANZAC Day commemorative service at the Australian War Memorial.
Kate and William attended a reception hosted by the Governor General at Government House in Canberra, Australia.
Kate's peplum dress had cutout accents on the sleeves.
Earlier in the day the Duchess wore a vibrant green coatdress to the National Arboretum.
She looked gorgeous in the vibrant color, but admitted she was 'sweltering' in the coat!
Later the Duke and Duchess attended a reception at the Parliament House.
Kate shined in light pink Alexander McQueen separates.
Wearing: Alexander McQueen, LK Bennett heels and clutch
Kate was glowing in her light pink separates, wearing her hair half up.
Wearing: Alexander McQueen, LK Bennett heels and clutch
The royal couple pose for a picture at the Kuniya walk at the scenic location Uluru.
Wearing: Hobbs dress, Pied a Terre wedges
Kate's hair was looking especially great that day, don't you think?
Kate and William visited Ayers Rock in Australia on day 16.
Wearing: Roksanda Ilincic dress, LK Bennett heels
Kate laughs at the base of one of the most iconic natural landmarks in Australia.
Baby George spent Easter at the zoo! Kate, William and their son met a bilby (also named George).
Wearing: Yellow eyelet dress by an independent dressmaker
The Duchess wore a dress we first saw on the 2012 tour. It's one of our favorites!
Wearing: Yellow eyelet dress by an independent dressmaker
Earlier that morning, the Duke and Duchess attended church at St Andrew's Cathedral for Easter.
Wearing: Alexander McQueen coat and dress, Jane Taylor fascinator
The dove grey color was absolutely stunning on the Duchess.
Wearing: Alexander McQueen coat and dress, Jane Taylor fascinator
Kate was lovely in blue and white at the Royal Australian Airforce Base.
Wearing: LK Bennett dress, Oroton clutch
The dress, decorated with poppies, was a gorgeous color. Kate also carried a clutch by an Australia designer.
Wearing: LK Bennett dress, Oroton clutch
Hands down our favorite outfit from the tour, the Duchess wore this stunning white eyelet dress on Day 11.
Wearing: Zimmermann dress, Stuart Weitzman wedges
She accessorized with her Cartier watch and LK Bennett 'Natalie' clutch.
Kate returned to an old favorite for a scenic day at the Blue Mountains: Diane von Furstenberg.
Wearing: Diane von Furstenberg dress, Stuart Weitzman wedges
Her cotton wrap dress was perfect for the sunny day.
Wearing: Diane von Furstenberg dress
Kate and William at the Sydney Opera House.
The Duchess's gorgeous dress was custom made, the off-the-rack version is white with yellow accents.
Hello sunshine! The royals touch down in Sydney.
The Duke, Duchess and little Prince leave New Zealand. Kate dressed in a navy skirt suit.
Earlier in the day, the royals completed a day of engagements in the rain.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge cut the 'flower ribbon' when they officially opened the Visitor's Centre at the Botanical Gardens.
They played cricket -- and Kate was pretty impressive, even in heels!
We saw this skirt suit once before when Kate and William visited St. Andrews a few years ago. She looked lovely.
On day 7 Kate and William had a busy day of engagements.
Wearing: Zara blazer, J.Brand skinny jeans, Stuart Weitzman wedges
The royal couple explored a vineyard and sampled some pinot noir.
Earlier in the day they coached opposing rugby teams.
Wearing: Jonathan Saunders sweater, Mint Velvet sneakers
This time, William's team won!
That morning, Kate and William attended church, Kate in a stunning aqua Emilia Wickstead dress.
Wearing: Emilia Wickstead dress, Emmy shoes and clutch, Jane Taylor fascinator
She's worn this dress before in a pale pink hue. It's a gorgeous silhouette!
Wearing: Emilia Wickstead dress, Emmy shoes and clutch, Jane Taylor fascinator
So sweet, Kate gets a hug.
Wearing: Emilia Wickstead dress, Emmy shoes and clutch, Jane Taylor fascinator
On Day 6, it was a visit to a children's hospice and then a war memorial in Cambridge.
And apparently William thought her coat was "a bit bright." Um rude?!
The Duke and Duchess arrived for a day of healthy competition.
Wearing: Zara blazer, Me + Em top, J.Brand skinny jeans, Stuart Weitzman wedges
Kate was all geared up to race William on the high seas.
Wearing: Me + Em top, J.Brand skinny jeans
Kate wore Ray-Ban wayfarers as she and William head out to their competing yachts.
Wearing: Me+Em top, Ray-Ban wayfarers
And the duchess was victorious: she beat William not just once but twice!
Wearing: Me + Em top, J.Brand skinny jeans
The Duke and Duchess unveiled a portrait of the Queen at a state reception at Government House.
Kate's custom dress has a fern stitched into the shoulder, a nod to New Zealand.
Kate and William attend a wreath-laying service at the War Memorial in Blenheim, New Zealand.
The Duchess looked lovely in a powder blue McQueen coat.
On Day 3, baby George had his first "official" engagement - aka adorable playdate with other babies!
An adorable photo of Prince George hugging his mom after a fun day!
Kate, William and George arrive in New Zealand.
Kate, William and George arrive in New Zealand.
have completed their royal tour of Australia and New Zealand, with one very cute little Prince making his public debut. We followed
through the entire 3 weeks, and have seen a wide array of designers, from her favorite British brands to a few from Australia, New Zealand, and even the United States.
Our favorite highlights from the tour would have to be every time we got to see baby George -- but especially upon
. For Kate, we loved hearing her first
(in public, at least!) and seeing her as a mom. It was pretty great to see her | We followed Duchess Kate's style through the entire 3 weeks, and have seen a wide array of designers, from her favorite British brands to a few from Austral | 40.032258 | 0.935484 | 18.870968 | high | medium | extractive |
http://time.com/4110455/stephen-colbert-starbucks-controversy/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713043048id_/http://time.com:80/4110455/stephen-colbert-starbucks-controversy/ | Watch Stephen Colbert Mock the Holiday Starbucks Cup Dispute | 20160713043048 | Stephen Colbert tackled the recent controversy surrounding Starbucks’ plain red cup that has left some customers feeling bitter this holiday season on Wednesday’s The Late Show.
“Yes, they got rid of the Christian religious symbols like snowflakes and snowmen,” Colbert said. “I think we all remember the story of when baby Jesus was visited by the three wise Frosties.”
Earlier this week, Starbucks addressed the new, simple design, saying it was a way for customers to “create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas.”
“In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” Starbucks vice president of Design and Content, Jeffrey Fields said, in a statement. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”
And while one patron (better known to Colbert as “Paul Blart: Mall Bro”) is hoping to stick it to Starbucks by telling every barista that his name is “Merry Christmas,” the late-night host has an idea for Starbucks on how to combat any backlash.
“Remember Starbucks: Christmas is the season for giving into any demand anyone makes on the Internet,” Colbert said. “Which is why I say don’t fight this. Give the customers a cup crammed so full of Christmas, they’ll be picking tinsel out of their Yule log for months.”
This article originally appeared on EW.com. | Colbert jokingly puts the Christ back on the secular cup and back into Christmas | 20.5 | 0.571429 | 0.714286 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/03/29/apple-fbi-cracked-iphone/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713115603id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/03/29/apple-fbi-cracked-iphone/ | FBI Cracks Apple's iPhone: What People Are Saying | 20160713115603 | Here’s how fast big news gets commoditized.
I learned at dinner Monday from my Apple Watch that the FBI had broken into the iPhone of San Bernardino, Calif., shooting suspect Syed Rizwan Farook without Apple’s aapl help. By Tuesday morning, Techmeme had gathered 66 headlines and 20 choice Tweets about the development. A Google search for “FBI cracks iPhone,” meanwhile, returned nearly 3 million hits.
A sampling of the latest statements circulated about the case:
Department of Justice: “The government has now successfully accessed the data stored on Farook’s iPhone and therefore no longer requires the assistance from Apple.”
Apple: “We will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations, as we have done all along, and we will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated.”
Edward Snowden: “Journalists: please remember that the government argued for months that this was impossible, despite expert consensus.”
Subscribe to Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily tech newsletter.
Cybersecurity specialist Oren Falkowitz: “The FBI made a mistake in trying to force Apple’s hand. Setting up an unintentional iPhone hacking challenge isn’t in anyone’s best interest.”
Journalist Daniel Rubin: “You just know Tim Cook is dying to ask the FBI how they did it.”
Wall Street Journal: “A government official said the method to unlock the phone wasn’t developed by a government agency, but by a private entity.”
New York Times: “[A] federal law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to reporters on Monday said it was premature to say whether the method it used to open the phone in the San Bernardino case could be used on phones in other cases.”
Cybersecurity commentator Errata Security: “I doubt the technique was the NAND mirroring one many have described, or the well-known “decapping” procedure that has a 30% of irretrievably destroying the data. Instead, I think it was an [zero day] or jailbreak. Those two communities are pretty large, and this is well within their abilities.”
Privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian: “DOJ: We’re not giving the iOS [zero day] to Apple. Apple: We will continue to help law enforcement in other cases. Way to play hard ball, Apple.”
Forensic scientist Jonathan Zdziarski: “FBI: Look at our new toy! NSA: That’s not new.”
Apple: “This case should never have been brought.”
Fortune writer Dan Primack: “Has anyone considered that this is just an ingenious marketing campaign by Apple to get people to upgrade to newer iPhones?”
Jonathan Zdziarski: “As an American who helped fund the FBI’s massive exploit purchase this week, I demand to know what kind of evidence was on Farook’s phone.”
Blogger Ben Thompson: “No one comes out of this looking good. Whatever alleged ‘marketing benefit’ Apple achieved from selling secure phones has to be dinged by the fact this phone was broken into; meanwhile the FBI not only didn’t get the precedent that Apple and other companies ought to help them, but also look rather foolish and incompetent.” | A flood of commentary about the closely watched security vs. privacy case. | 48.769231 | 0.615385 | 0.769231 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.nydailynews.com/archives/news/battlefront-witchcraft-opera-1994-article-1.633041 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713164944id_/http://www.nydailynews.com:80/archives/news/battlefront-witchcraft-opera-1994-article-1.633041 | BATTLEFRONT WITCHCRAFT AT THE OPERA, 1994 | 20160713164944 | THE METROPOLITAN Opera soprano Kathleen Battle, it is said, was riding in a Southern California limousine once upon a time and felt cold. So she cell-phoned her agent in New York and ordered him to call the driver and tell him to turn down the air conditioning. On another occasion, she is reported to have called the management of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to complain that her hotel's room service had put peas in her pasta. It's said that she once held up the release of a record for six months because she didn't like the way her breasts looked in the jacket photo. Even in a world where it is essentially the norm for high-strung singers to throw one tempestuous tantrum after another, Kathleen Battle was, well, difficult. Indeed, she is the one and only diva in the history of the Metropolitan Opera who got fired solely for being a total witch. Met General Manager Rudolf Bing's famous 1958 sacking of Maria Callas was, by contrast, merely a contractual dispute. IN THE beginning, Battle, slender and beautiful, was much beloved. The daughter of a steelworker, the granddaughter of a slave, she was teaching music at an Ohio inner-city school in 1974 when a friend told her that Cincinnati Symphony conductor Thomas Schippers was holding auditions for the Festival of Two Worlds at Spoleto, in Charleston, S.
C. Battle auditioned. Schippers hired her. And she quickly rose from minor roles to take her place among the very small number of black women who have been elevated to superstardom in an overwhelmingly white milieu. Her secret was basic: A sublime voice. "Like a bird in her throat," observed one critic. "Not imprisoned, but living there because that is its home.
" But Battle did not wear stardom well. Stories were rife of her nitpicking over the color of rugs in rental cars or switching hotels because she didn't like the elevator operator. During a 1987 production of "The Marriage of Figaro," she is said to have thrown another singer's clothes out of a dressing room in order to claim it entirely for herself. The Battle of Kathy, as opera buffs like to call it, was in full flourish by 1993, when Battle stormed out of a rehearsal of "Der Rosenkavalier" after a blowup with conductor Christian Thielemann. Fuming in her dressing room, she demanded that Met General Manager Joseph Volpe present himself within five minutes. Volpe took his time - and Battle quit the production. She might have been fired then and there but for the fact that the Met already had sold the tickets for her upcoming performances in Japan with Luciano Pavarotti. But it was only a matter of time. THE MOMENT arrived on Feb. 6, 1994. Battle showed up 21/2 hours late for a rehearsal of Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" that already had been rearranged to accommodate her. In what was left of the rehearsal, she complained about another singer's "looking at my mouth" and excoriated beloved 40-year Met veteran Rosalind Elias. Mezzo-soprano Elias was required to play piano in one scene. Battle berated her ability and insisted that the solo passage be played by a musician in the orchestra pit. Witnesses remember that she became more and more abusive and finally stormed offstage. Volpe had had enough. In a public statement, he announced to the world that he was firing Kathleen Battle because her "unprofessional actions ... were profoundly detrimental to artistic collaborations between cast members.
" Met cast members broke into applause when they heard the news. At one of Battle's record companies, the staff threw a party. THIS WAS quite unprecedented. Sure, when Bing canned Callas he complained in a public statement of her "reputation for projecting her undisputed histrionic talent into her business affairs.
" But he wrote in his memoirs that he was "always anxious to get Callas back at the Met," and bales of archived correspondence do indeed show that the two negotiated for years after the firing. Callas finally did return, for two performances of "Tosca" in 1964-65. Battle's opera career, meanwhile, stopped dead. She has gone on to make best-selling recordings, give recitals and appear with symphony orchestras. But she has never set foot again on the stage of the Metropolitan or any other opera company. No one seems to miss her. SONGBOOK CHALLENGE TODAY'S QUESTION: Which rocker wrote a song prompted by the shooting of Amadou Diallo? ANSWER TO LAST QUESTION: THE MILFORD PLAZA | By BRIAN KATES
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HE METROPOLITAN Opera soprano Kathleen Battle, it is said, was riding in a Southern California limousine once upon a time and felt cold. So she cell-phoned her agent in New York and ordered him to call the driver and tell him to turn down the air conditioning.
On another occasion, she is reported to have called the management of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to complain that her hotel's room service had | 10.081395 | 0.930233 | 39.325581 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2014/06/19/dwyane-wade-ex-wife-siohvaughn-funches-wade-suing-lawyers | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713182119id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2014/06/19/dwyane-wade-ex-wife-siohvaughn-funches-wade-suing-lawyers | Dwyane Wade's Ex-Wife Siohvaughn Funches-Wade -- His Lawyers Schemed with Cops to Frame Me | 20160713182119 | , is suing the NBA All-Star's team of lawyers and a bunch of Chicago-area cops for $50,000, accusing them of conspiring to lock her up for kidnapping.
Siovaughn filed a Federal lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, in which she claims she and a friend were called "bitches" by police during her 2012 arrest for
with the ex-couple's 2 kids.
Siohvaughn also accuses former cop Timothy Baldermann of pretending to be the Chief of the Chicago Ridge Police Department at the scene of the arrest. It's an interesting accusation ... since Baldermann used to be Chief, but retired back in 2010.
According to the court documents, obtained by TMZ, she also says cops wrenched her arm during the arrest and tore her rotator cuff.
Siohvaughn is suing for excessive force and false arrest, in addition to defamation of character.
The original kidnapping charges were dismissed last year, but Siohvaughn now wants justice. | Dwyane Wade's ex-wife, Siohvaughn Funches-Wade, is suing the NBA All-Star's team of lawyers and a bunch of Chicago-area cops for $50,000, accusing… | 4.815789 | 0.815789 | 16.657895 | low | medium | extractive |
http://time.com/3955965/leave-the-poor-minions-alone/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713210314id_/http://time.com:80/3955965/leave-the-poor-minions-alone/ | Leave the Poor Minions Alone | 20160713210314 | By now, after the movie earned more than $115 million during its opening weekend, it seems like everyone has heard of Minions, the spin-off film featuring the pill-shaped sidekicks from the Despicable Me series. But there are also a lot of people who are boycotting the adorable creatures for ridiculous reasons.
In a funny but strangely antagonistic article for Grantland, Rembert Browne writes sarcastically about the Minions and race. “It’s hard to think of a culture — or an entire society — more diverse than the Minions. Which is why it’s not a stretch to say this: If you don’t like the Minions, you probably hate diversity.”
The lack of diversity isn’t the only complaint. Minions creator Pierre Coffin said that none of the Minions are women because he can’t imagine such bumbling, stupid (though undeniably cute) creatures being women. In a critique on Bustle, Jennifer Still writes, “Though Coffin’s explanation, at face value, does make Minions seem rather feminist — he’s saying women are too smart, cunning, and resourceful to be portrayed as Minions — it’s still disappointing that there isn’t female representation amongst the Minions.”
But the strangest problem that anyone has with the Minions is from Brian Feldman at The Awl who accuses the creatures of destroying the Internet. The creatures have become a favorite of “middle-aged mom memes” in which they are featured alongside inspirational sayings and emotional treacle and posted to Facebook or Pinterest to excite the tugging of heart strings usually reserved for Kleenex commercials and Lifetime Christmas movies.
The thing about the Minions is that they are none of these, and they are all of these. Their appeal, and the reason why so many have exploited them for political arguments and a discussion about the Internet is that they are basically cyphers. They are amorphous blobs of a strange yellow hue whose nonsense language (seemingly derived from Beaker on The Muppet Show) is a series of toots and grunts with some polyglot words sprinkled in for extra flavor. We can make the Minions mean anything because they allow themselves to be everything. They can be playful little scamps who want to show you the importance of family, or they can be an animated illustration of the patriarchy writ large.
The claims about diversity and feminism seem a little bit absurd. No one seemed to critique “The Simpsons” for having as little diversity as just about every other sitcom on television or accuse “The Smurfs” of all being the exact same shade of blue. And considering that the one female smurf, Smurfette, who was magically manufactured by an evil wizard to infiltrate their all-male society and tear it down from the inside, spends most of her time worrying about her hair and fending off the affections of her cohort, it’s not like she’s Rosie the Riveter in a mushroom.
The claims of the Minions destroying the Internet are harder to refute. After all, their blank nature makes them perfectly adaptable to Mom Memes with little real meaning at their sentimental center. But they’re not the only animated characters that have met this fate. Nick Douglas points out on Medium that such memes incorporate all sorts of cartoon creatures including Garfield, Betty Boop, and the Tasmanian Devil. The Minions vague affectations might make them easier to cut and paste into Photoshop “art,” but they’re by no means the ones who created this genre or are solely responsible for it.
So why is everyone being so harsh to the Minions? I think it’s so easy to mess with the Minions because they seem almost cravenly devised by the movie studio gods to make kids happy. Attacking Minions is a way of subverting the capitalistic aim of cuddly cartoon creatures meant to sell plush toys, back packs, and everything else with a flat surface that their likeness can be printed on.
The Minions were intended to be harmless, funny creations seemingly spliced together from everything children like. They are silly, they fall down a lot, sometimes their butts hang out, and they get dressed in silly costumes more quickly than Bugs Bunny trying to woo Elmer Fudd while wearing Veronica Lake drag. There is something so craven about them that you can just see a marketing executive stirring a cauldron and laughing an evil laugh. Messing with them, therefore, becomes not only subversive, but almost essential.
By why do we have to tear down something that is so beloved it had the second-biggest opening weekend of all time for an animated film? Can’t we just let the Minions make kids happy? Can’t we just let these galumphing pods of ridiculousness make us laugh for a little while? Maybe the world doesn’t need to right its wrongs by using these guys as an example. Maybe the world needs a little more of what they offer in spades: cuteness. | Can’t we just let these galumphing pods of ridiculousness make us laugh for a little while? | 51.777778 | 1 | 18 | high | high | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/25/garden/how-sweet-they-are-onions-that-hardly-ever-bring-a-tear.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160713235613id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1988/05/25/garden/how-sweet-they-are-onions-that-hardly-ever-bring-a-tear.html? | How Sweet They Are | 20160713235613 | WHEN Virginia Cenedella first walked into her neighborhood bank, she did not expect to be handed a five-pound sack of sweet onions. But onion giveaways are a tradition at the University National Bank and Trust Company in Palo Alto, Calif., whose chairman, Carl Schmitt, is a particular devotee of sweet onions.
Miss Cenedella, a realtor and ''weekend cook,'' was delighted with the unexpected gift. ''Usually I go to the bank before investing in sweet onions,'' she said.
Like many other people, Miss Cenedella cannot understand why sweet onions cost so much - from 29 cents a pound to more than $2 - or why some varieties cost more than others. Is there really a difference in taste or quality among Georgia Vidalias, Texas 1015Y Supersweets, California Imperials, Hawaiian Maui Sweets and Washington State Walla Wallas?
People like Mr. Schmitt, who gave away 10,500 pounds of Walla Wallas last year, obviously have a strong preference. But Dr. Ron Voss, a vegetable specialist at the University of California at Davis, said: ''On a good day, they're all mild and very sweet. Blindfolded you couldn't tell the difference.''
Raw or cooked, sweet onions taste identical, and can be used interchangeably in recipes. The appearance and quality of all sweet onions is generally excellent, because they are hand-selected for packaging. This personal attention, combined with their short season and abbreviated shelf life, contribute to their high cost.
But should consumers pay more for one type than another? ''You really shouldn't,'' said Dr. Vincent Rubatzsky, a colleague of Dr. Voss at the university. ''Sweet onions should all be comparable in price.''
Sweet onions do differ in price and character from regular onions. They are low in the sulfur-containing compounds that make ordinary onions pungent and irritating to eyes. Because of their high sugar content, they can taste as sweet as oranges. Grown during the winter and harvested in spring, most sweet onions are gone from the produce counters by August.
Botanically, sweet onions are the bulbs of the plant Allium cepa. There are hundreds of sweet onion breeds in the United States, grown mostly in California, Texas and Georgia. Growers select breeds that best suit the soil, climate, length of growing season, need for disease resistance and market conditions in their area.
With the exception of Walla Wallas, most sweet onions come from two varieties of yellow onions: the Grano and the Granex. The Granex are generally oval with flattened ends, while the Granos tend to be either large and round or slim and elongated. Horticulturists and plant breeders are constantly blending and cross-breeding these varieties, so it is difficult to tell them apart.
Merchandisers, however, are trying to do to sweet onions what nature did not: give them designer logos and distinguishing characteristics so that consumers will develop brand loyalty. These efforts will not affect taste, but will probably affect prices.
At the center of all this merchandising are onions like the Texas Grano 1015Y Supersweet. It was developed in the early 1980's by Dr. Leonard Pike, a professor of horticulture at Texas A & M University at College Station.
The 1015Y is named for its optimum planting date, Oct. 15; it is nicknamed the ''million dollar baby,'' however, because of the money spent to develop it. Some stores have been known to dump other onions into the 1015Y containers and sell them as the real thing. To prevent this, Texas growers will be affixing an identifying sticker to each 1015Y onion.
Texas produces other sweet onions, which some growers prefer because they mature earlier and can be taken to market sooner. These include the Texas Granex, the Early Grano 502 and the Y33 Springsweet.
Mountain-grown Maui Sweets are big yellow or yellow-white onions cultivated in Hawaii's volcanic soil. Total production is very small, with only 100 acres or so under cultivation. The Kula district in Maui is responsible for almost 90 percent of the state's total output.
Scarcity of these onions may account for their high price: $1.50 to $2 a pound. But their celebrity may enhance their appeal: Frank Sinatra has spoken enthusiastically about the onions, which he discovered while working on a film in Hawaii.
Vidalias date to the early 1940's, when Dr. Henry A. Jones, a research director at the Desert Seed Company in El Centro, Calif., developed the F1 Hybrid Yellow Granex, which is called the Vidalia after the Georgia town where it was grown. Because of their high yield per acre and disease resistance, Vidalias have largely supplanted onions like the Bermuda that were previously popular.
By Georgia law, only onions grown in designated areas of 19 southeastern counties may be marketed as Vidalias. Texans are quick to point out, however, that because of their state's milder climate and earlier growing season, Vidalias are often planted in south Texas, then transplanted to Georgia when the weather warms.
The name Imperial Sweets describes a number of yellow Granex onion varieties grown in the hot, dry desert of the Imperial Valley in southern California. Among them are the hefty Colossal (which can weigh up to a pound), the Ringmaster (so named because it supposedly makes good fried onion rings) and Henry's Special, named for Dr. Jones. | LEAD: WHEN Virginia Cenedella first walked into her neighborhood bank, she did not expect to be handed a five-pound sack of sweet onions. But onion giveaways are a tradition at the University National Bank and Trust Company in Palo Alto, Calif., whose chairman, Carl Schmitt, is a particular devotee of sweet onions. | 16.806452 | 0.983871 | 58.080645 | medium | high | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2016/03/01/you-dont-have-to-be-gay-to-love-palm-springs-but-it-helps/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714030400id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/03/01/you-dont-have-to-be-gay-to-love-palm-springs-but-it-helps/ | You don’t have to be gay to love Palm Springs (but it helps) | 20160714030400 | “Isn’t that where middle-aged gay guys vacation?” asked almost everyone when I recently jetted off for a weekend in sunny Palm Springs, Calif.
Yes, Palm Springs — a charming resort city located about 100 miles east of LA — is known for its vibrant LGBT culture. But look at this locale through a wide-angle lens and you’ll see it’s a thrilling destination with plenty of fun for all.
For instance, its buzzing downtown is home to the impressive Palm Springs Art Museum, and a number of art galleries, shops and eateries. For hipsters, the Greater Palm Springs area also hosts the popular music festival Coachella — a two-weekend gig beginning April 15 with headliners including Guns N’ Roses and LCD Soundsystem.
Combine it all with new hotels, like the soon-to-debut V Palm Springs (from $300) and the 2014-opened Triada Palm Springs (from $180), plus a newly launched nonstop JetBlue flight from New York (from $247 one-way). The flight only returns to JFK as a red-eye, but this first-time direct service means it’s a great time to book your escape.
Here’s how everyone can make the most of it.
If you’re fixin’ for a dose of remarkable mid-century modern architecture, look no further. Palm Springs is home to one of the world’s highest concentration of mid-century modern properties, and there are great ways to see them inside and out. Book a trek with The Modern Tour ($150 per person), which will drive you by Liberace’s former manse and let you walk through other homes. One stop for strolling is the glassy hillside-perched Frey House II, designed and lived in by architect Albert Frey, which overlooks all of Palm Springs below.
Nearby in Rancho Mirage stands the Sunnylands estate — the 25,000-square-foot mid-century mansion where Walter Annenberg (ambassador to the UK) and wife Leonore spent their winters ($40). You can’t take photos inside, but you can get an in-depth look of the sprawling home, where President Ronald Reagan celebrated 18 New Year’s Eves and where President Richard Nixon sought refuge following his resignation in 1974.
Lace up your hiking boots! Sure, it’s great to lounge poolside under Palm Springs’ blue skies, but those in search of more active pursuits have fantastic options to experience the area’s gorgeous desert-meets-mountainous landscape.
If you fancy alpine scenery — and if you’re not afraid of quick vertical ascents in a cable car that rotates as it climbs — take the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway ($24.95 for adults) to Mount San Jacinto State Park, whose summit towers a whopping 10,834 feet above sea level. Hardcore hikers can actually traverse all the way up to the granite peak, but folks who aren’t as fit can check out the 1-mile nature walk through the wooded Long Valley, located just off the tramway’s stop.
If you want to stay at ground level, visit nearby Joshua Tree National Park ($20) — the 794,000-acre expanse where the Mojave and Colorado deserts meet. Book a tour with Desert Adventures ($200 for adults), whose expert guides will whisk you to the park’s popular spots — including the short Hidden Valley circuit and Keys View, which looks over the San Andreas Fault.
Whatever the priority is for your trip, you’ll need to keep yourself fueled.
Never miss the opportunity to have Mexican food in California — it’s more authentic and tastes far fresher than New York’s bland selection. Head to El Jefe in the hip Saguaro hotel for dinner, where you can wash down guacamole, fish tacos and skirt steak-topped nachos with strong margaritas.
But first (or second, no judgments), grab breakfast at King’s Highway — the vintage-chic diner at the Ace Hotel Palm Springs, which formerly housed a Denny’s location. Start off with an order of fresh croissants served with honey-sweetened butter. Next, something more hearty, like the ricotta pancakes or the Moroccan scramble — items right off the menu at Five Leaves in Brooklyn, which has a partnership with this resto.
Mosey on down to Babe’s Bar-B-Que & Brewhouse in Rancho Mirage for lunch. You might not expect authentic southern barbeque in Southern California, but its cornbread, smoked meats (try the brisket) and peach crisp will let you take a brief vacation from your … er … vacation.
Feeling thirsty? Find your way to Shields Date Garden for a date milkshake — Palm Springs’ omnipresent sweet treat — which natives say serves up the area’s best. Nearby, for adult beverages, check out the Coachella Valley Brewing Company, which prides itself on craft brews made from locally sourced ingredients.
You can’t go wrong at the luxe 144-room Parker Palm Springs (from $350). Its upscale diner, Norma’s, serves breakfast all day long, while Mister Parker’s — a bistro — delivers dinner in cozy settings, Wednesdays through Sundays.
The property also has three pools, four tennis courts, lush gardens with mountain views and a world-class spa.
Jonathan Adler designed its interiors. | “Isn’t that where middle-aged gay guys vacation?” asked almost everyone when I recently jetted off for a weekend in sunny Palm Springs, Calif. That’s partly true. Yes, Palm Springs — a charming res… | 23.090909 | 0.931818 | 21.659091 | medium | medium | extractive |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/anna-kendrick-twitter-help-kellan-lutz/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714032648id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/anna-kendrick-twitter-help-kellan-lutz/ | Anna Kendrick turns to Twitter for manly help, Kellan Lutz responds | 20160714032648 | Sometimes you just have to be willing to ask for a little help.
Anna Kendrick is a proudly independent woman, but that doesn't mean she can't enlist the assistance of a strapping man when the situation dictates. Take, for example, this household emergency revealed by Kendrick in a tweet Monday.
"Hi, I'm Anna, I'm alone tonight and I'm looking for a strapping muscular man to come over because butternut squash is hard to dice," she tweeted, followed by a series of kissy faces.
Hi, I'm Anna, I'm alone tonight and I'm looking for a strapping muscular man to come over because butternut squash is hard to dice. 😗😗😗
Whether her pleas for help were authentic or not, she managed to get a response -- and an appropriately muscular one, at that -- from fellow "Twilight" alum Kellan Lutz, who responded with, "Hi, Anna. What kind of knife do you have?"
Hi, Anna, What kind of a knife do you have? 😎 https://t.co/uC5najK785
Such a gentleman. No word yet on the state of Kendrick's knife drawer, though.
© 2016 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. | Sometimes you just have to be willing to ask for help | 21.454545 | 1 | 9.181818 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/movies/2016/06/08/movie-warcraft-brutal-video-game/SIRD94al6VpDTkE48DCPXN/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714034416id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/movies/2016/06/08/movie-warcraft-brutal-video-game/SIRD94al6VpDTkE48DCPXN/story.html | As a movie, ‘Warcraft’ is a brutal video game | 20160714034416 | Legendary Pictures, Universal Pictures, and ILM
Travis Fimmel plays a knight leading the human defense against orcs.
Director Duncan Jones made quite an impression with his first two features, “Moon” (2009) and “Source Code” (2011). They were intelligent, immersive science fiction that made us think and feel, and that delivered an amazing bang for their production buck. (Lunar miniatures!) You could see their imprint all over bigger-budget variations like Tom Cruise’s “Oblivion” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” If it wasn’t quite enough to keep reviewers from mentioning first thing that Jones is David Bowie’s son, it should have been.
Which brings us, after a five-year wait, to “Warcraft,” Jones’s adaptation of the long-running video game and standard-setter for the online role-playing crowd. The hope would be that it just opens up the director’s vision — and the fantasy genre — to supply him with the sort of megabudget tools and toys that he had so far managed to do without. The fear is that Jones’s storytelling smarts and aesthetic resourcefulness could wind up sacrificed to the chaos and overblown approach of a generic would-be blockbuster. Unfortunately, fear wins out.
The movie sets up the franchise’s central clash between medieval-ish human society and steroidal orcs, eye-catchingly rendered like the Hulk with a tusky underbite and creative battle piercings. (Diehards, please resist the urge to bludgeon this non-gamer with an orc mallet if I don’t do justice to all the gnarly details.) With their own world dying, the orcs open a mystical portal to man’s beatific realm. The human defense is led by inconsistently sardonic knight Lothar (Travis Fimmel, TV’s “Vikings”), with insider support from captured slave Garona (Paula Patton, more ridiculous than resplendent in green orc makeup). The spotlighted orc, meanwhile, is conflicted tribal chieftain Durotan (Toby Kebbell, doing motion capture on the heels of “Fantastic Four,” poor guy).
Ultimately, the fighting is less about might than magic. The orcs follow grizzled, vicious Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), who drains prisoners’ souls to power the portal, while Lothar’s people turn to guardian warlock Medivh (Ben Foster, cast with a pinch of TV-movie Merlin, a dash of longhair Howard Hughes, and several heaping scoops of “What were they thinking?”).
There’s an intriguing development in Durotan’s heretical conclusion that only a human alliance can prevent Gul’dan’s dark spells from snuffing out another world. But aside from this, it’s all awfully sub-Tolkien. There’s nary an honorable death that resonates, although we do get some creative visual perspectives on enthusiastically digitized brutality. But wasn’t the game good for that already?
Directed by Duncan Jones. Written by Charles Leavitt and Jones. Starring Travis Fimmel, Toby Kebbell, Paula Patton, Ben Foster. Boston Common, Fenway, suburbs; Jordan’s Furniture IMAX in Reading and Natick. 123 minutes. PG-13 (extended sequences of intense fantasy violence). | “Warcraft” review: It’s orcs versus man as Duncan Jones adapts the long-running video game and standard setter for the online role-playing crowd. | 19.580645 | 0.83871 | 5.16129 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/atlanta-other-parts-of-south-paralyzed-by-ice-snowstorm/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714131630id_/http://www.cbsnews.com:80/news/atlanta-other-parts-of-south-paralyzed-by-ice-snowstorm/ | Road to nowhere: Minor snowstorm brings Atlanta to standstill | 20160714131630 | Last Updated Jan 29, 2014 9:10 PM EST
- Thousands of Atlanta students stranded all night in their schools were reunited with their parents Wednesday, while rescuers rushed to deliver blankets, food, gas and a ride home to countless shivering motorists stopped cold by a storm that paralyzed the business capital of the South with less than 3 inches of snow.
As National Guardsmen and state troopers fanned out, Mayor Kasim Reed and Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal found themselves on the defensive, acknowledging the storm preparations could have been better. But Deal also blamed forecasters, saying he was led to believe it would not be so bad.
The icy weather wreaked similar havoc across much of the South, closing schools and highways, grounding flights and contributing to at least a dozen deaths from traffic accidents.
In Alabama, thousands of people stranded overnight at school, at work or in their cars began getting home Wednesday as ice melted from highways and crews cleared roads littered with wrecked and abandoned vehicles.
"It looked like the zombie apocalypse," state Rep. Mack Butler said Wednesday. He was driving to a meeting of the Legislature on Tuesday when he had to stop at a gas station in Birmingham and spent the night in his pickup truck because highways were impassable.
Yet it was Atlanta, home to major corporations and the world's busiest airport, that was Exhibit A for how a Southern city could be sent reeling by winter weather that, in the North, might be no more than an inconvenience.The mayor admitted the city could have directed schools, businesses and government offices to stagger their closings on Tuesday afternoon, as the storm began, rather than dismissing everyone at the same time.
"I'm not thinking about a grade right now," Reed said when asked about the city's response. "I'm thinking about getting people out of their cars."
The forecast for the Atlanta area showed little hope of any widespread melting of the snow and ice in the short term.
Temperatures did not get above freezing Wednesday, though a warm-up was expected in the next few days. Still, temperatures were expected to be in the teens overnight so any moisture on the roads will turn to ice again.
Atlanta commuter trains were running on a modified schedule and bus service was suspended because of unsafe road conditions, said Lyle Harris, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority.
Some people spent Tuesday night in supermarkets and kids slept overnight on the floors of their schools. More than 1,200 traffic accidents were reported in Georgia alone.
By dawn on Wednesday, traffic was frozen on all three of Atlanta's main highways.
Ron Rivero was hauling bananas to Chicago when he got stuck west of Atlanta at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Thirty hours later ,he was still stuck.
"Nothing against the South and I'm from the South, but we're just not prepared for this type of weather on a regular basis," he said.
Flurries began before noon Tuesday. Ice soon followed. Schools, businesses and government offices closed early -- and at nearly the same time. In less than an hour, traffic went from 20 mph to a standstill. Salt and sand trucks could not get through to treat the roads.
"We made a mistake by not staggering when people should leave," Reed said. "So I'll take responsibility for that. If we had it to do again, we would have said, 'Schools, you go out, you go first, private sector businesses you go second, and government goes last.'"
In Fulton County, 99 school buses filled with kids were still on the road at midnight. At least 2,000 other students spent the night at school.
By dawn on Wednesday, traffic was frozen on all three of Atlanta's main highways
National Guardsmen in Humvees, state troopers and transportation crews delivered food and other relief, and by Wednesday night, Deal said all Atlanta-area schoolchildren were back home with their parents.
Atlanta was crippled by an ice storm in 2011, and officials had vowed not to be caught unprepared again. But in this case, few closings or other measures were ordered ahead of time.
In an interview Wednesday with CBS News' Scott Pelley, Reed rejected a comparison to 2011.
"We're in day one of this snow event and we have our city moving again with the exception of the freeways," he said. "During 2011 that was a four-day event that had much worse results than this."
Eighty percent of the roads were passable, he said. The city's hospitals, fire stations and police precincts were all open, he said.
Deal, who is up for re-election in November, said warnings could have been posted along highways earlier and farther out Tuesday. But he also fended off criticism, and said that the storm hit Atlanta harder and sooner than anyone predicted.
"I don't blame anyone," he said. "Mother Nature has a mind of its own."
But the National Weather Service told CBS News that its forecast was "spot on," and that it issued the first winter storm warning 21 hours before it started.
Around the time the traffic jam started, Deal and Reed were at an award ceremony recognizing the mayor as the "2014 Georgian of the Year." Deal spokesman Brian Robinson said the governor left before 1:30 p.m. Tuesday and was in constant contact with emergency officials.
Chris Hartzog was stranded on the road for nine hours Tuesday. Sympathetic to others enduring similar ordeals, he was handing out food and water Wednesday to motorists stuck on one interstate.
"There were just some folks stranded, especially some pregnant folks, folks with small children, and we were just trying to bring them some food, water," he said.
Many motorists abandoned their cars to take shelter in stores or restaurants -- including one Hardee's where 60 people spent the night.
Salt and sand trucks could not get through to treat the roads
Officer Timothy Sheffield of the Sandy Springs, Ga., Police Department was heading to an accident Tuesday when he spotted a stopped SUV.
"And I asked the driver, I said, 'Are you OK?'" Sheffield said. "And he -- very calm, he was on the phone with 911 -- and he said, 'No, we're having a baby.'"
The baby's head had appeared, and when the father started to pull, Sheffield urged him to stop.
"As soon as we said that she pushed one more time and the baby came out," Sheffield said. "Today was my birthday, you know, so what a birthday present -- to be a part of that!"
The couple, Nick and Amy Anderson, said they had named their baby Grace.
© 2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. | Mayor, Georgia governor on the defensive after thousands of motorists, school children are stranded overnight | 80.529412 | 0.941176 | 1.529412 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.people.com/article/kylie-jenner-bff-jordyn-woods-five-things | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714150254id_/http://www.people.com/article/kylie-jenner-bff-jordyn-woods-five-things | 5 Things About the Model : People.com | 20160714150254 | Jordyn Woods (Left) and Kylie Jenner
07/12/2016 AT 08:40 PM EDT
You've seen her all over
's social media, but who exactly is
Aside form being able to pull off any shade from her bestie's lipkit, Woods has been inspiring girls all over with her beauty, confidence and brains.
Here's 5 things you may not have known about Jenner's go to girl.
Woods is signed to Wilhelmina International's Curve, their division for plus-size models, and plans to change the plus size industry.
"There's so many people out there just like me, and right now the curve industry is just blowing up because people are realizing curve models are cool, and most people are not that skinny," she previously told
. "I just want to make a change in the curve industry because I want other curve girls to realize that you don't have to dress a certain way because you are curvy."
The 18-year-old model admitted to
that her agent found her on the social media app and emailed her directly from there.
Not only is Woods very close friends with
, but she's known their father for a very long time and even refers to the famous actor as "uncle."
Woods' mother Elizabeth, who is a popular Los Angeles socialite, has a lot in common with
– she too is a momager.
