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disneytva · 4 years ago

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January 2021 Programming Highlights

Friday, Jan. 1

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Junior

Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures “There Goes Our Fun!/Don’t Wake the Baby!”

(8:30-9:00 a.m. EST)

“There Goes Our Fun!” – Mickey invites everyone to join him for Mickey Day at the amusement park.

“Don’t Wake the Baby!” – The Happy Helpers babysit the Matisses’ new baby boy, Ollie.

TV-Y

Friday, Jan. 8

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Junior

Mira, Royal Detective “The Case of the Missing Library Book/A Double Dosa Mystery”

(7:30-8:00 p.m. EST)

“The Case of the Missing Library Book” – Mira must find the missing library book that everyone wants to read.

“A Double Dosa Mystery” – When Sandeep’s dosa goes missing, Mira goes on a stakeout to discover who took it.

TV-Y

Friday, Jan. 15

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Puppy Dog Pals “New Year, New Bob/All for Show”

(10:30-11:00 a.m. EST)

“New Year, New Bob” – While in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year, Bob’s homemade lantern for the Lantern Festival accidentally floats out his hotel window.

“All for Show” – Lollie is eager to win the top prize in the local dog show, so Bingo and Rolly go on a mission to help her complete her obstacle course training.

TV-Y

Saturday, Jan. 16

Original Series – Tentpole Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Chipocalypse Now”

(9:00-9:30 a.m. EST)

Chip Whistler tears down the buildings around the Greens’ house to build a new Wholesome Foods store.

*Paul Scheer (“Star Trek: Lower Decks “) and Andy Richter (“Conan”) guest star as Chip Whistler and Mayor Hansock, respectively.

TV-Y7

Friday, Jan. 22

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Junior

Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures “Donald’s Dilemma/The Royal-ympics!”

(6:00-6:30 p.m. EST)

“Donald’s Dilemma” – Donald’s day of doing chores is derailed when his Uncle Manny pays him a surprise visit.

*Richard Kind (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) guest stars as Uncle Manny.

“The Royal-ympics!” – Princess Olivia of Royalandia asks the Happy Helpers for help with the Royal-ympics.

*Madison Pettis (“Five Points”) guest stars as Princess Olivia.

TV-Y

Saturday, Jan. 23

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “‘Rent Control/Pool’s Gold”

(9:00-9:30 a.m. EST)

“‘Rent Control” – When Gloria’s parents visit, she ropes the Greens into escalating lies about her success.

*Amy Hill (“Magnum P.I.”) and Keone Young (“Star Wars Rebels”) guest star as Mr. and Mrs. Sato.

“Pool’s Gold” – Cricket goes on a quest to find the best pool in Big City.

TV-Y7

Friday, Jan. 29

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Puppy Dog Pals “My Bobby Valentine/Musical Mission Mishap”

(10:30-11:00 a.m. EST)

“My Bobby Valentine” – Ana is excited to give Bob his favorite candy for Valentine’s Day, but when every store is sold out, Bingo and Rolly must track down the special holiday treat.

“Musical Mission Mishap” – Bob surprises Ana by winning a walk-on role in “Pups: The Musical!”

TV-Y

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Junior

Mira, Royal Detective “Mira’s Birthday Mystery/The Great Art Mystery”

(7:30-8:00 p.m. EST)

“Mira’s Birthday Mystery” – On Mira’s birthday, Queen Shanti asks her to solve a strange mystery.

“The Great Art Mystery” – When an anonymous painting appears, Mira searches for the artist so it can be entered in Priya’s art show.

*Brian George (“The Big Bang Theory”) guest stars as the art shop owner, Mr. Burman.

TV-Y

Saturday, Jan. 30

Original Series – Episode Premiere on Disney Channel

Big City Greens “Big Resolution/Winter Greens”

(9:00-9:30 a.m. EST)

“Big Resolution” – On New Year’s Eve, Cricket insists on helping Gloria complete her resolution of approaching her longtime crush, Kevin.

*Booboo Stewart (“Descendants” franchise) guest stars as Kevin.

“Winter Greens” – Cricket and Remy challenge Vasquez to a snowball fight, while Tilly creates a snowperson.

TV-Y7

#Big City Greens #BCG #Mira Royal Detective #MRD #Puppy Dog Pals #Puppy Dog Tails #Mickey Mouse Mixed Up Adventures #Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures #Disney Junior #Disney Jr #Disney Channel

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misterramen · 5 years ago

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10 questions

tagged by the wonderful @felix-the-sixth, these questions looks like real fun

1. Which countrys culture/aesthetic do you enjoy the most.

I actually really enjoy Turkey’s easter Roman empire period stuff, but also later Islamic aesthetics too. I just like geometric patterns lmao 2. Do you prefer being hot or cold, and does it affect your food choices?

DEFINITELY COLD, and hot pot during winter is the best, not that I dont eat hot pot n suffer in the summer 3. Whats your favorite trinket to find laying on a street or in a forest to take it home?

mmmmm, sorry I dont have a habit of picking up trinkets... but maybe mushrooms if I do go to a forest 4. What were your top 5 cartoons back when you were a kid?

Bruh...I went to a Chinese boarding school for primary school, which means no cartoons growing up... I know sucks to be me... 5. Whats your favorite flower?

Jasmine, the smell is just so nice 6. Do you have a favorite plush toy? Post pics!

I do have a pusheen collection 7. Do you collect anything?

KIDS’ TEARS, jkjk. I collect pusheens and different brands of brush pens and sketchbooks but I dont draw traditionally that much these days. 8. Whats your top 3 songs that make you feel happy?

Busy earning--Jungle, Your Love--glass Animals, Tightrope--Young the Giant 9. Whats your favorite beverage?

recently it’s the white tea flavored monster 10. If given a chance, would you move to a different planet or would you stay home on Earth?

Probably different planet, life is about exploring exciting new things!!!

Now I gotta come up with my own questions??????????

1.Who’s your favorite artist, who influenced you the most?

2. What’s your fav book

3.favorite hour of the day?

4. What’s your dream job? are you working towards it?

5. top 3 fictional characters? XD

6. favorite video game/ movie franchise?

7. something you learnt the hard way?

8. your proudest of your collection of stuff?

9. if you can choose a fictional universe to live in, which one?

10. a favorite quote? im running outta questions...

@bloody-fists-beating-hearts @yesjejunus @socksual-innuendos @merrowench @dangernoodleofhell @baidurii @nukasoda @nukashine @tarberrymentats annnnnnd @vaulties

_(´ཀ`」 ∠)_ had to type so much geez

#got tagged yay

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tabloidtoc · 4 years ago

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National Enquirer, September 28

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Jeffrey Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell’s secret husband unmasked

Page 2: Royal renegades Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle have turned their backs on the U.K. forever by paying back $3.1 million borrowed from British taxpayers to renovate Frogmore Cottage because Harry always felt the weight of the public loan and he’s paid it back in full as one of the last stages in divorcing himself from the royal family and the U.K. itself -- the California-based couple who recently bought a $15 million mansion in Montecito also claimed they will no longer take handout from Harry’s dad Prince Charles after signing a Netflix deal said to be worth as much as $150 million

Page 3: Slimmed-down Jessica Simpson has told chubby hubby Eric Johnson to shape up or ship out -- she’s been laser-focused on healthy dieting and exercise since giving birth to daughter Birdie Mae 18 months ago but her flabby ex-football star spouse has been piling on the pounds

Page 4: Angelina Jolie has shrunk to a skeletal 99 pounds after launching a hunger strike to force hated ex Brad Pitt to cave to her child custody demands but friends and medical experts fear the star may be killing herself in the process -- Angie’s surviving on handfuls of grains and nuts and avoiding full meals and she’s banking on Brad cratering when he sees her in such a sorry state and giving her anything she wants, sober and svelte Kelly Osbourne is on a mission to find a man

Page 5: Demi Moore is drooling over love rat Justin Hartley’s Instagram posts and she’s got it bad for the lothario -- she’s had it bad for him ever since they filmed a funny skit together on The Tonight Show last year -- Demi has not had a serious romance since her catastrophic breakup in 2013 with Ashton Kutcher but she’s coming out of her shell after swearing off dating and now she wants to have some fun and she’s zeroed in on Justin

Page 6: Katie Holmes has given up on Hollywood hunks and found romance with a Big Apple chef -- she was snapped getting hot and heavy with Emilio Vitolo Jr. and the single mom is hungry for love with a man more focused on her than stardom

Page 7: Sharon Osbourne chased Marie Osmond off The Talk -- Marie thought the show would be fun and just a bunch of girls gabbing about their lives and whatnot but she found out that was totally naive because Sharon disliked her from the start and Marie felt Sharon was jealous of her and thought she didn’t belong and there was a definite rift between them and an undercurrent of bitchiness that everyone noticed

Page 8: Big-ideas guy Chip Gaines is clashing with wife Joanna Gaines over money as he wants to expand their empire but she wants to slow things down, Hollywood Hookups -- Jay Cutler and Tomi Lahren dating, Kathie Lee Gifford’s son Cody Gifford wed Erika Brown, Lily Allen and David Harbour wed

Page 9: Scandal-scarred Kevin Spacey has been accused of trying to sexually assault two 14-year-old boys during the 1980s in an explosive new lawsuit filed in New York -- one accuser has not been named but the second accuser in the lawsuit is Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp

Page 10: Hot Shots -- Brian Austin Green stocks up at a supermarket in L.A., Gerard Butler hopped about his motorcycle after having dinner in Malibu, Olivia Wilde at the beach in Malibu, Anne Heche stepped out in L.A.

