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A Trump Win Could Protect the Environment
Posted on November 9, 2016 by usdr in Lifestyle, Opinion/Editorial, Politics // 0 Comments
By The Western Way, Special for USDR
For the past 18 months, certain political conservatives have bent over backwards trying to draw hopeful links between Donald Trump and President Theodore Roosevelt. While the two New Yorkers share common character traits, the relevant question is whether a President Donald Trump would make any attempt to model his own initiatives after President Roosevelt's legacy movement. The political and policy opportunities are ripe for a President Trump to create a resurgence of the conservative conservationist movement.
Conservatives have completely yielded the conservation mantle to the progressive liberals since President Theodore Roosevelt's term ended over a hundred years ago. Fast forward to 2016 and this has become a major problem for the GOP to remain relevant. Today's millennial voters place conservation and environmental policy as their top priority issues and the reason they cannot align with conservatives.
This is primarily a messaging problem created over the past 100 years. The fact remains that conservatives do not care less about the environment than liberals; they just insist on using facts rather than rhetoric to define the scope of government solutions needed to address our country's most significant environment and conservation challenges. Regardless, progressives have become extraordinarily effective at proposing drastic and ineffective regulations and then painting conservatives as "anti-environment" for their rational opposition.
Conservatives need to put an end to this destructive cycle. Energy, conservation, wildlife, and water issues are all areas in which Mr. Trump, if elected President, could pro-actively engage conservative leaders to find commonsense, pro-market solutions while respecting and enhancing our country's cherished national treasures and resources. Before adopting pro forma GOP policies in this space, a President Donald Trump should take a deep breath, channel Teddy Roosevelt, and recognize the generational opportunity to reclaim the mantle of conservative conservationists.
Here are three initiatives a President Trump could initiate in the first 100 days to accomplish this political and policy coup:
1) A Proactive Conservation Initiative. The most direct path to support and strengthen President Theodore Roosevelt's historic legacy actually plays to Mr. Trump's greatest strengths. President Trump can think big, act boldly, and make historic investments in the finest real estate in the United States. In the first month, President Trump should outline a bold initiative to create new national monuments through the U.S. Antiquities Act. Across the country, you will find national land treasures befitting this designation. Even within the U.S.'s ownership portfolio, you will find over 2 million acres of public land in designation limbo (and largely off limits to public uses). This would be a Trump move: bold, popular, outside the partisan box. Politically, it would be brilliant- erasing millennials' biggest concern that the GOP is "anti-conservation" and "anti-environment" and instead creating a positive movement for millennials to become proud conservatives.
2) A Pro-Market Energy Policy: The U.S. is blessed with an abundance of fossil fuel and new energy resources. A President Trump should make clear that a true pro-market energy policy maximizes each resource. Look at Colorado as a state that tapped into its full resource potential and has become an international energy innovation leader. Fracking innovations have catapulted the state into its place as leader of domestic oil production- creating 213,000 jobs dedicated to just one energy-drilling process. At the same time, 438 solar companies now operate in Colorado, making solar the second fastest-growing industry in Colorado and the wind energy industry is adding thousands of jobs throughout the state with wind turbine plants and new wind farms. Across the country, the U.S. has enormous traditional and alternative energy resources and an aggressive push by President Trump to maximize utilization in each sector will deliver a sustainable U.S. energy policy that serves as a model for the rest of the world.
3) A Permanent Conservation Funding Solution: Since 1965, the Land & Water Conservation Fund ("LWCF") has provided the financial support to create and maintain the United States public lands program. Using no public funds, LWCF is funded by a portion of royalties energy companies pay the government for extracting publicly-owned offshore oil and gas. It is a common-sense program that reinvests public revenues generated from resource development into resource redevelopment. The bi-partisan program has been a complete success- protecting more than 5 million acres of land and supporting more than 41,000 public lands projects in all 50 states. However, political gridlock and a lack of fiscal discipline threatens the program virtually every year. Congress has failed to make the funding authorization permanent and each year more LWCF funds are wastefully diverted to unrelated government programs. There is now significant bi-partisan support in both the House and Senate to permanently authorize the LWCF. A President Trump should recognize this as low-hanging fruit to deliver a common-sense solution to one of the most popular federal programs in the U.S.
Conservatives may require Donald Trump's bold leadership to shed this false "anti-environment" label that progressive liberals have so effectively branded on conservatives. Conservatives are not anti-conservation or anti-environment. Conservatives are proud stewards of the land who demand efficient solutions to honest problems. A President Trump should see the enormous political and policy value in reclaiming ownership of President Theodore Roosevelt's legacy by leading common-sense solutions that improve U.S. conservation efforts AND enhance the U.S. economy.
Jon Anderson is Director of The Western Way (www.WesternWay.org), a nonprofit organization promoting pro-market solutions to actual conservation and environmental challenges facing the United States.
SOURCE The Western Way