Woods' baby sister Jodie, is a dead ringer for her twin. She too is managed by their mother and has no problem hanging out with celebrities all day | Woods has made a name for herself in the modeling industry, thanks to Instagram | 20.466667 | 0.6 | 0.866667 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/video/pregnant-woman-missing-meeting-boyfriend-part-39110714 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160714230714id_/http://abcnews.go.com:80/2020/video/pregnant-woman-missing-meeting-boyfriend-part-39110714 | Pregnant Woman Goes Missing After Meeting Boyfriend: Part 1 | 20160714230714 | Transcript for Pregnant Woman Goes Missing After Meeting Boyfriend: Part 1
Tuesday morning in Denver, Colorado. And as morning turns to midday, a question hangs in the thin air of mile high city, where is recently discovered she's pregnant. Now she's late for work at this Denver housewares store. She didn't show up for work. I tried calling her, I think from my cell phone and the store phone. Couldn't get a response. Reporter: At his hardware store in Holyoke, Colorado, Kelsie's father Doug also has trouble connecting. And I thought, "Well, I'm going to call and see how she's doing." She didn't answer her phone, which is pretty rare. Reporter: Tuesday turns into Thursday, and the silence gets louder. Concern morphs into panic, especially for her mother laura. All of her friends, like, started contacting us saying, reach Kelsie and we can't reach And when that happened, that is, scared. Because I just thought there, you know, there has to be a logical explanation. Reporter: But since that fateful February week, no With no word from Kelsie, laura's spent years searching on her own. Developments in the disappearance of a Denver woman. Disappeared on a trip to southern Colorado. Reporter: With no word from Kelsie, she's spent years searching on her own. Knocking heads with local police department. And getting wrapped up in a mystery of her own involving allegations of sex trafficking and extortion. More on that later. It's unbelievable to me, doing all of the things that I'm doing to just, you know, get out and fight people like I have. Reporter: The story traces back here to a town called Holyoke, a couple hours east of Denver, where the scenery looks more like Kansas than a coors commercial. This is where Kelsie was born and raised. She liked to be silly, liked to laugh. You look at, like, these pictures and you can just see that. Reporter: Mother and daughter develop a tight, unbreakable bond after laura and her husband Doug split up when Kelsie was just 11 years old. It was just she and I together, alone, for a lot of years. So we were very close. Pretty inseparable, basically. Reporter: Kelsie attends nearby northeastern junior college with plans to study psychology. There, she becomes fast friends with her roommate Aly Sandoval. She was very fun, she was laughing all the time, always getting into trouble and just out to have a good time. Reporter: And at school, a key figure enters her life, donthe Lucas. Their backgrounds cannot be more different. Donthe hails from the central Colorado town of Pueblo, a place more Wal-Mart than "Little house on the prairie." Blue collar Pueblo has a reputation as the most dangerous town in Colorado because of its high crime rate. At central high school, donthe stands out as a 6'7" basketball star. He just had a mad passion just for basketball. He loved everything about the game. And hoping that he, you know, go onto a division I basketball school. And then, maybe make it to the NBA. Reporter: But the big college recruiters never come calling. Instead donthe ends up playing ball at tiny northeastern junior college. Literally the big man on campus, and in a whirlwind romance with Kelsie Schelling. To Kelsie's friends, the relationship turns toxic from the start. He would be putting her down, calling her names, saying that she was fat and ugly and nobody else wanted her and she was lucky enough to have him in her life because she wasn't going to get anything else. Reporter: After a couple of tumultuous semesters, the two split up. By 2012, Kelsie has quit school and is living in Denver, working at that home goods store. Donthe, his hoop dreams slipping away, is back in Pueblo. To the alarm of Kelsie's friends, the two reconnect. She loved him. Reporter: You think he loved her? No, you don't treat someone that you love like that. You don't treat them with disrespect the way he did with her. He'd throw things, she'd throw things. It was awful. Reporter: December rolls in like the snow drifts in Denver. Kelsie and donthe spend the Christmas holidays together. And shortly thereafter, mom is asking, "What child is this?" She called me when she found out she was pregnant. She was stressed. You know, just told her, I will support you, you know, whatever you need, your family's behind you. Reporter: Did she tell you anything about donthe's reaction? She said he was mad. She said he was very angry. Reporter: On Sunday, February 3rd, Kelsie writes to donthe, "I know now how you truly do feel. You have no obligation to me and you don't want to have anything with me." The next morning, Kelsie has a prenatal checkup and the doctor delivers the news. She's eight weeks pregnant and her unborn child is in perfect health. She excitedly texts the sonogram to donthe and her family. She sent you a picture of the baby. What did you think when you saw the baby? I was happy. I knew that she was happy. Reporter: After that checkup, donthe presses Kelsie to drive down to Pueblo, saying he has a surprise for her. "Just wait and see for yourself, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." Kelsie responds, "Tell me what it is and I'll come." Donthe, "Come see for yourself. I know it'll put you in a better mood." Kelsie relents, and at about 10:00 P.M., the young mom-to-be finishes her shift and pulls away in her black chevy Cruze, making the lonely two-hour nighttime drive to Pueblo. Did you have any idea she was going there? No. If I would have knew she was, I would have made her take a friend. Or I would have made sure and went with her. Reporter: During the drive, donthe texts her to "Go to Wal-Mart" in Pueblo to meet him. At 11:20 P.M., Kelsie pulls into the Wal-Mart parking lot. She waits almost an hour for donthe to show up. Finally messaging him that she's "Tired of waiting" and will come to him. At 12:15 in the morning, donthe texts her to meet him on this street. They've met here before. It's near his grandmother's hoe, donthe's current crash pad. Again, she's left waiting in the car. "Where are you," she messages him. "I've been here over an hour just waiting." Kelsie is never seen again. By the end of the week, her phone shuts off and her mother is melting down. Just sheer panic and disbelief. I mean, I can't even remember how scared I felt. Reporter: Coming up, donthe tells his story to the cops. We are now leaning towards foul play. Reporter: Is the basketball star a piece of a larger puzzle? And could Kelsie's case be connected somehow to another woman who's gone missing over 1,000 miles away? Could there be a nationwide conspiracy, kidnapping young women?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate. | Kelsie Schelling, 21, who was eight weeks pregnant at the time, disappeared after meeting her boyfriend Donthe Lucas. | 66.454545 | 0.954545 | 1.954545 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Klan-recruiting-flyer-reportedly-circulated-in-8355911.php | http://web.archive.org/web/20160715023906id_/http://www.sfgate.com:80/bayarea/article/Klan-recruiting-flyer-reportedly-circulated-in-8355911.php | Klan-recruiting flyer reportedly circulated in the Haight | 20160715023906 | Photo: Connor Radnovich, The Chronicle
San Francisco Police Department Park Station Captain John Sanford, shown in 2015, said officers heard of the flyer from the media.
San Francisco Police Department Park Station Captain John Sanford, shown in 2015, said officers heard of the flyer from the media.
Klan-recruiting flyer reportedly circulated in the Haight
A flyer that was reportedly circulating in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood appears to incite fear of the Black Lives Matter movement to recruit people to join the Ku Klux Klan, police said Tuesday night.
Hoodline posted a picture of the flyer Tuesday afternoon, which reportedly was being distributed around Haight and Clayton and Oak and Lyon streets.
“Black Lives Matter Black Panthers are telling followers to kill white people and police officers in the name of justice for the killing of negro’s by policemen in the line of duty,” the flyer states. “These negro’s were not innocent, they were thugs breaking the law, and standing up against police.”
The flyer invites people to join the KKK “before it’s too late,” adding “we are not a hate group or openly show hate.”
It lists a phone number and two websites for “The Loyal White Knights of the KKK,” but only one address was for a valid page. The number went to voice mail, which opens by saying “White racial greetings and thank you for calling the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.”
The voice mail goes on to quote two Bible verses.
“Hey whitey, for far too long these liberals have lied to you about what the Bible actually says when they tell you that you’re supposed to love your neighbor. Let me set the record straight: Leviticus Chapter 19, Verse 18 says ‘do not seek revenge or bear grudges against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself,’” the speaker said, emphasizing the phrase “your people” during the message.
“Leviticus Chapter 21 verse 14 says that you are to take a woman of your own people to wife. Remember, the only reason you are white today is because your ancestors practiced and believed in segregation yesterday,” the speaker said.
Park Station Capt. John Sanford said toward the end of one of the station’s scheduled meetings Tuesday night that the department learned of the flyer through the media. Officers stationed in the Haight looked for copies of the document, but could not find any, he said.
“We have not received any complaints whatsoever. We haven’t actually seen the flyers. We’re trying to encourage anyone who comes across those types of flyers to give us a call,” he said.
“If someone decides that they want to recruit for the KKK, they have a right to do that. That is not considered illegal activity. And so, therefore, under those circumstances we would just simply take a suspicious occurrence report,” Sanford said.
From there, he said, the report would be sent to the department’s special investigations division, which would determine if there was a hate crime group that was planning illegal activity.
The flyer’s origin remained a mystery to officers, who have yet to find a copy.
“I don’t know where that flyer was posted up, when they took the picture, so we’ll see,” Sanford said. “We are aware of it and we will take action accordingly.”
Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno | A flyer that was reportedly circulating in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood appears to incite fear of the Black Lives Matter movement to recruit people to join the Ku Klux Klan, police said Tuesday night. “Black Lives Matter Black Panthers are telling followers to kill white people and police officers in the name of justice for the killing of negro’s by policemen in the line of duty,” the flyer states. The flyer invites people to join the KKK “before it’s too late,” adding “we are not a hate group or openly show hate.” The number went to voice mail, which opens by saying “White racial greetings and thank you for calling the Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.” Hey whitey, for far too long these liberals have lied to you about what the Bible actually says when they tell you that you’re supposed to love your neighbor. Leviticus Chapter 19, Verse 18 says ‘do not seek revenge or bear grudges against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself,’ the speaker said, emphasizing the phrase “your people” during the message. Leviticus Chapter 21 verse 14 says that you are to take a woman of your own people to wife. From there, he said, the report would be sent to the department’s special investigations division, which would determine if there was a hate crime group that was planning illegal activity. | 2.510949 | 0.974453 | 30.777372 | low | high | extractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2015/12/29/glee-star-mark-salling-reportedly-arrested-for-possession-of-c/21289475/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160715034705id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2015/12/29/glee-star-mark-salling-reportedly-arrested-for-possession-of-c/21289475/ | 'Glee' star Mark Salling reportedly arrested for possession of child pornography | 20160715034705 | Before you go, we thought you'd like these...
Mark Salling, best known for his portrayal of Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the hit show "Glee," has reportedly been arrested for possession of child pornography after the LAPD searched his home early Tuesday morning.The LAPD confirmed that the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Unit served a search warrant at an address listed under the actor's name in Sunland, California, after Crime Watch Daily broke the news. Authorities arrived at the home around 7 a.m. local time, according to NBC News.
Earlier this year, Salling settled a sexual battery lawsuit with his former girlfriend, Roxanne Gorzela, who accused the star of having unprotected sexual contact with her despite her demands that he wear a condom in a 2013 complaint.
"You hear about fraudulent lawsuits all the time," Salling
shortly after the suit was filed. "Until it happens to you, you really don't grasp what it does, not to just you, but to your family, and you want the legal process to happen as fast as possible, but just...It takes time. I just want the chance to defend myself—and I will, vigorously."
'Glee' star Mark Salling reportedly arrested for possession of child pornography
In this handout image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, actress Amanda Bynes is seen in a police booking photo April 6, 2012 in West Hollywood, California. Bynes was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. (Photo by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by Miami-Dade Police Department, pop star Justin Bieber poses for a booking photo at the Miami-Dade Police Department on January 23, 2014 in Miami, Florida. Justin Bieber was charged with drunken driving, resisting arrest and driving without a valid license after Miami Beach Police found the pop star street racing on Thursday morning. (Photo by Miami-Dade Police Department via Getty Images)
This composite image compares the six booking photos of actress Lindsay Lohan. (Photos by Santa Monica Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) has his mug shot taken while serving time in a New York State Department of Correctional Services shock incarceration program on August 23 1994 in New York NY. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)
In this booking photo provided by the City of Atlanta Department of Corrections, actress Reese Witherspoon, real name Laura Jeanne Witherspoon, poses in a booking photo on April 19, 2013 in Atlanta, Georgia. Witherspoon was charged with disorderly conduct after her husband, Jim Toth, was arrested for driving while intoxicated. (Photo by City of Atlanta Department of Corrections via Getty Images)
A mug shot of actor Robert Downey, Jr. is taken on April 24, 2001 in Culver City, CA. The actor was arrested by officers of the Culver City Police Department for being under the influence of a controlled substance. (Photo by Liaison)
In this handout photo provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office, actor Nicolas Cage is seen in a booking photo April 16, 2011 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cage was arrested April 16, 2011 and charged with domestic abuse, disturbing the peace and public drunkenness. (Photo by Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
In this photo released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on August 28, 2010, Paris Hilton is pictured in a police booking photo in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to reports, Hilton and her boyfriend Cy Waits were arrested late Friday night after being stopped on the Las Vegas Strip in a black Cadillac Escalade by a police motorcycle officer who smelled marijuana smoke coming from the vehicle driven by Waits. Hilton was charged with suspicion of felony cocaine possession after police found a small amount of cocaine in her purse. Waits charged with driving under the influence. (Photo by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Getty Images)
In this handout provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD), Peter Hernandez, a Hip-Hop performer whose stage name is 'Bruno Mars' poses for a mug shot photo after he was arrested at the Clark County Detention Center September 19, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hernandez was charged with possession of a controlled substance after officers found him with 2.6 grams of cocaine at the Hard Rock, Las Vegas. (Photo by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department via Getty Images)
In this handout provided by the Palm Beach County Jail, Rapper Vanilla Ice, also known as Robert Van Winkle poses for his mugshot after being arrested on burglary charges on February 18, 2015 in Lantana, Florida. Police arrested him for taking various items from a residential home in Florida. (Photo by Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
In this handout image provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office, Singer Michael Jackson is shown in a mug shot after he was booked on multiple counts for allegedly molesting a child November 20, 2003 in Santa Barbara, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by the Glendale City Police Department , actor Kiefer Sutherland poses for his mugshot photo at Glendale City Jail December 5, 2007 in Glendale City, California. Sutherland, 40, reported to the facility to serve a 48-day sentance after pleading guilty to a second drunk driving offense. (Photo by Glendale City Police Department via Getty Images)
Nicole Richie is pictured In this image provided by the Glendale Police Department December 11, 2006 in Glendale, California. Richie was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence early Monday in Burbank, California after she was allegedly driving the wrong way on the 134 freeway. (Photo by Glendale Police Department via Getty Images)
This is a Los Angeles police booking photo of British actor Hugh Grant who was arrested June 27, 1995, by Hollywood vice officers and charged with lewd conduct involving a prostitute. Grant has finally finished his rounds of the TV talk shows, having added a new wrinkle to the science of Hollywood spin control: career rescue by public expiation. (AP Photo)
Actress Jane Fonda is shown in a Nov. 3, 1970 police mugshot after she was arrested for assault and battery in Cleveland, Ohio after she allegedly kicked a cop. All charges were later dropped. This photo is included in the book, "Mug Shots: Celebrities Under Arrest. (AP Photo/St. Martin's Press)
In this undated image released Wednesday, june 24, 2015 by the Fayette County (Ga.) Sheriff's Office Rick Ross poses for a photo. Ross is facing kidnapping and assault charges after a U.S. Marshals Service fugitive task force and deputies arrested him, Wednesday, June 24, 2015, at his mansion outside Atlanta. (Fayette County (Ga.) Sheriff's Office via AP)
In this booking photo provided by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office, Samantha Ronson poses for a mug shot August 1, 2011 in Barstow, California. Ronson was arrested for DUI after being pulled over for speeding near Baker, California. (Photo by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
Natasha Lyonne appears in a Miami-Dade jail mug shot taken as she is booked August 28, 2001 after she was arrested in the early morning of August 27, 2001 and charged with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident after she crashed her rental car into a road sign in Miami Beach, Florida. Lyonne starred in the recently released film, 'American Pie 2.' (Photo by Getty Images)
This Monday, March 16, 2015, booking photo provided by Summit County Sheriff's Department in Park City, Utah, shows Actor Emile Hirsch. Hirsch made his first court appearance on Monday, after being charged with assault after putting a studio executive in a chokehold and dragging her across a nightclub table while he was in Utah for the Sundance Film Festival. (AP Photo/Summit County Sheriff's Department)
In this handout image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, actress Mischa Barton poses for her mug shot December 27, 2007. Barton was arrested driving under the influence overnight. (Photo by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
In this police mug shot from the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office, musician Kid Rock, or Robert J. Ritchie, poses for a mug shot October 21. 2007 in DeKalb County, Georgia. Kid Rock was arrested in the early morning of October 21 after a fight at a Waffle House restaurant in DeKalb County. (Photo by DeKalb County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
In this Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department booking photo, actor Mel Gibson has his police mug shot taken July 28, 2006 in Los Angeles, California. Gibson was arrested July 28, 2006 for drunk driving after he was caught speeding and had a blood alcohol reading of 0.12 percent according to authorities. (Photo by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by the Wood County Sheriff's Department, actress Daryl Hannah is seen in a police booking photo October 4, 2012 in Quitman, Texas. Hannah was arrested while protesting the Keystone XL oil pipeline October 4, 2012 in Winnsboro, Texas. She was reportedly charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest. Hannah was released on bond. (Photo by Wood County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by the Las Vegas Police Department, former football player O.J. Simpson poses for a mugshot photo September 16, 2007 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Simpson was arrested at the Palms hotel in connection with an alleged armed robbery in a hotel room at the Palace Hotel. He is accused of being part of a raid on sport memorabilia belonging to a dealer. (Photo by Las Vegas Police Department via Getty Images)
Actor Tim Allen is shown in this 1979 mugshot from the Kalamazoo, Mich. sheriff's department after being arrested for dealing cocaine. This photo is included in the paperback book, "Famous Mugs: Arresting Photos and Felonious Facts for Hundreds of Stars Behind Bars." (AP Photo/ho)
In this handout image provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, actress Michelle Rodriguez poses for her mug shot photo after she checked into the Los Angeles Century Regional Detention Facility December 23, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. Rodriguez is sentanced for a 180 days prison term for a probation violation in a hit-and-run case. (Photo by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
Actor Al Pacino is seen in this 1961 mugshot after he was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon in Woonsocket, R.I. This photo is included in the book, "Mug Shots: Celebrities Under Arrest." (AP Photo/St. Martin's Press)
In this mugshot picture released by the Miami Beach Police Dept., Actor Jeffrey Donovan is seen. Donovan, an actor onthe television show 'Burn Notice' was arrested on the suspicion of drunken driving after being pulled over July 12, 2009 and failing a field sobriety test. (Photo by Miami Beach Police Dept. via Getty Images)
In this handout photo provided by the Broward County Sheriff's Office, Chad Johnson is seen in a police booking photo at Broward County Sheriff's Office on August 11, 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Johnson was arrested on a domestic violence charge following accusations that he had head-butted his wife. (Photo by Broward County Sheriff's Office via Getty Images)
In this photo made available by the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department June 4, 2007, Paris Hilton is seen in her booking photo. (Photo by Los Angeles Sheriff's Department via Getty Images)
This Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 photo provided by the Knox County Jail shows Don McLean. A jail supervisor said "American Pie" singer McLean bad been arrested on a misdemeanor domestic violence charge in Maine. (Knox County Jail via AP) | Sources say that the LAPD served a search warrant at an address listed under the actor's name in Sunland, California. | 101.086957 | 0.913043 | 12.826087 | high | medium | extractive |
http://nypost.com/2016/07/12/polygamous-sect-leader-escapes-custody-with-olive-oil/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160715054426id_/http://nypost.com:80/2016/07/12/polygamous-sect-leader-escapes-custody-with-olive-oil/ | Polygamous sect leader escapes custody with olive oil | 20160715054426 | A polygamous church leader busted in a $12 million food stamp scheme managed to slip away from custody last month by using olive oil to remove his ankle bracelet, the FBI said.
Lyle Jeffs, who spearheads the controversial Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah, was indicted for fraud earlier this year along with 11 more of the church’s leaders.
Prosecutors say church members were forced to hand over their benefits to Jeffs and other officials so that they could cash in the taxpayer-funded coupons at sect-owned stores and use the money to front businesses and pay for items that included a tractor-trailer.
Jeffs had been serving time in the Iron County Jail since his arrest in February, but since his trial was delayed, US District Judge Ted Stewart decided to release Jeffs early on the conditions that he wear a GPS tracking bracelet and live in Salt Lake City.
He escaped just two weeks later and has been in the wind since.
“He used a substance which may have been olive oil to lubricate the GPS tracking band and slip it off his ankle,” Eric Barnhart of the FBI told FOX 13.
“The damage to the bracelet was not such to trigger the full array of alarms that law enforcement or the US Marshals Service would have responded to.”
Agents who spoke with Jeffs’ neighbors told the Salt Lake Tribune that they saw a sports car leave his garage on June 18, the night the FBI believes he escaped.
“Investigators did see a newer model dark [Ford] Mustang pull into the garage at the house at about 10:30 p.m. on June 18,” FBI spokesperson Yi Barker said.
“Witnesses saw the vehicle leave the residence later that night, though they could not identify who was in the car,” she told the Salt Lake Tribune.
The FBI has been in contact with the church’s communities in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona. There are also religious compounds in South Dakota, Colorado and Canada.
Controversy is not new to Jeffs’ church. The leader’s brother, Warren Jeffs, is serving life in prison in Texas after being convicted in 2011 of raping a child, according to the Washington Post.
The convicted pervert had reportedly declared homosexuality “the worst evil act you can do, next to murder,” in one of his sermons.
The church is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a “white supremacist, homophobic, anti-government, totalitarian cult.”
Like his brother Lyle, Warren Jeffs tried to elude law enforcement and hid from cops for months in 2006 before being nabbed in Las Vegas in an Escalade toting wigs and sunglasses.
Anyone with information about Lyle Jeffs is asked to call the FBI Salt Lake City Field Office at (801) 579-1400. | A polygamous church leader busted in a $12 million food stamp scheme managed to slip away from custody last month by using olive oil to remove his ankle bracelet, the FBI said. Lyle Jeffs, who spea… | 13 | 0.928571 | 15.928571 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.nbcnews.com/business/travel/man-sues-airline-after-landing-grenada-rather-granada-n138026 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160715084653id_/http://www.nbcnews.com:80/business/travel/man-sues-airline-after-landing-grenada-rather-granada-n138026 | Man Sues Airline After Landing in Grenada Rather Than Granada | 20160715084653 | It was a booking mistake off by one letter but nearly 4,000 miles.
When a North Bethesda, Maryland, dentist planned a trip to Portugal for a conference last September, he decided he'd quickly swing by Granada, Spain, to see the famed Alhambra and other historical sites.
But carrier British Airways had other ideas, and instead sent Edward Gamson and his partner to Grenada — with an E — in the Caribbean, by way of London, no less.
Gamson, who said he clearly told the British Airways agent over the phone Granada, Spain, didn't notice the mistake because his e-tickets did not contain the airport code or the duration of the trip. It was only 20 minutes after departure from a stopover in London that he looked at the in-flight map and asked the flight attendant, "Why are we headed west to go to Spain?"
“His response was: 'Spain? We’re going to West Indies,' ” Gamson said.
After nearly three days of transit, Gamson just barely made it to the conference, but his vacation was ruined: He's out the more than 375,000 frequent-flier miles he had used to book his first-class tickets, and he said the airline was less than helpful.
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British Airways offered him and his partner $376 each and 50,000 miles, Gamson said. But he figured the pre-booked hotels, trains and other tours they had planned cost upward of $34,000. So he sued the airline, and he's representing himself.
"I have no legal background; I’m a dentist, but I know right from wrong — I don’t know if that does you any good in this world," Gamson told NBC News.
"I really thought they would just want to settle with me, because it’s so apparent that it’s just a stupid mistake," he said.
But British Airways fought back, first trying to get the lawsuit moved to a federal court, where international aviation rules apply, and then trying to get it dismissed completely.
Michelle Kropf, a spokeswoman for British Airways, said, "As this is active litigation, we are unable to make any comment at this time."
The lawyer representing the airline did not return calls for comment.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg denied British Airways' request to have the case moved to federal court, saying that it was an issue with booking rather than the international travel itself.
In a humor-laced, eight-page ruling, Boasberg noted the case highlighted the Mark Twain saying that the "difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
The flight crew was very accommodating and tried to help as much as possible, Gamson said. He said they told him the same thing had happened a week before. But the original crew had to disembark at St. Lucia, and when Gamson and his partner got to Grenada, he said support staff on the ground there were less friendly.
“This was a long awaited vacation that didn’t happen,” he said. | When a U.S. dentist planned a trip to Portugal for a conference last September, he decided he'd first swing by Granada, Spain. He never made it. | 20.258065 | 0.967742 | 9.548387 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/queer-lebanese-singer-pushes-boundaries-n602676 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160715192901id_/http://www.nbcnews.com:80/feature/nbc-out/queer-lebanese-singer-pushes-boundaries-n602676 | Queer Arab Singer Hamed Sinno Pushes Musical, Political Boundaries | 20160715192901 | The Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila were touring the U.S. with their fourth album, "Ibn El Leil" (Son of the Night), a work about grief and mourning in Beirut's nightclubs, when a gunman killed dozens of people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. Suddenly, their work took on a haunting new depth.
Hamed Sinno, the band's lyricist and lead singer, is openly gay and from a Muslim family. "To be at the intersection of two identities that are equally scorned, but then to also feel like you're being shut out of both sides of them, it's horrible," he told NBC OUT in an interview.
Sinno's family has been supportive of his work and although his father recently passed away, his presence is felt in the band's new album. Several songs are set in the underground haunts where Sinno said he grieved. At times, that contrast is drawn by Sinno's syrupy voice over a backdrop of dancey synths. Other times, sadness is stirred by the bow of Haig Papazian's signature violin, which lends the work a Middle Eastern flair.
"It's absurd to have your own work mean different things to you now because of politics," said Sinno, reflecting on the implications the band's work took on after the tragedy in Florida.
Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila plays in New York City. Munir Atalla
Sinno has become something of a queer icon known for his expressive performances and for pushing the boundaries of genre. Politically active both on and off stage, he is a vocal critic of labels and stereotyping. "This is what it looks like to be called both a terrorist and a faggot," he said as he took the stage at D.C.'s "The Hamilton" a mere day and a half after the violence in Orlando.
Continuing to perform despite the real threat of violence both in the Middle East and the Western world takes courage. "When people send you death threats, you pause for a second to question how serious it is … If someone shoots me while I'm onstage, then to some extent ... I'm happy to be in that position," Sinno remarked, expressing a profound acceptance of the vulnerability he assumes every time he takes the stage.
His only concern is for his listeners. "When someone threatens your audience, when all they've done is tried to listen to music ... that gets really frightening." This sentiment is echoed in the song "Falyakon" (Whatever will be), where Sinno writes, "Whatever will be, just may be, I'll still be here singing my melody."
For Sinno, music venues are natural fora to express political opinions. Nowhere is that more true, he said, than in his native Beirut. The ballad "Maghawir" (Commandos) narrates a fictional nightclub shooting grafted from true stories in the Lebanese capital. "In his pocket there's a gun, the boy is his father's son," Sinno sings.
"Kalaam" is a gender-bending love song where the object of desire alternates between male and female. "Why all the shame? Just feel what you feel," he croons.
Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila plays in New York City. Munir Atalla
Mashrou' Leila have been called "the voice of a generation" and "the soundtrack to the Arab Spring," but really, Sinno insisted, the band has always been just a group of friends making music about their own lives, "a night's project," as their name suggests.
The group first gained notoriety in 2011 when their tunes resonated across an Arab world roiling with rebellion. Sinno belted out scathing political satires of homophobia, corrupt politicians and peers who would rather dance than face reality. "Lil Watan" (For the Homeland) is an anti-anthem, a parody of nationalistic propaganda. In the song, the chorus shouts back in the voice of bourgeois society, "Stop your preaching, just come dance with me." Their sound is a distinctive mix of indie-pop layered with colloquial Arabic sung in a stylized lilt. It is perhaps best encapsulated by the call to prayer and the blast of a car bomb ringing out in brilliant synchrony, evoked on the 2009 track "Obwa."
Mashrou' Leila is one of the few bands ever to break out of the Arab world and become a truly global phenomenon. In November 2015, they released their fourth album at the Barbican Centre in London, and the year prior, the band sold out a show in the city's iconic Royal Albert Hall.
They encountered overt censorship last spring. In April, the Jordanian Ministry of Tourism revoked Mashrou' Leila's concert license, derailing a show planned at the Roman amphitheater in downtown Amman. Fans turned to the band's lyrics to express their defiance, sorrow and outrage on social media - and publications worldwide took note. Eventually, the ban was lifted, but not in time for the show to go on.
To fans and critics alike, the Amman controversy only furthered Mashrou' Leila's image as musical and political icons for a counter-culture that continues to gain momentum. The band has come to represent something subaltern and contagious that can be heard on the track "Tayf" (Ghost), an ode to a gay nightclub in Beirut that got raided by authorities.
Sinno has said that the writing on the track is some of his favorite on the album. In it, he sings poignantly, "the fungus is spreading, tomorrow we inherit the earth."
Follow NBC OUT on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. | Hamed Sinno, lead singer of Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila, talks to NBC OUT about music, politics and the intersection of the two. | 40.666667 | 0.962963 | 2.222222 | high | high | mixed |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/12/amazon-prime-day-sales-us/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160716010032id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/12/amazon-prime-day-sales-us/ | Early Reports Show That Amazon Prime Day U.S. Sales Are Flat | 20160716010032 | Amazon’s second annual summer sales blitz, called Prime Day, is turning out to be a mixed bag.
U.S. sales were flat through 5 pm ET on Tuesday compared with last year, according to e-commerce software company ChannelAdvisor. But they were up 12% in the U.K.
Amazon debuted Prime Day last year as a one-day sale exclusively for members of its Prime subscription shopping service. The company’s goal is to create a new shopping holiday like Black Friday—the busy shopping day after Thanksgiving—to encourage more spending on its site.
While Prime Day is a manufactured shopping event, the sales could mean significant revenue for Amazon. Retail advisory firm FBIC has predicted that Prime Day could generate $525 million in sales. If so, that would be up 26% from its $415 million estimate last year.
It’s important to note that ChannelAdvisor’s numbers don’t include sales where Amazon is directly selling goods to customers, which includes popular products like the Echo, Kindle, and Fire, which all had pretty significant Prime Day promotions. But ChannelAdvisor, whose customers use its software to sell on Amazon’s marketplace, said that many of its merchants participated directly in Prime Day deals.
It’s also worth noting that Amazon will be adding more deals this evening, which could drive additional sales.
Amazon’s other goal for the Prime Day is to encourage more consumers to adopt its Prime service, which for $99 a year, among many benefits, offers customers free two-day delivery and access to Amazon’s TV and movie streaming service. Prime enrollments peaked on July 14 last year, one day before Prime Day.
This year’s sales included more than 100,000 discounts on TVs, toys, books, movies and more. Prime members were able start shopping at midnight PST, or 3 am ET, with new deals being announced as often as every five minutes.
For more on Amazon, watch:
But this year, Prime Day debuted to a rocky start with many customers reporting technical problems while checking out, and expressing their frustration over social media.
Amazon said that in the first eight hours of Prime Day in the US, members bought over 196,000 pairs of shoes, and more than 270,000 toys. | Sales are mixed, according to one outside firm. | 43.7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/13/women-in-congress-barbie/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160716010249id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/13/women-in-congress-barbie/ | Why All the Women in Congress Are Getting Barbie Dolls Today | 20160716010249 | We’re just four months away from election day, and our current political climate makes it difficult, at best, to engage in thoughtful conversation about politics without getting the “politics is off limits” side eye. Whether on the playground, on the subway, in line at the grocery store, or in the elevator… it seems as if “politics” has become a dirty word.
As the mother of two daughters—one six-year-old and one four-year-old—I dream about unbridled opportunities for my two girls. As the founder of She Should Run, a nonpartisan organization working to help women and girls envision themselves in elected office, I dream that every election will present infinite opportunities for women across the country.
With every election, our nation has the opportunity to elect a more diverse group of leaders, whose varying perspectives will allow for smarter, more informed and more representative decision-making, resulting in greater opportunity and prosperity for all Americans. Yet if we want girls to believe they can become anything they want—including President or Vice President of the United States—then we need to work much more diligently to help them envision those dreams. And we need to provide the ongoing support and inspiration girls need to travel their own, unique pathways to achieving their dreams.
The good news is, most young girls today believe they have limitless potential, feel empowered to share what’s on their minds, and are not afraid to raise their hands and speak up. Many of them don’t really understand why electing a woman as President of the United States is such a big deal.
However, the reality is that elected and nominated political seats across the country—from City Council to Congress to the bench of the Supreme Court—remain dominated by men. There are 500,000 elected offices across the country and we need to be grooming more women and girls—of all races, generations, geographies and experiences—to run for them.
We can’t expect to find the best solutions to 21st-century challenges when we only have half the population represented at the decision-making table. A healthy and effective democracy needs to include female voices.
That’s why She Should Run and Barbie are partnering to deploy the power of visibility. On Wednesday, we are releasing the first-ever President and Vice President Barbie set to help more girls to envision the possibilities of leadership from a young age. However, it’s not just about the presidency; it’s about all levels of government and leadership roles that would benefit from the ideas and perspectives of women.
It’s clear that inaction is not an option; we simply cannot afford to give girls the impression that political elections don’t matter, and we certainly don’t want to instill the idea that they—whether individually or as a group—have no power to make things better. But we have our work cut out for us.
According to the Girl Scouts Research Institute, 68% of girls don’t feel encouraged to pursue careers as politicians. That means, even though girls think they can be leaders, they don’t necessarily feel supported or inspired to take on that role. We need to reinforce the impact that women can have in leadership positions, particularly the positive change they can make in elected office. And we need to let girls knows that they can redefine what it means to be an elected leader.
The more we can normalize women leading, the closer will get to the vision of a world of limitless possibility.
And with work, they’ll never know a world in which electing a woman President of the United States is such a cause for celebration.
Erin Loos Cutraro is the co-founder & CEO of She Should Run, a social change organization working to dramatically increase the number of women and girls who see elected leadership as a possibility. She is a frequent public speaker on issues related to women’s and girl’s leadership in public life. | Hint: It has to do with the next generation. | 70.272727 | 0.636364 | 0.636364 | high | low | abstractive |
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/07/15/new-bat-piano-takes-wing-newport/qspy6gNBkkS8tHXuG7MpWJ/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160716130908id_/https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2016/07/15/new-bat-piano-takes-wing-newport/qspy6gNBkkS8tHXuG7MpWJ/story.html | New ‘bat piano’ takes wing in Newport | 20160716130908 | Gergely Bogányi performs on the specially designed “Bogányi piano” at the Newport Music Festival.
NEWPORT, R.I. — Somewhere near the heart of a classical performer’s art is a deceptively simple assignment: to imagine an ideal sound in one’s mind, and then to realize it on an instrument.
But oh, the details! The sound in one’s mind is by definition perfect. But the sound that comes out of your piano? And yes, it is often professional pianists, more than most others, who must cope with the added challenges of routinely playing on instruments that are not their own. Even players with the most well-honed techniques can struggle with mundane difficulties: tuning, the action of a sticky key, the sensitivity of wood reacting to changes in weather — in short, all the physical limitations of a complex mechanical object whose basic design was conceived in a distant century and, since then, essentially frozen in time.
The pianist Gergely Bogányi grew up in Hungary and in Finland, and, by his own description, experienced the gap between the sound in his mind and what he could produce at the keyboard with a special bitterness. “I was not spoiled by good pianos around me,” he says, “so I was basically always suffering.”
Bogányi took the unlikely step of trying to address the problem, not just by buying a better instrument but by starting from scratch. Over the last decade, working with a team of engineers, designers, and manufacturing specialists, he has rethought and redesigned the modern piano. The result is the new “Bogányi piano.” This week the pianist and a team of European colleagues came to the Newport Music Festival to introduce the instrument, presenting its first North American performances.
Visually the piano is something to behold, with a sleek black curvature that has earned it the nickname “bat piano.” Its footprint is roughly similar to that of a conventional concert grand, but it has no third leg, lending it from certain angles the illusion of floating in air. The piano is manufactured outside of Budapest in a plant that also produces components for the interiors of luxury cars. Which makes sense, as this piano looks a bit like what might come off the lab bench after splicing the DNA of a Steinway and a Lamborghini.
Many aspects of the piano’s mechanics have been rethought, but the heart of the innovation lies, as it were, under the hood. It is built around a carbon-fiber soundboard instead of a wooden one, with the aim of creating what the marketing team describes as “a more stable, crisp and clear sound” — one that, it is claimed, remains steady despite changes in humidity or temperature.
It’s well and good to read about such things, but something else entirely to hear the piano in action. On Thursday morning in the ballroom at the Elms, Bogányi played an all-Chopin program for a packed crowd of curious festival listeners. The weather gods even did their part for the experiment by serving up a stiflingly muggy day.
From the opening B-minor Scherzo, the instrument’s sound was notable for a pellucid clarity in its upper registers and for an unusual power in its tolling, clarion bass notes. Up and down the keyboard, the sound materialized at the start of notes with a forthright ping, as if the signal to noise ratio were higher than typical. The overall quantity of sound was also impressive, threatening at times to overpower the room and sparking, at least in this listener, a keen curiosity to hear this turbocharged piano in front of a full orchestra. One also wondered, in particular, how it would sound in repertoire of a modernity closer to its own.
For his part, Bogányi played his Chopin selections with sensitivity and Romantic sweep. It was, thankfully, clear that for him the new instrument remains a means to older musical ends. All of this said, with a price tag of $300,000 and a culture among classical musicians that remains reflexively suspicious of modern instruments — even those made to look old — it’s difficult to picture the Bogányi becoming commonplace. But one has to give credit to the imagination and sheer audacity behind this project. And at this initial hearing, the crowd responded in that spirit, with an ovation clearly directed at more than just a fine performance.
Presented by Newport Music Festival. At the Elms, Newport, R.I., July 14 | A pianist pursuing the sound in his mind introduces a rethought grand piano in its North American debut at the Newport Music Festival. | 35.833333 | 0.875 | 3.125 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.nbc.com/the-voice/credits/host/carson-daly | http://web.archive.org/web/20160718123519id_/http://www.nbc.com:80/the-voice/credits/host/carson-daly | Carson Daly - NBC.com | 20160718123519 | Carson Daly is a pioneer of pop culture across a multitude of media, including network television, radio, the recording industry and digital.
He is currently hosting and producing the 10th season of the NBC hit series "The Voice." The show has received four consecutive Emmy nominations for Outstanding Reality Competition Program and won in 2013 and 2015. Daly's long-running late night NBC series, "Last Call with Carson Daly," is currently in its 15th season, and he continues to host his top-rated morning-drive radio program on 97.1 AMP FM Los Angeles. In 2013, Carson began as co-host of the "Today" show, providing communication between viewers and the show in the Orange Room, as well as delivering original content and reporting. This year marked the 13th year that Daly and Universal Media Studios produced "NBC's New Year's Eve with Carson Daly." Past musical performances have included Rihanna, Jay Z, Green Day, Elton John, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry, Ludacris, Mary J. Blige, Avril Lavigne, Panic! At The Disco, The Ting Tings and Lenny Kravitz. Daly began his career in radio in the early 1990s, quickly moving up the ranks as an on-air DJ in five cities within his first five years. He quickly landed one of the most coveted positions in the business - that of the early evening voice of L.A.'s influential and highly rated alternative rock station KROQ-FM. MTV soon recognized his talent and brought him to New York. As host and executive producer of MTV's "Total Request Live" (TRL), he transformed an afternoon music video program into a must-stop on the publicity circuit for musicians, movie stars and entertainers. It was Daly's guy-next-door charm that made him so appealing as he entered living rooms daily to offer exactly what the audience desired. In 2002, his loyal fans followed him to NBC and tuned in to his late night television show, "Last Call with Carson Daly." While the show boasts diverse bookings in the worlds of entertainment, politics and sports, it is the progressive music bookings that have earned Daly his bragging rights among the late night crowd. Since its premiere, "Last Call" has been the show that gave many of the hottest bands their first break on U.S. television, including The Killers, Maroon 5, Ray LaMontagne, Modest Mouse, 30 Seconds to Mars, B.o.B and many more. At the start of the 11th season, music network Fuse TV acquired the rights to rebroadcast "Last Call" the following day. New and expanded "Last Call" content, including interviews and musical performances, also appear online on www.fuse.tv. | Meet Carson Daly from The Voice on NBC.com. | 58.222222 | 0.666667 | 1.111111 | high | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/3825781/mario-diaz-balart-obamas-cuba-policy/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160719002601id_/http://time.com:80/3825781/mario-diaz-balart-obamas-cuba-policy/ | Obama's Cuba Policy Enables a Dictator | 20160719002601 | President Barack Obama continues to appease brutal dictatorships while gaining precious little in return. He conflates the Cuban dictatorship with the Cuban people when in reality, their interests are diametrically opposed. With sweeping arrogance, President Obama acts as though he stands above history with wisdom that surpasses every American president since Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first to impose sanctions on the Fidel Castro regime. Obama’s foreign policy is radical even compared to his own party. President John F. Kennedy imposed many of the first stringent sanctions against the Castro regime, and President Bill Clinton signed into law the LIBERTAD Act, which codified sanctions that Obama now opposes.
