28 February, 2017

This Is How Your Hyperpartisan Political News Gets Made - BuzzFeed News

This Is How Your Hyperpartisan Political News Gets Made - BuzzFeed News: "Now that it has at least two liberal sites and two conservative ones, American News LLC appears to be setting its sights on expanding its presence in the religious clickbait space. On Feb. 17 John Crane registered two new domains: DevoutAmerica.com and EthicalAmerican.com. Neither are active as of now.
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If you care about Trump's steak, or Kellyanne's feet on the couch, you may need a life - Washington Times

If you care about Trump's steak, or Kellyanne's feet on the couch, you may need a life - Washington Times: "Ms. Conway’s positioning to get a picture? Not a big deal. Mr. Trump’s steak preferences? Who cares. Let’s all just get over it, and on with our own lives.
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What I Heard From Trump Supporters - Sam Altman

What I Heard From Trump Supporters - Sam Altman: "After the election, I decided to talk to 100 Trump voters from around the country.  I went to the middle of the country, the middle of the state, and talked to many online.

This was a surprisingly interesting and helpful experience—I highly recommend it.



With three exceptions, I found something to like about everyone I talked to (though I strongly disagreed with many of the things they said).  Although it shouldn’t have surprised me given the voting data, I was definitely surprised by the diversity of the people I spoke to—I did not expect to talk to so many Muslims, Mexicans, Black people, and women in the course of this project."



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The Holocaust's Great Escape | History | Smithsonian

The Holocaust's Great Escape | History | Smithsonian: "After a day of disinterring and burning corpses, “we returned [to the bunker] on all fours,” Zeidel recalled years later, in a series of interviews with the filmmaker Claude Lanzmann, today held at an archive at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “We really fell like the dead. But,” Zeidel continued, “the spirit of initiative, the energy, the will that we had” helped sustain them. Once oxygen in the tunnel became too scarce to burn candles, a prisoner named Isaac Dogim, who had worked in Vilnius as an electrician, managed to wire the interior with lights, powered by a generator the Nazis had placed in the bunker. Behind the fake wall, the tunnel was expanding: 10 feet in length, 15. Gradually, the entire Burning Brigade was alerted to the escape plan. Dogim and Farber promised that no one would be left behind.

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thethreadkiller comments on Oxycodone bottle found in the woods with electronics inside.

thethreadkiller comments on Oxycodone bottle found in the woods with electronics inside.: "I still go to group sessions once every two weeks and am a huge fan of suboxone in a controlled environment. 85% of the people who go into my group and see the suboxone doctor are there because regular doctors lead them there through over prescribing. I am routinely blown away at what some of these people were prescribed. I had doctors look at me funny if I tell them I am in a lot of pain, yet some people are prescribed 100 perc 20s a month plus thrity 80 mg OC a month to deal with their painful back spasms. Doctors let these people take 7 to 8 different types of pain meds at huge doses over 10 years and then one day decide to cut them off, or the DEA shuts down the doctor leaving the poor addict to fend for themselves. The majority of these pain med addicts have no idea that they are addicts. They are people who have never done anything wrong in their life, and would never "do drugs". Then one day they cant get meds so they buy some on the street or the try to fill a prescription twice and BAM!!!!!! They are a Felon. In my group I attend, there is a 65 year old grandmother and she is on probation as a felon. She had no idea why she was feeling the way she was. She had no idea why she needed more and more more frequently. She had no idea that she could get into so much trouble for trying to double fill a prescription. She "knew it was wrong, but she wasn't hurting anybody.""



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FOX5 Surprise Squad: Couple Adopts Dying Neighbor’s 3 Kids, Comes Home, Finds House Different - YouTube

FOX5 Surprise Squad: Couple Adopts Dying Neighbor’s 3 Kids, Comes Home, Finds House Different - YouTube: "FOX5 Surprise Squad: Couple Adopts Dying Neighbor’s 3 Kids, Comes Home, Finds House Different
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27 February, 2017

26 February, 2017

The insane end of the Oscars sent a false message about racial progress - The Washington Post

The insane end of the Oscars sent a false message about racial progress - The Washington Post: "I hate that the contest between “Moonlight” and “La La Land,” which was framed as a litmus test about race and the entertainment industry, ended in confusion and a reversal that emphasized the sense that they were locked in a zero-sum contest, and that for “Moonlight” to win, “La La Land” not merely had to lose, but to be defeated.



 The truth is that both “Moonlight” and “La La Land” are highly moving, original works, and they went toe-to-toe during the ceremony, with “Moonlight” picking up three awards to “La La Land’s” five. Both movies produced a winner of an acting award. Both Jenkins, 37, and “La La Land” director Damien Chazelle, 32, are young directors of tremendous vision who are going to compete for Academy Awards again, maybe even against each other. Let’s hope the next time they do, they aren’t pitted against each other in a way that mirrors an ugly idea about racial progress that is ascendant in our politics: that the only way for members of one community to advance is at the expense of another. The Oscars ended in a painful way, but the wins “Moonlight” and “La La Land” racked up throughout the evening means we’ll be getting outstanding movies from both Jenkins and Chazelle for years to come. That’s good for moviegoers, and good for America."



