Monthly Archives: August 2021

We all know the uneasy feeling you get when your groceries are speeding through the checkout at the shop.

The panic of throwing everything into your trolley but making sure youre not squashing your bread or cracking all your eggs.

You have to have all this done before your total comes up and you need to find your purse or wallet hidden in the trolley.

Well, all your troubles may be solved as an Aldi worker has revealed the golden rule of shopping at the store.

Aldi is one of the quickest supermarkets around, 40 per cent faster than other stores, which helps to keep their cost down for customers.

A viral TikTok shared that shoppers should space their items apart at the checkout to slow the person at the till down.

They suggested that if you are struggling to keep up, this may be the perfect way to calm things down.

However, many shoppers tested this out and came to the conclusion that this, in reality, doesnt work.

Others disagreed with the claim that Aldi employees were too fast explaining that the efficiency of shopping there is the benefit.

One person wrote: They have to scan fast. The faster they scan, the better - I got told this in a group interview for Aldi."

A second person said: When will people learn you pack on the shelf at the window, not the till!"

The Mirror reports that one Aldi worker took to the comments to reveal a simple trick for those that needed it.

They said: Can I clarify I work in Aldi and I'm proving that people's way of slowing us down doesn't work."

Another commentator took the opportunity to ask an important question writing: Is it true if the customer asked you to slow own that you have to?"

The Aldi employee responded: "Well you would out of courtesy, you have to adjust to every customer's needs."

So next time youre panicking at the till with too many items being scanned through and not enough hands, try asking the person at the checkout counter to slow down a little.

Read the original post:

Aldi workers reveals the golden rule that shoppers should know - RSVP Live

It's somewhat of a golden rule to not mess with a good thing. But what about two?

When it comes to music,mashup maestro Calb is a pro at rearranging cult-classic albums into interdisciplinary works of art. His latest project, Thriller Access Memories, is an electrifying synthesis Daft Punk's Random Access Memoriesand Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Out August 3rd,Thriller Access Memoriesweaves together the dazzling instrumentals of RAM with Jackson's vocals. Its resulting tracks, with names like"Instant Billie Jean" and "Fragments of Beat It," are scintillating blends of disco and pop, built from beats and lyrics you probably already know by heart.The bright and dreamy closer, "I Feel Human Nature," is particularly successful, as is "The Lady of Love."

Thriller Access Memories comes paired with its own 33 minute-long visualizer, which matches music video and performance footage from Daft Punk and Jackson to each of their songs. Its opening scene places two robotic lookalikes inside a retro spaceshipoutfitted with a record player, no less.

"After announcing their retirement, Daft Punk retreat to their interdimensional ship to travel through space, time, and reality," Calb described in the video's caption. "In an alternate universe they find a version of their last record that appears to have been made with Michael Jackson. Here is that album, presented to the public for the first time."

Other works by Calb includeCurrents, an amalgamation of Frank Ocean's Blondeand Tame Impala's Currents, and OVERGROWN.A$AP, which pulls together works by James Blake and A$AP Rocky.

Read the original here:

Someone Released a Full Album of Daft Punk and Michael Jackson Mashups - EDM.com

For most of the world, it has been considered the golden rule. When it comes to calculating a countrys standing on the official Olympics medal table, the number of golds gained rather than the actual amount of medals acquired dictates the ranking.

Such convention, however, is not one that the US follows. Instead, the US adds all gold, silver and bronzes won to create an alternative medal count table. Often, this makes no difference to who comes top. But this year, just as the US and China are locked in a rancorous tussle for global supremacy, it makes all the difference.

The US lags in second place behind China in the tally of golds, but its own unorthodox methodology sees the US beat China to the top spot. In fact, the US is way out on its own, with 108 medals secured, followed by China, whose haul of 87 includes two more golds than the US a minor detail and in third place, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) with 69 medals.

The biggest winner under the US system is Ukraine. With just one gold from its 18 medals, the country soars from its current 43rd position to 16th.

Great Britain benefits more modestly, jumping above Japan to fourth but still behind the Russian squad.

This article was amended on 8 August 2021. An error during editing meant that an earlier version said the ROC had a tally of 69 golds; in fact, as the table showed, they had 69 medals (of which 20 were gold) at the time the article was published on 7 August.

See original here:

US finds its own way to top the medal table at Tokyo Olympics - The Guardian

Ive never liked Fridays. Chalk it up to superstition, but theres something about a Friday that gives me the creeps. It makes me think twice about scheduling anything important on a Friday. Some of it goes back to my reporting days, because sources have a way of tossing bombshells into the inbox just before the weekend.

Releasing news on a late Friday afternoon to avoid, or at least deflect, coverage is an unsavory but common move. Theres an entire episode of Aaron Sorkins The West Wing about it called Take Out the Trash Day. The goal is to bury the story because the Saturday audience for news is smaller than on other days. In Kansas, at 6:10 p.m. on Friday, July 30, we had a classic example of a news dump, when the schedule for the town hall meetings for the Republican-led redistricting process was announced.

And what a dump it was.

During the last redistricting, in 2011, it took four months to hold 14 town hall meetings to gather input from voters across the state. This year, those town halls will be compressed into a single week, beginning at 9 a.m. Monday in Manhattan. All of them will be held on weekdays, and only four will take place after business hours. In addition, each town hall is slated for only 75 minutes.

We already know the Kansas population grew about 3% in the past 10 years and will keep its four congressional seats. What we don't know yet is neighborhood-by-neighborhood detail on race, Hispanic origin, age, and housing levels. The Census Bureau has scheduled a news conference for 1 p.m. Thursday to provide analysis of the first local level results on redistricting data. That's the kind of information you need to redraw districts fairly or to arm yourself with the facts in advance of a town hall on redistricting. By the time of the Census Bureau release, however, the Kansas listening sessions will be nearly over.

