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| Four presidents during disasters. From Reddit. |
Thursday, August 31, 2017
A Buck Short
This morning our officers stopped a doe for toll evasion, on the Bay Bridge. She said she usually pays it, but today she was a buck short. pic.twitter.com/KkkDJpn5Ck— CHP Oakland (@CHPoakland) August 29, 2017
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
We Can Hope
From the NY Times -
The Waters Swell. So Does Trump’s Ego.
By Frank Bruni
I keep hoping against hope that a new challenge will tease out a new Trump and that if he malingers in the presidency long enough, he’ll meander in the direction of eloquence, slouch toward poetry and tumble into inspiration. Stranger things have happened. I’ll have to get back to you on what they were.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/opinion/trump-ego-harvey-floods.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
The Waters Swell. So Does Trump’s Ego.
By Frank Bruni
I keep hoping against hope that a new challenge will tease out a new Trump and that if he malingers in the presidency long enough, he’ll meander in the direction of eloquence, slouch toward poetry and tumble into inspiration. Stranger things have happened. I’ll have to get back to you on what they were.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/29/opinion/trump-ego-harvey-floods.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
Kudos to HISD
From the Root -
Houston School District Will Provide 3 Free Meals a Day to All Students in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
By Monique Judge
The Houston Independent School District has found a way to help all the families it serves in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. On Wednesday, the district announced that it will waive the required application process for the National School Lunch/School Breakfast Program and provide free meals to all students this school year.
http://www.theroot.com/houston-school-district-will-provide-3-free-meals-a-day-1798639795
Houston School District Will Provide 3 Free Meals a Day to All Students in the Aftermath of Hurricane Harvey
By Monique Judge
The Houston Independent School District has found a way to help all the families it serves in the wake of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey. On Wednesday, the district announced that it will waive the required application process for the National School Lunch/School Breakfast Program and provide free meals to all students this school year.
http://www.theroot.com/houston-school-district-will-provide-3-free-meals-a-day-1798639795
Becky Explained
From. the Root -
The 5 Types of ‘Becky’
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/the-five-types-of-becky-1798543210
The 5 Types of ‘Becky’
By Michael Harriot
https://www.theroot.com/the-five-types-of-becky-1798543210
Agree?
From Pinterest -
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/399835273159081964/?utm_campaign=category_rp&e_t=c0e74f2b73d3419ab5ebf0866853fe6d&utm_content=399835273159081964&utm_source=31&utm_term=1&utm_medium=2012
Not the Fairy Tale Welcome
Long, but worth the read.
From Vanity Fair -
EXILES ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE: HOW JARED AND IVANKA WERE REPELLED BY WASHINGTON’S ELITE
“What is off-putting about them,” one political veteran told me, “is they do not grasp their essential irrelevance. They think they are special.”
BY SARAH ELLISON
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-repelled-by-washington-elite
From Vanity Fair -
EXILES ON PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE: HOW JARED AND IVANKA WERE REPELLED BY WASHINGTON’S ELITE
“What is off-putting about them,” one political veteran told me, “is they do not grasp their essential irrelevance. They think they are special.”
BY SARAH ELLISON
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/08/jared-kushner-ivanka-trump-repelled-by-washington-elite
The Types of Guys on Campus
From Essence -
http://www.essence.com/love-sex/the-types-guys-meet-in-college?iid=sr-link1
http://www.essence.com/love-sex/the-types-guys-meet-in-college?iid=sr-link1
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
Floods Happen Often, But Not Like This
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
Houston's Flood Is a Design Problem
It’s not because the water comes in. It’s because it is forced to leave again.
By IAN BOGOST
There are different kinds of floods. There’s the storm surge from hurricanes, the runoff from snowmelt, the inundation of riverbanks. But all these examples cast flooding as an occasional foe out to damage human civilization. In truth, flooding happens constantly, in small and large quantities, every time precipitation falls to earth. People just don’t tend to notice it until it reaches the proportions of disaster.
