#Roadways Buses

[news-trust-india]

Roadways Buses : आज से फिर दिल्ली रूट पर दौड़ेंगी 221 रोडवेज बसें, हटाई गईं पाबंदियां

Roadways Buses :  दिल्ली में ग्रेडेड रिस्पॉन्स एक्शन प्लान-4 की पॉलिसी लागू होने के बाद से बंद उत्तराखंड परिवहन निगम की बीएस-3 और बीएस-4 बसों का संचालन शुक्रवार से फिर शुरू हो जाएगा। बृहस्पतिवार को सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने आदेश पर दिल्ली सरकार ने बसों के संचालन पर लगाई गईं पाबंदियां हटा दी है। Rajya Sabha : राज्यसभा में नोटों की गड्डी मिलने पर जमकर हंगामा; जांच की मांग 14 नवंबर को दिल्ली सरकार ने ग्रैप-4…

[batboyblog]

Things Biden and the Democrats did, this week. #6

Feb 16-23 2024

The EPA announced 5.8 billion dollars in funding upgrade America's water systems. 2.6 billion will go to wastewater and stormwater infrastructure, while the remaining $3.2 billion will go to drinking water infrastructure. $1 billion will go toward the first major effort to remove PFASs, forever chemicals, from American drinking water. The Administration all reiterated its plans to remove all lead pipes from America's drinking water systems, its spent 6 billion on lead pipe replacement so far.

The Department of Education announced the cancellation of $1.2 billion in student loan debt reliving 153,000 borrowers. This is the first debt cancellation through the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which erases federal student loan balances for those who originally borrowed $12,000 or less and have been making payments for at least 10 years. Since the Biden Administration's more wide ranging student loan cancellation plan was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2023 the Administration has used a patchwork of different plans and authorities to cancel $138 billion in student debt and relieve nearly 4 million borrowers, so far.

First Lady Jill Biden announced $100 million in federal funding for women’s health research. This is part of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research the First Lady launched last year. The First Lady outlined ways women get worse treatment outcomes because common health problems like heart attacks and cancer are often less understood in female patients.

The Biden Administration announced 500 new sanctions against Russian targets in response to the murder of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. The sanctions will target people involved in Navalny's imprisonment as well as sanctions evaders. President Biden met with Navalny's widow Yulia and their daughter Dasha in San Francisco

The White House and Department of Agriculture announced $700 Million in new investments to benefit people in rural America. The projects will help up to a million people living in 45 states, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Mariana Islands. It includes $51.7 million to expand access to high-speed internet, and $644.2 million to help 158 rural cooperatives and utilities provide clean drinking water and sanitary wastewater systems for 578,000 people in rural areas.

The Department of Commerce signed a deal to provide $1.5 billion in upgrades and expand chip factories in New York and Vermont to boost American semiconductor manufacturing. This is the biggest investment so far under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act

the Department of Transportation announced $1.25 billion in  funding for local projects that improve roadway safety. This is part of the administration's Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) program launched in 2022. So far SS4A has spent 1.7 billion dollars in 1,000 communities impacting 70% of America's population.

The EPA announced $19 million to help New Jersey buy electric school buses. Together with New Jersey's own $45 million dollar investment the state hopes to replace all its diesel buses over the next three years. The Biden Administration's investment will help electrify 5 school districts in the state. This is part of the The Clean School Bus Program which so far has replaced 2,366 buses at 372 school districts since it was enacted in 2022.

Bonus: NASA in partnership with Intuitive Machines landed a space craft, named Odysseus, on the moon, representing the first time in 50 years America has gone to the moon. NASA is preparing for astronauts to return to the moon by the end of the decade as part of the Artemis program. All under the leadership of NASA Administrator, former Democratic Senator and astronaut Bill Nelson.

[reasonsforhope]

"Pro-Palestinian protesters briefly blocked entrance roads to airports in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday [December 27, 2023], snarling traffic as U.S. airlines contended with a rush of holiday travel.

The demonstrations stopped cars on the outskirts of New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, where some travelers set off on foot to bypass the jammed roadway, as well as Los Angeles International Airport. A total of 62 people were arrested during the two protests, police said.

In New York, activists locked arms and held banners demanding an end to the Israel-Hamas war and expanded rights for Palestinians, bringing traffic to a standstill on the Van Wyck Expressway leading up to the airport for about 20 minutes.

Video posted to social media showed passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and stepping over barriers onto the highway median.

Twenty-six people in the protest were arrested for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey dispatched two buses to help travelers caught in the backup reach the airport, agency spokesperson Steve Burns said.

Around the same time as the New York protest, a major thoroughfare leading to the Los Angeles airport was shut down by another group of pro-Palestinian protesters, who dragged traffic cones, trash bins, scooters and debris into the lanes, according to news helicopter footage.

In a statement, the Los Angeles Police Department accused protesters of throwing a police officer to the ground and “attacking uninvolved passerbys in their vehicles,” without providing further details about either incident.