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25 February, 2017

This Homeless Man Stopped Thousands Of People Becoming HIV-Positive - BuzzFeed News

This Homeless Man Stopped Thousands Of People Becoming HIV-Positive - BuzzFeed News: "Owen echoes this. “It’s amazing,” he says. “To make my HIV status count, and to fight back. It was really taxing and it cost me a lot personally – I don’t know how I didn’t break. I look back, the past 18 months, and think, Wow. I did the best I could do. Life went to shit, the failed suicide attempt, and I couldn’t figure out what I’d done wrong and now I think, if I hadn’t taken so much interest in HIV, I wouldn’t have been as dedicated to wanting to rectify that and even up the score. I look at all those things and think,‘OK, right, now it makes sense.”
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Own, Apologize, Repair: Coming Back to Integrity | Dating Tips for the Feminist Man

Own, Apologize, Repair: Coming Back to Integrity | Dating Tips for the Feminist Man: "For some, empathy may take effort, focus, or concentration. True empathy is not theoretical or abstract, it is a physiological relating with other human beings, stepping fully and deeply into experiences that are different from yours. If you find that empathy takes focus, then accept that you may have to cultivate this capacity within yourself, and do not lay this responsibility at the feet of anyone else. You can own that your empathic capacity is currently still limited, and develop a daily practice of expanding it in demonstrable ways as part of being accountable to those you have harmed.

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Andrea Park Survived a Traumatic Brain Injury—And Discovered a New Kind of Normal | Glamour

Andrea Park Survived a Traumatic Brain Injury—And Discovered a New Kind of Normal | Glamour:

Before my accident, I had always thought that happiness stemmed from achievements, but seeing all of my friends at my talk reminded me that what I already had was enough.
One recent evening, I took my dog for a walk in the rain and spotted a white rosebush behind my apartment building. The drops of water on its petals made it glisten in the moonlight. I felt like the luckiest person in the world to witness such beauty.


I would never want to experience my accident a second time, but the truth is that it gave me a gift: the ability to draw thrills from the mundane, and—even more important—to be happy with what I have.


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truemcgoo comments on Lego House

truemcgoo comments on Lego House: "I'm a residential carpenter/builder, I run a framing crew. This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. This is so inferior to standard framing that I am mildly furious that it exists.
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23 February, 2017

Leicester’s Soccer Fairy Tale Turns to Dust - The New York Times

Leicester’s Soccer Fairy Tale Turns to Dust - The New York Times: "With Ranieri’s departure, though, the reverie evaporates, and reality sets in. It was not a fantasy, of course, even if it feels like one, now more than ever. It did actually happen. But that only adds to the sadness, knowing that fantasies do not last, that sometimes, fantasies end like this, the cold, bleak sunlight pouring in.

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Many of the pioneers in the field of Computing were women. How did the field of Computer Science get so heavily male dominated? Also, why did the proportion of women graduates in CS decline in the US starting from 1980? : AskHistorians

Many of the pioneers in the field of Computing were women. How did the field of Computer Science get so heavily male dominated? Also, why did the proportion of women graduates in CS decline in the US starting from 1980? : AskHistorians:


Before the 1980s, it was common for incoming college freshmen to join computer science courses without ever having used a computer. If they had, it might have been a school computer; but when schools are getting computer clubs it's also around the time of Title IX so schools aren't supposed to bar girls from computer club or computer usage. So there was no big "reason" for girls to not take CS courses; everyone theoretically started on a level playing field.
But the rise of the personal computer changed that. Margolis interviewed incoming college women and found that they had much less access to personal computers than their male classmates had. Parents were less likely to buy computers for their daughters than they were for their sons, even when the daughters were just as interested in computing as comparable boys. Or there would be a "family computer", but it lived in their brother's bedroom.
It was around this time that college professors started expecting students to have computer experience before they ever took Comp Sci 101. After all, the new personal computer was granting people more and more access than ever before! Unfortunately, that access was not evenly distributed to young women, and they started off their college careers with less real experience and less confidence than their male peers.


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I Was a Muslim in the Trump White House—and I Lasted Eight Days - The Atlantic

I Was a Muslim in the Trump White House—and I Lasted Eight Days - The Atlantic: "The climate in 2016 felt like it did just after 9/11. What made it worse was that this fear and hatred were being fueled by Americans in positions of power. Fifth-grade students at a local Sunday school where I volunteered shared stories of being bullied by classmates and teachers, feeling like they didn’t belong here anymore, and asked if they might get kicked out of this country if Trump won. I was almost hit by a car by a white man laughing as he drove by in a Costco parking lot, and on another occasion was followed out of the metro by a man screaming profanities: “Fuck you! Fuck Islam! Trump will send you back!”  

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6 Surprising Things You Learn In The Alt-Right Media Bubble

6 Surprising Things You Learn In The Alt-Right Media Bubble: "So imagine all of the Western democracies as that hypothetical kid from earlier, the one who's experimenting with white supremacy and liking how it makes him feel. If we can figure out how to save that kid, we can save the world.