All eight Cuban-American senators and congressmen from both sides of the aisle, strongly disagree with him. One would think that he might consult with us.
The Cuban people simply want to gather peacefully, speak their minds, practice their faiths, access the Internet, and enjoy the fruits of their labor. The ailing octogenarians that run Cuba would never allow those simple liberties. A key point often overlooked is that, under current law, the president can lift sanctions once free, fair elections are scheduled, political prisoners are released, and independent press, organized labor, and political parties are legalized in Cuba. The Cuban people deserve no less, yet Obama abandoned the U.S. commitment to those basic goals when he abandoned his most significant leverage to advance them.
Obama’s capitulation to dictators apparently has no bounds. In 2001, five Cuban spies were convicted for conspiracy to commit espionage. One of those five convicted spies, Gerardo Hernandez, was additionally serving two life sentences for the murders of innocent Americans and a legal permanent resident in the shoot-down of civilian aircraft over international waters. Obama’s State and Justice Departments arranged, while Hernandez was in federal prison, to help him have his wife in Cuba artificially inseminated. Shortly thereafter, in another striking concession, Obama commuted his sentence and ordered his release. When has any president been so embarrassingly eager to appease a brutal, anti-American, repressive dictatorship?
Obama’s policies also hurt the Cuban people by emboldening a regime already ready to oppress them. Since the president’s Dec. 17, 2014 announcement, there have been approximately 1,300 political arrests in Cuba. During the Obama administration, five pro-democracy activists have died – Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, Laura Pollan, Oswaldo Payá and Harold Cepero. The Castro regime exports its brand of violence abroad to Venezuela, where it subverts democratic institutions and helps to repress the Venezuelan people. And just recently, with the president’s implicit blessing, the Castro dictatorship brazenly flexed its impunity at the summit in Panama by beating pro-democracy activists, including American citizens, and ejecting an American journalist from an international press conference. Three days later, the regime was rewarded for those human rights abuses with another monumental concession: removal from the state sponsors of terror list.
Removal from the terrorism list is especially disturbing when the Castro regime continues to provide safe harbor to one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, Joanne Chesimard, terrorist bomb-maker William Morales, and more than 70 other fugitives from U.S. justice. It also has ties to ETA and FARC terrorists, supports other rogue states including Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea, and provides support to Hamas and Hezbollah. In July 2013, Panamanian authorities discovered that the North Korean ship Chong Chon Gang was carrying military weapons that it had loaded from Cuba. A UN panel of experts determined that the shipment was the biggest violation of those international sanctions to date. Further, the Castro regime maintains an extensive espionage network against the United States. Ana Belen Montes (Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, serving a 25-year sentence for conspiracy to commit espionage), the five convicted “WASP” network spies, Walter and Gwendolyn Myers (State Department analyst and his wife serving sentences for conspiracy to commit espionage), Elsa and Carlos Alvarez (Florida International University professor and his wife, serving sentences), and Marta Rita Velazquez (USAID, indicted but fled to Sweden) are a few examples of those who have spied on the Castros’ behalf against the U.S. in the past 15 years.
Obama’s strategy has been an abysmal failure wherever it has been tried. During the horrific slaughter of Iranian protesters during the summer of 2009, President Obama was nowhere to be found throughout most of that turmoil. When he finally decided to speak, he declared, “the United States respects the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and is not interfering with Iran’s affairs.” Defending liberty is hardly “interference,” whether referring to the mullahs in Iran or the Castro brothers. Instead, it is the minimum required from those of us living in freedom. As President Obama negotiates with the murderers in Tehran and Havana, he has excised those regimes’ terrorism abroad and atrocities at home – points any U.S. president should find salient – from the negotiating table.
One thing is clear: The president will barrel along with his failed foreign policy agenda regardless of the harm to American security interests, damage to pro-democracy movements, and the diminishing trust of our allies. Obama’s foreign policy is an aberration in America’s long and proud history of supporting freedom across the globe. The U.S. Congress continues to stand with the oppressed people of the world struggling for freedom, and will do all it can to keep the president from bargaining away every ounce of leverage we have to the world’s worst actors. | When has any president been so eager to appease a brutal dictatorship? | 81.076923 | 1 | 5 | high | high | mixed |
http://fortune.com/2016/05/13/goldman-sachs-women-female-leadership/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160719014226id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/05/13/goldman-sachs-women-female-leadership/ | Goldman Sachs Lags Behind National Averages for Female Leadership | 20160719014226 | Around 21% of U.S. executives or senior officials at Goldman Sachs Group are women, according to statistics published Thursday as part of the bank’s annual Environmental, Social and Governance Report.
That percentage is below the 29% national average of senior officials in U.S. finance and insurance who are women, according to the most recent data from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Women made up 48% of midlevel officials and managers in the United States within finance and insurance, compared with 26% at Goldman.
Asked to comment on the 21% figure, a Goldman spokesman said: “Goldman Sachs is committed to fostering a work environment that values diverse backgrounds and perspectives.”
Around 37% of total U.S. employees at Goldman gs are women, the report said.
In 2015, Goldman said a quarter of its new managing directors that year were women, the highest percentage in the bank’s history.
The bank has several efforts in place to retain female employees, including a program that helps those who have left the workforce for two or more years to restart their careers and a six-month initiative aimed at developing third- and second-year associates. | Women make up only a small portion of the firm's executive and manager roles. | 14 | 0.4375 | 0.5625 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.people.com/article/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-anti-semitic-gma-interview | http://web.archive.org/web/20160719215804id_/http://www.people.com/article/ivanka-trump-donald-trump-anti-semitic-gma-interview | Ivanka Trump Defends Donald Trump Amid Anti-Semitic Controversy : People.com | 20160719215804 | 07/19/2016 AT 10:10 AM EDT
from claims that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is anti-semetic.
In a pre-taped interview with
that aired on Tuesday, the 34-year-old dismissed
, which arose after her 70-year-old father tweeted and deleted an image of
calling the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee the "most corrupt candidate ever" in a graphic many believed resembled the Star of David.
"He clearly did not think that was the Star of David," she told Spencer. "I think it should have been taken at face value. That was clearly not the intention."
, went on to say that her father has been a longtime supporter of the Jewish community.
My father's track record of supporting and advocating for Jewish people and for Israel is unimpeachable," she said. "Whether it being the grand marshall of the Israel Day Parade when it was not advantageous to do so to the support he has offered my husband, myself and our family as a young Jewish couple."
"I know my father and I know his intent. I think that was really rather ridiculous," she added.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ivanka spoke about her father's
habits – which he used to defend himself against the
"The only filter is himself," she explained. "He's able to communicate exactly what he wants to say. It has gotten him into trouble occasionally. But I think, much more powerful is the fact that he speaks from the brain, he speaks from the heart."
"He's the messenger of the people – he's the people's candidate," she said.
And as for the threats of violence that appear to be rampant in recent weeks? "We live in scary times," she said. "I worry about the safety of my father but I worry about the safety of every American, including my children and myself, my family."
WATCH: @LaraSpencer one-on-on with @IvankaTrump on family and politics: https://t.co/iafXxnSWJn https://t.co/dmevFONxM1
Ivanka also refuted the "flawed perception" that her father doesn't value women, saying that Donald "has empowered women – even me – his whole life."
"People talk and talk about gender, but do they actually live it?" she asked. "My father has. He believes in equality amongst the genders – economically, politically and socially."
"I don't know that people appreciate his tremendous empathy and his warmth, but they should," she added. "This country needs a president who's able to dream big. And my father will be able to do that in a very big and a very real way."
But it was when reflecting on Clinton's recent attack ads against her father – which portray him as a
"I wouldn't have my children listening to those ads," she said. "The negative ads – especially those and almost all of them – are a complete manipulation of his words and packaged for maximum impact."
"Despite what anyone may say, including the opposition, I know the man and so do my children." | Ivanka Trump stood up for her father Donald in a pre-taped interview with Good Morning America | 34.333333 | 0.666667 | 3.111111 | medium | low | mixed |
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160715-the-ghost-towns-left-by-oil-booms-and-busts | http://web.archive.org/web/20160720073521id_/http://www.bbc.com:80/future/story/20160715-the-ghost-towns-left-by-oil-booms-and-busts | The ghost towns that were created by the oil rush | 20160720073521 | In many places on our planet, striking oil has meant the eruption of new settlements in previously uninhabited places. Where there has been oil, there have usually been people.
But they haven’t always hung around. The world is littered with ghost towns that were once home to newly minted oil barons and workers who dreamt of turning goo into gold.
This is not just history. With the price of crude oil less than half what it was three years ago, many more towns – particularly some American ones – are now being abandoned as the profits evaporate.
“People move in and move out,” comments historian William Caraher at the University of North Dakota, “and there are scars left behind of various types.”
These pictures reveal just a few of the places built – and later deserted – thanks to oil. | Over the last 150 years, oil booms and busts have given rise – and laid waste – to hundreds of towns across the world | 6.48 | 0.56 | 0.72 | low | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/money/4254612/retirement-planning-african-americans/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160721013421id_/http://time.com:80/money/4254612/retirement-planning-african-americans/ | The Hidden Retirement Crisis | 20160721013421 | Middle-class African Americans are more optimistic about the state of the U.S. economy—and more likely to be invested in the stock market—than ever before. But when it comes to investing for retirement, they still lag white Americans. According to Ariel Investments’ 2015 Black Investor Survey, 67% of African Americans are invested in stocks or mutual funds, compared with 86% of whites.
Part of the reason for the nearly 20-point gap is that African Americans have different attitudes and challenges around saving for retirement. Here’s a look at some of those financial hurdles, along with expert advice on how to get over them.
A persistent wealth gap. The most recent federal data, from 2013, puts the difference in net worth between the typical black family and the typical white family at $131,000—a wealth gap that owes much to the racially charged economic policies of yesteryear.
Ivory Johnson, founder of Delancey Wealth Management, explains: “Historically, our neighborhoods weren’t subject to federally backed mortgages until the late 1960s, so our property values were lower. Black police officers in the state of Georgia couldn’t participate in the state pension fund until 1976, so they retired with much less. The wage disparity still persists, with black men making 75 cents on the dollar.”
To close the wealth gap, Johnson says, we must close the knowledge gap by having conversations about investing in the stock market, buying appreciating assets, using homeownership as a wealth creator, and starting businesses that create a legacy for families.
Leaving 401(k) money on the table. While African Americans have as much access to qualified employer-sponsored plans as their white counterparts, not everyone (of either race) takes advantage of the benefit: 74% of blacks currently contribute, vs. 85% of whites, according to the 2015-2016 African American Financial Experience study from Prudential. For those who contribute less than the employer match or not at all, the top reason, given by 43% of respondents, is feeling that their income isn’t high enough.
“Start where you are. If you have a company that’s offering a 401(k) plan, then contribute at least up to the matching company funds,” says Delvin Joyce, managing director of the South Florida Financial Group at Prudential Advisors. “That’s essentially free money and can accelerate retirement savings.”
With investing, diversification is key. Joyce suggests contributing up to the match, then placing additional discretionary income into a Roth IRA. “There are no upfront tax breaks on the Roth,” Joyce explains, “but you don’t have to pay income tax on the gains. You’ll have an additional bucket of money that’s not taxable.”
A knack for overspending. Wearing our assets on our backs shows the world that we’ve made it. But Joyce notes that clients who do well in retirement take a different approach to spending: “They have a good handle on their debt, they live well within their means, and they make sacrifices.”
The first step on the path to a secure retirement is to set a savings goal; studies show that people who commit to a financial plan save more than twice as much as those without a plan. For help getting started, try an online tool like My Retirement Plan, which provides a realistic savings goal tailored to you. Just pop in some info about yourself, your income, and your current retirement savings, and the tool will calculate how much you may need, recommend a monthly amount to save, and offer the necessary steps to get you there.
Read next: These Are the Best Retirement Calculators
A distrust for Wall Street. Back in the day, black folks at church viewed the stock market as no better than gambling. My ancestors kept their money where they felt it was safe—stuffed under the mattress, in their bosom, or in a mason jar in the back of the closet. Today, that distrust lingers among those who would rather get financial advice from a pastor than a professional money manager.
But that attitude isn’t doing their finances any favors. “Find someone beyond your family and friends, because many of them may not know much about investing or have had success with it,” says Sharon Epperson, senior personal finance correspondent for CNBC. “Check out a professional adviser like you would your physician. See if you like them, trust them, and if they are can answer your questions competently.”
A good place to start is the Association of African American Financial Advisors or the National Associational of Professional Financial Advisors to find a professional who can help you with budgeting, college planning, and estate planning, Epperson says.
Log on to http://brokercheck.finra.org to check out a broker’s employment history, certifications, and licenses as well as violations, complaints, or regulatory actions. You can also check out advisers on the SEC website. Complete the search with a round of interviews. Here’s a list of questions to ask anyone you’re thinking about trusting with your money.
Saving for retirement means putting the proper tools to work for you early on. Once you get beyond the budgeting basics, take advantage of the market’s wealth-building potential to help your money grow. | African Americans face a specific set of challenges when retirement planning. Here's how to overcome them. | 53.684211 | 0.789474 | 1.210526 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://time.com/4309501/apple-carekit-apps-launch-2016/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160721015311id_/http://time.com:80/4309501/apple-carekit-apps-launch-2016/ | Apple Launches CareKit for Medical iPhone App Developers | 20160721015311 | Plenty of apps can help people track their daily activities, monitor their health, and set exercise reminders. But when entrepreneur Jeff Dachis was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes nearly three years ago, he couldn’t find any health software that truly helped him adjust to the new lifestyle his condition requires.
“[Medical apps] are usually written by people who have no sense of user experience, and are driven in a lot of ways by fear,” says Dachis. “For a data driven disease like diabetes, you really need all of the pieces of the puzzle in one place.”
Dachis’ frustrations led him to develop One Drop, an app that allows diabetics to manage their health by tracking data from their glucose meters, logging the number of carbohydrates in their meals, and offering insulin shot reminders.
iPhone maker Apple is now hoping to improve health apps like One Drop by offering developers new tools for building health apps. The Cupertino, Calif.-based firm on Thursday is rolling out “CareKit,” which gives app makers a suite of new tools for creating health software.
CareKit has four central features, called “modules.” There’s the “Care Card,” which helps users track how often they take medication or complete physical therapy routines; a symptom-tracking tool that can be used to monitor fevers and other ailments; a dashboard for comparing symptoms against recorded health metrics; and a function for sharing that information with doctors, caregivers, or family members.
CareKit features will appear immediately in some apps, including One Drop, mental health app Start, and pregnancy app Glow Nurture. One Drop, for example, will now include heart-shaped meters that fill up while a user completes their daily goals, which may include logging the right amount of carbohydrates according to their diet and taking the correct dosage of medication.
The new tools may seem minor to some. But Apple is hoping CareKit will provide a way for patients to keep a closer eye on their own health, potentially allowing them to more quickly address any issues as they come up. “If you have chronic medical conditions, [like] heart rhythm failure, this is an important matter because the management of that condition could be critical to avoiding hospitalizations,” says Dr. Eric Topol, cardiologist and director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute.
Some of CareKit’s functionality isn’t groundbreaking. Smartphone owners can already jot down their symptoms when they’re not feeling well, or set reminders to take medication on nearly any note-taking or alarm app. Dachis said his company probably could have developed the features offered in CareKit on its own.
But CareKit could help tie disparate functions together, giving people a more comprehensive view of their well-being. It could also empower healthcare organizations with limited technical resources to create helpful apps. “Thousands of organizations will be able to quickly put together [an app] that’s elegant and sophisticated,” says Dachis.
CareKit’s launch comes as many software startups seek to make life easier for patients. The app Maven connects women to health care professionals to provide an alternative to non-essential doctor visits and Googling for advice. Verily, which was once a part of Google and now stands as its own company under the Alphabet umbrella, is working on a product that aims to make medical research as simple and accessible as typing a query into Google’s search engine, according to Fast Company. And Apple already offers ResearchKit, which enables iPhone owners to participate in medical studies, and HealthKit, which allows health apps to share data with one another with the user’s permission.
Despite Silicon Valley’s growing interest in health, some worry that there’s a lack of medical software that provides truly meaningful data. CareKit itself is limited, as it’s only available for the iPhone, not competing platforms. And Dachis says there is room for improvement besides. “The data integration from ResearchKit to HealthKit and CareKit could be better,” he says.
Regardless, Topol says CareKit is an indication that health apps are moving in the right direction: “It reflects a whole democratization of medicine. This would be seen as alien, foreign a few years ago.” | This could be a big deal for healthcare | 101.5 | 0.75 | 1 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/poland/articles/Euro-2012-Poland-a-guide-to-the-venue-cities/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160721114843id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/destinations/europe/poland/articles/Euro-2012-Poland-a-guide-to-the-venue-cities/ | Euro 2012, Poland: a guide to the venue cities | 20160721114843 | The Polish capital is hardly one of the world’s great beauty spots, but that is not surprising. Flattened by the retreating Nazis, the city had to be completely rebuilt: mostly in the harsh Stalinist style of the Fifties. A meticulously reconstructed old town points to a gentler, more elegant past. As does the beautiful Lazienki Park, scene in the summer of outdoor concerts featuring the music of Frédéric Chopin, born just 30 miles away. Lovers of more modern music will not be disappointed either: a large student community ensures lively clubbing.
For soccer fans with memories stretching back to 1966 and England’s last triumph in an international football tournament, the name Gdansk should ring a few bells. This gritty shipbuilding port in the north of the country was the birthplace of the Solidarity trade union movement that spearheaded the fight against communism.
It is also a treasure trove of beautifully restored Renaissance and Gothic buildings, reflecting the time when Gdansk was a powerful member of the Hanseatic League. Come here to buy jewellery containing amber and head to the nearby seaside resort of Sopot to mix with Poland’s young and beautiful.
First things first. This beautiful Gothic waterside town on the river Odra is pronounced in the following way: Vrotz-wahv. It used to be called Breslau when it was part of Germany (hence the Teutonic traces). But its cultural hinterland is much deeper. Renaissance flourishes stem from the period of Habsburg rule. The proximity to the Czech Republic means that there is also something of a Bohemian feel here: happily for the travelling football fan, one of the ways this manifests itself is in a couple of excellent breweries and some great beer cellars.
This lively city halfway between Warsaw and Berlin has always been an important centre for trade – and a defining point of Polish nationhood. It was from these parts that the first kings of Poland hailed. Nearby Gniezno is where the decision was taken to embrace the Christian faith.
In addition to cathedrals and churches, Poznan boasts two zoos, a botanical gardens and cobblestoned streets full of outdoor cafés. England fans wanting a reminder of the origins of one of their favourite chants should head to nearby Zagan and the Stalag Luft III – the former Nazi prisoner-of-war camp that inspired the film The Great Escape.
Outside the cities hosting the Euro 2012 matches, Poland remains a country rooted in rural traditions with a great spirit of hospitality (expect lots of vodka, pierogi dumplings and poppy seed cake). It is also fervently Catholic – one of the country’s most visited spots is Czestochowa, home to a sacred painting, the Black Madonna, and a land of wide open spaces and wildernesses – the Bialowieza National Park is where you will find European bison in the wild; the Bieszczady is where to go for pristine forests. And where do Poles like to go and relax? In addition to the Tatra Mountains and the beaches of the Baltic, many head to the north-east and Masuria – the “land of a thousand lakes”. | Adrian Bridge considers the appeal of Euro 2012 cities in Poland, including Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. | 27.714286 | 0.714286 | 0.809524 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/27/us/27guns.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160722043758id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2010/03/27/us/27guns.html | After a Supreme Court Loss, Washington’s Gun Laws Pass Muster | 20160722043758 | Washington can restrict the right of its residents to own guns — again — a federal judge ruled Friday.
In his opinion, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina of Federal District Court for the District of Columbia found that new gun laws, which were passed after the United States Supreme Court struck down a previous firearms ban, are constitutionally sound.
The 2008 Supreme Court case, District of Columbia v. Heller, recognized an individual right to keep and bear arms in the Second Amendment to the Constitution. That decision, however, left open the possibility of measured firearms regulation.
After losing the Supreme Court case, the city went back to work on gun restrictions, with an effort to avoid the constitutional problems that the court had identified. The narrower new rules, approved in 2009, called for firearms registration, and prohibited assault weapons and “large capacity ammunition feeding devices.” Dick Anthony Heller, who brought the first challenge to the gun laws, challenged the parts of the new rules, along with several other plaintiffs.
But Judge Urbina ruled that the city had gotten it right this time. In examining the city’s effort, Judge Urbina noted that the standard of judicial review for gun laws was not settled by the Supreme Court in Heller. He applied the standard of “intermediate scrutiny,” which requires that a law be “substantially related to an important governmental interest.” By that standard, the regulations were permissible because they served the city’s important interest in public safety, he wrote.
The decision, which is likely to be appealed, drew quick reaction. Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, called it “the latest ruling to make it clear that the Second Amendment allows strong common sense gun laws.”
Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, who supports gun rights, said that Judge Urbina used the “wrong standard” but came to “the right result.” He suggested that under the intermediate scrutiny standard, even a total gun ban might be upheld. Instead, he said, he favors a test of such laws that comes from judicial review of restrictions on abortion: whether the regulation imposes an “undue burden” on the right in question.
Under either test, however, he said, the District of Columbia’s new law should pass muster.
A version of this article appears in print on March 27, 2010, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: After a Supreme Court Loss, Washington’s Gun Laws Pass Muster. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | In devising its latest restrictions, the city tried to avoid the constitutional problems the court identified in striking down a gun ban in 2008. | 19.269231 | 0.884615 | 2.038462 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/19/viacom-execs-dauman-tooley-reserve-right-quit/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160722055651id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/19/viacom-execs-dauman-tooley-reserve-right-quit/ | Viacom Execs Reserve Right to Resign and Protect Their Pay | 20160722055651 | Viacom Inc Chief Executive Philippe Dauman and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Dooley have reserved their legal right to resign “with good reason” in a move to protect tens of millions of dollars in potential severance pay.
The move is the latest in the battle for control of Viacom, part of Sumner Redstone’s $40 billion media empire, which has caused a rift between Redstone, backed by his daughter, and his long-time lieutenant Dauman.
According to regulatory filings made public on Monday, Dauman and Dooley sent letters reserving the right to resign if a judge issues a final order approving Redstone’s action last month to remove Dauman and four other directors from Viacom’s board.
Monday’s move is important as executives are generally entitled to receive severance pay if they resign with good reason, but not if they are removed. Dauman and Dooley’s employment agreements state they can resign with good reason if there are changes to Viacom’s board.
Dooley and Dauman were required by the terms of their employment agreements to file their letters within 30 days of a “good reason event” to be eligible for their severance packages, in this case Redstone’s June 16 actions to remove and replace board directors.
Under their employment agreements, Dooley could receive more than $30 million in severance compensation and Dauman could receive more than $90 million, according to the company’s most recent proxy filing.
Viacom and National Amusements declined comment.
Last month, 93-year-old Redstone moved to oust five directors from the Viacom board, including Dauman, even though he remains CEO.
Redstone made the move through his privately held movie theater company National Amusements Inc, which holds 80 percent of Viacom’s voting shares. National Amusements gave no reason for the removals, but it was seen as a big step toward a management shake-up at the media company, which has been struggling with sagging ratings. The move is being contested in a Delaware court.
Dooley is not among the directors Redstone seeks to remove. He remains chief operating officer. | The latest move in the Viacom power games. | 43.666667 | 0.777778 | 1.222222 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/07/17/world/europe/ap-eu-france-truck-attack-the-latest.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160722100132id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/aponline/2016/07/17/world/europe/ap-eu-france-truck-attack-the-latest.html?_r=1 | American Student From U.C. Berkeley Confirmed Among Nice Dead | 20160722100132 | Garino said "it was hard, but she did it," adding, "she was no longer in contact with him."
He said Bouhlel also was violent with the rest of the family, including the woman's mother.
The woman was detained Friday and released from custody earlier Sunday. Six people are still being detained.
Officials have at last identified a 7-year-old boy in a coma whose picture had been circulated on social media after no relatives stepped forward immediately after he was injured in the Nice truck attack.
The spokeswoman of Lenval children's hospital in Nice, Stephanie Simpson, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the boy is Romanian and had been visiting Nice with his parents, who remain missing.
The boy's grandmother traveled from Germany on Saturday to make the identification, after a relative in Nice reported the family missing.
The boy is among six children still hospitalized after the attack, Simpson said. She said the boy was on artificial respiration and had not undergone any surgery. Simpson said "there is still hope he is going to wake up."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the challenge of finding and stopping people like the truck driver who plowed into a crowd at Bastille Day festivities in the French city of Nice is "worse than the needle in the haystack."
Kerry says the U.S. had no knowledge of the killer as a radicalized individual and that if someone is an extremist of "one or two days vintage" it's easy to cause mayhem.
Kerry, appearing on CNN, says the attack shows the Islamic State group is under great pressure, and that people are acting out in various places. He says the group sees "the noose closing around them."
A French official in the Paris prosecutor's office says the estranged wife of truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel — who killed 84 people on a Thursday night rampage in Nice — has been released from custody.
The woman was released Sunday. She is the mother of Bouhlel's three children, and was in the process of divorcing him. She was arrested Friday, a day after the 31-year-old Tunisian plowed through revelers out to see the Bastille Day fireworks on Nice's famed seaside boulevard.
Investigators hunting for possible accomplices to Bouhlel arrested two people Sunday. In total, 6 people remain in custody relating to the attack that IS has claimed.
— By Thomas Adamson in Paris.
French authorities say they still haven't identified 16 of those killed and one person wounded in the Bastille Day truck attack in Nice.
The government says 84 people were killed and 202 injured in the attack Thursday night, including many tourists from multiple countries.
An official with a special victims' center in Nice told reporters Sunday that 16 bodies remain unidentified, and forensic experts are working with DNA samples to determine their identities. The official did not give his name.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine said Sunday that one hospitalized person remains unidentified. In all, 85 people are still hospitalized after the attack, 18 of them in critical condition.
Many family members have been frustrated by a lack of information about their missing loved ones.
Pope Francis has prayed for the end of "terror and death" of innocents as he expressed closeness to families and all of France mourning the loss of lives, "even of many children," in the Nice truck attack.
Francis told the public in St. Peter's Square on Sunday that "sorrow is great in our hearts" for the massacre in the southern French city last week, and prayed that God sustain the wounded and comfort relatives.
He prayed that God "disperse every plan for terror and for death, so that no man dare spill more blood of his brother."
Francis then offered "a paternal and fraternal embrace for all of Nice's inhabitants and all of France," and invited those in the square to join him in silent prayer for the 84 Nice victims and their families.
France's prime minister says the Islamic State group could have been responsible for last week's Bastille Day attack on Nice.
Manuel Valls, in an interview with the Journal du dimanche newspaper published Sunday, said the Islamic State group "is encouraging individuals unknown to our services to stage attacks." While the investigation is working on details, he said "that is without a doubt the case in the Nice attack."
IS claimed responsibility for Thursday's truck attack that killed 84 people, but neither the extremist group nor the French government has provided concrete signs of an IS link with the driver. Valls said only that authorities "now know that the killer radicalized very quickly."
Valls also warned that "terrorism will be part of our daily lives for a long time."
France's health minister says about 85 people remain hospitalized after a deadly truck rampage in the Mediterranean city of Nice, and 18 of them are in life-threatening condition — including one child.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine urged any survivors to seek counseling offered by the government after the Bastille Day attack Thursday night that killed 84 people.
Speaking to reporters in Nice on Sunday, Touraine said while scores of people who were hospitalized have been released, some may need further medical treatment as their injuries heal.
The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack by a local Nice truck driver who was killed by police.
French authorities have detained two more people in the investigation into the Bastille Day truck attack on the Mediterranean city of Nice that killed at least 84 people, as authorities try to determine whether the slain attacker was a committed religious extremist or just a very angry man.
A man and a woman were detained Sunday morning in Nice, according to an official with the Paris prosecutor's office, which oversees national terrorism investigations. The official provided no details on their identities, and said five people detained previously remain in custody. Neighbors told The Associated Press that the attacker's estranged wife was among them.
Investigators are hunting for possible accomplices to truck driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian who had lived in Nice for years. He was killed by police after ramming his truck through crowds on Nice's famed seafront after a holiday fireworks display Thursday night.
The Islamic State statement said Bouhlel was following their calls to target citizens of countries fighting the extremists, but it's unclear whether he had concrete links to the group.
Nice's famed Promenade des Anglais is gradually reopening and becoming a shrine to the dead, with memorials set up on the westbound lane of the road where victims were felled by an attacker with a truck. Some spots are still identifiable by bloodstains.
Joggers, bikers and sunbathers on Sunday cruised along the pedestrian walkway along the glistening Mediterranean Sea, where well-wishers placed flowers, French flags, stuffed animals and candles.
The site is also becoming a platform for anger at the attacker. Pained and outraged epitaphs are now written in blue maker on stones placed where police shot him dead.
Many families are angry that they couldn't find information about missing loved ones, and many are angry at police for not preventing the deadly attack despite France being under a state of emergency imposed after Islamic State attacks last year in Paris. | The University of California, Berkeley, said in a statement that the body of Nicolas Leslie, 20, has been identified. The university says it was informed of the death by the F.B.I. | 39.055556 | 0.722222 | 1.166667 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.tmz.com/2015/02/18/adam-lazzara-arrested-dwi-taking-back-sunday-arrest | http://web.archive.org/web/20160722183837id_/http://www.tmz.com:80/2015/02/18/adam-lazzara-arrested-dwi-taking-back-sunday-arrest | 'Taking Back Sunday' Frontman -- Arrested For DWI | 20160722183837 | Adam Lazzara -- lead singer of Taking Back Sunday -- has been arrested for allegedly boozing and driving in his hometown of Charlotte, NC.
According to cops ... Lazzara was pulled over early Sunday morning for blowing a red light. We're told officers smelled booze during the stop, and busted him for DWI. He was later released on a $2,500 bond.
The band's rep had no comment about Lazzara's arrest, but said their tour will begin as planned ... Wednesday night in New Orleans. | Adam Lazzara -- lead singer of Taking Back Sunday -- has been arrested for allegedly boozing and driving in his hometown of Charlotte,… | 3.62963 | 0.888889 | 10 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/events/everything-we-know-about-absolutely-fabulous-the-movie/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723042626id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/fashion/events/everything-we-know-about-absolutely-fabulous-the-movie/ | 'Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie:' What time is the premiere and who is in the cast? | 20160723042626 | Twenty four years after Patsy and Edina first hit our TV sets in Absolutely Fabulous, the fashionable comedy duo are about to return on the silver screen in their first feature film, Ab Fab: The Movie. Here's everything you need to know about the film...
It will be released on July 1st- so this Friday!- and the world premiere is tonight, Wednesday 29th June, at the Odeon in Leicester Square. Telegraph Fashion will be live blogging from 5pm with all the red carpet and celebrity action.
Well obviously Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley and the other core characters will be making an appearence with rumours abounding that there will be a spectacular stunt of some kind. We are also hoping that some of the film's fabulous cameo characters will make an appearence- think Kate Moss, Jerry Hall, Joan Collins, Jourdan Dunn and Suki Waterhouse all posing up a storm. | Twenty four years after Patsy and Edina first hit our TV sets in Absolutely Fabulous, the fashionable comedy duo are about to return on the silver screen in their first feature film, Ab Fab: | 4.307692 | 0.948718 | 16.128205 | low | high | extractive |
http://time.com/4337390/donald-trump-connecticut-republican-win/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723063234id_/http://time.com:80/4337390/donald-trump-connecticut-republican-win/ | Donald Trump's Win With Wealthy Connecticut Voters | 20160723063234 | Fairfield, Connecticut, doesn’t look like the Donald Trump country you’re used to seeing. The stately homes in Greenfield Hill, with its two-acre zoning requirement, and the charming waterfront in Southport, with sailboats docked in the calm waters of Long Island Sound don’t gibe with the raucous rallies thrown by the Republican frontrunner.
But these wealthy Connecticut suburbs are as much hotbeds of Trump support as some coal-mining counties in Kentucky.
Statewide, Trump won the April 26 primary with 58% of the vote, including all but three cities in Fairfield County, home to some of the richest communities in America and a place that many expected would go for a more moderate candidate like Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who has since dropped out.
“They normally go with an established, moderate candidate,” said James Millington, chairman of the Fairfield Republican Party. “But when the numbers came in on primary night, we saw something that we’ve never seen before.”
“We have a lot of corporate executives, highly educated people and very successful people in business, hedge funds and everything that make up our community in Fairfield, and people that I spoke to thought that they would probably break to Kasich,” he added. “And they clearly did not.”
Trump’s win in these communities likely won’t change much for the state, which hasn’t backed a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. Just days before the primary, his political director, Rick Wiley, told top Republicans that Trump could win in traditionally blue states such as Connecticut, Minnesota and Wisconsin in November, but it’s more likely that he’ll end up focusing his energy on swing states such as Ohio.
But his surprising wins in Fairfield are indicative of some broader trends shaping the fall elections.
For one thing, the popular image of Trump’s supporters as coming mainly from economically distressed areas is wrong. Supporters in Fairfield say that he’s doing well because of a message that cuts across economic lines.
“His tone and emphasis is one of strength. That grabbed people no matter their income level or other demographic characteristics,” said Greenwich Republican Town Committee Chairman Jim Campbell, who endorsed Trump in February.
In fact, exit poll data from 23 states compiled by the data-oriented news site FiveThirtyEight found that the median household income of a Trump voter so far is about $72,000, compared to the national median household income of around $56,000. (Fairfield County’s median income is $83,163, according to the 2010 Census.)
Republicans in places like Fairfield and Greenwich are now looking in the rear-view mirror at the largely unexpected #TrumpTrain that swept through their towns. Some, like Michael Herley, a member of Fairfield’s local legislative body and a Trump supporter, think that he tapped into economic anxieties that even the well-to-do share.
“When you look at people who are in Fairfield like myself, it’s a pretty affluent area… [But] I think the people are very, very upset about the state of affairs in Connecticut,” he said.
Many Republicans in Connecticut feel they’re being crippled by taxes from the Democratic state government, and the ethos of manufacturing that once dominated the state is dying. General Electric announced in January that it is moving its corporate headquarters from Fairfield, its home since 1974, to Boston, Massachusetts, blaming in part a Connecticut budget deal that raised corporate taxes and “an inhospitable business climate,” according to the Wall Street Journal. GE was not Connecticut’s largest employer, but its move was a symbolic blow.
“They really hooked on to the moniker of restoring greatness back to a once-proud state,” Republican State Senator Tony Hwang said of Trump’s Connecticut supporters. “We were a state that had incredible manufacturing prowess. … [Connecticut] has been stuck in neutral and sliding down a hill, and he comes in and says ‘I’m going to make a change.'”
Another factor many cited was the weakness of both Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by the time the Connecticut primary rolled around, which also shows the degree to which Trump has been able to consolidate Republican support.
“I think more than running against Trump, we were running against the perception of inevitability,” said Andrew Swick, Kasich’s field director in Connecticut.
“Cruz was nowhere to be seen and was not visible and had no presence. And then you had Governor Kasich who I strongly supported, but he was just too far behind,” said Hwang, who was Kasich’s state chair. “The opponents at that moment in time didn’t offer a compelling reason to run against the tide.”
In typical New England fashion, the tide was understated. Trump lawn signs and bumper stickers were scarce, even in the towns that voted overwhelmingly in support of him.
“People kind of kept to their own, but they were going to vote for him,” Hwang said.
“I found that the Wall Street professionals were quietly supporting Donald Trump while others were more vociferous,” added Campbell.
As Trump heads toward the Republican convention, some backers in the state think his support will become more visible.
“As I think more people began to feel comfortable acknowledging their public support for Donald Trump, I think you’re seeing more and more people gravitate toward him,” said Herley, the Trump supporter in the Fairfield legislature. “And then as those people gravitated towards him, for those who were noncommittal, it’s like being a New York Yankees fan. Everyone wants to be on the side of a winner.” | Support in unexpected places. | 220.6 | 1 | 1 | high | high | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/10353145/Top-10-cheap-cars-for-students.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723132029id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/motoring/picturegalleries/10353145/Top-10-cheap-cars-for-students.html?frame=2691680 | Top 10 cheap cars for students | 20160723132029 | The Corsa has been one of the UK’s bestselling cars since it was launched. Now, you can pick up a five-year-old example of the latest model in excellent condition from as little as £2,200. Its engines might not be that strong, but they are frugal, while the smart cabin has plenty of space for a couple of mates. | Motoring rounds up the best cars for students, all of which cost less than £3,000 to buy | 3.5 | 0.3 | 0.3 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/20/britons-on-europe-survey-results-opinium-poll-referendum | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723153618id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/politics/2016/mar/20/britons-on-europe-survey-results-opinium-poll-referendum | Britons and Europe: the survey results | 20160723153618 | Related: Immigration, holidays and the economy… what Britons really think about the EU
As we all now know, a referendum will be held on 23 June to determine whether the United Kingdom remains part of the European Union. Many commentators and politicians believe this to be the single most significant decision the British public will have made since we backed continued membership of the European Economic Community in 1975. However, despite the huge importance of the impending vote, just 31% of the population identify Britain’s membership of/relationship with the EU as one of the three most important issues currently affecting the UK. Furthermore, only 23% believe it is one of the most important issues affecting them personally.
It is a much more significant issue in the eyes of those who back Brexit (50% of whom select it as a major issue) than those who wish to remain in the EU (15%) and it is an issue that increases in importance with age; just 12% of 25-34-year-olds say it’s a big issue compared with 53% of those aged 65 or over. There are sizable differences on the basis of political party affiliation; Ukip supporters are, predictably, most likely to consider Europe to be an issue of great national importance (59% do) and the same is true of 40% of Conservative supporters.
However, just 15% of Labour supporters and 9% of Lib Dem supporters concur. There are also interesting regional variations; while Londoners are the least likely to identify Europe as an important national issue (16%), Britons living in the rest of the south-east are the most likely to deem it important (43%).
Related: Being European: what does it mean?
EU membership is not widely perceived to be an important national issue, but immigration is. The results of our poll suggest the issues are indivisible for many. Concerns around immigration are often more theoretical than personal (55% say it is a big issue affecting the country while just 25% say it is a big issue affecting them personally) but it could well be the issue that, above all others, determines the referendum outcome.
Our poll was conducted just prior to the conclusion of David Cameron’s negotiations with our EU partners, before the referendum date was confirmed. Numerous polls have subsequently been conducted with the intention of predicting the outcome and it’s possible that public sentiment will have changed to some degree in the intervening period. We present these numbers, therefore, not as a prediction but because the answers are frequently used as a lens through which to analyse responses to other questions in the survey.
With the point about poll timing in mind, there are some clear demographic patterns in voting intentions. Most strikingly, Euroscepticism is closely correlated with age, so that younger Britons are more likely to vote to remain in the EU while older Britons are more likely to favour Brexit.
There is also evidence to suggest that, at the time of polling, the momentum was towards leaving. Of those questioned, 38% said they had changed their views on the issue over the previous six months, a time frame that included the Paris terror attacks, the worsening refugee crisis and the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve; 22% were now more likely than they were to vote to leave while 16% said the opposite.
Both genders and each age group over the age of 35 had become more likely to vote to leave over the previous six months. The fluidity of public opinion raises the possibility that unforeseen events could contribute significantly to the final result.
If a referendum were held tomorrow on the following question, how likely would you be to vote? Please answer using the scale 0-10 where 0 is “definitely wouldn’t vote”, 5 is “might vote” and 10 is “definitely would vote”.“Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”0 (definitely wouldn’t vote) 2%1 1%2 1%3 0%4 1%5 11%6 2%7 4%8 6%9 9%10 (definitely would vote) 61%
In the context of a tight race, the ability of each side to mobilise its supporters on polling day is likely to be crucial. In this respect, the older age profile of Brexit supporters becomes a strong advantage; 88% of those aged 65-plus say they will definitely vote compared with just 34% of 18-24s and 39% of 25-34s. Furthermore, 76% of Leave supporters say they will definitely vote compared with 59% of Remain supporters. There could be sizable regional variations in turnout; Londoners, who are more likely to vote to remain, will need the most persuading (45% will definitely vote). In contrast, 72% of those in the remainder of the south-east, who are more likely to be Leave supporters, will definitely vote.
