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Medical marijuana could appear on 2020 ballot in Nebraska
Medical ma...
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nebraska voters may get the chance to decide a medical marijuana ballot measure in 2020 if lawmakers don't approve one in the session that starts next month.
State Sens. Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld, both of Lincoln, announced the formation Thursday of Nebraskans for Sensible Marijuana Laws, a committee primed to launch a signature-gathering campaign.
Wishart said the group plans to draft language for a constitutional amendment and will start fundraising and conducting public opinion research. Similar measures won approval this year in Missouri, Oklahoma and Utah, bringing the total to 33 states that have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes.
"We arrived at this place because we haven't seen any action by the Legislature," Wishart said after filing paperwork to form the committee.
Nebraska's nonpartisan but Republican-dominated Legislature has repeatedly rejected attempts to legalize medical marijuana, with some lawmakers painting it as a gateway to allowing recreational use and noting that some of the claimed benefits aren't proven.
Gov. Pete Ricketts and Attorney General Doug Peterson oppose it as well, but Wishart said she still plans to introduce a bill this year in hopes that policymakers will give it another chance before her group takes it to voters.
Advocates in Nebraska have increasingly turned to voters in recent years to bypass the Legislature. Voters adopted a minimum wage increase in 2014 and a Medicaid expansion last month after lawmakers rejected both proposals. They also reinstated capital punishment in 2015 after lawmakers voted to abolish it.
Morfeld, who played a major role in the Medicaid expansion campaign, said patients with chronic illnesses shouldn't have to wait any longer for the relief they can get through medical marijuana. People with epilepsy, severe muscle spasms, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma and other conditions have reported benefits from use of the drug, although groups such as the Nebraska Medical Association have said more studies are needed.
"It's now time for Nebraska voters to decide this issue," Morfeld said.
The group has r
The group has received backing from the Marijuana Policy Project, a leading national group that has helped lead five successful marijuana-related ballot measures in Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada and Utah.
Matthew Schweich, the Marijuana Policy Project's deputy director, said he's highly confident the measure would pass in Nebraska given his experience in other conservative states.
"There are people who suffer from serious conditions who have tried other things and not found relief," he said. "For us to treat those people as criminals is heartless."
Schweich said his group wouldn't be dedicating its time, expertise and money to the Nebraska campaign if it didn't believe the measure had a good chance, but he still hopes lawmakers address the issue in the upcoming session.
"It would mean relief and access sooner for patients," he said. "We wouldn't have to wage a long and expensive campaign for something the people of Nebraska already support."
Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte
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The Bontrager Ion RT is very similar to the company's Ion 700, which we reviewed last year (check out our review of the Bontrager Ion 700 here). But there's one key difference: The RT model includes a ANT+ operated unit called the Transmitr that mounts to the handlebar and offers easy control for up to seven lights at once. I tested the set-up with three lights: a helmet mounted Ion 700 RT, a handlebar-mounted version of the same light, and Bontrager's Flare RT taillight. The Ion itself was excellent—three steady modes provided 700 lumens (run time 1.75 hours), 450 lumens (3 hours), and 200 lumens (6.75 hours). Additionally, there were two "be seen" flash modes. The beam was bright, wide, and far-reaching. The helmet mount installed and adjusted easily, though I did feel that the light sat rather far above my head compared to some others I've tested. The handlebar mount attached with a gummy strap (which I had to stretch rather tightly over my 31.8mm handlebar) and remained secure. The light can rotate in the bar mount, clicking securely into several positions along the way. The Ion charges completely in five hours using a weather-tight micro-USB plug.
When I ride in the dark, I want both to see and be seen. Lezyne's Hecto Drive set provided two pieces to help me achieve that: a 300 lumen headlight and a blinky taillight.
The Hecto Drive headlight securely attached to my handlebar using a thick silicone-rubber strap. A single power and function button on the top of the light made for easy, no-nonsense operation, even while wearing lightweight gloves.
When on the road, I set the Hecto to its brightest, steady-on setting so I could see obstacles I needed to avoid, and to make me more visible to oncoming traffic. When on a paved, multi-use path, I set the light to flashing on the medium setting since I did not want to blind oncoming traffic; they just needed to know I was approaching.
Battery life was excellent; on my rides, and I never saw a low-power indicator go on. Lezyne claims runtime to be anywhere from one to 10 hours, depending on user's settings. An LED indicator on the body of the light indicates percentage battery charge.
The Strip Drive taillight mounted to my seatpost using a snug-fitting silicone-rubber strap. And, also like the headlight, the taillight has multiple operating modes, from steady-on and ultra-bright, to flashing with a lower power setting for low-light, easy-to-be-seen riding environments.
An LED battery charge indicator on the taillight let me know when I needed to charge it. Both lights are rechargeable via a USB connector. But, instead of plugging a cable into the lights, you can plug the lights directly into a USB power supply, or a computer, as you would with a removable USB storage drive. Silicone covers keep the USB connectors safe and dry when the light is on your bike, and not charging.
Light and Motion's Urban line of lights has packed an impressive amount of light into an incredibly small package. Its latest, the Urban 850 Trail, raises the bar with even more output at 850 lumens, throwing off enough light to help me ride rocky mountain bike trails. The Trail model has similar weight (121 grams), charge time (2.5 hours) and run time (1.5 hour run time on high, 3 hour on medium, and 6 hour on low) as Light and Motion's Urban 800. Higher light output, red side bulbs, and a different reflector bump the 850 Trail's cost up to $180—an extra $30. Included is a helmet mount and GoPro mount that's particularly cool since some helmets have one integrated. Plus, the GoPro mount lets you put this light on the bottom of a Barfly Garmin mount for a clean and tidy setup.


