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Blog / Community
Service level objectives: How SLOs have changed the business of observability
Grafana Labs Team
• April 18, 2022 • 15 min
Forget the latest tech gadgets and the newest products. One of the most talked about trends in observability right now?
"SLOs have really become a buzzword, and everyone wants them," said Grafana Labs principal software engineer Björn "Beorn" Rabenstein on a recent episode of "Grafana's Big Tent," our new podcast about people, community, tech, and tools around observability. "I see that we have conferences by that name and everything, so it's really popular."
So much so that we dedicated an entire episode of "Grafana's Big Tent" to "Why SLOs are MVPs in observability." For this deep-dive discussion, Parca software engineer Matthias Loibl, who co-created the open source SLO software Pyrra with Nadine Vehling, and Grafana Labs' Rabenstein joined our hosts Mat Ryer and Tom Wilkie, who credits SLOs for changing the business of Grafana Labs.
"I would admit that I was relatively naive about the whole error budget SLO a few years ago. Then Björn joined and showed me the way," Wilkie said. "It's just been so transformational for the culture of how we measure our performance at Grafana Labs. And I'm just so excited to see projects like Pyrra to make this available to more people."
As long as the new adopters are equally eager but reasonable with their expectations. "You won't be a hundred percent perfect. And that applies here as well," said Loibl.
"It's fairly easy to convince the organization to adopt [SLOs], but then they think it's a magic wand and will fix everything," added Rabenstein. "The alerts are suddenly two orders of magnitude less noisy. You can talk about so many things in a more meaningful way. Your resource planning might be more informed. I would really see it as a tool that will give you a lot of earlier returns, but then you have to iterate on it."
Note: This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Service level objectives (SLOs): The basics
Tom Wilkie: What are SLOs? What does it stand for? Why are these things important?
Björn "Beorn" Rabenstein: SLO stands for service level objective, which you could claim explains everything. But very generally, this is where you have an idea of which kind of quality of service you will provide. That's often linked to uptime, but as we will see, in modern systems uptime is not as easy to define; it goes into error rates, error budget.
So it's the idea that you are not just trying your best to run your service and make it available always. That's actually an impossibility. You start to talk about what's your service level? How much of your service are you able to provide, on average, in a certain timeframe?
Matthias Loibl: The "certain timeframe" aspect is really important to me, because every other alerting style out there kind of looks at, "Hey, what's the error rate in the past 5 or 10 minutes?" and then if it's above a certain threshold, it will alert. But with service level objectives you kind of look at the broader scheme of "What is my service going to be like?" or "What is it supposed to be like over four weeks?" Then you start working towards that objective.
Tom: So what's an example of an SLO? How would you phrase an SLO?
Matthias: The example I like to use always is a simple one: You have a website that has a landing page, and you want that landing page to be available always. That's the goal. It's not a real-world goal, so you need to define how many errors you can have when serving that landing page. Maybe 1% of the times users go to your landing page, it's fine to show a 500 error, and it's still good enough for 99% of the other people.
Mat Ryer: So if a non-technical CEO comes in and says "No, I don't want there to ever be any errors," what would you say to somebody in that position?
Matthias: Yeah, good luck with that … I think there are so many variables at play. Obviously, technical people know about DNS being the problem always, but there are so many other things. And then there are aspects in the request-and-response type of systems we have, that you don't even control. We might not even be able to manage it. Maybe there's an error on the client-side as well, and you have to take this into account as well. So there will be errors, and it's just how many are acceptable.
Tom: One of the things I've noticed in this industry is there's a big push for related topics, like continuous delivery. "We should be deploying new versions of our software daily. Hourly." I've found SLOs are a great way of trading off the ability to move quickly — to move fast and break things, the famous Facebook saying — versus the ability to provide a reliable service.
So once you admit, "Okay, 0.1% of requests are allowed to fail in a month," suddenly that's the other side of the, "Do I release this feature today with the risk that it might break things?" You can measure both of these; you can measure your release philosophy, and you can measure your SLO performance. If you're doing worse in your SLO, maybe slow down releasing.
Beorn: SLOs are what Tom just said: They're a very good way of objectively finding out, "Are we moving too fast and breaking too much? Or are we actually moving too slow, and nothing really happens, but we're also not innovating fast enough?" Now you have a way of talking between all those different stakeholders to find a good middle ground and how quickly to move.
Request vs. uptime service level objectives
Tom: When I'm selling a piece of software to someone in procurement, and they say, "I want this to be available 99.9% of the time," and I'm like "I'll make 99.9% of your requests succeed," it's like we're talking two different languages. How do you convince them that you are trying to give them something that's more friendly to them?
Beorn: It really depends on the kind of service. There are services that are consumed by machines; there are services that are consumed by humans; and then there are services where you have a contractual obligation to fulfill a certain service level objective, which is then called an SLA (service level agreement). Then there are services where you don't have that — like it's a free mail service or something, and you make all your money from serving ads so then you don't have a contractual obligation to your users, but you still want your users to be happy and not run away.
This is the key to how to design an SLO: You have to look at how the service is consumed, and how the users are perceiving it; either intuitively, or really sometimes it's legally. The reality is that sometimes what you have in your contract is more important than what your users think. But that, again, depends on the context.
There are situations where an uptime-based SLO is exactly the right thing, there are times where a request-based SLO is the right thing. Or sometimes you have a mix of things or you have to come up with something completely new.
"[SLOs] are a very good way of objectively finding out, 'Are we moving too fast and breaking too much? Or are we actually moving too slow, and nothing really happens, but we're also not innovating fast enough?' "
— Björn "Beorn" Rabenstein
Setting up the "right" SLOs
Tom: I'd really like to dive into more detail about how you build these SLOs. What techniques and technology you can use to make this whole process easier. But before we do, how do I know what the right number is? Is it 80%? Is it 90%? Is it 99.999%? How do I know when I've got the right SLO?
Mattias: That comes up a lot when people first start out. What I always recommend is if you have the data available for your current system, use the data, measure what the current uptime was over the last month or so, and then use that as the foundation to base your objective on for the coming months. They are never set in stone, so you can always adjust them and refine. That should give you a really nice foundation to continue.
Beorn: I think in the ideal world, that's totally valid, what Matthias just said. But I think to set a contrast here, in the ideal world you would never just look at your last month's performance and adjust your SLOs. It makes sense in practice, to do product research and know exactly what your product should be delivered with, which service level you want to deliver your product to have the best outcome for your customers. Then you have an idea of how expensive it would be to make it more reliable, and how much happier are your customers.
Tom: The way we came up with our query latency SLO for our Grafana Cloud Metrics service was we effectively did what you said, Matthias: We looked at historical performance. We were like "Yeah, that's kind of what it is. We'll stick to that." But then realistically, when we tried to sell it to book our first large six-figure deal on our Grafana Cloud Metrics service, the customer wouldn't accept that SLO. And that was really the process of improving query performance until they were like, "Yes, it's good enough. Now we'll sign the contract." That was where our current SLO got locked in, got set in stone. It was the first six-figure deal.
Mat: That reminds me of building products in general. Ideally, there's some of it you're doing yourself and some guesswork and some assumptions. But the best information you get is from real users, from people that are actually going to end up either buying it or using it.
Error budgets: What are they and why do they matter
Mat: Can we dig into this a little bit— what is an error budget?
Beorn: An error budget is if you want an inverted SLO. Or let's say you have a specific kind of SLO, which is based on success rates. You've promised the customer you will serve 99.9% of the requests correctly and in time. Then the inverse of that, the 0.1% you have left is your error budget. Now you need a billing period, which if you have an SLA, is nicely formulated in your contract. If you just have users that come and go, because you serve a free product that just makes money with ads, it's not that formalized. But you might still want to have a billing period, which is often a month.
Then you get into this idea that you burn your error budget. If you have an outage one week into the month, and a certain number of requests have failed, then you know you've burned 20% of your error budget, but you are also already 25% into the month, so that's fine. You burned your error budget at the right rate. Then if you burn it too quickly, you can start to say "Okay, let's act a bit more cautiously. Let's not do this risky new feature launch this month."
Tom: So to make this a bit more real — and I will admit to not fully understanding the expressions and the maths behind the error budget alerting that Björn has implemented or that Matthias's tool implements — but when we started offering this SLA on our Grafana Cloud Metrics service at Grafana Labs, we agreed 99.5% of requests complete within a couple of seconds. So we built an alert that said, "In a 5-minute moving window, if more than 0.5% of requests are slower than a couple of seconds, page us." That seems like the obvious thing to do, right?
So we built that alert, and it fired — not all the time, but multiple times a week, multiple times a day sometimes. We would scramble to scale the service up, to diagnose whatever issue it was, and generally put a lot of effort into optimizing that. And yet, at the end of every month, when we went and ran a report to say what was our 99.5th percentile latency over the last month, it always came back 200 milliseconds. I'm like, "How can these two things be true?" Like, we are way below the SLO we agreed with the customer, we're well inside our SLA, and yet we're getting paged multiple times a day.
"The adoption of SLOs and the high-quality alerts that come with them have been one of the more profound things that have come out of this work."
— Tom Wilkie
Beorn: Yeah, that's the core of the issue. If your billing period is five minutes, then your 5-minute sliding window is precisely right. This is when you promise the customer, "Every five minutes, we'll always know we'll never have more than 0.5% of errors." But if you have a billing period of a month, which for the systems we have and usually for the requirements we have makes much more sense, you can say an average over a month so that allows me to have a 5-minute or 10-minute or even if it's a complete outage, which is rare with our systems but could happen, that's still okay, if the rest of the month is totally fine. But that, again, depends on your product, on your users, and on your contracts.
But that's the important thing: Having a not noisy SLO. Every 5-minute window is less than 0.5% errors is usually very expensive to get, and it's also not what users require in most of the cases. And that's where you get into averaging, and that's where the alerting also gets more complicated in order to not make it noisy.
Tom: It was night and day when Björn put this in place for our metrics service. We went from paging every few days, sometimes multiple times a day, to only paging every few weeks for this particular alert. And when it did page, there was an actual issue that we could solve.
Every other team [at Grafana Labs] very quickly was like, "Oh, we want that," and they copy-pasted the alert rules that Björn built and implemented them for their service. And we saw a huge reduction in our on-call load.
Mat: I was gonna ask, how should teams do this if you don't have a Björn to come in and just do this for you?
Tom: Does everyone not have a Björn?
Mat: I don't think everyone yet has a Björn. There's been scaling issues in the roll out. We've not been able to roll out enough Björns. So unfortunately no, not everyone has one. So how do they find out this?
Tom: If everyone doesn't have a Björn, and we haven't perfected human cloning yet, I think that's a good segue for Matthias's project, Pyrra. Matthias, can I use Pyrra to do this for me?
Mattias: That's exactly what we've built Pyrra for. We started out looking at who are the personas that use SLOs, and we identified that most often it'sSREs, no big surprise. Then we actually started interviewing a handful of people and had a long conversation with them, trying to figure out, "Have you used SLOs? If not, why haven't you used them?" so on and so forth. So we tried to really figure out what are the barriers to entry to using SLOs. Out of that came the Pyrra project, which is now able to give you a high-level configuration file where you can put in your objective and your time window. Then an indicator, or service level indicator (SLI) that uses a Prometheus metric and does all the PromQL queries for you, creates the multiple burn rate alerts for you. So all of that is taken care of, and you don't really have to think about anything else but the high-level things we were talking about, like "What is my objective? What is the time window we're talking about?"
It is a custom resource definition or CRD-based configuration, but it also works outside of Kubernetes. Every SLO, is a configuration file; once you've written that one, it gets loaded into either a Kubernetes controller or just a file system runtime that reads this configuration and generates the output for Prometheus to then read and do all the heavy lifting of alerting and ingesting … You can just use your normal workflow, and it just ties into your existing Prometheus instances.
Tom: I've noticed that once you start giving people an interface where they can see performance of their SLOs, then within the organization, teams want to be in that interface. They want to see themselves in there.
Using Björn's rules that he built, we started generating dashboards and uploading them, and then we started emailing a PDF of those dashboards to everyone in the Cloud team every Monday morning. Over time, I've found teams submitted PRs to our config repo to add themselves to that dashboard. Now there are like 30-40 SLOs to find, and it's become a service directory of all the services inside Grafana Cloud and their performance. And whenever this email goes out on Monday, and SLO performance isn't green, I get an email from the team asking why. And it's great; I never asked for this, but they feel that responsibility. And culturally, SLOs internally have been a great driver of "Oh, we should all report our SLO performance in the same way. We should all have it visible in the same way."
I think these cultural changes, the adoption of SLOs and the high-quality alerts that come with it have actually probably been one of the more profound things that have come out of this piece of work. I think something like Pyrra can drive that in other organizations. This is not a question; this is just a statement at this point. It's just something I'm really excited about.
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4 min | 4 Apr 2022