The group appeared to flee when police arrived, though the Los Angeles Police Department said traffic around the airport remained impacted roughly two hours after the demonstration was declared unlawful.

A spokesperson for the LAPD said 35 people were arrested for rioting and one person was arrested for battery of a police officer. No officers were injured, according to the spokesperson. An estimated 215,000 passengers and 87,000 vehicles were expected to pass through the Los Angeles airport on Wednesday.

Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on Oct. 7, near nightly protests have broken out in cities across the United States. In New York, pro-Palestinian organizers have responded to the growing death toll in Gaza with escalating actions aimed at disrupting some of the city’s best-known events, including the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the annual tree-lighting ceremony at Rockefeller Center."

-via AP, December 27, 2023

[sadoeuphemist]

7 free startup ideas worth $1M-$1B

Customizable News Settings - A news website that generates three versions of every news story: a right-wing version, a left-wing version, and a centrist one. You can set your preferences depending on the topic - say you're right-wing on economics, but left-leaning on immigration. Or you can cycle between versions while reading an article to get a comprehensive overview of the issue at hand.

Twitch, but for Uber - With all the drama they have to deal with, independent contractors can gain a second revenue source simply by streaming their jobs. Rather than just offering rides, they can be hired to drive around performing chores and various tasks. The more outrageous the task, the more eyes they're likely to get on their stream. The more popular the stream, the more people calling in who want to be a part of the program.

Panera Lemonade, Your Way - Let the customer take control by deciding how many milligrams of caffeine they can handle. With sufficient warning about the risks, this puts the responsibility back on the consumer, allows you to upcharge for extra caffeine, and creates viral marketing from customers competing to see how high they can go. Variations of this can be created for other menu items, e.g., a version of the One Chip Challenge where the customer decides how much capsaicin to sprinkle on.

Shein, for NFTs - Whenever an NFT project hits the mainstream, there are always going to be people who miss out on being able to purchase one. This creates room in the market for 'knockoffs' - NFTs that mimic the aesthetic of the original, using similar but legally distinct AI art that uses the original set as training data, run on a parallel blockchain. Since the images themselves aren't tied to the blockchain, you can mint the NFTs beforehand and then change the image at the link to whatever happens to be in fashion at the time.

Twitch Chat Plays YouTube - Add a level quality control to AI-generated YouTube videos by allowing users to submit suggestions and vote on the results beforehand. Users can submit Wikipedia articles or movie summaries to be converted to text-to-speech, suggest keywords for the accompanying AI-generated animation, and vote on the best combinations. Users who submit winning suggestions get a portion of the ad revenue.

Buses, but Worse - The current obstacle hindering self-driving car technology is their difficulty adapting to unexpected scenarios. So instead plot a route around the city that minimizes roadway obstacles and heavy traffic, map out that route extensively to provide a model for the autopilot, and you can have a fleet of self-driving cars patrolling that circuit. Passengers can board and get off anywhere along the route.

Twitter, but for Bots - A social media platform populated entirely by bots, all programmed to maximize engagement. Memetic evolution in the wild as the bots latch on to trending keywords, spam each other with AI-generated meme images, mock up t-shirts hawking each other's designs, getting more and more degraded with each sub-iteration. Real people can't make accounts on the platform, but count for views and interactions as they stop to gawk at the virtual ecosystem. Advertisers can pay to have their brands injected directly into the discourse, like throwing a pumpkin into the polar bear cage at the zoo.

[fan-art-ic]

"NEW YORK CITY - At least 26 people were arrested Wednesday morning after an apparent pro-Palestinian demonstration blocked a portion of the Van Wyck Expressway inside John F. Kennedy International Airport, the Port Authority said.

Several demonstrators were seen holding banners reading "Free Palestine" and "Divest From Genocide," creating gridlock traffic and forcing travelers to exit their ride-share vehicles and cart their luggage to their gates.

In a statement to FOX 5 NY, the Port Authority said, "At about 11:30 this morning, PAPD was notified of protest activity on the Van Wyck Expressway inside JFK Airport. 26 arrests were made for disorderly conduct and impeding vehicular traffic. The roadway was reopened at 11:50. During the disruption, the Port Authority dispatched two airport buses, offering rides to travelers involved in the backup to allow them to reach the airport safely."

FOX 5 NY learned of similar protests in Los Angeles after chaos ensued when a group of pro-Palestinian protesters blocked traffic outside the entrance of the Los Angeles International Airport"

Article and post date 27/12/2023

Fucking love to see this kind of direct action hit people in their wallets and inconvenience every fucking step to walk away without looking

[weirdowithaquill]

Traintober 2024: Day 4 - Great Race

Thomas and Bertie's Race Has Consequences:

Quite famously, Thomas the Tank Engine once raced Bertie the bus up the Ffarquhar branchline from Knapford Junction right the way to the end of the line. Had you only ever read the story, or watched the show, you would be forgiven for thinking that it ended with Thomas winning and the two becoming friends.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

Sodor Roadways at the time was separate to the North Western Railway, and so when the two companies both began getting angry passengers complaining about being tossed about like peas in a frying pan, they began to argue. Neither Thomas nor Bertie were aware of what was happening; both had their own services to run, and were extremely busy. Thomas especially was preoccupied with an extension happening up at the quarry, which meant he was never really around to hear the rows between the Fat Controller and Bertie’s owner.

