The Resorts at Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas, Explained – Caribbean Journal

Its still common to think of the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas as a single entity, with its iconic twin towers connected by a soaring arch and surrounded by a sprawling, lost-world themed waterpark, Aquaventure, complete with waterslides emerging from a stepped pyramid and plunging riders through an aquarium tank full of toothy sharks.

That part of the resort, now called the Royal hotel, still stands at the center of the property, but over the years the Paradise Island has expanded to include six distinct resort properties, all occupying hundreds of acres of prime beachfront and complemented by an ever growing array of activities and amenities, including a casino, marina, golf, and animal-encounter programs.

Each resort has its own unique character, with more than 3,800 guest rooms aimed at appealing to nearly every type of Nassau-bound traveler:

The Royal When the Atlantis resort debuted in 1998, this property was where all the action and excitement reigned. In many ways this remains the nexus of Atlantis, housing the resorts huge casino and many of its top eateries (including Todd Englishs Olives and Nobuyuki Matsuhisas Nobu). Its also the closest hotel to the 154-acre Aquaventure waterpark, and The Dig (a fantasy archaeological of the ruins of the list city of Atlantis) begins right in the hotel lobby, making the Royal the logical choice for families with children as well as gamblers. Proximity comes with a price, however, and the Royal remains one of Atlantis deluxe-tier hotels.

The Reef For a family beachfront vacation, consider the Reef. This luxury, residential style high-rise hotel has easy access to Paradise and Cove beaches, spacious suites with well-equipped kitchens, and is close to the Dolphin Cay animal-encounter program, the resort spa, tennis, and fitness center. And of course you still get access to Aquaventure and all of the other Atlantis amenities.

The Cove Located next door to the Reef, the Cove has a totally different vibe, starting with the fact that this high-end resort is for adults only. Considered the most upscale of the Atlantis hotels, the Cove has open floorpan rooms with balconies and oversized bathrooms, all at a peaceful remove from the bustle of the casino floor and the waterpark. If youre seeking a serene corner at a mega resort, this is your place. (Its also home to the outstanding Fish by Jose Andres).

The Harborside Resort With colorful low-rise, village style hotel buildings edging the Atlantis marina, the Harborside is an appealing mid-priced hotel that is conveniently close to the resorts Marina Village shops and restaurants, including the traditional Bahamian performers who frequent the streets of the village. The villas are big enough to accommodate families, who also will appreciate some of the Marina Villages more affordable dining, including pizza and a deli. The Harborside also is a good option for friends or multigenerational families thanks to its choice of one-, two-, and three-bedroom villas.

The Coral The Coral offers a combination of moderately priced rooms and a convention location amid Atlantis fish-filled lagoons, roughly in between the Royal towers and the marina village. The hotel has its own pool and is home to Atlantis CRUSH club for teens and pre-teens, and its also close to the resorts lagoon snorkeling experience and predator tank with its 100-foot glass-walled tunnel even more kid-friendly attractions, in other words (for mom and dad, the casino and Crystal Court shopping mall also are nearby). Three classes of rooms have one king or two queen beds.

The Beach Atlantis most budget-friendly hotel sits directly on Atlantis Beach has rooms with water or terrace views, and in addition to the beach guests will find the resorts zero-entry River Pool, lazy river, kids pool, and game room nearby, as well as a comedy club and a theater showing free movies daily. The Beach was the original hotel on the property, originally the Paradise Island Hotel and Casino; opened in 1968, it has been renovated in the years since but is certainly the most vintage hotel at Atlantis.

Comfort Suites Paradise Island This 223-room hotel with recently renovated junior suites isnt on the Atlantis property its across the street, but thanks to a longstanding arrangement with the resort, Comfort Suites guests get access to all Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas amenities, including Aquaventure. Throw in the complementary hot and cold breakfast included with a stay and this may be the most affordable way to enjoy an Atlantis vacation.

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The Resorts at Atlantis Paradise Island in The Bahamas, Explained - Caribbean Journal

Columbus’ Claims of Cannibal Raids May Have Been True After All – Livescience.com

Christopher Columbus got a lot of things wrong about the "New World." He thought that manatees were mermaids, that the Bahamas were a part of Asia and that the indigenous people of the Caribbean were "Indians" eager to submit to their new Christian overlords i.e., himself. (They're not, they aren't, and they definitely weren't.)

One claim in the explorer's diaries that remains particularly contentious even today regards cannibals. According to Columbus, a tribe of invading cannibal warriors aka, the Caniba repeatedly beset his crew and the indigenous communities of the Bahamas when he landed there in 1492. But is there truth to these tales?

While there's no evidence they were cannibals, the Caniba were a real group of South Americans, better known as the Caribs. The group of people from northwest Amazon region are known to have colonized several Caribbean islands beginning around the year A.D. 800, but archaeological evidence suggests they never made it as far north as the Bahamas, where Columbus claims to have encountered them. Either Columbus was wrong again, or historians aren't seeing the full picture of the Carib migration.

Related: Top 5 Misconceptions About Columbus

Now, a new study published Jan. 10 in the journal Scientific Reports suggests Columbus may have been (partially) right after all. By analyzing more than 100 skulls from the Caribbean (plus a few from Florida and Panama) dating between the years 800 and 1542, researchers concluded that the Carib people were indeed present in the Bahamas as early as the year A.D. 1,000 meaning Columbus' descriptions of their raids could have been based in reality.

"I've spent years trying to prove Columbus wrong when he was right: There were Caribs in the northern Caribbean when he arrived," study co-author William Keegan, curator ofCaribbean archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, said in a statement.

In Columbus' accounts, the New World (actually the modern-day Bahamas) was divided between two main populations: the gentle Arawak people, whom Columbus dubbed "the best people in the world," and the fearsome Caniba, who were marauding cannibals. (The English word "cannibal" actually derives from "Caniba," a name Columbus reportedly learned from the Arawaks.)

Archaeological evidence suggests the Carib/Caniba people expanded from the South American mainland as far north as the island of Guadeloupe, about 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) south of the Bahamas. However, this evidence is scant, it's mostly based on pottery and may not be telling the full story, the authors of the new study wrote.

To build a more complete picture of the Carib expansion, the researchers analyzed the morphological features of 103 skulls borrowed from Caribbean museum collections, hoping that the similarities and differences could reveal the cultural origins of those people.

Using their skull structure analysis, the team identified three distinct groups of migrants among their sample. According to the researchers, the Caribbean's earliest settlers came from the Yucatn Peninsula in modern-day Mexico around 5000 B.C., migrating into modern-day Cuba and the northern Antilles. Later, Arawaks from what are now Colombia and Venezuela migrated to Puerto Rico between 800 and 200 B.C. (These migrations are supported by stone tools and pottery discovered in previous archaeological studies, the authors wrote.)

Finally, Carib colonists crossed the sea to arrive at the island of Hispaniola (which now houses the countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) around the year A.D. 800, before continuing their expansion into Jamaica and the Bahamas. By the year 1000, violent conflict between Arawaks and Caribs may well have begun.

