Staten Island mornings: Todt Hill – SILive.com

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Mornings on Todt Hill are quiet and filled with wildlife, some grazing on the lawns of the spacious homes. The beautiful mansions make for great silhouettes against the red sunrise.

Todt Hill is the highest natural point in the five boroughs of New York City and the highest elevation on the entire Atlantic coastal plain from Florida to Cape Cod. The hill stands 401-feet tall, made of serpentine rock. The Greenbelt Blue Trail surrounds the neighborhood.

The waning moon over Todt Hill. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

From Flagg Place the sun rises and the early morning light shines. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

Looking over Reed's Basket Willow Swamp Park. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

Peeking through the bramble of the woods that surround Todt Hill. Only in winter can you get a sighting of the sunrise here.

Another interesting view of the Verazzano Bridge from Todt Hill as the sun rises. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

From Douglas Road the sun rises over the house tops. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

Deer roam the woods surrounding Todt Hill. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

A tree of colorful bird houses, Todt Hill. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

One of the mansions on Todt Hill in the early morning light. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

Wildlife. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

One of the stunning mansions with park like grounds on Circle Road. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

The long row of sycamore trees along Benedict Road, Todt Hill as the sun rises. (Staten Island Advance/ Jan Somma-Hammel)

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Staten Island mornings: Todt Hill - SILive.com

Former Little Bay Islands Resident says Water Not Shut off in Community – VOCM

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(Photo courtesy Kintsugi via Facebook.)

A man who has property on resettled Little Bay Islands says somebody forgot to shut off the taps at the municipal water supply. As a result, his house and contents could be ruined.

The lights were turned off in Little Bay Islands December 31 but other services, including water, were supposed to be discontinued a few weeks before that. Perry Locke says the water is still running.

Locke plans to stay in his house during the summer months, and has installed about $10,000 worth of solar equipment in his concrete basement to live off the grid. There is no electricity on the island. Hes worried that the water will flood his basement.

He says government is just ignoring his requests to turn the water off. He wonders if they even know how to shut it off.

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Former Little Bay Islands Resident says Water Not Shut off in Community - VOCM

What Its Like to Be Quarantined on an Island Over Coronavirus Fears – SBS News

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Life in an immigration detention centre on Australias Christmas Island has not been as bad as David Huang feared.

It is certainly a far cry from the conditions that thousands of asylum-seekers have faced in the countrys offshore detention centres in recent years.

Sure, the steel on the buildings facade is rusted in parts. The Wi-Fi is shaky, especially at meal times, when he and others are trying to contact their families and friends.

Dinner, at least on Tuesday, the first night he spent there, was uninspiring and mushy.

Medical personnel preparing for the arrival of evacuees on Thursday.Credit...

Richard Wainwright/EPA, via Shutterstock

Yet after being evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, he had set his expectations low.

Mr Huang, a 22-year-old student from Sydney, is one of about 270 Australian citizens and permanent residents who have been flown out of China in the past week and taken to Christmas Island.

None of the evacuees have tested positive for the virus, Australias health minister said on Tuesday.

Health experts have criticised the governments decision to quarantine them for two weeks in a centre usually used to house asylum-seekers rather than holding evacuees in better-equipped military bases on the mainland.

But while some evacuees have said the conditions at the centre are worse than they had imagined, Mr Huang said he personally found the quarantine bearable.

Evacuees arriving at the airport on Christmas Island.Credit...

AAP

Although he said the travellers had found dead moths in their beds and dead cockroaches on the floors, and spent much of their first night in the centre cleaning, Mr Huang said he didnt really mind.

Its obviously not great for the rooms to have dirty conditions, he said by telephone.

But I think it's important to think about the fact that there are so many families here that they have to accommodate.

Workers at the centre have been responsive to evacuees requests, Mr Huang said.

They added more fruit and vegetables to the meals and handed out soap and cigarettes as well as sunscreen, shorts and sandals attire more suited to the tropical island than the clothes they had brought from China.

There are Xbox 360 gaming devices, which some of the evacuees were playing to pass the time.

A member of the medical team playing football at the detention center.Credit...

Shutterstock

Those in the quarantine have been given wristbands with QR codes that, when scanned, provide access to their medical records.

And every day, doctors wearing face masks and full protective medical gear take their temperatures.

Families are split into two people per room. Mr Huang and his father are staying in one room, while his mother and brother are staying in another.

The rooms have bunk beds and a desk. Showers and toilets are shared.

For Mr Huang and his family, their journey began on Sunday in the city of Xiangyang in Hubei province, about three hours away from Wuhan, the Chinese city hardest hit by the virus.

They had been visiting relatives during the Lunar New Year holiday last month when authorities locked down Xiangyang as part of a security cordon to contain the epidemic.

When the family decided to leave, they made a series of phone calls to Chinese and Australian officials and received documents that allowed them to drive through multiple checkpoints to Wuhans airport.

The flight first landed on Learmonth, an airbase in Western Australia. Passengers were then transferred on separate flights to Christmas Island.

There, Mr Huang, who is worried about contracting the virus, has mostly kept to himself.

Each day after waking up, he goes for a walk outside the building, which is surrounded by tall fences. After breakfast and a medical check, Mr Huang, who is studying game development, returns to his room, where he plays computer games for a few hours.

Then he goes for another walk to check his social media accounts. To pass the time, his mother has been teaching him how to read and write Chinese characters.

And repeat, he said. Thats what my daily schedule looks like.

Mr Huang said the hardest thing to deal with was the sense of isolation on an unfamiliar island, and he misses his friends in Sydney.

Very, very homesick, I think describes both my family and the families around us, he wrote on Facebook Messenger shortly before the internet seemed to drop out once more.

By Isabella Kwai 2020 The New York Times

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What Its Like to Be Quarantined on an Island Over Coronavirus Fears - SBS News

Poll: Who is Staten Islands best HS girls hoopster this season? – SILive.com

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After weeks of polling, with nearly 200,000 votes pouring in, New Dorps Kasey Caroccia and Notre Dame Academys Amanda Zuntag emerged as the readers choice for the best girls hoopsters in the PSAL and CHSAA, respectively.

Now, were asking readers to crown a final champion -- as Caroccia and Zuntag square off in our conclusive poll to determine who is Staten Islands best HS girls hoopster this season.

Caroccia, a senior guard averaging 16.6 points per game to go along with 6.5 rebounds per contest, has developed into one of the PSALs prime scoring threats.

In the CHSAA circuit, Zuntag, a junior, has established herself as one of the leagues premiere rim protectors and elite post defenders -- tallying four blocks per game. She averages 8.7 points per game and 10 rebounds per contest.

*** The poll will remain open until Sunday at 10 a.m., when the winner is announced, with an update in the standings to come on Friday -- feel free to vote as often as youd like!

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Poll: Who is Staten Islands best HS girls hoopster this season? - SILive.com

What’s happening on Shelter Island the week of Feb. 13 – Shelter Island Reporter – Shelter Island Reporter

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THIS WEEKSCHOOL PLAY

Shelter Island Schools elementary students will perform The Big Chill on stage on Thursday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

The Shelter Island Library presents Friday Night Dialogues on Friday, Feb. 14, at 7 p.m. featuring Short and Sweet: Stories of Love. Whose heart does not warm at a love story? In celebration of Valentines Day, Islanders John and Katherine Moore will present a reading of short pieces on the subject of love in many forms. Featuring refreshments. Register at 631-749-0042.

Visit Mashomack Preserve on Saturday, Feb. 15, from 10 a.m. to noon for Signs of Life in Winter. Come see what is out and about in the dead of winter. We will hike, look for tracks, search for birds and learn how animals survive the cold season.

The Shelter Island Library hosts a new podcast club on Saturday, Feb. 15, at 2 p.m. The club will gather monthly to discuss podcast episodes over coffee or tea and explore a variety of topics. Listen to the podcasts at home, then join neighbors at the library. This month, the group will listen to Mobituaries, presented by journalist and humorist Mo Rocca and talk about the black Congressmen of Reconstruction in honor of Black History Month.

Shelter Island Friends of Music presents violin virtuoso Eric Silberger and pianist Bradley Moore at the Shelter Island Presbyterian Church on Sunday, Feb. 16, at 3 p.m., featuring music by Mozart, R. Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Gershwin and Hubay. A meet-the-artists wine and cheese reception follows. Free. shelterislandfriendsofmusic.org.

The Shelter Island Library presents Friday Night Dialogues: Getting Organized: A Talk and Discussion with Patty Morrissey on Friday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. Organizing and lifestyle consultant Patty Morrissey will speak about a whole host of topics related to organizing, goal setting and prioritizing. Ms. Morrissey will build upon concepts discussed at an earlier workshop but this interactive session will also be useful for those who are new to the topic. Please join us for this program to help you start the New Year off well. Please register at 631-749-0042 for this program which is free to the public.

Visit Mashomack Preserve on Saturday, Feb. 22, from 1 to 4 p.m. for Mashomack Point: A Tour of the Katharine Ordway Wildlife Refuge. Dedicated to a visionary and generous nature lover, Mashomack Point is opened for a guided walk just once a year. Well explore this areas unique woodlands, kettles, and fields, culminating with a breathtaking view of Northwest Harbor. Dress warmly.

Sylvester Manor presents Narratives in the Making: Unearthing the Stories Within Us, its sixth annual black history month celebration on Sunday, Feb. 23, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Bay Street Theater, 1 Bay St., Sag Harbor. Historical archaeologist Dr. Christopher Matthews and Cordell Reaves, historic preservation program analyst from NYS Office of Parks, will speak at the event which features panelists, a visual presentation and reception. Admission: $15 in advance; $20 at the door. Tickets available at sylvestermanor.org, 631-749-0626.

Shelter Island Library presents a screening of Downton Abbey (PG) on Thursday, Feb. 27, at 12:30 p.m.

The Shelter Island Library hosts a discussion group with philosophy professor Wendy Turgeon called Great Works of Philosophy on Friday, Feb. 28, at 12:30 p.m. Register: 631-749-0042.

