#seven hours!!!! that���s a lot!!!! and for authors that have school or demanding jobs that kind of time is hard to come by!!!!!

[random-of-random]

The Secret

Chapter 2 - Just One Day

Authors Note: Thanks for reading and favoriting, and for commenting. You guys are great!

Y/N Y/L/N and Percival Graves had met four years earlier, in 1921. She was new to MACUSA and he was already a top Auror. It was a tradition in the department that new employees learn from close observation of people who had been there longer. Y/N had been assigned to shadow Percival and she was given several words of condolence from her new co-workers.

“Don't let him push you out of here.” Arnold had warned her as he gave her a cheeky grin. He was being shadowed by Lovell. From the little she had gathered Percival Graves was a good guy, however he was also shrewd and some described him as single-minded.

When she went to his office and knocked on the door, she could feel her nerves building. His office was smaller then, and this one he shared with Arnold.

"Come in." His voice called and she hesitantly opened the door. Two desks were crammed into the tiny space, filing cabinets seemed to overflow. There were files covering the desks and piled on the floor. It was easy to see that it was a time-consuming job. Behind the desk to her right sat Percival. He didn't even glance up at her, at first, and he continued writing on a piece of parchment, the quill scratching on the paper reminded her of school.

"Mr. Graves?"

"Yes. You must be Miss. Y/L/N." She moved toward him slowly.

"Yes, sir."

"Graduated from Ilvermorny?" His hair was slicked back and black. She couldn't see the color of his eyes.

"Yes sir."

"One of the top students in your year." He still hadn't looked at her.

"Yes sir."

"What house?"

"Horned Serpent, sir."

"Did you always want to work in magical law enforcement, Miss. Y/L/N?"

"Frankly sir, no." That seemed to get his attention. The quill stopped and he turned to slowly look up at her. His eyes were a chestnut brown and seemed to be looking through her.

"What did you want to be?"

"A stage actress." She admitted and it garnered a small smile.

"Is that so?"

"Yes, sir."

"So, why are you here?" It wasn't a rude question, nor intense. Just inquisitive.

"If I was going to be on the stage then I would want to be somewhere big. Considering the Rappapport Law, I wouldn't be able to achieve that properly. So, I turned to the next best thing."

"From being an actress to catching criminals?"

"Yes, sir."

"And they sent you to me." He stood and placed the paper he was working on in an already full filing cabinet. "I suppose you've heard the stories." She could have lied, kissed a little ass, but that wasn't her style.

"Yes, sir, I have."

"And? How am I living up to them so far?" When he turned to look at her again she couldn't help but catch the smile he was trying to hide. Percival was handsome and she had a feeling he could be very charming if the mood struck him.

"A little lacking, sir." He chuckled.

"Welcome to the department, Miss Y/L/N. Now, if you wouldn't mind, we had a big bust if illegal imports yesterday and most of that needs sorted."

"Fine. Not a problem." She said putting on a smile. As soon as she left his office, she knew she was in trouble. Girls talked about plenty of other men in MACUSA, but Percival Graves was something special.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Y/N shadowed him continuously. Yeah, he was tough. Yes, he could be distant and cold. However, he was the best Auror she had ever seen. He was quick with a wand, his spells were powerful, and he had even mastered a few spells without the use of a wand. Every morning she would arrive at the Woolworth building by 7 AM. Every night she wouldn't leave until 8 PM. He stayed the same hours.

People constantly asked her when she was at lunch, "don't you hate this?" Her answer was always the same.

"Of course not! Are you crazy?" And she wasn't lying. She wasn't being insincere. Working as hard as she was had already improved her skills. There was so much Y/N thought she knew that was now being challenged. In her mind, she was working for the best.

The hardest part was Percival himself. She was enjoying being around him entirely too much. The way his eyes followed her suddenly didn't feel uncomfortable. It was welcome. The way he was studying her, she almost dared him to figure out her secrets.

Within three months she had stopped eating with the rest of her co-workers and started eating in Percival's office. Sometimes they would go over files, talk about the goings on in the magical and non-maj governments, and on rare occasions they would talk about personal things.

The personal conversations became more frequent over her year of shadowing him. He talked about the long line of Aurors in his family, and how he felt obligated to follow in their footsteps. However, it turned out that it was a field he was good in and enjoyed. He asked her about her family and seemed to want to know anything she was willing to share. She found out when he attended Ilvermorny he was in the Wampus house. Three had turned for him, the other two being Horned Serpent and Thunderbirds, but he went with the house based with warriors. It suited him.

"When I was in school Wampus beat Horned Serpent every time they played." He joked with her one day.

"That is not true." She said with an accusatory tone, though her eyes were alight. It was almost closing time, but they were still sitting in his office - the same place they had been talking for the last hour.

"It is." He insisted.

"If I waste my time going back through the records to prove you wrong..." he laughed then and the sound was beautiful. The door opened quickly and all signs of the levity were gone in that instant. Arnold walked in carrying yet another file.

"What's that?" Y/N asked.

"Dark wizard from Germany has landed in the US. He's a bad one. Already responsible for seven deaths. We have to catch him." Percival was on his feet in a second.

"Where?" He asked pulling on his coat.

"He was spotted in Central Park." Arnold answered.

"Let me come." Y/N suggested.

"No." Percival answered quickly.

"Why not?" She asked and he seemed to ignore her. "You were the one who said I was doing really well."

"I did say that." He admitted as he walked out of his office. Y/N was in tow.

"Then I should be able to go and prove myself."

Percival let out a tense sigh. “Y/N..."

"Come on, Percival. You know I can do this."

"No!" His shout made her take a step back in shock. The department was suddenly quiet as they all looked on at their head Auror. Granted, most of them were surprised this was the first time they heard him yelling at her. He took a few steps closer to her and lowered his voice so only she could hear. "Not this one. Just, trust me on this?" She merely nodded before she watched him walk toward the elevators. Turning on her heel she headed straight back to his office and shut the door after her. She was so mad it was hard to think of anything else. So, she did what she had been wanting to do for ages. She organized. Everything. Three hours later she was still putting papers into the last cabinet. She modified everything magically so it could fit five times the space is previously had. Any loose papers were sorted and put in their proper files which were then put in alphabetical order in one of the filing cabinets. A work of beauty. She allowed herself a moments rest as she looked over the office. It looked as if there was twice as much room as there had been. When the door opened she stood to smugly see his face, but it was Arnold who walked through the door. His normally styled hair was hanging loose, his tie was completely off, and she saw what looked like blood covering the arm of his white button down.

"Arnold, are you-" She moved toward him, but he put his hand up.

"It's not my blood." Her stomach turned and her breath hitched in her chest.

"I-is Mr. Graves... alright?" She dreaded the answer.

"I think so. He's with the healers now." Arnold took a seat at his desk and leaned back.

"What was he hit with?"

"A spell we had never seen before." Arnold answered her, his voice slightly shaking. "He just started bleeding." Y/N looked at him in shock. "It stopped when we got him subdued, but Percival lost a lot of blood."

"Are you alright though, sir?" She asked.

"I'm going to be fine, Y/N." She nodded and stood awkwardly. "He's in the healers room down on 20. In case you were interested."

"Thank you, sir." She took off, trying her best to look calm and inconspicuous. A few people had started to suspect something was going on between Percival and Y/N. How wrong they were despite how much she wanted them to be right. The rumors seemed to die down quickly. Something about Percival not being the type to settle down, let alone with someone like her. Y/N liked to joke, she was a little more lax about rules, and she didn't mind a little dancing every now and again. People in the building just decided that the two were never possible. Arnold, however, seemed to know how she felt about Percival. He would catch her looking at Graves as he scribbled a sentence on parchment or read quietly. As soon as Y/N would realize he was looking, Arnold would give her a kind smile or a wink. Though, he never told another soul about what he saw.

When the elevator stopped on 20 she stepped out and into a whole different world. She had been to a healing floor before, but not like this. It was bustling with healers running all over the place.

"Can I help you?" A young woman behind a desk asked.

"Yes. My boss was brought in: Percival Graves. I wanted to check and make sure he's alright."

"Your name?"

"Y/N Y/L/N."

"Alright, thank you. Have a seat in our waiting area and someone will be right with you." The woman indicated a small alcove filled with chairs. She hesitantly sat, but within a minute felt that she may stand up and demand an update. It was an excruciating hour before someone came out.

"Miss. Y/L/N?"

"That's me." The man who was now standing in front of her was older, maybe late 50's, with a kind smile.

"I am Mr. Graves healer."

"Is he okay?" She asked.

"Yes. He is going to be alright." She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and she allowed herself a small smile. "He lost a lot of blood, so we're producing potions for him to take every four hours for the next three days." The doctor explained. "He'll be groggy, but I believe he will do just fine. He will however need care because I want him to get bedrest. I can keep him here, if he would prefer."

"Thank you, and I'll run the options by him." Y/N said as she shook his hand.

"Would you like to see him?"

"Can I?" She asked. He put his hand softly on her upper back and led her back and deeper into the hallway. They walked for less then a minute when they stopped outside a room.

"Go a head in." He encouraged.

The room was very plain and ordinary. Sitting up on the bed was Percival. Already looking like he wanted to go another round. However, his skin was pale and it was easy to see he would be unsteady on his feet. His own clothes must have been discarded as he was wearing a hospital gown. She could faintly make out former cut marks on his arms that were an angry red. His brown eyes connected with hers and for a moment, she saw it. Relief. She couldn't stop herself. Taking several quick steps forward she pulled Percival Graves into a hug. Her arms wrapped around his upper back and shoulders and, to her great surprise, she felt his arms wrap around her waist.

"I'm glad you're back." She whispered before pulling away.

"You didn't have to come down here."

"I know." She answered. "So the docs said you have a potion you have to take every four hours for three days."

"Alright."

"And you have to rest - no working for those three days." He looked almost angry. "That way when you do come back you'll be at 100%."

"If I have to."

"And you're suppose to stay on bedrest. So, I'm going to come take care of you."

"What? No."