With the race neck and neck, it would be reasonable to expect national sentiment to be similarly split over the question of whether EU membership is generally a good or bad thing for Britain. However, those who believe that EU membership is good for Britain (47%) outnumber those who believe it is bad (35%) by a significant margin. Lib Dem and Green party supporters are most likely to consider it good (85% each) and a large majority (70%) of Labour supporters concur.
Significantly, Conservative voters are also much more likely to believe that membership is good rather than bad. While the pattern is predictably reversed among Ukip supporters (83% believe membership is bad) these numbers raise the question of why the Remain camp doesn’t have a comfortable lead. Explaining the dissonance may be crucial to determining the outcome.
Immigration is, by some distance, the issue most likely to affect how Britons will vote in the referendum; 49% say it will influence how they vote, and this figure increases to 72% among those who will vote to leave. It is not, however, the main issue among Remain supporters, who are more likely to cite both international trade (35%) and the state of the UK economy (34%). Among those favouring Brexit, the issues affecting voting behaviour are heavily concentrated around immigration and how the EU is run/who runs the EU. In contrast, the issues driving Remain supporters are more diffuse, potentially making it harder to solidify support around consistent messages.
One issue likely to feature prominently in the campaign is the proportion of UK laws passed each year that originate from European institutions. When Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage debated prior to the 2014 European elections, their estimates diverged wildly; Clegg said 7% while Farage insisted the real figure was 75%. The British public didn’t know who to believe and asked to estimate themselves, they come up with an average figure (40%) almost exactly halfway between the Clegg and Farage estimates. Ukip supporters estimate the figure to be 52%, still way short of theFarage’s number proposed by their leader. Leave supporters estimate 48% while Remain supporters suggest 29%. The reality? Well, the House of Commons Library puts the figure at approximately 13%, while research by the Eurosceptic campaign group Business for Britain and published last year claimed it was nearly 65%. This debate is likely to run and run.
The campaign battle lines may well be drawn along these lines; the Leave campaign focusing on concerns around immigration and the Remain camp countering with reminders of the economic risks associated with Brexit. If that’s what transpires, it will be of concern to the Remain camp that more Britons believe Brexit would be good for their personal finances (38%) than believe it would be bad (30%). Among Eurosceptics, 62% believe Brexit would be good for their personal finances and even 20% of those favouring the status quo agree. There is a clear gender divide: while women are evenly split, men are significantly more likely to believe the impact would be positive (43%) rather than negative (29%).
Britons may be relaxed about the impact of Brexit on their personal finances, but it is also a commonly held view that Britain needs to be part of a European trading bloc; 54% agree while just 14% disagree. Eurosceptics generally are, marginally, in agreement (34% versus 29%) although Ukip supporters specifically are more likely to disagree (35% versus 27%). There is also cautious national approval given to the view that “the rise of China and other countries means Britain needs to be in the EU to compete in the world” (41% of respondents agree, 32% disagree) although Eurosceptics strongly reject this notion (61% disagree, 14% agree). Concerns about the health of the euro offset the potential for membership to be considered economically positive; 68% of Britons agree that the debt crisis has made them question the currency’s stability and while these concerns are most pronounced among Leave supporters (82% agree) they are common across the political spectrum. The extent to which fear of domestic contagion from the eurozone debt crisis is driving Euroscepticism is, however, unclear.
Recent analysis suggests that George Osborne will only be able to deliver his economic target of a budget surplus by 2019/2020 if the number of immigrants coming to the UK exceeds current levels. Assuming this is true, would you prefer…?
To increase current levels of immigration from the EU so that UK can hit economic targets 21%
Maintain or reduce current levels of immigration and miss economic targets 78%
Would you say that you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?
The effects of immigration now outweigh any trade benefits the EU bringsAgree 54% Disagree 21%
Immigration from the EU has benefited the wealthy in this country at the expense of the poorestAgree 46% Disagree 21%
44% of Britons believe that the right of EU citizens to live, work or retire in any member state is bad for Britain while 32% believe it is good. Among those favouring Brexit, 69% believe free movement is bad for the country and 17% of Remain supporters agree. Immigration from the EU is most likely to be seen as a good thing in London, the most culturally diverse region, (56%) and most likely to be seen as a bad thing in Wales (66%).
EU immigration is considered to have had a net negative impact on every area of national life in Britain with the exception of cultural diversity and richness. Negativity is most pronounced around housing, where 65% consider the impact bad and just 11% good (-54). Other areas where the impact is seen as strongly negative include welfare/benefits (-50), the population level in the UK (-49) and crime (-44). Even those who wish the UK to remain in the EU are more likely to consider the impact of immigration on these areas negative.
Concerns are so widespread that if the campaign narrative is reduced to immigration versus economics, there is evidence to suggest the immigration argument will have greater resonance. Firstly, a majority of Britons (54%) agree with the view that “the effects of immigration now outweigh any trade benefits the EU brings” (21% disagree). Furthermore, 78% of Britons say they would prefer George Osborne to miss his economic target of a budget surplus by 2019/20 if this meant, as recent analysis has suggested, that the number of immigrants coming to the UK would need to exceed current levels. Even 58% of Europhiles would prefer to miss those economic targets if they required increased immigration. Of course, it’s entirely possible that some may wish Osborne to miss his budget targets for reasons completely unrelated to immigration.
In the context of dealing with immigration, to what extent would you support or oppose each of the following policies?We should make it a legal requirement for those applying to settle in the UK to speak better English and pass a “Life in the UK” test.Support 78% Oppose 8%
Immigrants must financially support themselves and their dependants for four years (private health insurance, private education and private housing) before being able to access welfare/benefits.Support 74% Oppose 12%
The government should impose annual limits on UK immigration from the EU.Support 73% Oppose 12%
We should limit the right of European citizens to work in the UK.Support 53% Oppose 26%
There should be a European standing army made up of personnel from each European Union country.Support 39% Oppose 26%
David Cameron placed the need to curb rates of EU immigration at the heart of his membership renegotiations and, with this in mind, sought to deny all EU migrants in-work benefits for an initial four-year period. There is strong national support for this policy. Indeed, 74% believe that EU migrants must support themselves and their families for four years before being able to access any welfare or benefits. In addition, 78% of Britons believe it should be a legal requirement for those applying to settle in the UK to speak better English and pass a “Life in the UK” test, and 73% would like to see annual limits on immigration from the EU. There is almost complete support for each of these policies among those favouring Brexit. However, a clear majority of Remain supporters concur.
It remains to be seen if the deal secured by Cameron (an “emergency handbrake” that limits in-work benefits for four years for newly arrived EU migrants, but not for those already in the country) is sufficient to deal with domestic concerns round immigration.
With large numbers fleeing civil war and unrest in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea and elsewhere, the refugee crisis is the single biggest issue facing the EU right now. Britons are most likely to believe the best way to deal with this humanitarian crisis, unprecedented in modern times, is via a joint EU operation in which all member states have an obligation to take part. 38% support this course of action and the number increases to 52% among those who wish to remain in the EU. Politically, popularity for this approach is most pronounced among Labour supporters (50%) but it’s the preferred course of action among supporters of each mainstream party with the exception of Ukip, whose supporters believe that each country should respond in their own way, with no central co-ordination or organisation. The preferred approach among Eurosceptics generally, however, is for every country to respond in their own way with the EU helping to co-ordinate efforts but with no power to direct things.
The nation is split over whether it’s better to band together with other countries to tackle the issues facing the world or whether we should pull up the drawbridge and adopt an isolationist approach in an attempt to insulate Britain from danger. Slightly more Britons believe “the world is a dangerous place and that countries need to protect their borders first and foremost before worrying about how to tackle international crises” (54% support this view and the figure rises to, 75% among those who wish to leave the EU).
A smaller proportion (46%) believe that “some problems are bigger than nation-states and show that we need greater co-operation and co-ordination between countries to deal with them”. Support for this more collaborative view rises to 68% among those who wish to stay in the EU. Age tended to determine response, with Britons becoming increasingly isolationist over time. Men are also significantly more likely to be isolationist (58% are) than collaborative (42%) while women are evenly split.
Would you say that being a member of the EU makes it more or less likely that Britain will go to war in the future?Much more likely 12% More likely 24% No effect 45% Less likely 15% Much less likely 5%TOTAL: More likely 35%
Concerns about national security are widespread in these turbulent times, and the ability of EU membership to increase security is not widely recognised. Indeed, more Britons believe membership of the EU makes Britain less safe (39%) than more safe (30%). Why? Maybe the perception that immigration from the EU has caused a rise in crime contributes? For 35% of Britons it may be related to a belief that EU membership makes it more likely that Britain will go to war in future (just 19% believe membership makes it less likely). Whatever the reason, the sense that Britain is less safe as a result of EU membership is particularly pronounced among women, 41% of whom believe we are less safe compared with 24% who feel we are more safe. Furthermore, every age group over 35 is more likely to believe membership makes Britain less safe. Londoners are most likely to believe that membership makes Britain safer (59%) while those living in Yorkshire & Humberside and the south-east are most likely to believe the opposite (52% and 51% respectively).
And which of the following EU leaders would you say is the most powerful?
Angela Merkel 79%David Cameron 8%Jean-Claude Juncker 5%François Hollande 3%Donald Tusk 2%Mariano Rajoy 1%Martin Schulz 1%Alexis Tsipras 1%Enda Kenny 0%Matteo Renzi 0%Andrzej Duda 0%
79% of Britons believe German chancellor Angela Merkel is the most powerful EU leader whilst, in second place, just 8% consider David Cameron most powerful. Even among Conservative supporters, just 8% believe Cameron is the most powerful EU leader. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission languishes in third place in the power hierarchy (5% believe he wields most power). However, 50% of Britons have never heard of Juncker, even when prompted. Even fewer have heard of Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras (31%), president of the European Council Donald Tusk (30%), president of the European Parliament Martin Schulz (19%), former Irish taoiseach Enda Kenny (19%), who recently resigned and is yet to be replaced, Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi (12%), prime minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy (9%), or president of Poland Andrzej Duda (7%). Excluding David Cameron, the most well-known European leaders are, unsurprisingly, Angel Merkel and François Hollande. However, a significant minority of Britons have not heard of them either (25% and 36% respectively). There is little difference between camps in terms of leader awareness; Remain supporters have heard of 3.4 of the listed leaders on average, Leave supporters 3.2. Awareness is lowest among 18-24s (1.7 on average) and it is a minority of 18-24s who have heard of each leader (Merkel is top with 47% awareness). Men (3.6) have heard of more than women (2.7) and Conservative supporters (3.9) have heard of more than Labour (2.7) Lib Dem (2.9) or Ukip (3.4) supporters. Awareness peaks in the capital where the average Londoner has heard of 4.2 of these EU leaders.
Most EU countries (but not Britain) are part of the Schengen area, where countries do not police their borders with other countries in the zone. This means that it is possible to drive from Portugal to Poland without having to show your passport. In your opinion, is this generally a good thing or a bad thing?Very good thing 11% Good 12%Neither good nor bad 16%Bad 26%Very bad thing 35%TOTAL: Good 23%TOTAL: Bad 61%
As the refugee crisis worsens, the possibility of reintroducing internal border controls and restricting free movement between 26 EU member states in the Schengen area (the designated area in which member countries do not police their borders with other countries in the zone) is being actively debated. A number of countries in the zone have already temporarily reintroduced border controls. Britain is not part of the Schengen area and its suspension would have little direct impact on the UK. However, with many UK media brands publishing stories suggesting the lack of border controls enables the free movement of potential terrorists, the end of the Schengen area may help to allay some security fears relating to EU membership. A clear majority of Britons (61%) certainly believe the Schengen zone is a bad thing while only 23% believe it is good. Those who wish to remain in the EU are evenly split (39% apiece) in their attitudes but 79% of those in favour of Brexit believe the zone is bad. 18-34s are the only demographic group more likely to believe the zone is a good thing rather than a bad thing.
In which country were you born?The UK (including British overseas territories and dependencies) 85%Another country that is now a member of the European Union 8%Another European country that is not a member of the European Union 2%Another country outside Europe 5%
Which, if any, of the following words would you use to describe yourself?British 58%English 49%European 15%Scottish 7%Regional term (eg northerner, southerner, Highlander) 7%City/county specific term (eg Londoner, Yorkshireman, Glaswegian, Geordie, Mancunian, Scouser) 7%Irish/Northern Irish 4%Welsh 4%Local area/town-specific term 3%
85% of those who completed our poll were born in the UK, including British overseas territories and dependencies. This figure reduces markedly (to 75%) among 18-24s and in London the figure is 76%. Interestingly, 10% of Ukip supporters were born either in another country that is now a member of the EU (8%) or another European country that is not a member of the EU (2%).
Just 15% of Britons describe themselves as European and only 7% say it is the word they would most likely use to describe themselves. Self-identification as “European” peaks among younger Britons (23% of 18-24s and 31% of 25-34s), a function, to some extent, of the higher proportion of these age groups born in another EU country. However, it does suggest that, if we remain in the EU, Britons will become increasingly likely to identify themselves as European. In London, where diversity is greatest, nearly half (44%) already describe themselves in these terms. It’s interesting to speculate why only an arguably small proportion (27%) of those who will vote to remain in the EU describe themselves as European? Is their stance pragmatic rather than passionate?
Language seems to be an important factor in determining self-identification as European, as an ability to fluently speak a second European language increases the likelihood markedly. It’s also correlated with voting intentions; 33% of those who will vote to remain can speak another European language fluently while the same is true for just 20% of those who will vote to leave.
Which, if any, of the following countries have you visited for a holiday in the past five years?
None of these 34%Spain 32%France 30%Italy 18%Germany 13%Greece 12%Belgium 11%Ireland 10%Portugal 10%Austria 8%Denmark 8%Netherlands 8%Croatia 7%Bulgaria 6%Republic of Cyprus 6%Czech Republic 5%Malta 5%Estonia 4%Finland 4%Sweden 4%Hungary 3%Poland 3%Latvia 2%Lithuania 1%Luxembourg 1%Romania 1%Slovakia 1%Slovenia 1%None of these 34%
The nation may be divided over EU membership, but we certainly still enjoy European holidays; 66% of Britons have taken a holiday in an EU country other than the UK in the past five years. The most popular destinations are Spain≈(32% have visited) and France (30%) followed by Italy (18%) and Germany (13%). Remain supporters are more likely than Leave supporters to have visited an EU country on holiday (77% and 62% respectively) and the favoured destinations of the two camps differ; those favouring Brexit are most likely to have visited Spain while Remain supporters are more likely to visit France.
Bearing in mind it’s the nation’s favourite holiday destination and also has a large British expat population, it’s unsurprising that Spain is also the EU country that, other than the UK, we would most like to live in. Spain is the most popular country of residence for both genders and for every age group above 25. However, among 18-24s, Italy is almost twice as popular (20% to Spain’s 11%). Italy is also the most popular choice among Londoners (14%) while Spain is less popular in the capital than elsewhere in the country; it ranks sixth among Londoners behind Italy, Austria, France, Germany and Sweden.
There’s a clear winner when it comes to the EU country where Britons would least like to live: Romania. 25% identify it as the country they would least like to live in, while the three nearest challengers (Bulgaria, Lithuania and Poland) were selected by a combined 21% (7% each). Romania is the least popular among Britons of both genders and all ages, with the exception of 18-24s who are slightly more likely to dislike living in Poland (15% v 14%).
Do you have any close friends who were born in any of the following countries?Ireland, France 10% eachGermany 8%Poland 7%Italy, Belgium 6% eachSpain, Austria, Croatia, Denmark 5% eachBulgaria, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Sweden, Greece 4% eachRepublic of Cyprus, Estonia, Finland3% eachPortugal, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania 2% eachSlovakia, Malta, Latvia 1% eachLuxembourg 0%
More than half of Britons (59%) do not have close friends born in an EU country outside the UK. Those who do are most likely to have Irish friends (10% of Britons have a close friend from Ireland), French (10%), German (8%) or Polish (7%). 57% of 25-34s and 51% of 18-24s have close friends from other EU countries compared with 30% of those aged 65. Londoners are most likely to have EU friends (73% do) while those living in the East Midlands are least likely (23%). Perhaps predictably, 54% of Remain supporters have friends from other EU countries compared with 34% of those who wish to leave. Liberal Democrats are most likely to speak other European languages fluently, so perhaps it’s not surprising that they’re also most likely to have European friends (62% do).
Friendships are significantly more common than relationships; 41% of Britons have a close friend from another EU country while 15% have had a relationship with someone from a different EU country. Men are more likely than women to have done so (18% and 11% respectively). Perhaps more surprising is that Ukip supporters are more likely than Labour supporters to have done so (14% and 11% respectively). Less surprising is that Lib Dems are the most likely to have had an EU relationship (22%) and less surprising still is that incidences of these relationships peak in London, where more than half (51%) have had a relationship with someone from another EU country.
For each of the following stereotypes, please tell us which country’s people you think embody them.
FunniestUnited Kingdom 43%Ireland 25%Italy 4%Finland 2%France 2%
AggressiveGermany 29%United Kingdom 10%Romania 8%Bulgaria 6%Poland 5%United Kingdom 31%Ireland 10%Sweden 6%Austria 5%Greece 5%
ArrogantGermany 40%France 23%United Kingdom 9%Bulgaria 3%Italy 3%
GenerousUnited Kingdom 39%Ireland 10%Germany 6%Greece 5%Italy 4%United Kingdom 19%Greece 17%Spain 10%Romania 8%Italy 6%
EfficientGermany 60%United Kingdom 9%Sweden 6%Denmark 3%Austria 2%
WelcomingUnited Kingdom 21%Ireland 13%Greece 9%Germany 8%Italy 6%
RelaxedSpain 15%Italy 13%Ireland 9%Greece 9%United Kingdom 6%
Hard-workingGermany 35%Poland 20%United Kingdom 14%Austria 4%Latvia 3%
MeanGermany 19%France 14%United Kingdom 9%Belgium 7%Bulgaria 5%
TrustworthyUnited Kingdom 39%Germany 7%Sweden 6%Denmark 6%Ireland 3%
CowardlyFrance 25%Italy 21%United Kingdom 6%Germany 5%Bulgaria 4%
RomanticItaly 40%France 38%United Kingdom 3%Belgium 2%Ireland 2%Greece 2%
TolerantUnited Kingdom 44%Sweden 10%Germany 6%Denmark 5%Netherlands 5%
StylishItaly 40%France 33%United Kingdom 6%Sweden 2%Denmark 2%
… has the best food (top 5)?Italy 33%United Kingdom 24%France 18%Greece 5%Spain 4%
… has made the biggest contribution to literature?United Kingdom 62%France 9%Germany 4%Greece 3%Ireland 3%
…has made the biggest contribution to science?United Kingdom 50%Germany 22%France 5%Sweden 4%Bulgaria 2%
… has made the biggest contribution to art?Italy 35%France 26%United Kingdom 14%Austria 3%Netherlands 3%
Approximately what percentage of the UK population do you believe were born in other EU countries?Less than 10% 16%; 11-20% 23%; 21-30% 19%; 31-40% 19%;41-50% 11%; 51-60% 6%; 61-70% 2%; 71-80% 2%; 81-90% 1%; 91-100% 0%Average estimate 28%
Which five EU countries do you believe have sent the most immigrants to the UK?Poland 78% Romania 58% Ireland 34% Lithuania 27% Bulgaria 24%
Approximately how many UK nationals do you think live in other EU countries? For reference, the total population of the UK is 64.1 million while the total population of all EU countries (including UK) is 503 million.Fewer than 100,000 6%; 100,001-250,000 9%; 250,001-500,000 14%; 500,001-1 million 19%; 1-1.5 million 17%; 1.5-2 million 9%; 2-2.5 million 9%; 2.5-3 million 5%; 3-3.5 million 3%; 3.5-4 million 2%; 4-4.5 million 1%; 4.5-5 million 2%; More than 5 million 4%Average estimate 1.48 million
On average, Britons estimate that 28% of the UK population were born in other EU countries. If true, that would equate to 18 million people, of whom we believe Poles and Romanians form the largest proportion. Estimates of the EU immigrant population peak in the West Midlands, where the average estimate is 34%. Ukip and Leave supporters both estimate 32% while the estimate of Remain supporters is not much lower (25%). The reality? Office for National Statistics figures for year ending December 2014 show that 8.3 million UK residents, 13% of the total population, were born abroad. However, only 3 million of those were born in an EU country so the real figure is less than 5%.
Asked to estimate how many UK nationals live in other EU countries, the average answer was 1.48 million. According to figures used in a government response to a parliamentary question by Matthew Oakeshott in 2014, the real figure is 2.2 million. There are just over 1 million Britons living in Spain, 330,000 in France, 329,000 in Ireland, 107,000 in Germany, 65,000 in Cyprus, 48,000 in the Netherlands, 45,000 in Greece, 39,000 in Portugal and 37,000 in Italy.
Which EU nation do you believe…
…drinks the most per person?(All answers below show the top five selected.)United Kingdom 33% France 15% Germany 14% Ireland 7% Czech Republic 4%
…smokes the most per person?France 19% UK 12% Greece 8% Spain 7% Germany 6%
…takes the most drugs per person?UK 32% Netherlands 23% Denmark 4% Czech Republic 4% Estonia 4%
Britons believe that the UK is the EU nation that drinks the most per person. Both genders and every age group are most likely to believe this. The reality is different. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures published in 2014, the average Briton consumed 11.6 litres of pure alcohol in 2010. This places us well behind the likes of Lithuania (15.4 litres) Romania (14.4) and Hungary (13.3). Our poll also reveals that the UK is considered to be the EU nation that takes the most illegal drugs per person. Data from the 2015 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) shows that cannabis is the most widely used illegal drug in Europe, used by more than 80 million at least once in their life. Prevalence of cannabis use is highest in Spain, where 9.4% of the adult population have tried it at least once. The second most widely used illegal drug in Europe is cocaine and prevalence of use does indeed peak in the UK, where 2.4% have tried it. Ecstasy use also peaks in the UK (1.6% have tried it). France is believed to be the country that smokes the most per person but WHO figures from 2013 show that rates of cigarette smoking actually peak in Greece, where 36.5% of adults smoke cigarettes. That’s compared with 22.8% of French adults, while in the UK this figure drops further, to 20.3%.
…has the longest life expectancy?Sweden 19% Italy 15% Germany 8% United Kingdom 7% Greece 6%
…has the shortest life expectancy?Romania 21% Bulgaria 11% United Kingdom 9% Estonia 7% Croatia 6%
Britons believe that life expectancy is longest in Sweden, Italy and Germany and shortest in Romania, Bulgaria and the UK itself. Again, these perceptions differ from reality. According to Eurostat statistics for 2013 Spain has the longest life expectancy among the 28 EU nations (83.3) while Latvia and Bulgaria have the shortest life expectancies (74.5). As for the UK, life expectancy currently stands at 81.4, 79.5 for men, 83.2 for women.
…is the wealthiest?Germany 48% United Kingdom 12% Sweden 8% Luxembourg 7% Austria 3%
…is the poorest?Romania 23% Greece 14% Bulgaria 10% Latvia 8% Lithuania 8%
Nearly half of all Britons (48%) believe that Germany is the wealthiest nation within the union. There are different ways of calculating wealth and if we base our assessment on gross domestic product (GDP) then Germany is indeed the wealthiest, with the UK second. However, a more accurate measure of wealth is probably GDP per capita. Eurostat figures show that Luxembourg has, by a distance, the highest GDP per capita, more than two-and-a-half times the EU 28 average. Ireland has the second highest GDP per capita (34% above EU 28 average) followed by the Netherlands and Austria (both about 30% above the average). Britons believe that Romania and Greece are the poorest EU nations but it is actually Bulgaria that has the lowest GDP per capita within the EU 28 (53% below the average). Croatia and Romania are the next poorest EU nations based on this metric.
…has the fastest growing economy?United Kingdom 34% Germany 25% Denmark 3% Ireland 3% Sweden 3%
Britons believe that we have the fastest growing economy within the union. However, Eurostat figures providing a year-on-year GDP comparison show Ireland at the top of the growth table with a growth rate of 4.8%, while Hungary was second with a rate of 3.6%. Growth in Britain, in comparison, was 2.8%.
MethodologyOpinium Research interviewed a sample of 1,033 UK adults aged 18-plus. Interviews were conducted using an online panel and results have been weighted so that they are demographically representative of the total UK adult population. | Ahead of the momentous referendum on 23 June, the Observer has commissioned an extensive nationwide survey into British attitudes and beliefs about Europe | 281.291667 | 0.666667 | 1.083333 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecure/2016/06/breaking-bad-habits-mindful-addiction-recovery-160606134715200.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723165938id_/http://www.aljazeera.com:80/programmes/thecure/2016/06/breaking-bad-habits-mindful-addiction-recovery-160606134715200.html | Breaking bad habits: Mindful addiction recovery | 20160723165938 | Addiction is defined as a harmful relationship with a substance or behaviour.
It is commonly associated with smoking, alcohol and drugs. But as a condition it's difficult to understand.
Do we treat it as a neurological disorder? Or is it a personality trait? And how can we best overcome it, when current treatments for addiction have a relapse rate of about 70 percent?
Dr Farrah Jarral travels to the University of Massachusetts to meet a psychiatrist who is using the power of the mind to overcome addiction. | We find out how mindfulness is being used to treat a wide range of addictions. | 6.25 | 0.5 | 0.5 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/spain/articles/Spain-by-train-five-of-the-best-routes/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723173843id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/destinations/europe/spain/articles/Spain-by-train-five-of-the-best-routes/ | Spain by train: five of the best routes | 20160723173843 | A seven-day “Barcelona & Highlights of Catalonia” tour with Holidays by Rail (0800 033 7960; holidaysbyrail.com) takes in Barcelona and Montserrat, the final two stops in the opening chapter of Christopher Howse’s book. Based in Tossa de Mar, it incorporates excursions to Sitges, Girona and the Montserrat rack railway. With half board and rail travel to and from London, it costs from £699, based on two sharing.
Seville and Granada, start and end points in chapter five, are included in a 10-day independent “Highlights of Andalusia” trip offered by Erail (020 76191080; erail.co.uk). Travelling on first-class Eurostar to Paris, you visit Madrid (where additional nights can be arranged) and Córdoba. The cost is from £812 per person, based on two travelling, and includes breakfasts, accommodation and return train travel from London.
Bilbao and the Basque Country
Bilbao, starting point in chapter nine, features in a seven-night “Basque Explorer” tour organised by Railbookers (020 3327 0862; railbookers.com), which can be tailored. Stopping overnight in Bordeaux, you travel to San Sebastián, Bilbao and Madrid. With accommodation, breakfasts and rail travel to and from London, the cost is from £999 per person, based on two sharing.
Northern Spain and La Rhune
Ffestiniog Travel (01766 772030; ffestiniogtravel.com) offers a 15-day “Green Hills of Spain & La Rhune” tour that takes in Bilbao and León. Departing on June 12 next year, it includes Gijón, Santander and Santiago de Compostela, and a trip along the San Sebastián narrow-gauge rail and the La Rhune rack railway. Based on two sharing, it costs £1,895 per person, including return rail travel from London, breakfasts and accommodation.
Madrid, final stop on Howse’s itinerary, features in a 12-day “Majesty of Spain by Train 2014” tour by Great Rail Journeys (01904 891216; greatrail.com). Priced from £1,998 per person, based on two sharing, it takes in Barcelona, Toledo, Salamanca and San Sebastián following a first-class journey to Paris by Eurostar, and includes accommodation, breakfasts, five dinners and a tapas tasting.
Spain by train: sun and shade in the Kingdom of León Extract from the book: Christopher Howse takes the train from Bilbao to León as it winds through the steep, pine-clad valleys and rough pastures of Spain’s interior
The Train in Spain: Ten Great Journeys Through the Interior by Christopher Howse will be published next week by Bloomsbury at £16.99. It can be ordered through Telegraph Books (0844 871 1514; books.telegraph.co.uk) at £14.99 plus £1.35 p&p.
Great Continental Railway Journeys: Michael Portillo gets back on track Are Eurostar's standards in decline? How to see Italy by train The world's fastest train journeys Venice to Istanbul by train Around India in 80 trains The Ghan: Great Train Journeys The Orient-Express: Great Train Journeys The Sunset Limited: Great Train Journeys The Eastern and Oriental: Great Train Journeys The Canadian: Great Train Journeys Trans-Siberian: Great Train Journeys | Isabella Noble highlights five of the best Spanish train journeys taken by Christopher Howse for his new book | 33.388889 | 0.555556 | 1 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/shells-marvin-odum-to-step-down-1456328701 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723175036id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/shells-marvin-odum-to-step-down-1456328701 | Shell’s Marvin Odum to Step Down | 20160723175036 | LONDON—Royal Dutch Shell PLC on Wednesday said it is restructuring its North American business for the second time in four months and parting ways with Marvin Odum, chief of the troubled unit.
The moves upend a reorganization of Shell’s exploration-and-production units announced late last year, eliminating a so-called unconventional oil unit created in November to house the company’s Canadian tar sands projects and its shale projects... | Royal Dutch Shell said its U.S. chief and head of unconventional resources unit, Marvin Odum, will step down at the end of March, dissolving the business division in its second move to restructure the company in four months. | 1.928571 | 0.690476 | 1.166667 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-good-wife-and-its-lessons-for-dressing-1462384441 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723180321id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/the-good-wife-and-its-lessons-for-dressing-1462384441?mod=e2tw | ‘The Good Wife’ and Its Lessons for Dressing | 20160723180321 | When “The Good Wife” airs its final episode this Sunday after seven seasons, fashionable executive women will lose two influential standard-bearers.
The show’s principal characters, well-dressed lawyers played by Julianna Margulies, age 49, and Christine Baranski, 64, exemplified business chic. Fans zeroed in on the zip-front peplum jackets worn by Alicia Florrick, played by Ms. Margulies, and the signature brooches and elegant... | As the influential show winds down, the costume designer who outfitted Julianna Margulies, Christine Baranski and other TV attorneys offers style tips for executive women. | 2.964286 | 0.5 | 0.857143 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/kiribati/9127576/Entire-nation-of-Kiribati-to-be-relocated-over-rising-sea-level-threat.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160723182104id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/kiribati/9127576/Entire-nation-of-Kiribati-to-be-relocated-over-rising-sea-level-threat.html | Entire nation of Kiribati to be relocated over rising sea level threat | 20160723182104 | Mr Tong said the plan would be to send a trickle of skilled workers first, so they could merge more easily with the Fijian population and make a positive contribution to that country's economy.
"We don't want 100,000 people from Kiribati coming to Fiji in one go," he told the state-run Fiji One television channel.
"They need to find employment, not as refugees but as immigrant people with skills to offer, people who have a place in the community, people who will not be seen as second-class citizens.
"What we need is the international community to come up with an urgent funding package to deal with that ambition, and the needs of countries like Kiribati."
The land Kiribati wants to buy is understood to be on Vanua Levu, Fiji's second largest island.
Mr Tong's proposal is the latest in an increasingly desperate search for solutions.
Last year he suggested the possibility of constructing man-made islands like oil rigs for people to live on.
His government has launched an Education for Migration programme, aimed at upskilling its population to make them more attractive as migrants.
Kiribati youngsters study for degrees at the University of the South Pacific, which is based in the Fijian capital of Suva and jointly owned by 12 Pacific island countries.
Dr Alumita Durulato, a lecturer in international affairs at the university, said: "They are already preparing quite well.
"They have educated their youth to be able to survive in the new lands that they want to go to.
"They are going to leave behind their culture, their way of life and lifestyle, which is a little bit different from ours in Fiji."
Tarawa lies 1,400 miles from Suva and some i-Kiribati, as the islanders are known, hold concerns about whether their culture would survive after the population moves, especially if those who leave first are mainly the young.
A member of the Commonwealth, Kiribati was known as the Gilbert islands until independence from Britain in 1979.
The islands were first named after Thomas Gilbert, a British naval captain who navigated the archipelago in 1788, Kiribati being the local pronunciation of "Gilbert".
The total land area is 313 square miles and none of the coral atolls rises more than a few feet above sea level. | The low-lying Pacific nation of Kiribati is negotiating to buy land in Fiji so it can relocate islanders under threat from rising sea levels. | 16.107143 | 0.571429 | 0.714286 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/19/islamic-state-flag-found-in-room-of-german-train-attacker/21434634/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160724150640id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/07/19/islamic-state-flag-found-in-room-of-german-train-attacker/21434634/? | Islamic State flag found in room of German train attacker | 20160724150640 | Police found a hand-painted Islamic State flag and a text written partly in Pashto in the room of a young Afghan refugee who attacked passengers on a train in southern Germany with an axe, a state minister said on Tuesday.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said it was too early to say whether the youth was a member of Islamic State or any other militant group. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, according to its Amaq news agency.
"We are aware of the claim of responsibility by Islamic State, but...the investigation has not produced any evidence thus far that would indicate this young man was part of an Islamist network," Herrmann told a news conference.
The 17-year-old severely wounded four Hong Kong residents, one of whom remains in a critical condition, on the train late on Monday, and then injured a local woman after fleeing before police shot him dead.
The attack took place days after a Tunisian delivery man plowed a truck into crowds of Bastille Day revelers in the southern French city of Nice, killing 84. Islamic State has also claimed responsibility for that incident.
RELATED: Recent ISIS attacks and ISIS-inspired attacks in Europe
The case is likely to deepen worries about so-called "lone wolf" attacks in Europe and could put political pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has welcomed hundreds of thousands of migrants to Germany over the past year.
A leader of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) said Merkel and her supporters were to blame for the dangerous security situation because their "welcoming policies had brought too many young, uneducated and radical Muslim men to Germany".
Herrmann said people who knew the attacker had described him as a "quiet and balanced person who went to the mosque for important holidays, but wasn't necessarily there every week."
"He was described as a devout Muslim, but not in any way one who was a radical or fanatic," Herrmann added.
See more from the scene of the attack:
Cameramen film at the scene where a man was shot dead by the police after attacking passengers on a train with an axe near the city of Wuerzburg, Germany July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Blood is seen at the scene where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train near the city of Wuerzburg, Germany, early July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
German emergency services workers work in the area where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train near the city of Wuerzburg, Germany early July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
German police cars move at the scene where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train near the city of Wuerzburg, Germany July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Train tracks are pictured on July 19, 2016, near Wuerzburg, Germany, a day after a young man attacked train passengers with an axe. German authorities said they had found a hand-painted IS flag among the belongings of the man, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who seriously injured four members of a family of tourists from Hong Kong in his rampage. The teenage assailant was killed as he tried to flee. (DANIEL ROLAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Police officers walk along train tracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 19, 2016 a day after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German authorities said they had found a hand-painted IS flag among the belongings of the man, an asylum seeker from Afghanistan, who seriously injured four members of a family of tourists from Hong Kong in his rampage. The teenage assailant was killed as he tried to flee. (DANIEL ROLAND/AFP/Getty Images)
In this image taken from video police officer look on as the body of a 17-years-old attacker is carried to a hearse in Wuerzburg, southern Germany, Tuesday morning, July 19, 2016. The asylum seeker who shouted "Allahu akbar" ("God is great") during an ax and knife attack on a train, injuring at least five people, had a hand-painted flag of the Islamic State group in his room, a senior German security official said Tuesday. (News5 via AP)
German police cars move at the scene where a man with an axe attacked passengers on a train near the city of Wuerzburg, Germany July 19, 2016. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
Police officers stand by a regional train in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 18, 2016 after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German police killed the man after he attacked passengers on a train with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people, news agency DPA reported citing police. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
A cameraman films a regional train in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 18, 2016 after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German police killed the man after he attacked passengers on a train with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people, news agency DPA reported citing police. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Rescuers gather on a road near railtracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 18, 2016 after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German police killed the man after he attacked passengers on a train with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people, news agency DPA reported citing police. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
A rescuer stands on a road near railtracks in Wuerzburg southern Germany on July 18, 2016 after a man attacked train passengers with an axe. German police killed the man after he attacked passengers on a train with an axe and a knife, seriously wounding three people, news agency DPA reported citing police. (KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND/AFP/Getty Images)
At least one witness reported that the attacker, who had been living with a foster family in the nearby town of Ochsenfurt, had shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
Herrmann told Reuters TV that a hand-painted IS flag was found among his belongings when police searched his home, as well as a text that included references to Islam and the "need to resist", according to an initial translation from the Afghan language of Pashto.
He said the text was subject to interpretation, and stressed that the attack was no reason to cast suspicion on other refugees or for Germans to stop living their lives normally.
RELATED: Terrorist attacks and threats in Germany
"Some things clearly point to an Islamist background, but there is no evidence at this point connecting him to any other individuals, or indicating whether he radicalized himself," Herrmann said. "That must all still be investigated."
He started attacking his passengers with an axe and a knife around 9 p.m. local time as the train was approaching its last stop, the Bavarian city of Wuerzburg, Herrmann said.
The attacker, who came to Germany as an unaccompanied minor two years ago, fled into the town of Heidingsfeld after the emergency brake was pulled. He was pursued by a police unit and shot dead after attacking a woman and trying to assault the police officers, Herrmann said.
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying condemned the attack, which he said injured four of five members of a Hong Kong family that was on holiday in Germany. Herrmann said the family had visited the medieval town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber before the attack.
Leung's office said Hong Kong and Chinese officials were in touch with the German embassy to follow up on the case, and representatives were en route to visit the family.
RELATED: Most active terrorist groups in Germany since 2000
Unlike neighbors France and Belgium, Germany has not been the victim of a major attack by Islamic militants in recent years, although security officials say they have thwarted a large number of plots.
Germany welcomed about 1 million migrants in 2015, including thousands of unaccompanied minors. Many were fleeing war in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
(This story corrects paragraph 15 to show name of town is Heidingsfeld, not Heiligenfeld)
(Reporting by Michael Nienaber, Noah Barkin, Andrea Shalal, Caroline Copley, Michelle Martin and Gernot Heller, and Jens Hack in Munich and Reuters TV; Writing by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Angus MacSwan) | The 17-year-old severely wounded four passengers before police shot him dead late on Monday. | 95.176471 | 1 | 5 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2015/03/hate-attacks-bulgaria-invisible-crime-150302060433067.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160725031642id_/http://www.aljazeera.com:80/indepth/features/2015/03/hate-attacks-bulgaria-invisible-crime-150302060433067.html | Hate attacks: Bulgaria's invisible crime | 20160725031642 | Hate crimes in Bulgaria are on the rise amid a burgeoning number of war refugees arriving in the eastern European country, and the government is failing to tackle the problem, human rights campaigners say.
Ruslan Trad, president of the Forum for Arab Culture, said he has begun to feel uneasy over the past two years living in the capital Sofia after receiving threats on social media and facing harassment on the streets.
"There is a sense of anxiety," he told Al Jazeera. "Even people of the older generation [of Arab immigrants] say that they feel a difference in how many people treat them because of stereotypes and the political [hate] speech. They feel unwelcome."Â
A recent report by Amnesty International accused Bulgaria of failing to properly investigate a rising number of hate attacks.
"Hate crimes in Bulgaria remain largely hidden and unacknowledged,"Â concluded the report, titled: "Missing the point: Lack of adequate investigation of hate crimes in Bulgaria."
Such [hate] crimes are abundant, and the prosecution and the authorities rarely investigate them.
Borislav Dimitrov, Friends of the Refugees
The report comes five months after a similar one issued by the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance, and a year after the European Court of Human Rights found Bulgaria violated the Human Rights Convention by failing to investigate a 2008 attack on a Sudanese national as a hate crime.
To Bulgarian activists who work with minorities and refugees, the Amnesty report came as no surprise.
"Only in January, I heard of two confirmed incidents of stabbings of refugees at the same place near the refugee centre in the [Sofia] neighbourhood of Ovcha Kupel, and I have heard rumours of a third case,"Â said Borislav Dimitrov, a law school graduate and volunteer with the group Friends of the Refugees, who has worked with refugees since 2012.
"Such [hate] crimes are abundant, and the prosecution and the authorities rarely investigate them. I don't know of anyone who has been convicted for a hate crime,"Â Dimitrov added.
The Sofia Prosecution Office began investigating 80 crimes against ethnic minorities between January 2013 and March 2014, according to the Amnesty report.
However, there are no comprehensive statistics on hate crimes in Bulgaria - not only because the government does not publish this data, but also because many attacks and abuses go unreported.
According to Svetla Encheva, a sociologist and researcher on migration and human rights issues, many victims of hate crimes from marginalised communities in Bulgaria do not trust the police.
"When they do [inform the police], it is not unusual for the authorities to treat them with disregard and to refuse to register the crime,"Â she explained.Â
In Bulgaria, attacks on minorities are not a new phenomenon.