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22 February, 2017

FluxxxCapacitard comments on I am Judge Frank Caprio from Caught in Providence AMA!

FluxxxCapacitard comments on I am Judge Frank Caprio from Caught in Providence AMA!:

Everyone that had a role in a launch knew exactly what the implications of such actions were, and the seriousness associated with them. Not that anyone on a Ohio class ever actually did their intended job, or we wouldn't be having this conversation. Some of us fired test shots off Cape Canaveral. But that's it.
We joked. We kidded where we could to pass time and blow off steam. But when push came to shove, we knew how to do our job.
We also knew if we ever did our job, we wouldn't have anywhere to come home to. Old or young. There were no cowboys or gung-ho war-mongers. Mostly just family men. Husbands. Sons. We knew full well if we ever launched our wad, everyone we knew and loved wouldn't be there when and if we surfaced.
Having the keys that end the world, spending 3-5 months at sea waiting for the orders to do so, not something to be trifled with.


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On the Desecration of an American Jewish Cemetery – Medium

On the Desecration of an American Jewish Cemetery – Medium: "But this is not normal. This. Is. Not. Normal. Do not be complacent about your personal safety and the security of Jewish institutions. What we have built is priceless and deserves the peace that any other religious institution deserves. Try your best to be outraged every time someone threatens the lives of our little children. Allow yourself to feel sick for the parents and families who are terrorized. It’s cruel and evil. Please, don’t be like me. Don’t shrug and laugh like it’s a goof. It’s not a goof. You are entitled to be outraged. You are precious. Our babies our priceless. Our Torahs are beautiful. Our cemeteries are sacred. Anyone who tries to minimize your trauma or horror over these events or the anti-Semitism you laugh off every single day (and I know that you do) — ignore them, or if you have the strength educate them.
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20 February, 2017

‘Fast-forward spring’: America’s February warmth is extreme, and it’s just getting started - The Washington Post

‘Fast-forward spring’: America’s February warmth is extreme, and it’s just getting started - The Washington Post:

You could call the Groundhog’s Feb. 2 declaration of six more weeks of winter fake news or alternative facts. Since Punxsutawney Phil’s pronouncement, spring-like weather has overtaken much of the nation. And some of the month’s warmest weather with respect to normal is yet to come.
So far this month, the temperature has averaged more than five degrees above normal over the Lower 48 — with the warmest temperatures with respect to normal centered over Texas.
“I keep rubbing my eyes and wondering when I am going to wake up from this fast-forward spring,” writes meteorologist Paul Douglas for the Star Tribune. “Weather maps continue to keep looking like March this week with hints of April this weekend. Unreal.”


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Lin-Manuel Miranda on His Lifelong Oscars Obsession and Why the Show Still Matters (Guest Column) | Hollywood Reporter

Lin-Manuel Miranda on His Lifelong Oscars Obsession and Why the Show Still Matters (Guest Column) | Hollywood Reporter: "I don't think of it as the be-all and end-all — I think of it as a collection of moments. It's a glimpse behind the scenes of Hollywood and a glimpse of actors and filmmakers being themselves in a very unguarded, public moment. It's Sally Field saying, "You really like me." Or it's Denzel Washington winning the best actor Oscar on the same night that Sidney Poitier got the lifetime achievement award and saying, "Forty years I've been chasing Sidney, they finally give it to me. What do they do — they give it to him the same night." Which was the great line of the night that year. It's a chance of seeing artists being themselves and not hiding behind a role."



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North Carolina needed 6,500 farm workers. Only 7 Americans stuck it out. - The Washington Post

North Carolina needed 6,500 farm workers. Only 7 Americans stuck it out. - The Washington Post: "It's not so clear that's the case here. For one thing, Clemens looks at a labor market where employers are only using legal labor, which under the H-2A regulations means they have to pay the same wage to native and non-native laborers (a wage set by the government, according to the type of work and the geographic area where it's being done), and thus can't benefit from paying lower wages to migrant workers. If even under that standard, Americans aren't applying for the jobs, even when they have automatic preference over foreign workers, that tells you Americans are really avoiding them.

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The Real Crisis in Education | Angels And Superheroes

The Real Crisis in Education | Angels And Superheroes: "United States’ schools with fewer than 10% of students living in poverty score higher than any country in the world. Schools with student poverty rates that are less than 24.9% rank 3rd in the world, and schools with poverty rates ranging from 25% to 49.9% rank 10th in the world. However, schools with 50% to 74.9% poverty rates rank much lower – fifth from the bottom. Tragically, schools with 75% or higher poverty rates rank lower in reading scores than any country except Mexico.[3]

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Dreaming small: how America lost its taste for risk

Dreaming small: how America lost its taste for risk: "In most other ways, Cowen’s thesis is deeply troubling. Democracy requires growth to survive. It must also give space to society’s eccentrics and misfits. When Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the tyranny of the majority, it was not kingly despotism that he feared but conformism. America would turn into a place where people “wear themselves out in trivial, lonely, futile activity”, the Frenchman predicted. This modern tyranny would “degrade men rather than torment them”. Cowen does a marvellous job of turning his Tocquevillian eye to today’s America. His book is captivating precisely because it roves beyond the confines of his discipline. In Cowen’s world, the future is not what it used to be. Let us hope he is wrong. The less complacent we are, the likelier we are to disprove him.

