The Revolutionary War Comes To Life On Your Hop-On hop-Off Bus Tour!
New York City was first settled in 1624, making it one of the oldest European settlements in the new world. Because of its crucial location as a port, the city quickly grew into the largest settlement on the continent, and from there into a bustling and thriving colonial city. As the harbor trade grew, absorbing increased commerce from both the country's exports to Europe as well as Europe's imports into the New World, the population of New York grew exponentially. The city expanded its borders uptown into modern day Harlem and Washington Heights. Many of the neighborhoods seen from your hop-on hop-off bus tour were not even settled at the time of the revolution. When the nation declared Independence in 1776, it was New York City which was chosen as the nation's first capital city due to its prominence as a center of colonial trade, culture, and politics. When the revolutionary war broke out, one of the first major battles was fought for control over New York City. This was referred to as the Battle Of Long Island, in which British and American forces clashed fiercely in Brooklyn for control over the crucial New York harbor. The Americans were defeated, leading to Washington's famous retreat through Manhattan, fighting the British at their backs as they went. After this battle New York City became the British base of operations for the rest of the war. Many significant sightseeing sites throughout New York have been left behind from this crucial stage of the revolution, many of which case be easily accessed from a hop-on hop-off tour bus. The Morris-Jumel Mansion was George Washington's personal headquarters during the extent of the Manhattan campaign, located in current day Roger Morris Park in Washington Heights. The house took on a particularly notable role during the Battle of Harlem Heights, the stage of the overall battle for Manhattan when a smaller Continental force held the high ground of Harlem, accessible from our Uptown hop-on hop-off tour, and Washington Heights against a larger British Force further downtown. The entire area at the time was undeveloped woodlands, leading to battles among the trees and fields rather than in crowded urban streets, as was the case in Brooklyn and downtown Manhattan during previous sections of the battle for the city. Washington here gained several short-term victories, his first in the entire war, over the advancing British forces which helped reinvigorate morale for the Continental army after his steady losses throughout the city forced him further uptown. About a month later Washington would be forced to abandon the city entirely and retreat over the Hudson to New Jersey. During this entire segment of the battle for Harlem the Morris-Jumel Mansion remained the nucleus of Continental strategy manned and lived in by Washington himself, making it an essential sightseeing spot for the historical sightseer. After Washington's retreat the house was occupied by the British and used by British officers as their own headquarters for the area. Almost as far uptown as you can go lies Fort Tryon Park, a beautiful green area extending from 190th Street all the way up to Riverside Drive. The park includes many walking paths and gorgeous wide views of the New Jersey Palisades across the Hudson River. The park also houses the Cloisters, an old Monastery which has been refurbished as an extension of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, another must-see sightseeing stop on our Uptown hop-on hop-off tour. The building itself is an antique sight to see, in addition to the cultural artifacts and works of art housed within. The park is also famously the site of the Continental army's brave last stand on Manhattan Island, in the Battle of Fort Washington. As British troops continued to capture areas in the greater New York area, General Howe decided to attack Fort Washington, the last Continental stronghold on Manhattan Island itself. The fort stood at the highest geographic point on the entire island. Also importantly, it stood across the river from Fort Lee, another Continental fort, and the twin positions made the lower Hudson virtually impregnable to British Warships, cutting off access to a crucial waterway allowing access to the rest of the state. The position of Fort Washington therefore was considered decisive and all-important. Dislocating the Continental forces from the crucial island entirely would be a major step forward for the British. At the time the fort housed twelve hundred men, and Washington ordered the abandonment of the fort in the face of a British offensive. Colonel Robert McGraw, commanding officer of the fort, decided to stay and attempt to hold the position, bringing in an additional eighteen hundred troops to fortify the defenses. With choppy river conditions precluding a retreat by water, the fort quickly fell to a superior British force attacking from all sides on land. The battle constituted the Continental loss of New York City, as Washington's remaining troops fled to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. On the opposite end of the island, almost as far as you can go downtown, lies Bowling Green Park, a small square in the heart of the financial district. Our hop-on hop-off Downtown tour drives straight through this area, providing easy access to Bowling Green and all the following sights. On July ninth, 1776 the Declaration of Independence was read aloud to Washington's troops at City Hall. Invigorated by the speech, Sons of Liberty rushed to Bowling Greene, where a large lead statue of King George III had been erected six years prior. The mob tore down the statue after which the metal was melted down and used to forge bullets for the Continental Army. Further downtown, at the very southern tip of the island is Battery Park, named for the artillery positions embedded in the area. The strategically placed weaponry was meant to defend both the Hudson and East Rivers from British warships. At the onset of the war the Continental leadership realized the position was indefensible and ordered the removal of the guns to a more pragmatic location. Under cover of night a team of men were sent to dismantle the guns, but were spotted by a British Warship in the harbor, which opened fire on the position. The Continentals returned fire from Manhattan, and this exchange constitutes the first exchange of hostilities on the Hudson, eventually leading to the prolonged and bloody battle for all of New York City and New Jersey. The Park is a major stop on our hop-on hop-off tour. The fort currently available for visit in the park was built just prior to the war of 1812, and saw activity during that war, not during the Revolution. This fort is Castle Clinton, named for the current mayor at the time of the war. After its retirement from service, the fort became property of the city and was used as a cultural and theatrical venue, for both local New Yorkers and sailors docking in the city. The financial district also includes Federal Hall, the historical site of Washington's first inauguration, although the original building has long-since been replaced. The original bible used by Washington for his swearing-in remains available for viewership. It was also the original building that served as the center for the new American government during the years New York served as the capital of the nation. It was here that Congress met for the first time, adopted the Bill of Rights, and created the Departments of State, War and Treasury, and the United States Supreme Court. A large statue of Washington stands outside the modern building today to commemorate the significance of the site. Whether you're a casual tourist or an ardent historian, New York's war history is a deeply embedded aspect of the city's and the country's history. A hop-on hop-off bus tour will take you to all these major sightseeing attractions to learn even more about New York's famous history!


