Select Page ::

West Salem High wins big at robotics competition – Statesman Journal

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Middle and high school robotics teams from across Oregon compete on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at Chemeketa Community College. Teams competed to qualify for the VEX Robotics World Championship. (Photo: DANIELLE PETERSON / Statesman Journal)Buy Photo

More than 750middle and high school students crammed into the Chemeketa Community College gymto compete in the Oregon VEX Robotics Competition Saturday.

Ninety-eight teams from 62 schools in the state competed in the robotics competition that determined which teams would advance to the Vex Robotics Competition World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.

"The whole thing weve been building up to today actually, but it took about a couple weeks to get everything fine tuned - especially with its hands," said Paul Smith, 15, of West Salem High School.

Smith and his team of four other members spent the last five months designing, building and programming their robot for the VEX competition.

Entire class periods, lunch breaks and after school hours were spent making adjustments to the robot for the competition's drivers skills and programming skills challenges.

The competition, which is separated into three divisions - platinum, gold and bronze - asked teams to build and program their robots to compete against other teams on competitive fields. The goal is to program the robot to pick up and throw bags and plastic objects reminiscent of jax over a wall to the competitor's field.

For the first 15 second portion of the competition, the robot acts autonomously to pick up and throw the objects. After that short portion, a team memberpicks up a controller and then directs the robot to move.

"There is an excitement and ease to start with robotics," said Joe Shepard, the coordinator of the state championships. "These kids are doing things they've never done before and we've seen in the last 12 to 15 years that the world really needs more engineers."

After winning best of three in the semi-finals, the West Salem team returned the "pit," an area where teams replace batteries, nurse gear settings, make repairs and modify any mechanical bugs before moving onto the next round.

While Smith adjusts a gear on the robot's arms, his teammateTyler Keopadapsy shared his team's strategy during field competitions.

"Our main driver is Paul, so werewatching him drive and telling him what we should do to win," Keopadapsy said. "If hes feeling too cocky or confident, we'll tell him to slow down, ease it up and change up the strategy."

The strategy paid off, as the West Salem Team was crowned the platinum division champion and the judge's award. The team's tournament win now makes the team eligible to attend the world championship in Kentucky.

"Weve had consistent success and thats helped out with our overall performance," saidGreyson Walker,of West Salem High School.

Walker, 17, already had 6 years of programming experience under his belt before participating in the competition. He said he spent more than 70 hours of his own time programming the robot's autonomous and skills features.

Walker points to the back of teammates green shirt, where five stars embellishing his high school's name represent the five years Salem High School has attended the world championship.

"We have a very significant history with robotics," Walker.

The team can expect to add one more starto their team shirt next year.

View all of the state's winners here.

South Salem girls basketball's reign comes to a sudden halt

History making double overtime win earns West Salem first state trophy

Virtual Schools Day at the Oregon State Capitol

Read or Share this story: http://stjr.nl/2myz9gY

Originally posted here:

West Salem High wins big at robotics competition - Statesman Journal

UHV class teaches high school students about robotics – Victoria Advocate

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Victoria Advocate

UHV class teaches high school students about robotics
Victoria Advocate
In the past, there has been a class for beginners and another for advanced students. However, all of the students taking the spring class have experience with robots and programming either from previously attending the UHV class or from high school ...

Originally posted here:

UHV class teaches high school students about robotics - Victoria Advocate

Know your supplements unregistered brands flood markets – DAWN.com

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

It has become a trend that instead of eating fruits, vegetables and meat, a large number of people prefer food supplements without realiasing their side effects.

Most of the food supplements available in the market are not only unregistered but also contain steroids that can damage body organs such as brain, kidneys, liver etc.

Steroids were developed for the treatment of different diseases, especially among elderly people.

Some steroids also behave like male sex hormones and doctors prescribe them for treating problems such as late puberty as well as a significant muscle loss in cancer and Aids patients. But theyre often used illegally by athletes, sportsmen and bodybuilders.

Besides, a large number of people who have nothing to do with sports also use the food supplements, vitamins, minerals etc.

Media coordinator for the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) Dr Waseem Khawaja told Dawn that most people believed that they should have food supplements and vitamins to remain healthy.

People use food supplements and other medicines containing steroids without realising their side effects.

They gain weight temporarily but because of the use of steroids their body organs stop working. I have seen patients who used steroids and later their kidneys, liver and even brain stopped working. They remained on ventilators till their death, Dr Waseem said.

He said people should eat normal diet as normal people did not require any food supplement or vitamins.

There is a lack of awareness due to which parents approach doctors with the complaint that their children do not eat sufficient food. They insist that multivitamins and food supplements should be suggested for their children.

He said a majority of steroids were sold under the name of alternative medicines but people used them without realising their side effects.

The food supplements and vitamins are sold for thousands of rupees. People can get the same amount of vitamins and minerals from fruits and meat without spending a huge amount of money.

He also said people should understand that food supplements are given to those elderly patients who cannot digest or eat normal food.

A normal person never requires food supplements, he said.

An official of the Ministry of National Health services (NHS) said because of the unavailability of rules and regulations the sale of alternative medicines could not be regulated.

Last year, Secretary Health Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mohammad Abid Majeed wrote a letter to Secretary Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) Ayub Sheikh raising the issue of unregistered medicines being sold in the market.

He claimed that from January to June 2016 as many as 534 nutrition/alternative medicines were analysed by the provincial drug laboratories.

It was found that there were ingredients which become a reason for severe damages to health.

Mr Majeed requested that rules should be formulated to address the issue.

However, the NHS ministry official said even allopathic medicines were sold in the name of herbal products but at very high rates due to which a number of companies had stopped manufacturing allopathic medicines and shifted to alternative medicines.

He said cod liver oil was given to children, women and elderly people as it was good for the bones.

However, the bottle of cod liver oil, which used to be available for Rs150, has disappeared from the market and the same oil is now being sold for Rs1,200 under the name of herbal oil.

A bottle of surbex T (vitamin) is available for Rs50 in the market but the same medicine is also being sold for Rs1,500 in the name of an alternative drug.

Allopathic medicines are reliable as they are made under licensing and in a controlled environment but no one knows where and how herbal medicines and food supplements are prepared and if they contain steroids.

He said even a number of skin whitening creams can be hazardous.

A number of times we have received complaints that skin whitening creams are using mercury which can cause cancer.

However, whenever it is decided to take action against the manufacturers the latter say they have nothing to do with the creams and it should be treated as cosmetics. I believe that any commodity which makes clinical claims should be treated as a drug, he said.

Chief Executive Officer of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) Dr Mohammad Aslam said the use of steroids in food supplements was a very sensitive issue and Drap was working on it.

Our teams time to time test the products. We received complaints about skin whitening creams after which 15 products were checked but all of them were found free of mercury, he said.

Dr Aslam said there was a lack of awareness due to which people used food supplements.

They should eat natural food instead of having medicines. Even eating a fruit is much better and safer than drinking a fruit juice, he said.

In reply to a question about the use of steroids by bodybuilders, Dr Aslam said they used steroids to strengthen their mussels.

The human body has 60pc water but some bodybuilders use medicines to reduce their weight by dehydration to participate in the competition of a category of their choice, he said.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2017

More here:

Know your supplements unregistered brands flood markets - DAWN.com

Re-defining hyperlocalism – Leinster Express

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

By Killenard based award winning Garden Designer Brian Burke.

So, what do you know about hyperlocalism? Not much, if anything. Well in that case you are in the same boat as I was in up until last Saturday.

Last Saturday night at about quarter past nine when most fully functioning adults are out in pursuit of some form of real world alcohol related cultural enrichment, I was at home opening a tweet from a Garden Design magazine which I imagined was just about to open the door for me to the realm of hyperlocalism.

Narnia, as I thought, for the adult organic enthusiast.

Right so what is it? Well, therein lies the source of much confusion and ensuing hilarity.

Because I assumed from the context, a tweet from a Garden Design magazine, and without reading the follow up link that what we were dealing with here was a recently concocted term to cover all those zeitgeisty organic matters such as local sourcing of materials, concern over the provenance of food items, avoidance of the carbon production associated with movement of goods a long way.

All those ultra-cool, eco things.

But never one to be accused of being negligent when it comes to fact checking I jumped over to dictionary.com to get the definitive low down.

Except you wont find any definition on dictionary.com thats even close to my interpretation.

Thats how new it is, says I to myself. The paint isnt even dry on the hoarding surrounding the kingdom of hyperlocalism, on the electric fence sectioning off the hyperlocalist from the remainder of humanity.

But no, its there all right. Hyperlocalism is covered as follows: Hyperlocal connotes information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community.

The term can be used as a noun in isolation or as a modifier of some other term (e.g. news).

But it could easily have been my definition.

It could easily have been something like: Early twenty first century movement concerned with countering globalisation and homogenisation. Its pure zeitgeist; it combines hype with local and coins a brand-new way of describing something which was already perfectly adequately described.

So, I was torn. There it was; an immovable definition for one thing which I knew in my heart should have been something completely different.

The thing was snowballing and it was starting to occupy this unique niche as being a very now sounding term that should exist for an entirely different purpose to that for which it does exist.

It was becoming very confusing. A misappropriated, misallocated, misdirected label.

So, what I am proposing is nothing less than a complete and utter redeployment of the term hyperlocalism. Because this news related definition is only nonsense.

Hyperlocalism beautifully describes where we are at. We need this phrase to do more for us, to work harder, to live up to its billing. We need to wrest control of this word back from where it has errantly been squandered all this time.

You know the way you buy your spuds from the local farmer and if someone forced you to describe such activity the best any of us would come up with would probably be a word such as loyalty. Well, under the new regime we are obliged to call that hyperlocalism.

Getting your limestone paving from Liscannor rather than Karachi; hyperlocalism. Buying larch from managed midlands forests rather than imported eastern European softwood; hyperlocalism. Keeping a few chickens; hyperlocalism.

Being lucky enough to be close enough to cycle to work or school; hyperlocalism. Not buying a house in Roscommon when you work in Bray; hyperlocalism. Saving in your credit union; hyperlocalism. Eschewing Amazon to order a book through your local bookstore; hyperlocalism. Or better still, hyperlocalism with an edge; using Amazon to do your research and then ordering it through your local bookstore.

Im hyper. Im local. Its not rocket science.

Visit link:

Re-defining hyperlocalism - Leinster Express

Why Not ‘A Global Anthem,’ Donald Trump? Who Does ‘Represent the World,’ Steve Bannon? – AlterNet

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Photo Credit: United Nations Photo / Flickr

We will serve the citizens of the United States of America, believe me, said President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 24th. There is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency, or a global flag. Four days later, in his first speech before a joint session of Congress, he continued, My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America.

Donald Trump and his consigliere Steve Bannon (the likely author of those sentences) are hardly the first to nail so precisely this most basic feature of what political scientists call the world order of today. At the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, President George H.W. Bush was hounded and harassed by environmentalists at every turn. He wasnt doing enough, they said. He needed to protect the planet, they said. Finally he lost his cool, and in words remarkably similar to those uttered by President Trump at CPAC exclaimed, Im the President of the United States. Im not the President of the World. And while Im here Im going to do what best serves the interests of the American people.