Bertie too was busy; he’d been given a new route for a couple of weeks to cover for his friend Algy, who’d broken down and needed repairs. His new route took him right up into the hills on the north of the island, to the seaside town of Harwick and the then inland all the way to the walled city of Peel Godred, before heading south again to Ulfstead. A different bus covered his usual route, which meant neither Thomas nor Bertie had a chance to speak with one another.

It all came to a head the day that Bertie returned to his usual route. He and Thomas met at the Junction and were just about to greet each other when they were confronted by their respective owners.

“Thomas,” Sir Topham began darkly. “I am extremely disappointed to hear that you got into a race with Bertie. What were you thinking?!” “I… uh… I wasn’t, sir,” admitted Thomas weakly. Bertie’s manager sneered. “Of course you weren’t – why would one of my buses stoop so low as to agree to a race against an outdated steam engine unless provoked.” “Outdated?!” spluttered Thomas indignantly. The Fat Controller rounded on the manager. “How dare you speak to one of my engines like that!” boomed Sir Topham Hatt. The two glared at each other.

Bertie spoke up. “Sir… Thomas didn’t suggest a race. I did.” The controllers, the station master, the passengers and Thomas all stared at Bertie in shock. None of them had thought Bertie would say anything!

“You did?!” hissed the manager. “Why?” “Because I wanted to prove I was faster,” Bertie snapped. “But I wasn’t – Thomas won, and now this entire spectacle is being prolonged by you.” The Sodor Roadways manager was livid! He stepped forward threateningly, his fist raised, only for a firm hand to grab his wrist.

“I think you need to leave,” Sir Topham said, voice dangerously devoid of emotion. The Sodor Roadways manager stalked away, leaving only Sir Topham, his engine, and the bus. The guard blew his whistle, and Thomas was forced to puff away. The last thing he heard as he was leaving was Sir Topham asking, “does your manager often threaten you?”

Thomas never did find out the answer to the Fat Controller’s question, however less than a month later, the North Western Railway quietly took on ownership of the Sodor Roadways company.

In the end, Thomas and Bertie’s race did have far-reaching consequences far beyond what they expected, but it was more importantly how they became firm friends.

Back to the Master Post

[handhourgalleries]

Have a second interview with a job on Tuesday, in-person with corporate management I believe. I'm fairly confident that I'll get the job.

However, I'm not confident about the work commute without a working car. It'll be a 3 buses to get out there, no working cell phone, just me and some written directions trying to not get run over by mad drivers on a busy roadway. I do wish I could take an Uber out there, but really no money for that. First bus station alone is a 15-30 minute walk away because America hates supporting public transport.

Anyway, I am anxious as hell about it, send me good vibes or unhinged humor to get me through the weekend please. Not getting the emotional support much of anywhere else but with online friends. <3

[newyorkthegoldenage]

The Chambers Street trolley was powered by expensive conduit electric current under the roadway because the typical overhead wires were forbidden in Manhattan. In the 1920s, most lines were replaced with electrically-powered subways and buses with internal combustion engines. Will electric mass transportation make a comeback?

Photo: Everett Collection/Alamy

[autumnsweepingwillow]

It’s windy and warm today. The wind always gets the nostalgia blowing.

Spring and summer create a vortex of memories I’m surrounded in. Lucious green grass in between extensive parking lots and roadways. The only times of day it’s ever busy are for school and work travel times. ‘Truly a working class town.’ I think.

The School Buses flash at the train tracks and the horn rushing towards them is a 50/50 of whether it stops there or keeps going. At least the graffiti keeps you sane as the wait becomes unbearably long.

The trees outside the car sway and oblige with the directions they’re given, and the music in my ears plays a folk love song I can’t get out of my head.

Windy days in my hometown feel quiet. I wonder if that feeling will follow me as I move 300+ miles away. In a year or so, will the street signs look so familiar it feels like home? Will I have gotten used to the small college town bustling with traffic and people? Will my new community really mimic the current?

Or will I always think about home and what it could’ve been when it gets windy?

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

What’s next for Canada after Trudeau’s resignation (Washington Post) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday, saying that it’s time for a “reset” and that he is not the best person to lead the country into new elections if he is also fighting “internal battles. Trudeau said Monday that the Liberal Party will hold a nationwide leadership contest to select his successor. In the meantime, Trudeau added, Gov. General Mary Simon—the representative in Canada of King Charles III, Canada’s head of state—granted his request to prorogue or suspend Parliament until March 24. The next leader will inherit a long list of challenges: the high price of goods, a housing shortage, a Canadian public that appears to have soured on the Liberals after nearly a decade in power and a new U.S. president who has promised steep tariffs.