These findings give credence to Columbus' claims that the Arawaks were often besieged by their aggressive neighbors but what about the cannibalism? According to Keegan, it's possible that the Caribs did occasionally eat the flesh of their enemies to inspire fear, but there's no real evidence of this happening.

Either way, Columbus' reports of cannibalism had a catastrophic impact on Europeans' attitudes toward the Caribbean and its people, Keegan said. While the Spanish monarchy initially planned to treat indigenous groups with respect and pay them for their work, they reversed their position when Columbus claimed the Caribs were flesh-eating heathens who refused to convert to Christianity.

"The crown said, 'Well, if they're going to behave that way, they can be enslaved,'" Keegan said. "All of a sudden, every native person in the entire Caribbean became a Carib as far as the colonists were concerned."

Editor's note: This story has been corrected to note that the Yucatn peninsula is in modern-day Mexico in North America, not in South America.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Columbus' Claims of Cannibal Raids May Have Been True After All - Livescience.com

Freckle Ltd. to Present at the AlphaNorth Capital Investment Conference in Nassau, The Bahamas – PRNewswire

NASSAU, The Bahamas, Jan. 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ - Killi,a consumer-led privacy application wholly owned byFreckle Ltd.(TSXV:FRKL) (the "Company"), today announced that CFO Andrew Elinesky will host investor meetings at theAlphaNorth Capital Conferenceat the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in Nassau, Bahamas from January 17 through 19, 2020.

"With California's CCPA consumer privacy law live as of January 1, 2020, data privacy is at the forefront of businesses operating in the United States," said Mr. Elinesky. "Only 30% of businesses believe they are compliant and almost all U.S. states are in the process of enacting similar privacy laws. This trend along with constant CCPA news flow has created a shift surrounding the collection and selling of personal data from businesses to the consumer, with many consumers choosing Killi to safeguard and monetize their data. Quarter-over-quarter growth in Q3 of our key metrics indicate that Killi is the solution for consumers with 12% more monthly active users; 18% average revenue per user (ARPU) increase; an increase in lifetime value (LTV) of 5%; as well as a 30% reduction in the cost of acquiring (CPA) subscribers. Our balance sheet is solid to implement our business plan, and we continue to execute strategies to widen Killi's audience and further improve our key metrics. We look forward to introducing Killi and our expanding market opportunity to the micro-cap, tech investors that the AlphaNorth Capital Conference attracts from across the globe.

About AlphaNorth Capital Investment Conference

Capital Event Conferences is pleased to host the AlphaNorth Capital Conference at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas from January 17 19, 2020. The conference introduces growth-stage companies (Non-Resource, Technology, Biotech, Special Situations) to active top-level capital finance individuals through a day of scheduled one-on-one meetings. For more information, please visithttps://www.capitalevent.ca/conferences/alpha-north/.

About Freckle Ltd.Freckle's consumer identity mobile application "Killi" (killi.io) allows consumers to take back control of their digital identity from those who have been using it without their consent. With Killi, consumers can opt-in and select specific pieces of personal information that they would like to share with companies, as well as answer specific surveys, and be compensated directly for these answers. Download ithere.

Freckle, via its data andoffline measurementproducts, also allows leading brands and platforms to measure the effectiveness of their advertising by independently matching media spend to in-store visitation while remaining media agnostic. Freckle's technology is used by Fortune 500 brands like McDonald's, Lexus, Walmart, Verizon and AT&T, and is a core component of the top demand-side platforms (DSPs) and data management platforms (DMPs) used around the world.

For more information, please visitfreckleiot.com/killi.io

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.

DISCLAIMER FOR FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements and are prospective in nature. Forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather on current expectations and projections about future events, and are therefore subject to risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ materially from the future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including: the receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals, capital expenditures and other costs, financing and additional capital requirements, ability to secure additional sales, ability to negotiate partnerships on favorable terms, and user acceptance of the improved UI. These statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "may", "should", "will", "could", "intend", "estimate", "plan", "anticipate", "expect", "believe'' or "continue", or the negative thereof or similar variations. Forward-looking statements in this news release include statements regarding: expansion of the Killi application outside of North America; introduction of an additional third-party research engine in the Killi application; increasing ARPU for Killi; addition of incentivized video modules to the Killi application; improvement of the Killi UI; improvement of the engagement and user retention; securing an international data distribution deal; expansion of Freckle's global presence; securing additional partnerships in Q4; quarter over quarter revenue growth in Q4; sustaining current recurring revenue; building Killi into a legal global DTC application for Data Privacy; and, improving key data metrics. Although management of the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements or forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Corporation assumed no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except as required by applicable securities laws.

The securities of the Corporation have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirement. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

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Freckle Ltd. to Present at the AlphaNorth Capital Investment Conference in Nassau, The Bahamas - PRNewswire

Larry Birkhead Wishes He Went to Bahamas Before Anna Nicole Smith Died: ‘She’d Still Be Here’ – FOX10 News

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Larry Birkhead Wishes He Went to Bahamas Before Anna Nicole Smith Died: 'She'd Still Be Here' - FOX10 News

Sea level rise threat to 15% of Bahamas’ GDP – Bahamas Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas is among the top four nations forecast to be hit hardest by rising sea levels, a rating agency warned yesterday, with up to 15 percent of annual GDP and 11 percent of its people in peril.

Moodys, unveiling an assessment about the long-term threat to sovereign creditworthiness posed by climate change, drew on multiple studies to identify The Bahamas - as well as Vietnam, Egypt and Suriname - as the four countries most threatened by rising sea levels resulting from global warming.

Describing the outlook as a material credit risk, Moodys also voiced concern that The Bahamas efforts to combat sea level rise lack co-ordination among government institutions and are made more complicated because much coastal, low-lying land is in the hands of private owners such as major resorts.

Drawing on a World Bank study, the credit rating agency - which currently has The Bahamas barely maintaining investment grade status, one notch above so-called junk - said only Vietnam and Suriname faced more severe economic consequences in a worst-case sea level rise scenario.

The Moodys report, published as the Bahamas Business Outlook conference focused on resiliency in the face of climate change and natural disasters, disclosed projections that a one-metre sea level rise would submerge 11.6 percent of this nations total land mass.

This, in turn, would endanger 4.7 percent of annual economic output (Gross Domestic Product), given the tourism industrys reliance on coastal sites, and 4.6 percent of the Bahamian population. However, the impact is much more extensive should sea levels rise three metres, as this would swallow 31 percent - or almost one-third - of all land in The Bahamas.

And the threat to the economy would also be three times greater, with 14.5 percent of GDP in jeopardy, along with the lives of 10.5 percent of the Bahamian people.

Different studies yield similar results, Moodys warned. Countries including Vietnam, The Bahamas, Egypt, Suriname and some in the Gulf are highlighted, with up to ten percent to 25 percent of the population or GDP exposed.

The greatest inundation by proportion of land area would be in The Bahamas, followed by Vietnam and Qatar.... Taking a broader view of exposure by combining several indicators (GDP, population, land area, agricultural area, degree of urbanisation, wetlands), Vietnam, Egypt, Suriname and the Bahamas feature among the most exposed countries.

