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USAF to Allow Longer Braids, Ponytails, Bangs for Women
As an outcome of the 101st Air Force uniform board, Air Force women will be able to wear their hair in up to two braids or a single ponytail with bulk not exceeding the width of the head and length not extending below a horizontal line running between the top of each sleeve inseam at the under arm through the shoulder blades. In addition, women's bangs may now touch their eyebrows, but not cover their eyes.
These new changes will be effective upon publication of the new standards in Air Force Instruction 36-2903 in February.
"As I outlined in Action Order A: Airmen, this decision is a commitment to supporting the Airmen We Need and sustaining the culture and environment of excellence that will continue to make the Air Force an attractive career choice for Airmen and families," said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr. "I'm thankful for the feedback and research conducted from a number of women leaders, the Women's Initiative Team, the Air Force uniform board, and our joint teammates."
The Air Force uniform board convened virtually in November 2020 to discuss ideas sourced from Airmen across the Air Force who participated in a dress and appearance crowdsourcing campaign. Participants on the board included 19 diverse Airmen of various ranks from across the major commands and headquarters directorates.
The board reviewed all ideas including a recommendation from the Air Force's Women's Initiative Team. Thousands of women across the Air Force provided feedback to the Women's Initiative Team, stating constraints to hair grooming standards resulted in damage to hair, migraines and in some cases, hair loss. The detailed work done by the Women's Initiative Team to research and support the recommendation was greatly appreciated by the uniform board.
"In addition to the health concerns we have for our Airmen, not all women have the same hair type, and our hair standards should reflect our diverse force," said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass. "I am pleased we could make this important change for our women service members."
In addition to addressing issues associated with personal health and hair loss, adjusting female hair standards supports ongoing efforts to address diversity and inclusion in the ranks. Earlier this year and in her role leading the Defense Department's Diversity Board, then-Secretary of the Air Force Barbara M. Barrett played a prominent role in supporting these types of adjustments to ensure a more inclusive culture in the services.
The Air Force chief of staff approved the policy after considering feedback from the force, the uniform board recommendation, and the professional image and standards of the Air Force and U.S. military.
"We remain committed to removing barriers to service," said Lt. Gen. Brian Kelly, Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel and services. "In an all-volunteer force, we want fully qualified volunteers who are representative of the nation to see us as a great opportunity to maximize their talent and serve."
Members must adhere to current occupational safety, fire and health guidance, and mishap prevention procedures emphasizing when and how to mitigate the potential for injury from hair of varying lengths around machinery, equipment, power transmission apparatus or moving parts. Airmen are encouraged to reach out to their safety office for assistance in analyzing any potential hazards, as applicable.
Another idea considered by the board related to beard wear for men. Unlike with women's hair standards, there are no known health or hair loss issues associated with current male grooming standard compliance. As such, the Air Force plans to continue under the current male grooming standards without adjustments. Beards are currently permitted in conjunction with medical exceptions such as shaving waivers or for approved religious accommodations.
At this time, Guardians will adhere to the female grooming standards of the Air Force. Eventually, the U.S. Space Force will develop its own policy.
Numerous other ideas from the board are still under consideration for implementation and will be released in the future. For more information, consult AFI 36-2903 Dress and Appearance.
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
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N Scale Ring - This ring devoted to N Scale model trains, and their enthusiasts.
This ring devoted to N Scale model trains, and their enthusiasts.
A personal gallery of images of my layouts of military, railroad and fantasy subjects. Photo and layouts were made by myself. The layouts were realised in H0, N, 1/72 scale. Furthermore a guide to the strategic game ?Ancient Conquest' is available.
1:1 and n-scale photos. Mostly from Cajon but other locations are included.
Welcome to the Mount Savage Valley Railroad this is a site to show how I built my N-Scale layout of the Western Maryland. I am building a layout 3.5 feet by 13 feet using the track design from the January 2000 Model railroader of the Appalachian Central by Lionel Strang with some changes.
N-Scale layout featuring the Western Maryland Railway with pages of photos of the WM and CSX from the Frederick Maryland area.


Noise-cancelling headphones have become almost an essential everyday item for many of us, whether they're used to isolate you on your morning commute or drown out the drone of an aeroplane jet engine.
With so many pairs now being available finding the best pair for your ears is no easy task. Some pairs will have more effective noise cancellation, while others will sound better - finding the middle ground can be tricky.
We've rounded up our favourite pairs and picked out what we believe to be the best pair money can currently buy, to make the decision whole lot easier.
Sony has updated the 1000X headphones 3 years in a row, taking an approach as aggressive to with product launches as it is with cutting out external noise. Design tweaks add quality and refinement to these headphones, while a new and more powerful chip provides the grunt to cancel out more noise.
