Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Hidden Figures - $5
Amazon has the digital version of the movie "Hidden Figures" on sale today for $5. The same as the rental price.
America's Bigot in Chief
An excerpt from the Chicago Sun Times -
EDITORIAL: Donald Trump, America’s bigot in chief
Children, cover your ears.
Decent people, speak out.
Fellow Americans, do you share our sense of shame?
Just when we thought President Donald Trump could embarrass our nation no worse, after he declined for two full days to denounce the white supremacists who brought deadly violence to Charlottesville, Virginia — and after doing so only with pouting reluctance, reading from a script — he revealed his true self again on Tuesday, and it was ugly.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump was so eager to spread the rumor Barack Obama was not a legal American. He is determined to slam the door on desperate refugees who, God forbid, are Muslims. He so wants to build that stupid “wall.”
The haters who marched in Charlottesville carried photos of Trump.
A better president — a better man — would have cried at the sight.
This is how Donald Trump will go down in American history, as our bigot in chief.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/editorial-donald-trump-americas-bigot-in-chief/
EDITORIAL: Donald Trump, America’s bigot in chief
Children, cover your ears.
Decent people, speak out.
Fellow Americans, do you share our sense of shame?
Just when we thought President Donald Trump could embarrass our nation no worse, after he declined for two full days to denounce the white supremacists who brought deadly violence to Charlottesville, Virginia — and after doing so only with pouting reluctance, reading from a script — he revealed his true self again on Tuesday, and it was ugly.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump was so eager to spread the rumor Barack Obama was not a legal American. He is determined to slam the door on desperate refugees who, God forbid, are Muslims. He so wants to build that stupid “wall.”
The haters who marched in Charlottesville carried photos of Trump.
A better president — a better man — would have cried at the sight.
This is how Donald Trump will go down in American history, as our bigot in chief.
http://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/editorial-donald-trump-americas-bigot-in-chief/
Secrets and Sorrow
An excerpt form the Boston Globe -
Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow
By Michael Rezendes
HE CARRIED HIS DOUBTS and disappointment across miles and decades, from childhood to adulthood, and finally at the age of 48 to the kitchen table of a modest house outside of Buffalo. There, he would ask an elderly aunt and uncle to help him answer the question that had troubled him all his life: Why had his father always seemed to dislike him so much?
With his parents already dead, Jim Graham pleaded with his Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Otto to tell him the truth about his family. Finally, Kathryn unfolded a newsletter published by a Catholic religious order and slid it across the table. She jabbed a finger at a picture of a sad, balding figure wearing a priest’s clerical collar.
“Only the principals know for sure,” she said, “but this may be your father.”
Jim Graham studied the picture. Those were his eyes, his nose, his mouth. Then he skimmed the obituary of the priest, the Rev. Thomas Sullivan, a cleric who had graduated from Boston College and trained for the priesthood in Tewksbury.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Graham couldn’t know in that moment that the stunning secret which had seemed his alone was not that unusual. By any reasonable measure, there are thousands of others who have strong evidence that they are the sons and daughters of Catholic priests, though most are unaware that they have so much company in their pain. In Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Paraguay, and other countries, in American cities big and small — indeed, virtually anywhere the church has a presence — the children of priests form an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect, a Spotlight Team review has found.
Their exact number can’t be known, but with more than 400,000 priests worldwide, many of them inconstant in their promise of celibacy, the potential for unplanned children is vast. And this also comes through loud and plain: The sons and daughters of priests often grow up without the love and support of their fathers, and are often pressured or shamed into keeping the existence of the relationship a secret. They are the unfortunate victims of a church that has, for nearly 900 years, forbidden priests to marry or have sex, but has never set rules for what priests or bishops must do when a clergyman fathers a child.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/16/father-father-children-catholic-priests-live-with-secrets-and-sorrow/mvYO5SOxAxZYJBi8XxiaqN/story.html?event=event12
Children of Catholic priests live with secrets and sorrow
By Michael Rezendes
HE CARRIED HIS DOUBTS and disappointment across miles and decades, from childhood to adulthood, and finally at the age of 48 to the kitchen table of a modest house outside of Buffalo. There, he would ask an elderly aunt and uncle to help him answer the question that had troubled him all his life: Why had his father always seemed to dislike him so much?
With his parents already dead, Jim Graham pleaded with his Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Otto to tell him the truth about his family. Finally, Kathryn unfolded a newsletter published by a Catholic religious order and slid it across the table. She jabbed a finger at a picture of a sad, balding figure wearing a priest’s clerical collar.
“Only the principals know for sure,” she said, “but this may be your father.”
Jim Graham studied the picture. Those were his eyes, his nose, his mouth. Then he skimmed the obituary of the priest, the Rev. Thomas Sullivan, a cleric who had graduated from Boston College and trained for the priesthood in Tewksbury.
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Graham couldn’t know in that moment that the stunning secret which had seemed his alone was not that unusual. By any reasonable measure, there are thousands of others who have strong evidence that they are the sons and daughters of Catholic priests, though most are unaware that they have so much company in their pain. In Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Paraguay, and other countries, in American cities big and small — indeed, virtually anywhere the church has a presence — the children of priests form an invisible legion of secrecy and neglect, a Spotlight Team review has found.
Their exact number can’t be known, but with more than 400,000 priests worldwide, many of them inconstant in their promise of celibacy, the potential for unplanned children is vast. And this also comes through loud and plain: The sons and daughters of priests often grow up without the love and support of their fathers, and are often pressured or shamed into keeping the existence of the relationship a secret. They are the unfortunate victims of a church that has, for nearly 900 years, forbidden priests to marry or have sex, but has never set rules for what priests or bishops must do when a clergyman fathers a child.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/16/father-father-children-catholic-priests-live-with-secrets-and-sorrow/mvYO5SOxAxZYJBi8XxiaqN/story.html?event=event12
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
When a Computer System Screwed Up
From the Sydney Morning Herald -
The untold story of QF72: What happens when 'psycho' automation leaves pilots powerless?
For the first time, the captain of the imperilled Qantas Flight 72 reveals his horrific experience of automation's dark side: when one computer "went psycho" and put more than 300 passengers at risk.
By Matt O'Sullivan
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/the-untold-story-of-qf72-what-happens-when-psycho-automation-leaves-pilots-powerless-20170510-gw26ae.html
The untold story of QF72: What happens when 'psycho' automation leaves pilots powerless?
For the first time, the captain of the imperilled Qantas Flight 72 reveals his horrific experience of automation's dark side: when one computer "went psycho" and put more than 300 passengers at risk.
By Matt O'Sullivan
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/the-untold-story-of-qf72-what-happens-when-psycho-automation-leaves-pilots-powerless-20170510-gw26ae.html
The Writing on the Wall
An excerpt from Salon -
From “All Lives Matter” to the terror in Charlottesville: How the media’s phony fairness got us here
Too many journalists were complicit in the rise of Trump and refuse to call the terror in Virginia by its name
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
The white supremacists who ran amok in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend do not wear white robes. Nor do they cover their faces. Instead, this new generation of white supremacists wears a uniform that consists of khaki pants, white shirts and red “Make America Great Again” hats in emulation of their idol, the current president of the United States.
Their regalia may differ from that of the white supremacist terrorists who killed at least 50,000 black Americans in the decades following the Civil War, but the threats and intimidation are very much the same.