But the goals of the GOP-controlled effort have already been announced, and the objective is retaining and increasing political power, not fairness or seeking public input. As in too many legislatures that are controlled by one party, and have no fear of a governor's veto, the politicians will be picking their voters.

Susan Wagle, a Wichita Republican and the former Senate president, said the part you're not supposed to say out loud at a September 2020 meeting of the Pachyderm Club that redistricting would be an opportunity to unseat U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids by gerrymandering. A video of Wagle making the comment was leaked by a voting rights activist.

Davids, the lone Democrat in the Kansas congressional delegation, represents the 3rd District, which encompasses all of Wyandotte and Johnson counties, which is the heart of Kansas City, Kansas. After Wagle's elephantine musings were made public, Gov. Laura Kelly called for a nonpartisan redistricting commission.

After the Aug. 30 news dump, the Democratic minority on the redistricting committee cried foul, and said the town hall schedule did not give ample time for input. The Republican leaders accused the Democrats of "politicizing" the process and said the nonpartisan legislative research staff had announced the schedule. Well, yes, but the staff takes direction on scheduling from the committee chairs.

This is the point in a typical commentary where it would be normal to give the "we said, they said" account, to share the colorful quotes and the bon mots. I'm not going to do that here, however, because often the importance of a thing can be lost in the fog of immediate partisan rhetoric. It's also the kind of "dumb objectivity" that author Susan Jacoby has warned against, which assumes that each side is equally valid.

Instead, I'm going to pose a question.

How does this town hall schedule serve democracy?

Journalists devote their careers to informing audiences, and many of us do so in the belief backed up by data that we are strengthening democracy. Yet, under deadline pressure and the responsibility to present accurate information, we often don't have the time to ask deeper questions. This is not to throw shade on any of the terrific reporting that was done in the wake of the town hall news dump, because many outlets did yeoman's work of covering it. But as a columnist, I have more time and distance.

So, does the town hall schedule serve democracy?

First, some background.

Redistricting takes place every 10 years, according to the Kansas Constitution and federal law, and states must reapportion electoral districts using population data from the U.S. Census Bureau. In Kansas, the Legislature handles redistricting, by committees of both chambers. This year, of 26 redistricting committee members, only seven are Democrats. The new districts are made by passing laws which, like other pieces of legislation, are subject to gubernatorial veto. But the Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, enough to override any veto by Kelly, a Democrat.

During the last redistricting, in the 2010 cycle, the Legislature failed to agree on a plan to redraw congressional and state districts, largely because of "third party" politics that pitted moderate Republicans against the more conservative faction. A federal court drew the boundaries in 2012. That option, however, will not be available in this cycle. A 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision declared that partisan politics, even in cases claiming extreme gerrymandering, are beyond the reach of federal courts. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the conservative majority, said redistricting results that are highly partisan may "reasonably seem unjust," but it's not the court's responsibility to find a solution.

In 2012, because of the aforementioned internecine Republican squabbles, Kansas was the last state to have a redistricting plan. Now that the moderate faction has largely been driven from the Statehouse by hyper-partisan politics, things may go more quickly. The accelerated town hall schedule is not an encouraging sign, at least not if you're concerned about fairness.

The result will likely be that the majority party will redraw the lines to suit itself, and not voters. Redistricting, in fact, is just one of the tools available to disenfranchise voters, by gerrymandering, stacking, cracking, and packing.

Changes in population do result, over time, in a changing congressional map. Kansas, for example, once had eight congressional districts. I can remember, for example, the tail end of the old 5th District, which included Wichita and southeast Kansas, which lasted from 1885 to 1993. But gerrymandering has long been recognized as an unfair way to manipulate the vote.

There are many forms of gerrymandering, each with a particular purpose, such as protecting an incumbent or unseating one. One way that Davids could lose her constituency, and her seat, is if the 3rd District boundary were drawn in an extreme wedge shape, with the point in Kansas City, Kansas, but the broad tail in the western part of the state. In that case, you might have urban Wyandotte County (65% for Biden in 2020) sharing the same district as rural Gove County (88% for Trump).

Today, gerrymandering and other forms of boundary manipulation are aided by computer models that will slice and dice a district to provide a desired result, without having to hand-draw boundaries. In 2019, the American Legislative Exchange Council (known for its cookie cutter legislation that proliferates through conservative-held statehouses across the country) hosted a seminar that taught state lawmakers how to skew districts for political gain and defend against legal challenges. Wagle, the former state Senate president who said Davids 3rd District would be up for grabs, is an ALEC board member.

Just as computer models can be used to draw unfair districts, so too can computer models create more just ones. It really is all up to the intention of those drawing the boundaries. To try your hand at drawing your political boundaries, you can use DistrictBuilder, an open source redistricting tool. And to make the process more fair, the Brennan Center for Justice offers a simple solution: adopt independent commissions.

The current town hall schedule, taking place in a compressed timeline, during hours when most voters can't attend and ahead of the needed Census data, and orchestrated by a partisan-led commission, does not serve democracy.

Lines on maps have long been used to discriminate. Think of redlining in past decades, which denied residents in minority neighborhoods the possibility of home loans. Ten years ago, the Republicans gave us "Project Redmap," a plan to flip congressional districts and legislatures across the country by redrawing districts. The plan was so secret that in some states lawmakers were required to sign secrecy agreements. But the result was successful enough in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and elsewhere to give the GOP a 33-seat majority in the U.S. House, despite collectively receiving 1.4 million fewer votes.

Today's gerrymandering is no less bigoted than the old sin of redlining was.

When the history of the period immediately following the presidency of Donald Trump is written and if honest histories are still allowed at that time there will be chapters on how democracy was not at risk during a single day, or by a single act, or by a single individual. Instead, some historian perhaps yet unborn will see how democracy was eroded by a steady trickle of laws, passed in statehouses across the country, over the course of weeks and months and years.