Page 11: Martial-arts movie master Jackie Chan got his butt kicked by Chinese officials out into the streets of Beijing when they seized two side-by-side luxury apartments in Beijing where the Hong Kong-born karate king’s family lived and put them up for auction in an ownership dispute but Jackie is fighting back by filing a lawsuit to reclaim his property which he bought estimated to be worth $5 million at a massively discounted $2 million in 2007 after doing promotional work for the owners, Oscar-winning vegan Joaquin Phoenix hopes to whip up a career as TV’s next top chef -- he loves to experiment at the stove adding different spices to traditional dishes but those who have sampled his stuff have confessed he’s not that good -- despite his kitchen limitations he has no plans to ditch acting but he wants to go all in on trying to become a YouTube or Food Network personality

Page 12: Straight Shuter -- Alessandra Ambrosio played volleyball in Santa Monica (picture), new Dancing with the Stars host Tyra Banks has kicked former frontman Tom Bergeron from the ballroom blocking a final farewell appearance after 15 years on the show and now Tom’s responded by giving tyrant Tyra some lip by openly mocking her bizarre new promotional video where her kisser was enhanced to mimic the show’s mirror ball trophy, it’s bye-bye booze on The Real Housewives franchise because seeing older white privileged women getting drunk and fighting isn’t fun anymore and it’s put a lot of viewers off and Bravo execs believe it’s one reason the ratings have tanked so now there will be less booze available during tapings, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani are clashing over politics among other things -- Gwen hosted an Obama fundraiser at her house in Beverly Hills while Blake is much more conservative and they’re struggling to find common ground and the weeks leading up to the election could rip these two apart

Page 13: Keeping Up with the Kardashians is ending its 14-year run because the famous family members can’t stand each other anymore

Page 14: Crime

Page 15: Broken-hearted Priscilla Presley is on the verge of an emotional breakdown and dealing with daughter Lisa Marie Presley’s past struggles with addiction and ongoing divorce with Michael Lockwood and the recent tragic suicide of her only grandson Benjamin Keough have taken a devastating toll on the 75-year-old along with the impact of the global pandemic and the country’s social unrest -- she locks herself in her room and cries uncontrollably for hours at a time and has had trouble keeping up with her daily routines -- she’s selling her Beverly Hills home and moving back to Graceland but the walls outside the estate are covered in graffiti with messages like Black Lives Matter and No Justice No Peace

Page 18: Their Marriage Failed So They Tried Again -- Pamela Anderson, Larry King, Jean-Claude Van Damme

Page 19: Melanie Griffith, Elliott Gould, Marie Osmond, Elon Musk

Page 20: Brainiac Ken Jennings the all-time winningest contestant on Jeopardy! is being groomed to replace the show’s ailing host Alex Trebek by the beloved TV legend himself

Page 22: Prized props pilfered from Hollywood sets are big business for underground dealers and can fetch up to six figures on the black market and even worse some memorabilia heists have disrupted the making of major blockbusters costing studios a pretty penny

Page 28: Cover Story -- Sex monster Jeffrey Epstein’s accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell will never be convicted due to a provision in the U.S. Constitution that forbids married couples from being forced to testify against their mates and now facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls for the pervert billionaire Maxwell has a get-out-of-jail-free card because she secretly married the pedophile before he was murdered in a federal prison last year

Page 34: Prankster Sacha Baron Cohen secretly shot a sequel to his 2006 blockbuster Borat and it’s already been screened by select industry bigwigs, Pioneer Woman Ree Drummond is blazing her daughter Alex’s path to the altar with fiance Mauricio Scott

Page 38: Health Watch

Page 42: Red Carpet -- Venice Film Festival -- Cate Blanchett -- hot, Tilda Swinton -- not, Arizona Muse -- hot, Maya Hawke -- hot, Elodie -- hot, Vanessa Kirby -- hot

Page 45: Spot the Differences -- Gerald McRaney and Aubrey Dollar and Kim Cattrall on the new drama Filthy Rich

Page 47: Odd List -- a gory piece of history has landed on the auction block -- a lock of Abraham Lincoln’s hair that was wrapped in an 1865 telegram stained with the dead president’s blood is expected to fetch up to $75,000

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failtoplan · 5 years ago

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Future Imperfect - On Capitalism, Technology and Ideology

Looking out from the 31st floor balcony, it doesn’t seem high until you look down. Shenzhen stretches 80 kilometres east to west, but is only 10 deep, North-South. The city snakes laterally, littorally, between the hills of the Hong Kong border, along Shenzhen Bay to the Pearl River delta, like a badly kept concrete lawn, with clumps of seventy and eighty story towers sprouting like steel weeds. The 115 story Ping An Tower, the worlds 4th largest, the town’s own tall poppy. When night falls, the entire town lights up like a circuit board, streaming with steel and light. The immaculately kept, perpetually swept, cycle path along the Dasha river is filled with office workers on dockless rental bikes, hired by the half hour, headed to one of the city’s many tech clusters, downstream, deeper into Nanshan district. They’ve phased out almost all the old taxis, replaced with a fully electric fleet. The same for the buses. Pretty much every transaction, from street-corner noodles to legal fees are carried out with QR codes and digital wallets. Cashless, silent, sleek.

This is not ‘The Future’, but it is ‘A Future’. Two days a week I commute from Shenzhen to Hong Kong. The journey takes around an hour and a half, but the time travelled is greater than the distance covered. After getting stamped out of Mainland China and into Hong Kong at the vast Shenzhen Bay checkpoint, coaches and cars spiral up onto the five-and-a-half-kilometre bay bridge to cross over to the New Territories. As we roll up the overpass onto the bridge, the plaiting of concrete weaves carriageways from right-to-left and left-to-right. The first sign that they do things differently here. At least for now.

Hong Kong, like Tokyo, represents a certain obsolete near-future in the collective imagination. Having had its image and form repeatedly appropriated by Hollywood as a stand-in for numerous dystopias, the familiarity can make it seem almost underwhelming. Hong Kong looks exactly like ‘Hong Kong’ - a trait it shares with New York. It also feels like yesterday’s vision of tomorrow. The stuttering neon signs and diesel-streaked streets, PoMo towers and marble-lined lobbies are a particularly sharp contrast with Shenzhen’s unironic modernity. From its peak in 1993, Hong Kong has declined from twenty-seven to less than three percent of China’s GDP. But beyond the numbers, it feels like a city in decline. Slowly, megaprojects such as the Hong Kong-Macao-Zhuhai bridge and the China High-speed Rail Link are stitching the territory together with the mainland, bringing Hong Kong’s greatest fear ever-closer, becoming just another mid-sized Chinese city. With the perceived erosion of its Rule of law, the Special Administrative Region has become a contested space. The acute confrontation over the ‘two systems’ principle, is also representative of a bigger conflict between two ideas. Two visions of what the future could be.

