#Population changes in New York and Los Angeles

[thesocialmag]

Texas and Florida Metros Thrive, New York and LA Stabilize

Metropolitan areas in Texas and Florida experienced a surge in population growth, while the decline in New York and Los Angeles slowed down, according to recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. The initial trend of people leaving urban areas during the first year of the pandemic seems to have reversed or slowed down in the second year. In 2021, fear of the virus prompted residents to flee…

[jadagul]

I'm sorry if this is a stupid question. Why is it harder for larger countries to have citizens with a high median level of wealth? What makes it harder for a country with the US population vs, say, Japan? I can imagine obvious challenges, but also reasons why larger countries can make their median citizen wealthier more easily. Economies of scale, more chances for innovation that can later be widely adopted, strong institutions having outsized effects. Can you help me understand the logic more?

It's not a stupid question! It's a common but incredibly counterintuitive thing that comes up in statistical comparisons. The short version is: you get more variance with small samples than with large samples.

To start off, let's point out this isn't just theoretical. According to the IMF, the twelve highest GDPs per capita are in this chart:

(If you use a different source the numbers change somewhat but not dramatically so.)

If you rank countries by population, those are rank 122, 163, 118, 134, 162.5, 95, 99, 115, 3, 191, 169, and 103.5. The US is in position 3 and the next-highest is at 95 (out of about 200).

Conversely let's look at the ten most populous nations:

When ranked by GDP per capita, those come out at ranks 73, 127, 8, 98, 138, 144, 87, 128, 56, and 71.

And notice already this looks different: these numbers are mostly in like the middle half, whereas the others were almost all in the bottom half. And that makes sense based on the theoretical argument I'm about to make.

A big country has a lot of people in it. And more than that, it has a lot of places in it. And while those places all have a bunch of stuff in common (like being part of the same country), they also have a bunch of things different from each other. So you can think of the per capita GDP of a big country as, like, averaging together the per capita GPDs of all the regions in it. (And then the per capita GDP of a region is a weighted average of the incomes of all the people in it.)

If you look at a city-state like Singapore or Hong Kong, you're "averaging" together one city. And for a small country like Ireland or Luxembourg, you're averaging one city with a small amount of hinterlands. That means that if that one city is unusually lucky, the whole country is rich.

(And if that one city is unusually unlucky, the whole country is poor. The ten least populated countries on the list that have IMF data have GDP per capita ranks of 146, 119, 95, 9, 152, 60, 106, 16, 134, 52, which are all over the map. None of them are at the very bottom, and I assume that's because cities are richer than non-cities, in general. And also maybe a city-state that's also dirt poor gets swallowed up.)

And if you look at our list of richest countries, you can really see this effect. Ireland is a tax haven for the EU, and traditionally so is San Marino. Singapore is a weirdly-managed outlier city state, as is San Marino (and Hong Kong used to be). Qatar and the UAE are all drafting off of oil revenue, and for that matter so is Norway.

And to drive the point home, let's look at the list of US metro areas by per capita GDP.

San Jose beats every country in the world hollow. San Francisco is tied with the top entries on the list. And our tenth-richest metro area would place fifth on the list of countries by per capita gdp. (Contrast Paris at €60 and Berlin at like €42k, if my quick googling is right.)

And then to drive the point home, look at the top of the list. The richest metro area in the US isn't San Francisco or New York or Los Angeles (which at 18th and $86k doesn't even show up on that list up there, but would still put it at 8th in the world); the richest metro area in the US is some place called Midland TX. It's a small town that sits in the middle of a giant oil field, and as I understand it it's basically a base camp for all the oil work out there. So it has one thing going on, and that thing is super lucrative, and distributed across relatively few people; so it gets the top spot.

And that's why the richest countries are likely to be small.

[darkmaga-returns]

Annual FBI crime victimization surveys show violent crime is up 10.4% and property crime is up 6.4% between 2019 and 2023.

Each year, the FBI releases headline crime report data for the calendar year prior, and a separate crime victimization survey that asks Americans what crimes they have been the victims of. Comparing these reports provides insight into crime reporting rates and the accuracy of crime statistics.

While earlier reporting demonstrated that theft is worsening and often underreported, the growing divergence between the FBI’s annual crime victimization survey and its tabulations of reported crime indicates worsening trends in theft.

However, recent changes in how crime reporting data is collected, along with anomalous 2020 COVID-era data and reporting, have muddied the waters.

The FBI set a January 1, 2021 deadline back in 2016 for agencies to transition from the paper-based Summary Reporting System, which reports each incident of crime with the worst crime committed in the incident, with the computer-based National Incident-Based Reporting System, which can log up to 10 crimes per incident. But 40% of law enforcement agencies didn’t make the change in time. This included most agencies in populous California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Florida, and the two largest agencies: New York Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department.

As a result, reported violent and property crime dropped 15.9% and 27.3% respectively between 2020 and 2021, while at the same time victimization for violent crime rose 0.9% and property decreased 3.3%. The ratio of reported violent crimes to victimization declined from 85.6% in 2021 to 71.4% in 2021, while that of property crimes declined from 51.6% to 38.8%, highlighting how the 2021 reported crime figures are the product of a muddled transition in data collection.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Chris Geidner at Law Dork:

The far-right extremist group Moms for Liberty on Friday asked a federal judge in Kansas to dramatically expand an order blocking the Biden administration’s new rule aimed at protecting LGBTQ students — seeking to nationalize an injunction issued July 2. Moms for Liberty asked U.S. District Judge John Broomes, a Trump appointee, to expand his preliminary injunction against the administration’s new rule under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 to cover more than 850 counties across the country — including all 25 of the most heavily populated counties in the nation and all 10 of the largest school districts in the nation. If the group’s request is granted, the Kansas-based injunction — covered previously at Law Dork — would effectively become a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement of the rule before it is set to go into effect August 1.

The final rule, issued earlier this year, interprets sex under Title IX’s nondiscrimination protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity and changes obligations for addressing sexual harassment complaints, among other elements. Although the preliminary injunction issued by Broomes on July 2 covered four Republican-led states — Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming — it also covered members of three organizations that were a part of the lawsuit, including, Broomes wrote, “the schools attended by the children of the members of Moms for Liberty.”

Broomes asked the groups — which also include the “members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United” — to submit their lists of applicable schools by Monday. This was a step that I questioned in my report last week due to the fact that Broomes had issued an injunction before he even knew what it covered. Ten days later, Moms for Liberty proved my point.

In Friday’s filing, Moms for Liberty did not list the schools attended by the children of their members. The group acknowledged that they don’t even know the answer to that question. Citing the “impracticality” of obtaining that information, the group instead asked Broomes to expand the scope of the injunction substantially to include “any K-12 school in any county in which the child of a member of Moms for Liberty resides.” Moms for Liberty then claimed that it has more than 130,000 members, and provided a list of more than 850 counties in which it claims it has members.

The filing noted that the Justice Department opposes this request and will file its opposition by Sunday. If granted, the injunction out of Kansas would block enforcement of the rule in all of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, D.C., Detroit, and several other jurisdictions where local and state officials are not seeking such relief — and were not made aware of the fact that their obligations were at issue in the case before Friday. Moms for Liberty’s claim is that if it has one member who has a child attending a school in Los Angeles Unified School District, the entire district and its more than 1,300 schools should be covered by the injunction issued by a federal district judge in Kansas — regardless of the law affecting such legal questions in California.

Anti-LGBTQ+ extremist “parental rights” organization Moms For Liberty seeks to block the expansion of Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ people to over 850+ counties in America that would be a de facto nationwide injunction in Kansas v. Department of Education, meaning that a single M4L member in a county could be subjected to an injunction regardless of local laws.

[mariacallous]

Six weeks after Li Wenliang blew the whistle in Wuhan on an emerging infectious disease in early 2020, cities around the world locked down and turned into hotspots. From Rome to Tokyo to San Francisco and Los Angeles, COVID-19 ripped through the most populated areas of the world. By the end of that year, America’s cities—Detroit, Boston, and New Orleans among them—had death rates from the virus 20 percent higher than other regions of the country.

In New York, where I serve as health commissioner, almost 50,000 residents died, the majority in the first three months, denting New Yorkers’ life expectancy by nearly five years. It was the steepest drop in lifespan in the world that year.

Public health institutions and the field as a whole learned much from our successes and failures during the pandemic. The critical nature of healthcare supply chains; supporting our public health workforce, especially at the front lines; the essential process of community engagement for healthcare promotion, vaccination, and disease prevention; the importance of combatting misinformation and disinformation online and in person; the need to tear down our data silos so we can make faster, better decisions. The list goes on and on.

However, as new threats arise and old ones intensify, there is still much to learn. Cities—concrete jungles that experienced the worst of COVID-19, and in some ways, struggled the most with the public health response in the early days of the pandemic—may be our best teachers on how to keep our world safe and healthy.

That’s because the sentinel cases for brooding public health threats, whether infectious or not, are often in cities. Cities are the canaries in the public health coal mine, for everything from mental health and homelessness, climate change to forced migration, substance use to sex trafficking. The way these challenges play out across our cities should not only drive national policy, but also serve as an important corollary for how to respond in less dense, less diverse, more rural areas. Yet when we consider the multilateral institutions where decisions are made and policymaking happens, cities rarely have any role in governance.