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The Information War
Filed Reports
Dispatches University
By John Biver Archive October 4, 2008
Horse and buggy legislators – The Last Hurrah
This is part of a series of articles that first posted in August 2006.
The 1958 Spencer Tracy film "The Last Hurrah" is about "an old Irish-American political boss, running for reelection as a mayor of a U.S. town for the last time," an"outstanding look at old time politics as it begins to give way to the era of mass media."
Half a century later we've entered yet another new era, so it's time for a remake. The new version of the movie could involve a member of Congress, or for that matter a state legislator, who is coming to grips with the fact that the times have passed them by and their approach to their job hasn't kept pace.
For many years it has been considered acceptable for them to merely provide good constituent service and to satisfy as many lobbyists as possible. That has to change. Communication with the larger public must become the name of the game. Legislators in fact must become educators.
Americans are busy living their lives and a justified cynicism keeps most of them from becoming more informed. Since they don't know what to believe, it's quite rational for them to just tune out the political noise.
Because public support is not optional, Republican members of Congress must make a connection with more people than just constituents or lobbyists who ask for help. They must outline in clear terms, for example, why we are fighting in Iraq. How does the threat from an extremist sect of fascist Islam pertain to Iraq? Too many Americans don't know and never will without a stepped-up effort on the part of those we've elected.
Anyone who has read even a little about the history of warfare knows that, to say the least, there are ups and downs. Few conflicts play out as cleanly as the Gulf War did in 1991. Most are drawn out, terribly bloody, and a test of will for those fighting on the side of right.
During World War II an average of 7,000 American soldiers lost their lives each and every month. Back then, however, people in this country were strong and clear headed when it came to the war. In the present struggle, every time the going gets rough there are serious discussions about retreat. Clearly, today's America isn't anything like the America of the 1940s.
A historically large segment of our population is convinced that the United States is causing all of or at least most of the world's problems. Fortunately, the vast majority of American citizens will still support the right policies once they've heard the right argument about the reality and the stakes involved.
Our Republican leaders better soon figure out how to engage the public like never before or we're going to lose the war. And if you think the international scene is messy now, just wait until we leave the field.
Without Republicans legislators adopting a new approach to their job—one primarily aimed at using all available methods to argue their case—voters may give Democrats control of the Congress because war is hell. It doesn't get any dumber than that.
And if the state of the war wasn't bad enough, gas prices are at an all-time high. How many Americans understand that we're in a global energy market and that the laws of supply and demand can't be repealed? If gasoline costs more, the solution won't be found by giving power to people who have stood in the way of increasing domestic drilling and domestic refining capacity for decades.
There's no use pining for the old days. The new reality has to be met with a new kind of leadership. On the international front we face a threat as serious as any we've ever faced. To make things worse, too many people here are mistaken, believing that the United States is at fault.
There already is a blame-America-first party. It's called the Democratic Party. If the GOP is to be different, Republican legislators have to make a counter argument aggressively and effectively. So far they're not getting the job done.
Up next: Republican leaders need to come out of the wilderness.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Amazon tax cheating ends in California
by Kelly Burdick
On Saturday, Amazon started doing something it tried mightily to avoid: collecting sales tax in America's most populous state.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, California officials say that Amazon may collect as much as $100 million per year, about half the revenue the state estimates it will earn from a 2011 regulation mandating online retailers to collect sales tax on products shipped to customers in California. Consumers will pay between 7.25% to 9.75% depending on where a buyer is located.
And it's not just California that has pushed through new rules on sales tax: Amazon will shortly begin collecting taxes in New Jersey and Virginia and over the summer started collecting taxes in Texas and Pennsylvania.
Amazon's efforts to avoid collecting tax in these states were documented in an exhaustive report in the Wall Street Journal last year. The company's tactics included preventing company employees from traveling to states where Amazon refuses to collect tax (called "bad states" in internal Amazon documents) and issuing fake business cards to employees (which deceptively claimed they worked for the company's digital business, "Amazon Digital Services").
Collectively, the policies were meant to help the company defend its position that it had no "physical presence" in most states. When pushed by state governments, Amazon also suspended affiliate sellers to be able to keep dodging tax obligations.
All of this mischievousness was just the secret end of Amazon's tax-avoidance schemes, which also included fighting various state governments in court. When California changed its laws in 2011 and closed Amazon's tax loophole, the company claimed the move was "unconstitutional" and then said it would fight the measure vigorously in court. It eventually backed down and agreed to start collecting sales tax after a year-long grace period—err, or after a two decade-long grace period—in a deal negotiated by California Governor Jerry Brown.
The Journal investigation concluded that Amazon "believes its sales-tax policy is critical to its performance." And it pointed to a study by Credit Suisse that
estimated that if Amazon were forced to collect sales taxes in all states, it would lose as much as $653 million in sales this year, or 1.4% out of an estimated $45.5 billion in revenue.
But a terrifying story in the New York Times by reporter David Streitfeld shows that Amazon is already well on its way to adapting to the new tax regulations, in part by building two large warehouses in California, to serve Los Angeles and San Francisco. The idea is for Amazon to eventually pull off same-day delivery in the two cities. None other than Jeff Bezos, Amazon's CEO, came out to tout the new initiative. (Bezos refused comment to the Wall Street Journal when it wrote about tax issues in above-mentioned story, but now that there's a positive spin to put on the story, I suppose he's happy to talk.)
Bezos admitted that same-day delivery is probably a ways off. It's more likely, he said, that Amazon could cut a day off of its two-day shipping offering, which includes its $79 a year Prime membership program.
Reducing shipping costs is an increasingly important issue for Amazon. As we reported in July, Prime and other shipping deals are deeply hurting Amazon's net revenue. Total shipping costs currently account for $500 million a quarter more than what the company actually collects in shipping fees.
But same-day services represents another threat to independent retailers who fought so hard to get the state of California to force Amazon to collect tax.
As Amy Thomas, the owner of the Pegasus bookstores in Berkeley and Oakland, told the New York Times, "It's hard to keep putting out fires everywhere. They sell e-books. They're becoming publishers. And now they want to do same-day shipping. They're an octopus."
Kelly Burdick is the former executive editor of Melville House.
Returning an ebook after reading: is Amazon's return policy damaging to authors and publishers?
Dave Eggers' new hardcover will be available in indie bookstores only
"BoxedOut" campaign to warn customers of costs of shopping on Amazon this season
California and Washington enter Amazon investigation
Amazon employees risk jobs to combat climate change
Protests against Amazon scheduled for Cyber Monday
NFL Prime Time? Bezos might buy football team
Californiadavid streitfeldJeff BezosJerry BrownPegasussales tax
The Union Jack Imre Kertész


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Pilgrim Society (Who the heck are they?)
If you've been with me on this journey from "strictly mainstream" to "what the fu*k is really going on?" "WHO is doing this to us and WHY?" and "How did this happen? How did it get so far?", then you might be interested in this interview and book I stumbled upon.
Catastrophic Contagion [Tabletop – Oct 2022]
in Popular
Catastrophic Contagion was a tabletop exercise in October 2022 that simulated a new global pandemic resulting from a new "Severe Epidemic Enterovirus Respiratory Syndrome 2025". Same players as the others: Bill Gates, WHO, and Johns Hopkins, with representatives from the CDC, CFR, World Bank, DoD, GAVI, HHS, IMF, Rockefeller, and more.
Dr Robert Malone on who controls the world
in Global-RESET
Transcription of one of Robert Malone's newest interviews that covers a whole range of topics, including the list of players who have functional control of the world, humanity vs. transhumanism, UN/WHO/WEF, One World Government, Great Reset, Depopulation, Wuhan, EcoHealth, DTRA, CCP, Central Banks, Prince Charles, Covid-propaganda & censorship, Gates, WEF, CDC, CEPI, Mass-formation psychosis, Wikipedia, Amazon, being attacked as Controlled Opposition, Podcasting and alt media to bypass centralized information-control, his DoD clearance, Twitter is a weapon, Mainstream media dying, Pirate radio, pharmaceutical industry is predatory and knows no moral bounds, vilifying of early treatment, and more – BIS, CIA, Climate, DARPA, DTRA, Musk, Kissinger, Rogan, Flynn, Pottinger, Callahan, NSC, Baric, Rockefeller, BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, Bank of America, CCP…
Convenient Deaths or Arrests (Whistleblowers)
in Rigged-AGENDA
Wow, this would be a full time job, there's way too many, but it's a start… at least some place to start taking notes…
[South Africa] What's in the Blood?
Dr Zandré Botha PhD – South Africa – Certified Live & Dry Blood Analyst of 15 years says she's never seen anything like this and doesn't know what she's seeing but is sharing what she is seeing in the bloodwork of her vaccinated patients and in a Johnson & Johnson vial, to get answers.
Bill Gates – Corbett Report – COVID Agenda
Bill Gates is heavily involved in all aspects of COVID-19. The Corbett Report has created a 2 hour documentary that I've only just come across (I'm a bit late to the party). I have to admit, they were so very convincing over the years – spending a fortune to turn-around his reputation from tyrant to "philanthropist" using the media and obfuscating/censoring those who disputed, making him out to be a victim of tin-foil hat conspiracies, that there was so much hope for me that questioning him was wrong because his fingers were all over everything…
7000+ C19 Patients (0 Deaths). Cause: "Allergen to Spike Protein Man-Made Poison" [Testimony]
Dr. Chetty has personally successfully treated well over 7,000 Covid patients in South Africa since the beginning of the pandemic with on-label drugs. He investigated early on to devise a treatment regime to prevent people becoming critically ill and set up a tent in his parking lot where patients could be out in the sun and fresh air where he began his own clinical study, and through meticulous observation and examining each one of them personally, he was able to discern the nature of Covid-19 as a two-phase illness with a respiratory and an allergic phase. The allergen being the Spike Protein Man-Made Poison.
C19 Jab Contracts
Internet of Bio-NanoThings
World Premiere: Died Suddenly documentary
COVID-19 Research Awarded by DoD to Ukraine Special Projects in November 2019
Anything that you experience internally is YOUR energy – noone else's. It cannot be any other way. YOU have YOUR energy and everything that you experience in your life is your energy – is happening in YOUR energy.
— https://pennybutler.com/bashar-negative-beliefs/


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Q: After $2013$ such transformations, how many number $2013$ are there on the line if the given numbers are $1$ and $1000$? Several natural numbers are given on a line, we perform a transformation as follow:for every pair of consecutive integers on the line, write sum of those two numbers in the middle of them. After $2013$ such transformations, how many number $2013$ are there on the line if:
a. The given numbers are $1$ and $1000$?
b. The given numbers are $1,2,3,\dots,1000$?
My Progress for part a , I think the answer is $2$ .
Note that any number in this transformation will be of the form $1\cdot x + y\cdot 1000$.
Let us for simplicity, express the numbers in the transformation in the form $(x,y)$ where, $(x,y)$ represents  $1\cdot x + y \cdot 1000$ .  for example, $2001=(1,2)$.
Consider the following image:

Define '$n-$line' as the $n^{\text{th}}$ transformation row .
Observation $1$:  we cannot have $2$ equal  $(x,y)$ in any line [ I don't have a proof for it but it looks very true and probably can be proved by induction ( though I was not able to )] .
Observation $2$ : we can only have $(x,0)$ or $(0,x)$  if $x \ne 1$ [ this is true ]
Note that $2013= (2013,0),(1013,1), (13,2)$.
Now by observation $2$, we get that $(1013,1)$ and $(13,2)$ are the only solutions that can appear.
and by observation $1$, we get that the above solutions are uniques .
So, $2$ is the answer for part a [ If observation 1 is correct ]
Moreover, I got $2$ more observations.
Observation $3$: In any line , the numbers with same $x$-coordinate ( or the same $y$- coordinate )are arranged in either strictly increasing order or strictly decreasing order in the sequence. Also the $y-$coordinates are in an AP
Observation $4$: Note that coordinates are mirror image .
To explain it more nicely look at the $3$-line. Observe the coordinates of  $2^{\text{nd}}$ number from the left and the $2^{\text{nd}}$ number from the right. The coordinates are reflected !
for example look at the 3-line , we have the number $(1,1)$ then $(1,2)$ and then $(1,3)$ .[Note that the $y $-coordinates are in an AP with $d=1$]
One can see the essence of Observation $3$ after constructing the $5^{\text{th}}$ transformation or so.
Please give hints if possible and do try this beautiful problem.
Thanks in advance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


As part of the Smart Systems and Heat phase 1 programme, Energy Systems Catapult has developed a Local Area Energy Strategy for Bridgend County Borough Council.
Bridgend is one of three areas including Newcastle and Bury in Greater Manchester participating in the pilot project being delivered by the Catapult and funded by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI).
This strategy recognises that both Wales and the UK have made major carbon emission reduction commitments and provides a means for Bridgend to lead its own low carbon transition.
The EnergyPath Networks analysis cam up with three potential pathways for the decarbonisation of Bridgend's energy system, including: (1) Business-as-Usual, (2) A World Without Green Gas, and (3) A World with Green Gas.
Catapult modelling assets are being utilised on the UK's largest smart, consumer-focused project aimed at overcoming the barriers to the decarbonisation of residential heat – the Smart Systems and Heat programme.
Local Energy Systems Modelling has delivered a new approach to local area energy planning, providing insights into cost effective pathways to meet national and local carbon targets for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Newcastle City Council, and Bridgend County Borough Council.