Words can be problematic; they are both the obstacle to articulating a thought and the best way to try. This clash of ideas, in which Hong Kong is just one front, isn’t easily reduced to opposing pairs as the Cold War once was. Capitalism’s ‘victory’ over Communism was always an artificial, lexigraphic binary that pitted an economic system against a total political, social and economic order. ‘Capitalism’ is synecdochic, an easy shorthand for ‘democratic capitalism’ and the free and limited, markets, open societies and shared small-L liberal consensus regarding the primacy of the individual. Democratic Capitalism is Limited Capitalism. And it was ‘Limited Capitalism’ that ‘won’. The front line crossed by the arcing span of the Shenzhen Bay Bridge is not the battle between capitalism and communism. Socialism with Chinese characteristics is Capitalism unencumbered by Democracy. It is the front line between Total and Limited Capitalism.

Limited Capitalism was never an outright winner, but in its rhetoric, it strived to achieve the illusion of permanence. The rights of the individual – the societal sidekick to the economic superhero - has never been inevitable and maybe not even natural. Increasingly this relic of our post-Enlightenment experiments feels like a humanistic blip. In the face of Brexit and Trump, Bolsanaro and Orban, I have found myself increasingly having to defend the ‘pragmatism of the primacy of the individual’ to friends not just in Singapore and Shanghai, but Boston and Berlin. Yes, it is the freedom to screw up, but it is also the freedom not to be screwed with.

When measured in terms of human development Limited Capitalism has been a great success. But ‘Capitalist Democracy’ is a productive tension, not a synonymic pair. Capitalism privileges results, Democracy, the process. One is fast, the other is slow. The market is majoritarian, while the democratic enshrines the individual, not merely responsible to a simple majority. This makes elections, perversely, the least important aspect of a democracy. Limited Capitalism is an uneasy hybrid. You are free to consume, you are free to participate, but the between the two there is no equivalence. The human flourishing this has propagated cannot be measured by statistics alone. It is this tension that universalised the franchise, enshrined judicial independent and – aspirationally -declared Universal Human Rights. Less tangibly and more significantly it gives each of us a hope of genuine human dignity and all of us some faith in a societal-level trust. Maybe it was easier to win hearts and minds in the late 20th century with Right to Buy than the Rights of Man, but failing to promote the civil alongside the economic conflates consumption with participation, creating the opportunity for Total Capitalism.

-- Shenzhen’s subway tunnels are lined with motion-synced LED screens that animate adverts outside the carriage windows selling pizza and pet food station to station. My connected TV won’t switch on without first showing me a short film promoting the latest toilet paper or plastic surgery procedure. Pop-up ads and promotions are a pervasive part of every single product or service, physical or virtual that I use. Upsell, cross-sell, resell. The imperative to consume is everywhere, the Chinese Dream constantly reinforced as the route to individualisation and self-actualisation. Judged by the old Communist clichés of a “decadent West,” focussed on temerarious consumption, contemporary China is the most “western” place I have ever lived or been. One where I am no more and no less than the sum of my purchases. I buy therefore I am.

At the same time deep integration of seamless technology has evolved a new species of human as consumer, Homo Emptus. The local branch of KFC lets me buy a Family Bucket with nothing more than my face, using cameras linked directly to my virtual wallet which holds my credit cards and fictive cash. Recently I was walking through the precinct by my block, when a young woman ran up to me, apologising. Her cleaner’s phone had stopped receiving transfers and she didn’t have the cash to pay. Did I have any? Pulling a handful of 100 yuan notes out of my pocket, she pulled out her phone, scanned my wallet and transferred me the 300 kuai which I had in cash. In less than a minute I had become a human ATM. It was demeaning and thrilling at the same time, I imagine not dissimilar to the excitement felt by the freshly humiliated submissive.

Sometimes living here can feel like magic. But if you only immerse in the wonder, you miss the cost. Recently, a group of cyclists in Shanghai rode past a police officer, stopped by the side of the road, deep in an animated discussion with the driver they had just pulled over. The group, aware the policeman was otherwise occupied, slowly rolled through the red signal ahead, traffic light on a quiet Saturday morning. Fifteen minutes later by the time they had reached their café stop and pulled out their phones to pay, they had all been fined. Facial recognition cameras mounted on top of the police car had ID-ed them and then allowed the officer digitally ensure justice was done. When we are defined only by our consumption, this make complete sense, our economic life is simply ‘life’, giving the state unprecedented control in return for our convenience. Seamlessness may be fast, but to protect Limited Capitalism, we need seams.

The reality is though that our willingness to conflate commercial choice with civil freedoms has makes it easy for us to walk backwards into Total Capitalism. Using ‘Capitalism’ as a shorthand for so long has meant a lack of focus on the social and political dimensions that has allowing the market to perform as a poor stand-in for the whole. This has led to declining trust in the very institutions that underpin both our societal freedom and our consumer choice. The recent World Values Survey shows a minority in both Europe and the US of people born after 1970 believe it is ‘essential to live in a democracy.’ If this is the case then we have collectively failed to remind ourselves what ‘democracy’ really entails. It has also led to the bizarre inversion for many on the neoliberal right who see any democratic limit placed on the market as ‘undemocratic’

The rising indifference to the democratic can be seen in part as a consequence of Limited Capitalism’s success. Just as a fish does not know that it is wet, we take for granted the protections afforded the individual. We have collectively and systemically failed to remind ourselves of the importance of the water we all swim in. Political leaders and populist demagogues who owe their very existence to the small L liberalism that underpins Limited Capitalism have failed to give credit, choosing instead to pee in the pond for short term gain. Taking our collective socio-political foundations for granted has led to their erosion. Ignoring them has also reduced the success of a state to its economy alone. Whilst freedom of speech won’t feed my children, GDP won’t make them happier or more morally rich. This tyranny of the economic means that states which favour the fast and the outcome will be judged the best performing, outshining those that optimise for the slow, the process, the individual. By judging a state by its economy rather than their humanity, we set up a framework in which the Total Capitalism is not only increasingly easy to admire, but objectively ‘better’, with no way to quantify its glaring qualitative flaws. The fallacy that our economic lives are an adequate stand-in for our civic ones provides the ideological misdirection to pull the trick off. Only what is counted is valued.

Total Capitalism, by succeeding on these terms, promotes a worrying model of growth and unfreedom, chipping away at the old liberal consensus. As pervasive technologies allow ever-greater accumulation of information, we are reaching an inflection point, two divergent versions of how this data is used and its implications for how we live. Progress marches an there is a decision to be made, inaction is not possible. A battle that is waged by only one side, even one of ideas, is not without bloodshed; it is a massacre.

Unencumbered by the limits that the state apparatus of Limited Capitalism places on it, technology can quickly become dystopian. The Limited Capitalist model is not just a check on economic entities – as the EU has proved with its fines on Google and Microsoft - but also on governments. And it adds an implicit societal dimension to the economic role. When Apple refused to provide a back door to iPhone for the FBI, it was asserting its social responsibility, not just its economic function. It helped that these two impulses were congruent here, but the difference between that and the case of the Shanghai cyclists is stark. Tencent, makers of the ubiquitous WeChat Wallet in question, were doing nothing wrong by allowing the state to pick pockets; they were fulfilling their duty, legally obliged to do so in the People’s Republic. The FBI’s response to Apple’s refusal was that American lives might be lost, but people died enshrining the rights Apple was upholding. Do we still believe the defence of the individual is worth dying for?

It would be worth asking that question to the millions of minority Muslims constantly surveilled, or interred in camps in Xinjiang. Advanced monitoring technologies, sharpened to scalpel-like precision, have created an unprecedented digital panopticon. The whole region is monitored at a level of detail that previously would have taken vast armies of watchers and handlers. Now instead, the state has the ability to micromanage human life at a macroscale; facial recognition, device tracking and digital monitoring turn an entire country-sized region into a prison colony. Xinjiang is not just a tragedy though; it is a testbed. China has rolled the same systems across the entirety of its domestic train network as well as at every airport, port and major public area. More disturbingly, it is a showroom for the implementation of its own particular strain of Total Capitalism. A sinister demonstration of how to unshackle the market from democracy, providing economic liberation whilst maintaining total control. For parts of the world that were previously faced with the choice between an all-inclusive version of modernity, open society and all, China offers an alluring alternative, a cake-and-eat-it model powered by pervasive technologies and financed by Belt and Road loans. And it is one that has succeeded by our own ‘Capitalist’ yardstick.

Total Capitalism is by no means inevitable, and its vision of the future not the only one. Technology is neutral and can be used co-opted for community as well as commerciality. The liberal limits within Liberal, Democratic, Limited Capitalism have allowed it to do both. But our willingness to collapse the social, political and economic into one big flat now have left us at a critical juncture. Hong Kong’s fight is an imperfect allegory for the decision that we need to make about what we should measure and what really matters, particularly in the developed world. We cannot take for granted what we already have. An era is only named after it has long passed. It is up to us to decide if we are to witness the end of this one.