Yana Movchan is an amazing artist. Her Renaissance inspired paintings are exquisite. Wearing one on a scarf is the perfect way to enjoy her work. The Wind Rose scarf has gorgeous flowers in red, pink, yellows and white on a black background with green foliage and colorful birds and butterflies. Lots of lovely colors that will go with so many outfits.
This scarf is a beautiful accent accessory. It will go with so many outfits. This makes a spectacular gift too.


3 hours online Training on Pepper Humanoid Robot and Introduction to Choregraphe Software. After completion of this course, a training certificate will be issued.
Today, PEPPER is with NAO one the leading humanoid robot being used in research and education worldwide.
Robotics is the fastest growing and most advanced technology used in education and research. The PEPPER humanoid robot is the ideal platform for teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) concepts at all levels.
By using the PEPPER platform, instructors and researchers stay current with major technical and commercial breakthroughs in programming and applied research. Using PEPPER guarantee students, the best possible career and college readiness!
Seeing Pepper is able to function in complex environments thanks to his 3D camera and 2 HD cameras that enable him to identify movements, and recognise the emotions on the faces of his interlocutors. If you are happy, Pepper will share your joy, and if you are sad, Pepper will comfort you.
Emotion engine By perceiving and analyzing your emotions, and learning to get to know you, Pepper is able to adapt his attitude to suit your own as closely as possible. This constant dialogue between perception, adaptation, learning and choice is the result of what is known as the emotion engine.
Interpreting emotions Pepper boasts the latest technology, which means he is able to identify your emotions by your voice as well as the expressions on your face. Pepper reacts accordingly and is delighted if you are happy, or does his best to comfort you if you are sad. In addition to faces, Pepper is also able to recognize people by their voices. Thanks to his 4 directional microphones and his loudspeakers, Pepper is able to locate the source of sounds and engage in conversation in response.
The advanced software package includes a full SDK and API in Java, C++, C# (.N et), Matlab, and Python. Every robot comes standard with Choregraphe, an award winning software that makes it easy to program the robot using a drag and drop interface which simplifies the programming for new and advanced users alike. The software package includes an advanced simulation software based on Webots.


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More than 1,400 drug poisoning deaths recorded in Alberta last year
The Alberta substance use surveillance system shows 1,443 deaths between January and November last year, the third consecutive year where the count surpassed 1,000.
Researchers at the University of Calgary have discovered a troubling link between the COVID-19 pandemic and the spike in alcohol-related liver disease.
A former actor who travelled North America presenting himself as a medicine man at Indigenous ceremonies had at least five wives including a Tsuut'ina Nation woman who was offered to the alleged sexual predator by her mother as a "gift" when she was just 15-years-old, according to an arrest report.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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La Sala de Recepciones de Chōwaden es el edificio más grande del Palacio Imperial de Tokio. Es donde el Emperador de Japón y otros miembros de la familia imperial japonesa aparecen cada año nuevo y para el cumpleaños del soberano. También es donde se llevan a cabo algunas ceremonias y funciones oficiales de estado.

Los miembros de la familia imperial japonesa están detrás de un vidrio a prueba de balas en la varanda del Salón de Recepciones de Chōwaden cuando se presentan ante el público. Es costumbre que el emperador se dirija a las personas que se reúnen en la Plaza Kyūden Tōtei frente al edificio el 2 de enero (el día después del Día de Año Nuevo) y el 23 de diciembre (cumpleaños del Emperador Akihito) de cada año. Las multitudes a menudo se pueden ver ondeando banderas japonesas y gritando "banzai", o "larga vida" en japonés, en tales ocasiones.

En un extremo de la sala de recepciones de Chōwaden se encuentra la entrada de Kitakuruma-yose para los dignatarios visitantes.

Galería de Imágenes

Referencias

Palacio Imperial de Tokio

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


To print your PDF without these margins, go into the print job settings. 1. Double-click the PDF document to open it in the default program, usually Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat Pro.
Nitro Pro 8 is one of the most powerful PDF utilities out there. We take a look at some of its key features. We take a look at some of its key features. CNET también está disponible en español.
Nitro Pro 8 .User Guide Getting started with Nitro Pro 8 Select one of the following tasks to start working with Nitro Pro 8: l Explore the User Interface l Ribbon shortcuts l Software Activation l Compatibility with other applications 2 ©Nitro .
Nitro Pro 7 is able to utilize a timestamp server to help ensure that the timestamp is precise and secure, since the system clock could be modified by a user. Forms Automatically calculate field values : A PDF form containing many complex and interdependent form calculations can affect how well a PDF viewer performs.