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"I had to:" Man explains "honor" killing sister in Pakistan - CBS News

"I had to:" Man explains "honor" killing sister in Pakistan - CBS News:

Rajhu discovered that his sister had defied the family and married the Christian. For six days he paced. His rage grew. How could she?
He watched her laughing on the phone, ignoring their mother’s pleas to leave the man.
On the seventh day, he retrieved the pistol from where he had hidden it and walked up to his sister and with one bullet to the head, he killed her.


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15 February, 2017

Monopolies Are Worse Than We Thought - Bloomberg View

Monopolies Are Worse Than We Thought - Bloomberg View: "That leaves technological explanations. A recent paper by David Autor, David Dorn, Lawrence Katz, Christina Patterson and John van Reenen speculates that tech might have enabled the rise of a few “superstar” companies in each industry. The fact that leaders in more concentrated industries also tend to have higher productivity supports this hypothesis. Technology might have simply changed the nature of markets so that the winners take most of the profits.

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Georgia wins major victory in multi-state water wars | WSB-TV

Georgia wins major victory in multi-state water wars | WSB-TV: "Georgia won a major victory on Tuesday in a costly and long-running legal dispute with Florida over control of water resources.

A special master appointed by the U.S. Supreme Court decided Florida failed to prove that new limits on Georgia’s water consumption were needed after five weeks of hearing testimony in the case.

“Florida has failed to show that a consumption cap will afford adequate relief,” wrote Ralph Lancaster Jr., the special master appointed to the case."



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14 February, 2017

Senate easily confirms Trump pick of Shulkin as VA secretary - ABC News

Senate easily confirms Trump pick of Shulkin as VA secretary - ABC News: "Senators voted 100-0 to approve the former Obama administration official, who was the VA's top health official since 2015, in a rare show of bipartisanship amid partisan rancor over Trump's other nominees. Shulkin secured the backing of Senate Democrats after pledging at his confirmation hearing to always protect veterans' interests, even if it meant disagreeing at times with Trump.

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FallenKnightGX comments on 'Every Racist I Know Voted for Donald Trump'

FallenKnightGX comments on 'Every Racist I Know Voted for Donald Trump': "In that clip, the intro of the segment is pure condescension toward any issue a white person may be facing, is oversimplified by saying they had privilege in the past, and implies any suffering in this day and age is whining (which they then use a white, spoiled rotten, nobody celebrity to prove their point with). This effectively ignores all the real issues white people face (economic issues for one) and turns away people from wanting to help / make things better. It also ignores the fact that many people in their mid-30s / 40s had known only a growing movement for equality their entire life and tried to make it a better world themselves. To alienate these people's struggles was a poor idea and to them it was on par of a betrayal.
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White House posts wrong versions of Trump's orders on its website

White House posts wrong versions of Trump's orders on its website: "A USA TODAY review of presidential documents found at least five cases where the version posted on the White House website doesn't match the official version sent to the Federal Register. The differences include minor grammatical changes, missing words and paragraph renumbering — but also two cases where the original text referred to inaccurate or non-existent provisions of law.

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Why check-cashing stores are a good deal, according to a UPenn professor - Business Insider

Why check-cashing stores are a good deal, according to a UPenn professor - Business Insider: "Not all check cashers are the same, but the perception of the industry as seedy doesn't jibe with Servon's experience. And contrary to the views of the financial elite, customers' use of check cashers typically didn't seem naive or poorly thought out, but rather the smartest decision they could make given their circumstances, according to Servon.

"It showed me that those decisions are often rational, logical decisions, even if they're expensive," Servon said."



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12 February, 2017

A ‘human slaughterhouse’ in Syria - The Washington Post

A ‘human slaughterhouse’ in Syria - The Washington Post: "Amnesty’s report, based on a year of research and 84 interviews with former Saydnaya prisoners, guards, judges, doctors and others, estimates that between 5,000 and 13,000 civilians were extrajudicially executed at the facility outside of Damascus between September 2011 and December 2015 — and there is no reason to believe the killings have stopped since then. These were not rebel fighters, but civilians perceived to oppose the government in some way: participants in demonstrations, dissidents, human rights advocates, journalists.