The sovereign state system these two American leaders so accurately described, exactly a quarter century apart, is likely to persist far into the foreseeable future. But someday, is it possible that people around the world might actually sing a global anthem together? And hoist a global flag? And dwell together as citizens of a United Earth?

Why Not a Global Anthem?

If there is a global anthem floating around out there its not in any way official, hardly anyone knows it, and hardly anyone feels anything about it. The tone of Trumps assertion, however and of much his nascent presidency implies that its self-evident not just that there is no such thing, but that there shouldnt be, and never will be.

Most of us, however, maintain many different kinds of loyalties. Our affection for our schools and hometowns is a huge part of why sports are such a huge part of our culture. People feel fidelity to non-geographic communities as well ones bicycle club or the dog park gang or (for me) ones fellow geeks at the science fiction convention.

Yet the most primal devotion that most people feel today is arguably their allegiance to their nation. What American even those who agitate every day to make their country live up to its ideals has never gotten at least a little bit choked up at spectacular fireworks on July 4th, or singing The Star-Spangled Banner at a ballgame, or seeing a fluttering American flag leading a parade?

But our world grows smaller and more interconnected every day. No grand historical development is more defining of the modern age. Can we imagine the same feelings of camaraderie, kindred spiritedness, and tribal solidarity about our single human community? Can our loyalty to the world as a whole as it does for many for ones nation -- make our blood rush a little more quickly through our veins? Might our allegiance to our nations be accompanied by an allegiance to humanity?

Theres no reason why people cannot declare right now that they seem themselves as both citizens of their countries and citizens of the world. That their national patriotism is for them transcended by their planetary patriotism. And that all of us on this fragile planet must now consider ourselves, in the science fiction author Spider Robinsons memorable phrase, to be crewmates on Spaceship Earth.

One can imagine this becoming a hot button political issue quite suddenly. Imagine a dozen college students, perhaps half from countries outside the United States, enrolled at, oh, the University of California.

Perhaps they constitute the local student arm of Citizens for Global Solutions -- the 70-year-old NGO that openly advocates the establishment of a world republic. These students band together because they embrace th e principl e that above and beyond their devotion to the country where they happen to have been born is their loyalty to the human race.

So they arrange a meeting with the chancellor. They introduce themselves, and then announce that they do not consider themselves to be primarily American or Nigerian or Iranian or Mexican or Chinese. They are Earthlings. So they request that above the flag of the United States on the official university flagpole, the university will now fly a flag depicting our beautiful blue Earth from space.

The chancellor hesitates. She isnt quite sure how this will go over with that $1M donor whose name just went up on the dormitory right across from that flagpole. The Daily Californian school paper does a front page article about the hesitation. Students begin to march and demonstrate. Other students -- declaring that their only patriotism is their American patriotism -- confront the Earthlings. Commotion ensues. Now the San Francisco Chronicle does a front page article about it. That gets picked up by Asahi Shimbun andDeutsche Welle. And a transnational conversation begins to unfold.

These ideals of larger loyalty have been promulgated by some of the greatest figures in the human heritage. Its what Voltaire called "the party of humanity." Its what Victor Hugo meant when he said, I belong to a party which does not yet exist the party of revolution and civilization. Its what the signatories of the 1955 "Einstein-Russell Manifesto" were describing when they claimed to speak "not as members of this or that nation, continent, or creed, but as human beings, members of the species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt."

And in July 1979, Neil Armstrong was asked what had been going through his mind ten years earlier when he stood on the surface of the moon, and saluted the American flag. His reply? I suppose youre thinking about pride and patriotism. But we didnt have a strong nationalistic feeling at that time. We felt more that it was a venture of all mankind.

Who Does Represent the World?

President Trump and the first President Bush were also not wrong about who they represent. Its that way for every president. Theres nothing unusual or unprecedented or groundbreaking about it. The oath an American president swears is about protecting the United States of America and its constitution nothing else!

This is why President Bill Clinton, agonizingly, did not dispatch American military power to rescue perhaps of a million people being hacked into pieces with machetes in Rwanda in the spring of 1994 because the genocide, as horrifying as just about anything could possibly be, did not directly threaten American interests. Its why President George W. Bush DID dispatch attack helicopters from the U.S.S. Kearsarge into Liberia during an eruption of civil war and atrocity there in 2003 to evacuate the American citizens on the scene. (Back home at the same time, the U.S. Navy was running recruiting commercials on ESPN, describing itself as a global force for good.)

But this leads to a rather severe problem in our ever shrinking world. Some 200 separate sovereign units, each pursuing their own individual national interests, can hardly guarantee optimal outcomes for the common human interest. And we see this in cold, hard realities, from the massive displacement and refugee flows generated by economic hopelessness, to transborder cyberattacks and runaway climate change. Stronger multilateralism, robust support for international institutions and enhanced mechanisms of global governance are the optimal policy tools not Donald Trumps cultivation of xenophobia and far-right nativism (which is what these straw men truly represent).

So who, today, which individuals in which elected offices, can we identify whose raison detre is to serve the larger collectivity, the whole of the human community, the global public good?

The answer is no one. Its not Donald Trumps job but its no one elses either. There is no supranational authority that stands above the nation state. There is no institution, no elected official anywhere, whose job it is to represent the human race.

How About a Global Flag?

Although our students at the University of California would undoubtedly design something visually wonderful, President Trump is also right to say theres no such thing as a global flag that officially represents anything. But its hardly self-evident that what those political scientists call the Westphalian state system (originating in the peace treaty of 1648 that ended Europes calamitous wars of religion) will endure as a permanent feature of human history.

We can imagine a redesigned and democratized and empowered United Nations. (Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and her Commission on Global Security Justice and Governance, have proposed a World Summit on Global Governance during the UNs 75th anniversary year in 2020.) Further down the road its not impossible to envision that the same basic structures of governance long established almost universally at city, state, and national levels worldwide a legislature and an executive and a judiciary might someday be fashioned and founded at the global level as well.

This vision too not just the intangible ideal of global citizenship but the tangible idea of a world state has been put forth by some of the greatest figures in the human heritage. I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see, Saw the vision of the world, and all the wonders that would be Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were furld, In the Parliament of Man, the Federation of the World." Thats Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate to Queen Victoria, in his 1842 masterpiece Locksley Hall.The Earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens. Thats Bahaullah, the founder of the Bahai Faith, in 1857. (By most accounts its the first or second fastest growing religion in the world today.) "Without some effective world supergovernment the prospects of peace and human progress are dark ... (But) if it is found possible to build a world organization of irresistible force and inviolable authority there are no limits to the blessings which all men may enjoy and share. Thats conservative hero Winston Churchill in 1949. (Take that Alt-Right!)

These kinds of possible future developments might someday give tangible content and historical meaning to the planetary patriotism that, perhaps, more and more Earthlings might over time declare. Perhaps this hypothetical future entity might be established, some distant day, by a duly negotiated and legally enacted world constitution. They might call it an Earth Union, or the Federal Republic of the World, or a United Earth. In the fictional future history of STAR TREK, after all, the United Federation of Planets in the galaxy was preceded by a United Federation of Nations on Earth. Hundreds of science fiction novels contain similar depictions of a politically unified human race. If writers can make such a future seem so plausible and believable, is it really so ridiculous simply to ask whether we can aspire to it as an actual historical goal?

We are one people with one destiny, said President Trump toward the end of his speech to Congress addressing himself, of course, exclusively to Americans. But perhaps it is not too much to suppose that someday, some political leader will sit in a position, and maintain the responsibility, and show a sufficient elevation of the human spirit, to say not just to the citizens of one particular country but to all the people of Planet Earth, We are one people with one destiny.

The Road to One World

So which comes first? A sentiment of planetary patriotism or an actually politically unified planet? It's sort of like the proverbial question about the chicken and the egg -- only prospective instead of retrospective. It may be that we'll never see any kind of tangible progress toward world political unity until a substantial number of people feel, deep in their bones, something like an ethic of human unity. Or it may be instead that we'll never have a great many people who see themselves primarily as citizens of the world until every living human being has in fact become a citizen with both rights and responsibilities of a United Earth.

In 1946, the writer Phillip Marshall Brown wrote a cover story on world government agitation for Newsweek magazine. (Yes, for a brief but incandescent few years immediately following the Second World War, the movement to actually create something like a world republic was enough a part of the zeitgeist especially among high school and college students that it generated that kind of attention. My own occasional co-author, former U.S. Senator and JFK White House aide Harris Wofford, served as the founder then of the Student Federalists which established fervent chapters on 367 high school and college campuses around the U.S. , and which still exists today as that student arm of Citizens for Global Solutions.) At the end of the piece Mr. Brown took a stand on the chicken/egg question, and asserted that "all attempts, no matter how idealistic, to establish a world government will inevitably fail unless the people of the world can be united into one brotherhood." That forecast may well eventually prove to be right. Or it may turn out to be entirely the other way around.

In Steve Bannons own CPAC speech, he said that national security and sovereignty were one of the Trump administrations three central purposes. And both he and President Trump have repeatedly used the phrase America First. So the two of them are unlikely to embrace the suggestion that perhaps there ought to be a global anthem and global flag, or any contention that individual national interests might sometimes be trumped by common human interests.

One thing that might mean for those of us open to such expansive future possibilities? It just might make for yet another point on which to resist the Trump agenda. It just might provide yet another vehicle for getting under his skin.

Because maybe, someday though likely long after Trump and Bannon have been consigned to the dustbin of history there will be a global anthem. Maybe, someday, there will be a global flag. Maybe, someday, well all live together in One World.

Tad Daley, author ofAPOCALYPSE NEVER: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free Worldfrom Rutgers University Press, is a fellow with theCenter for War/Peace Studies. Hes currently writing his second book, on the extraordinary history and possible future of the idea of a world republic. Follow him on Twitter @TheTadDaley.

Canada Invests $325 Million in the Fish and Seafood Sector – Marketwired (press release)

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA--(Marketwired - March 10, 2017) - Canada's fish and seafood sector is an integral part of the economic and social fabric of so many coastal communities across the country, especially in Atlantic Canada-that's why the Government of Canada is today investing $325 million in this important part of the economy through the Atlantic Fisheries Fund. Under the Atlantic Growth Strategy, the Government of Canada and the Atlantic provinces are collaborating to grow the region's economy, including resource-based sectors, and build a vibrant future for Atlantic Canada. The Atlantic Fisheries Fund is a key component of this initiative, aimed at stimulating innovation, with a focus on growing opportunities and increasing their value to meet market demands for sustainably sourced, high quality fish and seafood products.

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, today announced the establishment of the Atlantic Fisheries Fund to drive innovation in Canada's fish and seafood sector. Innovation in this sector, which is integral to the region's economy, means more jobs for fishers in hundreds of small coastal and Indigenous communities across the Atlantic Provinces.