"It's your choice, Percival." She said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Let me take care of you for a few days..."

"Or..."

"Or you to stay here and be a special patient of the healers." It was as if he was at war with himself for a moment.

"When can we leave?"

[sgreffenius]

“Every decent conspiracy...” Part II: 9/11

“Every decent conspiracy demands a saintly cover story.” ~ Ron Chernow on Jay Gould, who conspired to profit from manipulation of gold prices.

You could interpret this aphorism in a number of ways, but let’s apply it to George W. Bush and Richard Cheney in 2001. These gentlemen were two of the most dishonest politicians of the twenty-first century. To begin, we’ll set Cheney aside, to focus on the president. One might profit if we compare W.’s style of dishonesty with that of other presidents, but we can let that go as well. Instead, let’s have a look at Bush’s saintly cover story after September 11, 2001.

The saintly, or perhaps better to say, homey part of the story begins with the president reading a story to a class of youngsters at an elementary school in Florida. An aide whispers news from Manhattan, and presumably Washington, then Pennsylvania in his ear. We do not know exactly what his aides told him, but he sat in that chair too small for grown-ups for a long time. He lingered too long, but I imagine he did not want to disappoint his audience.

Did the news surprise him? No one asked him at the time why he did not bolt for his command center the moment he learned of the morning’s events - even now it seems a bit disrespectful to inquire about such matters. Still, one remains curious.

In any case, when Bush called an end to his visit and said goodbye to the children, his people packed him off to Air Force One and kept him in the air for the rest of the day. It was a curious choice, as the FAA, branches of the military, and every aviation authority you can think of grounded flights all over the country because it was too dangerous to be in the air.

I suppose if Air Force One is the only plane aloft, it’s relatively safe up there, but threats to the president’s safety did not arise from domestic aircraft. Danger came from sources the country’s air defense system was manifestly unable to stop, though now that the system was on alert, perhaps it could do a better job. If you are the president, and your people tell you that they will not land you anywhere, there’s not a lot you can do. You make yourself comfortable and enjoy the empty skies.

What do you suppose Bush said to Cheney when at last they met? “Tell me what’s been happening, bud.” Cheney replies, “Not so much. How was your flight?” “My day was not as interesting as yours, I can tell you that,” rejoins the president.

By this time, the heroics over Pennsylvania have filtered into the news stream. So have numerous other stories about first responders at the World Trade Center, grave destruction at the Pentagon, Rudy Giuliani rallying his fellow New Yorkers, goodbye phone calls to loved ones from airline passengers, office workers in the Towers who jumped from windows rather than face incineration, along with endless repetition of video recordings from the south end of Manhattan. Though you could not script all of that, the news media played their parts well. They had even pegged Osama bin Laden as the villain before the end of the day.

Then comes World Trade Center 7 at the end of the workday. Just as the Towers came down shortly after nine, Building 7 comes down shortly after five. Even on a day like September 11, planners have to stick with a regular work schedule. They might have let Building 7 stand overnight, but the longer you wait to bring it down, the more suspicious it looks. Why would it remain solid for twenty-four hours or more, then come down in six or seven seconds?

It certainly does not look right when it comes down after eight hours, but that is the end of the workday. Larry Katzenstein, Building 7’s owner, even frames the decision to destroy the building in those terms. In an interview shortly after the cataclysm, he says that after all the death and destruction of that day, we decided to “pull it.” What a slip! Pull it is the phrase building experts use for a controlled demolition. It’s an apt phrase, since the building comes straight down in those circumstances.

When astonished inquirers asked what he meant, Katzenstein said he and his colleagues decided to pull emergency personnel from the building. He did not explain why he would say pull it, rather than pull them, or why he needed make any decision at all, since no one was in the building to begin with. In fact, by five o’clock, Building 7 had been unoccupied for some time. So shortly before five, the building’s owner decides to empty an empty building, and shortly after five the building collapses straight down. Firemen even warned people away from the building before it collapsed, to avoid injury.

Dan Rather, as he watched Building 7 come down, remarked: “That looks just like a controlled demolition.” That’s the last time you heard him say that! One candid remark can take you off script pretty fast. Journalists and other officials that day had a feel for what they could say, and what they could not. Larry Katzenstein’s revealing slip, and Dan Rather’s observational candor strayed into the could not category.

The best slip of all was the British journalist who reported for the BBC that Building 7 had come down, while the building still stood in the background! Her network made a lame attempt to explain that error, but in fact, some slips bear no explanation but the truth: word went out that the building would come down, and the BBC journalist reported the event prematurely.

Why do we spend time with Building 7? We dwell on it for three reasons: (1) compared to the Twin Towers, it is a clearer case of controlled demolition; (2) government’s multiple, after-the-fact explanations for the building’s collapse are extravagantly inaccurate; (3) Building 7′s collapse discredits all the saintly cover stories that so many people purveyed as they stayed on-script.

In that way, the case of Building 7 is like Jack Ruby’s murder of Lee Oswald in a Dallas jail. You cannot cover up or mistake something like that. Which is to say, you cannot disguise a controlled demolition as something else, any more than you can disguise a contract killing that occurs under police supervision. Witnesses - who include every person who watches the filmed event - cannot mistake what happened.

The discrediting process occurs slowly. Ruby’s deadly attack on Oswald just two days after Kennedy died made people take notice, but it took longer for the second murder’s connection to the first to sink in. Similarly, the idea that a third World Trade Center building could just collapse on itself in seven seconds seemed incongruous at the time. It was so incongruous that many preferred to send the event into a memory hole and keep it there. Gradually, the obvious nature of the event emerges in memory, and you wonder what else about the official story does not hold up. Why would government officials try to disguise a controlled demolition in the first place?

Researchers’ strategy so far has been to publicize the incongruity of Building 7's collapse, in order to convince people that we need a new investigation of 9/11 events. I understand the first part of this strategy, though I think the publicity effort feels a little like propaganda. The words and images, not to mention the background music and production values, seem borrowed from a grim public relations firm.

The truly mistaken part of the strategy is the second part: the appeal for a new investigation. Who would conduct such an investigation? Why, the same crew that gave us the first set of findings! Take your choice of investigative bodies: journalists and staff at mainstream publications, congressional committees, official 9/11 commissions, National Institute of Standards and Technology, investigators charged with distribution of government compensation, investigators charged with destruction of evidence at the crime scenes, the White House, the Department of Justice, the Defense Department, and numerous offices charged with prevention of terrorist attacks.

Have I listed enough agencies, departments, and official bodies for you? Every one of these actors, blessed with abundant resources and access to evidence, either resisted doing any investigation at all, delayed investigation until evidence had been cleared away, or submitted reports so plainly false we feel compelled to demand new ones. Why would we ask for a new, official investigation, and expect different results twenty years later?

If we want better research results, we cannot rely on investigators of proven incompetence or unwillingness. If previous investigative bodies turned in poor results, or no results at all, do not go back to the same well. Find better people, and better methods. You will not find integrity in officialdom.

[ericvick]

What Prop. 22's defeat would mean for Uber and Lyft — and drivers

(Ross May / Los Angeles Times; Getty Images)

One way or another, the business of summoning a ride from your phone is likely to look different in California after Nov. 3.

The future of gig work could hinge on the success or failure of Proposition 22, called the App-Based Drivers as Contractors and Labor Policies Initiative. Uber, Lyft and other companies bankrolling the initiative say it would improve workers’ quality of life, providing new benefits while preserving their autonomy. If passed, the measure would cement gig workers’ status as independent contractors, dealing a huge blow to a labor movement striving to bolster protections for workers at the margins.

Gig companies’ business models rely on hiring large numbers of workers cheaply as independent contractors to provide rides, deliver meals and groceries and perform other services. Assembly Bill 5, a state law passed in 2019, aimed to expand protections to these workers, requiring gig companies to reclassify them as employees.

Proposition 22 represents the companies’ efforts to battle that law and the obligations that come with it.

Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates (which was recently acquired by Uber) have jointly poured close to $200 million into the “yes” campaign, flooding the airwaves and their own apps with ads and making the measure the costliest in U.S. history.

At the heart of it all is a vicious fight to shape the prospects of hundreds of thousands of drivers and delivery workers across the state.

Here’s what you need to know.

What would happen if Proposition 22 passes?

The text of Proposition 22 assures drivers they would maintain flexibility as independent contractors. The measure offers some benefits similar to those conferred under AB 5, but significantly weaker.

Gig companies thus far have resisted compliance with AB 5, which went into effect Jan. 1. In early August, a judge ordered Uber and Lyft to convert their drivers to employees. At the 11th hour, the companies won a temporary stay of the order from a state appeals court, effectively pushing off the deadline until after voters have their say.

Story continues

Uber and Lyft presented oral arguments before California’s 1st District Court of Appeal on Tuesday. The court has 90 days to decide whether it will uphold the lower-court ruling. But Proposition 22, if passed, would override protections granted by AB 5.

The measure instead would grant 120% of the minimum wage (state or local, depending on where the driver is). However, this minimum narrowly applies to “engaged time,” meaning the time a driver is on a trip with a passenger or en route to pick up a passenger. One study found drivers spend one-third of their time waiting between passengers or returning from trips, time that would not count toward the minimum wage.

Under Proposition 22, workers would also receive reimbursement of 30 cents for each “engaged” mile, but employee status would entitle drivers to 57.5 cents for each mile driven, in accordance with Internal Revenue Service guidance.

The proposition also includes a healthcare subsidy and occupational accident insurance to cover on-the-job injuries.

If gig companies complied with AB 5, workers would have access to the full slate of benefits, including overtime pay for time worked past 40 hours a week, paid sick leave, unemployment insurance and workers’ compensation.

A recent report by UC Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment found employee status would increase total driver compensation by about 30%.

What would the companies sponsoring Proposition 22 do if it fails?

Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi detailed what he called “the high cost” of making drivers employees in a recent blog post. He said that if Uber employed drivers, the company would be able to hire only 260,000 people full time, out of the nearly 1.2 million drivers in the U.S. before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Specifically in California, Uber projects the number of active drivers the platform could accommodate would fall by 75% if it was forced to treat drivers as employees. Increased labor costs would cause fares to rise 25% to 111%, the company says.