When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in 1939 the assault was condemned widely. In many countries the general opinion was very favourable to the Finnish cause but since none of the western democratic governments was ready to send regular troops to assist Finland, spontaneous volunteer movements started organizing volunteers to help the Finnish David against the Soviet Goliath.
In December 1939 the Finnish government decided that volunteers would be accepted only from countries definitely friendly to the Finnish cause. This included e.g. Scandinavians, Hungarians, British and French volunteers. German and Russian volunteers were not permitted. Since the Finnish army lacked arms and equipment, the volunteers were to accepted only if they came with their own arms and basic military gear. Also, the volunteers were to be come as organized, trained units with own officers. In January 1940 after heavy losses among Finnish troops this decision was modified so that basically all able-bodied men were to be accepted at the discretion of Finnish embassies. Russian emigrants and Jewish refugees were, however, still excluded.
The French and the British were planning to send an official expeditionary force, but the war ended before these plans could be realized. In fact, the expeditionary force probably would have had as its main task ensuring the supplies of Swedish iron ore and helping Finland would have been merely an excuse to send a military force to Scandinavia. The French policy was to discourage any potential volunteers since it was thought that all able-bodied men were needed in the French army. The Polish refugees who had joined the French army would have been anxious to fight against the Soviet Union in Finland but here, too, the French thought it more prudent not to let them go.
Since Germany was allied with the Soviet Union at the time, the official German line forbade enlistment of German volunteers. Italy, another dictatorship, felt it had to toe a cautious line and forbade enlistment although Mussolini felt great sympathy for Finland. There were about 5000 Italian volunteers willing to come to Finland but the government denied them passports for leaving the country.
When it was decided that also men without previous military training were to be accepted, a training system was created. According to this plan, a special unit for foreign volunteers was set up in Lapua. This unit was called Detachment Sisu, in Finnish Osasto Sisu. Sisu is a Finnish word for a national characteristic deemed unique for us Finns; it refers to something that might be called stubbornness in a negative context but we Finns prefer to think this characteristic as something positive: determination and pervasiveness.
The unit's commander was a Finnish officer, Captain Bertil Nordlund.
Detachment Sisu grew very slowly and when the peace treaty was signed and the war ended in March 13th there were only 153 volunteers from different countries. This figure excludes the Hungarians, who joined the detachment as a unit of their own. Even after March 13th the trickle of men continued so that at its peak in February 20th the unit consisted of 212 men.
About 60 foreign volunteer pilots volunteered and were sent to Lentorykmentti 19 (Flight Regiment 19) in Parola. Many of these pilots needed further training. Some pilots also flew with Finnish units. Foreign pilot casualties were three Swedes, four Danes, one Italian and one Hungarian.
Swedes were the largest single nationality group. Around 8000 men served in different formations. The most important formation was the Swedish Volunteer Corps (Svenska Frivilligkåren) with three battalions and other units. The Volunteer Corps was formed in Finland, since the Swedish government felt they could not send volunteers over as a unit. In spite of this, it was made easy for active officers to get leave for volunteering in Finland. This policy suited well for the Swedish government since it would remain officially neutral but the general opinion willing to help Finland would also be taken to account. The Corps' commander was General Lieutenant Linder, a Swedish general born in Finland. General Linder, all three battalion commanders of the Corps and some other senior officers had experience from war in Finland after having fought as volunteers in 1918 in the Finnish Civil War.
The Volunteer Corps took over the front-line in the northern part of the front in Salla area on February 28th 1940 and thus saw two weeks of action. Since this part of the front was quiet the Swedes were given purely defensive orders. Losses for the Corps were 28 KIA, ca. 50 wounded and 140 with frostbite.
Another unit was the Flight Regiment 19 (Lentorykmentti 19, LeR19; 19. flygflottilj, F19). This unit flew with aircraft from the Swedish Air Force: Gladiators, Harts, Bulldogs and others. Altogether there were 25 planes. The unit was stationed in the north of Finland with the task of protecting the largest towns and communications network in the area. There were also Swedish anti-aircraft units in the area.
Apart from the Volunteer Corps and LeR 19 there were Swedes in an anti-aircraft unit defending the city of Turku, coastal artillery units, navy, field artillery and in a construction unit with the task of building fortifications.
After the war the Corps and other Swedes returned back home. In 1941, when the Finns were again in war against Soviet Union some of these men volunteered again to Finland.
About 700 hundred Norwegians volunteered, but since their government would not release any senior officers, they were enrolled within the Swedish Volunteer Corps. When the Corps was disbanded, the Norwegians returned home and probably most of these men saw action against the invading Germans.
Only Hungarians sent volunteers as an organized unit according to the initial Finnish requirements. The unit consisted of 346 officers and men with one month of training in Hungary. These men reached Finland in March 2nd and were stationed to Lapua for further training in Detachment Sisu. Their commander was Captain Imre Keméri-Nagy, a right-wing activist with experience from the fighting that ensued when Hungary occupied parts of Slovakia in 1938.
Apart from this battalion there were about twenty Hungarians who had volunteered on individual basis. Most of these men were sent to Detachment Sisu and some of these later joined the Hungarian company when the company arrived in Lapua.
After the war the Hungarians were sent for a while to the Lappeenranta garrison and finally returned home in May 1940.
When the war ended there were only 13 British volunteers in Finland although many more had volunteered, including 214 men who reached Finland and Lapua one week after the war had ended. There were further 750 volunteers waiting to be shipped to Finland, but with the armistice in March 13th, they never came to Finland. The Britons were also stationed in Lapua and formed the British company of Detachment Sisu. Among the Britons there were other nationalities, too: e.g. Irish, Portuguese and at least one man of Estonian birth. According to the initial British plan all the British volunteers were to fight in a single unit. Command of the unit was to be given to Colonel Kermit Roosevelt, son of Theodore Roosevelt.
Some of the British volunteers travelled home throught Sweden immediately after the war, but the majority were stationed for some time in Savonlinna. Some of the men were forced to return home via difficult routes, e.g.Palestine or Vladivostok in the Soviet far east. There were still some British volunteers in Finland in 1941 when Finland was again in war with the Soviet Union. This time there were German troops stationed in the northern part of Finland and some of the former British volunteers were employed by their embassy to monitor German troop movements.
Apart from Hungarians and British, the largest group by nationality in Detachment Sisu were the Estonians, officially 56 men. These men had volunteered in spite of the official friendly line of their government towards the Soviet Union. There were probably some more Estonians fighting in purely Finnish units at the front.
After the war about a dozen of Estonians deserted from Lapua for Norway and fought there against the invading Germans. Some Estonians stayed in Finland and later, in 1941 volunteered again for the Finnish army. Some of these men were sent to Estonia in the summer of 1941 to the rear of the Soviet forces there.
About 1000 Danish volunteers came and were sent to training in Oulu. These men also, were not ready for front-line duties when the war ended. The Danes were commanded by Colonel V. Tretow-Loof.
About 350 Americans, mainly of Finnish birth, were also sent for training in Oulu. One company of he Americans reached the front in March 12th and were supposed to take charge of the trenches in 13th, but the order was reversed when the war ended on the very same day. A group of about 30 Americans managed to get posted at the front in December. This group fought as a unit of its own and suffered some casualties.
In Kemi was formed the Detachment H, which consisted of men from Finnic ethnic groups living in the Soviet Union. After the training period these men were formed into Sissipataljoona 5 (basically a light infantry battalion). This unit saw action beginning from mid-February on the Kuhmo front. Some Estonians probably also served in this unit.
Apart from the above-mentioned groups, there were volunteers from several other countries and nationalities. Also, there were e.g. a British fire brigade unit in Helsinki and a Swedish veterinary ambulance.
According to official Finnish figures there were following numbers of volunteers by nationality on March 13th.
In spite of the great publicity, Finland received little effective military help. The Swedish unit with Norwegians thrown in was the only significant foreign unit to see action. The volunteer movement made greater impact on psychological front: the Finnish people felt that they had not been totally abandoned although the sympathy without action generated some sombre comments among Finns. The fact that little effective military help managed to reach Finland was in turn proof that the Western democracies could not give any guarantees for Finland's freedom. This was even more evident when soon after the Winter War Germany occupied Denmark and Norway thus effectively cutting any routes from Finland to the West. This in turn was one factor in forcing Finland to accept German help against the Soviet threat.