The neo-Nazis, Kluxers, members of the so-called alt-right and the other white supremacists who descended upon Charlottesville to “Unite the Right” attacked anti-racist counter-protesters with bats, clubs, poles and sticks.
They threatened people with assault rifles and pistols. They threatened to burn down a black church. They assaulted members of the clergy. This was no minor donnybrook or fracas. It was a rampage. And the police did little to stop the attacks.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/14/from-all-lives-matter-to-the-terror-in-charlottesville-how-the-medias-phony-fairness-got-us-here/
From “All Lives Matter” to the terror in Charlottesville: How the media’s phony fairness got us here
Too many journalists were complicit in the rise of Trump and refuse to call the terror in Virginia by its name
By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
The white supremacists who ran amok in Charlottesville, Virginia, last weekend do not wear white robes. Nor do they cover their faces. Instead, this new generation of white supremacists wears a uniform that consists of khaki pants, white shirts and red “Make America Great Again” hats in emulation of their idol, the current president of the United States.
Their regalia may differ from that of the white supremacist terrorists who killed at least 50,000 black Americans in the decades following the Civil War, but the threats and intimidation are very much the same.
The neo-Nazis, Kluxers, members of the so-called alt-right and the other white supremacists who descended upon Charlottesville to “Unite the Right” attacked anti-racist counter-protesters with bats, clubs, poles and sticks.
They threatened people with assault rifles and pistols. They threatened to burn down a black church. They assaulted members of the clergy. This was no minor donnybrook or fracas. It was a rampage. And the police did little to stop the attacks.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/14/from-all-lives-matter-to-the-terror-in-charlottesville-how-the-medias-phony-fairness-got-us-here/
Monday, August 14, 2017
Hate Map
From the Huffington Post - (Me: For a better view, please click the first link below)
Here’s A Reminder That The Hatred We Saw In Charlottesville Is Everywhere
There are 917 hate groups currently operating across the U.S., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
By Hayley Miller
https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/charlottesville-hate-groups_us_5991b97ee4b0909642989772?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Here’s A Reminder That The Hatred We Saw In Charlottesville Is Everywhere
There are 917 hate groups currently operating across the U.S., according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
By Hayley Miller
https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/charlottesville-hate-groups_us_5991b97ee4b0909642989772?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Sunday, August 13, 2017
More Reaction to Charlottesville
From Buzzfeed -
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanschocket2/here-are-what-celebrities-are-tweeting-about-charlottesville?utm_term=.udVEPJYq7#.gdPX6A2qJ
https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanschocket2/here-are-what-celebrities-are-tweeting-about-charlottesville?utm_term=.udVEPJYq7#.gdPX6A2qJ
From the 13th Film
"The truth is: we are living at this time. And we are tolerating it." #Charlottesville pic.twitter.com/U4qBQl93qV— Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 12, 2017
Hmmmmmm.
🤷🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️ I. Need some answers https://t.co/AL52LlcyWV pic.twitter.com/yACKsDxKaw— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) August 12, 2017
You First
An excerpt from CNN -
Pilotless planes could save airlines billions. But would anyone fly?
Taking pilots out of the cockpit could save airlines billions. But would anyone buy a ticket?
by Ivana Kottasová
The aviation industry could save $35 billion a year by moving to pilotless planes, according to a new report from UBS. Just one problem: The same report warns that only 17% of travelers are willing to fly without a pilot.
UBS said that the technology required to operate remote-controlled planes could appear by 2025. Further advances beyond 2030 might result in automated business jets and helicopters, and finally commercial aircraft without pilots.
"The technologies in development today will enable the aircraft to assist and back up the pilot in all the flight phases, removing the pilot from manual control and systems operations in all types of situations," the report said.
Commercial flights already land with the assistance of on-board computers, and pilots manually fly the aircraft for only a few minutes on average.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/07/technology/business/pilotless-planes-passengers/index.html
Pilotless planes could save airlines billions. But would anyone fly?
Taking pilots out of the cockpit could save airlines billions. But would anyone buy a ticket?
by Ivana Kottasová
The aviation industry could save $35 billion a year by moving to pilotless planes, according to a new report from UBS. Just one problem: The same report warns that only 17% of travelers are willing to fly without a pilot.
UBS said that the technology required to operate remote-controlled planes could appear by 2025. Further advances beyond 2030 might result in automated business jets and helicopters, and finally commercial aircraft without pilots.
"The technologies in development today will enable the aircraft to assist and back up the pilot in all the flight phases, removing the pilot from manual control and systems operations in all types of situations," the report said.
Commercial flights already land with the assistance of on-board computers, and pilots manually fly the aircraft for only a few minutes on average.
http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/07/technology/business/pilotless-planes-passengers/index.html
Saturday, August 12, 2017
A Reignited Civil War
Excerpts from the Boston Globe -
In Charlottesville, a reignited Civil War
OPINION | RENÉE GRAHAM
Remember this day, August 12, 2017. This is Fort Sumter in our modern, reignited Civil War.
While President Trump cravenly condemned violence “on many sides,” it appears there was only one side plowing a car at a high rate of speed into peaceful anti-racism protesters at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. There was only one side standing up for the values that America loves to espouse. Then there was that other side, boiling in hate, locked and loaded with fire and fury, who want to reclaim as theirs alone rights they have never been denied.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump has never denounced this homegrown terrorism with the crazed fervor he reserves for Islamic terrorism. For a man who has so much so say about so many things, he’s downright tongue-tied when it comes to calling out this supremacist hatred. Of course, no politician condemns his most loyal base, and these are people sustaining this sinkhole of a presidency. Hatred has always been part of this nation, but Trump flipped over the rock and out slithered racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, bigotry, and misogyny in doses that might have made Jefferson Davis cringe.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is not America’s most clear and present danger. Nor is ISIS our biggest terrorist threat. It’s a savage mob of white supremacists so validated by this president that they see no need to hide their faces or conceal their identities. They marched with Confederate flags and swastikas, guns slung from their shoulders and strapped to their waists, believing their champion occupies this nation’s highest office. Trump not only understands their discontent — his exploitation of it propelled him into the White House — he won’t even condemn by name a barbarism that has taken a life and threatens to consume this nation.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/columns/2017/08/12/charlottesville-reignited-civil-war/gsqTeWwpxOeMSQgraA9acJ/story.html?event=event12
In Charlottesville, a reignited Civil War
OPINION | RENÉE GRAHAM
Remember this day, August 12, 2017. This is Fort Sumter in our modern, reignited Civil War.
While President Trump cravenly condemned violence “on many sides,” it appears there was only one side plowing a car at a high rate of speed into peaceful anti-racism protesters at a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Va. There was only one side standing up for the values that America loves to espouse. Then there was that other side, boiling in hate, locked and loaded with fire and fury, who want to reclaim as theirs alone rights they have never been denied.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trump has never denounced this homegrown terrorism with the crazed fervor he reserves for Islamic terrorism. For a man who has so much so say about so many things, he’s downright tongue-tied when it comes to calling out this supremacist hatred. Of course, no politician condemns his most loyal base, and these are people sustaining this sinkhole of a presidency. Hatred has always been part of this nation, but Trump flipped over the rock and out slithered racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, bigotry, and misogyny in doses that might have made Jefferson Davis cringe.