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O-scope's Found Footage Comedy 'VHYes' Debuts, 'Parasite', 'Jojo Rabbit' Set Expansions After Oscar Noms – Specialty B.O. Preview
Broadway Box Office Settles After Thanksgiving Feast; 'Network', 'Mockingbird' Add To $38M Total
By Greg Evans
Greg Evans
Associate Editor/Broadway Critic
@GregEvans5
More Stories By Greg
Gregg Smith Dies: 'Hair' Actor, Dance Collaborator On 'Dirty Dancing', 'Newsies' Was 73
Dwayne Johnson Pays Tribute To Wrestling Champ Dad Rocky: "Rest Your Trailblazing Soul, Soulman"
Meryl Streep To Narrate Animated Earth Day Short Film 'Here We Are' For AppleTV+
December 3, 2018 1:28pm
Broadway box office fell back to earth last week following the previous week's best-Thanksgiving-ever skyrocket numbers. With two additional shows on board raising the number of productions to 38, total attendance held virtually the same at 299,411 tickets sold, while receipts of $37,805,785 were down 12% from the big $43M holiday haul.
Look to average ticket prices for the fall: Thanksgiving week saw an average seat going for $144, while the Broadway season's Week 27 ending Dec. 2 saw an average price of $126.
Recent big-name arrivals Network and To Kill A Mockingbird more than weathered the post-turkey slide. Director Ivo van Hove's Network, starring Bryan Cranston, Tony Goldwyn and Tatiana Maslany, was SRO at the Belasco, grossing 100% of potential with $1,097,763, while Aaron Sorkin's adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird at the Shubert, directed by Bartlett Sher and starring Jeff Daniels, took in $1,336,030, filling 100% of seats.
'King Kong's Leading Man: Broadway's Eric William Morris Talks Growling Apes, Snarling Critics & Life As A Squip
Also in previews was jukebox musical The Cher Show, holding steady at the Neil Simon with a solid $1,075,110, and filling about 94% of seats.
A pair of holiday season specialties are sharing space at the Marquis Theatre, with The Illusionists – Magic of the Holidays pulling $904,020 for eight performances and filling about 75% of seats. The Mondays-only Celebrity Autobiography, in which celebs read other celebs memoirs to comic effect, grossed a small $41,882, with average ticket price of $31 keeping receipts at just 23% of potential. Still, attendance of 1,336 kept the 81%-filled theater free of echoes.
Other Broadway notables of the week:
King Kong was steady, attendance-wise, with 10,280 ticket-buyers filling 73% of seats, but an average ticket price of $92 sending box office down to $943,850, a fall of nearly $260,000 from the previous week;
Tourist-friendly School of Rock was down $622,687 from the holiday week, taking $733,387, about half of potential;
Summer, the Donna Summer musical at the Lunt-Fontanne that recently announced its closing and an upcoming tour, grossed just 35% of potential, with $511,550;
The Prom, the musical that got a big Macy's Thanksgiving Parade kiss, played to 80%-filled houses at the Longacre, with total receipts of $556,473, about half of potential.
Season to date, Broadway has grossed $953,003,068, up 16% over last year at this time. Attendance of 7,436,744 was up 8%
All figures courtesy of the trade group Broadway League.
Broadway Box Office
Latest Box Office News
How Sony Built 'Bad Boys For Life' Into A Success With $100M+ WW; 'Dolittle' A Dud At $57M+ WW - Sunday Update
U.S. Movie Ticket Sales Dip Nearly 5% In 2019, Reflecting Competition


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Meteorologist was fired from WAVY, he says on his website
Photos of snow in Hampton Roads through the years
Conference USA gets a new TV deal, with "significant" increase in rights fees
Virginia Government & Politics
Norfolk Southern will pay back Virginia, city for millions in incentives it received
By Kimberly Pierceall
Staff writer |
Norfolk Southern says it will pay back the state and city after failing to fulfill a promise to keep its headquarters in downtown Norfolk until at least 2026 in exchange for about $4 million in incentives.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership made the incentive offer in 2016 after the railroad giant announced it was closing its Roanoke offices. Officials feared the Fortune 500 company would transfer hundreds of those workers to Atlanta, instead.
Even then, officials believed the company was intent on ultimately moving its corporate headquarters to Atlanta, a shift that was confirmed by the railroad this month.
"We recognized that the spirit in which the two agreements were forged was no longer intact, and immediately set about setting things right with the City and the Commonwealth in accordance with our corporate values," said Tom Werner, vice president of corporate communications for the railroad in an email to The Pilot which reported on the incentives earlier this month. He said discussions with the state and city to pay both back, "progressed easily" and concluded Wednesday.
In the 2016 agreement, Norfolk Southern said it would keep close to 625 people in its Norfolk headquarters for at least 10 more years. That was based on it moving 165 of some 500 Roanoke workers to Norfolk. For that, the state gave it $1.9 million.
At the same time, the city promised discounted downtown parking, which was expected to save the company $2.25 million through 2026.
Werner said Norfolk Southern would give back the entire $1.9 million grant from the state and pay the city $581,575.50, an amount based on the parking discount it had enjoyed so far, by Dec. 31. In addition, the parking discount would end.
"Norfolk Southern is grateful for our longstanding partnerships with the Commonwealth of Virginia, the region of Hampton Roads, and the city of Norfolk and – while our relationships will undoubtedly evolve in the coming years – our employment, physical presence, and commitment will remain strong," Werner wrote.
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Stephen Moret, CEO and president of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, said in an email that, "While we are very disappointed about the headquarters move, we are grateful to the company for handling this reimbursement in such a forthright and prompt manner."
Norfolk Southern had been growing its presence in Atlanta for years. The company has about 1,900 people working in its main office there. In its downtown Norfolk tower, the number has been closer to 500.
Starting next year through 2021 as its new $575 million Atlanta campus is built, the 500 or so executives and employees will have to decide if they will move or leave the company.
As part of its move, Norfolk Southern is getting a $24 million property tax break on its new headquarters. The company is also poised to receive incentives from the state of Georgia, although those amounts have not been disclosed.
Kimberly Pierceall, 757-446-2588, kimberly.pierceall@pilotonline.com
Virginia Economic Development Partnership
Most Read • Virginia Government & Politics