The results are sensational, with the 1000XM3 not only sounding great as a set of headphones, but also being some of the most effective at combatting noise. The offer Google Assistant on a button press, but that's about the only weakness of this increasingly smart pair of headphones. Google Assistant might not work well, but the optimisation options really do.
Think of noise-cancelling headphones and chances are you'll think of Bose. The company's QuietComfort range is known the world over for being the crème de la crème in noise-cancellation technology. The QuietComfort 35 is the latest pair in the company's arsenal, going wireless for the first time.
This second-generation pair of the QC 35 are the exact same as the pair that wowed us in 2016, save for a new dedicated button for launching Google Assistant. The new button lets you launch Google Assistant and give it commands or ask it questions, or basically any other command you'd ask Google Home. Android users naturally get more benefits than iPhone users, although owners of both can have incoming notifications read out through the headphones.
While we can really sing about the noise-cancellation offered by the Bose pair, we feel the sound quality lacks a little compared to the pair from Sony. Nevertheless, they're still a fantastic pair of noise-cancelling headphones.
Bowers and Wilkins is no stranger to the audio game, the British-based company has been going since 1966. So when we heard it was developing its very first pair of wireless active noise-cancellation (ANC) headphones, our ears certainly pricked up. When we actually got them onto our ears, our expectations were exceeded far beyond anything we could imagine.
The PX headphones looks stunning (we really do love the blue and gold finish) and they sound even better. We already expected a great sounding pair of headphones, but we weren't prepared for just how well the noise-cancellation would work, nor the abundant features B&W has thrown into them.
We love the sensors that automatically pause or stop the music you're listening to entirely depending on how you wear them, and the way you have complete control over the amount of ambient sound to let in via the app. They're an incredibly great rival to the class-leading Sonys, in terms of features, effectiveness and price. We would still say Sony has the edge over B&W, but it's a very fine one indeed.
The Beats Studio 3 Wireless are likely to appeal to iPhone owners more than those on Android, only because they're the latest pair to benefit from Apple's W1 chip. This means they automatically try to pair with an iOS device when they're within distance, and once they're paired they're available to instantly connect to from all other Apple devices using the same iCloud account.
The Studio 3 Wireless have some very clever noise-cancellation technology onboard too. It constantly measures the sounds around you - up to 50,000 times per second - and adjusts both the noise-cancellation and sound profile accordingly, to make sure you're getting the most effective sound blasted into your ears.
It doesn't always work as well as we'd expect, but for the majority of scenarios, it worked just fine and the sound they produce is less bass-tactic that you might expect from the headphone company. What we really love about the Studio 3 Wireless is the battery life, that just goes on and on and on.
The B&O BeoPlay H9i are one of the more expensive pairs of noise-cancelling headphones to grace our ears, but in return they provide a supreme level of comfort, thanks to high-quality materials. To complement the fantastic build quality is incredible sound quality - and these headphones evolve themselves beyond the original H9s.
The H9i have boosted the noise cancelling while shrinking the ear cups a little, making them a little more practical and boosted battery gives you a little more life for your money.
With a wealth of competition at lower prices, the B&O BeoPlay H9i need to do a lot to justify their asking price, and we feel they do. You won't be disappointed.
Noise-cancelling isn't solely reserved for over-ear headphones, as we're now seeing the technology finding its way into in-ear models too and the best pair we've come across so far are the Bose QuietControl 30. Not only do they exhibit the same superb sound profile as Bose's other headphone models, but they are adept noise-cancellers too.
You can fine tune just how much external sound you want to block out using the companion app, so for example if you're on a train, you'll want the tech to be turned up to the max, but if you're cycling and you want to be aware of your surroundings, you'll dial it down a little. In practice, it works tremendously and is the best example of noise-cancelling we've come across on a pair of in-ears.
Some may find the neckband design a little irksome, but given enough time to adapt to, they're a perfect pair of headphones to carry around with you.
The Libratone Track+ offer a neckband-style set of headphones which are lightweight, smart and brilliantly designed. While sound quality and noise cancellation skills are common to all the headphones on this list, it's the brilliant design that's worth paying attention to. Perfectly balanced is how they are pitched and that holds true, so whether you're wearing these on your commute, or running a 10k, these headphones stay comfortably sitting where they are supposed to.
In addition, the noise cancelling is pretty good, offering different levels and, via the app, you can have these automatically change based on your motion. The result is a very effective and comfortable set of headphones, as competent on your travels as they are on the running track.