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breehunny · 5 years ago

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Last Minute Vaca!

This weekend Cam and I went on a little trip to Minneapolis to get away for a bit! We had originally planned on taking a road trip in August to go back and visit North Carolina but decided it would be cheaper to just do a weekend get away instead since we’re trying to save money for house updates. We went up on Thursday morning and left all our kiddos at the house with a couple awesome sitters. We stopped at a casino in Wherethefuckarewe, IA and quickly lost $100. Our trip was off to a good start so far! Haha It’s okay though because we still had fun. We listened to music and played carpool karaoke the rest of the drive and Cam even drove the whole way there...LOML (Love of my life…). When we finally got to the hotel they offered to upgrade us for $50/night. We’d get breakfast every morning, appetizers every evening, and a room on the top floor in a corner suite! I booked the room with a Groupon so it was already super cheap, so OBVI we were all in. Our room was SO COOL. We had amazing views of the city, ROBES, and a king size bed! It was luxury. We were going to go out and watch fireworks but the views from our room were so pretty! We didn’t see the city fireworks but we saw hundreds of fireworks in the burbs of Minneapolis. We perched our chairs next to the windows, cracked open a couple cold ones, and watched! So pretty. The next day we went to the Mall of Americaaaaaa!!! I used to go here every year for Spring Break with my mom and sister so it was kind of sentimental to be able to go back again for the first time in almost 10 years. Cam wasn’t super impressed haha but it is a mall...so I guess that’s fair. We were able to walk the ENTIRE mall in 6 hours. (Fun fact, if you spend 5 minutes in every store it would take you over a week to get through the whole thing).We didn’t get much...a shirt and belt for Cam, a dress and shorts for me. Honestly I wouldn’t recommend shopping to anyone at the MOA. The stores like Old Navy, Lane Bryant, and The Gap were SO much more expensive that our local stores. The locally owned or less franchised stores didn’t carry either of our sizes. So between prices and selection, we were disappointed. All that turned around when we went to Dick’s Last Resort though! Our bartender was an asshole...just kidding he said it was tough for him to be so mean. Cam doesn’t call me Bully Bree for nothing, I still talked shit to him, we decided I should work at one. For anyone that’s never been to a Dick’s before, bad service and attitude is their specialty. They give you ridiculous hats with mean things written on them. Cam received a hat that says “Gets Cheated on” and I received one that said “Loose” with the O’s turned into nipples...so cute. Hahah We had two 48oz margs and went on our jolly way! We went back to our hotel to regroup, and ate at Buca Di Beppo….Guys I know. I TRY SO HARD not to go to chain restaurants on vaca. But Bucca is SO GOOD. Honestly. I don’t regret it. I miss it. Saturday was the best day. It was great. We slept in and went to brunch at a cute little restaurant in a little college part of town. We had bottomless mimosas for $10 each and sat on the patio for 4 hours to get our money’s worth. We talked with almost everyone that walked by and talked a handful of them into the mimosas...we should have asked for a discount tbh. Our waiter loved us and kept our glasses full. We went back to the hotel, took really long naps and went to Ping’s, a weird little chinese restaurant that we’re pretty sure is just a drug front. It was a prime location that was empty on a Saturday night and had TERRIBLE service. The food was bomb though so we would definitely go again. I’ve got to say, my only regret about the trip is not trying the city scooters earlier. We used one on our way to Pings and it was SO MUCH FUNNNNN. Seriously. It is the only thing on my christmas and birthday wish list now. I found an electric scooter that is almost exactly like those city scooters for $300. Hear me out. You can get places so much faster and it’s way more fun. You don’t have to worry about parking and you can fold up the scooters and carry them with you wherever! This is going to be a thing. Mark my words. IT WILL.

#minneapolis #minnesota #vacation #lifeblog #loveofmylife #buca di beppo #pings #scooters #brunch #love #honey #sweetiepie #marriedlife #getaway #weekend #mall of america #moa #iowa

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blackknightgargiefoodtopia · 2 years ago

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Qing Bou Leong Bingo House

After our snackage at Pancake House to fill our growling tummies a little, we went for the dinner date with my godma who was going to leave the next day on a trip to Taiwan and only had that day to entertain us. So she directed us to Qing Bou Leong Bingo House, a vegetarian kopitiam

Location: Damai Centre, Block A (or B, maybe), same row as the Tong Hing supermarket, one of the oldest supermarket franchise in Sabah

Setting: Very Chinese kopitiam style, a suitable setting for a vegan restaurant, though it still looks more like a shop rather than a restaurant

Atmosphere: 7.5/10

Design: 7/10

Drinks: Sour sop juice and warm honey lemon

Presentation: 7/10 and 6.5/10 respectively

Taste: Not sure about the sour sop, since I didn't try, but for my drink - 6.5/10 (though it's more for warming my belly to clear the bloatiness after the snackage)

Food: Wantan noodle soup

Presentation: 7/10 (nice filling with a proportionate portion)

Taste: 7/10 (only tasted the soup, but it's pretty flavourful, but not over the top, just nice for a vegan soup)

Food: Wantan kolo mee with wantan soup as side dish

Presentation: 7/10 (nice filling with a proportionate portion)

Taste: 7/10 (noodles are of good consistency and the filling of vegetables are just nice, with a pretty good taste of fake mincemeat and fried shallots)

Food: Curry wantan noodle soup

Presentation: 6.5/10 (look rich and creamy like a curry should and smells amazing)

Taste: 7/10 (nice creamy taste with a hint of curry spice, and pretty flavourful too)

Dessert: Coconut pudding

Presentation: 8/10 (impressive, pudding served in the coconut shell itself, which is an interesting concept)

Taste: 8/10 (Very sweet and yummy, you can really taste the coconut and has a good fresh tang to it)

Overall, it's a pretty good place to enjoy a healthy, affordable and wholesome meal. It's surprisingly cheap for vegan food, and it's pretty flavourful, not like usual vegan food that is so bland and needs a helping of salt or something. Pretty recommendable

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yoyochopsticks · 2 months ago

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The Chinese food industry in India has seen exponential growth over the past decade, thanks to the rising demand for unique and flavorful Indo-Chinese cuisine. Many entrepreneurs are looking to tap into this ever-expanding market by investing in Chinese food franchises. The combination of affordability, diverse menu options, and the rich flavors of Chinese food continues to attract food lovers across the country. In this blog, we will explore the top 10 Chinese food franchises in India, offering excellent investment opportunities, with a special focus on YOYO Chopsticks, the best Chinese food franchise in India.

#chinese food franchise #franchise #yoyo chopsticks #chopsticks #yoyo #best chinese food franchise in india #entrepreneur #cloud kitchen model #retail cafe model #business #top 10 chinese food franchise #best chinese food franchise in indai #chinese food franchise in india

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newstfionline · 3 years ago

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Monday, September 6, 2021

Nearly 1 in 3 Americans experienced a weather disaster this summer (Washington Post) Nearly 1 in 3 Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the past three months, according to a new Washington Post analysis of federal disaster declarations. On top of that, 64 percent live in places that experienced a multiday heat wave—phenomena that are not officially deemed disasters but are considered the most dangerous form of extreme weather. The expanding reach of climate-fueled disasters, a trend that has been increasing at least since 2018, shows the extent to which a warming planet has already transformed Americans’ lives. At least 388 people in the United States have died due to hurricanes, floods, heat waves and wildfires since June, according to media reports and government records. Record-shattering temperatures in the Pacific Northwest cooked hundreds of people to death in their own homes. Flash floods turned basement apartments into death traps and in one instance ripped twin babies from their father’s arms. Wildfires raged through 5 million acres of tinder-dry forest. Chronic drought pushed federal officials to impose mandatory cuts to Colorado River water for the first time.