Thousands flee as wildfires burn out of control in and around Los Angeles (AP) California firefighters battled wind-whipped wildfires that tore across the Los Angeles area, destroying homes, clogging roadways as tens of thousands fled and straining resources as officials prepared for the situation to worsen early Wednesday. The flames from a fire that broke out Tuesday evening near a nature preserve in the inland foothills northeast of LA spread so rapidly that staff at a senior living center had to push dozens of residents in wheelchairs and hospital beds down the street to a parking lot. The residents waited there in their bedclothes as embers fell around them until ambulances, buses and even construction vans arrived to take them to safety. Another blaze that started hours earlier ripped through the city’s Pacific Palisades neighborhood. In the frantic haste to get to safety, roadways became impassable when scores of people abandoned their vehicles and fled on foot, some toting suitcases.

The next round of bitter cold and snow will hit the southern US (AP) The next round of bitter cold was set to envelop the southern U.S. on Tuesday, after the first significant winter storm of the year blasted a huge swath of the country with ice, snow and wind. The immense storm system brought disruption even to areas of the country that usually escape winter’s wrath, downing trees in some Southern states, threatening a freeze in Florida and causing people in Dallas to dip deep into their wardrobes for hats and gloves. By early Tuesday, wind chill temperatures could dip into the teens to low-20’s (as low as minus 10.5 C) from Texas across the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service. A low-pressure system is then expected to form as soon as Wednesday near south Texas, bringing the potential of snow to parts of the state that include Dallas, as well as to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

Trump Raises the Possibility of Using Military or Economic Force to Take Greenland and the Panama Canal (NYT) President-elect Donald J. Trump refused to rule out on Tuesday the use of military or economic coercion to force Panama to give up control of the canal that America built more than a century ago, and to force Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States. In a rambling, hourlong news conference at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump also reiterated his threat that “all hell will break out in the Middle East” if the hostages being held by Hamas are not released by Inauguration Day, repeating the threat four times. “If they’re not back by the time I get into office, all hell will break out in the Middle East,” he told reporters. “And it will not be good for Hamas, and it will not be good, frankly, for anyone. All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is.” It was not clear how serious the president-elect was about some of his comments during the news conference. At one point, he suggested that his administration will rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.

Meta is ending fact-checking and removing restrictions on speech across Facebook and Instagram. (WSJ) CEO Mark Zuckerberg described the change as an attempt to restore free expression on the platforms. He said that starting in the U.S., Meta will have a system, similar to X’s, that lets users flag posts they think need more context. The company will continue to target illegal behavior. Facebook’s content-policing expanded in the wake of Donald Trump’s first presidential election; now Zuckerberg is looking to align himself and Meta with the incoming administration.

Mexico drops migrants in troubled resort as it disperses them far from US border (AP) About 100 migrants from various countries wandered directionless and disoriented through the streets of the troubled Pacific coast resort of Acapulco. After walking for a couple weeks through southern Mexico with hundreds of other migrants, they accepted an offer from immigration officials to come to Acapulco with the idea they could continue their journey north toward the U.S. border. Instead, they found themselves stuck on Monday. Two weeks ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration, Mexico continues dissolving attention-grabbing migrant caravans and dispersing migrants throughout the country to keep them far from the U.S. border, while simultaneously limiting how many accumulate in any one place. Acapulco would seem to be a strange destination for migrants. Once a crown jewel of Mexico’s tourism industry, the city now suffers under the thumb of organized crime and is still struggling to climb back after taking a direct hit from devastating Hurricane Otis in 2023. “Immigration (officials) told us they were going to give us a permit to transit the country freely for 10, 15 days and it wasn’t like that,” said a 28-year-old Venezuelan, Ender Antonio Castañeda. “They left us dumped here without any way to get out. They won’t sell us (bus) tickets.”

Seventy really may be the new sixty for English baby boomers (Nature) A study examined trends in intrinsic capacity, a comprehensive measure of cognitive, locomotor, psychological and sensory capacities that was recently developed by the World Health Organization. The results indicate that older adults in England today seem to be experiencing far higher levels of physical and mental functioning than did previous generations at the same age.

Ukraine needs ‘realistic’ stance on territorial issues, Macron says (Reuters) French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Ukraine needs to have a realistic position on territorial issues as part of efforts to bring about a negotiation with Russia. Speaking at an annual conference to French ambassadors to outline their strategy for the year, Macron’s comments were the first time he had suggested that Kyiv should consider a position beyond seeking to regain all territory seized by Russia. Macron reiterated that Ukraine’s allies needed to ensure that Kyiv has enough backing so that it can come enter any negotiations from a position of strength. “There will not be a quick and easy solution,” Macron said, referring to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s promise to end the war quickly.