It’s unlikely the companies will follow through on their threat to leave California, one of their biggest markets, said Michael Reich, a labor economist at UC Berkeley who has studied Proposition 22’s effect on drivers extensively and whose work informed ride-hailing regulation adopted in New York. California accounts for about 16% of Lyft’s business and 9% of Uber’s global rides and Uber Eats gross bookings. However, the state represents a negligible fraction of adjusted earnings, Uber has said, according to Reuters.

Instead, the companies will probably continue to challenge AB 5 in the courts, including at the appellate and state Supreme Court levels in California, and then appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, Reich said. That process would take one to two years.

Although California is the first state to challenge how Uber and Lyft classify drivers (with Massachusetts in a close second place), cities that have instituted minimum wage protections, including New York and Seattle, offer clues as to what a future under AB 5 could look like. In those markets, drivers have been making more hailing rides, Reich said. He predicts even less effect on demand in California from price increases.

“In New York you expect more price sensitivity because you have more transportation — you have the subway, you have more taxis. In California, you don’t have those alternatives,” Reich said.

Crunching the numbers, Reich has a more optimistic view than Uber and Lyft of their ability to transition. He predicts that in California, prices would increase 5% to 10%, while labor costs would go up 25% to 30%. He said Uber’s analysis assumes that every dollar of cost increase translates into a dollar price increase, but that didn’t happen in New York and won’t happen here. He thinks about two-thirds of the cost increase could be offset by greater efficiency in the use of drivers, reduced employee turnover costs and smaller commissions.

Uber’s economist “does not at all explain why the number of drivers would fall so much. She apparently asserts that the company would not hire part-time drivers, even though they would still need them because of the difference between demand during peak and off-peak hours,” Reich said in an email.

In New York, drivers did lose some degree of flexibility, with fewer spots open for new drivers and Uber and Lyft announcing moves to limit access to their apps. The companies locked out drivers at times and in areas of low demand in response to the new regulations, providing a map showing where demand is highest for drivers to find work elsewhere in the city. These changes have been frustrating and even nightmarish for some drivers who say the new system is exhausting to navigate. Labor groups have said the changes by Uber and Lyft were scare tactics meant to undercut new regulations.

One effect of the uncertainty in California’s gig economy that’s already become apparent is the emergence of new players in the state that are willing to comply with AB 5.

Small Texas ride-hailing start-ups Alto and Arcade City have plans to launch in Los Angeles. The two companies employ business models that are completely different from those of the ride-hailing giants.

Arcade City began as a Facebook group connecting thousands of unemployed drivers with residents who needed rides after Uber and Lyft took a yearlong hiatus from Austin when the city tried to impose tighter background checks for drivers. The company offers an interface for drivers who build their own recurring customer base and set their own rates and hours.

Alto hires its drivers as employees and provides them with vehicles. Co-founder and CEO Will Coleman said in an interview that Alto hopes to come to L.A. by the end of November. The start-up has about 200 employees, with plans to hire 100 more.

“We knew this employment model was going to be a question…. We’ve seen the writing on the wall for years,” Coleman said.

If Proposition 22 passes, could it be changed later?

If passed, amending it would require a seven-eighths supermajority of the Legislature — a daunting hurdle.

In California, a law created by ballot measure can be changed only by another ballot measure, unless the original measure specifies otherwise. Because it’s a hassle to push through ballot measures, initiatives will frequently waive this protection and provide opportunity for the measure to be amended by the Legislature.

A two-thirds majority vote is a common benchmark initiatives use. A seven-eighths majority requirement is unheard of.

“I’ve never seen anything like that. The companies are trying to divest the Legislature of any authority,” said William Gould, a labor lawyer and professor emeritus at Stanford University who studies the gig economy.

Additionally, Proposition 22 would remove the teeth AB 5 gave state lawmakers to challenge companies on worker classification, said Charlotte Garden, a labor law professor at Seattle University School of Law. Before, workers who felt they were being denied benefits typically were shunted into employer-controlled arbitration processes, which had little effect, Garden said. AB 5 empowered California’s attorney general and city attorneys in the state’s most populous cities to force companies to provide benefits to workers who met the legal test for employee classification.

Will Proposition 22 have national implications?

Under President Trump, the federal government has been moving in the opposite direction. In September, the Labor Department issued a proposed rule that is friendlier to employers who use independent contractors.

“Under the Obama administration, the Department of Labor was pushing for a more aggressive ability to find someone as an employee, and it was causing a lot of, I would say, uncertainty in the business community,” said Gina Miller, a law partner in Snell & Wilmer’s Orange County office. “The new administration withdrew that guidance.”

That could change, depending on the outcome of the presidential election. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, have voiced support for AB 5 and endorsed a “no” vote on Proposition 22.

Times staff writers Vanessa Martínez, Rahul Mukherjee and Ryan Menezes contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

[jobsearchtips02]

The Future Is Video Video games: A Snapshot of Jobs within the Booming Business

Typical knowledge has loads to say about video video games.

It says avid gamers are male basement dwellers who stay on a weight loss plan of Mountain Dew and Cheetos, that gaming makes folks lazy, and that it’s unattainable to make a dwelling by enjoying video games all day.

Properly, au contraire. In keeping with knowledge from the Leisure Software program Affiliation, the online game trade and its gamers are flourishing. A 2018 survey by ESA discovered that 60% of all People play video video games. Daily.

“From Fortnite to League of Legends, games have captured the hearts and imagination of a lot of folks,” stated Chris Greeley, commissioner of the League of Legends Championship Sequence.

With so many individuals enjoying, there are ever-growing alternatives to land online game jobs within the $43 billion trade.

Video Sport Careers Are On the Rise, Consultants Say

At its peak, the 2018 League of Legends World Championship drew in additional than 200 million viewers. (The 2018 Tremendous Bowl had an viewers of 103 million.) The League of Legends occasion was held at Incheon Munhak Stadium, a world-class sports activities advanced in South Korea, which hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2002.

Like their real-world counterparts, esports occasions require tons of preparation and manpower, and the trade includes much more than professional gamers. Relying on the dimensions of the League of Legends occasion, Greeley estimates there are between 80 and 150 staffers engaged on and off digital camera. Throughout the trade, demand is spiking for announcers, scouts, coaches, entrepreneurs and broadcasters. 

Online game corporations provide a very good chunk of these jobs. Blizzard, Digital Arts, Epic Video games and Riot Video games all have budding in-house esports divisions that broadcast and scout their respective competitions and groups.

Video games have captured the hearts and imaginations of plenty of people.

Greeley drew many comparisons to the sports activities leisure trade, calling it a “blueprint” for a way esports jobs work. However one notable distinction is that, for a number of corporations, the entire growing, advertising and marketing and broadcasting occurs underneath one roof.

“We joke all the time that we’re a sports league, a production house, a broadcaster and a start- up business,” he stated.

However not all online game corporations have the assets to run such wide-ranging operations. In lots of circumstances, esports jobs are outsourced to third-parties, similar to ESL Gaming, which deal with occasion administration and manufacturing for large-scale tournaments.

“There are 100-plus esports organizations that, on a day-to-day basis, are looking for help,” Greeley stated. “I think there’s a really healthy mix” of each in-house and outsourced job alternatives.

Some corporations are constructing hubs in Atlanta, Austin, Texas, and Dallas. However the overwhelming majority of esports jobs are in California.

“The top three spots for esports jobs right now are Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Los Angeles,” Greeley stated.

The meteoric rise of the esports trade typically will get all the eye, however the extra conventional online game careers – animators and designers – are slated to see wholesome development within the coming years as nicely.

In keeping with the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s 2018 to 2028 job forecast, software program builders will see a 21% improve in job alternatives, and 26% for app-specific builders. Artists and animators will see a four% improve, which is on par with all job development.

And schools know this. Indiana College, one in every of many schools trying to get forward of the development, provides a number of main specializations in recreation artwork, manufacturing and audio – plus a devoted diploma in online game design – to arrange college students for future online game jobs. 

Edward Castronova, a online game economist and professor at Indiana College, forsees a big wave of online game jobs proper across the nook.

Future job seekers, he stated, ought to “pay as much attention to your gaming literacy as you do to literature, art, music and film.”

Video Sport Jobs for Execs and Aspiring Execs

The Penny Hoarder particulars seven methods to become profitable enjoying video video games – as in actually enjoying video video games for money. A number of pay fast cash. However different choices, particularly aggressive tournaments, present pathways to the massive bucks.

In June, The Penny Hoarder spoke to Christian Lomenzo, who gained $45,000 in esports competitions held by Madden NFL. Earlier than his days of Madden fame, he participated in smaller online game tournaments on-line, incomes a pair at a time. 

Whereas Lomenzo’s prize cash is a severe chunk of change, the largest competitions within the trade pay out a number of occasions that quantity. Competitions held by Blizzard Leisure, Epic Video games and Riot Video games attract a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of viewers, and consequently esports earnings are skyrocketing. Epic Video games, the builders of the massively in style Fortnite, just lately paid out $100 million in prize cash throughout all qualifying rounds of the 2019 Fortnite World Cup. And the successful crew of the 2018 League of Legends World Championship earned $6.45 million.

Picture courtesy Blizzard Leisure

Exterior of the sporadic earnings of large-scale esports occasions, skilled avid gamers could make wholesome salaries. Riot Video games, the makers of League of Legends, hires proficient avid gamers whose day job it’s to stream their matches on Twitch and create buzz and to attract in additional gamers.

“League of Legends pros in North America have an average salary of a little bit more than $300,000,” Greeley stated. “Minimum for our pro level is 75 grand. I mean, that’s not a bad salary when you’re 18.”

The overwhelming majority of avid gamers don’t play competitively, nonetheless. Even when they did, they wouldn’t qualify for selective tournaments or comfortable pro-gamer jobs at Riot.

For almost all of online game jobs, a wholesome dose of ardour and information will suffice.