Democracy is served when districts are drawn with respect for fairness and the integrity of neighborhoods, when classes of voters are not targeted for suppression, and when those in power practice the golden rule of politics that is, remembering that they will not always be in power, at least not in a true democracy.

If democracy is to be more than just a footnote in some future dissertation, we must take our duties as citizens seriously. The last town hall meeting is scheduled for Lawrence at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 13. That's a fitting date for a cramped schedule dumped on a Friday to begin with.

Read more here:

Kansas redistricting should be fair. What's been dumped on us is not. - Kansas Reflector

So, what in particular should you watch out for? There are five typical scams that expats should watch out for.

Property scams

Property buying abroad used to have a distinctly Wild West feel to it, as British retirees and holiday homebuyers bought time-shares from friendly fellow Brits who approached them on a Costa del Sol prom. Dodgy developers sold apartments on land theyd already mortgaged, country homes were built without planning permission, or granted by corrupt officials.

Since the global financial crisis, authorities have cleaned up their act and property buyers wised up to the need to use an independent lawyer, (rather than the estate agents brother-in-law).

The result: property buying abroad should be as safe as in the UK so long as you always use a local, independent, specialist property lawyer and a reputable and experienced international payments specialist.

Visa scams

This is likely to be a growth area for criminals, as Brits get used to applying for visas to retire to EU countries.

The problem is that visas are not just complicated, but even bona fide visa specialists will find legitimate ways around the rules to get you there. In particular, many British people will be investigating the various investor visas and golden visas, where you buy a property of over 500,000 (250,000 in some countries) in exchange for gaining residency.

The simplest answer is to see your target countrys immigration authorities as a resource, not a gaoler. Most will have websites in English.

Investment scams

With interest rates so low that your savings are making very little, the promise of a return of 10% or more can be tempting. Investors who may have started with a buy-to-let apartment or two may be tempted by a car park investment, or maybe a bamboo plantation, stamps, fine wine, student pods

But is it real or a scam? In the UK, risky investments would be clearly designated under FCA rules as, for example, Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes. Living abroad, not under FCA rules, expats can be at risk.

The golden rule is: if it sounds too good to be true then be very wary (and especially wary if the salesman is driving a Ferrari).

Pensions scams

Is there anything worse than losing your life savings when youre beyond an age to make the losses back? The pension freedoms of 2015 allowed you to take 25% of your pension pot tax-free, but has led to many cases of fraud, with an average loss of 82,000, according to theFCA.

Often the first approach will be for a pension review. What could sound more innocuous? Before long, theyre tempting you with riches and returns from overseas schemes. They might be low tax and high reward.

However, soon theyll be getting you to transfer your funds to an offshore account and will be lost to a scammers crypto account.

Money transfer scams

While few expats will fall for advance-fee scams, commonly known as Nigerian Prince scams, asking you to accept millions into your account in return for a cut, there are plenty more sophisticated scams.

Fraudsters will pose as an overseas property buyers lawyer or notary and ask you to transfer the money to a bogus account so always double-check the bank details with your solicitor.

Reputable and FCA-authorised currency traders are required to follow strict procedures and keep minimum financial reserves.

Other safeguards will include using designated client accounts, so a clients money never even goes into the companys account during the trade. They will also have a strong compliance department, so that fraudsters cannot use the service for money laundering.

*Christopher Nye is Senior Content Editor of Smart Currency Exchange

Excerpt from:

Five finance scams that target expats...and how to avoid them - Property Investor Today

PEMBERVILLE This fall, Eastwood Elementary students can choose to receive religious instruction.

Students in grades K-4, with parental permission, can receive character and religious instruction during the school day.

LifeWise Academy will be held at Zion Lutheran Church in Luckey and students will be transported there once a week during their library period.

All transportation will be organized and provided by LifeWise.

Ohio Revised Code allows Released Time Religious Instruction programs, so the districts school board wasnt required to take any action on the academy, said Superintendent Brent Welker.

Eastwood Local Schools policy also states that students may be provided release time to attend a course in religious instruction conducted by a private entity off district property, provided that the following requirements are met:

The students parent or guardian gives consent in writing

The sponsoring entity maintains attendance records and makes them available to the district

The sponsoring entity provides and assumes liability

The academy also must keep students from missing any instructional time, Welker said.

The board makes no endorsement of any religious activity, nor does it interfere with the lawful exercise thereof, the policy states.

Obviously, this is with the parent consent, Welker said. I feel that the decision is 100% in the hands of the parents.

If they meet all those standards, the board cannot prevent students whose parents want them to attend from attending.

He said that LifeWise has done this in other districts.

Its really been pretty seamless, Welker said.

A search of LifeWise Academy in Ohio shows there are similar programs in the Pandora-Gilboa school district in Putnam County and Elida schools in Allen County.

Pemberville resident Eric Corns has been tapped as volunteer academy director.

Corns said that he was made aware of LifeWise from a past motivational speaker who visited Eastwood.

He said he was asked by community members to shepherd the process of bringing the academy to the district.

Corns said there has been recognition in the community that there is a need for it and he is confident it will open this fall.

Corns said while he grew up going to Sunday school, national statistics show only 25% of youngsters find themselves in that setting now.

They just dont have exposure to it like many did growing up, he said.

Roger Bostdorff, a former Eastwood school board member who is organizing the fundraising for the academy, agreed.

For whatever reason, theyre not getting the Christian education we used to get, he said about todays youngsters.

Our kids need to have a better understanding of the values the good Lord has us live by, Bostdorff said.

While the Eagle Way will teach students while in school, more is needed, he said.

Outside of Eastwood, these Christian values need to be reinforced and taught to make them better citizens, Bostdorff said about students.

The Eagle Way represents the core beliefs of the school district, which are: Do Whats Right, Do the Best You Can, and Treat Others the Way You Want to Be Treated. It has been used in the district for 14 years.

Bostdorff said the Golden Rule also has been forgotten.