In a scenario where sea level rise reaches three metres, Vietnam and Suriname are also the most exposed countries by economic output, followed by Benin and The Bahamas. Other studies researched by Moodys show that 100 percent of The Bahamas would be vulnerable to flooding and/or be submerged should sea levels rise by five metres.

And Climate Centrals 2015 research estimated that two-thirds of the Bahamian population would be affected should a locked-in sea level rise occur under a scenario where global temperatures increased on average by 3 degrees Celsius.

If temperatures were to rise by three degrees Celsius (C), affected rated sovereigns would include Cayman Islands with 83 percent of the population submerged, Suriname (81 percent) and The Bahamas (67 percent), Moodys added.

If warming were limited to two degrees Celsius, the most affected sovereigns would be similar, but the share of population below sea level would reduce by 2-18 percentage points.

The Bahamas has already felt the brunt of climate change through Hurricane Dorian, which inflicted $3.4bn in losses and damage on Abaco and Grand Bahama, while also derailing the Governments fiscal consolidation plan for at least three years by driving this years projected deficit to $677.5m and the national debt to $9.5bn over the medium term.

Moodys reiterated that The Bahamas was especially vulnerable due to its reliance on tourism for at least 40 percent of annual GDP, as most of the plant and infrastructure for its largest industry and economic engine are located on the coast.

Over time, coastal erosion or concerns about natural disasters may make some regions less attractive to tourists, Moodys warned. For a number of small-island sovereigns, such as The Bahamas, Belize, Fiji or Maldives, tourism is a driver of economic activity, and a major source of export revenue and foreign exchange.

Permanently lower growth may weaken a governments fiscal strength. Moreover, government compensation for lost income through higher spending or tax moratoria would widen budget deficits and raise debt. Among the sovereigns exposed to sea level rise, fiscal strength is particularly weak in Egypt, The Bahamas, Belize, Suriname and Tunisia.

While tourist inflows generally recover following natural disasters, the recovery period varies, and can be longer in the aftermath of more extreme events. In The Bahamas, storms or hurricanes have not hit key tourist destinations recently [apart from Abaco], but Hurricane Matthew in 2016 resulted in a slowdown in tourist inflows to Grand Bahama, which are yet to recover to pre-2016 levels.

Moodys also indicated that The Bahamas efforts to counter this threat to-date have been less than impressive, adding: In The Bahamas, a regulatory framework is in place to curb the effects of sea level rise. However, a lack of co-ordination among institutions and a high degree of private ownership of coastal lands hamper these efforts.

Sea level rise and related shocks pose material credit risk to Vietnam, Egypt, Suriname, The Bahamas and other small island sovereigns, including Maldives and Fiji. The pace of increase in the frequency and severity of natural disasters related to sea level rise and the effectiveness of adaptation measures will determine the extent of the credit constraints that these sovereigns face.

Detailing the economic and social consequences of not acting, Moodys added: The economic and social repercussions of lost income, damage to assets, loss of life, health issues and forced migration from the sudden events related to sea level rise are immediate. The main credit channels for sovereigns are economic and fiscal strength.

Vulnerability to extreme events related to sea level rise can also undermine investment, and heighten susceptibility to event risk, by hindering the ability of governments to borrow to rebuild, increasing losses for banks, raising external pressures, and/or amplifying political risk as populations come under stress. While one isolated shock related to sea level rise is unlikely to materially weaken a sovereigns credit profile, repeated shocks could do.

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Sea level rise threat to 15% of Bahamas' GDP - Bahamas Tribune

Just Under Half the Value of Hurricane Dorian Losses and Damage in The Bahamas is Pledged for Recovery Efforts – Caribbean360.com

Participants at the Hurricane Dorian Pledging Conference. (Photo Credit: BIS/Derek Smith)

NASSAU, The Bahamas, WednesdayJanuary 15, 2020 Governments, non-governmentalorganizations (NGOs), multilateral institutions, companies andindividuals pledged US$1.5 billion in recovery funding and in-kind services atthe Hurricane Dorian Private Sector Pledging Conference just under half theestimated losses and damage the Category 5 hurricane caused when it made landfallin the archipelago four months ago.

More than300 local and international delegates attended the conference at Baha Mar on Monday,and pledges included: initiatives in homebuilding and repair; educationalassistance; renewable energy partnerships; relief aid; grants; directassistance to storm victims; parks restoration; loans and financing.

Thesepledges are an important step in the ongoing reconstruction and rebuilding ofareas affected by Hurricane Dorian, so that we may rebuild stronger and withmore resilience, said Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.

We are grateful to domestic and international partners, including foreign governments. We look forward to other possible contributions to help in our recovery efforts.

As afollow up to the conference, the UnitedNations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government will issue a detailedaccount of the commitments made disaggregated by sectors and stakeholders.

HurricaneDorian hit Abaco and Grand Bahama in September 2019. With maximum sustainedwinds of 185 miles per hour, and gusts of 220 miles per hour, Dorian was thestrongest storm to hit The Bahamas. It was also the second strongest storm bywind speed recorded in the Atlantic.

Therehave been 70 confirmed deaths as a result of Hurricane Dorian.

We thankthe donors who pledged at Mondays conference for their support of therestoration of Abaco and Grand Bahama, said Katherine Forbes-Smith, ManagingDirector of the Bahamas Disaster Reconstruction Authority.

The Authority, as the agency charged with spearheading the reconstruction effort, will work with these local and international partners to ensure that Abaco and Grand Bahama are rebuilt better and stronger. Through these partnerships and assistance we also hope to boost both economies and build back with new, greener technology and resiliency.

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Just Under Half the Value of Hurricane Dorian Losses and Damage in The Bahamas is Pledged for Recovery Efforts - Caribbean360.com

Bahamas ‘top of the heap’ before Dorian – Bahamas Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas was top of the heap prior to Hurricane Dorian with its 17 percent hotel occupancy growth leading the Caribbean, a top regional tourism executive said yesterday.

Frank Comito, pictured, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Associations (CHTA) director general, told the Bahamas Business Outlook conference: The Bahamas was off in a big way before September 1. You were running actually next to Bonaire at the top of the heap in terms of percentage growth, running at 17 percentage growth at that point on tourism year-on-year.

You can see in November the occupancy drop, so it was running year-to-date 65.5 percent, and then in November, year-on-year, it dropped a couple of points. He voiced optimism, though, over The Bahamas prospects for a rapid post-Dorian rebound, saying: It (tourism) is an incredibly resilient industry, despite what many of us think, as it rebounds quickly and it rebounds better.

Mr Comito said natural disasters presented a contagion risk for both The Bahamas and wider Caribbean, with media coverage leading many travellers to believe this whole country was devastated by Dorian rather than just two islands. He recalled how Hurricane Maria had a similar effect on the whole Caribbean in 2017, even though it struck just Dominica, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Look at Hurricane Maria in 2017, Mr Comito said. Before that the Caribbean was having one of the best years ever. In fact, I think it was on track to exceed stopover arrivals for over 30m visitors. Hurricane hits, and received visitor arrivals all dropped for the entire Caribbean.