The reasons for city-as-public-health-epicenter are simultaneously obvious and not so obvious. For one, urban densification has accounted for the majority of population growth, even as land mass occupied by cities is growing. Today, around 56 percent of the world’s population live in cities—a percentage that experts expect will grow to 70 percent, with population doubling, by 2050. There is also the historic boom in airplane travel both domestically and internationally, which means communicable diseases (like SARS, swine flu, and mpox) can leap across borders faster than ever, quickly overtaking cities’ health systems.

An example of this in New York City in 2022 was when an old virus, mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), began circulating in explosive new ways among men who have sex with men. NYC had become the national and global epicenter.

Despite facing critical shortages of vaccine, in June 2022 we began vaccinating men who had the highest risk of getting infected, well ahead of the anyone else in the nation, including the federal government. This critical intervention to curb the virus’s spread helped bend the curve of mpox within a few weeks, by early August. Not only did our response set the tone for the rest of the national mpox response, it also influenced the way in which many other global centers responded.

The same happened with tuberculosis (TB), another old microbe—and one that remains a leading infectious killer in the world. Between 2022 and 2023, the U.S. has seen a dramatic 14 percent year-on-year increase in tuberculosis cases nationwide. NYC is once again at the country’s frontlines, with a 28 percent increase over the same period. The drivers of TB’s resurgence are manifold, but one is the shifting pattern of migration worldwide due to climate change, war, and economic and political instability.

NYC health officials again leapt into action. We not only increased investment into our TB program in response, but since 2014 have pioneered new and effective ways to control the disease including award-winning “video directly observed therapy” where a health worker observes the patient taking their daily medications. This telehealth protocol has now become a part of TB control guidance recommended by the World Health Organization.

But while cities like New York are battling disease threats with drive and innovation, a lack of formal representation in multilateral institutions means that cities are more susceptible to security concerns, bioterrorism, and economic disruption. Cities are largely expected to navigate their response to global health crises in silos, without a clear and dedicated means to exchange ideas between them. Moreover, they typically do not have a meaningful say in how their national counterparts navigate domestic responses or global deliberations.

That was New York City’s early experience during the pandemic.

As COVID-19 tore through our five boroughs in the early weeks and months—from Sheepshead Bay and Jamaica to Battery Park, Harlem and Hunts Point—New York’s public health authorities produced their own messaging campaigns; partnered with private corporations and others to source materials and protective equipment for healthcare workers to care for those in need; stood up a free testing network, and later; designed their own vaccine distribution system and engaged deeply with communities to promote vaccine uptake. These responses were—especially early in the pandemic—developed in the absence of clear national and international guidance, or resources. And our experience in the start-up phase of the pandemic response was not unique, with cities from Los Angeles to Chicago to Boston to Miami facing similar challenges.

If we don’t formally involve cities in our national systems for disease surveillance and public health response, we lose out. Best practices disappear into the archives. Innovative strategies collect dust in the pages of textbooks and journals. How can cities effectively respond to burgeoning health threats when institutional memory fades, and when protocols developed at national scale lack the specificity or practicality to actualize in our alleys or on our sidewalks?

A better strategy may pull from the discipline of political science: specifically, a concept known as “inclusive multilateralism.” This concept, which refers to the participation of non-nation states in multilateral institutions and processes, narrows the gap between the high-level authorities handing down policy decisions and the communities on the ground who are expected to make them come to life. It has allowed for civil society, nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and other stakeholders to have a formal role in the most critical multilateral governance structures in the world, from international security to climate change bodies. It also creates a critical set of checks and balances, ensuring that special interests or anti-democratic actors, influencing national governments and elected leaders, do not have outsized sway in international decision-making by having representation of sectors outside of national politics.

In health, for instance, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and malaria, among others, have since inception had official civil society and private sector representation on its governing board and country coordinating bodies.

There is a growing appetite for cities to have such a formal leadership role, not only to share local experiences, best practices, innovations, and data, but also to build collaborations for emergencies. In remarks made during an event honoring the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary in 2020, Secretary General António Guterres specifically called out the need to draw on the “critical contributions” of cities and regional governments. Similarly, the 2017 Partnership for Healthy Cities launch stated that “city leaders are uniquely positioned to drive policies and programs to help transform public health. And a recent McKinsey report suggests sizable potential impact through a global focus on city-level work, not just for pandemic preparedness, but for overall health. They estimate that influenceable interventions at the city level could add more than 20 billion years of higher-quality life at a global level, while offering a critical opportunity to address health disparities and inequities, an important underlying driver of differential outcomes from pandemic disease, let alone chronic health challenges.

Following these leads, it is time national governments and multi-national organizations formalize the role of cities in global health governance and security. One proposal is that relevant multilateral institutions—such as the World Health Organization or World Bank—could establish seats for cities on their Executive Boards or Board Committees. These seats could even have city government representation from both donor and implementer countries. Additionally, each region could add representation for cities on their subcommittees or local oversight bodies, for example U.N. Country Offices or Country Coordinating Mechanisms.

Now, as the global health community gathers this week in Geneva for the World Health Assembly – the annual gathering of the official governing body of the WHO—there is an opportunity ripe for the inclusion of the local jurisdictions who will be at the forefront of the next pandemic. Negotiations on the Pandemic Accord, the global treaty intended to set international standards of preparedness, cooperation, and communication between nations in advance of the next global communicable disease threat, are set to conclude this week. It is essential that real-world lessons and insights from cities are incorporated into this document, to ensure well-meaning agreements translate to real-world action on the ground.

There are already glimmers of hope.

In the last two years, Tedros Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, has invited New York City to attend the annual World Health Assembly, the official decision-making body for the WHO and the International Health Regulations. That inclusion has allowed us to share our hard-won experience with WHO and other officials, in regard to the forthcoming Pandemic accord, including our insights on building stockpiles of PPE, mobilizing the health workforce and managing health facility capacity, ramping up testing through public-private partnerships with commercial laboratories, building a rapid and locally-driven vaccination effort, and ensuring that equity and place-based work is incorporated at the start of a response, rather than in subsequent phases. And in return, we learned first-hand about many of the challenges faced by nations across the globe in pandemic response and disease surveillance, especially in light of a changing climate and critical health workforce shortages, and have incorporated learnings about the WHO’s data sharing capacities and early warning and advanced surveillance systems, into improving our own population health data system.

New York City’s presence at the World Health Assembly has also given us an opportunity to demonstrate our front-line expertise and innovation in mental health, urban preparedness, climate change adaption, data modernization, and emerging health issues related to the global migrant crisis, among other issues.

Designing formal mechanisms to include cities in deliberations of global scale will allow each of us to not only sound the alarm earlier, but also to better respond to emerging public health threats lurking in our streets and sewers. By ensuring that cities have a meaningful seat at the table in our global health governance models, we will be charting a better course for the world to respond to forthcoming crises.

[amadholes-lostre]

Countries - North America

I currently working on denominations in Califinity, mainly the two biggest ones. However, I hit a snail due to just trying to think up names for it. Like, GRR Martin said he doesn't bother with it for Westeros' names like The North and King Landing, but I am obsessed with namings. If the name doesn't have meaning, or doesn't looks right, I gonna fucking throw myself off a bridge.

Anyways, right now I focusing on North America states because there are a lot more countries than ours today. And I including Central America and the Caribbeans, because it's still part of North America. I will also talk about UNAC, which is a supernational union similar to today EU (EU was already federalized in bhna contemporary) and superseded NAFTA.

United States of Fredoia

I already talked about Fredoia briefly on my last post, only that it superseded the USA. Fredoia inherited the majority of USA lands (there were time they didn't, thanks to Neo-Confedercy). They did lose many lands due to many Native tribes declaring independence (I will elaborate that later).

Like USA before, Fredoia kept it capital city where Washington, DC was, and like Washington state, its name is change (maybe Unionpolis, very original lol). It incorporated Arlington Country and Alexandra City, giving DC a total land area of 270 km². It population should be around 3 million. It administration level will be called a metropolis-state level: it status is equal along with other states (they are represented at congress), but it functions more as a city.

New York City is also a metropolis-state, incorporating counties and cities in its surroundings, including Hudson Country, NJ(yep, Jersey City included). However, it lost being the biggest in the US (being now 18 mil), Metropolis of Los Angeles is bigger, far bigger (24 mil). Also, they rebuilt Penn Station, now called Empire State Central Station.

Also, voting systems and constituents' representation are different. It is a proportional representation by parties, meaning Fredoia has a multi-party system. The head of state and head of government is separated, and its government structure is a parliamentary republic like Germany.

Thanks due to quirks, immigration, civil wars, geographical barriers, and the fact that this takes place hundreds of years later, Western and Eastern Fredoia have very different cultures compared to today. How people differentiate West and East is by geographic barriers like how we do so with Mississippi River. The Rocky Mountains Range helped differentiate the two regions.