It used to be when two people disagreed, they could agree to disagree, he said. Now, they stop talking to each other or hurt each other physically.

When we were growing up, we could disagree without hating the other person, Bostdorff said.

He said LifeWise Academy will teach the younger population the values in the Bible.

Classes will follow the Gospel Project, which teaches Genesis to Revelation in an age-appropriate way.

Classes are non-denomination, Corns said.

The LifeWise Academy website explains it is a Released Time Religious Instruction program which exists to provide Bible education to public school students.

Eastwood students in grades K-4 attend classes in art, music, physical education, technology and library. Those students who attend LifeWise classes will miss their library rotation.

LifeWise has been successful in moving the needle, with an average participation rate of 60% in the first year, Corns said.

For me, it was a no-brainer. How could I not be involved in this? he said.

Bostdorff said the academy has $100,000 committed toward its $150,000 goal to get the program started.

Each year after next, another $50,000 will be needed, he said.

It takes approximately $20 per student per year for the curriculum.

The objective is to make this free to the parents, Bostdorff said.

It makes the curriculum available to children during the school day, Corns said. Theres a need there and this has been demonstrated as a viable way to get character curriculum to students.

He hopes students learn what it means to be patient, responsible and grateful, and to give of themselves.

As an example, Corns said Genesis teaches God created the heavens and the Earth.

Everything we have and every thing we are is a gift from God, so the character takeaway is gratitude, he said. Were not interested in focusing on what divides the Christian community. Were focusing on what we agree on.

Character education is crucial, he said. Not only for how we get along with each other in civilized society but also for our spiritual being.

View original post here:

Eastwood will offer religious education: LifeWise starting in the fall - Sentinel-Tribune

The Biden administration is playing into a trap of their side's own-makingand smart Republicans would be wise to remember this moment as a precedent for a future vindication of the Constitution's separation of powers.

As panic set in over the expiration of the pandemic-related eviction moratorium, Democrats scrambled to protect a core constituency's expiring benefit. On June 29, the Supreme Court, in the 5-4 "shadow docket" decision of Alabama Association of Realtors, determined that the extension of the pandemic-related eviction moratorium would expire. Justice Brett Kavanaugh expressed that the Court would tolerate a unilateral extension of the moratorium by the executive branch this far but no further than the end of July, absent ordinary legislation addressing the matter. As if caught by surprise by the Supreme Court's ruling nearly five weeks ago, Democrats in Congress, particularly the House "Squad," began raising a ruckus over the past seven days to use whatever tools they have at their disposal to extend the moratorium.

But Congress, under short notice and with little institutional willingness to take up this matter, was a dead end. Concerned congressional Democrats then began pressing the Biden administration to search for any legal language, no matter how attenuated, to continue the moratorium. Despite frequent assurances that the CDC could not construe existing legislation to unilaterally incorporate a further extension of the eviction moratorium, the Biden administration earlier this week announced the grounds on which the eviction moratorium would continue. Even as the administration conceded it had no statutory ground to continue "new, targeted eviction moratoriums," it announced it would press on in defiance of the Court's June 29 ruling.

National Review's Andrew McCarthy ably explained the specious reasoning given by the Biden administration to continue the eviction moratorium. McCarthy also inveighed against the damage the Biden administration is doing to the separation of powers: "[I]n blatant violation of his solemn duty to execute the laws faithfully, Biden has usurped Congress's legislative authority and declared the power to legislate."

But what even an incisive thinker such as McCarthy misses is that the surest defense of the separation of powers is not tut-tutting about structural protections of liberty, even if those protections are valuable. Rather, the surest defense is what constitutional scholar Hadley Arkes calls the operationalizing in constitutional government of the Golden Rule. As Arkes has explained, "it puts the question of what the principle is behind one's position and whether he would be willing to honor the same principle when it cuts against his interests."

A Biden administration that flagrantly defies an on-point ruling of the Supreme Court opens itself to the precedential invocation of that same principle when a future Republican administration seeks to downplay a ruling of the Court by sustaining its own understanding of constitutionality, as per its branch's independent interpretive prerogative.

The shock that may come, particularly to conservative readers, is that in principle what the Biden administration did in defiance of the Court on the eviction moratorium is not unconstitutional. For example, Lincoln understood, as in Dred Scott, that a decision in a case is only strictly binding as it applies to the named litigants to a specific lawsuit. A broad principle applicable to the other branches need not be gleaned from any one decision of the Court.

Constitutionality, then, is better understood as an ongoing conversation between the branches, with constitutional determination much more fluid and distilled based on the actions and reactions of all the branches based on factors such as institutional competency and willingness to act. What many Americans sense but may not be able to articulate is that we are living in a flawed experiment in self-government, where judicial opinions have the force of upending the rules by which we govern ourselves. A Biden administration that has chosen to re-establish this understanding of constitutionalityarguably one much more in keeping with how the Founders envisioned the branches' notion of ambition counteracting ambitioncould perform a valuable long-term service toward restoring notions of republican self-rule.

That said, the Biden administration foolishly picked a partisan cause on which to mount this particular case. While in principle constitutional to push back on a decision of the Court, prudentially Democrats may rue this decision soon. Conservatives need not employ great powers of imagination to envision a world where a Republican president bucks the Court and realizes substantive priorities rendered moot by that eminent tribunal. Recall not too long ago, in New York v. Department of Commerce, when the Court held that the Trump administration had improper motives for including a question about citizenship on the U.S. census. Or even more significantly, when the Court in Bostock v. Clayton County read into the Civil Rights Act of 1964 an understanding of "sex" utterly detached from the original public meaning of the Act's drafters. Compared with the eviction moratorium decision that featured direct language with determinative timetables, these Trump-era decisions should have invited greater executive deliberation on prudential applicability.

