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Digital Health Startup Hims & Hers Goes Public In $1.6 Billion SPAC Deal
UnitedHealth Group Profits Tumble As Covid-19 Medical Costs Rise
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Aug 31, 2018, 10:00am EDT |
New Legal Center Gives Military Sexual Assault Survivors A Voice And Hope
Tara HaelleSenior Contributor
I offer straight talk on science, medicine, health and vaccines.
Aviation Commander Darchelle Mitchell was raped by a colleague and is now among those speaking up... [+] with Protect Our Defenders to push for changes in the way the military treats victims of sexual assault. Read more of her story here: www.protectourdefenders.com/survivor-stories-darchelle/
Protect Our Defenders, Darchelle Mitchell
It's been more than three years since former Chief Prosecutor of the Air Force Colonel Don Christensen left the military feeling disgusted with its treatment of sexual assault victims and ready to advocate on their behalf from outside the armed forces.
But even as he has fought for survivors in his role as president of Protect Our Defenders — a nonprofit dedicated to combating sexual assault and harassment in the military — Christensen has not been able to put to use his strongest asset—his skills and knowledge as a practicing lawyer who knows the military justice system from the inside out.
That's just changed with Protect Our Defenders' launch of a new Law Center providing free, direct legal assistance with military-related sexual assault cases. The organization's existing legal services program helps train pro bono civilian lawyers in the complexities of representing sexual assault survivors' cases in the often idiosyncratic military justice system.
The new law center's services have grown increasingly in demand, Christensen said. When he joined the organization nearly four years ago, about 200 survivors on average sought legal help each year with their cases involving the military, whether they were current or former service members themselves, military dependents or civilians not otherwise involved in the military. This year, Christensen is expecting 500-600 people to seek their services.
The new center executive director, Becky Burke, previously directed the pro bono programs at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
Although the existing Protect Our Defenders program refers survivors to attorneys, the program's services did not include direct representation of survivors until now. Previously, lawyers representing survivors could not discuss the specifics of a case with Christensen or others at Protect Our Defenders because it would violate attorney-client privilege.
"Sometimes they have a quick question that could be answered quite quickly, but sometimes it might take a month to give them an answer that we could have given them in an hour," Christensen said.
But the new law center's direct representation of clients means they can serve as co-counsel on cases and offer Christensen's inside knowledge of the military justice system to pro bono attorneys—few of whom have military justice experience—with questions about the process or a specific detail on a case.
Civilian Attorneys Unaffected by Military Politics
One of those pro bono attorneys is Mary Rose Hughes, a partner at the international law firm Perkins Coie based in Washington, DC. Hughes had little previous experience with sexual assault cases and no experience with the military justice system when she attended a Protect Our Defenders presentation on the need for pro bono attorneys. Christensen's knowledge and passion impressed her, so she attended training and has since taken on several cases.
"The intensely personal nature of the crime and the fact that frequently there is not a lot of extrinsic evidence make these cases particularly challenging," Hughes said. "You have a lot of issues related to what the victim reports and how their reports are taken within the system. Some of it is just getting the attention of the right people and moving it through the system so that the victim and the accused can feel justice was done."
The military adds yet another layer of complexity. "The military has its own culture," Hughes said. "It's a completely different world in many respects."
Though, she said it's not so different that civilian litigators should feel intimidated about taking on cases. In fact, civilian representation may benefit survivors in ways their military representation cannot. (Some survivors are entitled to a military lawyer and some are not for varying reasons.)
"We're unencumbered by not being in the military," Hughes said. "I don't really care about an evaluation as a JAG [justice advocate general, or a military lawyer] officer might. I'm a civilian and doing the best I can all the way through the process."
Civilian attorneys can also provide a measure of consistency and continuity when JAG officers rotate off cases. Sometimes a victim will be represented by multiple consecutive JAGs who must learn the details of their case each time.
Christensen also hopes his direct involvement in cases will put the military on notice with more cases since they already pay attention when Protect Our Defenders becomes involved in a case.
"They know the connections we have with the media with members of Congress and they know the experience I bring, so they have to take that case more seriously," he said.
Fighting the Root of the Problem: Military Cover-Ups
Christensen also hopes to represent more clients who want to make claims against the government as the family of Adrian Perry is doing. Perry's young daughter was sexually assaulted by her husband's commander in the Marine Corps, Colonel Daniel Hunter Wilson—despite Wilson's long history of inappropriate sexual behavior that the Marine Corps swept under the rug, Perry said. Wilson was ultimately found guilty of sexual assault and sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison.
"Their failure to properly hold Wilson accountable for his previous misbehavior cost my daughter her innocence," Perry said. "That's a hard reality to live with. That was preventable. The red flags were out there."
Now her family is pursuing a $25 million claim against the Marine Corps for their inaction.
"This sets a tone that sweeping misconduct under a rug is not ever going to be tolerated," Perry said. "It's detrimental, and if they're not catching and addressing these red flag behaviors, it's only going to get worse."
Christensen said he took on the case because suing the government is "one of the few ways we can get the military's attention about how messed up things are. The military clearly harmed her family, and this is our chance to try to get some recognition by the military that they had done that," he said.
Christensen's military career had been unusual in that he spent far more time in the military justice system than is typical for a Justice Advocate General (JAG, or military lawyer), who usually move around to different advisory assignments. But the extra time he spent gave him a chance to see how the system really worked—and didn't.
"Over the years, I started seeing the problems we have in the military justice system. I started asking, 'Why are we doing this?' and 'Why are we doing that?' There was never really a good answer," Christensen said.
When he became more senior in rank, he saw more clearly how the military was more concerned about protecting the accused, regardless of the evidence, and less interested in seeking justice.
"Seeing the way victims were treated, it just really started wearing on me," Christensen said.
Christensen finally left the Air Force after 23 years when his successful prosecution of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson on sexual assault charges was overturned by Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin. Though Wilkerson and Franklin both ultimately were forced to retire from the military, it was a Pyrrhic victory, and Christensen was done trying to effect change from within the system.
"There was immense pressure for me to defend the general, both directly and indirectly, and it was clear what the Air Force wanted was for me to say that Franklin made the right choice," Christensen said. "I never heard a single person express any concern about the victim and the impact it had on her. It was all about Franklin and the impact it had on him and the military justice process."
Christensen teamed up with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand to push for legislative changes in the system through each year's National Defense Authorization Act and other bills, such as the Military Justice Improvement Act of 2017 (which consistently dies in committee), but like Gillibrand, he wants to see more.
"Prosecution rates have plummeted despite the fact that reports are at a record high," Christensen said. "The sentencing process in the military process is insane. It fails to deliver any kind of measure of satisfaction to victims when they see how lightly their perpetrators were punished. It's embarrassingly bad and archaic, but the military leadership clutches to it like it's the Holy Grail for some reason."
An April 2017 Pentagon report showed a 10 percent increase in sexual assault reports in the military. Though the increase may be resulting from increased awareness and survivors' willingness to speak up, the more than 6,500 sex offenses reported demonstrates how pervasive the problem is.
People like Perry see Protect Our Defenders as their best hope for seeking justice and change that prevents others' future suffering.
"They offer hope in the midst of situations where survivors find themselves completely hopeless because so many doors are closed on survivors in terms of pursuing justice or navigating the justice system itself and knowing what resources are available and what rights they have," Perry said. "The fact that they are starting their own legal group is just fantastic. It's going to give so many survivors hope that they have a chance in having their voice heard."
I am a freelance science and multimedia journalist who specializes in reporting on vaccines, pediatric and maternal health, parenting, public health, mental health,
I am a freelance science and multimedia journalist who specializes in reporting on vaccines, pediatric and maternal health, parenting, public health, mental health, medical research, and the social sciences. My work has appeared in The New York Times, NPR, Scientific American, Medscape, Self, the Washington Post, Politico, Everyday Health, Slate, Frontline Medical Communications and elsewhere. I coauthored The Informed Parent: An Evidence-Based Resource for Your Child's First Four Years with Emily Willingham. I also recently published Vaccination Investigation: The History and Science of Vaccines and have written several science books for children. I regularly blog at my evidence-based parenting blog Red Wine & Applesauce and at the Association of Health Care Journalists, and I've delivered a TEDx Oslo talk on why parents fear vaccines. I received my master's in journalism at the University of Texas at Austin (also my undergrad alma mater). I previously taught at Bradley University and in Texas high schools, and I often think of my journalism as a form of teaching, by helping others understand science and medical research and by debunking misinformation about vaccines, chemicals and other misunderstood topics.