The past decade has seen arson attempts against mosques, attacks on LGBT activists, and assaults on members of the Turkish and Roma minorities.Â
However, according to human rights activists, there has been a spike in hate crimes starting in 2013, which has coincided with the recent arrival of a large number of refugees.
Statistics from Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees show in 2011 some 890 people were seeking asylum in Bulgaria. In 2014, this number was more than 10 times higher, at 11,081. The majority of the refugees come from Syria and Afghanistan.
Iliana Savova, director of the Refugee and Migrant Programme of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, said the influx of refugees was not in itself the reason for escalating attacks.
"The blame for the increase in hate crimes and negative attitudes in society [towards refugees] lies with those in power, because almost all political parties encouraged hatred through the media,"Â she told Al Jazeera.
"This approach is always used in poor societies when those in power are failing and need to take away attention from their mistakes by pointing to an easily distinguishable 'enemy'."
Savova said Bulgarian society is not inherently racist or xenophobic, but hate speech against refugees and migrants in the media and the political sphere has increased tensions.
"The prosecution must not shy away from indicting politicians, because it's unacceptable for leaders of political parties to incite hatred and racism,"Â she said, adding hate speech is criminalised in Bulgaria.
Since 2013, a number of Bulgarian politicians and government officials have publicly made racist remarks against refugees.
In 2013, during a parliamentary debate, members of the ultra-nationalist Ataka Party referred to refugees as a "jihadist mob"Â and "infiltrated [sic] Muslim terrorists".
Some government officials have called refugees a "threat to the national security"Â of the country.
"The only people who stay in Bulgaria are the Kurdish, who are worse than our Gypsies in every aspect," said the former head of Bulgaria's refugee agency Colonel Nikolai Tchirpanliev.Â
The Association of European Journalists found in a 2013 study of 8,439 articles in Bulgarian online media the three words most associated with refugee were "threat", "disease", and "danger".
This type of rhetoric has spread fear among Bulgaria's Arabs, Jews, Turks and Roma.
Trad explained some Arabs in Bulgaria feel worried and a few have decided to move their businesses elsewhere. He said people who volunteer to help refugees, like himself, also face mistreatment.
Trad said he sees the political empowerment of the far right as one of the main factors contributing to the increasing number of hate crimes.
Far-right factions have been responsible for organised violence against minorities, such as the 2008 attack on the first gay pride parade in Sofia, and the 2011 attack on the Banya Bashi mosque in the capital, during Friday prayers.
Most recently, these ultra-nationalists have organised vigilante groups to "patrol"Â neighbourhoods in Sofia with high concentrations of refugees and migrants.
"The state institutions did not fail to protect the refugees and minorities from attacks," said Encheva, the sociologist and migration researcher. "They just never even tried to do so."Â
She said the Bulgarian state does not provide adequate legal protection to asylum seekers and members of minority groups.
According to the Amnesty report, Bulgarian authorities have failed to ensure that the rights of victims of hate crimes are respected, and have not succeeded in facilitating their access to the justice system.
This, the report said, has resulted in a growing mistrust of state institutions.
Bulgaria's Deputy Minister of Justice Petko Petkov admitted there are grounds for the allegations made by the rights activists.
"The Bulgarian Criminal Code has provisions for hate crimes. There are some shortcomings pointed out in the report which we could change,"Â Petkov told Al Jazeera.
Nevertheless, he said such changes would not resolve the main problem -Â namely, the failure to investigate hate crimes -Â which falls under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Interior and the Prosecution Office.
When contacted by Al Jazeera, the Ministry of Interior's press centre refused to comment.
The Prosecution Office released a statement explaining that prosecutors comment only on specific cases. It added attacks on refugees and minorities are investigated according to Article 10 of the Criminal Code, regardless of the ethnic origin of the victim.
According to Savova, the barriers that victims of hate crimes seeking justice face are not legal, but institutional.
"They face problems that are common to the whole justice system, such as the ineffectiveness of the prosecution, the unwillingness to investigate crimes, inadequate investigation, misplaced accusations, etc,"Â she said.
"The institutions must do their jobs." | Human rights activists say the Bulgarian government is not properly investigating a growing number of hate attacks. | 80.555556 | 1 | 2.777778 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/18/t-magazine/entertainment/cannes-film-festival-julia-roberts-jessica-chastain.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160725060818id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/05/18/t-magazine/entertainment/cannes-film-festival-julia-roberts-jessica-chastain.html?rref=collection%2Fnewseventcollection%2FCannes+Film+Festival+2016 | At the Cannes Film Festival With Julia Roberts and Jessica Chastain | 20160725060818 | Last week, the stylist Elizabeth Stewart found herself running down the Croisette, the long promenade in Cannes, between Julia Roberts’s hotel room and Jessica Chastain’s. As the stylist to both stars during the Cannes Film Festival, which ends May 22, Stewart says she prepared outfits for several events — not to mention countless backup dresses and options for last-minute appearances that get on her clients’ schedules. “It’s all about being ready for any scenario,” she says.
One such unexpected moment: As Julia Roberts ascended the grand staircase for her film premiere, wearing a custom Armani Privé dress, she kicked off her heels. Following the event, headlines screamed “Julia Roberts Went Barefoot on the Cannes Red Carpet” — which Stewart laughs about now. “She was not barefoot,” Stewart says. “She got worried about going up the steps, kicked off her shoes just to go up the steps, but it was much photographed. She put her shoes on right at the top of the stairs.” She adds: “I thought it was really funny.”
In the slide show above, Stewart gives T an exclusive look inside her trip to the Cannes Film Festival, including countless hair and makeup sessions, a premiere — and some good fish. | The stylist Elizabeth Stewart gives T a look inside her whirlwind week preparing both stars for the red carpet. | 12.35 | 0.9 | 2.1 | low | medium | mixed |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/four-nypd-officers-disciplined-as-part-of-federal-corruption-probe-1460061001 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160725061422id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/four-nypd-officers-disciplined-as-part-of-federal-corruption-probe-1460061001 | Four NYPD Officers Disciplined as Part of Federal Corruption Probe | 20160725061422 | The New York Police Department placed four high-ranking officials on desk duty Thursday after Commissioner William Bratton received new details about a federal investigation into the alleged exchange of gifts for protection and other perks.
Mr. Bratton said he made the decision after a meeting with the head of New York’s Federal Bureau of Investigation office, Diego Rodriguez. In announcing the disciplinary moves, the police... | The New York Police Department placed four high-ranking officials on desk duty Thursday after Commissioner William Bratton received new details about an investigation into the alleged exchange of gifts for protection and other perks. | 2 | 0.972973 | 18.864865 | low | high | extractive |
http://fortune.com/johnson-and-johnson-global-500/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160725064807id_/http://fortune.com:80/johnson-and-johnson-global-500/ | Johnson & Johnson Is Proving That Big Can Be Beautiful | 20160725064807 | The lobby of the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick, N.J., had been transformed into a bazaar of medical-supply exotica. One booth showcased a large machine that sterilized surgical instruments in 24 minutes, a fraction of the normal time. Nearby was a slick little mealtime insulin dispenser and, not far away, an acne-treating light-therapy mask that looked like a prop from the slasher flick Friday the 13th. But it was the manikin—or make that the ripped open thoracic cavity of a manikin—that had the crowd most enthralled. One onlooker grabbed a surgical instrument, a cross between a laser gun and a cattle prod, and maneuvered it deep into the innards of the dummy. When he was done he collected a sticker that he stuck with gleeful satisfaction on a bingo card.
Wall Street analysts get excited by the oddest things.
Alex Gorsky was also keyed up, though seemingly not about the bingo cards. For the 56-year-old CEO of Johnson & Johnson, this drizzly morning in May—Analyst Day—offered a chance to put some show behind a tell he had been making for the previous four years, or since he had assumed the reins of the $70-billion-a-year health care giant. The message: J&J isn’t just big, it’s broad—for good reason.
With 250 operating companies in virtually every country, J&J jnj has under its 130-year-old banner the world’s largest medical device business, an even bigger pharmaceutical business, and a consumer products division with a dozen megabrands, from Neutrogena to Tylenol. It makes everything from Band-Aids to Rogaine to contact lenses to tuberculosis medicines.
The 103rd-largest company on the planet by revenue is a bona fide health care conglomerate if ever there was one. But to many in the investor community, that term—“conglomerate”—had become a dirty word.
If there was one case CEOs didn’t want to make to Wall Street, it was this: “We’re sprawling. We’ve got scores of different businesses that seem to have little to do with one another.” Gone was the age when a company chief would unabashedly make that claim. Such a boast was merely a lure to an activist investor—who, at first sniff of bloat, homed in faster than a great white on an elephant seal. (For reference, see DuPont, Dow, Hewlett-Packard, GE.) The pharmaceutical industry, indeed, had already lost a few seals of its own: Abbott Labs and Baxter had both split in two; Pfizer had slimmed down as well, shedding its animal-health and infant-nutrition units.
So when Gorsky took the stage that morning in the packed Hyatt ballroom, he launched into something of a preemptive strike—a wholehearted defense of conglomeration, or what he called “broad-base advantages.” The CEO’s management team struck similar notes, playing up the virtues of J&J’s diversified model—consistent financial experience, wide-ranging expertise, and a customer base that spans from consumers to hospitals to governments.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky rehearses his presentation to analysts.Photograph by Timothy Fadek
Jami Rubin wasn’t buying it. The influential Goldman Sachs gs analyst, sitting just a few rows back from the podium, waited patiently through the corporate cheerleading and then raised her hand for a question: “Can you guys just remind me what the strategic benefits are of keeping the consumer business under the parent organization?” Then she added, “Sorry, I just cannot help myself.”
Enter the Conglomerate Killer. Rubin, who had covered the pharmaceutical industry since the 1990s, had been pushing lumbering corporations to slim down for years. Her campaigns against Pfizer, Abbott, and Baxter had each been met with staunch internal resistance, but the companies had ultimately succumbed, and investors had profited rather handsomely from, as Rubin put it, “the unlocked value.” (According to a Goldman research note in March, Abbott freed $92 billion for shareholders by spinning off its pharma division; Baxter, a more modest $4 billion since doing the same.)
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In 2011, in an attention-getting research report titled “Breaking Up Is Easy to Do,” Rubin called upon virtually every major drug company to spin off assets. A year later, when Gorsky took the helm of J&J, the most cyclopean conglomerate in the clodhopping pharma realm, the New Brunswick company shot up to the top of Rubin’s hit list.
Her long campaign got a boost in January when Artisan Partners, a San Francisco–based investment firm, made the case for splitting up the health care company, citing among other sins the poor performance of two of its three divisions—the consumer products and medical device businesses, which account for more than half of J&J’s revenues. (Drugs account for the rest.) “There is absolutely no evidence that these businesses create more value as a result of being together,” says Daniel O’Keefe, a managing director at Artisan, and the lead portfolio manager of its Global Value Fund, which at the time held a tiny (0.2%) ownership stake in J&J. “In fact, the evidence is overwhelming that they perform worse than they would as independent companies,” he says. (Goldman’s Rubin put a number to that thesis in mid-March, estimating that the sum of J&J’s parts was worth $40 billion more than the whole.)
Make no mistake about it, however: J&J isn’t splitting up anytime soon. Gorsky has thought long and hard about his company’s sprawling footprint—and the CEO insists he’s not clinging to it for the sake of legacy, but rather for strategy. J&J’s seemingly unwieldy size is Gorsky’s formula for achieving something rare among publicly traded companies these days: a safe haven that grows.
The first component in that description—stability—has been J&J’s calling card for decades. In April the company raised its dividend for the 54th straight year, and it remains one of only two U.S. companies with a AAA credit rating from S&P. (The other is Microsoft.)
Though J&J’s 2015 revenues fell 5.7% ($4.3 billion) year over year, due largely to unfavorable currency exchange rates (see “Beware the Almighty Dollar”), sales have been inching up since Gorsky became boss. On the profit side the news has been brighter, with a three-year annualized growth rate of 12.4%. On July 19, J&J reported solid sales and profits, given the recent global turbulence, and raised its guidance for 2016 sales by $300 million. During Gorsky’s tenure, J&J’s stock (including dividends) has returned 120% to shareholders, compared with 69% for the S&P 500.
“They’re in a great position,” says Kristen Stewart, an analyst at Deutsche Bank. “They have the luxury of time and the ability to look at different opportunities across different business units. That is what a diversified business platform affords them. I have always considered J&J the master of its destiny.”
If J&J is the master of its destiny, then Gorsky seems well-suited to be the master of it. Square-shouldered and trim, Gorsky looks as if he could have been bred in J&J’s Human Performance Institute. (Yes, one of its many businesses is to train corporate athletes.)
The CEO exercises for 60 to 90 minutes per day, usually at 4:30 a.m., and often in the private gym that abuts his office. He has a photographic memory, “ripped arms” (per his media chief), and the classic good looks of a sitcom dad. He has a clutch of favorite sayings—“I’m pleased, but not satisfied”; “History should be a source of pride, but it can’t be an anchor”—that, delivered in measured tone and manner, have a programmed quality. His employees confirm he is human—a guy who likes to take lunch in the cafeteria and sit with colleagues he doesn’t yet know.
A middle child raised in the Midwest, he enrolled at West Point, where he trained as an engineer, and then served six years in the military, a few of them as an Army lieutenant in Europe, before trying his hand as a drug salesman for J&J in California. He rose quickly through the company ranks, then left in 2004 to become COO at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, then four years later returned to J&J—where, after an amicable bake-off with another contender, he got the top job in February 2012.
His appointment came at one of the darkest periods in J&J’s long history. Five days before he was named the company’s seventh-ever CEO, it recalled 574,000 bottles of grape-flavored Tylenol because of a bottle design flaw. The event would hardly have constituted news had it not been for J&J’s roughly two-dozen recalls in the previous 30 months—a cascading reputational and quality-control crisis that had engulfed the company’s consumer business, a stable of well-regarded brands like Benadryl, Aveeno, and Johnson’s Baby Shampoo.
Gorsky, a fitness buff and triathlete, takes a spin class at J&J.Photograph by Timothy Fadek—Redux Pictures
The issues had been the subject of a government hearing in 2010, but J&J couldn’t stop stepping in it. New egregious lapses emerged almost every month: Fragments of wood and metal were found in Rolaids; excessive bacteria in baby lotion. In several cases, products were recalled because of a foul odor, a problem traced back to shipping pallets. The company also drew scorn after it was found to have executed a “phantom recall” of Motrin—contracting a company to buy all the substandard product off shelves instead of issuing a public notice. In 2011 the FDA placed three of J&J’s manufacturing facilities under consent decree—essentially government oversight. (J&J acknowledges the failures.)
When Gorsky was named CEO, many believed he would clean up the mess but otherwise bring little change. Gorsky was a consummate insider—a man who, in his two decades at J&J, had helped run the two biggest of its three divisions. But from the start, Gorsky challenged fundamental aspects of the company he had inherited—including the once-sacrosanct principle of decentralization: the notion that the conglomerate’s 250-odd units had to remain wholly separate. For much of its existence J&J had grown largely through acquisition—buying up well-managed companies and letting them be. J&J’s executive team didn’t bother with integration or standardization.
But in Gorsky’s view, decentralized didn’t have to mean disconnected. The whole point of a broad-based health care enterprise was that the different business units could work together to find synergies, cross-fertilize ideas, and reap cost savings that could be reinvested in the business. That, thought Gorsky, was the best way to unlock value.
What he was determined to keep unchanged, hokey as it might sound, was the central role of the company’s credo. Outside J&J’s walls the idea sounds improbably quaint—and the sort of thing corporate HR departments trot out on “New Employee Day” and never mention again. But at J&J the credo was as sacred as a constitution.
Founded in New Brunswick in 1886 by three brothers named Johnson, the company grew slowly for a generation. Then Robert Wood Johnson II decided, reluctantly, to take the family business public. He fretted about the effects that market pressures would have on the company’s values, and as a safeguard he wrote a 307-word statement of corporate principles, spelling out to whom J&J’s responsibility lies: First are patients and physicians; second, employees; communities, third. Shareholders? They come last.
Seventy-three years later that credo—J&Jers typically pronounce it, like the British do, as “cray-dough”—is routinely invoked around the company. It’s inscribed in stone at the headquarters’ front entrance; it hangs in every meeting space; it’s there, supersized, on the wall across from Gorsky’s desk. Until a decade ago, newly hired employees were mailed two copies of the credo—one to take to work, the other to frame at home.
Today there are “credo challenges”—something like a corporate crisis drill, in which a business decision is analyzed through a close reading of the credo—and biennial credo surveys, in which employees evaluate the business according to how well it upholds the standards of the credo. When Gorsky first presented his long-term vision for J&J to the board, it was the credo, he says, that was at its core.
Size, of course, was part of that vision. Given the enormous shifts in the health care industry and the large number of government and institutional customers and partners involved, huge scale could be a rare asset for negotiating deals. Heft and breadth were competitive advantages—as long as one could connect the parts.
It was Sandi Peterson’s job to connect them.
Gorsky knew the Bayer executive from the time they had served together on an industry medical-device board, and once CEO, he wasted little time luring her to J&J. In late 2012, Peterson became group worldwide chairman, a newly created position that held sweeping responsibility for and oversight of the struggling consumer group and technology across the enterprise, among other things.
Left to right: Gorsky, J&J group worldwide chairman Sandra (“Sandi”) Peterson, and CFO Dominic Caruso.Photograph by Timothy Fadek
More unusual than her job title: She was an outsider, an exec who hadn’t climbed the ladder at J&J or been scooped up in an acquisition. Such had been the career paths for much of the company’s senior ranks. But the very nature of Peterson’s mission required an outsider, it seemed.
When Peterson joined, each of J&J’s 250 operating companies had, for example, its own HR policy, its own financing system, and its own procurement process. General managers oversaw all these decisions—from who mowed the lawn to which accounting software was used. When employees took jobs with different operating companies, there was no consistency. It was as if they were joining a completely different company. IT across the enterprise was particularly fragmented: Everyone did it his own way. Gorsky had made it a priority to bring order to this unwieldy machine—“sometimes a customer doesn’t want to deal with 250 J&J’s,” he says.
A polished McKinsey alum who also serves on the Microsoft board msft , Peterson has a short blond bob and a pair of cycling pedals installed under her desk. She hits the gym almost every day, and you get the sense, within seconds of meeting her, that she gets shit done. She had led similar efficiency-finding exercises at Bayer and, before that, at Whirlpool whr and Nabisco, and she speaks as someone accustomed and impervious to blowback. “I know how to do this,” she says.
Peterson is feverishly aligning the 250 operating companies on everything from the timing of financial forecasts to employee car policies. Key to the standardization process—which is now more than halfway complete and en route, she says, to saving the company $1 billion—is moving almost all the company’s data to the cloud (in a private, HIPAA-compliant way, she says). By 2018, 85% of J&J’s data will be cloud-based.
“They’ve been very progressive, innovative, and forward-leaning in how they’ve made the move,” says Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon Web Services amzn , of J&J’s effort. Whereas many companies take a conservative, wait-and-see approach on such technology moves, Jassy says J&J is out front in defining what health care compliance in the cloud looks like—and has even gotten Amazon to move faster: “They really pushed us to build a product that will appeal to heavily regulated industries,” he says.
Peterson, who has also brokered partnerships with Google goog , Apple appl , and IBM ibm on a host of tech projects, rattles off statistics in conversation as if they were “ums” and “ers”: J&J launches 450 apps per year (from the 7 Minute Workout to a bedtime app for babies); it has migrated all of its 120,000–plus employees to a single HR database on Workday; it processes as much data per day as eBay; it warehouses 500 terabytes of data—or “2.5 times as much data as resides in the IRS data warehouse,” she told analysts.
Much of J&J’s recent culture shift started with Paul Stoffels—before Gorsky became CEO. The business that Stoffels inherited in 2009 when he was made J&J’s global head of pharmaceuticals R&D was broken. Patent expirations put billions of dollars of the division’s revenues at risk. “We didn’t have a choice. We could either go fully off the cliff, or we could go partially off the cliff and fight our way back up,” he says.
Many analysts thought the business was not worth salvaging. The pharma division was just as decentralized as any other. Accordingly, J&J’s self-described approach to drug development was “many bets.” Put another way, it was willy-nilly. J&J’s seven different drug R&D organizations operated in completely siloed fashion. In some cases multiple companies pursued the same drug targets, and each had its own system for handling clinical or regulatory development. There was no sense of a common mission: Employees identified proudly with their operating companies—they were a Centocor person or a Janssen person, not a Johnson & Johnson person.
“We didn’t have a choice,” says Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer. “We could either go fully off the cliff, or we could go partially off the cliff and fight our way back up.”
Stoffels’s first move was to merge the units under his purview into one: Janssen Research and Development. The new umbrella group was organized into five therapeutic areas that would target 11 disease states. The restructuring was painful: Nearly 7% of J&J’s global workforce had their positions eliminated. Twelve of the division’s 25 facilities were shuttered, and nearly 200 projects were slashed, but it provided the business focus and a single operating model.
This new entity had a streamlined development process, a highly coordinated system that Stoffels, a musician, calls Accelerando. Under this model the discovery effort never stops: Global teams—statisticians in China, data managers in India, regulatory folks in Europe—work 24/7 to speed drugs to market. The assembly-line approach has cut months, and in some cases years, off the development time. Stoffels squeezed another two months from the process by zeroing in on how J&J submitted applications to the FDA—“That’s time we controlled; it’s just about using resources better”—and sticking a team in a hotel together for one month to find ways to do it better. This is how Darzalex, J&J’s breakthrough multiple myeloma drug, went from Phase I to clinic in just 39 months—years less than the average oncology medicine, according to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development—and went to market just one day after approval.
Since 2009, J&J’s struggling pharmaceutical division has become the company’s star. With $31 billion in revenues in 2015—up 40% since bottoming out in 2009—the division is now handily J&J’s largest. Janssen has also outperformed the industry, topping the IDEA Pharma Productive Innovation Index for four years running. Its 17 drug approvals in 10 years have put it in a league of its own, says Bernard Munos, a pharmaceutical innovation consultant. “No other company has come close to that,” he says. The industry average is 0.8 per year.
Stoffels, though, has pushed far more than the timetable. He has redefined the process for drug discovery at the company—joining R&D with S&D (search and development) with I&D (invitation and development). The company doesn’t care where new drug candidates come from—whether discovered in-house, from its own Janssen researchers, or from entrepreneurs and scientists outside the company.
Dr. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chief scientific officer, photographed at J&J Beerse, Belgium. Stoffels heads up R&D and sets the “innovation agenda” across the enterprise.Photograph by Justin Jin
He set up four innovation centers in biotech clusters—Cambridge, Mass.; Menlo Park, Calif.; London; and Shanghai—around the world, places where scientific entrepreneurs can interact with the company’s own drug and technology scouts. The centers host regular events, featuring experts or startup gurus, and engage with anyone who pings, calls, or drops in. They make available J&J resources—a regulatory expert or an introduction to a possible funding partner, for instance—and give feedback.
“We want a Nordstrom-like level of customer service,” says Jeff Calcagno, a former McKinsey consultant and tech entrepreneur who now works with New Ventures at J&J’s Innovation Center in Menlo Park. “Entrepreneurs aren’t used to that,” says Calcagno. “They’re used to big companies blowing them off.”
J&J’s white-glove touch also extends to dealmaking. From his own experience as a biotech founder (his company developed three major AIDS drugs), Stoffels, who is now J&J’s chief scientific officer, knew drug companies tend to have a rigid, prescribed approach to deals. He thought they could be done more creatively, in a range of forms that better suit the particular partner—maybe J&J would fund an experiment without claiming ownership to the data, for instance. Such flexibility lets J&J work with companies earlier and more casually—a strategy that mitigates risk and builds relationships. Between 2013 and 2015, J&J reviewed more than 3,400 opportunities through these centers. In some 200 of those cases they did deals.
Yet more radical is what the company is doing at six biotech incubators, called JLABS, in the U.S. and Canada. There, company reps do everything possible to help life-science startups succeed, whether by introducing them to a J&J scientist or opening up their compound library. But in this “business model,” J&J gets nothing in return (other than a nominal rent payment). Startups can come, do their science, and leave. They can invite in financiers, including J&J’s competitors, to take a look. There are no stings attached.
The seeming benevolence had initially puzzled some observers and was dismissed by others, but in Stoffels’s vision, the gain for the company is all in the relationship—and embedding in a community of innovators. That, after all, is where good ideas come from.
The JLABS are now incubating more than 140 companies—and there’s a waiting list for new tenants at each locale. One Cinderella tale out of JLABS belongs to Arcturus, a three-year-old biotech founded by two big pharma defectors who quit their jobs in 2013 with $50,000 and a dream to develop RNA-based therapeutics to treat rare diseases. Two and a half years later their company—founded with no assets, technology, or drug pipeline—has scored nearly $2 billion in deals (one worth up to $240 billion to develop hepatitis B medicines for J&J; the other with another company). “That’s tech time in the life sciences,” says Melinda Richter, head of JLABS. “That’s what we’re going for.”
Joseph Payne, an Arcturus co-founder, has no doubt that JLABS is good for scientific progress; he’s less sure it’s a winning strategy for J&J in the long term. “Do they help companies raise money, execute and bring science to an exciting level, do deals with JLABS companies? Yes. But at the end of the day,” he wonders, “will they make money and commercialize all this innovation—or will their competitors swoop in and say, thank you for validating their technology? That’s the mega-question.”
Sure, it’s a radical strategy with an uncertain business model. But what else would you expect from a sprawling, old-fashioned conglomerate?
Check out the full Global 500 at fortune.com/global500 for company profiles, financial data, stock quotes, graphics, and more.
A version of this article appears in the August 1, 2016 issue of Fortune. | Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky is turning 250 companies into one. | 316.2 | 0.866667 | 1.933333 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/kate-middleton/8628678/Prince-William-and-Kate-Middletons-royal-tour-highlights.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160725132533id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/uknews/kate-middleton/8628678/Prince-William-and-Kate-Middletons-royal-tour-highlights.html | Prince William and Kate Middleton's royal tour: highlights | 20160725132533 | Day One - Happy landing The Duchess of Cambridge leaves the Canadian Air Force jet in navy lace dress by Montreal designer Erdem Moralioglu, having performed a costume change over the Atlantic. Met by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and an honour guard of Mounties, the couple make the strongest possible start to their first overseas tour.
Day Five - Competitive couple The Duchess of Cambridge was widely expected to thrash her husband in a dragon boat race, seeing as she has a long history with the ancient Chinese sport. In the end he wins narrowly telling his wife: "There is no chivalry in sport".
Day Six - Shooting back Prince William takes part in a street hockey penalty shoot out. The second-in-line to the throne isn't very good and fails to score even once, but he does manage to hit a photographer to the amusement of all.
Day Seven - Morale boost On what was billed as a day off the royals visit Slave Lake, a town ravaged by forest fire two months previously. They meet emergency personnel and visit some of the burnt-out areas.
Day Eight - Royal rodeo The royal couple swaps crowns for cowboy hats as they take part in the opening of the Calgary Rodeo. Asked if he's enjoying the headgear, our understated Prince replies: "This is different".
Day Nine - Familiar faces William and Kate become the biggest celebrities in a stars as they arrive in Los Angeles. They are greeted at a reception by Stephen Fry, David Beckham and a host of other expats.
Day Ten - Sporting Prince William teaches the locals a thing or two about polo as he scores four times during a charity polo match. He is presented with the winning trophy by his wife. | Highlights from Prince William and Kate Middleton's 12 day tour of Canada and California | 21 | 0.5625 | 0.8125 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trumps-nonexistent-florida-strategy | http://web.archive.org/web/20160726104348id_/http://www.msnbc.com:80/msnbc/donald-trumps-nonexistent-florida-strategy | Donald Trump's nonexistent Florida strategy | 20160726104348 | Florida, Florida, Florida. It’s the phrase that’s now heard every election night since 2000, when a mere 537 votes separated George W. Bush from Al Gore. The drama that ensued after that election gripped the country for weeks as the state recounted ballots and debated hanging chads, then the Supreme Court handed down a 5-4 decision that ultimately finalized the election’s outcome.
The 2000 presidential election has made the Sunshine State the one to watch on election night ever since, and with good reason. In order to win the White House, a candidate must win Florida. Not since Calvin Coolidge did it in 1924 has a Republican lost there and still captured the presidency.
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It’s a fact Republicans and Democrats know well, and while the Clinton campaign has shifted its focus in Florida by opening a general election campaign headquarters in the state and setting up a Florida field team, Donald Trump’s campaign is still trying to figure out its strategy there.
Trump could arguably call Florida his second home. Trump National Golf Course in Doral is listed as his biggest source of income, according to his most recent financial disclosures with the Federal Elections Commission. He spends significant time at his opulent Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach and has hosted campaign events and press conferences in the gilded ballroom of the private club.
Despite the focus that Trump, his family and his businesses have in Florida, Trump’s campaign has yet to follow suit. The Trump campaign and the Republican Party are currently “in discussions” over what kind of presence Trump will have in the state, according to Wadi Gaitan, director of communications for the Republican Party of Florida.
MTP Daily, 5/10/16, 5:09 PM ET
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are running neck-and-neck in the battleground state of Florida, according to a new general election poll. Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL) and Barry Bennett, senior advisor to the Trump campaign, join Chuck Todd.
“What kind of infrastructure does he set up here in the state, how competitive does he think Florida is going to be, and once he has the answer to that question, what kind of investment will he make in this area?” asked Gaitan. “It could be that he relies on what we are doing. We do plan on expanding our program, so he might say, ‘That’s what I think we need to win Florida, and nothing much more beyond that.’”
The Trump campaign has said it will focus on about a dozen states during the general election, including Florida, but the candidate has not held a single campaign event there since winning the state’s primary in March (he did attend the Palm Beach Lincoln Day Dinner held at Mar-a-Lago the weekend after winning the primary). Hillary Clinton will be in Florida Saturday, when she will make an appearance in Fort Lauderdale.
Even though Trump has become the presumptive nominee well before his Democratic rival, his general election team doesn’t yet have a real presence in the state. The campaign has yet to set up any of the infrastructure necessary to win a campaign in Florida, leaving its 29 delegates very much up in the air.
“There are people who supported him during the primary who continue to keep offices; however, they don’t have an official Florida campaign office,” Gaitan said. “I’m hesitant to say whether that’s going to happen or not. Those are the conversations that are going to happen.”
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Trump’s lack of a ground game isn’t surprising. It’s been a criticism of his campaign throughout the primary process, but as both parties turn to the general election, the lack of local organization becomes more of an issue.
Steve Schale, who ran President Obama’s Florida operation in 2008, says the ground game is imperative.
“While I have definitely been in the camp that Democrats can’t take Trump lightly,” Schale said, “to try to run for president and to turn out voters without a ground game is clinically moronic.”
“It’s not turning out people who show up to rallies. If you turn up to a rally, you’re going to vote,” Schale explained. “There are voters who have to be reminded, found and prodded. And to do that requires an operation.”
Florida is a complicated state because of how different each region can be. Those who live there say it is like two states: North of Tampa and Orlando, it tends to be more conservative, while south Florida tends to be more liberal. But for campaign operatives, the state can really be divided into five separate sections: north Florida, which stretches from Pensacola to Jacksonville, the Orlando area, Miami-Dade and southwest Florida, the Tampa Bay area, and Palm Beach-Broward counties.
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Even though Trump has yet to invest heavily in Florida, Republicans have been working in the state since losing the 2012 general election by less than 1 percent. Following the traditional model of grassroots organizing, they have held voter registration drives and recently announced that they have flipped seven counties from majority registered Democrats to majority registered Republicans. One of those, Pinellas County, is part of the highly coveted Tampa Bay area.
Tampa is the hardest media market win, according to Schale. He says the candidate who captures it almost always wins Florida. The region has a large independent voter base, a disparate population of older white voters, a growing Hispanic population and a large African-American population, which makes the market a bellwether for the state.
Which may be why the Clinton campaign has relocated its Florida headquarters from Miami-Dade to the Tampa area. The campaign is following the basic blueprint to winning the state. According to a campaign adviser, Clinton will have a “strong presence” in Miami-Dade, in Central Florida, the Tampa-Bay area, Jacksonville and Tallahassee. The campaign will also do traditional voter registration drives. All strategies that Trump has yet to embrace.
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Gaitan says one of the lessons that Florida Republicans learned in 2012 is that a candidate can’t come into Florida three or four months before a general election and ask the state’s diverse electorate for their vote. But Gaitan says the Republican Party of Florida is not worried yet about Trump’s lack of strategy.
“I think that Trump has proven that he is capable of winning in a nontraditional way,” Gaitan said. “Through the primary process he proved that he is a very unique candidate that has a very unique strategy in campaigning. His uniqueness as a candidate, his uniqueness in strategy, married with our grassroots – we’ll be able to win Florida.” | Not since Calvin Coolidge did it in 1924 has a Republican lost Florida but still won the presidency. And Donald Trump is starting way behind. | 50.333333 | 0.925926 | 6.259259 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/07/fashion/paris-jennifer-garner-bella-hadid-vogue.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160726235429id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/07/fashion/paris-jennifer-garner-bella-hadid-vogue.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FScene+City | Fashion Elite Party at Paris Couture Week | 20160726235429 | CreditAgnes Dherbeys for The New York Times
PARIS — If fashion had a prom, it might be the annual black-tie gala held by the Vogue Paris Foundation to raise funds and to showcase major donations to the Palais Galliera, the city’s fashion museum.
Now in its third year, the dinner — held Tuesday in the museum’s courtyard (tented, carpeted and filled with white roses for the event) — was hosted by Emmanuelle Alt, the editor in chief of French Vogue, and Olivier Saillard, the director of the Palais Galliera Musée de la Mode.
It also doubled as a who’s who of brands, executives, designers and their muses (model and otherwise), schmoozing and celebrating on the penultimate evening of Couture Week.
“This is just so beautiful: What a scene, what a setting,” the actress Vanessa Paradis said to Ms. Alt. Ms. Paradis, wearing a gold jeweled tank top, then whipped out her tobacco and rolled two cigarettes, her crystal glass still in hand.
Other local faces included Clémence Poésy, Joséphine de la Baume, Lou Doillon and Caroline de Maigret (just hours after her official debut as a Chanel ambassador), all of whom gathered for Champagne and foie gras on an open-air balcony overlooking the Eiffel Tower.
Nearby, Bella Hadid leaned on a marble pillar in a dusky-pink paillettes-encrusted cocktail slip by Givenchy; the actress Zoë Kravitz, in a razor-sharp YSL tuxedo combo (with barely a whisper of a sheer top beneath) chatted with the brand’s chief executive, Francesca Bellettini; and the Moda Operandi founder and front-row fixture Lauren Santo Domingo dazzled in a shift of silver sparkles, fresh from hosting a Fourth of July barbecue in her backyard on the Left Bank in honor of the boys from Proenza Schouler the evening before.
The summer breeze proved a little problematic for some. “I have to keep my hands clenched tight to my sides,” said the model Anja Rubik, laughing. She was dressed in a dark tailored suit with a completely open jacket and not much else. “There will be no dancing for me later.” The designer Marc Jacobs kept his black leather bomber firmly zipped all night.
After a packed week of shows and events (including the raucous amfAR dinner Sunday night, where Jennifer Garner, Naomi Campbell, Donatella Versace, Adrien Brody and others bid up a storm at an auction), it was of little surprise that some guests were seeking a moment of solace and contemplation.
Inside the palais, away from the buzz of the crowd, Azzedine Alaïa and Mario Testino toured the museum’s exhibition, “Anatomy of a Collection,” while Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, the model and son of the actor Daniel Day-Lewis, stood in a corner with a friend while vaping intensely y on an e-cigarette.
Just before 10 p.m., guests sat for dinner, first applauding Ms. Alt’s brief welcome speech: “I am very shy, so I am going to let Olivier Saillard speak.” Later, there was the grinding live performance of Mahaut Mondino, daughter of the photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino, and a giant birthday cake for the American Vogue fashion news director Mark Holgate to the room’s cheers.
For one night, at least, fashion was one happy family. | Fashion elite at parties hosted by Vogue Paris Foundation, amfAR and MAC Cosmetics. | 43.333333 | 0.733333 | 1.266667 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/jobs/climbing-down-the-corporate-ladder-without-alarming-your-boss.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160727031832id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/24/jobs/climbing-down-the-corporate-ladder-without-alarming-your-boss.html? | Climbing Down the Corporate Ladder Without Alarming Your Boss | 20160727031832 | Send your workplace conundrums to workologist@nytimes.com, including your name and contact information (even if you want it withheld for publication). The Workologist is a guy with well-intentioned opinions, not a professional career adviser. Letters may be edited.
I’ve had a successful career in banking and financial services. Now, however, I want to downsize my role and responsibilities. How do I sell my skills and talents while seeking a more junior role than my career history suggests? I am not looking for part-time work. But, for example, I’d like to be part of a team, rather the leader. JOHN, HOUSTON
This question may seem surprising, given that we are more or less conditioned to believe that work is all about moving up the ladder — or at the very least, never slipping down it. But Jenny Blake has heard stories like this before. She is an author and a career coach who specializes in career shifts, which is the subject of her forthcoming book, “Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One.” (Ms. Blake was a manager at Google before starting her own business. “When I looked ahead to my trajectory, to climb the ranks of management, I realized, ‘I don’t want that at all,’” she said.)
But it is possible that any given boss may take a more traditional view and interpret any attempt by you to “downsize” your responsibilities as an announcement that you’re ready to start coasting toward retirement. So it’s important to frame this carefully.
Start by seeking out others in your company (and in your field) who have made a similar transition, Ms. Blake suggests, and find out how they managed it. And think of this move in positive terms — “going from a more senior position into a more specialized one,” as she put it. “And really examine what individual contributor role you’d find most exciting.” Take this seriously: You want to think about an outcome that you would genuinely feel good about.
Then, when you actually go to management, don’t be apologetic. “Frame it as: ‘I’ve given this some reflection, and the things that I am truly best at, and where I’ve really had the most impact, are X, Y and Z,” Ms. Blake said. Give specific examples — the “categories of impact, and the results in those areas,” she said. The bottom line is sending the message that this isn’t about kicking back; it’s about doing what most excites you, and thus what should excite your employer, in this new, more focused role.
It may also be worth using essentially the same process to explore opportunities elsewhere. (The Workologist is, in general, always a fan of remaining open to opportunities elsewhere.) But you may discover that your current employer is your best bet. Sometimes, Ms. Blake said, it’s actually a relief to management that not everyone is angling for the same outcome; it can be extremely valuable when a skilled employee “moves to a different track” that can help the company in new ways.
Your recent advice to a reader who asked about “résumé optimization” was spot on, but I suspect there is a deeper problem: Applying online to job postings is a terribly inefficient way to look for a job. I have read that 70 percent of job openings are filled by referrals, or by candidates already known to the company — and I suspect the number may be higher. I publish guides and run workshops on career matters, and I always stress the importance of networking as the best strategy for finding work. In fact, I ask job seekers to make me a promise: For every three hours you spend searching and applying online, spend seven hours networking. It pays off. DOUG KALISH, PALO ALTO, CALIF.
I’m happy to receive this comment (and a few others from readers who made related points), because it gives me a reason to expand on something I only had room to hint at in that column. All the experts I talked to cautioned against going overboard with online application processes: While applying for a zillion jobs feels productive, it’s often more effective to take more care in pursuing a smaller number of more thoughtfully targeted positions.
More specifically, one of those sources made a related point that didn’t respond directly to that reader’s specific query, but that I strongly agree with. Jane Horowitz, a career coach and founder of More Than a Résumé, in Denver, says she tells her clients, often young people just entering the job market, that even when you submit a résumé online to a company you really want to work for, that’s only the first step. The second is to find someone you know who can help get that résumé in front of a human being. “Try to find another way into the company,” Ms. Horowitz says. “You have to.”
In other words: Network, person-to-person. This is exactly why the Workologist believes the job search should be a permanent activity, at least on some low-key level. Today’s casual acquaintance could be tomorrow’s crucial link to a new and better gig.
As far as I can determine, that statistic about 70 percent of openings being filled via referrals factors in internal job searches that are never actually listed in public, and is thus a guess, at best. But a 2014 study by researchers from the Federal Reserve and M.I.T., scrutinizing data from one financial services firm, found that 30 to 50 percent of hires came by way of referrals — even though these made up a slender proportion of applicants, particularly compared with the volume of online applicants.
So, yes, your résumé should be “optimized” for applicant-tracking systems. But don’t spend all your energy on that. Taking time to arrange one informational interview that really cements a productive contact who will remember you and your skills, Ms. Horowitz suggested, might well prove to be more supportive.