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11 February, 2017

TIL that, due to a wartime shortage of copper, the Manhattan Project borrowed almost 15,000 tons of silver from the US Treasury to make wiring for the electromagnets in isotope-separating mass spectrometers. The wire, worth over a billion dollars at the time, was removed and returned after the war. : todayilearned

TIL that, due to a wartime shortage of copper, the Manhattan Project borrowed almost 15,000 tons of silver from the US Treasury to make wiring for the electromagnets in isotope-separating mass spectrometers. The wire, worth over a billion dollars at the time, was removed and returned after the war. : todayilearned: "To provide windings for the Y-12 electromagnets, massive amounts of silver were borrowed from the U.S. Treasury Department’s storage facility at West Point, N.Y. A Treasury Department official there said, “We sell silver in Troy ounces. How much do you want?” The answer: “We need about 15,000 tons of silver!” The metal was shipped to Allis Chalmers in Milwaukee, where it was rolled into ribbons and wound into coils for the Y-12 electromagnets.
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It’s strangely simple to throw a parade on the streets of New Orleans - The Globe and Mail

It’s strangely simple to throw a parade on the streets of New Orleans - The Globe and Mail: "So six of us threw a parade on the streets of New Orleans for our pal Chris’s bachelor party. Two uniformed police officers on Vespas coaxed crowds and cars off the road, clearing a path as Chris, in a top hat, led the way with a plastic baton. Behind us, a five-man brass band announced our presence, tailed by a police cruiser. The roads were ours; this was a fully legal, licensed affair, and for 30 elating minutes, the cops made sure we could dance and drink as much as we wanted as we marched past swarms of onlookers.

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To the milk crate stranger at 7-11: Thank you : TwoXChromosomes

To the milk crate stranger at 7-11: Thank you : TwoXChromosomes: ""Well, it seems like you really hit the jackpot. You have a job you love and bosses that treat you fairly and respectfully. And you have coworkers who you wouldn't mind seeing outside of work. That's quite an accomplishment right there." He pauses there. "I have a daughter who's just about to finish up her freshman year of high school this May. And she just started her first job about a week ago at this clothing store at the mall. And she tells me she couldn't be happier. She gets to work with a lot of her friends from school, has a nice boss, and the work is not so hard where it starts to interfere with her studying. And I was actually at the mall just yesterday, so I stopped in to see how she was doing. Of course, I didn't let her see me as I didn't want to be one of those dads who embarrasses their daughters in front of their friends. And for the brief few minutes that I saw her, as she organized this table of shirts and laughed with one of her coworkers, I knew that she was really happy. And I know that her boss really appreciates the work that she's doing there, as I'm sure yours does. And I'm sure that, if your bosses really love and appreciate and respect you, that they wouldn't want you pushing yourself so hard that you make yourself sick. They would want you to take care of yourself. Because with all the care and dedication you put into your job, sometimes you need to put a little bit care back into yourself."
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These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences - The Atlantic

These Conservative Christians Are Opposed to Trump—and Suffering the Consequences - The Atlantic: "Donald Trump has divided conservative Christian communities. Most white Christians support Trump, or at least voted for him. Some who have spoken out against his presidency or his policies, though, have encountered backlash. For a small group of people working in Christian ministry, music, and nonprofit advocacy, the consequences have been tangible: They’ve faced pressure from their employers, seen funds withdrawn from their mission work, or lost performing gigs because of their political beliefs.

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Confessions of a Catholic convert to capitalism | America Magazine

Confessions of a Catholic convert to capitalism | America Magazine: "My search for the “why” of this miracle required almost no detective work. Virtually all development economists, across the mainstream political spectrum, agreed on the core explanation. It was not the success of international organizations like the United Nations (as important as they are) nor benevolent foreign aid that pulled billions back from the brink of starvation. Rather, the responsibility lay with five interrelated forces that were in the midst of reshaping the worldwide economy: globalization, free trade, property rights, the rule of law and the culture of entrepreneurship. In short, it was the American free enterprise system, spreading around the world, that had effected this anti-poverty miracle.

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Why the headline “Children being born in the United States today have 50% chance of being in near poverty” is misleading – Surprisingly strange

Why the headline “Children being born in the United States today have 50% chance of being in near poverty” is misleading – Surprisingly strange: "A headline that has been making rounds on the internet claims that almost half of children born in the United States live near poverty. This statement, however, is misleading and is, in essence, a tautology that gets its shocking figure by stretching the definition of words such as “near” and “almost” to their breaking point.

The largest problem with the headline is that it only work when you define near poverty as”$48,072 for a family of four with two children in 2015″ which is stretching the word “near” to its breaking point. The average household income in the United States is only “$51,939” so defining “$48,000″ as being near poverty will include more than 40% of the population in the figure. A less misleading headline would be ” A child has a 40% chance of being born in the bottom 40% American household” which is far more accurate and also slightly disturbing but isn’t going to get people to click on it and be outraged."



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On the people behind the news

TheLagDemon comments on Rant: buying concert tickets online is an absolute joke!: "When she came back, our teacher told us about the Jeremy story from her perspective and told us about all the years of therapy she'd been through since and how she was still struggling with it. She apparently had been unable to work for months after witnessing the suicide. She told us the book incident had made her relieve the experience and that it had temporarily undone much of what her therapy had accomplished over the years. She didn't manage to maintain her composure during the story, which made it his us even harder to hear. I wasn't even one of the people laughing and I still felt ashamed for just witness to it and just terrible for my poor teacher. This whole incident made me keenly aware of the fact that there are real people behind the stories we read in the news, in a way I wasn't before. More than that, it was one of those experiences that caused me to immediately grow up in some way. In this case, it did a lot to cure me of the worst of my edgy teenager behavioural and made me less of an asshole overall.
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09 February, 2017

Meet the Procuremenati: USDS’ Acquisition Experts – The U.S. Digital Service – Medium