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is not America’s most clear and present danger. Nor is ISIS our biggest terrorist threat. It’s a savage mob of white supremacists so validated by this president that they see no need to hide their faces or conceal their identities. They marched with Confederate flags and swastikas, guns slung from their shoulders and strapped to their waists, believing their champion occupies this nation’s highest office. Trump not only understands their discontent — his exploitation of it propelled him into the White House — he won’t even condemn by name a barbarism that has taken a life and threatens to consume this nation.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/columns/2017/08/12/charlottesville-reignited-civil-war/gsqTeWwpxOeMSQgraA9acJ/story.html?event=event12
History Lesson
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
The Lost History of an American Coup D’État
Republicans and Democrats in North Carolina are locked in a battle over which party inherits the shame of Jim Crow.
By ADRIENNE LAFRANCE AND VANN R. NEWKIRK II
By the time the fire started, Alexander Manly had vanished. That didn’t stop the mob of 400 people who’d reached his newsroom from making good on their promise. The crowd, led by a former congressman, had given the editor-in-chief an ultimatum: Destroy your newspaper and leave town forever, or we will wreck it for you.
They burned The Daily Record to the ground.
It was the morning of November 10, 1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the fire was the beginning of an assault that took place seven blocks east of the Cape Fear River, about 10 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. By sundown, Manly’s newspaper had been torched, as many as 60 people had been murdered, and the local government that was elected two days prior had been overthrown and replaced by white supremacists.
For all the violent moments in United States history, the mob’s gruesome attack was unique: It was the only coup d’état ever to take place on American soil.
What happened that day was nearly lost to history. For decades, the perpetrators were cast as heroes in American history textbooks. The black victims were wrongly described as instigators. It took nearly a century for the truth of what had really happened to begin to creep back into public awareness. Today, the old site of The Daily Record is a nondescript church parking lot—an ordinary-looking square of matted grass on a tree-lined street in historic Wilmington. The Wilmington Journal, a successor of sorts to the old Daily Record, stands in a white clapboard house across the street. But there’s no evidence of what happened there in 1898.
Conservatives in North Carolina don’t often bring up the Wilmington Massacre. Even many of those North Carolinians who are now aware of it are still reluctant to talk about it. Those who do sometimes stumble over words like “insurrection” and “riot”—loaded terms, and imprecise ones.
Not only was it a coup, though, the massacre was arguably the nadir of post-slavery racial politics.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/wilmington-massacre/536457/
The Lost History of an American Coup D’État
Republicans and Democrats in North Carolina are locked in a battle over which party inherits the shame of Jim Crow.
By ADRIENNE LAFRANCE AND VANN R. NEWKIRK II
By the time the fire started, Alexander Manly had vanished. That didn’t stop the mob of 400 people who’d reached his newsroom from making good on their promise. The crowd, led by a former congressman, had given the editor-in-chief an ultimatum: Destroy your newspaper and leave town forever, or we will wreck it for you.
They burned The Daily Record to the ground.
It was the morning of November 10, 1898, in Wilmington, North Carolina, and the fire was the beginning of an assault that took place seven blocks east of the Cape Fear River, about 10 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean. By sundown, Manly’s newspaper had been torched, as many as 60 people had been murdered, and the local government that was elected two days prior had been overthrown and replaced by white supremacists.
For all the violent moments in United States history, the mob’s gruesome attack was unique: It was the only coup d’état ever to take place on American soil.
What happened that day was nearly lost to history. For decades, the perpetrators were cast as heroes in American history textbooks. The black victims were wrongly described as instigators. It took nearly a century for the truth of what had really happened to begin to creep back into public awareness. Today, the old site of The Daily Record is a nondescript church parking lot—an ordinary-looking square of matted grass on a tree-lined street in historic Wilmington. The Wilmington Journal, a successor of sorts to the old Daily Record, stands in a white clapboard house across the street. But there’s no evidence of what happened there in 1898.
Conservatives in North Carolina don’t often bring up the Wilmington Massacre. Even many of those North Carolinians who are now aware of it are still reluctant to talk about it. Those who do sometimes stumble over words like “insurrection” and “riot”—loaded terms, and imprecise ones.
Not only was it a coup, though, the massacre was arguably the nadir of post-slavery racial politics.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/wilmington-massacre/536457/
This is Making America Great Again?
It's sad what's going on in Charlottesville. Is this the direction our country is heading? Make America Great Again huh?! He said that🤦🏾♂️— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 12, 2017
Oh How I Miss President Obama!
http://deadline.com/2017/08/barack-obama-nelson-mandela-quote-donald-trump-potus-charlottesville-twitter-alt-right-racist-1202147755/"No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." pic.twitter.com/InZ58zkoAm— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 13, 2017
The United States of Amnesia
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Charlottesville and the Bigotocracy
By Michael Eric Dyson
The late, great Gore Vidal said that we live in “The United States of Amnesia.” Our fatal forgetfulness flares when white bigots come out of their closets, emboldened by the tacit cover they’re given by our president. We cannot pretend that the ugly bigotry unleashed in the streets of Charlottesville, Va., this weekend has nothing to do with the election of Donald Trump.
In attendance was white separatist David Duke, who declared that the alt-right unity fiasco “fulfills the promises of Donald Trump.” In the meantime, Mr. Trump responded by offering false equivalencies between white bigots and their protesters. His soft denunciations of hate ring hollow when he has white nationalist advisers like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller whispering in his ear.
Such an ungainly assembly of white supremacists rides herd on political memory. Their resentment of the removal of public symbols of the Confederate past — the genesis of this weekend’s rally — is fueled by revisionist history. They fancy themselves the victims of the so-called politically correct assault on American democracy, a false narrative that helped propel Mr. Trump to victory. Each feeds on the same demented lies about race and justice that corrupt true democracy and erode real liberty. Together they constitute the repulsive resurgence of a virulent bigotocracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/charlottesville-and-the-bigotocracy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
Charlottesville and the Bigotocracy
By Michael Eric Dyson
The late, great Gore Vidal said that we live in “The United States of Amnesia.” Our fatal forgetfulness flares when white bigots come out of their closets, emboldened by the tacit cover they’re given by our president. We cannot pretend that the ugly bigotry unleashed in the streets of Charlottesville, Va., this weekend has nothing to do with the election of Donald Trump.
In attendance was white separatist David Duke, who declared that the alt-right unity fiasco “fulfills the promises of Donald Trump.” In the meantime, Mr. Trump responded by offering false equivalencies between white bigots and their protesters. His soft denunciations of hate ring hollow when he has white nationalist advisers like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller whispering in his ear.
Such an ungainly assembly of white supremacists rides herd on political memory. Their resentment of the removal of public symbols of the Confederate past — the genesis of this weekend’s rally — is fueled by revisionist history. They fancy themselves the victims of the so-called politically correct assault on American democracy, a false narrative that helped propel Mr. Trump to victory. Each feeds on the same demented lies about race and justice that corrupt true democracy and erode real liberty. Together they constitute the repulsive resurgence of a virulent bigotocracy.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/12/opinion/charlottesville-and-the-bigotocracy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region®ion=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
What He Should Have Said
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
What a presidential president would have said about Charlottesville
By the Editorial Board
HERE IS what President Trump said Saturday about the violence in Charlottesville sparked by a demonstration of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members:
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.