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New Insight into "Aha" Memories; Getting a Grasp on Memory; Biological Molecules Select Their Spin
New Insight into "Aha" Memories
When we suddenly get the answer to a riddle or understand the solution to a problem, we can practically feel the light bulb click on in our head. But what happens after the "aha!" moment? Why do the things we learn through sudden insight tend to stick in our memory?
"Much of memory research involves repetitive, rote learning," says Kelly Ludmer, a research student in the group of Prof. Yadin Dudai of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Department of Neurobiology, "but in fact, we regularly absorb large blocks of information in the blink of an eye and remember things quite well from single events. Insight is an example of a one-time event that is often well-preserved in memory."
To investigate how lessons we gain from insight get embedded in our long-term memory, Ms. Ludmer and Prof. Dudai, along with Dr. Nava Rubin of New York University, designed a test with "camouflage images"—photographs that had been systematically degraded until they resembled inkblots. When volunteers first viewed the images, they were hard pressed to identify them. But after the camouflage was switched with the original, undoctored picture for a second, the subjects experienced an "aha!" moment—the image now popped out clearly, even in the degraded image. Their perceptions, says Ms. Ludmer, underwent a sudden change—just as a flash of insight instantly shifts our world view. To tax their memory of the insightful moment, participants were asked to repeat the exercise with dozens of different images and, in a later repeat session, they were given only the camouflaged images (together with some they hadn't seen before) to identify.
The team found that some of the memories disappeared over time, but the ones that made it past a week were likely to remain. All in all, about half of all the learned "insights" seemed to be consolidated in the subjects' memories.
To reveal what occurs in the brain at the moment of insight, the initial viewing session was conducted in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner. When the scientists looked at the fMRI results, they were surprised to find that among the areas that lit up in the scans—those known to be involved in object recognition, for instance—was the amygdala. The amygdala is more famously known as the seat of emotion in the brain.
Though it has recently been found to play a role in the consolidation of certain memories, studies have implied that it does so by attaching special weight to emotion-laden events. But the images used in the experiment—hot-air balloons, dogs, people looking through binoculars, etc.—were hardly the sort to elicit an emotional response. Yet, not only was the amygdala lighting up in the fMRI, the team found that its activity was actually predictive of the subject's ability to identify the degraded image long after that moment of induced insight in which it was first recognized.
"Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that the amygdala is important for creating long-term memories—not only when the information learned is explicitly emotional, but also when there is a sudden reorganization of information in our brain; for example, involving a sudden shift in perception," says Ms. Ludmer. "It might somehow evaluate the event, 'deciding' whether it is significant and therefore worthy of preservation."
Prof. Yadin Dudai's research is supported by the Nella and Leon Benoziyo Center for Neurological Diseases; the Abe and Kathryn Selsky Memorial Research Project; Miel de Botton Aynsley, UK; Dr. Henry Kaminer, New York, NY; Marla L. Schaefer, New York, NY; and Lisa Mierins Smith, Canada. Prof. Dudai is the incumbent of the Sara and Michael Sela Professorial Chair of Neurobiology.
Getting a Grasp on Memory
Long-term memory is a slippery thing. Just how slippery it can be was demonstrated a few years ago by Weizmann Institute scientists, who erased entire memories in rats just by blocking a certain protein in the brain. In other words, memory—even the part we imagine to contain neatly packed files—is in reality a dynamic piece of equipment that must be actively maintained to work. Now, in research published in Science, these scientists have shown that manipulating the same protein can enhance memory.
The protein—PKMzeta—is produced in the brain in response to learning, and it acts on the synapses—the active contact points between neurons. It continues to operate there long after the memory has been formed, suggesting that its function is tied not to learning (that is, absorbing information), but to keeping what is learned available in the long-term memory. In 2007, Prof. Yadin Dudai and research student Reut Shema of the Institute's Department of Neurobiology, together with Dr. Todd Sacktor of the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, trained rats to avoid a specific taste and then blocked the activity of PKMzeta in their brains. While the control rats still had a strong aversion to the taste, even months after the training, those in which the activity of the protein was briefly blocked had no such qualms, appearing to have forgotten what they had learned.
But could extra doses of PKMzeta actually improve memory? Investigating this claim turned out to be a more difficult prospect than blocking protein activity. Simply injecting the protein into the rats' grey matter was not an option, as the brain is built to keep such extraneous material from reaching the neurons. So Prof. Dudai, Ms. Shema, and Dr. Sacktor teamed up with Dr. Alon Chen and Sharon Haramati, also of the Institute's Department of Neurobiology, to create harmless viruses that carry extra copies of the PKMzeta gene into the brain cells' nucleus, tricking the neurons themselves into producing greater quantities of the protein.
Once again, they trained the rats to avoid the taste. Weeks after the training, the rats whose brains were churning out more of the proteins were much more likely to avoid the taste. In other words, an excess of PKMzeta effectively enhanced their memories. This is the very first demonstration that memories formed long ago can be augmented by manipulating a component of the memory machinery in the brain.
While the technique they developed is only suitable for the lab, the researchers hope that by shedding light on the function of this key component of the memory machinery, their findings might eventually point to ways of preventing or treating memory loss. Says Ms. Shema, "Our research is evidence that our brains are very plastic—even our long-term memories can be augmented."
Biological Molecules Select Their Spin
New Findings Could Help Build Better Biomedical Devices
Do the principles of quantum mechanics apply to biological systems? Until now, says Prof. Ron Naaman of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Chemical Physics, both biologists and physicists have considered quantum systems and biological molecules to be like apples and oranges. But research he conducted together with scientists in Germany, which appeared recently in Science, definitively shows that a biological molecule—DNA—can discern between quantum states known as spin.
Quantum phenomena, it is generally agreed, take place in extremely tiny systems—single atoms, for instance, or very small molecules. To investigate them, scientists must usually cool their material down to temperatures approaching absolute zero. Once such a system exceeds a certain size or temperature, its quantum properties collapse, and "everyday" classical physics takes over. Says Prof. Naaman, "Biological molecules are quite large, and they work at temperatures that are much warmer than the temperatures at which most quantum physics experiments are conducted. One would expect that the quantum phenomenon of spin, which exists in two opposing states, would be scrambled in these molecules—and thus irrelevant to their function."
But biological molecules have another property: they are chiral. In other words, they exist in either left- or right-handed forms that can't be superimposed on one another. Double-stranded DNA molecules are doubly chiral—both in the arrangement of the individual strands and in the direction of the helices' twist. Prof. Naaman knew from previous studies that some chiral molecules can interact in different ways with the two different spins. Together with Prof. Zeev Vager of the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics, research student Tal Markus, and Prof. Helmut Zacharias and his research team at the University of Münster, Germany, he set out to discover whether DNA might show some spin-selective properties.
The researchers fabricated self-assembling, single layers of DNA attached to a gold substrate. They then exposed the DNA to mixed groups of electrons with both directions of spin. Indeed, the team's results surpassed expectations: The biological molecules reacted strongly with the electrons carrying one of those spins, and hardly at all with the others. The longer the molecule, the more efficient it was at choosing electrons with the desired spin, while single strands and damaged bits of DNA did not exhibit this property. These findings imply that the ability to pick and choose electrons with a particular spin stems from the chiral nature of the DNA molecule, which somehow "sets the preference" for the spin of electrons moving through it.
In fact, says Prof. Naaman, DNA turns out to be a superb "spin filter," and the team's findings could have relevance for both biomedical research and the field of spintronics. If further studies, for instance, bear out the finding that DNA only sustains damage from spins pointing in one direction, then exposure might be reduced and medical devices designed accordingly. On the other hand, DNA and other biological molecules could become a central feature of new types of spintronic devices, which will work on particle spin rather than electric charge, as they do today.
Prof. Ron Naaman is head of the Nancy and Stephen Grand Research Center for Sensors and Security, and his research is supported by Rachel Schwartz, Canada. Prof. Naaman is the incumbent of the Aryeh and Mintzi Katzman Professorial Chair.
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Underarm Care Tips
Does shaving your armpits reduce sweating?
by Laurie L. Dove
Do you sweat less if your armpits are shaved? See our underarm sweating image gallery.
Robert Churchill/iStock/Thinkstock
It was the sixth hour of a daylong summer outdoor music festival. The morning's breezes had fizzled and the afternoon heat hung low, hugging the hills and valleys of the acres-wide park in a sweltering embrace.
Sleeveless spectators waving their arms in appreciation -- few shocks of armpit hair among them.
If this was a fight against the follicle, then we were winning.
But why? Doubtless for most women, hairless armpits are about looks rather than health. But some might believe it lessens sweating. Is this true?
Humans have two primary types of sweat producers, known as eccrine and apocrine glands. Both types of glands are situated directly under the skin, but that's where the similarities end.
Eccrine glands cover most of the body and work as your own personal air conditioner. If your body becomes overheated, these glands empty an odorless solution made mostly of water and salt onto the skin's surface where it evaporates and cools the body.
Apocrine glands are located in areas rich with hair follicles, such as the groin and axilla (armpit) regions. Apocrine glands are activated by hormonal changes and emotional stress, and release a milky fluid made mostly of water, protein and fatty acids directly into hair follicles.
Although the fluids excreted by eccrine and apocrine glands are initially odorless, both emit a distinct odor when metabolized by the bacteria living on the skin's surface. Apocrine glands, for example, release fluid onto the skin through openings in hair follicles where it can comingle with fluid that originated in the eccrine glands. This blend can be consumed by bacteria on the skin's surface. As the bacteria break down the protein and fatty acids in the sweat, body odor becomes the byproduct [source: Mayo Clinic].
So, does less hair mean less sweat? Find out on the next page.
Stuff Mom Never Told You: What a Woman's Armpit Hair Says About Her
Top 10 Tips for Preventing Underarm Odor
Top 5 Tips for Preventing Underarm Razor Burn