text:
Soo Locks shut down after freighter loses power, hits pier
The incident involving Atlantic Huron closed the locks for more than five hours
(SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.) — The Soo Locks were shut down for more than five hours early Sunday after a Canadian freighter lost power as it approached Poe Lock, striking the west center pier. The impact damaged the freighter and the pier, MLive.com reported.
No one was injured, and the amount of damage to pier will be better assessed this week when divers examine the site, said Kevin Sprague, the Soo area engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The main lock system itself was not damaged, and no pollution was reported.
The 736-foot Atlantic Huron, owned by Canada Steamship Lines, was downbound and approaching the Soo Locks just before 3 a.m. on Sunday when it appears the ship lost power, Sprague said.
The freighter's crew dropped anchor to try to halt their approach, but struck the pier.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Abstracted to entangled organisation
Opinion 03 Apr 2020
This article is part of the Futures in Long-termism series. You can read all other related blogs by following the links at the bottom of the text.
The form of the limited liability company (LLC) originated during the Roman Empire, with the legal structure of the slave-run company. Two partners allocated certain assets to a business that was owned by a slave. The partners' liability for any losses was limited to those assets. Today, corporate governance practices are linked even more tightly with maximising shareholder protection by developing a meshwork of contracts that shield assets and shift losses to creditors, perpetuating negligent short-term decision-making. Dissociating risk from rewards, has resulted in dissociating companies from their context. The concept of Entangled Organisations attempts to reverse this effect; searching for an evolution of the corporate form that is enmeshed in localities promoting long-term sustainable conduct.
The rise of the LLC is a story of taxpayer ingenuity, adept political lobbying and entrepreneurial innovation that promised the best of two worlds—the limited liability of corporations and the favorable tax treatment of partnerships.
As Katharina Pistor argues in her book The Code of Capital, the LLC owes its success to three elements: Entity-shielding, loss-shifting and the prospect of immortality. The first of these creates distinct asset pools with distinct creditors; if one pool fails the others are not affected. The second aspect allows shareholders to limit their own losses by shifting the risk of doing business to others, even to the public at large. The third element points to the fact that corporations can only dissolve in a bankruptcy by the voluntary act of shareholders.
Through these three elements, the risks created by the LLC have been dissociated from their reward structures, creating an important problem—what economists call the phenomenon of moral hazard—the notion that negligence, mismanagement, and fraudulent behavior become more likely when decision-makers aren't liable for their actions. Company managers are confident about taking gambles because they reap the rewards of success (through bonus checks) but can pass the harms of failure to others.
Another element that amplifies the recklessness of the LLC is the abstraction of money. Monetary values are the main metrics for the success of an LLC—but such abstracted systems discount huge amounts of embedded value, leaving stakeholders absorbing the risk. For example, forests only become legible to companies through their timber value, but extended values to other stakeholders (e.g. local populations or animals) cannot be accounted for or represented through monetary metrics. This becomes apparent in current price signals that do not reflect the need to conserve forests for long-term sustainability. As a result, the more mono-dimensional and abstract, or focused on money, the system becomes, the less capable it's dealing with local volatilities. For proof of this, look no further than the bush fires blazing across Australia.
At the same time, we're observing corporate longevity decreasing. The average life expectancy of Fortune 500 companies has decreased from 75 to 15 years in the last 50 years. Companies are becoming discontinuous, with little meaningful investment towards employees and other stakeholders, ripping benefits—the latest CEO-to-worker pay ratio recorded in the US was 321:1—and being negligible to any long-term planning and impact—deaths related to stress, toxic workplaces and bad management practices are on the rise.
How could we start re-designing the rules and systems of incorporation coded in capital, to embed a multiplicity of stakeholders and build corporates that act in the long-term interests of societies?
Experimental probe: Entangled cooperation
Recently, Business Roundtable published a statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, signed by 181 CEOs, commiting to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders, moving away from shareholder primacy. However, the short-term practices of the limited liability company will not be halted by a signed commitment. Do we need to invent a new form of Entangled Cooperation, where all stakeholders—governments, citizens, animals, landscapes—are enfranchised within corporate governance to achieve better liability and risk distribution?
The blueprint for an alternative to the limited liability company has existed for a thousand years—the commenda. First introduced in the port cities of 11th century Italy, the commenda is a hybrid legal form in which managers are personally liable for all debt and losses, but investors are only exposed to the extent of their investment. The hallmark of the commenda is that it corrects incentive asymmetries by linking decision-making with risk exposure.
Today, there are several alternatives to the LLC that attempt to develop different governance philosophies, by carefully examining the environment they operate in. The B-Corp, for example, is a social enterprise that creates value for non-shareholding stakeholders such as employees, local communities and the environment, incorporating the interests of all stakeholders into the fiduciary duties of directors and officers. Another type of legal structure is the Distributed Cooperative Organization (DisCo) Governance model, which allows workers to mutualize their skills while identifying value flows, making care work visible and creating plurilingual commons.
New innovative contracts could negotiate between multiple interests and values, to establish sustainable business models that are not predicated on exhaustion and excessive risk-taking. Through blockchain technology, humans, non-humans and other kinds of stakeholders could self-represent their respective interests by entering into associations through a series of smart contracts. A simple example of such an application is Terra 0 built on the Ethereum network and creating technologically-augmented trees, able to act within a predetermined set of rules in the economic sphere as agents in their own right to protect their survival. Developing further the intentions of Terra 0, we can imagine capturing the interests of multiple forest stakeholders, such as insects. As a result the extractive actions of logging companies could be limited by protecting the interests of insects or other stakeholders whose livelihoods depend on the forest, tightly linking the company's practices with ground conditions. Such terms of restriction, driven by non-economic parameters is a first step in establishing Machine Entangled Cooperation that acts both locally and globally.
We need to develop a new conception for a social contract between business, society and non-humans rooted in a shared set of values and aspirations that are appropriate for the 21st century, and according to long-term goals of a renewed economic system. As Paul DiMaggio argued new institutions arise when organised actors with sufficient resources see in them an opportunity to realise interests that they value highly. It seems that now is the time to experiment to discover new cooperation structures. Following this reasoning, we will explore what the legal incorporation of a truly embedded corporation could look like. What are its transactional and HR structures, and what are its trade and transfer protocols? And ultimately what is the contract between business and society?
This is one of another six interdependent experimental zones and probes we're investigating as part of our work on Futures in Long-termism.
1. Perishable Selves to Persistent Selves
2. Obsolete Objects to Persistent Things
3. Abstracted to Entangled Organisations
4. Shrinking State Care to Long Welfare
5. Short-term Investments to Long Financing in a volatile world
6. Limited Representative Democracies to Long Democracies
These pieces have been co-authored by Chloe Treger, Indy Johar and Konstantina Koulouri. The visuals were developed by Juhee Hahm and Hyojeong Lee.
This portfolio of experimental probes is part of broader system of interventions being prototyped by the Long Term Alliance.
The Long Term Alliance is co-founded by EIT Climate KIC, Dark Matter and a cohort of partners focused on five Areas of Action, which when combined seek to leverage systemic impact—changing behaviour, mindsets and action towards a long-term oriented society.
Our five Areas of Action are: Resetting the Rules of the Game for Regulation and Governance; Rethinking Notions of Value to Reform the Financial System; Empowering Individuals through Information Transparency, Capability Building & Behaviour Change; Enabling Collective Action & Creating New Democratic Spaces to Create the Ground Swell Pressure for Change; and Shifting Culture & Narratives to Promote Long-Term Mindsets.
In parallel and in recognition of the scale of change necessary, EIT Climate KIC together with Dark Matter and our partners are also experimenting with new instruments, mechanisms and vehicles that can invest over longer time frames, invest in the institutional deep code experimentation necessary, invest vertically in portfolios spanning deep culture change to new institutional infrastructures to accelerate the transition of Europe towards a long-term society.
Futures in long-termism
The Long Term Alliance is co-founded by EIT Climate KIC.
This article first appeared on Dark Matter's Medium account.
by Dark Matter
@DarkMatter_Labs
Why should countries and regions look to a circular approach?	AI and climate change: The promise, the perils and pillars for action	Five ways of meaningfully involving citizens in climate action


SPRINGFIELD -- With Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes warning of financial upheaval if the state's budget impasse continues much longer, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the four legislative leaders resumed their talks.
They did not talk about the budget.
Instead, Tuesday's 2 1/2-hour meeting was devoted to a review of health-care issues facing the state and how Blagojevich's proposed universal health insurance plan would help alleviate them. Guest speakers included former U.S. House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt of Missouri and a health policy professor from Emory University in Atlanta.
Both Madigan and Cross said the subject of how to pay for Blagojevich's health-care initiative was never raised during the meeting. The governor has proposed a business gross-receipts tax and a payroll tax to pay for his proposed spending, including the health-care component, but neither has generated enough support in either the House or Senate to pass.
Although Blagojevich proposed the health insurance plan in March, it has yet to pass either the House or Senate. The Senate was poised to vote on the bill in late May, but not enough Democrats would support it. Many lawmakers in both chambers said their first priority is providing more money for schools. Many also say their constituents are not clamoring for universal health care.
Deputy Gov. Sheila Nix insisted Tuesday the health-care plan is not dead.
Meanwhile, the clock continues to run on the state's current budget, which expires June 30. After that, Hynes warned, it will be only a matter of days before the state starts missing payrolls and other payments.