A version of this article appears in print on July 24, 2016, on page BU7 of the New York edition with the headline: Descending the Corporate Ladder. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | We are conditioned to seek positions of more responsibility, which is why a request to step back and take a junior role may require careful framing. | 43.714286 | 0.785714 | 1.357143 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/27/06/39/this-is-war-lib-on-french-church-attack | http://web.archive.org/web/20160727132021id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/27/06/39/this-is-war-lib-on-french-church-attack | Priest attack shows 'agile' terrorists: PM | 20160727132021 | The slaying of a French priest by Islamic State supporters proves the federal government's controversial new anti-terror measures are necessary to protect the nation, Malcolm Turnbull insists.
Father Jacques Hamel, 85, had his throat slit by two Islamic State supporters in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
The prime minister says the "almost unspeakable" crime showed keeping the nation secure was a continuous effort in the face of agile terrorists.
Proposed new laws to apply control orders to children as young as 14 were "tragic" but necessary.
"The killer of Curtis Cheng was 15 years old," he told reporters in Cairns on Wednesday, referring to the shooting of the NSW police accountant last year.
"We've got to meet the tenor of our times.
"They move very fast and we have to move fast - and we do - to continue to stop them in their evil work."
Mr Turnbull will also work with state and territory leaders to ensure convicted terrorists who have not been rehabilitated in jail can be detained after the conclusion of their prison term - similar to laws that apply to sex offenders in some states.
Treasurer Scott Morrison said countries such as Australia and France needed to show their stoicism through tough anti-terror measures in the wake of the barbaric attack.
"It disturbs us all but it is intended to try and distract us and divide us from the things that we know will be effective in keeping Australians safe," he told Sky News.
Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly also weighed in, declaring "total war".
"When they violate the sanctity of a church, attacking and beheading an 85-year-old priest while he is celebrating mass - we will now realise that appeasement never works and this is total war," he wrote on Facebook.
The Australian National Imams Council released a statement denouncing the violent killing in the "strongest possible terms".
It said the sanctity of all human life, including religious leaders of all faiths, was of paramount importance in Islam.
"ISIS is an evil organisation that has hijacked the religion of Islam for its own brutal and nihilistic goals," Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed said.
Council president Sheikh Shady Alsuleiman said the brutality of ISIS should not create disunity.
"This is exactly what they aim to achieve, but we must stand firm in support of our united opposition to their violence." | A Liberal backbencher has reacted to the attack by Islamic State loyalists on a French church, in which they killed a priest. | 19.708333 | 0.833333 | 1.416667 | medium | medium | abstractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-scars-of-maos-cultural-revolution-1462294170 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160727160309id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/the-scars-of-maos-cultural-revolution-1462294170? | The Scars of Mao’s Cultural Revolution | 20160727160309 | This year marks the 50th anniversary of Mao Zedong’s launch of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, China’s 10-year political maelstrom in which millions of youths famously waved copies of his selected quotations. Beyond the Maoist chic, between 1.5 and 2 million Chinese were driven to suicide, beaten to death by mobs or executed.
As many as 20 million city dwellers were banished to the countryside. By 1976 around 200 million... | Peter Neville-Hadley reviews “The Cultural Revolution: A People’s History, 1962-1976” by Frank Dikötter. | 3.478261 | 0.347826 | 0.434783 | low | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/3637714/night-at-the-museum-3-movie-review/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160728035902id_/http://time.com:80/3637714/night-at-the-museum-3-movie-review/ | This Threequel Misses | 20160728035902 | M.C. Escher’s “Relativity,” the 1953 lithograph that plays with gravity and perspective, receives a delightful tweak in Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. Larry the night watchman (Ben Stiller) and his antique colleagues Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) and Sir Lancelot (Dan Stevens) tumble into and scramble through the sideways stairways of Escher’s surreal courtyard. The scene is a compact epiphany of physical, borderline-metaphysical comedy — nearly as funny and impressive as Andrew Lipson and Daniel Shiu’s LEGO version of “Relativity.” Pushing the trope further, the producers commissioned a clever elaboration that’s used as a poster for the movie. Congratulations to all involved!
Sorry, but this concludes any warm comments about the third episode in the Night at the Museum series, a kid-aimed fantasy franchise that imagines the stuffed or wax figures at New York’s American Museum of Natural History coming to life and cavorting each night. Director Shawn Levy extended the 2006 original with a 2009 sequel set in Washington’s Smithsonian Institution. Because the two films earned almost $1 billion at the global box office, simple corporate math demanded a third installment, this time with a trip to the British Museum. The world tour might have extend to the Louvre or the Hermitage in future sequels, but apparently this is it.
A good thing too, since Secret of the Tomb gives every evidence of franchise exhaustion. In the screenplay by David Guion and Michael Handelman, Larry and the gang travel to London to find out why the ancient Egyptian tablet that is the source of the museum figures’ revived lives has gone on the fritz. At the British Museum they encounter Lancelot, who has hard time adjusting to the 21st century and comes close to bolloxing Larry’s mission to save his old, old friends. The movie is content to reprise bits from the first two entries, and the few innovations — such as giving Larry a caveman double (also played by Stiller) — are rote, trite and feeble.
Did anyone have a good time making this movie? The actors seem to be reading their lines at gunpoint, in an enterprise whose mood is less summer camp than internment camp. Such exemplary comic spirits as Ricky Gervais (the AMNH’s director), Steve Coogan (the Roman soldier Octavius) and Owen Wilson (the antique cowboy Jedediah) have the look of abandonment, as if hoping that some prompter from the sides will whisper a line more deliverable than what the script has told them to say. “Get me a rewrite!” say these faces, frozen in a rictus of embarrassment.
Mickey Rooney, who died in April at 93, makes a brief appearance here in a wheelchair. Williams, in the last on-screen role he completed before his death this Aug., seems unusually muted, but he simply could have been interpreting the character as written. (The movie is dedicated to these two comedy immortals.) The only performers who suggest they’re enjoying themselves are Dick Van Dyke, in a spry cameo as a Natural History night watchman emeritus, and Crystal the Monkey, a scene-swiping Capuchin whose capers include peeing on the tiny figures of Octavius and Jedediah, during a Pompeii lava scene, and planting big smooches on every human in sight.
I could go on, but making jokes about failed movies is not my favorite part of this job. Besides, you already get the idea. Some day soon, the “Relativity” scene will be on YouTube. See that part of Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb and skip the rest. | Nothing comes to life in this rote, trite finale to the kid-friendly fantasy franchise | 40.647059 | 0.823529 | 1.647059 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/26/home-run-for-little-papi/JgQpoVPzt1C6IB5p0yPbOP/story.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160728132736id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/07/26/home-run-for-little-papi/JgQpoVPzt1C6IB5p0yPbOP/story.html | It’s a home run for Little Papi | 20160728132736 | After having several bad teeth removed last year, a 10-year-old bulldog from South Boston had a hole in the roof of his mouth that just wouldn’t heal. After three unsuccessful surgeries and no other options, an innovative tissue glue was used to heal the wound.
Now, Little Papi, named after the Boston Red Sox slugger David “Big Papi” Ortiz, is playing and going in Wednesday for a checkup.
The decision to cross the line between human and animal care was made when the wound from Papi’s oronasal fistula would not close. William Rosenblad, Papi’s dental surgeon at MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center, reached out to Jeffrey Karp, a PhD bioengineer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and his team.
The two met at a conference last spring at the New England Aquarium where Karp was giving a talk about his tissue adhesives. Karp never imagined his bioglue would be used for pets, but Rosenblad saw the potential.
“It’s nice to get published papers in academic journals, but to actually make a difference is what we all strive for, and this has really been a remarkable opportunity,” said Karp.
The tissue adhesive is made of chains of molecules that already exist in the body. The glue has a honey-like consistency and after it is applied, an ultraviolet light bonds the chains together. It hardens but maintains its elasticity, like a rubber band.
Cells grow over the adhesive to create more tissue, and when the glue naturally dissolves in the body, patients are left with their own tissue covering the wound.
Rosenblad cleaned the wound, applied the glue, and covered the hole with tissue in the mouth to seal it. He said it was a detailed procedure, but that Papi went home that afternoon. When the bulldog went in for his two week checkup, his surgeon and owner, John Shanahan, got emotional.
“I feel very fortunate because there was nothing else they could do,” said Shanahan. “When [Rosenblad] mentioned that he knew someone with an adhesive in a trial phase, I thought, I have no other choice. My dog has a hole in his mouth where an infection could have taken over and killed him.”
Karp has been working on several tissue adhesives in his lab for the past 10 years. These glues can go on the skin, inside the heart, and on blood vessels. Oronasal fistulas are common in cats and dogs, but it is also a common complication from cleft palate surgery. Karp cofounded a company called Gecko Biomedical and will be testing his tissue glue on people later this year for vascular reconstruction.
“I used to say that one of my major goals was to translate technology to patients,” said Karp. “I now expanded that goal to include not just humans, but also animals.” | Health professionals from Angell Animal Medical Center and Brigham and Women’s Hospital team up to help heal a 10-year-old bulldog. | 23.041667 | 0.833333 | 3 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/27/11/01/asylum-seekers-not-denied-fairness | http://web.archive.org/web/20160728150150id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/27/11/01/asylum-seekers-not-denied-fairness | Asylum seekers not denied fairness | 20160728150150 | The High Court has ruled two asylum seekers weren't denied procedural fairness after the immigration department inadvertently disclosed their personal information on its website, along with that of more than 9000 others.
The two asylum seekers, identified only as SZSSJ, a Bangladeshi who arrived in 2005 on a student visa, and SZTZI, a Chinese national who arrived in 2013, both had applications for protection rejected.
High Court judges unanimously ruled they weren't treated unfairly as officials considering their cases were instructed to assume their personal information may have been accessed in countries where they feared persecution. | The High Court has ruled two asylum seekers weren't treated unfairly after the immigration department incorrectly disclosed personal information on its website. | 4.541667 | 0.958333 | 6.125 | low | high | mixed |
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/harry-reid-ready-yell-and-scream-about-vp-selection-process | http://web.archive.org/web/20160728213200id_/http://www.msnbc.com:80/rachel-maddow-show/harry-reid-ready-yell-and-scream-about-vp-selection-process?cid=eml_mra_20160524 | Harry Reid ready to 'yell and scream' about VP selection process | 20160728213200 | “If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no. I would do whatever I can, and I think most of my Democratic colleagues here would say the same thing,” Reid told MSNBC’s “AM Joy” when asked about the possibility of Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) or Sherrod Brown (Ohio) being named Clinton’s No. 2.
Reid added that he would “yell and scream to stop that.”
It’s easy to understand the motivation behind Reid’s concerns. Democrats need to earn a net gain of five Senate seats this year to reclaim the majority, and that’s no easy task. If Clinton chooses a senator from a state with a Republican governor, it may make the party’s task that much more difficult.
And given some of the likely VP contenders, this is more than just a thought experiment. Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, and Cory Booker would each bring quite a bit to a national ticket, but each of them represent states with a Republican governor, who would gladly appoint a Republican successor if any of them were promoted.
And given the amount of important legislating that can – and often does – happen in the first part of a new president’s first year, that’s a valuable chunk of calendar.
I’ve seen some suggestions that Warren, in particular, could pursue an alternate strategy: if Clinton invited her onto the national Democratic ticket, the Massachusetts senator could immediately resign her seat, sparking a special election that could elect her successor far more quickly. By Inauguration Day 2017, Warren’s replacement would already be in office, elected by progressive Bay State voters, instead of being appointed by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R).
But this strategy carries plenty of risks of its own. For one thing, there’s hardly a guarantee the state would elect a Democrat in the special election (see Brown, Scott). For another, if Americans decide they want a President Trump in the White House, Elizabeth Warren would suddenly find herself out of office altogether.
To be sure, much of this is premature, but it’s a dynamic worth keeping an eye on. When the Clinton campaign weighs its options, don’t be surprised if this wrinkle helps push some Democrats in or out of contention. | "If we have a Republican governor in any of those states, the answer is not only no, but hell no," Reid said about senator being considered for the Dems' ticket | 12.694444 | 0.833333 | 13.666667 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/13/science/13make.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729053342id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2008/05/13/science/13make.html? | The New York Times | 20160729053342 | SAN MATEO, Calif. — The muffins are rolling.
The muffin cars, electric-powered vehicles built to resemble cupcakes, scoot around the open spaces of the San Mateo Event Center & Expo, a sprawling fairground about 20 miles south of San Francisco and, on this day, a million miles from normal.
Just inside the gates of the third annual Maker Faire, a converted fire engine belches an occasional explosive flare that sends a chest-pounding Pfoomp! throughout the fairground, startling bystanders over and over again. That contraption was made by folks from the Crucible, an industrial arts studio based in Oakland where people can take lessons in welding, blacksmithing and many, many other ways to play with heat and flame.
Nearby is the Swarm, a set of 30-inch cut-aluminum orbs that roll around on the grass, self-powered but guided by remote control. Children are playing keep-away with them.
But they are definitely not playing tag with Justin Gray’s fire sculptures around the corner. It could have something to do with the fact that they look like menacing tanks on clanking treads. Or it could be the way Robot Libby, the one that emits a horrifying turbine whine from a metallic ball bobbing on a heavy iron chain, spits gouts of multicolored flame. (As Mr. Gray manipulates the remote control, the machine mixes powders into the flame to change its color: strontium for red, copper for bluish green, steel powder for a fireworks effect.) Each burst sends a heat wave that rocks the onlookers back a step or two.
At first blush, then, this festival, sponsored by Make magazine, is a gathering place of pyromaniacs and noise junkies, the multiply pierced and the extensively tattooed. But wander awhile, and the showy surface gives way to a wondrous thing: the gathering of folks from all walks of life who blend science, technology, craft and art to make things both goofy and grand. (See images from the fair and listen to audio interviews with some participants.)
“We are grabbing technology, ripping the back off of it and reaching our hands in where we are not supposed to be,” says Shannon O’Hare, who has brought his three-story Victorian mansion on wheels, one of the most prominent examples of the anachronistic style known as steampunk, to the Faire. He is holding forth in a vintage British military uniform and pith helmet, and is gesturing with a hand that holds a sloshing tankard of ale.
“We’ve been told by corporate America that we cannot fix the things we own,” says Mr. O’Hare, who goes by Major Catastrophe and works as a fabricator for the stage and businesses. “All we can do is buy their stuff and like it.” Cars have become too complex to work on under a shade tree, and people have no idea what is inside their cellphones and cameras. “All this technology, and it’s not ours. It’s somebody else’s,” Mr. O’Hare says. “ Make is about taking that back off and making it yours.”
The makers, as they call themselves, are a varied bunch. Cris Benton, the former chairman of the architecture department at the University of California, Berkeley, stood at the Faire, patiently explaining how he and his like-minded friends take aerial photographs by hoisting cameras on kites, a cunning combination of high tech and old crafts.
In the darkened building next door, Terry Schalk, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, fires up an enormous, arc-throwing Tesla coil in hopes of getting youngsters more interested in science.
“This is a real geek fest,” says Professor Schalk, a high-energy physicist in both senses of the phrase.
“If I was a kid, I’d wet my pants here,” he joked.
Some 65,000 people came to see the sprawling display of inventiveness and potentially hazardous fun. Many of them read Make magazine and its sister publication, Craft, and go to Web sites like Instructables.com that encourage people to take on projects and share what they learn. (Recent online projects have shown people how to convert a novelty French-fry telephone into a carrying case for an iPod; how to make a computer-powered coffee warmer from an old Intel Pentium chip plugged into a P.C.’s U.S.B. port; and how parents and children can build a small vibrating robot together.)
Armchair MacGyvers visit Web sites like BoingBoing.net that lovingly chronicle the more audacious projects here and at events like the anarchic Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. These overlapping, even incestuous, communities form the “maker movement” of do-it-yourself enlightenment. In an age where just about every human activity, from shopping to sex, can be performed in the virtual world, they choose to get their hands dirty.
This is part of the Bay Area’s high-tech, adamantly nonconformist culture, steeped in engineering and art and innovation in garages that incubate billionaires and crowded with guys who make late-night runs to the pharmacy for bandages and burn cream. But it is not just a California thing. Make has fans around the world, with a paid circulation of 100,000; its Web site gets 2.5 million visitors each month. The publisher has started a second Faire in Austin, Tex., with hopes of further expansion.
The founders of the magazine and the Faire are tugging on a thread that makes its way across America’s gearhead culture, zigzagging back through the Homebrew Computer Club, which helped produce the first personal computers, and Roy Doty’s how-to cartoons in Popular Mechanics magazine. But it goes farther still, back to those two bicycle mechanics, Orville and Wilbur Wright, and even back to those tinkerers Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, whose hand-designed folding chairs are an elegant marvel.
What the makers are doing, then — mixing and matching technologies and hacking and tinkering — is encoded within the nation’s DNA.
“It’s deeply American,” said Xeni Jardin, an editor of BoingBoing. As for the family-friendly setting, she said, “It’s like Burning Man without all the icky hippie elements, without the pants-free guy on a bike.”
Edward Tenner, an author of works on the ways that technology affects society, said tinkering had waxed and waned but never disappeared in American culture. A great deal of mechanical know-how, he said, came from people raised on farms, where they had to fix their own equipment. But these days, he said, “this improvisation is starting to flourish in a mainly suburban and perhaps urban milieu.”
As important as tinkering has been to the nation’s past, it could become a much bigger deal before long, said David Pescovitz, a research director at the Institute for the Future, a consultancy in Silicon Valley. A new report from the institute argues that the makers could force enormous changes in the ways that goods and services are designed and manufactured. The renewed urge to tinker, along with flexible manufacturing technologies, could shift production from big companies and stores to communities of makers and consumers, Mr. Pescovitz said. | A new breed of tinkerers mix science and craft to make things both goofy and grand. | 82.176471 | 0.882353 | 4.294118 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/fashion/weddings/27Starzec.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729053614id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2009/09/27/fashion/weddings/27Starzec.html? | Marci Starzec, Brian Whalen | 20160729053614 | Marci Ann Starzec and Brian Patrick Whalen were married Saturday by Msgr. Michael Wilson at St. Mary of the Mills Parish, a Roman Catholic church in Laurel, Md.
The bride, 33, works in Manhattan as a producer for “Lou Dobbs Tonight” on CNN. She graduated from the University of Georgia. She is a daughter of Maryanne L. Starzec and John J. Starzec of Laurel.
The bridegroom, 30, is a doorman for a residential building in Tudor City in Manhattan. He graduated from LeMoyne College in Syracuse. He is the son of Kathleen M. Whalen and Cornelius P. Whalen of Yonkers.
The couple met in 2001 when Mr. Whalen began working as a doorman at the Tudor City building in which Ms. Starzec then lived. She was giving a Christmas party in what she described as her “teeny, little” rental apartment, about five or six feet from the front desk. In the holiday spirit she brought Mr. Whalen some holiday snacks a couple of times that night.
“He was a really nice guy, and very friendly,” Ms. Starzec said. That was the extent of her interest in him — until Ash Wednesday in 2003.
“I had gotten ashes that day, and he was working the door,” she said. “He had ashes on his forehead, too. I stopped for a second. Oh, O.K., we had something in common.”
But it also dawned on her, she said: “Whoa, wait a minute. This guy is cute.”
As soon as she got into her apartment, she phoned her best friend, telling her, “I just had a moment with my doorman,” Ms. Starzec recalled.
Mr. Whalen, who observed the comings and goings of tenants all day, simply noted the ashes on her forehead.
“So she’s Catholic also,” he recalled thinking, and nothing else.
Gradually over the next year, Ms. Starzec began spending more time at Mr. Whalen’s desk — sometimes until 2 a.m. Eventually, she invited Mr. Whalen into her apartment after work, but he kept his distance at first and stayed only a few minutes before heading home to the Bronx.
“I tried to keep it professional,” Mr. Whalen said. A few months later he discreetly gave romance a chance.
He said: "How many opportunities do you get to be with someone you might like?”
On Sept. 3, 2004, they had their first kiss in her apartment, and a few days after that he picked her up for their first date. He waited for her down the block trying to keep the relationship a secret from other tenants. They then went down to watch a University of Georgia football game at a TriBeCa bar with members of Ms. Starzec’s alumni group.
“We always joked about going out incognito,” Mr. Whalen said.
Their intrigue continued as Ms. Starzec began a Wednesday evening tradition of cooking dinner for Mr. Whalen, and brought it to his desk when he gave the signal that the coast was clear.
“I’d make dinner and buzz him,” she said. “Then he would buzz me.”
When her lease came up for renewal in fall 2006, they decided to get an apartment together on the Upper East Side.
But when it came to proposing marriage, Mr. Whalen could think of no better setting than in the little park directly across the street from the building where they met (and he still works). Last November he got down on one knee as a small group of co-workers and tenants looked on.
A version of this article appears in print on September 27, 2009, on page ST19 of the New York edition with the headline: Marci Starzec, Brian Whalen. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | Marci Ann Starzec and Brian Patrick Whalen were married Saturday by Msgr. Michael Wilson at St. Mary of the Mills Parish, a Roman Catholic church in Laurel, Md. | 23.870968 | 1 | 31 | medium | high | extractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/faster-graduation-leaves-schools-grappling-with-new-enrollment-patterns-1469490286 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729094523id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/faster-graduation-leaves-schools-grappling-with-new-enrollment-patterns-1469490286 | Faster Graduation Leaves Schools Grappling With New Enrollment Patterns | 20160729094523 | School administrators are grappling with fundamental math problems as they nudge students toward a speedier graduation.
With more students finishing in less than a half-dozen years, schools must add sections of upper-level courses, admit fewer transfer students to replace dropouts, and expand their freshman classes to make up for the absence of... | With more students finishing in less than a half-dozen years, colleges must add sections of upper-level courses, admit fewer transfer students to replace dropouts, and expand freshman classes to make up for the absence of “super-seniors” lingering in classrooms. | 1.215686 | 0.862745 | 12.039216 | low | medium | extractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/property/pictures/9254569/The-best-eco-friendly-homes.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729170426id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/finance/property/pictures/9254569/The-best-eco-friendly-homes.html | The best eco-friendly homes | 20160729170426 | Agent: Winkworth, 01892 519600; winkworth.co.uk
You name it, this house has it: an air-source heat pump, a rainwater harvester, central-vacuuming system, triple-glazing and motion-sensitive lighting system. It also features underfloor heating and self-closing loos. The five bedrooms are arranged over three storeys. The property comes with about 11 acres of grounds and gardens. | Property sleuth Graham Norwood hops in his hybrid car and travels the country to find eco-friendly homes. | 3.619048 | 0.238095 | 0.238095 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/5109310/Womens-refuges-told-to-help-male-domestic-violence-victims-or-lose-their-funding.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729181125id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/uknews/5109310/Womens-refuges-told-to-help-male-domestic-violence-victims-or-lose-their-funding.html | Women's refuges told to help male domestic violence victims or lose their funding | 20160729181125 | Nicola Harwin, chief executive of Women's Aid, which counts the Prime Minister's wife Sarah Brown among its patrons, said the charity is still allowed to exclude men from refuges.
However, when council contracts came up for tender, many branches are being told that they must provide services such as advice and counselling to men or lose their funding.
Miss Harwin said: "Women do appreciate being engaged in women-only organisations. When you have been disempowered and had no control of your life it's important for a lot of women to see that this is an organisation run by women for women."
The new Gender Equality Duty, created under The Equality Act 2006, requires that 'public bodies must promote and take action to bring about gender equality, which involves: looking at issues for men and women'.
However, a spokesman for the Government Equalities Office said some councils were being overzealous about the duty, adding: "This cannot be an excuse for cutting services. This interpretation of the duty is law." | Women's refuges have been warned that they must offer help to male victims of domestic abuse, or face losing their funding. | 8.458333 | 0.625 | 1.291667 | low | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/2016/07/26/softbank-apple-facebook-arm/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729192228id_/http://fortune.com:80/2016/07/26/softbank-apple-facebook-arm/ | SoftBank's CEO Says He's Ready to Take on Google and Facebook | 20160729192228 | It wasn’t quite John Lennon’s comment that the Beatles were “more popular than Jesus,” but SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son seems pretty confident that his company will soon have the same size and importance as several religion-sized tech firms.
In an interview published Tuesday in The Times (London), the 58-year-old Son said that the huge investments SoftBank will make in the British chip design giant ARM Holdings armhf —which he agreed to purchase for $32 billion last week—would allow it to compete with the likes of Facebook fb , Google googl , Apple aapl , and Amazon amzn .
According to Son, ARM’s chip designs, which already power more than 95% of the smartphones out there, will allow it to become one of the planet’s biggest tech companies as the “Internet of Things” (IoT) explodes over the next several years. SoftBank has said that it plans to at least double ARM’s U.K. headcount over the next five years.
While Son did not give a timeline as to when ARM would be fighting with tech’s biggest-of-the-big, he showed no doubt that it could.
“I’ve helped Alibaba [get] to that kind of scale,” he told The Times. “I have a feeling that ARM has a right to be that kind of scale.”
Son also addressed Brexit and suggestions that he’d bought ARM when he did because the drop in the value of the pound had made it cheaper.
“I did not calculate the political change,” he told The Times. “I’m looking at the technological shift. I was looking at Arm for ten years. For me, the more important factor was, ‘when do I have enough cash?’”
While the pound lost value after the Brexit vote, he noted, ARM’s stock price rose, removing any currency advantage.
And, he added, he did not worry too much about the long-term future of Britain. “I’m still committed to the success of the U.K. and the belief of the strong intelligence and passion and determination of the British people,” he said. “I’m a strong believer of their long-term historical success.”
Fortune has reached out to SoftBank for additional comment and will update the story with a reply. | He's ready to join the major leagues. | 50.222222 | 0.444444 | 0.444444 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/07/wiranto-named-indonesia-top-security-minister-160727055302066.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160729230655id_/http://www.aljazeera.com:80/news/2016/07/wiranto-named-indonesia-top-security-minister-160727055302066.html | Wiranto named Indonesia's top security minister | 20160729230655 | Indonesia's president has appointed a controversial former military chief, Wiranto, as the country's top security minister.
Wednesday's cabinet shake-up is President Joko Widodo's attempt at strengthening the Southeast Asian country's struggling economy.
General Wiranto had been accused of committing atrocities during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor.
He was in charge of the military when the Indonesian army and paramilitaries carried out deadly assaults after East Timor sought independence from Indonesia in 1999.
About 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, mainly by Indonesian forces and their proxies, or died of starvation and illness during the occupation.
Wiranto was among other senior officers indicted by UN prosecutors over human rights abuses during the 24-year occupation period.
Despite evidence gathered proving his role in the killings of 1999, Wiranto denies any wrongdoing and has never faced court over the atrocities.
Wiranto will be overseeing five ministries including foreign, interior and defence.
READ MORE: Indonesia rejects ruling on 1960s mass killingÂ
Activists called this recent cabinet reshuffle a step backwards for human rights.
"It is a setback," Andreas Harsono, Indonesia researcher for the Human Rights Watch organisation, told AFP news agency.
"The message might be that Jokowi is not going to be as progressive as before in pursuing his human rights agenda."
Wiranto replaces Luhut Panjaitan as chief security minister.
Observers suggest that the military elite and religious groups were concerned when Panjaitan began taking unprecedented steps to probe a 1960s purge of communists and their supporters.
This cabinet shake-up is Joko's attempt at boosting efforts to strengthen the country's struggling economy.
READ MORE: After the massacre - Indonesia's first step in healing
He said there are "difficult challenges" facing the government, including tackling poverty, reviving the slowing economy and reducing unemployment.
"Those challenges require us to work faster," he said.
Among the newly appointed members is Sri Mulyani Indrawati, currently the World Bank managing director, who has been named the new finance minister.
She previously held the post in 2005-10.
Report: Indonesian state 'responsible for genocide' in 1965 | Wiranto, implicated by UN in atrocities in East Timor during occupation and 1999 separation, to oversee five ministries. | 19.952381 | 0.857143 | 1.238095 | medium | medium | abstractive |
http://time.com/4048450/donald-trump-south-park/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730003741id_/http://time.com:80/4048450/donald-trump-south-park/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+(TIME%3A+Top+Stories) | 'South Park' Depicts Rape and Murder of Donald Trump | 20160730003741 | During Wednesday’s episode of South Park, the show took on Donald Trump and ended with a cartoon version of the Republican presidential candidate frontrunner being raped and murdered by Mr. Garrison.
Titled “Where My Country Gone?,” the episode focused on Mr. Garrison’s increasing anger at Canadian immigrants. “We should have put up a goddamn wall,” he says at the beginning of the episode. The teacher is later fired from his job at South Park elementary school for his extreme views, and then provides his policy on immigration: “F— them all to death.”
“I’m just saying what everyone is thinking here, kids. Sorry, not sorry,” Mr. Garrison tells his students.
As Mr. Garrison’s outlandish statements gain traction, he’s given a bigger platform. “F— them all to death. Let’s make this country great again,” Mr. Garrison says about Canadian immigrants, a clear reference to Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
Read the rest of the story at EW.com | Mr. Garrison is at the center of it all | 22.444444 | 0.777778 | 1.222222 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/money/3919879/money-quiz-irrational/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730014008id_/http://time.com:80/money/3919879/money-quiz-irrational/ | Are You Irrational About Money? | 20160730014008 | From time to time we bring you posts from our partners that may not be new but contain advice that bears repeating. Look for these classics on the weekends.
Some things are seemingly impossible to explain. I mean, how do spiders know how to spin such beautiful webs? What ever inspired the construction of Stonehenge? And why is Taylor Swift so darn popular?
One particularly perplexing question that scientists have been diligently working to reveal is the reason why people make weird decisions about money.
As Michael Shermer explains in the Los Angeles Times, there have been countless experiments in behavioral economics that demonstrate when it comes to money, reason and rationality are often trumped by our emotions and feelings.
Shermer highlights three behavioral experiments that are used by scientists to measure people’s rationality with respect to money that I found to be really interesting — and so I want to share them with you.
Here are the scenarios. What decisions would you make for each of them?
1. Assuming that prices of goods and services stay the same, would you rather earn:
A. $50,000 a year while other people make $25,000 B. $100,000 a year while other people get $250,000
Did you pick option A? Although that is completely irrational, research shows that the majority of people would rather make twice as much as others — even if that meant earning half as much as they could otherwise have.
Okay, let’s see how you would handle the next scenario:
2. Nancy and Karen are standing in line at different movie theaters. Who would you rather be?
Nancy: She gets to the ticket window and is told that as the 100,000th customer of the theater she has just won $100. Karen: She gets to the window and wins a consolation prize of $150 after the man in front of her won $1,000 for being the one-millionth customer of the theater.
Would you rather be in Karen’s shoes? That’s what a person thinking rationally would choose but, once again, the rational thinkers were in the minority. Yep. The majority would rather forgo $50 in order to alleviate the feeling of regret that comes with not winning $1000!
Here’s one last scenario based on something called “The Ultimatum Game:”
3. I was given $100 by a friend of mine to split between me and you. Here’s the catch: Whatever division of the money I propose, if you accept it, we’ll both get to keep our share. If, however, you reject my proposal, neither of us will get any money. I’m proposing a 90/10 split; of course, I’d get $90 and you’d get $10. Do you accept or reject my proposal?
Think about it for a second. If you’re rational you’re going to accept my offer, pocket the $10, and feel good that you just got something for nothing. But research shows that offers of less than $30 are usually rejected. Behavioral scientists say this is because an emotion evolved in man known as “reciprocal altruism” demands fairness on the part of our potential exchange partners.
Amazingly enough, this moral sense of fairness is not only hard-wired into the brains of most humans, but primates as well.
So … How did you do? Are you rational or irrational when it comes to money?
More From Len Penzo dot COM: | Rationality is often trumped by emotion. | 95.714286 | 1 | 1.857143 | high | high | mixed |
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/02/2015-election-all-to-play-for-jon-cruddas | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730023451id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/politics/2014/jul/02/2015-election-all-to-play-for-jon-cruddas | 2015 election is all to play for, says Labour policy review chief Jon Cruddas | 20160730023451 | The Labour party is behind on competence and ahead on vision, and no political party yet owns the future, Jon Cruddas, Labour's policy review co-ordinator, said in his first public assessment of the state of politics since a tape was revealed in which he denounced "the dead hand" of the Labour leader's office on policy development.
He said the result of the next election was all to play for, adding "the unpredictability of it means it is going to be quite lively".
But stressing the need for a coherent story, as well as policies, he said: "Labour has only won three times in 1945, 1964, and 1997 and each time it only won when it contests the national story."
Cruddas was speaking at the Royal Society of Arts, where the RSA chairman Matthew Taylor ruled out what he described as "journalistic questions" to Cruddas from the audience.
Despite the recent leak expressing his frustration with the Labour leader's office, Cruddas said: "I am more optimistic than I have been for a very long time about Labour coming up with a model, using opposition properly to say what it is for." He said the "policies due to be unveiled will cumulatively be a big story of national transformation – big change without big money".
Describing previous successful Labour election campaigns, he said: "In 1945 it was homes for heroes, as opposed to the 1930s mass unemployment and appeasement. In 1964 it was the scientific and technical challenges facing the country with Harold Wilson fighting Sir Alec Douglas Home running around his grouse moor. In 1997 it was about economic and social modernisation with Tony Blair versus drift and decline.
"Labour successfully charted that national story of hope versus decline. That is what we have to do. Self-evidently, Labour has only won when it offers hope against decline and that is what it has to do now. It has to forge a future story."
He described the party policy forum on 18-20 July as the point at which the first draft of the manifesto programme will be agreed, adding "hopefully it will re-establish the sentiment around what Labour is for in a very cold climate economically".
The bulk of his speech was a warning about the extent to which technology was creating two possible futures, one in which lives and living standards become hollowed out and another that was potentially liberating and creative.
He said: "Digital technology is unseating whole industries and workforces, and production is becoming more networked and disorganised. Our class system is being reconstructed. The disruption of technological change is greater than at any time since the industrial revolution. The institutions and solidarities workers created to defend themselves against the power of capital have disappeared or become outdated and ineffective.
"As such, social democracy has lost its social anchorage in the coalitions built up around the skilled working class. Once-great ruling parties can appear hollowed out, in danger of shrinking into a professionalized political class".
He added: "Those who makes decisions on our behalf, whether they be in Westminster, Brussels, in business, the media or working in the public sector, are too often unaccountable. People feel powerless to contribute and make their voices heard".
Digital technology he said will mean in future government is about networks, not hierarchies, or pulling Whitehall levers.
Drawing on the party's traditions he said: "Before we became a party of the state we were a movement developing leadership, organising people and creating power. He said the party needed to confront the future through those traditions, and try to create an inclusive society, politics and economy. | Cruddas says Labour needs to offer 'hope against decline' in his first public speech since 'dead hand' controversy | 32.409091 | 0.636364 | 1.545455 | medium | low | mixed |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123621360683535103 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730030929id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB123621360683535103 | Democrats Redefine Earmarks for the $787 Billion Stimulus Bill | 20160730030929 | Updated March 5, 2009 12:01 a.m. ET
In theory and publicity, the new $787 billion stimulus bill contains no earmarks, not even a single one. And that's true -- at least according to the new Democratic definition of "earmark."
Not so long ago -- before President Obama's inauguration -- "earmarks" referred to the special appropriations that bypass the normal budget process to cater to special interests and protect the incumbents who inserted them. The difference now is that the politicians have gotten much better at disguising their handiwork. Under the cover of emergency spending, the projects have also grown much larger.
Take the $2 billion originally devoted to "one or more near zero emissions power plant(s)." No recipient was named, but that parenthetical is a wry touch, given that only the FutureGen project in Mattoon, Illinois meets the criteria. This demonstration plant for carbon capture and sequestration technology, or "clean coal," originally came out of Dick Cheney's 2001 energy task force. The idea is to trap carbon emissions, compress them into liquid and then inject it underneath the earth. But years of nonprogress earned it the nickname "NeverGen," and the Department of Energy scotched its role in the $1.8 billion -- and counting -- experiment last year after costs doubled.
After the Bush DOE pulled out, the Illinois Congressional delegation went to the barricades, including Mr. Obama when he was a Senator and Rahm Emanuel when he was in the House. Chicagoan Dick Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and FutureGen's best political friend, made sure the final stimulus included $1 billion for the project. That $1 billion, by the way, is about one-eighteenth of all earmarks in 2008.
Or consider the last-minute changes that added $8 billion in out-of-nowhere appropriations for high-speed rail projects. Republicans tagged this as an "earmark" for a 311-mph magnetic-levitation train link between Las Vegas and Disneyland in Anaheim -- a project long favored by Majority Leader Harry Reid. Strictly speaking, this wasn't true. The $8 billion will be divvied up on a "competitive basis," with the L.A.-Vegas route potentially eligible for some portion.
But perhaps the GOP can be forgiven, since when nothing is an earmark, everything is. The "competitive basis" in Congress does not resemble competition elsewhere, and we are now supposed to believe that one of the most powerful men in Washington will not lean on his friends in the Obama Administration to benefit his business friends. That's the logic of earmarks, even if they're called something else.
"Many of these projects are worthy and benefit local communities," Mr. Obama said in a speech last month touting his stimulus plan. "But this emergency legislation must not be the vehicle for those aspirations. This must be a time when leaders in both parties put the urgent needs of our nation above our own narrow interests." Yes, we realize that we're talking about rounding errors when Congress is spending nearly a trillion taxpayer dollars, but what actually happened is that some of the most influential members of Congress took a stirring and courageous stand on behalf of . . . corporate welfare.
Speaking of earmarks, they've quickly made a comeback even by the old definition. The $410 billion omnibus spending bill for fiscal 2009 now making its way through Congress contains at least 8,570 of them at a cost of $7.7 billion. Mr. Obama is not signaling any concern, much less a veto.
Please add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum. | Defining spending deviancy down. | 139.6 | 0.4 | 0.4 | high | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/money/4349073/snapchat-funding-20-billion/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730034133id_/http://time.com:80/money/4349073/snapchat-funding-20-billion/ | This Tech Company Just Raised $1.8 Billion | 20160730034133 | Teenagers sending selfies to one another, it turns out, could be worth as much as $20 billion.
Image messaging app Snapchat has raised $1.8 billion in its latest Series F round, TechCrunch reported. Of that figure, the company raised $1.158 billion alone since January, according to SEC filings. Investors in this round of funding include General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital, T. Rowe Price and Fidelity, among others.
The Los Angeles-based tech company brought in about $59 million in revenue in 2015. But it’s recently stepped up its funding efforts and updated its business model. TechCrunch estimated that Some sources estimate that the tech company could be worth $20 billion after the latest investments. Last year, the company, then valued at $16 billion, raised $650 million, with Fidelity—also an investor in this round—contributing $175 million.
The company, which reportedly raises money on a rolling basis, plans to put the new funding to good use. It’s expected to pull in between $250 and $300 million in revenue for 2016 — more than 4 times what it made in 2015 — and between $500 million or as much as $1 billion in 2017. Those projections might be overly optimistic: They were generated before the company ramped up revenue generation through advertising and Discovers, which comes at a premium for brands.
Still, Snapchat has seen tremendous user growth recently. It had 110 million daily active users as of December 2015, representing nearly 50% growth from 74 million the previous year. Additionally, video views on the app have grown by more than 350% in the last year, now up to more than 10 billion in a day. The app also estimates that more than two-thirds of people who use Snapchat create content on a daily basis.
In order to keep users interested in the product, the company has also unveiled new features like swapping faces with one another, attaching an emoji to a moving object in a video, and upgrading its Chat experience. As it seeks to expand beyond younger users, Snapchat is also developing content for the platform in partnership with other producers like Stories, as well as its own takes on ads. | And plans to bring in 4 times more revenue this year than in 2015. | 28.6 | 0.933333 | 1.6 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://time.com/4054441/edward-snowden-twitter/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730042013id_/http://time.com:80/4054441/edward-snowden-twitter/ | Edward Snowden Joins Twitter | 20160730042013 | Whistleblower Edward Snowden joined Twitter Tuesday with the handle @Snowden and a profile that reads “I used to work for the government. Now I work for the public. Director at @FreedomofPress.”
He is only following one other account: the National Security Agency (@NSAGov) — which is hilarious, given he is famous for leaking documents that revealed the reach of the NSA’s surveillance program.
Most of his tweets so far have been in conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City:
Ed @Snowden, If you visit Mars, I'd bet any life forms there will greet you with a sip of that water — and a tourist visa.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) September 29, 2015
And of course Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who broke Snowden’s story, welcomed the computer whiz:
And here are some of the other welcomes Snowden has gotten so far:
Read next: Edward Snowden: 2013 Person of the Year Runner-Up | The best Tweets from high-profile figures | 25.375 | 0.5 | 0.5 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/11/david-cameron-european-union-referendum | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730075503id_/http://www.theguardian.com:80/politics/2015/may/11/david-cameron-european-union-referendum | David Cameron may bring EU referendum forward to 2016 | 20160730075503 | David Cameron is drawing up plans to bring forward an in/out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union by a year to 2016 in order to avoid a politically dangerous clash with the French and German elections in 2017.
The mood now is definitely to accelerate the process and give us the option of holding the referendum in 2016
As the prime minister declared that he had a mandate from the electorate to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s membership, government sources said Downing Street was keen to move quickly on the timing of the referendum.