Here is what a presidential president would have said:
“The violence Friday and Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., is a tragedy and an unacceptable, impermissible assault on American values. It is an assault, specifically, on the ideals we cherish most in a pluralistic democracy — tolerance, peaceable coexistence and diversity.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-a-presidential-president-would-have-said-about-charlottesville/2017/08/12/9f1ffec6-7fa4-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cf3802db612c
What a presidential president would have said about Charlottesville
By the Editorial Board
HERE IS what President Trump said Saturday about the violence in Charlottesville sparked by a demonstration of white nationalists, neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klan members:
We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides. On many sides.
Here is what a presidential president would have said:
“The violence Friday and Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., is a tragedy and an unacceptable, impermissible assault on American values. It is an assault, specifically, on the ideals we cherish most in a pluralistic democracy — tolerance, peaceable coexistence and diversity.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-a-presidential-president-would-have-said-about-charlottesville/2017/08/12/9f1ffec6-7fa4-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-c%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cf3802db612c
Combustion Engine - RIP
An excerpt form the Economist -
The death of the internal combustion engine
It had a good run. But the end is in sight for the machine that changed the world
The shift from fuel and pistons to batteries and electric motors is unlikely to take that long. The first death rattles of the internal combustion engine are already reverberating around the world—and many of the consequences will be welcome.
To gauge what lies ahead, think how the internal combustion engine has shaped modern life. The rich world was rebuilt for motor vehicles, with huge investments in road networks and the invention of suburbia, along with shopping malls and drive-through restaurants. Roughly 85% of American workers commute by car. Carmaking was also a generator of economic development and the expansion of the middle class, in post-war America and elsewhere. There are now about 1bn cars on the road, almost all powered by fossil fuels. Though most of them sit idle, America’s car and lorry engines can produce ten times as much energy as its power stations. The internal combustion engine is the mightiest motor in history.
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21726071-it-had-good-run-end-sight-machine-changed-world-death?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
The death of the internal combustion engine
It had a good run. But the end is in sight for the machine that changed the world
The shift from fuel and pistons to batteries and electric motors is unlikely to take that long. The first death rattles of the internal combustion engine are already reverberating around the world—and many of the consequences will be welcome.
To gauge what lies ahead, think how the internal combustion engine has shaped modern life. The rich world was rebuilt for motor vehicles, with huge investments in road networks and the invention of suburbia, along with shopping malls and drive-through restaurants. Roughly 85% of American workers commute by car. Carmaking was also a generator of economic development and the expansion of the middle class, in post-war America and elsewhere. There are now about 1bn cars on the road, almost all powered by fossil fuels. Though most of them sit idle, America’s car and lorry engines can produce ten times as much energy as its power stations. The internal combustion engine is the mightiest motor in history.
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21726071-it-had-good-run-end-sight-machine-changed-world-death?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Monk Life
An excerpt from the LA Times -
For the monks of Big Sur, the bonds of brotherhood grow after Highway 1 closure
By Elijah Hurwitz
Life for the monks at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur is by definition an exercise in isolation, but recent months forced that isolation to new levels. In February the monastery was effectively cut off from its normal stream of visitors and guests after winter rain storms dubbed "atmospheric rivers" pounded the California coastline, damaging Highway 1 and nearby access roads. Several monks and staff decided to ride out the isolation, enduring multiple health crises and two deaths as they persisted in their devoted, austere lifestyles in this remote mountain community. After six months, the Hermitage began accepting guests again this month.
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-big-sur-monks-unfurled-20170811-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
For the monks of Big Sur, the bonds of brotherhood grow after Highway 1 closure
By Elijah Hurwitz
Life for the monks at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur is by definition an exercise in isolation, but recent months forced that isolation to new levels. In February the monastery was effectively cut off from its normal stream of visitors and guests after winter rain storms dubbed "atmospheric rivers" pounded the California coastline, damaging Highway 1 and nearby access roads. Several monks and staff decided to ride out the isolation, enduring multiple health crises and two deaths as they persisted in their devoted, austere lifestyles in this remote mountain community. After six months, the Hermitage began accepting guests again this month.
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-big-sur-monks-unfurled-20170811-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Fascinating Traffic Data
From the Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/escape-time/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_rush-hour-340pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.24bff068b259#nws=mcnewsletter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/escape-time/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_rush-hour-340pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.24bff068b259#nws=mcnewsletter
Poop-Powered
An excerpt from KQED -
Poop-Powered Electric Feed Truck Debuts at Northern California Creamery
By Tiffany Camhi
One of the first things that you pass on the dirt road to Straus Family Creamery in Northern California is a pond. It has a white tarp over it, and you don’t want to get too close because the tarp is collecting methane gas — gas produced by the poop from the ranch’s nearly 300 cows.
“The cows’ waste is collected. It goes through our methane digester that produces methane gas,” says Albert Straus, founder and CEO of the creamery, located in the Marin County town of Marshall.
Then the methane is used as the fuel for a generator that produces electricity for the entire farm.
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/08/11/poop-powered-electric-feed-truck-debuts-at-northern-california-creamery/
Poop-Powered Electric Feed Truck Debuts at Northern California Creamery
By Tiffany Camhi
One of the first things that you pass on the dirt road to Straus Family Creamery in Northern California is a pond. It has a white tarp over it, and you don’t want to get too close because the tarp is collecting methane gas — gas produced by the poop from the ranch’s nearly 300 cows.
“The cows’ waste is collected. It goes through our methane digester that produces methane gas,” says Albert Straus, founder and CEO of the creamery, located in the Marin County town of Marshall.
Then the methane is used as the fuel for a generator that produces electricity for the entire farm.
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/08/11/poop-powered-electric-feed-truck-debuts-at-northern-california-creamery/
Friday, August 11, 2017
In Honor of the 44th Anniversary of Hip-Hop
Check out this interactive Google Doodle.
https://www.google.com
https://www.google.com
Talent Runs in This Family
An excerpt from the Hollywood Reporter -
How Donald Glover's Brother Went From Chemical Engineering to 'Atlanta's' Lead Writer
by Lacey Rose
Stephen Glover may not be as well-known as his older brother (yet!), but he's the sole credited scribe on nearly half of the FX series' Emmy-nominated first season — and he'll co-create the network's upcoming 'Deadpool' series.
As you enter Stephen Glover's apartment, your eyes can't help but settle on a cluttered corner to the right of the door. Mixed in with several pairs of shoes, some booze, a few pieces of musical equipment, a stack of papers, a framed poster from Atlanta's first season and a slice or two of day-old pizza sits a pair of Golden Globe statues and a collection of Writers Guild awards. Somewhere else in the Hollywood apartment, which he shares with his buddy Swank, also a writer on Atlanta, is the AFI award the show earned in January. And come mid-September, an Emmy or two could join the collection.
"It's all just so crazy," says Stephen, 29, who had never written an episode of TV before Donald enlisted him to join the staff. "I'm sure people thought, 'You're bringing on your friends and your brother? This is a train wreck ready to happen.' "
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-donald-glovers-brother-went-chemical-engineering-atlantas-lead-writer-1027637
How Donald Glover's Brother Went From Chemical Engineering to 'Atlanta's' Lead Writer
by Lacey Rose
Stephen Glover may not be as well-known as his older brother (yet!), but he's the sole credited scribe on nearly half of the FX series' Emmy-nominated first season — and he'll co-create the network's upcoming 'Deadpool' series.