For one, Latines are now the majority in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and other Western states (maybe not Oregon nor Washington). There are already articles that projected this will happen. What is unique due to the mixture of Latine and Anglo culture, especially the language, created a new ethnicity called Californians (Kalifornán written as gender neutral). They even developed a unique language called Kalifornán in its native language (Kalidán if you read my other post for Dune). It's a mixture of Spanish and English, mainly that Spanish superceded English phonetics and any words that were originally French. However, many English words still remain, words like ín (and), islán (island), lán (land), ríf (river), and such. Also, some letters change due to pronunciations, like Spanish J is now Hr (Juan will spell Hruan), Spanish and English Ch, along with English J is now Ç. The C that pronunced similar to the word city is now S (reason why Frinsica has an S now). I gonna write a post for this.

One key factor for Californians' ethnicity is that the majority are Califinitans. The majority of Fredoia Califinitans are located beyond the Rocky Mountains, with exceptional of Upland South-

-due to The Great Blooming and the Neo War. Almost all of those in Upland are what I called Deitist: believing that Califia is someway a deity.

There is also a new ethnicity/race called Biras (Birace?Biase?). They are the English version of Mestizos. I was thinking that since interracial is more acceptable, and therefore more biracial children, that will be far more biracial in the future. I will think they will be the majority (maybe 1/3?), though they will likely have different groups depending on their background. Sasha Waybright is likely a Biras, however, this will depend on if her one or both her parents are from the Eastern. She probably will view herself as a Mestiza since she will be a Kalifornana.

I also want to create a different post that focuses only on the State of California.

Native American States

After the Second Civil War, many Native American tribes declared independence. How many, I don't know, and to be honest, I don't think it is more than 10. Right now, I gonna create ones from the US since I more familiar with it. There likely are independent First Nation states in Canada, and there definitely is a Mayan state in the Yucatán Peninsula (and maybe whatever the Zapatistas are controlling now).

Kingdom of Hawaii

This was already a no-brainer as there is already a sovereign movement by Native Hawaiians. Honestly, it is rather they would have a monarchy or republic is the question.

This part is going a bit controversial, but once the USA government kinda just collapsed, there was a lot of chaos in the islands. There was a massive exodus, many who were non-native, who went back to the states. However, there was also an expulsion of other non-native, even those were not white, by Native Hawaiians; there were conflicts between two groups who wanted to either remain in the union or become independent, which led into this. Hawaiia also has a right of return for diaspora Hawaiian like many other countries do.

The capital is still Honolulu. They are a member of UNAC. When Amphibia was transported at the Pacific, Hawaii claimed some islands in its southern water that were uninhibited. There are political tension between the and the Kingdom of Newtopia due to this, and also the fucking megafaunas they traveled to the islands.

Navajo-Hopi Nation

Again, a no-brainer, however, the thing that was a bit shockingto me was that there is another tribe reservation inside Navajo. I was wondering why there was a hole in Navajo until I look at a proper map and saw Hopi in it lol

(Other reservations in the East likely will be incorporated simply because Navajo-Hopi ask them "hey you wanna join us?")

Honestly, it likely they had the most peaceful transition: it isolated thanks to being in a desert (and behind the Rocky Mountains), there is not that many non-native in it to begin with, there are other issue happening for the USA government to worry about, and the most hilarious reason, is that they never publicly declared independence. They decided to ignore DC and acted like an independent country for either half to nearly a century.

I don't know if Navajo-Hopi should be a binational state or not. Binations don't usually last that long, and there are other non Navajo-Hopis that live in the nation. The capital city is Jeddito, an actual place in Navajo that is inside Hopi. Population in the nation should be around 10-15 mil. NH is part of UNEC.

Republic of Lakotah

Likely the biggest Native country if Alaska isn't independent. It is actually based on a proposal state for Lakota.

It capital and largest city is Omaha (will go by a different name). The city is right on the tip, and it is the most important city as it is connected with the Mississippi River.

Even though Lakotah is meant for Lakota, there are other Native tribes who emigrated to it. There is likely ethnic tension between Lakota and the other non-Lakotas, but I don't think it won't be as awful as other places.

Of all the native states, Lakotah was the most violent; the country situated in five Republican states. The likely reason how they managed to gain independence is due other tribes from the surrounding coming over to help (similar to Bleeding Kansas). And anti-quirks were not as pivotal or heated compared to Whites (especially Republicans), so while Whites were fighting among themselves about quirks, quirks and non-quirks Native were teaming up.

There is a unique architecture in Lakotah, buildings which are called Tipi. Tipi are small, arcological buildings that are meant to house either 2,000 to 10,000 people. They primarily house people without hurting the environment. They are small, 1/4 to the size of a square kilometer. What is unique is that it is a commune, allowing people to share and control resources via democratically. It's the only place on Earth where they have true communism. How Tipi interspersed the lands is unique because I got the idea from Not Just Bike on his video of Switzerland. Lakotah is a sprawling country, where half the population lived in 5 major cities, and the other half lived in Tipi in said city's region or somewhere else. Instead of having sprawling suburban like the USA and Canada, Lakotah is sprawled by Tipi.

Lakotah land area is 200,00 km², with a population of 55 mil., and Omaha population is 10 mil.

It is also a member of UNAC

Country around Oklahoma

I know for a fact that tribes in Oklahoma declared independence too, the only issue is I don't know a name for it. There are multiple ethnicities in Oklahoma, and there likely need to have a lingua franca.

I still gonna call it Oklahoma. Oklahoma City is the capital, with a population of around 1-2 mil. The country itself is 15-20 mil. Oklahoma is a member in UNAC.

Maya Republic

Mayas initiated their country during the Dark Age/Vigilant Era, like the four other countries I mentioned. And when i said Maya, I mean Indigenous Mayas , not Mestizos who don't identify as such. The Maya Republic controls Chiapas, Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, and Northern Guatemala.

I don't know where the capital city will be. Either Mérida in Yucantán, Jovel, or Tuxtla Gutiérrez. Population is likely at 30 million. Maya is a member in UNAC.

The majority of Mayas are likely Califinitans, though I don't know if they will be deitists or nondeitists.

UNAC

UNAC, or United North America Confederacy, is what I said before: a supernational union similar to EU. And I mean similar in many ways.

Border between UNAC members are open, there is a singular currency (called Uneso), no visa required for nationals when working in different countries, UNAC Nationals allowed to vote and stand in office in local government, no restrictions in trading, etc. There is not much standard when it comes to infrastructure. However, they do have major projects for UNAC to feel more connected. Almost all railways in mainland North America are electrified (25kv/50hz), all have standard gauge, have uniformed signals, and are connected. It's theoretically possible to take an hsr (450 kph) line or two from New York City to Panama City. But a more preferrable opition is a Maglev (750 kph) line, which goes directly to either city.

The capital city is at Rio Grande mouth, called Rio Grande City. It picked for a symbolic reason: Rio Grande separated Latin and Anglo culture, the treatment of Mexican, and proxy Latines, by the former USA, and picking the capital on the mouth bonds the two cultures together.

The city population is around 20-25 million. Some interesting things i think up is that there is a lot of bodies of water in Rio Grande City, like what it is today-

-so the city kinda looks like Venice. There are artificial islands similar to I-Island off the coast, though they are much smaller, likely at average of 10-50 km². There is a pro-hero academy meant for UNAC national students. There is also a Triwizard-like tournament for Pro-heros academies, and it is always hailed in the city.

I think the UNAC government is similar to the EU along with Switzerland. It has two legislative, one voted by population, another by it state government. There is also a commission committee that handed making laws, but I too lazy to look it up. UNAC Senate, the one elected by population, has a degressive proportionality when giving each state senator. Let's be honest, Fredoia will fucking out vote every countries due to having the highest population. Mexico comes in second by population, with maybe a population of either 250-300 mil, but even then, adding all the other countries, they still won't outnumbered Fredoia, even if Fredoia did lost many states before. So, small countries (maybe less of 10 mil?) automatically have 5 senators, and the Senate will apportioned senators accordingly. Likely Fredoia only filled 1/3 of the Senate. The executive branch is a council of each countries head of state and government, like the EU.

Amphibia and the Boiling Isles

Amphibia can't be a member due to it government and representation. Even though Amphibians could elect local leaders, non-Newts can't vote for the supreme legislative body, and the kingdom is a semi-constitution monarchy. Like, UNAC is okay with Hawaii being a monarchy (if Hawaiians choose it) as it government is very much a constitution monarchy. The monarch has restricted power, similar to the British monarch. Andrias has far more privileges that will make UNAC very uncomfortable. There is some trade right between the two, and the Amphibians do have an easier time getting a visa (this I imagine how Hop Pop and two kids manage to enter California).

For BI, it is complicated. BI is situated in the middle of the Atlantic, and therefore does not feel connected to North America. Actually, there's likely tension between UNAC and BI (and likely other countries, especially EU and West Africa countries). Many of the islands block shipping lanes, so conflicts between BI and other countries are likely to happen. Doesn't help they are also do magic and far more non-humanoid like.

Not only that, but BIS are very isolationist. Rarely do they connect with the outside world. Even when Belos becomes emperor, it didn't really change its isolational policy other than scaring other countries because now they are united and far more powerful.