In fact, only six destinations - less than 25 percent of the region - were hit by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Seventy-plus percent was not even having a bad hair day. So you see that it has a contagion effect, just like it has in The Bahamas.

Recalling how the Caribbean lost over one million visitors, and some $900m in revenue, due to the 2017 hurricane season, Mr Comito said the region had rebounded by having the right kind of messaging out there.

It was now beating a 40-year trend analysis that the CHTA helped produce in conjunction with the World Tourism Council on how long would it take destinations take to bounce back following disasters, with shuttered hotels now back on line.

Mr Comito, though, warned Bahamians against irresponsibility by posting inaccurate social media information on the impact of future storms given how this could undermine recovery efforts.

You had a lot of Bahamians repeating misinformation on social media that instantaneously gets to the international media, who pick up on it, he warned. Thats a danger. Recovery and restoration is the responsibility of everyone. Doing irresponsible things like that impacts the lives of everyone.

Mr Comito said the Ministry of Tourism needs to maintain diligence and continue to mitigate Dorian-related fall-out, focusing on social media outreach and links with travel agents and travel partners, in addition to having promotional brand campaigns.

He added that a rapid response with accurate information is essential, and said the CHTA will shortly be sharing a regional crisis communications manual for the entire Caribbean to help with combating the negative messages that may hit countries which suffer a disaster.

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Bahamas 'top of the heap' before Dorian - Bahamas Tribune

Bahamas Health Minister Wants Country to Declare Over 200 Killed by Dorian – NYCaribNews

NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) More than three months after Hurricane Dorian swept through The Bahamas causing damage estimated at US$3.4 billion, Health Minister Dr. Duane Sands says the time has come for the country to acknowledge that more than 200 people lost their lives as a result of the category five storm.

At the end of November last year, the official death toll was put at 70, with 282 people missing.

But Sands told The Tribune newspaper that the relevant authorities will have to make a decision to confirm that more than 200 people died as a result of the storm that lashed the archipelago on September 1 last year.

At some point, the Government of The Bahamas will have to declare that over 200 people have died in Hurricane Dorian, but I cannot officially say that, as that is a multi-ministerial decision.

We have to do our due diligence and meet to decide. We want to move all of the outstanding matters to an agreed consensus or conclusion; we want to bring some closure. Again, we have not walked this road before, Sands told the newspaper.

The storm caused widespread damage mainly on the islands of Abaco and Grand Bahama, with officials indicating that the death toll in those two areas were 60 and 10, respectively.

A multi-agency meeting with the ministries of health, legal affairs, national security, the Office of the Attorney General, and relevant agencies was scheduled for Thursday but has since been rescheduled for next week.

Sands said the outstanding issues would be to ensure that we have done everything that we could possibly do in terms of identification.

You would have heard me say that we would invite the International Red Cross to provide a safe space for persons who may not be willing to come forward to identify [loved ones]. And so that invitation and that request has already been made; the logistics of how that happens is very important.

Then its the whole issue of how long we are going to keep remains in refrigerated coolers, particularly in Abaco. We need to identify a place for interment. We need to agree on a type of grid that would be set up and how we would reference remains, Sands said.

Under the law here, it takes at least seven years to declare a missing person dead, and the health minister said it may be necessary to amend the legislation.

The Attorney General would have said, I would have said, that we are going to consider an abridged or shortened time, different than the seven years, and there are examples of countries that have shortened the timeline when people are presumed to be dead from a natural disaster, were declared dead.

Youve got to ensure that whatever decision is made, that you have consulted adequately, that you did not ignore important considerations, and so it is very important. There are legal requirements that have to be met. So, at the multi-ministerial meeting we want to bring this thing to some kind of closure on many different levels, he told the newspaper.

Sands said that more than 50 people remain unidentified in Abaco and all the remains in Grand Bahama have been identified and turned over to the families.

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Bahamas Health Minister Wants Country to Declare Over 200 Killed by Dorian - NYCaribNews

Romauld Ferreira: Plastics ban ‘right thing to do’ – Bahamas Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

Minister of the Environment Romauld Ferreirainsisteditwastherightthing todo for thecountryto tackle thedependencyofplasticuse amid the public push back of the single-useplasticban.

Hegaveremarks on Fridayat the "Tackling Climate Change:WhatItaly& the European Union Are Doing toHelpforumhostedby the University of The Bahamas Climate Change Adaptation & Resilience Research Centre inpartnershipwith the Embassy ofItaly.

Mr Ferreirawarnedof thedeadlyeffects thatplasticshad notonlyon theenvironmentbut onpeopleshealth.

Heexplained:We cannottalkabout renewable energy,reducingourrelianceon fossil fuel without tackling ourdependenceonplasticsbecause itcomesfromthatandthe otherbigissue withplasticsisthattheyall break down to microplastics.Theyall end up in theoceanandwereon atrajectorytohavemoreplasticsin theoceanthan fish.

The Minister described how this affected The Bahamas: Andthisisa localproblemas well because many ofusseemtothinkthattheseproblemsexist somewhere else out thereandtheydont affectus.Thereve beennumerousstudies thathaveshownthatmicroplasticsarein thefishthatweeatandthatweconsume.Seeingthatwehavesome of the highest cancer rates in theworld, thisistherightthing todo.

The 25 cent fee for plastic bags has been controversial, with Super Value Owner Rupert Roberts recently telling The Tribune that customers are disgruntled by the move.

The guest speakerat Fridays event wasthe Italian Ambassador ArmandoVarricchiowho listedinitiatives that have been taken in Italy includingbecomingthe firstcountrytomakelessonsin climate change compulsory inschools.

And it Europe at large, the newEuropeanCommission'sEuropeanGreen Dealaimstoachieveno net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

MrVarricchiospoke about theassistanceItalyhasgivento the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian.

He said his fellow Italians were "deeplytouched" by the tragic event but also "inspired by theresilienceof the Bahamian people."

Italy and the Bahamasenjoylong-standing diplomatic relations and astrongfriendship, the ambassador said. Soweworked as hard aswecould toactivatethechannelsofsupportboth at the national level and through the European Union toprovidehelp withaid.

Hesaidthat Italy and the Bahamashavea "deep conviction" tokeepclimate changeon the global agenda as no nation "largeor small, rich orpoor" is "immuneto theimpactofclimate change."

And MrVarricchionotedone of his key messages toItalianswastoencouragethem tocometo the Bahamas forbusinessandtourismtohelpwith therestoration.

Through the Italian governmentsgrant,AnatolRodgersHigh Schoolhassolar energy which wasimplementedlastyear.