Learn Spanish and English during Intercambio with Teri Piccozzi at the Shelter Island Library on Friday, Feb. 28, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Engage in conversations in both languages. Informal, not a class. Featuring light refreshments. Free.

Visit Mashomack Preserve on Saturday, Feb. 29, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. for a truck tour and short hike to discover the traces of over 200 years of Nicoll family history in the meadows. Visit the Nicoll family cemetery, find the foundations of buildings in Miss Annie Nicolls Big House and learn about the familys lingering impacts on Mashomacks land today.

The Mashomack Preserve birding club will gather at the Mashomack Manor House on Saturday, March 7, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Never gone birding? No problem. This is a casual meet-up open to anyone interested in learning more about local species. Coffee will be provided.

Sylvester Manor presents The Fretless playing two house concerts on Saturday, March 14, at 6 and 8 p.m. Hailing from Canada, The Fretless will jam in the historic Manor House music room. Winners of the 2017 Juno Award for Instrumental Album of the Year, The Fretless is a fiddle foursome playing an essential part in the emerging movement mainstreaming traditional Celtic folk music, just in time for St. Patricks Day. Admission: advance, $30; day of the show, $35.

The Shelter Island History Center is hosting a weaving workshop with textile artist Helena Hernmarck for children ages 7 to 12 on Saturday, April 4, at 11 a.m.

In her weaving practice, Ms. Hernmarck constantly works to see beyond the colors she thinks she sees in a design to get to the colors she actually sees. She then interprets these colors using skeins of wool in her wool wall, combining the strands into colorful bundles, and then weaving them into her tapestries.

In this workshop, participants will do the real thing in reverse. They will interpret the colors in a wool skein onto paper using a variety of artists tools including crayons and watercolors. In the process, they will get to know, though touch and sight, the special qualities of the wool Helena uses in her tapestries, and learn to see the intricacies of color. Fee: $25. Space is limited and online registration will be available until Wednesday, March 25 at shelterislandhistorical.org/hernmarckkidsworkshop.

After March 25 call the office at 631-749-0025 to check availability.

The Manhattan Film Institute returns with free films at the Greenport Theatre.

Feb. 15:

6:30 p.m.: The Goonies (PG)

7 p.m.: Philadelphia (PG-13)

Feb. 22:

6:30 p.m.: Spirited Away (PG)

7 p.m.: Breaking Away (PG-13)

Feb. 29:

6:30 p.m.: The Lion King (PG)

7 p.m.: Juno (PG-13)

March 7:

6:30 p.m.: March of the Penguins (G)

7 p.m.: Do the Right Thing (R)

March 14:

6:30 p.m.: Fantastic Mr. Fox (PG)

7 p.m.: Some Like it Hot (PG)

March 21:

6:30 p.m.: Moana (PG)

7 p.m.: Jerry Maguire (R)

March 28:

6:30 p.m.: Toy Story (G)

7 p.m.: Double Indemnity (NR)

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What's happening on Shelter Island the week of Feb. 13 - Shelter Island Reporter - Shelter Island Reporter

Laughlintown family explores island life on ‘Beachfront Bargain Hunt’ – TribLIVE

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Escaping to an island retreat is a fantasy many entertain.

Laughlintown residents Matt and Leigh Ann McCulty recently turned the fantasy into reality, with a little help from HGTVs Beachfront Bargain Hunt.

While working with a Realtor to find a home on Grand Cayman, they were asked to participate in the show.

They filmed in July, buying a condo that they will lease when not staying there. Their episode will air at 11 p.m. Feb. 18 and again at 2 a.m. Feb. 19.

The couple own and operate Ligoniers Diamond Theatre. Matt McCulty, 46, an audiologist, operates Advanced Hearing Centers in Mt. Pleasant, Greensburg and Ligonier.

Originally from Morgantown, W.Va., they had hoped to honeymoon in the Cayman Islands 21 years ago.

We couldnt afford it, Leigh Ann McCulty, 47, says. Years later they began visiting the island, falling in love with its beauty.

Since April, Matt McCulty has flown to the Cayman Islands once a month to spend a week working with an ear, nose and throat doctor.

Rather than continuing to spend money on hotels and restaurants during his stays, the couple began looking for a home.

Filming a fun experience

A British Overseas Territory, the Cayman Islands encompass three islands in the western Caribbean Sea. The largest, Grand Cayman, attracts sun lovers to its beach resorts and is known for scuba diving and snorkeling.

Two of the couples children, Arison, 12, and Mariana, 7, traveled with them in July. Son Lanigan, 15, joined them after football camp.

We did filming for four days, from morning to sunset, Leigh Ann says. We, of course, had to tell them what we were looking for. We definitely wanted something on the beach. The production team was amazing, she says.

I was nervous because everything is very expensive there. The main street, Seven Mile Beach, one-bedroom homes there are over $1 million, Leigh Ann says.

In one clip, the couple admire the view from one oceanfront home.

Beats pine needles and snow. Just think, you would never have to cut grass, she tells her husband.

The couple was shown three properties, all around the $500,000 price range. A bidding war led them to go over that price a bit in acquiring their two-bedroom condominium.

One larger home didnt make the cut. It was spectacular. But it was across the street from the beach. The beach was our priority, Leigh Ann says.

They hope their pride in their home states makes the filming cut.

During filming, we talked about many wonderful aspects of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and what we enjoy doing in both places, Leigh Ann says.

Since buying the condo, they have painted and redecorated. They enjoyed trips to their new home over Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they recently made their first booking.

Mary Pickels is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Mary at 724-836-5401, [emailprotected] or via Twitter .

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.

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Laughlintown family explores island life on 'Beachfront Bargain Hunt' - TribLIVE

Hicks column: Would another layer of government on Johns Island stop growth? – Charleston Post Courier

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Its easy to see why longtime Johns Island residents are frustrated.

Just drive out there and take a look ... but allot a couple of hours for the commute.

There are new subdivisions sprouting up every year and maddening rush-hour traffic every day. Now, they even have a gathering place an uber-urban collection of apartments, restaurants and retail businesses right there on Maybank Highway.

For some folks, its all just a little too James Island. This was predictably unavoidable given geography, population influx and property rights. People attempting to flee the citys rising home prices were bound to look for the nearest undeveloped spot, and some landowners saw dollar signs.

Old-timers fear the once-rural haven is vanishing and will disappear completely if Interstate 526 is extended onto the island. But forming another town to fight growth, as some residents are contemplating, may not be the answer.

In fact, it could have the exact opposite effect.

Right now, most of the growth on Johns Island crops up on land within the municipal borders of Charleston. A new town could do nothing about that. But that growth also is, not coincidentally, within the Urban Growth Boundary, beyond which the city and Charleston County have agreed they will not allow intense development.

Or, in most cases, even sewer lines the great enabler of development.

Nearly 79 percent of Johns Island or 60 of its 76 square miles is outside that boundary, which means it is already protected about as much as it legally can be. Most of that land is zoned for rural development that rarely allows more than one house per acre.

That is where a new town would form.

Thomas Legare, the islands unofficial mayor and one of the proponents of a local town, is certainly not looking for more density or development out that way. In fact, hed fight it pretty fiercely.

But hes only one person, and unless the new town government agreed to sign onto the Urban Growth Boundary, it wouldnt be forced to abide by those parameters.

Which means future elected officials could allow for any manner of sins against the remaining rural parts of the island. And make no mistake, some landowners would lobby for those rights there is too much money to be made.

It would be nearly impossible for a new town to make development more prohibitive than it is now. That would require down-zoning peoples property, and thats an expensive proposition that would involve years of court battles. The forest and agricultural land of currently unincorporated Johns Island wouldnt generate enough in taxes to fund such a crusade.

Of course, that assumes any municipality formed on Johns Island would be a real government and not a paper town like James Island, which exists only to block the city of Charleston from annexing more land there.

Johns Island would have to do things differently if it wants expanded police protection and flood mitigation. And more than half of residents would have to approve of a new town. Thats not a given, as Johns Island residents like everyone else are pretty divided. Believe it or not, some of them actually want 526. So this isnt something that happens overnight. James Island fought Charleston for 30 years to create its, ahem, minimalist town and finally won only because local legislators changed state law to help it do it.

The city might not fight a Johns Island incorporation, but those lawmakers probably would. They suspect this is a ploy to block the aforementioned 526, and they arent about to let that happen.

And the county, home to 18 municipalities already, is not keen to subsidize a 19th. Most of them already privately grumble about supporting the town of James Island.

Johns Islanders wisely retained local attorney Trent Kernodle, the man who helped James Island incorporate, to develop their plan. He told reporter Mikaela Porter there are a lot of questions to answer before this could happen.

Hes absolutely right. But the first question Johns Islanders have to ask themselves is this: Will another layer of government actually slow growth, or just give them a larger platform to vent their growing frustration?

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Hicks column: Would another layer of government on Johns Island stop growth? - Charleston Post Courier

Meet the husband and wife team behind Kentucky’s first black-owned distillery – The Hill

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Kentucky is known for its bourbon, but whats often forgotten is the long history of black distillers in the state. Husband and wife Sean and Tia Edwards plan to put black-owned distilleries back on the map.

Growing up in Kentucky, Sean helped his uncle and grandfather bootleg alcohol by collecting and cleaning bottles on the weekends. He told the story at a gathering to announce the new distillery in remembrance of his uncle, who died a few months earlier.

I was always fascinated about the making of alcohol, he said to the crowd.

Sean registered Fresh Bourbon Distilling Co. in 2017 as a premier, African-American-owned Bourbon brand. The companys products are mashed, fermented, distilled, matured and later bottled entirely in Kentucky. For now, their recipes are being produced under a contract with Hartfield & Co. Distillery, in Paris, Ky.

For nearly three years, we have been diligently developing an authentic and unique Bourbon and spirits line. We chose not to buy Bourbon from someone else and just place our name on a bottle, Sean Edwards said in a release. We have been very intentional and deliberate in crafting our spirits from the mash bills up and also our Fresh Bourbon team, including in selecting our master distiller. We are excited to share with the world what we have created with the world.