There's nothing else much to talk about. In the EU, they have a similar international pro-hero academy for EU national students to learn together -this is the premise for snk/bnha fic, where 104th class are a pro-hero class (Eren was a non-quirk until his father gifted him one, and not only Ymir (freckles) is from a famous and loving pro-hero parents, but she also in an arranged marriage with Historia, her childhood best friend).

Anyways, that's it.

[caesarflickermans]

dear prof. dr. caesarflickermans, expert in thg, i request your knowledge.

how do you picture the capitol outlines? is it something like the rich are in the middle and the outer circles are poorer? or are there different neighbourhoods with different levels of wealth with no real logic in how it happened?

also is there a clear border between the really rich and the rest of the population? or between the general population and the poor? are people in a way "restricted" to their neighbourhood a bit like inhabitants of the districts are confined in their district?

do you have any more elements that you would like to add?

thank you! 💕

(Please keep in mind I'm no expert in anything city planning, my words are by no means as educated as someone who did study this subject. Maybe @plvtarch can give some more educated information!)

My brief mention in SSLWR 13 might have indicated that the poor live in the outskirts while the rich live in the inner city, but that is not at all the impression I had intended to give!

If you look at city maps, you will usually find that if we are differentiating between inner and outer city, the rich usually tend to live a bit further away from a direct city centre, that is because they have greater mobility than the poor, feel more secure there, and have the option for larger homes.

Nothing about levels of wealth and where they settle is truly random. Much of it is determined by zoning laws or gentrification. There are many quirks in city planning and many reasons for different income levels or different races to move to or from specific neighbourhoods.

While I can see the Capitol influencing some of these aspects very actively, the Capitol is also not expanding, has no new people move to it (other than those who are born in there), and much of it is likely more stuck in a gridlock. I do believe that social mobility exists, and therefore some parts of it are moving up and down on the social ladder which implies a changing of neighbourhoods, but I assume it is much slower due to tighter class systems.

On a location level, I believe that the Capitol is located in Salt Lake City, though that is not my only inspiration and I will not keep 100% to the geography of this city. My reason for this belief is the mention of a natural mountain barrier to the East of the city (THG, 4). We also frequently receive a view of the Capitol's lake to the West and IIRC it is mentioned in the books somewhere, but I'm not sure where. Either way, lake to the West, mountain to the East. Salt Lake City seems the natural conclusion here.

When we look at the Salt Lake City area, we notice the following based on (A) median income and (B) a rating on based schools:

(A) is an obvious indicator for wealth, and it seems to accumulate in the Eastern area. (B) further supports this. Rich people like to send their kids to the best of schools, and it can be a good supporting indicator for wealth.

Thus, we have identified the Eastern part of Salt Lake City as a rich neighbourhood.

In addition, while I believe the Capitol to be located in Salt Lake City, the Capitol is a representative of large wealth concentration. The cities that, to me, as a Non-American, come to mind and were part of my inspiration on how I see the Capitol are Los Angeles and New York City. They both are THE metropolitan areas to be and have a large influence on areas such as entertainment, fashion, and finance. They feel quite right for the Capitol. Let's look at the former and its wealth concentration first:

If we compare this with topography levels, we notice a very clear pattern for both Los Angeles and Salt Lake City: The richer areas are closer to or even on mountains. Thus, we notice that our wealth indicator maps correspond with topography level:

I've always liked Los Angeles in terms of Capitol representation for its Northern mountains that overlook the city and the rich people that look into the downtown area. I've never been to Los Angeles, but the property there appears more spaced out which allows for the wealthy to built their larger residences up in the mountains.

I nonetheless also like the idea of skyscrapers which would be more representative of New York. I can envision some wealthy people who are sick and tired of the mountains to prefer living in downtown area in high rise apartments and penthouses. I think for New York City its geography is a bit less relevant, partly because it is so encased by water and the differentiation is more Manhattan/Boston. Nonetheless, I take the NYC comparison and apply it to the Capitol insofar that I read it as the rich liking to live close to or with a view of the river.

Where does this leave us with?

Well, we know that the mountains to the East of Salt Lake City host the wealthy, we know that something similar is happening in Los Angeles with its North, and we know that the wealthy in New York really love looking at the river (or parks, lol).

I like the idea of combining all three aspects into one map, bastardising SLC a bit in the process (they'll survive).

As you can see, I've moved the lake a bit more inward to allow for the New York comparison to make sense. I've added some more mountains on top to have the Los Angeles feeling.

There is an area labelled downtown which is, while still having astonishing real estate prices, the area of the training centre and the bigger shopping area. Most city districts have their own feel to it and their own inner shopping streets, but if you want to shop the big designers, you go to that grey area.

The middle class and lower class are way less defined, but I've placed them roughly in that manner as the lower part of the Capitol is the weakest area in terms of protection.

While the mountains might appear fragile, Katniss mentions that it is impossible to enter through them and, instead, the tunnels are the weak points. Thus, I've figured that the wealth distribution both in the East (SLC) and LA (North) wasn't affected (i.e. moving to the West post Dark Days).

Instead, the lower class area with its mountains receding is the true weak point, and it is likely that the rebels came in from roughly around there, possibly with the tunnels being somewhere around there, too.

This is the general inner city circle for the Capitol. There is a greater area around it which hosts vacation spots and some of the arenas.

The vacation spots I perceive as similar to the arenas, insofar that they are equally unnatural in how they have been built, but they are less adventure-y (yikes) and mostly focused on relaxation. Capitol people do not go to the Districts on vacation, but they have some beautiful areas that are meant to resemble some popular vacation destinations, such as beaches or mountains. They come in different price ranges, of course, and you usually stay overnight there in themed houses. Those places are large, thus they host several groups.

The arenas are nothing we haven't heard of in the books. I think some are in the Capitol outskirts while others are more around its actual border or around the empty stretches of land in between the Districts (no-mans land, essentially).

As to restrictions: No, there aren't any. We can gauge as much from the books as the poor and the rich shop in similar areas (avenues and the side streets, as described by Cressida in MJ & visited by Virgilia in SSLWR 17). But, generally, they maintain this idea that the middle and lower classes are able to make it big. It's a necessity to keep those people in line, and overall successful insofar that they quite literally buy into it and go in debt.

Any restrictions in place usually come through where the best schools are placed, where demand has the housing market skyrocket, but overall they, as previously said, change fairly little.

In this manner, I also think that the Capitol heavily relies on public transport. It's a small city that has had a long time to establish its public transport system, which also means that the people aren't truly restricted to one area over the other, i.e. everyone who wants to can easily attend the tribute parade. Only few people own a car--because I want some utopia in my dystopia--and only those who truly require one in the moment, such as President Snow, own one.

As to where my main cast of characters live: Virgilia obviously lives in the President area, Caesar in the Eastern NYC area (no seaside view for him), Plutarch in the Los Angeles-esque area, and Tigris in the grey downtown area as she lives above her shop.

[foreverlogical]

As the Midwestern and Eastern U.S. braced for what could be the longest heatwave in decades for some locations, a wildfire near Los Angeles forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate over Father's Day weekend.

The climate crisis caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels is making both heatwaves and wildfires more frequent and extreme, and politicians and environmental advocates pointed out the role that state and national policy can play in fueling extreme weather.

"Each of the last 12 months have been the hottest on record," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media on Sunday. "This week, cities across the country will see record-high temperatures. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to surrender the fight against the devastation of climate change. We cannot let that happen."

"Politicians making bad policy decisions (like killing congestion pricing) is the number one cause of climate change, which makes heatwaves like this one worse."

Former U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told oil and gas executives this spring that donating $1 billion to his campaign would be a "deal" for them because he would dismantle the Biden administration's climate regulations.

Sanders' remarks came as the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center forecast that "record-breaking heat" would "expand from the Midwest and Great Lakes to the Northeast this week, potentially lingering through early next week."

NWS said the heatwave would be the "first significant" heatwave of the season and could break daily temperature records and some monthly June temperature records for the portion of the country stretching from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast between Monday and next Saturday.

"The longevity of dangerous heat forecasted for some locations has not been experienced in decades," NWS said.

The heat index could come close to 105°F in many places, and nighttime temperatures of around 75°F mean that those without cooling infrastructure will see "little to no relief."

The high temperatures could impact millions of people from Michigan to Maine. As of Saturday, 22.6 million people were under extreme heat warnings, watches, or advisories, according toThe New York Times.

University of California, Los Angeles, climate scientist Daniel Swain told the Times that the heat would "affect a bunch of highly populated areas where there hasn't been quite as many stories about extreme heat recently," adding, "Now, it's New England's turn."

The NWS warned, "With the intense heat and high humidity it is important to take precautions to protect one's health, particularly those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration."

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a warning on social media on Saturday, pointing out that extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the U.S.

However, climate advocates criticized Hochul for exacerbating the root cause of more extreme heatwaves with her last-minute cancellation of a New York City congestion pricing plan earlier this month.

"Politicians making bad policy decisions (like killing congestion pricing) is the number one cause of climate change, which makes heatwaves like this one worse," the Sunrise Movement wrote in response to Hochul's post.