Conservatives ought to have long memories and at least remain open to creative strategies for vindicating the logic underlying the separation of powers, lest they be subject to a one-way ratchet of power used only against their substantive priorities. Perhaps the Biden administration believes it can play dumb long enough for a political solution to the eviction moratorium to emerge. However, the administration has sprung a trap of its own making by viewing decisions of the Court as only final when it also views them as correct. Conservatives, take note and prepare for when a future Republican administration can use this moment as precedent to defend the principles of republican self-governmentas Lincoln would have urged.

Garrett Snedeker is the deputy director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights and the American Founding and a J.D. student at the Antonin Scalia Law School.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.

Go here to read the rest:

The Biden Administration Is Playing Dumband Into a Trap | Opinion - Newsweek

Last week, I had an experience at a local business that was very unsettling. It got me thinking. How did our country become so divided?

Back in the olden days, before 1987, we had the FCCs Fairness Doctrine. According to Wikipedia, the policy instructed news media to present both sides of an issue to ensure viewers were exposed to a diversity of viewpoints. We trusted Walter Cronkite to deliver the facts. It wasnt news for profit, or political opinion, it was just news.

Back in the olden days, 1960s, there was heated political debate, but we werent isolated in our polarized camps. Mr. Noble, the Democrat down the street, argued politics with my Republican dad, but they were still friends. Our families went on vacations together. In school, church, Camp Fire Girls, etc, we were taught to respect each other and follow the Golden Rule.

Now political debate devolves into personal attacks. Self-righteous indignation battles it out with arrogant hearsay. Corporate mainstream news and other media bend the truth to influence their listeners and advance their political and financial agendas. We must be able to discern the truth. That is why education is essential. Critical thinking is essential. And learning from history is essential. We must not become gullible lemmings who fall prey to unscrupulous leaders or unfounded conspiracy theories and lies.

The other day, two employees in a local business lectured me for wearing a mask. They said COVID is just a bad flu and that most of the people who died from it here in Del Norte County were unhealthy or obese. They said Id been brainwashed. I do understand that COVID restrictions have hit some businesses hard, so I shut up and agreed; there is a lot of brainwashing going on.

They also quoted a CDC website that said thousands had died from the vaccine. I went home and did some research. There is a CDC reporting system called VAERS that reviews deaths that occur after vaccinations. I searched but could find no timeline, so I dont know if the reports are one day or one year after the vaccine. But there are thousands of reports from senior care facilities, from hospitals and from individuals, including false reports. The CDC reviews them all, and so far, three deaths are definitely linked to the J&J vaccine. The VAERS/CDC data is being misconstrued by dishonest media pundits and even elected representatives. They are using the COVID vaccine as a political football. They are dividing us. And divided we fall.

Back in the olden days, 1930s, my mother had polio when she was a child. She was beautiful like a movie star but had a limp and her right side was weak. The polio vaccine came out in 1955. Because we all had the vaccine, America has been polio free since 1979. Our families and children are not disfigured by polio.

It is a testament to our American education system and industry that our scientists were able to develop, test and distribute the life-saving COVID vaccines so quickly. Other countries are clamoring for our vaccines. But because of self-serving politicians and media propaganda many of our people are afraid to be vaccinated. Right now, in the middle of summer, there are dozens of people in Del Norte County who are sick with COVID. It is too early to tell if there is permanent damage to people who fall seriously ill. This is why education is so important. Our kids need to learn how to think critically, to discern the truth. They need to know history. We cannot allow ourselves, our families or our country to be manipulated by propaganda.

Continue reading here:

Letter: Why education is essential | Opinion - The Triplicate

TOKYO -- Japan's restaurant industry experienced a series of transformative events in 1971.

The biggest by far was the opening of the first McDonald's restaurant in Japan at the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo's Ginza district on July 20. The restaurant was built in 39 hours of frenzied work that began with the removal of display windows immediately after the store's closing at 6 p.m. on Sunday, July 18, and continued through Monday, Mitsukoshi's regular holiday.

"Daily sales reach 1 million yen ($2,800 at the time) and the outlet is filled with customers day in, day out," boasted Den Fujita, founder of McDonald's Japan (now Japan McDonald's Holdings), to media at the time.

Big words, but the real figure is said to be less than 300,000 yen. Yes, there were crowds in front of the restaurant, but most came simply to gawk. The throngs had no idea how to place an order, or even how to eat hamburgers, which they had never seen.

But Fujita's little lie created quite a buzz for the burger joint. The restaurant eventually became the talk of the town and was soon bustling with diners.

Ray Kroc, de facto founder of the U.S. McDonald's chain, attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Ginza restaurant, but he was uneasy. The American side was opposed to opening an outlet in the upscale shopping district and repeatedly told Fujita not to.

Kroc said that choosing a downtown location was "nonsense," as McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. were in the suburbs where customers mostly arrived in cars. "You're right, Ray," said the accommodating Fujita. "We'll open our first restaurant on a suburban road near the coast of Chigasaki [in Kanagawa Prefecture]."

But Fujita was hardly keen on debuting in out-of-the-way Chigasaki. Years later, he explained why: "Foreign cultures and customs don't become popular unless they take root in the center of a country. In Japan, it's Ginza."

It was his belief and he was not to be dissuaded, even if it involved a little trickery.

Fujita got his start in sundries business in 1950 when he was a University of Tokyo student. He expanded it from jewelry to high-end imported apparel and was a pioneer of the foreign brand business in Japan. Having forged ties with Mitsukoshi as the sales agent for French fashion house Christian Dior, Fujita realized that the Ginza store's power to influence came from its standing as the center of Japanese fashion. He logically assumed that the best place to debut a foreign brand -- albeit one selling cheap hamburgers rather than luxury clothing -- would be in Ginza.

But it was not without a stroke of luck that the store actually debuted in Ginza. The Chigasaki outlet had almost been completed when local authorities balked at issuing a business permit, making it impossible to open the restaurant on July 20 during Kroc's visit. Fujita conveniently failed to inform the U.S. side of this development and secretly hurried preparations for the Ginza opening.