The master distiller, whose name has not been announced, will reportedly be the first black master distiller in Kentucky after slavery.

Bourbon is a mainstay of Kentuckys economy, and I am thrilled to see this step toward greater inclusivity in this iconic industry, said Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear in the release. Creating opportunities for all Kentuckians is essential, and our administration aims to pave the way for progress. I sincerely thank Fresh Bourbon Distilling Co. for choosing to build its distillery in our state.

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) approved a 10-year incentive agreement in December with Fresh Bourbon. In exchange for creating and maintaining 15 full-time jobs for Kentucky residents over 10 years with benefits and an hourly wage of $18, the company will receive up to $200,000 in tax incentives.

Customers can taste the spirits from the distillery planned for Lexington's Distillery District in late 2020.

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Meet the husband and wife team behind Kentucky's first black-owned distillery - The Hill

Jobs tsar: Government ‘in the dark’ on exploitation at work – Yahoo Finance UK

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The government is in the dark about the scale of worker exploitation across the UK, Britains employment tsar has warned.

We are to a certain extent in the dark about the scale of these issues, Matthew Taylor said. We dont know enough about whats going on.

Speaking exclusively to Yahoo Finance UK, he said he hoped to launch one of the most far-reaching studies on the issue later this year. If it happens, it really will be a game-changer, he said.

Read more: Taylor warns EU migration curbs could fuel people smuggling

Taylor was appointed as the governments interim director of labour market enforcement last year, after carrying out the Taylor Review of the gig economy.

The role involves overseeing several UK agencies that enforce workers rights covering everything from minimum wage payment to modern slavery cases.

His comments come as the government confirmed on Tuesday it will continue naming and shaming employers who under-pay the minimum wage, though only for sums above 500.

While more data is needed, official research suggests workers are particularly at risk of exploitation in sectors such as agriculture, care, construction and car washes.

Taylor told Yahoo Finance UK he wants the government to do more to educate workers on their rights, rather than focusing mainly on punishing badly behaved employers.

The former adviser to ex-prime minister Tony Blair said employment rights were a job for society as a whole and hopes workers can be empowered to speak up when they see violations.

The comments come after research last month suggested hundreds of thousands of people were being paid below minimum wage. A study by the Resolution Foundation think tank said calculating the exact number was difficult if not impossible, but estimated it was more than 350,000 people.

Read more: High earners and wealthy face tax hikes in UK budget

In an interview in his government office in London last month, Taylor said he welcomed the research and admitted the government need to be more proactive in enforcing rights. The think tanks analysis of a single month suggested HMRC caught only 1,500 out of around 11,000 underpaying firms.

However, Taylor said many were unintentional, very small-scale breaches, such as employers failing to immediately increase pay when minimum wage rates rise.

People need to be aware thats not 11,000 bosses rubbing their hands going, How can I not pay poor people the minimum wage.

Enforcement has also improved and budgets increased, Taylor argued, saying an awful lot more firms would breach minimum wage law without HMRCs investigations. Employers were fined a record 17m ($22m) in 2018-19.

Taylor backed reforms to help workers know their rights. (PA)

Taylor noted government agencies look at an enormously wide spectrum of labour issues, from workers buying their own uniforms to forced labour by organised crime gangs.

The slightly depressing thing is some of these problems have been around for quite a long time, Taylor said.

The jobs tsar said he would welcome stronger penalties for companies that break the rules, and backed the revived naming-and-shaming scheme. However, he admitted current resources were not commensurate with the problem, but said they could be better used through wider reform.

Taylor, also chief executive of the RSA charity, backs current government plans to roll different enforcement teams into a new employment body. Its focus should be not just...catching bad people doing bad things, but also empowering workers and encouraging firms to do the right thing.

More government guidance could have an enormous impact, Taylor said. Officials should educate workers, firms, unions and trade bodies on common issues, such as pay entitlements for carers when traveling between jobs or security guards expected to arrive early for shifts.

Story continues

His approach appears to be gaining traction. The government vowed on Tuesday to make its online advice more accessible, provide thematic guidance and even visit new firms to educate them on minimum wage law.

From April, employers will also have to give contractors a statement of their rights on day one in a reform proposed by Taylor, encouraging workers to highlight issues themselves.

Taylor also welcomed a government advertising campaign to raise awareness over holiday pay, a major issue in the UK. About 1.8 million people do not receive holiday pay owed, and a recent survey found widespread confusion over the entitlements of temporary, shift, agency and zero-hour workers.

Non-payment of holidays should be seen as minimum wage infringement for the lowest-paid, Taylor said, allowing HMRCs 500-strong minimum wage enforcement team to tackle the issue.

Ultimately though, Taylor thinks public support and awareness is needed to successfully enforce workers rights.

Taylor pointed to the smoking ban, introduced in 2007 when he was part of Blairs government. The ban worked because everyone accepted the principle, Taylor said.

Similarly, employment rights are a job for society as a whole, not just for enforcement agencies.

I cant ever envisage a world where there are enough people to visit every single business every single year, he said.

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Jobs tsar: Government 'in the dark' on exploitation at work - Yahoo Finance UK

What’s at stake in the Democratic primaries Democracy – IPS Journal

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The Democratic primaries are in full swing. This years presidential contest will be the highest-stakes election for the Democratic party and American democracy in a long time. There has been much talk of deeply divided Democrats and fights for the soul of the Democratic party. But from the other side of the Atlantic it may be difficult to understand what the most important differences are among the Democratic candidates and their implications for the future of the left and democracy.

Normally, intra-party differences pivot around policy disputes. There are indeed policy differences between the progressives, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and the moderates, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and Amy Klobucharbut on economic policy these are less than one might think. Indeed, on economic issues all the candidates favour policies further left, and closer to traditional European social-democratic policies, than any field of Democratic candidates in recent memory.

For example, with regard to health care, all the candidates support moving beyond the reforms introduced under Barack Obamas presidency towards universal coverage. Where they differ is on how to get there: Sanders and Warren favour a rapid transition to a single-payer, public (Medicare for all) system, while the moderates favour gradual change, beginning with the expansion of a public option (Medicare) to those lacking private insurance.

Similarly, all the candidates advocate higher taxes on the wealthy, fighting inequality, more business regulation, increased spending on social programmes and infrastructure, making college more affordable and devoting greater attention to environmental issues and climate change. As with health care, on these issues the candidates differ more on how they favour achieving these goals than on the goals themselves.

Policy differences between progressives and moderates appear more clearly with regard to non-economic issues, with the former calling for decriminalising border crossing, providing health care to illegal immigrants, abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, offering reparations for slavery, prioritising transgender rights and other policies far to the left of the American mainstream and even most Democratic voters.

These are not, however, normal times. More important and consequential, therefore, than the candidates policy differences are deeper disputes about how to win elections and what the future of the left should be.

On one side are those who believe the path to victory in 2020 lies in reaching out to independent voters and maybe even Republicans who support some of Donald Trumps policies as president but are disgusted by his corrupt and polarising behaviour. Supporters of this strategy point to extensive research showing that moderates outperform extremists and to the 2018 mid-term congressional elections, when the Democrats retook the House of Representatives by capturing wavering and previously Republican-leaning districts. From this perspective, some of Warrens and Sanders stances appear nothing short of insanity, since they are far to the left of even what many Democratic much less independent or Republican voters prefer.

Disputes about electability are closely tied to debates about the future of the Democratic party and these debates mirror those occurring on the European left as well.

In addition, many worry that Sanders past makes him unelectable. Although he and Warren do not differ much on policy, Warren is less rabble-rouser than wonky technocrat: she claims to have a plan to solve any problem a phrase so associated with her that her campaign sells T-shirts with that printed on it. In addition, before serving in Democratic administrations and as a Democratic senator, she was even a Republican. (In the European context Warren would easily fit in the social-democratic category: she has called herself a capitalist to her bones and presents the policies she favours as designed to save capitalism rather than bury it.)

Sanders, on the other hand, wasnt even a member of the Democratic party until he ran for president. His past is littered with positions with which Republicans will have a field day: his support for non-democratic but self-proclaimed socialists, such as Fidel Castro in Cuba and the Nicaraguan Sandinistas, as well as the Iranian revolution; his honeymoon trip to the Soviet Union; his campaigning for the Socialist Workers party; his argument that (particularly low) wage labour is akin to slavery, and more.

Moreover, Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, rather than a social democrat, and is clearly sceptical of the possibility or even desirability of reforming capitalism views with which, despite the purported rise of interest in socialism among the young, most Americans do not agree. (In Europe, Sanders would probably find himself in the company of far-left figures such as Jean-Luc Mlenchon or Jeremy Corbyn.)

On the other side of the electability debate are those who believe the path to victory lies not in trying to attract independent and wavering voters but in mobilising the partys base. Supporters of this strategy point to research arguing that voters generally dont know much about policy and the intense polarisation of the American electorate, which makes them care even less. In this view, Democrats and Republicans are so committed to their own team technically, negative partisanship has become so strong that they will vote for any candidate their party puts up.

From this perspective, there are hardly any real independent or wavering voters, so any strategy based on trying to attract them is fundamentally flawed. Instead, the key to victory lies in getting as much of ones own team to the polls as possible. If this is true, then Sanders has advantages over Warren, since his passion, authenticity, values-driven politics and anti-establishment appeal is most likely to motivate disaffected and alienated Democrats to vote. (Reflecting this, Politico recently reported, for example, that the Sanders campaign was instructing volunteers to attack Warren by noting that the people who support her are highly-educated, more affluent people who are going to show up and vote Democratic no matter what.)

Sanders does draw more support, than Warren for example, from young people and disaffected particularly male disaffected voters, who do indeed tend to vote less than other Democratic constituencies. Sanders also enjoys disproportionate support among committed far-left activists, who say they are less likely to vote for another Democrat if Sanders does not win the nomination. (Sanders, to be clear, has said he will support whoever wins it.)