Future Video Sport Jobs and Careers

Bureau of Labor Statistics knowledge present the period of time People are enjoying video video games is on the rise, particularly so for 15- to 24-year-olds, who now spend greater than 5 hours every week gaming. 

Total profession fields are budding in efforts to monetize these hours.

A tough comparability is how social media web sites like Fb become profitable. They’re free to make use of, however the corporations generate billions of promoting by monitoring how lengthy customers keep on the positioning and what sort of content material they work together with. The online game trade is starting to toy with related metrics.

“That all has to start with the data,” Greeley stated. “There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity there… for business students, for people who can help with their data insights and their number crunching to make data-informed decisions.”

Professional Tip

Blizzard Leisure has a complete crew devoted to knowledge analytics. The sport developer additionally runs a strong hiring program for college kids throughout a number of disciplines.

A method online game corporations are attempting to monetize customers is thru microtransactions, tiny funds customers make when enjoying the sport. Suppose: $1 for a brand new shiny sword that different gamers don’t have. Or $5 for brand spanking new quests or story traces that unpaid gamers don’t get entry to. 

Over time, a small proportion of customers spend 1000’s of on microtransactions. These gamers are known as “whales.” A lot of assets go into holding whales engaged within the recreation – and spending cash.

Castronova, from Indiana College, predicts that by the mid 2020s online game corporations will rent avid gamers on a big scale to draw and retain new gamers, particularly whales.

“There’s no difference between an ad campaign [that] gets you players, and an incentive system that pays people to play,” Castronova stated. “They both cost money, and they both increase your player population.”

His predictions appear inevitable, as online game corporations are already experimenting with artistic methods to pay their gamers – with fast-growing prize swimming pools in competitions and salaried professional avid gamers. However what Castronova expects to see sooner or later isn’t just the professionals getting all the cash. Informal avid gamers will money in, too.

“The companies will pay them small amounts to just be there, in the game, while the big shots make all the noise,” Castronova stated. “Those [casual gamers] are the people who will have viable low-wage jobs from video games.”

Adam Hardy is a workers author at The Penny Hoarder. He focuses on methods to become profitable that don’t contain stuffy company places of work. Learn his ​newest articles right here, or say hello on Twitter @hardyjournalism.

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/the-future-is-video-video-games-a-snapshot-of-jobs-within-the-booming-business/

[lnd-hq]

BONNIE PARKER & CLYDE BARROW

Years Active: 1930--1934

                                   BONNIE...

      In a world full of male criminals, Bonnie Parker stood out among them. Glamorous, charming, and undeniably feminine, she became America’s unlikely sweetheart. Of a decidedly diminutive stature and thought to be exceptionally pretty, Bonnie Parker had dreams of becoming an actress, and in her youth there were no signs of the criminal path that she would follow. She did well in school, and loved to write poetry. (Two poems that she wrote while on the run helped make her famous.)

     Bored with her average life, Bonnie dropped out of school at age sixteen and married Roy Thornton. The marriage wasn't a happy one, riddled with physical abuse, and Roy began to spend a lot of time away from home by 1927. Two years later, Roy was caught for robbery and sentenced to five years in prison. While Roy was away, she waitressed at a dead end job, toiling long tedious hours on her feet and living with her devoted mother, dreaming of a way out.

                                CLYDE...

     Clyde Barrow was the fifth of seven children. Although among a close-knit family, the expression "dirt poor" understates the way he grew up. His family's farm failed due to drought and they eventually moved to Dallas, Texas. Clyde, who was a small and unassuming boy, attended school until the age of sixteen and had ambitions of becoming a musician, learning to play both the guitar and saxophone. Like Bonnie, he desired more out of life than the hand he’d been dealt.

     However, under the influence of his older brother, Buck, Clyde soon turned to a life of crime. Beginning with petty thievery, then graduating to stealing cars, Clyde soon escalated his activities to armed robbery. By late 1929, at the age of 20, Clyde was already a fugitive from the law, wanted by authorities for several robberies.

                               LOVE NEVER DIES...

     One evening, Clyde received news that his sister had fallen and broken her arm. When he arrived home, he found his sister’s friend, Bonnie Parker, making hot chocolate in the kitchen. They spent the whole night talking, arguably love at first sight. After their first meeting, they spent almost every day together for the next few months. Meanwhile, Clyde managed to assemble a group of ruffians and began terrorizing small shop owners through hold-ups and burglaries. Eventually, Bonnie forgot all about her jailed husband and began driving the getaway car for Clyde and his gang.

     Around Christmas 1929, authorities began compiling evidence against Clyde in order to arrest him. Clyde explained to Bonnie that he would need to leave town because the police were after him. However, he was barely able to pack his things before the authorities arrived.

     Against her mother’s wishes, Bonnie hopped on a bus to visit Clyde in prison. While visiting, Bonnie smuggled in a gun, and handed it to him under the table. That evening, Clyde and his cellmate busted out. The two men made their way to Illinois, stealing cars and robbing stores along the way. As a precaution, they frequently changed their license plates, but they were eventually captured by a passerby who memorized their plate number. Clyde and his cohort returned to the Texas jail.

     The court convicted Clyde and sentenced him to fourteen years hard labor at Eastham Prison Farm on the Texas plains. While in the labor camp, one of Clyde’s only pleasures was receiving mail. Since only family and spouses could communicate with the prisoners, he indicated that Bonnie Parker was his legal wife. She continued to express her love for him and sent encouragement. At the same time, unbeknownst to Clyde, his mother was able to work out a deal with the judge on his case, making him eligible for parole in two years if he exhibited good behavior. Unaware of his mother’s machinations, he devised a plan to have another worker “let the ax slip,” and chop off two of his toes. The attempt to get an earlier parole actually worked and he was released shortly after, in February 1932.

     Clyde and Bonnie began seeing each other again immediately following Clyde’s release and their love only grew more intense. Still bitter about the government’s role in the Depression, Clyde decided to put together a new team of thieves to take the money that he felt was rightly theirs, the gang becoming a Robin Hood group of sorts in the southern Dust Bowl. Not wanting to let Bonnie out of his sight, Clyde took her along with them on their first ride. This was the beginning of a crime spree that would spark her excitement for adventure and romance.

     On their first joy ride, they decided to rob the hardware store that sat directly across from the Kauffman town courthouse. Bonnie was giddy with excitement, until she heard the alarm. Not wanting Bonnie to be punished for her involvement, Clyde dumped her from the car and told her to catch a bus back to Dallas. Although she knew it was for her own good, she still felt left out from the group. Still in need of cash, Clyde and an accomplice decided to rob the local grocery store. The two men held the store owner and his wife at gunpoint and demanded their safe be opened. Sometime during the unlocking of the safe, a gun was fired and the grocery store owner fell dead to the ground. The men grabbed the money and fled. Unlike Clyde’s previous robberies, this one involved murder.

     Knowing he would need to begin running for the rest of his life, he admitted the story to his sister and went to visit Bonnie. He gave her the option of going or staying, as he didn’t want her implicated in his wrongdoings. Promising to stay by his side until the end, Bonnie left a message for her mother and joined Clyde on the road.

     For the next two years, Bonnie and Clyde drove and robbed across five states: Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Louisiana, and New Mexico. They usually stayed close to the border to aid their getaway, using the fact that police at that time could not cross state borders to follow a criminal. To help them avoid capture, Clyde would change cars frequently [by stealing a new one] and changed license plates regularly. Clyde also studied maps and had an uncanny knowledge of every back road. This aided them numerous times when escaping from a close encounter with the law.

    What the law did not realize [until W.D. Jones, a member of the Barrow Gang, told them once he was captured] was that Bonnie and Clyde made frequent trips back to Dallas, Texas to see their families. Bonnie had a very close relationship with her mother, whom she insisted on seeing every couple of months, no matter how much danger that put them in. Clyde also would visit frequently with his mother and with his favorite sister, Nell. Visits with their family nearly got them killed on several occasions [the police had set up ambushes].

     Though Bonnie and Clyde’s adventures with the Barrow Gang were numerous and elusive, they knew they were going to be caught eventually; it was only a matter of time. On May 6, they had one last visit with their families. Bonnie passed on a poem about their exploits which her mother published later in the papers. Noting the pattern of family visits from W.D.’s tip off, the police easily predicted their next destination. They discovered the couple’s car and followed them. Without warning, lead detective Hamer gave the “shoot” signal and the band of police let fly a barrage of bullets at the vehicle. It was all out slaughter, with 107 rounds fired, the couple taking about fifty bullets each. Once the firing stopped and the men approached, they found Clyde slumped forward, dead in his seat. The car door was open on Bonnie’s side and she slid out of the car, onto the ground.

     As Bonnie wrote in her most famous poem:

Some day they'll go down together; And they'll bury them side by side; To few it'll be grief To the law a relief But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.

BONNIE PARKER is CLOSED. CLYDE BARROW is CLOSED.

[giancarlonicoli]

70-hour weeks and 'WTF' emails: 42 employees reveal the frenzy of working at Tesla under the 'cult' of Elon Musk                                                                      

Julie Bort, Linette Lopez and Mark Matousek                                                                                                   

Business Insider spoke with 42 Tesla employees about what it's like to work at one of the world's most ambitious and controversial companies.

Their famous CEO, Elon Musk, is a visionary, but also unpredictably demanding, the employees said.

They talked about long hours and an intense work environment that some call "the Tesla life."

They described an attitude of worship that some employees have toward Musk, likening it to a "cult."

One weeknight in the spring of 2016, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, walked the floor of his car factory in Fremont, California. He was not alone.

On his arm was an attractive brunette wearing a dress and heels that clacked as they strolled across the gleaming white floors. Neither wore protective gear, such as a hard hat or glasses, as they toured the facility. A puzzled factory worker watched the pair enter a conference room where a romantic dinner for two complete with tablecloth awaited them.

The 5.3-million-square-foot Fremont factory, where Tesla builds its all-electric cars, is one of the world's most advanced automotive production facilities, employing about 10,000 people. It's also been the center of drama as Tesla struggles to meet demand for its vehicles.

