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Fintech News Issue #134 September 21st, 2017
We were Kings. GAFA are posing major threat to banks. How to prepare for the age of AI and so much more. Enjoy another issue of FinTech Weekly. – Michael and the FinTech Weekly team
We Were Kings (Or When Things Went To Zero)
via Digitalist Magazine
The title of this post was inspired by the 1996 documentary "When We Were Kings," about the heavyweight fight of 1974 between two boxing legends, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. In the not-so-distant future, it will also be a fitting phrase for many in the banking and insurance industries.
VAT IT masters machine learning – clients win
via VAT IT
Companies across the globe lose billions in cash unknowingly. Twenty billion pounds of VAT on foreign and domestic expenses incurred by companies is left unclaimed every year. VAT IT has developed technologies that can get that money back, at the click of a button or the swipe of your screen.
Technology Giants Pose Major Threat to Banking Industry
Large technology companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google and Apple are a greater threat to traditional banking than fintech firms, according to a report from the World Economic Forum.
How the Financial Sector is Preparing for its AI-led Future
As traditional banks grapple with the challenges posed by FinTechs, legacy constraints and traditional operational models, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is emerging as the savior.
Which banks are leading digital (and who are the laggards)?
I've written a lot about legacy and the challenge of old systems, so it's interesting to read a few press reports on said subjects. Yolanda Bobeldijk writes in the Financial News that 92 of the world's top 100 banks still rely on IBM mainframes.
Managing innovation in banking
Until recently, before the aftermath of the financial crisis triggered the fast growth of a global fintech movement, and suggested that regulators around the world focus on empowering the consumer in a traditionally supply-side industry, banking showed very limited uncertainty.
Regtech can help national regulators win the race for talent
A race for regulatory talent is about to begin. Regardless of the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, it's almost certain many UK banks will relocate their headquarters or employees, and European financial capitals will swell in size.
How Financial Institutions Are Turning AI Into ROI
Financial institutions are beginning to explore how artificial intelligence (AI) decrease costs, enhance revenue, reduce fraud and improve the customer experience. While there are challenges, it is time for organizations of all sizes to invest, learn and partner with experts who can help exploit the benefits of AI.
Why innovation and automation is the future of retail banking
via bobsguide
50 years ago, a new technology swept across banking, transforming the way that consumers interacted with their financial institutions and their money. This change allowed banks to shift their focus from applying rules to meeting evolving customer needs.
Digital transformation: A new shape of core banking
via Asian Banking&Finance
Customer expectations for financial and banking services are rising at an ever faster rate. The approaches of banks are increasingly framed in black and white terms of good and bad.
Corporate banking: work smarter, not harder. On user self-onboarding
Why would a bank let their corporates indulge in setting up system privileges online – without keeping close tabs on the process? Here's why.
Who owns the customers' data?
Following on from the discussions about identity on Monday, it gets interesting to think about the customers' data and who owns it, especially in light of the Payment Services Directive 2, PSD2 for short, which comes into force at the start of next year.
Understanding Initial Coin Offerings: Technology, Benefits, Risks, and Regulations
via Medium
Organizations have raised over $1.8 billion through ICOs since January 2017. As organizations continue to raise tens, sometimes hundreds, of millions of dollars in each token sale, it grows increasingly important for industry leaders, lawyers, policymakers, and academics to understand both the ICO regulatory landscape and the economic and technological attributes of the cryptocurrency and ICO space.


The relic of an old Sorcerer, the Glyph of Tarnos Krae is a window into the past.
It is a dusty rune. That should have been their first clue that it was dangerous.
The secret for immortality has been discovered by an eccentric wizard/mad scientist. Its found you need to reapply once a month. As people stop dying, and the birth rate increases exponentially, people are forced into homelessness, because of the need for food reamins the same, and food is not being produced fast enough to feed the undying population. The PCs have to find the creator and kill him, and destroy production, to save the world from undying, unending torture from hungryness.


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Former NYPD Blue Starlet Files for Divorce
On May the 10th and approximately one month after learning of her husband's infidelity, Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon filed for divorce. In an email sent to the colleagues of Michael Nilon at Creative Artists Agency, she wrote:
"I found out today that my husband of almost 9 years has been having an affair for 5 years with some slut in Chicago. I am devastated!!! And I have been duped. Our boys don't deserve this."
The court documents cite irreconcilable differences as the reason for divorce.
Under Canadian law and pursuant to s. 8(1) of the Divorce Act a couple may submit an application for a divorce judgment upon marriage breakdown. Marriage breakdown may consist of one of the following:
one-year separation
adultery, or
cruelty.
Given her situation Beauvais-Nilon would be able to claim either one-year separation or adultery as a ground for her divorce. According to Canadian law, a successful claim of adultery would afford her an instant divorce and allow her to waive the mandatory one-year separation period. However, with adultery comes a high threshold that needs to be met. Case law establishes that the applicant-spouse claiming infidelity must prove to the court, on a balance of probabilities, that the adulterer had:
the opportunity for the commission of adultery, and
slight evidence of opportunity standing along is not sufficient
an inclination to commit adultery.
Must be more than just a warm friendship with a person of the opposite sex
Evidence of general reputation is inadmissible, i.e. he or she has committed adultery in the past therefore he or she is more inclined to have committed adultery now.
Based on the facts available to us at this time it is difficult to determine whether or not the former NYPD Blue star has enough circumstantial evidence to show that her estranged husband committed adultery. Some examples of evidence that would help her prove her claim are:
receipts for overnight stays in Chicago hotels
receipts for expensive dinners for two at restaurants in Chicago
frequent phone-calls made to the same Chicago number which belongs to the other woman implicated in the affair, and
receipts for gifts which Beauvais-Nilon never received, etc.
Beauvais-Nilon is also seeking joint legal and physical custody of her 2-year old twin boys, Jaid and Jax. This would grant both her and her estranged husband joint decision-making ability with regards to the health, education, and the religious upbringing of their children. Also, the children would be able to spend equal amounts of time with both their parents.
The last stipulation in the divorce application submitted is that Beauvais-Nilon is unwilling to pay spousal support. Although on a moral level this may seem justifiable and acceptable since she seems to be the wronged spouse, Canadian law has a different take on spousal support. According to s. 15.2(5) of the Divorce Act, the courts will not take spousal misconduct into account when making a determination regarding support. Therefore, if this case were to be heard in a Canadian province, under the aforementioned Act, Beauvais-Nilon would not be able to make such a request unless her estranged husband was agreeable. If, on the other hand, he brought forward an application then the court would consider the means, needs and circumstances of each spouse as well as the following factors to determine whether support is warranted:
the length of time the spouses cohabited
the functions performed by each spouse during cohabitation, and
any order, arrangement or agreement relating to the support of each spouse.
Celebrity Blog
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner: The Divorce Process Doesn't End with "I Do"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Anxiety over Twins:
Anthropological Insights into the Story of Jacob and Esau
Dr. Kristine Henriksen Garroway
Terracotta mould-made plaque of a figurine pregnant with twins about to be born. Israel Antiquities Authority, IAA 1982-219
Explaining Rebekah's Difficult Pregnancy
The Torah describes Rebekah's long-awaited pregnancy as difficult and painful:
בראשית כה:כב וַיִּתְרֹצֲצוּ הַבָּנִים בְּקִרְבָּהּ וַתֹּאמֶר אִם כֵּן לָמָּה זֶּה אָנֹכִי וַתֵּלֶךְ לִדְרֹשׁ אֶת יְ-הֹוָה:
Gen 25:22 But the children struggled in her womb, and she said, "If it is so, why do I exist?" She went to inquire of YHWH.
The reader is told the reason for the difficulty: Rebekah is carrying twins and they are fighting.