This new investment under the Atlantic Growth Strategy will help strengthen the Atlantic economy and increase job opportunities for Atlantic Canadians. Funding for this new initiative is in addition to existing federally funded programs. The Government of Canada and the Atlantic Provinces will collaboratively develop parameters of the Atlantic Fisheries Fund. Engagement with Indigenous communities and stakeholders will contribute to shaping the program, developing partnerships and priority areas for investments in Canada. Further details on the Atlantic Fisheries Fund will be provided in the coming months.

Quote

"Our government is committed to working with all partners to make Canada's fish and seafood sector more innovative, productive and sustainable-which means good middle-class jobs for Atlantic Canadians. The world is demanding sustainably sourced, high quality fish and seafood products. The Atlantic Fisheries Fund will drive innovation in this sector, helping Canada meet these demands. This will boost the economy and increase employment opportunities for middle class Canadians in coastal communities."

The Honourable Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard

Quick Facts

Hicks: Automation need not be the enemy – Indianapolis Star

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Michael Hicks 5:03 a.m. ET March 12, 2017

Toyota plants combine robots and automation, as seen here on the Sienna assembly line at the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Plant in Princeton, Ind.(Photo: Submitted by TMMI)

There is remarkable angst growing over the role of machines in the production of goods and services. While we are right to be concerned over the labor market effects of automation, most folks worry about the wrong things. That can lead to some stunningly wasteful, if not outright hurtful, public policies. Heres why:

All technological change, from the shovel to the microcomputer, is designed to save labor. At the same time and only in market-based economies new work continues to materialize and business endeavors hire more workers. For all of recorded history, automation and productivity improvement creates demand for workers while making some tasks unneeded.

Productivity growth is the very essence of economic growth, and we should not fear it. Very real worries come not from the automation itself, but from our inability to adapt to it. It is clearly true that the new jobs created by automation are oftentimes not in the same location, or do not require the same skills as those that automation destroys. This leaves large numbers of people with redundant skills living in clusters of other people with the same skills. Thus, today the antipode of any rustbelt city is Palo Alto, Calif.

This fear of job losses and the obvious distress it causes leads us to ill-considered policy interventions. This is especially true because the labor market signals of supply and demand are hard to read from a state capital or Washington office. Lets consider the example of todays businesses clamoring for more, better-trained, young workers. As I write this column, a search for truck drivers in Muncie yields dozens of jobs, with pay exceeding $50,000 a year.

Naturally, Indianas regional workforce officials are eager to help fill those jobs and subsidize training for truck drivers. Indeed, truck driver ranks third out of 50 "Hot Jobs"for Indiana. I personally know many employers desperate for more truck drivers, but the apparent excess demand for workers might well be a signal of something else. Impending automation.

On the labor demand side, there is nothing like a labor shortfall to incentivize automation. As anyone who pays any attention knows, tests of driverless vehicles are underway on public roads. I predict that by 2030, commercial trucks will no longer be built for drivers. Oh, sure, theyll still have steering wheels and a place to sit, but that will be incidental to the automation. While the Teamsters will fight tooth and nail to keep a driver in the seat, it will ultimately fail.

On the labor supply side, workers know this all too well. Many workers will find other things to do in anticipation of technologies that will shake up many common jobs. Workers typically understand that the future of employment requires skills that are not substitutes for machines. The government is a lot worse at figuring this out, and this drives some potentially costly mistakes in public policy.

Workers of the future will increasingly need skills that are complemented by automation and technology. These sorts of skills come directly from math, science and liberal arts. Without enduring aptitude in these areas, most of todays young workers will be displaced by automation long before they hit middle age. Policies that lose sight of the imminent role of automation on workers is destined to fail, at a heavy and enduring cost.

Hicks is director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University.

Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2ncft41

Visit link:

Hicks: Automation need not be the enemy - Indianapolis Star

The 2 Best P2P Lending Automation Tools For Investors — Detailed Analysis – Forbes

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Forbes

The 2 Best P2P Lending Automation Tools For Investors -- Detailed Analysis
Forbes
Peer-to-peer lending (P2P lending) is a new method of debt financing that enables individuals to borrow and lend money without the use of a financial institution. Online P2P lending platforms connect borrowers to investors, adding ease and speed to the ...

and more »

Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming – The Guardian

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Nicoleta Bolos and her baby daughter in Ragusa province. Photograph: Francesca Commissari for the Observer

Every night for almost three years, Nicoleta Bolos lay awake at night on a dirty mattress in an outhouse in Sicilys Ragusa province, waiting for the sound of footsteps outside the door. As the hours passed, she braced herself for the door to creak open, for the metallic clunk of a gun being placed on the table by her head and the weight of her employer thudding down on the dirty grey mattress beside her.

The only thing that she feared more than the sound of the farmers step outside her door was the threat of losing her job. So she endured night after night of rape and beatings while her husband drank himself into a stupor outside.

The first time, it was my husband who said I had to do this. That the owner of the greenhouse where we had been given work wanted to sleep with me and if we refused he wouldnt pay us and would send us off his land, she says.

I thought he was crazy, but when I refused, he beat me. He said I had to do everything our boss told us to do it was the only way we could keep our work. When my employer came, he threatened me with a gun. He told me that if I moved he would blow my head off. When he finished he just walked away.

The next morning Bolos was back at work, crouching beside her husband in a sweltering greenhouse, tending and harvesting the produce that has helped make Italy the biggest grower and exporter of fruit and vegetables in Europe. The province of Ragusa is the third-largest producer of vegetables in Europe.

During her time on the farm, Bolos says, workers were given scarcely habitable accommodation, fed cat food for their evening meal and were refused medical treatment. At night, Bolos and the other female Romanian workers became entertainment for the farmer and his friends, repeatedly raped and abused over many years.

When I came here I thought I was coming to a hard but decent job in another European country, but we ended up as slaves, she says.

Hidden among fields of flapping white plastic tents across Ragusa province, 5,000 Romanian women like Bolos are working as seasonal agricultural workers. Their treatment is a growing human rights scandal, being perpetrated with almost complete impunity.

An Italian migrant rights organisation, the Proxyma Association, estimates that more than half of all Romanian women working in the greenhouses are forced into sexual relations with their employers. Almost all of them work in conditions of forced labour and severe exploitation.

Police say they believe that up to 7,500 women, the majority of whom are Romanian, are living in slavery on farms across the region. Guido Volpe, a commander in the carabinieri military police in Sicily, told the Observer that Ragusa was the centre of exploitation on the island.

These women are working as slaves in the fields and we know they are blackmailed to have sex with the owners of the farms or greenhouses because of their psychological subjugation, he says. It is not easy to investigate or stop this from happening, as the women are mostly too afraid to speak out.

Many of the Romanian women leave children and dependent families at home and feel forced into making the desperate choices that have carved deep lines of grief into Boloss face.

Where I come from in Romanian Moldavia, nobody has a job, says Bolos, as she nurses her five-month-old daughter in a dark warehouse that is now her home on another farm in Ragusa province. The average salary there is 200 a month. Here you can make much more, even if you need to suffer.

The Observer spoke to 10 Romanian women working on farms in Ragusa. All detailed routine sexual assault and exploitation, including working 12-hour days in extreme heat with no water, non-payment of wages and being forced to live in degrading and unsanitary conditions in isolated outbuildings. Their working days often include physical violence, being threatened with weapons and being blackmailed with threats to their children and family.

Professor Alessandra Sciurba from the University of Palermo co-wrote a report in 2015 that documented the abuse that Romanian women in Sicily were facing. She says conditions are worse now.

The women are telling us they need to migrate to try to ensure their children are not living in complete poverty in Romania, but that they themselves are being forced to endure terrible conditions and abuse as a result, she says. There is no other work, the women told us, so in order to provice for their families they felt they had to accept this deal. It is a conscious choice they are having to make. What we witnessed is nothing less than forced labour and trafficking as defined by the United Nations International Labour Organisation.

Prosecutor Valentina Botti is pursuing multiple charges of sexual assault and labour exploitation against farmers. She says that the abuse of Romanian women is a huge phenomenon.

Kidnapping, sexual assault and keeping people in slavery are three major crimes we have detailed in our investigations to date, she says.

We are talking about potentially thousands of Romanian women as victims of serious abuse. Very few women are coming forward with their stories. Most accept the abuse as the personal sacrifice they must make if they want to keep their jobs. The implication of losing work for many of them is devastating.

Eliza, a 45-year-old Romanian women, told the Observer that she felt she had no choice when her new employer pulled her into a shed on her first day at work.

I tried to run away but he told me clearly that if I did not do this I would have to leave, she says. It had been months that I had been out of work. I realised that if I wanted to stay in Italy I had to accept this.

The huge rise in the number of Romanian women seeking abortions in Sicily is also alarming medical professionals and human rights groups. According to Proxyma, while Romanian women make up only 4% of the female population of Ragusa province, they account for 20% of registered abortions.

The numbers of abortions among Romanian women is very alarming, says Ausilia Cosentini, coordinator of the Fari project, which provides assistance for Romanian women at a clinic. She says that many of the women coming to seek abortions were accompanied by their employers or other Italian men. While you clearly cant conclude that all these pregnancies are the result of sexual violence or fear of losing their work, the high number of abortions in relation to the few thousand Romanian women in the province has to be taken very seriously.

Working conditions are in some cases highly dangerous. One young Romanian woman told us that she became sick when she was forced to handle and work with agricultural chemicals without protective clothing. I had to handle foods covered in pesticides and it made me really sick. I was coughing and I couldnt breathe, she says.

I was pregnant and I started to feel sick and then I gave birth to my baby when I was only five months pregnant. The doctors said she was premature because of the work and that she is probably going to have brain damage because of the chemicals.

Those who did report their abuse to the authorities said they then often found themselves unable to find work elsewhere.

I worked with my husband in the greenhouses and the owner wanted to sleep with me, says Gloria, 48. I refused and he fired me. I reported him to the police but since then I cant find a job. The other farm owners know I went to the police and they dont want me to work for them.

Eventually, Nicoleta Boloss nightly ordeals proved too much. She fled the farm and her husband but was left without work and unable to send money home to her two young children in Romania. By the time her friends had raised enough money for her bus ticket home, she had lost legal custody of both children. They are now living with her ex-husbands uncle and she has not been allowed any contact since. Yet despite the abuse, she returned to work in Ragusa, taking the 50-hour bus journey from Botosani, in Romania, back to Sicily and the greenhouses.

Opportunities for casual farm work in Ragusa are abundant. In recent years, Italian exports of fresh fruit and vegetables have grown and are now worth some 366m a year. Much of this produce is grown in the 5,000 farms across Ragusa province.

Italian agriculture has for many years been heavily reliant on migrant labour. One farming group, Coldiretti, estimates that about 120,000 migrants are working in the sector in southern Italy.

After years of damaging allegations of exploitation and a resulting clampdown by the Italian government, Sicilian farmers who once filled their greenhouses with undocumented migrants and refugees arriving by boat have turned to migrant workers from within the EU.

The number of Romanian women travelling to work in Sicily has increased hugely over the past decade. According to official figures, only 36 Romanian women were working in Ragusa province in 2006, rising to more than 5,000 this year. Romanians overtook Tunisians this year as the largest group working in Ragusas fields.