But for Musk, Tesla is a personal kingdom where the boundaries of home and work are blurred and the method in the madness is never entirely clear.

"Elon basically does what he wants, whenever he wants," the person who witnessed the apparent date told Business Insider. (Tesla disputes this was a date and said this was primarily a business dinner that the person was invited to).

To some who work at Tesla, that's fine. Musk has a loyal following of employees who believe that if he asks them to do the impossible, they can do it. At 47, Musk has defied the skeptics and dragged electric cars into reality through the force of will, grit, and stubbornness. Those who work for Musk liken it to a drug.

"My favorite thing about the job is to take that thing that seemed impossible and blow it up," said Marco Batra, a six-year Tesla veteran and the global sales delivery operations manager.

Tesla employees also said they love the company's mission: making beautiful electric cars and solar products, healing the earth, and disrupting the old world along the way. It's a noble cause that inspires many to give it their all.                                                                                                                                

"This is the future," said Branton Phillips, a material handler for Tesla Production Control at the Fremont facility. "I like the whole image, what we're doing, the mission. We're making history."

It's exactly the type of hungry "startup culture" that larger, more established corporations are forever striving for.

And it might also be Tesla's biggest weakness. The scrappy, feel-good company, built in Musk's image, also bears many of his flaws — a place where long hours, chaos, callousness, and contradictions can grind workers down, many employees said.

In an effort to hit the lofty delivery goals set by Musk, Tesla has burned through a stunning trove of cash and materials— $3.4 billion in 2017 and another $1.05 billion in the first quarter of this year — while posting record losses. The rate of spending appears to be slowing, but many fear the company could still run out of money before the end of the year. Meanwhile, Musk has already backtracked and abandoned a highly public, and always a bit unlikely, attempt to change the company's finances by taking the company private, an idea he revealed in an ill-advised tweet.

Now, as pressure mounts, Musk's management style is under scrutiny, and a growing number of employees and investors are wondering whether it's time for the company to grow up.                                                                                                                                

Business Insider spoke with 42 Tesla employees to learn what it's like working for one of the world's most ambitious and controversial companies.

All the people we spoke with are either currently employed by Tesla or have been in the past year. They've held a variety of jobs, from entry level to managers, in engineering, production, and sales, at the Fremont headquarters and factory, the "Gigafactory" in Nevada and other locations. Some requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, while others were authorized by Tesla and spoke with us in unmonitored, private conversations.

Long hours, busy toilets

Jonathan Galescu, a welder who works on the Tesla Model X car, starts his shift at 5:50 p.m. and spends the next 10 to 12 hours fixing body problems on cars.

Tesla tests and fixes cars on the assembly line as they're being built. Galescu spends his shift walking — sometimes running — alongside the cars and welding as he goes, he said.

Galescu started at Tesla four years ago and has seen many idealists crash headfirst into the realities of working there.                                                                                                                                

"People quit within the first two hours, people quit after a week," Galescu said. "There was one guy who was fresh out of high school, 18 years old, never had a job before and was excited to work: 'I want to work seven days a week, 12 hours a day!' By about the fifth day, he was on the floor crying." The guy quit soon after.

Galescu is part of a group pushing to bring a union into Tesla. He sounds exhausted and more than a little fed up, exactly what you'd expect from someone who believes he's worked too many hours in unfair conditions.

Some 260 miles away, at Tesla's 4.9-million-square-foot Gigafactory, insiders describe a loud hive of activity.

Bathrooms at the facility — which employs over 2,400 people and could eventually house 10,000 — are scarce, often messy, and the lines to use them can be long, several employees told us.

Once, someone recounted, the men's bathroom was so busy that an employee put toilet paper down next to a clogged toilet and defecated right there.                                                                                                                                

Yet many employees quickly adapt to the giant facility. "Yeah, you don't try and use the bathroom 15 minutes before a shift changes," George Stewart, a battery production lead at the Gigafactory, said, laughing. He called the situation no big deal. "The lunch room feels like high school it's so crowded," he added.

The work is fast-paced and unpredictable. Making the numbers supersedes everything. Employees can be drafted without warning and put on an unfamiliar production line with a few minutes of training. During "burst builds" the production system is revved up to test whether it can perform at a certain rate.

The happiest Tesla employees, including Stewart, described themselves as workaholic types who want to work 70-plus hours a week.

"You get a bunch of passionate, competitive people in the room — it's almost like this self-inflicted, bar-raising behavior," Batra, the field manager, said. He puts in so many hours he's been known to sleep overnight at work.

And some hourly production workers said Tesla was an easier and more lucrative job than their alternatives.                                                                                                                                

"A lot of people say it's hard here, but I started out doing tile at minimum wage, carrying 50- to 60-pound boxes up a flight a stairs," Miguel Carrera, a manufacturing tech lead, said. He voluntarily works extra shifts to pull 70 hours a week in Tesla's outdoor makeshift Model 3 production area in Fremont. "This is nothing."

He went on: "Two years ago I was sleeping in a car. I've been here two years now, and I'm getting ready to buy a house. A lot of things have come together for me from this company, for me putting in the hours. To me, this is the best company ever."

But to really understand Tesla, you have to understand how employees feel about their larger-than-life leader.

The 'cult of Elon'

It's time for the quarterly all-hands meeting, and people are standing around nervously like groupies waiting for a glimpse of Musk, their famous CEO. As he walks to the front of the room, employees burst into vigorous applause.

"There's a big cult-like following for Elon," one software engineer said. "No company have I worked for, in our quarterly meetings, do you clap when a CEO walks into the podium. So that's just something that people do at Tesla."

Born and raised in South Africa, Musk came to the US during his college years and soon found success as one of the original members of the "PayPal mafia," the group of founders who created the electronic-payment system. In 2008, when electric cars were still considered an oddity for tree huggers, Musk produced the beautiful Roadster. Not only was it electric, it was fast. In 2012, Tesla made more waves with its Model S luxury sedan. And today, Tesla is challenging the industry with its mass-market Model 3.                                                                                                                                

His other job, as CEO of rocket company SpaceX, which ushered in the commercial space industry and aims to bring humans to Mars, helped catapult him to rock-star status worldwide.

At Tesla, Musk can be seen anywhere and everywhere — standing behind a production worker, peering at a robot, or dressed in protective garb in the clean room. Some of his admirers post themselves in special spots in the factory to catch a glimpse of him walking by with his senior staff in tow.

At 6-foot-2, with broad shoulders, Musk is an imposing man. "I ran into him a couple times. He's like this force field," a former internal communications employee said. "You could almost see the air parting."

Employees described him as everything from aloof and intimidating to friendly and emotional. His discussions are littered with f-bombs, and he's been known to give bear hugs to production workers when the company reaches a milestone.

Musk works so many hours in Tesla's 24/7 production world that virtually everyone has a story about finding him with pillow and blanket asleep somewhere — on the factory floor, under a desk, in a conference room. He recently said in an interview that he was so exhausted from this past year at Tesla that he sometimes uses the sleep aid Ambien.

Some people said they were afraid of Musk, adding that their bosses have warned them not to go near him or take his picture, though he has been known to graciously pose for selfies.                                                                                                                                

If you can convince Musk you have an idea that will benefit Tesla, he won't hesitate to make it happen, said one field manager, who told Business Insider that he's met with Musk on several occasions.

A human can do the job faster than a robot? The robot will vanish, said Juliese Batiste, a Model 3 production lead. When the ergonomics team wanted to demo wearable chairs that allow production workers to sit while working, Musk gave the nod, said Mike Kirschner, a senior ergonomics program manager.

But Musk is always 10 steps ahead, the field manager said, forcing you to think faster and bigger than you would otherwise.

That's the thing about Musk. He promises the impossible, and often pulls it off. He's taken two companies in capital-intensive industries with incredibly high barriers to entry — electric cars and space transportation — and turned them into viable businesses.

By demanding so much, Musk leads people to exceed their own expectations and create new ways of accomplishing tasks.                                                                                                                                

"We came up with stuff that, when we first thought of it on paper, it wasn't possible. And Elon's pushing does get you there," a mechanical engineer said.

A software engineer said: "Elon is an amazing visionary. He was so right about what five years or 10 years should look like and what is possible. He is super inspiring. He challenges people and pushes them to do things they don't think they can do and is really great in some ways."

But, people told us, there's a cost for pushing people so hard.

'The Tesla life'

Some employees call the work grind "the Tesla life," meaning you're expected to put your life on hold at crunch time, giving everything you've got to the company.

In fairness, that's not so different from the expectation at other Silicon Valley tech firms, from startups to the giants.

Yet, at Tesla, crunch time never seems to cease. "Elon tells you: 'This is what we're doing. We're launching this today or in two weeks.' If it comes from the CEO and he makes this public, you have to do it," a software engineer said.                                                                                                                                

The long, unpredictable hours affect every corner of Tesla's operations, from software and mechanical engineers to the folks in solar sales or on the production line.

At first there's a certain thrill to it. The goal is to create things that have never been done before.

"They are constantly introducing new ideas, new ways of doing things," one mechanical engineer said. "It's like a drug that you can't see yourself living without. You know it's sad, but you're enjoying it so much because you're being told you're changing the world and your contributions matter."

But Musk's deadlines can also seem random, even mean-spirited, to those tasked with achieving them.

"He'd order a project and we'd say, 'We need 10 weeks,' and he'd say, 'You get six.' And then two weeks later, 'We need it two weeks earlier than that,' so you end up with four, just to hit a number. It's an impossible workload. They're burning people out like crazy," the mechanical engineer said.                                                                                                                                

Tesla's work-life balance scored 2.6 out of 5, according to Glassdoor user reviews, far lower than other car companies. And the average employee tenure at Tesla is 2.1 years, which is at the low end compared to other tech companies such as Apple, where the average tenure is five years, according to data gathered by LinkedIn.

