The 2018 Mercedes AMG E63 S is wrought from the middle of your Venn diagram of desires. You want a car with power and personality; you need a car that can carry kids and cargo. You want a 600 horsepower hot rod; you need safety and subtly. You like wagons, because you have good taste and are smart.
Well strap yourselves in—kids and groceries and all—and hang the hell on.
Fast station wagons are quintessentially Jalopnik because they're as useful as they are artful. And while I almost always argue in favor of having a fleet cheaper specialized cars rather than a single expensive one that tries to do everything, the E63 S Wagon is so freaking good at all things that it becomes its own kind of novelty. And yeah, it's fast as hell.
On a short tour of Mulholland Drive, my colleague and fellow car reviewer Kristen Lee leaned into the gas just enough to induce goosebumps and made my boss Mike Ballaban scream. Out in the desert days later, I got to conduct a slightly more through test of the vehicle's abilities. Turns out Race Start and Drift Mode are just a small slice of what makes this car so much fun to use.
The E-Class is Mercedes-Benz's mid-sized luxury car. The AMG version gets stiffer seats, suspension and a nuclear reactor for an engine. I've been describing it as a distinctly German execution of a modern muscle car. Comfort, loads of power and a galactic-sized footprint. Plus an impressive array of high-tech tools to make all that energy easy to wield.
The wagon is the same car, just a version you can easily sleep in. The "S," as in E63 S, stands for "Sales," as in Mercedes-Benz would like to make more of them. (Hat tip to Kristen for that one). Actually, it seems that all top-tier AMGs (right now the "63"s) are AMG "S" cars and the light beer ones ("43"s) don't get the extra letter. Whatever.
A few readers have asked if this car feels "more like a large sports car or a fast luxury car" and after putting over 500 miles on it, I can safely say it's the latter for sure. But the vehicle's ability to seamlessly slip between personalities is remarkable and the fact that it's able to achieve such extremes without skipping a beat is what makes it truly amazing.
The 2018 Mercedes-AMG E63S Wagon is a 197.1-inch family hauler with a 4.0-liter biturbo V8 engine chortling air and gasoline to make a claimed 603 HP and 627 lb-ft of torque, not to mention a ghastly-good exhaust note. The power is eventually fed to an advanced overridable all-wheel drive system which flings the sleek-looking land whale around corners and into the holeshot at any intersection. The exhaust music can be magnified with the push of a button.
The car's nine-speed automatic transmission can be manually shifted with paddles as you snap your way to a top speed of 180 mph, and if you're so inclined, about 64 cubic feet of cargo can join you on that pants-soiling trip to Autobahn velocity.
If it's empty, the AMG Wagon weighs 4,669 pounds and the EPA's comically optimistic combined-driving fuel economy claim is 18 mpg.
Check out the official Mercedes-AMG spec sheets if you'd like to go deeper.
If you have to ask why a station wagon with Thor's hammer under the hood and a thunderclap to match coming out of its exhaust pipes is great, I'm not sure how you found your way to Jalopnik.
That said–the AMG Wagon is more than an ironically vulgar display of power. In fact, it's pretty low key looking as far as expensive performance cars go and damn comfortable for low-speed cruising.
In Comfort mode, the exhaust is reserved and throttle response is extremely gentle. The power is palpable, but muted. Like riding a grizzly bear that's well fed with a quiver of tranquilizer darts piercing its fur.
Sport wakes the car up just a little bit; it feels more like a high-powered car is supposed to. Sport + makes the car a little meaner on rough roads but a lot more precise through sharp corners.
Race mode jolts that bear I mentioned to life and opens its cage. Run Race mode with traction control off and Drift Mode activated and you might as well be wearing a meat suit while tangling with a hungry predator.
The AMG Wagon is supposed to be able to return 22 mpg in highway driving, but after a week of living with (and in) this car I have to say my average didn't come close. Even with most of my mileage on long-straight shots across the Mojave desert. It may be physically possible for this car to do better than 20 mpg, but I'm sorry to say I do not have the discipline to let it do so and I doubt anybody buying this would either.
If you do buy one—which I want to recommend because the car's so sweet—you're also going to have to brace yourself for some significant depreciation. All new cars lose value once they leave their dealership, but AMG Benzes feel this effect with particular strength. The Wagon's rarity might save that somewhat, though. For people who do want an AMG wagon, there really is no true substitute for sale here in America.
But if you're buying used, consider all of this a blessing.
As I already alluded to, Comfort mode is almost too lethargic. You really have to goose the gas pedal to make the car move, and the steering's far too light to feel like you're driving anything other than a video game car. Sport mode is snappy without feeling dangerous, and the AMG Wagon is OK at absorbing smallish potholes without breaking your back. In other words: it's alright in Los Angeles, fine in the country, would be rough in New York City and completely non-viable in Detroit.
The cargo area swallowing up heaps of whatever was excellent, as was the customizable interior display and mood lighting. The optional AMG Performance seats, however, are pretty extreme for daily driving. My fiancée couldn't figure out how to fit in the front right seat without her arms being forced out and I have to admit mine felt pretty stiff around town too.
But when you start to cut the car loose, the car's tight grip around your body starts to pay off.
Let's start like you're supposed to—in Race mode, with the brake and gas pedals floored.
"RACE START READY" the dashboard will inform you, "RELEASE BRAKE PEDAL." What it fails to mention is that by doing so you'll also be releasing a world of pain upon your insides, and enough g-forces to hurl everything in the leviathan car that isn't bolted down toward its large rear window.
The elevated idle-burble crescendos to a wail as rapidly as the car warps to highway speed and beyond. It's pretty exciting, but you'll have to reel the vehicle back in pretty soon assuming you want to avoid death or arrest. The 15.4-inch brakes are up to the task. That said, I hope it's not too self-incriminating to add that after a few hours of hard canyon driving I felt that the AMG's stopping power diminished somewhat and pedal effort increased. It wasn't enough to let me down, but a competitive driver might have some trouble keeping the car in service on an actual race track.
But while you're playing around at mostly reasonable speeds on empty roads, the AMG Wagon's senses and abilities remain remarkably sharp long after you get bored of driving.
The Mercedes' AMG Performance 4Matic+ all-wheel drive system seamlessly transitions between rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive to maximize traction no matter what you're up to. Unless you tell it not to.
Drift Mode, activated by going into Race mode, turning traction control off and pulling back both paddle shifters, locks the car in rear-wheel drive and basically turns it into an old-school animal with airbags.
It would be unsafe and antisocial to try and actually drift a borrowed six-figure car on public roads, so I didn't, but I had to find out how easily the tail could be stepped-out for science. Let me make it known: in Drift Mode, you're just a twitch on the gas pedal away from going sideways and much more than that could turn your Cars & Coffee exit into a YouTube sensation in short order. In a bad way.
You'd really have to be on a race track to comfortably enjoy the full extent of AMG wagon's abilities, but the car's combination of power and technology makes it extremely easy to have a hell of a lot of fun wherever and whenever you want.
The 2018 Mercedes-AMG E63 S starts at $106,950 plus dealer fees but our test car was optioned to just north of $130,000 with carbon fiber accents, beautiful multi-spoke wheels and other toys.
This is the part where I say I can't imagine spending more than $10,000 on a car, so this one's a little tough to wrap my head around. But if you are in six-figure status you get a pretty inarguably awesome package here. The AMG Wagon is crazy-fast, comfortable, noisy when you want it to be and elegant always. It's also just cool, due in large part to the fact that its kind are rare to see.
Screw it, if I had this kind of money, I can't imagine what other single new car I'd rather have.
As I'm sure you've gathered from this slobbery story, the E63 SWagon is a car that's freaking fantastic at a great many things. But what really makes this vehicle stand out to me is the fact that it's anachronistic and futuristic at the same time.
It's got the body of a beautiful, practical and comfortable spaceship machine with the heart of an unhinged muscle car while commanding respect from pretty much every subset of car enthusiasts. And even while wagons are making a bit of a comeback right now, they are still pretty rare in the modern American landscape, a throwback to a time before SUVs and crossovers and even minivans dominated everything.
It's hard to say that expensive performance cars ever really make practical sense, but if you can afford an AMG Wagon, I don't think it makes much sense not to buy one.


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Johnny Winter's record "Still Alive and Well" has got to be one of my favorites. It is 100% raw and aggressive. The bonus track of "Lucille" has a wonderful feel. It may take a little bit to get it up to speed, but once you get the shift of going from the low C note to the double stop chords it is a great sounding riff.


text:
"Place St. Henri" by Oscar Peterson
JUDITH LANDER Live at Jazz Bistro
June 27, 2019, 8:30 pm – 11:00 pm
Cécile McLorin Salvant at TD Toronto Jazz Festival
Steven Taetz Ensemble – TD Toronto Jazz Festival
Judith Lander is a consummate interpreter of cabaret's finest offerings. Her repertoire ranges from pop to Broadway, with the likes of Stephen Sondheim, to classical cabaret including Kurt Weil and Jacques Brel, with a sprinkling of jazz.
"My music is very emotionally driven, as well as musically driven, because I have been a singer for 50 years," says the singer, composer and actor. She has performed on Broadway and in other major North American cities in the original hit production of Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, culminating with a memorable performance with Brel himself at New York City's famed Carnegie Hall.
"I have quite a background of music, so it is about connecting and reaching the hearts of the audience. It's very important to me to do that. There are a lot of singers these days who are imitations of imitations. They are not really connected as much to the musical lyrics as they should be, and I feel audiences today really hunger for that," says the Winnipeg native who now lives in Oakville, Ont.
"Cabaret is an eclectic combination of music that is either political, emotional or humorous, and it is coming back because people are tired of the sterility that's out there. Usually songs that have a personal bent have more emotional nutrition and people need that right now."
Lander, who is respected as a composer, most notably for compositions for ballet, including Diary, which has been performed by the National Ballet of Canada, the Hubbard Street Company of Chicago and the American Ballet Theater, recently released an acclaimed recording of songs she has sung on stages across the world entitled "In My Life."
The 65-year-old has made a remarkable comeback, having retired from cabaret performance in her 50s. "What is amazing to me is that I'm in my 60s and I still sing really well, and that, to me, is an amazing gift," Lander says. "If you are trained properly, there's no reason why you can't maintain a lot of your voice, but you will lose a certain amount of your range, or it will shift. For me, I go a little lower with my range, but there were songs that I couldn't have done before, like September Song – but I was too young to do it – or Carousel by Brel that goes faster and faster and is quite mad at the end, and when I was young, it was extremely difficult to maintain the song. Now that I'm older, I can handle it much better because of experience, the [richer] interpretations and the power that I have at this age."
https://jazzbistro.ca/event/jazz-bistro-cabaret-series-judith-lander/
Jazz Bistro
Toronto, Canada + Google Map
jazzbistro.ca