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California cannabis businesses urged to get boring by following basic rules
In the wake of the passage last November of Proposition 64, which legalized recreational use of marijuana for adults 21 and older, by some estimates cannabis in California may be on the verge of becoming a $7 billion industry.
About 50 current and prospective owners of cannabis businesses gathered in a conference room near University City on a recent evening. But they were not talking about things like cultivation methods or different strains of pot.
Instead, the topics were much more buttoned-down, even boring — employee classification, liability insurance and regulatory compliance.
After decades of outlier and outlaw status, marijuana in the Golden State is just months away from becoming a legally licensed enterprise and the speakers at the meeting earlier this month said those in the cannabis sector must make sure they concentrate on regulatory and compliance issues that often have been overlooked or simply ignored.
[related_articles location="left" show_article_date="false" article_type="automatic-primary-section" curated_ids=""]"These issues are going to be so much more important now," said San Diego attorney Kimberly Simms, who has worked with clients in the marijuana industry for the past eight years and organized Thursday's meeting. "We're going to have to be a flexible industry. California over-regulates everything and cannabis is not going to be an exception to that."
Some issues are as simple as making sure a business writes and enforces an employee handbook. Others include misconceptions over labor and employment law, ranging from things such as too often classifying employees as independent contractors, correctly tabulating overtime, dealing with discrimination accusations and handling payroll.
Overlooking details can lead to battles in court that can threaten the very existence of a nascent business, said Danielle Moore, an expert in workplace law and who counsels employers in the cannabis industry for the firm of Fisher Phillips.
"Everybody wants to be part of the industry because it has so much potential," Moore said. "They think it's going to be easy. It's not easy."
Moore gave a PowerPoint presentation showing how a lawsuit over unpaid overtime to one employee earning $60,000 a year can potentially end up costing a company with a staff of 15 nearly $900,000.
"Starting and launching a small business is always hard," Moore said. "But for cannabis, it's times 10."
That's because while pot may be legal in California, the federal government still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, in the same category as narcotics like heroin.
That often leads to closer scrutiny from law enforcement and also scares off banks from taking on clients in the cannabis sector, which means many owners deal exclusively in cash.
Jeffrey Rosen, the co-founder of San Franciso-based CBZ Insurance Services, warned Thursday's audience that a bigger marijuana industry will lead to greater exposure to legal battles, such as product liability lawsuits.
Companies that deal in edibles are also likely to face suits should a customer consume too much or get ill.
"People running cannabis companies have to look at insurance as a mandatory part of their business," Rosen said. "They need to protect themselves from all different types of liability. But I find in this industry that people see insurance as an 'as-needed' item, meaning, 'when I think I need it, I'll get it but until then I'm not going to.' "
There are other considerations, too.
For example, the state will classify cultivation of marijuana as agriculture.
A representative from the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board was at Thursday's meeting and said if cultivators and growers of marijuana with 20 or more employees want to receive a license from the state they must sign what's called a "labor peace agreement," in which the employer promises not to resist attempts by a union to organize workers.
There are also OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations to consider as well as potential action from federal law enforcement agencies. In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission charged a West Hollywood marijuana company with falsifying earnings.
"A lot of the cannabis industry is coming from an era of black market to self-regulation to quasi-compliance," said Simms. "Regulation is just around the corner and these issues are going to become so much more important."
Prop 64 passed with 57 percent of the vote, making California the largest state to legalize recreational use of marijuana. State officials are in the process of establishing a licensing and taxation regime that is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 1, 2018.
Moore said those considering jumping into the cannabis business need to be extra careful.
"This is not something you can do easily," Moore said. "So for someone who wants to come into it, you need to plan for that, be prepared to commit to the challenges and be 'uber-compliant.' "
© 2017 San Diego Union Tribune (San Diego, Calif.) Visit The Union Tribune at www.sandiegouniontribune.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
To subscribe to The Cannifornian's email newsletter, click here.
Tags: Business, California, marijuana, Medical Marijuana, Recreational marijuana, Regulation
SoCal city to allow indoor, outdoor cultivation of both medical and recreational marijuana
Jeff Sessions: Being soft on sentencing means more violent crime. It's time to get tough again.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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X74 är beteckningen för ett tågset som operatören MTRX (tidigare MTR Express) använder i Sverige sedan mars 2015. Motorvagnarna är tillverkade av det schweiziska företaget Stadler Rail, har en maximal effekt på 4 500 kW samt en maximal hastighet på 200 km/h. De trafikerar linjen Stockholm - Göteborg. Tåget är en version av den Stadler FLIRT-modell som levererats till den norska operatören NSB; till stor del samma tekniska specifikationer, men med annan inredning. Tågen är konstruerade för att klara det stränga klimat som råder i schweiziska alperna och Norden.

Historia
MTR beställde i november 2013 sex nya motorvagnståg av schweiziska tågtillverkaren Stadler. MTR använder tågen i sin snabbtågstrafik Göteborg-Stockholm som startade 21 mars 2015. Det första tågsättet kom till Sverige i november 2014.

Tekniskt utförande
Ett X74-tågsätt består av totalt 5 vagnar. Tåget har till viss del jakobsboggier, dock är inte alla boggier av denna typ. Tågets topphastighet är 200 km/h, vilket idag är maxhastigheten för tåg i Sverige. Flera tågsätt kan kopplas ihop vid behov. Tågen har ingen korglutning.

Vagnkorgarna är tillverkade av aluminium.

Hastighetsnormer
De svenska normerna för maximala kurvhastigheter reviderades 2017.

I praktiken innebär det bland annat att X74 teoretiskt endast kör 8% långsammare i kurvorna än X2000, i praktiken handlar det om 3-5% för totalresan. Samma hastighetsskillnad gäller många av raksträckorna eftersom ATC räknar på överhastighet och inte kurvkraft.

Inredning
Tågen har 2+2-sittning och inredningen är anpassad för fjärrtrafik. Ombord finns kiosk i mittersta vagnen tillsammans med handikapplatser. Huvudsakligen går inredningen i grått, men inslag av röd färg finns samt att vissa stolar har röd accentfärg.

Egenskaper
Samtliga X74-tåg är utrustande med följande som standard:
 Café/kiosk
 Eluttag
 Wifi
 Lågt insteg - handikappanpassad
 Klimatanläggning

Referenser

Se även
Stadler Flirt

Svenska motorvagnar
Snabbtåg

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Is this Combining Like Terms Practice Worksheet Idea of math love combining like terms and the distributive property you are looking for? This template is created by our authors to make our work easier. You can modify this template to suit your individual needs. There is no obligation to pay if you download this template.


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Acacia Johnson
National Geographic Photographer
Acacia Johnson is a photographer, artist, and writer from Alaska, focused on human relationships to the Earth's polar regions. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Acacia received a Fulbright grant to Canada in 2014, to spend a winter documenting the Inuit's evolving relationship with their environment on Baffin Island. Since then, she has been increasingly interested in anthropological themes in the Arctic and Antarctica. Johnson's work has been featured by numerous publications, including digital stories for National Geographic about the Inuit community on Baffin Island, snow algae and sea ice in polar environments, and wildlife on Antarctica's Deception Island caldera. Acacia has made over 55 expeditions to the polar regions—Greenland, Svalbard, the Canadian Arctic, and Antarctica—frequently lecturing on photography, Arctic indigenous culture, and visual representations of these unique regions. Most recently, Johnson returned to Baffin Island for two months in 2018 for her project Sea Ice Stories.
Acacia's work is also housed in collections such as the Anchorage Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of American History.


Congleton Glass Company Ltd of Congleton Cheshire. Double glazing frames are usually in certainly one of three materials: uPVC (or PVCu), aluminium, or hardwood.
As a part of the service your double glazing firm affords, a surveyor will have a look at your property and advise you as to which materials would be best. They should be capable of provide samples for you to look at, both in your individual home, or in a showroom. If this isn't possible, then they may be able to present you different installations locally that can show you the differences between the three materials.
Other than the appearance of the different materials, which may have an effect on your decision, each material has its own advantages.
The choice of fabric is actually up to you and a superb surveyor will have the ability to provide you with advice. He or she will have a look at your property, listen to your needs and answer your questions earlier than advising you on which double glazing material he or she thinks would suit you best. Give Congleton Glass Company Ltd a call to discuss your requirements.