Long-time climate advocate and author Bill McKibben said: "This governor just blocked congestion pricing, one of the most important climate policy advances possible. She's redefining trolling."

Climate Central noted that, "while heatwaves are common in summer, this early season excessive, likely record-breaking heat is made as much as two times to five times MORE likely to occur in mid-June due to human-caused climate change (particularly overnight warmth)."

Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the Post Fire ignited at around 1:45 pm on Saturday local time in Los Angeles County, California, about 65 miles from downtown Los Angeles, The Washington Post reported.

As of Sunday afternoon, it had spread 12,265 acres and was 2% contained, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Fire officials said the blaze was fanned by heat, low humidity, and wind and had damaged two structures.

"Currently crews are working to construct perimeter fire lines around the flakes of the fire. Aircraft are working to stop forward progress but have limited visibility," Cal Fire wrote on Sunday, adding that "the fire is pushing up into Hungry Valley Park. California State Park Services have evacuated 1,200 people from Hungry Valley Park. Pyramid Lake is closed because of the threat of the Post Fire."

One of those evacuated was 33-year-old Oscar Flores, who was visiting Hungry Valley Park with his 12-year-old son on Saturday.

"It looked like it was the last day of the world," Flores told the Los Angeles Times. "People were loading quickly and merging out, driving fast. The ranger said you have 10 minutes [to get] whatever you can pack."

[readyforevolution]

Black History Facts!!!

#Happy90th

#NAACP

Born Myrlie Louise Beasley on March 17, 1933, in her maternal grandmother’s home in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She was the daughter of James Van Dyke Beasley, a delivery man, and Mildred Washington Beasley, who was 16 years old. Myrlie’s parents separated when she was just a year old; her mother left Vicksburg but decided that Myrlie was too young to travel with her. Since her maternal grandmother worked all day in service, with no time to raise a child, Myrlie was raised by her paternal grandmother, Annie McCain Beasley, and an aunt, Myrlie Beasley Polk. Both women were respected school teachers and they inspired her to follow in their footsteps. Myrlie attended the Magnolia school, took piano lessons, and performed songs, piano pieces or recited poetry at school, in church, and at local clubs.

Myrlie graduated from Magnolia High School (Bowman High School) in 1950. During her years in high school, Myrlie was also a member of the Chansonettes, a girls’ vocal group from Mount Heroden Baptist Church in Vicksburg. In 1950, Myrlie enrolled at Alcorn A&M College, one of the few colleges in the state that accepted African American students, as an education major intending to minor in music. Myrlie is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. On her first day of school Myrlie met and fell in love with Medgar Evers, a World War II veteran eight years her senior. The meeting changed her college plans, and the couple later married on Christmas Eve of 1951. They later moved to Mound Bayou, and had three children, Darrell Kenyatta, Reena Denise, and James Van Dyke. In Mound Bayou, Myrlie worked as a secretary at the Magnolia Mutual Life Insurance Company.

When Medgar Evers became the Mississippi field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1954, Myrlie worked alongside him. Myrlie became his secretary and together they organized voter registration drives and civil rights demonstrations. She assisted him as he struggled to end the practice of racial segregation in schools and other public facilities and as he campaigned for voting rights many African Americans were denied this right in the South. For more than a decade, the Everses fought for voting rights, equal access to public accommodations, the desegregation of the University of Mississippi, and for equal rights in general for Mississippi's African American population. As prominent civil rights leaders in Mississippi, the Everses became high-profile targets for pro-segregationist violence and terrorism.

In 1962, their home in Jackson, Mississippi, was firebombed in reaction to an organized boycott of downtown Jackson’s white merchants. The family had been threatened, and Evers targeted by the Ku Klux Klan.

In 1967, after Byron De La Beckwith's release in 1965, she moved with her children to Claremont, California, and emerged as a civil rights activist in her own right. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Pomona College. She spoke on behalf of the NAACP and in 1967 she co-wrote For Us, the Living, which chronicled her late husband's life and work. She also made two unsuccessful bids for U.S. Congress. From 1968 to 1970, Evers was the director of planning at the center for Educational Opportunity for the Claremont Colleges.

From 1973 to 1975, Evers was the vice-president for advertising and publicity at the New York-based advertising firm, Seligman and Lapz. In 1975, she moved to Los Angeles to become the national director for community affairs for the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO). At ARCO she was responsible for developing and managing all the corporate programs. This included overseeing funding for community projects, outreach programs, public and private partnership programs and staff development. She helped secure money for many organizations such as the National Woman’s Educational Fund, and worked with a group that provided meals to the poor and homeless.

Myrlie Evers-Williams continued to explore ways to serve her community and to work with the NAACP. Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley appointed her to the Board of Public Works as a commissioner in 1987. Evers-Williams was the first black woman to serve as a commissioner on the board, a position she held for 8 years. Evers-Williams also joined the board of the NAACP. By the mid-1990s, the prestigious organization was going through a difficult period marked by scandal and economic problems. Evers-Williams decided that the best way to help the organization was to run for chairperson of the board of directors. She won the position in 1995, just after her second husband’s death due to prostate cancer. As chairperson of the NAACP, Evers-Williams worked to restore the tarnished image of the organization. She also helped improve its financial status, raising enough funds to eliminate its debt. Evers-Williams received many honors for her work, including being named Woman of the Year by Ms. Magazine. With the organization financially stable, she decided to not seek re-election as chairperson in 1998. In that same year, she was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal.

Sources:

Padgett, John. "MWP: Myrlie Evers-Williams". University of Mississippi. Retrieved October 20, 2011

Goldsworthy, Joan. "Gale - Free Resources - Black History - Biographies - Myrlie Evers-Williams". Gale. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

Myrlie Evers-Williams Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com". Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

Davis, Merlene. "Merlene Davis: Myrlie Evers-Williams doesn't want us to forget". Kentucky.com. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

Jessie Carney Smith; VNR Verlag für die Deutsche Wirtschaft (1996). Notable Black American Women: book II. p. 208.

University of Virginia (June 24, 2013). "Speakers and Guests Bios". virginia.edu. Archived from the original on June 2, 2013.

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

The revolution hasn’t started in America for many reasons, primarily that we actually aren’t that uncomfortable. When the Paris commune was formed, more than 50,000 poor and impoverished people had moved from the countryside to the city to look for jobs. 8-10% of the cities population in 1790. If you wanted to do the same in America, you would need a comparable contemporary city of importance, say Los Angeles or New York. To reach the 10% threshold, you would need 300,000 to 800,000 today. It’s about the visibility of the problem. America is and has always had the advantage of spreading out its malcontents.

Additionally, the system is working as intended, it’s just that the intended purpose was to allow people to accumulate capital. This has been tempered by physical limitations before the advent of steam power, and later electric power and the internet, shrunk the distance between owners and their markets. The founding fathers, fuck it, Lafayette himself, we’re all proponents of free market capitalism because they had come from traditions like the Firm in France that literally caused starvation. No one alive, even my grandmother who was a child during the dust bowl. The closest was the starving of another grandmother in Estonia due to government believing that party orthodoxy would see them through (much like our dear beheady-boy in France). The closest America gets is the intentional and systematic racism towards its black population, which surpasses the 10% margin (12%) but which is spread out and which has, through economic integration from liberals (and/or “economic conservatives”) diluted its capacity for solidarity.

In truth, Americans are not actually as discontent as a small and disparate portion of us need them to be for change to come.

In truth, we are employed enough, fed enough, and entertained enough for this to take another 100 years.

If we weren’t though, there would be greater trouble than anyone really realizes. Revolution would make the vulnerable even more so, who is actually available to ensure the care of the disabled when 10% of a city cannot get a job or food?

In 2022 the estimated homeless population of America was under 600,000, which, if all in Los Angeles, would be enough people (who would have to be willing to get injured or even die) to maybe take over the city. But again, 10% was enough when we already had muskets, now look at what our militarized police can kill us with.

Even if they did, who would they listen to? Do they have a leader who could tell 600,000 desperate and disenfranchised, rightfully angry people, to not engage in the Terror? Americans in 1770 had 150 years of thinking of themselves as separate from the British Crown before those slaveholders, the most comfortable!, were so (economically) pressed as to form their own government. And that’s what’s lacking, there is no social structure circulating or in place with a leader so charismatic or powerful as to be able to secure peace, not just change.

America isn’t immune to revolt or revolution, but it was built to resist it.

Sigh I'm aware but I just angry and frustrated

[polijakefim]

Meet Travis the Aussie who's big Down Under BRIEFS ENCOUNTER THAT CHANGED 'CROC DUNDEE' KID'S LIFE As he scanned the Los Angeles horizon with just $60 in his pocket and beaten-up old shoes on his feet, newly-arrived Travis Fimmel had little idea of what fate held in store for him.

Just a year or so earlier, this latter-day Crocodile Dundee was running barefoot around his family's dairy farm in Australia and tearing about the bush on a motorbike.

Now Travis, 21, was on the verge of fame and fortune - but old habits die hard. As he walked into the offices of LA Models, he realised that he had instinctively slung his tatty trainers over his shoulder.