“The mood now is definitely to accelerate the process and give us the option of holding the referendum in 2016,” one source said. “We had always said that 2017 was a deadline rather than a fixed date.”
George Osborne, the chancellor, will meet other European finance ministers at a summit in Brussels on Tuesday. The issue of Britain’s membership of the EU is not on the official agenda, but it is expected to be raised informally.
A parliamentary bill to approve the referendum will be included in the Queen’s speech on 27 May. The bill will be formally tabled in the House of Commons shortly afterwards to ensure that the prime minister has the option of holding the referendum next year.
Government sources say there are key factors that could accelerate the momentum towards a 2016 referendum. The early introduction of the bill – and the Tories’ surprise parliamentary majority – will mean that it could enter the statute book by the end of this year if it is given a reasonably easy ride in the House of Lords.
Related: Sajid Javid will face industry pressure on EU referendum and airport growth
If peers break with the Salisbury convention, which says that the upper house should not delay measures in the winning party’s election manifesto, then the government would have to force the bill through using the Parliament Act. This would take place a year after the bill’s second reading in the Commons which means the prime minister could override the Lords in June 2016. This means the referendum could be held in July or after the summer break in September 2016.
Cameron is likely to signal his determination to press ahead with the EU negotiations by reappointing the Europe minister, David Lidington, who is the longest-serving holder of the post after being appointed in 2010.
Another factor pointing to an early referendum, according to government sources, is a change in calculations in Brussels and in some key EU capitals after the prime minister’s surprise election win.
One source said: “It was made pretty clear that the European council [the grouping of the EU’s 28 leaders] would not engage seriously until the election result was clear. Now they know they have to deal with us and they want the UK to stay in the EU. We expect the negotiations to take place in 2015 and 2016 so they finish well ahead of the French presidential elections [in the spring of 2017] and the German federal elections [in September 2017].”
The newly installed government expects that the negotiations would lead to a legally binding protocol encompassing the UK’s demands. But EU leaders have said they would only revise the Lisbon treaty if Britain voted yes in the referendum.
Related: David Cameron unveils first Tory-only cabinet in 18 years
Government sources took heart from an intervention by José Manuel Barroso, the former president of the European commission, who said the prime minister had a greater chance of success after enhancing his authority in the election.
Cameron signalled his determination to press ahead with the referendum when he declared that he now had an electoral mandate for reform. As he arrived for Monday’s meeting of the 1922 committee of MPs at Westminster, he said: “We have a mandate. It is going to be tough.”
The remarks show Cameron knows that he will face a difficult battle in the four key areas where he will seek to renegotiate Britain’s membership terms. These aim to:
Britain was given a taste of the challenge in the EU negotiations when eastern European leaders warned the prime minister not to restrict the ability of EU migrants to travel to the UK. Europe ministers from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland told the Financial Times that the free movement of migrant workers was a red-line issue for them.
Britain also found itself at odds with the European commission over plans to require all EU member states to take in quotas of migrants. Theresa May, the home secretary, rejected the proposal. | PM keen to move quickly on setting up in/out poll among British voters on EU membership to avoid clash with French and German elections | 33.307692 | 0.769231 | 2.461538 | medium | low | mixed |
http://time.com/4429287/sitting-bad-health-study/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730135952id_/http://time.com:80/4429287/sitting-bad-health-study/ | How to Keep Your Desk Job From Killing You | 20160730135952 | Over the past few years we’ve heard all sorts of dire warnings about the effects of sitting. “Your Desk Job Makes You Fat, Sick, and Dead” is just one of the alarming headlines that have accompanied the news.
A report out Wednesday in the journal Lancet provides a somewhat predictable solution. It says the key to canceling out the dangers of sitting is to be active. What’s more helpful is the study’s formula that calculates just how much physical activity is needed to ward off the risks of sitting: it’s a ratio of one to eight. You must be active for one hour to make up for every eight hours staying put, which for most people equates to about 60 or 75 minutes per day. The activity doesn’t have to be rigorous—even brisk walking would suffice—and it can be completed in shorter increments.
The study, lead by Professor Ulf Ekelund for the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences and the University of Cambridge, comes from an analysis of about 1 million people aged 45 and older in the United States, Western Europe, and Australia. The study says that being active can reduce or eliminate sitting’s hazards, like death, diabetes, and some cancers.
The study’s prescribed 60-75 minutes of activity is more than what’s recommended in most public health guidelines. Examining the joint effects of sitting and physical activity is important, the authors argue, because most people engage in both behaviors every day, “so the effects of both should be considered in public health guidelines.”
And there’s an urgency to adopting this new advice.
An accompanying study calculates that physical inactivity cost health care systems worldwide a combined $53.8 billion in 2013, $31.2 billion of which was paid for by the public sector. Plus, deaths related to physical inactivity contribute to $13.7 billion in productivity losses. Higher-income countries bear a larger proportion of the economic consequences while lower- and middle-income countries have a larger proportion of the disease burden.
This article originally appeared on Fortune.com | There are many health risks associated with long-term sitting | 36 | 0.454545 | 0.454545 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/30/05/28/woman-killed-in-melbourne-hit-and-run | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730203509id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/30/05/28/woman-killed-in-melbourne-hit-and-run | Man charged over fatal Vic hit-run | 20160730203509 | A New Zealand man has been charged over a fatal hit and run in Melbourne.
A 22-year-old New South Wales woman died when she was struck by a vehicle in West Melbourne at 2.15am on Saturday.
The 21-year-old, who lives in North Melbourne, is charged with culpable driving, dangerous driving, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, failing to render assistance, burglary and theft.
He is expected to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Saturday afternoon. | A pedestrian has died after being hit by a car in the early hours of Saturday morning. | 5.333333 | 0.611111 | 0.833333 | low | low | abstractive |
http://time.com/money/4084003/retirement-moves-five-years-before/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160730222959id_/http://time.com:80/money/4084003/retirement-moves-five-years-before/ | 5 Things to Do 5 Years Beforehand | 20160730222959 | At every stage of your journey to retirement, you need to know the essential money moves you should be making, the savings target you’re aiming for, and the ideal mix for your investment portfolio. As you move from the starting-out years to the peak of your career, those checkpoints change. When you’re on the cusp of retiring, here are the crucial things to do.
Why it’s key • You can’t see if you’re on track if all you’re doing is guessing. In the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2015 Retirement Confidence survey, 40% of retirees reported that expenses were somewhat or much higher than expected.
How to do it • A one-time review with a financial planner ($1,200) would be money well spent. Or go DIY. Fidelity has a useful budget worksheet online. You can see if your projected income will cover your expenses with the T. Rowe Price retirement income calculator.
Why it’s key • While the unemployment rate for people 55 and older is lower than for any other age group (3.8%, vs. 5.1% overall), older workers who are laid off have a much harder time landing a job and often take a pay cut when they do.
How to do it • You’re more vulnerable if you’re an old hand, but a total career change is risky too. “The idea of following your passion sounds great, but it’s difficult to pull off,” says Stephen Adams, president of the American Institute for Economic Research. A coach can help you identify ways to capitalize on your experience. Ask your peers for one who knows your field. An initial meeting should be free; then it’s typically $150 an hour, the International Coach Federation reports.
When you pay off your mortgage early, you essentially earn a return equal to your interest rate. So the decision on whether to make extra payments comes down in part to how much risk you’re willing to take with money you’d otherwise invest in stocks and bonds.
Based on Vanguard’s capital market projections for 2015 to 2025, a conservative 20% stock/80% bond portfolio would be expected to return an annual 3.9%, about the same as today’s 4% average rate on a 30-year mortgage. A more aggressive 60% stocks/40% bonds mix is expected to return 6%. Go 80% stocks, and the forecast return rises to 6.9%. But less than a decade out from retirement, that’s a risky bet.
Why it’s key • Housing costs are likely to be your biggest retirement expense—40% of total spending on average for people 65 and older, EBRI reports. Downsizing or relocating can lighten that load.
How to do it • Sell the family manse. You can better plan your retirement budget, and sock away more now. To see what relocating would save, use the cost-of-living calculator at areavibes.com.
Research has found that money savvy peaks at age 53. To make managing your finances easier down the road, consolidate and simplify now. Roll scattered 401(k)s from previous jobs into a single IRA or your current 401(k). Keeping all your assets with one firm may entitle you to lower fees. Automate what you can, and close extraneous credit lines—two cards should do.
Once you’ve made these five moves, you’re on track to retire soon. To double check that you’re on track, use these benchmarks to measure your progress:
Notes: Savings rate assumes retiring at 66, replacing 75% of your pre-retirement income, with Social Security covering 20%; average annual real rate of return of 4%; and 4% initial withdrawal rate, adjusted for inflation. Sources: Morningstar, Northstar Investment Advisors | As retirement comes into view, take these smart steps to prepare for a safe landing. | 43 | 0.705882 | 0.705882 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.thepostgame.com/iron-sheik-dan-gable-wrestling-olympics-hall | http://web.archive.org/web/20160731181956id_/http://www.thepostgame.com/iron-sheik-dan-gable-wrestling-olympics-hall | Iron Sheik, Dan Gable Meet | 20160731181956 | One of this year's inductees into the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame is a man named Khosrow Vaziri. He is better known to all as the Iron Sheik.
While the Iron Sheik took some time to sign autographs and chat with fans before the ceremony Friday at the National Wrestling Hall of Fame's Dan Gable Museum, he also connected with Gable himself. Check out this video, posted to Gable's YouTube account, chronicling their public appearance:
Gable won two national titles at Iowa and a gold medal in freestyle at the 1972 Olympics in the lightweight division, before returning to his alma mater and coaching the Hawkeyes to a ridiculous 15 NCAA team titles, including nine straight from 1978 to 1986.
The Iron Sheik represented Iran at the 1968 Olympics. After moving to the United States, he won an AAU Greco-Roman wrestling national title in 1971. In 1972, he served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Greco-Roman wrestling team at the Olympics.
He then entered pro wrestling with his greatest success coming in the World Wrestling Federation (now known as World Wrestling Entertainment). He became WWF heavyweight champion in 1983 by defeating Bob Backlund, another class of 2016 Hall of Fame inductee.
The Iron Sheik had a profound impact on the wrestling career of Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson, as we learned in a 2014 documentary, The Sheik.
More Pro Wrestling: -- That Time When Bud Collins Interviewed Gorilla Monsoon -- Dusty Rhodes: When 'Some Asian Kid' Won American Dream's Boots In Contest -- George 'The Animal' Steele Gives His Take On Randy Savage-Miss Elizabeth Angle
Autographs, Dan Gable, Fans, Iron Sheik, Legends, Olympics, Pro Wrestling, Wrestling, WWE, WWF | At the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Museum, legends Iron Sheik and Dan Gable came together to sign autographs for eager fans. | 14.166667 | 0.875 | 3.125 | low | medium | mixed |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8319780/Counter-terrorism-projects-worth-1.2m-face-axe-as-part-of-end-to-multiculturalism.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160731231355id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/politics/8319780/Counter-terrorism-projects-worth-1.2m-face-axe-as-part-of-end-to-multiculturalism.html | Counter-terrorism projects worth £1.2m face axe as part of end to multiculturalism | 20160731231355 | This project has been criticised by both libertarians who claim it is an excuse to spy on Muslim communities, and others who claim it is funding non-violent groups which nevertheless propound fundamentalist schools of Islam such as Salafism from Saudi Arabia and Deobandism from South Asia.
Proponents of the scheme say that the only way to engage with young men on the verge of becoming terrorists is to talk to those whose ideologies they support.
But Charles Farr, the head of the OSCT, is aiming to cut funding to organisations with what are considered “divisive and extreme beliefs” as Prevent is re-fashioned to exclude “non-violent extremists.”
When ministers arrived in the Home Office they are understood to have been shocked to find that there were no criteria on which groups to fund, little information about how much they were receiving and no proper auditing of their effectiveness.
Part of the problem was the speed with which Prevent was enlarged three years ago in an attempt to fill a gap in providing help to Muslim communities in tackling extremism.
Brixton mosque was attended by Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber and by Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called “20th hijacker” who was arrested before the September 11 attacks. The Street project – Strategy to Reach Empower and Educate Teenagers - was designed to try and help prevent others following their example and deals with a high proportion of black converts as well as Somalis and Algerians.
It currently employs 12 staff and received £326,990 in 2009-2010 and £191,310 from 2010 until October this year.
It caters for Muslims from across South London, providing sports and social activities at the mosque youth centre and running classes on Islamic religious precepts, social responsibilities and citizenship. Over the last 18 months, it has completed 12 of the 40 cases it has managed.
The Street project was founded by Abdul Haq Baker, who is its secretary and one of its directors. Mr Baker is also a trustee of the Brixton Mosque and Islamic Cultural Centre.
A report by the Policy Exchange think-tank in 2009, called “Choosing our Friends Wisely” pointed out that the mosque followed the Salafi school of Islam, and although it is non-violent, Mr Baker said in an interview that Richard Reid, the shoe-bomber and a former worshipper at the mosque, was “happy that we weren’t going to be feeding him rhetoric or erroneous beliefs.”
“Wind-down funding” will be provided to allow the project to manage five counter-terrorism “interventions” and five other interventions.
The project deals with many ex-offenders and the Home Secretary has ordered officials to work with the National Offender Management Service and the Metropolitan Police to consider alternative providers. | Controversial counter-terrorism projects worth more than £1.2m are to have their funding withdrawn in the first sign of a tougher approach on tackling violent extremists. | 16.46875 | 0.53125 | 1.03125 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/02/aleppo-siege-cut-food-supplies-300000-160209205643204.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160731231721id_/http://www.aljazeera.com:80/news/2016/02/aleppo-siege-cut-food-supplies-300000-160209205643204.html | UN: Aleppo siege could cut off food supplies to 300,000 | 20160731231721 | Hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians in opposition-held areas in Aleppo city are under threat of being cut off from basic food supplies amid expectations of a looming siege by government forces, the United Nations has warned.
The UN said on Tuesday that it is worried government advances could block the last link for civilians in rebel-held parts of Aleppo with the main Turkish border crossing, which has long served as the lifeline for those areas in Syria.
"It would leave up to 300,000 people, still residing in the city, cut off from humanitarian aid unless...access could be negotiated," the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.
"If government advances around the city continue", it said, "local councils in the city estimate that some 100,000 to 150,000 civilians may flee," it said.
Aleppo was once Syria's biggest city and home to two million people.
Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes and Iranian and Lebanese Hezbollah fighters, have launched a major offensive over the past week in the countryside around Aleppo, which has been divided between government and rebel control for years.
READ MORE: Russia blamed for 'daily' cluster bombings in Syria
Locals have told Al Jazeera about their fears of a possible siege and the harsh effects of the conflict on food and fuel prices in the city.
A woman, who asked to be called Om Steif, said: "The people here in Aleppo are scared of the coming siege.
"What will happen to the cost of living to citizens like me? How can they afford [to buy] heating fuel when the prices keep doubling and quadrupling every day. How will we face this?"
Zaid Muhammad, a volunteer for Kesh Malek - a Syrian activist group in opposition-held districts of Aleppo, told Al Jazeera how Russian air strikes backing government forces have been "terrorising" civilians daily.
"For seven or eight hours a day they (warplanes) are invading the skies and terrorising the people psychologically," he said
Syrian government forces scale up their assault to recapture Aleppo
Meanhwhile, the UN's refugee agency has called on Turkey to open the border to tens of thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing the government offensive in Aleppo province, who are stranded near the Bab al-Salameh crossing.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Tuesday, UNHCR spokesman William Spindler praised Ankara for allowing in a number of wounded refugees and for providing humanitarian assistance to those on the Syrian side of the crossing.
But he said the Turkish government needs to "extend the opening of the border to others in need of protection and fleeing danger", in accordance with its obligations under international law.
Spindler said that his agency acknowledges the fact that Turkey is already hosting 2.5 million refugees, which has inflicted a "huge strain" on the country's economy, and called on the international community to assist Ankara in handling the burgeoning crisis.
"This is clearly an international crisis and we all have an obligation to assist," he said.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from the bordering Turkish city of Gaziantep, described a "worsening humanitarian tragedy on the ground" in Aleppo governorate, as refugee camps overflow and the Syrian government onslaught of the city intensifies.
"There are thousands of others who are stuck in the town of Azaz, which is just a few kilometres from the Bab al-Salameh crossing," she said.
"Already hundreds of families are moving from Azaz, because according to Doctors Without Borders there is no more space, the camps can no longer absorb more people and people are sleeping out in the open.
"These people are getting on buses and heading to the western side of Aleppo after receiving safe passage from the YPG (Kurdish People's Protection Units).
Inside Story: Will Syria's war be won or lost in Aleppo?
Source:Â Al Jazeera and agencies | Hundreds of thousands in rebel-held areas under threat of full blockade as Syrian government forces advance, UN says. | 34.772727 | 0.818182 | 2.181818 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/inverting-the-war-novel-1469826253 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160801102555id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/inverting-the-war-novel-1469826253 | Inverting the War Novel | 20160801102555 | Roy Scranton’s “War Porn” (Soho, 343 pages, $26) arrives on the crest of a second wave of fiction about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first wave, typified by Kevin Powers’s “The Yellow Birds” (2012) and Phil Klay’s “Redeployment” (2014), concentrated on the psychic damage suffered by soldiers hurled into haphazardly planned “forever wars.” But as this story line hardened into a cliché—what Mr. Scranton, who was deployed in Iraq for 14 months, has called the “trauma hero myth”—novelists looked for more provocative angles and approaches: Harry Parker’s “Anatomy of a Soldier,” for instance, is told from the... | Sam Sacks reviews “War Porn” by Roy Scranton; “Compartment No. 6” by Rosa Liksom; and “Still Here” by Lara Vapnyar. | 4.5 | 0.533333 | 1 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36922518 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160801120934id_/http://www.bbc.com:80/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36922518 | Basking sharks appearing 'in good numbers' | 20160801120934 | Basking sharks have been appearing in "good numbers" around Coll and Tiree, a wildlife tour operator has said.
Oban-based Basking Shark Scotland said the large fish have been drawn to the surface to feed on plankton in a period of calm and sunny weather.
Mull-based Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust (HWDT) had earlier said it had received lower than usual reports of sightings of the sharks.
It believed the animals were still present in its area but deeper down.
The trust suspected unsettled weather had resulted in sharks feeding deeper in the water column.
July is the peak season for sightings of basking sharks, the world's second largest fish after the whale shark.
Basking Shark Scotland said in the last few weeks it has had more than 50 basking shark sightings and 200 for the year so far.
Owner Shane Wasik said "Although it has been a variable spring and early summer for the basking sharks, the peak season has been no different to previous years."
Basking sharks are the world's second biggest fish - the whale shark is the largest - and can grow to 11m (36ft) and weigh up to seven tonnes.
They have no teeth and feed on microscopic plankton by opening wide their huge mouths.
Every summer the sharks gather in large numbers around small islands off Scotland's west coast where they are sought out by scientists and wildlife watchers. | Basking sharks are appearing in "good numbers" around Coll and Tiree, says a wildlife tour operator. | 13.75 | 0.95 | 7.35 | low | high | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/arts/international/after-public-appeal-queen-elizabeth-portrait-will-stay-in-britain.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160801154729id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/29/arts/international/after-public-appeal-queen-elizabeth-portrait-will-stay-in-britain.html | After Public Appeal, Queen Elizabeth Portrait Will Stay in Britain | 20160801154729 | A public appeal to raise 10 million pounds, or $13.1 million, to buy the “Armada Portrait” — one of the best-known depictions of Queen Elizabeth I — has been successful, the Art Fund, a national fund-raising group, announced on Friday in London.
The portrait, painted around 1590 by an unknown artist, celebrates the British navy’s unlikely 1588 victory over the Spanish fleet and is a staple in Britain’s school textbooks. Unusual in its time for its large size and horizontal format, it depicts the queen, bejeweled and regal in front of two seascapes, her right hand resting on a globe.
The painting in question, one of three versions of the portrait, was first owned by Sir Francis Drake, one of the commanders of the British fleet, and subsequently remained in the hands of his descendants, who recently decided to sell the work.
The money resulting from the public appeal “will meet the cost of the painting as well as vital conservation and an extensive national programme to engage audiences around the country with the painting,” a spokeswoman for the Art Fund, Madeline Adeane, said in an email. It will also prevent the portrait from being sold to an international collector.
A major donation of £7.4 million came from the Heritage Lottery Fund, while 8,000 individuals contributed a total of £1.5 million. The Art Fund contributed £1 million and Royal Museums Greenwich gave £400,000. A total of £10.3 million was raised.
Starting Oct. 11, the portrait will hang in the Queen’s House, on the site of the original Greenwich Palace, where Elizabeth I was born.
The Art Fund, which supports the acquisition of paintings for British museums, has been successful in a number of public appeals, notably raising £10 million in 2014 to buy a Van Dyck self-portrait for the National Portrait Gallery in London. | About $13 million was raised from public and private sources to buy the 16th-century work, which was owned by descendants of Sir Francis Drake. | 12.62069 | 0.793103 | 1.551724 | low | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/29/us/politics/obama-sets-the-record-straight-on-his-7-almond-habit.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160801162702id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/29/us/politics/obama-sets-the-record-straight-on-his-7-almond-habit.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth®ion=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0 | Obama Sets the Record Straight on His 7-Almond Habit | 20160801162702 | PHILADELPHIA — Does President Obama really eat only seven almonds at night?
As people watched Mr. Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, many took to Twitter to offer a thought: He did such a good job, he deserved to let himself eat more than seven almonds that night.
“Tonight, Obama’s going to eat seven chocolate-covered almonds,” Matthew Yglesias, a journalist at Vox.com, posted on Twitter during the speech.
The observations were referring to a story I wrote this month about how Mr. Obama spends his time in the evenings, reading briefing papers and watching sports in the Treaty Room, often into the early hours of the morning.
Among the details in the story, from his personal chef and close friend, Sam Kass, was the fact that Mr. Obama was disciplined about not snacking on junk food or drinking soda.
His snack of choice, Mr. Kass told me at the time, was seven almonds.
“Michelle and I would always joke: not six, not eight,” Mr. Kass said. “Always seven almonds.”
But in an interview broadcast on Thursday, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie put the question directly to Mr. Obama, who seemed eager to set the record straight.
“This is an example of the weird way that the press works,” Mr. Obama said, chuckling.
“Michelle and Sam Kass, who was our chef here, one night they were talking about me and teasing me about how disciplined I was, that I didn’t have potato chips or I didn’t have a piece of cake. And this is when Michelle said: ‘Yes, and he just has seven almonds. That’s it,’ to really drive home the point that I needed to loosen up a little bit.
“And Sam relayed this joke to The New York Times in the article, and somehow it was relayed as if I was counting out the seven almonds.”
In the interview with Ms. Guthrie, Mr. Obama acknowledged the point that Mr. Kass made during our interview: that what impressed him about the president’s nighttime habits was the discipline he has in getting through hours of difficult work without unhealthy snacks.
But Mr. Obama insisted that he’s not quite so disciplined that he counts out seven almonds every time.
“All my friends were calling up, and they’re saying: ‘You know, this seems a little anal. This is kind of weird,’” Mr. Obama told Ms. Guthrie. “And I had to explain to them, no, this was a joke.”
Asked whether he would allow himself to eat 10 or 11 almonds once he has left the White House, Mr. Obama said, “Absolutely.”
As the interview ended, he added with a smile, “I am so glad I had this opportunity, because this has been really weighing on me.”
He did offer an endorsement, noting, “You know, almonds are a good snack; I strongly recommend them.”
A version of this article appears in print on July 29, 2016, on page A10 of the New York edition with the headline: Ritual; Obama Clarifies His Almond Practice. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | His dietary discipline is remarkable, friends say, but the president said he doesn’t actually count out exactly seven almonds for his nighttime snack. | 23.185185 | 0.740741 | 0.888889 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/07/27/why-the-biggest-vine-star-is-ready-to-leave-the-platform/21439142/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160801225534id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/07/27/why-the-biggest-vine-star-is-ready-to-leave-the-platform/21439142/ | Why the biggest Vine star is ready to leave the platform | 20160801225534 | Logan Paul has reached a level of social stardom many can only dream of. The young creator is best known by his fans for his larger-than-life sense of humor, and physical abilities that constantly leaves them in awe. From breaking down doors on Christmas morning to doing backflips on a motorway to save a pet cat, Paul has become synonymous with creating six second videos that push the boundaries both physically and comedically. It's this tenacity that has garnered millions of followers for Paul -- 9.3 on Vine alone, to be exact -- and has resulted in over 4 billion Vine loops.
And while Vine may have been the first major stepping stone to Paul's career, he's looking towards other social media platforms for his next step. As he notes, "...the creators plateaued on the platform since it stopped growing, but it was a nice place to foster the growth for all of us and give us a nice little stepping stone to go to the other platforms." Now, you can find Paul's signature videos in a much longer-form on his YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels. But Paul's career end goal isn't to be the biggest social media star across platforms, it's to be the biggest entertainer in the world. And with a few movies and television appearances under his belt already including roles in "The Thinning," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and the series "Foursome," he's already off with a running start.
We recently sat down with Logan Paul at our New York City offices to talk about his meteoric success in the entertainment industry. Ahead, find out how he first got involved in the social media world, why he's leaving Vine for other platforms, and more!
YouShouldKnow is a feature that showcases up-and-coming social stars. To see more of past interviews, including more Logan Paul exclusives, click here.
How did you first get involved in the Vine world? Like everyone else! I hopped on the bandwagon since everyone was using it. Everyone at my school was trying to make these six second Vines and I saw that kids were getting famous on it on this dumb little video app. So I decided to give it a go, and turns out I was pretty good at it.
Do you remember the first video you ever made? I think I copied what everyone else was doing in its looping. What makes Vine cool is that it started and then it ended and then started again. I think I tried to make the ending the same as the beginning. It wasn't good. I wish it was, but no. It was bad.
You've now expanded your content to every other platform. How do you conceptualize your videos? I'm just a weird dude and ideas just come to my head. Ideas will just come to my head when I'm walking down the street and if we can shoot it right then, I do it. If not, I go home, sketch it out, and then produce it, shoot it, edit, and then post.
How long does it really take to make one six second Video? I mean it could take anywhere from 6 seconds to six hours.
I heard that you're a perfectionist -- is that true? I'm way too meticulous. I'm a perfectionist times ten so if I don't have something, I'll do it over and over and over again. And that's what takes so long, everything for me needs to be perfect. It's at the point where this has become my life so I want to make the best out of it. I want when people to watch my videos to think, "Wow that must have taken a lot of time!"
What has been the proudest video you've ever created? I made this video of me doing the splits actually here in New York City and I think I'm most proud of that one. Because people seem to love it and it was just so much fun.
And that just got picked up for a commercial? It did. An Advil commercial! People are Tweeting at me, "I see you on an Advil commercial" and I have a part 2 to it coming out in about 20 days. It will hopefully be really big.
How have you seen social media platforms evolve or change since you've started your career? Vine has plateaued. It had its spiked in the beginning and it's the reason why Instagram has a video feature now since they had to compete with it. Even the creators plateaued on the platform since it stopped growing, but it was a nice place to foster the growth for all of us and give us a nice little stepping stone to go to the other platforms.
Where do you see the progression of your career going in the next few years? I'm acting outside of social media. I moved to LA to pursue entertainment beyond social media and I'm always going to continue to grow my social. Having a social media presence and having an audience that loves watching you post daily is awesome. But I'm going to try and mesh the digital world and traditional world. I'm going to try to merge both of those and become one of the first creators to go from digital to traditional.
Now that you are starting to expand into more traditional spaces, do you still feel pressure to push out viral content? Yes. In fact, the pressure is almost higher because I post less. I only post once a week maybe and when I do, I want my videos to be the cream of the crop. So I have to put in more effort into making the best content. I'm doing pretty decent at it so far. The traditional stuff just take up time. Time is becoming a hot commodity in my life.
YouShouldKnow is a feature that showcases up-and-coming social stars. To see more of past interviews, including more Logan Paul exclusives, click here.
For more past YouShouldKnow stars, scroll through the gallery below:
What are you looking at 👀😂
How I look every day because life is too short to not have fun with yourself 🙆🏻
Move the way you want to move 💃🏼
This is my face when someone mentions food!🤓 Releasing a new video tonight! Can't wait!❤️
Shooting a new vid for you guys!! Uploading Wednesday!!!😍❤️🎬 #teamworkmakesthedreamwork
It's the most wonderful time of the year❤️🎄🎁
"Mom she won't let me have a sip of her Capri Sun" -6 year old nerf gun loving Brent to 6 year old polly pocket obsessed Mere NEW VIDEO IS UP W/ @brentrivera 👫 Link to watch is in my bio! ❤️
Adventuring with friends at the beach 🌊 Pretty sure this house was haunted... not to mention the door was open. Something you guys don't know about me is I am the most savage ghost hunter around nothing scares me and I mean nothing 👀 Do you believe in ghosts? 👻
Bonjour, je m'appelle Meredith. Comment t'appelle tu? Out of my 3 years of studying French this is one of the only things I remember 😂👋
AHH!!! We hit 3MILLION subbies today!! 💞🎉😭🎂 I love my #macbabies so so much!!! You all mean the WORLD to me!!! Our family is growing so much! Thank you for allowing me to just be my awkward self. I love you and I can never thank you enough for all the opportunities you've given me!! 💞🎉🎂✨😱
i like pink doors ♡ ps..new video going up soon! ahh who's excited?!? link in my bio! also, what's your fav color?! hehe 💞✌🏼️🎉
until next time thailand ♡ ps...guess who just uploaded a vlog!! you get a sneak peek of my final room decor!! ahh! also, how did you find my youtube channel? i'm so curious! 💞🌎✌🏼️
i just wanna travel the world ✈️ where should I go next ?😉
so ready for halloween 👻 SOOOO, I just uploaded a brand new HALLOWEEN VIDEO!! Click the link in my bio to watch!🎃
eye see you 👀 Ps: thank you all for your amazing and continued support. I want you all to know how much I love and appreciate you so much. xoxo
Have you seen my new video yet!? It's all about music festivals so make sure to check it out on my YouTube channel! + there's some friends in it☺️
My new video is dropping today!!! Can you guess what it'll be..?😗
u like em crazy babe don't u
the #londonhasfallen premiere last night 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
when the waiter passes your table with food
Fun fact : purple and orange teacups are the fastest! :)
Once you see it, you can't unsee it
PROUDEST PUPPY MOMS EVER 🐶🐶☺️ @karminmusic @garykarmin @djminimatt
WE OUT HERE AT THE #KCA's and the inner child in me is screaming.
trying my hardest to be "fierce"....
Welcome to slime history @rebelwilson !! 😁😂 #KCA2016
2 0 1 6 - #HAPPYNEWYEAR on the water 2-5~6
We love taking walks, no phones, just talking about life. If you can, make time every week to take a 30-minute walk with a friend or a loved one. It's a cool way to get to know each other on a deeper level!
Leap year gives us all 24 extra hours to #DayItForward! We’ve teamed up w/ @Chevrolet to send love to #UsTheFamily - check out our Twitter feed tomorrow!!
Have you heard?! We're joining our friends @ptxofficial on the first leg of their World Tour this Spring! Click the link in our bio for tix, or visit https://www.ustheduo.com/tour :) PUMPED to meet some new and current #UsTheFamily members!
NEW VIDEO: Creepy Things Girls Do 😂 Comment a, "🐬" if you've watched it/will watch it
Guess who's birthday is in 5 days?? (No it's not Dylan O'Brien) 😎
I came here to live life like nobody is watching ❥ ♡
Did you catch the latest blog post on the blog (link in profile)?? Who else loves afternoon tea?? // 📷: @torrancecoombs #TheAListIreland
Dorky smiles + a photobomb by some serious woman with a serious collar 😜😜 #HereCoombsTheBride
Soft curls and red lips 💋 // 📷: @torrancecoombs
Every girl ought to have a pair of nude suede pumps! Nothing like New shoes Monday with @mgemi. Get more details on @liketoknow.it www.liketk.it/2fcOb #liketkit #lovemgemi
On the streets of Paris in red and how I style my street style looks for fashion week revealed on #thechrisellefactor today! Direct link in bio 👉🏻 http://thechrisellefactor.com/2016/03/power-color/ 📷:@karenrosalie_
Rendezvous in Paris in Pink on #TheChriselleFactor today. Direct link in bio 👉🏻 http://thechrisellefactor.com/2016/03/rendezvous-in-pink/
Your not ready for this #chromat #nyfw #teamthis
We run THIS show #HBDWang #rkobh #teamthis
When it's "chilly" out 😜 #ootd
had the King of LA @yg come through last night 🙏🏽
If you guys saw how I looked before you would think it was magic 😩😭 My beautiful makeup for #kca by @beautybydianalomelin 💫
Winding down with @SkinnyMintCom 😌 #TheOriginalTeatox #ad
Eating all that sushi finally turned me into a mermaid! 😭 for @projectmermaids #saveourbeach Photography by @angelinaventurellaphoto Hair and Makeup by @ljbeauty Bra by @edwordgarcia Sponsored by @sexyhair Project Manager @crissycrissybobissy
If you know me well or have read interviews I’ve done then you know that @marthastewart has always been my biggest inspiration when it comes to food. One of my goals is to be a combination of my two idols- Martha and Andy Warhol. As a child I would dream about spending the time and care like her to prepare a table, creating something very special for people to join around and share a meal. Watching her cook inspired me to teach myself how to hand weigh ingredients, to always have my mise en place organized, how to pronounce words like vichyssoise, and her wide usage of produce variety is honestly a large part of where my curiosity for our food sparked from. With this said, I’m sure you can imagine my surprise when I was told that I was one of the 25 creatives @marthastewart is inspired by in celebration of their 25th anniversary. Thank you for helping me think and dream so big Martha, I am honored to share this and to make you all of the colors. #25yearsofmartha #foodgradients
I wanted to take a moment to reintroduce myself. I’m Brittany and I recognize that I seem to do a decent job of not sharing much about my actual self here or in interviews. I prefer to keep my art about the food and not myself. This community and my photography have become the biggest part of my life, I love it more than I have words to explain but there's more that makes me who I am. So for a quick moment here’s a bit- I’m 24, a taurus, live in Seattle but grew up in San Diego, my favorite food is a cheeseburger (super thin patty, toasted bun), my favorite bands are @stygoc and @metric, my first tattoo was the one on chest- it’s still my favorite and says ‘love your life’, something many people sadly forget. I was raised by my grandparents, I love to make small collections of items like rocks and stickers, I grew up playing a lot of sports competitively, I love Star Wars and have Boba Fett tattooed on my arm but Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is my favorite movie. Many times I have been told that being an artist “can’t be a real job” and that I was wasting my time trying to do so. I smile everyday not because I proved them wrong but because I achieved a goal. Dream big, everyone.
Thought I might start this week off with a past candy photo. Here's to hoping you all have the best days ahead! #foodgradients
Köln!!!! Didn't pronounce your name right on stage but... You were AMAZING. Only a couple shows left in EU-- next up, London... (📷: @annamaria_langer )
Practicing our Spanish with @tvtelehit Mexico 🇲🇽
Sam wants to play Jack & Rose in Titanic but Casey's all "nah i'm good, have fun tho mang"
We drove 28 hours to get to Canada. The jeep is still running💀😍
The Dallas episode for @heyusax is the funniest yet! Go watch it now on @go90 now!😄😄
That's a wrap #E! #Oscarafterpartyshow 🎉
More from AOL.com: Fashion influencer Chriselle Lim is poised for world wide web domination Meet the former Miss USA turned fashion blogger, Alyssa Campanella, who is dominating NYFW YouTube star Michael Buckley talks his famous YouTube channel, his favorite video to make and more! | Logan Paul has reached a level of social stardom many can only dream of -- but he's ready to leave that behind for a new project. | 105.392857 | 0.928571 | 7.571429 | high | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/11/garden/owning-a-pet-can-have-therapeutic-value.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802005907id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1982/08/11/garden/owning-a-pet-can-have-therapeutic-value.html?pagewanted=2 | OWNING A PET CAN HAVE THERAPEUTIC VALUE | 20160802005907 | Dr. Daniel Lago's program at Pennsylvania State University has given pets to 65 rural elderly people, nearly half of whom live alone. For some, he reports, the pets have sparked ''dramatic transformations,'' enabling severely disabled people to rise above their disability and helping depressed, reclusive people become more socially active. His preliminary observations suggest that closeness to a pet is the key to its benefits, showing an association with higher morale, greater social activity and better physical health.
Treating the emotionally disturbed. Pet-facilitated therapy has brought sometimes remarkable improvement in patients with otherwise intractable mental illnesses.
According to psychotherapists at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, Sonny was a 19-year-old psychotic who spent nearly all his time lying in his hospital bed. Nothing seemed to interest or reach him, his answers to questions were limited to ''yes,'' ''no'' and ''I don't know'' and he did not respond to traditional therapies. But when a wire-haired fox terrier was brought to his bed, Sonny showed an immediate interest, smiled broadly and was soon out of bed frolicking with the dog. He then asked his first question, ''Where can I keep him?''
For Sonny, his psychiatrist said, the terrier was the turning point of therapy, providing the needed wedge in Sonny's emotionally locked door. He began to take an interest in his surroundings and to request and respond to therapy and he was soon discharged as recovered.
In another instance, 25-year-old Marsha, diagnosed as suffering from catatonic schizophrenia, showed no improvement after drug and electroshock therapy. In fact, her condition worsened and she became totally withdrawn, frozen and almost mute.
Then a dog was brought to her and she began to follow it about, walk it, stroke it and talk about it to the other patients. Within six days of receiving the dog, Marsha had improved markedly and shortly afterward she was discharged from the hospital.
The Ohio therapists, Samuel A. Corson, Elizabeth O'Leary Corson and Peter H. Gwynne, stumbled upon the value of pets in treatment. They had established a dog ward at the hospital to study animal behavior. Hearing the dogs bark, several patients, some of whom had been uncommunicative throughout their hospital stay, broke their selfimposed silence and asked if they could play with or help care for the animals.
Impressed with the apparent benefits of the interaction between patients and dogs, the therapists began a more systematic study, discovering in the process that pets have been used occasionally in psychotherapy as far back as the 18th century and that modern petoriented psychotherapy had been described in detail by Boris M. Levinson in 1969. However, its effectiveness has received little systematic study to date.
Autistic children have shown some improvement in a special program in Florida involving dolphins. Pets have also helped to calm hyperactive and overly aggressive children. In an institution for the criminally insane, inmates were given pet birds, fish, hamsters, guinea pigs and gerbils. Some of the men became very nurturing and assumed full responsibility for the care of their pets. The animals helped to establish trust and a communications link between inmates and staff.
Many questions remain to be answered about pet-facilitated therapy. Who is likely to be helped by it, for example, how should the pet be matched to the patient and when in treatment should a pet be introduced.
Aiding the sick and handicapped. Seeing Eye dogs for the blind are universally known, but few realize that now there are also ''hearingear'' dogs for the deaf. Dogs can also be trained to retrieve and carry things for people confined to wheelchair or bed.
In addition, a pet can provide the impetus for improvement in a physical disability. Dr. Lago at Penn State tells of a woman disabled by a broken hip who was given a dog for protection. One day the dog ran upstairs and, not knowing why, the woman followed, discovering for the first time that she could navigate the stairs.
Learning to ride a horse can help to put a handicapped child on a more equal basis with normal children. Therapists have noted an improvement in muscle tone, self-confidence and spirits of handicapped children as a result of horseback riding.
The value of pets to people with various organic ailments is just beginning to be explored. In a pioneering study, Dr. Friedman of Brooklyn College and her former colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania's Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society showed that among 92 victims of heart disease, significantly more pet owners survived for at least one year than did those without pets. Twenty-eight percent of those without a pet were dead in a year, whereas only 6 percent of those with pets had died.
Dr. Friedman and Alan Beck of the University of Pennsylvania report that watching fish in a tank lowers blood pressure, promotes relaxation and counters the adverse physiological effects of stress. Dr. Aaron H. Katcher, a psychiatrist who heads the university's people-animal center, says his group is studying the importance of touching animals as a source of comfort that might not be available from other people. | GIVEN the opportunity, most pet owners will rave about the joys of sharing their homes with an animal, be it a collie or a chameleon. But they may not realize that, beyond pleasure, their nonhuman companions could help to improve their mental and physical health and even extend their lives. More than half the nation's households have at least one pet and some have several. While dogs and cats are by far the most popular companion animals, millions of people share their homes with fish, birds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians and even insects. Although pets have long been an integral part of American life (most people consider their pets members of the family), researchers are only just beginning to explore what pets can do for the people who care for them. | 6.589404 | 0.655629 | 0.880795 | low | low | abstractive |
http://fortune.com/tag/on-demand-food-delivery/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802080512id_/http://fortune.com:80/tag/on-demand-food-delivery/ | on demand food delivery | 20160802080512 | What’s better than a fancy prepared meal showing up at your door? Preparing it yourself in only 15 minutes, according to Munchery, a food delivery company based in San Francisco.