Disputes about electability are closely tied to debates about the future of the Democratic party and these debates mirror those occurring on the European left as well.

On one side are those who believe the lefts path lies in countering right-wing populism with a left-wing version. Chantal Mouffe is probably this views most influential advocate but echoes of this strategy can be found in the approaches of left leaders like Corbyn and Mlenchon. In this view, the left needs to turn its back on its centrist, social-democratic past and recognise that the reigning political and economic order is corrupt and perhaps irredeemable.

Those in this camp believe that a mass of disaffected voters are waiting to flock to their revolution and view the lefts job as injecting passion back into politics, which will mobilise these voters as well as revitalise democracy. The best way to do this, in turn, is by openly acknowledging the antagonistic dimension of politics and that society is indeed divided into friends and foes with the real foes being not minorities and immigrants but rather the rich and the establishment.

How the Democratic primaries play out is thus set to have an immense impact not only on the 2020 elections but on the future of the left and democracy, in the US and beyond.

Although Sanders fits uneasily into the populist category, he does believe in the need for a political revolution and views the economic and political status quo, as well as the Democratic establishment, as more fundamentally flawed than do the other Democratic candidates. Moreover, many of his most vocal supporters revel in an aggressive and antagonistic approach to politics and view moderation and compromise as anathema. (This was also true in 2016, of course, when so-called Bernie Bros caused much hand-wringing. In these primaries a small but vocal subset of Sanders supporters have also engaged in persistent, nasty social-media attacks on other candidates and the Democratic party, which to be fair to Sanders he has not openly encouraged.)

On the other side lie those who believe the future of the left lies in a revitalised social-democratic approach to politics, which would focus on reforming the existing political and economic orders, rather than calling for a fundamental transformation of them. This approach is also comfortable with moderation and compromise and views polarisation and antagonistic, ideological politics as a threat to both the left and democracy.

Those in this camp recognise that swing voters are repelled by the ideological and divisive appeals which spur on the faithful. They believe that the lefts future and the health of democracy requires at least diminishing the antagonism of such voters, if not winning them over. The examples of countries such as Hungary and Turkey, where divisions among the opposition facilitated the ability of populist leaders to undermine democracy, may be worth considering in this regard.

In the United States these views about the left and democracy have led to a recent outpouring of fear among moderates and many members of the Democratic establishment about the possibility of a Sanders victory. If the lefts strategy consists of whipping up the already dissatisfied with harsh critiques of the status quo, which are not accompanied by viable plans for gaining power, implementing policies once in power and healing societal divisions, these concerned Democrats believe that not only is Trump likely to win but that faith in democracy is likely to erode further.

How the Democratic primaries play out is thus set to have an immense impact not only on the 2020 elections but on the future of the left and democracy, in the US and beyond.

This article is a joint publication by Social Europe and IPS-Journal.

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What's at stake in the Democratic primaries Democracy - IPS Journal

160 years since Bloody Kansas/The legacy of John Brown – Workers World

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May 9 marks the 220th anniversary of this great abolitionists birth. This article was originally published in Workers World on Sept. 14, 2006.

Many historians agree that the Civil War really started on a flat patch of land known as Bloody Kansas 150 years ago, in the spring, summer and on into the autumn of 1856.

A depiction of John Brown moments before execution, Dec. 2, 1859.

This area of land covering some 82,000 square miles now sits at the geographic center of the continental United States. It rarely gets national attention these days, and when it does its usually for reactionary developments, like the effort to ban evolution from the public schools science curriculum.

Yet this was once the hub of the most important political conflict of its day, indeed of all U.S. history: the struggle over slavery. This was where diametrically opposed forces abolitionists and pro-slavers clashed.

When 1856 began, the pro-slavery forces had looked to be ascendant. Congress had passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act on May 30, 1854. The law provided for popular sovereignty voting by white male landowners, that is to decide whether Kansas and Nebraska would be free or slave states. Kansas had since been the scene of a violent terror campaign, based across the border in Missouri.

Death squads, known as Border Ruffians, aimed to kill or drive out those who opposed the spread of slavery to Kansas, and to flood the territory with their own numbers. Jesse and Frank James, glorified as rebellious outlaws in the movies and folklore, were the most well-known of these ruffians.

The Border Ruffians hunted down and murdered African Americans who had escaped slavery and were heading north to Canada. They brazenly assassinated Underground Railway station operators and anti-slavery newspaper editors.

It had started to seem like a foregone conclusion that Kansas would enter the union as a slave state. Then John Brown arrived.

With a small, brave band of stalwarts, he took on the slave owners death squads in direct combat, and bested them. He revived and rallied the anti-slavery forces.

At the Battle of Osawatomie, on Aug. 30, 1856, his brilliant tactical maneuvers led to the defeat of a pro-slavery force of 300 soldiers by his group of under 20 and from then on he was affectionately known as Old Osawatomie by admirers around the country.

In Lawrence, Kanasas, in the first two weeks of September, he led the military defense of the state capital against a pro-slavery assault and ever after was respectfully called Captain Brown by those who fought alongside him.

But before Osawatomie, before Lawrence, John Brown had already become a legend. That happened at Pottawatomie Creek.

A daring raid

At Pottawatomie on the night of May 24-25, 1856, John Brown led an armed band in a lightning raid against an encampment where he knew hed find several of the worst of the Border Ruffians who were terrorizing the territory.

When Brown and company rode off, they left the dead bodies of five racist thugs. The criminals Brown and his band killed had been responsible for many assaults and murders; they were also known for capturing Native women and forcing them into prostitution and sexually assaulting Free State women.

Until Brown acted, the slavocracy had been waging an undeclared war with what seemed like impunity. And not just in the fields and towns of Kansas. On May 22, two days before Brown rode to Pottawatomie, Preston Brooks, a member of Congress from South Carolina, had strode onto the floor of the U.S. Senate and beaten anti-slavery Sen. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts nearly to death as retaliation for Sumners speech The Crime against Kansas.

After Pottawatomie, all this changed. The slaveocracy did not surrender it would take the Civil War for that. But from Pottawatomie word went out.

No longer would the racist death squads have free rein in Kansas. A new force, a force for freedom, was fighting back.

For years afterward, in fact to this very day, bourgeois historians have misrepresented what happened at Pottawatomie. It has been portrayed as an insane, isolated event, as a senseless, inexplicable act of violence and its perpetrator as a wild-eyed, crazed, fanatical maniac. The official bourgeois version removes the Pottawatomie raid from its historic context the bloody terrorist war the Border Ruffians were waging and omits the fact that the men Browns troops killed were racist murderers.

John Brown was no lunatic. He was a hero. By first frost in the fall of 1856, he had accomplished what six months earlier no one thought possible. The territory had been secured. Kansas would enter the union as a free state.

The victory came at a high personal cost for Brown. His son Frederick died at the Battle of Osawatomie. Another son, John Brown Jr., was captured by the pro-slavery forces and tortured horribly while held prisoner, which led to many years of illness and anguish.

Brown himself was now a wanted man. A price on his head, he went underground, leaving Kansas. He headed toward the Northeast.

There he would spend the next three years raising funds, recruiting troops, writing, speaking and planning. His goal was nothing less than to launch a guerrilla war, whose leadership would be taken up by African Americans, to end slavery and establish full freedom and equality for all.

On to Harpers Ferry

Before, during and after his time in Kansas, John Brown was keen to learn how to wage the kind of guerrilla warfare he believed would be necessary to destroy slavery. To whom did he look as his teachers?

To Nat Turner, Denmark Vesey and other enslaved African American leaders of U.S. slave revolts; to the Seminole nation that had resisted domination by colonial settlers; to the Maroons of the South and of Jamaica and Surinam, escaped slaves who fought the settler states forces in daring raids from bases in the hills and mountains; and to Toussaint LOuverture, one of the great liberators of Haiti.

Most well-meaning whites, including abolitionists, were under the sway of racism to varying degrees. In contrast, Brown not only admired but sought to learn from and emulate Black and Native leaders. He was that free of the taint of racism.

In Kansas, Brown worked closely with a Native ally, Ottawa Jones, who sheltered, fed and helped arm Browns group at several points during the months of conflict. Although he himself was a fiercely devout Christian, Brown counted Jews and atheists among his troops.

For three years after leaving Kansas, Brown was based in North Elba, N.Y. [in upstate New York].There he established a cooperative farming community, the first ever where Black and white families lived and worked as equals.

Along with farming and guiding escaped slaves along an Underground Railroad route across the border to Canada, Brown would spend those three years preparing for the action he was determined would give rise to a generalized mass uprising by enslaved Black people. He would write a new constitution for the United States which first and foremost proclaimed race and sex equality.

He would travel to Canada and recruit several African Americans, including Osborne P. Anderson, who would fight alongside Brown at Harpers Ferry, Va. (now W.Va.), and live to write about it. He would meet often with the great organizer and orator, Frederick Douglass, and the two would become close friends. Douglass had escaped from slavery as a young man.

He would confer with the Moses of the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, whom he always respectfully referred to as Gen. Tubman. Some believe that Tubman helped plan the raid on the U.S. Army arsenal at Harpers Ferry and would have taken part in it had she not fallen ill.

African-American freedom fighters Dangerfield Newby, Lewis S. Leary, John Browns sons Watson and Oliver, and six others of their number would die at Harpers Ferry in October 1859. Five would escape and survive. Seven, including John Brown, would be captured and hanged.

Gen. Robert E. Lee, who scant months later would lead the secessionist Confederate army, led the opposing force that captured John Brown at Harpers Ferry. John Wilkes Booth, who would assassinate President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, was among the troops guarding the scaffolding on the day they hanged John Brown.

On that day, Dec. 2, 1859, just before they led him from his cell to the gallows, this great soldier for human liberation would write, I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood. Brown was buried in the majority Black cemetery in North Elba, a fitting tribute indeed.

In April 1861 the Civil War would begin.