He needn't have worried. Model booker Paul Nelson cast a professional eye over the muscular torso topped with an angelic, boyish face - and signed him on the spot.

"He had a beautiful face, a very funny personality - it all clicked," says Nelson. "We helped him out with money and a place to stay. We believed in him from the beginning."

That was last April. The young man who used to milk cows to earn pocket money was months away from one of the biggest deals with Calvin Klein since Kate Moss made her name at the fashion house.

THE extremely well-endowed Aussie, now 22, is on a six-figure deal to front the underwear campaign that has sent ripples of desire and envy throughout the population.

Gazing down from a giant billboard in downtown New York, Travis is an Adonis clad in skimpy white briefs. His image is plastered on billboards and in magazines worldwide. A week ago, he was in London's Selfridges autographing underwear for fans.

But when he opens his mouth to speak, the words that come tumbling out are not in sync with his sex-symbol status. In his Aussie drawl, he says frankly of the huge poster: "I don't look at it, man." He is also quick to laugh off the idea of being an object of desire for many women - and some men, too.

"Can't take it seriously, mate. Embarrassing. Funny." Then with a cheeky smile, he relents saying: "It's good, it makes a lot of people happy."

There is no holding back the Aussie bluntness. He says of new boss Klein: "You'd think he'd be stuck-up but he's just so down-to-earth. He's rich as f***, though."

After appearing in a Jennifer Lopez video, he described the diva thus: "She's got a fat a*** but she's very nice." As for his instant success and the underwear shoots: "I felt like a p***k. I was very self-conscious I have to say, mate." Still, at least he did them. He once declared: "No way, mate, I'm not wearing jocks."

These days Travis has more "jocks" than he can use. Along with the year-long contract comes a supply of Calvin Klein pants: "I've got 500 pairs of them at home. I only have to wash about once every two months."

Travis grew up on his parents' remote farm 26 miles outside Echuca in Victoria. The youngest of three brothers, he worked on the farm and rode around on motorcycles and hunted foxes.

Proud mother Jenny says: "He would disappear and camp out for the night. Even now, he jumps on a motorbike and heads out to see what's been happening on the farm." She offers some insight into why her son is dismissive about his good looks: "He was small, the little guy, so it doesn't suit his character to make a big deal about his looks."

At 17, Travis moved to Melbourne to play football and study sport management at university. But hopes of a sporting career were dashed when he broke his leg.

It was while working out in a Melbourne gym that he was spotted by a talent scout from Peter Chadwick Model Agency.

Booker Matthew Anderson recalls: "He never saw himself as a star and I don't think he does now. He is either genuinely not aware of his appearance, or he's just playing it cool. It might be a mixture of both." Part-time modelling jobs took Travis from Melbourne to London. At 19, he dated then All Saint Nicole Appleton. But after a short affair, Travis dipped out of the limelight, dumping Nicole because she was "boring".

It was only a matter of time before he decided to try his luck in America. "Just to see the country," he says. "I keep saying: 'I am not a model, mate. It's just a job to make money to travel'."

After being plucked from obscurity by LA Models, the young Aussie found himself in close proximity to a number of leading ladies.

But his talent for speaking his mind appears to be almost as big as his talent for filling Calvin Klein's new Body Underwear line. He even describes playing the love interest in a Janet Jackson video as "cheesy". Today he lives in LA and is more likely to be found surfing the waves than trapped inside a gym: "I'm the most unhealthy person in the world."

Travis has also been spotted out with Hollywood beauty Meg Ryan, 40. The pair recently dined at Manhattan's Nobu sushi restaurant owned by Robert De Niro. They shared plates of raw fish and giggled like schoolkids.

But we'll have to wait to see whether a more mature woman can tame this wandering Aussie spirit. "Modelling is so boring," he confides. "It's meant to be glamorous but you sit there for ages.

"I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I might go home straight after this. I might go travelling again. My plan is to make a plan."Interview by Emma Hibbs

[cosmicanger]

Neoliberalism in the arts

Indeed, the prevailing political landscape often reveals a pervasive misalignment with neoliberal principles, as the majority tends to lean towards a more center-leaning liberal stance adorned with a veneer of radical chic attire. Paradoxically, these individuals often falter in their pursuit of genuine reformism or incrementalism, despite purportedly championing these causes with fervor. While acknowledging the complexity inherent in assessing the merits of reformism and incrementalism, it becomes apparent that a significant portion of this demographic struggles to manifest tangible progress in these domains.

Consider, for instance, the domain of the arts, a microcosm reflective of broader societal trends. Were the arts authentically concerned about issues such as the plight of Palestine or the interlinked genocides, a paradigm shift would necessitate a cessation of artistic endeavors predominantly spearheaded by white creators. Ideally, art exhibitions would witness a notable demographic recalibration, with a substantial majority comprising Black individuals and nonblack Palestinians. Regrettably, the present reality contradicts this envisaged transformation, as the current exhibition landscape remains disproportionately dominated by white artists.

An illustrative example underscores this dissonance. The arts community ostensibly espouses a commitment to progressive ideals, yet concurrently, the inaugural retrospective of the first Palestinian artist is met with cancellation. This disconcerting juxtaposition unfolds against a backdrop where the proverbial microphone is extended generously to careerist virtue signalers, perpetuating a discourse that ostensibly champions inclusivity. However, the prevailing exhibition circuit in major cultural hubs such as New York City, Los Angeles, Berlin, Paris, among others, continues to be predominantly populated by the creative output of white settlers.

Moreover, the disconnection between proclaimed ideals and tangible action extends to the realm of public health consciousness. Notably absent from the daily practices of white artists and art workers is a consistent adoption of respiratory protective measures, exemplified by the scarcity of N95 masks or their superior counterparts. This oversight is emblematic of a broader societal reluctance to engage with precautionary health measures, potentially indicative of a lackadaisical attitude towards collective well-being.

In conclusion, a critical examination of contemporary sociopolitical and cultural spheres reveals a disconcerting incongruity between professed ideologies and substantive action. The arts, as an illustrative microcosm, underscores the urgency for a genuine commitment to principles of equity and inclusivity, transcending mere virtue signaling. Addressing these dissonances mandates a concerted effort towards transformative change, both within the arts community and society at large.

[ausetkmt]

Some people describe a police dog’s bite as a deep tear through their flesh. Others are haunted by the feeling of a Vise-Grip, the dog's jaws slowly but painfully tightening around their arms or legs until the muscles go numb.

These are not the nips or snaps of a pet dog in a backyard. A police dog, trained for weeks on how to bite harder and faster and with little reservation, can inflict debilitating injuries and lasting scars. The physical damage lingers as long as the memories of a dog’s snarling teeth, its guttural growls, its head ripping back and forth upon crashing into a fleeing target, all while a police officer stands nearby shouting commands and praise in German, Dutch or Czech.

Across the nation, police dogs bite thousands of people a year. And in no major city is someone more likely to be bitten than in Indianapolis.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, home to one of the largest K-9 units in the country, has the highest rate of dog bites among police departments in the largest 20 U.S. cities.

Some cities saw one police dog bite over the last three years. In Indianapolis, it was once every five days.

Law enforcement officers from around the United States train with their police dogs on how to capture a suspect at Vohne Liche Kennels, in Indiana, on Sept. 23, 2020. Dogs are muzzled for the protection of the man acting as a decoy, who is not wearing typical bite gear for this training exercise.Mykal McEldowney/IndyStar

Those are just some of the findings of a yearlong investigation by IndyStar and the Invisible Institute in Chicago, along with The Marshall Project, and AL.com.

The first-of-its-kind national analysis included a review of police dog bites from 2017-19. That review found that IMPD dogs bit 243 people over those three years. That’s more bites than New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; San Antonio; Dallas; Austin; San Francisco; Fort Worth; Columbus; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.

Combined.

Police K-9 Bites per 100,000 Residents

Among police departments in the 20 largest cities, some have much higher rates of police dog bites than others. Between 2017 and 2019, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police dogs had 243 bites, or about 28 bites per 100,000 residents. But city police in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Francisco each recorded only one incident.

Source: Analysis of use of force data from police departments, population data from the Census Bureau.

Per-capita rates use the latest five-year census population estimates and are approximations. City police departments in Los Angeles, Houston and San Antonio may include serious non-bite injuries in their K-9 use of force records. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department data for bites in 2019 include numbers through January 23, 2020.

The investigation also revealed for the first time:

Nearly 60 percent of people who had been bitten in Indianapolis were suspected in only low-level and non-violent crimes or traffic infractions; bites that would appear to be out of policy in some other cities, such as Seattle and Washington, D.C.

At least 65 percent of those bitten were unarmed and did not act violently, facts that contradict IMPD’s stated reasons for using dogs so often.

More than half of the people who were bitten are Black, a disproportionately high number for a population that makes up just 28 percent of the city.

15 percent of people bitten were younger than 18. Three-fourths of the juveniles are Black.

Sometimes police dogs bite the wrong people entirely, such as police officers at a crime scene or innocent bystanders in a neighborhood.

Marshawn Wolley, a community leader who has worked alongside Indianapolis city and police leadership to reform IMPD’s policies, said he was shocked to learn about what’s happening with IMPD’s dogs.