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The toxic result of eating supermarket instant noodles will shock you!
Dr. Braden Kuo of Massachusetts General Hospital ran an experiment to find out what happens in our stomach when we eat instant noodles. The experiment consisted of using a small camera, the size of a pill, to document what goes on in the stomach and digestive system after eating regular instant noodles found in supermarkets. And the results of this experiment were shocking.
As you can see in the video above, the ramen instant noodles remain the same after 2 hours in the stomach. Very different from homemade ramen noodles, which were used as a comparison.
The problem with having instant noodles sitting in your stomach for long periods is that it can put stress on the digestive system. The striking thing is how most processed foods have almost no fiber, and they break down quickly in the stomach, which interferes with blood sugar levels and insulin release. But this doesn't happen with instant noodles.
When food lingers in the digestive tract for long periods, it influences the absorption of nutrients into the body. And because ramen instant noodles don't have much nutrition for the body absorb, it becomes a problem as the digestive system works harder to break down something that lacks any nutritional value, only toxic chemicals like the preservative tertiary butyl hydroquinone (TBHQ).
TBHQ stays in the stomach, and no studies are investigating what happens to people's health in the long term when exposed to TBHQ.
TBHQ chemical originated from petroleum. It has been classified as an "antioxidant." However, it is a petroleum byproduct and contains some antioxidant properties. It's not a natural antioxidant. TBHQ prevents oxidation of fats and oils prolonging the shelf life of processed foods. Now you know how processed foods can last so long on the supermarket's shelves.
You can find TBHQ in McDonald's chicken nuggets, Wheat Thins crackers, Kellogg's CHEEZ-IT crackers, Reese's peanut butter cups, Taco Bell beans, Teddy Grahams, Red Baron frozen pizza, to name a few fast food brands that embrace this chemical.
This chemical is not only used in processed foods. It can also be found in varnishes, lacquers, pesticide products, cosmetics, and perfumes to reduce evaporation rate and improve stability.
The FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives declared, in the 19th and 21st meetings, that levels of 0-0.5 mg/kg of body weight of TBHQ were safe for human consumption.
In reality, the Codex commission allows between 100 to up to 400 mg/kg, depending on the food TBHQ is added to. For example, chewing gum has the highest levels of TBHQ added to the formula. The Food and Drug Administration in the U.S. determined that TBHQ cannot exceed 0.02 percent of its oil and fat content.
Because of these differences between acceptable limits, depending on the industry, and the safe amount we can consume, it's probably wise to avoid all together products that contain TBHQ. As a side note, 5g of TBHQ can be lethal, and 1g of TBHQ can cause illness such as nausea and vomiting, ringing in the ears (tinnitus), delirium, sense of suffocation and collapse.
TBHQ is said not to be a persistent toxicant, which means the body may be able to eliminate it. But keep in mind that eating instant noodles on a weekly basis, will prolong the exposure of this toxin in your body causing concerns to your health in the long run.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) found some health dangers associated with TBHQ after testing on animals.
The Journal of Nutrition published that women who ate instant noodles more than twice a week were 68% more likely to have metabolic syndrome, including symptoms like obesity, elevated fasting blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, elevated fasting triglycerides, and low levels of HDL cholesterol.
And if you have three or more of the symptoms listed above, you increase your chances of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
If you rarely consume instant noodles, it will probably not kill you. But start to organize yourself and include more real food in your pantry. Do some preparation on days that you are less busy, so when you don't have much time, you have the food ready to go. Also, try to cook dinner more often, so you can take it for lunch the next day. The internet is filled with healthy quick and easy recipes for you to prepare in under 20 minutes. Use your time to research other food options. Avoid processed and fast foods as much as possible. Don't make these foods a routine part of your life. Instant noodles are one of the worst processed foods. You should avoid them at all costs.


text:
Diners Are Using Reddit to Sell Their Non-Refundable Reservations at Michelin-Star Restaurants
The r/FoodNYC subreddit's moderators even posted rules for the practice as pandemic-related issues continue to upend people's plans.
By Jelisa Castrodale January 14, 2022
Reserved sign on a restaurant table
As of this writing, the newest post on the r/FoodNYC subreddit is from someone who is trying to sell a reservation for four to Jungsik, the two Michelin-star modern Korean restaurant in Tribeca. "Paid $1,366.08 for the signature menu in the main dining room," the Redditor wrote. "Sadly can't make dinner so posting here."
As the latest variant of the coronavirus continues to upend people's travel plans or nights out in their own neighborhoods, selling non-refundable high-end restaurant reservations has become more popular on subreddits like r/FoodNYC. It's become so prevalent that a pinned post from r/FoodNYC's moderators explains their rules for selling reservations through the sub.
For starters, they wrote, all reservations have to be sold for no more than face value, plus taxes and fees. ("One penny more than the exact amount you paid and you will be banned," the mods warn. "This is not Stubhub.") They also request that only non-refundable reservations are sold, and add that the moderators aren't responsible if a reservation sale goes sideways.
Other Redditors on the sub have posted to unload their pre-paid reservations at Tsukimi ("My wife is feeling quite under the weather today"); at Eleven Madison Park ("We can't go due to travel restrictions"); and at Atomix ("May not be able to make this").
According to Eater NYC, many of these fine-dining spots take reservations through Tock, which allows purchasers to transfer their pre-paid bookings to another user. "If a booking is prepaid and non-refundable it becomes the property, like a ticket, of the booking owner," Tock founder Nick Kokonas told the outlet. "They can sell it. If we see an IP address that is doing this multiple times, we block them and their associated email address accounts from buying future bookings as they are likely a scalper." (Today I learned there are restaurant reservation scalpers.)
Kokonas said that Tock's pandemic-related refund requests have hit their highest level since this all kicked off in March 2020, and the rate of cancellations has "more than doubled" since November.
Unsurprisingly, re-selling high-dollar reservations on Reddit isn't a totally new thing — and it's not limited to New York. Alinea bookings are being offered through r/ChicagoFood, and reservations for the two-Michelin-star Naka have been posted on r/FoodLosAngeles.
The r/FineDining sub has a weekly Reservation Exchange for this purpose, and a decent percentage of posts on r/TheFrenchLaundry are from people who are trying to unload their tables at Thomas Keller's venerable California spot. (And spare a thought for the optimistic posters on r/NomaReservations, who mostly seem to be looking for any availability at the eternally influential — and eternally booked — Copenhagen restaurant.)
Although it has to hurt when you realize you'll have to surrender a long-dreamed-about restaurant reservation, it's nice that you might be able to transfer it to someone who maybe didn't expect to have this opportunity. Assuming that person isn't a scalper, of course.


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text:
Sunday 7 April 1918 We Lost 597
Edward Borgfeldt Booth
Captain Guy Borgfeldt Moore (Royal Air Force) a 10-victory ace is killed in action when his aircraft takes a direct hit from an anti-aircraft shell and explodes at a height of 2,000 feet above Hollebeke. At the University of British Columbia he was on the school's rugby team and a member of the Vancouver Rowing Club.
A 10 victory ace
A 5 victory ace
A son of the member of the clergy
A membe3r of the University of British Columbia rugby team and the Vancouver Rowling Club
A pilot performing stunts
Major Richard Dunn Warren (Leicestershire Regiment) is killed at age 39. He is the son of the Reverend Charles Warren Vicar of St Michael's Lincoln.
Lieutenant Edward Borgfeldt Booth (Royal Air Force) is killed as an instructor in a flying accident while performing stunts. He is a five-victory ace.
Filed Under: Royal Air Force


The city of Albert Lea, Minnesota, 11 miles north of the Iowa border and 97 miles south of Minneapolis, is home to over 18,000 residents. The city's namesake was a topographer who sketched the area in 1835. Surrounding the city are five lakes, a state park and city parks providing a wealth of outdoor activities, including ice skating in the winter and fishing in the summer months. Residents and visitors may also visit a historical museum or bike on a 6.5-mile trail through Albert Lea.
Operated by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (dnr.state.mn.us), Myre-Big Island State Park spans 116 acres on Albert Lea Lake, three miles southeast of the city. Visitors planning an overnight stay at the park may select from one of 93 campsites, 32 RV sites, four backpack sites or a camper cabin that accommodates up to five guests. A group site is also available on Little Island in the middle of the lake for up to 50 campers. In the winter, seven miles of snowmobiling trails and five miles of cross-country skiing trails are pen, in the summer months there are 16 miles of hiking trails and seven miles of mountain biking trails.
The city of Albert Lea (cityofalbertlea.org) manages 27 parks ranging from 0.2 to 74 acres and featuring a variety of amenities. Smaller parks, such as 0.8-acre Shorewood Hils and 0.2-acre Dress Island, have play structures near open spaces and benches for relaxing. Brookside Park spans 4.2 acres and features community gardens, a boat landing and tennis courts, while 3.9-acre Fountain Lake Park has a gazebo and children's garden overlooking Fountain Lake. Baseball fans may head to 13.1-acre Snyder Fields, where five baseball diamonds and four sand volleyball courts are in use during warm weather months. The city's largest parks are 62.6-acre Edgewater Park, which has a boat landing and picnic shelters with fireplaces, and 74.1-acre Bancroft Bay Park, a natural area on the shores of Fountain Lake with hiking trails and picnic tables.
Step back in time at the and Freeborn County Historical Museum and Historical Village (smig.net/fchm) in Albert Lea. The historical village depicts the county's origins as an agricultural area settled by a diverse group of immigrants from Norway, Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Czechoslovakia. Featured attractions include a log house built in 1853, a one-room school, a single-chair barber shop, county jail and mill house. The main exhibits are housed in a two-story building, which is also where the offices and archives are located. The museum and library are open year-round, while the village is open from May through September each year.
A six-mile trail leading from Albert Lea to Myre-Big Island State Park as of spring 2011, the Blazing Star Trail will eventually span 20 miles and continue to the town of Austin. Trails through the city of Albert Lea connect to the Blazing Star Trail, which is managed by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Bikers, walkers and joggers will see prairie lands and rural topography during their journey on the paved trail and forested areas once they arrive at the park. There's parking at 11.8-acre Frank Hall Park in Albert Lea, also home to the city's aquatic center.
Hornaday, Michelle. "Attractions Near Albert Lea, Minnesota." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/attractions-near-albert-lea-minnesota-57800.html. Accessed 23 April 2019.


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The First Fast Draw: David Zimmerman's The Sandbox
The Sandbox, David Zimmerman's 2010 novel about American soldiers at war in Iraq, didn't go unnoticed upon publication. It was reviewed in both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, for example, and both papers found good things to say about it. The Sandbox has had a quiet afterlife, however: never to my knowledge has it been name-checked approvingly by other war-writers, mentioned alongside other works by fans, critics, and scholars of the war-writing genre, nor considered for Hollywood movie-making. Even after Zimmerman, who teaches in the MFA program at Iowa State, released a second novel featuring an Army soldier, 2012's Caring is Creepy, his name seems to have barely registered in the contemporary war writing collective awareness, part of which includes Time Now. Ignorant of Zimmerman and his work, I have several times erroneously proclaimed Helen Benedict's 2011 Sand Queen as "the first Iraq War novel." But hearing-tell of The Sandbox a year-or-so ago, I kept an eye out for it and recently spotted a copy in my local library. After checking out and reading The Sandbox, I'm happy to make amends for past slights and place Zimmerman's novel at the forefront of the contemporary war novel tradition, while also rendering praise where praise is due.
The Sandbox is narrated by a junior enlisted soldier named Toby Durrant, an infantryman assigned to a platoon manning a middle-of-nowhere outpost in Iraq named FOB Cornucopia, or Corn Cob, as the soldiers call it for short. Corn Cob is built upon the ruins of an ancient Iraq fortress and located near an abandoned toy factory, both of which figure heavily in the plot. Though Durrant's platoon suffers indirect fire attacks within Corn Cob and IED attacks while on patrol, they seem to have no real mission other than maintaining US "presence" in the area. Durrant is popular among his fellow soldiers, save one, Lopez, a by-the-book goody-goody E4-promotable. Lopez suspects that Durrant, who has befriended an Iraqi orphan living alone in the abandoned toy factory, is offering information about US capabilities to local insurgents, and he relays his suspicion to the unit's lieutenant and platoon sergeant. The platoon leadership, already enormously uptight and remote from the men they lead, are glad to make Durrant a scapegoat for the unit's tactical setbacks, because, as Durrant begins to sniff out, the lieutenant and sergeant are party to a criminal endeavor, along with a high-ranking general, to abscond with millions of dollars of US reconstruction money they have hidden near the outpost—the real reason for Corn Cob's continued existence. Also smelling the money is a Military Intelligence captain, assigned by someone somewhere to investigate suspected wrong-doing on Corn Cob, who seems more interested in enriching himself through blackmail or other shady means than recovering stolen money or building a case against corrupt members of the chain-of-command. Somehow also involved is a shifty Iraqi named Ahmed, who works on the base as a mechanic and as Durrant's companion on frequent shit-burning details, which also figure significantly in the plot. Ahmed seems to know a lot about things above his pay-grade and to have ingratiated himself with the FOB leadership, and he accesses Corn Cob through a secret door in the perimeter wall that only he knows about, but exactly who he is and what his motivation is goes unexplained.
Durrant must make sense of all this—really, try to survive it–from his disadvantageous position in the lower ranks, while trying to save the Iraqi child he has befriended, and at the same time dealing with being dumped by his fiancé, who also informs him that she is aborting the child of Durrant's she is carrying. Durrant is likeable in a snarly, snarky way that seems true to the way many junior soldiers are in life and almost all of them are in war fiction—his combination of smarts and attitude is very much the voice of "Joe," the "E4 Mafia," and the "Terminal Lance" found in Matthew Hefti's A Hard and Heavy Thing, Brandon Caro's Old Silk Road, and Maximillian Uriarte's The White Donkey, as well as Lieutenant Black's in John Renehan's The Valley: young white male soldiers turned contemptuously anti-authoritarian by the incompetence and hypocrisy of their chains-of-command. Durrant's thoughts about things are not complex—I would have liked to have seen more psychological exposition of how it feels to be a soldier who learns that his own unit leadership not only thinks he is a traitor but wants him dead—but Zimmerman excels at depicting Durrant in conversation with other characters, in terms of crafting naturalistic dialogue that both drives forward the plot and allows the minor characters' personalities to emerge. In particular, Durrant's friendship with his best friend, a black guy named Rankin, his cagey discussions with the MI captain, and, most of all the Dear John letter he receives from his fiancé, along with a subsequent phone conversation, are all very well done. Zimmerman also does well with physical depictions of soldier life and combat and, MFA instructor that he is, prolifically generates intriguing metaphors and similes:
"The sky is the color of a nicotine-stained finger."
"…he's already about as popular as a wet fart."
"The wind smells like unwashed hair."
"His shadow looms on the wall behind him like a dark, unhappy doppelganger."
Pretty good, that last one, but to return to the plot–a secret door in the perimeter wall, really? Also not helping things are screwed-up military details, such as references to soldiers shining boots—I don't think that ever happened in Iraq, where from the beginning soldiers were issued suede desert boots that didn't require polish—and to "Kiowa" helicopters that are said to transport passengers and which feature door gunners—uh, no. Even more exasperating is the novel's end, which resolves nothing: the last few pages describe an enormous battle, but ends in medias res, as if Zimmerman ran out of time or ideas to bring it to a more satisfactory close. We don't learn, for example, how or if Durrant survives to write the novel, for example, or if the MI captain, the lieutenant, the platoon sergeant, Ahmed, or the Iraqi orphan live or die, let alone if one of them gets away with the loot. Many critics of Iraq and Afghanistan war fiction have hypothesized that never-ending nature of the wars have made narrative closure in books and films about them difficult; the coitus interruptus conclusion of The Sandbox might serve as Example 1 of the problem. If The Sandbox had an artier, edgier feel, such an ambiguous, indeterminate finale might have worked, or if it were a little more integrated with the storytelling ethos—in the manner of the famous last shot of the movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid where the Paul Newman and Robert Redford characters are frozen in place as they charge into a hail of lawmen's bullets—it also might have succeeded, but that's not the case here.
Assessing the strengths and weakness of The Sandbox, the sub-headline for the LA Times review states, "The dialogue and description of the troops' plight are realistic. But the conspiracy they get caught up in is absurd." That's spot-on, but to end on a positive note, Zimmerman gets a lot of things right while being the first to confront the major obstacle with which war writers afterwards would continually struggle, namely, devising a realistic and compelling plot commensurate with their belief that the lives of soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan are worthy of novel-length portraiture. Recasting the story of a soldier at war as a search for riches recalls movies such as Three Kings and Kelly's Heroes, while previewing Aaron Gwyn's later novel Wynne's War, while the idea that a war story might also be a police procedural foreshadows novels-to-come such as The Valley and Matt Gallagher's Youngblood. Centering the action on a remote FOB brings to mind Joydeep Roy-Bhattacharya's The Watch, and Zimmerman's many excellent depictions of vehicle operations anticipate Michael Pitre's Fives-and-Twenty-Fives. In addition, many scenes described in The Sandbox—IED explosions, shit-burning details, sandstorms, memorial services, and scorpion fights, for just a few examples—would pepper the pages of future war fiction.
In a 2010 interview, Zimmerman offered an intriguing glimpse of the war-writing business as he tried to find a publisher for The Sandbox. After finishing his novel in 2007, he faced a series of rejections and requests to radically revise it before Soho finally accepted it for publication. "…at that point,'' he states, "Iraq movies were doing terribly and almost all of the [rejection] letters mentioned that. They said, 'Nobody's going to buy any books about Iraq right now from the fiction standpoint.'" Zimmerman did what he had to do to break the impasse, and if the results were not perfect, he established patterns and first depicted scenes that the writers after him cannot claim to have devised, but only tried to better.
David Zimmerman, The Sandbox. Soho, 2010.
Author Peter MolinPosted on August 27, 2017 July 22, 2019 Categories Art and WarTags The Sandbox, War fiction
5 thoughts on "The First Fast Draw: David Zimmerman's The Sandbox"
Lisa Sanchez says:
Jeez, your reviews are incredible, Peter! I feel compelled to read this one and did not know about it until now either. Interesting afternote as well, but for god sake, shiny boots? Wonder if he had interviewed anyone or used any primary source material v all secondary source b/c a mistake like that would lead one to believe the latter, which would make it seem a pretty strong feat that he got as much as he did right. Shall soon see. I've also read a novel by a vet who no doubt knows better, using very Arabic sounding made-up names in Afghanistan, made me twitch.
Re your film review a while back, how could Ang Lee get Billy Lynn so wrong? Ang Lee… and Billy Lynn. So disappointing. I will say it seemed like a strange match in the first place.
Peter Molin says:
Zimmerman in the interview I link to reports basing Durrant on of his veteran-students and also obsessing over military details–which makes the bit about the boots so weird. It's almost as if he planted a deliberate mistake, as in the old days when supposedly Hollywood deliberately portrayed uniform errors in war movies to throw off would-be spies who might copy them. Agree also with Ang Lee and Billy Lynn–count me among the disappointed.
Jim Craig says:
Pete, I too had never heard of this book, but I am glad it exists. For me, it fills a confusing gap in the chronology of Iraq war writing. Thanks for the review.
Jim, The Sandbox is not a bad read, and definitely deserves recognition and credit.
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East Lansing, Haslett, Okemos, Webberville & Williamston
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Advocates for 'second look' prison reforms rally at Michigan Capitol
Erica Murphy, WSYM, 2021
Advocates for Second Look prison reforms rally in Lansing
By: Erica Murphy
LANSING, Mich. — Advocates for what are known as "second look" prison reforms rallied at the state Capitol Thursday, hoping to convince lawmakers to create a pathway to earlier release for inmates looking at long sentences.
People like Pauline Thompson's son, Jamie Meade.
"I think they should look at stuff and give the guys good time," Thompson said. "The guys that's changing, I thought that's what prison was about. You put somebody in there to help not keep them in there the rest of their lives."
Under second look reforms, inmates who've served a significant amount of time would be able to be considered for parole. In some states, such reforms allow prisoners to be considered for parole after serving 10 years. Advocates also are asking that people who were sentenced as juveniles be automatically considered for a second look sentence reduction.
"Forty percent of Michigan's prison population were convicted before the age of 26 before their brain was fully formed," said Alexandra Bailey of the Sentencing Project. "We think that we need to have a piece of legislation that addresses that issue along with the aging prison population and the fact that people change, they age out of crime. They grow and take responsibility."
According to the Sentencing Project, more than 20 states are now considering second look legislation.
Thursday's rally brought together people from the faith community, prison reform advocates and prisoners' family members who think second look laws are more humane.
Former inmate Adam Grant says he has changed and knows countless others in the system who've done the same.
"I've got seven felonies on my record. I was a hot mess but I no longer am. All I want to do now is make a difference in the world and there's plenty of people in there that want to do just that," Grant said.
It's unclear when state lawmakers might take up the issue. At least two state senators, Democrats Stephanie Chang and Jeff Irwin, support second look legislation.
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Ariana Grande Debuts Crescent Moon Neck Tat During The Honeymoon Tour
By Meghan Mabey | On April 14, 2015
**Update: Turns out, Ariana Grande's crescent moon tattoo is actually a friendship tattoo with her BFF and back-up dancer, Brian Nicholson!
Pop star Ariana Grande may be known for her song "Tattooed Heart," but the singer chose the side of her neck as the location for her latest tattoo – a simple outline of a crescent moon inked in black. Ariana took to Instagram to show off her new tattoo on April 14, posting a black and white photo with her face off-screen, but offering a clear view of a brand-new crescent moon tattoo on the side of her neck, just below her left ear. Adding a little mystery as to the meaning behind her new ink, Ariana captioned the tattoo photo with just a crescent moon emoji, and then linked the pic to a Twitter post reading simply "moon baby."
Ariana Grande is currently in the thick of her second concert tour (and first international tour), The Honeymoon Tour, which began in February and is in support of her second studio album, My Everything. The singer will perform at 82 locations over the course of 10 months, but she spent the past week in California, before heading to Washington on April 14, so she could have had her new crescent moon neck tattoo done in either location. Like all of her other tats, Ariana Grande's crescent moon tattoo is very small, and it can be easily hidden behind her famous mane whenever she wants.
Although Ariana hasn't yet revealed the meaning behind her new tattoo, crescent moon tattoos are actually very symbolic, and this particular design can stand for anything from dreams and intuition to feminine power, sensuality and energy. Ariana's relationship with rapper Big Sean is still going strong after the couple confirmed they were dating six or seven months ago, and judging by the name of her latest studio album and world tour, it's possible that Ariana's crescent moon tattoo is a tribute to her 26-year-old rapper beau.
This new crescent moon ink marks tattoo number four for Ariana Grande. She already has inked on the back of her neck the French phrase "mille tendresse," a quote from Breakfast at Tiffany's that translates to "a thousand tendernesses," and a tattoo reading "Bellissima" on her ribcage – a tribute to her late grandfather. She also sports a small heart tattoo on her toe, which she had inked in 2012 while recording her debut album, Yours Truly. If her crescent moon tat isn't exactly a shout-out to Big Sean, it could be that Ariana Grande may be following in the footsteps of Katy Perry, getting a new tattoo to commemorate each of her world tours!
One Response to: Ariana Grande Debuts Crescent Moon Neck Tat During The Honeymoon Tour
Charlie vlado	Reply
I wanna buy it??


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Q: Python code that gives user taxes owed (does not work) Please let me know if I am posting in the incorrect place. I am student learning how to code in Python and one of my first assignments is to create code that will return the amount of taxes owed based on annual income. I have used specific numbers from a file for class, but there is something wrong with my code and I can't figure out what it is. I have been working for hours and any help is greatly appreciated!
Best, Jade
I am working in Visual Studio and have attached an image of my code mycode

A: Call your function
taxes is a function. print(taxes) prints this function. print(taxes(Income)) will calculate the taxes for the income and then print it.

A: Ok first off, use pastebin or gitgub gists when uploading code. This is so we can run your code faster. You also need to be more specific about what you mean by your code is not working. My bet is that you forgot to call the fuction itself. Also, since your new I recommend you take a look at Pycharm, email me at elijahllopezz@gmail.com for any other quesitons. I also improved your code a bit:
def taxes(income):
    if income < 9076: return .1*income
    elif income < 36901: return .15*income
    elif income < 89351: return .25*income + 5081.25
    elif income < 186351: return .28*income + 18193.75
    elif income < 405101: return .33*income + 45353.75
    elif income < 406751: return .35*income + 117541.25
    return .396*income + 118118.75  # else statement is redundant when returning values
while True:
    try:
        income = float(input('Enter your annual Income: '))
        break
    except ValueError: print('Please try again')
print('The total tax owed is:', taxes(income))
# print(f'The total tax owed is: {taxes(income}}')  # python 3.6 only
# or you can use .format or %s as well

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Have your prayers become stagnant? Do you long to see God move in fresh ways? Are you ready to move to new places in your walk with God? If so, it's time to take the 40-day prayer challenge and press into God like never before!
In this five-session video Bible study, bestselling author Mark Batterson shows how taking up this challenge will not only change the way you pray today, but also dramatically impact the rest of your life. While this challenge won't be easy, and you will experience setbacks along the way, as you pray through, be assured that God will come through in new and exciting ways.
JOIN US FOR THIS EXCITING STUDY AT NEW SONG STARTING AUGUST 19! Free books are available for pick-up every Sunday at the Connection Center!


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Details of faults affecting the use of tap switch
What are the faults that affect the use of the tap switch and what are the specific details? Lets give you a detailed introduction. As a result, some oxidation corrosion reactions will be formed. Once the shrapnel is corroded, it will lead...
Detailed introduction of the principle of using 44 copper head light touch switch
What is the operation principle of the copper head touch switch and the specific details? Lets give you a detailed introduction. What is the use of waterproof switch for us? So today we will give you analysis and analysis. When we choose th...
What is the test method of tapping the switch
How to test the light touch switch when it is used, and what is the specific test method? Lets introduce it to you. Tap the switch, that is, press the button to make the circuit on or off. It has different types of switches, such as waterpr...
Specification and application of DC socket
What are the specifications, models and specific applications of DC socket? For details, we will give you a detailed introduction below. What is DC socket DC socket is a kind of socket matched with special power supply for computer display....
Whats the name of the toggle switch
Whats the name of the toggle switch? Whats the other name? Lets introduce the details below. The toggle switch is also called the change-over switch, which is also called the power switch. The slide switch is also a kind of power switch. It...
Maintenance method of touch switch failure in life
In our daily life, if the tap switch fails, how should we repair it? What is the specific method? Lets give you a detailed introduction. How to repair the failure of the light touch switch? Before maintenance, we must understand that the st...
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What is the technical content of toggle switch and what is the specific situation? Lets give you a detailed introduction. The toggle switch (slide switch) adopts integrated circuit technology and SMT surface device technology to manufacture...
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Toggle switch and microswitch are both switches. Whats the difference between them? Lets give you a detailed introduction. The toggle switch and the microswitch have the following points respectively: 1. Different range of use: The toggle s...
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The Racquet Podcast Network
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Is UWL as Safe as We Think?
retrieved from weau.com
Karley Betzler, General Assignment Reporter
This past spring semester, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Sophomore Carolyn Voelker's car windows were smashed.
Her car was parked in a campus parking lot and, according to Voelker, many other cars in that lot were also damaged.
"When I went to get an estimate, the mechanic was sure someone had smashed it and even told me where they stood when they did it," stated Voelker. She went on to say that she wished the parking lot would've had security cameras, that way the assailant could've been caught.
This event is not unique, that same semester UWL Sophomore Carissa Bieberdorf's car had been vandalized on two separate occasions while parked in the parking ramp.
"Someone took the air out of my tires. I was also keyed another time after that." Bieberdorf recalled that her car was among many vehicles that had been keyed.
She too expressed her concern over the lack of security cameras and stated "I would get scared every night having to walk in [the parking ramp] by myself."
Each year, UWL's University Police release an Annual Security Report (ASR) to remain compliant with the Clery Act. The Clery Act requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to disseminate a public annual security report to employees and students every year according to The Clery Center. The ASR must include statistics of campus crime plus details about efforts taken to improve campus safety.
In a statement, under UWL's Student Life page, "This report will provide you with information on the safety and security of the UW-La Crosse campus."
Within the Clery Act, according to the Department of Education, crimes such as, "…Vandalism of Property are included in your Clery Act statistics only if they are Hate Crimes." If crimes such as vandalism are not classified as a hate crime, they do not need to be reported to the public.
Other crimes that can go unreported are larceny-theft, intimidation, and simple assault.
UWL Chief of University Police Scott McCullough described the reporting issue as a, "very complicated topic…" McCullough went on to say that UWL submits statistics to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program which includes data on property crime and larceny theft. According to the UCR, UWL had 119 incidents of property crime and 118 of larceny theft in 2016, the third highest in the UW System behind UW Milwaukee and UW Madison.
McCullough elaborated, "We do report everything that is listed in the Hate Crime section of Clery (except for intimidation) but not sure how or where they show up in their report." McCullough later added, "We don't actually look at the final [report] much." McCullough stated that the University Police did not legally have to report to UCR.
In 2016, Rent College Pads ranked UWL number one in the UW System and number nine in the country for overall campus safety. However, this ranking was based on the Campus Security and Safety Database which compiles data from universities Clery Act compliant Annual Crime Reports and not their UCR's.
McCullough was asked if not reporting certain crimes makes UWL seem safer, "Many things can affect a person's perception of their safety, a burned out light at night, graffiti on a wall, personal experience, but knowledge of crimes can certainly affect this perception as well." McCullough added that making campus appear safer has never been a consideration when reporting statistics.
As for looking forward and improving campus safety, both Voelker and Bieberdorf reported wanting security cameras on campus. McCullough stated, "UWL is currently reviewing the use of security cameras on campus, not just parking lots but the entire campus."
Explained: The blue light towers at UWL
Common Ground Campus Ministry: Pastor Ben
UWL SEEDs seek to discuss social justice issues through educational programming
Explained: "Happy Holidays" compared to "Merry Christmas"
Bad Bad Hats performs at The Root Note
Photo Series: UWL winter commencement
La Crosse Parking Utility institutes 'Food for Fines' program until the end of the year
Committee Close Up: Student Organization Committee
WGSS student creates website about sexual misconduct resources on and off campus for capstone
Student Association discusses new security systems and the Green Fund Act


For most of their lives, women have been inundated with the negative stories of other women's birth experiences. Everyone, from their mothers, sisters, aunts, cousins, friends, and even strangers, want to tell them the horrors of giving birth. They have been conditioned to believe that excruciating pain is associated with birth; and because of this, women today hold an unprecedented fear of giving birth. This extreme fear causes their bodies to become tense, and that tension often prevents them from easily performing the normal, physiological function of birth. The result?—exactly what they feared most–long, painful, disappointing birthings.


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Robinhood closes 50% higher, joins meme-stock club
·Markets Reporter
August 4, 2021, 10:13 AM ·2 min read
Robinhood (HOOD) shares closed 50% higher on Wednesday following two sessions of massive spikes. This week the investment platform's stock has gained 100%, making it the newest meme stock on the Wall Street.
Shares were halted for volatility in the first few minutes of the trading session on Wednesday. The stock soared more than 80% at one point. The upward move comes a day after the stock spiked 24%. The stock price blew past its IPO price of $38 on Tuesday in stark contrast to its public debut last week.
Retail interest could be a contributing factor for the upward move. Robinhood is one of the most mentioned stocks on Reddit's WallStreetBets, according to SwaggyStocks. The stock's comment volume has spiked over the last two days.
On Wednesday Fidelity's real time order data was showing Robinhood as a top traded stock, behind Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and AMC (AMC), two stocks followed by WSB members.
While short squeezes have often initially driven up "meme" stocks in the past, Robinhood's move is not driven because of a short covering. "While there is some short side activity in HOOD, it is the long side which is main driver of its stock price volatility," Ihor Dusaniwsky of S3 Partners told Yahoo Finance.
"The upward stock price pressure in HOOD is not a short squeeze for the simple reason that there has not been enough time for a large short position in HOOD to be accumulated," he added.
High profile investments in Robinhood may also be driving the price higher. Last week Cathie Wood's Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) scooped up about 4.9 million shares of Robinhood, according to Bloomberg data.
Investors are keeping a close eye on the stock following Robinhood's public debut last Thursday.
The stock sank as much as 12% below its IPO price during its first day of trading on the Nasdaq. Shares closed down 8% that day. Some questioned whether its lackluster performance had anything to do with Robinhood's hybrid auction-style debut, a lack of lock-up period for 15% of shares held by employees and others, or concerns over regulatory headwinds.
Robinhood has been a key player in the retail trading boom involving GameStop (GME) and other stocks over the past year-and-a-half. In an unusual move, the company allocated about 35% of its shares to retail investors for its IPO.
The options market shows some investors are betting against an upward movement in the stock. Puts expiring August 20th outnumbered calls during the first day of options trading on Robinhood, according to Bloomberg data.
Yahoo Finance +
Ines is a markets reporter covering stocks from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Follow her on Twitter at @ines_ferre
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Nick Jonas opens up about his struggle with Type 1 Diabetes
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are possibly the most adorable couple on the planet, their only competition being Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
Nick, AKA one-third of the Jonas Brothers recently spoke out on his Instagram page about suffering throughout his life with diabetes, and Priyanka was ready to back him up.
Type 1 diabetes is a disease which occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin in the body, which regulates blood sugar levels.
"13 years ago today I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. The picture on the left is me a few weeks after my diagnosis. Barely 100 pounds after having lost so much weight from my blood sugar being so high before going to the doctor where I would find out I was diabetic."
A post shared by Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) on Nov 16, 2018 at 9:56pm PST
"On the right is me now. Happy and healthy. Prioritizing my physical health, working out and eating healthy and keeping my blood sugar in check."
He continued: "I have full control of my day to day life with this disease, and I'm so grateful to my family and loved ones who have helped me every step of the way. Never let anything hold you back from living your best life."
"Thank you to all my fans for your kind words and support. Means more than you know. Love you all."
Never let anything hold you back from living your best life. Thank you to all my fans for your kind words and support. Means more than you know. Love you all. #grateful #diabetes #livebeyond #fbf
— Nick Jonas (@nickjonas) November 17, 2018
Priyanka, being the stunning future wifey that she is, left a supportive comment underneath the Instagram post that essentially cleared our skin, made us believe in love again and brought N*SYNC back together:
"Everything about you is special, with or without diabetes," wrote Priyanka.
Bae @nickjonas
A post shared by Priyanka Chopra (@priyankachopra) on Oct 23, 2018 at 7:29pm PDT
We're shook from their sheer cuteness. We have now decided that if they ever break up, love is officially cancelled.
Nick Jonas' words are truly inspirational to the many who suffer with Type 1 diabetes, for which there is unfortunately no cure.
Jonas is a co-founder of Beyond Type 1, an organisation which helps to educate children who live with the chronic disease through social media.
We're so glad to see he has the support of his beautiful fiancé.
Feature image: CelebMix.com
Instagram post
Nick and Priyanka
Nick Jonas and Priyank Chopra
USA named one of the most dangerous places to be a woman
by Katie Meegan
The top ten most dangerous countries for women in the world has been released, and we're not surprised.
According to a survey commissioned by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, India is currently the worst place in the world for women, followed by war-torn countries Afghanistan and Syria.
The United States also makes the list in tenth place.
The poll was conducted around was conducted experts from Europe, Africa, the Americas, South East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific between March and May of this year. Respondents included aid professionals, academics, healthcare staff, non-government organisation workers, policy-makers, development specialists and social commentators.
What is the most dangerous country in the world for women? Find out why #India is ranked #1 and the U.S. is #10 – the only Western country to feature in the Thomson Reuters Foundation 2018 perception poll.
Get the full results: https://t.co/xXi9swBej8 #worseforwomen pic.twitter.com/RIeDCuYMHi
— Thomson Reuters Foundation (@TR_Foundation) 26 June 2018
The inclusion of the US on the list came as a surprise to some in the wake of the Me Too and Time's Up movements.
"People want to think income means you're protected from misogyny, and sadly that's not the case," said Cindy Southworth, executive vice president of the Washington-based National Network to End Domestic Violence.
"We are going to look back and see this as a very powerful tipping point … We're blowing the lid off and saying '#Metoo and Time's Up'."
"I want to grow a thicker skin and learn how to defend myself"
The US is the only western country in our poll of the world's most dangerous nations for women. We spoke to an all-female self-defense class in NY to see why they feel they need to protect themselves #WorseForWomen pic.twitter.com/vNO3syJxwY
— Thomson Reuters Foundation News (@AlertNet) June 28, 2018
India ranked in first place due to the risks that women face from cultural and traditional practices, such as acid attacks, female genital mutilation, physical abuse and child marriage. However, this only seems to be worsening as the rate of reported crimes against women rose by 83 per cent between 2007 and 2016, with a sickening four cases of rape reported every hour.
India has made international headlines this year with a number of high-profile sexual assault cases. Earlier this year, eight men were accused of the gang rape of an eight-year-old girl and in April, a seven-year-old girl was raped and murdered during a wedding.
Protests saw thousands take to the streets in wake of the death of a 16-year-old girl, who was raped and burnt alive in her home.
"India has shown utter disregard and disrespect for women … rape, marital rapes, sexual assault and harassment, female infanticide has gone unabated," Manjunath Gangadhara, an official at the Karnataka state government told Reuters.
"The way they look at girls. The way they check you out. The way they follow you. It's kind of disgusting"
Indian women share their stories as our poll finds the country is the world's most dangerous for females. Here are the full results: https://t.co/0EoZ6E6Xrl #WorseForWomen pic.twitter.com/zRrLw9MO7D
— Thomson Reuters Foundation News (@AlertNet) 27 June 2018
"The (world's) fastest growing economy and leader in space and technology is shamed for violence committed against women."
India was also ranked the most dangerous country for women for human trafficking, including sex slavery and domestic servitude, as well as for traditional practices such as forced marriage, stoning and female infanticide.
The list also included Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen and Nigeria.
women are not equal
women's aid
India's legislators to re-examine country's regressive gays rights law
India's highest court has pledged to re-visit its earlier decision to uphold Section 377, a colonial-era law that makes homosexuality punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
It comes after a petition filed by five people called on the legislators to reconsider their decision.
India's chief justice Dipak Misra and three other judges say a larger group of judges is now expected to take part in the discussions this time around.
"We think it appropriate to send this issue to a larger bench. What is natural to one may not be natural to others," the judges said.
Gay rights activists remain hopeful that the court will decriminalise acts of homosexuality.
While the Hindu nationalist party-led government are said to be in no hurry to change the law, it's understood that the question will be put to a larger bench for examination before October 2018.
Less than 200 Indians are convicted under Section 377 each year, but activists claim that the law is often used to intimidate members of the LGBTQ community.
The news has been welcomed to by activists across the globe with Anand Grover, a lawyer representing the five petitioners, telling Reuters, "It is a big relief and a primary step taken by the Supreme Court to review its earlier order."
Heard of #AintNoCinderella? School yourself on the story behind it
In response to a male politician's suggestion that a stalking victim had placed herself in danger by choosing to go out alone at night, women in India have created the #AintNoCinderella hashtag.
And Twitter users have wasted no time circulating it far and wide.
Refusing to contribute to the ever-present victim-blaming dialogue, countless young women have supported Varnika Kundu, who was reportedly chased and harassed by two men, by sharing photos of themselves on nights out alongside captions which denounce BJP state vice president Ramveer Bhatti's recent remarks.
"Dear Regressive India," wrote one Twitter user. "We ain't damsels in distress. We are independent & we don't need you to curb our freedom. #AintNoCinderella here!"
Challenging the troubling narrative that suggest women are in some way to blame for a man's threatening attitude or violent behaviour, Twitter has been awash with images, anecdotes and slogans which contradict the illogical theory.
We love these women.
It's midnight and I can be wherever I want to be, because I #AintNoCinderella
Enjoying party with friends#GirlsNightOut @LambaAlka pic.twitter.com/i9A3l8G3aq
— Pooja Khatri (@PoojaKhatri2802) August 7, 2017
I really love this trend. Beautiful women defying male patriarchy & crossing misogynist lines. More power to u ladies#AintNoCinderella
— Sahil Prasad (@laxmi407) August 7, 2017
No man can stop me from going out whenever I want. Public spaces for women! #AintNoCinderella pic.twitter.com/jaipo3Dtai
— Nabakalpita Bora (@NabakalpitaB) August 7, 2017
Guess what BJP, it's midnight and I'm outside and this party is rad. You want me to stay home to be safe, your bad. #AintNoCinderella pic.twitter.com/5x7UrDo0Ot
— Poorva Sharma (@PforPoorva) August 7, 2017
Hey it's midnight and I'm "out"!#AintNoCinderella pic.twitter.com/oKFNwtVIz0
— Palak Sharma (@Palaksharmanews) August 7, 2017
What I wear, till what time I stay out, whom I hang around with,bla bla.. is none of your business bcoz I #AintNoCinderella pic.twitter.com/hlFEE0y2Qq
— Surbhi Dwivedi (@DwivediSurbhi) August 7, 2017
Dear Sanskari BJP, it's well past midnight n i'm out having beer in Delhi. Join me? #AintNoCinderella #ChandigarhStalking pic.twitter.com/jXj5piZUqz
— Ridhima Malhotra (@RidhimaInd) August 8, 2017
No one tells me what to wear, what to eat, when to go out & how to dress. Keep your regressive mindset to yourself #AintNoCinderella pic.twitter.com/e3WqAKuK3f
— Angkita Dutta (@angkitadutta) August 7, 2017
#AintNoCinderella
Ramveer Bhatti'
Panel of doctors to convene over rape victim's abortion plea today
A 10-year-old girl, who became pregnant after enduring multiple rapes at the hands of her stepfather, is having her case discussed among a panel of doctors in India today.
The child, whose is due to give birth in four months, has found herself at the centre of a legal 'grey area' as Indian law does not allow terminations after 20 weeks unless medical professionals believe the mother's life is in danger.
With the child's family demanding permission for a termination, doctors from the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences are meeting today to discuss the request.
It is understood the case only came to light last week after the child's mother suspected her daughter may be pregnant, and brought her to a doctor.
According to the BBC, the child subsequently revealed she had been raped by her stepfather while her mother was at work and warned against confiding in anyone.
The child's stepfather was arrested and is being detained pending a full police investigation.
It has been established that India's Supreme Court has received several petitions from rape victims in recent months requesting terminations and each case has been referred to a panel of medical experts.
This school is turning India's child sex workers into lawyers
The U.N. estimates that there are three million sex workers in India, of which at least 40 per cent are children.
However, according to Telesur, due to the secretive and illicit nature of the practice, cases brought before the courts are often dropped due to lack of evidence and/or a lawyer that specialises in the issue.
In fact, less than 50 cases of forced child prostitution lead to prosecution each year.
Earlier this month, a new educational facility aimed at combatting the problem opened its doors.
School for Justice was opened by Free a Girl, movement devoted to 'freeing young girls from forced prostitution and prosecuting the offenders.'
The school's ultimate goal is to provide former victims with the education and tools needed to become lawyers, so they can challenge India's failing justice system from the inside out.
The inaugural class will see 19 girls work towards law degrees that specialise in commercial sexual exploitation.
Speaking to Adweek, Bas Korsten, one of the founders of the project said, "these are real girls who have been through highly traumatising experiences and had lives that we could hardly imagine."
He added, "they are determined to succeed in their ambition to become lawyers, with the power to prosecute the criminals who once owned them."
The idea was born when Free a Girl approached J. Walter Thompson, a marketing and communications agency in Amsterdam, asking them to create a campaign aimed at raising awareness of the issue among India men.
The two parties then became inspired to take their idea to the next level and open School of Justice.
Free a Girl say this is just the first step in their efforts to combat child prostitution in India. The movement plans to launch a campaign across the country, highlighting the need to address the ongoing issue.
''The School for Justice is an ambitious project – the class of 2017 is just the first step in our plan. We want all of India to get behind The School for Justice and support our cause – as we can't do this alone.''
''Ultimately we want governmental support and to build up a robust advocacy programme to push for law reform to make a positive change for India.''
free a girl
school of justice
The body of an Irish woman has been found on a beach in India
by Sarah Magliocco
A murder investigation is currently underway after a Donegal woman was found dead by police in the popular Indian resort state of Goa.
The woman, 28, is reported to have suffered injuries to her face and head.
The body was found "under mysterious circumstances, in a nude state, at an isolated spot at Adnem, Devabag, Canacona on Tuesday morning," reports the Times of India.
#BreakingNews.A body of an Irish woman has been found in India.The woman in her 20's was found in Canacona,in the state of Goa on Tuesday..
— Padraig O'Reilly (@padraig_reilly) March 15, 2017
"Considering the state in which the body was found, and the injuries visible on her face, we concluded that that it was a case of murder," Canacona PI Filomeno Costa told TOI.
Police have also said that a post-mortem will be carried out to discover whether a sexual assault took place.
"Ireland's Embassy in New Delhi is in contact with Indian authorities in relation to reports of an incident involving an Irish citizen," reads a Department of Foreign Affairs statement to The Irish Times.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade stands ready to provide consular assistance".
Feature image: Motoroides India
The terrifying moment an Emirates plane crash-lands in Dubai
Numerous videos and images have this morning been flooding social media – all showing the terrifying moment a large Emirates plane hit the runway in Dubai earlier today.
A total of 282 passengers and 18 crew were on the plane at the time and all flights in and out of Dubai International have now been suspended.
Some 24 people on board are from the UK, while four are Irish. The majority are Indian nationals.
A plane has crash landed in #Dubai International Airport. All passengers have been safely evacuated. pic.twitter.com/L7O70qr9L0
— ilmfeed (@IlmFeed) August 3, 2016
Government and air-traffic control officials in the UAE have now confirmed that the Boeing 777-300 jet crash-landed at the airport shortly after 1pm local time – 9am Irish time.
Thankfully, there are no reports of injuries and everyone was evacuated safely without incident.
The three-hour flight took off from Trivandrum International Airport in India at around 6am Irish time.
Dubai government: Emirates Airline flight from India crash-landed at Dubai International Airport https://t.co/8u1LBDtesy
— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 3, 2016
The captain is understood to have sent out and emergency signal shortly before the plane was due to land.
Witnesses say the aircraft was billowing smoke shortly upon approach.
Dubai Airports can confirm that Emirates flight EK521 arriving from Trivandrum was involved in an incident during landing at DXB at 12.45pm
— Dubai Airports (@DubaiAirports) August 3, 2016
Confirming that all on board were accounted for and safe, Emirates said this afternoon in a statement: "We are expecting a 4-hour network wide delay, more information will be available on the Emirates website and social media channels."
Plane crash-lands at #Dubai airport – footage via @rsddar. #دبي pic.twitter.com/j386ahiX6G
— Faisal Irshaid (@faisalirshaid) August 3, 2016
It added: "The main priority remains with those involved and offering support to concerned family and friends."
Emirates added that telephone lines are now active for family members: UAE – 8002111 UK – 00442034508853 US – 0018113502081
Looks like it's Chris Martin's turn to break the internet
The Coldplay frontman was visiting India as part of a delegation with The Global Poverty Project when he decided to play an impromptu gig in a café in New Delhi.
Mr Martin was alongside Indian actress Freida Pinto when they wandered into the café with Bollywood musician, Vishal Dadlani and played to a "stunned Delhi crowd."
And sure enough, Twitter absolutely exploded. While the lucky few who happened to be there undoubtedly had their weeks made, the rest of India seemed gutted at missing out on the spur-of-the-moment concert.
Ok, I just got off stage from standing around while Chris Martin of Coldplay did an impromptu set. Holy wow!! pic.twitter.com/Yc0RWIv9Mr
— VISHAL DADLANI (@VishalDadlani) July 1, 2015
Hahaha, just introduced Chris Martin to come do a small set at summerhouse cafe at hauz khas. What?
— Tanmay Bhat (@thetanmay) July 1, 2015
Reason #127281 why you should be partying on a weekday night. The chances of you missing Chris Martin play live would have been lower.
— Rashi Kakkar (@rashi_kakkar) July 2, 2015
#ThingsThatUniteIndians that feeling of indignation (and jealousy) that Chris Martin performed in Delhi and they weren't told about the gig.
— Nigel Britto (@NigelBritto) July 2, 2015
The non-profit organisation confirmed the 38-year-old's arrival in the country and subsequent performance. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokesperson from the GPP explained that "He didn't want his visit to be publicised but all that changed after last night's gig began trending on social media."
They revealed that Chris and Ms Pinto are part of the GPP delegation "that is holding meetings with politicians, key government leaders, non-profit partners in the water, sanitation and hygiene space, and participating in field visits to see innovative projects addressing sanitation in local communities."
The group's ultimate goal is to put an end to extreme poverty by 2030.
Jennifer Lawrence ex's trip has drawn global attention to the issues at hand – and to the man himself as #ChrisMartin and #Coldplay began trending on Twitter after his performance.
surprise concert
The Global Poverty Project
Video of woman confronting man who assaulted her goes viral
A brave woman who recorded a confrontation with a man who touched her against her will is going viral.
The awful incident occurred on an Indigo flight to Bhubaneswar in India and as the victim describes: "This man on the seat behind me, put his fingers in the seat gap to touch me!!! I was very shocked for sometime to react. By then the flight went to landing mode. Then the moment flight touched down, I got up. Saw his hand was again on the side ready to take up any opportunity to touch me!!!"
The woman then confronts the man, videoing him all the while and asks him to tell her why he feels it is ok for him to touch her in any way. Deservedly ashamed, the man turns his head away and tries to hide.
The victim also described how the man is currently in police custody and that airline staff and the police officer involved were very helpful to her.
The video has now gone viral and will hopefully encourage many other women to stand up for themselves in terrifying situations such as this.
The Taj Mahal is to have a mud bath
It is India's most famous landmark and has featured in so many films that it's hard to keep track of.
Rihanna was also in a spot of bother after an apparent photo shoot compromised "the status and sanctity" of the iconic attraction.
Now it seems the Taj Mahal is about to undergo a beauty treatment that is used by women all over the world – a mud bath – to remove the yellow discolouration caused by pollution.
Basically, the World Heritage Site will be covered in a 2mm layer of lime clay which will be left to dry on the wall. The special mud, which has already been made, will then be cleaned off using distilled water.
This is not the first time the Taj Mahal has been cleaned this way – the same beauty treatment was given in 1994, 2001 and 2008.
The gorgeous white marble building attracts thousands of visitors each year, so it is not surprising it needs a mud bath every now and then.
S! TV VIRAL: Take the poo to the loo
This is a real advert created by UNICEF to target the inhabitants of India who defecate in the open. About half the country's population of 620 million people do not regularly use toilets, the charity says, answering the call of nature wherever they are.
The catchy song has been written by Shri who has created stunning compositions such as the theme for the film Life of Pi.
take the poo to the loo