LINE Webtoon (http://www.webtoons.com), the popular digital comics publisher pioneering the development and distribution of comics worldwide, and comic publisher Legendary Comics announced today a partnership to develop new digital comic titles exclusively for the LINE Webtoon platform. The partnership kicks off today with a sneak peek at the first three chapters of new series Firebrand: The Initiation of Natali Presano, a thrilling supernatural series created by Nerdist's host Jessica Chobot and author Erika Lewis.
Created and written by Chobot and Lewis, with artwork by Claudia Aguirre, Firebrand follows willful witch Natali Presano. Natali never fit into her father's perfectly human world: politically ambitious, he turned his back on her just when she needed him most. Having lost her mother to tragedy as a young child, Natali flees the safety of home into the arms of her aunt Selena, the mysterious guardian of a magical order waging a centuries-old war for survival in the mountains of Spain. Natali, now in her 20s, has followed in her aunt's footsteps, becoming a powerful but rebellious witch in her own right. Returning to Seattle, she finds herself caught between a cruel modern world and the ancient evil threatening to destroy it. The series will officially launch on January 26, 2017.
Jessica Chobot is best known as host for Nerdist News. Before joining Nerdist, Chobot hosted several shows on IGN and frequently appeared as an industry expert on G4. Following a successful career in television production, Erika Lewis turned to writing. In addition to Firebrand, Lewis is also the author of the soon-to-be released Game of Shadows, and The 49th Key.
The announcement of LINE Webtoon's partnership with Legendary Comics comes off the heels of the exciting news that LINE Webtoon has signed with CAA, who will exclusively represent LINE Webtoon's portfolio of comic titles for film and television opportunities in the U.S.
Readers can check out the first three chapters of Firebrand: The Initiation of Natali Presano exclusively on LINE Webtoon here, with new chapters debuting in January. To download the official LINE Webtoon app, visit the Apple App Store and Google Play.
Jessica Chobot is represented by Natasha Bolouki at UTA and Erika Lewis is represented by Rob Wolken at Rain Management Group. Both are repped by Darren Trattner at Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein.