Do we need humans for that job? Automation booms after COVID (AP) Ask for a roast beef sandwich at an Arby’s drive-thru east of Los Angeles and you may be talking to Tori—an artificially intelligent voice assistant that will take your order and send it to the line cooks. “It doesn’t call sick,” says Amir Siddiqi, whose family installed the AI voice at its Arby’s franchise this year in Ontario, California. “It doesn’t get corona. And the reliability of it is great.” The pandemic didn’t just threaten Americans’ health when it slammed the U.S. in 2020—it may also have posed a long-term threat to many of their jobs. Faced with worker shortages and higher labor costs, companies are starting to automate service sector jobs that economists once considered safe, assuming that machines couldn’t easily provide the human contact they believed customers would demand. Past experience suggests that such automation waves eventually create more jobs than they destroy, but that they also disproportionately wipe out less skilled jobs that many low-income workers depend on. Resulting growing pains for the U.S. economy could be severe.

The Biden Doctrine? (NYT) In the chaotic finale of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan, a Biden Doctrine is emerging: a foreign policy that avoids forever wars while addressing rising powers. China as America’s existential competitor. Russia as a disrupter. Iran and North Korea as nuclear proliferators. Cyberthreats as ever-evolving. Terrorism as spreading far beyond Afghanistan. The Biden Doctrine “calls for a return to protecting human rights and promoting democracy, but only when consistent with U.S. goals,” our Washington reporters write.

Outside of New Orleans, an even longer road to Ida recovery (AP) Terrebonne Parish was among the hardest-hit areas of Louisiana battered to an unprecedented degree by Hurricane Ida. Though Louisiana’s largest electric utility, Entergy, estimates most residents in New Orleans will have power by Wednesday, recovery efforts outside of the city could be a much longer slog. Some parishes outside New Orleans were battered for hours by winds of 100 mph (160 kph) or more. Fully restoring electricity to some of these southeastern parishes could take until the end of the month, according to Entergy President and CEO Phillip May. Ida damaged or destroyed more than 22,000 power poles, more than hurricanes Katrina, Zeta and Delta combined, an impact May called “staggering.” More than 5,200 transformers failed and nearly 26,000 spans of wire—the stretch of transmission wires between poles—were down.

Mutual aid groups give personalized help after Hurricane Ida (AP) The day after Hurricane Ida struck Louisiana, Delaney Nolan spent hours biking around New Orleans, handing out money to people who needed to pay for supplies or for the hotel rooms where they’d taken shelter. Once the cash ran out—banks were closed, and ATMs were empty or no longer running without electricity—Nolan Venmo’d people the money they needed. As an organizer for the mutual aid group Southern Solidarity in Louisiana, she and her team also handed out free meals from restaurants that were cooking up their food stockpiles before they spoiled. Nolan is among the faces of philanthropy that are tending to the immediate personal losses inflicted by the hurricane. Mutual aid networks like Southern Solidarity spring into action to supplement the more established relief services from federal and local governments, as well as larger charities. The networks, in which community members pool resources and distribute donations to care for one another, seek to avoid the traditional charity model of giver and receiver. They grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic as communities across the country faced dire needs. And now they are mobilizing in the wake of other disasters like Hurricane Ida. “Mutual aid is the most effective help right now,” Nolan said. “It’s built on communications with a lot of neighbors and existing relationships, from personally knowing what people need.”

El Salvador court drops ban on presidential reelection (AP) El Salvador’s top court and its election authority have tossed aside what seemed to be a constitutional ban on consecutive presidential reelection, setting the stage for President Nayib Bukele to potentially seek a second term in 2024. The Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber on Friday told the Supreme Electoral Tribunal to permit a second term, and the electoral authority announced Saturday it would accept what it called a ruling that cannot be appealed. The rulings—by a court recently overhauled by Bukele’s party—alarmed opposition parties and citizen activist groups who have long accused the popular leader of authoritarian tendencies and who said the ruling was clearly unconstitutional. Bukele has not so far announced plans to seek reelection, but critics assume he will.

Now breakneck economic growth is over, China focuses on new goal: equality (NBC News) Communist China has relentlessly pursued economic growth for decades, creating more billionaires than the United States, lifting 800 million people out of poverty, but leaving another 600 million to live on $150 a month. Now, President Xi Jinping is planning what some experts say would be a dramatic about-face, trying to restructure Chinese society by cracking down on the country’s newly minted super-rich and redistributing wealth more evenly among its population of 1.4 billion. The drive involves plans to “regulate excessively high incomes” and “encourage high-income people and enterprises to return more to society,” according to a readout of Xi’s comments at a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party by the state-run news agency Xinhua. While his slogan of “common prosperity” was hardly new among Chinese leaders, Xi’s speech last month was the starkest example of his apparent plan for a reshaped society. For years the Communist Party has staked its legitimacy on growth that has outpaced that of any other major economy; now that that is slowing, it may feel it has to offer a new promise: equality.

Taiwan scrambles jets against renewed Chinese military activity (Reuters) Taiwan’s air force scrambled on Sunday against renewed Chinese military activity, with its defence ministry reporting that 19 aircraft including nuclear-capable bombers had flown into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone. Chinese-claimed Taiwan has complained for a year or more of repeated missions by China’s air force near the self-ruled island, often in the southwestern part of its air defence zone near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands. The latest Chinese mission involved 10 J-16 and four Su-30 fighters, as well as four H-6 bombers, which can carry nuclear weapons, and an anti-submarine aircraft, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said.

Rescue groups: US tally misses hundreds left in Afghanistan (AP) Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration’s estimate that no more than 200 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of other people they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards. Some groups say they continue to be contacted by American citizens in Afghanistan who did not register with the U.S. Embassy before it closed and by others not included in previous counts because they expressed misgivings about leaving loved ones behind. As for green card holders, they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes, become part of their communities and often have children who are U.S. citizens. Yet the administration says it does not have an estimate on the number of such permanent residents who are in Afghanistan and desperately trying to escape Taliban rule.

Soldiers detain Guinea’s president, dissolve government (AP) Mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea detained President Alpha Conde on Sunday after hours of heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace in the capital, then announced on state television that the government had been dissolved in an apparent coup d’etat. The country’s borders were closed and its constitution was declared invalid in the announcement read aloud on state television by army Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who told Guineans: “The duty of a soldier is to save the country.” It was not immediately known, though, how much support Doumbouya had within the military or whether other soldiers loyal to the president of more than a decade might attempt to wrest back control. A former U.S. diplomat in Conakry confirmed to The Associated Press that the president had been taken into custody by the putschists. Conde, in power for more than a decade, had seen his popularity plummet since he sought a third term last year, saying that term limits did not apply to him. Sunday’s dramatic developments underscored how dissent had mounted within the military as well.

#headlines #news

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years ago

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Tyson Foods mandates vaccines for its U.S. work force.

Daily Business Briefing

Aug. 3, 2021Updated

Aug. 3, 2021, 9:43 a.m. ET

A Tyson Foods plant in Waterloo, Iowa, last year. “We have spent months encouraging our team members to get vaccinated,” said the chief executive, Donnie King.Credit…Daniel Acker for The New York Times

Tyson Foods, one of the nation’s largest meat processors, said on Tuesday that it would require vaccines for its U.S. workers — about half of whom remain unvaccinated.

The mandate will extend to employees in its offices and in the field. The poultry supplier is requiring its leadership team to be vaccinated by Sept. 24 and the rest of its office workers by Oct. 1. Frontline employees have until Nov. 1 to be fully inoculated, extra time the company is providing because there are “significantly more frontline team members than office workers who still need to be vaccinated,” a Tyson spokesman said.

Tyson is offering $200 to frontline workers who verify that they are fully vaccinated. The company already offered employees up to four hours of pay if they are vaccinated outside of their normal shift. Any new employees must be vaccinated before they start work, Tyson said.

Tyson, which is based in Springdale, Ark., is still negotiating the matter with its unions, which represent about one third of its hourly work force.

“We did not take this decision lightly,” the company’s chief executive, Donnie King, wrote in a memo to employees announcing the news. “We have spent months encouraging our team members to get vaccinated — today, under half of our team members are.”

To date, more than 56,000 of Tyson’s U.S. 120,000 employees have been vaccinated. Tyson, which had about $43 billion in sales in 2020, is the largest meat and poultry processor in the United States, according to Statista.

Companies, jolted by the Delta variant and eager for a return to normal, have announced a steady drumbeat of vaccine mandates for their employees over the past several weeks. But in the private sector, these requirements, which have come from Facebook, Google and Walmart and others, have so far largely focused on office workers rather than the more vulnerable frontline workers. Labor shortages that have affected industries including retail, restaurants and meatpacking have complicated the decision, which has been made more difficult by the economic divide separating those who have been vaccinated and those who have not.