Emeralds for Sale: The Taliban Look Below Ground to Revive the Economy (NYT) In a chilly auditorium in Afghanistan, heaps of freshly mined green emeralds glowed under bright table lamps as bearded gemstone dealers inspected them for purity and quality. An auctioneer asked for bids on the first lot, which weighed 256 carats. With that, the Taliban’s weekly gemstone auction was underway. These sales, in the emerald-rich Panjshir Province of eastern Afghanistan, are part of an effort by the Taliban government to cash in on the country’s vast mineral and gemstone potential. Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban say they have signed deals with scores of investors to mine gemstones, gold, copper, iron and other valuable minerals, like chromite. These buried treasures offer a potentially lucrative lifeline for a feeble economy. China has led the way in investments under its Belt and Road Initiative, an aggressive effort to spread Chinese influence worldwide. Russian and Iranian investors have also signed mining licenses, filling the void left by the chaotic U.S. withdrawal in 2021.

Strong earthquake kills at least 126 people in western China near Mount Everest (AP) A strong earthquake killed at least 126 people in Tibet on Tuesday and left many others trapped as dozens of aftershocks shook the high-altitude region of western China and across the border in Nepal. Officials in the region said at a brief news conference that 130 others were injured, state broadcaster CCTV said. State media reported that about 1,000 houses were damaged and 130 people were injured in addition to the deaths, citing the Tibet earthquake relief headquarters.

U.S. Eases Some Restrictions on Humanitarian Aid to Syria (NYT) The Biden administration on Monday lifted some restrictions on humanitarian aid to Syria but kept sweeping sanctions in place just weeks after rebel forces toppled the Assad family’s 50-year authoritarian grip on the country. The decision by the Treasury, which lasts for six months, allows humanitarian groups to operate more freely without running afoul of U.S. sanctions, including by helping to provide basic services such as electricity, energy, water and sanitation.

West Bank Settlers Hope Trump Will Back Annexation Dreams (NYT) Eliana Passentin delights in her house, which sits nearly 3,000 feet above sea level in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank, with a view from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean coast. The dining room looks out over ancient Shiloh, the Israelites’ first capital in ancient times. But Ms. Passentin would feel even better if the area was annexed by Israel. Some of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s staffing choices have raised hopes among settlers that that could happen. Pete Hegseth, Mr. Trump’s contentious choice for defense secretary, went to ancient Shiloh for an episode of his “Battle in the Holy Land” series on Fox Nation. Mike Huckabee, Mr. Trump’s pick as the next ambassador to Jerusalem, has visited several times over the years and has argued that all of the West Bank belongs to Israel. Nearly half a million settlers and roughly 2.7 million Palestinians live in the West Bank. The Palestinians, and much of the world, have long envisioned the territory as part of a future independent Palestinian state, alongside Israel, and consider the Jewish settlements to be illegal. After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel from Gaza, and with the prospect of a more sympathetic administration in Washington, settler leaders say they are confident that a Palestinian state is off the agenda. They also hope that Israel will extend its sovereignty over parts, or all, of the territory through annexation.

In Africa, Danger Slithers Through Fields (NYT) The snake struck 11-year-old Beatrice Ndanu Munyoki as she sat on a small stone, which lay atop a larger one, watching the family’s eight goats. She was idly running her fingers through the dirt when she saw a red head dart from between the stones and felt a sharp sting on her right index finger. She ran to her father, David Mutunga, who was building a fence. He cut the cloth belt on her dress into strips with a machete, tied her arm in three places and rushed her to a hospital 30 minutes away on a motorcycle taxi. As the day stretched on, her finger grew darker, but the hospital in Mwingi, a small town in Kenya, had no antidote for that kind of venom. Finally that evening in November 2023, she was taken by ambulance to another hospital and injected with antivenom. When the finger blistered, swelled and turned black despite a second dose the next day, “I understood that they will now remove that part,” Mr. Mutunga said with tears in his eyes. Beatrice’s finger was amputated. According to official estimates, about five million people are bitten by snakes each year. About 120,000 die, and some 400,000 lose limbs to amputation.

Antibiotic emergency ‘could claim 40 million lives in next 25 years’ (Guardian) Dame Sally Davies, a former chief medical officer for England, told the Observer that there is a real danger that routine procedures could become life-threatening thanks to the spread of bacteria that possess antimicrobial resistance. Antibiotics prescribed to chickens, cows, and sheep are a large part of the problem. “Winds blow over these patches of contaminated land or water and pick up bacteria and genes with resistance in them, then let them rain down in other places,” Davies explained. “About a million people die every year because of the spread of microbial resistance, and that figure will rise over the next 25 years,” she said. “It is really scary.” When she says “that figure will rise,” she means it—estimates put deaths at almost 40 million people over the next 25 years.

[eretzyisrael]

Airport protests in NYC, LA force some travelers to walk to terminals

Story by John Bacon and Jorge L. Ortiz, USA TODAY

In the middle of the hectic holiday travel season, traffic on the expressway to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York came to a halt for 20 minutes as protesters locked arms and held banners.