Greenhouse owners are now afraid of being prosecuted for facilitating illegal migration by hiring undocumented migrants, says Giuseppe Scifo, a union leader for CGIL, Italys largest union. So the new targets for exploitation are EU citizens, who are willing to accept low wages because of the desperate situation in their home countries.

Gianfranco Cunsolo, president of Coldiretti in Ragusa, says he has no choice but to pay low wages.

The exploitation of workers in Ragusa is also the consequence of EU policies, he says. I dont want to justify the actions of farmers and greenhouse owners who pay low wages to migrant workers, but these people often dont feel they have any alternative if they are to compete with other European markets.

When it comes to sexual abuse of women workers, there is obviously no excuse for that. The people doing this need to be arrested and jailed. Women are welcome to work here in Ragusa and must be treated equally. We completely condemn this.

Under Italian law, farm owners must provide seasonal workers with official contracts and a daily wage of 56 for an eight-hour day. Yet Romanian women arriving in Sicily often find a more brutal reality.

Romanian women are paid three times less than the wage required by law, and most of them dont have legal contracts, says Scifo. Many of the women interviewed by the Observer say they are rarely paid more than 20 a day.

Yet there is little political or economic incentive for the authorities to take action and end the abuse. Although the police say they have dozens of open cases and ongoing prosecutions, only one farmer has so far been charged and convicted of abusing Romanian women.

The problem is the farmers are not rich men, says Scifo. If the owners paid their workers legal wages, they would lose too much money and the entire agricultural economy of the province would implode. This is why the authorities look the other way and why it is so hard to get anyone to take action to stop this.

Attempts to raise the issue in the Italian parliament have floundered. In 2015, MP Marisa Nicchi launched a parliamentary inquiry into slavery among Romanian workers in Ragusa and asked the prime minister to launch an investigation.

Two years on and the Italian government has yet to take any action, she says from her parliamentary office in Rome. But we will not give up. These crimes must stop.

In Ragusa, local politicians say that they are trying to provide services to Romanian workers facing abuse. Giovanni Moscato, who last June became mayor of Vittoria, a town in the west of Ragusa province, said the exploitation was persisting because too many economic interests were being served at present, but that the city was opening a hostel to shelter Romanian women fleeing violent employers.

Since returning to Italy, Nicoleta Bolos has met a Romanian man and had two other children. She reported her previous employer to the police, and the man was charged with labour exploitation but his case has yet to come to trial.

Now, she says, she is sick of the abuse. She has decided to go public with her story in an attempt to get justice for herself and other Romanian women caught in a web of exploitation and impunity. Holding her baby and sitting on a cracked plastic chair, she gestures at their home. The walls are wet with damp and there is no heating or running water.

Look at how we live. But this is our life here. I am not going to lose my children again. They are the reason that I have lived through this, why Ive become a slave, she says. It was for them that I had to let that man into my bed every night. Now I want people to know that this is happening and that it must stop.

Some names have been changed to protect identities

See the article here:

Raped, beaten, exploited: the 21st-century slavery propping up Sicilian farming - The Guardian

Readers sound off on slavery, the CIA and Mike Francesa – New York Daily News

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Saturday, March 11, 2017, 3:00 AM

Manhattan: Its tempting to be snarky about the ludicrous statement made by Ben Carson when he equated immigration in search of a better life to the forced removal from their homelands and transport under horrifying conditions of millions of human beings who then would be sold into slavery and held captive the rest of their lives (They came in chains, Ben, March 7).

Instead, I am going to be earnest and suggest that Carson might have been onto something if he had compared immigration to migration , in this case, of the millions of African Americans who, in the last century, came north to escape the horrifying prejudice of the Jim Crow South.

But heres the rub: Its unlikely that anyone in the Trump administration would utter out loud those last three words. The white South was influential in electing Trump, and a good slice of that cohort has, for more than 150 years, continued to think of itself, and not African Americans, as the true victims of history. One piece of evidence: many whites in the South still call the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression. Judy L. Richheimer

Salt Lake City: Im sure by now Leonard Greene has learned that President Obama said basically the same thing, making this article quite lame (Ben Carsons a disgrace for calling slaves immigrants, column, March 7). If you just want to attack Dr. Carson, why don't you accuse him of plagiarism? Harley Griffith

Bronx: To Voicer Rosemary E. Kennedy: Surely you cannot be defining action to mean not the action of the persons concerned? Isnt the use of language colored by custom? Calling a slave an immigrant is a stretch. Robert G. Gallimore

Nyack, N.Y.: In his takedown of Ben Carson, Leonard Greene got a lot of things right, but got one thing wrong: We are not, the sons and daughters of slaves. We are sons and daughters of the enslaved. A slave is a kind of being. Enslavement is a state of being. R.K. Byers

Valley Stream, L.I.: The article about the CIA's eavesdropping doesnt surprise me in the least (They hee-ear!! March 8). Years ago when we were first introduced to cable TV programming, I watched the little green light on the cable box go on and off; with that I thought to myself, If we all have account numbers assigned to us, and the cable companies transmit video and sound to the box, Im sure they can in some way extract the same video and sound from the same place just by entering an account number. Well, it seems like they did it! John Esposito

Manhattan: Obviously, Republican politicians havent got a clue about health insurance: Thats because they have excellent insurance that were paying for. We should demand that they share the same insurance that the rest of us have, and repeal and replace the politicians who refuse. Carol Robinson

Brooklyn: I think they must make it mandatory that you have to disclose your taxes when running for President or you cant run at all. This will tell, in addition to ones income, what business interests they have, as in President Trumps case that he was doing business in Russia. Perhaps if they had this law prior to the past election, it would have saved us from having this unhinged individual in the White House! Dave Silverblatt

Brooklyn: Much thanks to the Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark for putting her time, effort and love behind the beaten and left-for-dead dog, Peanut Butter (formerly known as Hennessy). Its law enforcers and politicians like her that put the scum of the earth in jail (hopefully in general population ) for their horrific deeds. This human piece of garbage beat this puppy and left her for dead in a snowbank. Thanks for making our laws work and for making Raul Cruz, Peanut Butters abuser, pay for it! Kelly Starr

Perth Amboy, N.J.: Raising the minimum wage is a good idea but it would only apply to a portion of wage earners. There is another solution that would apply to most people: raise the standard income tax deduction to $40,000 or more. This would benefit more people than an increased minimum wage alone. While the federal budget isn't balanced now, limiting capital gains deductions could adjust for lower revenues. Everyone who buys a domestic product or service pays for someones income tax, which is built into the price or cost. Imported goods and services should pay a tariff of 35% to adjust for their non-payment of income taxes, Social Security and Medicare. While the laws cant and shouldn't prevent sending jobs offshore, they can adjust for these losses. Ronald A. Sobieraj

Forest Hills: To pay for his wall, Trump plans to cut funding for the Coast Guard and the TSA by 14% and 11%, respectively, thus making life easier for drug smugglers and terrorists. But to look at the bright side, the wall will thwart any attacks by Gen. Santa Anas army. Alan Hirschberg

Brooklyn: As a New York State resident and a volunteer for the American Heart Association, I am extremely excited at the prospect of the Empire State Trail, a 750-mile hiking and biking trail that would run north from New York City to the Canadian border, and west from Albany to Buffalo. The trail which Gov. Cuomo proposed in this years budget would provide a new opportunity for millions of New Yorkers to engage in physical activity in a safe, community space. Exercise is a great way to prevent heart disease and stroke, the nation's No. 1 and No. 5 killers. New York State currently spends more than $11.8 billion dollars annually on obesity-related health care costs. Every $1 spent on biking trails and walking paths could save approximately $3 in medical expenses. I strongly urge the state Legislature to approve the Empire State Trail. Yuki Courtland

Manhattan: Following International Womens Day, the cover choice of Jennifer Lopez and A-Rod was incredibly poor. The Daily News decrees that who J-Lo. is dating is more important than the scores of women around the world making a statement on their second-class treatment, more important than the travesty to our democracy thats going on in Washington. Step it up; your readers deserve better from you. Laurie Jakobsen

Lawrence, L.I.: The question here is not whether women are capable of coaching men (Hey Mike Francesa, stop spewing sexist garbage that women cannot coach men and just shut up, March 6). The question is whether the players can bring themselves to respect a woman coach; the players are the ones who need rise above generations of convention. Most of us have a weak ego that prevents us from rising above our basic nature and ideally one would hope that we are capable of doing this. Being successful as a coach is a two-way street that requires every player and staff member to be on board. Its not just sexism; its male biology and psychology at play. So maybe a select few with exceptional character can rise above, but expecting every team member to rise above is not a reasonable expectation. Michael Weiss

Hawthorne, N.Y.: I understand that WFANs Mike Francesa is retiring at years end. He has really been phoning it in for a long while. It is obvious to any knowledgeable sports fan that Mike does no homework and is poorly prepared for his show and his interviews. He is always the last to know what is going on in the sports world, relying on tired cliches and picking heavy favorites to mask his incompetence. And now he feels women cannot coach? Lazy men like him should not be on the radio. Mitch Green

Island Park, L.I.: To Voicer Sonia Valentin: Sonia, Sonia, Sonia no, actually I dont care. You dont get it. The only reason I actually know who won and why I chose to write in about it is because of the news created last year by the crybabies who that did not win. Otherwise, any award show is a non-event for me. My point is, in case you missed it, that I am against people receiving awards, promotions, trophies, etc. because they think they deserve them for some unjust action perpetrated years before this generation was born just to even a score. It is not who won the Oscar. As far as watching the PBS show, its not necessary. I've heard that story before; its time to move on. Rose Johnson

Readers sound off on slavery, the CIA and Mike Francesa - New York Daily News

Gordon Robinson | Taxed up the ass – Jamaica Gleaner

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Sometimes I wonder if we appreciate how much tax we actually pay and for what collective or personal benefit.

PAYE workers pay 25% (30% on earnings over $6m/annum) of taxable salary. What we can sometimes overlook - unless we carefully review our payslips - are the additional deductions (2.5% of total emoluments to NIS; 2.25% as Education tax; and 3% to NHT). So our intrepid PAYE worker finds at least 32.75% of his/her taxable salary separated at birth. Then he/she goes out into the world and pays another 11% of gross (16.5% of 67.5% left in the pay packet) as GCT.

It gets worse. If the frugal worker manages to save some 'what lef', Government gleefully slurps up 25% of any interest paid by his/her greedy banker, who has already extorted excessive 'fees' (plus GCT) for putting your money in a teller's drawer (or cashing your NIS pension cheque). By this time, our glassy-eyed PAYE worker ends up paying almost 50% of weakly (pun intended) sweat and tears to Government. Self-employed hacks pay over 50%, and companies pay 33.3% profits tax, plus matching contributions to the rest. In addition, companies are put to administrative cost as Government's tax collector for free as they must deduct these payroll taxes from employees' salary for remission to Government.

It's in this context that we should consider the feasibility of 2017-18 budgetary estimates that predict a massive increase in collections of 'old taxes', PLUS $14b in new taxes from the empty pockets of beat-up taxpayers already raped to the tune of 50%+ of their earnings. Also, before we roll over, wiggle our legs in the air, and apply Vaseline, we should carefully review what we're receiving in return for these taxes.