The meatpacking industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus, given the close working conditions the job requires. And Tyson has come under fire for its lapses in safety standards, including allegations it failed to provide adequate safety equipment and refusing the requests of local officials to close a plant.

Tyson said Tuesday it had spent more than $700 million related the pandemic, including buying masks, face shields and providing on-site testing.

The meatpacker is based in Arkansas, where about 46 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated. It has plants across the country, including in Georgia, Kansas, Missouri and Texas.

breaking

More than 1,500 Activision Blizzard workers walked out from their jobs last week.Credit…David Mcnew/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Activision Blizzard, the video game maker, said on Tuesday that the president of its Blizzard Entertainment studio was stepping down, a week after workers staged a walkout over allegations of harassment and discrimination.

Activision, known for Call of Duty and other popular gaming franchises, has been under intense pressure over the last couple of weeks following a lawsuit filed on July 20 in which California accused the company of fostering a “frat boy workplace culture” in which men joked about rape and women were routinely harassed and paid less than their male colleagues.

The departing executive, J. Allen Brack, will be replaced by two Blizzard executives, Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, who will be co-leaders of the studio, the company said in a statement.

“Both leaders are deeply committed to all of our employees; to the work ahead to ensure Blizzard is the safest, most welcoming workplace possible for women and people of any gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation or background; to upholding and reinforcing our values; and to rebuilding your trust,” Activision Blizzard said in a statement.

Ms. Oneal started at Blizzard in January as executive vice president of development, while Mr. Ybarra joined in 2019 as the executive vice president and general manager of platform and technology, Activision Blizzard said.

The video game industry has long been criticized for its toxic workplace environment toward women. In 2014, feminist critics of the industry faced death threats in what became known as Gamergate. Executives at the gaming companies Riot Games and Ubisoft have also been accused of misconduct.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Tencent’s shares ended down about 7 percent on Tuesday.Credit…Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press

Shares of Tencent Holdings and other prominent Chinese video-game companies plunged in Hong Kong trading on Tuesday after a Beijing-affiliated media outlet called their products “spiritual opium.”

The blast from the state-affiliated media outlet, the Economic Information Daily, came after months of increased pressure from Beijing aimed at the broader Chinese internet industry, which serves one billion users. That pressure has moved global investors to pull billions of dollars out of Chinese technology stocks, on fears that tighter regulation could hurt company prospects.

The article from the Economic Information Daily did not declare that any specific policy changes would be made, and it was unclear whether it reflected the views of Beijing officials or merely those of the publication’s editors.

Further adding to the uncertainty, the link to the article went dead later on Tuesday, though a copy could still be found on the site of Xinhua, the official state news agency, which controls the Economic Information Daily.

Despite the uncertainty, nervous investors were quick to sell shares.

Tencent, a technology conglomerate with a big presence in social media and entertainment in addition to video games, saw its shares drop about 10 percent at one point, though the losses moderated later on Tuesday and ended down about 7 percent. NetEase, another mainland video game company, saw its shares drop nearly 9 percent.

The article’s headline — “A ‘spiritual opium’ has grown into an industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars” — left little doubt at the thrust of the piece. It cited a litany of threats posed by video games, including diverting attention from school and family and causing nearsightedness.

“No industry or sport should develop at the price of destroying a generation,” it said.

The article singled out Tencent, which owns games popular in China like Honor of Kings as well as titles popular around the world, like League of Legends.

Tencent on Tuesday released a statement on its WeChat social media network describing some of the limits it recently decided to put into place, like limiting game time for minors and increased efforts to ferret out those who lie about their age to play.

The scrutiny isn’t new to Tencent or the industry. More than half of Chinese internet users play online games, according to government statistics. In the past, officials have worried that games could hurt children’s academics, damage their eyesight and reduce the country’s military readiness. In 2019, the authorities limited the amount of time young people could spend playing games online.

Workers an assembly line for Vauxhall, a Stellantis brand, in Ellesmere Port, England. Stellantis said sales rose 46 percent in the first half of the year.Credit…Phil Noble/Reuters

The global car market is rebounding strongly despite shortages of key components like semiconductors. That was the message Tuesday from German carmaker BMW and Stellantis, which owns Jeep, Peugeot and Fiat, as both reported large increases in profit.

BMW said it made a net profit of 4.8 billion euros, or $5.7 billion, in the second quarter of 2021 compared with a loss a year earlier, when the pandemic forced showrooms around the world to close. Sales soared 43 percent to 28.6 billion euros, driven by particularly strong increases in China and the United States, BMW said. Both sales and profit were higher than the same quarter in 2019, before the pandemic struck.

Stellantis, the product of a merger this year of Fiat Chrysler and the French maker of Peugeot and Citroën cars, reported a net profit for the first six months of 2021 of 5.9 billion euros, compared with a loss a year earlier, after sales rose 46 percent to 75 billion euros.

The Stellantis figures are based on a calculation of what the combined companies’ sales and earnings would have been in the first half of 2020, had the merger already taken place. Stellantis did not publish quarterly figures.

At the same time, both companies, which between them employ more than 400,000 people, warned that a global shortage of semiconductors is continuing to disrupt production.

Nicolas Peter, the chief financial officer of BMW, told reporters during a conference call that the chip famine could curtail production by as much as 90,000 vehicles this year.

That is on top of other risks, including further waves of the pandemic, higher prices for raw materials like steel, and extreme weather like the floods in western Germany last month that killed nearly 200 people. “Confronted with all these risks,” said Oliver Zipse, the chief executive of BMW, “the second half-year will be more challenging for the BMW Group than the first.”

Kyan Chase, 15, works at Palace Playland in Old Orchard Beach. Of the labor shortage, he said: “It’s pretty good for me. I can get a job anywhere I want.”Credit…Tristan Spinski for The New York Times

The scramble for temporary guest workers has been intense in recent years, as the jobless rate inched down and tensions over immigration policy ratcheted up. But this year, the competition has been particularly fierce.

To find out how the crunch has been affecting businesses — amusement parks, restaurants, camps and more — Patricia Cohen traveled to Salt Lake City, and Sydney Ember went to Portland, Maine.

Landscapers employ more H-2B workers than any other industry — roughly half of the total approved. Ken Doyle, the president of All States Landscaping in Draper, Utah, said the late arrival of 27 temporary foreign workers had cost him 15 to 20 percent of his business, about $1 million.

“We’re so far behind,” he said. “We’ve lost some very large accounts.”

Under the H-2B visa program, the number of seasonal foreign workers is ordinarily capped at 66,000 a year, split between the winter and summer season. Veteran workers, who returned year after year, used to be exempted from the total, but Congress halted that practice in 2017. The next year, the government instituted a lottery system that injected a new layer of uncertainty on top of a frustrating process.

Programs for temporary guest workers have long come under attack from several corners. Labor groups and immigration critics argue that it robs American workers of jobs and depresses wages. And every year, there are disturbing examples in which foreign workers are exploited by employers, cheated out of pay or living in squalid conditions.

Higher wages could encourage more American-born workers to apply for these jobs, said Muzaffar Chishti, director of the Migration Policy Institute at the New York University Law School. But he argues that in every labor market, there are difficult, unpleasant, low-paid jobs with no opportunity for advancement — like agricultural work or meatpacking — that are considered less desirable both for economic and for cultural reasons.

The Future of Transportation

The system is relatively simple. For decades, trains and street cars have used a similar technology.Credit…Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

Trucks transition seamlessly between diesel and electric. A camera monitors the connection to the lines.Credit…Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates in 2006. The organization that bears their names is by most measures the largest private foundation in the world.Credit…Keith Meyers/ The New York Times

The divorce between Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates is now final.

A judge for the King County Superior Court in Washington State signed the dissolution decree on Monday, ending the 27-year marriage between the co-founders of the influential Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation while leaving the details of how the couple divided one of the largest fortunes in history shrouded in mystery.

Public filings showed that billions of dollars of shares were transferred into Ms. French Gates’s name following the public announcement in May of their plan to divorce. Forbes now estimates Ms. French Gates’s net worth at $3.2 billion, though it could be much higher. The magazine estimates Mr. Gates’s net worth at $131 billion.

The separation agreement that determined the split of assets was “not filed with the court,” according to a notation scrawled in blue ink on one of the court documents. It remained unclear, for instance, who will receive their 66,000-square-foot lakefront estate in the Seattle suburbs.