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160 years since Bloody Kansas/The legacy of John Brown - Workers World

Feb. 11: I was never taught about the Canadian slave trade. I had to teach myself. Readers respond to Black History Month, Omar Khadr, Huaweis 5G…

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A smartphone with the Huawei and 5G network logo is seen on a PC motherboard in this illustration taken on Jan. 29, 2020.

DADO RUVIC/Reuters

Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com

Re Ottawa Should Ban Huawei From 5G: Military (Feb. 10): While pondering Huaweis role in forthcoming 5G networks, shouldnt the government cast the net of circumspection wider? Western companies, it seems to me, havent always been paragons of virtue when dealing with our digital information. Misuse and abuse should not be defined solely by geography or politics.

Eric LeGresley Ottawa

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Where is the dialogue on the potential health risks of new 5G technology? These networks use extremely high-frequency, never-used-before bandwidths in the electromagnetic spectrum, and we dont yet know the potential health effects.

In the 1950s, it was common for shoe stores to employ X-ray machines to show how well a shoe fit. It was fun to wiggle ones toes and see the bones dance. We learned that this was not wise, after the fact. We shouldnt make these mistakes again.

Governments and scientists should pursue further risk analyses before going down the 5G path.

Laurie Kochen Toronto

Re The Omar Khadr Saga Is A Testament To Canadian Principles Of Justice (Opinion, Feb. 8): Columnist Robyn Urback writes that Omar Khadrs story is an example of the principles of Canadian freedom and justice in action. I suggest it is another example of a justice system that too often puts the rights of criminals before those of victims.

When I read of violent criminals offered parole after serving only one-third of a sentence, only to reoffend, or alleged murderers released because rights to a speedy trial were violated, were the rights of victims really considered? I think the proper phrase might better be justice inaction.

John Donly Pickering, Ont.

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I have followed the Omar Khadr case for many years. To me, he has consistently displayed a peaceful, non-violent demeanour, both in and out of prison; expressed remorse for the tragic situation that occurred; shown compassion and concern for his captors and torturers, as well as a positive regard toward all with whom he interacts.

I am happy to hear that Mr. Khadr will deliver a keynote address at Dalhousie University, and I wish him well in all his future endeavours.

Jim Thompson Ramara, Ont.

Re Tracking Safety (Letters, Feb. 10): While Transport Minister Marc Garneaus 30-day slow-order for trains carrying dangerous goods is a welcome development, I believe it is a short-term Band-Aid response to deeper problems in Ottawas approach to regulating railway safety.

The Guernsey derailment and fire is the latest in a long string of precisely the kinds of accidents that Transport Canadas regulatory regime is supposed to prevent. There should be less emphasis on letting the railways regulate themselves, and a stronger focus on direct and effective oversight and enforcement by federal regulators.

Mark Winfield PhD, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University; Toronto

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Re Just How Bad Are The Jobs Numbers, Really? (Report on Business, Feb. 6): Every month, 56,000 households, or 110,000 Canadians, take part in the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS and three other data sources the Survey of Employment, Payrolls and Hours; Employment Insurance Statistics; and the Job Vacancy and Wage Survey provide a comprehensive dashboard of labour information. Policy makers use this dashboard to make decisions that affect Canadians, from determining employment insurance rates to developing training and skills programs, and more. And with every LFS release, Statistics Canada provides data quality statements: Users should be careful in drawing trends from a single months data or relying exclusively on one instrument. This would be like driving a car using only one of the gauges on the dashboard.

We thank Canadians who participate in the LFS every month, our interviewers who work hard to ensure high response rates and quality, and our users who understand the value and proper use of the LFS.

Anil Arora Chief Statistician of Canada; Ottawa

Re The Liberals Want A Happiness Budget (Feb. 5): In my view, GDP economics are about maximizing how fast we can convert resources to money, using the cheapest possible labour, with no consideration to people or planet. The biggest challenge with GDP, however, seems not so much the metric itself, but rather its supremacy in the various processes that guide societys governance. Our addiction to its quantitative qualities has left us believing in what Greta Thunberg calls fairy tales of eternal economic growth. But what do we want to grow, if not happiness and well-being?

A successful economy could indeed be judged by a flat-lining GDP, accompanied by a much more desired increase in happiness and well-being, in whatever way a diverse society chooses to measure it. I see that places such as Bhutan, Scotland and New Zealand are already on their way.

As Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said: If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing.

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Yannick Beaudoin Director General, Ontario and Northern Canada, David Suzuki Foundation; Toronto

Re Photo Project Curated By Kaepernick On Display At Toronto Festival (Feb. 5): As a black female Canadian, my wish for Black History Month in Canada is that we acknowledge the 200-plus years of slavery in Canada, and the Canadian civil-rights leaders who ended centuries-long segregation. Black History Month shouldnt just be about feeling good while listening to black musicians, or putting black artists on subway walls. We should educate more and strive to be truthful about the full scope of black history.

Since moving to the United States a few years ago, Ive noticed a stark difference in how Black History Month is celebrated and how black history, in general, is acknowledged. References to the African-American slave trade and U.S. civil-rights leaders are a consistent part of popular culture and education. But in Canada, I never saw references to either of those. I was never taught about the Canadian slave trade. I had to teach myself.

This year, I would ask that people take some time to learn about the African-Canadian slave trade that helped build the colonial empire we call Canada, and that important figures such as Hugh Burnett and Marisse Scott become commonplace, alongside names such as Viola Desmond, in the celebration of black history.

Sinead Bovell Brooklyn, N.Y.

Re Adding This Plant Compound To Your Diet Could Help Keep Alzheimers At Bay (Feb. 10): Dietitian Leslie Beck is my hero. She describes a study that has identified three flavonols critical to the prevention of Alzheimers disease. Two of these, myricetin and isorhamnetin, are found in wine. Great news cheers to that! And I forget what the third one is

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Vic Bornell Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.

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Feb. 11: I was never taught about the Canadian slave trade. I had to teach myself. Readers respond to Black History Month, Omar Khadr, Huaweis 5G...

Growing business sector is taking on the challenge of supplying us with sustainable products – Irish Examiner

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Buying sustainable products is a challenge when synthetics are everywhere and packaging is plastic, but there is a growing business sector taking on the problem with success, writes Carol OCallaghan

In this day and age, who isnt making at least some effort to be environmentally conscious?

But beyond recycling and avoiding plastic packaging at the supermarket, finding necessities for the home which are eco-worthy can turn a shopping expedition into a chore rather than a pleasure.

Happily, among a growing sustainability sector are three Irish businesses thriving on their commitment to quality, the planet and a focus on sourcing materials ethically, while avoiding plastic at the same time.

White & Greens Peace silk pillowcase (79) from http://www.whiteandgreenhome.com

First up is White & Green run by Rebecca Winckworth, her mother, Sari, and sister, Danielle, in Co Wicklow. As Irelands only 100% organic Fairtrade bed linen brand, they make bed sheets and home accessories such as throws, towels and silk pillowcases.

We use only natural, organic processes which are healthier for the environment and our producers, Rebecca explains. It also creates softer, longer-lasting products. Our production ensures that everyone involved with us from farmers through to factory workers are paid a living wage, are treated well in the workplace and that there is never, ever any child labour nor slavery, something which is still commonplace today in the fashion and textiles industries.

Among the ranges the company sells, Rebecca says, Our two most popular items are our organic Peace silk pillowcase which is incredibly great for your skin and hair. It means you wont wake up with fuzzy hair or sleep lines anymore. It feels like a dream to sleep on. Our organic cotton Bed Bundle has four pillowcases, one duvet cover and one deep fitted sheet in the silkiest, softest sateen cotton at 258 for a double.

The Bed Bundle from White & Green (258) includes four pillowcases, one duvet cover and one deep fitted sheet in sateen cotton from http://www.whiteandgreenhome.com

Such worthy credentials have now been extended to their packaging systems and what Rebecca describes as guilt-free shopping.

Deliveries arrive on our customers doorstep in biodegradable bags or cardboard boxes only. Its a lovely shopping experience as our clients simply buy online with one click and their order arrives the next day in a totally sustainable way.

Starting the business before sustainability was even fashionable, Rebecca says, People questioned whether it was possible to be sustainable and offer high-quality products, and be affordable at the same time. Now, we have proven that it is possible with over 10,000 customers.

Pat Kane, owner of Reuzi in Dublins Foxrock, offers everything in one place she considers we need to live a minimal waste lifestyle.

We believe that it should be easy to make choices that positively benefit the planet, she explains, and that no matter who you are, where you come from, what you believe in, we can all take small yet meaningful steps to reduce our waste.

Reuzis essential oil diffuser by Kotanicals (89.99) from Reuzi.ie

Focusing on products to help us avoid single-use materials, Reuzi sells everything from bamboo toothbrushes, to wax alternatives to cling film, and runs an educational programme of talks and workshops to help schools and businesses understand sustainability while offering practical advice on how to get there.

With over 600 products to choose from, Pat picks out two favourites the affordable bamboo Spork (3.15) which is half spoon, half fork to keep in your bag and eliminate the need to use plastic cutlery while on the go. Another choice is the Way Cap reusable Nespresso capsule. It costs 38, she says. You can always have your favourite ground coffee instead of going with the single-use capsule.

Business partners Francie Duff and Sonia Reynolds also took the sustainability route when they set up shop to focus on Irish textiles including linens, wool and cashmere.

Stable's Irish linen napkins (20) from http://www.stableofireland.com

Called Stable of Ireland, it started as a successful pop-up shop four years ago and then established itself permanently in premises located on Grafton Street, selling scarves, blankets, cushions, throws and table linens.

Theres so much quality in this country, says Francie. We work with manufacturers using ethically sourced materials. Theyre all Irish dyed yarns made from natural fibres so theres no processing.

Customers can expect to find Irish linen handkerchiefs (12), napkins (20), and linen towels (40), countering a belief that this sort of quality can be excessively pricey.

The people who come into the shop are seeking out beautiful Irish products and are aware of environmentally sourced fibres, Francie says.