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The Consultant, the Desert Aquifer and the Future of San Diego's Water - Voice of San Diego
The Consultant, the Desert Aquifer and the Future of San Diego's Water
The county's biggest water policy agency is being advised by a consultant whose firm has a major financial interest in a controversial water project.
Will Carless
June 2013 meeting of the San Diego County Water Authority / Photo by Sam Hodgson
Out in the blistering Mojave Desert, there's an underground lake.
The lake, or aquifer, lies, cool and quenching, beneath the agricultural encampment of Cadiz. It stretches north under the Trilobite and Clipper Mountain wilderness areas and out into the desolate Mojave National Preserve.
The owners of the land above this underground water supply, Cadiz Inc., have long hoped to drill large wells into the aquifer, suck out some of the water and pipe it to Southern California, where it could be steamed into a latte in a Malibu café or blasted through a car wash in downtown San Diego.
The project has the potential to make the company and its shareholders serious money, if they can make it happen.
Two hundred miles from Cadiz, in the San Diego suburb of Kearny Mesa, sits one public agency that has the power to bring this desert water west. The San Diego County Water Authority is charged with securing freshwater supplies for San Diego in the coming decades. It sets policy, makes deals and can generally tighten or loosen the spigot on the county's water supply.
One of the Water Authority's advisers is attorney Christine Frahm. A former chair of the authority's board, Frahm has been heavily involved in local water policy for years, and currently works for the agency as an attorney and consultant.
While she's been advising the Water Authority, and at least one other local public agency, Frahm's firm has built a significant financial relationship with Cadiz Inc. Another shareholder at the firm where she works, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, Scott S. Slater, was named Cadiz's CEO in February, and the firm recently signed a contract that promises it hundreds of thousands of shares in Cadiz as its project gets closer to completion.
Frahm's exact role at the Water Authority is unclear. Officials at the agency won't say whether she's advising the board on policy matters that could make the success of Cadiz more likely.
Photo by Sam Hodgson
But documents obtained by Voice of San Diego show Frahm currently works as a consultant for the Water Authority, and has advised another local agency on the future supply of imported water to San Diego County. As such, she's involved, at least indirectly, in shaping policies that could have a direct impact on the financial success of the Cadiz project and, in turn, the value of Brownstein's shares in the company.
Brownstein's multimillion-dollar contract with the Water Authority was re-approved last month. As the agency begins months of crucial discussions over the future of San Diego's water supply, it will be receiving advice from a consultant with a significant financial interest in one of the projects that could supply the county with water.
"I could see how this could easily become a conflict," said Mark Robak, a board member of the Otay Water District, a member agency of the Water Authority. "Could Scott Slater and his company really be impartial when they're advising the agencies? It's a really fine line."
Frahm declined to comment for this story.
Water Authority officials said they're aware of Brownstein's financial stake in Cadiz.
Water Authority attorney Daniel Hentschke said the agency has followed the correct procedures to ensure that Frahm avoids any conflicts of interest as she advises water policy-makers and staff. He said the agency is not facing any policy decisions that might directly impact Cadiz, and said Frahm must recuse herself if she's asked to opine on anything that might financially benefit her.
Viewed from the air, Cadiz, in remote eastern San Bernardino County, is little more than a few green rectangles in a vast ocean of brownish yellow sand and rocks.
Cadiz began as an agricultural project. In the early 1980s, Los Angeles-based Cadiz Inc. purchased 11,000 acres in the Cadiz Valley.
Cadiz drilled wells and hit water. Lots of water. In 1986, the company started planting crops, beginning with grapes and adding a citrus orchard and vegetables until it became, according to Slater, "the largest agricultural operation in San Bernardino County."
Over the years, the company bought more and more land in the Cadiz Valley. And, as hydrologists mapped out the vast aquifer, Cadiz's mission evolved from farming to mining and transporting water.
By 2008, the company had set its sights on building a pipeline from its aquifer to the Colorado River Aqueduct, Southern California's main channel for fresh water from the east. In September 2008, the company entered into a 99-year lease agreement with the Arizona and California Railroad Company to bury a pipeline adjacent to railroad tracks, between its wells and the aqueduct.
Cadiz's plans weren't popular among environmental groups, several of whom sued the company. But as the years progressed, Cadiz built some powerful allies in the water politics world, most notably the Santa Margarita Water District in Orange County, which approved Cadiz's Environmental Impact Report in 2012, giving the company's plans a significant boost.
Over the years, Cadiz's financial fate has been intertwined with its political fate.
Stocks and Surges
On May 9, Cadiz Inc. filed a quarterly financial report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The document outlines the company's progress with its water-pumping project, and re-ups its relationship with Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.
In addition to a $25,000 a month fee, the new contract awarded Brownstein 100,000 shares in Cadiz, and promised another 100,000 shares as the company hit each of three milestones.
Brownstein gets another 100,000 shares once all legal challenges to the Cadiz project's environmental impact report have been dismissed. It gets 100,000 more once Cadiz has signed binding agreements for the purchase of 51 percent of the water it has to sell each year. Finally, Brownstein gets 100,000 shares once construction begins on the major facilities for the project.
For Brownstein, there's a lot of money to be made as Cadiz hits those milestones.
As of July 2, Cadiz's stock was trading at $5.01 a share. But historically the company's share value has been tied directly to its successes in moving its water project forward.
After the company announced its first plans for storing and transporting water in the late '90s, its shares soared, reaching a peak value of $337.50 in May 1998 and remaining above $200 a share for most of the next four years as Cadiz moved closer to a deal.
Key to Cadiz's plans was a partnership with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the major water delivery agency in Southern California.
Under pressure from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who called the project "a terrible mistake," the Metropolitan Water District backed out of the deal in 2002.
Cadiz's stock collapsed, falling into a funk that remains today.
But recently things have been looking up for the project. Its relatively new partnership with the Santa Margarita Water District, combined with support from San Bernardino County, marks a resurgence for the company's plans.
And, if history is any guide, Cadiz just needs to look like it's going to make its project happen in order to attract investors.
If Cadiz were to see a stock surge similar to the late 1990s, Brownstein's current ownership of 100,000 shares would be worth almost $34 million. If the company were to concurrently hit all its milestones, Brownstein's ownership will increase to 400,000 shares.
Multiply that 400,000 by Cadiz's highest historic share value of $337.50 and you get a remarkably round, and remarkably large number: exactly $135 million.
Water from the North, Water from the East
San Diego County gets its imported water from two sources: From the north, it receives water via the California State Water Project, a system of canals that pumps water down from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. From the east, the county imports water from the Colorado River, via the Colorado River Aqueduct.
For years, California water officials have been sketching out a plan to essentially rebuild the State Water Project.
Known as the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, the project aims to balance a host of conservation issues with the expansion and renewal of the aging infrastructure that currently channels water south.
The massive, multibillion-dollar project is reaching a critical juncture.
Over the next few months, water agencies across the state will be analyzing the project and voting on whether to support it.
One of the big players in that conversation is the Metropolitan Water District, of which the San Diego County Water Authority is a key member.
Steve Erie, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego and author of a book on local water politics, said the support of the Metropolitan Water District is crucial for the success of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. If such a big, powerful agency opposes the project, or seeks to limit its scope, it may be dead on arrival, Erie said.
"Historically, any Northern California water project bringing water to Southern California has required a united front on the part of Southern California's water agencies," Erie said.
As the second-largest voting bloc on the Metropolitan Water District's board, the San Diego County Water Authority has considerable sway on the fate of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The Water Authority has 17.57 percent of the board's vote, second only to Los Angeles in terms of influencing policy.
Water Authority officials said the agency still favors the Bay Delta plan, but recent actions by the agency have indicated that it's considering another option.
Earlier this year, the Water Authority expressed support for studying a different plan to fix the Bay Delta, known as the "portfolio option," which calls for a much smaller version of the fix to the water supply from the north.
That confused Tim Brick, who recently retired as chair of the Metropolitan Water District.
"I'm puzzled by San Diego's recent reluctance to move ahead with the Bay Delta Conservation Plan," Brick told The Planning Report, a trade publication for urban planning groups, on June 5. "I'm puzzled by why they've now stepped back and are in what I guess they would describe as a more diversified approach, but it's also a much smaller and less adequate approach in terms of ensuring reliability for Southern California."
A smaller approach to the Bay Delta plan would mean that less water would flow to San Diego from the north. The San Diego County Water Authority would therefore have to focus its attention on other sources of water. One such source would be the Cadiz Project.
Lawyer? Consultant? Adviser?
As the Water Authority prepares to discuss the Bay Delta plan and, ultimately, vote on whether to support it, it will be receiving advice from Frahm.
Just what sort of advice isn't quite clear.
Brownstein's contract with the Water Authority is vague about Frahm's role. It states that Brownstein will provide legal services for the agency, but it also includes a clause stating that Frahm herself works for the authority as a "consultant." Water Authority officials wouldn't comment on what, exactly, she consults on.
"She advises us on many different things," said Dennis Cushman, assistant general manager at the agency.
Hentschke, general counsel for the Water Authority, said the title "consultant" is a term of art. He pointed to the agency's conflict of interest code to help explain what Frahm actually does.
The code, in summary, defines a consultant as someone who is involved in making a "governmental decision" whether to adopt rules or enter into or renew contracts.
Because the Water Authority isn't currently making any decisions regarding Cadiz, Frahm doesn't need to recuse herself from anything, Hentschke said. If, in the future, the Water Authority was to enter into a contract with Cadiz to buy water, for example, then Frahm would have to re-evaluate her role, he said.
"There may be a point where decisions impact Cadiz," Hentschke said. "I don't think we've reached that."
Lara Day, Brownstein's director of communications, emailed a brief statement regarding Frahm's work at the County Water Authority. It says:
Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck complies with the State Bar of California's Rules of Professional Conduct governing conflicts of interest, as it does in each state it practices. The firm implements measures to ensure that it discloses potential conflicts of interest and seeks waivers of conflicts when necessary.
In addition to the Water Authority, Frahm also advises the Otay Water District. Board meeting records from that agency show that Frahm advised policymakers there directly on the Bay Delta plan. In the district's September 2012 board meeting, Frahm spoke as if a smaller Bay Delta plan was all but inevitable. The minutes for Frahm's presentation read:
"It is felt that in the end, all will agree that the Bay-Delta issues must be addressed, however, the solution will likely be a smaller more modest project."
Comments like those concern water policy watchdogs like Erie.
Erie said he's troubled that the partner of a firm with such a significant financial interest in a water company is playing a role in advising water policy-makers.
"By not fixing the Bay Delta and therefore limiting deliveries from the north, you increase the value of deliveries from the east such as Cadiz," Erie said. "[Frahm's] advice on the Bay Delta therefore directly impacts Cadiz, as it increases the likelihood the project will happen."
Voice of San Diego is a nonprofit that depends on you, our readers. Please donate to keep the service strong. Click here to find out more about our supporters and how we operate independently.
MacKenzie Elmer's biweekly environmental news roundup (Mondays)
Will Carless was formerly the head of investigations at Voice of San Diego.
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Mystery call leads to grave of missing man | Inquirer News
newsinfo / CDN - Metro
CDN - Metro
Mystery call leads to grave of missing man
By: Norman V. Mendoza - Correspondent / @mendozanorms
Cebu Daily News / 11:39 AM January 24, 2012
Eight months after he was reported missing by his wife, the skeletal remains of a local fisherman were discovered buried in a vacant lot in barangay Punta Engaño, Lapu-Lapu City.
Reterson Geneston, 32, was positively identified by his wife Cristina through his short pants and missing teeth.
Police said that a neighbor of Cristina's sister, Ofelia Brigildo, was tipped by an anonymous caller around 6 a.m. yesterday about where to find Geneston.
Following directions, the sisters, accompanied by a male neighbor, dug near the fence of a vacant lot owned by Boboy Mancao.
They found a sack of bones of a man's lower limbs dressed in black short pants. Cristina said they were the same pair her husband wore the last time she saw him in May 12, 2011.
More bones and human remains were found in another sack. The skull was placed atop the sack with three big stones.
Cristina reported her husband's disappearance two days after he failed to come home on May 14. She first thought he had drowned at sea.
Based on the wife's account, police are looking into a possible connection with complaints of theft of goats grazing in the nearby 11-hectare private lot where her husband used to gather firewood.
Yesterday, when police revisited the site there were no goats or guards there anymore, said PO2 John Carlo Jucotan.
He said police may invite the land owner or caretaker to shed light on the fisherman's death.
POLICE FILES
TAGS: buried, fisherman's death, missing