The couple’s three children are all over 18, so there was no custody arrangement necessary. The court document said that neither party had asked to make a formal name change, though Ms. French Gates has been publicly using her family name together with her married name since they separated.

In contrast, when Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced, a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission detailed how Mr. Bezos would keep three-quarters of the couple’s shares of Amazon, while Ms. Scott would hold onto the rest, which came to 4 percent of the company.

The largest outstanding question is how, or indeed whether, the divorced couple can work together at their enormous charity. Both Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates have insisted that they will continue to work on behalf of the foundation’s shared mission in areas including global health, poverty reduction and gender equality.

Last month they announced that they had given an additional $15 billion to the foundation, adding to its $50 billion endowment, which already made it by most measures the largest private charitable foundation in the world. The chief executive of the Gates Foundation, Mark Suzman, also said the foundation would add new outside trustees, a step toward better governance that philanthropy experts had urged for years.

At the same time, Mr. Suzman said that Mr. Gates and Ms. French Gates had agreed that if either person found after two years that they could not work together Ms. French Gates would leave the foundation, receiving funds from Mr. Gates to pursue her own charitable endeavors.

Ms. French Gates signed her part of the divorce papers on Friday at the offices of her own organization, Pivotal Ventures, an enterprise focused on gender equality and social progress.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.

The vice president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union outside of the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., in March. The union complained frequently that Amazon was intimidating and threatening workers.Credit…Bob Miller for The New York Times

BP said Tuesday it would increase its dividend by 4 percent and bolster stock buybacks, joining Shell and other oil companies issuing improved quarterly earnings. The London-based energy company reported adjusted net income — what it calls underlying replacement cost profits — of $2.8 billion for the second quarter, compared with a loss of $6.7 billion in the period a year earlier, when many economies were in lockdown. The big improvement: Average oil prices for the quarter more than doubled since last year as the effects of the pandemic eased.

A hearing officer of the National Labor Relations Board has recommended that the board throw out a union election at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., where results announced in early April showed workers rejecting a union by a more than two-to-one ratio. The union announced the recommendation on Monday, and Amazon quickly said it would take steps to ensure that the original election result prevailed. The hearing officer’s recommendation will be reviewed by the acting regional director of the agency, who will issue a ruling on the case in the coming weeks. If the regional director rules against Amazon, the company can appeal to the labor board in Washington.

Christopher J. Waller, the Federal Reserve’s newest governor, said during an interview with CNBC on Monday that he would support slowing the Fed’s big bond purchases “early” and “fast,” and he indicated that he would have preferred to first slow purchases of mortgage-backed securities — something Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, more or less took off the table in comments last week. If the economy continues to add jobs rapidly — perhaps at a pace of 800,000 to 1 million jobs per month — he said he thinks the Fed needs to get moving. “In my view, with tapering, we should go early and go fast to make sure we’re in position to raise rates in 2022 if we have to,” Mr. Waller said. “You could taper in October; you don’t have to wait until January.”

Ms. Veerasingham, 51, joined the A.P. in 2004.Credit…Associated Press

The Associated Press said on Tuesday that Daisy Veerasingham would become its new president and chief executive officer, the first woman and the first person of color to lead the 175-year-old news agency.

She will succeed Gary Pruitt, who is retiring at the end of the year after almost 10 years in the role. Her start date is Jan. 1.

“There is no doubt it’s a challenging media environment, and like many other media organizations, we’ve come under revenue pressure from time to time,” Ms. Veerasingham said in an interview. “So we really have to shore up our core business in media, but we also have got to work really hard to expand.”

Ms. Veerasingham, 51, joined The A.P. in 2004 as a sales director for its television news division in London. She was promoted to chief revenue officer in 2019 and became the company’s chief operating officer and executive vice president in February.

The A.P., which employs several thousand journalists reporting from 250 bureaus around the world, is interviewing candidates for executive editor, its top journalism job. Sally Buzbee left that post in May to succeed Martin Baron as the executive editor of The Washington Post.

“We’ve got really interesting candidates,” Ms. Veerasingham said, “and we would hope to be able to make an appointment within the next month or so.”

Mr. Pruitt said in a statement that he felt it was the right time “to pass the baton.”

“There is no better person to lead A.P. into its next chapter than Daisy, with whom I’ve worked closely over the past decade,” he said.

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rapidresultsmarketingcompany · 4 years ago

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Smart Bitcoin Strategies To Accumulate Gold Bullion

Also, probably because it is practically impossible to shut down the crypto-world for as long as the internet exists. Regulators can only focus on areas where they may be able to exercise some control, which seems to be where cryptocurrencies meet fiat currencies (i.e. the cryptocurrency exchanges).

While cryptocurrencies seem to come under more scrutiny as time progresses, such events do benefit some countries like Hong Kong. Since the Chinese ICO ban, many founders of cryptocurrency projects have been driven from the mainland to the city.

Aurelian Menant, CEO of Gatecoin, said that the company received “a high number of inquiries from blockchain project founders based in the mainland” and that there has been an observable surge in the number of Chinese clients registering on the platform.

Looking slightly further, companies like Nvidia have expressed positivity from the event. They claim that this ICO ban will only fuel their GPU sales, as the ban will likely increase the demand for cryptocurrency-related GPUs. With the ban, the only way to obtain cryptocurrencies mined with GPUs is to mine them with computing power.

As such, individuals looking to obtain cryptocurrencies in China now have to obtain more computing power, as opposed to making straight purchases via exchanges. In essence, Nvidia’s sentiments is that this isn’t a downhill spiral for cryptocurrencies; in fact, other industries will receive a boost as well. In light of all the commotion and debate surrounding cryptocurrencies, the integration of the technology into the global economies seem to be materialising hastily.

Successful miners receive coins too in appreciation of their time and resources utilized.

Once used, the transaction information is broadcasted to a blockchain in the network under a public-key, preventing each coin from being spent twice from the same user. The blockchain can be thought of as the cashier’s register.

Coins are secured behind a password-protected digital wallet representing the user. Supply of coins in the digital currency world is pre-decided, free of manipulation, by any individual, organizations, government entities and financial institutions.

The cryptocurrency system is known for its speed, as transaction activities over the digital wallets can materialize funds in a matter of minutes, compared to the traditional banking system. It is also largely irreversible by design, further bolstering the idea of anonymity and eliminating any further chances of tracing the money back to its original owner.

Unfortunately, the salient features – speed, security, and anonymity – have also made crypto-coins the mode of transaction for numerous illegal trades. Just like the money market in the real world, currency rates fluctuate in the digital coin ecosystem.

In fact, it’s up about 1,200% over the past year, causing a lot of people to think it’s in a bubble. The total value of bitcoins in circulation is now over $150 billion.

If bitcoin was a company, it would be in the top 50 largest in the United States. I personally believe that the only reason bitcoin is so much more valuable than any other cryptocurrency is because it was the one that first broke through to the mainstream. That’s still important, though. It, at the very least, gives other coin developers something to improve on.

The good thing is that even if you think you’ve missed the boat with bitcoin, there are plenty of other cryptocurrencies out there. Of course, some are scams, but others have real potential. One of the ones that I believe has real, practical use is called Dash. First, Dash is ahead of the game in terms of convenience. Right now, bitcoin transactions take about 10 minutes to an hour on average.

Whether you are an avid investor or just a beginner, trading in cryptocurrencies will sound an irresistible investment opportunity for you. However, before you get started, it is important to consider whether you will speculate on the prices of digital assets or buy them. So, if you are interested in cryptocurrency trading, take a look at five key advantages of trading CFDs on cryptocurrencies.

The cryptocurrency market is highly volatile, especially due to the bulk amount of short-term speculative interests. Prices of cryptos can fall or rise significantly within a short span of time. And this volatility makes cryptocurrency trading more exciting. Rapid changes in prices intraday can pave for lucrative investment opportunities to go short or long. However, frequent market fluctuations come with increased risks as well.

Therefore, you should consult an expert trading partner such as SUISSE BANK to make a wide trading decision at the right time.

I spoke to cryptocurrency expert and long term investor Duke Randal who thinks the asset is overvalued, “I would compare this to many supply and demand bubbles over history such as Dutch Tulip Mania and the dot com bubble of the late 90s. Prices are purely speculation based, and when you look at Bitcoin’s functionality as an actual currency it is almost embarrassing.”