They are well educated about this so they are aware of the benefits of sustainable products. Its something were seeing across the age groups where their attitude is buy better, buy less.

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Growing business sector is taking on the challenge of supplying us with sustainable products - Irish Examiner

The Trump and Republican election realignment landslide in 2020 – Washington Times

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ANALYSIS/OPINION:

We were the first in our knowledge to use the term Blue Collar Boom to describe President Trumps record-setting economic recovery, on this very page.

Mr. Trumps record shows that he is making America great again, in part with the lowest unemployment since 1969, 50 years ago (during President Kennedys 1960s boom). That includes the lowest unemployment among African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, and Asian-Americans in American history. With the lowest unemployment rate for women in 70 years as well, Mr. Trump is leading the most inclusive recovery in American history.

Moreover, what Mr. Trump rightly called at Davos his blue-collar boom includes an all-time record in median family incomes at over $65,000. Indeed, rank-and-file workers have gotten the biggest pay raises in more than a decade, more than their bosses, with the bottom 25 percent of wage earners salaries rising 4.5 percent last year.

Employed Americans have reached new records nearly 150 million working people, with 1.85 million jobs added in 2019 (145,000 in December alone). Indeed, there are more unfilled job openings in America today than unemployed Americans. Since Mr. Trump was elected, more than 7 million jobs have been created, three-fourths of them going to women.

With such spectacular job and wage growth, 7.7 million fewer families are receiving food stamps than when Mr. Trump became president. Unemployment insurance claims are also the lowest in 50 years.

The stock market has also boomed since Mr. Trump was elected in 2016, with all three major stock indices recently setting all-time records, the Dow, S&P 500 and NASDAQ.

This has resulted in part from the Trump/Republican tax reform passed in 2017, which Democratic presidential candidates are proposing to repeal. Say hello to renewed recession, and goodbye to your jobs and pay raises, if they get to make good on that, which would be the largest tax increase in American history.

Such a tax increase would also crash the stock market, reversing Mr. Trumps stock records. Say goodbye to your retirement savings as well.

Mr. Trumps deregulation, particularly regarding energy, has made America energy independent for the first time in 75 years. Under Mr. Trumps policies, America is now the worlds number one producer of oil and natural gas.

Mr. Trump has also recently won historic trade deals, signing phase one of the China trade deal. And Congress finally approved the USMCA between the United States, Mexico and Canada to replace NAFTA. Next, Mr. Trump will be on to phase II with China, and also a new trade deal with the EU. And with Great Britain and new Prime Minister Boris Johnson just having finalized Brexit, we will negotiate a new trade deal with the U.K.

Mr. Trump is also completing most of the southern border wall this year, with drastic reductions in illegal border crossings. The resulting decline in the supply of competing unskilled workers probably explains the sudden rise in wages for lower-income workers.

Additionally, the administration is straightening out the mess the federal government created by the Obama over-reach on the Waters of the United States regulation. Meanwhile, quietly and consistently, judicial appointments are restoring order to the much-neglected federal judiciary.

After Mr. Trumps celebratory State of the Union address Tuesday night, he was greeted on Wednesday with Senate acquittal on impeachment charges. House Democrats should have understood that their impeachment articles did not remotely reach the constitutional standard of treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors, as retired Harvard Law School professor and Democrat Alan Dershowitz explained. Funding went to Ukraine without any investigation of Hunter Biden after all. These are historical facts.

Indeed, the House impeachment articles do not even allege that Mr. Trump committed any crimes. Obstruction of Congress is not a crime, nor is abuse of power. As Mr. Dershowitz explained, maladministration or policy disagreements were explicitly rejected by the framers to justify removing a duly-elected president from office. Democrats are actually trying to shut down democracy, as Adam Schiff openly sought to rationalize.

Bottom line, 2020 is already shaping up to be a fundamental realignment election landslide, much like Ronald Reagans 1984 landslide over Walter Mondale, who ran promising to reverse Reagans historic tax cuts. Blue collar workers, once the backbone of the Democratic Party, now scorned by Democrats as deplorables, will gleefully switch to Republicans, proud to have them.

African-Americans will begin their realignment back to the Republicans as well, the party that literally fought in the Civil War to free African-Americans from slavery. Not to mention Jim Crow segregation, and the Ku Klux Klan, further Democratic depredations.

Indeed, Hispanics benefitting from jobs and soaring wages will also begin their realignment to Republican this year. Americans will look back to 2020 as the year that Mr. Trump finally brought Americans together, in the Republican Party.

Lewis K. Uhler is founder and chairman of the National Tax Limitation Committee and Foundation. Peter J. Ferrara is a senior policy adviser for the foundation and teaches economics at Kings College in New York.

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The Trump and Republican election realignment landslide in 2020 - Washington Times

How To Get Millions To Watch Your Short Film On Third-Party Youtube Channels – Cartoon Brew

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1. Approaching, or getting approached by, the channels

Both TheCGBros and CGMeetup mainly showcase independent animated shorts, and curate their channels in order to present a unified brand. When asked how this curation works at TheCGBros, co-founders Shaun and Bill Johnston share that their half a dozen staff members regularly search online, as well as through screenings of film festivals and other competitions. When they discover a short that would fit their brand, TheCGBros sends its rights holders an invitation to stream.

Lucy Xue and Paisley Manga from the U.S. received such an invitation from both TheCGBros and CGMeetup. They were spotted on Vimeo, where they released their student short Course of Nature in 2016, gaining 21,000 views. Mere weeks later, Course of Nature racked up 7.5 million views on CGMeetup, and a staggering 19.3 million on TheCGBros.

Some schools and studios have established connections with the Youtube channels. The Animation Workshop in Denmark, for example, regularly approaches both to re-upload their students films, as Michelle Ann Nardone (director of animation and cg art) confirmed. Often months, and sometimes years, elapse between the schools original upload and the channels, but neither of them mind. From the rights holders perspective, Nardone explains that it simply gives the films another round of life on Youtube.

But you dont have to wait to get scouted, nor depend on your schools policies. TheCGBros stated that many of the films they showcase actually came to them through their website form. (CGMeetup has a similar form.) Once youve submitted the form, TheCGBros first screens videos based on Youtubes acceptance criteria (appropriateness i.e. pornography, language, violence, etc).

Then TheCGBross criteria follow, evaluating the shorts technical aspects and production values, as well as storyline, continuity, and character development. All of this finally translates into a rating: shorts must score a minimum of 3.5 out of 5 to be accepted. Both CGMeetup and TheCGBros publish mostly cg animation, as their names would suggest, but 2d shorts are featured every now and then too.

Most filmmakers release one short every few years at most, which makes it impossible for them to build a considerable Youtube following. TheCGBross co-founders explained that nowadays, a shorts findability cannot be obtained effectively at an individual level only at a global or systems level For a film to be seen, it must, first, be found. And thats where these third-party channels come in: they serve as a kind of cinema to the general public, and a distributor and publicist to creators, as TheCGBros describes it.

Of course, there are many possible platforms to reach audiences, but it cant be denied that Youtube is todays biggest. With a combined seven million subscribers, TheCGBros and CGMeetup have a steady group of viewers to reach out to. Last year, Jenny Harder, from Germany, garnered 1.2 million views on TheCGBros and 4.3 million views on CGMeetup with her short Being Good. On Vimeo the same short hit a considerably lower 9,000 views. Harder says she uses the different platforms equally, but finds that bigger channels on Youtube with a lot of followers usually have a greater impact in reaching people.

Despite CGMeetups and TheCGBross huge followings, an upload in itself is no guarantee of going viral. Or as TheCGBros co-founders themselves put it: The simple fact is that no channel can guarantee views, unless they are illegitimately buying them. However, there are some strategies TheCGBros has developed regarding the date and timing of the release, as well as the use of certain thumbnails and text to ensure the best response to a shorts premiere.

An extensive social media push can boost chances too. For example, crew members can post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, but also specialist websites who feel invested in your project or you as a creator. According to Harder, having lots of partners that share and promote your work can really make the difference. For example, we had great support from [online professional platforms] Artstation and Artella. And our team of 80 well-connected people was doing great sharing and uploading our film onto several pages and platforms.

Looking back at Course of Natures online release, its directors Xue and Manga admit to being a bit shy about sharing our work initially, due to lack of experience when it came to social media. As more experienced professionals now, wed be a lot more confident when it comes to sharing and promoting our work. We would also probably put a lot more effort into other ways to generate revenue or build a fanbase around our work by creating merchandise, promotional images, etc.

Myra Hild, from Denmark, released her student short Ur Aska online last year. She says it was coordinated with all the other teams from the school [The Animation Workshop]. There was a lot of thought put into it, resulting in 323,000 views, which is solid but not optimal. My experience with posting online is that its so much luck, Hild adds. Even with the best of strategies, theres just no guarantee how successful a short will be online.

While the majority of TheCGBross subscription base is general audience, its also partly industry: cg and vfx studios, software companies, advertising agencies, video game studios, movie studios, etc. Getting this kind of traction gives your work and skills exposure, which The Animation Workshops Nardone says is especially important to graduates as they enter their career.

Course of Natures Xue and Manga pressed the upload button the very same month they graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design. It did help us get some freelance jobs, the artists say, and we were surprised to find that when we tabled at events, random people there would recognize our work from having seen it online previously.

Harders Being Good was created as a proof of concept for a potential feature film, and its team consisted of 80 international professionals working on the short in their spare time. A lot of our team members got contacted with job offers because of the film, Harder says. I was offered an art director position in animation shortly after the release. We also got to pitch Being Good several times as a show/film, amongst others to Netflix.

When Darrel, by Spanish filmmakers Marc Briones and Alan Carabantes, was published on CGMeetup to 5 million views in 2018, it had already garnered 140 festival selections and 35 awards. A successful festival run doesnt necessarily translate into a successful online release Briones and Carabantes said that equal success in both worlds is pretty much a coincidence but it can result in prize money and industry acknowledgement. On top of some festivals exclusivity requirements, sales agents usually request one or more years of exclusivity in order to sell to tv channels and the like.