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A Clarifying Moment for the West
By Alan W. Dowd, 8.8.18
In mid-July, after a chaotic week of unforced errors courtesy of President Donald Trump, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats calmly explained that Russia's efforts "to undermine our basic values," "divide us from our allies," and "wreak havoc with our election process" are "undeniable," grimly concluding: "We're under attack." Noting that "the very pillar…of democracy is the ability to have confidence in your elected officials—that they were elected legitimately," Coats added, "We have to take every effort to ensure that happens in this upcoming election and future elections."
Before discussing some of the efforts the U.S. might take in response to Vladimir Putin's Russia, it's worth recapping what Moscow has been doing.
Using cyber-technologies, social media and false-front organizations, Russia has carried out strategic-influence operations targeting political-electoral systems in 27 countries, including the U.S., Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and several other NATO allies.
Freedom House reports that Russia has "deepened its interference in elections in established democracies through…theft and publication of the internal documents of mainstream parties and candidates, and the aggressive dissemination of fake news and propaganda." Kristofer Harrison, who worked in the State Department and Defense Department under President George W. Bush, points to examples at Bloomberg, Reuters, the New York Times and other reputable news organizations.
Equally worrisome, Putin's Russia has tried to influence policymakers through compromising material, gain access to critical infrastructure and even exacerbate racial tensions in the U.S.
Moscow's goal in these actions, according a U.S. intelligence report, is to "undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process" and "undermine the U.S.-led liberal democratic order." And Moscow may be succeeding: A plurality of Americans (45 percent) believe Russia leaked hacked material in order to impact the 2016 election, and 68 percent of Americans express concern that Russia will interfere in future elections.
Similar worries are emerging elsewhere in the West: "Russian hackers are targeting Macron," blares a France24 report. "Russia used Twitter bots and trolls 'to disrupt' Brexit vote," reads a headline from The Times of London. "Merkel warns of Russian cyberattacks in German elections," Deutsche Welle adds.
Add it all up, and both the evidence of Russian interference and the worry that Russia might interfere are undermining the West's faith in its own institutions.
In this light, NSC-68, the pivotal national-security document penned in 1950 that provided a roadmap for waging the Cold War, seems strangely relevant. NSC-68 noted that Moscow's "preferred technique is to subvert by infiltration and intimidation," that "every institution of our society is an instrument which it is sought to stultify and turn against our purposes," that institutions "that touch most closely our material and moral strength are obviously the prime targets," that Moscow's objective is to prevent those institutions "from serving our ends and thus to make them sources of confusion in our economy, our culture and our body politic."
To be sure, NSC-68 was a response to the communist Soviet Union. But it pays to recall that post-Soviet, post-communist Russia is led by a former KGB intelligence officer trained in the dark arts of disinformation and influence manipulation. His intelligence agencies and cyber-soldiers are distracting our government, sowing confusion and undermining public confidence in our institutions.
Consider that Russia's hacking into U.S. political campaigns, manipulation of social media and use of weaponized leaks first eroded support for the Clinton campaign; then undermined the legitimacy of the Trump presidency; and finally, as former CIA official Mark Kelton concludes, helped "advance Putin's over-arching goals of degrading American power, denigrating American ideals, and driving a wedge between President Trump and the U.S. intelligence community."
Given the nature and effect of Russia's strategic-influence operations, it's no wonder that policymakers on both sides of the aisle describe Russia's behavior as "an act of war."
Clearly, President Barack Obama's too little, too late and toothless "cut it out" warning to Putin as well as Trump's obsequious echo of Putin's promise that "it's not Russia…I don't see any reason why it would be" have failed to address this threat. Both leaders have overlooked a basic truth in dealing with dictators: All that matters when interacting with Putin and his kind are actions—theirs and ours. What Churchill said of his Russian counterparts remains true of Putin and his puppets. "There is nothing they admire so much as strength, and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness."
Here are some pathways policymakers could take to change Putin's calculus and raise the costs of his malign actions.
Defend the Homefront against Foreign Intrigue
In his farewell address, Washington warned about the "insidious wiles of foreign influence" and the "mischiefs of foreign intrigue," urging his countrymen "to be constantly awake" to such dangers.
The good news amidst all the troubling news is that key institutions—Congress, federal and state agencies, and the press—have been awakened to the dangers posed by Russia's strategic-influence operations. Day by day, these institutions are exploring and exposing Russian intrusion into the U.S. political system.
Several congressional committees are investigating Russia's reach, which is altogether appropriate. But to restore and preserve the integrity of America's institutions, Congress should create a joint committee of seasoned members dedicated to a) monitoring, investigating and exposing attempts by Russia and other foreign entities to interfere in the U.S. political-electoral system; b) identifying individuals and entities in the U.S. that collaborate with or work on behalf of hostile governments like Russia; and c) securing necessary, sustained funding to help state and county election agencies shield themselves from foreign intrusion.
That last point highlights the genius of America's decentralized election system. Its highly diffuse nature—with the electoral process governed not by some national agency, but rather by 50 states and 3,141 counties—makes it difficult for a foreign power to manipulate outcomes. Even so, evidence of Russian efforts to penetrate local election systems and acquire firms that handle voter-registration data are raising flags. Federal resources can help expose these efforts and harden these targets.
Take the Fight to Russia
Even as they stand up their new committee—call it the Joint Select Committee on Election Integrity—congressional leaders should reopen the U.S. Information Agency, which was shut down in 1999, after decades of countering Moscow's Cold War propaganda. Former DNI James Clapper proposes "a USIA on steroids to fight this information war a lot more aggressively than we're doing right now."
Likewise, NATO commander Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti urges Washington to "bring the information aspects of our national power more fully to bear on Russia." He recommends strengthening and unleashing the Russian Information Group (a joint effort of U.S European Command and the State Department) and the State Department's Global Engagement Center (a project charged with countering foreign disinformation).
Further up the ladder, the United States could always respond in kind to Putin's assault on the West's political systems. It's not difficult to imagine the U.S. executing a cyber-operation that turns Putin's stage-managed elections into a full-blown farce: returns showing Leonid Brezhnev finishing second or Czar Nicholas II winning a few oblasts or no one at all winning. Putin would get the message.
Shore up the Infrastructure
Arguing that democracy "needs cultivating," President Ronald Reagan helped create the National Endowment for Democracy "to foster the infrastructure of democracy."
In a similar way, perhaps it's time for the world's foremost groupings of democratic nations—the G-7, European Union, NATO and its partners in Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia—to create a pool of resources to reinforce and rebuild the infrastructure of liberal democracy, monitor and expose Moscow's cyber-siege of the West, and help those countries under information-warfare assault preserve the integrity of their democratic institutions.
Deploy Additional Instruments of National Power
Finally, the United States should offer moral support to democracy inside Russia and along Russia's periphery. "A little less détente," as Reagan argued, "and more encouragement to the dissenters might be worth a lot of armored divisions."
Toward that end, Washington should provide a sturdy platform to human-rights activists, journalists and political dissidents from Russia; use high-profile settings to highlight Russia's democracy deficit; and draw attention—relentlessly and repeatedly—to Putin's assaults on human rights, civil society, religious liberty and political pluralism.
To his credit, Trump took this very tack vis-à-vis North Korea during his 2018 State of the Union address. It's time to use the bully pulpit in the same way against Putin. If the president is unable or unwilling to do so, leaders in Congress and at relevant agencies must fill the vacuum, as Coats and FBI Director Christopher Wray recently have.
Hard-power tools can serve as an exclamation point to these words: More defensive weaponry could flow to Ukraine to protect Ukraine's fragile democracy; rotational deployments in the Baltics and Poland could be made permanent to reassure NATO's easternmost members; NATO could stand up an Allied Command-Arctic to checkmate Putin's next landgrab; the U.S. could deploy its vast oil and gas reserves, in Gen. Martin Dempsey's words, "as an instrument of national power" to make Russia's oligarchs feel the consequences of Putin's actions.
Revelations of Russian interference are troubling. But they are also clarifying. In light of its actions, there should be no question as to whether Putin's Russia is a friend, no illusions that Putin can be mollified by promises of "resets" or post-election "flexibility," no doubts about Moscow's motives, no debate over the threat posed by a revisionist Russia.
The task ahead is to fully expose Russia's reach into our political system, strengthen our institutions to harden them against another wave of foreign influence, and defend liberal democracy at home and abroad.
Alan W. Dowd is a senior fellow with the Sagamore Institute, where he heads the Center for America's Purpose. A shorter version of this essay appeared in Real Clear Defense.
A Writer, a Scientist and a Football Fan
A Recipe for Crisis and Chaos