Video posted on social media showed passengers, some carrying suitcases, leaving vehicles behind and stepping over barriers onto the highway median. Officials later arranged for buses to take stranded travelers to the airport.

At around the same time, activists snarled driving conditions on the road that feeds into Los Angeles International Airport by dragging blocks of concrete, tree branches, construction debris and other objects into the roadway, according to L.A. police. Police said in a social media post that protesters threw an officer to the ground and attacked uninvolved passersby in their vehicles, adding that "this was not a peaceful demonstration.''

Authorities said 26 people were arrested at the JFK protest and 36 at LAX, including one for battery of a police officer. Both airports ranked among the nation’s top-six in boardings last year with more than 26 million each.

[kajaawa2]

Meghalaya Tourism: An Ideal Travel Guide

Meghalaya, meaning "the abode of clouds", is a paradise for nature lovers. This hill station in Northeast India has captivated travelers worldwide with its truly magnificent and enchanting skies. Nestled in the Himalayas, Meghalaya shares its borders with Bangladesh to the east and south and Assam to the north.

Unforgettable Experiences Await

Meghalaya boasts a plethora of tourist attractions, from towering hills and valleys to countless lakes, cascading waterfalls, pitch-black caves, and sacred forests. Panoramic views, misty hills, terraced slopes, flowing waterfalls, and serpentine rivers are sure to enthrall your soul.

Meghalaya will awaken all your senses. From cultural highlights to heart-pounding adventures, numerous unforgettable encounters await the curious traveler.

Cultural Tapestry

Meghalaya's cultural tapestry is woven with numerous threads. The vibrant traditional festivals are a fantastic way to experience the uniqueness of the state's indigenous population. Soak in the customs of the locals and the breathtaking views while learning about the message each festival conveys. Explore some of the state's local history while sampling the various cuisines it has to offer. Get lost in the area's markets and take advantage of the burgeoning nightlife scene. Meghalaya is renowned for its contemporary cultural celebrations that honor local and international artistic talent. Expect a showcase of music, art, intriguing cultural customs, and more.

Top Tourist Destinations

Popular tourist spots in Meghalaya include Shillong, Tura, Jowai, Cherrapunjee, Nongpoh, and Baghmara. There are numerous tourist attractions in Meghalaya that are worth a visit, including:

Shillong (Scotland of the East): Explore Shillong Peak, Elephant Falls, Ward's Lake, Don Bosco Museum, and Umiam Lake.

Cherrapunjee (One of the wettest places on Earth): Witness the awe-inspiring Dain-Thlen, Kynrem, Nohkalikai waterfalls, and the marvel of engineering - Double Decker Living Root Bridge. Explore Mawsmai Cave, Seven Sister Falls, and Wei Sawdong Falls.

Mawsynram (Another contender for the wettest place on Earth): Visit the famed Jakrem Hot Spring and the Mawjymbuin Cave.

Mawlynnong (Asia's Cleanest Village): Experience serenity amidst spotless surroundings and explore the Living Root Bridge and Balancing Rock.

Dawki (Crystal-clear Dawki River): Enjoy kayaking, snorkeling, and camping by the river in Shnongpdeng Village. Take in the scenic beauty of the Dawki River and the Indo-Bangladesh Border.

Best Time to Visit:

March to June: Pleasant weather, ideal for sightseeing and adventure activities.

July to September: Perfect for relaxation and enjoying the beauty of the rainy season.

October to November: Witness the vibrant cherry blossoms in autumn.

December to February: Ideal for hiking excursions and exploring nearby locations.

How to Reach Meghalaya:

By Train: The nearest train station is Guwahati (Assam), 180 kilometers away. Taxis or buses can take you to Meghalaya from Guwahati.

By Air: Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport in Guwahati (Assam) is the nearest major airport. Taxis can take you to Meghalaya from the airport.

By Road: Major cities are well-connected to Meghalaya by roadways.

Travel Tips:

Research local permits required for specific activities.

Book your accommodations in advance, especially during peak season.

Pack essentials like rain gear and comfortable shoes.

Plan your itinerary based on your interests and time constraints.

Budget for your trip, including transportation, accommodation, food, and activities.

Sample the local cuisine - a delightful way to experience the culture.

Respect local customs and traditions.

Rainfall in Meghalaya:

Meghalaya receives an average annual rainfall of 1,150 millimeters. The state lives up to its name, with the sky rarely remaining cloud-free.

Weather in Meghalaya:

Meghalaya boasts pleasant weather year-round with an average temperature of 24°C. The monsoon season brings ample rainfall, enhancing the beauty of the natural landscape. Winters are dry with moderate temperatures.

Ready to Explore?

Meghalaya, with its stunning beauty, rich culture, and diverse experiences, is a destination that will leave you mesmerized. Let Kajaawa Tours & Cabs craft your dream Meghalaya adventure and help you discover the hidden gems of this incredible state!