It was not until Kroc arrived in Japan on July 18 that Fujita informed the American that the Ginza restaurant would be the first McDonald's outlet in the country. But there were no signs of a McDonald's at Mitsukoshi. Shocked, Kroc canceled sightseeing in Tokyo and retreated to his luxury hotel room. He attended the opening ceremony with Fujita two days later, but how he must have felt is not hard to guess.

A common misconception that holds true to this day is that McDonald's in Japan was a hit from the get-go. But the next two restaurants that opened in Tokyo days after the Ginza opening fared poorly, briefly forcing the company to freeze expansion. Still, Fujita told employees: "You know, we're not selling hamburgers, we're selling fashion."

He leveraged Ginza's vehicle-free zone on weekends, installing colorful trash cans so young people could eat burgers and fries as they stood and chatted around the bins. Eating while standing was frowned on in Japan, but Fujita promoted it as cool to attract youth who were eager to embrace American culture. The media took notice, helping McDonald's gain traction.

The kanji for Fujita's given name, Den, is a combination of the kanji for "mouth" and "ten," which looks like a cross when written. Legend has it that his Christian mother chose the name in the hope that god would protect her son. Another explanation is that the kanji is a combination of "mouth" and "x" to ensure that Den would never suffer a slip of the tongue.

Whatever the origins, his bluff on Kroc seems to have inspired divine intervention.

Another fast-food giant, Kentucky Fried Chicken, arrived in Japan one year before McDonald's. Following the success of a prototype shop at Osaka Expo, KFC and Mitsubishi Corp. jointly established Kentucky Fried Chicken Japan (now KFC Holdings Japan) in 1970. The first restaurant opened in November that year in Nagoya, where chicken dishes had always been a local favorite. Not so KFC, whose grand opening was an unmitigated disaster. The restaurant was located on a suburban road as instructed by the U.S. company, a decision that failed to sit well with Japanese consumers.

Mitsubishi began to cut back on supplying the new restaurants with chicken, as poor sales forced the chain to use its capital to stay afloat and increased its credit risk. Takeshi Okawara, who later became the company's president, was the manager of the first restaurant after joining KFC Japan from Dai Nippon Printing -- the company that was supplying product packaging at the time. He used his own connections to arrange an appointment with Sumitomo Corp., begging the trading house to sign a contract to procure chicken. He claimed that KFC Japan had the backing of Mitsubishi.

Though not an outright lie, it was a brilliant bluff because Mitsubishi was about to pull out of the joint venture.

Okawara then approached another trading house, Marubeni, to hedge risks. He asked the company to join, saying Mitsubishi and Sumitomo were already on board. Marubeni agreed. Then he told Mitsubishi that the other two were going to be the suppliers and asked what it would like to do. Mitsubishi agreed to continue the contract.

The three trading houses not only supported the fast-food chain but also helped with the vertical integration of the poultry industry, from raising chickens and growing feed to processing meat and distribution. The effort significantly changed the chicken industry in Japan and is credited with cultivating Japan's appetite for chicken.

But even after stabilizing its supply chains, KFC Japan struggled with its first three restaurants. Okawara remained cheerful, telling employees that they were "going to get rich and spend their days drinking martinis and wearing tuxedos while lounging around a beautiful Hawaiian sea."

A silly motivational pitch some might say, but he instilled confidence in his teams. KFC in the U.S. adopted a franchise system and was called "the world's biggest billionaire maker." Years later, KFC's founding members in Japan had a drink in Hawaii to celebrate their success.

KFC Japan finally gained a foothold with its fourth restaurant, which opened in the Tor Road shopping street in Kobe in April 1971. The city's traditional openness to Western culture helped. After that, the chain opened an outlet in Tokyo's Aoyama district, renowned for its many embassies. This location goes down in the history of Japan's restaurant industry as the birthplace of the "Kentucky Fried Chicken at Christmas" custom.

It began with a request from a nearby Christian kindergarten, which said it would buy fried chicken on Christmas Eve if the outlet would send someone dressed as Santa Claus. The kindergarten teachers were mostly short women who could never be mistaken for Santa Claus. Okawara, who had become head of marketing, accepted the request and became Santa for a day.

After several annual visits to the kindergarten, the media took notice. When a reporter asked whether it was an American custom to eat fried chicken on Christmas, Okawara replied in the affirmative, igniting a fried chicken boom in Japan. This was again another little lie as Americans generally prefer turkey to chicken during the Christmas season.

As U.S. fast-food giants were trying to gain a foothold in Japan in the autumn of 1971, Atsushi Sakurada, former chairman of the popular Mos Burger restaurant chain operated by Mos Food Services, was selling rice balls in a van along the Koshu highway, which links Tokyo with Yamanashi.

McDonald's was much talked about at the time. Satoshi Sakurada -- Atsushi's uncle and the company founder -- had worked in the U.S. and had a hunch that the fast-food business was going to be big. He came up with the idea of selling rice balls in a van. But the venture ended within days as police warned him that he was violating traffic laws.

But the rice balls formed the basis of the homegrown hamburger chain. "There's a Japanese word teate (placing a hand on something)," Satoshi said when he recalled the company's early years. "By shaping rice balls with your hands, you are imbuing the food with power. That's why we stick to preparing food by hand.

"McDonald's and KFC had capital, but we started by bringing together all the money we had. So homemade dishes were all we could offer," he explained. This strategy led to megahits, including soy sauce teriyaki burgers and rice burgers.

The founders of the three fast-food chains had different management philosophies. For Fujita, "might is right" is the golden rule. Okawara aims for "marketing that doesn't lose," while Sakurada's credo is "fail and learn."

Over the past 50 years, the three giants have had their share of ups and downs, sometimes being driven to the edge of failure. But they have all managed to come back. They believe in the dishes their founders developed and have kept updating them to lure back customers who had stopped coming.