1. Income tax: This is the most egregious of all taxation because it literally represents Government picking the pockets of the poor to fund its operations while the wealthy and connected get away with murder. It's well known that Jamaica nurtures and nourishes flourishing underground economies (including a vast religious economic macrocosm) from which not a penny of tax is collected.

Income taxes should ensure that Government can provide, inter alia, educational, health, security, and infrastructural services. The philosophy underpinning this agreed pickpocketing exercise is that if taxpayers are prepared to utilise public-health services or public educational services, the additional expense should be as close to zero as makes no difference. Furthermore, infrastructural improvements should come with ongoing maintenance, so, for example, minefield-like potholes don't put harried taxpayers to unnecessary additional expense out of the 50% of salary he/she's permitted to keep, and modern, efficient, effective security forces should keep taxpayers safe.

Bottom line: We pay taxes to ensure we can spend the rest of our earnings as we like and not to repeat spend on things our taxes should be funding in full.

The premature abolition of hospital 'user fees' results in a broken-down public health system exemplified by the Cornwall Regional fiasco. Long before that particular kerfuffle, I was again prophetic when I wrote on January 29 ('The truth about leadership'):

"Leaders, tell us the truth about health care. Jamaica's health minister can make love to a camera better than Gary Cooper at high noon but only to broadcast babbling platitudes. Want to know the TRUTH? None of our public hospitals deserves the designation. All should be closed down for causing more disease than they cure."

Interior road surfaces destroy our ancient cars and eliminate taxis from participating. Key infrastructure is neglected until it becomes dangerous.

The JCF is so corrupt that no 'crime plan' can succeed or even be fairly assessed. CISOCA declared that the majority of high-profile perpetrators of alleged sexual intercourse involving underage persons were pastors and policemen.

Jamaica's education system focuses on standardised tests and cramming students through narrow tunnels to graduation like cattle with foot-and-mouth disease.

2. Education Tax: This 'dedicated tax', introduced with much fanfare for the express purpose of improving education, has instead been unceremoniously dumped in the Consolidated Fund with the same 'benefit' to taxpayers as income tax. No MP condemns this pusillanimous pilfering of taxpayers' earnings.

3. NIS: Miserly NIS pensions give senior citizens no social security. The delays in starting pension payments and the trouble seniors endure to collect make matters worse. Then seniors try to lodge their pension cheques in a bank that charges them twice the cheque's value (+ GCT).

4. NHT: This must be the Guy Lombardo Show! Created to provide low-cost housing solutions for the poor, the 'Trust' has proven most untrustworthy. When it isn't bailing out party hacks ('Outameni'), it's meekly handing over its surplus funds to central government for 'fiscal consolidation'. Bah, humbug!

All this is why one of the worst things done by this Government is the pernicious gas tax imposed on Thursday by Audley 'Are You' Shaw. Another was lowering the threshold for GCT on electricity. We know what this means. Deceptive devices like boasting 61% of JPS customers still fall below the threshold are cruel and unworthy.

No taxpayer can avoid this gas-electricity tax hike combo. If you don't drive, you must take buses or taxis, whose fares are about to shoot up commensurate with their increased petrol expenditure. If you decide to 'walk foot', you'll still buy bread, patty, yam, or flour, which will all be affected by increased transportation or electricity costs. Every business falls above the electricity threshold and must also pay the gas tax. Every business will pass along its increased expenditures to its customers. Tell us the truth, Audley.

All this is why one of the best things done by this Government was the significant increase in the income tax threshold to $1.5 million. This makes a real difference in people's disposable income. It's more than regrettable that the tax relief is given by the right hand and retrieved by the left, but Government does have a point that, at least, the additional taxation imposed to pay for '1.5' affects discretionary spending rather than coming directly from salaries.

Although this isn't what was promised, it's a reasonable compromise in all the circumstances, and one can easily read between the lines to see why it became necessary.

Speaking of reading brings me to Booklist Boyne's latest flight of fantasy. Either completely failing to comprehend my meaning or maliciously misrepresenting it, Booklist commented obliquely on my column on Vybz, suggesting that I supported Kartel's apparent ability to corrupt the prison system. Exposing himself as either a devout dunce or an incorrigible illiterate, Booklist wrote: "A silly comparison is made with Oku Onuora, who was allowed to do his poetry and to perform outside of prison as part of Manley's progressive prisoner rehabilitation programme in the 1970s. That was not done secretly. It was a part of government policy."

Really, Booklist? Seriously? I strongly recommend a course of JAMAL classes followed by a reread of my column when you'll discover I said EXACTYLY THAT. Oku Onuora, who I used as an example of creative work pursued while imprisoned, did so (in the main) within the rules, unlike Kartel, who appears to be breaking the rules.

THIS is what I wrote:

"There's nothing wrong with any artiste producing while in prison if it can be done within the rules. The 1970s dub poet Oku Onuora (born Orlando Wong) wrote while serving a 15-year sentence for armed robbery. In 1974, he was permitted by prison authorities to read his poetry with Cedric 'Im' Brooks' Light of Saba band performing in the prison. Afterwards, his work had to be smuggled out of prison (labelled 'subversive'). By 1976, all was forgiven and he won three prizes in the Jamaica Literary Festival. In 1977, he was allowed to perform in public at Tom Redcam library.

"If Kartel has corrupted the prison system to make this music, he should be convicted and sentenced along with prison officers found helping him.

"Any music produced by this method should be withdrawn from all aspects of the market. The fundamental characteristic of a prison sentence is that it's decided by a judge, not the convict. Also, it's meant to restrict the convict's freedom. Why should Vybz be free to bend prison rules as he likes while police hunt down robot taxis and strip off their tints?"

C'mon, Booklist! There are no multisyllabic words used. What REALLY is your problem?

Peace and love.

- Gordon Robinson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.

Go here to see the original:

Gordon Robinson | Taxed up the ass - Jamaica Gleaner

Globalization Is Just a Contemporary Word for Financial Colonialism – Truth-Out

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

The collapsed remains of the Rana Plaza garment factory in near Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 30, 2013. The police in Bangladesh filed formal murder charges June 1, 2015, against 41 people accused of involvement in the 2013 collapse of a building that housed several clothing factories, leaving more than 1,100 people dead in the worst disaster in garment industry history. (Photo: Khaled Hasan / The New York Times)

What do imperialism and colonialism look like today? John Smith's Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century argues that core capitalist nations are no longer reliant on military force and direct political control of other countries. Instead, they maintain a financial grip on the Southern Hemisphere in particular, exploiting labor in these countries to increase their own profits. Order this book from Truthout by clicking here!

The "have" nations increase profits for their corporations at the expense of grievously underpaid workers in developed nations. The developed nations call this globalization, John Smith argues in his book Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Super-Exploitation, and Capitalism's Final Crisis. In this interview with Truthout, Smith discusses his contention that globalization is just neocolonialism by another name.

Mark Karlin: Why did you choose to begin your book with the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013, which killed more than one thousand exploited garment workers in Bangladesh?

John Smith: Three reasons. First, the Rana Plaza disaster -- a heinous crime, not an accident -- aroused the sympathy and solidarity of hundreds of millions of people around the world, and reminded us all of just how intimately connected we are to the women and men who make our T-shirts, trousers and underwear. It epitomized the dangerous, exploitative and oppressive conditions endured by hundreds of millions of workers in low-wage countries whose labor provides firms in imperialist countries with much of their raw materials and intermediate inputs and working people with so many of our consumer goods. I wanted to bring these legions of low-wage workers "into the room" from the very beginning; to confront readers with the fact of our mutual interdependence and also with facts about the great differences in wages, living conditions and life chances that we are aware of but too often choose to ignore.

This brings me to the second reason. Fidel Castro, the greatest revolutionary of our times, explained Cuba's unparalleled international solidarity as repayment of its debt to humanity. We who live in imperialist countries have an enormous debt of solidarity to our sisters and brothers in nations that have been and are being ransacked by our governments and transnational corporations! There can be no talk of socialism or progress of any sort until we acknowledge this debt and begin to repay it! We need to redefine -- or better, rediscover -- the real meaning of socialism: the transitional stage of society between capitalism and communism in which all forms of oppression and discrimination which violate the equality and unity of working people are progressively and consciously overcome. It is indisputable that the greatest violation of this equality and greatest obstacle to our unity arises from the division of the world between a handful of oppressor nations and the rest; working people in imperialist nations must seize political power and wrest control of the means of production in order to heal this mutilating division. This is what informed my decision to begin Imperialism in the Twenty-First Century with the Rana Plaza disaster.

Finally, Rana Plaza and Bangladesh's garment industry is an extremely useful case study which exemplifies features shared with other low-wage manufactures-exporting nations. These include the centrality of ultra-low wages, the predilection of employers for female labor, and the growing preference of firms based in imperialist countries for arm's-length relations with their low-wage suppliers, as opposed to foreign direct investment. Furthermore, analysis of Bangladesh's garment industry poses a series of questions and paradoxes which mainstream economics cannot resolve and which Marxist economists have barely begun to tackle. Chief amongst them is the mainstream doctrine that wages reflect productivity, and that if Bangladeshi wages are so low it means the productivity of its workers are correspondingly low -- but how can this be true when they work so intensely and for such long hours? Another is this: what is the relation between the global shift of production to low-wage countries and the global economic crisis, still in its early stages? This question is absent from mainstream and most Marxist accounts of the crisis, rendering them, in my opinion, completely redundant. The study of the Rana Plaza disaster and of Bangladesh's garment industry therefore generates a list of issues and paradoxes which provide the themes for each subsequent chapter, and so serves to organize the whole of the rest of the book.

John Smith. (Photo: Monthly Review Press)

How has uber-capitalism, asserted globally by developed nations, replaced the need to control colony nations through direct political power?

Uber-capitalism signifies the supremacy of the law of value, which now rules uber alles. In other words, markets -- in particular, capital markets and the capitalists who wield their social power through these markets-- rule the world to a greater extent than ever before. This doesn't mean there's nothing else under the sun -- pre-capitalist communal societies and subsistence economies still survive in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, as do the post-capitalist economic relations manifested in the welfare states in imperialist democracies (a major concession won by workers in those countries, financed to a large extent by the proceeds of super-exploitation in low-wage nations), the post-capitalist economic relations in Cuba defended by the revolutionary power of its working people and the remnants of China's socialist revolution which have yet to be reversed by this country's ongoing transition to capitalism. However, as capitalist social relations have extended their grip on the oppressed nations of the global South, and as the transition back to capitalism of the former socialist countries gathers pace, so these remaining redoubts of non-capitalism have shrunk, and today exist in highly antagonistic contradiction to rampant "market forces," a euphemism for capitalist power.

The social power of capital is enforced through the so-called rule of law, which exalts the sanctity of private property and negates the sanctity of human life. Any people that dares to defy laws protecting capitalist property, e.g. by defaulting on debts or by expropriating assets, is subject to the most severe economic penalties, and, if that is not sufficient, is threatened with subversion, terrorism and invasion. The transition from colonialism of yesteryear to the neocolonialism of today is analogous to the transition from slavery to wage-slavery, and merely signifies that capitalism has largely dispensed with archaic, precapitalist forms of domination and exploitation, while taking great care to preserve its monopoly of military force for use in cases of revolutionary challenge to its rule.