Sony has applied its audio expertise to noise-cancelling in-ear headphones too. We've seen what the company can do with a pair of over-ears, so we had mighty high expectations for the in-ear model. The WF-1000X don't just have noise-cancellation as a headline feature, but they're completely wire-free too.
They deliver a well-balanced sound that's neither too bassy nor too bright, we found it to be just right. The noise-cancellation is just as accomplished too, effectively blocking out the general hum drum of everyday life, as well as airplane and train noises.
Battery life isn't what you would call amazing, but wire-free in-ears as a category suffer as a whole, fortunately, the case doubles up as a charger. We would say the Bose QC30 have more effective noise-cancellation, the Sony WF-1000X aren't trailing too far behind.
If you're more concerned about battery life but still want the same winning combination of Sony sound and noise-cancellation, look no further than the WI-1000X. They, like the Bose QC30, utilise a neckband design which is very comfortable and one you won't notice during listening sessions.
Like their WH- and WF- siblings, this WI- pair have sensors onboard to detect what you're doing or where you are and adjust the sound profile and noise-cancellation accordingly. They're also due to get Google Assistant with a future update. They support high-resolution audio if you have such files, but if you don't they'll upscale to near hi-res audio quality, while equaliser settings can be adjusted within the companion app.
Top this off with a 10-hour battery life and you have yourself a pretty darn good pair of noise-cancelling in-ears, and one that we wholeheartedly recommend.


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Virginia governor McAuliffe: I'd deck Trump if provoked
Updated: January 12, 2018 10:41 AM EDT
In this Saturday July 22, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump, right, puts his hand over his heart with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe during commissioning ceremonies aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford at Naval Station Norfolk in Norfolk, Va.Steve Helber / Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. — Outgoing Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe told a national television audience he'd knock President Donald Trump to the floor if the president ever tried to intimidate him.
During an interview Thursday on MSNBC's "Hardball," Chris Matthews asked McAuliffe how he would respond if Trump tried to intimidate him during a debate by hovering over him, as he did during the 2016 presidential election with Hillary Clinton, a close friend of McAuliffe's.
"You'd have to pick him up off the floor," McAuliffe said.
When Matthews laughed and asked if he meant he would "deck" Trump, McAuliffe answered with a straight face.
"You want to get in my space … you punch me, I'm going to punch you back twice as hard."
"But if he ever came over and leaned on me and got in my space, that would be the last time Donald Trump ever did that. I promise you that," he added.
McAuliffe, who was a top Democratic fundraiser before being elected governor in 2013, is set to leave office Saturday. He has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
McAuliffe has been a vocal critic of Trump, particularly after Trump said "both sides" shared blame after white nationalists and counterprotestors clashed during a deadly rally in Charlottesville in August.
During the "Hardball" interview, McAuliffe also called Trump "an embarrassment to our country."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Hinch puts a figure on..
Senator Derryn Hinch thinks he has a 65 per cent chance of being re-elected to the Senate in the upcoming federal election.
Hinch said he has had a "fantastic" response from voters for his stance on domestic violence orders, but re-election will be tough.
"It's a half-Senate election so you need to almost double your vote," he told 3AW's Tony Jones.
Last election, Derryn Hinch's Justice Party received nearly a quarter of a million primary votes.
If he is not re-elected, Hinch says he will return to working in media.
Senator Hinch tipped the Labor party to win the election.
Hinch also called for mandatory nurse to patient ratios in aged care facilities.
"I am a politician, and I am an old person, and I know all about the elderly," he said.
He said people in jail receive better treatment than those in aged care.


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Jan and Joel Martel "L'Accordioniste" The Accordion Player Sculpture Art Deco
Jan and Joel Martel "L'Accordioniste" The Accordion Player. in Cast stone sculpture with painted wood base France, circa 1925. One of the most important sculpture by these brothers, it was done it many different materials, bronze, wood, cast stone. The base has a few spots of wear, In overall good condition.
Jan and Joël Martel were avant-garde sculptors born in Nantes, France in 1896. The artist duo was best-known for their ornamental sculptures, statues, monuments and fountains which strongly favored Art Deco and Cubist influences. They shared a workshop and jointly issued all of their work, co-signed "Martel." The Martel brothers were very actively involved in the Paris art scene beginning in the 1920s and continuing for several decades. Among their most celebrated works are the "Monument to Claude Debussy", the sculptures cast for the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris and their Plaster and Aluminum sculptures created at the 1948 London Olympic Games in the Art Competitions. The artists were among the founding members of the Union des Artistes Modernes. The twin brothers both died in 1966, Jan in an accident and Joël as the result of an illness.
To see another piece on our site go here.
For a more detailed site bio on the artists go here
13″ T x 10″ W x 11″ D