As you enter Stephen Glover's apartment, your eyes can't help but settle on a cluttered corner to the right of the door. Mixed in with several pairs of shoes, some booze, a few pieces of musical equipment, a stack of papers, a framed poster from Atlanta's first season and a slice or two of day-old pizza sits a pair of Golden Globe statues and a collection of Writers Guild awards. Somewhere else in the Hollywood apartment, which he shares with his buddy Swank, also a writer on Atlanta, is the AFI award the show earned in January. And come mid-September, an Emmy or two could join the collection.
"It's all just so crazy," says Stephen, 29, who had never written an episode of TV before Donald enlisted him to join the staff. "I'm sure people thought, 'You're bringing on your friends and your brother? This is a train wreck ready to happen.' "
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-donald-glovers-brother-went-chemical-engineering-atlantas-lead-writer-1027637
I Agree. Stand Up For Kaepernick.
An excerpt form Salon -
Boycott the NFL: Athletes and fans need to stand up for Colin Kaepernick now
I love football, but I won't support a hypocritical corporation that punishes peaceful protest
D. WATKINS
This is the first year that I can honestly say that I’m not excited about the upcoming NFL season. I won’t watch it, support it or pay any attention to it. It’s not that I lost interest in the sport. I love football. But the NFL has been going above and beyond to show how racist they are as an organization. As if the dearth of minority owners and small number of black coaches — not to mention having a team called the Redskins — isn’t bad enough, Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.
He didn’t murder dogs like Michael Vick, who was able to be reinstated and has also criticized Kaepernick by saying “first thing we’ve got to get Colin to do is cut his hair.” Kap’s hair doesn’t matter; he has a better rating (QBR) than 20 starting quarterbacks currently preparing for the 2017-2018 season. Kaepernick was also never involved in a murder like Ray Lewis, who also criticized him by hopping on Undisputed and saying that he disagreed with Kap’s silent, peaceful protest. Kaepernick stood up against our racist law enforcement and criminal justice systems by taking a knee during the National Anthem — along with donating a million dollars to various charities — and he’s paying the ultimate price.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/11/boycott-the-nfl-athletes-and-fans-need-to-stand-up-for-colin-kaepernick-now/?source=newsletter
Boycott the NFL: Athletes and fans need to stand up for Colin Kaepernick now
I love football, but I won't support a hypocritical corporation that punishes peaceful protest
D. WATKINS
This is the first year that I can honestly say that I’m not excited about the upcoming NFL season. I won’t watch it, support it or pay any attention to it. It’s not that I lost interest in the sport. I love football. But the NFL has been going above and beyond to show how racist they are as an organization. As if the dearth of minority owners and small number of black coaches — not to mention having a team called the Redskins — isn’t bad enough, Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.
He didn’t murder dogs like Michael Vick, who was able to be reinstated and has also criticized Kaepernick by saying “first thing we’ve got to get Colin to do is cut his hair.” Kap’s hair doesn’t matter; he has a better rating (QBR) than 20 starting quarterbacks currently preparing for the 2017-2018 season. Kaepernick was also never involved in a murder like Ray Lewis, who also criticized him by hopping on Undisputed and saying that he disagreed with Kap’s silent, peaceful protest. Kaepernick stood up against our racist law enforcement and criminal justice systems by taking a knee during the National Anthem — along with donating a million dollars to various charities — and he’s paying the ultimate price.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/11/boycott-the-nfl-athletes-and-fans-need-to-stand-up-for-colin-kaepernick-now/?source=newsletter
Smog-Eating Bikes
From the Daily Good -
Smog-Eating Bikes Are About To Take On Beijing
by James Gaines
If one design firm can pull it off, cyclists in Beijing may soon double as mobile air filters. Holland’s Studio Roosegaarde has developed anti-smog bicycles and the first prototype is expected to hit the Asian city’s congested streets as soon as the end of this year, according to Quartz.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s how the bikes work: A device installed near the handlebars of the bike sucks in smoggy air and filters out particulates like soot or dust, clearing the way for what will essentially be a bubble of clean air right in front of the rider.
The bikes are still in the planning stage, so their effectiveness has yet to be put to the test, but it’s possible that this air-filtration system could benefit more than just the cyclist who rides it. With Roosegaarde’s partner bike-sharing service Ofo providing access to over 6.5 million bikes in Asia and the U.K., a lot of air could end up running through those filters.
https://www.good.is/articles/beijing-bicycles-remove-smog-directly-from-the-air?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Smog-Eating Bikes Are About To Take On Beijing
by James Gaines
 | |
All images via Studio Roosegaarde.
|
If one design firm can pull it off, cyclists in Beijing may soon double as mobile air filters. Holland’s Studio Roosegaarde has developed anti-smog bicycles and the first prototype is expected to hit the Asian city’s congested streets as soon as the end of this year, according to Quartz.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s how the bikes work: A device installed near the handlebars of the bike sucks in smoggy air and filters out particulates like soot or dust, clearing the way for what will essentially be a bubble of clean air right in front of the rider.
The bikes are still in the planning stage, so their effectiveness has yet to be put to the test, but it’s possible that this air-filtration system could benefit more than just the cyclist who rides it. With Roosegaarde’s partner bike-sharing service Ofo providing access to over 6.5 million bikes in Asia and the U.K., a lot of air could end up running through those filters.
https://www.good.is/articles/beijing-bicycles-remove-smog-directly-from-the-air?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Passport Website
From the Huffington Post -
This Website Will Upend The Way You Think About Passports
Find out where you can travel without a visa thanks to your U.S. passport.
By Suzy Strutner
Having a U.S. passport comes with really big benefits, as a new website will remind you.
Passport holders from the States can visit some 174 countries without applying for a visa first. VisaDB, a handy new website in its prototype phase, allows travelers to easily browse all the available options. Just plug in the U.S. as your country of residence, and the tool will tell you which countries you can visit visa-free in a given region, along with some helpful data about expenses.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/visadb-passports-do-you-need-a-visa_us_598cd4a6e4b08a247273567d?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
This Website Will Upend The Way You Think About Passports
Find out where you can travel without a visa thanks to your U.S. passport.
By Suzy Strutner
Having a U.S. passport comes with really big benefits, as a new website will remind you.
Passport holders from the States can visit some 174 countries without applying for a visa first. VisaDB, a handy new website in its prototype phase, allows travelers to easily browse all the available options. Just plug in the U.S. as your country of residence, and the tool will tell you which countries you can visit visa-free in a given region, along with some helpful data about expenses.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/visadb-passports-do-you-need-a-visa_us_598cd4a6e4b08a247273567d?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Medical Marvels
From the NY Times -
Heart and Asthma Monitors? There’s an App for That
By CAROL POGASH
He could have been surfing in Cabo. Instead, Tyler Crouch, then a 21-year-old mechanical-engineering student, spent spring break of 2013 building a digitized stethoscope and thinking, “This better be worth it.”
Since then, he and two classmates from the University of California, Berkeley, have formed a company — Eko Devices, which is based here — raised nearly $5 million and sold 6,000 digital stethoscopes, used in 700 hospitals. The wireless stethoscopes can transfer a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs directly to Eko’s secure portal, where it can, among other things, be shared with other doctors for a second opinion.
Now they have built something with a potentially larger market: It is the Duo, a digital stethoscope for home use, which could change how heart patients are monitored, the entrepreneurs say. It is scheduled to become available by prescription in the fall.