After consulting an oracle, Rebekah not only learns that she is carrying twins, but that these boys are destined to produce nations:
בראשית כה:כג וַיֹּאמֶר יְ-הֹוָה לָהּ
שְׁנֵי (גיים) [גוֹיִם] בְּבִטְנֵךְ
וּשְׁנֵי לְאֻמִּים מִמֵּעַיִךְ יִפָּרֵדוּ
Gen 25:23 And YHWH answered her:
"Two nations are in your womb,
Two separate peoples shall issue from your body . . ." (NJPS)
The oracle continues, describing the impending struggle between these boys and/or their future nations, ostensibly informing her who will come out on top. But the answer to this question, is, syntactically speaking, less than clear; as is typical of oracles, YHWH's answer can be understood in more than one way.
"The Older the Younger Will Work" – What Does It Mean?
The NJPS offers a typical translation of the end of the oracle:
וּלְאֹם מִלְאֹם יֶאֱמָץ
וְרַב יַעֲבֹד צָעִיר:
One people shall be mightier than the other,
And the older shall serve the younger.
Nevertheless, as Tikvah Frymer Kensky notes, the Hebrew actually says: "the older the younger will work," which can yield more than one translation, either "the older will work (for) the younger," or "the elder, the younger will work (for)".[1]
Oracular Double-Speak
The oracle to Rebekah is reminiscent of the story in Herodotus of King Croesus of Lydia's consultation with the oracle in Delphi. He wanted to know whether he should go to war against Cyrus of Persia and was told that if he does, "he will destroy a great kingdom" (Herodotus, Histories, 1:53). Croesus believes the answer means that Persia will fall and he attacks, only to lose and come to understand that Lydia, his own kingdom, is the one that will fall (Herodotus, Histories, 1:86). Of course, whether Lydia or Persia lost, the Delphic oracle was going to truthful by virtue of its ambiguity.
Ancient oracles are thus analogous to horoscopes and fortune cookies, which purport to offer tantalizing insights into a person's future. They thrive on specific bits of vague wisdom, such as, "Watch out for a friend." What does this mean? Will your friend do something good for you, or something bad for you? Does it mean you will make a new friend? Or do you need to watch out, as in protect, an existing friend?
Oracles in the ancient world were similarly vague, and just as today, people interpreted them based upon their own assumptions about how they wanted their life, or that of a loved one, to turn out. This is what Croesus does with the Delphic oracle, and the same is likely true of this biblical oracle. The narrator is assuming that Rebekah understood the oracle to favor Jacob, and this dictates how the Israelite audience understood it, but the verse remains ambiguous. Nevertheless, however the oracle is interpreted, it assumes strife between the brothers. This is illustrative of the way in which twins were perceived in the ancient Near East [ANE].
Seeking Divine Protection from
The birth of twins in the ANE was a fearful time for the mother. One practical reason for this is maternal mortality; even now, in the developing world, obstetric complications are higher with twins, leading to a mortality rate four times that of a single birth.[2] Women in the ANE turned to the domestic cult for help in dealing with potential reproductive complications.
An Ancient Figure of a Woman Pregnant with Twins
Popular within this female-centric cult was the use of female figurines.[3] Pertinent to Rebekah and her twins are three 13th c. BCE plaque figurines (see image above). The figurines look almost like an ancient form of the Hasbro game Operation. At first glance one sees a figure of a woman with two babies, but looking closer it becomes clear that her abdomen is presented as a sonogram; the two babies are actually embryos about to be birthed (whether they are meant to be fraternal or identical twins is unclear).
Scholars have suggested that these figurines were either a sort of mediatrix through whom a woman would pray to her god, or a protective talisman. These unique "double-pregnancy" figurines likely reflect anxiety over the prospect of having twins, and may have been commissioned by women, like Rebekah, who knew or suspected they were giving birth to twins.
Identical Twins – Double Monsters
Even after the birth, anxiety about twins would remain. Identical twins are a particularly frightening prospect for parents in many cultures. The Mesopotamian omen series šumma izbu treats every manner of imaginable anomaly (izbu).[4] Notably, what we would consider today to be healthy and normal looking identical twins were considered "double monsters."[5] The existence of two people who looked exactly alike was unacceptable and one must be killed or thrust out of the family.[6]
The Placenta as an Undeveloped Twin
Well into the early 20th century, ethnographers report various groups in Iraq that continued to feel unsettled by the birth of twins. These groups understood everyone to have a double, but the double was the placenta, which was understood as an undeveloped double of the infant, called a jāra.[7] The Assyrian (Nestorian) peoples actually call the placenta jimma, "twin," or ḥawarta, "female likeness/ double."
The placenta played an important role in protecting the newborn baby. Evil beings such as Qarina, or her ancient counterpart Lamaštu, were thought to prey on newborns. The placenta, understood as a double of the newborn, was placed outside of the house in an attempt to draw malevolent forces to prey on it, instead of the baby. An actual human twin, understood as the placenta come to life, was a scary prospect.
Rebekah's Relief:
Fraternal (not Identical) Twins
According to Genesis 25:24, Rebekah did not experience difficulties during the birth of her twins, nor did she have to concern herself with identical twins:
בראשית כה:כה וַיֵּצֵא הָרִאשׁוֹן אַדְמוֹנִי כֻּלּוֹ כְּאַדֶּרֶת שֵׂעָר וַיִּקְרְאוּ שְׁמוֹ עֵשָׂו: כה:כו וְאַֽחֲרֵי כֵן יָצָא אָחִיו וְיָדוֹ אֹחֶזֶת בַּעֲקֵב עֵשָׂו וַיִּקְרָא שְׁמוֹ יַעֲקֹב…
Gen 25:25 The first one emerged red, like a hairy mantle all over; so they named him Esau. Then his brother emerged, holding on to the heel of Esau; so they named him Jacob.
Fraternal twins are not considered doppelgangers or freaks of nature, and the description of the birth makes sure to highlight the fact that Jacob and Esau are fraternal twins. Esau, the hairy and red one who prefers the outdoors, becomes the father of the Edomites, the red people.[8] Brother Jacob, is mild mannered, preferring the comforts of an indoor tent life. Neither twin is exposed or abandoned; both go on to father a nation.
The Problem of Inheritance:
Firstborn or Favorite?
As Jacob and Esau are fraternal twins, the anxiety in the biblical text focuses on the more mundane problem of inheritance. Having two boys the same age causes inheritance problems in kinship based societies, where inheritance is most often linear; the eldest son holds rank and inherits more than his younger siblings. This is true of biblical society as well, at least in theory, though in practice, we have numerous stories about the younger son supplanting the older.
This inheritance tension is central to the previous story about the brothers Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael is the older brother but Isaac is born of the primary wife; this leaves the question of inheritance murky. The primary wife Sarah steps in to protect her son's rights when she sees Ishmael "Isaac-ing" (mitzachak) with Isaac (Gen 21:9). By sending away Ishmael, Sarah secures the line of inheritance for Isaac (Gen 21:10; 25:11).
In the story of Jacob and Esau, both sons are from the same mother, but are the same age. In kinship based societies, like ancient Israel, twins disrupt the normal order of lineage.[9]
The biblical text in its current form solves the ambiguity problem by claiming that Esau was the firstborn, and thus primary inheritor, and that Jacob needed to acquire the right of the firstborn from Esau (Gen 25:29-34, 27:36a). Yet Jacob's purchase of this birthright seems to play no role in the story of his stealing the blessing; neither Rebekah nor Isaac seem to know anything about it. Furthermore, Esau never reflects on how Jacob is supposed to be the firstborn and ostensibly should be receiving the blessing.[10]
Thus, it seems likely that the firstborn element is a later element in the story, which originally suggested that the favorite son would be the primary inheritor. Herein lay the problem for the family; as the Torah emphasizes, the parents were not in agreement about which son should be favored:
בראשית כה:כח וַיֶּאֱהַב יִצְחָק אֶת עֵשָׂו כִּי צַיִד בְּפִיו וְרִבְקָה אֹהֶבֶת אֶת יַעֲקֹב.