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Romauld Ferreira: Plastics ban 'right thing to do' - Bahamas Tribune

New Thoughts on the Colonization of the Caribbean – Archaeology

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDALive Science reports that William Keegan of the Florida Museum of Natural History and Ann Ross of North Carolina State University analyzed the structure of 103 skulls unearthed in the Caribbean, Florida, and Panama, and concluded that the Carib people may have traveled to the Bahamas from South America as early as A.D. 800. When Christopher Columbus arrived in the Bahamas in 1492, he recorded conflicts between the indigenous Arawak and Caribs, whom he described as marauding cannibals. But researchers lacked evidence showing that the Caribs had actually migrated so far north, and therefore doubted the accuracy of the explorers account. The new test results and archaeological evidence suggest that Carib settlers from the Yucatn Peninsula reached the Caribbean around 5000 B.C., and they then traveled to Cuba and the northern Antilles, while Arawaks from Colombia and Venezuela arrived in Puerto Rico between 800 and 200 B.C. The study also indicates that Caribs from the northwest Amazon were the first to arrive in the Bahamas and the island of Hispaniola. Keegan said this migration pattern fits with the spread of a unique pottery type as well. He and Ross now think Columbus may have actually encountered the Caribs, but they said that there is still no real evidence that the Caribs practiced cannibalism. To read about the fifteenth-century Martellus map that Columbus is believed to have consulted before sailing to the Caribbean, go to "Reading the Invisible Ink."

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New Thoughts on the Colonization of the Caribbean - Archaeology

Bahamas travel guide: All the things to do and not miss out on at these Carribean islands – Republic World – Republic World

With over 2000 islands and cays, the Bahamas are scattered like a string of pearls in the Caribbean Sea in southeastern North America. For anybody who loves beaches and love to watch the skies touching the ocean, the Bahamas should be one topping thelist for their next vacation. The Bahamas have a lot to offer; from delicious Bahamian food to adventurous water sports, it has everything to make ones vacation memorable. Here is a guide to follow if one is visiting the Bahamas.

Atlantis Paradise Island is an ocean-themed resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. It is known worldwide for its amazing water adventures, white sand beaches, luxury accommodation,and fine dining. One can do a variety of things over here including swimming with dolphins, shopping, dining, etc.

Read |How Ayushmann Khurrana And Tahira Kashyap Celebrated The New Year At The Bahamas

Arawak Cay offers an authentic atmosphere of the Bahamian Fish Fry. Arawak Cay is also known as Fish Fry, and it is an area in the Bahamas known for its local eateries on the West Bay Street. It is about 15 minutes away from downtown Nassau and 25 minutes away from Atlantis Paradise Island Resort.

Read |Ayushmann Khurrana & Tahira Kashyap Enjoy Their Vacay In Bahamas; See Pictures

Although the temperature in the islands of Bahamas is pleasant throughout the year, it is advisable to visit during mid-December to mid-April. This is the peak season for tourism and therefore the prices is higher in this season. But if one makes bookings in advance, they may get good deals. If one wants to go to the islands during the party season, they must go during the March to mid-April season as it is the spring break season.

Read |Bahamas 'Miracle' Dog Found By Rescuers After 3 Weeks Under Debris

Read |Kartik Aaryan Surprises Sara Ali Khan With THIS Gesture At 'Love Aaj Kal' Trailer Launch

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Bahamas travel guide: All the things to do and not miss out on at these Carribean islands - Republic World - Republic World

Elon Musk is still thinking big with SpaceX’s Starship Mars-colonizing rocket. Really big. – Space.com

Surprise, surprise: Elon Musk is thinking big.

SpaceX's billionaire founder and CEO outlined some ambitious goals for the company's Starship Mars-colonization system during a flurry of Twitter posts on Thursday (Jan. 16).

The Starship architecture consists of a big spaceship called Starship, which Musk has said will be capable of carrying up to 100 people, and a giant rocket named Super Heavy. Both of these vehicles will be reusable; indeed, rapid and frequent reuse is key to Musk's overall vision, which involves cutting the cost of spaceflight enough to make Mars colonization and other bold exploration feats economically feasible.

Related: SpaceX's Starship and Super Heavy Rocket in Pictures

And "frequent reuse" is a bit of an understatement, it would seem. In one of Thursday's tweets, for example, Musk wrote that the eventual goal is to launch each Starship vehicle three times per day on average. Each Starship will be able to carry about 100 tons of payload to orbit, so, at that flight rate, every vehicle would loft about 100,000 tons annually, he explained.

And there won't be just one Starship far from it, if everything goes according to Musk's plan.

"Building 100 Starships/year gets to 1000 in 10 years or 100 megatons/year or maybe around 100k people per Earth-Mars orbital sync," Musk wrote in another Thursday tweet.

"Orbital sync" refers to an alignment of the two planets that's favorable for interplanetary travel, which comes along just once every 26 months. So, Musk envisions huge fleets of Starships departing during these windows.

"Loading the Mars fleet into Earth orbit, then 1000 ships depart over ~30 days every 26 months. Battlestar Galactica " he wrote in another tweet. (And Musk wants each Starship to keep flying for a while. In yet another tweet, he said SpaceX is aiming for an operational life of 20 to 30 years for each vehicle.)

Musk wants all of this activity to lead to the establishment of a sustainable settlement on the Red Planet. This goal making humanity a multiplanet species is close to the entrepreneur's heart. He has repeatedly stressed that it's why he founded SpaceX back in 2002, and why he has been amassing wealth for the past few decades.

Back in mid-2017, Musk said that the Starship architecture (which was then called the Interplanetary Transport System) could potentially allow a million-person city to rise on Mars within 50 to 100 years. He's still working toward such an ambitious timeline an even more ambitious one, in fact. On Thursday, one of Musk's Twitter followersasked, "So a million people [on Mars] by 2050?" The billionaire responded simply: "Yes."

Super Heavy won't make the trip to Mars, by the way; the huge rocket is needed just to get the Starship vehicle off Earth. The passenger spacecraft will be able to launch itself off the moon and Mars, both of which are much smaller than our planet and are therefore much easier to escape.

SpaceX is currently building its first Starship orbital vehicle, called the SN1, at the company's South Texas facilities. Also on Thursday, Musk tweeted a photo of technicians working on the SN1's nose cone and liquid-oxygen header tank.

Starship could get up and running soon. SpaceX representatives have said the first operational missions of the vehicle, which will likely loft communications satellites, could come as early as 2021. And there's already one crewed mission on Starship's manifest a round-the-moon voyage booked by Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, which is targeted for 2023.

Mike Wall's book about the search for alien life, "Out There" (Grand Central Publishing, 2018; illustrated by Karl Tate), is out now. Follow him on Twitter @michaeldwall. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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Elon Musk is still thinking big with SpaceX's Starship Mars-colonizing rocket. Really big. - Space.com

Jack Dorsey asked Elon Musk how he would run Twitterhere’s what Musk said – CNBC

When you have Elon Musk on the line, you ask him for business advice even if you're Jack Dorsey.

In an undated video of what appears to be a Twitter company event, CEO Dorsey asks Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk over video chat: "Give us some direct feedback, critique."

"What are we doing horribly? What could we be doing better? What's your hope for [Twitter's] potential as a service?" Dorsey asked Musk in the video, which was tweeted Thursday.

"If you were running Twitter, what would you do?"

Dorsey even joked with Musk, "By the way, do you want to run Twitter?"

Musk told Dorsey and the audience that Twitter could do better at distinguishing bots from real people, something the company has invested in.