With Election Day less than a month away, it's crucial to know exactly who and what you'll be voting for. Many people don't place as much value in voting for the midterm elections, but they're just as important. Voting is a meaningful way to support the issues you care about and elect the state and local representatives you believe can best carry out the changes you want to see. There are almost 150 statewide measures on the ballot, and races going on this year include all 435 seats in the US House of Representatives; one-third of all US senators; 36 state governors; and many city mayors.
Furthermore, it's imperative to know about education on the ballot because when we vote, we aren't just talking about our futures, but also those of our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. So make sure you're prepared for the sometimes complex procedures, rules, and logistics in exercising your right to vote, and then do your research to cast a meaningful vote. We'll help you get started!
Tens of millions of American children attend the schools and districts that are being reshaped at the state and local levels, so it's important to be informed about elections in your own state, especially when it comes to education on the ballot.
Just as we elect the senators and congress members who vote on important policies, we also elect our local school board members. School boards are responsible for representing the respective community's beliefs and values, and hold substantial influence in preparing children to live productive and happy lives. With this in mind, take an active approach to knowing each candidate's goals and carefully electing your school board members.
Throughout 2018, 26 states are holding elections for a combined total of 917 school board seats. During the 2015–2016 school year, these districts collectively educated almost 12 million students, which is roughly one-quarter of all public school students in the United States. While some districts' elections have already happened, over half of them will take place on Election Day, November 6, 2018.
With almost 1,000 seats to fill, it's impossible to introduce all the candidates here. But please take advantage of the following resources to see who's running in your state and local district. On either webpage, you can click on any school district to view more about the candidates, selection methods, and results (when available).
Currently, 13 states have education-related measures on the general election ballot. This year, Alabama, Florida, Maine, and Montana have measures on the ballot regarding postsecondary education and student loans. The states below, however, are focusing on K–12 funding, public schools, and the at-risk population.
Voting "yes" on Proposition 305 (Expansion of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts Referendum) supports upholding previous legislation that was designed to phase in an expansion that would make all public school students eligible to apply for the state's Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESAs) program. Currently, the ESA program allows parents or guardians of students who have disabilities or meet other specified criteria to sign a contract to opt out of the public school system and instead receive an ESA, which entitles them to 90% of what the state would have paid for the student in a district or charter school to be used at a school that better meets their needs.
Voting "yes" on Amendment 73 (Establish Income Tax Brackets and Raise Taxes for Education Initiative), formerly known as Initiative 93, supports the establishment of a tax bracket system (rather than a flat tax rate) and raising of the corporate income tax rate as well as taxes for those who earn more than $150,000 annually. If passed, this amendment will also create the Quality Public Education Fund for grades pre-K–12, which would be used to increase per-pupil funding, as well as funding for special education, English language proficiency programs, gifted and talented programs, and preschool.
Voting "yes" on the School Sales Tax Referendums Amendment supports giving authorization to a district or group of districts within a county to call for a sales and use tax referendum. (The tax would be 1% and last up to five years.) Revenue from this sales tax would be divided between county districts based either on an agreement or on the ratio of student enrollment of all county districts.
Voting "yes" on State Bill 2922 (Hawaii Surcharge on Investment Properties to Fund Public Education Amendment) supports the empowerment of the Hawaii State Legislature to enact a surcharge on investment properties, with revenue from the surcharge being earmarked for public education. According to the Hawaii State Teachers Association, Hawaii is the only state in the United States that does not currently use property taxes to fund education.
Voting "yes" on Gambling Revenue Dedicated to Education Lockbox Amendment supports the incremental dedication of gambling revenue to education through 2023 as supplementary funding for early childhood education programs; CTE programs; dual-credit opportunities; educator professional development; facility maintenance; and ensuring access to public education. If this amendment passes, the Maryland Department of Legislative Services estimates that the general fund expenditures benefitting public schools in the state will increase by $517 million by 2023.
Voting "yes" on Public Question 1 (School Projects Bond) supports issuing $500 million in general obligation bonds for project grants related to school security upgrades, vocational schools, college career and technical education, and school water infrastructure improvement.
Voting "yes" on Higher Education, Special Schools, and Tribal Schools Bond supports the authorization of the sale and issuance of $136,230,000 in bonds for higher education, special schools, and tribal schools. Projects would include infrastructure improvements, renovations, planning and construction of new buildings, repairs, and demolitions.
Voting "yes" on Nonbinding Opinion Question 1 (10 Cents per Gallon Gas Tax Increase for Education and Local Roads) indicates support for the state legislature to pass a gas tax increase of 10 cents per gallon. Since 1962, all gas tax revenue in Utah has been dedicated to transportation funding, and the additional revenue from this increase would still go toward transportation projects but would free up additional funding for education.
Voting "yes" on Senate Joint Resolution 3 (Local Districts Responsible for School Facilities and Property Tax Revenue Equalization Amendment) supports making local school districts, not the state, responsible for school facilities. This amendment also would establish local property tax revenue equalization provisions, which would require the state to provide school districts that have low property values with funding that would help them repay school facility bonds.
Voting "yes" on Senate Joint Resolution 4 (Legislative Authority Over School Funding and Revenue for Education Amendment) supports giving legislature sole authority over state education funding, with the consideration of other state funding needs, and prevents courts from ordering the legislature to generate additional revenue for school funding.
Learn more about education on the ballot and other measures in your state that you can vote on this November.
Nearly every state has a different deadline to register to vote, so make sure you're well aware of your state's voter registration deadlines. Additionally, while most states have an online registration process, some still require you to mail your information. Visit the official voter registration website of the US government to learn about your state's voter registration process and get started as soon as possible.
Come November, stay aware of education on the ballot in your state and make sure you're prepared for your voice to be heard on these issues and other serious matters. Our futures are in our hands!
Find out how to contact your state senator and be effective in doing so.
Read more about the US Department of Education's current laws and policies.