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Footage of Chilwell shell factory found in shed seen for the first time in 100 years
Workers at the Imperial War Museum have spent the last four years painstakingly restoring the film
Jon PritchardDeputy digital news editor
Century-old footage of life inside Chilwell's munitions factory during the First World War has been seen for the first time in 100 years.
The Kodak film was found in a shed in the town four years ago and has been cleaned and restored thanks to painstaking work by staff at the Imperial War Museum in London.
The film shows worker, including a large number of women and teenage boys, rolling shell cases around the giant foundry, painting and marking the casings, pouring in liquid amatol and tampering down the explosive mix with a heavy mallet and dowel.
The footage, recorded by the War Office, is believed to have been shot in 1916 or 1917, and is likely to contain images of people who died in the explosion on July 1, 1918.
Final design chosen for First World War memorial at Victoria Embankment - but £50,000 still needs to be raised
Eight tons of explosives ignited in one of the mixing rooms, leaving 134 dead and many more injured. Only 32 people were ever properly identified.
It was found soaked with water and covered in grass cuttings in a garden shed four years ago and was handed to the BBC, who in turn passed it on to the museum.
A still from a film showing Chilwell's munitions factory. The video has been painstakingly restored by staff at the Imperial War Museum in London. (Image: Imperial War Museum)
When it arrived at Imperial War Museums' specialist film handling facilities at Duxford it was in several pieces and in a perilous state of decay, with the substantial water damage badly affecting the surface of the nitrate film.
By carefully cleaning and joining the pieces together – all 1,400 feet – and feeding the film delicately through specialist recording equipment at just four frames a second, technicians were able to create a new film master.
A team of four spent around three months working on restoring the film and copying it on to safer materials.
Crews spend hours tackling huge fire at disused school
Rebecca Harding, a curator and film specialist at Imperial War Museums, said: "It was in an incredibly poor condition when it arrived here. It was in 20 different pieces and was covered in grass cuttings.
"We have very carefully cleaned it and put it on to 35mm film."
She said the footage gives an insight into what life was like for women during the war.
"This footage was a significant find as it highlights the impact the war had on women in the workplace and clearly shows the dangerous nature of the work carried out in such factories," she said.
"It seems like it was filmed at the same time as a War Office propaganda film, 'A day in the life of a munitions worker', which is also held by Imperial War Museums, but this footage is much less staged and feels more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary giving a more accurate portrayal of what it was like to work at the factory."
It was found by Colin Buttler after it was left to him by his father, Arthur Ward Buttler, as part of his huge collection of move memoribilia.
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Mr Buttler said: "After the war the factory remained an MOD depot and my dad worked there. He left all sorts of films when he died and this was amongst them but I don't know how he got it."
Professor John Beckett from the University of Nottingham said: "This is an important piece of film because it gives us an idea of life on the home front in the First World War.
"The most notable feature is the employment of women, who made up about one-third of the workforce, and were heavily involved in some of the key activities of the factory.
'Bizarre' twisting tornado clouds spotted above Nottingham overnight
"Sadly, for them, many of them lost their employment only a few months after the explosion, when the Armistice on 11 November 1918 put an immediate end to shell production."
On Sunday, July 1, a special commemoration service will take place at the church, with a military parade and a two-minute silence at 7.10pm – the exact time of the explosion.


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Home ICO News Savedroid Performs a fake Exit Scam to raise Awareness on Dangerous ICOs
Savedroid Performs a fake Exit Scam to raise Awareness on Dangerous ICOs
The world of cryptos never ceases to amaze. The good news and the bad news always make fans want to keep up to date with the world of the blockchain.
However, despite the significant advances that have been made in the industry, it is generally the sad news that tends to spread the fastest. A few hours ago, social networks were flooded with news that had more than one on the verge of nervousness and worry: Savedroid, one of Germany's most successful and credible fintechs had disappeared in what could be the world's last ICOs exit scam.
Its CEO, Dr. Yassin Hankir had done a substantial job of promoting his initiative, which gained the credibility and trust of thousands of followers who led a very active and optimistic community.
The presence in Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Telegram, and BitcoinTalk showed the seriousness of the team and the approval of the KYC policies and tests of the ICOs rating agencies made of SaveDroid a credible option to invest.
When the ICO was announced, many people relied on the project for increased investment supported by positive feedback and constant feedback from the team.
When the ICO was completed, Dr. Yassin Hankir announced in the official media on March 9, 2018. The funds had exceeded $50 million, and the team was preparing for the next phase of its roadmap.
However, a short time after the fundraiser was over, news broke through the social networks, forums, and news portals: The website had closed, mocking investors in what seemed to be the typical scene of an exit scam.
Also, on his personal twitter, Yassin Hankir himself posted a photograph of an Egyptian beer on a beach with the phrase "Thanks Guys, over and out" on it.
Thanks guys! Over and out … #savedroidICO pic.twitter.com/PMRtjlbEdD
— Yassin Hankir #savedroidico (@YassinHankir) April 18, 2018
The scam seemed to be true as not only did they vanish virtually, but their offices were also unexpectedly vacated. A user at Reddit visited their headquarters in Germany and was able to see that no one is actually working in these facilities:
The group of administrators even left the Telegram channel, so there was no way to contact those responsible for the project. This situation continued for just over a day during which nervousness, anger and trolling were the order of the day in the community.
AND IT'S NOT GONE
Today, the Savedroid site went online again, with an ad on its main page. Its CEO announced that the tactic of pretending an exit scam sought to raise investors' awareness of the need for a regulatory framework to protect users from such scams:
"Savedroid was here, is here, and will be here. Aaand savedroid is all in for establishing high quality ICO standards"
They also created a new site: www.anditsg.one in which they offered two types of services:
A free consultancy service for the community, consisting of a checklist that allows them to evaluate the reliability of a project as well as its legality.
A paid service under which they would offer professional consulting to those ICOs that have previously complied with the checklist.
In addition to the rage that can be observed in the company's social networks, perhaps the most serious of all has been the decision of the German authorities to initiate a criminal investigation against the company to determine whether there will be any kind of trial or punishment against those responsible.
It's clear that although it wasn't the best way to do it, Savedroid's team did meet its goal. For 24 hours investors felt the same way as the victims of other big scams like Bitconnect. And although there are probably some who have lost the credibility of the project, it is hoped that in the future the team will continue with their product. Their ICO' s web traffic increased. Now we have to wait to see if any advertising is good advertising.
exit scam
fake scam
ico scam
savedroid
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Advocates for a suspended Saskatchewan high school student are demanding a probe into the boy's treatment after his research into the effects of marijuana triggered a storm of controversy and harsh punishment.
New Democrat MP Libby Davies is among those concerned that 15-year-old Kieran King was suspended, forced to miss his final exams, and threatened with police action despite the fact he says he has never used, or even seen, the drug.
In a news release, Davies called for an investigation into Wawota Parkland School Principal Susan Wilson's actions in the case. The MP also said the Grade 10 student's research into cannabis in comparison to alcohol and tobacco is reasonable.
"I respect Kieran's right to debate issues that are important to young people," Davies said.
King became interested in the subject months ago when his class was given a presentation about the dangers of cannabis. Feeling the argument was one-sided, King began researching the subject on his own, came to the conclusion that marijuana was less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco, and began sharing his findings with other students.
King has said on several occasions that he has never used or even seen marijuana.
One student complained to the school principal, who became concerned that King was advocating the use of drugs. Wilson, the principal, warned she would call the police if King talked about it again, The Globe and Mail reports.
From there, the situation spiralled further. King planned a freedom-of-speech walkout for Tuesday morning with the help of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party — an event at which free hemp seed cookies were to be handed out, The Globe reports.
But Wilson got wind of the protest, and students were banned from leaving the school. Kieran and his younger brother Lucas did so anyway, and Wilson then ordered a lockdown, which brought the RCMP racing to the school, where a small group of protesters stood peacefully outside.
Later that day, the school conducted a threat assessment on Kieran with the help of the RCMP and school division counsellors, Kieran's mother Jo Anne Euler told The Globe.
During the assessment, Euler said officials looked at roughly a half dozen occasions during the past year that her son had talked about marijuana. But neither she nor her son had been contacted on any of those occasions.
"Were they documented before or was it a witch hunt after the fact where they said 'Let's try to remember all the times Kieran talked about marijuana?' " she asked.