Gen 25:28 Isaac favored Esau because he had a taste for game; but Rebekah favored Jacob.
Thus, in the early version of the story, Rebekah must collude with her favorite son to outsmart her husband's attempt to transfer his legacy, represented by the blessing, to his favorite.
The fact that both boys are the same age leads to family strife. The apex of this strife comes after Jacob succeeds in tricking his father and "stealing" his brother's inheritance and Esau declares his intention to kill Jacob, prompting Jacob to flee to another land to save his life. Concern about such inevitable strife is an important factor that made the existence of even fraternal twins problematic to the ancients.
The Significance of the Younger Twin
Why does Jacob supplant Esau?
Midrashic Answer: The Younger Twin Was Conceived First
Rashi (Gen 25:26), quoting a midrash (Gen. Rab. 63:8), offers a practical explanation based on beliefs of his time concerning the conception of twins:
יעקב נוצר מטיפה ראשונה ועשו מן השניה, צא ולמד משפופרת שפיה קצרה, תן לה שתי אבנים זו תחת זו, הנכנסת ראשונה תצא אחרונה, והנכנסת אחרונה תצא ראשונה, נמצא עשו הנוצר באחרונה יצא ראשון, ויעקב שנוצר ראשונה יצא אחרון, ויעקב בא לעכבו שיהא ראשון ללידה כראשון ליצירה, ויפטור את רחמה, ויטול את הבכורה מן הדין:
Jacob was formed from the first drop [of semen] and Esau from the second. Take, for example, a tube with a small mouth. Place two stones inside it one after the other; whichever enters first will be come out last, and whichever enters last will come out first. We see from this that Esau was formed last but came out first, and Jacob who was formed first came out last. Thus Jacob wished to stop him, so that he could be the first born just as he was first conceived, and would be the one to open [his mother's] womb and receive the birthright legally.
Rashi is here defending Jacob as the true first-born, since he was conceived first. He is thus not tricking his brother out of the birthright, but claiming what was biologically his! This ingenious explanation, however, is based only on ancient, probably Greco-Roman, scientific notions and cannot be considered as an explanation for Jacob and Rebekah's actions in the biblical text, which never implies that Jacob is the "older twin" in any way.
Anthropological Perspective: Apotropaic Reversal
From a literary perspective, the final form of the Jacob supplanting Esau story continues the biblical motif of the younger son supplanting the elder son. Nevertheless, since Esau and Jacob are twins, and the earlier text does not seem to factor in a "birthright" for an older twin, it is worthwhile to consider an anthropological perspective.
While in ancient Israel, fraternal twins were both accepted into society and allowed to live, the double-natured-ness of their birth placed a social stigma on them. The birthright reversal in Toledot was an apotropaic strategy to address the irregularity of twins being born. To correct for the double birth and remove the social stigma, the social order had to be disrupted: the younger must inherit as the elder.
Ethnographic studies from the Nigerian Yoruba culture support this idea. They believe that the older twin has junior rank because she or he comes out of the womb first to test the waters for the younger child, who is given senior rank in society.[11] Perhaps a similar idea lies behind the story in Genesis.
An "Unambiguous" Oracle
The innate anxiety over twins and the subconscious desire to "reverse" the process might explain why, for Rebekah, the oracle was not ambiguous. Perhaps in her world she had no alternative but to interpret the oracle as "the elder shall serve the younger."
Dr. Kristine Garroway was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Bible at the HUC-JIR Jack H. Skirball Campus in 2011. Before coming to Los Angeles, Dr. Garroway received her doctorate in Hebrew Bible and Cognate Studies from the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 2009. She enjoys spending time studying and researching in Israel and has participated in excavations at Ashkelon, Tel Dor, and Tel Dan. Dr. Garroway's scholarly interests include the status of children in the ancient Near East, Deuteronomistic Histories, Former Prophets, feminist and gender studies, and archaeology. Her book Children in the Ancient Near Eastern Household (Eisenbrauns 2014) combines texts and archaeological realia to explore what a child is and how a child's gender and social status affect her membership in the household.
[1] Tikvah Frymer Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible (New York: Schocken Books, 2002), 16.
[2] Jeroen Smith and Christiaan Monden, "PLOS ONE: Twinning across the Developing World" published 9/29/2011, n.p. [18 May 2016]. Online: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/artivle?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0025239.
[3] Beth Alpert Nakhai, "Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Levant form the Late Bronze Age though the Persian Period," in Material Culture Matters (ed. John Spencer et al.; Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2014), 165-98.
[5] Erle Leichty, The Omen Series Šumma Izbu (Locust Valley, NY: J. J. Augustin Publisher, 1972), 17.
[6] Ethnographic studies show multiple ways that societies adapt to deal with the presence of twins, from acceptance, to death, to deification, to seeing them as a mediator between the animal world (where births of multiples are common) and the human world (Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure [Chicago: Aldine, 1969], 44-62).
[7] E.S. Drower, "Women and Taboo in Iraq," Iraq 5 (1938): 109-10.
[8] The description of Esau as "red" may be related to the Ugaritic myth recounting the birth of the twin deities Shahar and Shalem/Shalim, whose names mean Sunrise and Sunset respectively. This myth presents boys with a common father (El) and a common nurse ("The Lady" likely Anat or Ashera). While mothered by two different women, the two are still considered twin deities and are perceived as fraternal twins. See Karel van der Toorn et al., Dictionary of Deities and Demons (Grand Rapids, MI: Eeerdmans, 1999), 755-56. Othniel Margolith notes the parallels with the birth-of-twins stories in Genesis:
In the Bible, this motif may be reflected in the stories of Jacob and his twin Esau the Red, and of Jacob's grandsons Perez (break through) and Zerah ("Sunrise," wearing the red thread).
See, Othniel Margalith, "A New Type of Ashera-Figurine?" VT 44.1 (1994), 113. Admittedly, the connection between the Bible and the Ugaritic myth is stronger with the Perez and Zerah story, but the use of "red" in both implies that this is purposeful. The association with deities alludes to a positive perception of fraternal twins.
[9] Turner, The Ritual Process, 45.
[10] Esau references the sale in Gen 27:36a but this seems artificial, since if he acknowledges that he sold the birthright, shouldn't that mean that Jacob should be getting the blessing.
[11] Taiwo Oruene, "Magical Powers of Twins in the Socio-Religious beliefs of the Yoruba," Folklore 96.2 (1985): 211.


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DeSantis embraces 'free state' of Florida, but that doesn't include recreational marijuana
Houston Tumlin, 'Talladega Nights' child actor, dies at 28
Magic's Cole Anthony fined for 'derogatory remarks' toward referee
Pedestrian fatally hit by truck on SR 528, FHP says
Decades later, a Holocaust survivor speaks out
Tavares seals deal for vintage trains, Warner Bros. 'Polar Express' ride
By Jason Ruiter
The 1950s-era passenger cars pulled by diesel locomotives will run regularly and feature dining cars, "glass-enclosed" dome coaches and other special-event and holiday trains.
TAVARES — The announcement "All aboard!" will be returning to Tavares now that the city has struck a deal to bring in regular weekend rides and The Polar Express Train Ride from Warner Bros. during the Christmas season.
Air-conditioned rail cars from the 1950s will operate year-round from Tavares beginning August or September, Orlando & Northwestern Railway spokesman Neil Bagaus said.
The new riding adventure will be called the Royal Palm Railway Experience and travel to Mount Dora and Eustis for trips as long as two hours.
"This really punctuates Tavares as a destination," said John Drury, city administrator of Tavares, which unanimously approved Orlando & Northwestern Railway to use its train station last week.
Each year, ridership for the seasonal Polar Express Train Ride — at potentially 40,000, according to Bagaus — is expected to match the city's former steam-engine train, the Orange Blossom Cannonball, which closed Jan. 29.
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Based off the children's book and 2004 movie, the Warner Bros.-licensed "experience" is expected to be the gem of new train rides offered in Tavares.
"It's a theatrical production on rails," said Michael Brown, special events manager for Orlando & Northwestern Railway. "It includes a visit with Santa on the return trip, and each guest gets a special little gift."
The company expects to ink the contract with Warner Bros., which runs the book-based ride in Chicago and the Grand Canyon, by the end of the week to set up train rides holding as many as 500 passengers per run.
The 1950s-era passenger cars pulled by diesel locomotives, meanwhile, will run regularly and feature dining cars, "glass-enclosed" dome coaches and other special-event and holiday trains. Part of the Royal Palm Railway Experience, each ride will have capacity for about 200 passengers.
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Costs for regular rides will range from about $12 for children and $20 for adults and up to $99 for holiday dinner trains and other special events.
"It's going to be heritage all the way," said Bagaus, who added that excursion trips could include seaplane rides in Tavares or performances at the Historic State Theatre in Eustis.
Bagaus expects the railway experience to collaborate with local businesses and "strolling musicians," a talent base aided by the region's tourism economy.
"With Orlando here, it's really easy to pick up musicians," he said.
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To get the train running on time, Orlando & Northwestern officials have had to hustle.
"I'm working on the air-conditioning unit today," said Brown, talking by phone in Maryland. "It's not exactly what I do, but I'm one of the few guys that knows about railroad air-conditioning units in the country."
Classic streamliners from Indiana and Mississippi will soon head to Tavares by freight railroads, he said.
Tavares, which pegs itself as America's Seaplane City, has also made a niche in offering old-timey train rides to residents and tourists. It invested $540,000 to build its own train station near Lake Dora. The Cannonball, a 110-year-old steam-powered train, discontinued its run in Lake County earlier this year.
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"I get a lot of people asking, 'When is the train coming? When is the train coming?' " Tavares Vice Mayor Troy Singer said.
The new trains lack the Cannonball's signature steam engine, but Bagaus said in an email that "the company is ... visiting with various people who own steam locomotives."
The Cannonball — featured in Hollywood movies including "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" — stopped after track owner Florida Central Railroad terminated its contract with the operator.
Tavares has a long history with tourist trains, including the Mount Dora Meteor and Dora Doodlebug, as well as visits by Thomas the Tank Engine, a kid magnet. In 2010, the Meteor was temporarily stopped when it was discovered 1,000 railroad ties would have to be replaced along the route.
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The state of disrepair was part of a reckoning of the region's railways. Two separate stretches of tracks from the 1920s were upgraded in 2014 between Umatilla and Orlando and Tavares and Mount Dora.
"It's really great to be here again," Bagaus said.
An earlier online version of this story incorrectly stated the brand of 1950s trains.
jruiter@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5927
An inside view of one of the vintage trains coming to Tavares. (Courtesy of Neil Bagaus)
Lake County videos


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As the World Economic Forum's (WEF) annual meeting wraps up in Davos, edie wraps up the key climate-related themes that were discussed and how these could shape corporate sustainability actions moving forward.
Sarah George & Matt Mace
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edie summarises the five key climate themes discussed at Davos 2023
It is often said that what is discussed at Davos will shape the corporate landscape over the coming months and years. But against a backdrop of "permacrises" relating to health, cost of living and a fragile economy, would climate action and the urgent need to shift to a net-zero transition get much of the limelight in discussions in Switzerland?
Fortunately, that answer appears to be yes, with delegates attending events, launching initiatives and forging new partnerships all aimed at strengthening international approaches to climate action, mitigation and decarbonisation.
The WEF's own risk analysis for this year concluded that, while the cost of living is the biggest risk for the next two years, it is closely followed by extreme weather events made more likely and severe by the climate crisis. And, as we look out to the eight years beyond that, environmental risks top the list.
With this in mind, climate experts, philanthropists, billionaires and business representatives all descended on Davos to discuss how climate action can be enshrined into efforts to strengthen the economy and combat the cost of living crisis.
Here, edie summarises the five key climate themes discussed at Davos 2023, and these themes are likely to be the focal points of the broader corporate sustainability movement over the coming months.
1) Building climate resilience
An event hosted at the WEF on Thursday (19 January) stated that 2023 is a "crucial year to focus on adaptation". This very much felt like a continuation of discussions held at COP27 in Egypt late last year, where the hosts received widespread support for a new 'Adaptation Agenda' to improve climate resiliency for four billion people this decade.
Climate scientists have, for many years, told us that some level of change to weather patterns is now 'baked in', regardless of whether humanity is successful in efforts to limit the global temperature increase in line with the Paris Agreement. The IPCC warned last year that all parts of the world will be affected, including parts of the Global North that have previously framed climate adaptation as an issue for the longer-term or purely for the most-affected parts of the Global South.
The WEF's global risks report for this year, summarizing the views of 1,200+ experts, concluded that the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters across the world is the second-largest global risk for the next two years. The WEF deemed extreme weather risks the top short-term global risk in its 2022 edition of the global risks report. This year, the only reason it dropped a place was due to the rising cost of living taking the first spot.
The message is clear: Climate impacts are here, now, in all parts of the world. Efforts to safeguard communities by improving infrastructure must be accelerated.
When looking at risks over a ten-year period, the focus on adaptation remains. Failed climate adaptation is second only to failed climate mitigation (reducing emissions), while natural disasters and extreme weather events are in third place.
2) Accelerating decarbonisation, especially in heavy industry
Both UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and former US vice-president Al Gore used their platforms at Davos to warn that, for all the talk about the net-zero transition, global emissions continue to rise, with increased investment in clean technologies still being overshadowed by continued support for fossil fuels. This point was echoed by IEA chief Fatih Birol in a discussion with youth climate activists including Vanessa Nakate and Greta Thunberg.
Guterres said: "Today, fossil fuel producers and their enablers are still racing to expand production, knowing full well that this business model is inconsistent with human survival. Now, this insanity belongs in science-fiction, yet we know the ecosystem meltdown is cold, hard scientific fact."
As expected, many of the speeches and sessions focused on how Russia's war in Ukraine is impacting the global energy transition, with many nations increasing investment in energy efficiency and home-grown renewables, but a clear grapple for coal and more home-grown oil and gas is also on show.
There was some good news on reducing fossil fuel use in heavy industrial sectors. The WEF announced that nine new industrial clusters across Europe, Asia and North America have joined its Transforming Industrial Clusters Towards Net-Zero initiative.
The initiative is striving to convene 100 industrial clusters to secure commitments to net-zero by mid-century and to build upon those pledges with public-private and cross-industry partnerships to scale solutions. It also facilitates discussion and learning between clusters across the world.
The initiative now includes 17 clusters, which collectively generate 451 million metric tonnes of CO2e each year. Read edie's full story here.
3) Creating a nature-positive economy
Nations agreed on a new biodiversity treaty last month in Montreal, pledging to end nature degradation this decade and to bring about a new era of nature restoration thereafter. The WEF told delegates ahead of the meeting that steps must be taken "immediately" to deliver this pledge, chiefly by advancing public-private action. There was a session, specifically, on the 'next steps' to deliver the treaty's 30×30 goal, which entails the protection of 30% of land and marine habitats for nature this decade.
The WEF, in its programme, emphasised that delivering a nature-positive future will make climate mitigation and adaptation smoother, while also improving human health. This joining up of climate, nature and society will doubtless be welcomed.
There was also – as is to be expected when you convene billionaires and business leaders – a focus on the financial benefits of 'investing in nature'. Some of this will doubtless be perceived as greenwashing, an attempt to monetise what rural communities have valued for centuries, or to badge investments as 'nature-positive' when they are anything but. There were organisations on the agenda that have proven controversial with climate activists for years, including major meat producer JBS.
4) Financing oceans and water
One of the first spectacles attendees will have seen in Davos (after getting past protestors seeking to ground their private jets on climate grounds) was the opening concert. This year, it took the theme 'I Sea You', calling on policymakers to protect and restore coral reefs. There was a focus on the Northern Red Sea given the tie-in with COP27, but the IPCC has stated that virtually all coral globally would cease to thrive in a 2C warming pathway.
Nature restoration is a broad topic, and this concert set the scene for more detailed conversations and commitments on oceans and water more broadly. With land and ocean use accounting for more than 12% of global GDP and 40% of jobs – stats that the WEF claims are "grossly underestimated" – Davos attempted to shine a light on how regenerative approaches to food, water and ocean systems could unlock economic growth.
Sessions were held in Davos on the "interplay" of food, energy and water and the synergies that exist between these sectors as well as how food systems can be revolutionised with sustainable production in mind.
One key area explored at Davos was that of the blue economy. The blue economy is a concept that seeks to assign value to – and thereby enable greater investment – in marine resources, with a focus on ensuring long-term sustainability. It has been growing in popularity since 2016, when several academic papers attempting definitions were published.
In 2016, the OECD stated that the value of the blue economy – or ocean economy as it referred to it – was $1.5trn, and poised to grow to $3trn by 2030.
At Davos, the WEF unveiled a new strategic partnership with the Government of Indonesia to scale projects in the blue economy – namely blue carbon restoration and ocean conservation projects.
Initiated by the WEF's Ocean Action Agenda the new partnership aims to increase demand for and access to high-quality blue carbon credits and projects. The partnership will bring together a range of stakeholders that will catalyse strategic financing opportunities to grow the market.
"Blue carbon holds immense potential for marine ecosystem restoration and coastal community resilience, while contributing to climate mitigation and helping raise critical funds to advance the urgent needs for ocean protection and conservation," the WEF's director of Ocean Action Agenda Kristian Teleki said. "We are excited to partner with Indonesia to start bringing to fruition this win-win-win potential."
5) Leveraging philanthropic funding
Analysis from the IKEA Foundation – the retailer's philanthropic arm – unveiled at COP27 last year examined what consumption and production patterns need to change in order to deliver a 1.5C world across energy, food and land use, industry, transport and buildings, whilst benefitting society.
Some of the high-impact opportunities identified are: providing target financial support to deliver an inclusive energy transition, minimising methane emissions, investing in peatland restoration globally, shifting to plant-based protein, strengthening value chains to reduce loss and leakage, investing in cooling technologies and supporting the market for electric two and three-wheeled vehicles.
While some $810bn was given by philanthropic organisations in 2021, the WEF estimates that just 2% went to projects that will be able to reduce emissions.
In response, Davos saw the launch of a new initiative aiming to scale this proportion and, in turn, to unlock trillions of dollars for climate and nature action.
Called Giving to Amplify Earth Action (GAEA), the initiative has been launched in the hope of closing the $3trn annual finance gap between current levels of backing for climate and nature initiatives and those needed to meet key international agreements, like the Paris Agreement on climate change and the recently-ratified pledge to halt and reverse nature degradation and loss.
It will do so by convening dozens of the world's largest philanthropic organisations already involved in environmental work, alongside decision-makers managing public and private sectors. In the first instance, these leaders will identify which climate and nature solutions they are best placed to fund and how, in doing so, they can "catalyse" further financial support.
A total of 45 philanthropic organisations are signing up to GAEA. These include the Bezos Earth Fund, the Laudes Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Philanthropy Asia Alliance. Several funds with corporate links are among the cohort, too, including the BMW Foundation and the Ikea Foundation.
Alongside discussions and announcements, Davos also acted as a melting pot of the key stakeholders who will need to come together to collaborate on climate action.
World leaders were joined by ministers, investors, business leaders, tech billionaires, academics, risk specialists and others. There was also a strong activist presence, with climate campaigners seeking to hold the elite to account over their private jet use and continued support for the fossil fuel industry. In total, more than 2,700 people registered to attend the Forum.
Here, we provide a handy run-down of who said what in regard to the climate crisis, the clean energy transition and other environmental topics.
Words Sarah George & Matt Mace
'A major pro-business opportunity': UK's green economy reacts to the Skidmore Net-Zero Review
'Delay is a significant risk': UK's Net-Zero Review calls for accelerated climate action from Government


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NBA's Brooklyn Nets Become First Sports Team on Socialcam [VIDEO]
By Sam Laird 2012-05-21 22:10:41 UTC
A couple weeks after unveiling a new logo and a few months before moving into a new arena, the NBA's Brooklyn Nets have hopped on the bandwagon of one of social media's hottest new apps.
The Nets — formerly of New Jersey but Brooklyn-bound next season — became the first pro sports team to join the popular video sharing service Socialcam when they posted this teaser video last week. The video touts the team's on-court history and natural fit in Brooklyn.
Socialcam is looking to establish itself to unfamiliar fans as well. Since spinning out of Justin.tv last summer, the mobile app has been battling with the startup Viddy for the early lead in social video. Socialcam now claims about 36 million users to Viddy's base of 26 million. Other startups including Color and the the Leonardo DiCaprio-backed Mobli Media are looking to gain traction in the space as well.
SEE ALSO: English Premier League: The Social Media Season
New York City is the nation's fastest-growing tech hub, and joining Socialcam indicates the Nets want to take full advantage of their new home's digital culture. But the team will have its work cut out for it to stand out in the social savvy NBA. The NBA is arguably the world's most advanced pro sports league digitally, with its teams and players very active on social media.
The official @NBA account recently became the first pro sports league profile to reach 5 million followers on Twitter. Counting official league, team and player profiles, the NBA claims more than 260 million combined Facebook likes and Twitter follows.
Do you think Socialcam can catch on with more pro sports teams? Let us know in the comments.
Topics: Entertainment, NBA, social cam, Sports


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West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee backs Congress in Rajya Sabha polls
Kolkata | Published: July 28, 2017 6:47:29 PM
West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Friday extended its support to Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya for the coming Rajya Sabha polls, opening up possibilities of a new political alignment in the state.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee (PTI)
West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Friday extended its support to Congress candidate Pradip Bhattacharya for the coming Rajya Sabha polls, opening up possibilities of a new political alignment in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier in the day held a meeting with Bhattacharya and Leader of Opposition Abdul Mannan. Emerging from the discussions, Bhattacharya said: "She announced full support to us. We have to win this election. So she will extend whatever help we need." Bhattacharya said Banerjee also expressed her views about the national political developments.
"She talked about her views on the all India political situation, the direction in which things are moving. I am not in a position to talk about that. I am just a candidate. It is desirable to have discussions on these issues at the national level," said Bhattacharya,
Earlier in the day, Bhattacharya filed his nomination — the last date for doing so — for the August 8 polls for six Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal. Bhattacharya also took potshots at the Left Front, which fielded former city Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya as its candidate. "Those with whom we were in discussions, who had given their word, we had expected their backing and help," said Bhattacharya.
However, Left Front Chairman Biman Bose told the media earlier on Friday that the coalition had to take a last-minute decision to field Bikash Bhattacharya after the Congress renominated sitting member Pradip Bhattacharya. A few months back, there were talks of the Congress supporting CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, if nominated by the party. However, Yechury's candidature was shot down by his own party's central committee.