This is it! Part two of our second season finale is now up! Visit the Season 2 page to check out Who's There? We hope you enjoy!
Part two of two. Faced with a new obstacle, the crew struggles to navigate all of Wolf 359's sudden changes. Eiffel, Minkowski, and Hera desperately work to get the Hephaestus back on a stable orbit, while Hilbert and Lovelace face their own time-sensitive challenge. Plus, the point of no return, bad ideas, very good life-and-death emergency situations, maximum engine power, and the existential implications of our tiny, tiny place in the universe.
Thank you so much for all of your love, support, generosity, and kindness over the past ten months. Season 2 has been a rollercoaster to write, record, produce, and release, and we're so glad that all of you have been here to share it with us.
And, if you're going to be around New York City this December you should definitely come see our first ever live show! Tickets are on sale now, so make sure you don't miss out your chance to see our full cast and crew performing a brand new script! Visit our Live Shows page for more details!


A properly-conducted search is not just a tool that can be used to identify any existing drug use: it can also be used as a preventative measure.
A provision for searching premises and organisation vehicles must be included in the policy if it is to be effective.
Announcing that the premises will be searched sends out a clear message to all employees that illicit drugs on organisation premises or in vehicles will not be tolerated. This should ensure that, if the practice exists, it will be discontinued.
Searches can be carried out by various methods, depending on the location, the size of the premises and what the premises or vehicles are used for.
Some searches can be carried out by trained members of staff, but if large areas or numbers of vehicles are to be searched, then the use of drug detector dogs should be considered. If the area is used for food preparation or storage or the use of dogs is not feasible for some other reason, then you should consider using electronic drug detector equipment.
Again, this requires a degree of professional expertise and should therefore be carried out by trained, competent professionals. Ideally, therefore, you should bring in a reputable company, offering access to all three methods.


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Lanterna: Desert Ocean, Geoff Farina et al: New Salt
By Michael Metivier / 2 March 2006
Desert Ocean
Jemez Mountain
What in the world is more valuable to a music snob (or critic, natch) than instrumental rock? To gaze with pity at the cloud of moths around the tacky fluorescent light of lyrics while you float like a butterfly on currents of cool, pure sound? From Duane Eddy and Dick Dale to Tortoise and Don Cabellero, wordless rock albums are as indispensable to the devoted hipster as fanny packs are to the state fair attendee. Let your friends dissect the latest Killers couplet, or decipher the latest M.I.A. shout-out; the time you save avoiding such frivolity can be spent on more important things, like jogging, or finding a better job. But while the rewards reaped from instrumental rock are many, it's still an intimidating field with many pitfalls, not the least of which is finding oneself knee-deep in New Age. Luckily, the following two records both strike a balance between music to hang in the background, and music to pay close attention to.
Champaign, Illinois's Henry Frayne is the primary sound sculptor behind Lanterna, Desert Ocean being that band's fifth release in 10 years. An NPR-featured artist, Lanterna's press history is entwined with the word "ambient", about every third line or so. And lots of descriptions about lonesome interstates and moons over canyons. But while some tracks on Ocean, like the sparse and twinkling "Riverside" absolutely merit those descriptions, much of the album sounds more like late 20th century college rock without words. "Venture", for example, is a dead ringer for an Out of Time-era R.E.M. b-side, just trade in Frayne's wordless vocals for Kate Pierson's. I don't mean that to be disparaging, as both Desert Ocean and Out of Time share affection for landscape-inspired tones and themes, and both have the chops to convey their pastoral aims to the listener.
It is no surprise that Lanterna is finding success on NPR and in film scores; the songs are perfect segue music, capable of bridging fundraising drive to news segment, climax to denouement, or even city to country on a Sunday drive. Titles like "48th and 8th" and "Cross County" further highlight the album's themes of travel and transition. The former is a waltz so laid back as to be narcoleptic, but it still all about motion and distance, the journey a single guitar note takes to echo back to the microphone. The song structures on Desert Ocean are conservative for the most part, verse-chorus-verse patterns in traditional time signatures that would comfortably support a human voice. But I suspect the reason Lanterna forgoes lyrics is that its focus is the subtlety of sound, songs like "Luminous" the result of thousands of hours of careful tweaking to get just the right tones and textures into a pop format that will showcase them most efficiently. Desert Ocean sounded frighteningly average at first, but after living with the album for a few weeks many of the songs have become memorable as distinct compositions, not the vague attempts at capturing mood that many instrumentalists play at.
New Salt is a different beast entirely, though it's the product of artists who are no stranger to conventionally structured popular forms such as folk, rock, and the blues. Karate's Geoff Farina, Ida's Dan Littleton, and Tsunami's Luther Gray began their collaboration by providing live film scoring for silent movies at several European art festivals. Those improvisations laid the groundwork for New Salt, which captures a similar combination of looseness and purpose. Far from the tight, song-based work of Frayne's Desert Ocean, Salt's seven tracks spray out in all directions. Acid-rock and slow-core get thrown into a cauldron of free jazz on the title track, with each player stirring their instrument in at a different pace. Gray's drums skitter and twitch over Littleton's slow, understated cycles of drone. Farina's unique guitar playing gravitates towards both at different times, shaking and spasming in compliment to the nervous percussion, then retreating back to its central melodic theme.
But what about conceptual theme? What is new salt, anyway — the flavored designer sea-salts now available in your local organic food market, or a figure of speech akin to reinvented wheel? Like the titles given to abstract paintings, one guess is as good as another — though it helps to have confidence that the artwork you're experiencing isn't just paint at the wall. Anyone can pick up a paintbrush or set of drumsticks and go nuts. Thankfully, Farina, Littleton, and Gray have proven themselves to be not just anyone with voluminous recorded histories to prove it. New Salt possesses not only skill but consistency. There's a restlessness in the most subdued tracks, like Littleton's "Harmonia", that finds release elsewhere, as on the playful "Liquor Store", the latter featuring one guitarist creating whale song squalls while the other plays noodly jazz. The record exudes a confidence that in turn assures the listener that they're not being conned, that the improvisation have thought and feeling that run deeper than plain impulse. In a sense, the record runs the Desert Ocean approach in reverse: instead of using traditional structure to get you to appreciate texture and tone, New Salt uses texture and tone to get you to appreciate the absence of structure.
TAGS dan littleton desert ocean geoff farina Lanterna luther gray new salt
Bookmarks For Everyone: The Best Books of 2005
Nick Sylvester and the Village Voice- who's to blame?


Once, long ago in ancient China, a drought of many years' duration was bringing great misery to a small province. Year after year the people of the province waited for the rainy season to come and bring the needed nurture for the rice crop. Each year the season produced very little rain and the rice crop dwindled. Many were on the verge of starvation. Indeed, some elderly people had died of illnesses brought on by their hunger-weakened condition.
The people turned to the superstitions of their ancestors in an attempt to influence the rain. They performed rituals designed to stir whatever gods there were who might control the rain. They weren't sure these rituals would work, but they were desperate. They needed the rain.
Finally, just when the province was about to be devastated by yet another failing crop, the rainy season came with torrents. Day after day the rain poured down and the rice seedlings thrived in the flooded paddies. The crop was the biggest in memory. The people of the province once again felt the beneficent power of the Tao.
"Now," the Master asked, "do you think this was indeed a beneficent rainy season?"
"It would seem that it was," answered his student.
"So it would seem," said the Master. "The neighboring province, whose villages were situated along the banks of several rivers, experienced the worst flash floods of their history that year. The water came pouring suddenly down steep canyons and washed whole villages away, killing hundreds of men, women, and children. What do you suppose their view of that rainy season might have been?"
"That it was very harmful," said the student.
"So—benefit or harm? Can you ever know?"
vegetarian life? If not, should I be buying these eggs? (Never mind the messages when I sit down to an actual chicken dinner!) And the coffee sitting by my hand here at the Naked Lounge Cafe-—fair-trade? No. Shade-grown? No idea. Delicious? You bet. Does my next sip doom a struggling farmer in Brazil?
I remember the look on the face of a woman with whom I had a long-term intimate relationship many years ago when I told her I was leaving the relationship. How could I cause such pain, such feelings of betrayal, such grief? From that relationship I entered into love and marriage with my beloved Spouse. Benefit for me? Beyond measure. Harm for the former lover? Yes, or ... ? She went on to have an interesting and satisfying life. Benefit? Harm? Both?
To this day, twenty years later, personalities in my head occasionally bring up that look on her face and shake their ghostly heads in disapproval. "How could you? And here you are, happy. How dare you be happy?" Well, like all of us, I did the best I knew how with what and who I was at the time. I put one foot in front of the other, causing harm and benefit willy-nilly as I went, my conditioned moral judges always quick to point out what they see as the harm done, no one really acknowledging the benefit.
The Tao Mind uses both harm and benefit as the raw materials that are used to build compassion. They are as necessary to each other as are the proton and the electron. They are part of a greater whole, of a compassionate life that cannot come into being without the interplay of the two. They seem to be opposed to each other, yet the Tao Mind is constantly using forgiveness to transform harm into empathy, openness, acceptance, compassion, and wholeness. Whether harm is intentional or unintentional, the forgiveness within the Tao Mind allows it to be integrated into the great Dance of Life in ways that bring unexpected benefit, allowing the surprises of grace to occur.
My conditioned mind argues, "Are you suggesting that a cruel, callous act is excusable just because the universe is complicated?"
No. But remember, "cruel and callous" is a label, not a fact. It may seem accurate but we might choose other ways of describing the act that would be more helpful in allowing forgiveness to facilitate appropriate reactions. Being willing to look at the act without the labels can lead us to certain helpful steps.
We can look with clarity and courage at the act itself with a desire to understand just what happened and what factors might have led to that act. We may find that the "cruel and callous' labels are no longer necessary.
With a clearer understanding we can take steps to heal the wounds that the act may have caused.
We can put appropriate structures in place to prevent continuing harm.
Remember, in the Tao Mind, the act is accepted as "having happened." The Tao Mind contains the forgiveness necessary so that we might be aware of the most compassionate healing act possible in the moment. No effort is wasted in judgment upon persons or actions. All energy is directed to the present-moment, naturally arising, compassionate action.