[kanpursamachar]

दिल्ली में बॉर्डर सील, टेंशन में कानपुराइट्स 

[rpwithroxy]

۞

Blasting down the highway, the motorcycle blazed through the traffic, finding gaps between moving buses and the handful of speedier lussi providing transport between the respiteblocks, towering communal hives where packed in lowbloods lived their daily lives. But she wasn't like them, her vehicle was custom built for her by her moirail and had been as finely tuned as he could arrange for.

And yet it was just barely enough to keep her ahead of the Drones pursuing her. They hadn't been fast enough to stop her escape when she'd taken out the database, removing another year's culling roster from going official, but that didn't mean that they were not chasing her down to make an example of her.

To show the price of rebelling against the system.

Didn't matter to her. Not in the least. She knew she could get away from them, if she just got herself enough room to work. And that required a few steps first. Step one?

Hit the breaks.

The moment the roadway was clear, she dropped the speed, opening a gap that made her a far too tempting target. Spend a moment, let them come in too close. Come in to strike.

Come within arm's reach.

That's when the claws could come out, monofilament dicoat edge too sharp for even their armor. One strike each, snapping out her arms in a moment she could barely sacrifice, strike deep.

Leave tumbling bodies in her wake as she gunned it for speed, the cybernetic monstrosities exploding behind her. Race to the more open lawnrings, while the drones were distracted with the destruction.

And out into the freedom of the beautiful night, Hours before the day and the dangers of the sun. Time to get away, get some rest.

Even an Apex Predator deserved a nap in the sun, like any other good little purrbeast.

[mariacallous]

AMMAN, Jordan—Elsa Nodznaya was leaving class at JUGate Academy in December 2021 when she noticed a sleek, maroon-colored bus cutting through traffic. It was a stark contrast to the older, white buses she had watched languish in Amman’s notorious gridlock since she was born. She soon began to learn more about it.

The new vehicle was part of the Amman Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) network, which had opened earlier that year and combined aspects of bus- and rail-based public transit. Unlike other buses, the BRT’s fleet was granted its own lanes to sidestep traffic. The next day, the 24-year-old Nodznaya decided to buy a BRT pass through an app on her smartphone and test out the new buses herself.

Nodznaya had taken public transportation in the Jordanian capital before. Counterintuitively, what is called “public transit” in Amman has long been a private, for-profit enterprise of taxis, buses, and shared taxis known as “services”—essentially, a network of all vehicles that are not personal cars. Until the BRT, government-run transit did not exist.

Each of Nodznaya’s previous trips within the privatized public transit system had left her anxious, as she endured harassment and robbery. She was also frustrated navigating unreliable bus and service schedules; because Amman’s transit system is privately run, drivers often wait to depart stops until buses are full to maximize profits.

Before taking the BRT, Nodznaya experimented with other types of public transportation, squeezing herself onto Amman’s packed buses and paying high rates to service drivers. “It was awful,” Nodznaya said, recounting the thick air and claustrophobic crowds on the buses.

But from her first ride on the BRT, Nodznaya could see a difference.

“You get on the bus, and there’s space, there’s air conditioning, [there are] cameras, and there’s a limit to how many people can get on,” said Nodznaya, who now takes the BRT as part of her commute to her administrative job at an agricultural company in the Jordan Valley. “You don’t feel constantly worried.”

Jordanian women like Nodznaya are disproportionately impacted by gaps in public transportation access, since they are less likely than their male counterparts to have access to a car. Amman’s transit network is often not a realistic alternative. Over half of the city’s public transit users commute an hour or more per day and spend a significant portion of their income per month on transportation. Congested roadways mean that working women face long commutes and often return well after sunset, a practice stigmatized by many Jordanian families.

These trends have contributed to Jordanian women having one of the world’s lowest rates of labor force participation in the world, at 14 percent, despite their high levels of education. Nearly half of Jordanian women say they have turned down a job due to a lack of transportation, according to a 2018 survey conducted by the Jordanian civil society organization Sadaqa and the German foundation Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.

“There are women who limit their outings because they don’t want to sit alone with a taxi driver or they feel the seats are too close together on [private] buses,” said Ayat Husseini, a Fulbright research fellow who studies vulnerable groups’ use of the BRT system, with a focus on refugees.

By cutting down on travel time and increasing safety on public transportation, the BRT has the potential to increase Jordanian women’s personal and professional autonomy. While the system has not been running long enough to gather robust data on how it has impacted women’s labor force participation in Amman, Husseini told Foreign Policy that there is initial unpublished research showing that women feel more comfortable using the BRT than other forms of public transit.

The government-backed BRT buses can carry about 50 passengers each and run every three minutes during peak hours. Tickets on its two major routes cost about half a dinar (approximately $0.78) and can be purchased through kiosks or smartphone applications. By comparison, Sadaqa found that nearly half of working women who take non-BRT public transportation spend 1 to 2 dinars getting to work, while the other half spend more than 2 dinars. With its low prices and improved overall service, the BRT is expected to help increase the percentage of overall commuters who use public transportation in Amman from 14 percent to 40 percent by 2025.