"We (LF) were trying to zero in on an outstanding personality outside the periphery of party politics as a common candidate acceptable to all quarters (read Congress and LF). We lost two days looking for such a candidate," Bose said. "We had no idea that Pradip Bhattacharya is contesting. That was announced unilaterally by them (Congress). So, we had to hold an emergency meeting and decide our candidate," he added.
As per the West Bengal assembly arithmetic, five Trinamool candidates — Derek O'Brien, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, Dola Sen, Manas Bhunia and Santa Chettri — are expected to sail through on the strength of the party's numbers. The focus will now be on the sixth seat, for which Pradip Bhattacharya and Bikash Bhattacharya would duel it out.
After losing some of their lawmakers to the Trinamool, the Congress and Communist Party of India-Marxist are left with 36 and 31 legislators respectively. To win, a candidate needs 42 first preference votes in the 293-member assembly, the electoral college for the Rajya Sabha polls. With the Trinamool now extending support to the Congress, Pradip Bhattacharya looks favourite to make the cut with the help of the surplus votes of the ruling party.
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Banerjee, a staunch opponent of the Centre's ruling BJP, has been for some time calling for a united fight against the saffron party.
During the July 21 party rally here, Banerjee kept mum on the Congress — her adversary in the state for the better part of the Trinamool rule, and announced that her party would stand behind all leaders, including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, to combat the Bharatiya Janata Party.
The Trinamool and the Congress also joined hands during the recent presidential elections. They have again come together for the coming Vice Presidential polls. The two parties had forged an alliance for the 2009 Lok Sabha and the 2011 state assembly elections, that brought the 34-year Left Front rule to an end.
While the Trinamool joined the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre, the Congress was part of the Mamata Banerjee government. However, the coalitions both at the Centre and in the state came apart in 2012. Since then, the Congress and the Trinamool have been opponents in the state. In the assembly polls last year, the Left Front and the Congress had cobbled up an alliance, which, however, came a cropper. Friday's developments could prove a dampener on any coming together of the two in the near future.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee backs Congress in Rajya Sabha&nbsppolls
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Phil Parkinson Analysis: What Sunderland fans expect from the new boss
21st October 2019 21st October 2019 Kieran Regan	0 Comments
Phil Parkinson's arrival on Wearside didn't get off to the best of starts with a 1-0 loss at Wycombe, but the former Bolton boss comes with an impressive record of success with League One clubs. Here we will analyse the tactics of the new manager.
What is his Preferred Formation?
Phil Parkinson has valuable experience in League One, working most notably with Bolton, Colchester and Bradford. He has preferred the 4-2-3-1 formation, with a strong target man. Most recently, Gary Madine had success under Parkinson's style of play, scoring 10 goals in 42 appearances in the Championship. This may pave the way for Charlie Wyke, Sunderland's possible alternative to Madine, who has struggled to find his goal-scoring form that he had previously for Bradford City.
Sunderland's key to promotion?
The Chorley-born boss is mostly known for his expertise in building his teams with a solid foundation at the back. In his last 184 League One games, Parkinson's side have kept 67 clean sheets. This impressive record could make him a very good fit for Sunderland who have only kept 13 clean sheets in their 57 League One games, and are yet to keep a clean sheet this season. Clean sheets were integral to promotion from League One last year; According to Transfermarkt.com, Luton keeper James Shea and Barnsley keeper Adam Davies kept the most clean sheets, with a total of 19 clean sheets each, proving that if Sunderland are to get promoted, clean sheets will be crucial.
Parkinson vs Ross
Sunderland's previous manager, Jack Ross, experimented with many formations in his 18-month tenure, from 4-2-3-1, to 4-4-2, and even his St Mirren formation of 3-5-2, but was unsuccessful. This inability to settle on a regular team and formation may be a factor for his downfall. Parkinson will need to find his best system to get results quickly if he is to achieve promotion this season.
Will Parkinson be backed in January?
Bolton had many troubles behind the scenes, almost leading to their expulsion from the Football League before a takeover saved the club in September. During his time at Bolton, Parkinson had the task of getting promoted and staying in the Championship for another year with the financial restraints of a transfer embargo. With Sunderland having the largest budget in League One, according to Stewart Donald, Parkinson may have more freedom in terms of shaping his team the way he wants or to improve on an already winning team depending on results before the new year.
Many fans may have found Jack Ross' choice of successor underwhelming. However, with a strong league one squad, elite facilities, a supportive fan base and the managerial credentials, it is clear that Parkinson has the potential to achieve Sunderland's goals of promotion.
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7th April 2020 7th April 2020 Connor Benns


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Q: php mysqli: configuring issues I am currently running an Apache 2.4 server with PHP 5.5.1, and it is connected to Django via mod_wsgi (in case that matters).  This is all running on Oracle Linux.  In this set-up, I am trying to use mysqli and the method mysqli_connect.  However, I am facing issues with my mysqli set-up.  I have used the following website: MySQLi Setup.  However, even after running ./configure --with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysqlconfig and ./configure --with-mysqli, I still do not see a mysqli section in my phpinfo() test site.  I have run make and make install after both and it has worked fine.
Furthermore, when I try the following command ./configure --with-mysql=/usr/bin/mysql_config --with-mysqli=mysqlnd, I get the following error: configure: error: Cannot find MySQL header files under /usr/bin/mysql_config. Note that the MySQL client library is not bundled anymore!
On top of this, I have uncommented the extension=php_mysqli.dll line.
Right now, I have an idea of what I need to do, which is to get ahold of the MySQL client library and allow access to it by php.  However, I am unsure of how to do this, and many of the questions + answers I have found have not worked.
Any help is appreciated.  Thanks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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£1.5m spent on improving West Sussex pavements this year
Hophurst Drive, Crawley Down, before and after
Published: 15:18 Monday 06 August 2018
Improvements worth a total of £1.5m have been made to West Sussex pavements so far this year.
West Sussex County Council says most of 2018's pavement reconstruction programme is now complete - on budget and ahead of schedule - with a small fund remaining for areas needing urgent attention before the end of March, 2019.
Bob Lanzer, Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure, said: "We fully appreciate residents care deeply about the condition of pavements, which is why they feature so highly on our priority list.
"The success of the Footway Improvement Programme is testament to the hard work of staff from West Sussex Highways and the teams from our contractor, Balfour Beatty Living Places."
Steve Philips, Contract Director at Balfour Beatty Living Places, added: "We are delighted to have undertaken a comprehensive programme of improvements to pavements and public spaces in West Sussex this year, making a positive difference to people's day-to-day lives.
"Balfour Beatty Living Places will continue to work with the council to enhance the built environment and make the county as pedestrian-friendly as possible."
The programme incorporates five main elements: reconstruction, surface treatment, town centre enhancements, dropped crossings for pedestrians and small-scale repairs.
The dropped crossings, small-scale repairs and town centre enhancements are still in progress, with projects planned to continue steadily throughout the rest of the year.
Reconstruction:
Large areas of reconstruction, covering a total area of just under 26,000 square metres, were completed in 10 sites in the Crawley, Lancing and Worthing areas. This mainly involved removing damaged slabs and replacing them with Tarmac.
Small-scale repairs:
Small-scale repairs are currently in progress for a batch of 10 sites around Arun, Mid Sussex and Crawley districts. A second batch of 20 sites is currently being designed, with work planned to start as soon as the first batch is complete. Examples include replacing steps with a ramp to help wheelchair access, removing areas of uneven slabs and repairing damage caused by vehicles encroaching on the pavement.
Outrage over dog left in sun-baked car in Sussex village
Surface treatment, technically called microasphalt, provides a new walking surface on top of an existing footway. This treatment is generally applied as a preventative measure, to maintain the existing surface in good condition before significant deterioration occurs. This is achieved by filling in dips and bumps, sealing cracks and waterproofing the surface. Twenty-one schemes were included across the county, many in more rural areas such as in Petworth, Fittleworth and Crawley Down, as well as a number in Crawley and along the coastal strip between Aldwick and Southwick. A total of just under 35,000 square metres were covered using this treatment.