Today, the restaurant industry is bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 fallout. But the three chains were among the first to focus on take-away and delivery services to meet the demands of a pandemic-ravaged environment. They also started to digitize before the pandemic, helping accelerate order processing and improve marketing.

In the early years of the Japanese fast-food business, the three founders were confident in what was then a bewildering market, and they all experienced failure. But they overcame the odds with their mental toughness and business dexterity, occasionally accompanied by a side of big bluffs and little lies.

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Suze Orman was working as a waitress and making $400 a month at 29 years old. She then decided to take a chance on a major career change and landed a job as a broker for Merrill Lynch.

Having been on both ends of the financial spectrum, Orman knows what it takes to make the leap from broke to wealthy, and is now one of the most respected voices in personal finance -- as well as a New York Times bestselling author with more than 25 million books in circulation. According to Celebrity Net Worth, she is worth some $75 million, indicating that shes followed her own financial advice for saving, investing and preparing for retirement.

Read More: 25 Secrets Every Rich Person KnowsFind Out: Here's How Much You Need To Earn To Be 'Rich' in Every State

As any self-made millionaire will tell you, going from rags to riches takes hard work. It also calls for tons of tried and true personal finance strategies to maintain and build financial success.

Last updated: July 23, 2021

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Living within your needs but below your means is the golden rule of the Suze Orman budget. Although food and shelter are needs, you might be spending too much on these essentials.

"How much you choose to spend on your basic needs is a squishy number dependent on the choices you make," Orman wrote in a blog post on her website. "For example, a mortgage lender may tell you that you will qualify for a $250,000 mortgage. But if you can find a great home that meets your familys needs and it costs $195,000 you will save a lot of money that can be used for other important goals. The $195,000 home fits your needs."

Learn More: Just How Rich Are Oprah, Bill Gates and Other Big Names?

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"Leasing is a horrible financial move," Orman wrote in a blog post. "It is the auto industrys way to get you to buy a car you cant really afford. (...) The big problem is that when you lease theres the temptation to keep leasing forever. So every three years the standard lease length you turn in your car and lease another. That means you are signing on for never-ending monthly car payments."

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Orman explained that buying is better because once you pay off your loan, you have that extra monthly payment to build your emergency fund, contribute to a retirement account, save for a home down payment or meet another financial goal.

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The difference in the cost of paying for food delivery instead of cooking or hopping in an Uber instead of taking the bus might seem small, but the expense of always taking the convenient option will add up over time.

It adds up big time, Orman told CNBC. Stop leasing cars, stop eating out, stop doing the (thing) thats wasting your money and makes your life easier, because in the long run its going to make it harder.

See: The 16 Craziest Things These Billionaires Spend Their Money on

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"I wouldnt buy a cup of coffee anywhere, ever and I can afford it because I would not insult myself by wasting money that way, Orman told CNBC.

She believes that $3 spent daily on coffee is better off going into a retirement fund or used to meet other savings goals. For example, if you spend $100 a month on coffee and put that money into an IRA instead, that would grow to about $1 million after 40 years given a 12% rate of return.

You need to think about it as: You are peeing $1 million down the drain as you are drinking that coffee, Orman said. Do you really want to do that? No.

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"There is no more expensive form of bondage than spending more than you have and paying interest of 15% or more on your credit card," Orman wrote in a blog post.

She recommends paying for everything with a prepaid debit card or a debit card that is tied to a checking account that does not have overdraft coverage.

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"Make paying back your student loan the very first bill you pay," Orman wrote on her Facebook page. "It is more important that you make your student loan payments on time each month than any other (bill). Student loans are the one debt that by law cannot be wiped out in bankruptcy. And the (government) has all sorts of ways to get the money you owe including taking it directly out of your paycheck. Don't fall behind on your student loan debt."

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"Debt is bondage," Orman told CNBC. "You will never, ever, ever have financial freedom if you have debt."

Not only is it expensive to carry debt, but it can also negatively impact the choices you make in your career.

"When you are in debt, you feel it," Orman said. "Your boss can feel that. You render yourself powerless. You walk into an interview and you need that job because you have to pay for your debt."

Thats a problem because "powerlessness repels people," she said.

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It's easy to spend your entire paycheck when it all goes into your checking account. To counter this, Orman recommends setting up a regular automatic deposit into your savings account.

"It can be $10 a month, $200 or $1,000," she wrote on her blog. "All I insist is that you make this automatic. That is a proven way to stay committed to a savings goal. Having money zapped from your checking account into your savings accounts is free too. The set it and forget it approach is how you will reach your savings goals."

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Having a healthy emergency fund is essential to ensure you're financially protected when "what ifs" strike. Orman said that having eight months worth of living expenses is what everyone should strive for.

"I know thats a lot, but I want you and your loved ones to be OK if you were ever laid off, or sick for an extended period of time," she wrote in a blog post. "Sure, it could take years to reach your eight-month goal. Thats totally okay. The important issue is that you are starting to save today and so every month you will be moving closer to your goal."

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If your gut is telling you a financial decision is a bad one, don't ignore the signs. Orman gave this example to CNBC: "A friend, relative, loved one will approach you saying, I need to borrow $5,000. Youll think, I dont want to and yet you say Okay.' Think twice before you say 'yes' if your gut is saying 'no.'"

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Orman told CNBC that it's a bad idea to co-sign a loan for a friend or family member. If they default on the loan or pay it late, you will be financially responsible. This means your money and your credit score will be on the line.

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I know a lot of you think the key to wealth is buying a home, paying it off and owning your own home outright, Orman told CNBC. "Sometimes, depending on where you live, it makes sense to simply rent.

This is especially true if you live in an expensive area, she said. If you do, consider renting and investing any extra income you have in the stock market. Eventually, you may save enough that buying a home is more financially feasible.

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Orman told CNBC that the biggest mistake she sees young investors make is buying stock in a company because it's cool or trendy.