A fear of getting fired also permeates the atmosphere. Musk has been known on occasion to "fire people on the spot," one mechanical engineer said. A production-line worker spoke of a whole team that was dismissed. Then there were the June layoffs at Tesla that impacted solar-energy employees, who were called into a prework conference call and laid off en masse during the call.

"I had a running joke with a buddy of mine on my team," one solar salesperson said. "Every time we saw each other we would grin and say, 'Oh, what a surprise that I see you this time! I thought one of us would be fired by now."

'WTF' emails

Many employees said they believed Musk's heart was in the right place, but, as with other "geniuses of the world," he is "not the best leader," as one put it.                                                                                                                                

Others said that working at Tesla means subscribing to Musk's vision — without exception.

"You're not there to be creative. You're there to fulfill his mission," a software engineer said. "If you don't understand that and you're talking about your feelings, you're probably going to get fired."

A former VP who reported to him said, "He is terrible, terrible at execution and terrible at management. The entire management structure at Tesla is impotent and terrible. There are exceptions, but, on average, most managers at Tesla have no idea what they're doing."

For some people, Musk's "open inbox" policy, intended to show the CEO's receptiveness to feedback, is a prime example.

The CEO invites any employee, at any level, to write him directly with thoughts or concerns. A lot of employees said they love this.

"Tesla is open to communication lines to all levels of management," Cheryl Blackwell, a security manager for Tesla's Buffalo, New York, facility, said. "There is no chain of command. I never feel like I can't go to a person [with ideas]."

But some complained this system could do more harm than good. Another former executive claimed that Musk would forward employee emails to the VP in charge with a simple three-letter directive: "WTF." Panicked recipients would stop what they were doing and research the issue.

"It would cause huge scrambles, and you would spend days chasing down some issue that wasn't a real problem," this person said. "Giving people a license to email Elon created a bunch of problems with everyday work. There's a reason why the chain of command exists."

Fear of the tweet

If Musk's WTF emails can trigger a fire drill, it's nothing compared to his tweets.                                                                                                                                

With his outspoken personality and an itchy trigger finger, Musk routinely picks public fights and makes promises about all sorts of amazing new products, features, or milestones.

Sometimes his tweets land him and the company in serious trouble, such as the infamous "funding secured" tweet, which has led to an SEC investigation.

And much of the time, these public pronouncements are made before Tesla employees, including the people directly responsible for the tasks, have been informed. After a tweet, some employees look at each other, exasperated, and say, "Oh, so that's what we're doing now?"

For instance, in June Musk fired off several tweets boasting about the specs for an electric pickup. The level of detail Musk announced was a surprise to some insiders.                                                                                                                                

A manufacturing employee recalls another incident: "One of the guys I worked with was part of the calculations for car performance, and he'd come in the morning, just shake his head, and be, like, 'Did you see Elon's last tweet? He wants to add rockets to the car now.' Just shaking his head, like, you've got to be kidding me."

Sure enough, on June 5, during Tesla's annual shareholder meeting, Musk really did announce that Tesla's engineers would have to put rocket thrusters on the new version of the Roadster, set to hit the market in 2020. He also promised that some Model 3 customers would get their cars months faster than the official delivery time on Tesla's website.

Some employees defended Musk's tweet about going private, praising it as part of the CEO's commitment to transparency. But the unpredictability of Musk's comments on Twitter has caused some members of the company's board to urge him to refrain from tweeting, The New York Times has reported.

Read more: Some Tesla employees are disappointed that Elon Musk isn't taking the company private: 'We have so much external pressure'

When asked about Musk's management style, Tesla pointed to its mission. "What Tesla is doing is incredibly difficult, as evidenced by the fact that Ford is the only other US car company to never have gone bankrupt," a Tesla representative said.                                                                                                                                

To judge Musk's effectiveness, Tesla said to look at his history. He drafted a master plan in 2006 to build a sports car, use that money to build a more affordable car — the Model 3 — and offer zero-emission energy products.

The safety zone

Some workers say they're worried about more than just burnout because of Tesla's unconventional operations.

Tesla's factory safety record is one of its most controversial issues. In April, The Center for Investigative Reporting reported that Tesla's total injury rate was significantly higher than the industrywide rate in 2016, the latest year for which data was available.

Factories can be dangerous places, and Tesla said its record isn't perfect. But a representative said its past years' record no longer reflects the company.                                                                                                                                

"There should be absolutely no question that we care deeply about the well-being of our employees and that we try our absolute hardest to do the right thing and to fail less often," the representative said. "When it comes to safety, our record is on par with other automotive companies, and we improve with each passing month and will keep doing so until we have the safest factories in the world by far."

An engineer at the Gigafactory said he believed that Tesla's reputation for poor safety was more like a hangover from its earlier days, and said today the company has "put in safety systems."

Several other current employees told us the same. While injuries may happen, safety, particularly over the past year, has been a major emphasis, with workers getting constant reminders, training, and new procedures.

A software engineer said the engineering managers who work on the production lines are "conscientious people" who care deeply about the workers and are always looking for ways to improve the process.

For instance, the Model 3 production lines, the latest to be built, include fancy ergonomics adjustments. Employees can wear sensor suits that track their movements to minimize repetitive stress injuries. Workstations can be raised up or moved about to adjust to the worker, Crystal Spates, a Model 3 production manager, said.                                                                                                                                

The company has hired six athletic trainers to help workers who complain of aches and pains, showing them stretches, exercises, how to use athletic tape, and more, Kirschner said.

Still, some of the blue-collar workers we spoke with said they witnessed accidents in the years they worked there, or had accidents of their own, ranging from minor to serious. Phillips, who is among the employees pushing for a union, said in his four years at the company he has witnessed "one, two, three, four stretchers in the last couple of years come by me."

There's some evidence to back his claims. A report from the Fremont Police Department, received by Business Insider, showed more than 300 911 calls made from the Fremont facility between January 2016 and March 2018 involving a wide variety of alleged issues, such as intruders on the property and suicide threats.

Of those 300 calls, 11 involved claims of accidents and six involved claims of accidents with "no visible injury."

That compares to nine 911 calls during the same period — including claims of accidents and a trash fire — at General Motor's 1,200-employee, 4.3-million-square-foot factory in Lake Orion, Michigan, which manufacturers its electric competitor, the Chevy Bolt EV. These factories are not identical, so there may be many reasons the number of 911 calls differs between the two. (For details on the 911 calls, see the related graphic below.)

Several people said they believed one reason for Tesla's murky reputation is that it hires a lot of workers with no previous factory experience and trains them internally. We talked to factory workers with backgrounds from construction to home finance.

Employees said such a workforce helps Tesla think outside the box. But it has drawbacks.

"In general, every factory is a little dangerous, especially if you have a workforce not used to a manufacturing setting and you're getting people off the streets who may have been at McDonald's or Starbucks," Kirschner said. So Tesla drills them on safety procedures, he said.

If an incident happens, employees are instructed to call internal security and wait for someone to arrive. Security personnel administer first aid, if needed, or take the person to a company nurse. The nurse may call 911.                                                                                                                                

The disturbing part for Phillips is that "whatever is happening with them, believe it or not, the line continues."

Although Tesla's production line always stops in order to remove the person from harm's way and call for medical attention, the line does return to business. In other industrial settings, if the accident is serious enough, workers who see the incident could be sent home, Phillips asserts. "Because nobody can keep their mind on their work when they've seen something terrible happen to somebody," he said.

911 calls made to Tesla's Fremont factory versus GM's Lake Orion factory

Time to grow up?

While Tesla's happiest employees love the company like a second family, not everyone feels that way. Tesla is facing several lawsuits from employees alleging safety violations, harassment, and more. Tesla denies the validity of the lawsuits, making counter allegations against the people suing and the circumstances cited in their suits.

Meanwhile, two Gigafactory employees are attempting to register as official whistleblowers with the SEC, one of whom Tesla is suing on claims of hacking. And some employees, like Galescu and Phillips, are trying to unionize.                                                                                                                                

If things don't go Tesla's way, it could find itself mandated by courts or outside influences to make all sorts of changes.

Those who have worked closely with Musk said that the company doesn't have to be battered that way. The solution may be simpler: Have Musk remain as the visionary strategist but assign day-to-day operations to a capable, empowered COO, much like SpaceX has in Gwynne Shotwell.

"SpaceX had Gwyn — Tesla never had a COO," a former VP said. Musk "was never able to relinquish control." So he has been doing what he's famous for doing: "He micromanaged."

Finding a COO that could do the job without running afoul of Musk and getting fired can't happen unless Musk himself sees the light.

Just as with other companies Musk has founded, Tesla's board is stacked with Musk loyalists, including his brother, Kimbal Musk; longtime friend and financial backer and VC Steve Jurvetson; and early Tesla investor Antonio Gracias. Tesla said the latter two and the rest of the board qualify as independent directors, according to NASDAQ rules. But both of them have also invested in other Musk companies, such as SpaceX and SolarCity.

After the "funding secured" tweet fiasco, the board may have become more motivated to find a qualified No. 2, whether Musk is on board or not, sources told The New York Times.                                                                                                                                

As one mechanical engineer said of Musk and Tesla, "I respect the guy [but] I think the best thing that he could do is step away from the CEO position and be the innovator. But he still thinks of it as a startup."

And with 40,000 employees, it isn't. "I'm sorry — it's got to mature," the engineer added. "It's got to be a company."

For those giving their all for the mission, they say the work, sweat, and tears are worth it.

"Tesla is doing things that not a lot of people are doing. We're taking on challenges because we want to accelerate the world into sustainable energy," Jennifer Lew, a robotics engineering manager in Fremont, said. "If you are thinking about joining Tesla and are prepared for the intense work, I can say it's been a really good experience. All the challenges of ramping up these production lines? I couldn't have done that somewhere else."

Are you an insider with a story to tell about Tesla? We want to hear it. Contact us at llopez@businessinsider.com, jbort@businessinsider.com.