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am not a professional in the mental health field. What I am providing on this page is a limited amount of options for individuals who are experiencing mental health concerns. If you are in a state of crisis, please contact a mental health professional in your area, or call 9-1-1.
Canada & the U.S. – If you text 741741 when you feel depressed or suicidal, a crisis worker will text you back and will converse with you until you are feeling safe and are no longer in a state of crisis.
U.S.- this link will bring you to the Mental Health America website. If you scroll to the portion that says "Do you need to talk to someone?", there is a phone number that will connect you to a 24 hour crisis hotline. The above texting resource is also noted under this section.
This link will bring you to a website that lists all of the different suicide hotlines in different countries.
Online Therapeutic Resources – Canada and the U.S.
Online therapy is something relatively new to the therapeutic world. I am by no means a professional at this point in my life, but if you do want to go to therapy, but are unable to do so, you may want to look at online options. Below, I will provide a list of some online therapy sites that I am aware of. Please do extra research to see if online therapy is something that will benefit you.
Hasu Counselling (Canada only) – Video therapy, phone calls, and texting therapy services offered.
TalkSpace – I believe this is a service offered in the U.S. (I could be wrong) – Video chat or texting therapy services offered.


text:
10 Things We're Supposed to Remember
BY Jamie Spatola
Rob Wilson / Shutterstock.com
1. …the Alamo
A quick refresher on the basics of the Battle of the Alamo: fought from February 23-March 6, 1836, between Mexico and the Republic of Texas as a part of the Texas Revolution of 1835-1836. The first 12 days were a siege by Mexican General Santa Anna and his troops of the Alamo Mission and its small contingent of Texans including the commanders, William Travis and James Bowie and the "King of the Wild Frontier" himself, Davy Crockett. The siege came to a swift conclusion on the 13th day, March 6, with an all-out assault that killed most of the Texan soldiers. Commander Travis is said to have been the first killed, by a single gunshot wound to the forehead.
The phrase "Remember the Alamo," then, was used as a rallying cry (often attributed to General Sam Houston) throughout the rest of the revolution and referring to the cruelty exhibited by Santa Anna. General Santa Anna had purportedly even executed those who had surrendered in the battle and burned the bodies of the Texans, including Travis, Bowie, and Crockett. As far as pep talks go, this one appears to have been quite successful. The Texans earned a quick and decisive victory over the Mexicans at San Jacinto on April 21 and Santa Anna was forced to sign a treaty giving Texas their independence the following day.
2. …the first of Octember
Please Try to Remember the First of Octember is a 1977 children's book written by Theodore Geisel under the pen name Theo. LeSieg (Geisel, spelled backwards). You may recognize Mr. Geisel by his more well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss. In addition to all of his Seussian goodness, Geisel wrote, but did not illustrate, 13 books released under the LeSieg pen name and 1 under the name Rosetta Stone. So, if you want to have the complete Seuss canon in your library, you might have some shopping to do.
According to this particular Geisel book, one of the things that will occur on the first of Octember: "…you'll stay up all night, drinking 66 six-packs of Doodle Delight." And to think Geisel's first children's book, To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street, was turned down by 27 publishers.
3. …the Time
"Remember the Time" was a 1992 Michael Jackson single from Dangerous. Perhaps more notable than the song itself, which peaked at number three on the Billboard charts, is the randomly star-studded music video directed by John Singleton (of Boyz n the Hood, Higher Learning, and 2 Fast 2 Furious fame). The "short film" stars Eddie Murphy, Magic Johnson and Iman (the Somali-American model who is married to David Bowie) and features Jackson's first on-screen kiss (with Mrs. Bowie).
4. …the Titans
Remember the Titans is a 2000 football movie from Disney Studios and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The movie stars Denzel Washington, so you can be assured of good acting, and it has one of those choreographed football pre-game, on-field team motivational dance scenes that are just all-too-rare in American cinema.
The real story of T.C. Williams High School is pretty cool to remember too, lack of choreography aside. The consolidation of three Alexandria, Virginia, public high schools into one and the resulting formation of an essential all-star football squad consisting of the best from each of the three schools.
Though dramatized for the purposes of the movie, there were certainly racial implications of the school consolidation. Even though integration had technically occurred years prior, the previous three schools had still been racially imbalanced prior to consolidation. Of course, there was some embellishment here-and-there for the purposes of the movie, in most cases to heighten the intensity of the situation's racial tensions. One thing that was made slightly more mild, however, was the incident in which a brick was thrown through the window of African-American Coach Boone's family home.
"There wasn't a brick thrown through my window," the coach explains during the DVD commentary, "it was something far more devastating to any human being than a brick could be. I guess Disney, being the family movie production company that it is, felt that to depict a toilet stool coming through your window was a bit much ... I've never gotten over that incident that particular night, because I could never understand how anybody could feel so bad about another human being as to throw a toilet commode through a window."
5. …the Maine
The USS Maine was a U.S. Navy battleship that was stationed in Havana, Cuba during the Cuban revolt against Spain in the late 19th Century for the purpose of protecting U.S. interests there. On February 15, 1898, the Maine exploded in Havana Harbor and 261 sailors lost their lives. Just a couple months later, President William McKinley asked congress for permission to use force in Cuba and the U.S. was catapulted into the Spanish-American war, in part because of media and public pressure (thanks, Hearst and Pulitzer) for a U.S. reaction to the Maine incident.
Much like "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry for the Texas Revolution, the more emphatic and, indeed, poetic "Remember the Maine, to hell with Spain!" became a similar cry during the Spanish-American War. Rally cries are always pretty fun, but the problem with this particular motivational rhyme is that there is, to this day, no conclusive evidence that the Maine disaster was the result of a Spanish attack. Alternate theories include that the explosion was the result of an accidental fire in one of the ship's coal bunkers, that she was destroyed by a naval mine, and even that the United States was responsible for the ship's sinking as a means to fuel public support for a war against Spain.
6. …Baker
OK—Remember Baker was a guy. I had never heard of him before, but maybe we just ought to remember him, after all. Aside from having a very memorable first name, he was Ethan Allen's first cousin and a member of Allen's Green Mountain Boys militia who, in the decade prior to the Revolutionary War, were crucial in resisting New York's attempts to control the territory that is now Vermont.
But the Boys' most remembered accomplishments occurred during the early part of the Revolutionary War when Ethan Allen, et.al. captured some strategically important military posts in New York, most notably Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. Remember was there.
A disturbing thing to remember about Remember is that, after leaving Ticonderoga on a scouting mission, he was shot and killed by Native Americans, who then cut off his head and stuck it right on a pole.
7. ...How You Got Where You Are
"Remember How You Got Where You Are" is the subtitle of the 1971 Temptations single "Superstar." Lyrics like, "No, you didn't make it by yourself; You had help from somebody else" and "Remember beneath the glitter and gleam, like everyday people, you're just a human being" were some verbal slaps from the Temptations to former band members David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks, who had left the band in 1968 and 1971, respectively. Kendricks and Ruffin had been vocal about their negative feelings toward their former band mates in several 1971 interviews and the song served as a melodious means for the remaining and replacement Temptations to call out their old pals as sell outs. Some view the song as an early ancestor of today's "diss tracks" that are sometimes released by artists as a part of musical rivalries most famously, perhaps, in the battle between East and West Coast rappers.
Apparently, people liked the way the superciliousness sounded – "Superstar" peaked at #18 on the Billboard charts. As the ultimate in-your-face comeback, David Ruffin recorded a cover of the song four years later. Also, incidentally, the Temptations version is featured on the soundtrack of the aforementioned movie, Remember the Titans.
8. ...the fifth of November
The fifth of November is to be remembered as Guy Fawkes Day in England and commemorates the day Mr. Fawkes was arrested while guarding 36 kegs of gunpowder that he and his Gunpowder Plot co-conspirators had placed below the House of Lords for the commencement of the Parliamentary session. They had high hopes of blowing up the Lords sending them a'leaping along with King James I, who they resented for not following through on a promise to relax England's strict laws against Catholics.
Although Richard Catesby was the real mastermind behind the plot, Guy Fawkes' is the name that most people remember. Either way, they were both killed for their role in the treasonous plot, Catesby by gunshot wound in a gunfight with the Sheriff of Worcester who was hunting down the conspirators and Fawkes by a good ol' fashioned hanging, drawing and quartering. It is really a pretty interesting piece of history and, as the rhyme says, "…I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." So, c'mon, join in the fun, light up those bonfires, chase each other through the streets with flaming barrels of tar, and set those Guy Fawkes effigies ablaze!
9. …me to Herald Square
"Remember me to Herald Square" is a lyric from George M. Cohan's song "Give My Regards to Broadway." The song is from Cohan's first full-length musical Little Johnny Jones, which is based on the true story of American jockey Tod Sloan. Sloan went to England in 1903 to ride in the English Derby. The song is sung by the title character to a friend returning to America while Jones remains in England to clear his name in a scandal that erupts around the Derby. While the musical is extremely patriotic (it also features the song "Yankee Doodle Boy"), Cohan's patriotism was even more apparent in real life. He was the first artist to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, which he was given by FDR for his contributions to the nation's cause in World War I, primarily for the songs "Over There" and "You're a Grand Old Flag."
As of 1959, you no longer have to give Cohan's regards to Broadway—an 8-foot bronze statue of Cohan stands at Broadway and 46th Street and that seems to take care of all of the requisite regard-giving. But you really still ought to remember him to Herald Square (which is at the intersection of Broadway and Sixth).
Also remember this: potentially the only thing cooler than George M. Cohan is James Cagney as George M. Cohan. In the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy, the classic actor typically known for his gangster roles, played the song and dance man to audience acclaim, superlative reviews, and the approval of the Academy who awarded him the 1942 Oscar.
10. ...Two Things
Remember Two Things is the name of Dave Matthew's Band 1993 self-released album (reissued by RCA in 1997 when more people started jumping on the DMB bandwagon) that included three of their first major hits: "Ants Marching," "Tripping Billies," and "Satellite."
The cover of the album is one of those magic eye thingies that is supposed to show a person's hand giving the peace sign. Unfortunately, and verrrrrry frustratingly, I cannot confirm this for you and never ever will be able to do so. Ever.
So, what are the two things that one is supposed to remember? Two theories out there: one is that it is referring to the two fingers on the alleged hand giving the peace sign on the album cover. The other is that the two things are to "love your mother" and to "leave only your footprints."