With this strategy, maybe youll hit it right, maybe youll hit it wrong, she said.

Orman suggested investing a set amount each month into an index fund or ETF instead of picking individual stocks.

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Your investment portfolio should have a good mix of stocks and bonds and include low-cost index mutual funds or ETFs, Orman wrote in a blog post. Once you have the right mix, there's nothing you should do aside from contributing regularly and reviewing your portfolio annually.

"All you really need to do is check your account once a year to see if you need to make any changes to bring your overall allocation back to your target," she wrote. "Other than that, sit tight. Especially when the stock market hits a rough period and everyone is freaking out about a bear market. Not you. Because you are going to remind yourself how patience pays off."

Orman cited Morningstar data showing that someone who was invested in U.S. stocks from 2000 through 2017 earned an annualized return of 7.3%, even though there were two major bear markets during that time.

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"I have long recommended that you base your retirement planning on living to at least 90; to be even safer planning to age 95 is even smarter," Orman wrote in a Facebook post. "Anyone who makes it to age 65 basically has a 50-50 chance of still being alive in his or her mid-80s. And living into your 90s is not nearly as rare as you may think."

Orman added that not being financially prepared to live into your 90s is "a very costly mistake."

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Mutual funds and ETFs charge an expense ratio, which is an annual fee that is deducted from your fund's performance. Keeping this fee low will protect you in down markets.

"If your portfolio is full of investments that charge 1% or more, I am telling you that the best move to make today and that will pay off for the rest of your life is to focus on lowering your costs," Orman wrote in a blog post. "Paying less in fees means keeping more of your money growing for your future. And thats extra important for the times when market returns are low, or even negative."

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When you leave a job, you have the option of keeping your retirement account in the old 401(k) plan, but Orman suggests either converting it to an IRA or rolling it over into your new company's 401(k) if they allow.

"Does this take a little bit of time and paperwork? Sure. But it can be more than worth your time if you have money sitting in funds that charge annual expenses of 0.25% or more," Orman wrote in a blog post. "Thats because there are plenty of low-cost index mutual funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) that charge as little as 0.10%-0.25% in annual expenses. And that can mean big savings."

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Orman also recommends reading the fine print in your 401(k) plan and going with the option that costs the least money. "While you are limited to the funds offered within your plans lineup, its in your power to choose the lowest cost options," she wrote in a blog post.

Saving on fees this way could save you a lot of money in the long term.

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"In my opinion, if you have a good (financial advisor), theyre worth their weight in gold, Orman told CNBC. However, it's important to note that not every advisor is worthy of your trust.

Dont think that theyre always going to have your best interest at heart, because probably they have their own best interest at heart," she said.

It's best to work with a fiduciary, who is legally obligated to act in your best interest. And before working with anyone, vet them by asking questions like, "How are you compensated for our working together? and What other services do you provide to me?

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Not only does exercising and living a healthy lifestyle improve your quality of life, but it can also save you money in the long term.

"A married 65-year-old couple with just typical prescription drug costs in retirement that wants to have a high confidence they will be able to handle their retirement medical expenses is projected to need nearly $150,000 less over their lifetime than a couple with very high prescription drug costs," Orman wrote in a blog post. "I hope thats ample motivation to get you moving a bit."

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In her book "Women & Money," Orman explains why saving for retirement has to take precedence over paying for your children's college education: Your children can take out loans for college, but you cannot take out loans for retirement. That means that if you haven't saved enough for your retirement, you will ultimately become a financial burden to your kids.

Find Out: Money Experts Share the Smartest Ways To Boost Your Net Worth

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"Paying off all your debts before you retire is the ticket to a more secure retirement," Orman wrote in a blog post. "Your bills will be lower, which is what you want when you are going to be living on a fixed income. Besides, theres the emotional benefit. If your living costs are lower because the mortgage and home equity loan are paid off, and you dont have credit card debt nagging at your conscience your stress level is going to be lower. And isnt that what you deserve in retirement?"

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"Delaying Social Security can be the most precious tool in your retirement planning kit," Orman told AARP in an interview. "Delaying your Social Security start date until age 70 entitles you to a monthly payout thats more than 75% higher than your age-62 benefit. Thats a whole lot more money to support a much older you."

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"Think of a reverse mortgage as a last-resort emergency fund in retirement, not a primary piece of your retirement plan from day one," Orman wrote in her book "The Money Class."

"If money is so tight at age 62 that you think you need a reverse mortgage, my concern is what happens at age 72 or 82? If you tap all your home equity through a reverse at 62 and then at 72 you realize you cant really afford the home, you will have to sell the home, and you may end up giving most or all of the sale price back to the lender to settle up."

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When it comes to estate planning, Orman recommends you have the following documents prepared:

"If you die with no will or trust in place, the courts will follow state law to disburse your assets no matter what you may have once promised your sister or told your spouse," Orman wrote in O, The Oprah Magazine.

"If you die with only a will in place, the courts will have to give the document a stamp of approval before divvying up your estate. This is known as probate, and the cost of this necessary judicial step can eat up more than 5% of your estate's value and ensnare your heirs for a year or longer in a legal tangle. You can avoid bequeathing that heartache and headache to your loved ones by setting up the essential documents so that when you die, your assets go exactly where you want, as quickly as you want, with the least amount of expense."

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Orman may be raking in millions, but her insights can be used by any American in any income category. It's easy to get into the thinking that you don't make enough money to require investment strategies and other personal finance know-how, but this just isn't true.

"It does not matter how much money you make," Orman wrote on her blog in March. "Being powerful with money is all about making smart choices. You can make $35,000 and be far more money-smart than someone who makes $350,000."

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Nicole Spector contributed to the reporting for this article.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: Suze Ormans Top 26 Tips That Will Save You From Financial Disaster

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Suze Ormans Top 26 Tips That Will Save You From Financial Disaster - Yahoo Finance