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Underground Railroad book to be released
York County History Center will publish Scott Mingus' newest book in the fall, the first on the Underground Railroad
Underground Railroad book to be released York County History Center will publish Scott Mingus' newest book in the fall, the first on the Underground Railroad Check out this story on ydr.com: http://on-ydr.co/29p4pFv
YorkDailyRecord Published 5:26 p.m. ET July 8, 2016 | Updated 7:16 a.m. ET July 9, 2016
In September, the York County History Center will release the first book on the Underground Railroad to be published in the county. Surprising, considering that from the 1820s through the early Civil War period, York County was a significant pathway for runaway slaves seeking freedom.
According to a York County History Center news release:
The book, titled The Ground Swallowed Them Up: Slavery and the Underground Railroad in York County, Pa., is authored by popular local historian Scott Mingus, and details the networks developed in the movement, including a Quaker system, another one involving free blacks, and a third with several of York's leading Pennsylvania Germans as conductors.
These conductors smuggled fugitives in railroad cars, wagons, or carriages, or helped them travel on foot or horseback, risking their own freedom in the process. By the Civil War, no slaves or former slaves lived in York County. The last former York County slave was an elderly man on the Forney farm near Hanover, who died in 1841.
Scott Mingus is an Ohio native residing in York, PA. A scientist and executive in the paper industry, he holds patents in self-adhesive postage stamps and bar code labels. He has written 18 Civil War books. His biography of Confederate General William "Extra Billy" Smith was nominated for and won multiple awards, including the Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr. Literary Prize. He also wrote several articles for Gettysburg Magazine. Scott maintains a blog on the Civil War history of York County (www.yorkblog.com/cannonball). He received the 2013 Heritage Profile Award from the York County Heritage Trust for his contributions to local Civil War history.
From the book cover:
"When the team of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon surveyed Pennsylvania's southern edge in the 1760s, they placed York County in the middle of America's history. They ran a 40-mile state and county line that has indelibly marked where North meets South. It was a border on paper, not a wall of logs and stone, and a steady stream of slaves seeking their liberty flowed through that line from Maryland, Virginia, and points south. Armed slave owners followed these freedom seekers but often found the bondsmen had mysteriously disappeared as if, according to one historian, "the ground had swallowed them up." Award-winning Civil War historian Scott Mingus tells the compelling story of how the Underground Railroad in York County helped these fugitives find their coveted freedom. It's a story of an oppressed people's quest for liberty and about the conductors along their path of York County's hills and valleys aiding their escape "without public applause or hope of award."
Many other York County history publications are available on the history center's website, www.yorkhistorycenter.org.
Read or Share this story: http://on-ydr.co/29p4pFv