Meet the Procuremenati: USDS’ Acquisition Experts – The U.S. Digital Service – Medium:



  1. Emphasize project missions and challenges to attract the best vendor talent. Great digital service providers are often motivated by the magnitude of the problems they can solve when they work for the government.
  2. Pay for results, not time. A working product is the ultimate metric of success.
  3. Don’t lock technical requirements into contracts so that new, more effective technologies and methods are not blocked.
  4. Buy design and agile software development services as a repeated process for the delivery of a working product. Technological enhancements never end.
  5. Determine how much of the budget to invest in finding the right solution. Only continue investing if value is demonstrated.
  6. Buy small, build small, test, and iterate. Set up each contract for a quick win, then determine how to scale that success or pivot quickly.
  7. Leverage the efficiency of commercial contracting methods. If and when possible, use services and tools sold by private sector vendors.
  8. Choose teams that have demonstrated success in developing trust, accountability, and navigating cultural barriers. Evaluate demonstrated coding skills and quality of previous delivery expertise as an indicator for future performance.
  9. Get solutions into the hands of users quickly. Incorporate accessibility, security, and usability testing into the process to avoid bottlenecks.
'via Blog this'

California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers - The New York Times

California Farmers Backed Trump, but Now Fear Losing Field Workers - The New York Times: "“We’re just waiting and praying, hoping that somebody can convince them that we are not hurting anyone by being here,” said Isabel Rios, 49, who has been picking grapes for the last two decades. Like most women in the fields, she covers her face with a bandanna to protect against the blaring sun, dust and pesticides. Her two children, 9 and 18, are American-born citizens and she worries what will happen to them if she is sent back to Mexico. “Who will benefit if we are not here?”

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Marco Rubio just gave a really important speech — but almost no one paid attention - The Washington Post

Marco Rubio just gave a really important speech — but almost no one paid attention - The Washington Post: "But simply because Rubio is a politician doesn't mean that what he says should be dismissed out of hand. What Rubio is reacting to is something I hear time and time again when I talk to people about politics. When did “reasonable people can disagree” stop being something we believed in? Why can't genuine debate not descend into name-calling? Why is confrontation the only way the two parties — and their leading politicians — seem to interact these days?

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Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation

Capitalism vs. the Climate | The Nation: " When public opinion on the big social and political issues changes, the trends tend to be relatively gradual. Abrupt shifts, when they come, are usually precipitated by dramatic events. Which is why pollsters are so surprised by what has happened to perceptions about climate change over a span of just four years. A 2007 Harris poll found that 71 percent of Americans believed that the continued burning of fossil fuels would cause the climate to change. By 2009 the figure had dropped to 51 percent. In June 2011 the number of Americans who agreed was down to 44 percent—well under half the population. According to Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, this is “among the largest shifts over a short period of time seen in recent public opinion history.”"



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Police officers of Reddit, what's the dumbest call you've ever had to respond to? : AskReddit

Police officers of Reddit, what's the dumbest call you've ever had to respond to? : AskReddit:

Uncle: 911, what's your emergency?
Caller: Yes, I'd like to report two suspicious vehicles passing something back and forth in Potawatomi park.
Uncle: Ok, we'll send an officer out to assess.
Uncle: Dispatch to car 45, two suspicious vehicles in Potawatomi park, passing items back and forth.
Car 45: Uhhh...car 45 to dispatch, that's me and Officer Somethingerother, passing Cheetos...
Uncle: 10-4



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08 February, 2017

Usonia 1 - 99% Invisible

Usonia 1 - 99% Invisible: "For Wright, housing the American people was a matter of individualization, mass-customization, rather than cookie-cutter mass-production . He saw America as a country of individuals, and his vision for the nation was one of decentralization, where people spread would out away from cities on private lots (a Utopian vision of suburbia), living independently, humbly, within nature.

"



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Usonia 1 - 99% Invisible

Usonia 1 - 99% Invisible: "For Wright, housing the American people was a matter of individualization, mass-customization, rather than cookie-cutter mass-production . He saw America as a country of individuals, and his vision for the nation was one of decentralization, where people spread would out away from cities on private lots (a Utopian vision of suburbia), living independently, humbly, within nature.

"



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07 February, 2017

Income share for the bottom 50% of Americans is ‘collapsing,’ new Piketty research finds - MarketWatch

Income share for the bottom 50% of Americans is ‘collapsing,’ new Piketty research finds - MarketWatch: "A new research paper from economists including Thomas Piketty finds that the bottom 50%’s share of income in the United States is “collapsing.”

The paper, written by Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Piketty, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, studies global inequality dynamics. And while there are rising top income and wealth shares in nearly all countries, the magnitude varies substantially.

In the U.S., between 1978 and 2015, the income share of the bottom 50% fell to 12% from 20%. Total real income for that group fell 1% during that time period."