Though the four-year-old startup has been doing just fine delivering prepared meals to its customers, it found that people also want to cook their own food sometimes. But many don’t know how to, or don’t have time to slave in the kitchen for hours. So on Tuesday, Munchery will debut a handful of do-it-yourself meal kits.
“When we talk to customers and we say, ‘Hey, on the nights that you don’t order Munchery or any take-out at all, what do you do?’ 75% of them say ‘I’m cooking,’” Munchery co-founder and CEO Tri Tran tells Fortune.
For the first round of kits, Munchery has partnered with The Slanted Door, a well-known upscale Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco founded by chef Charles Phan, who moved to the city as a teenager. Unbeknownst to most San Franciscans, the restaurants has already been selling kits based on some of its well-known dishes at its Ferry Building location. When Munchery began to toy with the idea of meal kits, Phan was a natural first partner, Munchery chief customer experience officer Pascal Rigo, who founded Starbucks-owned bakery chain La Boulange, tells Fortune.
“Fortunately for me, they didn’t call me last, they called me first,” Phan says. “We’re moving on the same plane,” he added of the two companies’ common idea of selling kits. To Phan, the Munchery partnership is also a way to get his food to more people, especially those who can’t come to his restaurant.
The first lineup of meal kit options includes five Slanted Door-inspired dishes, along with two dessert options based on La Boulange’s own recipes. The kits are priced between $18 and $24, depending on the dish, and contain two portions.
Though meal delivery startups like Munchery, Caviar, Sprig, Postmates, and Doordash, to name a few, have dominated the conversation around hassle-free food delivery, meal kits have also begun to garner attention. Companies like Blue Apron, Plated, and HelloFresh are selling the promise of all the upsides of cooking from scratch, minus the hassles of coming up with recipes and shopping for ingredients. They ship to customers boxes with recipes and all the ingredients, in the right amounts, needed to prepare them.
While Munchery’s kits aim to ease these same inconveniences, there are a few small differences. For one, there’s no subscription obligation involved. Unlike companies like Blue Apron and Plated, which in fairness do let customers skip scheduled deliveries whenever they want, Munchery’s kits are ordered on an individual basis. They can combine them with Munchery’s prepared food, such as ordering a kit for the main dish and fully prepared sides, for example. Right now, San Francisco customers can order kits with as little as a 30-minute notice, while customers in the company’s other markets—Seattle, Los Angeles, and New York City—have to order by 2 p.m. for same-day delivery. Delivery fees are the same as for Munchery’s prepared meals: $4.50 for a short-notice delivery, and $2.95 for pre-scheduled deliveries.
Another difference, is that the ingredients in Munchery’s kits are a bit more prepared than those from Blue Apron or Plated. The Shaking Beef kit contained pre-cooked rice, and the beef and vegetables were already chopped. The cake in the chocolate fondant recipe was already baked and the strawberry syrup pre-made. If anything, they more closely resemble those of startup Din, formerly called Forage, which also ships easy-to-assemble recipes inspired by restaurants like San Francisco’s Tacolicious. The approach also reminds me of my own grocery shopping, which often involves buying partially prepared or frozen items I can quickly combine with fresh meat or veggies—not exactly cooking from scratch.
But that might just be the first step to cooking some of Munchery’s customers need. To Rigo, these kits could be the boost of confidence they need to start exploring cooking.
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For more on food delivery, watch this Fortune video: | This probably won’t end well. | 122.142857 | 0.571429 | 0.571429 | high | low | abstractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443816804578004542783933104 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802150325id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10000872396390443816804578004542783933104 | All Quiet Except for the Singing | 20160802150325 | Jessica Molaskey, a Broadway actress and singer, and her husband, singer and guitarist John Pizzarelli, own a tiny, 1,100-square-foot cabin perched at the top of two grassy acres that slope down to a beach and a wood dock.
It's the kind of place where neighbors sing and play guitar together. Parties start at one house, migrate to the next and the whole group ends up in the lake swimming together late at night. "It still has a certain innocence to it," said Mr. Pizzarelli, 52-year-old son of well-known jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli.
Getting to the front door of the couple's house, which was originally built as a fishing cabin, means climbing a steep flight of wood steps. That opens into a narrow screened-in porch with pine floors, antique wicker sofas and chairs and an 8-foot-long handmade wood table. Windows along one side overlook Barrett Pond. The ambience is rustic and homespun, with colorful quilts, braided rugs and pillows. In the living room is a stone fireplace with antique hand-painted photos, bark cloth curtains from the 1930s and a collection of green and white bowls and plates.
The narrow galley kitchen, with an old electric stove and red-painted cabinets, is squeezed between the master bedroom—wood walls, low ceilings, barely enough space to walk around the bed—and a small dining area. Upstairs is a loft where their 14-year-old daughter, Maddie, plays board games. Acoustic guitars and banjos lean against walls.
The dock is where Mr. Pizzarelli likes to practice his songs. The lake is vacuumed annually, and boats from other lakes are not allowed, to prevent the introduction of foreign materials. No motor boats are allowed, either. Because of community rules, few homes are visible to each other.
Mr. Pizzarelli and Ms. Molaskey, also 52, first met on Broadway, working on an ill-fated show called "Dream." Now they perform together in an annual show at Café Carlyle, singing hybrids of songs by artists as diverse as Neil Young, Billy Joel, the Beatles and Wes Montgomery. Mr. Pizzarelli, whose latest album, "Double Exposure," was released earlier this year, also plays with his brother, Martin, on bass, and with his father. In 2008 his "With a Song in My Heart" was nominated for a Grammy Award, and he performed with Paul McCartney at this year's Grammys.
The couple bought the cabin in 2004 for $400,000 as a place that felt safe after the events of Sept. 11, 2001. They wanted to find a place where they knew they could be back in the city in an hour—and that they could get to by bicycle in case of an extreme emergency. "When you're in theater, when you have to be on Broadway for a performance, you can't be stuck in traffic," said Ms. Molaskey. They put in new windows, redid the electrical systems and replaced the wood chips in front of the house with grass.
Their cabin is part of a community that dates to 1927 called the Sedgewood Club, a private club with 80 homes, a nine-hole golf course, a practice green, two tennis courts, a pro shop, and a lake club set on 250 acres with two private lakes. A four-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,048-square-foot home on 3 acres is for sale for $829,000.
Their time at the cabin contrasts dramatically with their life in Manhattan, where they rent two floors of a brownstone on the Upper West Side. "In the city I am forced to go outside and deal with the world. This is nothing like what I am used to," said their daughter, Maddie; she likes to sit in her tiny room and hear her dad playing the guitar on the dock and her mother singing in the yard outside. "Nothing happens up here. There's nowhere to go and nothing to do," said Mr. Pizzarelli. The phone never rings: If their neighbors want to talk, they come over.
The quiet allows them to do much of their musical work from the cabin. The process starts on the drive up, when they have "musical conversations. She'll sing one thing and I'll sing another," said Mr. Pizzarelli. Once there, they might procrastinate for a few days. But soon he is sitting at the long wood table, staring at the lake and creating the music for his records. "I come up with great ideas here. There's so little noise you can hear the wind," he said. They often co-host the syndicated radio show "Radio Deluxe With John Pizzarelli," from the cabin.
Even when they are working, they wear bathing suits all day in the summer. They make a daily trip to the store for dinner ingredients. Mr. Pizzarelli cooks almost every night and invites the neighbors over for tastings. Sometimes Mr. Pizzarelli's parents and brother come out for osso buco and a night on the back patio of loud music and gin, leading Ms. Molaskey to dub them the "Von Trapps on martinis."
This past Fourth of July involved a neighborhood party that moved from house to house, ending with everyone watching the town's fireworks while swimming in the lake. "It isn't structured. We don't plan until the last minute. Then we just put it together and have a great time," says Kevin Ryan, who runs a landscape-design company and owns a vacation house next door to Mr. Pizzarelli and Ms. Molaskey. "You can't be spontaneous like that in New York."
Mr. Ryan and his partner, Rob Ashford, the Tony Award-winning director and choreographer of productions like "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," are part of the crowd. Others include Kevin McCollum (a producer of "Rent") and Devin Keudell (a Broadway general manager).
In the winter, a former Olympic skater with a house in the neighborhood clears the lake for skating. When it snows, they all sled with their children. Last weekend was a swim party they called a "sacrificial baptism": the last swim of the summer.
Write to Nancy Keates at nancy.keates@wsj.com | A musical couple find their inspiration at their home north of Manhattan. | 94.461538 | 0.846154 | 0.846154 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703806304576243170455517928 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802160053id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB10001424052748703806304576243170455517928 | Overlooking Lake Austin | 20160802160053 | Tom Meredith bought this 1980s home on nearly two acres in Austin, Texas, about 18 years ago. The property overlooks Lake Austin. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
Since purchasing the home, he and his wife, Lynn, have renovated the kitchen and the sunroom. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The two-story main house has high ceilings and hardwood floors. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
There are six bedrooms, and 6½ bathrooms. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The home also has an office and a gym. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
Shown here is the wine room, which can hold over 3,000 bottles, Mr. Meredith says. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The Merediths added a deck house, primarily used for entertaining, in 1999. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The separate structure has a pool and about 3,500 square feet of decking, Mr. Meredith says. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The deck house has its own living room, shown here. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
Mr. Meredith, 60, is a co-founder and general partner of investment management firm Meritage Capital. He and his wife have four children, who range in age from 19 to 31. Shown here is the view from the deck house. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
"We're empty nesters now," Mr. Meredith says. "My wife and I were both born and raised in urban environments. It's time for us to live downtown." Mr. Meredith hails from Philadelphia, and his wife is from New York City. The dining area shown here is in the main house. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The Merediths moved into the penthouse unit at the Four Seasons Residence in Austin last fall. Pictured here is the sunroom of the main house. Paul Finkel/Piston Design …
The home was listed about a year ago for $5.4 million but has since dropped to $4.95 million. Diane Dopson of Diane Dopson Properties has the listing. Paul Finkel/Piston Design … | The owners of this Texas home renovated the main house and added a deck house with its own living area and a pool. | 16.583333 | 0.916667 | 1.916667 | medium | medium | mixed |
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB862435687289094500 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802175045id_/http://www.wsj.com:80/articles/SB862435687289094500 | When Vacations Go Awry, More Travelers Sue Agents | 20160802175045 | Lisa Miller Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
Did you have a lousy vacation?
Have you considered suing your travel agent?
Travel agents are the latest targets in the country's love affair with litigation. People are suing them for canceled flights, unrenovated hotel rooms, even run-of-the-mill holiday glitches, such as tumbling off a horse. Kristin Passero, of Montville, Conn., recently tripped over an inflatable raft at an Aruba beach resort and broke her wrist. After getting no response from the foreign hotel, she has sued her local travel agent, Trek Tours, for negligence, charging, among other things, that they knew or should have known the resort violated U.S. safety standards.
Nowadays, "The best reason to use a travel agent is you've got someone to sue," says Thomas A. Dickerson, author of "Travel Law."
Sometimes, plaintiffs are even winning. They're getting their money back and winning damage awards for "emotional distress," "anguish and loss," even "harassment and annoyance." Most of these awards are relatively small -- in the $1,000 to $3,000 range -- but they're making travel agents nervous.
"It's a big scare," says Carol E. Metts, owner of Sincerely Yours Travel, Savannah, Ga. "The airplane's five hours late -- and you're looking at thousands of dollars you could personally be sued for." Ms. Metts is one of many agents who now arm themselves with liability insurance and boilerplate disclaimers, hoping these will protect them against being sued.
The number of these cases is hard to quantify, because so many are resolved in lower or small-claims courts. But Rodney E. Gould, a travel lawyer in Framingham, Mass., has seen his caseload double over the past five years. Alexander Anolik, a lawyer in San Francisco, says he testifies as an expert witness three or four times a month in a case against a travel agent -- three times as often as five years ago. Berkely Agency Limited, the nation's largest provider of liability insurance for travel agents, says the number of claims it pays that involve litigation has grown 25% since 1992.
The claims range from the profound to the petty. Roberto and Dana Sorgo bought their Italian honeymoon trip through Perillo Tours Inc., a tour operator in Woodcliff Lake, N.J. Before they departed, they specifically requested double beds in their hotels. But when they arrived in Venice, their hotel room had twin beds, leaving them unable to "consort with each other on their first and second nights as husband and wife," according to court papers. Then, the record continues, "events went from bad to worse," as one of their bags was lost. "We didn't get a honeymoon," says Mrs. Sorgo.
The Sorgos sued Perillo Tours for $100,000 for emotional distress -- on top of $7,540 in restitution for lost clothing and baggage. The U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York dismissed the case last April.
The travel industry blames plaintiffs lawyers for such cases, as well as a rash of bad publicity in recent years about tour-operator failures. Stan Bosco, who runs the consumer affairs division at the American Society of Travel Agents, now gets between 1,200 and 1,500 consumer complaints a year. A lot of them are about "stale breakfast Danishes, or 'I don't like this type of fish over that type of fish,' " he says. "You do get the feeling they may be complaining just to get something back."
But consumer advocates insist that a lot of these complaints are legitimate, based on real failures in service. In recent years, they point out, many agencies have been booking more trips than ever before -- with no more manpower. "In a sense, it's a sweatshop, piecework atmosphere," says Mark Pestronk, an Arlington, Va., lawyer specializing in travel law. "They're under more pressure to crank out the work fast, fast, fast."
What's more, travelers have gotten a boost from a few court rulings, beginning with a 1986 decision in Pennsylvania. A generation ago, travel agents were rarely held responsible for doing haphazard research or for withholding information that could bear on a traveler's trip.
But all that changed with Tuohey v. Trans National Travel Inc. Regina Tuohey's vacation to St. Maarten was ruined when she arrived at her hotel and found it under construction, and with no electricity, requiring her to bribe hotel workers to get her a room at another hotel. So she sued her travel agent. The Pennsylvania state court awarded her $25,000 in damages, saying the travel agent should have known the hotel was a wreck. The 1987 decision reads: "Loss of a year's vacation, long awaited and eagerly anticipated, is an irreplaceable loss."
Now many travel agents are fighting back. "I'm always figuring out how not to get sued," says Steve Danishek, a travel agent in Seattle. Berkely now insures 22,000 travel-agent locations against "errors and omissions," a 20% increase since 1992. ASTA strongly recommends its members purchase such insurance. Moreover, disclaimers of every stripe are becoming industry practice. Carlson Wagonlit, based in Minneapolis, prints one on every ticket jacket. Mr. Anolik has devised a boilerplate disclaimer, dubbed "the pink sheet," which he has disseminated to 36,000 travel agents.
The pink sheet relieves the travel agent from responsibility for injury, damage or loss associated with any "terrorist activities, social or labor unrest, mechanical or construction failures or difficulties, diseases, local laws, climactic conditions, abnormal conditions or developments, or any other actions, omissions or conditions outside the travel agent's control."
Blake Schulman doesn't care much about disclaimers. Mr. Schulman, a sophomore at the University of Michigan, went to Cancun through Take A Break Student Travel and, along with 15,000 other college students nationwide, was stranded when Take A Break's charter planes were grounded by the Federal Aviation Administration. Mr. Schulman was already in Cancun, and wound up going back to school three days later than planned. "We were upset," says Mr. Schulman. He was running out of money, he says, and "I couldn't go to the bars, we ate really cheap, I missed two days of class."
His older brother Scott, an attorney in Pennsauken, N.J., has sued Take A Break for restitution and damages. How much? "At least a few thousand dollars," says the elder Mr. Schulman. "It was a huge inconvenience to him." | T ravel agents are the latest targets in the country's love affair with litigation. People are suing them for canceled flights, unrenovated hotel rooms, even run-of-the-mill holiday glitches, such as tumbling off a horse. | 27.595745 | 0.93617 | 39.361702 | medium | medium | extractive |
http://m.bbc.com/sport/tennis/36937686 | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802184454id_/http://m.bbc.com:80/sport/tennis/36937686 | Rogers Cup: Simona Halep beats Madison Keys in Montreal | 20160802184454 | Simona Halep beat Madison Keys in straight sets in the Rogers Cup final in Montreal.
The Romanian, 24, won 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to claim her third title of the year.
However, the world number five was unable to add a second title as she and compatriot Monica Niculescu were beaten by Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the doubles final.
Makarova and Vesnina, who will represent their country at the Rio Olympics, won 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).
It was a different matter in the singles where fifth seed Halep eventually breezed through a tie-break against the 21-year-old American after a first set that saw eight breaks of serve.
Halep, who also beat Keys in the fourth round at Wimbledon, broke again in the second set and never looked troubled thereafter.
You can now add tennis alerts in the BBC Sport app - simply head to the menu and My Alerts section | Simona Halep beats Madison Keys in straight sets in the Rogers Cup final in Montreal but loses out in the doubles final. | 8.391304 | 0.826087 | 7.521739 | low | medium | mixed |
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/travel/seven-gay-hotels-in-new-york.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160802200557id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2012/03/18/travel/seven-gay-hotels-in-new-york.html? | To Be a Hotel and Gay in New York | 20160802200557 | ON a recent Saturday night at the new XL nightclub on West 42nd Street, revelers danced with abandon on a sunken floor while the D.J. Manny Lehman spun a percussive house mix, lights flashed, go-go boys undulated on raised platforms and bartenders busily mixed cocktails. I’m really not the party-all-night type, but I stayed pretty late, given that my bed was a short walk away through a couple of glass doors that lead to a Manhattan hotel lobby.
Welcome to the Out NYC, whose owners have called it both the first gay hotel in New York and a “straight-friendly urban resort.” Located in way west Clinton between 10th and 11th Avenues, the three-story, 70,000-square-foot hotel, the brainchild of Ian Simpson Reisner, a managing partner of Parkview Developers, has 105 rooms. The XL nightclub and bar are just off the lobby; a restaurant and other amenities are in the works.
So my question was: in a place like New York City, what does being a gay hotel mean, exactly?
To answer that, I nosed around a handful of New York hotels that identify themselves as gay or gay friendly and gave myself a bit of a history lesson in the process.
The general litmus test for a gay-friendly place is whether it is TAG-approved, a standard established by an organization called Community Marketing Inc. to identify businesses that have a nondiscrimination policy and offer diversity training for their staff members, for instance. Many hotels in New York are TAG-approved, but a few (some founded, quietly, decades ago) do more than simply assure gay guests and employees of a comfortable environment, and actively cater to gay clientele.
Since the Out is certainly the biggest, blingiest and most brazen of them all, I started there, checking in on March 3, along with my partner, Brett, and a couple of lesbian friends who could help assess whether gay-themed actually meant only gay-male themed.
We showed up separately; the women got a room right away while we had to wait almost an hour. So Out passed our secret lesbian discrimination test but lost points for not having my room ready until almost 5 p.m., despite a 3 p.m. check-in time. (It was opening weekend, so kinks were still being worked out.)
After checking in, we headed up to our room, passing areas still blocked off for construction. It felt a bit like going to a Broadway show during technical rehearsals.
But the unfinished feeling did not extend to the service. Every employee I encountered was friendly. The staff was pretty much universally attractive, too. (The majority of the employees also seemed to be male.)
Our second-floor room was done in black-and-white minimalist chic. White furniture and sheets popped out against dark curtains and a black carpet. There was no closet; the storage space was in the bathroom, where a hanging rod was big enough for only a few shirts.
Pluses included a big flat-screen television mounted on the wall at the foot of the bed, room-darkening shades, a king bed with a perfect mattress and soft, pristine sheets.
Another plus: the whole bathroom. The glass bowl sink, coffee-colored ceramic tiles on the walls and stone-floored open shower stall were sleek and attractive. One shower wall is a mirror, and there’s another huge mirror over the sink and an even bigger one at the head of the bed. It’s tough to hide from reflective surfaces here; learn to love your body.
Directly outside our door was the “great lawn,” an outdoor expanse covered in AstroTurf with brightly colored beanbag chairs scattered about. Eventually almost all of the rooms will open or look out onto this space or one of the two other courtyards being completed. (One will feature plants and tables; the other will have hot tubs, a reflecting pool, a waterfall, cabanas and areas for sunbathing.)
The proximity of the courtyards — open to all guests — to room windows creates a sort of fishbowl effect in that people can stare in and out pretty easily. This may have some people feeling exposed while, say, sunbathing; others might not want to seem to be voyeurs.
I could hear every conversation as people walked by our door, too, though the courtyard was mostly empty during our stay. I wondered if the front desk would start getting noise complaints when the place is more crowded with late-night revelers. (Our lesbian friends won again on this point; they found earplugs on their pillows upon check-in.)
Also, since these courtyards will provide most of the common space (the lobby’s lounge area is pretty small), bad weather is likely to hinder socializing.
But there’s always XL for that. The club, run by the promoter John Blair, is a 14,000-square-foot complex comprising one bar facing 42nd Street, the sunken dance floor, two more bars, a V.I.P. seating area and a huge D.J. booth.
A cabaret space with tables some nights and a giant dance party others, the club was little more than a month old but was in full swing by midnight on the night I stayed.
Watching the crowd (mixed but mostly male) I was reminded of the hotel’s goal: to provide a place that is not just gay friendly but that is out and proud — or, as Mr. Reisner told me on the phone a few days after my stay, “a place that was built from the gay point of view from the ground up.”
The Out certainly seems gay in terms of the balance of gay to straight guests (about 80 percent of them are gay, Mr. Reisner said), and based on the scene I saw at the club and the staff of mostly model-pretty men.
There is also a more-abstract measure. As Cristian Bonetto, a travel writer for Lonely Planet, told me in a recent e-mail, some gay travelers seek “an all-out, proactive ‘green light’ to be themselves,” and the Out surely offers this.
Mr. Reisner said he specifically wanted to do something better and more unapologetically gay than the smaller gay inns of yesteryear. Here are some thoughts on a few of those, and the other places I recently checked out.
A version of this article appears in print on March 18, 2012, on page TR9 of the New York edition with the headline: To Be a Hotel and Gay in New York. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | Going undercover at Manhattan’s newest gay hotel, The Out NYC. | 99.230769 | 0.846154 | 1.307692 | high | medium | abstractive |
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/05/25/this-is-the-one-thing-millennials-want-most-from-a-job/21383626/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803022137id_/http://www.aol.com:80/article/2016/05/25/this-is-the-one-thing-millennials-want-most-from-a-job/21383626/ | This is the one thing millennials want most from a job | 20160803022137 | Do they want their egos to be stroked every day? Actually, no.
Absurdly Driven looks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.
The accusations have already been leveled.
The legends have already been created.
Millennials are the biggest, most egotistical, most painfully oblivious generation since, oh, the last generation aged around 20-something.
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They apparently demand constant attention.
They want their egos stroked more often than your cat wants you to rub its back.
Not only are they needy, but they also think they're so very great and greedy.
Can this all be true? Perhaps in Silicon Valley.
But in the wider world, perhaps not so much.
A new survey by the Manpower Group shows that besides the obvious of money, millennials are desperate for one thing: job security.
87 percent insisted that this was the thing they most craved from a job.
5 crucial tips to land a job after graduation:
This is the one thing millennials want most from a job
Take advantage of your college career center Most universities offer career coaching from trained professionals who specialize in development and advancement. Whether or not you have an idea of your career plans post-college, it can be beneficial to take a few hours out of your day and set up an appointment with one of the counselors. Many times, these professionals can review and help you tailor your resumé and cover letter. To top it off, because of their experience and networks in various industries, counselors have the potential to connect you with hiring managers.
Begin creating and using your network One of the most important aspects to finding a job is taking advantage of your professional and personal network. Your connections can vary from your family members and friends to your professors and alumni. If you feel as if you're lacking a valuable network, however, business association events and gatherings are the best way to gain important contacts.
This piece of advice may be the most obvious, but many students fail to take advantage of it. Careers fairs orchestrated by your specific college are invaluable. They allow you to not only learn about opportunities in your respective career, but it also allows you the opportunity to network with hiring managers and employers of the companies present.
It goes without saying that we live in a social media world. Everything you do online can be tracked, so it's important to make sure you are representing your personality and style accurately, and in the best possible light -- you never know who may be looking at your page.
Always follow up With the advancement of modern technology, most job applications are done online. Because of this new process, it oftentimes makes it harder to find the person of contact to follow up with. However, you shouldn't let that initial obstacle prevent you from following up. If you can't find the name of the hiring manager directly reviewing your application, use LinkedIn to do a search of the next best person to reach out to. Many potential employees miss out on interviews by not being proactive and sending follow up emails.
You might think this survey must have been done in Greece, where jobs are scarce.
But, no. It was performed across 25 countries.
Millennials represent 35 percent of the global workforce. They aren't necessarily well-represented by Yelp employees who moan about their CEO in public.
It's true that in some countries -- Greece, Italy and Japan, for example -- millennials are a lot less optimistic than those in countries such as China, the US and Mexico.
(In Japan, 37 percent of millennials believe they'll have to work until they die.)
But the millennials in this survey actually want to develop and rise within the same company, as long as that company can treat them well.
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This might begin to explain why, in a recent Fortune survey, among the companies millennials most liked working at was Edward Jones -- hardly the symbol of glamor.
Another misconception about millennials is that they adore the so-called Gig Economy.
You know, the one in which the company you work for doesn't have to pay so many of your benefits.
75 percent of millennials are in full-time employment. In the US, a mere 3 percent work are Giggers.
Some might have imagined that millennials are really looking for softer values as flexibility or purposefulness.
Instead, after job security came "Holidays/Time Off" and "Great People."
Yes, millennials want a good quality of life. Who can blame them? They've seen previous generations work themselves into paralysis.
But they understand they won't be able to achieve that quality of life without stable employment.
The problem, of course, is that they can trust very few employers to offer that stable employment.
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When all that matters to so many employers is the quarterly numbers and the board's bonuses, is it any wonder that millennials can get a little pushy?
Perhaps it's not because they have huge egos.
Perhaps it's just that they're scared of being the first out the door when the numbers turn even slightly sour.
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Now, check out the 10 worst jobs of 2016:
This is the one thing millennials want most from a job
#10: Firefighter Score: 626 Annual median salary: $45,970 Growth outlook: 5%
#9: Taxi Driver Score: 627 Annual median salary: $23,210 Growth outlook: 13%
#8: Advertising sales person Score: 636 Annual median salary: $47,890 Growth outlook: -3%
#7: Retail sales person Score: 642 Annual median salary: $21,670 Growth outlook: 7%
#6: Pest control worker Score: 665 Annual median salary: $30,660 Growth outlook: -1%
#5: Enlisted military personnel Score: 666 Annual median salary: $27,936 Growth outlook: N/A
#4: Disc jockey Score: 667 Annual median salary: $29,010 Growth outlook: -11%
#3: Broadcaster Score: 700 Annual median salary: $37,200 Growth outlook: -9%
#2: Logger Score: 724 Annual median salary: $35,160 Growth outlook: -4%
#1: Newspaper reporter Score: 734 Annual median salary: $37,200 Growth outlook: -9% | A new survey by the Manpower Group shows that besides the obvious of money, millennials are desperate for one other thing. | 57.956522 | 0.956522 | 17.478261 | high | high | extractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/childrens-books/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-parts-one--two-a-complement-to/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803055127id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/books/childrens-books/harry-potter-and-the-cursed-child-parts-one--two-a-complement-to/ | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: even on the page, the emotion is devastating | 20160803055127 | If you’re not familiar with the original books and characters, good luck following all this: the new story dives straight into the action, with no pause for recaps. But its combination of pacy plotting and wit-driven dialogue, though written by Thorne, feels fully part of Rowling’s vision. Many favourite characters from the earlier books are revisited and even resurrected.
One of the most successful things about the live theatre show is its jaw-dropping on-stage special effects. It can be hard to visualise these through stage directions alone: the reader is left wondering how on earth characters visibly become one another, exchange magical spells and transform objects into new things before the audience’s eyes.
More fundamentally, the stage show’s success rests on a combination of plot, performance, direction and sheer spectacle – on the page, the script feels like a skeleton of that overall intended experience. | A new Harry Potter book has gone on sale, and it’ | 14.5 | 0.416667 | 0.416667 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/fame-fortune/gareth-gates-selling-tea-will-make-me-more-money-than-selling-re/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803060124id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/money/fame-fortune/gareth-gates-selling-tea-will-make-me-more-money-than-selling-re/ | Gareth Gates: 'Selling tea will make me more money than selling records' | 20160803060124 | It includes a huge house and I took out a mortgage for £680,000. I own several properties now and I’ve always been advised to keep cash. So whenever I can get a mortgage, I keep the cash.
We all went around to see the farm at the same time and my parents loved it, so I said, “Well let’s get it!” They were over the moon and it was a wonderful moment. I watched my dad work so hard just to get me singing lessons, so to be able to give my parents a house gave me a great feeling.
I’ve never been too lavish and always watched my money. My dad oversees everything for me and looks after my finance and lawyers. He’s always telling me to be careful.
I’m now a businessman, so I’m a saver when I can be, but I have lots of outgoings. I have a daughter who loves all things Disney, so I need to work hard to provide that.
My best move wasn’t investing in The McGuire [speech therapy] Programme, because it wasn’t a financial investment. But in terms of life-changing impact, I couldn’t do this interview without it.
It’s a constant battle. If I’m stressed or low, my stammer comes back and I’ve had a difficult time with my speech of late. I’ve had lots on, bringing lots of stress, but if I have put the work in, I can see big results.
The moment I stray from the programme – not doing my breathing, voice exercises and forcing myself to do things I don’t want to – is the moment I struggle.
Speaking to strangers is my hardest challenge. I don’t like being a stammerer. I want to be a fluent, perfect speaker like anybody else but I’m hampered by my speech.
It wasn’t until I accepted what I am – a stammerer working hard at my speech – that I started to see results.
I made a bad investment eight years ago, when I invested in stocks and shares and lost £250,000. It was stressful and I didn’t know what to do.
I had money in property but that took up pretty much all of my cash. It was a difficult time and I had to start again and rebuild.
Well, I haven’t done it for a while, which is purely down to my speech, which hasn’t been up to scratch.
But I’ve instructed 11 courses now and the response is great. I do a lot for stammering by heightening awareness of it. I guess I give them something to aspire to, although when they meet me initially it tends to make their stammer worse!
My journey is probably the most publicised journey of all stammerers. Whenever I see improvements in others, I find it massively rewarding.
There’s no greater personal achievement than heightening awareness and helping stammerers gain some level of control.
I’m fortunate that I make a good living from performing. I’m in Footloose right now and I do my own gigs that bring in lots of money.
However, the industry isn’t what it was, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve been in the charts, so recently I decided to put more effort into business.
I’ve created the world’s first range of coconut teas, Cuppanut, and my life for the past six months has been real hard labour. | Bradford teenager Gareth Gates was a shy 17-year-old with spiky hair and a stammer when he was runner-up to Pop Idol winner Will Young in 2002. | 21.870968 | 0.483871 | 0.612903 | medium | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/what-to-see/the-real-vixens-who-inspired-janaceks-masterpiece/ | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803122410id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/opera/what-to-see/the-real-vixens-who-inspired-janaceks-masterpiece/ | The real 'vixens' who inspired Janáček's masterpiece | 20160803122410 | Janáček himself had an inkling that his art depended on the beloved remaining idealised. In a letter of 1924 to Stösslová he wrote, “Who knows, if fate had united us closely, whether I would have needed this art, whether it would ever have made itself felt within me at all?” And in another letter of 1927, the year before he died, he declared that “in my compositions where pure feeling, sincerity, truth, and burning love exude warmth, you’re the one through whom the touching melodies come”.
And what of The Cunning Little Vixen? There’s something particular about the passion in this opera. It takes place between two animals, the “sharp-eared vixen”, the heroine, and the handsome fox she meets after her escape from captivity. The idea that the “dark-eyed gypsy” Stösslová was a model for Vixen Sharp-Ears seems implausible, yet Janáček thought there was a connection between the stories Stösslová told of her treatment at the hands of her grandfather and the way the cunning vixen escapes from prison. “You really didn’t want to go to school,” he wrote in that same letter of 1927. “Your grandfather tied you to a rope and led you. You went along crying, and almost bit through the rope and ran off!” In Janáček’s opera the Vixen bites through the leash that binds her to the forester’s yard, and runs away to find her handsome fox.
It may look like a case of art imitating life, but Stösslova didn’t tell Janáček this story until years after he’d finished the opera. My feeling is the real connection between her and the opera lies in the contrast between the happy, fulfilled lives of the animals and the disappointed lives of the human characters. Janáček saw himself in the old schoolmaster, a man “at the sad end of life”. In the blissful life of the Vixen and her mate Janáček saw himself as he could have been, if the demands of art had not come between him and the woman he adored.
The Cunning Little Vixen is at Glyndebourne June 12 to July 31. Tickets: 01273 815000; glyndebourne.com | As The Cunning Little Vixen returns to Glyndebourne, Ivan Hewett looks at the buttoned-up life of its composer What is that drives men to create? | 14.482759 | 0.62069 | 1.172414 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/11764775/Plane-makes-impressive-landing-in-stormy-weather.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803141404id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/aviation/11764775/Plane-makes-impressive-landing-in-stormy-weather.html | Plane makes impressive landing in stormy weather | 20160803141404 | Landing a passenger plane full of people while being buffeted from all sides by stormy weather must be up there as one of the most stressful jobs in existence.
On Saturday, one KLM plane made a particularly wobbly landing in high winds - but the pilot kept their cool to land it safely.
The plane is clearly being rocked by the wind and is buffeted from side to side as it approaches the runway.
The plane withstands some pretty serious weather on the way down
But the pilot brings the wheels down and manages to land smoothly on the tarmac at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
It looks hair-raising from the ground, so imagine how terrifying it must have been for the passengers on the plane.
The plane banks to an alarming angle before it touches down
The Netherlands has been hit by storms which have killed one person. Fortunately this pilot's skill meant that none of his passengers became victims of the bad weather. | KLM pilot skillfully navigates high winds to land plane at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport | 12.2 | 0.8 | 1.6 | low | medium | mixed |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motoringvideo/12001936/Best-luxury-car-of-2015-Telegraph-Cars-YouTube-channel.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803150402id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/motoring/motoringvideo/12001936/Best-luxury-car-of-2015-Telegraph-Cars-YouTube-channel.html | Best luxury car of 2015: Telegraph Cars YouTube channel | 20160803150402 | But there are luxury cars, and there are luxury cars. Do you go for luxury, or super luxury in this category?
The winner depends on whether you plan to drive or be driven in the car.
Meanwhile, in the highest echelons of the market, the Bentley Mulsanne takes on the Rolls Royce Phantom in an all-British contest.
It is a close call to see which one makes it to the top of the rich-list.
Watch the video to find out.
The Rolls-Royce Phantom: can it beat the Bentley Mulsanne?
In the previous episode Chris and Rebecca chose the best sports car of 2015:
In the first episode Chris and Rebecca clashed on deciding which is the best small car of 2015: | Chris Knapman and Rebecca Jackson, presenters of the Telegraph Cars YouTube channel, choose the best luxury car of 2015 in their new series | 5.692308 | 0.576923 | 1.038462 | low | low | abstractive |
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/15/arts/design/a-bronte-exhibition-complete-with-a-jane-eyre-manuscript.html | http://web.archive.org/web/20160803151248id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/15/arts/design/a-bronte-exhibition-complete-with-a-jane-eyre-manuscript.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FInside+Art | A Brontë Exhibition, Complete With a ‘Jane Eyre’ Manuscript | 20160803151248 | In Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” Jane tells Mr. Rochester, “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will; which I now exert to leave you.”
Brontë’s original 1847 manuscript will be open to that page at the Morgan Library & Museum, starting Sept. 9. The document will be part of an exhibition honoring the 200th anniversary of Brontë’s birth, a collaboration with the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth, England, that purports to be the largest Brontë exhibition ever presented in New York City.
The show, “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” is to include literary manuscripts, letters and rare printed books from the Morgan’s collection, along with personal artifacts, drawings and photographs from the Parsonage.
In addition, the Morgan will borrow for the show two portraits of Brontë from the National Portrait Gallery in London (which currently has a Brontë portrait show) and the “Jane Eyre” manuscript from the British Library.
Highlights include Brontë’s earliest surviving miniature manuscript, her portable writing desk and paint box, a blue-and-white floral two-piece dress she wore in the 1850s and a pair of her ankle boots.
“The unifying theme of the exhibition is Brontë’s own independent will,” said Christine Nelson, the Morgan’s curator of literary and historical manuscripts, “the ambitious steps she took to attain creative success and the bold stance she took as a woman writing under a male pseudonym,” Currer Bell.
Lawrence Weiner’s “Cadmium & Mud & Titanium & Lead & Ferrous Oxide & So On …” was first displayed as part of his solo exhibition “Displacement,” at Dia Center for the Arts in New York City in 1991. The work was a bold rethinking of what a sculpture could be, in which words — like “metals” and “mud” — were written across the floor, substituting language for actual materials.
Now, 25 years later, that piece is returning to the Dia Art Foundation for good. It will be permanently installed at Dia:Beacon in the Hudson Valley, on the museum’s back facade, an area previously off limits to visitors.
“It’s a piece that I’m very attached to and it was in my first show at Dia,” Mr. Weiner said in a telephone interview. “It was a way of building a structure that didn’t have a hierarchy of what was dangerous and what was necessary.”
Starting next Friday, the work will be visible from the back lawn and from the Metro-North trains that pass the museum.
“Everything that’s in the piece really summarizes the work that’s in the building,” said Jessica Morgan, Dia’s director, “materials that can be used in the process of making.”
Between 1983 and 2000, the artist Donald Sultan created his “Disaster Paintings,” featuring images of fire and industrial mishaps rendered in Masonite tiles and tar. But over the years, they have scattered to various public institutions and private collections.
Now, apparently for the first time, a group of them will be shown together at not one museum, but five in succession.
Opening at the Lowe Art Museum in Coral Cables, Fla., on Sept. 29, “Donald Sultan: The Disaster Paintings” will include 11 of the 73 works in the series.
The show will then travel to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; the Smithsonian Museum of American Art in Washington; the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh; and the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln, Neb.
“They’re quite dark — you’re in the middle of a toxic spill or the pollution of rivers or the Rust Belt disintegration of factories,” Mr. Sultan said. “I wanted people to see them again and re-evaluate them.”
While Mr. Sultan used imagery from newspaper photos as his source material, the paintings have powerful resonance today, said Alison Hearst, an assistant curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, which organized the show.
“It’s a relevant moment to show a body of work, given all that’s going on in the world,” she said. “He’s talking about the life and death of architecture, industry — the man-made colliding with the natural.”
The show will be accompanied by a book published by Prestel, which features the entire series.
“The idea was, all these things happen simultaneously in our lives — decay and fecundity,” Mr. Sultan said. “Architecture or systems, no matter how strong, are fragile, and empires come and go.”
“The works were never meant to be political — I’m not making statements about the inhumanity of man or the nostalgia for the industrial heartland,” he continued. “They’re just facts. Being confronted with truths.”
The collective GCC, composed of eight artists with ties to the Persian Gulf, was formed in 2013 during Art Dubai and has since shown at institutions like the New Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and MoMA PS1.
On Oct. 13, the collective is coming to the Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery with “Positive Pathways (+),” an exhibition that includes installations, wall sculptures, video and sound.
The show focuses on how the “positive energy movement” and body-healing practitioners, which are gaining momentum in the Middle East, have become partly co-opted by local governments, with the creation of new positions like the United Arab Emirates’ minister of happiness, and the emergence of life coaches and feng shui consultants.
“They are commenting on the culture of the West,” said Lucy Mitchell-Innes, a founder of the gallery, “and how it’s being used in various Arab countries in the Middle East.”
Ever since the Arthouse at the Jones Center and the Austin Museum of Art merged in 2011 and became the Contemporary Austin in 2013, this Texas museum has sought to define itself as an institution that commissions new work.
Now the museum is announcing a $100,000 unrestricted award to be given to an artist every two years, financed by Suzanne Deal Booth, a museum trustee.
The Suzanne Deal Booth Art Prize will underwrite a solo exhibition for the winning artist — along with a publication and public programming — at the museum’s downtown Jones Center or its outdoor sculpture park.
“It does all the things we want to be doing as a contemporary art program,” Louis Grachos, the museum’s executive director, said of the prize, “pushing artists to create a new body of work.”
A version of this article appears in print on July 15, 2016, on page C18 of the New York edition with the headline: A Brontë Exhibition, ‘Jane Eyre’ Included. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe | To celebrate that author’s 200th birthday, the Morgan Library & Museum will host “Charlotte Brontë: An Independent Will,” opening on Sept. 9. | 46.275862 | 0.862069 | 3.896552 | high | medium | mixed |
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