For those who don’t know, the dot com bubble was a period between 1997-2001 where many internet companies were founded and given outrageously optimistic valuations based purely on speculation that later plummeted 80-90% as the bubble began to collapse in the early 2000s. Some companies such as eBay and Amazon, recovered and now sit far above those valuations but for others it was the end of the line.

Bitcoin was originally created in order to take power away from our financial systems and put people in control of their own money, cutting out the middle man and enabling peer to peer transactions. However, it is now one of the slowest cryptocurrencies on the market, its transaction speed is four times slower than the fifth biggest cryptocurrency and its nearest competitor for payment solutions Litecoin.

Bitcoin is hot! It rose to $5480.68 per coin recently! People are scrambling to get hold of it. But, can you actually pay for things with this digital cash? Dell now accepts Bitcoin. They have a partnership with Coinbase, one of the most trusted exchanges.

Microsoft – Add money to your account with Bitcoin to buy apps, games, and videos. TigerDirect – California-based retailer that offers electronics, computers, and computer components that caters to business and corporate customers. Virgin Galactic – The Richard Branson-led aviation company started accepting Bitcoin for customers who are interested in flying to space and paying for it using Bitcoin. Reddit – Reddit allows users to purchase Reddit Gold using Bitcoins. Zynga – A popular mobile gaming company loves Bitcoin.

Memory Dealers – Carries a large range of networking hardware equipment and computer memory. The Sacrament Kings NBA franchise takes Bitcoin for food, clothing, and beer. Namecheap – This service offers inexpensive domain registration. Intuit – an American software company that develops financial and tax preparation software and related services for small businesses, accountants and individuals.

A Class Limousine – Luxury service will pick you up. Bitcoin is just an infant. More and more businesses will realize the value of this magic currency soon. Many wealthy investors are buying it up like crazy. Maybe they know something the general public needs to know!

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justmyimaginednation · 4 years ago

Text

Pink Boxes: Unfolding into an Unlikely Symbol of Resistance

by Emily Tiang

https://medium.com/pinkboxstories/pink-boxes-unfolding-into-an-unlikely-symbol-of-resistance-524078d53be5

I had my first direct encounter with the law at age 10.

Over summer break, I was running around the family donut shop — carrying large stacks of pink boxes — when a city official entered the store. The man’s one-sided conversation left my parents in ominous silence. After his departure, I glanced at the sizable stack of documents that he left for my parents to comb through. My adolescent instincts led me to conclude that the single-spaced, imageless documents indicated a serious adult issue. But when my father pried his head away from the pages and locked eyes with me, I knew that the issue was, in fact, me.

CHILD LABOR VIOLATION.

The words popped off the page. Anxiety ballooned inside me as I mouthed each word, not fully comprehending the complete phrase. Soon I witnessed my mother in distress over the possibility of Child Services intervening, while my father fumed in frustration over a state fine higher than the shop’s monthly rent. Our family would be penalized for our wealth disparity. My parents could not afford childcare for me, other than to provide it themselves, nor were they able to hire on additional staff during the morning rush-hour crowd. On top of it all, there was the unspoken tension that this child labor violation served as a legal signifier from the state that my parents had failed at parenting, solely because I was spotted on the wrong side of the bar counter.

I existed in a bubble. I was not exposed to childcare outside of my parents at the donut shop. I could not comprehend the idea of having “chores” limited to the domestic sphere of the household. What difference did it make if I took the trash out at home or the donut shop? What was the difference between washing my cereal bowl at home versus washing a coffee mug at the donut shop? I prided myself on my responsibilities and work ethic, just like my father who woke up every day at 1:00 AM to bake hundreds of donuts and my mother at 4:00 AM to brew coffee and open the store. It felt normal.

Our donut shop, Best Donut, was located in the very middle of a five-storefront strip mall off Washington Street in Santa Clara, California. We were surrounded by people who looked and felt like us. To our left was Kiraku (a mom and pop Japanese restaurant) and Hiroko’s Salon (originally a hair salon by a Japanese couple, later a Vietnamese nail salon named KD Hair). To our right, was Middle East Foods (a small grocery store ran by a Syrian family, later an Ethiopian family), followed by Crystal Cleaners (a dry cleaners ran by a Vietnamese couple), and at the very end, the life of the plaza, Normandy Bar (a dive bar owned and operated by an Army veteran). I grew up getting all my haircuts from Violet at Hiroko’s — she shared beautiful stories of her Assyrian cuisine and cultural traditions. I learned from Violet what it meant to be from an ethnic group of a stateless nation, which allowed me to better connect with my Hmong family friends. Violet also gave me the cleanest looking bowl cut — at the request of my dear mother.

I watched all these families work tirelessly on their own, but especially together. Sometimes the folks at Kiraku would drop off salmon teriyaki and shrimp tempura for my family because they knew we were too busy to make lunch. My father would help with a leaking pipe at the Middle East Food grocery store, or my mom would watch their store briefly when the owner had to run out to a doctor’s appointment. And all the children of the plaza helped out. Both the sons of Hiroko’s salon — at the time one was in medical school at Stanford and another was working at a start-up called Google — would come in the late afternoon to help sweep and tidy up their store. Kiraku’s daughter, who started her own small business, would come in every Friday and Saturday nights to waitress tables with her mother and cook with her father. And I had an array of responsibilities myself from brooming to cleaning the tables to restocking the refrigerator. But most important were the pink boxes. I was in charge of folding the pink donut boxes and would crank out one, two, and three dozen donut boxes in seconds, never letting our behind-the-counter supplies dip below five boxes.

The donut shop was not just a business, but an extension of the home my parents built for me. We were a community of small businesses trying our best to support one another, the best way we knew how. As a result, my family received assistance from our neighbors and several customers to petition the alleged charges and explain to the authorities that I was not working against my will, or in hazardous conditions, or missing school. With resilience and fortitude, my parents and I navigated the entanglement that is the natural state of bureaucratic institutions, and ultimately got the child labor violations dropped. While I was relieved at the results, I learned a lot about others’ implicit biases and how not knowing the full story can hurt the lives of others. What did a customer report to the authorities exactly? Was it because my mom disciplined me by refusing to allow me to drink soda for breakfast, or eat candy bars to my heart’s content? Or scolded me for roller skating behind the counter and knocking over a tray of apple fritters? Or berated me for playing Jenga with chocolate old-fashioned and sprinkle cake donuts stacked three feet high? Were these normal childhood games ending in quarrels with my parents the child labor violations?

The donut shop was not just a business, but an extension of the home my parents built for me.

Growing into my teenage years and young adulthood, I became weary of what was considered “normal” in society, because it did not fit with my personal experiences or view of the world from inside the donut shop. I was on the lookout for additional bubbles in need of bursting. Perhaps this was a formative transition, like yeast rising inside me to shape myself and discover the unthinkable. Or perhaps this challenging the status quo was the impact of intergenerational trauma, the pressure cracks erupting onto a smooth doughy surface and hot oil seeping through, as the distrust of institutions and authorities boiled inside me, reaching its smoke point.

My fondest pastime was racing my friends to see who could fold the most pink cardboard sheets into donut boxes, because I had the upper hand. As I folded hundreds of pink boxes, I often pondered what “normal” is and who constructs the narrative. Normal is nothing more than a race of who speaks the loudest and writes the most stories. After enduring multiple paper cuts from the pink boxes over the years, I concluded that the opposite of normal is “resistance.” Resistance is the quieter and often erased stories of people and families’ lived experiences. To resist could be as simple as to exist.

“Normal” is speaking English with no accent at all. Resistance is a Vietnamese Chinese auntie born in Hội An, immigrating to San Jose due to the Resistance War Against America (aka Vietnam War), now working in an Asian supermarket speaking “broken” English. Resistance is the unacknowledged truth at face value: that English is the auntie’s sixth language behind Vietnamese, Cantonese, Teochew, Hokkien, and Mandarin.

Normal is measuring the success of a business by quarterly profits, equity, franchising, or going public. Resistance tells a tale of small immigrant-owned businesses succeeding through camaraderie and borderless community building among the diaspora. Resistance is the Cambodian refugee baker working at three different donut shops to send remittances to the motherland so his relatives can start a business of their own.

Sometimes when I return home to the donut shop, I automatically sit by the bar counter and begin folding pink boxes. My mother walks over with a plate of sliced watermelon and humors herself, “That’s not normal.” She talks about someone “with a master’s degree working in corporate law in New York City folding cardboard boxes at a simple donut shop.”

And she’s right — it’s not normal, it’s resistance.

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