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Flying Home From Abroad, a Border Agent Stopped and Questioned Me … About My Work for the ACLU | American Civil Liberties Union

Flying Home From Abroad, a Border Agent Stopped and Questioned Me … About My Work for the ACLU | American Civil Liberties Union: "It didn’t happen during the Bush years when I traveled to meet with and represent Afghan and Iraqi survivors of U.S. military torture, to Guantanamo as an observer at the military commissions there, or to attend meetings and give talks abroad about U.S. human rights abuses in the national security context. It didn’t happen during the Obama years when my work included challenges to unlawful targeted killing, anti-Muslim discrimination, unfair watchlisting, illegal spying, and other U.S. government abuses at home and abroad.

"



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06 February, 2017

Take On Me - a-ha - Brooklyn Duo at Carnegie Hall - YouTube

Take On Me - a-ha - Brooklyn Duo at Carnegie Hall - YouTube: "Take On Me by a-ha, arranged and performed LIVE on cello, piano, and with chamber ensemble by Brooklyn Duo and Ensemble Connect.
"



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Modern American Heroes · “Six Seconds to Live”

Modern American Heroes · “Six Seconds to Live”: "A few minutes later a large blue truck turned down the alley way-perhaps 60-70 yards in length-and sped its way through the serpentine of concrete jersey walls. The truck stopped just short of where the two were posted and detonated, killing them both catastrophically. Twenty-four brick masonry houses were damaged or destroyed. A mosque 100 yards away collapsed. The truck’s engine came to rest two hundred yards away knocking most of a house down before it stopped. Our explosive experts reckoned the blast was made of 2,000 pounds of explosives. Two died, and because these two young infantrymen didn’t have it in their DNA to run from danger, they saved 150 of their Iraqi and American brothers-in-arms."



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05 February, 2017

Three Simple Rules Poor Teens Should Follow to Join the Middle Class | Brookings Institution

Three Simple Rules Poor Teens Should Follow to Join the Middle Class | Brookings Institution: "In addition to the thousands of local and national programs that aim to help young people avoid these life-altering problems, we should figure out more ways to convince young people that their decisions will greatly influence whether they avoid poverty and enter the middle class. Let politicians, schoolteachers and administrators, community leaders, ministers and parents drill into children the message that in a free society, they enter adulthood with three major responsibilities: at least finish high school, get a full-time job and wait until age 21 to get married and have children.

"



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Full Text of Remarks by Top State Dep’t Official Discharged by Trump’s White House–Tom Countryman’s Powerful Farewell Address | Just Security

Full Text of Remarks by Top State Dep’t Official Discharged by Trump’s White House–Tom Countryman’s Powerful Farewell Address | Just Security:

Our work is little understood by our fellow Americans, a fact that is sometimes exploited for political purpose. When I have the opportunity to speak to audiences across this amazing land, I explain “We do not have a Department of State – we do not have a foreign policy – because we love foreigners. We do it because we love Americans.”
We want Americans to prosper, to sell the world’s best food and the world’s best products everywhere in the world. We want Americans to be protected and safe when they are abroad, whether they are missionaries, tourists, students, businessmen or (for those you have done consular work) the occasional false Messiah.


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04 February, 2017

The Game Is On. Can You Please Take the Politics Outside? - The New York Times

The Game Is On. Can You Please Take the Politics Outside? - The New York Times:

Bonding over sports, television, comedy, the latest Netflix series and more is healthy and valuable. President Obama’s farewell address in Chicago asked us to do as much: “If you’re tired of arguing with strangers on the internet, try talking with one of them in real life.”
Breaking down the walls between us is easier to do when our culture is not so politicized — when we can feel free to watch, laugh and cheer alongside our fellow Americans without catching ourselves wondering how they voted. That is the healthier way to live, particularly in the era of Donald Trump.


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With his dying words, poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko named Putin as his killer - The Washington Post

With his dying words, poisoned spy Alexander Litvinenko named Putin as his killer - The Washington Post: "Russian “troublemakers” have a long history of getting killed creatively. Leon Trotsky got an ice pick to the skull in 1940. One dissident was killed with a poison-tipped umbrella. Another was hit by a missile. Two critics of Russian President Vladimir Putin took bullets to the head several years ago. And so, in November of 2006, as a Russian ex-spy poisoned with polonium lay on his deathbed, many thought it was clear what had happened.

"



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Freed from jihadists, Mosul residents focus fury on Iraqi politicians | Reuters

Freed from jihadists, Mosul residents focus fury on Iraqi politicians | Reuters: "For now, Mosul residents are focusing on their immediate needs, finding jobs and persuading authorities to provide basic services like water and electricity.

Former Iraqi soldier Azhar Mohamed was relieved when Islamic State was driven out of Mosul. When they were running Mosul, he often moved from house to house, rarely spending more than a night in one place to avoid capture.

But hardships persist. He too can't seem to persuade authorities to give him his job back, so he can start to rebuild in a city with rows and rows of demolished buildings, shuttered shops and deep suspicions of the Baghdad government.

"I just want my job," said Mohamed.

"



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The Death Of Expertise

The Death Of Expertise: "I fear we are witnessing the “death of expertise”: a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laymen, students and teachers, knowers and wonderers – in other words, between those of any achievement in an area and those with none at all. By this, I do not mean the death of actual expertise, the knowledge of specific things that sets some people apart from others in various areas. There will always be doctors, lawyers, engineers, and other specialists in various fields. Rather, what I fear has died is any acknowledgement of expertise as anything that should alter our thoughts or change the way we live.