Town/city centre enhancement:
Works have been completed, or are in progress, in Chichester, Petworth and Crawley, with more sites currently being identified. The work is intended to address concerns within town centres, typically within pedestrianised areas with high footfall and often needing specialist materials.
Dropped crossings for pedestrians:
A first batch of 14 crossings has been completed in the Burgess Hill and Worthing areas. Work on a second batch of 18 crossings is currently in progress, including sites in the Chichester, Mid Sussex and Crawley districts. Dropped crossing sites are generally identified by residents, as well as West Sussex Highways officers. The aim is to help pedestrians, particularly those with mobility or visual impairments, get around safely by providing sensible and usable crossing points.
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Notes from the Canal Zone
Susan McWilliams
Claremont, CA. On the flight home, I read an issue of Delta Sky Magazine that listed the Panama Canal as one of "70 Wonders of the World." The canal was listed, along with places like the Golden Gate Bridge and the ickily-nicknamed Chunnel, as one of the world's great "feats of engineering."
But during the month we spent in Panama, the canal – despite its dominant presence in the modern imagination – was not the engineering feat most in evidence.
Everywhere in Panama City, there is construction. I was driven into the city on a stretch of land that, a year ago, was not land. Land reclamation seems to be a principal municipal pastime, with spaces for roads and parks and condominiums being carved out of the sea every day. Skyscrapers that seem almost implausibly tall and thin – the structural equivalent of supermodels – are going up everywhere. Although Panama is a premier destination for birdwatching, all the cranes we saw were of the mechanical sort.
Next to all this, the current "megaproject" plan to expand the canal and effectively double its capacity in five years seems like just another thing on the to-do list.
Almost everyone I talked to in Panama City talked about the municipal building frenzy, and almost everyone seemed to look at that building frenzy with a Janus face. One man drove us around the city, lamenting the destruction of his old residential district one minute and imploring us to go shopping in one of the new malls the next. Another person told me that the best part about Panamanian beaches is that many haven't been developed yet, meaning that they are still as pristine as they were in his youth; five minutes later he spoke admiringly of someone developing a new beach resort. And so on.
In such exchanges, I kept thinking of Marshall Berman's description of the "tragic struggle," in All That Is Solid Melts Into Air, that is the modern relationship to home. On the one hand, moderns speak often about a home that is gone and the desire to go back home, "back into our own childhood, back into our society's historical past":
"At the same time, modernists do not try to blend or merge themselves with their past – this distinguishes modernism from sentimentalism—but rather to 'bring it all back' into the past, that is, to bring to bear on their past the selves they have become in the present, to bring into those old homes visions and values that may clash radically with them – and maybe to re-enact the very tragic struggles that drove them from their homes in the first place."
"In other words," Berman writes, "modernism's rapport with the past, whatever it turns out to be, will not be easy."
On our last full day in the country, I talked with a local businesswoman who, like so many others, sighed as she talked about the Panama of her youth, and then of the city's enthusiasm for vertical construction.
"The problem is that people think a new building going up is the same thing as progress," she said. She paused, then noted that the construction boom has seemed to coincide with an increase in Panama's already troubling level of income inequality, not to mention what she described as a kind of national existential crisis.
Well, new buildings are a form of progress – a form of progress that is easy to measure and see (and from which it is easy to amass material profit). But, as W.E.B. DuBois pointed out when he described his visit back to the Tennessee village where he had his first teaching job, it's hard to know what new buildings are worth when their construction seems not to improve – and may even be said to worsen – the lives of people and the land around them. (Think of the canal: It's easy to see in retrospect that, for all that the Panama Canal has done to change global transit and transportation and commerce, the human and environmental costs of building it were, and may continue to be, substantial.)
The real questions then become: What do we take to be progress, and what should we take to be progress? How should progress be measured, and what do we progress toward? "How many heartfuls of sorrow shall balance a bushel of wheat?" DuBois asks. "And all this life and love and strife and failure,—is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day?"
Today, I'm not sure if there are any social and political questions we bump into with more frequency. They are endemic, and they are inescapable. And I think Berman is right that there is something indelibly tragic about them.
When we got on the plane yesterday, I was glad to escape the Panamanian humidity. The atmosphere is different in southern California – at least in the literal sense. But in the grander scheme the atmosphere here is the same, as it is perhaps everywhere in the modern world, with these questions about what we take to be progress hovering in the air.
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Susan McWilliams is Associate Professor of Politics at Pomona College in Claremont, CA. She is the author of Traveling Back: Toward a Global Political Theory (Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
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John Willson September 30, 2009 At 6:04 pm
The Brooklyn Bridge cost about 3000 lives. More than 9/11. Was it worth it? It made it possible for Brooklyn to become part of New York City. Was it worth it? The same Teddy Roosevelt who made the Panama Canal a reality came to political maturity as we became an empire. Was it worth it?
D.W. Sabin September 30, 2009 At 7:45 pm
Some nitwit endowed utopian from that wonderful home of the Heritage Institute, Stanford U….can't rightly recall his name now, I purged it from the brain folds but he is pushing some madcap idea of "Charter Cities". In other words, some well-endowed group of supposedly like-minded swells can turn up their noses at existing cities and chose anyplace they want in the whole wide world to create new cities from scratch. He thinks because they are all swell joeys, they will get along and these gleaming new metropoli will be easier to run and can be more environmentally sustainable. I believe he may have suggested the Canadians get together with the Cubans and create a new city at Guantanimo.
We shall think it and voila! Instant City…why be bogged down with those places that already have infrastructure when you can shake and bake a juicy instant town wherever you want? Welcome to Oligarchia where if you have to ask how much it costs to live here, you should stay in Cleveland.
I am only relieved he holds an endowed position …for his sake, not ours.
oops, how could i forget…I meant Hoover Institute, maybe he'll name one of the first Charter Cities "Hooverville"
Hudson October 1, 2009 At 11:30 pm
Brooklyn, NY. John Willson: Where did you get the figure of 3,000 deaths related to the Brooklyn Bridge? By one count, 27 men died during construction, including from decompression sickness from working underwater. Other estimates range as high as 40–there is no official figure because of poor record keeping. The Chief Engineer of the project said 20 men died during construction.
Was it worth it? Certainly to many Brooklyn residents at the time it meant a loss of status, perhaps in the way that Staten Islanders feel superior today about their farms and villages. Aesthetically, it's still one of the best structures in NYC, in my opinion. It has been the inspiration of thousands, if not millions, of works of art, including Hart Crane's "Bridge" poem.
I have walked across the BB many times. You can see the expansion joints move in and out. According to one account on 9/11, the collapse of the South Tower caused the BB to shake so that the person walking across the bridge feared it would collapse. I walked across it in the '04 blackout when it was filled end-to-end with pedestrians, and I could feel the span sway.
The bridge combines the old with the new: stone cathedral architecture in the arches with the modern steel suspension cables. I believe that is part of its enduring appeal to New Yorkers and visitors from around the world.
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Earlier this summer, after Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted at rethinking music streaming in cars, we learned that the automaker has been reaching out to music labels to license their portfolios in order to build its own music streaming service.
Now we are starting to see them push the backend of its upcoming service in the latest software updates.
A friend of the site and Tesla tinkerer known as Green, who brought us Tesla's new maps and navigation engine and the Autopilot debugging mode, has found a new client in Tesla's most recent updates for the new streaming service.
It's called 'TTunes', which could likely only be a placeholder name for the actual service. Tesla Tunes?
For now, only the backend of the service is present and there's no consumer-facing UI, but the code is in all of Tesla's vehicles.
Today's news doesn't mean that Tesla is about to launch the new streaming service anytime soon.