The product, which fits in your hand, combines electrocardiogram, or E.K.G., readings and heart sounds into a device that allows patients to monitor their health at home and send data to their physicians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/heart-and-asthma-monitors-theres-an-app-for-that.html?emc=edit_ca_20170811&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1
Heart and Asthma Monitors? There’s an App for That
By CAROL POGASH
He could have been surfing in Cabo. Instead, Tyler Crouch, then a 21-year-old mechanical-engineering student, spent spring break of 2013 building a digitized stethoscope and thinking, “This better be worth it.”
Since then, he and two classmates from the University of California, Berkeley, have formed a company — Eko Devices, which is based here — raised nearly $5 million and sold 6,000 digital stethoscopes, used in 700 hospitals. The wireless stethoscopes can transfer a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs directly to Eko’s secure portal, where it can, among other things, be shared with other doctors for a second opinion.
Now they have built something with a potentially larger market: It is the Duo, a digital stethoscope for home use, which could change how heart patients are monitored, the entrepreneurs say. It is scheduled to become available by prescription in the fall.
The product, which fits in your hand, combines electrocardiogram, or E.K.G., readings and heart sounds into a device that allows patients to monitor their health at home and send data to their physicians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/heart-and-asthma-monitors-theres-an-app-for-that.html?emc=edit_ca_20170811&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1
So Hard to Watch
I went to see the movie "Detroit" this week. It was horrific. Not because it wasn't well made. It was. Not because it wasn't well cast. It was. Not because it was brought to life by a white director. A problem, but one I could overlook. No, the issue was the pain it evoked. The torment and physical agony of seeing black folks tortured and killed simply for being black, was too much to bear. Seeing the cops who did it get off, was soul-crushing. Knowing this happened 40 years ago and knowing that it is still happening today, is horrifying. Heartbreaking.
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
‘Detroit’ and the question of cultural gatekeeping
By Ann Hornaday
The groan, when it came, was swift, the pain behind it palpable. At a curators’ roundtable at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend, the subject was gatekeeping. Who decides what stories get told? Who decides who gets to tell them? When it comes to stories rooted in the African diaspora — the focus of BlackStar, now in its sixth year — how have moving images in mainstream culture contributed to external bias and internalized self-loathing? Why is a particular story that transpired during the 1967 riots being called “Detroit,” as if one specific, if admittedly monstrous, episode can fairly represent the far more complex events during which it took place?
It was at this question, posed by scholar and curator Dessane Cassell, that the collective groan went up in the packed conference room at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “Detroit,” in which director Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the murder of three black teenagers at the hands of white policemen during the titular city’s 1967 uprising, has been hailed by many critics (including this one) for plunging viewers into an event that crystallizes white supremacy and impunity at their most pathological. But for many others — including those among the filmmakers, programmers and viewers who attended BlackStar — “Detroit” presents yet another dispiriting example of a white filmmaker undertaking self-examination and catharsis using the spectacle of anguish, suffering and desecration of the black body.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/detroit-and-the-question-of-cultural-gatekeeping/2017/08/10/0bdff1a2-7dce-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?utm_term=.11590ba19b41&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
‘Detroit’ and the question of cultural gatekeeping
By Ann Hornaday
The groan, when it came, was swift, the pain behind it palpable. At a curators’ roundtable at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend, the subject was gatekeeping. Who decides what stories get told? Who decides who gets to tell them? When it comes to stories rooted in the African diaspora — the focus of BlackStar, now in its sixth year — how have moving images in mainstream culture contributed to external bias and internalized self-loathing? Why is a particular story that transpired during the 1967 riots being called “Detroit,” as if one specific, if admittedly monstrous, episode can fairly represent the far more complex events during which it took place?
It was at this question, posed by scholar and curator Dessane Cassell, that the collective groan went up in the packed conference room at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “Detroit,” in which director Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the murder of three black teenagers at the hands of white policemen during the titular city’s 1967 uprising, has been hailed by many critics (including this one) for plunging viewers into an event that crystallizes white supremacy and impunity at their most pathological. But for many others — including those among the filmmakers, programmers and viewers who attended BlackStar — “Detroit” presents yet another dispiriting example of a white filmmaker undertaking self-examination and catharsis using the spectacle of anguish, suffering and desecration of the black body.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/detroit-and-the-question-of-cultural-gatekeeping/2017/08/10/0bdff1a2-7dce-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?utm_term=.11590ba19b41&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Smart Hires
From Axios -
Jim (Axios CEO Jim VandeHei) told me the one management super-power he would wish for all is this: the self-confidence and judgment to hire people, with killer talent and awesome values, who want your job and can do it better. Do this and the next person they hire will do the same and your company will crush it. Don't do this, and you will have a hot mess of mediocrity. This is the Roy Schwartz Rule — and it's damn good one!
https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2471665645.html
Jim (Axios CEO Jim VandeHei) told me the one management super-power he would wish for all is this: the self-confidence and judgment to hire people, with killer talent and awesome values, who want your job and can do it better. Do this and the next person they hire will do the same and your company will crush it. Don't do this, and you will have a hot mess of mediocrity. This is the Roy Schwartz Rule — and it's damn good one!
https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2471665645.html
Thursday, August 10, 2017
A Better Bus?
From the Washington Post -
Can a better night’s sleep in a ‘hipster’ bus replace flying?
By Peter Holley
For many people, moving between major hubs that are just far enough away to create complications — think Los Angeles to San Francisco, for instance — is a regular travel headache.
Tom Currier calls it the “500-mile problem” and now, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and his partner, Gaetano Crupi, say they have a solution. It’s called “Cabin” — a double-decker, luxury bus line with WiFi, a comfy lounge and sleeping pods that offer the same pressed sheets you’ll find at the Ritz Carlton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/10/can-a-better-nights-sleep-in-a-hipster-bus-replace-flying/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bus-1120pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.94fcf5e78559
Can a better night’s sleep in a ‘hipster’ bus replace flying?
By Peter Holley
For many people, moving between major hubs that are just far enough away to create complications — think Los Angeles to San Francisco, for instance — is a regular travel headache.
Tom Currier calls it the “500-mile problem” and now, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and his partner, Gaetano Crupi, say they have a solution. It’s called “Cabin” — a double-decker, luxury bus line with WiFi, a comfy lounge and sleeping pods that offer the same pressed sheets you’ll find at the Ritz Carlton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/10/can-a-better-nights-sleep-in-a-hipster-bus-replace-flying/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bus-1120pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.94fcf5e78559
History Lesson
An excerpt from Atlas Obscura -
The Best Trick U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves Ever Pulled on a Criminal
A particularly glorious example of “fake it ‘til you make it.”
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
THE AMERICAN OLD WEST WAS a fertile cauldron for myth and legend, producing such fantastical figures as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. But while many folk heroes of the era may have been embellished-unto-fable, or completely dreamt up, the legendary Wild West figure Bass Reeves was absolutely real, even if his exploits sound like tall tales.
Reeves was one of the most remarkable figures of the Old West, serving as a deputy U.S. Marshal from 1875 to 1907, mostly in and around the regrettable Indian Territory, which once made up much of what is now Oklahoma.
Born into slavery, Reeves escaped from the slave owner George Reeves at some point during the Civil War, supposedly knocking out his so-called “master” in a dispute over cards. Bass then fled into Indian Territory where, despite never having had the opportunity to learn to read, he learned the land and languages of the Cherokee, Seminole, and major tribes that had been forced to relocate to the region. After the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolishing slavery, Reeves was finally able to settle down at an Arkansas farm and start a family. He and his wife Nellie would have almost a dozen kids while working their peaceful homestead, but for Bass, the legend was just beginning.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bass-reeves-wild-west-letter-trick?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eeb0bfdbad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-eeb0bfdbad-63562045&ct=t(Newsletter_8_10_2017)&mc_cid=eeb0bfdbad&mc_eid=866176a63f
The Best Trick U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves Ever Pulled on a Criminal
A particularly glorious example of “fake it ‘til you make it.”
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
 | |
| Bass Reeves, wearing his iconic push broom mustache. JUNKYARDSPARKLE/PUBLIC DOMAIN |
THE AMERICAN OLD WEST WAS a fertile cauldron for myth and legend, producing such fantastical figures as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. But while many folk heroes of the era may have been embellished-unto-fable, or completely dreamt up, the legendary Wild West figure Bass Reeves was absolutely real, even if his exploits sound like tall tales.
Reeves was one of the most remarkable figures of the Old West, serving as a deputy U.S. Marshal from 1875 to 1907, mostly in and around the regrettable Indian Territory, which once made up much of what is now Oklahoma.
Born into slavery, Reeves escaped from the slave owner George Reeves at some point during the Civil War, supposedly knocking out his so-called “master” in a dispute over cards. Bass then fled into Indian Territory where, despite never having had the opportunity to learn to read, he learned the land and languages of the Cherokee, Seminole, and major tribes that had been forced to relocate to the region. After the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolishing slavery, Reeves was finally able to settle down at an Arkansas farm and start a family. He and his wife Nellie would have almost a dozen kids while working their peaceful homestead, but for Bass, the legend was just beginning.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bass-reeves-wild-west-letter-trick?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eeb0bfdbad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-eeb0bfdbad-63562045&ct=t(Newsletter_8_10_2017)&mc_cid=eeb0bfdbad&mc_eid=866176a63f
Remembering the Korean War
An excerpt form the Intercept - H/T Ben
Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.
By Mehdi Hasan
“The hate, though,” as longtime North Korea watcher Blaine Harden observed in the Washington Post, “is not all manufactured.” Some of it, he wrote, “is rooted in a fact-based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers and the United States blithely forgets.”
Forgets as in the “forgotten war.” Yes, the Korean War. Remember that? The one wedged between World War II and the Vietnam War? The first “hot” war of the Cold War, which took place between 1950 and 1953, and which has since been conveniently airbrushed from most discussions and debates about the “crazy” and “insane” regime in Pyongyang? Forgotten despite the fact that this particular war isn’t even over — it was halted by an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty — and despite the fact that the conflict saw the United States engage in numerous war crimes, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, continue to shape the way North Koreans view the United States, even if the residents of the United States remain blissfully ignorant of their country’s belligerent past.
For the record, it was the North Koreans, and not the Americans or their South Korean allies, who started the war in June 1950, when they crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded the south. Nevertheless, “What hardly any Americans know or remember,” University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes in his book “The Korean War: A History,” “is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.”
How many Americans, for example, are aware of the fact that U.S. planes dropped on the Korean peninsula more bombs — 635,000 tons — and napalm — 32,557 tons — than during the entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War II?
How many Americans know that “over a period of three years or so,” to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, “we killed off … 20 percent of the population”?
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/03/why-do-north-koreans-hate-us-one-reason-they-remember-the-korean-war/
Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.
By Mehdi Hasan
“The hate, though,” as longtime North Korea watcher Blaine Harden observed in the Washington Post, “is not all manufactured.” Some of it, he wrote, “is rooted in a fact-based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers and the United States blithely forgets.”
Forgets as in the “forgotten war.” Yes, the Korean War. Remember that? The one wedged between World War II and the Vietnam War? The first “hot” war of the Cold War, which took place between 1950 and 1953, and which has since been conveniently airbrushed from most discussions and debates about the “crazy” and “insane” regime in Pyongyang? Forgotten despite the fact that this particular war isn’t even over — it was halted by an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty — and despite the fact that the conflict saw the United States engage in numerous war crimes, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, continue to shape the way North Koreans view the United States, even if the residents of the United States remain blissfully ignorant of their country’s belligerent past.
For the record, it was the North Koreans, and not the Americans or their South Korean allies, who started the war in June 1950, when they crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded the south. Nevertheless, “What hardly any Americans know or remember,” University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes in his book “The Korean War: A History,” “is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.”
How many Americans, for example, are aware of the fact that U.S. planes dropped on the Korean peninsula more bombs — 635,000 tons — and napalm — 32,557 tons — than during the entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War II?
How many Americans know that “over a period of three years or so,” to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, “we killed off … 20 percent of the population”?
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/03/why-do-north-koreans-hate-us-one-reason-they-remember-the-korean-war/
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
He Has Proven Himself
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Admit This Ex-Con to the Connecticut Bar
By BARI WEISS
In 1996, when Reginald Dwayne Betts was being sentenced to nine years in prison for a carjacking, the judge handing down the ruling told the 16 year old: “I don’t have any illusions that the penitentiary is going to help you, but you can get something out of it if you want to.”
The judge probably had, at best, a high school equivalency diploma in mind for Mr. Betts. Mr. Betts had bigger ambitions.
It began with a book called “The Black Poets,” which someone slipped under his cell door during the year he spent in solitary confinement. “That’s the book that changed my life,” he has said of the anthology. “It introduced me to Etheridge Knight, to Rob Hayden, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez and so many countless black writers and black poets that really shaped who it is that I wanted to be in the world.”
After his release in 2005, he wrote two books of critically acclaimed poetry and a memoir. He got a B.A. and an M.F.A., and became a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard. Last May, he graduated from Yale Law School. Oh, and along the way, he became a husband and a father to two boys; tellingly, this is the first accomplishment he lists on his website’s biography page.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dwayne Betts is the kind of man who should be receiving awards from the bar association of Connecticut. Instead, he hasn’t been admitted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/admit-this-ex-con-to-the-connecticut-bar.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Admit This Ex-Con to the Connecticut Bar
By BARI WEISS
In 1996, when Reginald Dwayne Betts was being sentenced to nine years in prison for a carjacking, the judge handing down the ruling told the 16 year old: “I don’t have any illusions that the penitentiary is going to help you, but you can get something out of it if you want to.”
The judge probably had, at best, a high school equivalency diploma in mind for Mr. Betts. Mr. Betts had bigger ambitions.
It began with a book called “The Black Poets,” which someone slipped under his cell door during the year he spent in solitary confinement. “That’s the book that changed my life,” he has said of the anthology. “It introduced me to Etheridge Knight, to Rob Hayden, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez and so many countless black writers and black poets that really shaped who it is that I wanted to be in the world.”
After his release in 2005, he wrote two books of critically acclaimed poetry and a memoir. He got a B.A. and an M.F.A., and became a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard. Last May, he graduated from Yale Law School. Oh, and along the way, he became a husband and a father to two boys; tellingly, this is the first accomplishment he lists on his website’s biography page.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dwayne Betts is the kind of man who should be receiving awards from the bar association of Connecticut. Instead, he hasn’t been admitted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/admit-this-ex-con-to-the-connecticut-bar.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Why We Ignore Mass Suffering
An excerpt from Vox -
A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion
Why do we ignore mass atrocities? It has to do with something called “psychic numbing.”
Updated by Brian Resnick
I often report on political psychology. And in my conversations with scientists, I’ll often ask: “What research helps you understand what’s going on in the world?” The answer — whether it’s pegged to the refugee crisis abroad or the health care debate at home — very often involves Paul Slovic.
Slovic is a psychologist at the University of Oregon, and for decades he’s been asking the question: Why does the world often ignore mass atrocities, mass suffering?
Slovic’s work has shown that the human mind is not very good at thinking about, and empathizing with, millions or billions of individuals.
“THE VALUE OF A PERSON'S LIFE DECLINES PRECIPITOUSLY WITH NUMBER. IS THAT WHAT WE WANT?”
That’s why it’s not surprising six out of 10 Americans support a travel ban that, in part, bars refugees from entering America. That many lawmakers aren’t horrified by the possibility of booting tens of millions from health insurance. That the world looked on as millions died in war and genocide in Darfur. That we haven’t really grappled as a nation with the opioid epidemic, which killed 33,000 in 2015.
When numbers simply can’t convey the costs, there’s an infuriating paradox at play. Slovic calls it “psychic numbing.” As the number of victims in a tragedy increases, our empathy, our willingness to help, reliably decreases. This happens even when the number of victims increases from one to two.
https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/7/19/15925506/psychic-numbing-paul-slovic-apathy
A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion
Why do we ignore mass atrocities? It has to do with something called “psychic numbing.”
Updated by Brian Resnick
I often report on political psychology. And in my conversations with scientists, I’ll often ask: “What research helps you understand what’s going on in the world?” The answer — whether it’s pegged to the refugee crisis abroad or the health care debate at home — very often involves Paul Slovic.
Slovic is a psychologist at the University of Oregon, and for decades he’s been asking the question: Why does the world often ignore mass atrocities, mass suffering?
Slovic’s work has shown that the human mind is not very good at thinking about, and empathizing with, millions or billions of individuals.
“THE VALUE OF A PERSON'S LIFE DECLINES PRECIPITOUSLY WITH NUMBER. IS THAT WHAT WE WANT?”
That’s why it’s not surprising six out of 10 Americans support a travel ban that, in part, bars refugees from entering America. That many lawmakers aren’t horrified by the possibility of booting tens of millions from health insurance. That the world looked on as millions died in war and genocide in Darfur. That we haven’t really grappled as a nation with the opioid epidemic, which killed 33,000 in 2015.
When numbers simply can’t convey the costs, there’s an infuriating paradox at play. Slovic calls it “psychic numbing.” As the number of victims in a tragedy increases, our empathy, our willingness to help, reliably decreases. This happens even when the number of victims increases from one to two.
https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/7/19/15925506/psychic-numbing-paul-slovic-apathy
Second Chance Project — Andre Edding’s Story
http://www.upworthy.com/he-was-ready-to-return-to-a-life-of-crime-daves-killer-bread-offered-an-alternative?c=upw1
Thank an Immigrant
From Upworthy -
23 things non-English-speaking immigrants gave us that we totally don't need. Not at all.
by Eric March
http://www.upworthy.com/23-things-non-english-speaking-immigrants-gave-us-that-we-totally-dont-need-not-at-all?c=upw1
23 things non-English-speaking immigrants gave us that we totally don't need. Not at all.
by Eric March
http://www.upworthy.com/23-things-non-english-speaking-immigrants-gave-us-that-we-totally-dont-need-not-at-all?c=upw1
Gentrification
An excerpt from the New Republic -
How to Stop Gentrification
Individuals moving to newly-hip neighborhoods admit they are part of the problem. What can they do?
BY COLIN KINNIBURGH
In September 2005, the New Orleans real-estate developer Finis Shelnutt told a German newspaper of the opportunities Hurricane Katrina had created for his business. “The storm destroyed a great deal,” he said, just weeks after Katrina had killed more than one thousand people and expelled tens of thousands more from the city. “And there’s plenty of space to build houses and sell them for a lot of money.” Moreover, he added, “the hurricane drove poor people and criminals out of the city, and we hope they don’t come back.”
Shelnutt’s uniquely forthright comments distilled the essence of gentrification, as Peter Moskowitz explains it in How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood. Gentrification, in this account, is not just about twenty-something white dudes with beards riding their fixed-gear bikes into unfamiliar neighborhoods, nor filament-bulb-lit craft beer bars opening up alongside bodegas. It is not really a cultural phenomenon, as it is so often depicted, nor one driven by individuals with a little more disposable income than their new neighbors. It is about profit and power, racism and violence on a massive scale. It is, in Moskowitz’s words, “the urban form of a new kind of capitalism.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/144260/stop-gentrification
How to Stop Gentrification
Individuals moving to newly-hip neighborhoods admit they are part of the problem. What can they do?
BY COLIN KINNIBURGH
In September 2005, the New Orleans real-estate developer Finis Shelnutt told a German newspaper of the opportunities Hurricane Katrina had created for his business. “The storm destroyed a great deal,” he said, just weeks after Katrina had killed more than one thousand people and expelled tens of thousands more from the city. “And there’s plenty of space to build houses and sell them for a lot of money.” Moreover, he added, “the hurricane drove poor people and criminals out of the city, and we hope they don’t come back.”
Shelnutt’s uniquely forthright comments distilled the essence of gentrification, as Peter Moskowitz explains it in How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood. Gentrification, in this account, is not just about twenty-something white dudes with beards riding their fixed-gear bikes into unfamiliar neighborhoods, nor filament-bulb-lit craft beer bars opening up alongside bodegas. It is not really a cultural phenomenon, as it is so often depicted, nor one driven by individuals with a little more disposable income than their new neighbors. It is about profit and power, racism and violence on a massive scale. It is, in Moskowitz’s words, “the urban form of a new kind of capitalism.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/144260/stop-gentrification
Preparing for College
An excerpt from Very Smart Brothas - (From me. Note - PWI = Predominating White Institutions)
10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
By Lawrence Ware
I regret not attending an HBCU.
If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism.
Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of the fact that I was an “other.” Often, I was the only black student in my class, and when my fraternity wanted to host events, we were forced to jump through hoops that white Greek organizations did not know existed.
Now, working at a PWI as a faculty member and administrator, I try to do for my students what I wish someone had done for me: prepare them for the challenges that come along with the reality of life at a PWI as a student of color.
If I could give an intellectual going-away gift to every black freshman headed to a PWI this fall, in addition to a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce (the cooks at PWIs don’t know how to season the damn food), I would include the following:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-things-to-help-black-students-prepare-for-life-at-a-1797642965?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-09
10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
By Lawrence Ware
I regret not attending an HBCU.
If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism.
Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of the fact that I was an “other.” Often, I was the only black student in my class, and when my fraternity wanted to host events, we were forced to jump through hoops that white Greek organizations did not know existed.
Now, working at a PWI as a faculty member and administrator, I try to do for my students what I wish someone had done for me: prepare them for the challenges that come along with the reality of life at a PWI as a student of color.
If I could give an intellectual going-away gift to every black freshman headed to a PWI this fall, in addition to a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce (the cooks at PWIs don’t know how to season the damn food), I would include the following:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-things-to-help-black-students-prepare-for-life-at-a-1797642965?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-09
Caltrans is Hiring!
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Another FAMU Success Story
An excerpt from the LA times -
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
A Legal Document That's Fun to Read
From the NY Times -
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
ACLU Brief on Behalf of John Oliver by LawNewz on Scribd
Focusing on the Booze
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Monday, August 7, 2017
Getting Their Due
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
By Tom Sietsema
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
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