The Islamic State (IS) launched two attacks using chemical weapons on a town in northern Iraq early on Saturday, Iraqi officials told the Associated Press, a week after US-led coalition airstrikes targeted the militant group's chemical facilities.
A 3-year-old girl was killed and around 600 people were reportedly injured in the small town of Taza, not far from Kirkuk. Hundreds more are said to have fled their homes. Helmi Hamdi, a nurse at the Taza hospital, told the AP that the wounded were being treated for infected burns, suffocation from the chemical agents, and dehydration. Eight people in severe condition were transported to a hospital in Baghdad, which is about 170 miles south of Kirkuk.
"There is fear and panic among the women and children," Adel Hussein, a local official in Taza, told AP. "They're calling for the central government to save them."
The attack on Saturday was the second Taza has seen this week. On Wednesday, around 40 people were injured when rockets that reportedly carried chemical agents hit the town. Taza, which is predominantly populated by Shiite Turkmen, has withstood heavy bombardment from IS for months.
The capacity of IS to wage chemical warfare has remained a source of grave concern for Iraqi and US-led coalition officials. The group is reportedly operating a chemical weapons research lab, headed by Iraqi chemists who developed weapons programs under Saddam Hussein.
But the recent capture of Sulayman Dawud al Bakkar, a "significant operative" in IS chemical weapons program, was a big win for US and Iraqi military officials. Al Bakkar, also known as Abu Dawud, reportedly gave up valuable information regarding the group's chemical weapons labs, which led to two targeted airstrikes.
In a Department of Defense press briefing on Friday, US Army Colonel Steve Warren downplayed the threat posed by IS developing chemical weapons. "It's a legitimate threat" Warren told reporters. "It's not a high threat. We're not, frankly, losing too much sleep over it."
The colonel added that US military forces were accustomed to operating in "a chemical environment," so the threat was "nothing new to us."
Warren said that military officials were still trying to establish the exact number of times that IS militants had deployed chemical weapons.
"They used two chemicals primarily," Warren said. "One is chlorine, the other one is sulfur mustard, which is a blister agent."
"They've lost one of their principal chemical weapon production facilities, which we struck the other day," added Warren. "So they've got less of it now than they did last week, I can tell you that. How much total they have, that's to be determined."
Officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told the AP that special forces are planning further raids on chemical weapons facilities and experts. Pentagon officials said during briefings following the capture of al Bakkar that they could not disclose too much information regarding what they have gleaned due to ongoing operations. On Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said that they had confirmed that IS fighters "have used chemical weapons in both Iraq and Syria."
While sulfur mustard and chlorine are considered to be more innocuous than other chemical agents, Davis said that they can be dangerous when deployed in large doses.
A German and American forensics team have reportedly arrived in Taza to investigate the presence of chemical agents. In 2014, Taza was the site of a brutal massacre carried out by IS that left at least 40 dead.