Weighing up the pros and cons, many filmmakers opt for six months, one year, or two years of exclusivity. The team behind One Small Step Andrew Chesworth, Shaofu Zhang, and Brandie Braxton of Taiko Studios in the U.S. had a very specific goal for their short: the Oscars. We showed exclusively at festivals and private events until September 2018 The value of this seemed to outweigh the short-term benefit of simply putting it online. After the Oscar-qualifying period was over, the short continued to screen at venues and within licensing agreements while living online.

When agreements around One Small Step required the short to be exclusive for a few months, the team would take it offline, then make it public again once this period was over. While their strategy resulted in both online and offline success (with 69 festival selections and 31 awards), they do say that a window of exclusivity is a very real dilemma especially for new voices and independent creators who cant afford to sit on their completed work for extended periods of time when it affects their livelihood.

Youtube channels like CGMeetup and TheCGBros usually earn money through advertising revenue, but out of our five case studies, four offered their shorts to the channels for free. Being Goods Harder says money was something we thought about, but considered not incredibly important to us at that point. We had paid all related festival costs already and never really intended to make money with the short. It was a passion project.

When asked about a possible fee or sharing of ad income, Course of Natures Xue and Manga said they were both inexperienced students at the time and didnt even consider that an option for negotiating. Looking back, the artists say they might have done things differently now.

While the channels do negotiate financial compensation every now and then, most shorts get published without anything of the sort. When asked about this, TheCGBros stated that they operate on an advertising-supported revenue model, and that in this revenue model, the funds we need to allow us to provide our services come from advertising revenue.

The channels co-founders acknowledged that many people have asked us why we do not share [our] revenue with those who submit videos to us. In the world of Youtube, they pointed out, virality is not synonymous with financial success. They added, Youtube connects our channel to paying advertisers and shares advertising revenue with us on a commission basis when viewers watch the ads that Youtube places on the videos. If viewers watch the videos but dont watch the ads, no payment is generated. As a result, sometimes we realize monetization, sometimes not We never know in advance what will happen.

One Small Steps team say that they have different licensing agreements with different parties, and that these are negotiated case by case. The deals vary based on each partnership and cant infringe on each other. Our film wasnt designed to make excessive money. It was meant to be a calling card for our studio, a symbol of the type of work we are capable of and aspire to create. Its best if as many people can see it as possible.

Out of the five case studies in this article, three shorts are available on both TheCGBros and CGMeetup, and two on CGMeetup only; three were published on the rights holders own Youtube channel as well; and all the rights holders published their short on their own Vimeo channel. The exclusivity of use is always up to you as the rights holder, says TheCGBros.

Which leads to the question: is it better to have your film on more channels? If you have a shared income deal with a third-party Youtube channel, uploading the film onto your own channel might take away from that. Another reason for limited distribution, Ur Askas Hild adds, is that as a creator its nicer if views are mostly counted in a limited number of spaces, since it gets hard very fast to get a feeling for how widely spread the film is. But when going for sheer viewing numbers, it seems best to take advantage of as many platforms and channels as you can.

One Small Steps team made the decision to post their short on their own official Youtube channel too, for clear-cut brand association. In order to still keep a clear overview, they upload their projects to their official Vimeo and Youtube channels, then share those links on other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. For them, this has the extra benefit of making it simpler to manage if they have to be made private again due to licensing agreements.

If theres an overall takeaway from these case studies, its that theres no one best way to reach your prospective online audiences. As One Small Steps team says, it all depends on whats best for the films opportunities and the crews needs at the time of completion. As all these shorts strategies show, that means something different for every film.

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How To Get Millions To Watch Your Short Film On Third-Party Youtube Channels - Cartoon Brew

Riverdale Season 4 Episode 13 Review – Chapter 70: The Ides of March – Den of Geek US

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This Riverdale review contains spoilers.

"Admit it, you guys are on the edge of your seats, aren't you?"

Well, Jughead certainly appears dead.

I've got to hand it to this episode's writers, Chrissy Maroon and Evan Kyle, as they scripted a plausible series of events that could in fact have led to Jug's demise. I still don't believe for a second that this show has the cojones to kill off a lead in this matter, but that's not really the point is it? (Besides, nobody wants to see a Jughead-less Riverdale anyway).

Admittedly, I've been skeptical about the flash-forwards since they debuted. But if Riverdale is going to take narrative cues from Lost, then they should borrow some genuine shocks and mystery from that show too. And damn, they did just that here.

"This week started like any other, who would've thought where I'd be by the end?" Jug grimly states as this episode opens. The fact that he still is narrating while allegedly dead is a huge tip off that our whoopee-hatted hero is alive and in hiding. But more on that in a bit, as let's run down the week this poor kid had:

Discovers he is in danger of losing the Baxter Brothers contact, and has less than a week to come up with a completely different story.

Jonathan alleges that Jughead plagarized him, falsely earning his spot in Yale and the Baxter Brothers job in the process.

Jughead has his old laptop, which can prove that he wrote On Feathered Wings, stolen.

Jughead discovers that a rewritten version of his Baxter Brothers story is being submitted for publication. Worse still, his classmates are the ones who secretly collaborated to write it.

Brett blackmails Jughead with a secretly filmed sex tape of him with Betty.

Determined to protect Betty, he agrees to not fight and leave Stonewall Prep -- disappointing his father in the process.

Jughead is bludgeoned to death with a huge rock by his girlfriend.

Your week isn't looking too bad now, is it?

Things look really grim for our core four right now. The other flashforwards we have seen indicate that in the coming weeks Betty, Veronica and Archie will be arrested for their role in Jughead's murder and its coverup. (And that Betty will have a further encounter with Brett).

So what could be happening to here? To follow-up on Betty's lead, Donna could be the key here. Although it seems like Betty didn't get through to her in their conversation at Pop's, Donna could very well have been shaken by their talk. I'm willing to bet that however this all resolves, it will involve flashbacks and conversations that we haven't seen yet.

With this in mind one can hazard a guess that somehow Betty and Donna formed an unlikely alliance, and that their chat in the woods was planned in advance...as was Betty's getting triggered by another word Evelyn implanted. Why do this bit of theater? Because Brett was watching Donna, still thinking they are on the same side.

Furthermore, before the Ides of March party Jughead was acting very strangely, and promised Betty it would all be okay. The scene cut away at this point, but the quizzical look on Betty's face leads me to believe that this conversation went on longer. I'm guessing that Betty filled Jughead in on her Donna collaboration, and the pair then set in motion a series of events that would make it appear like a murder, triggered by a jailed cult leader, would occur. Knowing how much was at stake, Betty and Jug probably even agreed to keep Archie and Veronica in the dark, what with plausible deniability and all.

Riverdale usually has two big storylines per season, and one tends to wrap up by the midway point (before threads of it become woven into the finale). If the show continues to follow this pattern, I expect that the Dead Jughead plot will be tied up in time for April's musical episode. Then again, if the storytelling continues to be as captivating as it is in this episode, I'm more than happy for it to stick around.

There were other events happening here, most noteworthy Veronica being unable to cope with her father's illness. Despite his many, many flaws, Archie actually was quite helpful here, telling Veronica that she has the gift of being able to say goodbye to her father. The pair's relationship has never felt more real than in this scene, with KJ Apa really tapping into what makes Archie such a likeable guy in the first place. (Something that the series doesn't show nearly enough).

Also, Camila Mendes gets the chance to flex her acting muscles quite a bit here, be it barking at Hermosa during the episode's superfluous Maple Club infiltration subplot or heating up the rum wars to give her father a renewed purpose.

This was hands down the best episode of the season yet, one packed with genuine suspense that will make the wait until Wednesday a difficult one. How do you all think Jughead will get out of this mess?

- The name of the cover company Cheryl, Veronica and Toni are using for the Maple Club is Elliot's Essential Oils.

- One of the fitness clubs Archie mentioned that Hiram is a member of is Soulstice -- which is the same business Abby tended to endless pubic hair emergencies at on Broad City (Mark Consuelos' wife, Kelly Ripa, also appeared on that city as an exaggerated parody of herself in one memorable episode).

- Still no sign of Vegas anywhere.

- Riverdale High's chemistry teacher being named Dr. Beaker will never not be hilarious to me.

- Character names in Jughead's Baxter Brothers rewrite include 'Jarhead' and 'Bison.' I guess Jug learned all he knows about writing from Mad movie parodies.

- What exactly was Hermosa up to tonight? Were these scenes just to give Choni something to do? Or could it be that Hermosa is trying to take all of Hiram and Veronica's rum secrets and go into business for herself? (Which would make sense as it would unite these characters against a common enemy).

- It's worth mentioning again how great Camila Mendes is in tonight's episode. The sadness she emoted upon learning that Hiram shared his news with Hermosa but not Veronica was heartbreaking.

- Apparently Pop's Chok'lit Shoppe bakes its own donuts. I want some.

- Not to victim blame, but Jughead accepting the laptop from Brett and not uploading his work into the cloud in the first place were poor decisions on his part.

- Stonewall Prep is EXACTLY the type of backstabby place that would celebrate the Ides of March.

- I'm glad the series addressed that Archie's grades are slipping due to his commitments to Andrews Construction and the gym. (Likewise, the show answered a troublesome logic question by showing that Munroe's mother is at the gym during the day).

- Betty announcing that she is the daughter of the Black Hood and has bigger things to worry about than a sex tape was a weirdly empowering scene.

- Remember, we never actually saw Betty being triggered by the phrase Donna claimed to have gotten from Evelyn. The key to unraveling of the mystery of what's really happening here is going to depend on so much that happened off screen. So while it's fun to speculate, we are really at the mercy of the writers here. Let's hope they don't let us down as this plot races towards its conclusion.

Keep up with all ourRiverdaleSeason 4 news and reviews right here.

Chris Cummins is a writer, producer and Archie Comics historian. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter at @bionicbigfoot and @scifiexplosion.