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‘My guardian angel’: He was homeless when they took him in. He became like family to them. - The Washington Post

‘My guardian angel’: He was homeless when they took him in. He became like family to them. - The Washington Post: "The signs announcing his death appeared two weeks ago, tied to a black wrought-iron fence in front of a commanding brick house on 13th Street in Northwest Washington. “Remembering Wilbert E. Anderson,” the two signs proclaim, “who loved this neighborhood and visiting with everyone who walked by. 1940-2017.”

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In Trump’s Washington, Nothing Feels Stable - WSJ

In Trump’s Washington, Nothing Feels Stable - WSJ:

Last week’s executive order on immigration continues to reverberate. There was no Republican in Washington—not one, on the Hill or within the party structure—who did not privately call the order a disaster. Its public defenders argue it put force and focus on efforts to make America safer, that it was long-promised, that it’s a pause, not a ban, and one of relatively narrow scope. But it could have been done without such expense if it had been done without surprise and with coordination. You have to help your allies in the agencies and on the Hill know, understand and be able to defend what you’re doing. Instead, they were ignored, especially lawmakers. The Congress of the United States is not composed of meek and modest human beings. They were not amused to spend the days after the order taking phone calls from frightened, angry constituents and donors. (A senator, on its suddenness and the anguish at the airports: “They couldn’t do a three-day grace period?”)



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02 February, 2017

Chill, America. Not every Trump outrage is outrageous. - The Washington Post

Chill, America. Not every Trump outrage is outrageous. - The Washington Post: "But a continual state of panic serves no purpose and will eventually numb voters and their institutions to real threats when they inevitably arise. Trump is, without doubt, the most unusual chief executive in American history. He has promised to do many things, some of which are almost certainly impossible and a few of which are probably unconstitutional. In the meantime, he won his election fairly — as determined by the electoral college and certified by Congress — and he is thus mandated to staff and run a superpower.

"



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Covering Trump the Reuters Way | Reuters

Covering Trump the Reuters Way | Reuters: "To state the obvious, Reuters is a global news organization that reports independently and fairly in more than 100 countries, including many in which the media is unwelcome and frequently under attack. I am perpetually proud of our work in places such as Turkey, the Philippines, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Thailand, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia, nations in which we sometimes encounter some combination of censorship, legal prosecution, visa denials, and even physical threats to our journalists. We respond to all of these by doing our best to protect our journalists, by recommitting ourselves to reporting fairly and honestly, by doggedly gathering hard-to-get information – and by remaining impartial. We write very rarely about ourselves and our troubles and very often about the issues that will make a difference in the businesses and lives of our readers and viewers.

"



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01 February, 2017

How Author Timothy Tyson Found the Woman at the Center of the Emmett Till Case | Vanity Fair

How Author Timothy Tyson Found the Woman at the Center of the Emmett Till Case | Vanity Fair: "In a new book, The Blood of Emmett Till (Simon & Schuster), Timothy Tyson, a Duke University senior research scholar, reveals that Carolyn—in 2007, at age 72—confessed that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her testimony. “That part’s not true,” she told Tyson, about her claim that Till had made verbal and physical advances on her. As for the rest of what happened that evening in the country store, she said she couldn’t remember. (Carolyn is now 82, and her current whereabouts have been kept secret by her family.)"



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The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the richest families in Florence — Quartz

The richest families in Florence in 1427 are still the richest families in Florence — Quartz: "While researchers admit the flaws to tracing family wealth using surnames, they point out Italian surnames are usually highly regional and tend to pass on linearly. The families at the top of the socioeconomic ladder six centuries ago are the top earners among current taxpayers. Those at the top of the ladder had the most prestigious jobs, while families at the bottom had less esteemed occupations, with earnings below the median.
"



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Three Numbers That Help Explain Atlanta’s Offensive Success

Three Numbers That Help Explain Atlanta’s Offensive Success: "The Falcons are among the best at using running backs and tight ends to create mismatches

"



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Atlanta | The Players' Tribune

Atlanta | The Players' Tribune: "But in my mind, even from a prison cell, there was at least one thing I hadn’t lost: I was still the Atlanta Falcons quarterback.

That was my job, on my team, in my city.

They could take everything else — I deserved it. They could have everything. But my job … my team … my city? Those three things, I was going to get back. It’s what I thought about on the day that I walked into prison, and it’s what I thought about pretty much every day after that.



 That is, until April 26, 2008.

"



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Trump Isn't Crazy | Psychology Today

Trump Isn't Crazy | Psychology Today:

But they ignore the further requirement that is crucial in defining all mental disorders—the behaviors also must cause clinically significant distress or impairment. 
Trump is clearly a man singularly without distress and his behaviors consistently reap him fame, fortune, women, and now political power. He has been generously rewarded, not at all impaired by it. 
Dismissing Trump as simply mad paradoxically reduces our ability to deal with his actions.
Trump isn't crazy.


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