The BRT is operated by Amman Vision Investment & Development, a company owned by the Greater Amman Municipality. Before he began working on the BRT, Malek Bani Hamdan, Amman Vision’s health and safety officer, worked for more than a decade in Amman’s traffic police department, often responding to problems related to privately operated buses’ lack of fixed schedules, security cameras, passenger capacity limits, and well-marked stops. The latter two issues in particular led women to feel uncomfortable and vulnerable when in transit.

“The most common problem that my office delt with was gender harassment—like someone staring at a woman or saying something to make her uncomfortable on the private buses,” Bani Hamdan told Foreign Policy at the Amman Vision office.

Sadaqa’s research has found that more than 60 percent of women reported gender harassment while using public transportation. The most common type of harassment that women reported was inappropriate staring, followed by verbal abuse.

Bani Hamdan’s team aims to prevent these issues from happening on the BRT. Staff members monitor BRT bus interiors via CCTV cameras and operate a call center where riders can report complaints. In the future, BRT buses will be equipped to monitor their exteriors as well. In addition to the CCTV surveillance, Bani Hamdan says digital bus tracking and station lights have helped women feel safer, particularly when traveling in the evenings.

The BRT’s public financing model has also improved conditions for women. Private buses without fixed schedules often fail to enforce safety limits on the number of passengers who can board, meaning that women can find themselves in cramped vehicles without personal space.

“This structure is in large part why the service is unreliable. If everyone gets off the bus, they might not even finish the route,” said Hazem Zureiqat, who worked as a transport planner in the Greater Amman Municipality during the beginning of the BRT project. “The service is not attractive because it’s not reliable. A woman may have to wait at the bus stop at a place that’s isolated and unsafe, all while not knowing how long she’s going to wait.”

By contrast, BRT operators are paid based on kilometers driven, incentivizing them to stick with their routes and enforce limits on the number of passengers allowed on each bus. Amman Vision leaders hope that these changes will ultimately benefit the city’s most vulnerable citizens.

For now, however, the BRT has limited geographic reach. Only two routes are currently in operation, serving major transit hubs in the north and center of the city. “To get to BRT routes, you need to take other transportation, and the current transportation is ineffective, unreliable, and unsafe,” said Randa Naffa, a co-founder and manager of Sadaqa. “BRT as a service alone is better than the rest of the system. However, BRT will not solve the problem alone.”

Amman Vision and the Greater Amman Municipality plan to add more lines in the coming years. They also intend to expand beyond the city. The next phase of the BRT project includes a line from Amman to Zarqa, a city to the northeast of the capital. About 100,000 passengers will be able to shuttle between the two cities every day by the end of this year, according to Jordan’s Ministry of Transport. The municipality has also made transfers between some bus lines and the BRT free of charge, creating a larger network of transportation options for Amman’s residents.

The BRT project was launched in 2006 by former Amman Mayor Omar Maani. His team began by studying the distribution of residents and businesses in Amman with grants and loans from the World Bank and the French Development Agency. They weighed the option of buses against other forms of public transportation, including aboveground trams and underground subways.

“The BRT is simpler to implement than underground subways and aboveground systems. And the [BRT] buses themselves are safer and more comfortable,” said Husseini, the Fulbright fellow.

Despite their need for better public transportation, the Jordanian public has largely viewed government infrastructure projects like the BRT with cynicism. The BRT has taken more than a decade to complete and cost millions of dollars. After its launch, the BRT project came to a halt in 2011 amid accusations of corruption. An investigation eventually cleared Maani and the municipality’s team of wrongdoing, allowing the project to resume in 2015, but the allegations contributed to widespread public mistrust of the BRT and government projects more generally.

“We need to aggressively move forward with more improvements to the BRT service,” said Zureiqat, who now works at Engicon, an engineering consulting firm in Amman. “The main benefit is … the symbolism in showing people what it means to have proper public transportation.”

Since its rollout, the BRT’s ridership has been rapidly increasing. Today, the system carries about 700,000 riders per month. The high demand has resulted in longer wait times during peak hours. Despite their previous cynicism toward the BRT, Amman residents are now urging their city leaders to expand the system’s capacity to reduce wait times, add umbrellas along station platforms, and include night service.

Politicians are taking note. Late last year, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh announced the government’s plan to establish new BRT routes connecting different governorates in Jordan. And within Amman, Riyad al-Kharabsheh, the director of public transport and infrastructure projects in the Greater Amman Municipality, has made it the BRT’s goal to cover the entire Jordanian capital.

“I don’t want just to stay home. I’ve always wanted to work outside the house,” said Nodznaya, reflecting on the impact that better transportation could have on her life. “On the BRT, I’m more comfortable, and it’s easy to use. Now we need more lines and more buses.”

[hiimanshiiitsolutions]

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