"I think it would be helpful to differentiate between real and you know, not just like a verified person, but is this a real person, or is this a bot net or a sort of troll army or something like that? Basically, how do you tell if the feedback is real or someone trying to manipulate the system? Or probably real or probably trying to manipulate the system," Musk said.

"Some way to differentiate between, this is a real person and this is someone just trying to manipulate the system. I see people trying to sway public opinion, and sometimes it can be difficult to figure out what's real public opinion and what's not," he said.

"What are people actually upset about versus manipulation of the system by various interest groups? And there are many such groups."

Along with his feedback on Twitter operations, Musk also told Dorsey he believes the first human to send a tweet from Mars will happen "five years from now... probably not more than nine years from now."

(Musk has said he'll get humans to Mars by 2024. In a March tweet, he revealed plans to send manned SpaceX rockets to the planet, creating a fully "self-sustaining city" on Mars by 2050.)

Musk, who joined Twitter in June 2009, has over 30 million followers and is extremely active on the platform, often using it to communicate with Tesla customers.

But Twitter has also gotten Musk in trouble.

Most recently, in December, Musk won a defamation case brought by Vernon Unsworth, the British cave explorer whom Musk called "pedo guy" on Twitter in 2018.

And in October 2018, Musk agreed to relinquish his role as chairman at Tesla and pay a hefty fine as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over an August 2018 tweet. Musk tweeted that he had secured enough funding to take Tesla private, and the SEC alleged Musk's statements were "false and misleading" and that he didn't properly notify regulators, CNBC reported.

In February, the SEC accused Musk of violating the agreement when he tweeted about Tesla production numbers, however the sides agreed to resolve the situation by amending the original settlement for clarity.

Dorsey, however, has complimented Musk's use of Twitter.

When journalist Kara Swisher interviewed Dorsey over Twitter in February, she asked him to name the "most exciting" and "influential" person on the platform.

"To me personally? I like how @elonmusk uses Twitter," Dorsey tweeted. "He's focused on solving existential problems and sharing his thinking openly. I respect that a lot, and all the ups and downs that come with it."

To that, Musk replied, "Thanks Jack, Twitter rocks!"

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Jack Dorsey asked Elon Musk how he would run Twitterhere's what Musk said - CNBC

Elon Musk keeps traveling to Texas to work on SpaceX’s new Starship rocket. A local thinks the CEO now uses a historic home as a crash pad take a…

Making it cheap to get humans and their stuff to and from space is no easy undertaking. But Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX, is rushing to do just that at the southern tip of Texas and may be crashing in a historic A-frame home to catch what rest he can between long slogs of work.

Musk has been working late on an unprecedented rocket system called Starship. If realized, the final vehicle would be made of steel, stand 387 feet tall, and be fully reusable. Since most rockets today fall into the ocean after one use, Starship's reusability positions it to replace all other systems by slashing the cost of launching to space by more than 90%.

According to Musk, Starship would be even cheaper to operate per flight than SpaceX's own partly reusable Falcon 9 rockets. Where Falcon 9 costs the company tens of millions of dollars to fly up to 25 tons of payload, Starship might cost just $2 million to launch up to 100 tons, Musk said in November.

Such a system could deploy hundreds of SpaceX's next-generation Starlink internet satellites, heave gigantic telescopes into space for NASA, and ferry dozens of passengers into orbit at once. But Musk's big "aspirational" goals for Starship include sending the first cargo to Mars in 2022, launching the Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa and a crew of artists around the moon in 2023, and rocketing the first crewed mission to Mars in 2024.

"I think we could potentially see people fly next year," Musk said in September while unveiling a Starship prototype in Boca Chica, Texas, where SpaceX is building out a private launch site and basing its development program.

Musk now travels to South Texas at least monthly, according to social-media posts by Musk and others, for hands-on work toward launching the first Starship prototype, which he said might fly as soon as February or March.

During a visit in late December, Musk tweeted he was "up all night" working on the "most difficult part" of Starship's steel structure: the domed ends of 30-foot-wide propellant tanks. (Such a dome failed during a pressurization test weeks earlier, sending it flying hundreds of feet into the air and across a state highway.)

People who live in the area and whom SpaceX is trying to buy out find it hard to ignore Musk's presence, given his heavy security detail and onlookers who flock to their remote and formerly sleepy retiree-age beach community.

At least one resident, whose identity Business Insider has verified but who asked not to be named because of ongoing property-sale negotiations with SpaceX, said Musk almost certainly now crashes in an A-frame-style house that SpaceX recently acquired.

"It's perfect," the resident said, adding that the house is not only the nicest of about 30 homes in the area but also the only place that's "secluded and security-controlled."

Here's a look inside the home, which also has a special historic significance to the Boca Chica area.

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Elon Musk keeps traveling to Texas to work on SpaceX's new Starship rocket. A local thinks the CEO now uses a historic home as a crash pad take a...

Elon Musk has had the viral song from ‘The Witcher’ stuck in his head for at least a week – Business Insider

It is a fate unavoidable for the millions of fans who have tuned into Netflix's breakout original series "The Witcher" and Elon Musk is no exception.

The Tesla founder and CEO has the "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher," the show's breakout viral song, stuck in his head, and it looks like it's been that way for at least a week.

Musk sent two tweets, almost exactly a week apart, referencing the song.

The first, in the early hours of Friday January 10, simply repeated the lyrics:

And the second, around 1 a.m. on Friday January 17 was a meme (specifically "Are You Going to Sleep?") that suggested that the song's catchiness was keeping him up at night.

Both tweets were successful even by Musk's standard, having amassed more than 200,000 likes each at time of publication.

In the show, "Toss a Coin to Your Witcher" is written and performed in the show's second episode by the character Jaskier the bard, played by British actor Joey Batey.

Here is the official version of the song, hosted on the SoundCloud account of composers Sonya Belousova & Giona Ostinelli.

The song has been the most shareable thing to come out of "The Witcher," a video game adaptation which was in turn inspired by a series of Polish novels.

In an interview with Business Insider's Travis Clark, showrunner Lauren S. Hissrich said that the song's catchiness is part of a more subtle point, which is "horrific" when you think hard enough.

The idea stems from the fact that the account Jaskier gives of the feats of Geralt of Rivia (played by Henry Cavill) is untrue, and the reality was far less heroic.

Hissrich said:

"It's a catchy song, but if you step back and listen to the lyrics, it's horrific. What it's saying is: I'm going to change how history sees this entire event just because I've written a catchy song."

Netflix has commissioned a second season of "The Witcher," which Hissrich said in a recent Reddit post is due out some time in 2021.

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Elon Musk has had the viral song from 'The Witcher' stuck in his head for at least a week - Business Insider

Elon Musk is nearly halfway done with his Las Vegas loop – The Hill

Elon Musks The Boring Company is currently constructing an underground electric transport system to move people around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and its nearly halfway done.

The Boring Company broke ground on the $52.5 million loop system project in November. In just two months, it is about 50 percent complete and around six football fields in length, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Once the project is done, it will consist of two 1-mile tunnels that will use electric vehicles to transport at least 4,400 passengers per hour around the convention center.

The project is expected to be extended to connect the convention center to popular Las Vegas hot spots on the strip, as well as to the McCarran International Airport.