Snip-N-Dip can be found at Eisenbrown St 500. The following is offered: Animal Services. The entry is present with us since Sep 9, 2010 and was last updated on Nov 14, 2013. In Reading there are 17 other Animal Services. An overview can be found here.


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I Got Some Flack After My BBC Debate For Backing Airstrikes, Here's Why I Stand By My Decision
The notion that we will indiscriminately bomb innocent civilians is ridiculous. We will be using Brimstone missiles - these are very precise, concentrated strikes that minimize the risk of collateral damage. Even the US does not have military capabilities as precise as ours. So, at the margin, our decision to join in with the coalition-led airstrikes campaign in Syria will not only weaken ISIS, but will help spare civilian lives while doing so.
Sami Quadri
Journalist, part-time trombone player
09/12/2015 11:55am GMT | Updated December 9, 2016
I recently appeared on BBC Newsbeat for a debate on whether the UK should extend its airstrikes operation to Syria. I was arguing for, my opponent argued against.
Since the debate aired, I have received emails accusing me of being a "fucking kuffar", a "stupid Jew", and have even been threatened with gang rape. In addition to this, a friend, upon finding out that I'm pro airstrikes, told me not to bother messaging her ever again. We have not spoken since.
None of these people attempted to engage in a dialogue with me. None asked me why, or tried to interrogate my reasoning. Instead, they eschewed reasoned discussion, hurled abuse, and ultimately judged me for speaking my mind.
In response to both the online attacks and the friend who broke ties, I feel the need to express why I support our government's decision to carry out airstrikes in Syria.
A government's first and foremost responsibility is the security of its citizens. Isis, as proven by the spate of attacks it has carried out in the likes of Paris, Egypt, Tunisia, Lebanon, and more, is not only an existential threat to the region, but also national security threat to others, including the UK. In fact, over the past 12 months, British security agencies have thwarted no less than seven terrorist attacks on British soil. All seven were either carried out by Isis, or were inspired by ISIS propaganda.
This proves that Isis presents a very real, grave threat to the UK. Extending airstrikes to Syria is a key part of a comprehensive political and military plan aimed at weakening the organization in its stronghold. Raqqa, in Eastern Syria, is ISIS' headquarters. It's where key decisions are made, and key personnel reside. ISIS even has a dedicated external operations structure in Raqqa; its sole function is to plan and concoct mass casualty attacks all over the globe. The UK is already carrying out airstrikes in Iraq so it makes no sense militarily to not extend this to Syria, the hub of the operation.
Along with being the brains of the organisation, Raqqa is also the heart. The symbolism that comes from controlling this mass swath of territory helps fuel the idea that ISIS is trying to establish a caliphate. Reducing ISIS' territorial hold will combat this and lessen the appeal of the group's cause. Since the coalition-led airstrikes in Iraq have taken place, ISIS has lost 30% of its territory in the region. Plainly speaking, airstrikes work.
A key point repeated by those against airstrikes, and one that my opponent mentioned, is the consequential loss of civilian lives. But the notion that we will indiscriminately bomb innocent civilians is ridiculous. We will be using Brimstone missiles - these are very precise, concentrated strikes that minimize the risk of collateral damage. Even the US does not have military capabilities as precise as ours. So, at the margin, our decision to join in with the coalition-led airstrikes campaign in Syria will not only weaken Isis, but will help spare civilian lives while doing so.
To put things into perspective, take Northern Iraq. We have been carrying out airstrikes there for some time. Since we started, there have been 130 RAF missions. Not a single civilian death has been reported, yet over 300 Isis fighters have lost their lives as a result of those operations. The difference between Isis and us is that we do not intend for any civilians to lose their lives. Isis, on the other hand, routinely kills civilians at will. In the long-term, by degrading and removing Isis from the region, innocent lives will be saved.
Not to mention that our allies, such as France, actually called upon us for assistance. Our decision to heed their call shows strong diplomatic solidarity. It's one we would have expected of them had situations been reversed.
A key development in the decision to carry out airstrikes is the formation of the International Syrian Support Group (ISSG), which spawned during the recent Vienna talks. The ISSG is comprised of key players in the region - including the likes of Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United States, and France - all united on the idea that, in order to bring stability to Syria, cooperation is needed. These states are beginning to realize that Isis needs to be removed from the region in order to bring peace and prosperity to it. Russia has amped up its military aggression towards Isis in the aftermath of the Metrojet bombing. Moreover, they are fast beginning to realize that Assad is a liability. With the added bonus of Russian support, his troops have retained territory, but have not managed to gain any.
The UN has even called upon its members to do everything necessary to defeat Isis. All these signs suggest an international consensus on removing Isis has emerged. It's the right time to act on a united front with our international partners.
That is why I believe our decision to carry out airstrikes in Syria is right. So instead of cutting off ties, or sending abusive messages, why don't you tell me why you disagree, and we can have a proper discussion about this, yeah?
bbcairstrikesISISuk governmentSyria


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God allows you to live, and if you can live for God and live to perform the duties of a created being, then you are living confidently in righteousness, then you are living confidently in righteousness.
1. God allows you to live, and if you can live for God and live to perform the duties of a created being, then you are living confidently in righteousness, then you are living confidently in righteousness. If you live the life of a walking corpse, without spirit and only struggling for breath, neither accepting nor understanding truth, only living for the flesh, then you do not live in a way that is confident and righteous because your living has no value. Now your every day can be lived to testify of God and spread the gospel of God in the last days; living this way is approved by God. God permits you to live this way and gives you this opportunity.
2. You should treasure this opportunity and feel pride, and honor. To be of this age, and to be able to perform this duty in this environment and under these conditions—this is a rare opportunity! A rare opportunity! God carefully selects from among humanity, and He has chosen you. This is your opportunity. This is the greatest blessing. This blessing is even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations! It is even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations! It is even greater than the blessings of the saints throughout the ages and generations!


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Review: Library of Souls
by Ransom Riggs
Title: Library of Souls
Author: Ransom Riggs
Publisher: Quirk Books
Book: #3 of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children
Genre: YA Paranormal, Sci-Fi
Romance Found: Library, Series Continuation
A boy with extraordinary powers. An army of deadly monsters. An epic battle for the future of peculiardom.
The adventure that began with Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and continued in Hollow City comes to a thrilling conclusion with Library of Souls. As the story opens, sixteen-year-old Jacob discovers a powerful new ability, and soon he's diving through history to rescue his peculiar companions from a heavily guarded fortress. Accompanying Jacob on his journey are Emma Bloom, a girl with fire at her fingertips, and Addison MacHenry, a dog with a nose for sniffing out lost children.
They'll travel from modern-day London to the labyrinthine alleys of Devil's Acre, the most wretched slum in all of Victorian England. It's a place where the fate of peculiar children everywhere will be decided once and for all. Like its predecessors, Library of Souls blends thrilling fantasy with never-before-published vintage photography to create a one-of-a-kind reading experience.
- Goodreads
Library of Souls is an exciting, fast-paced, action-packed finale to the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. I've not been the biggest fan of this series really, with books one and two only receiving 3 stars each, but there was always something immensely intriguing that had me returning for more and I'm really glad I did. Book 3 is the best of the lot. It pulls everything together and answers all the questions that have been plaguing me from the very beginning whilst sticking to it's quirky, 'peculiar' ethos.
I think I was quite lucky to have read these books all quite close together because they jump straight back into the story each time. At the end of Hollow City we left the characters in a state of chaos. With Wits grabbing many of the peculiar children and forcing them onto an underground train in current day London and Jacob, Emma and Addison ending up cornered in a phone booth by a ravenous Hollow. A Hollow that Jacob has somehow been able to freeze just by telling it too! Jacob has finally discovered a very usual side to his peculiar talent, (the one that allows him to tell whether Hollows are near by). Jacob can control Hollows! But like all talents he needs practice and he doesn't have long to master his skill.
Just like the previous two books, Library of Souls is strange, full of weird and wacky places, happenings and pictures! I personally, have struggled with the pictures, finding them interesting but feeling that sometimes they felt a little forced in just to make the story even more bizarre. Library of Souls was probably the first time that I didn't mind the oddness of the pictures. I finally stopped questioning everything and just enjoyed the ride. I think I did this because I knew that answers and explanations would have to be given in this book otherwise it would never happen.
We met a few new characters that aid and hinder our main characters, Jacob and Emma, and as per usual not everyone should be taken at face value, you have been warned! Jacob, Emma and Addison travel across London in the search for their friends. They take a boat through time to a loop that's full of criminal peculiars and with help, plan an elaborate rescue attempt. It's much more complicated than that but you get the idea. I can only compare the antics in this series to Lewis' Carroll's, Alice in Wonderland, because it's totally nuts, seems like complete gibberish most of the time and yet some how creates a fascinating and twisted tale that has you glued to your seat! I don't want to give too much of the plot away but the ending was intense, so much happened and so much finally made sense!
In the end all I can say is, if you've stuck with this series up till now, then you won't be disappointed by this final installment. It's fun, it's bonkers but most importantly, it's complete. Thanks Ransom Riggs for truly messing with my mind!
Tagged with: 4 voodoos, fantasy, Ms4Tune, paranormal, review, Sci-Fi, YA
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Business Reopening Toolkit
Small Business Emergency Support Loan
Location advantages
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Business landscape
Cornwall Business Park
Medical Recruitment and Scholarship
Ontario Working to Limit the Spread of COVID-19 on Construction Sites
Cornwall Ontario – Ontario is stepping up measures to limit the spread of COVID-19 on construction sites across the province.
"The health and safety of construction workers is a top priority for our government," said Monte McNaughton, Minister of Labour, Training and Skills Development. "With the COVID-19 situation changing day by day, we are working to ensure that workers have the tools they need to help keep job sites safe. We must do everything possible to fight the spread of this disease.
Ontario's Chief Prevention Officer has announced updated guidance to help employers better understand their responsibilities and what is needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on the job site. The update follows an initial guidance document circulated on March 20, 2020, and addresses sector topics including:
providing better on-site sanitation, including a focus on high-touch areas like site trailers, door handles and hoists
communicating roles, responsibilities, and health & safety policies, by, for example, posting site sanitization schedules and work schedules
enabling greater distances between workers by staggering shifts, restricting site numbers and limiting elevator usage
protecting public health, by tracking and monitoring workers
Under Ontario law, employers must take every reasonable precaution to keep workers safe. Workers have the right to refuse unsafe work. If health and safety concerns are not resolved internally, a worker can seek enforcement by filing a complaint with the ministry's Health and Safety Contact Centre at 1-877-202-0008.
Ministry inspectors are inspecting job sites every day. Employers and constructors should know: failure to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations could result in a stop work order.
"Keeping job sites open during the current pandemic requires a heightened focus on health and safety," said Mr. McNaughton. "We all have a role to play in preventing the spread of COVID-19."
• Guidance to the construction sector on health and safety related to COVID-19.
We summarize the latest news about the impacts of COVID-19 on Cornwall businesses on a daily basis. Click on the following link to view:
COVID-19 Business New Digest
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The paparazzi camp out at venues around Los Angeles hoping to catch celebrities out on the town.
The quest to reform the paparazzi
By Jim Roope, CNN
(CNN) – A French court has leveled fines and penalties on the French Magazine 'Closer' for publishing topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton.
However, a former bodyguard says it doesn't do enough to curb bad paparazzi behavior.
[:35] "It's one of the lowest forms of employment I've ever seen, personally," said Sean Burke.
Burke, who worked as security for many high-profile celebrities, founded The Paparazzi Reform Initiative and is responsible for helping to enact several paparazzi laws.
He says that what happened to the royal couple while vacationing at a private chateau in France is inexcusable.
In cities like Los Angeles where celebrities are in abundance, he worries about the dangerous situations paparazzi cause.
[2:00] "And who's going get killed is not another celebrity, it's going to be a lady with a stroller going across the street because the paparazzi are going through red lights, said Burke. "It's going to be a pedestrian or an innocent person who's going to get hurt."
Burke said the paparazzi will do and say anything to get the photo that gets them paid.
[2:40] "[The things they] accuse you of; of about your private parts, of about your spouse, or about your mom, your dad, your baby, anything they want to try and get you to react; that in itself is inhumane."
Listen to the complete story above and join the conversation below.
Posted by Chip Grabow -- CNN, Dan Szematowicz -- CNN, Jim Roope -- CNN
Filed under: Culture • Entertainment
I agree with Matt. Many of the paparazzi compromise the safety not just of the celebrities, but the innocent bystanders who happen to be in the area as well. Honestly, we don't need to wait for a tragedy to occur to make sure things are in place now. It's better to be preventive in my opinion. Princess Diana's death was enough of a wake up call. Now, in lieu of recent events, paparazzi reform is becoming an important issue to address and I appreciate Mr. Burke's commitment with the Paparazzi Reform Initiative. However, for the initiative to be successful, we, the public, must be committed to making sure that new laws are being followed, perhaps even new laws are being put into place and most importantly, that we decrease the "demand" of these types of pictures taken disrespectfully by the paparazzi. We can all make a huge difference by no longer clicking on links or media outlets that bought these pictures. We also can stop watching tabloid/gossip shows and stop buying their publications. When the demand is gone, they'll stop supplying. So, in a way, we can play that card with the paparazzi and media as well. Yes, public figures, celebrities and famous people may have an occupation where they are subjected to the public, however, they still have rights as a human being. Whether or not someone is a celebrity or not, those human rights we all have, especially to privacy, should STILL apply to them, regardless of one's occupation. Let's bring humanity back to pop/social culture.
September 22, 2012 at 3:27 am | Report abuse |
While I strenuously defend freedom of speech, I also fervently believe in the right to privacy. There is no reason that just because a person's profession involves them appearing in public to promote their efforts, that they should have to forfeit all rights to privacy. That it becomes acceptable for photographers whose only motive is income generation to taunt and verbally attack people just because the people's profession requires them to make public appearances. There have to be safeguards in law for people to protect their privacy, regardless of their profession.
September 21, 2012 at 9:34 pm | Report abuse |
jimroopecnn
What are your thoughts on the paparazzi? Dangerous, necessary evil?


Kennebunk High School is committed to providing a varied and rigorous academic program. Within a safe and caring environment, each student will be encouraged to realize his/her fullest potential and become a lifelong learner, as well as a responsible member of society.
Please visit http://www.rsu21.net/khs-administration-and-faculty for staff contact information and teacher websites.


Posted in: Big Tex, Featured, Innovation.
The State Fair of Texas is more than a fair. It's a celebration of Texan pride. It is a place where families, friends, and neighbors from around the world gather to share in an experience filled with a sense of community. It's you, the fairgoer, who embodies the bigger-than-life spirit of the State Fair of Texas. In 2018, you and more than 2 million fairgoers, expressed your unique Fair experience through photos posted on social media. This tapestry of images forms a larger story of food, fun, and unforgettable moments that can only be had at the State Fair of Texas.
Opening Day, the world-renowned Rangerettes and the Marine Core band all share something in common with the Fair as a whole … a deep respect for our Lone Star State.
From a corn dog inspired ale to a fried ball of sweet rice, concessionaires at the Fair offered up a wide variety of new foods in 2018. Of course, turkey legs were bestsellers again, but we noticed a certain taco-shaped food item was a new favorite among our social media fans.
Our 2018 theme was Celebrating Texas innovation and we were thrilled that the Hall of State was transformed into a "museum" of Texas inventions. A margarita machine was showcased in the lobby, special edition Fort Mustangs were displayed in the main hall, and there was even an opportunity for fairgoers to reenact an antigravity chamber on the Space Shuttle, courtesy of Lockheed Martin.
Who doesn't love a thrill on a Midway ride? You, our fairgoers, sure love the rides and we don't blame you.
Photo by high_vis on Instagram.
A few years back we noticed that lots of our fairgoers were snapping selfies of themselves in various areas of the fairgrounds, so we figured, why not give y'all some cool backgrounds to take those photos with. Looks like you found them and loved them!
How did we transform the inside of the historical coliseum while simultaneously updating our petting zoo and Little Hands on the Farm attraction? Home on the Range! It was our stand-out attraction for 2018 and if you didn't get a chance to stop by to experience it this year, add it to your list for 2019.
The Texas versus OU game is epic every year but this year felt even BIGGER than ever. Not only did ESPN and FOX Sports broadcast nationally from the Fair but the game itself was a nail-biter down to the very last play! The air in the Cotton Bowl was electric that day and your pictures proved that.
It sure did rain a lot this Fair season but that didn't keep the Fair fans away. Many of you threw on rain gear, grabbed an umbrella, and didn't let the water ruin your annual Fair tradition. And the best thing about a rainy day? The cool photos you took at night.
Photo by photofox5000 on Instagram.
The Texas Auto Show at the State Fair of Texas just seemed like a lot more fun than your average auto show and you captured that this year with fun photos like this one.


text:
Two Teams, One Friday Night
Arlingtonian Editorial Board November 15, 2019 In Print
Photo by Pierce Thompson, '21
Adham Hamed spent his fall playing in the marching band during half time at his own football games.
BY ALEXA ROBERTS, '21.
Sophomore Adham Hamed has been playing football
since 5th grade. In his freshman year, the football player decided to join the UAHS marching band.
Hamed coordinates with both Football Coach Jeremy Scally and Band Director Todd Fessler because both groups meet in the fall season. Hamed has gotten mixed reactions from the football team, he says some players are really supportive but some question his ability to commit to both the sport and marching band.
"Some of the players will come up to me and say 'Why were you with the band and not us?' or the other way around. 'Hey you did a really nice job with the band, and I liked your performance,'" Hamed said. "It doesn't really matter to me. I couldn't care less."
Hamed said both Scally and Fessler have had no problem with him participating in both activities. Hamed is on the field at 7:30 a.m every morning to run through the music for marching band. He then goes about his normal day as part of the football team. He wears his jersey to school and goes through the normal pre-game procedure with band before joining the team to warm up for the game.
Hamed talked to Scally before tryouts telling his coach that he wants to balance marching band and football and outlined how participation in both would work logistically with Fessler. Hamed says his fellow members of the marching band help him move his equipment so he can make a smooth transition from the game into the show.
"I have one of my friends from the drumline who will help me carry [drums] over for halftime," he said. As for his instrument, Hamed began marching band playing saxophone but later switched to the quintuplet drums because he liked the excitement of drumline.
"It takes a lot of hard work and determination and [those are] my things," said Hamed. He likes to see the game from both sides. Even if the team is down a few points, getting to march at halftime is a great stress reliever and says he has no problem juggling school, football and band. Hamed says football takes up most of his time, but he sets aside time to make sure he stays on top of his school work.
"I focus my time and energy on getting school work done, it's not as bad as people think," he said.
Hamed said on rare occasion he may miss football for band or the other way around. He missed preseason football for the marching band parade and other marching band events, but during the regular football season he hasn't missed a single practice for either one.
"It's definitely a lot of work, but honestly I [have] to say it makes the game so much better," Hammed said. Hamed spoke enthusiastically about taking part in both sides of the game and plans to do the same as an upperclassmen.
"My Fridays are always very fun," Hamed said.
footbalkFridayFriday nightmarching bandUAMB
Arlingtonian Editorial Board
Don't judge me by the games I play
Arlingtonian Editorial Board November 5, 2018
Rewriting the Alma Mater: Senior Linus Fraley
Arlingtonian Editorial Board October 19, 2018
Team spirit brings Football Friday Night to fruition
Arlingtonian Editorial Board October 3, 2018
Bears at the Bowl
Arlingtonian Editorial Board February 11, 2018
Arlingtonian Editorial Board August 30, 2016
Marching to the Spotlight
Arlingtonian Editorial Board December 9, 2015


The 6th annual Cabin Fever Brew Fest was a huge hit, selling out earlier than ever before!
This fun event is a popular fundraiser for the Center.
Tickets go on sale the day after Thanksgiving, and this year were sold out in January.
Don't miss out! Check out Palouse Cabin Fever Brew Fest on FaceBook for ticket outlets.