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Why My Twitter Stream is Singing about Placemaking
By Charles R. Wolfe / On September 13th, 2016
My Twitter stream is alive with the sound of placemaking. While those are not the exact Sound of Music lyrics we remember, I am as guilty as anyone for hyping Placemaking Week in Vancouver, British Columbia (which...
#ForewordFriday: What Makes a Great City Edition
By Katharine Sucher / On September 9th, 2016
In his latest book, esteemed architect and city planner Alexander Garvin explores the question What Makes a Great City. As Garvin...
Does NYC need a pedestrian plaza?
By Jason Leppig / On October 26th, 2015
Is the grand public-space experiment in New York City's Times Square at risk? Perhaps, according to this recent piece on...
Parking: A Tale of Two Churches
By Richard Willson / On October 20th, 2015
Parking expert Richard Willson reflects on the recent news story of a D.C....
Affordable, Multifamily Housing: Ready for the Next Storm?
By Laurel Blatchford / On October 4th, 2015
When Superstorm Sandy ravaged New York in 2012, thousands of low-income apartment-dwellers found themselves in high-rise hell.
Disarming objections to parking pricing
By Richard Willson / On September 28th, 2015
Since the beginning of time, parkers have argued that they should park free. Yet the economic justifications for pricing are well documented - pricing leads to more efficient parking use and a multimodal transportation system. Many arguments against...
Small town parking vision in the big city
By Richard Willson / On August 11th, 2015
Why do so many good parking management ideas encounter resistance? For example, charging for curb parking is a no brainer. Priced spaces are used more times per day and better serve customers and visitors. Pricing encourages people to use less-known off-...
Tackling the "Wicked Problem" of Urban Street Planning
By Jason Leppig / On July 22nd, 2015
The Island Press Urban Resilience Project, supported by the Kresge Foundation, is working to promote a holistic understanding of resilience that is grounded in equity and sustainability. This post, by Ben Plowden, was originally published at...
The Worst Parking Ever...
By Richard Willson / On June 15th, 2015
Last month, I gave a parking management presentation to a community group in Silver Lake, a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles. They told me they had the worst parking problems in the city. If I had a penny for every time a community group told...
#ForewordFriday: Fill Your E-reader Edition
By Meghan Bartels / On May 22nd, 2015
Today is the first day of our summer e-book sale! All Island Press e-books are $4.99 on our site and at major electronic retailers until May 29th. With more than 600 e-books included, you can find...


LOOKING TO QUIT THE RAT RACE?
30 acre hobby farm on the edge of Narooma with a very comfortable three bedroom home facing out over the pastures to the north. Light and bright throughout inside with generous living and a full length verandah to enjoy summer breezes. A new 5kw solar system and solar hotwater will keep those energy bills well under control. There is also a large double garage and two further huge machinery sheds. A small creek runs through the property too. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone into horses, stock or just wanting open space of their own that the average 2.5acre property simply cannot offer.
I am interested in 50 Wagonga Scenic Drive, Narooma. ID 61775080. Please tell me when I can have a look at the property.