CEO and founder Elon Musk has been working on underground tunnel travel as a way to move people and freight around more efficiently, with a private tunnel completed for Tesla in Los Angeles. But the Las Vegas tunnel will be the first commercial, publicly available system the Boring Company will finish.

Other projects on The Boring Companys listinclude a proposed loop running from downtown Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, a loop to get to Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and another loop in downtown Chicago.

The loop system in Las Vegas is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

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Elon Musk is nearly halfway done with his Las Vegas loop - The Hill

Elon Musk’s Tunnel Company Seeks to Expand Its Reach in Las Vegas – Engineering News-Record

The head of Elon Musks tunneling company said he expects a deal to build an underground transit system through the Las Vegas resort corridor to already be teed up, should the current tunnel project beneath the citys convention center prove a success.

The Boring Co. (TBC) President Steve Davis told a business group in Las Vegas on Jan. 9 that the company must first complete the Las Vegas Convention Center project on schedule by the end of the year. It also needs to deliver, he said, on the promise of using Teslas to move 4,400 people per hour with what the company calls its Loop system.

Then, he said, tourism industry stakeholders will be ready to consummate ongoing talks about expanding the system from the airport to the Strip and into downtown. Were always in discussion with everyone who might be interested, he told the Nevada chapter of the American Public Works Association.

Well have lots of talks and if it goes well, everythings teed up.

The company began work in November on the $52.5-million project, which will link the existing Las Vegas Convention Center complex with the under-construction, 1.4-million-sq-ft West Hall.

Davis pointed to the recent Consumer Electronics show held at the convention center to illustrate how tunneling adds travel capacity without disrupting surface activity.We were tunneling under the main hall of the convention center, he said, and nobody had any idea we were there.

When finished, TBCs project will move people along two nearly one-mile-long, one-way tunnels in Tesla sedans and 16-passenger vehicles built off Model X chassis.

Davis said the company looks at the convention center effort, not as a one-time project, but the first of many, many projects. Were actually very impatient and anxious to expand quickly. To be frank, our focus is here.

The convention center job, with its short timetable and clear deliverables, offers a highly visible test on which the companys future hinges, Davis says.

Were going to build the Loop at the convention center, and one of two things will happen. Either everyone will hate it, and well go out of businessoption two, everyone loves it and we expand."

So where do you expand? There are some very obvious places to expand," he said.The larger convention center, new resorts and Allegiant Stadium, future home of the NFLs Raiders, are expected to increase visitor volume and add to traffic congestion.

Davis said if the Boring Co.s footprint grows in Las Vegas, he expects Southern Nevada to become a research hub for the company.

I have a feeling that at some point we end up here with some huge swath of land in the desert, testing boring machines. Down Las Vegas Boulevard is super obvious. North into the city of Las Vegas, into the airport, he said.

Davis said Musk, who founded the Boring Co. in 2016, wants to bring to tunneling the efficiencies of standardization and technology he has applied to Tesla, the Gigafactory and SpaceX, where Davis was once an executive. He said the Boring Co. has a moonshot goal of being able to tunnel a mile a day, but right now its like a mile every six weeks.

The convention center tunnel will be the Boring Co.s first commercial project. The company did not respond to a request for additional comment.

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Elon Musk's Tunnel Company Seeks to Expand Its Reach in Las Vegas - Engineering News-Record

Elon Musk keeps getting owned by the PA Treasury’s Twitter account – Mashable

Elon Musk has a new high-profile Twitter hater, and for some bizarre reason, it just so happens to be the official account of the Pennsylvania State Treasury.

The certified Extremely Online CEO has had his share of Twitter beefs over the years. From calling someone a "pedo guy" to possibly ripping off farting unicorn artwork, Musk has typically been the instigator in online matters past. Not anymore.

The verified @PATreasury account started dropping Musk-flavored insults last August, but the campaign of dunks truly began in earnest on Monday.

"'What if we took something like a subway, but made it unfathomably expensive and only for cars, and also make sure that it will never work?'Elon Musk,,a genius," wrote the Treasury.

That message was quickly followed by another tweet unfavorably comparing Musk to Mark Zuckerberg. Damn, that's harsh.

"A big difference w/ Zuckerberg and Elon Musk is that Treasury has worked hard for yrs to make gradual progress on getting Zuck to not serve as CEO and Chairman of the Board at the same time; and Elon Musk literally did a tweet so bad that he was forced to step down as Chairman," read the Tuesday tweet.

In case you're curious, the verified account repeatedly owning Musk really is a Pennsylvania Treasury account. A July article in the Pittsburgh City Paper confirms that, yes, this is all legit.

"We decided to create the account and get kind of weird with it, but hopefully not too weird," one of the people behind the account told the paper.

We reached out to the Treasury via email in an attempt to figure out what, exactly, is going on here, but unfortunately received no response as of press time. We did, however, hear back from the @PATreasury account itself over Twitter direct message.

"Its not some specific thing about Musk," read the response in part. "The real conversation is about investment in public infrastructure versus a private company trying to do this stuff, wealth and income inequality, corporate power, etc. But clearly Musk gets people thinking about this stuff."

Essentially, it's trolling to spur public discourse.

"Were trying to engage our PA constituents into a conversation about the issues that matter to them," continued the response, "so however we can get that going is good to us."

Which, sure, why not?

SEE ALSO: Has Elon Musk finally ... cracked?

And maybe, just maybe, it will have the side benefit of luring the CEO into another public Twitter feud. Because he definitely needs one of those.

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Elon Musk keeps getting owned by the PA Treasury's Twitter account - Mashable

Did The Book Primal Branding Inspire Elon Musk With Tesla? – InsideEVs

We have mixed feelings about this video. It started in a way that made us want to see what its point was. The presenter, Sven Pape, described himself as a loyal VW owner, driving the same Jetta for 20 years. Then, he said he made a big mistake and started talking about the things he did not want to talk about. His focus would be on the seven core branding traits of Tesla. In other words, what made it the recognizable and desirable car brand it is today.

47 Photos

These traits have been described in the book Primal Branding, from Patrick Hanlon, which Pape recommends. As we are not familiar with the book, we searched for its reviews. The traits are origin story, creed, icons, rituals, non-believers, sacred words, and the leader.

Hanlon is a senior advertising executive that had the idea for this book after wondering what made some brands so strong and others not so much despite apparently having the right factor in getting there. After studying these brands, he discovered these traits so that they could be reproduced by companies that also wanted to succeed in this area. In other words, the book is a sort of reverse engineering of branding success.

Pape finds all these traits in Tesla. Summing up, the origin story involves the Master Plan. The creed is to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy, as Nassim Taleb heard from Teslas Customer Support.

The icons are Tesla's cars. The rituals involve the procedures to activate Autopilot or to supercharge the car, among others. We would not have to tell you about the non-believers nor about the sacred words, but we will.

The first ones are so sure they are short-sellers. The second ones involve all the vocabulary that makes Tesla supporters feel like a community, such as FSD, AP, TSLAQ (for non-believers), and so forth. Then, theres the leader.