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California HSR Should Not Have Been Funded This Way
Last month, California made a budget deal for the formula that would be used to distribute its cap-and-trade revenues. The state's cap-and-trade bill does not deed the money to the general budget but to a separate account, to be distributed based on a variety of goals including subsidies to programs that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The recent deal is to give most of the money to transportation (including transit-oriented development): this year the budget gives $600 out of $850 million to transportation (see PDF-p. 6 here), of which $250 million will go to high-speed rail, and according to an informational hearing the long-term deal gives 80% of revenues to transportation, including 15% to high-speed rail. Transit bloggers who are not in the process of moving across oceans covered the issue last month as the deal was made: Streetsblog wrote about the plan, Robert Cruickshank wrote multiple times in support of the decision, and Bruce McFarling explained how HSR's projected emissions reductions should entitle it to a share of the cap-and-trade proceeds.
In reality, although it's a good thing that California HSR is getting funded, it's a bad way of funding it, betraying both environmental incompetence and political mistrust. The basic problem is that the HSR project is not going to reduce emissions enough to justify 15% of the pot, nor is transportation such a big share of California's emissions inventory to deserve 80%: it accounts for only 37% of statewide emissions. Electricity, and related sources of emissions such as building heating and industrial emissions, get far less than their share of emissions.
Bruce's post runs the numbers on HSR, notes that the projections are currently $250-400 in construction costs per ton of CO2 reduction, and proposes that if cap-and-trade results in a carbon cost of $75 per ton then this justifies using the revenues for 20-35% of the cost of HSR. The projected revenue from cap-and-trade is a range whose top end is $5 billion statewide, corresponding to about $11 per metric ton; at this level, assuming HSR saves $250/t-CO2 means it should get 4.4% of its funding from emissions reduction, or (at the current cost of $53 billion in constant dollars) about $2.3 billion over the lifetime of the program. If the revenue is indeed $5 billion a year, this spending level is projected to be reached in 3 years.
For some evidence of what the state is really doing, consider how the deal comments on each share of the funding. The informational hearing details the investment strategy as follows:
25% for a permanent source of funding for transit operations, distributed based on greenhouse gas criteria.
20% for affordable housing and miscellaneous urban planning goals (including TOD), of which at least half must be for affordable housing (including TOD, again); the money is to be distributed based on "competitive GHG performance."
15% low-carbon transportation, based on both long-term clean air and GHG goals.
13% energy, including electricity and building efficiency.
7% natural resources, waste diversion, and water projects.
15% HSR.
5% "new or existing" intercity rail, based on GHG criteria.
Note that internally to four categories, comprising 65% of the total funds, the hearing mentions greenhouse gas criteria. In three out of the four, comprising half of the funds, the hearing implies that the decision of how to distribute the funds will be based on competitive grants according to which project reduces emissions the most.
The key point here is that the state has effectively said what the best way is to ensure the spending side of cap-and-trade will reduce emissions optimally: projects will compete for scarce funding based on greenhouse gas criteria. Once it has made the political decision to distribute funds by a formula that disproportionately goes to transportation, it has no objection to using greenhouse gas criteria internally to each category. The problem is that the transportation projects in general and HSR in particular would never make it out of a grant process based on such criteria if they were not shielded from competition with non-transportation priorities.
There are two legitimate ways to distribute funds coming out of an externality tax, which is what cap-and-trade really is. One is to let the tax side do the work of reducing impact, and put the money into the general budget. This is common practice for most developed countries' fuel taxes (though not the US's). In this approach, HSR would compete with all of the state's other budget priorities. If the state wanted to reduce other taxes against the cap-and-trade funds rather than raise spending, it could. If it wanted to spend the money on unrelated things, such as education, it could as well. There already is a more or less open and democratic budget process for this.
The other way is to reduce all political discretion, and distribute the funds based entirely on greenhouse gas criteria, without breaking the money into categories. The state seems to prefer this way, judging by its use of this process within each category. With other externality taxes there is another option, of giving the money directly to victims of the externality, e.g. spending cigarette taxes on lung cancer treatment; however, the bulk of damage caused by climate change is to developing countries, and spending cap-and-trade revenues on targeted aid to vulnerable developing countries is politically unacceptable.
The state's hybrid approach is effectively a slush fund. High-level politicians, including Governor Jerry Brown, want to build a visible legacy, and HSR is far more visible than making household appliances consume less electricity. Emissions reductions are secondary to this concern. They'll be happy to make their legacy a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions, but they have no quantitative preference for projects that reduce emissions more than others. On the contrary, when they pull strings, they might even make decisions that make these projects less environmentally beneficial: the decision to connect Los Angeles to Bakersfield via Palmdale rather than directly has no technical merit, and judging by LA County's support appears to be motivated by concerns for development in the Palmdale area. As the incremental cost of going through Palmdale is about $5 billion, nearly 10% of the HSR cost, the result is that the state is going to spend a substantial amount of cap-and-trade money on spurring more development in the High Desert exurbs.
Needless to say, when the cap-and-trade bill was passed, it did not state or even imply that the state could use the money to spur more development in the exurbs. The bill did not adopt a GHG-only approach, but listed several additional goals, none of which included transportation. Chapter 1, Part 2, paragraph h states,
It is the intent of the Legislature that the State Air Resources Board design emissions reduction measures to meet the state wide emissions limits for greenhouse gases established pursuant to this division in a manner that minimizes costs and maximizes benefits for California's economy, improves and modernizes California's energy infrastructure and maintains electric system reliability, maximizes additional environmental and economic co-benefits for California, and complements the state's efforts to improve air quality.
There is an explicit mention of air quality, and explicit mentions of energy and electricity, which are only getting 13% of the funding despite accounting for 54% of emissions. Elsewhere the list of legislative intents includes vague terms such as technological leadership, but the only explicit mention of transportation in the bill is in paragraph c, which says that historically California provided leadership on several environmental issues, including emissions limits on cars as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy.
However, the cap-and-trade bill is older than the current administration, and the political priorities have changed. Since a regular budget process giving HSR the money it needs would run into opposition from competing priorities, it's best to raid a new source of revenue, one without legislative inertia or established supporters directing the money to more useful purposes.
Hence, a slush fund.
Written by Alon Levy Posted in Environmental Issues, High-Speed Rail, Incompetence, Politics and Society, Transportation
2014/07/02 - 14:26 letsgola
To be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about this funding mechanism. On the one hand, HSR is clearly not the best way to reduce GHG emissions. The fastest way to do that would be to replace out-of-state coal generation with renewables. On the other hand, sausage-making. It's mildly impressive that HSR in the US is going anywhere given the intransigence of the House GOP and the incompetence of the Obama Administration.
Also, you do have to love that Central Valley cities sued to keep the project away but Palmdale threatened to sue to get it.
Anyway, who wants to go in on buying some property in Palmdale? 😉
2014/07/02 - 15:26 anonymouse
And the fun thing about building things in the High Desert is that it is a desert, and it is also high up. So not only do you need to supply the new developments with lots of water from somewhere far away, but you also need to use quite a lot of power to bring that water up to the high elevation. And given that electricity is a significant contributor to California's carbon emissions and something like 20% of all of California's electricity use is for pumping water, that's not a trivial concern either.
2014/07/03 - 14:12 Richard Mlynarik
The amount of energy used in California to pump water against gravity is absolutely jaw-dropping and appalling.
http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Energy+Efficiency/EM+and+V/Embedded+Energy+in+Water+Studies1_and_2.htm
It's suspected that the numbers in these and other studies are a significant under-estimate, as agricultural water pumping energy consumption is (deliberately?) obfuscated.
A cubic metre of water has a mass of one tonne. Only bicyclists seem to have even the remotest idea of how expensive it is to haul a sack of fluid up a hill.
And yes, CHSR (the concrete lobby welfare program) needs to be terminated with extreme prejudice, for the most pure and pressing environmental reasons if nothing else (good government, transparency, accountability, corruption, etc.)
2014/07/12 - 20:48 Andre Lot
It is disingenuous to present the amount of energy taken to pump water up, while not compensating for electricity generated on the tunnels that bring water down to LA basin and Bay Area.
Examine the data, do the arithmetic, don't just spout "disingenuous".
Not sure about LA, but the Bay Area gets water from the Sacramento Delta, so the water supply is about flat.
2014/07/14 - 12:19 BenW
What on earth is disingenuous about it? Water flowing downhill is a generally recognized phenomenon, and in the absence of water consumers on the coast, the water would still flow in that direction and be useable for hydroelectric power. Are you asserting that there is an equity argument that all the energy generated by water that flows downhill should be used to pump water uphill somewhere else in the state? Because I do not think that's an argument that will persuade very many people.
California is dysfunctional. The old rich white guys managed to skew the system to their advantage before they stopped being the majority. To get things done in California there has to be a lot of horse trading. Tis a pity that you find all the horse trading unpleasant but that's the way the Californians have decided to do it.
But it's not the way Californians decided to do it! They didn't go to ballot or anything like that; they passed a cap-and-trade bill 8 years ago, whose list of goals at no point talks about public transportation, and now they decided to reinterpret the bill to divert money to HSR.
If you really want to stick it to the hippie-punchers, just get the emissions down as fast as you can. It doesn't matter how; it'll piss them off the same. A blogger I know who lived in Casa Grande for a while complained that his HOA rules forbade hanging clothes out to dry, so even though Arizona's weather is the same as that on the inside of a dryer most of the time, everyone owned dryers at home anyway.
You want to hang your clothes to dry don't buy a house with a deed restriction that bans hanging clothes out to dry. Hanging clothes out to dry when it's below freezing is not very effective. One can hang them in the basement or if the weather is warm enough but may be rainy, in the garage. I suspect they wouldn't have any objection to him hanging his clothes out to dry in the garage. He just likes to whine.
If they don't like what their legislators are up to the solution is to elect different legislators. Since they aren't out collecting recall signatures they must me moderately pleased with what has been done.
2014/07/03 - 02:04 Miles Bader
Is below freezing weather really a significant issue In Arizona…? I often hang my clothes to dry in my living room, which works ok, but the relatively windy balcony is much more effective. It seems pretty unlikely that they actually have a good reason to disallow the practice of hanging outside, so it's understandable that the guy is annoyed.
[One of the best systems I've encountered is in Scotland, where many flats have a clothes-drying rack that can be raised via a pulley system so that the clothes hang near the (typically very high) ceiling in the living room or such. Surprisingly, that extra height makes a huge difference, and clothes dry very quickly from room heat alone, regardless of the season.]
Having the clothes freeze to the line and not dry out until spring is an issue other places. They manage to get dry clothes before spring. You don't have to hang the clothes in the yard.
2014/07/03 - 12:42 snogglethorpe
Maybe it is an issue in some places, but I've actually hung out clothes in the winter when its below freezing and there's deep snow on the ground—and they dry out fine … [And anyway, weren't we talking about Arizona…?]
I'm guessing that it's not just the practical issue of where to hang his clothes—though hanging clothes outside generally does yield superior results, so it's fair thing to complain about—but also his annoyance at being forced to being forced to follow silly and intrusive rules which have no real basis other than 1950s wonder-bread mores…
And the neighbor who doesn't want to paint his house an approved color has an issue. And the neighbor who wants to put a swing set in the backyard has an issue. And the one who wants a garden shed. Or collects cars and wants an RV. The deed restrictions were revealed before the closing. If he wants to hang clothes he should have bought someplace without that restriction. There's plenty of them. Where you can paint the house any color you want, put up a swing set and a garden shed and string a clothesline between the two and hang your clothes out to dry. He probably has a swamp cooler to save on air conditioning. If he hangs the clothes in the house the swamp cooler is going to run less. He wants to show off to the neighbors how green he is. He should bought someplace where he can do that.
2014/07/07 - 08:47 Novacek