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The Path that Ended - Thoughts on the End of Season 3
By Alexander Wilkie on July 28, 2017 | Columns | Comments
The final installment of Living World Season 3 has come at last! One Path Ends, the highly-anticipated ending to the third season of the game's lauded Living World, brings the Heart of Thorns cycle to an end and prepares the game for its second expansion, with a live announcement set for Tuesday the 1st of August. This episode attempts to conclude some of the stories opened at the launch of the season, as well as adding more depth to the tale that can be explored as we head in to the game's Crystal Desert expansion and a new area of the world.
BEWARE! THERE BE SPOILERS APLENTY AHEAD!
The Pact Commander, fresh from an encounter with Balthazar- the Human god of war and fire- sets off on the deity's trail to stop him from destroying the Elder Dragons of Tyria. Throughout the game's life, we have been set on finding and destroying these primordial beings, but now to protect the world from certain destruction, we need to save them from the rampaging god, as the release of magic their deaths brings in to the world is proving to have cataclysmic effects. The Commander checks in to the human capital of Divinity's Reach, questioning a priest of Balthazar to try and obtain his whereabouts. Countess Anise is already in heated discussion with the priest when the Commander arrives, and after fruitless efforts to gain information from the zealot, pulls the Commander aside.
Here, they are informed that The Eye of Janthir is chasing down the remaining Aspects of Lazarus, relics imbued with the essence of the ancient Mursaat, trying to reunite with its former master. Anise also informs the Commander that Balthazar is likely to have one of these Aspects himself, and that following the Eye could take them to him. They rendezvous with one of the Shining Blade Exemplars, whom Anise has told them is also tracking the Eye, and after a heated battle with bloodthirsty White Mantle, the Commander claims a remaining aspect of Lazarus, cautious of the plans this Exemplar might have, and heads back to Divinity's Reach to question the motives of the Shining Blade.
The Commander is told that to learn what the secrets of the Shining Blade are, the commander must first take a binding magical oath that seals them to secrecy, on penalty of death. The Commander accepts, and is initiated in to the organisation, sworn to protect Kryta and its interests above all else. The Commander learns that the Shining Blade Exemplar plans to resurrect Lazarus the Dire with the aspects they have gathered, and to end his threat once and for all by destroying the revived Mursaat. At this point, the Commander once again sets out after the Eye of Janthir, working in collaboration with the Shining Blade Exemplar, splitting up to look for both Balthazar and the Eye itself. The Commander boards a Shining Blade Ship to the Orrian coast, a new map, containing the Reliquaries of the human gods. They are informed by the Sylvari, who are there attempting to re cultivate the land in honour of the late Trahearne, that both Balthazar and the Eye of Janthir have been sighted in the region. After helping the ghosts of the last King and Queens of Orr, the Commander learns that they went to Abaddon's Reliquary, the lair of the old god of Secrets. The Reliquary can only be opened once power has been restored to all other god's Reliquaries, and the Commander goes one by one restoring power until at least only Abaddon's remains. Inside, they are re-joined by the Shining Blade Exemplar, who helps in overcoming the numerous traps and encounters of the Temple before finally they reach both the Aspect of Lazarus and the Eye of Janthir.
The Exemplar puts her plan in to action, combining the Aspects of Lazarus to confront the Mursaat, aided by the power of the Shining Blade (the sword which the organisation is named for). During the fight, we learn that the Exemplar is none other than Livia in disguise! Livia, an ancient champion of Tyria from Guild Wars 1, and one of the most powerful and most popular heroes, aids the commander in finally putting down Lazarus after a bone crunching battle with the god like figure. Successful in her long-term goal, Livia is left feeling both fulfilled and empty, and sets the Commander on their path with words of encouragement. With the threat of the Mursaat finally ended, the Commander commands the Eye of Janthir, in its dying moments, to show them Balthazar and his whereabouts, triggering an epic cut-scene showing both the Elder Dragon Kralkatorrik engulfed in flame along with the entire Crystal Desert burning before Balthazar. The Commander resigns to the duty of hunting Balthazar down across the sea, and the story ends with their resolve to hunt him down to the Crystal desert and save Tyria.
SPOILERS ARE NOW MOSTLY COMPLETE! MINOR ONES LEFT…
My reactions to this story were mixed, both loving and hating different aspects of the execution. On the one hand, the gameplay in this Episode was absolutely out of this world. The renowned hearts are without a doubt my personal favourite to complete in the entire living world, especially the heart in the Reliquary of Dwayna which uses gliding excellently. The mobs are wonderful, with the Risen making a return appearance as some of the most difficult mobs the game can offer along with the new enemies from the Living World and epic boss fights in the new map. The fight inside the Shining Blade Headquarters, where we recreate the Henge of Denravi battle from Guild Wars 1, was exceptionally well done, with achievements for taking out certain numbers of mobs and for the way in which we take on our own fears in the following encounter.
This gameplay comes to an epic culmination when we battle Lazarus the Dire, who has both intense damaging attacks as well as thought out mechanics requiring close attention and well-timed damage from players. Mechanic rich fights and high pressure situations really add to the feel of the episode, and it was extremely immersive to play in situations that, whether an expert of an amateur, called for attention and timing. The puzzles such as the bloodstone traps and the fire floors also made it much more exciting to play, where players got to use their brains and not just their fists to take on the story, and the many achievements and masteries obtainable in the episode gave it both replayability and goals to work towards for a little while whilst waiting for the expansion.
Where the episode fell short for myself, and for the many angry reddit and forum goers, was in the execution of the story itself. Whilst the season sets up an epic return of the White Mantle and a powerful Mursaat, both Flashpoint and One Path Ends work together to make the entire previous story redundant in order to add in more and more Guild Wars 1 throwbacks and overlap more stories on to one another. As a veteran and huge fan of the older, unclosed stories, on paper I would be super excited to see these stories return to the franchise. However, the execution of the stories was extremely half baked to me, throwing in lots of throwbacks and references all at once in small doses rather than dealing with major story issues as they come and treating the old content with the same grandeur that you would expect from god like figures and immortal, sceptre wielding heroes of Tyria.
This comes through mostly in the dialogue, where the witty and quippy remarks serve not to provide comic relief, but instead take away from the seriousness of the situations the characters are in with 'cringe worthy' moments. This stands true only for this current episode, with a great deal of the previous content being much better, and really stood out to me as an anomaly in the usually strong writing from Arenanet. What really sits with me, however, was the character's acceptance to take the oath and join the Shining Blade. The decision made me want to pull my hair out, watching a Blood Legion Charr, a Legion not even fully at peace with the humans of Kryta, swear to protect and uphold them above all else, was unbearably ill thought out. Other races, like the Asuran and the Norn, come across almost just as unlikely, with self-interest being a key theme in the stories we have previously seen from the game. It showed a very human centric approach to the story that has evolved from both White Mantle, Mursaat, Human God and Human protagonists that ignore the brilliant world building done by the base game.
Having said all of that, I thoroughly enjoyed playing through the episode, and as a self-proclaimed lore buff I probably brought a lot of the problems on myself by having high expectations for the stories I knew a lot about. But in an MMO, players are expected to be immersed, and many diehard fans have been left with a sour taste from the questionable decisions in the story. What it didn't damper, however, was the HYPE for the expansion, and we all can't wait for the announcement on January 1st to see where all this story is leading to! Excited for the expansion, or thoughts on the story so far? Let us know in the comments below!
Article By: Alexander Wilkie
Created On: July 28, 2017
MMORPG.com » Games » Guild Wars 2 » Columns » The Path that Ended - Thoughts on the End of Season 3


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Investigating Human Flourishing at Harvard
By Clay Routledge
The following is an interview conducted by Profectus Co-editor Clay Routledge with Brendan Case and Matthew T. Lee. Brendan Case, Th.D., is the Associate Director for Research of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, and author of The Accountable Animal: Justice, Justification, and Judgment (T&T Clark, 2021). Matthew T. Lee, Ph.D., is the Director of Empirical Research of the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and lead editor of Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities (Oxford, 2021).
Clay Routledge: How do you define human flourishing?
Brendan Case: We define human flourishing as "a state in which all aspects of a person's life are good." We identify five key domains of flourishing which are near-universally valued: subjective well-being, physical health, close social relationships, character and virtue, and meaning and purpose. Cultures differ in how they develop and organize these domains – the specification and ranking of virtues varies across time and place, as does the relative importance of, say, close relationships compared to meaning and purpose – but virtually everyone values each of them for their own sake. We also identify a sixth domain – financial and material well-being – which, while not universally valued in itself, provides a necessary condition for sustaining flourishing in many of the other domains.
Matthew Lee: We also recognize that for religious and spiritual people, aspects of their faith will provide additional domains, organized around beliefs, service, communion, and so forth. These domains will be somewhat represented in the domains that Brendan mentioned. For example, engaging in service to others may provide a deeper sense of meaning and purpose. It may also foster more satisfying social relationships. But service itself is an important domain on its own merits in many religious traditions and is not reducible to the other domains. Our Program has developed a measure of Christian Spiritual Well-Being that might be used as a template for the development of measures in other traditions. In addition, recognizing that it is difficult for an individual to flourish in an unhealthy community, our Program Director (Dr. Tyler VanderWeele) has developed a measure of Subjective Community Well-Being which assess such issues as community mission, prevailing levels of trust, the structures and practices that allow for the resolution of conflicts, and so forth. We would not consider an individual to be flourishing, regardless of their self-assessment of the five domains that Brendan discussed, if they were actively reducing trust in their communities, violating the core beliefs of their religion, or harming the natural world that sustains us all. Flourishing includes, but goes well beyond, the subjective psychological well-being of individuals. We can think about it as healthy growth, a kind of blossoming that does not diminish others or violate deeply held norms.
CR: What is something about the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard that you think is unique in the study of wellbeing?
BC: The Human Flourishing Program stands out among other research institutions that focus on well-being in the emphasis we place on collaboration between the social sciences and humanities. Our researchers include philosophers, theologians, and an historian, all of whom actively participate in working groups with the Program's epidemiologists, psychologists, and sociologists, investigating topics that include the Measurement of Love, Suffering and Moral Injury, and Social Connectedness and Loneliness. The basic conviction underlying our work is that, as Mark Alfano put it, "Moral philosophy without psychological content is empty, whereas psychological investigation without philosophical insight is blind" (Moral Psychology, 1). Our humanists, drawing on the distilled wisdom of the Western philosophical and theological tradition, propose important distinctions to consider in formulating psychological constructs or venture testable hypotheses to guide quantitative analysis, while our social scientists help our humanists keep their theoretical and normative reflections tethered to empirical realities. This has already paid significant dividends in HFH's short career to-date, as in the "Comprehensive Measure of Meaning" which our Program Director Tyler VanderWeele and our Senior Philosopher Jeff Hanson have created, drawing extensively on recent work in the psychology and philosophy of meaning.
ML: This commitment to fostering collaboration across disciplinary boundaries is reflected in the recent, open-access, edited volume, Measuring Well-Being: Interdisciplinary Perspectives from the Social Sciences and the Humanities. We encouraged our contributors to address both conceptual and practical challenges in measuring well-being by leveraging insights across diverse disciplines that included the humanities, as well as engaging with recent empirical research. The chapters offer arguments for and against use of specific measures of well-being in different contexts, as well as a synthesis of existing research in order to make sense of the proliferation of different measures and concepts within the field. We conclude the volume with a set of recommendations on the selection of measures, along with space for a dissenting viewpoint. Disagreements are part of the process and we have tried to model hospitable dialogue, both in this volume, and in our many public events. Indeed, as our website puts it, "Scholars in the humanities and social sciences typically attend conferences within their own sub-specialties and disciplines. The Human Flourishing Program seeks to bridge this divide by offering annual conferences and symposia that intentionally bring together scholars from various disciplines to present papers and converse on topics central to human flourishing."
CR: Is there a specific project you are working on right now or are planning that you are especially excited about and can share with our readers?
BC: In October 2021, we launched the Global Flourishing Study (GFS) in partnership with Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion and Gallup, and with generous support from the John Templeton Foundation, the Templeton Religion Trust, the Templeton World Charity Foundation, and other funders. The GFS will collect data on many aspects of well-being from approximately 240,000 participants from 22 countries (representing about half of the world's population) annually for five years. Once complete, the GFS will represent the largest longitudinal dataset on global well-being ever assembled, and will enable exponential growth in our understanding of the variation in the dimensions and drivers of flourishing around the world.
ML: I am especially excited about how the GFS has incorporated survey items on love, including an assessment of people expressing love in their communities, the experience of God's love, and the feeling of having been loved by parents during childhood, as well as a wealth of related items on healthy relationships and social support. This aligns with our Program's commitment to research on interpersonal love, which was recently supported by a planning grant from the John Templeton Foundation. This has helped us to embark on a long-term study of love as the "disposition towards desiring the good of the other" where the intentionally ambiguous phrase "the good of the other" may itself be understood either as "good for the other" or as the "good constituted by the other." This focus on "contributory love" (desiring the good of the other) and "unitive love" (desiring union with the other) will bring empirical methods to bear on the normative understanding of love advanced by Aquinas. Our appraisal of the multi-disciplinary scholarship suggests that these two aspects are perhaps essential to the experience and expression of love and might help to launch a formal epidemiology of love. To date, disagreements about the construct and assessment of love have prevented the development of this specialty within epidemiology.
CR: What is an under researched or under appreciated area of research in the study of human flourishing?
BC: There has been surprisingly little work done to-date to experimentally assess the effects of theistic prayer practices on flourishing. The scientific study of meditation and mindfulness practices has been pursued extensively in recent decades, and with great success, both in increasing our understanding and in popularizing meditation. This work includes intensive neurophysiological assessment, as well as clinical randomized controlled trials (e.g., in relation to mental health disorders). Hundreds of studies have documented that mindfulness practices produce a number of long-term beneficial outcomes, such as reducing depression and anxiety and increasing compassion and life satisfaction. (For overviews of the state of empirical research on mindfulness and meditation, cf. Andrew Newberg's Neurotheology (2020) or James Kingsland's Siddhartha's Brain (2016).)
By contrast, the study of corresponding practices in monotheistic traditions has made comparatively little progress, notwithstanding that Christianity, Islam, and Judaism together comprise 55.5% of the world's population, compared with the 22% belonging to Eastern traditions most typically associated with meditation (e.g., Hinduism and Buddhism), and that well-designed observational studies have found that daily prayer practice among Christians is associated with significant public health benefits. We're long overdue for rigorous experimental exploration of how prayer affects flourishing among Christians, Jews, or Muslims.
ML: Research on flourishing seems disconnected with ethics and politics. This is one reason why our measure of flourishing includes character and virtue. The emerging interdisciplinary field known as "life improvement science" seeks to better connect well-being and well-doing in a manner that is ethically and politically beneficial for all. Our work is aligned with this approach. Flourishing is an end in itself, of course, but flourishing individuals and groups have great potential to advance healthy community and intergroup relations and pursue beneficial, self-transcendent ends. Promoting good even in difficult situations and reliably doing what is right as a leader in a community are necessary for the expansion of flourishing. A shared awareness of system stewardship is integral.