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Geology's Timekeepers Are Feuding
"It's a bit like Monty Python."
Robinson Meyer
A geologist works on a sedimentary rock record.Roger Ressmeyer / Corbis / Getty
"What the fuck is the Meghalayan?" asked Ben van der Pluijm, a geologist.
Whatever the Meghalayan is, we live in it now.
Earlier this week, the International Commission on Stratigraphy announced that the current stretch of geological time, the Holocene Epoch, would be split into three subdivisions.
This is particularly noteworthy to the human species, as we have been living in the Holocene for the last 12,000 years. After this announcement, we still live in that epoch, but we also live in the youngest of these new subdivisions: the Meghalayan Age.
This new slice of time started roughly 4,250 years ago and extends to the present. In other words, we have been living in the Meghalayan for quite a long time, even if it didn't have a formal name.
For decades, this has been the kind of technical declaration that even most geologists could safely ignore.
But lately, the study of geological timescales has attracted far more public attention—and scholarly f-bombs. Stratigraphy, the effort to name and describe rock layers, has become the site of a proxy battle over climate change, environmental change, and how deeply the natural sciences should integrate with history and politics.
The International Commission on Stratigraphy, or ICS, is the global governing body that formally names geological eras, associating each rock layer with a specific stretch of time. For instance, the ICS formally named and identified the Jurassic, to the immense benefit of paleontologists and fictional theme-park developers everywhere.
Stratigraphers are not known for their public-relations acumen. "A lot of this timescale work used to be completely below the radar. It was done by small, dedicated groups and it never got the headlines, " says Jan Zalasiewicz, a professor of paleobiology at the University of Leicester. "Most geologists think of it as really dull work—you know, it's a bit like eating your greens, someone's got to do it."
Stratigraphers were something like the tax attorneys of geology. Even the hardiest geologists—celebrated professionals who thrill to spend hours in the lab carefully measuring small cylinders of dirt—blanched at the tedium of stratigraphy.
But then, in 2000, the Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen won permanent fame for stratigraphy. He proposed that humans had so throughly altered the fundamental processes of the planet—through agriculture, climate change, and nuclear testing, and other phenomena—that a new geological epoch had commenced: the Anthropocene, the age of humans.
It is a stirring idea: that humans are not a momentary blip in the long procession of Earth's history, but a new and fundamental driver of planetary change, equal in stature to volcanoes and tectonic plates. Suddenly, a much wider set of researchers—including sociologists and critical theorists—began studying the layers of geological time.
"The Anthropocene has woken up an interest in the timescale among a wider community," Zalasiewicz told me. These newcomers "don't quite always appreciate quite what the science is and what the discipline is, because it has its own quirks, its own traditions, its own methodologies."
Zalasiewicz should know. He is the chair of the Anthropocene working group, which the ICS established in 2009 to investigate whether the new epoch deserved a place in stratigraphic time.
In 2015, the group announced that the Anthropocene was a plausible new layer and that it should likely follow the Holocene. But the team has yet to propose a "golden spike" for the epoch: a boundary in the sedimentary rock record where the Anthropocene clearly begins.
This week's announcement is not actually about the Anthropocene: The ICS subdivided the Holocene this week, and it said nothing about the Anthropocene. Except that to some geologists, the subdivision was entirely about the Anthropocene.
"I was stunned by this whole thing," says van der Pluijm, who is a professor of geology at the University of Michigan. "I think they've trivialized the Anthropocene by doing this."
Van der Pluijm believes that the ICS slighted the Anthropocene by chopping the Holocene into three. The timescale "shouldn't be cut into smaller and smaller pieces," he told me. "This is a bit of a silly activity. It's very Monty Python—the Ministry of Silly Cuts."
Above all, he thinks the new subdivisions make the Anthropocene seem less prominent than it is. "Geologists are not a bunch of fools who do not understand the changes that are taking place," he said. "The changes that are happening now are very large—just take sea-level rise, for example. It's important that people think [stratigraphy] is not just a bunch of hobby talk."
At stake is what to call the most recent 11,700 years of natural history. For decades, geologists have named this stretch of time the Holocene epoch. It seemed to have clear boundaries: It began as the great, continent-spanning glaciers of the last Ice Age receded, and it ran to the present day.
By normal geological standards, 11,700 years is vanishingly brief. Most epochs run for millions of years. The Upper Cretaceous—the last epoch when non-avian dinosaurs stalked the Earth—lasted 34 million years, or almost 3,000 times longer than the Holocene.
But the Holocene is everything for humans. It encompasses all of human history and much of our prehistory: the flourishing of the first cities, the revelation of every major religion, and the invention of the rifle, the rice paddy, and the radio.
Arsh Raziuddin / The Atlantic
Officially, the Holocene is still running today. You have lived your entire life in the Holocene, and the Holocene has constituted the geological "present" for as long as there have been geologists.
But if we now live in a new epoch, the Anthropocene, then the ICS will have to chop the Holocene somewhere. It will have to choose when the Holocene ended, and it will move some amount of time out of the purview of the Holocene working group and into that of the Anthropocene working group.
This is politically difficult. And right now, the Anthropocene working group seems intent on not carving too deep into the Holocene. In a paper published earlier this year in Earth-Science Reviews, the Anthropocene working group's members strongly imply that they will propose starting the new epoch in the mid-20th century.
Under this scenario, the Holocene would run from the end of the last Ice Age to roughly 1945 or 1950. Then the Anthropocene would commence. Like so:
There are several good arguments for starting the Anthropocene around 1950. The first radiometric signatures of atomic weapons will appear in the rock record around 1945. The period after World War II also saw the "Great Acceleration," when countries around the world industrialized, and car culture came to the United States and Europe. It was then that gargantuan amounts of greenhouse gas began streaming into the atmosphere every year.
But there are rival claims to the Anthropocene's start date. Some geologists want to peg it at 1800, when the Industrial Revolution began. Others say it started around 1492, as Europeans started to ferry animals, plants, diseases, and people between the continents.
Some geologists argue that the Anthropocene started even earlier: perhaps 4,000 or 6,000 years ago, as farmers began to remake the land surface.
"Most of the world's forests that were going to be converted to cropland and agriculture were already cleared well before 1950," says Bill Ruddiman, a geology professor at the University of Virginia and an advocate of this extremely early Anthropocene.
"Most of the world's prairies and steppes that were going to be cleared for crops were already gone, by then. How can you argue the Anthropocene started in 1950 when all of the major things that affect Earth's surface were already over?"
Van der Pluijm agreed that the Anthropocene working group was picking 1950 for "not very good reasons."
"Agriculture was the revolution that allowed society to develop," he said. "That was really when people started to force the land to work for them. That massive land movement—it's like a landslide, except it's a humanslide. And it is not, of course, as dramatic as today's motion of land, but it starts the clock."
These debates matter for more than just Anthropocene fans. If you come to believe that the Anthropocene started 6,000 years ago, then it seems like a slight when the Holocene introduces a new cut in time there.
Even if that was never what slicing the Holocene was about. "I definitely don't think this was about intentionally undercutting the Anthropocene," says Max Berkelhammer, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago who co-authored the Holocene proposal.
Instead, his colleagues advanced the Holocene proposal in order to bring clarity to scientific debate. For decades, climatologists have talked about periods of time within the Holocene—like, say, "the late Holocene"—without ever specifying when, exactly, they meant. "Some people say the late Holocene was warm, other people say the late Holocene was cold, and they both might be right, because they're using this term late Holocene inconsistently," Berkelhammer told me.
This muddle had to stop. The Holocene comes up constantly in discussions of modern global warming. Geologists and climate scientists did not make their jobs any easier by slicing it in different ways and telling contradictory stories about it.
So Mike Walker, a professor at the University of Wales, led a team to make the three new cuts in the rock record.
The Early Holocene starts 11,700 years ago, as the last Ice Age ended. Stratigraphers will call it the Greenlandian Age, because its "golden spike" is taken from an ice core drilled from Greenland's ice sheet.
The Middle Holocene begins roughly 8,330 years ago, during a sudden and unexplained outbreak of cold temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere. It's named the Northgrippian Age, after the scientific expedition that found its golden spike: the Northern Greenland Ice Core Project, or NGRIP.
The Late Holocene starts about 4,250 years ago, during a massive drought that struck Eurasia and destroyed several ancient societies. The team found clear evidence of that event in a cave in Meghalaya, a state in northeastern India, so the age is termed the Meghalayan.
It takes years for any stratigraphic proposal to join the formal ICS timescale. This Holocene proposal had to be approved by super-majority vote by four different committees. It went before the Holocene working group; then the Quaternary working group, which oversees the last 2.8 million years; and then the ICS board as a whole.
Finally, the International Union of Geological Sciences, the global governing body for geologists, reviews the proposal and approves it.
This process started almost 10 years ago. For this reason, Zalasiewicz, the chair of the Anthropocene working group, said he wasn't blindsided by the new subdivisions at all. In fact, he voted to adopt them as a member of the Quaternary working group.
"Whether the Anthropocene works with a unified Holocene or one that's in three parts makes for very little difference," he told me.
In fact, it had made the Anthropocene group's work easier. "It has been useful to compare the scale of the two climate events that mark the new boundaries [within the Holocene] with the kind of changes that we're assessing in the Anthropocene. It has been quite useful to have the compare and contrast," he said. "Our view is that some of the changes in the Anthropocene are rather bigger."
Stan Finney, the secretary-general of the International Union of Geological Sciences, said he was thrilled by the new subepochs.
"There's this huge swell of young people who love the names and I think the names are catching on now, very quickly," he told me, speaking by phone from his wife's apartment in Madrid. "We've had more than 100,000 looks at the [geological timescale] chart on our IUGS website in the last five days."
Finney agreed that the new subdivisions were not meant to slight the Anthropocene working group. "People have tried to say, 'Oh, this was hidden, it was not transparent, it was dumped on the world. There's a bitter fight between the Holocene and the Anthropocene working group,'" he said.
But Zalasiewicz's support for the new subdivisions proved this was not the case, he told me. "The chairman [of the Anthropocene working group] voted to approve these subdivisions, and he did it back in 2016. So there's no collusion. Nothing's hidden. Those charges, they're lies."
He then criticized the Anthropocene working group at length, accusing them of committing ethical lapses and of courting an unseemly amount of press coverage.
"They have an incredible press campaign that has misrepresented the science and history of the units of stratigraphy," he said.
He charges that the Anthropocene working group has fixated on finding a "golden spike" in time to start the new epoch. They have failed to find "a stratigraphic unit," a rock layer that associates with the Anthropocene.
For contemporary stretches of geological time, the ICS will also accept layers of any material that forms sedimentary material every year, like an ice core, a stalagmite, or tree rings. But Finney says that the Anthropocene working group has failed to provide any of these things.
"Holocene had an incredible stratigraphic proposal, and then they gave it to us for feedback," he said. "Anthropocene hasn't started that process. It's been 10 years, a multitude of papers and press release have been published, and can I ask—for what?"
"Anthropogenic climate change is real, there's no doubt about that," Finney said. But he said that geologists didn't need a new "core stratigraphic unit" to discuss this change: They could just say the year when things happened. "If you find a pile of garbage somewhere, then 'That's the Anthropocene!' No, that's a garbage dump," he said. "It was done in 1940."
Zalasiewicz said that he and his colleagues were going as fast as they could. When the working group group began its work in 2009, it was "really starting from scratch," he told me.
While other working groups have a large body of stratigraphic research to consider, the Anthropocene working group had nothing. "We had to spend a fair bit of time deciding whether the Anthropocene was geology at all," he said. Then they had to decide where its signal could show up. Now, they're looking for evidence that shows it.
"If there's not a good scientific case, we'll push it over ourselves and let it fall. If we think it's good to propose formally, then it's up to the stratigraphic bodies above us to make the decision," he said.
Part of the controversy here stems from a simple fact: It is strange that geologists pull out the Holocene for special treatment at all.
It is easy to write that the Holocene began "when the last Ice Age ended," but this misstates Earth's recent geological history. Over the last 2.8 million years, there have been many Ice Ages: Enormous glaciers have descended from the Arctic, remade vast tracts of Eurasia and North America, and then receded after 100,000 years. After 40,000 years of warmer temperatures, the glaciers descend again.
This cycle of "glacials" and "interglacials" has played out about 50 times over the last several million years. When the Holocene began, it was only another interglacial—albeit the one we live in. Until recently, glaciers were still on schedule to descend in another 30,000 years or so.
Yet geologists still call the Holocene an epoch, even though they do not bestow this term on any of the previous 49 interglacials. It get special treatment because we live in it.
Much of this science is now moot. Humanity's vast emissions of greenhouse gas have now so warmed the climate that they have offset the next glaciation. They may even knock us out of the ongoing cycle of Ice Ages, sending the Earth hurtling back toward a "greenhouse" climate after the more amenable "icehouse" climate during which humans evolved.
For this reason, van der Pluijm wants the Anthropocene to supplant the Holocene entirely. Humans made their first great change to the environment at the close of the last glaciation, when they seem to have hunted the world's largest mammals—the wooly mammoth, the saber-toothed tiger—to extinction. Why not start the Anthropocene then?
He would even rename the pre-1800 period "the Holocene Age" as a consolation prize:
"Humans have redistributed species around the world! We do what plate tectonics used to do, and move species around," van der Pluijm said. "In the geologic record, a few million years from now, you will suddenly see bones all around the world that never used to be there."
He continued. "The point is, if you were a geologist a few million years from now, you would have no difficulty identifying all kinds of characteristics [happening in our time] that are different from what happened before. Geologists in the future will recognize this as a time of major change."
Finney has a special loathing for this idea. "Well, we're not making a timescale for people a million years from now," he told me. "I hear that argument from scientists, and I have to shake my head. The IUGS is not making a unit for someone to come back to in a million years."
He also defended the Holocene as an unusually short epoch. Geological units get shorter as they approach the modern era, he told me, because scholars have more information about recent events. "As you get to the present, you have better resolution," he said.
Zalasiewicz said he would not start the Anthropocene too early in time, as it would be too work-intensive for the field to rename such a vast swath of time. "The early-Anthropocene idea would crosscut against the Holocene as it's seen by Holocene workers," he said. If other academics didn't like this, they could create their own timescales and start the Anthropocene Epoch where they choose. "We have no jurisdiction over the word Anthropocene," he said.
Ruddiman, the University of Virginia professor who first argued for a very early Anthropocene, now makes an even broader case. He's not sure it makes sense to formally define the Anthropocene at all. In a paper published this week, he objects to designating the Anthropocene as starting in the 1950s—and then he objects to delineating the Anthropocene, or indeed any new geological epoch, by name. "Keep the use of the term informal," he told me. "Don't make it rigid. Keep it informal so people can say the early-agricultural Anthropocene, or the industrial-era Anthropocene."
The problem with naming a new epoch, he told me, is that no one cares.
"I'm going to take some serious crap for this article," he said. "It's going to insult some old-school geologists, but doing these formal definitions just isn't the way that practicing geologists do things. The community just doesn't care about these definitions."
He predicted that no one would use these new Holocene subdivisions. Recently, he researched how many geology textbooks refer to the subdivisions within the Pleistocene, the 2.8-million-year epoch that preceded the Holocene. According to the ICS, the Pleistocene is split into four ages. But he found that only one textbook even alluded to them.
"This is the age of geochemical dating," he said. Geologists have stopped looking to the ICS to place each rock sample into the rock sequence. Instead, field geologists use laboratory techniques to get a precise year or century of origin for each rock sample. "The community just doesn't care about these definitions," he said.
Take the Meghalayan, for instance, our new home in time. Geologists and climate scientists already call the mega-drought that initiated the Meghalayan the "4.2-kiloyear event," he said. They won't change their ways because it happens to have a new, ICS-approved name.
"I'm not going to remember what they named it," he said. I'm never going to use the name, and I'm guessing most scientists will not. To me? It's silly."
Robinson Meyer is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he covers climate change and technology.