[blogwhatthef-blog]

MYSTERIOUS MURDER(S): CHARLES C. MORGAN

Researching and writing this reminded me of why I absolutely love investigative blogging. This mystery started in March of 1977 and by the time we get to the end three people will be dead, a family left shattered and confused, and a reporter that followed the story of a lifetime will have a hit on his own life! In Tucson, AZ Charles C. Morgan went by the name “Chuckie” to his friends, family, and business associates. He owned an escrow company and lived the average normal life with his wife and four daughters.

Except…on March 22, 1977 Chuckie vanished after carrying two of his daughters to school. He finally stumbled back into his home in the middle of the night three nights later.

He claimed he couldn’t speak but wrote his wife (Ruth) a crazy unbelievable message claiming that somebody “painted his throat with a hallucinogenic drug.“ He wrote to her a message of torture, threats, and fear.

According to his wife, he was missing a shoe, had a plastic handcuff around one ankle, and had his hands tied together with a plastic zip tie. He asked her to move his car because he didn’t want “them” to know he had returned home. However, he would never tell her who “they” were. He also told his wife to not call the police and to not call for an ambulance.

Over the next two weeks Ruth nursed him back to health. She fed him with a dropper til he was able to talk again. He never spoke about the kidnapping except to drop hints that he was a “spy for the Treasury Department” and his life was in danger because of his statements against criminals.

After the kidnapping he became extremely paranoid. He only allowed himself to drive his daughters to and from school, and spoke with the school demanding nobody ever be allowed to pick them up.

Two months after the first disappearance Charles went missing yet again. During the days he was missing, before his body was found, his wife Ruth received an anonymous phone call. The woman on the line referred to herself as “Green Eyes”. “Green eyes” said nothing to Ruth except “Ecclesiastes 12:1-8,” the same citation her husband would later be found with - hiding in his underpants. Nobody has ever figured out the meaning of this depressing bible verse. It has never brought meaning to his murder, has never identified his killer, and only leaves more questions.

https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Eccles%2012.1-8

Remember your Creator

in the days of your youth,

before the days of trouble come

and the years approach when you will say,

“I find no pleasure in them”—

2 before the sun and the light

and the moon and the stars grow dark,

and the clouds return after the rain;

3 when the keepers of the house tremble,

and the strong men stoop,

when the grinders cease because they are few,

and those looking through the windows grow dim;

4 when the doors to the street are closed

and the sound of grinding fades;

when people rise up at the sound of birds,

but all their songs grow faint;

5 when people are afraid of heights

and of dangers in the streets;

when the almond tree blossoms

and the grasshopper drags itself along

and desire no longer is stirred.

Then people go to their eternal home

and mourners go about the streets.

6 Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,

and the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

and the wheel broken at the well,

7 and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

8 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

“Everything is meaningless!”

This time he was found 11 days after his disappearance, outside of his new Mercury Cougar, in the middle of the Arizona desert, 40 miles west of Tuscon.  It was ruled a suicide even though the kill shot entered the back of his head. He had been shot with his own .357 magnum revolver. There were no fingerprints on the gun. Inside the car there was a cache of weapons and ammunition. His NEW mercury cougar had also been altered so that the doors could be locked and unlocked from the fender (remember…this was 1977! Also…if a reader knows WHY a person would do this kind of alteration please comment and let me know. I don’t understand what the point of locking and unlocking from your fender would be!?)

He was wearing a bulletproof vest at the time of death, was found with a pair of sunglasses that did not belong to him, had one of his own teeth in his pocket wrapped in a handkerchief, and had a $2 bill stuffed in his underwear, which was annotated with seven Spanish names and a Bible citation – Ecclesiastes 12:1-8. On the opposite side of the $2 Bill there was a drawing of a map. It was a map of Robles Junction and Sasabe, both are well known areas for smuggling and criminal activity.

https://biblia.com/bible/niv/Eccles%2012.1-8

After his first kidnapping Charles had told his father that if anything ever happened to him he had hidden a letter that would explain everything, and would name names. This letter was never found.

After his death, authorities discovered he had been hiding out in a west-area motel for the previous several days. An “acquaintance” told police he was trying to come up with enough cash to pay off a hit on his life. Another “acquaintance” who later admitted to being the mysterious caller “Green eyes” stated that the last time she had seen Charles alive he had had a briefcase filled with $60,000 in cash. “Green eyes” said that Charles had hoped to buy off the hit on his life. The informant gave enough personal details that the police were pretty confident she was telling the truth, at least as far as having known Morgan socially. Unfortunately, that was the last that anyone ever heard of Green Eyes, and the case went completely cold. Some people theorize that Morgan’s escrow company was a front for money laundering, and the whole thing went south. Or, maybe he really was a secret agent for the government. Or, there’s some third, even weirder explanation we haven’t guessed. I believe that would be reasonable since this case was so strange from the start, and had so many twists and turns that nobody could’ve seen coming.

Three weeks after his death two FBI agents showed up at his home demanding to search it. They tore the house apart. Its unknown what they were looking for or what things they had taken. A reporter, Don Devereux, that advocated for the family from the beginning contacted the FBI about the search and they deny ever sending agents to search the home. 

Ruth Morgan passed away in 2006. Ruth always maintained that her husband was murdered and that it was covered up by corrupt government officials and a corrupt police department. His four daughters also took on the fight for justice. They state that their father was murdered and would like to see justice brought to the person/persons responsible.

HUGE TWIST TO THE STORY: (This part gets a little confusing. While researching I had to re-read articles a few times to make sure I had the information correct and make sure I kept the case straight and accurate.) Here it goes… Don Devereux was a journalist that from the very beginning got sucked into the Charles C. Morgan case. He found it odd that Charles’ death was ruled a suicide when too kill himself, Charles would have had to have had stretch Armstrong arms! It was just crazy and implausible to think a man drove out into the desert, wore a bullet-proof vest, just to get out of his car stretch his arm behind his head/back, and shoot himself in the center of the back of his head, also leave NO fingerprints, and somehow hide the gloves he must’ve been wearing (since he left no prints) before he immediately dropped dead! Devereux investigated the case that police wanted no part of, he talked to people the cops wouldn’t make time for, and he spoke out and advocated for the Morgan family when no one else would. He kept the story in the media for decades.

During Devereux’s investigation he found evidence of Charles Morgan’s money laundering through his escrow company. Charles was also involved in gold and platinum transactions out of South Asia. Devereux also found that Charles kept duplicate records of all illegal transactions. Devereux theorized that whomever Charles was involved with found out about his shady record keeping, and wanted Charles taken out. (I haven’t found proof in my research but I’ve seen several reports that Charles did a lot of illegal business with some high ranking politicians and some extremely wealthy “business men,” and when I say “business men” I mean, wealthy mob bosses.)

On May 14, 1990 Doug Johnston left for his night shift job at a computer graphics company in Phoenix, AZ. An hour later he was found murdered in his company parking lot. Again…cops tried to rule it as a suicide. Doug had one shot to his head behind his left ear. Though the placement was better for a suicide ruling than Charles Morgan’s shot to the head, evidence was still on Doug’s side. There was no gun at the scene, no gun powder residue on his hands, and he was right-handed which made the shot to the left side of his head strange and awkward. In the end it was ruled a homicide. (At the time of Doug Johnston’s murder it was believed to be just a random, wrong place/wrong time murder, but within the next year events would play out to prove otherwise.)

In 1991 Don Devereux was contacted by Danny Casolaro, a writer from Washington D.C. regarding the evidence Devereux had about Charles’ money laundering. Devereux agreed to share all of the evidence he had uncovered. Before Devereux could mail it out, Dan Casolaro was found in a hotel bathroom. His wrists had been slashed. Yet again….a death was ruled suicide. Devereux knows it was murder, and Casolaro’s brother believes it was murder. Dan Casolaro’s brother stated that Danny was extremely squeamish around blood. He said IF his brother was going to commit suicide slashing his wrists would NOT have been the method used.

Six months after Casolaro’s death Devereux learned that there had been a hit placed on him. He learned that Doug Johnston’s murder in 1990 was a case of mistaken identity, and was meant for him.

Though names have not been released, a CIA officer, and an informant for Israeli Intelligence have confirmed the hit for Don Devereux’s life.

Charles Morgan, Doug Johnston, and Dan Casolaro’s murders have never been solved.

SOURCES:

http://tucson.com/news/local/crime/cold-case-strange-evidence-found-in-on-near-man-s/article_e84a1034-c078-5a43-81a1-e602f52eda02.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/4m3sq3/the_unbelievably_bizarre_case_of_charles_chuck/

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Charles_Morgan

http://thesop.org/story/20140407/an-unsolved-mysteries-episode-charles-morgan-throws-you-down-a-spooky-rabbit-hole-with-zero-bottom.html

https://unsolved.com/gallery/chuck-morgan/

http://unsolvedmysteries.wikia.com/wiki/Doug_Johnston

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[leonorduby594-blog]

These 12 Awesome Schools Might Change The Means You Think of Community Education.

The surge in brand-new social networking sites combined with electronic photography has created a requirement among institutions to control. Putting in is actually more of a painting in comparison to a science the moment you understand the basics. This makes that an energetic interaction in between both the treatment provider and the youngster leading to a quicker feedback and the little one is most likely to obtain their demands fulfilled rapidly as well as precisely. This is the 2nd most costly component of obtaining your little ones into sports program. As well as Minor's Advise establishes who may declare particular privileges that belong to the youngster. If you don't have class, talk to each educator to make it possible for voting during a particular time period in the college day. In very early 2007, a southern Auckland Religious university was actually found to be using this loophole to discipline trainees by gross discipline, by helping make the student's moms and dads carry out the penalty. John Elliot, an English policeman explored this school and was actually encouraged by that and began a college for Girls at Kolkata in 1849. It s an obligation that might be mind-boggling, considering the minimal hours on call in a college day, the lot of youngsters in the class, and also the range of backgrounds as well as individualities each kid stands for. Intermediate school costs around $12,000 a year while high school trainees spend around $13,000 a year to participate in. Instructing little ones to adhere to paths in early childhood years creates the shift to institution a lot easier. Now, some senior high schools factor in club subscription, athletics, as well as various other school engagement as well. Forty-seven parents of fifth-grade trainees at some public grade school and 60 parents from 6th at the acquiring secondary school in the Southeastern United States joined the research study (around FIFTY% of all parents).