Being a couple is special.
You're unlike any other couple.
As a couple, you have secrets no one else knows, you have inside jokes that send you delirious with laughter, and you have pet names and private rituals.
Defining who you are as a couple is an important part of bonding. Many couples feel as if it's them against the world, and hardships strengthen their commitment to each other.
One of the best ways to create an unbreakable identity as a couple is to engage in rituals.
You might have a special phrase that is nonsense to anyone but the two of you yet communicates a world of meaning when one of you says it.
You might have a movie that means a lot to you as a couple that you watch regularly.
You might have a special place you visit when you want to recapture the romance of your early days together.
Still other rituals connect you in service to one another. Your partner might bring you coffee in bed every Saturday morning. You might make your partner's favorite meal for his birthday each year. He might buy you the first bunch of daffodils when they start coming up in the spring.
Although these rituals seem to be just a bit of fun, irrelevant to anyone other than the couple, they actually play an important role.
They work as deposits in a couple's "love bank," storing up goodwill and positive emotions for the difficult times.
For example, you may have just had an argument and you're incredibly angry with each other, but then your song comes on the radio. You look at each other, remembering that you always dance to this song when you hear it. Do you dance this time?
Chances are, you will…because it's a ritual. It's hard to be mad with someone your holding close. The ritual itself can restore the love.
Dr. John Gottman, founder of The Love Lab at the University of Washington, found that every relationship needs a ratio of at least 5 positive and loving acts to every 1 negative or hurtful act. This magical ratio can predict which couples stay together.
The more loving things you do, the more your relationship benefits.
So how many couple rituals should you have? As many as you like!
You can create rituals around the most minor things. Perhaps you light a candle each night at dinner. Perhaps you ask your partner what the best thing that happened to him that day was. Perhaps you share a bath together every so often, complete with glasses of bubbly and classical music. Holidays are a great time for rituals, so watch out for things you can enjoy year after year.
Some rituals won't last the test of time. You may try something, and your partner doesn't like it. Other rituals may feel fun for a while but lose their appeal. That's okay!
Rituals should evolve and grow just as you do.
If your relationship ever does end, you may find yourself missing the rituals more than you miss the man. Rituals provide structure and meaning in our lives. They give us little treats to look forward to.
Even if you're single, you can bring the power of rituals into your own life. Arrange a party with your girlfriends' each Valentine's Day. Treat yourself to a bunch of flowers once a week.
Give yourself a life full of special things to look forward to.
We don't have a special song or date night or movie or anything like that. In fact, I can only think of 2 rituals that we have but they are big ones. The 1st is, as long as we both have time which happens 95% of the time, we cuddle for at least a few minutes first thing in the morning. The second is something that started 6 years ago the morning after our first date. Every day that we spend apart, one of us calls the other first thing in the morning & last thing at night to say good night. Even if he is just working late or just at a neighbor's house less than a half of a mile away, I will call or text him to say good night. Most people think it is corny but to me, it is the definition of romance.


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Women CFOs barely out-earn their male peers, here's why
Sally Herships, American Public Media
Sally Herships
Microsoft CFO and Executive Vice President Amy Hood addresses the Microsoft Annual Shareholders meeting, on December 2, 2015 in Bellevue, Washington.
It's well known that women make less money than men, which is what makes a recent review of salaries at S&P 500 companies stand out. The Associated Press took a look at what chief financial officers are paid and found that female CFOs are making more than their male counterparts.
"I think what we're seeing in these latest numbers about CFOs may be a better indicator of a crack in the glass ceiling than overall pay equity," said Linda Barrington, executive director of Cornell University's Institute for Compensation Studies.
Barrington said there are a lot of different factors that determine pay — like which industry the job is in.
"Are these women clustered in different kinds of companies and that's why they're paid more? Is it actually a performance reflection, or is it a anomaly this year and next year we might see the numbers back down," she said.
Equally important to consider is a company's size, said Nora McCord, managing director at Steven Hall & Partners, an executive compensation consulting firm.
"The biggest driver of pay is the size of the company," she said.
Which means it's likely they work at larger companies which pay more. Think Fortune 200 rather than Fortune 500.
Also important, notes McCord, is taking a close look at how much larger the salaries in question are. "Let's be clear about what more is — it's really like one percent," she said.
The figure the AP tallied was $3.32 million in salary for women CFOs and $3.3 million for men, a difference of $20,000
And why look at CFOs? Josh Crist, managing director with Crist|Kolder Associates, an executive search firm, said that's "because the CFO had been the least diverse chair over time."
Crist said there's been a big push in the boardroom for diversity, and this latest jump in pay for female CFOs is a sign that it's working. But McCord said in order to pay female executives more, first, you need more of them.
#APM
#Wage Gap


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Transpo/
Cars/
Faraday Future is going public and raising $1 billion
Yes, really
By Sean O'Kane / @sokane1
Photo by Sean O'Kane / The Verge
Faraday Future is going to become a publicly traded company on the Nasdaq stock exchange and is raising around $1 billion in the process.
The troubled EV startup announced Thursday that it is indeed merging with special purpose acquisition corporation (or SPAC) Property Solutions, as first reported by Bloomberg earlier this month.
About $230 million will come from the money that Property Solutions raised in its SPAC. The other $775 million will come from a new funding round happening concurrently with the merger. Geely, China's biggest privately owned automaker, is contributing "less than 10 percent" of that new investment, and $175 million is coming from an unnamed "Tier 1 Chinese City," meaning that the Chinese government is involved in the deal. Faraday Future will have around $748 million of cash to play with when all is said and done.
Faraday Future expects to be able to finish building out its factory in Hanford, California with the new funds and launch its FF91 luxury SUV "within 12 months" of the finalization of the merger, which is expected to happen in the second quarter of this year. Smaller models, as well as a delivery vehicle, will follow. Faraday Future is targeting the US, China, and European markets and has an agreement with South Korean manufacturer Myoung Shin to make cars there. A joint venture with Geely and the Tier 1 city is also being discussed.
The FF91 luxury SUV will launch 12 months after the deal closes
Property Solutions CEO Jordan Vogel said in a call Thursday that his SPAC reviewed "roughly" 65 different companies to merge with. "Faraday Future is by far the most compelling company we've seen," he said. Vogel specifically called out Faraday Future CEO Carsten Breitfeld, a former BMW executive who took the helm in 2019, as "one of the most compelling parts of their story."
While it's just the latest EV startup to announce that it's going public via SPAC in the last seven months (joining the likes of Nikola, Canoo, Fisker, Arrival, and others), Faraday Future is perhaps the most notorious considering its history of financial troubles.
Going public has long been a goal for Faraday Future, which was founded in 2014 and started to emerge from stealth mode in 2015. But it's a goal that's seemed increasingly out of reach as the startup struggled over the years.
After debuting its electric luxury SUV, the FF91, at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, Faraday Future spiraled. It was facing a major cash crunch after already spending hundreds of millions of dollars of founder Jia Yueting's own money. At the same time, Jia self-exiled himself to the US as he tried to escape massive mounting debts in his home country, China, following the collapse of his tech conglomerate LeEco.
Faraday Future brought in two former BMW executives to help straighten things out, including the former chief financial officer of the German automaker (and Deutsche Bank), Stefan Krause. The startup abandoned plans to build a $1 billion factory in the desert in favor of taking over a smaller, dormant plant in Central California. Krause pushed for other cost-cutting measures, too, like exiting the Formula E electric racing series, ending LeEco's technical partnership with Aston Martin, and scrapping a product placement in the Transformers movie franchise.
But when Jia ultimately rejected Krause's larger pitch to restructure the startup through bankruptcy, the chief financial officer and his BMW counterpart resigned. (They went on to found the startup that is now Canoo.) A wave of other resignations followed. Weeks away from running out of cash, Jia put everything on the line to sign a deal at the end of 2017 with Chinese real estate conglomerate Evergrande worth up to $2 billion in exchange for 45 percent of the company.
Inside Faraday Future's financial house of cards
Buoyed by new cash, Faraday Future started off 2018 by renovating the factory in Central California and continuing work on the SUV. But the relationship with Evergrande soured across that year as Jia quickly spent through the conglomerate's first $800 million installment. When Jia asked for more, Evergrande used the opportunity to try to sideline him. Ultimately, it wasn't satisfied that Jia actually relinquished control, and the two sides started a months-long legal battle before an arbitrator in Hong Kong.
While this was happening, Faraday Future was down to just a few million dollars in the bank. It laid off hundreds and furloughed hundreds more, and cut salaries across the board. Top executives who had stuck it out, including co-founder Nick Sampson, relented and left the startup.
Faraday Future reached a truce with Evergrande on the final day of 2018. The Chinese conglomerate was released from the remaining $1.2 billion and reduced its stake to 32 percent.
Faraday Future has been treading water ever since, staying alive by borrowing from an investment firm run by a "bankruptcy legend."
Faraday Future's still haunted by the past of its billionaire founder
Through all this, Faraday Future racked up hundreds of millions of dollars in debt to suppliers and vendors. The startup placated most of them by promising a slice of a future IPO. Jia declared bankruptcy in late 2019 in an effort to settle some $3 billion of his own debts in China. The result of that process was that Jia put his controlling shares in Faraday Future in a trust of which his creditors now all own pieces.
The makeup of Faraday Future's ownership is changing with the deal. When it closes, shareholders of the SPAC will own 6.8 percent of the company. The entities doing the $775 million raise will own 23 percent. Creditors that Faraday Future and Jia owe money to will own 17.2 percent. Existing shareholders in Faraday Future will collectively own 51.1 percent.
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