text:
<?php

namespace Devschool\BiblioFilmsBundle\Repository;

/**
 * GenresRepository
 *
 * This class was generated by the Doctrine ORM. Add your own custom
 * repository methods below.
 */
class GenresRepository extends \Doctrine\ORM\EntityRepository
{
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Nothing in the world would make me want a new name. My entire name in fact rolls off the tongue very smoothly: Kyrsten Anne Faga. Now to quote Anne of The Green Gables, "it's Anne with an "e"". But just because I love my name, doesn't mean I don't have difficulties with it.
My name is not rare, however it is not popular. The spelling of my name, spelt Kyrsten, is not normal. Normally it is spelled Kirsten or Krystan or whatever. And with an oddly spelt name, comes the people who stare at it and try to pronounce it. Honestly it's not that hard. The first part rhymes with ear, and the last part rhymes with tin or pin. Put it together you get KEAR-stin. But no matter how many times you tell certain people, they just don't understand.
Let's move on though and talk about how I came to have this name. My mother was reading a book when she was a teen, and found a beautiful name. She doesn't remember the name of the book, but the name has always stuck. From the time she read it, she knew that the first daughter she had would be named, Kyrsten.
Since I was young, I always wanted a nickname. However, Kyrsten doesn't take to nicknames very easily. So I was left without one until about seventh grade. During this time, I was starting to write and create stories more, and one of the characters I made was named Kizzy. Along with making characters, my friends and I would pretend to be them, so by the end of the school year, I was nicknamed Kizzy, or Kizzy-Cat, since I like cats.
Don't care about what people say and mispronounce your name.
I think this a wonderful short story. You should start to make a bigger story. This might inspire a mother to not name there son or daughter a name that is tricky.


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text:
Home / National / Caricom leaders meet in St Kitts amid changing regional, global environment
Caricom leaders meet in St Kitts amid changing regional, global environment
BASSETERRE, St Kitts (CMC) – Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders open a two-day inter-sessional summit here today, overshadowed by the unfolding economic and political events in Venezuela, Guyana, Haiti as well as security issues and continued moves by Europe to blacklist the region.
Caricom has sought to play a leading role in trying to diffuse the situation in the South American country where Opposition Leader, Juan Guaido, who declared himself interim president, is leading the effort to remove President Nicolas Maduro from office.
Guaido has the backing of the United States and several other countries, while Maduro, who was sworn into office last month, is backed by Russia, China, Cuba and several others.
Over the last weekend, the military in Venezuela prevented aid from Washington from entering the country through Brazil and Colombia.
United States Vice-President Mike Pence was expected to meet with Guaido in Bogota, Colombia, yesterday amid reports of more sanctions being imposed on Caracas.
Venezuelan security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd demanding to cross the Venezuela-Colombia border.
Caricom chairman and host prime minister, Dr Timothy Harris, has maintained that the 15-member regional grouping's policy is of non-interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela.
Harris, who had led a Caricom delegation to Uruguay, is expected to bring all the leaders up-to-date on the so-called Montevideo Mechanism, in response to the call by the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to find a pathway to a peaceful resolution through dialogue and from a position of respect for International Law and Human Rights.
Jamaica's delegation is being headed by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
Earlier this month, Harris said that the mechanism presents "the only objective mechanism" to address the complex political situation in Venezuela and that it is the only initiative available for international actors who want to see peace in Venezuela.
"We expect that the Montevideo Mechanism will become a landmark document in terms of moving forward. Not only will it survive in the context of what is happening in the Republic of Venezuela, but I believe it provides a platform, if you will, a framework for engagement in other disputes that would impact upon us," Harris said, adding that the next step now would be for the regional leaders to continue their dialogue on the situation "bearing in mind we were there (Uruguay) as a representative body.
"So we would want to report to the broader audience regarding the meetings that we had…and then to get further guidance and input from colleagues collectively on how we should move forward.
"We have to bear in mind that despite the initial differences among member states in the Caribbean Community, we have been able to maintain solidarity in the context of clearly delineating and articulating the principles that would guide our foreign policy…of non-interference in member states, non-intervention, respect for rule of law, democracy and respect for constitutional order," Harris said.
The situation in Venezuela has led to an influx of migrants into Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
Guyana has been bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis in terms of people crossing the border. Trinidad has been impacted and there have been a few incidents reported. This has been on the world stage," said Joshua Sears, the senior policy advisor to Bahamas Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis.
Apart from the Venezuela crisis, the regional leaders will no doubt be mindful of the unfolding political situation in Guyana, where the coalition Government of President David Granger has collapsed after the main Opposition People's Progressive Party (PPP) had been able to successfully move a motion of no confidence in the National Assembly on December 21, 2018, where the Government had enjoyed a one-seat majority.
The Granger Administration has since filed a motion in the Appeal Court seeking to overturn a High Court ruling in January that the motion was valid and which refused to provide a conservatory order, thereby halting the 90-day period required by the Guyana Constitution for new elections to be held once a motion has been successfully passed against the Government.
Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo has been calling for the polls to be held no later than March 19 while the Guyana Elections Commission says it would be practically impossible to do so.
Caricom's public clash with the Secretary General of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Luis Almagro, on Venezuela and Dominica, is also a matter the regional leaders will most likely discuss in a bid to maintain a united position going forward.
But Almargo, has shown no signs of backing down, indicating last weekend that "I stand by my statements and actions, which are completely consistent with the competencies of the Office of Secretary General and the democratic principles that this Organization promotes and defends".
One respected former Caribbean diplomat, Reginald Dumas of Trinidad and Tobago, has suggested that Caricom consider putting forward a candidate to replace the Uruguayan.
Dumas, who in 2004, was appointed by then Secretary General, Kofi Annan, as his special advisor to Haiti, said that of the 34 active OAS members, 14 are from Caricom.
"A simple majority (18) is needed for election of a secretary general, so at least four more countries must support us. Here's a good test of our newly-found unity and co-ordination in foreign affairs. Can we do it? Sí, podemos. Yes, we can," he said, indicating that former St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony would be an ideal candidate.
The political situation in Haiti, the only French-speaking member within the Caricom grouping, is another worrisome issue for the regional leaders.
President Jovenel Moise, who took up office in 2017 following protracted elections, is under pressure from opposition parties to step down over his handling of domestic affairs as well as the use of funds under the PetroCaribe, an oil alliance of many Caribbean states with Venezuela to purchase oil on conditions of preferential payment.
Several people have died since the street demonstrations started earlier this month and Caricom in an earlier statement said it "is deeply concerned about the continuing violent protests in Haiti, which have resulted in the loss of life, property, destruction of infrastructure and caused grave distress.
"The community calls for calm and a cessation of the violence, appealing to all involved to engage in constructive dialogue and to respect the Constitution, the rule of law and democratic processes so that issues can be resolved in a peaceful atmosphere and allow for the return to a state of normalcy," a Caricom statement said.
President Moise has already indicated that he does not intend to step down in favour of armed gangs and drug traffickers, acknowledging that the "the crisis we are going through is very serious".
The Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that enhancing regional air and maritime transportation and further advancing the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services, across the region, will be among the matters for deliberation.
The meeting will seek to further advance "measurable steps" for action on the CSME which were identified at a special Caricom summit held in Trinidad and Tobago last December.
These included new categories for free movement of persons, the leaders engagement with the private sector and labour, and operationalising the protocol on Contingent Rights which was signed by 10 member states during and since the last summit in Jamaica in July last year.
The secretariat said that the leaders will also examine recommendations from a Special Meeting of the Caricom Council for Trade and Economic Development on Transportation, held earlier this month in St Vincent, which dealt with, among other things, the Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA), proposals for a regional ferry service and easier security check-in for in-transit passengers. MASA, when implemented, will serve as a mechanism to maximise the economic and social benefits arising from aviation activities for Caricom air carriers.
Security matters and blacklisting issues affecting member states are also before the leaders with Sears noting that just recently The Bahamas, and several other Caribbean countries, had been placed on a European Union blacklist, which requireed additional scrutiny regarding financial transactions.
"For many years Caricom has been advocating for a fair process and we will see now that that voice has resonated with developed countries.
"The entire Caricom region is adversely impacted by these regulations," Sears said. "The good thing about it is though the Financial Action Task Force countries agreed to recommendations to improve their financial sectors and by each country taking the necessary steps… we follow each other and adopt the best practices, Heads share their views, Central Bank governors meet and they share views and they all work towards making these recommendations more relevant to address the financial concerns of the international financial community," he added.