text:
NOWCAST WPBF News at 11 p.m.
Dave McDaniel
Dave McDaniel has worked with WESH 2 News since 1988.
Dave covers Seminole County primarily and has also specialized in issues involving the environment and transportation.
A graduate of Iowa State University in 1982, Dave actually started reporting on radio in 1979 before moving into the field of television journalism in 1981. He worked as a reporter at KWCH-TV in Wichita, Kansas; KCRG-TV in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; and KCAU-TV in Sioux City, Iowa.
A winner of several awards over the years, including a shared Peabody with the WESH 2 News staff for "Building Homes: Building Problems," Dave also has contributed to several Emmy-winning programs on WESH 2 News.
Dave scuba dives, motorcycles, rides horses, bowls and enjoys days out on his boat, the "Station Break."
Dave and his wife, Julie, spend a lot of time outdoors, travel to a few NASCAR races each year, and enjoy time with their two dogs and a horse.
Stories by Dave McDaniel
Florida womans' close encounter with bear
Florida officials warn of fuzzy caterpillars that leave stinging rashes
Florida grandfather killed while picking up prescription at neighborhood pharmacy
101 people arrested in central Florida during undercover sex sting


text:
Tens of Thousands of Mail Ballots Still Not Received in Local Counties
Elections officials advise voters with absentee ballots to drive to the county elections office
By Scott Friedman and Eva Parks	• Published November 3, 2020 • Updated on November 4, 2020 at 3:51 pm
Numbers from local county elections offices showed tens of thousands of absentee ballots had not been returned in the four major DFW counties by the morning of Election Day, raising questions about whether some close local races could take longer to call as counties wait for more mail ballots to arrive.
In Texas, absentee ballots can be accepted until 5 p.m. the day after the election, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered the U.S. Postal Service to sweep all mail facilities to make sure any missing ballots are delivered.
The Postal Service said in a statement Wednesday afternoon that an inspection of all facilities had been conducted and that it was not aware of any ballots unaccounted for within the postal system across the country.
The latest news from around North Texas.
Denton 1 hour ago
3 Denton High Schools on Lockdown Due to 'Unsubstantiated Threats'
Fort Worth ISD 2 hours ago
Fort Worth ISD Targets Bilingual Teachers in Mexico for Recruitment
"We employed extraordinary measures to deliver ballots directly to local boards of elections. When this occurs, by design, these ballots bypass certain processing operations and do not receive a final scan. Instead, they are expedited directly to the boards of elections", said USPS spokesman David Partenheimer.
"We remain in close contact with state and local boards of elections and we do not currently have any open issues", Partenheimer said.
In Dallas County 30,000 ballots, about a third of all absentee ballots the county sent to voters, had not been returned as of the morning of Election Day. But, it was unclear how many of those voters decided to vote in-person instead. Local elections officials said Wednesday they were still anticipating additional deliveries of ballots ahead of the Wednesday evening Texas deadline.
In recent months, NBC 5 Investigates has worked with other NBC Owned Television Stations across the country, testing the U.S. Postal Service to see how often mail is being delivered on time. Our most recent test showed a nationwide slowdown in mail service in recent weeks.
Dallas County will accept additional mail in ballots through 5 p.m. Wednesday. As of Tuesday, 74,137 mail ballots had been received. Coupled with moderate Election Day turn out and exceptional early voting, the total of 927,906 votes received as of Tuesday night beat the 2016 Dallas County election record by around 150,000 votes. Additional mail in ballots Wednesday could impact...
Some voters who never received their absentee ballots have contacted NBC 5 Investigates in recent days, including one young Dallas County voter who was not able to vote after her ballot did not arrive.
"The fact that I'm not able to do that is really disappointing for me," said Alexandra Breazeale of Richardson.
Breazeale is away at college in North Carolina and requested her absentee ballot in September.
When the ballot didn't show up in her mailbox, she said she contacted Dallas County and was told it would be mailed on October 23, 11 days before Election Day.
By Nov. 3, it still hadn't arrived.
"I know democracy isn't supposed to look like this. It was to be a lot easier to be able to vote and voice your right," said Breazeale.
With the clock ticking, about 30,000 Dallas County absentee ballots still had not been returned as of Tuesday morning.
In Collin County, more than 9,000 absentee voters had not returned their ballots – and those voters had not voted in-person Tuesday morning.
But elections officials in Collin County said the postal service continued to deliver more throughout the day and that they have not seen widespread problems with the mail.
"I don't think we've experienced anything that was maybe anticipated to be experienced, although there are some situations that have arisen where a voter didn't get their ballot," said Collin County Elections director, Bruce Sherbet.
In Tarrant County, the most recent numbers released over the weekend showed about 23,000 outstanding absentee ballots.
As of Monday, Denton County reported about 8,000.
In October, NBC 5 did a nationwide test of the mail service that showed only 79% of letters arrived in the one to three business days the post office promises.
A drop from 88% in September.
Leaving Breazeale to wonder if her ballot is simply stuck in the mail.
"I knew that was probably going to be something to consider when I was waiting for my ballot, but I just didn't think it would be this long," said Breazeale
The postal service said it moves ballots faster than the letters we sent in our NBC test and that they have all hands on deck to ensure that ballots reach their destinations on-time.
NBC 5 asked Dallas County why some ballots like Breazeale's were sent out so close to Election Day, but a county spokesman did not respond. In many counties printing and mailing of ballots was delayed this fall by a Texas court decision that placed two Green Party candidates on the ballot very late in the process.
Elections officials advise voters with absentee ballots to drive to the county elections office. Or, take it to a polling place before 7 p.m. on Election Day and surrender the ballot and vote in-person. They warn it's way too late to put a ballot in the mail.
If you've had issues on Election Day please contact NBC 5 Investigates at: Investigate@nbcdfw.com
Decision 2020mail in voting


Don't believe this? Try showing your Jehovah's Witness friend Revelation 19:1. Ask him why the Bible says the great crowd is in heaven, and listen to his explanation of how this really means on earth.
Striking at the trunk of the tree, is comparable to the Christian taking aim at the Watchtower Organization, or more accurately, the blind faith of the Jehovah's Witness in it. Until the Jehovah's Witness is willing to examine what he believes, and compare it to God's word, he is not ready. He is blind, indoctrinated and will not listen to anything that is not from the Watchtower. All is not lost however, many have reported sharing their testimony has had an effect upon them.
The person you are speaking with is reciting what he or she has heard thousands if not millions of times at the weekly meetings they attend, much like a telemarketer reciting a memorized script. Said without thinking. How then do we reach them? Sharing your testimony is one way. Who can argue against a personal experience? You may think the JW will brush it aside, however the JW speak to each other about you and what you've said, once they leave your door and it continues to gnaw at the back of their minds. It's an excellent way to plant a seed. Often, when the time is right, and the Lord is leading them out of the watchtower, all these experiences come flooding back to their minds.
Sharing how God answers our prayers can also be very profound. Jehovah's Witnesses are taught God only hears the prayers of those who use the name Jehovah. Often the Organization makes it sound as if God only hears and answers Jehovah's Witnesses. For them to find out Christians actually get answers to prayer, may be the first pebble in their shoe, as they slowly realize the Organization was being less than truthful.
Another key is asking questions, particularly questions that are off script. Asking a question, the Jehovah's Witness is not prepared for, one that the Watchtower has not addressed on their website, or one that actually gets the Jehovah's Witness to think. In most cases, the simpler the question the better.
The reason for this is two-fold. One, the Watchtower no longer trains Jehovah's Witnesses to defend their faith. These days when they speak with people it's in order to place magazines and point to their website. Ask a question and you will often be met with "we're not here to argue." They are no longer able to think for themselves, or defend what they believe.
The second reason is they are indoctrinated, no longer able to reason from the Scriptures. It's much like speaking with a child. Of course, there are exceptions to every case. You might come across someone who has some arguments in defense of the Watchtower that might leave you both surprised and confused. There are some elders, ministerial servants, pioneers out there, who have studied and know the Watchtower arguments very well. This is the exception rather than the rule.
Jehovah's Witnesses have always been taught that they are teachers, ministers, you are much more apt to be successful if you present yourself as confused or having a simple question that you hope they can help you with. Their ears perk up the moment you present yourself as a poor, confused student of God's word. They are trained to only preach to "sheep-like ones" meaning someone who will accept whatever they say without question.
Since the teachings of Jehovah's Witnesses do not agree with the Bible, the minute they realize you are actually familiar with the Bible, they are apt to pack up their things and leave. Making friends with them, showing kindness, inviting them in, offering them something to eat or drink, is something they are not accustomed to, and which they deeply appreciate and respond to. Who wouldn't? The longer you can keep them around, the more likelihood there is for some seeds of truth to be planted. Never stop praying for them!
It's especially important not to be combative, not to throw stones so to speak, at the Organization, which will only cause them to become angry, defensive and leave. More often than not, the Jehovah's Witness will refuse to listen, view you as hateful, and you will never have them call at your home again. If that is your goal, mentioning the Royal Australia Commission and the 1006 pedophiles in the congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses will accomplish this. Or asking them why the Watchtower Organization joined the United Nations as an NGO charter, while claiming to be neutral, and keeping this secret from their members.
At times, this has caused some Jehovah's Witnesses to actually investigate and discover the truth about the Watchtower Organization. I would only try this, if this is a one-time visit or if you are visiting one of their literature carts or tables. If you'd like them to return and wish to speak with them again, I would recommend helping them to see you are not their enemy, and that you genuinely care about them. Many Christians have had weekly Bible studies with them, hoping to reach them.
If you're not familiar with what they believe, there are some simple questions you can ask, for which they have precious little to defend themselves, which I will list below this article. Some topics wind up in a hopeless case of Bible ping-pong, with the Jehovah's Witness using their out of context verses and the Christian trying to show them what the Bible really says. Understand this, until the Jehovah's Witness stops putting blind faith in the Watchtower interpretation of what the text says, it is hopeless, unless it is clear, obvious and not in agreement with what they believe. Even then, many topics are simply too much for the mind of a Jehovah's Witness to accept. There are some topics that simply do not work, as far as I have seen.
The root of the problem is that they suffer from cognitive dissonance, which is the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to behavioral decisions and attitude change. The term cognitive dissonance is used to describe the feelings of discomfort that result from holding two conflicting beliefs. When there is an inconsistency between beliefs and behaviors, something must change in order to eliminate or reduce the dissonance.
The same mental mechanism kicks in whether the topic is the nature of God, the condition of the dead, the future hope of Christians, or any other subject the Witness has been drilled on repetitively at Kingdom Hall meetings and in the pages of Watchtower publications.
A major problem with all Jehovah's Witnesses is that they believe their Organization has been chosen by God. It is God's channel, God's spokesman, and to disagree with the Organization is to disagree with God. Showing them the February 2017 Watchtower quote (below), where the Organization admits to being neither inspired nor infallible can be helpful in combating this.
If the Jehovah's Witness states that he or she would believe God, then he or she is ready to listen to whatever you have to present. Sadly, many continue to insist the Organization simply cannot disagree with the Bible as it is Bible based. I then often tell them it's a rhetorical question, what if it did? Then what? This has proven successful on many occasions. If they refuse to consider the question, they are simply not ready to consider it. Sadly, many Jehovah's Witnesses today are simply Watchtower worshiper's. I've heard many say they don't care if the Watchtower is wrong, they will stay with it until they die.
The Jehovah's Witness is biased against both the Trinity and Hell. Trying to discuss these topics with the Jehovah's Witness usually ends up in a heated debate which goes nowhere. Understand, the Jehovah's Witness has been taught that Christians believe in a three headed God, who speaks to Himself, answers Himself and sits at His own right hand. One person taking turns at being God. Obviously not the Trinity. The Watchtower sets up the straw man, logical fallacy, pokes fun and presents itself victorious in the argument, but they have misrepresented the Trinity. Of course, they would first have to understand what the Trinity is, I've yet to see a Jehovah's Witness understand it while entrenched in the Watchtower.
Again, if you wish to reach the Jehovah's Witness, it's best not to argue or debate doctrines but instead help him to see that questioning our beliefs and comparing them to the Bible is actually a good thing and recommended in the scriptures.
Each Jehovah's Witness is different of course. And different subjects can work depending on the background and experiences of the Jehovah's Witness you are speaking with. If it is a young mother, protective of her child, she may be alarmed enough to investigate the court cases against the Organization. See Royal Australia Commission.
If the Jehovah's Witness you are speaking with is proudly boasting how no Jehovah's Witness goes to war, or gets involved in politics, it may be the perfect opportunity to bring up the fact that the Watchtower joined the United Nations. I would recommend setting it up with a question first. Is there any excuse for any religion to join the United Nations? Would that make them part of Babylon the great? See Watchtower and the United Nations.
The single most successful argument I've personally used has been the mediator issue, which can be found here. A question that works with Jehovah's Witnesses. There are more points that can work, which I will cover in upcoming articles.
May the Lord bless your efforts to reach the hearts of our Jehovah's Witness friends!
This entry was posted in Bible Discussion, Watchtower Teachings.


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08 Apr 2021 8:44 AM +00:00 UTC
Black Ops Cold War can take up 188 GB on Xbox Series
By Alex Kane
Cold War launches on Friday, November 13.
As reported by VGC, a new screenshot posted to Reddit has revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will take up about 188 GB of space on the new Xbox Series X and Series S.
Multiplayer takes up about 28 GB; Zombies mode takes up about 7.5 GB; Dead Ops Arcade is about 12 GB; HD textures take up about 38 GB; and ray-tracing data clocks in at about 12 GB.
So at the time the screenshot was taken, at least, a full install of Black Ops Cold War on next-gen Xboxes takes up 187.9 GB of storage.
As we reported about a week ago, Activision originally said that the game would take up about 133 GB on PlayStation 5 and 136 GB on the new next-gen Xbox consoles. But that number appears to have gone up.
The good news is that you'll be able to selectively uninstall components of the game you don't plan on using for a while, freeing up room for other games.
With the exception of the PlayStation 5, which launches on November 12, Cold War should be available to pre-load on your platform of choice by now.
The PS5 reportedly ships with about 667 GB of usable storage space. The Xbox Series X and Series S are said to have 802 GB and 364 GB of available space, respectively.
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The unprecedented move designed to stimulate Sri Lanka's economy
Sri LankaEconomy
As part of efforts to stimulate the economy, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka has taken the unprecedented step of ordering lenders to reduce their interest rates.
On September 24 the institution's Monetary Board, the country's primary financial regulator, announced that all commercial banks were to reduce lending rates by a minimum of 200 basis points by October 15.
In addition, as of November 1 credit card advances will be subject to a maximum interest rate of 28% per annum, while pre-arranged overdrafts will have a maximum rate of 24%.
The announcement followed government complaints that commercial lending rates had not been reduced in line with policy rates.
The benchmark rate was slashed – for the first time since 2015 – by 50 basis points in both May and August to where it currently sits, at 7%. Over the same period the central bank made a 100-basis-point cut to the rate at which it lends to commercial banks, bringing it to 8% in August.
The September move was the first time since the central bank's inception in 1950 that it had ordered lenders to reduce rates and imposed a ceiling on interest.
See also: The Report – Sri Lanka 2019
Stimulating credit growth
This development comes amid efforts to stimulate credit growth and economic activity, which have suffered following the Easter terrorist attacks in Colombo.
After 3.2% growth in 2018, which was the lowest rate in 17 years, officials had expected the economy to rebound with an expansion of 3.6% this year; however, the April 21 bombings dampened projections.
In late May Eran Wickramaratne, the minister of finance, told local media that he expected growth of 3% for 2019. Meanwhile, government officials predicted that the tourism sector, the third-largest source of foreign exchange, could suffer losses of up to $1.5bn this year as a result of cancelled bookings, although the industry expects this figure to be lower.
The central bank said a slowdown in the economy following the attacks had "intensified the need for lower lending rates", as had the sharp drop in credit growth seen in the private sector since the beginning of the year.
"Sri Lanka's economy needs to be growing at around 5% per year to reach its potential," Bingumal Thewarathanthri, CEO of Standard Chartered Sri Lanka, told OBG.
"To help enable this, banks need to look at ways to extend more credit to private companies operating in the most productive sectors of the economy. Now is the time to identify the next 100 companies capable of generating growth and expanding into Asia and Africa."
The need for stability
In addition to cheaper credit, stakeholders have called for a stable policy approach to ensure growth.
"While forcing down interest rates can be seen as a positive for the economy… many businesses and investors look at a range of metrics when considering expansion and growth," Dilshan Wirasekara, director and CEO of First Capital Holdings, told an OBG-hosted roundtable in Colombo in mid-September. "Policymakers must therefore ensure price stability as well as policy certainty, so that businesses and investors are well informed as to the country's strategic plan and direction."
The call for policy stability comes ahead of this year's presidential election, scheduled for November 16, as business officials hope to avoid a repeat of the political insecurity of 2018.
Citing policy differences, in October last year President Maithripala Sirisena rescinded the mandate of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, despite the latter maintaining the support of a majority of members of Parliament.
Although the Supreme Court reinstated Prime Minister Wickremesinghe on December 16 following a ruling in his favour, the leadership crisis weakened business sentiment and was widely regarded as having a negative impact on growth that was already slowing towards the end of the year.
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The natives who inhabited South Florida for many centuries, the Calusa Indians, certainly understood and grasped the beauty of the blessing we now call Everglades. They called it "Pa-hay-okee" which means "grassy waters" / "river of grass", a most apt description for this complex wetland and forest ecosystem dominated by expanses of sawgrass through the slow moving Shark River. So slow is the movement of water that it appears still and could be mistaken as stagnant water to the uninitiated.
The original inhabitants had a lifestyle based on estuarine fisheries rather than agriculture, which was in tune with the natural ecosystem, thus conserving it for centuries before the 20th century pressures of agriculture and urbanization hit. Only ~20% remains of the original expanse remains conserved in the Everglades National Park, now declared as an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, and a Wetland of International Importance, one of only three locations in the world to be covered under all three conservation lists. We learnt from the rangers of the park how the damming & channeling of water of the Okeechobee lake following hurricanes and flooding in the late 1920s, resulted in cutting-off of the life blood of the Everglades (the slow moving fresh water from Central Florida), and the $8+ billion dollar plan now in place to reverse engineer and restore the natural flow of water to the extent possible.
We explored this beautiful area that hosts a myriad of habitats – mangrove forests, prairies, hardwood forests and pine forests – starting from its western fringes on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.
A boat tour of the mangroves was a visual treat with both large expanses of water and narrow canals with the rich mangrove forests all around.
We looked at shell mounds built by the Calusas and learnt about their unique fishing technique using the tidal highs & lows to trap fish in the shallows created by the mounds! A brown pelican flew by as we watched.
We got to see some more birds though it was midday – an egret, a double-crested cormorant and a beautiful pair of Osprey in their nest.
The real treats were sightings of two endangered species – a sawfish (critically endangered) and a manatee (vulnerable). In the below pics we were able to capture the fins of the sawfish (you should be able to see 3) and the nostrils of the manatee as it surfaced for air.
Satisfied, we headed onto explore of the Big Cypress National Preserve on the scenic Loop Road with fingers crossed to find some American alligators in the wild. Pretty soon Manish spotted the first one, right beside the gravel track! See the beautiful eye through the leaves?
Mika was thrilled, her wish was to see 10 alligators and her counter had started! Hovering around this fascinating creature, we soon realised there was a another alligator in the water with only its eyes visible. Over the next hour we found a dozen alligators (Manish has mastered the art of identifying spots to find them!), most of them snoozing in the shallow fresh water streams and some basking in the sun on rocks.
They appeared blissful in their beautiful environs. The water was so clear, we could see many different shades of red, yellow, brown and green. With cypress trees on both sides of the streams and their reflection in the water, it was a mesmerising scene!
We also spotted this majestic heron, later identified as a Little Blue Heron.
As we drove on, the scenery changed with different colours on the two sides of the road – almost like fall & spring at the same time!
On our way out from the Loop Road to join the Tamiami Trail, we came across many houses of the Miccosukkee, a surviving tribe of natives, who came to inhabit the area when they were driven south by the European invaders.
As we headed towards Homestead, our base to explore the area, we were amidst the large farms and nurseries on land which may have once been part of the Everglades. Coming from Orlando, we found the place had a very different look and feel to it, almost as if we had left the US and entered Mexico or Cuba!
The next part of the Everglades we explored was the eastern side that begins with the Ernest Coe Visitor Center, named after the gentleman who worked had to have a national park setup to preserve the Everglades. There were four trails that we covered here, starting with the Anhinga Trail which derives its name from the American darter birds that are commonly found here.
There was more water than usual for this time of year we were told due to the higher than normal rainfall in Nov-Dec 2015 due to the El Nino effect. So the expected congregation of wildlife around waterholes wasn't really there. We did not see any Anhingas unfortunately but got to see beautiful views, a lot of fish, quite a few turtles, an alligator, a cormorant, dragonflies, butterflies, a very bright coloured insect, a swamp-hen and a bird with bright red on its wings. This we learnt is the Red-winged Blackbird, also called locally as the "warrior of the Everglades" due its fearless nature in chasing away larger birds.
Next was the Gumbo Limbo trail, a hardwood hammock (a shady, closed canopy forest), that derives its name from the Gumbo Limbo tree, a native of the region. The tree which is extremely useful for its medicinal properties is comically referred to as the "tourist tree" because it's bark is red and peeling, like the skin of sunburnt tourists!
This is a different habitat – no water here, it is at a slightly higher elevation than the adjacent Anhinga trail area though this is imperceptible. We learnt how very small changes in ground elevation result in different habitats each with its own types of flora and fauna in the Everglades. After the trails, we attended a ranger-led session on alligators and crocodiles and learnt how to differentiate between these two often confused reptiles. We learnt that the alligator is the only reptile in the animal kingdom that cares for its young starting with aiding the hatch and going on for 2-3 years! We also learnt that the Everglades is the only region in the world where the ranges of the American alligator (which lives in fresh water) and the American crocodile (which prefers brackish / salty water) overlap.
On our third trail we explored another hardwood hammock, the Mahogany Hammock and then headed to the Pa-hay-okee Outlook which provided us with a vantage viewing point for the defining expanse of sawgrass that gives the region its name.
All of the activities for the day got Mika interested in becoming a Junior Ranger of the Everglades and started her preparation to receive a badge and certificate by the time we completed our Everglades exploration!
The last part we covered on another day was the Shark Valley, in some senses the heart of the park, named so as it is a valley (again imperceptible) situated in the Shark river between the slightly elevated areas of the Big Cypress on the west and the hammocks on the east.
We took the tram tour on which we learnt interesting facts such as the origin of the river Shark's name, the lone incident of a human injury by an alligator in an "accident" in the park's entire history, as well as some disturbing facts of how humans are endangering the Everglades in more than one way. A very real danger for the flora and fauna of the region comes from "exotic" and invasive species that have been released / introduced into the national park by people. The biggest of these threats is the Burmese Python, which some people kept as an exotic pet and when any became unwanted, the easiest way to dispose them was to release them into the wild. While the Burmese Python is itself classified as a vulnerable species in its native habitat of South & South-eastern Asia, in the Everglades they have overrun the endemic species of the region. It is reported that over 90% of the mammals in the park – white-tailed deer, rabbits, opossums, raccoons, Florida panther – have disappeared over the past decade or two. A number of captured pythons have had these in their stomachs. Attempts to capture the pythons have met with very little success and it is estimated that over a 1000 remain in the park, continue to multiply and pose a threat to the native species.
Back to the interesting sightings we had on this two-and-a-half hour tour. Baby alligators to begin with – they have yellow stripes for camouflage to help with their survival to adulthood.
Congregation of baby alligators – how many can you spot?
We came upon a Green Heron, a Great Egret, a Great Blue Heron, a Red-shouldered Hawk, Black Vultures and finally an Anhinga!!
A soft-shelled turtle bearing the marks of a recent alligator encounter was spotted right next to the track.
But the best was saved for the last – an alligator (a mother as we figured later) with a kill of a smaller alligator and getting defensive of her food. We learnt that adult alligators are cannibals. While watching this rare sight, we observed 4 to 5 baby alligators that kept swimming and surfacing near the adult and that was how we figured the adult was a mother.
Thus ended our rendezvous with American alligators, creatures that we learnt are fairly shy and unlike the often believed notion of being human attackers, only ever consider humans as food when humans start feeding them! The park has warning signs all over that feeding animals in the park is illegal and carries a fine!
With all this learning and park activities done, Mika qualified as a Junior Park Ranger!
Next destination was Miami and its famed South Beach.
Thanks for reading. We look forward to your feedback.
We are privileged to be posting this article on a rich ecosystem from the mega-diverse Ecuador, the most biologically-diverse country on the planet – the subject of another post!
Please do read Mika's blogpost on Everglades – http://www.iammihika.com/index.php/2016/04/28/everglades/.
On the bright sunny Florida morning of Earth Day 2016 (22nd April) we set out on our maiden drive on the "other side" to the Kennedy Space Center. A few navigational hiccups and acclimatisation with the "other side" later, we were comfortably cruising down FL-528 E (state road/highway 528 heading East) towards our destination.
As we entered the NASA Causeway, it was a breathtaking view of shimmering water of the lagoon Indian River on both sides of the road. We crossed over to the NASA Parkway and were delighted by our first sighting of an American alligator in the adjoining stream! We later were told by our guides that the Space Center prides itself for being a haven for the resident fauna comprising alligators, bald eagles and many others, including some endangered species.
We started with the bus tour that took us around the massive facility to see some of the massive equipment used to move the rockets and shuttles for launch and the rocket assembly building, before taking us to one of the major highlights – the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
Here we were invited into the actual Command Center that was used for the launch of the Apollo 8 to view a film on the history of the NASA space program from its start until Neil Armstrong's small step that was a giant leap for mankind.
It was so overwhelming to sit there and watch history unfold, we were close to tears. The insecurity of the US at Russia's launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 (which triggered the establishment of NASA) followed by the successful space mission of Yuri Gagarin in 1961 at the height of the cold war, the challenge of "We choose to go the moon" set by President John F Kennedy, the tragedy of Apollo 1 and the perseverance of so many people in the years that followed leading to the success of multiple Apollo missions until Apollo 11 landed on the moon on 20th July 1969.
As we stepped out of the command center, we came face to face with the massive 363-foot Saturn V rocket, the largest ever made, used to launch the Apollo vehicles and others over a 20-year period. Simply awesome!
We learnt that the shuttles were named by the commanders of the mission, so Kitty Hawk was Alan Shepard's choice for the Apollo 14 command module and Neil Armstrong had christened the Apollo 11 command module as Columbia. The lunar modules which detached from the command module and actually landed on the moon had their own names too – "Eagle" was the first one. We watched a simulation of the tense moments preceding the landing of the Eagle on the moon when communication was lost with the Houston Mission Control (which takes over from the Kennedy Center after launch and manages NASA missions until reentry back into the Earth's atmosphere when Kennedy takes over again) and Eagle had to change course and choose a different landing spot from the originally planned one. Eagle ran into a low-fuel situation and all mission controllers could do was hold their breath and cross their fingers until they heard Neil Armstrong say "the Eagle has landed"! Heart-stopping!
After all this excitement, we headed back to the bus to get back to the main visitor's complex to see the next highlight for the day – the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. On the way our lady guide (& driver) pointed out the huge nest of a bald eagle that has been an inhabitant of many years. A huge fuel tank (a real one) with solid rocket booster replicas make for a dramatic entrance to the exhibit that covers 30 years of space shuttle missions from 1981 – 2011.
We were introduced to how the concept of a space shuttle orbiter that can take-off and land back like a plane evolved with many iterations on feasible design and years of hard work of multiple teams of engineers. Reuse was also a major consideration and so came the reusable solid rocket boosters that were separate from the fuel tank and retrieved after each launch for reuse. We learnt that the space shuttle does not take off vertically, rather it launches into a trajectory and reaches a velocity that lets it escape being pulled down by gravity but then orbit the Earth, much like the moon. After the introduction, its curtains-up and we gasped at the real space shuttle Atlantis that was suspended right in front of us!
All around it are the facts and figures as well as some simulators to help us get a feel for what the controls of a shuttle look like and what it could be like for astronauts to work in space.
But the best of all was the chance to actually experience the Space Shuttle Launch Simulator to get a feel for what it would be like to be inside a space shuttle during its launch! We got to experience being vertical in the shuttle for launch position and then "zero G" in just a few moments as the shuttle accelerates from 0 to 17,500 mph (28,175 kmph) in 8 minutes!! Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, could be more than once for my daughter though!
We were fortunate to have the opportunity to hear from and meet an astronaut, Bob Cenker, about his actual experience of being in space. He spoke about the physical challenges and his own experience of "space adaptation" and "re-adaptation" which is often termed as "space sickness" by the media. His most beautiful memories he said are of "going through a rainbow" every sunrise and sunset, which happen once every 90 minutes while they orbit the earth!
Mihika had been asking us if astronauts got paid a lot and soon enough she had her answer when the question was posed to Bob who answered in the negative and explained how there were a huge number of applicants for the position of astronauts making it very competitive. Manish asked what disciplines should aspiring youngsters pursue if they wished to one day make it to space and happily for us his answer reinforced the importance of STEM (science, technology, engineering & medicine).
In very interesting 3D features, we learnt of the Hubble telescope repairs, the beautiful and intriguing images it has been sending, the discovery of galaxies, the setup of the International Space Station and the latest mission of NASA called "Orion" to send humans to Mars. That will be one lonesome mission for those who go – three years away from Earth, family, friends …..
Wondering if space travel will indeed become a reality in our lifetime, we wandered into the Rocket Garden to see the impressive display there before calling it a day. And what a day!!
Next up will be a most wonderful experience of nature's wonders at the Everglades National Park in South Florida.
The forecast was for rain on the afternoon we arrived in New York, guess we managed to borrow some sunshine from Egypt for we arrived to a pleasant sunny afternoon. Warmer still the reception from an old buddy of Manish, Sanjay who was meeting him after 28 long years!! We had a great evening and dinner together with him and his lovely girl-friend Rodica.
Robin, the official state bird of Connecticut), squirrels darting up and down trees and the mynah-like but smaller Eurasian starlings.
Acclimatised with the cooler weather and temperatures in Farenheit, we set out to explore the core of the Big Apple – midtown Manhattan. The name Manhattan has its origins in the word Manna-hata which in the Lenape language (of the natives who originally inhabited the area) means "island of many hills". The famed Grand Central was our gateway and seemed only too familiar thanks to SRK and Rani Mukherjee in the movie Kabhi Alvida Na Kahna.
Inspired by the bicycles outside the Grand Central and the lovely sunshine, we decided to explore as much on foot as possible.
We made our way to the New York Public Library's main building established in 1895 in Bryant Park. The walkway leading upto the building has many quotes on knowledge and books by eminent writers, thinkers, poets and artists; one could spend an hour or more reading them.
Inside are large reading rooms and halls that present an oasis of calm for those who wish to escape the hustle of the big city to read, think and work.
Just beside the library is the Bryant Park, which seemed to be eagerly awaiting the arrival of spring. There were no leaves yet on the trees but the flowers had just started blooming. We enjoyed the sunshine and watched people go by while resting our feet.
Next stop was "the MET", the Museum of Metropolitan Art, the largest art museum in the US. Planned to be the main destination for the day, it lost out in time & mind-share owing to the bright sunshine which kept us outdoors for longer. For a family that likes to pace itself, we surprised ourselves by the ground we covered before we hit the Met – Times Square, the Radio City Music Hall and the Rockfeller Center.
The MET is a real treasure trove with galleries dedicated to art from across the world and spanning ancient to modern. One needs multiple visits over days to do justice to the collections here. We browsed through some of the key exhibits in the little over two hours we had before closing time. It was then time to rest our feet again, this time in the beautiful Central Park just adjacent to the MET.
To wrap up the day, what better place than a second visit to the glitzy Times Square, which in the not too distant past, would not have figured on the list of places for a family to visit. Fortunately for us, Times Square has witnessed a transformation from "dazzling to dirty and back again" and the efforts of some of the NYC mayors in the 1990s have changed the face of the Times Square.
With the rest of Manhattan planned to be visited in our second visit a couple of months from now, the next day was spent in the company of another long-time buddy of Manish, Rajneesh and his wife Priti & son Ashwin at their home in Hartford, Connecticut. Priti's sumptuous food had us licking our fingers for the next few meals!
Thanks to our wonderful hosts, we got the opportunity to enjoy slices of nature at the nearby Manchester. We spotted a pair of Cackling Geese and a Heron on a nature trail by a little stream.
Next pit stop was with family in New Jersey with my cousin Arun, sis-in-law Shweta and kids Atharv & Mira. It was a marvelous evening that was extra special for Mika for we dined at The Cheesecake Factory! The following day was a real treat with fresh home-made breakfast and lunch with filter coffee too!
Well fed & satisfied, we were all set to head south to sunny Florida for some tweeny attractions for Mika at the Universal Studios and the much-awaited Kennedy Space Center for all of us.
Thanks for reading this, hope you enjoyed it. The next write-up will be on our visit to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.


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Feature: Designed like a mermaid. Material: leather and stainless steel. Size:63.5*47*95cm. Color ca..
Material: leather and wood. Size:44 (seat h) *50 (w) *43 (d) *72 (h) cm. Color can be various. The w..


I've been making a fair amount of vegan ice cream, gelato and sorbet this summer, and, obviously, I'm still experimenting (we are having wonderful summer weather!). Lately, I've been playing with the gelato recipe from my book "Nonna's Italian Kitchen". I wanted to add richness, as well as making it quicker and easier to prepare. One of the changes I made early on was to use Instant Clearjel® (see Notes about this product here) OR guar gum or xanthan gum instead of the cooked tapioca flour mixture that I originally used. (These starches or gums prevent the mixture from crystallizing and improve texture.) This new method eliminates cooking the starch mixture, which means the whole thing takes less time, and it doesn't take as long to chill the gelato mixture before freezing.
This time, along with a couple of other small changes, I modified the recipe further by using lowfat coconut coffee creamer for the majority of the liquid and added just a little bit of vegan butter (including the "tub" version) to provide even richer flavor and mouthfeel. My husband declared this the best vanilla gelato he'd ever had (and vanilla is his favorite).
PS: This gelato would be fabulous with the Fresh Pineapple Upside-Down Cake from the previous blog post.
Yield: about 1 1/2 qts.
Place the creamer and milk into a blender or Vita-Mix, along with the soaked, drained cashews, and blend until VERY smooth and frothy (make sure that it is not grainy at all).
Add all of the remaining ingredients, in order given, to this mixture and blend again until it is VERY smooth.
Chill the gelato mixture thoroughly, and then freeze according to directions for your ice cream machine). Scoop into a 2-quart plastic container, cover and freeze for several hours before serving.
Nutrition (per serving): 182.2 calories; 21% calories from fat; 4.7g total fat; 0.0mg cholesterol; 66.9mg sodium; 79.0mg potassium; 31.0g carbohydrates; 0.2g fiber; 27.9g sugar; 30.8g net carbs; 1.7g protein; 4.0 points.
Is there a difference between regular corn starch and this instant clearjel?
I never liked the mouthfeel of cornstarch in ice creams, which is why I always used tapioca flour/starch (same thing). But this method is so much easier.
That looks delicious and sounds so great. I definitely need to buy an ice cream machine! Only trouble is my freezer is very tiny and I don't think it would fit one!
Caitlin, if you can afford it, there are machines that self-refrigerate (I'm saving up for one). Ebay often has some good bargains.


text:
Pieces in the puzzle: why we need to convene diverse voices
When it comes to the societal impacts of AI and data, we need to tackle complex problems that don't necessarily have objective solutions.
Aidan Peppin
We face messy, subjective challenges: who gets to define what fair algorithms are? Can the uses of data be redefined for social good? How can we balance the beneficial potential of facial recognition with important societal values like privacy and agency?
When facing these questions – questions about ethics and values – it's near impossible to settle on objective truths. We draw on philosophy, law and history, but may still struggle to build consensus, especially when ethics and values are intertwined with societal expectations and norms. But when there are no right answers, we must move towards better answers by drawing on a diversity of expertise and experience.
In practice, drawing on diversity means that rather than just building a more complete picture of an issue, we'll create a more accurate one too. Studies demonstrate that diverse groups are better than homogenous expert groups at finding the solution to a specific challenge. And cases like Apple's failure to include menstrual tracking in its Health app reveal that if technologists are going to answer the needs and wants of a broad range of users, they need a diverse range of people in their user research and their developer teams.
However, convening diverse voices isn't just about trying to find better answers or building a company's user base. Data and AI will affect people across society, and often will affect marginalised or underrepresented groups more seriously. Our research on attitudes towards facial recognition found that Black and Minority Ethnic respondents were more concerned about consenting to or opting-out of the use of facial recognition. This is plausibly linked to concerns about bias in facial recognition systems, highlighted by studies which show that facial recognition algorithms are often less accurate for people of colour.
This is why we believe that convening diverse voices must include everyone: we need to create space in the debate for people from across the entire spectrum of social, cultural, economic, political and identity backgrounds.
Capturing complex issues and nuanced perspectives
If our goal is to include as many voices as possible, one approach is to run surveys and polls, to try to reach a broad and representative sample of people. Surveys can be a powerful tool for measuring mass trends in attitudes, establishing broad baselines in opinion, or understanding what proportion of the public agree with particular statements – they help us understand the pulse of a population's attitudes.
For instance, in our research on attitudes to facial recognition technology (FRT), we learned that 55% of people think the government should limit police uses of FRT to specific circumstances, and that there's more support for its use when there's a clear public benefit, like making passport control a more efficient process.
But we know that the issues raised by technologies like facial recognition are deeply complex. The 55% of people who think there should be limits on police uses of FRT may still recognise its benefit in tackling crime. The other 45% might not think there should be limits, but may still hold reservations or questions about the technology's use.
In other words, the ethical and societal challenges of data and AI cannot be represented as binary choices. But relying solely on quantitative methods, like surveys and polls, risks boiling these complex issues down into statements which can be answered with 'yes' or 'no', 'strongly disagree' or 'not sure'. Instead of presenting issues as either-or choices (implement new technology despite concerns, or ban it altogether despite potential benefits) we need methods that capture the far-more-nuanced reality.
As well as reducing complexity in the issues, these approaches reduce complexity in peoples' opinions. This makes it difficult to understand the frictions, contradictions and balances within an individual's perspective: a person can see the benefits of a technology but be concerned about it at the same time. To fully explore issues and perspectives, we need to create spaces for people to deliberate topics in-depth.
People as co-creators, not data sources
Giving people a chance to say what they think through focus groups or engagement workshops captures the nuance in people's opinions and creates complex data to analyse and describe in reports and recommendations. This qualitative research is useful for understanding and describing complex perspectives, and is justifiably relied on across social research, whether academic, market or user. But this approach doesn't necessarily convene.
Imagine the problem we're trying to solve is like a puzzle, except we've lost the picture on the front of the box, and the pieces are spread out across people in society. To solve the puzzle, we have to invite everyone to bring their pieces to the table. Then, when we're putting the puzzle together, we shouldn't just take everyone's piece and send them away while we try to solve it by ourselves. That would be an extractive process: it would treat people as subjects to analyse, exploring complex topics but reducing people to pieces of information. It would also exclude the collective reasoning power that can help solve the problem. Instead, we should work together to fit the pieces into place.
The many forms of engaging and involving people, from informing them, through consulting their opinion, to empowering them to make decisions is described in a well-known spectrum of public participation. Convening diverse voices should take many forms from across this spectrum, but to foster genuine public debate it must shift agency from those who have the resources to ask the question to those who the answer affects.
Convening diverse voices at Ada
This ethos is behind work we've already been doing, like citizens' juries with Wellcome's Understanding Patient Data team and the Office for Life Sciences. It will also underpin future projects, like a citizens' assembly on biometrics technology we'll run in 2020. Building from our survey on attitudes to facial recognition, this assembly will create space for public deliberation on biometrics technologies. The goal is not just to explore issues in more depth, but to empower people to say what they want policy and practice around new AI and data technologies to look like.
Whenever we're tackling messy, subjective challenges – ones which draw on people's values and perspectives – surveys, focus groups, interviews and other powerful social research methods, done robustly, help us to measure widespread trends or understand people's attitudes.
But convening diverse voices will deepen our ability to address these challenges. It will allow us to genuinely articulate what issues matter to people; align our research with these priorities; and effectively represent the interests of people and society to policymakers and technologists.
Even more than this: convening diverse voices supports our society's democratic principles. If you're building something that you want to work for everyone, then you need to include everyone in its design. Everyone should have a say, everyone should have their voice heard. Everyone should get to bring their piece of the puzzle into the picture.
Citizens' Biometrics Council
Bringing together 50 members of the UK public to deliberate on the use of biometrics technologies like facial recognition.
The EU Data Strategy: three key questions
In this long read, we highlight three issues that arise out of the European Commission's data strategy.
Doing good with data: what does good look like when it comes to data stewardship?
Data can help tackle the world's biggest challenges, if we ask the right questions about governance and apply principles for stewardship.
Ownership or rights: what's the path to achieving true agency over data?
Myths and themes to emerge from our panel discussion on data ownership at RightsCon 2020


text:
How can we break the cycle of violence?
The Power and Control Wheel Breaks the Cycle of Abuse Through UnderstandingPhysical and Sexual Abuse. Using Intimidation. Emotional Abuse. Isolation Tactics. Minimizing, Denying and Blaming. Using Children. Using Male Privilege. Economic Abuse.
What are the 3 stages in the cycle of violence?
There are three stages to the cycle of violence:First is the tension building phase. In this phase, the batterer gets edgy and tension begins to build up. Second is the actual explosion phase where the physical abuse occurs. It can last from a few minutes to several hours.Third is the honeymoon phase.
What are the four stages of the cycle of violence?
Contents2.1 1: Tension building.2.2 2: Acute violence.2.3 3: Reconciliation/honeymoon.2.4 4: Calm.
What is Walker's cycle of violence?
In 1979, Lenore Walker published The Battered Woman within which she proposed her tension‐reduction theory of three distinct stages associated with recurring battering in cases of domestic violence: the tension‐building phase, the acute battering incident, and the honeymoon phase.
What country has the highest rate of domestic violence?
What are examples of financial abuse?
Common examples of financial abuse include:A family member who repeatedly pressures a parent for money or borrows money, but never repays it.A family member who sells a parent's house or other property and then uses the money for their own benefit.
Can you have PTSD from emotional abuse?
Does emotional abuse lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Emotional abuse doesn't always lead to PTSD, but it can. PTSD can develop after a frightening or shocking event. Your doctor may make a PTSD diagnosis if you experience high levels of stress or fear over a long period of time.
Can you have PTSD from childhood?
People of all ages can have post-traumatic stress disorder. However, some factors may make you more likely to develop PTSD after a traumatic event, such as: Experiencing intense or long-lasting trauma. Having experienced other trauma earlier in life, such as childhood abuse.
How does Odysseus fit the role as an epic hero provide evidence from the text?
What cultures have influenced the United States?


Bob Sanborn's introduction to this buck actually started in 2009 when a buddy of his hit this buck with a non-fatal shot that hit high during the Illinois' archery season the third week in October. Sanborn continued to see the buck off and on the next couple of weeks -- the buck looked no worse for the wear.
Nearing Thanksgiving, another friend was hunting with Sanborn and this hunting partner had a shot at the same buck from 27 yards. Unfortunately the shot was high again and the pair followed the blood trail until it ran out.
The next year, Sanborn started seeing pictures on his trailcam of a huge mainframe buck that had the same frame as the buck that had been hit twice in 2009. Sanborn wasn't sure if this was the same buck or not, but he had his suspicions. When archery season opened up, Sanborn saw the big buck twice at 55 yards and again at 75 yards, but was unable to draw him closer. Finally on November 6th, the buck came within 12 yards and Bob was able to seal the deal with a perfect shot.
Upon further inspection, Sanborn discovered that this was indeed the same buck that had been hit two other times as he saw the old wounds and recovered a broadhead from the buck's front shoulder.
The buck is a mainframe 8 point with 6 non-typical points and green scored 178-inches. Nice work Bob!


More and more golfers worldwide are coming around to the benefits of wearing sunglasses when out on the course. By utilising interchangeable lenses, Rapid Eyewear's Scratch Golf range allows a player to have the optimum tints for any light condition, when and where they need it. The green Cat 3 lenses have been specifically designed for golf; they cut through blue light, thereby improving contrast and the definition of objects and terrain on the fairway ahead. Category 2 polarised and yellow light-improving tints mean you'll find your shades useful whether it's bright or dark.
Golf Sunglasses – Why The Green Lenses, Then?


Qredit aim is to build a payment gateway for end-users to sell/buy goods/services from merchants or from user to user, enabling confidence to both parties. Also allowing the merchant to spend Qredit coins as a reward to their customers after spending a certain amount of money on goods. Qredit aim to drive adoption of the traditional payment methods for merchants by providing them a way to receive fiat currency directly from cryptocurrency buyers, shielding the merchant from market volatility and decreasing the risk of accepting cryptocurrency. By involving physical cards and mobile apps, we will enable the possibility for non-tech users to participate easier in the world of the cryptocurrency.


text:
La eparquía titular de Sarepta de los maronitas () es una eparquía titular de la Iglesia católica conferida a miembros de la Iglesia católica maronita. Corresponde a una antigua diócesis cuya sede estaba en la ciudad de Sarepta (hoy Sarafand) en Líbano.

Historia
Sarepta fue una antigua sede episcopal de la provincia romana de Fenicia Primera en la diócesis civil del Oriente. Era parte del patriarcado de Antioquía y fue sufragánea de la arquidiócesis de Tiro, como está atestiguado en una Notitiae Episcopatuum del siglo VI.

Sin embargo, no se conoce ningún obispo de esta antigua diócesis, según lo informado por Lequien (Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus) y Gams (Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae).

En la era de las Cruzadas, Sarepta era la sede de una diócesis de rito latino.

Sede titular
Una sede titular católica es una diócesis que ha cesado de tener un territorio definido bajo el gobierno de un obispo y que hoy existe únicamente en su título. Continúa siendo asignada a un obispo, quien no es un obispo diocesano ordinario, pues no tiene ninguna jurisdicción sobre el territorio de la diócesis, sino que es un oficial de la Santa Sede, un obispo auxiliar, o la cabeza de una jurisdicción que es equivalente a una diócesis bajo el derecho canónico.

La diócesis de Sarepta fue restablecida como eparquía titular de Sarepta de los maronitas en 1982 y fue conferida por primera vez por la Santa Sede el 20 de diciembre de 1982 al obispo Emile Eid.

Cronología de los obispos

Obispos de la sede residencial
 (?-?)
(...)

Obispos de la sede titular
 Emile Eid † (20 de diciembre de 1982-30 de noviembre de 2009 falleció)
 Hanna Alwan, C.M.L., desde el 13 de agosto de 2011

Referencias

Bibliografía
  Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. 1 , p. 435; vol. 2, p. 230; vol. 3 , p. 292; vol. 4 , p. 305; vol. 5, p. 345; vol. 6, pp. 367–368
 Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, vol. 61, p. 195

Sarepta
Sarepta de los maronitas
Iglesia católica en Líbano

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- Added a try/catch block when attempting to instantiate an EditorState. Will display an appropriate error message should an error occur.
- Map now tests for the presence of a referenced tileset and throws when if the tileset doesn't exist.
- Added a function, layer_hidden(), to EditorState source file that does a quick check for layer visibility based on state of the editor.
- EditorState ignores calls to changeTileTexture() when the current layer is hidden.
- EditorState draws a 'layer hidden' hint attached to the mouse pointer when the current layer is hidden.
Load Map button is disabled until the editor scans the maps directory and maps have been found. Closes issue #1.
- StartState will now scan the directory for any files within it. If any are found, each is checked for a "<map>" tag which contains a version string matching the map driver version in the code.
- StartState will draw at least one frame before it begins to scan the maps directory so that the user can see something is, in fact, happening.
- StartState will draw one frame while beginning to load a map so that the user can see that something is, in fact, happening.
- Windows message boxes have been reactivated to display error messages when exceptions are thrown.
- Added a button to toggle flood contiguous mode or full layer mode.
- Added patternFill_Contig() to EditorState.
- Implemented a stack based depth-first search flood fill algorithm for the contiguous fill mode.
- Updated visual studio project to reflect source code changes.
- Current mouse coordinates are saved when the right mouse button is pressed.
- Mouse pointer 'warped' to saved coords when right mouse button released.
- Added spinner control to ToolBar.
- EditorState now looks to ToolBar for a pattern when in collision edit mode.
- Collision pattern edits now work.
- Added different mouse pointers for edit modes to make it more obvious what state the editor is in.
- Added separators to the ToolBar.
- Stripped PNG's of known bad iCCP profiles. Still get a few warnings but not like it was before.
- Added color to window title handles.
- EditorState will not draw the tile highlight when interacting with the MiniMap or TilePalette.
- Added responding_to_events() functions to MiniMap and TilePalette -- makes the check for whether editor needs to ignore mouse input a lot easier to read. Could be shortened to 'responding()' or 'active()' but this works.
- Pulled out minimap drawing code from EditorState and moved to MiniMap instead.
- Moved camera positioning logic from EditorState to MiniMap.
- Pulled out legacy middle mouse button handler code.
- Buttons to toggle visibility of minimap/tilepalette added.
- Cleaned up some tile placement logic that would cause painting over the area the tilepalette was over to not be painted even if the window was hidden.
- Fixed some mouse reaction logic in TilePalette.
- Updated visual style of the tile palette. It's very plain but it's functional.
- Pulled key processing for setting editor states.
- Fixed scrolling speed with keyboard arrow keys.
- Replaced several awkward ternary bool flips with cleaner code.
- TilePalette now hooks its own event handlers instead of the much older style of event injection.
- Toolbar layer visibility now fully hooked up and working.
- Pulled some unused code form Map.
- Map can now have its BG layer set to be drawn or not drawn like other layers. This is only useful in the tile editor itself.
- TilePalette will no longer draw itself or respond to events when in hidden.
- Pulled show/hide images from TilePalette.
- EditState now checks for the eraser button toggled when running its tile index logic.
- Base layer can now be erased -- changed clear color to make holes in the base layer obvious.
- Pulled event hooks for tool buttons as the logic polls for state instead of storing it in EditorState.
- Updated map to handle cases of 'empty' tiles in the base layer.
- Pulled flood fill button from TilePalette.
- Moved flood fill test logic from tile palette to tool bar.
- Save button will now activate the save function.
- Added pencil/fill/erase buttons to ToolBar.
- Added click handlers for save/pencil/fill/erase buttons. These will now raise toolbar action events.
- Added an ToolBarAction enumerator, used when raising toolbar events.
- Removed old font files as I've switched over to a bitmap font instead (clearer, easier to read).
- Implemented Button Image option.
- Started pulling config options from the editor. I think it clutters up the code more than anything else.
- Removed map file path entry textfield from EditorState.
- Added a map file path textfield to the StartState -- it makes more sense to have it there.
- StartState will now flash a warning message when there's an issue with any of the values in the text fields.
- Modified Map to take better advantage of the Viewport (allows for rendering a toolbar at the top without hiding any tiles underneath it.
- Menu will now only sort items when its sorted flag is set.


text:
In FY 2016-2017, the Tennessee Legislature appropriated $975,506,000to the Tennessee Department of Corrections (TDOC). The TDOC reports that the felon inmate population has steadily increased nearly 12 percent from 26,998 in 2008 to 30,161 in 2017. Specifically, the male inmate population has increased 8.4 percent, with the female population increasing 58 percent during this same period. Further, the TDOC projects the total inmate population to increase to 30,215 by 2020, at which time it expects to experience an "unmet bed demand" of 7,109.
The total inmate population is serving an average sentence of 12.85 years, and the TDOC has noted that "the percentage of parole hearings resulting in a parole grant decreased 7.6 percent between 2012 and 2015," while "only 28% percent of incarcerated felons are being granted parole in accordance with their release eligibility date."
The tax dollars spent annually on incarceration would be money well spent if Tennesseans were getting an increase in public safety in return. However, the opposite is true. Tennessee boasts a violent crime rate that is 39 percent higher than the national average. The FBI's 2016 Uniform Crime Report indicates that Tennessee's violent crime rate (per 100,000 residents) is at 632.9, up from 618.9 from the previous year. The average crime rate of Tennessee's neighbors is 387.9, with the next highest rate being Arkansas at 550.9.
Moreover, TDOC reports that an average of 5,692 probationers each year between FY14 and FY15 were revoked back to prison, but that the return fell to 5,022 probationers in FY16. TDOC credits this reduction to the recent implementation of a graduated sanction policy, and it anticipates the FY17 return total to further decrease to approximately 4,800.
In 2017, Right on Crime launched in Tennessee, and in doing so, hired Julie Warren as a full-time State Director to advocate for conservative criminal justice reform policies for the Volunteer State. Julie works and resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Right on Crime has also partnered with the Beacon Center of Tennessee, a conservative, free-market think tank, and founding member of the Tennessee Coalition for Sensible Justice alongside the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, the ACLU of Tennessee, Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee, and the Tennessee County Services Association.
Recent Reforms
In 2018, the legislature passed and the governor signed the Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 (HB 2271). The Juvenile Justice Reform Act reflects portions of the recommendations by the Joint Ad-Hoc Tennessee Blue Ribbon Task Force on Juvenile Justice, an inter-branch work group chaired by Senate Leader Mark Norris and House Speaker Beth Harwell.
One vital function of HB 2271 is the accountability mechanism created by requiring government stakeholders to develop a plan for the "comprehensive, accurate collection of data and performance measures from all juvenile courts in the state." This data will inform and drive future juvenile justice reform efforts, particularly efforts to significantly reduce the number of unruly and delinquent youths subject to out-of-home placements. Further, the Act calls for the use of validated risk and needs assessment tools. This tool will measure the risks and needs of each child engaged in the juvenile justice system and inform juvenile court decisions. A vital benefit to consistent use of the required validated risk and needs assessments is a reduction in disparate outcomes based on where a child resides within the state.
To accompany the Juvenile Justice Reform Act, and per Governor Haslam's request, the Legislature appropriated $4.5 million in the FY 2018-2019 budget into evidence-based community and treatment programs for rural jurisdictions where children are detained due to lack of alternative programing.
On the adult corrections' side, the Legislature also created four pilot grants, $250,000 each, that will be awarded to sheriff departments or county probation offices in rural counties to fund reentry programs designed to reduce recidivism and probation revocations. To incentivize the successful outcomes, 75 percent of the grant funds will be disbursed up front, with the remaining 25 percent disbursed upon a measurable showing of decreased rates of recidivism or supervision revocations. The hope is the success of these programs will trigger the expansion of the grant program to more counties and ultimately result in the decrease in jail populations throughout Tennessee.
With overwhelming support from the Legislature, "the Fresh Start Act" was passed and signed into law in 2018. This important reentry reform prohibits occupational licensing authorities from denying a license due to a criminal history, unless the authority can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that a direct relationship exists between the past criminal acts and the occupation for which a license is sought. This reform will remove a roadblock to gainful employment for incarcerated individuals who are trying to re-enter and become productive members of society.
Money should not come before safety
Julie Warren | July 9, 2018
Tennessee's Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 2018 sets the stage for sweeping reform in the future
Julie Warren | May 7, 2018
The public safety benefits of redemption
Julie Warren | March 29, 2018
Faith and the Criminal Justice System
Julie Warren | December 8, 2017
Greg Glod
Marc Levin
Derek Cohen
Joseph Luppino-Esposito
Chuck Devore
STATE INITIATIVES


text:
Q: Error using QVectorIterator I have a strange problem with a QVectorIterator
I try the example they provide:
 QVector<float> vector;
 QVectorIterator<float> i(vector);
 while (i.hasNext())
     qDebug() << i.next();

but it won't compile,
it says :

vector is not a type

.
Do you know why ?
Thank you

A: You probably have something like:
using namespace std;

above. As part of std namespace there's templated class std::vector so your declaration causes nameclash since you are trying to name your variable with name already used by class. To solve it either remove using namespace std (but then you would need to always fully qualify everything from std namespace) or just choose some other name for your variable.

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