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Riverdale Season 4 Episode 13 Review - Chapter 70: The Ides of March - Den of Geek US

SA historian to help plan SU’s 150th anniversary celebration – The Daily Orange

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UPDATED: Feb.10,2020 at 6:19 p.m.

Student Association has elected a new historian to help plan Syracuse Universitys 150th anniversary celebration.

Antonia Su, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, was elected to the position during an SA Assembly meeting Feb. 3. The historian is in charge of analyzing and organizing SA records, according to the organizations constitution.

For the 150th celebration, I want to show off different ideas and initiatives that different committees in Student Association have accomplished, Su said.

The sesquicentennial celebration will take placethroughout March. SA is still determining what its exact role in the celebration will be, Mertikas said.

SA is planning internal events for the celebration throughout the week, and SA members will serve on various sesquicentennial committees, Mertikas said.

Su is SAs third historian. She initially joined SA to be a voice for international students and to share information from the organization, she said. Now, her job is to learn from SAs history and use it to move forward, Su said.

John Jankovic, SAs Student Life Committee co-chair, created the historian position in 2017. He served in the role for two years before passing the position to Cassandra Pravata in fall 2019, he said.

One of the historians main roles is to sort through more than 20 boxes of SA archives in Bird Library, Jankovic said. The historian is responsible for uploading the boxes contents into an online database so all students can access SA history, he said.

The position was really created with the sesquicentennial in mind, but now we realize that it could be expanded to so much more, he said. I had these ideas of making time capsules or digital time capsules.

The historian position is not a part of SAs cabinet, but an internal advisory role for an Assembly member should be collaborative, Jankovic said. Information often gets lost due to yearly turnover within the organization, he said.

We can actually learn from our history and create these traditions and create these little things that can actually engage more students with knowing what Student Association is, was and will be, Jankovic said.

CLARIFICATION: The sesquicentennial celebration will be ongoing through March. Additionally SAs sesquicentennial events will be internal.

Published on February 9, 2020 at 8:07 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu

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SA historian to help plan SU's 150th anniversary celebration - The Daily Orange

Google Maps gets a makeover for its 15th birthday – SlashGear

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Google Maps is turning 15 years old today, and to celebrate, Google is rolling out an update for the app on iOS and Android. First and foremost, this update gives Google Maps something of a makeover by organizing everything you need into five different tabs that appear in a quick access bar at the bottom of the app. Those tabs are Explore, Community, Saved, Contribute, and Updates.

The Explore tab, as the name suggests, lets you find places of interest nearby when you may not have a specific one in mind. For instance, if youre looking for something to eat but youre not sure whats in the area, you can use the Explore tab to see whats around you, along with ratings and reviews from other users. The Commute tab, on the other hand, will let you find the most efficient route for the trip youre about to take and allows you to save your daily commute to receive updates on traffic and suggestions for alternative routes.

The Saved tab is another self-explanatory one, as it lets you look through a list of all your saved places. The Contribute tab will let you share local knowledge, whether thats adding information on missing places or uploading photos of businesses, and finally, the Updates tab will show a list of spots that are trending among local experts and publishers. Youll also be able to chat with certain business through the Updates tab, should the need arise.

In addition to rolling out these new tabs, Google has also given the Maps logo a bit of a rework, which you can see in the video embedded above. Google is also launching some new features centered around public transportation today, which youll begin to see alongside routes when that information is available.

These features will tell you about the temperature in the public transport vehicle, accessibility options, security, and womens sections in regions where transit systems designate them. It sounds like Google will also ask for feedback on public transit trips so it can share that information with other users, so keep an eye out for that.

Looking ahead, Google says that it will be improving Live View with new features that better help you find the location youre looking for and how far away that location is from where youre currently standing. You can read more about these new features over on Googles blog, but otherwise, update the app and take them for a spin yourself.

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Google Maps gets a makeover for its 15th birthday - SlashGear

JackSepticEye reveals how controversy has affected PewDiePie – Dexerto

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Popular content creator Sen JackSepticEye McLoughlin has revealed the effects that massive scrutiny has had on Felix PewDiePie Kjellberg, while he takes a break from YouTube.

Since PewDiePie announced that he would be taking a break from uploading videos after many years at the top, many fans expressed their concerns for the star.

The popular YouTuber later revealed that he felt it would be good to switch up from his usual routine, with a short break from creating regular videos for his channel following the 2019 holiday season.

PewDiePies friend and fellow YouTube star JackSepticEye opened up, in a recent interview with Metro, about Kjellberg's absence from the platform and some of the effects that his lifestyle had on him.

The Irish YouTuber explained that, outside of creating content, PewDiePie was much more humble than many of his viewers would believe, despite his massive success on the platform.

Hes a lot more down to earth than people seem to think he is and he doesnt give off the vibe that hes the number one channel on YouTube at all, he always has a lot of time for people to just hang out, JackSepticEye shared.

When asked about the enormous scrutiny his fellow YouTuber faces, he explained that it was strange for him to watch it unfold. It is strange, all the stuff that gets said about him, its kind of weird to see that being said about a friend of yours.

People like to take things every which way and twist things all over the place, McLoughlin expressed, addressing some of the stars controversies. Some things have affected him a lot but I think he has a strong head on his shoulders and he kind of deals with it as it comes up.

Although PewDiePie seems to handle himself well when faced with difficult situations, JackSepticEye revealed that it is not easy as he lets it seem. I dont know how he does it, with that many people on you and that much scrutiny on you constantly. I think I would have lost my mind by now.

Little has been shared on when the popular Swede plans on making his return to uploading YouTube videos, however, PewDiePie is still managing to hit new milestones on his channel despite his absence.

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JackSepticEye reveals how controversy has affected PewDiePie - Dexerto

East Wind Community featured in New York Times Style Magazine – Ozark County Times

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Tecumsehs East Wind Community was one of several income-sharing communities across the country recently featured in a New York Times Style Magazine article titled The New Generation of Self-Created Utopias.

The East Wind section of the article features a series of photos of the communitys land and its 70 residents, who cooperatively live on the property off County Road 547 between Gainesville and Tecumseh.

Boone Wheeler, a four-year resident of East Wind, told the Ozark County Times that the articles author, Mike Mariani, and photographer, George Etheredge, were perfectly nice guys.

We invited them out here, and no one had an issue with it, Wheeler said. I think most people think its cool to have their picture in the New York Times.

Wheeler operates the communitys Instagram account and said the number of followers on the social media platform tripled within a week of the article being published.

It led to a spike of awareness and interest in what were doing here said Wheeler.

The community also received 30 new inquiries about membership after the article was published, he said.

Just trying to live a good life, same as anyone else

Many Ozark County residents have likely encountered East Wind members running errands around Gainesville or volunteering at the Ozark County Food Pantryas part of their civic support initiative, Wheeler says, but the community remains somewhat of a mystery to the general population.

What I personally would like other Ozark Countians to know about East Wind is that were just trying to live a good life, same as anyone else. Living cooperatively affords us a high quality of life without having to work crazy hard, Wheeler said. East Winders are really diverse, coming from all over and from all walks of life. We grow a good amount of our own food and do a lot of our own work.

According to East Winds website, more than a thousand people have lived at what is called an intentional community since its founding in 1974, and the communitys culture has evolved as residents have come and gone.

Its very different than it was back in the 70s. We dont have a taboo around nudity, but we arent all naked all the time, said Wheeler.

The New York Times article says that around half of the population is part of a new wave, people in their late 20s and early 30s who joined in the last four years. These newer residents moved to East Wind to wean themselves off fossil fuels, grow their own food, have a greater say in how their society is run and live in less precarious financial circumstances.

Community structure

East Wind members work 35 hours a week in exchange for their basic needs, including food, water, electricity, shelter, medical coverage and a $150 monthly allowance.

Community members share laundry and kitchen facilities as well as an auto repair shop, social spaces, workshops and even a music studio.

The communitys main source of income is East Wind Nut Butters, a multi-million-dollar business that produces peanut, almond and cashew butter as well as tahini, a butter made of sesame seeds.

In addition to working in the nut butter factory, members also share the workload of caring for livestock, tending gardens, maintaining buildings and grounds, and cooking meals.

Work doesnt feel like work here, said Wheeler, who meets his hours by working the front desk, building maintenance and construction, making cheese and working on the nut butter production line. And everyone does the dishes, he said. So I do the dishes too.

The community practices direct democracy, meaning that each member has an equal vote on all matters, including whether or not prospective members are allowed to stay.

Everyone is entitled to his or her own room, and contrary to some popular conceptions, East Winders are free to own personal property such as electronics, media and clothing.

However, they do have a shared clothing supply, affectionately named Commie Clothes, where anyone can take or borrow items.

According to Wheeler, The only thing people cant have is their own car, at least not on the East Wind property.

East Wind itself owns several vehicles, and regular group trips are made to Gainesville, West Plains and Springfield, as well as Mountain Home, Arkansas. Members can also check out cars for personal use and even for long distance travel.

We have a really high quality of life here. If you divide our income by the number of people, its way below the poverty line, but our lifestyle is way higher than that, said Wheeler, who believes that cooperating and sharing is what our world needs, and says, East Wind proves that it works.

No stranger to the media

East Wind, no stranger to the media, has appeared in National Geographic magazine (65760: Not quite Utopia, published August 2005) and the Washington Times (East Wind community in Missouri continues to grow, published Sept. 1, 2017). More recently, an article in the Kansas City Star (Dark rituals, Orgies, See the reality of a hippie commune deep in Missouris Bible Belt, published Aug. 27, 2017) elicited criticism from East Wind members as well as other Ozark County residents for its sensational (and, many said, inaccurate) portrayal of the community.

To read the New York Times Style Magazine article, visit https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/16/t-magazine/intentional-communities.ht...

Visit East Wind

While East Wind does not welcome drop-in visitors, the community is happy to accommodate anyone who would like to schedule a visit. Write to ew.membership@gmail.com for more information or visit the website EastWind.org. Social media users can also follow eastwindcommunity on Instagram.

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East Wind Community featured in New York Times Style Magazine - Ozark County Times