CR: What is one misconception you think people have, either scholars or the general public, when thinking about human flourishing?
BC: Scholars of well-being and the general public alike are often too restrictive in how they conceptualize flourishing. One common approach is simply to equate it with subjective well-being, whether that's construed as "happiness" or (more adequately) "life satisfaction." However, even broad and theoretically sophisticated frameworks such as Martin Seligman's PERMA theory of well-being (an acronym standing for "positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement") initially left out crucial domains such as physical health, and continues to omit character and virtue. In our view, if most people value an aspect of life for its own sake, it needs to figure in an adequate theory of human flourishing as such.
ML: Another misconception is that flourishing is only experienced by socially advantaged groups. In some of our research conducted throughout the world, we find higher self-reported flourishing among financially disadvantaged groups on core domains like meaning and purpose. The old saying that money does not buy happiness seems to apply to flourishing as well.
CR: Do you have any practical insights or ideas about human flourishing that readers could consider to enhance their own flourishing or that of those around them in their day to day lives?
BC: Positive psychology and other areas of well-being research have developed a number of useful exercises, many of them drawn from ancient spiritual traditions, from Christianity to Buddhism, which people can easily incorporate into their daily lives. These might include keeping a gratitude journal, practicing "lovingkindness (metta)" meditation, or developing habits of stopping to "savor the good" from a day or moment. However, these exercises are probably better thought of as ways of enhancing a life that is basically going well than a recipe for transforming a languishing life into a flourishing one.
A wide body of research, including much of our own work, suggests that, for most people, the most important pathways to flourishing are to be found in the pillar institutions that have sustained virtually all societies from time immemorial, notably religion, family, and productive work. So, the best general advice is at once disarmingly simple and yet devilishly tricky to apply (I write from hard experience!): if, like the vast majority of Americans, you're a religious believer, join a local congregation and participate in it as actively as you can; if you don't have a special calling to celibacy, get and stay married, and, if you can, raise kids with your spouse; and if you work outside the home, look for meaningful work, or look for ways to find meaning in the work you have.
This advice applies in general, of course, and has to be applied discerningly in individual cases. For instance, divorce generally makes a person's life worse rather than better, but unfortunately, it sometimes is the lesser evil. On the whole, however, and with a little luck, these institutions will likely help to make you a more generous, grateful, forgiving, patient, loving, and happier person. And if you want a single rule to observe in all things, then, as our faculty affiliate Arthur Brooks likes to say, whatever you do and wherever you go, don't trade love for anything.
ML: Beyond what an individual reader might do to enhance flourishing for themselves or the near and dear in their lives, there is great value in contributing to a self-transcendent cause that is effective in solving the deep social problems that we collectively face. For example, it is difficult for anyone to flourish if groups around the world continue to become more polarized and wars proliferate. I often hear people say that they are bored, or there is "nothing to do." So many people seem unaware of the opportunities to contribute to solutions to global problems, or feel that the problems are too big, or that they lack the necessary skills. I have had many conversations lately about reorganizing educational systems so that the promotion of flourishing is more of a core goal. This does not mean replacing the core subjects with courses on flourishing. Instead, there is a powerful argument about mathematics – to take a subject that may not immediately spring to mind – being a pathway to greater flourishing. We can look at the existing school subjects with fresh eyes and ask of each one, "How might this subject be revitalized so that it aims at flourishing for all?" This imaginative move would have to encompass skillbuilding to solve local and global problems. This is happening already, so this is not a purely theoretical issue. For example, climate science is becoming a standard part of the curriculum. But I continue to hear the lament that education is preparing students for a world that no longer exists. If mathematics can serve human flourishing, why not all subjects, and indeed, all human endeavors?
CR: In addition to human flourishing, research and inquiry into the topic of human progress has also gained attention recently. How do you view the relationship between these concepts? Are they functionally the same or are there significant differences between them?
BC: I don't regard flourishing and progress as equivalent concepts, no. For a start, the two ideas are differently related to time: flourishing is a state, which can in principle be assessed at a single point, while progress is a process, which involves a comparison between at least two timepoints. The two concepts are certainly related, however: progress has to be toward something, and most people instinctively connect it with at least some aspects of human flourishing, whether physical health, material well-being, or (less often) close relationships, character, or meaning.
Subdividing flourishing into these distinct domains actually lets us reflect more carefully about the extent of progress and the tradeoffs involved in it. The modern West's most enthusiastic boosters – I'm thinking particularly of Stephen Pinker in his influential The Better Angels of Our Nature – tend to focus on recent progress in the domains of health, life-expectancy, safety, and wealth. Even allowing for controversy at the margins about some of Pinker's figures – recent trends in violent deaths would look less impressive if he had included the millions of unborn children around the world who are (at least arguably) killed each year as a result of abortions, for instance – it's true that we have made a great deal of progress in promoting flourishing in these domains over the last couple of centuries, thanks in great measure to technological developments that increase human productivity and extend our lifespans, and to novel political forms that contrain our worst impulses.
However, if we consider trends in other domains of flourishing, the picture is considerably more mixed than Pinker or his ilk allow. For instance, much of the developed world, and especially the United States, is facing an acute crisis of social connection, evident in rising rates of self-reported loneliness, and in declining rates of family formation, religious participation, civic engagement, and social trust. Social disconnection is arguably a key driver of the sharp recent increases in political polarization, depression and anxiety, and "deaths of despair" (caused by drug overdose, alcohol abuse, or suicide). Even as we make progress in promoting flourishing in the domain of physical health and material well-being, we are losing ground in other domains.
Expanding our reflection on progress to consider all aspects of flourishing doesn't suggest that the modern world is somehow uniquely good or evil, but rather underscores that every development involves trade-offs. We can be grateful for modern dentistry and plumbing, and even for the GoogleMaps app on our smartphones, while at the same time recognizing that many aspects of our lives – including some features of those very smartphones – have actually reduced our ability to flourish compared to our parents and grandparents.
Clay Routledgehttps://www.clayroutledge.com
Dr. Clay Routledge is the Vice President of Research and Director of the Human Flourishing Lab at the Archbridge Institute. He is also a visiting fellow with the Program on Pluralism and Civil Exchange at the Mercatus Center. Prior to joining the Archbridge Institute, Dr. Routledge was the Arden and Donna Hetland Distinguished Professor of Business at North Dakota State University. Clay has authored over 100 academic journal articles, two books, and dozens of articles for outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, National Review, Entrepreneur, and Harvard Business Review. He has also co-edited three books on existential psychology.
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William Ainsworth served in the 5th Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment. He was killed in action on 16 April 1917, aged 39.
Major Ainsworth was the highest ranking officer connected with Bolton School to die as a result of either of the two World Wars. The 5th Battalion was mobilised soon after the outbreak of war, and throughout its training – first under Lieutenant Colonel Thomasson and later Lieutenant Colonel Hitchens – Major Ainsworth was second in command and was regarded by both commanders to have been a splendid officer.
He was killed instantly in France, with another officer severely wounded, when a large shell exploded very near to a group of soldiers behind the front line. He is buried in Rue-Petillon Military Cemetery, Fleurbaix.
William Ainsworth was born in September 1877 and admitted to Bolton School in 1888, leaving two years later to continue his education at Rossall School. He married Bertha in 1910. After leaving school he worked in the cotton industry and eventually became Managing Director of Derby Street Spinning Company and the Eagle Mill owned by Joseph Crook & Company.