"This is not meeting the standards of what we expect from a professional police department. They have missed the mark. Dramatically,” Wolley said. “There’s really no hiding from this. They set the standard for being the worst. This has to be addressed. This has to be addressed."

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett declined an interview request. He answered questions by email.

"These numbers are clear evidence that we must continue to have a dialogue with our community around what they expect not just of the K-9 unit," Hogsett said via email, “but of their police department as a whole."

The high number of bites in Indianapolis is driven in part by the convergence of two factors: a comparably loose set of IMPD policies that enables K-9 officers to release their dogs on people suspected of committing low-level offenses and, critics say, an old-school policing culture that encourages officers to do just that.

When IndyStar presented its findings to IMPD Chief Randal Taylor this month, he said he was concerned about the numbers.

"You know, I would hope we wouldn't have to bite that often," Taylor said. "If there's changes we need to make, I'm always for that."

Then, in an email Oct. 7, Taylor announced his department had drafted a new policy that, he says, will eventually place restrictions on the use of police dogs. For example: Officers would no longer deploy dogs on suspects in misdemeanor cases unless they believed that person is armed, though dogs would still be justified in all felony cases.

The policy change, if enacted, would have stripped out as many as 23 bites in misdemeanor cases over the last three years—an amount larger than the total number of bites found in some major cities.

That said, it's just 10 percent of the bites in Indianapolis. Even if they were removed from IMPD's total, Indianapolis would still remain the major city where someone is most likely to be bitten by a police dog.

[newstfionline]

Sunday, June 25, 2023

The World’s Empty Office Buildings Have Become a Debt Time Bomb (Bloomberg) In New York and London, owners of gleaming office towers are walking away from their debt rather than pouring good money after bad. The landlords of downtown San Francisco’s largest mall have abandoned it. A new Hong Kong skyscraper is only a quarter leased. The creeping rot inside commercial real estate is like a dark seam running through the global economy. Even as stock markets rally and investors are hopeful that the fastest interest-rate increases in a generation will ebb, the trouble in property is set to play out for years. After a long buying binge fueled by cheap debt, owners and lenders are grappling with changes in how and where people work, shop and live in the wake of the pandemic. At the same time, higher interest rates are making it more expensive to buy or refinance buildings. A tipping point is coming: In the US alone, about $1.4 trillion of commercial real estate loans are due this year and next, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. When the deadline arrives, owners facing large principal payments may prefer to default instead of borrowing again to pay the bill.

Inflation, health costs, partisan cooperation among the nation’s top problems (Pew Research Center) Inflation remains the top concern for Republicans in the U.S., with 77% saying it’s a very big problem. Gun violence is the top issue for Democrats: 81% rank it as a very big problem. When it comes to policy, more Americans agree with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party on the economy, crime and immigration, while the Democratic Party holds the edge on abortion, health care and climate change.

The Brown Bag Lady serves meals and dignity to L.A.’s homeless (USA Today) A Los Angeles woman, known affectionately as the Brown Bag Lady, is serving the city’s unhoused population with enticing meals and a sprinkle of inspiration for dessert. Jacqueline Norvell started cooking meals for people on L.A.’s Skid Row about 10 years ago in her two-bedroom apartment after getting some extra money from her Christmas pay check. She bought several turkeys and prepared all the fixings for about 70 people, driving to one of L.A.’s most high-risk areas to hand out the meals. “We just parked on a corner,” said Norvell. “And we were swarmed.” She says people were grateful and she realized the significant demand. Norvell’s been cooking tasty creations ever since. Norvell garnishes each dish with love and some words of encouragement. In addition to the nourishment, each bag or box has an inspirational quote. “We’ve got to help each other out,” she said. “We have to.”

Facing Brutal Heat, the Texas Electric Grid Has an Ally: ‌Solar Power (NYT) Strafed by powerful storms and superheated by a dome of hot air, Texas has been enduring a dangerous early heat wave this week that has broken temperature records and strained the state’s independent power grid. But the lights and air conditioning have stayed on across the state, in large part because of an unlikely new reality in the nation’s premier oil and gas state: Texas is fast becoming a leader in solar power. The amount of solar energy generated in Texas has doubled since the start of last year. And it is set to roughly double again by the end of next year, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. “Solar is producing 15 percent of total energy right now,” Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, said on a sweltering day in the state capital last week, when a larger-than-usual share of power was coming from the sun. So far this year, about 7 percent of the electric power used in Texas has come from solar, and 31 percent from wind. The state’s increasing reliance on renewable energy has caused some Texas lawmakers, mindful of the reliable production and revenues from oil and gas, to worry. “It’s definitely ruffling some feathers,” Dr. Rhodes said.

Guatemalans are fed up with corruption ahead of an election that may draw many protest votes (AP) As Guatemala prepares to elect a new president Sunday, its citizens are fed up with government corruption, on edge about crime and struggling with poverty and malnutrition—all of which drives tens of thousands out of the country each year. And for many disillusioned voters—especially those who supported three candidates who were blocked from running this year—the leading contenders at the close of campaigning Friday seem like the least likely to drive the needed changes. Guatemala’s problems are not new or unusual for the region, but their persistence is generating voter frustration. As many as 13% of eligible voters plan to cast null votes Sunday, according to a poll published by the Prensa Libre newspaper. Some of voters’ cynicism could be the result of years of unfulfilled promises and what has been seen as a weakening of democratic institutions. “The levels of democracy fell substantially, so the (next) president is going to inherit a country whose institutions are quite damaged,” said Lucas Perelló, a political scientist at Marist College in New York and expert on Central America. “We see high levels of corruption and not necessarily the political will to confront or reduce those levels.”

Chile official warns of ‘worst front in a decade’ after floods, evacuations (Reuters) Days of heavy rainfall have swollen Chile’s rivers causing floods that blocked off roads and prompted evacuation in the center of the country, amid what has been described as the worst weather front in a decade. The flooding has led authorities to declare a “red alert” and order preventive evacuations in various towns in the south of Santiago. “This is the worst weather front we have had in 10 years,” Santiago metropolitan area governor Claudio Orego said.

Crisis in Russia (NYT/AP) A long-running feud over the invasion of Ukraine between the Russian military and Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s private Wagner military group, escalated into an open confrontation. Prigozhin accused Russia of attacking his soldiers and appeared to challenge one of President Vladimir Putin’s main justifications for the war, and Russian generals in turn accused him of trying to mount a coup against Putin. Prighozin claimed he had control of Russia’s southern military headquarters in the city of Rostov-on-Don, near the front lines of the war in Ukraine where his fighters had been operating. Video showed him entering the headquarters’ courtyard. Signs of active fighting were also visible near the western Russian city of Voronezh, and convoys of Wagner troops were spotted heading toward Moscow. The Russian military scrambled to defend Russia’s capital. Then the greatest challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin in his more than two decades in power fizzled out after Prigozhin abruptly reached a deal with the Kremlin to go into exile and sounded the retreat. Under the deal announced Saturday by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Prigozhin will go to neighboring Belarus. Charges against him of mounting an armed rebellion will be dropped. The government also said it would not prosecute Wagner fighters who took part, while those who did not join in were to be offered contracts by the Defense Ministry. Prigozhin ordered his troops back to their field camps in Ukraine, where they have been fighting alongside Russian regular soldiers.

In Myanmar, Birthday Wishes for Aung San Suu Kyi Lead to a Wave of Arrests (NYT) In military-ruled Myanmar, there seemed to be a new criminal offense this week: wearing a flower in one’s hair on June 19. Pro-democracy activists say more than 130 people, most of them women, have been arrested for participating in a “flower strike” marking the birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader who was ousted by Myanmar’s military in a February 2021 coup. Imprisoned by the junta since then, she turned 78 on Monday. The protest—a clear, if unspoken, rebuke of the junta—drew nationwide support, and many shops were reported to have sold all their flowers. Most of the arrests occurred on Monday, but they continued through the week as the military tracked down participants and supporters. In some cities and towns, soldiers seized women in the streets for holding a flower or wearing one in their hair. Some were beaten, witnesses said. The police have also been rounding up people who took to Facebook to post a birthday greeting or a photo of themselves with a flower. Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, called the campaign the latest example of the “paranoia and intolerance” of Myanmar’s military rulers.

Sweltering Beijingers turn to bean soup and cushion fans to combat heat (Washington Post) China’s national weather forecaster issued an unconventional outlook this week: “Hot, really hot, extremely hot [melting smiley face],” it wrote Tuesday night on Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter. It was imprecise, but it wasn’t wrong. The temperature in Beijing hit 106 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday, a public holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival. It was the highest June recording since 1961. Visiting the Great Wall was “like being in an oven,” said Lin Yun-chan, a Taiwanese graduate student on her first trip to Beijing. The heat wave is almost the only thing anyone can talk about. Much of the online discussion revolves around food. People are sharing advice about the most hydrating snacks for the hot weather: mung bean soup and sour plum drink are popular options. Entrepreneurs looked for ways to capitalize on the heat wave: One promoted a seat-cushion fan designed to combat a sweaty butt, while tourism companies touted trips to the south of the country, which is usually hotter but currently less so.