What is the "GDP illusion?"

GDP -- gross domestic product -- measures the monetary value of all the goods and services produced for sale within a national economy. It is often criticized for what it excludes -- goods and services that aren't produced for sale, such as those produced by domestic labor and those provided for free by the state; and so-called "externalities," i.e. the social and environmental costs which don't appear in the accounts of private firms, such as pollution, damage to workers health, etc. However, it has never, to the best of my knowledge, been criticized for what it includes. The problem can be illustrated by considering the mark-up on a T-shirt made in Bangladesh and consumed in the US. Leaving aside, for simplicity's sake, the cost of transport and of the raw materials used up in production, up to $19 of the $20 final sale price will appear in the GDP of the US, the country where this commodity is consumed, while the GDP of Bangladesh will be expanded by just $1, made up of the factory-owner's profits, taxes levied by the state, and a few cents paid to the workers who actually made the T-shirt. The $19 mark-up can be broken down into the "value-added" by wholesalers and retailers and by the advertisers, owners of commercial property, etc. who provide services to them. This strongly suggests that much, most or all of the value-added that is captured by US wholesalers and retailers was actually generated in Bangladesh, not in the US.

GDP is simply the aggregate of all of the value-added of all the firms in a national economy. Taxes, and the government services financed by these taxes, are accounted for by assuming that the value of these services is exactly equal to the taxes used to pay for them -- and so GDP can therefore be calculated by summing firms' income before the deduction of taxes.

What is critical, therefore, is the nature of so-called "value-added." For an individual firm, this is obtained by subtracting the cost of inputs from the monetary value of its output. At this point, mainstream economic theory and standard accounting practice makes a crucial and wholly arbitrary assumption: a firm's value-added is identical to the new value created by the production process within that firm and does not include any value generated elsewhere and captured by that firm in circulation, i.e. in markets, where titles to value are circulated but none is generated. This conflation of the value generated in the production of a commodity and the price received for it is the basis of the ruling economic doctrine in all its forms. On the other hand, recognition that the value generated in production and the value captured in the marketplace are two entirely different quantities which bear no necessary relationship to each other is the starting point of Marxist value theory, one implication of which is that activities, such as advertising, security services and banking produce no value whatsoever and are instead overhead costs, forms of social consumption of values generated in productive sectors of the economy -- much of which have been relocated to low-wage countries like Bangladesh.

This, then, is what I call the GDP illusion, whereby the value generated by low-wage labor in poor countries appears to be generated domestically in rich countries. In this way, the parasitic and exploitative relationship between imperialist countries and low-wage countries is veiled by supposedly objective raw economic data, considered as such even by many Marxist and other radical critics of the system who should know better.

How do you define "global labor arbitrage"?

This term was popularized in the early 2000s by Stephen Roach, a senior economist at Morgan Stanley, who described global labor arbitrage as the replacement of "high-wage workers here with like-quality, low-wage workers abroad," adding that "extract[ing] product from relatively low-wage workers in the developing world has become an increasingly urgent survival tactic for companies in the developed economies." Yet this only offers a superficial description of the phenomenon, while the mainstream theory that Roach subscribes to does not adequately explain it. Before I give my definition of global labor arbitrage, I should first explain its meaning in terms of the mainstream economic theory. Simply, it means moving production to where labor costs are lowest. "Labor costs" doesn't just refer to wages -- from the capitalist's point of view, what matters as well as the cost of labor (i.e., the wage) is the monetary value of the goods or services produced by this labor -- in other words, unit labor cost, defined as the cost of the labor required to produce an extra unit of output. According to mainstream theory, efficient, unimpeded markets equate workers' wages with their "marginal product," i.e. their contribution to total output, and from this two important consequences flow. First, workers are not exploited -- they receive in wages no more and no less than they contribute. Second, free markets equalize unit labor costs between industries and countries -- if wages are higher for some workers, it means they are more productive.

So, if, in the real world, (unit) labor costs are actually lower in some countries than in others, it means that workers in those countries receive wages which are lower than their marginal product -- in other words, even according to mainstream economic theory, they are being exploited. And, secondly, it means that the functioning of the labor market is impeded by extra-economic factors that depress wages, namely restrictions on the free movement of labor across borders. In mainstream economic theory, "arbitrage" means profiting from market imperfections that result in the same commodity fetching a different price in one place than in another. No other market suffers from imperfections on anything like the same scale as those encountered by the sellers of living labor, creating enormous opportunities for corporations to profit at their expense.

While none of this can be disputed by mainstream economists, the norm is to obfuscate these issues for what might be called public relations reasons, and it is to his credit that Stephen Roach spoke so plainly. But the mainstream explanation is inadequate, for several reasons. First, workers don't just replace their wages; their unpaid labor is the source of all of the capitalists' profits, and also pays for economic activities that do not add to social wealth, such as advertising, security, finance, etc. In other words, the exploitation of living labor is fundamental to capitalism and does not depend on market imperfections. Second, suppression of the free movement of labor cannot be regarded as an incidental, exogenous factor; instead, we need a concept that recognizes this to be an intrinsic part of contemporary global capitalism. And the same goes for the compulsion mentioned by Stephen Roach that has obliged capitalists in imperialist countries, on pain of extinction, to shift production to low-wage countries.

My definition of so-called global labor arbitrage is, therefore, that the division of the world between a handful of oppressor nations and a great number of oppressed nations, "the essence of imperialism," as Lenin said, is now an intrinsic property of the capital/labor relation and is manifested in the racially- and nationally-stratified global workforce; and that the super-exploitation this makes possible is a central factor countering the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, postponing the eruption of systemic crisis until the first decade of the 21st century.

What is the relationship between imperialism as currently practiced and mass migration?

Decolonization has emancipated the national bourgeoisies of the oppressed nations, giving them a place for their snouts in the trough, but the working peoples of the oppressed nations, whose hard-fought struggles achieved decolonization, still await their day of liberation. The division of the world between a handful of oppressor nations and a great majority of oppressed nations is today manifested in the racial and national hierarchy that constitutes the global working class; maintaining these divisions plays an absolutely central political as well as economic role in capitalism's continued survival. Violent suppression of free movement of labor across national borders, especially those between imperialist and low-wage nations, is a key factor producing and perpetuating wide international wage differentials; these in turn propel both the migration of production processes to low-wage countries and the migration of low-wage workers to imperialist countries, which are therefore two sides of the same coin.

How is gender discrimination built into the capitalist workforce?

Capitalists utilize all forms of division and disunity amongst working people in order to reap super-profits from doubly-oppressed layers and to bear down on the wages of all workers. Since hunger for cheap labor is the main force driving the global shift of production, it's no surprise this is manifested in a preference for the cheapest labor in those countries, namely that of women (and children); and as Bangladesh illustrates, this is no less true of countries where patriarchal culture has hitherto excluded women from life and labor outside the home. Conferring the status of wageworkers and breadwinners on young women and concentrating them in large numbers in factories tends to transform their social status and self-image, never more so than when fighting street battles with baton-wielding cops and company goons. To temper the subversive consequences of their greed, capitalist politicians crank up promotion of obscurantist, patriarchal ideologies, aimed at impeding the growth of militant class consciousness among these doubly-oppressed layers of the working class, performing a similar function to the promotion of sexiest celebrity culture and the cosmetics and fashion industries in other parts of the world.

More generally, the wealth gap between men and women is much greater than the income gap, reflecting the cumulative results of centuries and millennia of patriarchal class society. Patriarchy, like imperialism, predated capitalism and was a condition for its rise. Frederick Engels explained, in Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, that women's oppression originated in the transition from primitive communism to class society, when a layer of the male population used their superior physical strength and aggression to seize possession of the social surplus and live at the expense of the rest of society. To pass accumulated wealth down the male line, they seized control of women's fertility, resulting in what Engels called the "world-historic downfall of the female sex." This implies that social revolution, opening the door to the abolition of class division, is a prerequisite for uprooting women's oppression, which can only be accomplished by building a society that places human beings and children at its center, in place of profit and private wealth accumulation.

Originally posted here:

Globalization Is Just a Contemporary Word for Financial Colonialism - Truth-Out

Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde in fine form on double bill – The Commercial Appeal

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

VIDEOS: STEVIE NICKSStevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde at FedExForum | 0:34

Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde stopped at FedExForum on Wednesday. Check out commercialappeal.com for photo gallery and full review. Wochit

1 of 3

Stevie Nicks shared her memories of Prince after she made a surprise appearance at Broadway show, 'School of Rock: The Musical.' (April 27) AP

2 of 3

Stevie Nicks talks about recording her album "24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault" in Nashville. Juli Thanki / The Tennessean

3 of 3

Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde at FedExForum

Stevie Nicks remembers Prince at surprise show

Stevie Nicks teaches 'Music 101' at Bridgestone

Two of rock music's iconic women, Stevie Nicks and Chrissie Hynde, perform a song together during a concert at the FedExForum on Wednesday night. Hynde and her band The Pretenders opened for Nicks' solo performance on International Women's Day.(Photo: Nikki Boertman/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

It was a fitting close to International Womens Dayas two of rocks iconic female figures, Stevie Nicks and the Chrissie Hynde, took the stage of FedExForum on Wednesday. Appearing with her solo band, Fleetwood Mac star Nicks was the ostensible headliner, but it was Hynde and her group The Pretenderswho stole the show,with both women presenting district and distinctly different visions of musical and personal empowerment.

Resuming her work with the Pretenders last summer after a four-year break, Hynde and the band which includes founding drummer Martin Chambersand new-era additions James Walbourne on guitar, Nick Wilkinson on bass and Eric Heywood on pedal steel sounded sharp and inspired during a 15-song set that covered the expected hits as well as material from the bands recent album, Alone.

Hynde was in classically cantankerous form early on, rightfully berating a couple of audience members down front who were popping off cell phone camera flashes in her face. After apologizing on their behalf Hynde settled down and found both the aggression and nuance of songs like My City Was Gone and Stop Your Sobbing.

Autoplay

Show Thumbnails

Show Captions

Thirty-five years after the implosion of the original Pretenders lineup following the death of guitarist James Honeyman Scott and the firing and subsequent death of bassist Pete Farndon Hynde and Chambers have somehow managed to keep the group acompelling force, with the new members, particularly flash guitarist Walbourne, providing a fresh spark.

One of rocks most stylish singers, Hynde also showed a depth of emotional range on the spare ballad Ill Stand by You, while one of her rare solo songs, Down the Wrong Way, seemed to take on new life in the Pretenders context.

Ohio native Hynde took the opportunity to rave about Memphis, having visited several local haunts Graceland, Shangri-La Records and Imagine VeganCaf on a day off before the concert. She noted that she skipped a return to the local jail, where she stayed during the Pretenders' first tour on disorderly conduct charges after kicking out the windows of a police car. They didnt want me back, she quipped.

After a brief break, Nicks and her big band which included longtime guitarist/musical director Waddy Wachtel on guitaremerged, sounding strong, if somewhat measured during their 18-song performance.

Nicks presented the set as part storytellers session, part deep dive into her catalog. Vocally, she was in fine form, but the somewhat awkward pacing songs broken up by Nicks long narrative interludes meant that musical momentum was hard to sustain.

Still, Nicks tremendous personal charm part girl next door, part witchy woman, part mother figure was hard to resist, and the crowd of devotees were held rapt by her, expressingtheir devotion vocally and visually, with many dressing in homage to her (sartorially speaking, the audience at a Nicks concert could double for a renaissance fair crowd).

The liveliest moment of Nicks' set came during an early version of the Tom Petty-penned Stop Dragging My Heart Around as Hynde emerged from the wings and the women, along with Wachtel, presented the song as a three-way romantic drama.

Ultimately, amid all the stories and banter, Nicks managed to cover all the expected ground, delivering strong versions of her solo hits (Stand Back,Edge of Seventeen) and closing with a flourish of Fleetwood Mac favorites (Rhiannon,Gold Dust Woman,Landslide) that were impossible to resist.

Read or Share this story: http://memne.ws/2m6IQAs

See the original post here:

Stevie Nicks, Chrissie Hynde in fine form on double bill - The Commercial Appeal

Why Aren’t They Shouting? How Technology Changed Everything in Banking – Small Business Trends

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Usefulness Content Freshness

Like every other industry, technology is transforming everything we knew about the banking industry. Depending on your point of view, this transformation is improving or threatening our economy. "Why Aren't They Shouting?: A Banker's Tale of Change, Computers and Perpetual Crisis" is an exploration through the implications of this transformation using the personal story of a banker who has seen the world change from spot brokers to robots who invest for you.

Like every other industry, banking has beendisrupted by technology. Banks are able to do powerful things, like transfer trillions of dollars within 24 hours, because of it. The chief issue is whether this power is making banks more effective or more dangerous. Why Arent They Shouting?A Bankers Tale of Change, Computers and Perpetual Crisis shares the story of one banker as he lived through the ups and downs of banking undergoing a technical revolution. His book provides a truly insightful look into the history of technology and what it could mean for bankings future.

Put simplistically, banks are just people and computers, all the rest is nice to have but not essential. Why Arent They Shouting?

The books title stems from a past experience author and banker Kevin Rodgers recalls while leading a group of German visitors on a tour of Deutsche Bank where he worked at the time. As he describes, the tour was a well-executed success but Rodgers could tell that something was amiss. One woman asked a question that seemed to be on every visitors mind, Why is everything so quiet? This disturbed Rodgers for a while because he hadnt noticed the transformation of his office from a shouting match between spot brokers into keyboard clicks and hushed chatter. Rodgers explains: In short, computers had, in all but the direct emergency, reduced the need to shoot anything at all.

That simple question by a member of a tour group became the starting point for a broader question Rodgers explored in the pages of his book. There he examines how technology transformed his career and the industry where he spent most of his professional career. Computers, he notes, have been a part of the banking industry for decades but previously they were limited and clunky. As computing power developed and became more portable, things started to change. Information became decentralized, jobs became automated, and financial products became more complex. With this rise in complexity and convenience came the lure that eventually collapsed the mortgage industry and threatened the entire banking system.

Rodgers book is an exploration of how the banking system evolved into that near-fatal condition and the situations that society will have to confront as we face even more technology in our banking future.

Rodgers is a former banking executive who worked in various aspects of the financial services industry from the trading floor all the way up to the C-suite. He has previously worked at Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, and Bankers Trust and retired in 2014.

The best part of Why Arent They Shouting? is the detailed industry perspective Rodgers offers to readers about the bank industry, especially the foreign exchange market. Rodgers doesnt just present details about the banking industry, he provides a look into the mentality of the bankers on the ground floor and executive suite. This perspective helps provide readers with some context for the decisions made by banks, particularly those leading up to the Great Recession. The lessons Rodgers takes from these days and from his wide range of experiences in the banking industry point to vital questions that bankers (and regulators) should be asking moving forward.

Why Arent They Shouting is an exciting personal ride through banking as it evolves, yet the books content can be a challenge. Although Rodgers makes several attempts to break the content down, many aspects of the global banking industry (particularly the foreign exchange market) can still be a little intimidating. Readers should have no trouble picking up on the overall issues (security, competition between banks, etc.) but they might miss out on the context in the terminology. For example, readers will probably understand that CollateralizedDebt Obligations are not a good thing from the authors perspective, but they still may not understand how they work.

Why Arent They Shoutingcontains a needed perspective in a world where a post-recession economy continues to be disrupted by a dizzying array of new technologies. Rodgers brings humans back into the equation. His book explores How did banks evolve to the current thing they are today? and What should we be on the lookout for in the future? As his book cleverly points out, it will be the humans and the rules they create, not technology, that will sustain the banking industry. His book offers a personal view into an industry many consumers regard with wary concern. Through his words, readers get a chance to see the humans that are behind the banking headlines.

Read the original post:

Why Aren't They Shouting? How Technology Changed Everything in Banking - Small Business Trends

Nominations Sought for National Medal of Technology and Innovation – IPWatchdog.com

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

kSsjvZ%~$ ^ t-pKt[+mqHK1"3{OOzzo=5K:@DG>{#$pk$1/kn$>. Q VA4 hg9^OP@aYB^L$F^ ]-K*#=a1M,eA(qtplz`p$az2{,g}EgXD =hmOx PTtl a' /DH5]YQ6 "1h: i5 hgdUa1svMI2.AXwk9ez/uD*)L # Y]aW"|DDnMQDDHr2(yn4HSs-CaO7WZXI]z!HPIe1?QNea!)J, ZF{q?)v [f#Z3Hua[)qt0"AG+VX6F{M!ph6F]` V!>{]Sy8a -5Fa mfaE2OSNlwZ/&[cA'bJ+8rwQZ:d.gafthg-6P#'>(3`tPRcY?xrb`=[aJTAgG_3{E^(o=,P1FLxV@};^a{> Th@HD >8H RU.5IK#?"Tr}OKww%ys UpJw?>C'$ W-[yifyi9m8'ffSk:[ARTUJKzFb Sp(ttWak &BB!hT(2& $aW,htg D_aaN2Y8K,Y5 j2dH-MXO I@gaTbC]P%N)T =C59 bP9[iAW^Bl~!yYuKs)c@+U! t7QqA04T xHSU9z U,>miCoCgMB(R+-kjL I>KuPh^1&W2uQTMdLN}kD352UuZJiKbB )>OGj, hEH{+~~Z(_-}Cf- ER $^ pL{O>ko9$l'P!M(VP.Y6q"68+sh }pzOqwZ?|p]`xQesjh}z5*nqmI{8~=Va5KDcx@Lb+eV /lHE7X5K&yK1QT{sh1 80,'(nY LePHYx`ulBvT^]@SJPGy: :7o|]|W+-]]@lhKnx5!B)fWi1g

Rays’ Cobb optimistic about latest progress – Tampabay.com

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

FORT MYERS Rays RHP Alex Cobb took another step Saturday in regaining his pre-Tommy John surgery form.

"The progress I made this week going into this start versus last week's start I'll take hands down," he said after pitching 31/3 innings Saturday during a 63-pitch outing in the 2-1 loss against the Red Sox.

Cobb said early in camp that he wanted to pitch the way he did in 2013. While he returned last September after missing nearly two years, he couldn't find that rhythm.

Against the Red Sox, he impressed manager Kevin Cash with how he threw his changeup and curveball.

"I think that was a big step in the right direction for Alex and for us," Cash said. "He's continuing to make progress. I think he feels that he's close, and that's good."

How 'bout Archer

RHP Chris Archer drew rave reviews inside the Rays clubhouse after throwing four perfect innings Friday against Colombia in the WBC.

Said Cash: "It was fun to watch. I thought it was great for him, great for the Rays and great for Team USA."

Said 3B Evan Longoria: "He looked competitive. I think that's the guy we're looking forward to seeing this year."

Said CF Kevin Kiermaier: "He looks very confident right now, which you need out of your frontline guy, which is what he is for us. I think he's going to have a dominant season this year, I really do."

Hitters, too

Longoria said Cash's remarks Friday about pitchers needing to step on the gas should also apply to position players.

"I think it's just about intensity and intent," Longoria said. "There definitely comes a time where the excuse of it being March 11 or it only being spring training starts to kind of become an excuse for poor performance, essentially."

Here to compete

RHP Jumbo Diaz, claimed Friday off waivers, has a chance to earn a spot in the opening day bullpen once he joins the team after pitching for the Dominican in the WBC.

"When that day comes and he gets here we'll welcome him here and get him in the mix," Cash said.

Lights, camera, action

Alex Corddry makes her Fox Sun Sports debut this afternoon, taking over for Todd Kalas as the in-game reporter, during the first TV game of the spring. Dewyane Staats has the call. Brian Anderson is scheduled to debut this spring on March 25 vs. Boston.

Rays' Cobb optimistic about latest progress 03/11/17 [Last modified: Saturday, March 11, 2017 9:01pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints

See the original post here:

Rays' Cobb optimistic about latest progress - Tampabay.com

Trump says ‘great progress’ made on health care bill, but GOP congressmen say bill ‘will fail’ – TheBlaze.com

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

President Donald Trump announced on Twitter Saturday the current efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act are going smoothly.

We are making great progress with healthcare. ObamaCare is imploding and will only get worse. Republicans coming together to get job done! the president tweeted.

The tweet came just two days after Trump delivered a similar message on Twitter, writing on March 9, Despite what you hear in the press, healthcare is coming along great. We are talking to many groups and it will end in a beautiful picture!

Trumps confidence in Republicans current health care reform efforts seems to contradict the numerous reports that have surfaced over the past week suggesting many Republican congressmen and think tanks are staunchly opposed to the House GOP leaderships proposed Obamacare replacement, the American Health Care Act.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) called the bill a stinking pile of garbage and said he believes the bill will fail.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on Thursday on Twitter the health-care bill cant pass Senate w/o major changes. To my friends in House: pause, start over. Get it right, dont get it fast.

Cotton later added, What matters in long run is better, more affordable health care for Americans, NOT House leaders arbitrary legislative calendar.

In an interview with Fox News host Neil Cavuto, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said the AHCA is Obamacare lite and would incentivize young, healthy people to stay out of the private health insurance marketplace. Paul also told Cavuto he believes congressmen are very, very divided on how to replace the ACA.

The Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, Tea Party Patriots, FreedomWorks, and Americans for Prosperity, among many other conservative groups, have also said they do not support the AHCA in its current form.

Trumps claim about the alleged great progress being made on health care reform came just a few days after Trump hosted influential conservative Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at the White House on Wednesday night. Reports issued by The Hill and Newsmax suggest Trump planned on soliciting Cruzs help in promoting the AHCA to conservative members of the Senate.

Cruz has reportedly said he has serious concerns about the House bill as drafted.

The AHCA sailed through its first two obstacles on Thursday, gaining the approval of the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Energy and Commerce Committee along party-lines.

The legislations next hurdle will be the House Budget Committee. If it passes there, it will then be considered by the full Congress.

See more here:

Trump says 'great progress' made on health care bill, but GOP congressmen say bill 'will fail' - TheBlaze.com

Another visit to Chelsea will show Man United’s progress under Mourinho – ESPN FC (blog)

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

As Manchester United embark on a hectic 11-day travel mission, we take a look at their travel plans for the next few days. Antonio Conte plays down the idea of a rift between him and Jose Mourinho after Chelsea's win over Man United in October.

Since winning at Chelsea in October 2012, on the way to a 20th league title, Manchester United's record at Stamford Bridge is abysmal: no wins and only one draw in six subsequent games. Their most recent visit was the worst of all, a 4-0 hammering last October that was the low point of Jose Mourinho's time in charge so far.

As if history doesn't make Monday's FA Cup quarterfinal daunting enough, Mourinho and his men head to London following a 4,500-mile round trip to Russia for last Thursday's Europa League round-of-32 first leg vs. Rostov. Chelsea, by contrast, haven't had a game since their 22-mile round trip to West Ham last Monday.

Further, United will be missing Zlatan Ibrahimovic, their player of the season so far, a one-man goal factory whose tally of 26 in all competitions is almost three times that of the next top scorer, Juan Mata. Ibrahimovic will serve the first of a three-match suspension after he accepted a violent conduct charge for elbowing Bournemouth's Tyrone Mings in last weekend's 1-1 draw at Old Trafford.

United are used to being favourites in almost every game they play but, despite not having lost in 17 league outings since their last visit to Chelsea, they will be underdogs as they face the best team in England this season.

(It's not like United can hold out for a draw either, as FA Cup sixth-round replays have been abolished. The move pleased Mourinho when he was asked about it earlier this season; he may revise that view if it's 1-1 after 88 minutes.)

Mourinho wants to win a treble this season, or a treble-and-a-half since he counts the Community Shield as half a trophy. He's already won the EFL Cup and his side are well placed to reached the last eight of the Europa League, ahead of Thursday's second leg at home vs. Rostov.

While Ibrahimovic has been the key man overall, he's only played 28 minutes of FA Cup football: A substitute cameo in the last round at Blackburn Rovers, in which he scored the winning goal. In Europe, the only two games that United have lost were the two in which Ibrahimovic didn't start, defeats at Feyenoord and Fenerbahce.

Apart from a game vs. Arsenal in November, when he was suspended, Ibrahimovic has played every single minute of every league game this season. Only Paul Pogba, who needs to step up on Monday after some indifferent displays, has played as much.

Marcus Rashford filled in as United's lead striker against Arsenal, but failed to have the same impact as in the equivalent fixture last season, when he scored twice. The 19-year-old's favourite United goal came come in an FA Cup sixth round replay at West Ham a year ago but Rashford, often played in a wide-left role, has been less prolific this season with seven goals from 36 games.

He could get a chance to lead the line in Ibrahimovic's absence, possibly in a 4-3-3 formation with Anthony Martial to his left and Juan Mata on the right, though Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been among United's best performers in recent months and deserves a chance to play against a side of Chelsea's pedigree.

The Armenian midfielder was not involved in that October game, when Mourinho went for a five-man midfield featuring Rashford, Pogba, Ander Herrera, Marouane Fellaini and Jesse Lingard. Fellaini was brought off at half-time but could make up for Ibrahimovic's absent physical threat. Lingard, who is admired by Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, was replaced by Martial that day. Michael Carrick, meanwhile, didn't get off the bench.

United played with an uncustomary three at the back in Rostov and the alignment didn't convince, albeit in difficult conditions. Was it kidology from Mourinho or preparation to match Chelsea's successful formation? United's defence is a concern and Chris Smalling had possibly his poorest game in a United shirt the last time the sides met, when the hosts took the lead after just 26 seconds.

When asked about Monday's game against the club he led to three league titles, Mourinho said he won't field a "Nicky Butt team," referring to the former United midfielder's current role as United academy director. Mourinho sees talent in some youngsters at the club but doesn't trust them enough to start at Stamford Bridge. Instead, he'll go with a strong team, partly because he's vengeful, but chiefly because he wants United to retain the FA Cup for the first time in their history.

The manager does not have priorities; he wants to win every trophy on offer and has a large squad with no injuries, even if there's clearly room for improvement, with a second striker and a left-back he fully trusts among the main areas of focus.

Hindsight shows how things have changed since the start of the season, when right-back was considered a bigger problem than the opposite flank and, in Ibrahimovic, Rashford, Martial and Wayne Rooney, United hardly looked short of goalscorers.

There are too many games at present for Mourinho to feel satisfied with his side's preparation, but that's because United have been successful in non-league competitions this term: Monday will be the 20th cup tie, with up to eight more to follow.

The fans are certainly up for the trip to Chelsea and the increased 5,685 ticket allocation was oversubscribed by 3,000, even though the game is on a Monday evening. The atmosphere will be rocking in the away end at Stamford Bridge, with supporters keen to see if perceived improvement since their last visit is genuine and whether the Reds are closer to being able to go toe-to-toe with the best.

Chelsea's official website mocked United's recent league form last week when an article said it has "lifted them all the way from sixth to sixth." Actually, United were seventh after the 4-0 but it is true that the improvement in league position has been marginal. Winning at Chelsea, though, would send a powerful signal that Mourinho and Co. have not stood still.

Andy Mitten is a freelance writer and the founder and editor of United We Stand. Follow him on Twitter: @AndyMitten.

Health services merger a work in progress – Scranton Times-Tribune

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

HARRISBURG When four Wolf Cabinet secretaries appeared at a budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, the hearing room was packed with advocates, lobbyists and vendors.

They were trying to glean details about the proposed creation of an umbrella Department of Health and Human Services by merging the departments of human services, aging, health and drug and alcohol programs. Gov. Tom Wolf has said the delivery of human services can be made more efficient and an estimated $90 million in savings realized through the merger.

Pennsylvanians would most likely interact with these agencies if they visit a county assistance office to obtain benefits from medical assistance or other programs, go to a senior community center daily for meals and activities or encounter a public health nurse during an outbreak of a contagious disease.

Ambitious timeline

As chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20, Lehman Twp., led the questioning about the merger.

Baker asked how an ambitious timeline to create the new agency by July 1 could be met assuming the Legislature gives approval. Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald, said its important that the separate agency missions in such areas as providing public health care and services for senior citizens not be lost in a consolidation.

The goal is to have a framework for the new department established by July 1, said Ted Dallas, secretary of the Department of Human Services. The actual consolidation would take place over the 2017-018 fiscal year, he added.

Same services

Department of Aging Secretary Teresa Osborne said the services provided by senior centers wont change under the merger. Osborne supported this statement by noting these services must be provided under the federal Older Americans Act. There are nearly 500 senior centers run by area agencies on aging in Pennsylvania.

In recent weeks, Osborne has visited senior centers that receive Lottery-funded grants to pay for improvements. Two of her stops were at the Robert J. Drake and Hamlin senior centers in Wayne County. The visits served the purpose too of easing jitters over the future of the senior centers.

Some $2 million in grants have been distributed this year under the competitive program. Osborne said requests for grants totaled $5 million.

Assistance offices

The DHS county assistance offices will continue as places where individuals go to obtain benefits, said Dallas. The merger plan calls for the back-office processing functions in the CAOs to be done out of five regional centers in an efficiency move.

The blueprint calls for the public health nurses in the Department of Health to work out of the county assistance offices. The nurses are currently based in leased offices throughout the state.

Health Secretary Karen Murphy said the aim is to have the nurses work more closely with community-based health services, but questions still surround this aspect of the merger.

Contact the writer:

rswift@timesshamrock.com

View post:

Health services merger a work in progress - Scranton Times-Tribune

After 30 years celebrating women’s history, have we made enough progress? – The Hill (blog)

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Danzig

Many people know that March is Womens History Month a time when our country celebrates the contributions women have made to politics, history, culture and society. What many people dont know is that March was designated as Womens History Month in 1987 by Ronald Reagan.

It may surprise some, especially when you think of the commonly spun narrative that Democrats are the party for women, that a conservative president from the GOP spearheaded this effort. In fact, I bet this has some kids running for their safe spaces!

Of course Reagan understood that a special resolution wasnt what women needed to succeed; he also recognized womens potential and that their accomplishments deserved greater appreciation.

Today we have 21 women serving in the Senate, and 104 serving in Congress. There are seven confirmed women in the new administration, and a third of the Supreme Court seats are held by women. And the numbers are comparable at the state level, where 24 percent of executive positions are held by women, including four governors, 14lieutenant governors, and 56otherstatewide elected officials.

Of course this picture isnt perfect. Some lament that women are still grossly underrepresented in public office. And perhaps more significant, progressives are generallyoverrepresentedin these offices, meaning theyre pushing for more big-government policies that too often backfire on women and their families. But the idea of women in these positions is a familiar one.

Still, research demonstrates that American voters are ready for women to lead. New social science studies are suggesting that charges of gender bias appear to be overstated, and that voters are just as likely to vote for a woman who shares their ideology as a man.

However, progress isnt just a numbers game. Real feminist progress should also be determined by how we treat one another.

And on this mark, too many women are failing.

Theres no doubt the 2017 election was contentious politics often is.However, in the wake of the election, too many women seemed to have forgotten basic standards of decency. Frankly, just plain old good manners were ignored.

Pictures from the Jan. 21Womens March on Washington of women screaming, pushing and spitting at one another suggest that progress has not been made with regard to political civility. Insults and threats posted online about other women are horrible. And a month after the inauguration, the first woman to run a successful presidential campaign is still being threatened and denigrated; and the first lady continues to be ridiculed and subject to a constant stream of nasty, personal attacks.

Consequently, we are now living in a political environment seemingly more toxic than its ever been.

When Reagan determined March to be Womens History Month, there were only two women in the Senate: Nancy Kassebaum, a Republican from Kansas, and Barbara MikulskiBarbara MikulskiAfter 30 years celebrating womens history, have we made enough progress? DC restaurant owners sue Trump hotel over unfair competition: report Meet the Trump pick who could lead Russia probe MORE, a Democrat from Maryland. And in spite of being from opposite parties, Kassebaum and Mikulski recognized the chance to work together and forge partnerships. Together they founded the Office of Womens Health Research at the National Institutes of Health, and they served together on the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources. They were partners, and today they remain friends.

As we celebrate Womens History this month, lets keep in mind its not just numbers that measure progress. We still have a long way to go in terms of recognizing that women are not a homogenous bloc. We may share many things in common shared experiences that unite us but, ultimately, we are still individuals who have different priorities and preferences. And while our differences may be criticized, we ought to remember that progress should be judged by the tone of our political arena, the standards of civility we demand and the grace with which we treat our adversaries.

Sens. Kassebaum and Mikulski could teach us all a lesson.

Andrea Bottner is the director of government affairs at the Independent Womens Forum and founder of Bottner Strategies.

The views of contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.

See more here:

After 30 years celebrating women's history, have we made enough progress? - The Hill (blog)

Select Page ::