US owners will remember that versions of Tesla's Spotify app appeared in the code of North American vehicles on several occasions, but the feature was never made available to the US/Canadian fleet.
Those are the actual owners who want to see that feature come as soon as possible since European Tesla owners appear to be mostly satisfied with Spotify.
Owners in the US and Canada have been stuck with Tesla's built-in streaming service powered by Slacker, which has been the subject of criticisms by some Tesla owners (myself included).
They have been asking for some obvious solutions like enabling Spotify or Apple Carplay/Android Auto, or even just fixing the USB drive media player, but Tesla seems to want to further vertically integrate its in-car experience.
At the shareholder meeting in June, Musk talked about Tesla updating its music player in order for owners to have a better access to the music they want to hear with a new algorithm.
A few days later, Tesla launched a new curated playlist from a DJ with commentary that can be enabled or disabled at the touch of a button. Musk even talked about making the playlist available through the Tesla mobile app in order to make accessible outside the vehicle, like any other streaming service.
Tesla's own music streaming service doesn't make a lot of financial sense with a fleet of vehicles in the hundreds of thousands but Tesla plans to ramp up into the millions and 10s of millions with the Model 3, upcoming Model Y and a slew of other vehicles in a relatively short about of time. The music and entertainment experience is a cornerstone of the driver experience so Tesla having more control over this rather than relying on 3rd parties does make a lot of sense. Also, Tesla probably doesn't want to pay for 10 million Spotify licenses when it can cut out the middleman.


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Fielding the French in Late-war Flames of War
In both the D-Day: American and Bulge: American Command Card packs there are some command cards for fielding particular French units and formations. French forces continued to fight the Germans after 1940, with more joining after 1942 with the American landing in North Africa. They fought in Italy with great success as the French Expeditionary Corps, then later as the First French Army as part of Operation Dragoon, the liberation of south-eastern France, the reducing the Colmar Pocket, and fighting through southern Germany and into Austria. Meanwhile the French 2nd Armoured Division operated with the Americans in Normandy and France, leading the liberation of Paris.
The French forces consisted of colonial troops from France's colonies in North Africa, West Africa, Asia and the Pacific, as well as Metropolitan French volunteers who had been overseas or escaped occupied and Vichy France to join the Free French forces in North Africa. Large numbers of Former Vichy French troops also defected to join the war against the Germans and Italians.
After initially fighting with British equipment and organisation, or with their Vichy French weapons and organisations, the Americans agreed to supply the growing Free French forces with equipment and training. During 1943 the first of these forces were organised along American lines.
The Command Cards: Day-Day: American
Division Leclerc: This command card lets you theme your Veteran Tank Company or Veteran Armoured Rifle Company as units from 2èm e Division Blindée, or 2DB for short. To find out more about this division see "The French 2nd Armored Division"
The other French build cards in the D-Day pack are the two partisan units, the FFI Platoon to represent the British and American supported partisans and the FTP Platoon representing the communist partisans.
There is also the French Resistance Raid card to represent the activities of these troops behind the scenes, attacking German troops and supplies behind the lines.
The Command Cards: Bulge: American
2e Division Blindée Chars de Combat: This card lets you field the tanks of the 2DB after they began to get more replacement tanks like the 76mm armed M4 Shermans and M4 Easy Eights, and M4 Jumbo tanks.
2e Division Blindée Infanterie Portée: This card is for fielding the armoured infantry of the 2DB with the US Battle Weary Armoured Rifle Company.
However, the 2DB were not the only French division fighting in French in 1944 and into Germany in 1945. The First French Army fielded two other armoured divisions (1DB and 5DB) and eventually seven infantry divisions and a brigade sized unit of Goumiers (Moroccan Mountain infantry).
The Bulge: American command card pack also contains card for some of the above units.
1re Division Blindée Zouaves Portée: Allows you to field the very aggressive armoured infantry of the 1re Division Blindée (1DB).
9e Division d'Infanterie Coloniale Colonials: This card is themed for the colonial troops of the 9e Division d'Infanterie Coloniale (9DCI), however it can be used to represent any of the colonial troops in the French divisions like the 2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (2DIM), 3rd Algerian Infantry Division (3DIA) or 4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4DMM).
1re Division de Marche d'Infanterie Foreign Legion: You can also field the famed legion with this card. This card can be used to represent any of the troops of the veteran 1re Division de Marche d'Infanterie (which started life as the 1st Free French Division (1DFL), later becoming the 1st Motorized Infantry Division and finally the 1st March Infantry Division).
But what about the Goumiers? You can either just use the 9e Division d'Infanterie Coloniale Colonials card, or field them as a Ranger Company, as like the Rangers, they are aggressive, great in assaults and only lightly equipped.
Of course, you can field your favourite French formation by just fielding what you think is the most appropriate US Formation represent them. The tanks from the 1DB or 5DB might be best represented by the US Tank Company or US Veteran Tank Company, depending on what battle or campaign you want to represent.
Some quick notes on equipment
Initially the French Shermans were either M4A2 diesels, or M4A4 multibank engine (this is same Sherman as used by the British BBX60 Sherman Armoured Troop) models.
M4A4s were allocated to the 2ème Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique and 2ème Régiment de Cuirassiers (1ère Division Blindée) and to the 1er Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique and 1er Régiment de Cuirassiers (5ème Division Blindée).
M4A2s were allocated to the 5ème Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique (1ère Division Blindée), the 6ème Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique (5ère Division Blindée), and 12e Régiment de Chasseurs d'Afrique, 12e Régiment de Cuirassiers, 501e Régiment de Chars de Combat (2e Division Blindée).
Later the 2DB ended up with almost all the same variety of Shermans as their American Allies. On the other hand, 1DB and 5DB got a more limited selection of replacements with either their original type of 75mm Sherman or M4A1 (76mm) Shermans (UBX69 M4 Sherman Tank Platoon). Some got M4A1 75mm Shermans (UBX69) rather than the M4A2 or M4A4 Shermans they started with. However, Regiments had all one type when formed, either M4A2 75mm or M4A4 75mm.
M4A2 Shermans are currently not available, but you may be able to pick them up at some friendly local gaming stores who still have stock. The codes to look out for are US045 or SU071.
Tank Destroyer regiments are armed with M10 Tank Destroyers.
Much of the other equipment and weapons are as used by American troops.
Much of the infantry were dressed in US supplied uniforms, though troops did tend to retain their unique Adrian helmets when they could. If you have any old Early-war French miniatures in your stash some head swaps to add a few French helmets to either the standard US infantry or the US Winter French infantry will give them a bit of French flavour.
If you want to know more about French tank forces in 1944 and 1945 check out these two excellent websites:
http://the.shadock.free.fr/sherman_minutia/french_shermans/french_shermans.html
https://www.chars-francais.net/2015/index.php
French First Army Order of Battle 1944-45
1st Free French Division (1DFL, later became the 1st Motorized Infantry Division and finally the 1st March Infantry Division)
2nd Armoured Division (2DB, former 2nd Light Division) only for a short time in late 1944
2nd Moroccan Infantry Division (2DIM)
3rd Algerian Infantry Division (3DIA)
4th Moroccan Mountain Division (4DMM)
9th Colonial Infantry Division (9DIC)
1st Armoured Division (1DB)
5th Armoured Division (5DB)
Moroccan Goums (Four groups of Tabors, equivalent to one brigade)
10th Infantry Division (Colmar Pocket only)
14th Infantry Division (Germany and Austria campaigns)
André Malraux's Alsace-Lorraine Independent Brigade (Formed from FFI units on 26 September 1944. Malraux's brigade was incorporated into the French Army as a regular unit renamed the 3rd Demi-Brigade of Chasseurs).
Last Updated On Thursday, December 16, 2021 by Luke at Battlefront