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By Haggai Matar
|Published May 31, 2012
WATCH: Palestinians going to Madonna concert stopped by wall
Two brothers from the village of Nil'in got tickets to see Madonna play live in Israel. They started walking to the show, but were stopped by the separation wall built on their lands. "I apologize for being not able to come to your concert for peace," said one of the brothers.
[UPDATE: I've been told the video is inaccessible in the United States, so I'm attaching six screen shots from it at the end of the post for their benefit]
The famous singer chose to perform in Ramat Gan despite being called upon by Palestinian, Israeli and other groups around the world to boycott Israel as long as it maintains an apartheid regime in the occupied territories. To subdue criticism, Madonna invited 600 activists from various peace NGOs to come to the show for free. But activists in Anarchists against the Wall refused the invite, and members in the group stated that they would not come to the show as long as their Palestinian friends are barred from coming too.
To drive home the point, several activists in the group shot a short video, showing Sa'id and Muhammad Amira from the village of Nil'in– which tomorrow will be commemorating four years of struggle against the wall constructed on its land – trying to reach the concert. The two brothers are seen holding tickets to the show, and leaving their village towards the main road to Ramat Gan, until they are forced to stop at the wall. The brothers call upon Israeli soldiers to open the gate, but are left unanswered. Attempts to go to a checkpoint or contact Israeli DCO authorities are all in vain as well.
"Ms. Madonna, I would like to apologize, first, for not being able to come to your concert," says one of the brothers at the end of the clip, and continues thus:
With all the peaceful songs that you sing for peace, in an apartheid state, it doesn't help the real peace. Because for me as a Palestinian I cannot get in, because I have been suppressed and oppressed and they don't give me a permit for anything. And I don't need a favor from (President Shimon) Peres or from anyone, or fromIsrael. As a human I would like to come to your concert. You can see the Israeli apartheid wall that is double the wall of Berlin and that prevents us from accessing everywhere. We are here in a big prison, in a big jail, and it's the reality of the situation. It's not about peace or something – it's about an apartheid state"
Update: six screen shots from the clip, for people in the US who cannot open it:
The brothers leaving the village
Running into the wall
Walking to a chekpoint
Returning after being turned down at the checkpoint
Calling the Israeli DCO and asking for permits
Sending Madonna a message
Madonna invites leftist groups to concert, Anarchists refuse
Visualizing Occupation: Freedom of movement
Anarchists Against the Wall
Muhammad 'Amira
nil'in
What it takes to organize a film screening in Gaza
Palestinian activists break Ramadan fast at Hebron checkpoint
The 'silent' war on Gaza's hospitals
Guess which of these human rights Israel guarantees to Palestinians
PHOTOS: When you could ride a train from Gaza City to Tel Aviv
They tell artists around the world to boycott israel – then cry when they can't get into israel because of a wall which has protected many israelis from being blown to bits! You couldn;t make it up
I'm missing something here. Are the resident of Nil'in not allowed to visit Israel (go through the checkpoint)?
Yes Michael you are missing and how. To be allowed a permit to cross the checkpoint you have to be over 45 and ask 2 weeks in advance
Love their optimism and their hutzpa. Hope Madonna enjoys the vid.
Comments like Naomi's make you despair of the knowledge of people of the current situation and the background. Where to start…
Kolumn9
The background is that in the early 2000s Palestinian suicide bombers were on a weekly basis blowing up buses and restaurants full of Israeli civilians which led Israel to build a wall to prevent suicide bombers from getting in.
the video won't play in the u.s. due to a claimed copyright violation
So is it the wall that bothers them, or the permit issue?
Mary Jo
It says the video contains content from WMG — What is WMG…and where did they get a copyright on two brothers from Nilin?
And I guess I shouldn't be surprised that there are still people who are still under the misapprehension 1) that Palestinians can pass through checkpoints into Israel without having applied for and been granted a permit by the military commandant and 2) that the Wall protects Israelis from being blown up.
I grew up in South Africa during the height of apartheid. "Apartheid" means separateness in Afrikaans. There are so many similarities between the legislated racial separation of citizens in my country during the 1980's and what is happening in Israel now. A country cannot survive divided. People cannot live as un-equal citizens, some with more rights, others with less.
I'm also a Jew and most of my great grandparents and their friends and family were murdered in the holocaust. I can understand why Jews are desperate for a safe place to live. But you cannot mix religion and state. Religious nationalism leads to separation between the "chosen" and the "less-important" How can you have a normal country like this?
The irony is that by defending your safety and security through a religious state, you will ultimately undermine everything you are fighting for until you have nothing left for anyone.
Peter-
If you oppose a "religious state", then you must oppose the kind of state of the Palestinians are attempting to set up and the construct of ALL the Arab/Muslims states around Israel. ALL of the them define themselves as Islamic states in which Sharia
law is to a greater or lesser degree a significant basis for legislation, which inevitably means discrimination against non-Muslims (e.g. refusing to recognize a marriage between a Muslim woman and a non-Muslim man, restrictions on freedom of worship of non-Muslims, "blasphemy" laws, etc).
Thus, should the Palestinians finally set up an independent state, they will not be any more "normal" (your term) than Israel is.
Rowan Berkeley
XYZ, maybe you never got the memo, but your govt is absolutely down with the idea of all its neighbours being taken over by Islamists. That is why they are all now making "Assad must go" noises. They have always preferred rightist-fundamentalist religious regimes to leftist-nationalist ones, because they are a US satrapy and this is US global policy.
Why would they go to that concert.Is this the new style of normalization ,to stamp "peace" on Zionist funded projects for "co-existence"…yea we want to have peace while we steal your land,shoot your people and occupy you ,and one more thing ,we cant have you back ,we prefer to keep our "Jewish" majority ,wasnt that the whole point of ethnically cleansing !!
Richard SM
Did she sing "Open Your Heart" from the 'True Blue' album for the Israelis?
How about "This Used to Be My Playground" for the Palestinians? ('Something to Remember' album)
And what about "Borderline" as a general comment?
Richard SM: Funny!!
@ PETER: Thank you man! I am German, living in Israel and all I can say: You summed it up perfectly. Nothing, absolutely nothing else to ad to your comment. Very well spoken!
Haggai Matar
Naomi – I suggest reading the Wall Project I've been publishing here on +972 for the past two months. It should give part of the answer. But in short, the basic demand is to end the occupation, and to have the wall running on the green line, the legal border between Israel and the West Bank. Anyway – here's the link to the project:
http://972mag.com/the-wall-project/
And Michael – the wall and the permit system are highly interlinked. Again – check out the wall project. What bothers people is the occupation, the wall and the permit regime.
Brant Rosen
The video is indeed available in the US. See:
dianab
Thank you, Brant Rosen, for the link to the video!
Arab ( Tamimi )(( son of abraham and I am proud ))
The Jews had built the wall because they're scared , scared from everything specially the muslims … they can't fight with the muslims because we are scary to them , only if they had (( Walls )) to protect them then they can fight us
I took this knowledge from the quran by the way
The problem is that nowdays Jews are not truly the sons of Israel (( Jacob peace be upon him )) , 90% are from a Kazarian ancestry … sooooo only 10% from the Jews are the true sons of Israel ????! , they're not even from Abraham ancestry !!?
well , the funny part that most of the Arabs are from Abraham ancestry 🙂 , and they're a few muslims from Israel ancestry !!
Haggai Matar is an Israeli journalist and political activist.
Haggai is the executive director of "972 – Advancement of Citizen Journalism," the nonprofit that publishes +972 Magazine. He previously served as founding co-editor of Local Call, the Hebrew-language news site co-published by 972 — Advancement of Citizen Journalism and Just Vision. Read his writing in Hebrew on Local Call.
More from Haggai Matar
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This doesn't need to happen: Another pre-election war on Gaza
A spike in censorship: Israel censored on average one news piece a day in 2018


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