Under normal circumstances, rain or snowfall soaks back into the earth after falling. It gets absorbed by grasslands, by parks, by residential lawns, by anywhere the soil is exposed. Two factors can impede that absorption. One is large quantities of rain in a short period of time. The ground becomes inundated, and the water spreads out in accordance with the topography. The second is covering over the ground so it cannot soak up water in the first place. And that’s exactly what cities do—they transform the land into developed civilization.
Roads, parking lots, sidewalks, and other pavements, along with asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and other building materials, combine to create impervious surfaces that resist the natural absorption of water. In most of the United States, about 75 percent of its land area, less than 1 percent of the land is hardscape. In cities, up to 40 percent is impervious.
The natural system is very good at accepting rainfall. But when water hits pavement, it creates runoff immediately. That water has to go somewhere. So it flows wherever the grade takes it. To account for that runoff, people engineer systems to move the water away from where it is originally deposited, or to house it in situ, or even to reuse it. This process—the policy, planning, engineering, implementation, and maintenance of urban water systems—is called stormwater management.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/why-cities-flood/538251/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-082817&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0
Houston's Flood Is a Design Problem
It’s not because the water comes in. It’s because it is forced to leave again.
By IAN BOGOST
There are different kinds of floods. There’s the storm surge from hurricanes, the runoff from snowmelt, the inundation of riverbanks. But all these examples cast flooding as an occasional foe out to damage human civilization. In truth, flooding happens constantly, in small and large quantities, every time precipitation falls to earth. People just don’t tend to notice it until it reaches the proportions of disaster.
Under normal circumstances, rain or snowfall soaks back into the earth after falling. It gets absorbed by grasslands, by parks, by residential lawns, by anywhere the soil is exposed. Two factors can impede that absorption. One is large quantities of rain in a short period of time. The ground becomes inundated, and the water spreads out in accordance with the topography. The second is covering over the ground so it cannot soak up water in the first place. And that’s exactly what cities do—they transform the land into developed civilization.
Roads, parking lots, sidewalks, and other pavements, along with asphalt, concrete, brick, stone, and other building materials, combine to create impervious surfaces that resist the natural absorption of water. In most of the United States, about 75 percent of its land area, less than 1 percent of the land is hardscape. In cities, up to 40 percent is impervious.
The natural system is very good at accepting rainfall. But when water hits pavement, it creates runoff immediately. That water has to go somewhere. So it flows wherever the grade takes it. To account for that runoff, people engineer systems to move the water away from where it is originally deposited, or to house it in situ, or even to reuse it. This process—the policy, planning, engineering, implementation, and maintenance of urban water systems—is called stormwater management.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/08/why-cities-flood/538251/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-082817&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0
Floating Fire Ants
An excerpt from Wired -
WHY THOSE FLOATING FIRE ANT COLONIES IN TEXAS ARE SUCH BAD NEWS
By Matt Simon
ANTS DIDN’T TAKE over the world by being stupid and cowardly. Case in point: Rafts of fire ants have been spotted floating around floodwaters in Houston, Texas, colonies banding together to weather super-storm Harvey.
https://www.wired.com/story/why-those-floating-fire-ant-colonies-in-texas-are-such-bad-news?mbid=nl_82817_p3&CNDID=
WHY THOSE FLOATING FIRE ANT COLONIES IN TEXAS ARE SUCH BAD NEWS
By Matt Simon
ANTS DIDN’T TAKE over the world by being stupid and cowardly. Case in point: Rafts of fire ants have been spotted floating around floodwaters in Houston, Texas, colonies banding together to weather super-storm Harvey.
Pro tip: Don't touch the floating fire ant colonies. They will ruin your day. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/uwJd0rA7qB— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) August 27, 2017
https://www.wired.com/story/why-those-floating-fire-ant-colonies-in-texas-are-such-bad-news?mbid=nl_82817_p3&CNDID=
Another Immigrant Success Story
Excerpts from the NY Times -
Uber’s C.E.O. Pick, Dara Khosrowshahi, Steps Into Brighter Spotlight
By DAVID STREITFELD and NELLIE BOWLES
SAN FRANCISCO — Dara Khosrowshahi’s family immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1978, when their country was convulsed by revolution. They were not particularly welcomed in America, and were broke.