The most favorite song of Alla Pugacheva among Russians was the composition of "Million Scarlet Roses", reports RT with reference to the survey Research@mail.ru.
It is reported that 19% of respondents voted for this song, the second place is taken by "Call me with you" from 18%. Next in the list of the most popular songs performed by Diva are such compositions as "This world was not invented by us" (15.5%), "Love, like a dream" (15%) and "Iceberg" (14%). Less than 1% of those polled said they had difficulty in answering, but noted that they love all the songs of Pugacheva.
The survey involved 2.4 thousand people over 12 years old.
April 15, Alla Pugacheva celebrates her 70th birthday.


Designed for the demanding needs of the production market, the LED Max Zoom Quad brings forth for the first time, Zoom features to an LED Par. With the ability to smoothly zoom from 10° to 60° (Via DMX), the LED Max Zoom Quad gives the Light Designer more flexibility to create their shows. Also loaded with high output 5 Watt LED's, this unit will compete with most of your standard halogen lamp sources to give you lots of power on stage. Now those LD's sitting on the fence, can finally make that change to LED with the LED Max Zoom Quad.
Dimensions (L x W x H) 11.8" x 10.6" x 8.7"


Mix the egg, yoghurt, milk and melted butter together in a jug. Pour them into the dry ingredients and mix lightly, stopping as soon as everything is combined – it's essential not to over-mix or you'll get dense, cakey muffins.
Replace the lemon curd with your favourite jam, first beating it lightly to soften slightly. Thick, fruity jams work best – a strawberry jam containing whole strawberries is perfect.
Replace the lemon curd with 150g chocolate hazelnut spread (warm it gently first, so it's easier to marble).
Replace the lemon curd with 1 large, or 2 small ripe bananas, thoroughly mashed; or 75g blueberries; or 75g stoned and halved cherries; or 75g raisins or other dried fruit, such as chopped dried apricots. Stir the fruit into the mixture lightly and quickly, just before piling into the cases.
I'm also very excited...... I know, it doesn't take much and I get excited about the smallest of things ..... anyhow, I mentioned earlier this week that I had liberally sprinkled wild flower seeds all over one of my flower beds. It was only 5 days ago so you can imagine my surprise when, while out doing a bit of gardening this morning, I saw this.
At first I thought they were weeds, in fact I know that some of them are .... like the spiky leaved plants which are definitely weeds because I'm forever pulling them up and there are always nettles , dandelions and grass growing in this flower bed, which I also have to remove on a regular basis but, the others are absolutely not the usual weeds that I get growing in here. I am therefore reasonably confident that the seeds that I sprinkled on there the other day have germinated and are well on their way to becoming a lovely mass of wild flowers. I can't wait to see what happens next.
The muffins sound absolutely delish. I love lemon curd and so will print off this recipe and try it soon. Thanks so much for posting it.
Five days germination is really fast. I bet there are more different ones down there just waiting to jump out of the ground and catch you unawares.
Hope you get the car in without too much money involved and that the brakes can be fixed inexpensively.
Kay, do you have breakdown cover? If you have, but it doesn't cover you for collection from home, you could give yourself plenty of time to drive it slowly the necessary mile (?) from home, with several stops to cool things down, and then call for the breakdown service.
The patch of wildflowers looks promising - a drop of overnight rain and nice, hot sun by day will do them the world of good - and us as well!
Oh my, those muffins are making me hungry!! Yum!!
I'm so pleased for your little flower bed! I wanted to do something similar this year but I relied on the husband to prep the ground so naturally, it hasn't materialised! I look forward to seeing updates, I'm sure it will be beautiful!!


text:
New York to allow limited medical marijuana under agreement
WRVO | By Karen DeWitt
Brett Levin
Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the legislature have agreed to a limited medical marijuana program for patients with cancer, AIDS, and childhood seizure disorders. It will not allow the drug to be smoked.
Cuomo, who had expressed reservations about allowing medical marijuana, says the bill will grant sick people access to the drug, while imposing limits that will prevent abuse of marijuana.
"It strikes the right balance," Cuomo said.
The bill will not allow smoking of marijuana, but Cuomo's acting health commissioner says using a vaporizer can work just as well. Only doctors will be allowed to prescribe the drug, and will have to take a special course before they are permitted to do so.
Patients will have to register with the state health department, and will have to carry their registration cards with them at all times. And there will be criminal penalties for doctors and patients who try to sell or use the drug for other purposes.
Cuomo says one of the most important provisions, to him, is that he can shut down the program at any time for any reason.
"You can just pull the plug out of the wall at any moment and the entire system stops," said Cuomo.
Advocates for medical marijuana, who held a vigil at the Capitol for the past several days, were cautiously supportive.
Holly Anderson, with the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester, says she's excited and relieved that there will be some sort of measure approved this year, but says she finds it disappointing that smoking has been eliminated.
She's also concerned that some of the restrictions on doctors, including possible felony charges for any alleged abuses, could discourage physicians from prescribing the drug.
Senate sponsor Diane Savino had initially said that eliminating smoking of marijuana as a treatment was a non-starter, but she now says she had to compromise in order to get relief for children with severe seizure disorders, who can benefit from an oil-based derivative of marijuana. Several of the children had also been in the halls outside the governor's office.
"You can't stand in the way," Savino said. "How could we say no?"
Under the plan, the New York State Department of Health will choose five private companies to grow and distribute the marijuana, all within New York state. Each company will be eligible to run four dispensaries, for a total of 20 statewide.
It will be some time before patients will have access to the drug. The new law would not take effect for 18 months, and even longer if Cuomo's health department decides more time is needed to get the program up and running.
HealthAndrew CuomodiseaseDiane Savinomedical marijuana
Karen DeWitt
Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau Chief for New York State Public Radio, a network of 10 public radio stations in New York State. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.
See stories by Karen DeWitt
Medical marijuana bill sponsors hold private meeting with Cuomo
Cuomo, legislative leaders agree on heroin bills, still discussing medical marijuana


So long, DC & Hello Reno!
The view from our layover at the Salt Lake City airport could have been worse.
And we're off! Our original plan to leave Wednesday got stymied by bad weather in Atlanta, and the snow in DC Thursday morning had us worried again, but it ended up being no problem. We made it out of DC and into Salt Lake City, where we had a long (9 hours!) but uneventful layover before getting into Reno late that night.
It was a whirlwind few days getting ready to leave. After much packing, trips to UPS and Goodwill, and approximately 2.1 million emails back and forth with Craigslist buyers, we found time to take a break Tuesday afternoon and went to Ben's Chili Bowl for some lunch (my first time to this DC institution) and to the National Gallery of Art for a quick visit.
We spent Friday unpacking, figuring out what will stay in storage and what will go with us in the car, and habituating Jax to Cristina's parents' house here in Reno, where we'll be for the next few days getting plans together before heading down to the Bay Area to see more family and make final preparations.
I'm excited to get to see a bit of the place Cristina grew up too! We're going to meet up with some of Cristina's friends tonight downtown and I will, of course, also make sure to spend just a wee bit of time in a casino.
P.S. Happy to report it's snowing this AM in Reno - we need the precipitation here in the drought-ridden west!
Jax happy in a windowsill.


Dimensions: approx: 18"h x 12"w - this a three-sided arrangement.
Description: Express your sentiments with this traditional rose bouquet. 12 Deep red roses are accented with salal and seeded eucalyptus, beautifully arranged into a French vase.