But Billions of public money isn't being spent to buy that guy an RV, or pay him to repaint his house a different color. Billions is being spent to reduce emissions, and then a tangible way to reduce emissions (line-drying instead of using a dryer) is prevented.
No one put a gun to his head and made him buy a house with restrictions. No one is stopping him from line drying his clothes in the garage. Or the bathtub.
http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Clothes-Drying-Benson-Products/dp/B008FOYN5Q
2014/07/03 - 11:28 MR
Californians did effectively decide to do it this way, when they passed Proposition 13 in 1978. Without a 2/3 majority vote of both houses of the legislature, California can't increase statewide property or income taxes, add new special taxes, or do anything about the fact that much of the commercial property in the state is still subject to the equivalent of 1980s tax rates. Getting a 2/3 majority vote is still nearly impossible (despite the Democrats having a 2/3 majority for brief moments), it took a major expenditure of political capital last year to get one small upper income tax increase.
This is why cap-and-trade is not legally a "tax" (even though it is). This is why when they do manage to come up with some new source of revenue, there will be efforts to siphon some of it off to pay for vaguely related things that could not otherwise pass the legislature. As a state resident, I don't much like it, but neither do I want my state to end up being the Mississippi of the west.
It's not really about Prop 13 – they could treat cap-and-trade revenue as part of the general budget. Spending the money on health care is as appropriate as on transportation given the declaration of intent to mitigate air pollution, and from then the money is fungible.
You may be right. I've been living here for 25 years, and have a slightly different way of looking at things. Prop 13 (and other anti-tax initiatives and bills) effectively places a cap on general revenue, and makes it nearly impossible to add new statewide taxes to fund specific projects. Adding cap-and-trade to general funds simply raises the cap a bit, large chunks will continue to be allocated to prisons, highways, pet projects, education, etc. Some smaller amount will get doled out to non-road transportation infrastructure projects, but not enough to keep them from being chronically underfunded.
Hence, repurposed environmental slush funds and misleadingly (or over optimistically) worded ballot initiatives as a means of pushing some of these projects forward with dedicated funding and without new taxes.
2014/07/04 - 12:44 John Kopp
MR nailed it! California voters pass lots of initiatives requiring how money is spent, but rarely anything about where it comes from. Anything hinting at a tax is rebuffed. And Prop 13 effectively made government in California dysfunctional. We want and support a lot of things, just don't want to pay for it. Hence creative financing for CHSR. I am for the CHSR project and this was a political compromise to keep the project alive. As I see it, HSR will be critical in about 10 years because petroleum will be too costly as a transportation fuel. Then CHSR will pay for itself in just the petroleum it will save in a decade.
How expensive does dinosaur juice have to become before it's cheaper to synthesize something from another source? Or change to a different motive source?
Re: Adirondacker12800
Newscientist reported a few months back that wind turbines can generate electricity for about $.08 a kilowatt hour. Photovoltaics are about the same. Taking into account energy conversion efficiencies, then petroleum should beat a disadvantage at about $40 per barrel. It's over $100 and not coming down anytime soon. I looked at oil prices over the past 40 years and came to the conclusion that we hit peak oil at the turn of the century. Oil was about $15 to $20 per barrel just before and costs started climbing about 15% per year after 2000. It continues to do so, but has been moderated somewhat by the economic recession. This would indicate that we should be investing in renewables now instead of petroleum.
Putting a windmill on the top of the plane, train or car isn't particularly effective even when the wind is blowing hard.
2019/07/09 - 12:50 IAN! Mitchell
> It's over $100 and not coming down anytime soon.
It came down pretty hard.
2014/07/06 - 03:53 johndmuller
Indeed the proposed spending formulae seem to be rather at odds with the supposed overall goal of the program itself. By rights, we should be looking forward to investing in Low Speed transportation initiatives, such as the Great California Coastal Sail-Ferry Fleet or the Bakersfield to Sacramento Blimpway, if we really want to lower GHGs.
On the other hand, as government abuses of power go, I find that for me, this is one of the least objectionable around, much less so than the kind of thing Gov. Cuomo has been doing with the MTA's supposed dedicated sources of funding and things like the Tappan Zee Bridge.
It was not clearly stated in the sources I accessed exactly how the funds would be managed or how easy if might become for a would be Cuomo type to "adjust" the spending formulae for temporary political convenience. As presented, it seemed to be wrapped into the state budget resolution, which may or may not have any degree of real enforceability, I wouldn't know. We'll see in future years if the politicians plan to revisit the allocation with each budget year or dip into it for special pork. Perhaps one should view these proportions as the initial guidelines that may be "refined" by future governments. In any case, there will most likely be some sort of bureaucratic entity charged with dispensing the funds and won't that be a gigantic political plum pudding full of high quality patronage positions – and who doesn't want a job giving away Other Peoples' Money? It doesn't really look like an ideal recipe for success administratively.
I don't know much about the whole cap and trade thing more than the obvious mechanism and the general theory. As far as the specifics went, I found this link to be a simple enough explanation of the program, compared to some which were just too legalese for me to follow. Overall, though, it remains to be seen whether or not the program will actually work, or whether some hitherto unexpected surprises or side effects will intervene to minimize or negate the results or to make it implode or become politically unfeasible. I can't help thinking about all the various utility deregulation initiatives and how they have (so far) nearly always failed to lower consumer costs, even though that was the usual long range justification for the actions.
2014/07/02 - 17:33 Mark Lyon
Anyway, thanks for the insight, Alon. Good reporting.
2014/07/02 - 17:34 Shane Phillips (@shanedphillips)
I'll agree that it's not optimal that things had to be done this way, but if it's a matter of getting HSR going or not, I'm 100% for this decision, and I think that's ultimately what we were looking at.
More specifically, I think you also have to take into account the fact that money spent on HSR will be recouped to a great degree — possibly even for a profit (including capital costs) over a very long time horizon of 60-80 years. Money spent on things like local transit, electric vehicle or PV tax rebates, and affordable housing are persistent money losers. Once the money is spent, it's gone, and you get what you've got. With HSR you get what you've got, plus a persistent revenue stream that can be turned around to pay for additional GHG-reducing projects. Whether that's where the money will go or not is of course up for debate, but at least with HSR it's a possibility.
Why is money spent on energy gone forever? There's a payback time for energy efficiency retrofits, too, in lower energy bills even without externality taxes; brief Googling shows that the less intensive retrofits have a payback time of a few years, while net zero has a payback time of a few decades. Rooftop solar panels are in between – about 15-30 years, as I recall.
But more to the point, all of this could be argued in a competitive grant process. The HSRA would apply for money, noting that because HSR is profitable it could partly pay for itself, so the net cost of construction per unit of GHG reduction is lower. Companies doing energy efficiency retrofits or building solar facilities would argue the same. The grant committee would evaluate competing proposals on marginal-dollar-per-marginal-unit-of-GHG criteria, reserving judgment for matters like project risk and short- vs. long-term GHG reduction.
Insulation, with the ordinary care you give the rest of the house, is forever. Solar panels whether PV or thermal, wear out.
2014/07/07 - 13:24 Shane Phillips
Sorry, I meant from the perspective of the government, since it's generally not the one paying the cost of operating buildings other than the relatively small number of government buildings. For gov buildings that aren't already retrofitted that'd be a great use of funds. I'd love to see some of the money spent on renewable energy retrofits and power generation, but the financial benefits accrue to very different parties, and if you're looking for a sustainable source of revenue to the government those kinds of investments won't provide it.
I'm not even going to say that you're wrong about there being lots of benefits to a competitive grant process, but the problem with grants is that they're rarely consistent. The biggest benefit to the dedicated HSR funds, in my view, is that it's a consistent revenue stream that can be leveraged to finance construction sooner rather than later. If you had to compete for grant funds every year, or even every 5 or 10 years, you probably couldn't do that, and in that case I'm not sure how much closer we'd be to building HSR.
2014/07/03 - 00:49 abeboparebop
Here's a hypothesis: the tax side of the bill (well, effectively a tax) is "doing work" primarily against carbon generated by electricity generation and industry. Maybe that means that it's fair for the spending side to preferentially focus on other carbon sources, like transportation and housing.
This is somewhat complicated by the fact that some of the caps apparently hit fuel production. I'm not at all sure what proportion of the tax is hitting transportation as opposed to power plants + industry (nor do I know how to figure this out), but it's probably less than 37%.
From what I've read, cap-and-trade is to be progressively extended to cover nearly all in-state GHG emissions. There are some excluded emissions it can't target, like interstate and international transportation, but those are not part of the spending agenda, either.
Also, the 80% of the budget that is spent on transportation doesn't deal with housing much. The GHG-based affordable housing grants do have an impact, but even they are a combination of transportation and residential emissions, hence the explicit focus on TOD. Building efficiency and renewable energy for residential consumption aren't mentioned in that category, but only in the 13% energy category.
Places where it's warm in the winter and cool in the summer, residential improvements are somewhat muted. I know people who don't have central heat and don't even own a fan. It's warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Their heating bills are nearly zero and they don't do anything to cool. Most Californians aren't that ,…. lucky.. but residential improvements do less where it's warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Interesting point. I live in LA and all I have is a fan (though I'm considering getting AC) and for the most part it's enough. The value of insulating retrofits would really only show up if I got AC, or maybe it'd keep my apt cooler in the summer passively. The benefits to installing solar, wind, etc power generating stations is just as high here as most places though, since CA still has a few coal-fired power plants a HUGE number of natural gas plants. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_California)
Keeping your apartment at 75 on the days when it goes up to 100 means you are maintaining a 25 degree temperature difference. Keeping my house at 65 when it's 40 out means I'm maintaining a 25 degree temperature difference. It doesn't get above 40 for months at a time in the Midwest and Northeast. Keeping your apartment at 75 when it's 90 out mean you are maintaining a 15 degree difference. Places not on the coast are below 50, a 15 degree difference, for months at time. Housing built after the mid 70s has some insulation in it. That's a lot of California. It may be "enough". That the payback period on doing more is longer than the occupant's life time or the life of the building . Insulating a house in Wisconsin has a much shorter payback period because the heating bills are much bigger and the cooling bills probably are.
Los Angeles is relatively dry in summer. Go down to the big box store and see if they have swamp coolers. That may be enough on hot days. Lots cheaper to buy and lots cheaper to run. It's a fan with some pads around it that are wet. The way to tell if it will work reasonably well is to check the dew point temperature in the weather reports. The lower it is the better it will work.,,,they don't work in places where the humidity is 100 % and not very well when it's 90%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler#Performance
2014/07/17 - 23:33 BruceMcF
Regarding this: "The projected revenue from cap-and-trade is a range whose top end is $5 billion statewide, corresponding to about $11 per metric ton; at this level, assuming HSR saves $250/t-CO2 means it should get 4.4% of its funding from emissions reduction, or (at the current cost of $53 billion in constant dollars) about $2.3 billion over the lifetime of the program."
Charging a carbon price that is substantially less than the amount required to do the minimum necessary does not thereby somehow magically reduce the price required to do the minimum necessary. Even that inadequate carbon price is under renewed attack from Big Oil. And aiming for some apolitical process to optimally allocate a flow of resources which is a minor fraction of the total flow of funds required to achieve the required ends is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
The top GHG emitters are passenger vehicles at 25.8%, in-state electricity generation at 11%, oil and gas extraction and refining at 10.2%, and imported electricity generation at 10. Those four taken together represent a majority of emissions. If there is no substantial progress on those four, getting the rest of emissions down by 50% per sector, or 75% per sector, or 100% per sector, simply is not enough. Of those four, the ones that the state is making serious progress on already is electricity generation. Meanwhile, oil and gas extraction and refining will be impervious to progress so long as the transport sector depends upon its products. And transportation is the sector most impervious to being affected by the modest carbon price without substantial investment in alternative modes of transport that do not require carbon emission to provide their transport task. It would be strategically blind to insist on a mechanical allocation of funds, treating the economy as if it were some equilibrating process.
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