If you confine on your own to the options provided to you by individuals that one performed one of those pair of points - acquire a job or even get back to college - after that you obviously may not be visiting recognize that. Some such colleges show religious education and learning, in addition to the usual academic based on impress their particular belief's opinions as well as heritages in the students who join. Youtube is a very easy internet site to make use of that possesses video clips all set to view at the click from a switch. Be someone that folks can easily ask for insight, or even just tirade to. KEEP http://kauf-Wert.de/ THEIR KEYS, AND ALSO IF YOU ARE BATTLING- DO NOT, as well as I REDO DO NOT TELL THE UNIVERSITY THEIR SECRETS! I answered pleasantly that my right to a French medical college education had actually been actually developed due to the Napoleonic Code, and also was actually ensured by simple fact I talked French. Authorizers also prepare to look very closely at possible admittances barriers at the Preuss Institution at the University from California, San Diego. Your job interview Tell them you enjoyed your old-fashioned but yearn for whatever this is you want. I additionally possess this persisting hope for returning to senior high school at my existing age and also being dropped somehow. Grade school professionals may establish a social training planning that educates little ones on the usefulness of structure long-term friendships as well as complying with rules.

[soulcrazy2017-blog]

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi faces in addition round of flogging, supporters say

New Post has been published on https://soulcrazy.org/saudi-blogger-raif-badawi-faces-in-addition-round-of-flogging-supporters-say/

Saudi blogger Raif Badawi faces in addition round of flogging, supporters say

Raif Badawi, the imprisoned Saudi blogger whose public flogging in 2015 generated global outcry, now dangers a brand new round of lashes, in line with his supporters.

blogger

Evelyne Abitbol, who founded the Raif Badawi Foundation with Badawi’s wife, stated a “dependable source” in Saudi Arabia claims he faces a new flogging after being sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and 1,000 lashes in 2014 for breaking the dominion’s generation legal guidelines and insulting Islam.

Saudi embassy officials in Ottawa and Saudi government officials in Riyadh were not right now available for remark.

Reuters become not able to independently verify the supply’s claims. Abitbol declined to call the supply, however, said it turned into the same man or woman who had alerted Badawi’s spouse, Ensaf Haidar, in 2015 earlier than he obtained his first 50 lashes, the handiest part of the flogging that changed into reportedly administered.

The supply did now not indicate while the flogging might take place.

“Sadly, it can manifest at any time, if it happens,” Abitbol said by means of phone in Montreal.

Abitbol stated that Haidar has requested countries with ties to Saudi Arabia, consisting of the Canadian government, to intrude on the blogger’s behalf.

Haidar, who is in Germany to offer a journalism award on Wednesday in her husband’s call, couldn’t be immediately reached for comment. She became granted asylum in Canada, wherein she lives with the couple’s three children inside the province of Quebec.

Abitbol, the inspiration’s director, needs Saudi Arabia to withdraw the flogging punishment, strip Badawi of his Saudi citizenship and allow him go away the u . S . for Canada.

In December 2015, Badawi changed into awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Concept by the european Parliament. Karl Andree, the British pensioner who was to be publicly flogged in Saudi Arabia for alcohol ownership, says he is looking forward to rebuilding his lifestyles after returning to the United Kingdom.

Saudi

The 74-12 months-old flew returned on Tuesday to be reunited together with his family, who had launched a marketing campaign for his release on compassionate grounds as his spouse Verity is the demise of Alzheimer’s and is in Britain receiving care.

“I am clearly humbled and could by no means forget the affection and aid of such a lot of humans in getting me home,” he instructed ITV News.

In an interview with the Solar, he said his supporters had “saved my life” and brought: “I am overwhelmed by the guide and am thankful to high minister David Cameron and the authorities for stepping in.”

Information about his launch became introduced by way of the Foreign Office.

“Karl Andree changed into released from prison hours after my visit to Riyadh on 28 October,” Philip Hammond, the Overseas secretary, stated in a declaration on Wednesday. “I’m thrilled that he has again domestic to be reunited along with his family, bringing to an end a very tough time for him and his circle of relatives.”

Andree, seventy four, have been in jail considering the fact that his arrest in Jeddah in August 2014 after bottles of home-brewed wine had been reportedly discovered in his vehicle. He changed into sentenced to 350 lashes.

Cameron intervened individually after the own family went public along with his case. Andree’s youngsters had pressed the high minister to do greater to help their father, an oil executive who had suffered from cancer. After his launch became introduced ultimate month, his family attributed Saudi Arabia’s choice to relent to severe media exposure in Britain.In his declaration, Hammond said the outcome turned into testimony to the energy of the United Kingdom’s relations with Riyadh.

“I’m grateful to the Saudi Arabian government for his or her efforts in ensuring this favorable final results, following our discussions throughout my visit. It’s thru the energy and breadth of the connection among our nations that we were in a position to conquer a hard trouble like this.”

The Andree case got here as relations among the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia were going through a rocky patch after the United Kingdom cancelled a settlement to offer schooling to its prisons. Michael Gove, the justice secretary, gave no purpose for the decision, but there has been a marketing campaign towards the programme specializing in Saudi Arabia’s document on human rights.

Andree, who has seven grandchildren, labored as an oil govt in Saudi Arabia for 25 years and has had most cancers three instances. Extra than 230,000 humans signed an internet petition calling for the great minister to interfere to stop Andree from receiving the lashings.

His own family has said he could go through immediate tests for cancer when he lower back to the UK.

Simon Andree, his son, stated: “To start with he desires to test to look what kingdom his cancer is in – whether or not he’s nonetheless in remission or whether something else has happened – so on the way to be one of the first things to happen.”

3 of his grandchildren, Lucy, 12, Celia, 10, and Edward, 9, additionally appealed to Cameron in a video message, wherein they said their grandfather was a “actually antique man” and “no human deserves to be treated like this”.

Human rights organizations have welcomed Andree’s release but have called on the United Kingdom to push Saudi Arabia more difficult on instances inclusive of that of the blogger Raif Badawi, whose flogging for insulting Islam is due to resume soon, in step with his wife, despite him reportedly nearly demise after receiving the primary 50 lashes.

flogging

Saudi Arabia is absolutely fighting proxy wars within the Middle East (Allies rally to Johnson over Saudi gaffe, 9 December), as well as promoting its form of Islam in many nations around the arena. but it is not only for their oil and for his or her beneficial custom, for as long as they can pay, that we court Saudi Arabia. We were friendly with the Shah of Persia and promoting him aircraft handiest weeks earlier than he fled his us of a. The west found itself needing the steadiness the Saudi regime affords inside the region.

but it is able to now be anticipated that all of this can stop – perhaps quickly – and that things will become catastrophically worse inside the region. Saudi Arabia is going for walks out of money and, despite protestations and efforts to save you it, the momentum in the direction of bankruptcy appears unstoppable. Saudi’s cash waft is depleted with the aid of reasonable oil expenses and by using steadily lowering demand for oil from that location. If the House of Saud all of sudden falls, as did the Shah, non secular revolutionaries of many sun shades will clash for electricity and seize the u . S . A .’s huge inventory of armaments. Customer states can be left penniless and uncovered. Richard Wilson Oxford

• when people sell fingers at the worldwide market it is known as gun-walking; while our government sells hands it’s miles known as “protecting jobs”, or “supporting our allies”. Britain is the second largest arms dealer within the international, with maximum of the guns fuelling conflicts within the Center East. We sell fingers to international locations accused of warfare crimes and to international locations that the Foreign Office lists as having doubtful human rights records. We exported $1.7bn of palms to Saudi Arabia last yr and there is an order backlog over the following decade presently really worth $nine.2bn. Areas of north Yemen are being bombed by means of Saudi conflict planes. Is this what United kingdom residents wish their authorities to be spending its energies and resources on? Jim McCluskey Twickenham, Middlesex

• I have simply watched Michael Fallon shield British support for Saudi Arabia in Yemen through pronouncing that country has a right to attempt to restore the reputable authorities in that country and defeat the Houthi rebels who are “allied to al-Qaida”. Ought to every person provide an explanation for how that is any exclusive from Russian actions in Syria, which try and restore the legit government and defeat the Islamist rebels. In each cases civilians are being slaughtered and battle crimes dedicated. Is each person else bored stiff with those double requirements?

There was a spat final night time on Twitter. Not anything new in that – spats on twitter are as ubiquitous as bones in herring. This one, however, stuck in my craw like one of these errant bones. It worries a young man called James Isherwood. From the fuss he is brought on, you would possibly suppose James is the chief restaurant critic of the New york Times, chairman of the Guild of Meals Writers and has written four award triumphing cookbooks. His opinion includes quite a few weight.

Besides he is no longer. And it would not.

James is a very average creator of a completely common blog. He enjoys interacting with the “big beasts” of the chef global, continually, I believe, looking for crumbs from their powerful tables. His blog is as an alternative sweetly referred to as “Dining with James” and if you read it all (there are best 12 posts), you will locate the meanderings of an beginner Meals author, running a blog approximately his dinner. There isn’t tons aptitude, élan or technical expertise on display but neither is there in most of the cooks on this u . S ..

James has a hundred and some thing fans on Twitter and till closing night, I would bet his blog attracted stats in the single figures. He’s at worst a wannabe: naive, ultimately harmless. There’s certainly nobody within the international that would cancel a eating place booking on the recommendation of James.

James had dinner at Hibiscus, stomping ground of the notable Claude Bosi – holder of two Michelin stars, technical genius and at the forefront of British and indeed global delicacies. A bear of a person with glowing evaluations, the honour of his peers and on the pinnacle of his sport.

Lamentably Bosi has now shown himself to be an insecure mess of a person and a bully. Wee James had the temerity to “award” Hibiscus three stars out of five on Tripadvisor and say that he did not like his starter. Monsieur Bosi took exception to this and offered the following recommendation: