text:
Q: Inserting and updating on same table I am currently working on a database that aims to provide information regarding the amount of time people stay in a company's car-park premises. This is done using a table called "tbl_stay" which has the following fields:
|ID|Plate|Date_in|Time_in|Date_out|time_out|

There are also two other tables, called "tblin_buffer" and "tblout_buffer" which have the following fields respectively:
|Plate|Date_in/out|Time_in/out|

There are two Number-plate reading cameras pointed at the entrance and exit that produce a file when a plate is read. There is a program running on the database server machine that detects when a file is created then loads the data into these buffer tables
The intention is for data in these tables to be transferred into the main table with an Insert command for the IN data and an Update command for the OUT data. These commands should function for the most recent entries in the  buffer tables and ignore the others that have already been transferred into the main tbl_stay.
I have tried a few methods suggested in the past that have come close to what I have been aiming for, but haven't been quite right. most of the time this is because days and/or times have not been matching up properly.
This insert/update method must be used because of an active query that gets run on the table that requests a list of "vehicles on site", indicated by vehicles that have an Entrance time but do not have an exit time.
Additional information:
Previous Insert ideas for IN data:
Original idea:
insert into tbl_stay (Plate,Date_in,Time_in)
select Plate,Date_in,Time_in
from tblin_buffer
where not exists (
select * from tbl_stay
where (tblin_buffer.Plate=tbl_stay.plate
and tblin_buffer.Date_in=tbl_stay.Date_in
and tblin_buffer.Time_in=tbl_stay.Time_in))

second idea, following from some guidance from another question. this was good, but it was copying the entire contents of tblin_buffer each time. i got around this by adding the "Where" clause at the bottom.:
insert into tbl_stay (Plate,date_in,time_in,rank_in)
SELECT
a.plate, a.date_in, a.time_in,rank
FROM (
SELECT
x.plate,
x.date_in,
x.time_in,
COUNT(*) rank
FROM tblin_buffer x
JOIN tblin_buffer y
ON y.plate = x.plate
AND ((y.date_in < x.date_in)
OR (y.date_in = x.date_in
AND y.time_in <= x.time_in))
GROUP BY x.plate, x.date_in, x.time_in) a
where a.plate = "<PLATE VALUE>" and a.time_in like"%<TIME VALUE>%"

previous Update ideas for OUT data
Original idea, this ended up copying the first exit time into all following entries of the same plate exiting:
update tbl_stay
join tblout_buffer
on tblout_buffer.plate=tbl_stay.plate
set tbl_stay.date_out=tblout_buffer.Date_out,
tbl_stay.time_out=tblout_buffer.time_out
where tbl_stay.date_in=tblout_buffer.date_out

second idea, following on from guidance from another question. this solution came close, but some cases return incorrect dates, if the plate gets read multiple times in a row.
update tbl_stay
JOIN
( SELECT distinct x.plate, x.date_out, x.time_out, COUNT(*) rank
FROM tblout_buffer x
JOIN tblout_buffer y
ON y.plate = x.plate
 AND ((y.date_out < x.date_out)
OR (y.date_out = x.date_out
AND y.time_out <= x.time_out))
GROUP BY x.plate, x.date_out , x.time_out ) b
ON b.plate = tbl_stay.plate
AND b.rank = tbl_stay.rank_in
set tbl_stay.date_out=b.date_out,
tbl_stay.time_out=b.time_out, tbl_stay.rank_out=b.rank;

SQL command for inserting contents of tblout_buffer
SQL command for inserting contents of tblin_buffer
What do you recommend as a solution to this? Your input is greatly appreciated.


text:
$50m BUDGET CUTS OVER 3 YEARS
Posted in Media Releases on 03 May 2016
HUGE HIT TO ABC IN 2016 BUDGET
ALMOST $50M CUT OVER NEXT THREE YEARS
The ABC's Triennial Funding was released as part of tonight's budget.
It revealed a more than $6m would be axed from the ABC News Division annually, along with millions-of-dollars worth of cuts to the development of the ABC's online and mobile capacity.
In a media release, the ABC says it will need to withdraw services as a result of the budget cuts.
"ABC News will seek to maintain as many of the [national and regional] initiatives as possible, with a focus on delivering for Australians in regional and outer-suburban areas. However, there will necessarily be some changes to staffing and programming in line with the reduced allocation of funds."
ABC Friends National Spokesman Ranald Macdonald said the ABC was suffering a "death by a thousand cuts."
"On top of that, Tony Abbott cut $250m, the Australia Network was shut down, and Radio Australia has shrunk."
"So we're going to take this fight up to the government this election, with renewed vigour and with a swelling support base," Mr Macdonald, a former Editor-in-Chief of The Age, said.
"ABC Friends will soon be announcing a list of 20 marginal seats, across the country, that we'll have our army of volunteers campaigning in over the coming weeks."
"We'll be asking them to pledge to vote for any candidate that sees the importance of the ABC and that it should be properly funded"
Ranald Macdonald is available on 0424 545 516

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


GRANNY'S WORLD: No joke and my husband tells lies!
this morning I went for an MRI scan on my neck. Now I was very apprehensive before I went as I hate enclosed spaces and being held down for any length of time, so imagine my horror when the first thing they did was lay me on a bed, put a heavy contraption on my chest then strap down my arms! Head phones on, oh my god they are playing Mika, that was nearly enough for me to squeeze the panic button. I then felt myself being slid into the scanner, my big mistake was to open my eyes, that did it, my heart was racing, I broke out into a cold sweat, tears in my eyes, I willed myself to keep still and not to panic, so difficult I can tell you. It was the longest 15 minutes I have ever spent. When they finally let me out I was shaking from head to toe. I said to the radiographer that I was glad I wasn't right in it, and she said "you were, where did you think you were, you were right in the middle", so therein is the lie. Peter said I'd only go part way in as it was just my head!
I finally finished the Leaf pram blanket. I'm actually very pleased with it, its a bit old-fashioned but I think that's part of it charm. It took me 6 hours to sew up and finish the bunting border. Next project is a bunny cuddle blanket, in cotton for easy washing.
Really nice blanket. So pretty!


text:
Q: What is spacetime topology and geometry and the manipulation of these entities could allow time travel? I have a few questions about spacetime:
1. What is spacetime topology and geometry?
2. Can changing the topology and geometry allow for time travel?
According to the Wheeler's theory  spacetime topology and geometry fluctuates. In quantum foam there might form the wormholes that can connect any two arbitrary points of space-time (possibly distant past or the distant future, and the two ends of the universe), so by manipulating the topology and geometry, one can create a wormhole that allows for travel to any time and any place.

A: I will try to make this qualitative without a great deal of mathematics. A part of the problem is that these questions tend to be at the frontier of physical understanding. As such I will work with physical thinking primarily.
The first question concerns the topology of the universe, or the spacetime that constitutes the observable universe. This I will answer based on observation, which is that it appears that space is very flat. So far there has been no observation of any curvature to space. However, as noted by the writer Jorges Borges in one of his short stories a sphere with a nearly infinite radius can appear to have a very flat surface. We may only observe a tiny patch on a spherical $3$-sphere, or for that matter a $3$ hyperboloid. The FLRW constraint equation for the scale factor $a~=~a(t)$
$$
\left(\frac{\dot a}{a}\right)^2~=~\frac{8\pi G\rho}{3c^2}~+~\frac{k}{a^2}
$$
determines spherical, flat and hyperbolic geometry for $k~=~1,~0,~-1$.
Changing the topology of space is problematic. I am thinking of the time evolution of a spatial surface, similar to the idea of foliating spacetime with spatial surfaces in ADM relativity, where that changes its topology. We know from mathematics that cohomology groups define certain invariant number, such as Chern numbers, and if the topology of space changes it means that by some means we can change these topological indices. The intersection form,
$$
\omega(\alpha\cup\beta)~=~\int_M\alpha\wedge\beta
$$
defines a "charge" when the two $2$-forms enclose or orbit a hole or some nontrivial topology.
In a sense a black hole is a nontraversable black hole. Consider Hawking radiation from a Schwarzschild black hole. I include the diagram below which is the Penrose conformal diagram for a black hole. In the regions I and II are hyperbolas that represent the constant radial position of an observer. The red circle is the virtual fluctuation of a particle which an observer on a constant radial path would observe to emerge from the past or white hole horizon and then approach the black hole horizon. The circle determines the $e^{2\pi iH/g}$ for the quantum field with $g~=~c^2/\rho$ on a constant radial path with $\rho$. The black hole with the split horizon represents two entangled blackholes in the region I and II. The emission of Hawking radiation, here diagrammed as the two dots connected by a red segment, transfers some of this entanglement to the two regions. The new event horizon is seen as the two hyperbolic paths in blue. The two black holes are then no longer completely entangled.
This is another illustration of how spacetime is built up from entanglements. Raamsdonk illustrated this in a paper. This presentation does not give a dynamics for how the big bang produces spacetime, but it does illustrate how spacetime is an emergent epiphenomenology of quantum mechanics. I am using the black hole as a sort of theoretical laboratory, which might in some way become more of an experimental object.
Now let us suppose I am in region I and I have the particle emitted by Hawking radiation (red dot on my side region I), and this particle is in the state $\psi~=~\sum_n\chi_n$. I then open up a wormhole into region II, which by the horizons is not accessible by ordinary means, and I grab the other particle and bring it to region I. I now have two particles that because of their entanglement are indistinguishable and are thus duplicates. I have closed the state on my side region I.

The cloning theorem says that if I have a state $\psi$ cloning it so $\psi~\rightarrow~\psi\psi$ results in an inconsistency. Let me write $\psi~=~a|a\rangle~+~b|b\rangle$. For simplicity I am considering it with two basis elements. My duplication then means
$$
\psi~\rightarrow~\psi\psi~=~aa|aa\rangle~+~ab|ab\rangle~+~ba|ba\rangle~+~bb|bb\rangle.
$$
However the duplication can also just mean $a|a\rangle~\rightarrow~aa|aa\rangle$ and $b|b\rangle~\rightarrow~bb|bb\rangle$ and I have no "ab and ba terms." So there is no consistent way to clone or Xerox states. It would also mean that I can find a hidden variable underlying an entanglement. So it appears that wormholes run into some trouble with quantum physics. In addition the prospect that spacetime is woven together by quantum entanglements appears to suggest that changing spatial topology and cloning a quantum state by unitary means is the same thing.
However we can come up with "close clones" of quantum states. There has been some interest in this. The spacetime correspondence would then be some quantum superposed topology deformation on the base topology. The transition probably can't be complete, but there could be some quantum fluctuations or coherent effects that mean the topology of space can have some small quantum amplitude for a different topology. Changing the topology completely or classically is potentially the same as a perfect clone of a quantum state. This is in a sense a "quantum logical" reason for why the speed of light is a sort of absolute limit.
So the upshot may just be that traversable wormholes do not exist. So far there is no observational data to suggest their existence. It may in part answer the question attributed to Enrico Fermi, "Where are they?"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Mayor Walsh launches fund to address racial inequity
City officials hope to raise tens of millions of dollars for the cause
By Jon Chesto Globe Staff,Updated June 25, 2020, 12:01 a.m.
Emerson College president Lee Pelton will chair the new fund's steering committee.Nic Antaya for The Boston Globe
Mayor Martin J. Walsh plans to unveil a new city-led initiative on Thursday aimed at raising tens of millions of dollars to address racial inequities in Boston amid a national uprising against police violence and systemic discrimination.
The new initiative would be similar to the city-led Boston Resiliency Fund, which has raised more than $32 million for COVID-19 relief efforts, but could become even larger. It will be called the Boston Racial Equity Fund, and Walsh aides said the money will support nonprofits focused on racial equity work through economic development, public health, youth jobs, and education and training.
John Barros, Walsh's economic development chief, described the new fund as but one of many efforts to solve a centuries-old problem. "These funds are important but by no means are they the only answer," he said.
Some details had still not been finalized ahead of the expected announcement at a news conference Thursday afternoon. The mayor's office expects the majority of an 8- to 10-member steering committee overseeing the fund would be people of color. It would be chaired by Emerson College president Lee Pelton, who recently penned a widely read letter to students about prejudice he's endured as a Black man in America.
Pelton referred questions about the equity fund to the mayor's office.
The Walsh administration's effort comes as members of the city's Black community have been organizing their own efforts to address longstanding systemic racism. Barros expects the city committee to overlap with a separate effort by a group of prominent Black executives to raise money for racial justice initiatives across the state, and he anticipates the two organizations will coordinate their efforts.
"We want to make sure there's more than just coordination," Barros said. "We want to make sure there's an overlap of governance."
The protests that followed the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis have prompted civic and business leaders across the country to establish initiatives aimed at addressing the severe racial divide in the economy.
Earlier this week, the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts posed an ambitious challenge to the state's business community: contribute $1 billion over 10 years to address the racial inequities inherent in society and the economy.
Segun Idowu, executive director of that group, said government officials such as Walsh and corporations are right to consult with communities of color as they launch these efforts to address inequality.
"If they're not informed by conversations with Black and indigenous people, they are going to fall on deaf ears," Idowu said.
Mo Cowan, now head of global government affairs and policy at General Electric, is part of the group of Black executives planning the statewide fund. Cowan said he welcomed the attention from Walsh and supporters in the business community, and doesn't view them as rivals for donor dollars.
"Black and brown people need allies from across the spectrum," Cowan said. "We need those who are part of the existing power structure who want to lean in and make available the power structure for the common good. That's what we're seeing now."
The Boston Resiliency Fund has doled out more than $20 million to more than 200 organizations across the city since its creation in March, many of them assisting communities of color.
The sponsors of the Resiliency Fund exceeded their initial $10 million fund-raising goal in less than two days. Barros said he expects the city will set a similar goal for the Racial Equity Fund to start, but he would like it to eventually surpass the Resiliency Fund and last much longer.
Among those involved is Jack Connors, the ad mogul-turned-philanthropist who helped launch the Resiliency Fund three months ago.
"We ought to take advantage of the moment," said Connors, referring to the outrage over Floyd's death.
The city's power structure is shifting: The majority of City Council seats are held by women and people of color, for example. Connors said he welcomes the change, and wants to help facilitate it.
"We can either lift the ladder up and say, 'No, we're fine, we don't need any more people to be powerful and successful,' or we could keep the ladder down and say, 'Come on, let's help you up here,'" Connors said.
Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonchesto.


text:
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National Science Day Pilani Shridhar University – NextGen Cofounder Abhishek Humbad Shares Thoughts
03-03-2012 03:39 PM CET | Science & Education
Press release from: Shridhar University Pilani Rajasthan
National Science Day Pilani Shridhar University: NextGen Cofounder Abhishek Humbad Shares Thoughts
None other than the Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh has recently expressed concern stating that China is far ahead of India today in Science thus giving a wakeup call across the nation.
To popularize the benefits of scientific knowledge, 28th February is celebrated all over India as National Science Day (NSD) to mark the discovery of Nobel Prize winning Raman Effect by the great Indian Physicist Sir C. V. Raman in 1928 on same day. February 28 also happens to be the birthday of Linus Pauling who had won the undivided Nobel Prize twice - for Chemistry in 1954 and for Peace in 1962. The basic objective for celebration of National Science Day is to spread the message of importance of science and its application among the people.
Addressing the faculty members and students of Shridhar University Pilani, Prof BR Natarajan Pro Vice Chancellor gave an overview of the importance of the day and spoke at length on various aspects of the theme for this year celebration "Clean Energy Options and Nuclear Safety."
Prof Natarajan's talk covered the Reserve to Production R/P ratio for Coal, Petroleum etc; Clean Coal Technology – CCT; Carbon Capture and Storage – CCS; LPG, CNG options and implications; Green House Gas – GHG emissions; Coal Bed Methane – CBM capture; renewable like biomass, wind, solar, micro hydel, geothermal and tidal; first generation and next generation biofuels for transport and their implications; nuclear energy options and safety issues in the Indian context.
NextGen PMS is an energy and environment company previously incubated at NSRCEL, IIM-Bangalore and TBI - BITS-Pilani. The management team is a young and passionate team from BITS-Pilani, IITs and IIMs. Its a USD 1 million company with operations in India, Sri Lanka and Abu Dhabi. NextGen operates in 2 domains of waste to energy and sustainability consulting. In the waste to energy domain, NextGen has developed proprietary technology for powering telecom towers at costs which are 30% cheaper than current diesel costs. In the sustainability consulting domain, NextGen helps corporates understand their current baseline from the perspective of various sustainability parameters and helps them develop and implement a low carbon path. Some of their clients in the sustainability consulting space include Intel, ICICI, Infosys, Godrej, Pidilite, Mahindra, RCB, HDFC, RBI amongst others. NextGen has also developed a sustainability and emission management tool jointly with MindTree Ltd. For more details about NextGen see http://nextgenpms.com/
On this occasion, Co-Founder of NextGen, Mr Abhishek Humbad who is an alumnus of BITS Pilani and IIM Bangalore shared the following thoughts.
"Energy is the most important commodity across the globe. Most of the recent wars have been on energy. The world's most valuable companies in every country are the ones that deal with generation of energy. For many countries across the globe, the need for clean energy is driven by the intent to reduce carbon emissions. However the need for clean energy in India is graver and larger. In India clean energy is important from the perspective of energy access and energy security. More than 50% of India's population does not have access to reliable and sufficient power supply. There are still some places where the grid has not reached and in many places, the grid is there but the power is insufficient and unreliable. Decentralized renewable energy solutions are the only option to meet the needs of this population. Most of India's fossil fuel consumption is imported, providing a huge risk from an energy security perspective. Given, that India's energy needs are going to increase exponentially, clean energy options assume greater significance.
Given, the technological and operational issues with clean energy projects, entrepreneur driven approach is the only model of scaling it up effectively. The government needs to provide the necessary operational push, however the implementation has to be done by an entrepreneur to ensure long term sustainability. India with its large market and a great entrepreneurial spirit can become a showcase clean energy driven country if the government policies are on the right track. However lot of government policies are flawed (eg. Quantum of LPG subsidy in South Delhi is 10 times the quantum of subsidy given to the national biogas program). The politics of power creates many inefficiencies in the market which is hindering growth.
Globally, 2010-2011 was the first year, when the investments in clean tech were higher than the investments in conventional fuel technologies. Emerging technologies like fuel cell, 3 rd generation solar PV, solar thermal, energy storage, biofuel etc are expected to drive the next wave of clean energy. Though the inflection point, where clean energy is cheaper than conventional energy is still to come (Google was working on R < C - Renewable cheaper than Coal program but later dropped it), this point is somewhere very close, post which there will be explosion of clean energy implementation across the globe. "
There was a thunderous applause from the audience on hearing Mr Abhishek Humbad's passion packed statement "If you want to take up entrepreneurship as a career option, clean energy is one of the most exciting spaces to be in, especially in India."
For more details about Shridhar University Pilani see http://www.shridharuniversity.ac.in
About Shridhar University: An initiative of the Sarvhit Trust, Shridhar University Pilani has been established under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956 incorporated by Government of Rajasthan vide Ordinance No. 3 of 2009 and the same ratified by the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly vide Act No. 4 of 2010 as The SHRIDHAR UNIVERSITY ACT BIGODNA, JHUNJHUNU. Further, Vide letter F.No 8-3/2010(CPP-I/PU) dated 31 May 2010, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has also notified Shridhar University under Section 2(f) of UGC Act 1956. ISO 9001:2008 certified Shridhar University has 11 Schools of Learning offering various Certificate, Diploma, Under Graduate, Post Graduate as well as Doctoral programmes. In order to prepare students for a global future, Shridhar University has actively taken up collaborations with various national & international institutions and already has signed MoU with top ranking Athens University of Economics and Business - AUEB, Greece. For more details see http://www.shridharuniversity.ac.in
Shridhar University
Pilani Rajasthan 333031 India
Phone 91-1596-510000
Fax 91-1596-510002
Email info@shridharuniversity.ac.in
Website http://www.shridharuniversity.ac.in
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Every month Polly from Outlandish London joins us to update you on the events Ouishare UK are supporting and collaborating on here in London.
Ouishare Summit 17th – 21st May in Croatia (Polly and Bernie will be there!) get your ticket here.
Radical Childcare Impact Hub Birmingham we podcasted about this last year here.


text:
Options for Improving the Tax Treatment of Structures
Erica York
Removing tax policy barriers can help businesses and individuals invest, work, create jobs, and lift the economy during a post-pandemic recovery without requiring lawmakers to create new spending programs. One of the most cost-efficient options available to lawmakers is to improve the cost recovery treatment of structures.
Residential structures must be depreciated over a 27.5-year-period and nonresidential structures over a 39-year period. Because of the time value of money, the delay in taking deductions for tax purposes means the real value of the deduction to the business is less than the original outlay, which increases the cost of capital and leads to a lower level of investment and economic growth.
A neutral tax would allow an immediate deduction for these outlays, the policy of full expensing. Alternatively, a policy that maintains the present value of deductions over time by adjusting the depreciation allowances would also be neutral toward investment; this policy is called neutral cost recovery.
One challenge of removing the bias against new investment is that it creates a huge disparity between new and existing structures. Rather than retain a bias against new investments by enacting policies short of full expensing, lawmakers could extend neutral tax treatment to both new and existing structures.
Each of these policies has trade-offs in terms of impact on economic growth, the disparity between new and existing structures, and the cost to the government.
Lawmakers are currently putting together a package of policies for Phase 4 economic relief due to the ongoing public health crisis. While policies that address the short-term needs of families and businesses ought to be prioritized, policies that will help set the economy up for a faster recovery are also worth considering. Specifically, removing tax policy barriers can help businesses and individuals invest, work, create jobs, and lift the economy once the public health crisis abates, without requiring lawmakers to create new spending programs.[1] Improving the cost recovery treatment of structures is one policy available to lawmakers:[2]
Improving capital cost recovery will be crucial to the post-pandemic effort to increase investment and economic growth. Under the U.S. tax code, businesses can generally deduct their ordinary business costs when figuring their income for tax purposes. However, this is not always the case for the costs of capital investments, such as when businesses purchase buildings. Typically, when businesses incur these sorts of costs, they must deduct them over several years according to preset depreciation schedules, instead of deducting them immediately in the year the investment occurs.
Delaying deductions means the present value of the write-offs (adjusted for inflation and the time value of money) is less than the original cost—how much less valuable depends on the rate of inflation and the discount rate. Thus, this system of tax depreciation, rather than full expensing, is highly unfavorable and increases the after-tax cost of making investments, leading to a lower level of investment and economic growth.
Under the current Modified Accelerated Cost Recovery System (MACRS), when businesses incur costs for long-lived capital assets like structures, they must deduct them over several years according to preset depreciation schedules: nonresidential real property must be deducted over a period of 39 years, while residential rental property must be deducted over a period of 27.5 years.[3] This is problematic, because, as explained above, due to inflation and the time value of money, a dollar in the future is worth less than a dollar today. Delaying deductions for the cost of business investments means that the real value of the deductions is less than the original outlay.
While the idea of improving the cost recovery treatment of structures is straightforward, there are a number of ways lawmakers might accomplish this depending on revenue targets and other challenges. This paper walks through five options lawmakers could use and discusses advantages and disadvantages of each approach
Option 1: Full Expensing for Structures
The ideal solution to the problem of the eroding value of depreciation deductions is to offer full and immediate expensing for structures. This would allow companies to immediately deduct the cost of their investments in buildings and would remove the bias against investment in structures from the tax code.
Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that full expensing for 27.5- and 39-year structures would increase long-run economic output by 2.8 percent, the capital stock by 7.0 percent, wages by 2.4 percent, and full-time equivalent employment by 569,000 jobs. On a conventional basis, we estimate that this policy would reduce federal revenue by $412 billion from 2021 through 2030.
One obstacle to this approach is the large upfront cost. Companies with investments made before the policy change would still be taking depreciation deductions for those existing buildings, while companies with new investments would be taking full deductions. The combination of legacy write-offs from old investments and 100 percent write-offs for new investments makes the upfront cost for switching to full expensing quite large. As legacy write-offs are used up, the cost of the policy will fall, which is illustrated in the figure below.[4]
Another obstacle is that investments in structures are large and lumpy. If a business does not have enough income to absorb the full deduction for the outlay, it would generate a net operating loss that would have to be carried forward to future tax years.[5] This results in the same issue that full expensing aims to fix: the value of the net operating loss (NOL) deduction would fall over time and the business would not recoup the full cost of the investment in real terms. Option 2 addresses this problem.
Option 2: Neutral Cost Recovery System (NCRS) for Structures
A NCRS would address the eroding value of depreciation deductions by indexing the value of deductions to inflation and a real rate of return.[6]
The problem with the current system of depreciation deductions is that they are not as valuable to the company as the original cost of the investment because the deductions lose value over time. Under a NCRS, the current system of depreciation (MACRS) would be retained, but the depreciation deductions would be adjusted to maintain the present value of the write-offs over time.
Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that a NCRS for new 27.5- and 39-year structures would increase long-run economic output by 2.8 percent, the capital stock by 7.0 percent, wages by 2.4 percent, and full-time equivalent employment by 569,000 jobs. On a conventional basis, we estimate that this policy would reduce federal revenue by almost $11 billion from 2021 through 2030, though the cost would increase beyond the budget window.
Indexing depreciation deductions to inflation and a real rate of return would greatly reduce the penalty imposed on waiting to recognize the cost for tax purposes. In real terms, this indexing provides nearly equal treatment to immediate expensing in most cases while avoiding the large upfront cost of expensing.
The challenges associated with the NCRS approach are twofold: discount rates can vary across firms and investments, which would not be recognized under a NCRS, and firms may experience uncertainty about the long-term stability of the system compared to full expensing, where they would get an immediate deduction.
Both full expensing and neutral cost recovery would represent significant improvements, and thus significant changes, to current policy. In the past, incumbent firms have expressed skepticism over full expensing of structures.[7] Both policy options would provide a huge advantage to new buildings over existing buildings if no mitigating policies were enacted in tandem. For example, a structure put in place the year before the policy change would have to be depreciated over 39 years, while a structure built in the next year under the policy change would have access to full cost recovery. Providing a partial benefit to existing structures or slowly phasing in the benefit to new structures could reduce the disparity between old and new. However, in the past, the proposed solution to this concern has been to abandon full expensing in favor of shortened depreciation schedules for long-lived assets, which is modeled in Option 3.
Option 3: Move to a 20-year Depreciation Schedule for Structures
This option would retain the system of depreciation deductions for structures but would shorten the length of time companies are required to deduct their investment costs in structures to 20 years. Compared to the current schedules of 27.5 and 39 years, companies would get to write off their investments faster and recover a larger share of the original cost in present value terms.
Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that moving to a 20-year depreciation schedule for structures that would fall into the 27.5 and 39 years categories under current law would increase long-run economic output by 1 percent, the capital stock by 2.4 percent, wages by 0.8 percent, and full-time equivalent employment by 199,000 jobs. On a conventional basis, we estimate that this policy would reduce federal revenue by $72 billion from 2021 through 2030.
A shorter depreciation schedule would increase the present value of deductions compared to current law and decrease the after-tax cost of making investments, but ultimately retain a bias against investment in structures in the tax code. Rather than reducing the disparity between new and existing structures by maintaining a bias against new structures, lawmakers could extend neutral tax treatment to existing structures too.
Option 4: 20 Percent Bonus Depreciation for Structures
This option would allow businesses to write off 20 percent of the initial cost of investments in structures in the first year and depreciate the remaining 80 percent of the cost over the depreciation schedule as they would under current law. By increasing the amount of the deduction businesses can take immediately, this option increases the total present value of the write-offs that would occur under regular depreciation schedules but would still fall short of full expensing or neutral cost recovery.
Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that 20 percent bonus depreciation for 27.5- and 39-year structures would increase long-run economic output by 0.5 percent, the capital stock by 1.3 percent, wages by 0.5 percent, and full-time equivalent employment by 111,000 jobs. On a conventional basis, we estimate that this policy would reduce federal revenue by $83 billion from 2021 through 2030.
Both Option 3 and Option 4 would improve the tax treatment of new structures, but to a lesser extent than Option 1 and Option 2. Shortening asset lives or providing a larger upfront deduction—instead of moving to a policy that would maintain the present value of deductions to equal the size of the outlay—would result in a smaller positive economic effect.
Option 5: Neutral Cost Recovery for Existing and New 27.5- and 39-year Structures
This option would apply the NCRS adjustments to new investments in structures and to the remaining basis of the existing stock of structures. For example, in the year of enactment of a NCRS, businesses that already have deductions on the books for investments made in the past would receive the same adjustment to their deductions that new investments would receive moving forward. This would increase the value of deductions to companies that made investments in the past, reducing the advantage new investments would have relative to old investments.
It is important to emphasize that improving the tax treatment of investments made in the past will not boost economic output. Companies cannot go back in time and choose a different investment pattern based on improved tax treatment today. Instead, this option of a NCRS for existing investment can be viewed as lessening the disparity between new and existing structures, which may help prevent wasteful churning that would otherwise occur.
Using the Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, we estimate that a NCRS for both new and existing 27.5- and 39-year structures would increase long-run economic output by 2.8 percent, the capital stock by 7.0 percent, wages by 2.4 percent, and full-time equivalent employment by 569,000 jobs. Note that this is the same long-run effect as a NCRS for new structures; extending the benefit to existing structures does not affect long-run growth. On a conventional basis, we estimate that this policy would reduce federal revenue by $84 billion from 2021 through 2030.
If lawmakers want to provide more of a benefit to existing structures, they could offer adjustments dating to the time the investment was placed in service. Note that this would significantly increase the short-term cost of the policy without providing additional long-run growth, but would be a way to improve the liquidity of firms by providing an infusion of cash and further reduce the disparity between existing investments that would otherwise continue to receive poor tax treatment and new investments that would receive neutral tax treatment.
Comparing the Economic and Revenue Effects across Five Options
Full Expensing for 27.5- and 39-year Structures
Neutral Cost Recovery for New 27.5- and 39-year Structures
20-Year Depreciation for 27.5- and 39-year Structures
20 Percent Bonus Depreciation for 27.5- and 39-year Structures
Neutral Cost Recovery for New and Existing 27.5- and 39-year Structures
Long-run Gross Domestic Product 2.8% 2.8% 1% 0.5% 2.8%
Capital Stock 7.0% 7.0% 2.4% 1.3% 7.0%
Wages 2.4% 2.4% 0.8% 0.5% 2.4%
Full-Time Equivalent Employment 569,000 569,000 199,000 111,000 569,000
10-year Conventional Revenue (2021-2030) -$412.9 billion -$10.6 billion -$71.9 billion -$82.7 billion -$84.1 billion
Note: We did not allow 20-year asset lives for structures to qualify for the 100 percent bonus depreciation provision in effect under current law.
Source: Tax Foundation General Equilibrium Model, November 2019.
Full expensing and neutral cost recovery provide the largest increase in economic output of the options discussed in this paper. The trade-off between these two policies is the timing of the cost; full expensing has a large upfront cost that falls over time, while a NCRS has a small upfront cost that rises over time. Another consideration is that implementing either full expensing or neutral cost recovery would create a huge disparity between new and existing structures. Options that slightly improve the tax treatment of investments in new structures—a shorter depreciation schedule or a bonus depreciation deduction in the first year—would lessen the disparity between new and existing structures and the cost to the government, but would also have a smaller effect on economic output. Rather than retain the bias against new investment, one option would be to extend neutral cost recovery to existing structures. Providing neutral cost recovery to new and existing investment would increase the short-term cost of a NCRS but would reduce the disparity between new and existing structures while eliminating the bias against long-lived investments.
In past policy discussions of extending full expensing to long-lived structures, the issue of how to treat land under a full expensing policy has been raised. Under current law, land does not have a limited life and thus is not given a cost recovery allowance. When land is sold, the purchase price is subtracted from the sale price, and any capital gain or loss is included in taxable income.
In an ideal cash-flow tax, all outlays, including for land, would be deductible in the year the outlay occurs, just as for any other production input.[8] Similarly, there are other classes of assets, such as Section 197 intangible assets (e.g., acquired intangibles like goodwill, purchased copyrights, or licenses such as for spectrum), that would also be expensed under a cash-flow tax. These concerns are less immediate in the current context of removing barriers to investment for the post-pandemic economic recovery. Extending expensing to many of these outlays, such as land, would not increase long-run economic growth because they would not affect the cost of corporate capital. However, providing an immediate deduction for all outlays would improve the neutrality and simplicity of the tax code.
There are many ways that lawmakers could improve the cost recovery treatment of long-lived investments in structures. These range from the ideal policy of full expensing to smaller improvements like shorter asset lives or providing bonus depreciation. Policymakers must weigh the trade-offs among long-run economic output goals, revenue constraints, and the existing stock of structures. Nevertheless, improving the tax treatment of structures is one of the most cost-effective tax policy changes available to lawmakers as they consider how to remove investment barriers in the tax code to hasten the economic recovery.
[1] Scott A. Hodge, Jared Walczak, Karl Smith, and Daniel Bunn, "Tax Policy After Coronavirus: Clearing a Path to Economic Recovery," Tax Foundation, Apr. 22, 2020, https://taxfoundation.org/coronavirus-economic-recovery/.
[2] Erica York and Huaqun Li, "Reviewing the Economic and Revenue Implications of Cost Recovery Options," Tax Foundation, Apr. 28, 2020, https://taxfoundation.org/full-immediate-expensing/.
[3] Internal Revenue Service, Publication 946 (2019), How To Depreciate Property, https://www.irs.gov/publications/p946#en_US_2017_publink1000107538.
[4] Kyle Pomerleau and Scott Greenberg, "Full Expensing Costs Less Than You'd Think," Tax Foundation, June 13, 2017, https://taxfoundation.org/full-expensing-costs-less-than-youd-think/.
[5] Stephen J. Entin, "Tax Treatment of Structures Under Expensing," Tax Foundation, May 24, 2017, https://taxfoundation.org/tax-treatment-structures-expensing/.
[6] Stephen J. Entin, "The Neutral Cost Recovery System: A Pro-Growth Solution for Capital Cost Recovery," Tax Foundation, Oct. 29, 2013, https://taxfoundation.org/neutral-cost-recovery-system-pro-growth-solution-capital-cost-recovery.
[7] Jeffrey D. DeBoer, "Statement for the Record: Hearing on Business Tax Reform," The Real Estate Roundtable, Sept. 19, 2017, https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/19SEP2017DeBoerSTMNT.pdf.
[8] Dr. Norman B. Ture and Stephen J. Entin, The Inflow Outflow Tax – A Saving-Deferred Neutral Tax System, Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation, 1997, http://iret.org/pub/inflow_outflow.pdf.
Banner image attribution: Adobe Stock, Ivan Traimak
full expensing
neutral cost recovery
Erica York is an economist with Tax Foundation's Center for Federal Tax Policy. Her analysis has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, and other national and international media outlets. She previously worked as an auditor at a large community bank in Kansas and interned at Tax Foundation's Center for State Tax Policy. Read more.
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With a mission that was anything but mundane, Soyuz MS-09 with its three-person crew returned to Earth after more than 6 months in orbit on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-09 vehicle rose to high public profile in August when a hole that resulted in a small atmospheric leak aboard the Station was discovered in its Orbital Module.
That hole was determined to have been drilled on the ground during the spacecraft's manufacturing and led to a rather dramatic spacewalk earlier in December that saw cosmonauts cut into the protective casing around MS-09's Orbital Module to conduct further investigation of the issue.
Wrapping up its mission, Soyuz MS-09 and its three-person crew from Russia, ESA, and NASA, undocked from the International Space Station at 20:42 EST (01:42 UTC on Thursday, 20 December) before landing on the Kazakh steppe at around 00:03 EST (0503 UTC) on Thursday, 20 December.
When Soyuz MS-09 launched to the Space Station on 6 June 2018, the mission seemed like most others that had come before: nominal in almost every regard with the spacecraft successfully delivering its three-person crew to the International Space Station.
But the spacecraft's quiescent existence was shattered on 29 August 2018 when a small air leak was identified by ground controllers throughout the International Space Station, a leak that was quickly traced to a 2 millimeter hole in the Orbital Module of Soyuz MS-09.
The crewed Soyuz transportation vehicles are comprised of three primary sections, the Orbital Module at the top which physically connects the vehicle to the International Space Station, the Descent Module in the middle within which crews ride to and from orbit, and the Instrumentation and Propulsion Module which contains the propulsion, power, electrical, and avionics systems for the craft.
At the end of nominal missions, the only part of a Soyuz spacecraft that survives reentry is the Descent Module, with the Orbital and Instrumentation and Propulsion Modules burning up during atmospheric reentry.
Once the hole was found, Station crew members immediately identified it as having been caused by a drill and reported the presence of material in the hole suggesting that is had already been sealed on the ground and that that ground seal had given way.
Over the objections of then-NASA Station Commander Drew Feustel and NASA requests to hold off on permanent repairs until an investigation and better understand of the hole was determined, Russian cosmonauts and Russian Mission Control quickly sealed the hole using an epoxy sealant.
After those repairs, no further leaks were detected aboard the Station aside from the nominal atmospheric decay that occurs during each of the Station's 16 daily orbital day to night passes.
Official confirmation that the hole was caused by a drill was announced on 4 September 2018, though it could not be determined whether the hole was drilled intentionally during manufacturing – aka, sabotage – or was the result of a manufacturing error.
Despite the admission, what was abundantly clear was that workers on the ground had identified the hole and sealed it in an attempt to cover it up, thus allowing Soyuz MS-09 to pass all pressurization and leak checks prior to launch.
The presence of the hole and its undocumented fix also raised serious concerns about the safety and quality control methods in place within Roscosmos in building the as-yet-still only vehicle capable of transporting crew to and from the International Space Station since the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet in July 2011.
Perhaps serendipitously, the presence of the hole in Soyuz MS-09's Orbital Module is arguably the best place the hole could have been since the Orbital Module does not survive atmospheric reentry.
In short, the fact that the hole is in the Orbital Module means that it poses no threat to the safe return of Alexander Gerst (ESA), Sergey Prokopyev (Roscosmos), and Serena Auñón-Chancellor (NASA).
However, the fact that the hole made it through safety and quality assurance checks before launch also raised serious questions of whether other holes exist throughout the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle – a question which cannot be answered with certainty until the craft returns to Earth.
An even greater spotlight was thrown onto Soyuz MS-09 on 11 October 2018 when the Soyuz MS-10 crew vehicle was forced to perform an in-flight abort to pull itself away from its failing Soyuz rocket just over two minutes into flight.
The Soyuz MS-10 launch failure, also attributed to a lack of quality control within Roscosmos, only strengthened and raised the concerns of safety and quality assurance within the Russian human space program.
Nonetheless, Roscosmos was quickly able to determine the reason for the Soyuz MS-10 launch failure and successfully launched the Soyuz MS-11 crew up to the International Space Station on 3 December, setting up a delayed but still more or less on time landing for Soyuz MS-09 on 20 December.
However, since the Soyuz MS-09 Orbital Module will not survive reentry, Roscosmos was forced to perform a spacewalk, or EVA, to tear into the outer protective layer surrounding the hole to take photographs and collect samples that will aid in the still-ongoing official investigation of how the hole was drilled in the first place and how the undocumented ground repair occurred.
The rather dramatic looking spacewalk took place on 11 December, with Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergey Prokopyev cutting into the thermal blankets and pulling away insulation in order to examine the Orbital Module's outer hull.
The EVA clearly revealed the hole, allowing the needed samples and photographs to be collected without issue.
With Soyuz MS-09 now undocked from the International Space Station, the crewed craft performed two orbits of Earth and various small trajectory burns to bring itself into proper alignment for its critical deorbit burn.
The more than 4 minute long deorbit burn began at 23:09 EST on Wednesday, 19 December (0409 UTC on Thursday, 20 December) and decreased Soyuz MS-09's velocity to lower the craft's perigee, point of closest approach to Earth's surface, into Earth's atmosphere at a precise point to allow the Soyuz's Descent Module to land at its primary location on the steppes of Kazakhstan.
Following the deorbit burn and a brief coast, commands were sent to separate Soyuz MS-09 into its three constituent parts, with the Orbital Module (containing the hole) and the Instrumentation and Propulsion Module burning up in Earth's atmosphere while the Descent Module orients itself heatshield first for atmospheric entry.
During the Descent Module's reentry, the immense speed of the craft combined with friction with air molecules will create a plasma flow around the vehicle which can – and usually does – cause temporary communication blackouts with the crew.
Perhaps more importantly than other Soyuz reentries, it is important to stress that these communication blackouts are to be expected and are not, in themselves, any cause for concern during the entry process.
Also important to stress is that aside from the nominal reentry profile, the Soyuz's Descent Module can also perform what is known as a ballistic style reentry – a much steeper and harsher reentry – designed to get a crew to the ground as quickly as possible if a systems or orientation issue is identified by the spacecraft's computers.
This type of ballistic reentry was last seen during the Soyuz MS-10 launch abort in October and has previously occurred in October 2007 and April 2008 during back-to-back Soyuz landings of International Space Station crew members.
Had a ballistic reentry occur during the Soyuz MS-09 landing , it wouldn't be indicative of or immediately connected to the hole in the Orbital Module, which will have already been jettisoned by the point a ballistic reentry would be triggered during the entry sequence.
However, a nominal reentry and landing occurred, with Soyuz MS-09's Descent Module touching down under parachute and last-second retro rocket firing at around 00:03 EST (0503 UTC) on Thursday, 20 December on the Kazakh steps.


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This past month I've been focusing on eliminating some of my bad habits and replacing them with healthy habits. I picked just 5 habits I wanted to focus on and I've been tracking my progress in my bullet journal. I'll admit, one I completely failed at, one needs more work and three have been a success. One habit that's been a success is writing in my bullet journal daily. I've been using it to keep on top of all the tasks I have to get done, recording anything significant that happens in my day for me to look back on, and my progress towards my goals. I particularly enjoy writing in my gratitude log each day, which shows me that even the more 'mundane' days can be appreciated.
If there are any bad habits you would like to stamp out, I've shared 60 healthy habits today so that you can pick a few that you would like to introduce into your life. I find replacing bad habits with healthy habits easier than just trying to quit the bad habit. Instead of focussing on what you can't do anymore, you put your effort into what you can do, the healthy habit. There are a fair few habits on this list that I personally want to make a part of my life, but I'll focus on 1-5 a month so that I can really put my efforts into making them a habit before moving on to the next ones. That's the best way to make a change in your life, picking just a few things to start with and adding more once those habits are established.
Don't dwell on the past – learn from it and move forward.
I'd love to know which healthy habits you would like to try and if there are any more that are not on this list. Share with us in the comments below.


Santa Fe is truly unique and calls itself "the city different". That's quite true - no other place in the world offers such a concentration of Native American arts, culture, and Southwestern history.
The city is 7,300' above sea level and has a cool, dry desert climate. Set near the gorgeous foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, some of the nearby mountain peaks are over 12,000 feet and local ski areas often have snow pack in excess of 100 inches. In the summer, nights are cool and days are warm. Travelers are often treated to some glorious sunsets such as the one below.
We've been vacationing in Santa Fe for years, but had never been there during the winter season. Our family chose it for our holiday vacation with hopes that snow might be on the mountains so that we could combine skiing with sightseeing and shopping.
We were joined by friends which brought our group total to 14 with ages from 24 to 56 coming from all over the country - Vermont, Boston, Durango, and Texas. Half drove to Santa Fe, the others flew to Albuquerque. In past years, we've spent our holidays in Lake Tahoe, Jackson Hole, Banff, and Salt Lake City - quite a distance from our home towns, so I had thought that Santa Fe would be easy to reach via airlines and buses - I was quite wrong! More about that later.
When planning this trip, I looked for condominiums near the center of town and found only a few which could accommodate large families. Fort Marcy Condos north of the Plaza was a possibility, but was booked for our time period, however the Eldorado Hotel manages the Zona Rosa Condominiums and had 3 bedroom units available. Only 4 blocks from the Plaza, they were an excellent choice! At the last minute, our youngest daughter and her friend decided to join us, so Eldorado reservations booked them a cute room at the Las Palomas Casitas, another property it manages, and just a half block from our condos. For more information, go to my detailed review of these properties by clicking HERE.
As always, there is plenty to do in Santa Fe - shop, visit all the museums, browse the stores and galleries on Canyon Road, take day trips to the mountains, and eat.
The first night, we had dinner at the Pinon Grill - the favorite entree was "Chimayo Chile Seared Prime Rib" best described as mesquite grilled, blacked beef encrusted with mild New Mexican spices! Don't miss ordering this flavorful dish. The next day, we had an early lunch at Pasquals which offers some of the best mexican food, sandwiches, and soups in Santa Fe. The restaurant is tiny and there's always a line, but it's well worth the wait.
The Shed offered excellent New Mexican cuisine - one family ate lunch there; the other enjoyed dinner. We also discovered the Plaza Restaurant, a diner really, with great choices of good basic American and Mexican food. One of our favorite Santa Fe restaurants is Tomasita's - while it advertises North New Mexican food, we think it's very close to Tex-Mex. Our vegetarian daughter was in heaven since they offer lots of meatless choices.
We chose the Pink Adobe for our "holiday dinner" - as always the selections were excellent and service perfect. Half of us ordered Mexican food, the others dined on steaks cooked to perfection and succulent salmon.
We discovered a French restaurant on Burro Alley called the Cafe Paris owned by a husband-wife team who prepare fabulous food! Rahera was born in Tahiti; Paul is from France. For lunch, we had all kinds of soups, sandwiches, crepes, and omelettes, followed by chocolate truffle desserts. The dinner menu looked superb and they also serve breakfast. We also stopped by several times to sample some of their French pastries and specialized coffees.
We didn't have a chance to dine at El Nido (the nest) or the Steaksmith this time, but both are excellent dinner destinations.
We found some other great restaurants on recent trips.
Café San Estevan near the SANBUSCO Market Center has a great selection of New Mexican with some continental specials. Also a small, intimate atmosphere.
The Guadalupe Cafe, close to the Pink Adobe, has wonderful salads, New Mexican, and American specialities. Good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.
If you are near the Plaza and want just some good old comfort food, dine at the Plaza Restaurant Cafe - an old Santa Fe Tradition. The menu is huge including everything from Mexican Food to burgers to their delightful Santa Fe meat loaf.
Locals love Tiny's, south of the Plaza at 1015 Pen Road. It serves a wide array of food - steaks, New Mexican, burgers, and sandwiches at very reasonable prices.
If you plan a driving trip, Restaurante Rancho de Chimayo is an excellent restaurant destination, set in the scenic hills north of Santa Fe about a 40 minute drive along the High Road to Taos. It serves some of the best native northern New Mexican Cuisine for lunch or dinner in a historic New Mexican estate.
If you take a day trip to Taos, be sure to have lunch (or dinner) at the great little Apple Tree restaurant on Bent Street near the Plaza!
Santa Fe has enough stores, galleries, and boutiques to keep someone busy browsing and buying for days. Ortega's On the Plaza is always a great place to find Southwestern style jewelry. Unusual ladies wear can be found at Origins, Spirit of the Earth, and Purple Sage. The Santa Fe Weaving Gallery has some of the most gorgeous natural fiber coats and jackets I've ever seen - very fashionable "wearable art" woven in fine silks, wool, and cottons. Other downtown shops offer everything from tourist trinkets to fine art.
Our 98 pound Akita puppy chewed up my favorite winter boots two weeks before our trip, so I had to wear my 30# snow boots instead. Needless to say, I spent the first day searching for some new boots at every shoe store in town. Walking On Water (on Water Street) had a nice selection but couldn't fit my size 11 feet. The Overland Sheepskin Company had some great outdoor boots and Street Feet did too. Finally, I found the perfect boots at the Yarrow Collection - each pair is handcrafted by a Santa Fe artisan in colorful sheepskin and several low and high top designs are available. The shop also has fanciful sheepskin coats and vests.
Canyon Road, known as "the art and soul" of Santa Fe is a mile long historical street lined with very upscale boutiques, galleries, art studios, and lots of little restaurants. It is about 5 long blocks southeast of the Plaza and starts near the junction of Alameda and Paseo De Peralta. Seeing it all can easily take an afternoon.
Fenn Gallery at 1075 Paseo de Peralta is one of the finest art galleries in the Southwest. It features 19th and 20th century American paintings and sculpture, works by early Taos and Santa Fe painters, as well as artists of the American West and masters of American Modernism and Impressionism.
For more information about shopping, go to my Santa Fe Shopping page.
Eleven excellent museums are in Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico and the second oldest city in the United States. Across from the Plaza, the Palace of the Governors features a 17,000 item collection detailing the history of New Mexico and Native American civilization. Other nearby museums are the new Georgia O'Keeff's Collections, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Institute of American Indian Art Museum.
Jeff, Lynn (ScubaMom), Kenneth, and Katherine outside the Museum of International Folk Art.
While downtown, don't miss the lovely Loretto Chapel which features a spiral staircase built without nails or any visible means of support by a mysterious, wandering carpenter in 1878.
A short drive down Old Santa Fe Trails to Camino Lejo takes you to The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, one of our favorites. The nearby Museum of International Folk Art is also worth a visit.
Most visitors to Santa Fe have a car and take advantage of several wonderful day trips to nearby areas of interest. Probably the most scenic and popular is taking the "high road" to Taos through gorgeous mountains (see the map below). We usually go during late morning and stop at Chimayo to visit the Santuario de Chimayo, a small chapel which some believe to have healing powers, and enjoy naive New Mexican food at Rancho de Chimayo. Taos offers lots of shopping and a historical atmosphere. Be sure to have lunch or dinner at the Apple Tree Restaurant. If we are returning near sunset, then we take the "fast way" back along Route 68 to Interstate 84. (Don't do the "high road" at night - you'll miss the views and the road is quite curvy).
If you want to see Anasazi cliff dwellings, then visit Bandelier National Monument park about a 1 hour scenic drive from Santa Fe. Set in the Frijoles Canyon and surrounded by hill, the park has a small stream running through the center. It has lots for anyone and everyone to do - go through the visitor center, the exhibit room, and take a short walk to see the ruins or do some hiking along several trails.
A walk to see the pueblo ruins and cliff dwellings is about a mile round trip. Paths and steps to the cliffs provide outstanding view of the canyon - I took the picture above at the top of the dwellings path and our friend Koren climbed one of the many ladders into a cave room.
Be sure to purchase a small Bandelier guidebook and trail map before you start exploring - it gives details about various areas of the ruins.
Other day trips can be taken to visit pueblos, quaint towns such as Chama, and Native Indian historical ruins.
Summer visitors enjoy white water rafting - check with your hotel for more information.
Taos offers some of the best skiing in New Mexico and the ski area is about an hour and half drive from Santa Fe. Santa Fe Ski Basin also has ski runs and is served by shuttle buses from most of the major hotels.
Even though there was no snow in Santa Fe during our Christmas visit, both ski areas had enough for some fairly good skiing.
Santa Fe is located about an hours drive north of Albuquerque, and visitors should have an automobile to see all that the town and region has to offer. While Santa Fe has a tiny airport served by commuter flights, most people fly into the Albuquerque airport and rent a car there. In our case, since half our group were driving, those flying into Albuquerque took the "Sandia Shuttle" van service to reach Santa Fe. Non-stop vans make the 70 minute trip 10-12 times a day and will drop riders off at most of the major hotels. The cost is about $25 per person one way; $45 for round trip.
AIRPORT SHUTTLES: It is important to have a reservation with Sandia Shuttle Express before arrival and if your airline schedule runs late, be sure to call them to reserve a later bus. Some of our group who had delayed airline schedules forgot to call and were left standing at the curb -- they ended up renting a car to reach Santa Fe. For information, reservations, and current bus schedules, call (505) 438-0687 in Santa Fe or (888) 775-5696.
RENTAL CARS: All the major car rental companies are available and we usually rent a car.
If you have time for a scenic drive to Santa Fe, take the lovely Turquoise Trail about 2 leisurely hours through hills and valleys. Stop in Madrid, a funky little artists' town and browse the shops and have a beer at the Mine Shaft Tavern or coffee at Java Junction shown below. All the studios and shops are in old buildings like this one.
If you must fly on American Airlines via the Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport to reach Albuquerque, then take this link to my "Suggestions for making connections through the DFW airport".
Photographs, images, & map Lynn McKamey Some photos are taken by Koren Sherrill ArticlesCopyright Lynn McKamey (ScubaMom) All rights resserved.


The port, owned by Forth Ports, has invested over £2million in the development of the bespoke storage warehouse for EWOS which can accommodate over 6,000 tonnes of bulk raw materials at any one time. EWOS is based at Westfield, near Bathgate, which is around 20 minutes from the port, and manufactures fish feed pellets for fish farms across Scotland and for export to various other countries.
EWOS has this week commenced using the warehouse as part of a contract with the port to handle a significant amount of its bulk raw material requirements. The port will manage all of the cargo handling and warehouse management on behalf of EWOS.
The cargo was previously handled in Perth and, by transferring to the Port of Grangemouth, this allows larger vessels and volumes to be handled. This also reduces the carbon footprint of EWOS as there are less road miles from Grangemouth to their facility near Bathgate.


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Learning Waves plans Podcasting workshop
Learning Waves is hosting its first ever Podcast Panel on 21st of November at the IMRO offices, Dublin.
The podcast panel presents a half-day workshop which aims to answer any questions about podcasting attendees may have.
On the day, Aileen O'Meara, Sean Donegan and Andrea Martin will share their expertise with from different walks of the industry. This will then be followed by an open question and answer session at the end.
Andrea Martin is one part of Media Lawyer, a multi-service media and entertainment law firm, Andrea works alongside many independent Irish production companies with all their legal requirements. She will be touching base on what the legal requirements are in relation to podcasting, whether your podcast content is subject to the same legal requirements as your on-air content and if or what role the BAI play in relation to podcasting.
Aileen O'Meara, former RTÉ journalist and producer, with knowledge in journalism, TV and radio news making will also be there on the day. Aileen will be giving an insight into the podcasting landscape in Ireland today and what characteristics are needed to make a 'great' podcast.
She will be sharing how radio and podcasting can and will survive and thrive together and why people in radio are most suited to be the creators of podcasts.
Sean Donegan, Director of Broadcast, Online and International Licensing at IMRO, specialises in music rights licensing and will be giving the low down on the dos and don'ts in terms of music rights in podcasting. He will be sharing insights he has gained through his own experience in working with IMRO as well as a multitude of music publishers and record labels.
For more information or to book a space, see learningwaves.ie/trainingcalendar
learning waves
Three TY students to host special shows on iRadio
BAI awards €745,300 to fund ten radio projects on climate change
New awards event launched for the Irish audio industry
Catherine Martin TD continues as minister responsible for media
10 radio projects get funding in latest BAI Sound & Vision scheme


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The bread of life and
the grieving heart
of a loving father
Bread in a shop window in Dingle, Co Kerry … the Gospel today continues the readings from the 'Bread of Life' discourse in Saint John's Gospel (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2021)
Sunday 8 August 2021, the Tenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity X)
9.30 a.m.: The Parish Eucharist, Castletown Church.
11.30 a.m.: Morning Prayer, Holy Trinity Church, Rathkeale.
Readings: II Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33; Psalm 130; John 6: 35, 41-51
There is a link to the readings HERE.
Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) speaks of the 'Dark Night of the Soul' … her image at her convent church, the Convent of San José or Las Teresas, in Seville (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
May I speak to you in the name of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
Many people feel a deep experience of being driven into the 'spiritual wilderness' at different stages of their lives. During that time in the 'spiritual wilderness,' it is difficult to know that we are travelling through a place of pilgrimage rather than a place of abandonment, and that we are being refreshed and nourished there by God.
Two of the great Carmelite spiritual writers in Spain, Saint Teresa of Ávila (1515-1582) and Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591), write about the 'Dark Night of the Soul.'
One of the themes running through today's readings is the feeling of abandonment and exile, and how in the very moment we feel most distanced from God we find we are fed and nourished by him and are in his very presence.
David and Absalom feel abandoned by each other, father and son. Yet David shows in the most appalling outcome to this rift that he has never lost his love for rebellious Absalom.
In Psalm 130, the psalmist cries 'out of the depths' to God, asking God to 'hear my voice,' and realises that God's love is steadfast and everlasting.
In the Epistle reading for today (Ephesians 4: 25 to 5: 2), Saint Paul reminds us – no matter how we feel – to put away all anger and bitterness and to be kind to one another.
In the Gospel reading, the crowds who follow Christ into the wilderness, are fed, and then find that he is the 'Bread of Life.' They are being told that when we feel abandoned by family, friends and neighbours, God has not abandoned us; when we feel alone and as if we are in desert places, God never abandons us.
One of the reasons many people say they are turned off the 'Old Testament' is the amount of violence they find in it.
People who seem to have no problems passively watching news reports of starvation, war and oppression without feeling the need to respond, have real problems when it comes to Bible stories of wars, murders and battles.
We have them all here this morning in the first reading (II Samuel 18: 5-9, 15, 31-33). It is a story of violence: father and son fighting each other after son has violated sister, mercenaries, pitched battles, slaughter and overkill – in those days a battle force of 20,000 amounted to weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.
Trying to find religious meaning in all of this is difficult with our modern approaches to issues of justice and peace.
So difficult that it is not surprising some people find it difficult to reconcile what they see as the 'God of the Old Testament' with the loving God that Jesus addresses not just as Father, but simply and directly as Abba.
Yet, as we wade through the horror and gore, we catch a glimpse of the love of God as a perfect father.
David has never been a perfect father, a perfect husband, never a perfect king. All these failings are seen in earlier stories in this book: David and Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah (II Samuel 11: 2-27), and then David's failure to deal with Amnon's violation of his own half-sister Tamar (II Samuel 13: 1-21).
In this story, David's love for his first-born son and heir is great, but it prevents him from administering justice. Yet, we know, justice delayed is justice denied.
Frustrated by David's inaction, his third but second surviving son, Absalom, takes the law into his own hands, and has Amnon killed. After time in exile, Absalom returns to the court of his father. But David's refusal to see him for two years leads Absalom to hate his father. Absalom plans a coup d'état and marches on Jerusalem.
David escapes across the Jordan with his army and begins a military comeback. But David's advisers keep the king away from any direct decision about what should happen to Absalom.
David orders his commanders to 'deal gently' with his rebellious son. Despite his rebellion, David still loves Absalom, perhaps hoping against hope at this late stage to save his life.
Absalom's militia are no match for David's army. It is a cataclysmic battle. In the midst of the slaughter of perhaps tens of thousands, we hear of the death of one individual, the wayward Absalom.
As he is riding through the forest, the handsome prince is caught by the 'head,' perhaps by his long hair, and is left dangling from the branches of a great oak tree (verse 9; see II Samuel 14: 25-26).
In his desperate plight, we are left hanging too, wondering what happens, for this morning's reading hastens the pace as it skips over some verses (10-14).
In those missing verses, a man tells Joab of the plight of the dangling Absalom. But he leaves it to Joab to make the decision of whether to kill Absalom.
He is still hanging from the tree when he is killed. But the men who are brave enough to kill the prince when he is an easy target are not brave enough to tell David what they have done to his son. It is amazing how brave men can become so timorous.
So, they send a Cushite, an Ethiopian or Sudanese mercenary or slave (verse 21), to tell David the whole story, both the good news and the bad news, about the victory and about his son being slain (verses 31-32).
David is heartbroken, and his open grief makes him politically weak too. Instead of honouring the victors, he mourns the death of his son.
The cry of a grieving parent for the death of a son or daughter, at any age, is a cry that pierces the soul. And David's grieving, despite all that has happened before, is a truly authentic passage of reportage in the Bible:
'O my son Absalom, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!'
These truly are the words of a distressed father's love for his son, a parent's love for the child. No matter how wayward, how rebellious or how violent that child may be, the love of a parent for a child is impossible to quench totally.
This reading was chosen by Archbishop John McDowell for a devotional reflection at the General Synod some years ago. And, as he read it, I could feel my heart breaking.
David's heart-breaking grief in the first reading is echoed in the opening words of our Psalm, the Psalm known as De Profundis: 'Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice' (Psalm 130: 1).
Yet, in this Psalm, David's cry for deliverance ends with a message of hope for all. God is attentive to our pleas, despite everything that has gone wrong. God forgives, God is merciful, God offers unfailing 'love,' freedom from grievous sin.
Christ understands the difficulties created by the relationship between a parent and child, and between a parent who is grieved by the bickering and battling between two children: think of the parable of the Prodigal Son.
God's love for us surpasses the love of any father or mother for their children.
God's bitter weeping and grieving when he sees our plight is expressed most perfectly in the life, death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.
Of course, we can all cite exceptions to what I say. We know only too well there are abusive parents and there are dysfunctional families. But we also know that with God that there are no exceptions, that in Christ there is no abuse, and that Christ calls us into a relationship with his Father that is free of any dysfunction that we may have known in the past.
God's grief for us is more perfect that David's grief for Absalom. God does not refuse to meet us when we reach out to him. And the love of God the Father, offered to us through Christ his Son, knows no exceptions, knows no boundaries, when it comes to his children.
And so, may all we think, say and do be to the praise, honour and glory of God, + Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.
David and Absalom (Marc Chagall, 1956)
John 6: 35, 41-51 (NRSVA):
35 Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.'
41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' 42 They were saying, 'Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, "I have come down from heaven"?' 43 Jesus answered them, 'Do not complain among yourselves. 44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, "And they shall all be taught by God." Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. 46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father. 47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life. 48 I am the bread of life. 49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.'
'We are strengthened by these holy mysteries' (Post Communion Prayer) … preparing bread for the Eucharist in the Rectory in Askeaton, Co Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)
Liturgical Colour: Green (Ordinary Time, Year B).
The Collect of the Day:
Let your merciful ears, O Lord,
be open to the prayers of your humble servants;
and that they may obtain their petitions,
make them to ask such things as shall please you;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect of the Word:
Grant, O Lord,
that we may see in you the fulfilment of all our need,
and may turn from every false satisfaction
to feed on the true and living bread
that you have given us in Jesus Christ;
who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Post Communion Prayer:
O God, as we are strengthened by these holy mysteries,
so may our lives be a continual offering,
holy and acceptable in your sight;
'De Profundis' (1943), the haunting Holocaust tour de force by Arthur Szyk (1894-1951), draws on Psalm 130: 'Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord'
Hymns:
425, Jesus, thou joy of loving hearts (CD 25)
422, In the quiet consecration (Castletown), CD 25
431, Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (CD 26)
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
Labels: Carmelites, Castletown, Chagall, Dingle, Psalms, Rathkeale, Saint John's Gospel, Sermons 2021, Seville
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In a summer of abnormally high temperatures, a season hot with federal scandals (the Census form dispute, G20 policing issues, the ongoing Afghan prisoner torture cover-up) a big controversy surrounds the Harper government's plan to purchase 65 new F-35 jet fighters from Lockheed Martin. Buying these "flying cadillacs" would make the acquisition of the CF-18 fighter jets by the Trudeau government, and the EH-101 helicopter procurement by Brian Mulroney (subsequently reversed by Jean Chretien), look prudent by comparison – though all are a horrendous waste.
For Canada's rulers and their military apparatus the new jets are integral to playing a role in ongoing foreign wars of intervention. What about the present war in Afghanistan? Its economic price tag, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report, will reach up to $18.1 billion by 2011 — excluding the cost of diplomatic efforts, danger pay for soldiers, and military equipment bought under accelerated procurement. This places the financial cost to Canadian taxpayers for the 'mission' extension past February 2009 at up to $6.8 billion. The $10 billion Ottawa expends every year on the military could otherwise make post-secondary education free and it could eradicate student debt. It could house the homeless, eliminate child poverty, and provide free public transit in the largest urban areas. Given a choice, what do you think most people would prefer?
In the eight years the Canadian state has been part of the imperialist occupation of the mineral-rich country, home to a potential gas pipeline route, over 27,000 Canadians have been deployed, and 151 have died. This is the most of any Canadian intervention since the Korean War, the highest in Afghanistan for foreign troops, proportionately greater than U.S. and U.K. fatalities there. More than 400 have been injured by improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mines, rocket attacks and direct combat. At least 1000 have suffered severe psychological trauma.
More than one in five Canadian soldiers and police officers who spend time in Afghanistan leave the force with psychiatric problems, a number that has rapidly risen in the last 24 months.