“Every one of us cousins had a chip on our shoulders, having lost everything to the new Iranian government,” said Hadi Partovi, a cousin of Mr. Khosrowshahi’s. “We had a desire to build anew as entrepreneurs.”
~~~~~~~~~~
At the same time in June that Mr. Kalanick was noisily being ejected from his company, Mr. Khosrowshahi had a problem of his own — his parents. Glassdoor, a site where employees rank their companies, released its 2017 list of the top chief executives. Mr. Khosrowshahi’s score had dropped.
His parents weighed in with that combination of celebration and criticism that many immigrant children know well. As Mr. Khosrowshahi reported on Twitter, his mother said, “Nice! You made the top 100!” But his father pointed out: “#39 is good but you were #11 in 2015.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“His mom raised him to be direct with people,” said Mr. Partovi, the cousin. “By far the biggest challenge he faced, which is what all of us faced, was having to come to a new country and assimilate. Being an Iranian in America in the 1980s was not pleasant. People were singing ‘Bomb bomb bomb Iran.’ ”
But the tense environment also pushed them to succeed.
Mr. Partovi and his twin brother Ali were early investors in Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb and, as it happens, Uber; Dara’s brother, Kaveh Khosrowshahi, is a managing director at the investment firm Allen & Company; another cousin, Farzad “Fuzzy” Khosrowshahi, played a major role in the creation of Google Docs; yet another cousin, Amir Khosrowshahi, is an executive at Intel; and Avid Larizadeh Duggan, also a cousin, is a general partner at Google Ventures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/technology/dara-khosrowshahi-uber-ceo.html?emc=edit_nn_20170829&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=38867499&te=1&_r=0
Uber’s C.E.O. Pick, Dara Khosrowshahi, Steps Into Brighter Spotlight
By DAVID STREITFELD and NELLIE BOWLES
SAN FRANCISCO — Dara Khosrowshahi’s family immigrated to the United States from Iran in 1978, when their country was convulsed by revolution. They were not particularly welcomed in America, and were broke.
“Every one of us cousins had a chip on our shoulders, having lost everything to the new Iranian government,” said Hadi Partovi, a cousin of Mr. Khosrowshahi’s. “We had a desire to build anew as entrepreneurs.”
~~~~~~~~~~
At the same time in June that Mr. Kalanick was noisily being ejected from his company, Mr. Khosrowshahi had a problem of his own — his parents. Glassdoor, a site where employees rank their companies, released its 2017 list of the top chief executives. Mr. Khosrowshahi’s score had dropped.
His parents weighed in with that combination of celebration and criticism that many immigrant children know well. As Mr. Khosrowshahi reported on Twitter, his mother said, “Nice! You made the top 100!” But his father pointed out: “#39 is good but you were #11 in 2015.”
~~~~~~~~~~
“His mom raised him to be direct with people,” said Mr. Partovi, the cousin. “By far the biggest challenge he faced, which is what all of us faced, was having to come to a new country and assimilate. Being an Iranian in America in the 1980s was not pleasant. People were singing ‘Bomb bomb bomb Iran.’ ”
But the tense environment also pushed them to succeed.
Mr. Partovi and his twin brother Ali were early investors in Facebook, Dropbox, Airbnb and, as it happens, Uber; Dara’s brother, Kaveh Khosrowshahi, is a managing director at the investment firm Allen & Company; another cousin, Farzad “Fuzzy” Khosrowshahi, played a major role in the creation of Google Docs; yet another cousin, Amir Khosrowshahi, is an executive at Intel; and Avid Larizadeh Duggan, also a cousin, is a general partner at Google Ventures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/technology/dara-khosrowshahi-uber-ceo.html?emc=edit_nn_20170829&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=38867499&te=1&_r=0
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