We honestly do not know what to think. Has Elon Musk read the book, written in 2006, and applied the ideas to Tesla? Are the traits definition so loose they would make any company look like it had primal branding?

Our final doubts regard the big mistake Pape mentions at the beginning of the video. Was it falling in love with Tesla? What does PPF have to do with that apart from protecting the Model 3 from paint issues? The video does not answer that.

You might want to watch it to give us your thoughts about what it wants to talk about. Do you think it hit the nail in the head? Or will Hanlon have to write another book to explain Teslas successful branding without the need for traditional advertising? We are more inclined towards this last possibility.

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Did The Book Primal Branding Inspire Elon Musk With Tesla? - InsideEVs

Elon Musk Says His Favorite Movie of 2019 Was "Parasite" And The Concept of Irony is Officially Dead – Bleeding Cool News

Dont worry, folks. It doesnt matter who gets nominated for the Oscars or BAFTAs or any other awards: The debate is over because Elon Musk, The Internets Favorite Billionaire has announced that his favorite movie of 2019 was Bong Joon Hos Parasite. In a related story, Bill OReilly said Bombshell was his favorite movie and theres absolutely no f@#$ing way Elon Musk watched Parasite, is there?

For the uninitiated, Parasite tells the story of the Kim family, barely scraping by on the margins of Seoul society in a literal underground apartment where people regularly urinate outside their window, until they manage to ingratiate themselves into the lives of the Parks, an extremely wealthy family who live in a gorgeous palatial home. And wackiness ensues as the Kims enjoy living the high life at the expense of their employers. Waitnot wackiness. Tragedy.

It is a film, at its core, about inequality. Its complex, beautiful, disturbing everything we expect from Bong Joon Ho, who previously gave us Snowpiercer and Okja, which both have similar themes about how the rich oppress the poor and force them to exist in a brutal society so they can live pleasantly.

Elon Musk, whose net worth is somewhere between $27 and $30 billion depending on Teslas stock value at the moment (and whats $3 billion here or there, amirite?) is well known not only for his business enterprises and philanthropy but also his internet presence. Hes well known for starting fights with the people trying to rescue trapped Thai soccer teams in underwater caves, and other wacky fights with people on Twitter. So when he weighed in on 2019s best movie, the Twittersphere and all of Film Twitter held our breath in anticipation:

First of all, thank you Renata for asking the question we all so dearly needed to know the answer to. The man who made unforgettable cameos in Iron Man 2 and Machete Kills (he sent Machete to space on a SpaceX rocket! Reminding us that in 2020 what we really need is the long-promised Machete in Space!) has definite opinions on film, and we should pay attention to them.

Also interesting here is the context, as this wasnt just like an AMA thread, this was Elon being Elon, replying to this thread. . .

AND

So, either Elon just ingested some really excellent edibles, or hes low-key trolling here. The correct answer he shouldve given is Avengers: Endgame. Everybody saw it, so its not like its out of the realm of possibility he did. Also, hes long tried to position himself as the real-life version of Tony Stark and this is Tonys movie. Its literally a movie where the billionaire snaps his fingers and saves the universe. That should be Elon Musks favorite movie, and theres no shame in admitting it. Or why not Ford v. Ferrari? Hes a car guy, thats definitely a car guy movie.

But he goes ahead and answers Parasite for his favorite movie. What does this mean? There are two options: he didnt see Parasite but wanted to sound cool. (He had just admitted that Cats would have more cultural salience than Star Wars. I mean, who does that? [Briefly checks Twitter because pretty sure Ive said almost exactly that]) OR he did see it but totally misunderstood it.

People who want to believe option 1, theres a strong case for that. Its sort of the Occams Razor argument. Cool guy wants to appear cool on Twitter, so mentions the movie all his other cool friends really like. Simple enough.

But for option 2, were going to have to dive into some pretty deep spoilers to try to deconstruct exactly what movie Elon thought he saw.

So, is it possible that Elon took exactly the opposite message from the film? He saw a hard-working wealthy family being taken advantage of by conniving and violent poor people, which is, I guess, a message you could take from the movie. But it would be like rooting for Thanos, or saying Christian was your favorite character in Midsommar.

I think its very possible Mr. Musk really likes the character of Geun-sae, who hides in the Parks basement. He understands that he lives on the mercy and largesse of Mr. Park, literally stealing food from thema human-sized cockroach or rat. But most importantly, he worships Mr. Park and has an entire shrine to all of his various business activities. He goes on and on about what a great man Mr. Park is. Pretty sure this is how Elon Musk thinks a lot of people feel about him.

And if Mr. Park is indeed the character Elon feels the most affinity with, what else does that say? Im guessing there is a very high chance that, like Mr. Park, at some point Musk has commented on how a poor person smells and that it is distasteful to him.The major irony would be if this was his driver, which lead him into the space of self-driving cars so he can simply be away from smelly poor people.

We could also take Elon Musk at his word and maybe he did not only really enjoy Parasite but it did prick his conscience and hes going to do something about it. Elon could put up some of his money to finance and promote more independent cinema from artists like Bong, or Greta Gerwig, or Lulu Wang, or whomever.

Current Supervillain Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin put a bunch of his money into making a bunch of movies with Brett Rattner and Warner Bros and won an Oscar for Suicide Squad, so its not unprecedented. (To be fair, Mnuchin also helped produce Mad Max: Fury Road, which is perhaps the only thing more ironic and less self-aware than Elon Musk liking Parasite). Anyway, put your money into movies, Elon write Robert Rodriguez a blank check and make Machete in Space happen! Or, you know, other worthwhile art.

Or he could put more money into direct poverty relief. Help people so they dont have to live in squalid conditions that make them feel like they need to run scams just to subsist. Because the supreme irony of Parasite is that the Kim family are all eminently qualified for the jobs they do. Theyre hardworking, clever people. So why are they poor? Maybe because their society is unfair, Elon. And when income inequality is a great deal worse in the US than in Korea. . . maybe you should look into that?

Or he could put his money into the 2020 elections and help fix those problems. I mean, when youre worth so much.

Now weve had some fun at Elon Musks expense here, but were sure he can take it. In some ways, saying he loved Parasite is super on-brand for him: not extremely self-aware or thoughtful, definitely performative, even if true. . . and in that way, isnt Elon Musk like all of us online? I mean, except that hell make more money in the next 48 hours than most of us will this year.

But still, hes just like us. So relatable he loves that movie that we all love, or pretend to love because we havent seen it but everyone is talking about it and it sounds like something we would like. And definitely, definitely he doesnt think poor people smell bad.

Parasite for Best Picture. Elon Musk said so. (F@#$ you, Todd Phillips)

A mild mannered digital strategist working for an environmental nonprofit in Austin, TX roaming the interwebs fighting his nemeses President Luthor and the Roxxon Corporation by day, and by night consuming all manner of media. You can find him either on his couch or at the nearest Alamo Drafthouse catching the latest. Don't follow him on Twitter @CitizenAndy.

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Elon Musk Says His Favorite Movie of 2019 Was "Parasite" And The Concept of Irony is Officially Dead - Bleeding Cool News