Your next medical treatment could be a healthier diet (WSJ) Food and insurance companies are exploring ways to link health coverage to diets, increasingly positioning food as a preventive measure to protect human health and treat disease. Insurance companies and startups are developing meals tailored to help treat existing medical conditions, industry executives said, while promoting nutritious diets as a way to help ward off diet-related disease and health problems. “We know that for adults, around 45% of those who die from heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, stroke, that poor nutrition is a major contributing factor,” said Gail Boudreaux, chief executive of insurance provider Elevance Health speaking at The Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum. “Healthy food is a real opportunity.”

[mariacallous]

The COVID-19 pandemic’s sudden onset in 2020 and its persistent impacts in ensuing years posed new challenges for large U.S. cities and metropolitan areas.

Some of the initial challenges were related to the specific nature of the coronavirus and public health responses. In March 2020, residents of cold, dense cities seemed at greater risk of contracting the airborne illness than those in more spread-out, temperate communities where people could spend time outside year-round.1 More persistent challenges are related to the rapid adoption of remote work technologies, which enable certain kinds of work to be done anywhere with a high-speed internet connection, and not necessarily in big-city downtowns dominated by what today are increasingly vacant office buildings.

In an increasingly hyper-polarized country, some of these dynamics intersected with partisan politics. Republican-led states such as Florida and Texas positioned themselves as refuges for movers seeking escape from “Covid lockdowns” in Democratic-led states. In response to these and other political factors, Elon Musk moved Tesla’s headquarters from Silicon Valley to Austin, Texas, and a prominent Chicago financier moved his hedge fund to Miami after his employees started working from a high-end hotel there during the height of the pandemic.

The housing market also played a role in fueling migration during this time. As more people worked from home, demand for homeownership rose, particularly for larger homes. For example, in San Diego County—which for many years had built little new housing—median home prices skyrocketed from $660,000 in January 2020 to $860,000 just two years later, according to Zillow. Prices also rose in more affordable, flexible markets, but much more modestly; in Houston over that same time, the median home price increased from $195,000 to $240,000.

My colleague William H. Frey was among the first to document significant migration away from big metro areas during the pandemic. His analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data showed accelerated domestic out-migration from large, coastal metro areas such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle between 2020 and 2021. Domestic in-migration, meanwhile, remained strong in Sun Belt metro areas such as Phoenix, Dallas, Tampa, Fla., San Antonio, and Raleigh, N.C. Frey’s subsequent analysis showed these trends moderated through 2022 and 2023 as the initial impacts of the pandemic subsided.

Even if they are temporary in some respects, these recent migration patterns could have lasting impacts. Richard Florida, for instance, points to the rise of “meta cities”—large U.S. metro areas distant from each other yet linked closely by the ties of remote work and Covid-era movers, such as New York and Miami (finance), the Bay Area and Austin (tech), and Los Angeles and Nashville, Tenn. (entertainment). The Economic Innovation Group chronicled a loss of high earners from major urban centers such as New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. during the first two years of the pandemic. The home listing service Redfin, meanwhile, noted rising housing demand in affordable markets proximate to major metro areas (e.g., New Haven, Conn. outside New York; Richmond, Va. outside Washington, D.C.; Worcester, Mass. outside Boston), suggesting the growing prominence of hybrid (versus fully remote) work arrangements. How these dynamics play out could have significant implications for the economic and social health of cities, and for America’s urban hierarchy in the 21st century.

To better understand these dynamics, this report analyzes data from the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Statistics of Income program on U.S. population migration at the county level. The data tracks individual income tax filers who changed addresses from one year to the next, and reports the number of tax filers moving between counties (a proxy for households), the number of personal exemptions among those filers (a proxy for individuals), and the total adjusted gross income reported on their returns (a proxy for household income). While the IRS migration data is only currently available through 2022 (versus 2023 in Census Bureau migration data), it has the advantages of tracking movements between specific counties and revealing something about the economic status of migrating households.2

This report uses the IRS county-level migration data to track movement before and after the pandemic’s onset among U.S. metropolitan areas, which are collections of counties that approximate regional economies and labor markets.3 The analysis assigns each county in the dataset to its corresponding metro area based on the latest Census Bureau metropolitan delineations.4 An important limitation of the IRS data is that it suppresses county-to-county flows of fewer than 20 tax filers to protect taxpayer privacy. In 2021-22, for instance, the data reflects a total of 7.6 million U.S. filers moving to metropolitan counties, with the source county indicated for 5.8 million of them. This means that the county-to-county data misses 1.8 million households (or 23% of all households) moving to metropolitan counties in 2021-22. Many of these households likely moved from small, non-metropolitan counties, but the flows among metro areas charted here inevitably miss moves occurring between smaller counties in metro areas of all sizes.

Despite this limitation, the IRS data is useful for answering basic questions about domestic migration and the possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the nation’s metropolitan areas, this analysis specifically asks if and how the pandemic may have altered the:

Overall level of migration within and among metro areas

Key metropolitan origins and destinations of movers

Economic character of movers, and/or their sending/receiving communities

In general, the analysis confirms that the pandemic made an impact on metropolitan migration patterns, but also finds that these changes did not significantly alter the demographic or economic trajectory of metro regions. The analysis concludes with thoughts on the implications of these patterns as the economy returns to a “new normal” in the pandemic’s aftermath.

[theprimeheadline]

Wildfires on the East and West Coasts: A Growing Crisis

Main source: Wildfires on the East and West Coasts: A Growing Crisis - theprimeheadline.com

Overview of the Current Wildfire Situation

Geographic Scope: Wildfires are currently affecting multiple states across the United States, notably in New Jersey and California.

Severity: These fires have prompted evacuations, caused significant property damage, and severely impacted air quality.

Recent Developments: As of November 2024, fire crews are actively battling blazes on both coasts, with notable incidents reported in New York, New Jersey, and Southern California.

Key Areas Affected

California

Mountain Fire: Located northwest of Los Angeles in Ventura County, this fire has burned approximately 32 square miles and is currently 26% contained. The fire's rapid spread is attributed to dry conditions and Santa Ana winds.

Destruction and Damage: Over 130 structures have been destroyed, with many more damaged. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

Evacuations: Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate their homes due to the threat posed by the fire.

New Jersey and New York

Jennings Creek Fire: This fire has burned around 3,000 acres in West Milford, New Jersey, and is only 10% contained. It has threatened more than two dozen structures.

Fatalities: An 18-year-old New York State Parks employee, Dariel Vasquez, tragically lost his life while battling a forest fire in Sterling Forest, New York.

Air Quality Issues: The smoke from these fires has led to unhealthy air quality conditions across the New York City area, prompting health officials to issue air quality alerts.

Impact on Communities

Evacuations have been ordered in various regions, with local authorities working to ensure public safety.

The fires have disrupted community events, including the postponement of Veterans Day parades in affected areas.

Property damage is significant, with over 130 structures reported destroyed in California alone.

Local governments are urging residents to conserve water and avoid activities that could exacerbate fire risks, such as grilling in parks.

Environmental Conditions Contributing to Wildfires

Drought Conditions

Both coasts are experiencing historic droughts that have created ideal conditions for wildfires.

In New Jersey, three counties are classified as experiencing "extreme" drought, while others face severe or moderate drought conditions.

Climate Change Factors

Researchers indicate that climate change is exacerbating wildfire risks by increasing temperatures and decreasing humidity levels.

The Northeast is seeing a rise in fire weather days compared to previous decades, making wildfires more common.

Firefighting Efforts and Challenges

Firefighting crews from multiple states are collaborating to combat these blazes.

Over 200 local volunteers joined professional firefighters in New Jersey to assist with containment efforts.

The challenging terrain and underground burning complicate firefighting strategies, requiring extensive manpower and resources.

Fire crews are working tirelessly to contain the wildfires, with some areas receiving much-needed rain that has aided suppression efforts.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has expressed condolences for the loss of life and emphasized the bravery of those fighting the fires.

Health Risks Associated with Wildfires

Poor air quality due to smoke has led to health warnings for residents in affected areas.

Reports indicate that the AQI in New York City reached levels classified as "unhealthy for sensitive groups" and even "very unhealthy" in some areas.

Residents have been advised to limit outdoor activities and wear masks to mitigate health risks associated with smoke inhalation.

Vulnerable populations, including children, the elderly, and individuals with respiratory issues, are particularly at risk.

Historical Context and Trends

Increasing Frequency of Wildfires:

Drought Conditions:

Recent Developments and Future Outlook

Some rain has fallen in affected areas; however, it is insufficient to fully mitigate the wildfire threat.

Experts predict that wildfires will continue to pose a significant risk as long as drought conditions persist and climate change impacts worsen.

Also, read about the recent Hurricane Helena that caused 220+ deaths.

Conclusion

The ongoing wildfires on both the East and West Coasts highlight the urgent need for effective wildfire management strategies and community preparedness.

As conditions remain dry and winds persist, the threat of wildfires continues to loom large, necessitating vigilance and proactive measures from both authorities and residents.