Friday, September 30, 2016
Fat-Shamer in Chief - The New York Times
"Apparently, millions of Americans don’t care that a man now within a nose-hair of the presidency may be the most prolific liar in modern political history. Nor do they care about the authoritarian policies he espouses, his truly scary embrace of dictators abroad and crackpots at home, or his monumental ignorance on every subject.
But as the impact of this week’s debate and the after-chatter have settled in, it’s clear that blood can boil across the land on at least one topic: We care about appearances. With little more than a month to go until the election, the fact that Donald Trump now finds himself in a very public fight with a beauty queen tells you everything you need to know about the sick soul of this man.
So, in the spirit of the discourse that Trump has brought us to, let’s objectify the Republican nominee on his terms. This guy is fat. Bigly. He’s got an extra chin, a gut you wouldn’t want to see riding above a bathing suit, and a rear that serves no purpose but ballast."
Fat-Shamer in Chief - The New York Times
But as the impact of this week’s debate and the after-chatter have settled in, it’s clear that blood can boil across the land on at least one topic: We care about appearances. With little more than a month to go until the election, the fact that Donald Trump now finds himself in a very public fight with a beauty queen tells you everything you need to know about the sick soul of this man.
So, in the spirit of the discourse that Trump has brought us to, let’s objectify the Republican nominee on his terms. This guy is fat. Bigly. He’s got an extra chin, a gut you wouldn’t want to see riding above a bathing suit, and a rear that serves no purpose but ballast."
Fat-Shamer in Chief - The New York Times
An Uncharitable Foundation - The New York Times
"In addition to being the Republican nominee for president, Donald J. Trump is president of the relatively small Donald J. Trump Foundation and chairman of the relatively large Trump Organization. Although the foundation is a charitable organization, it appears to have been used for less than charitable purposes.
According to exhaustive reporting by David A. Fahrenthold of The Washington Post, Mr. Trump may have used the foundation to pay expenses for his business, to buy himself gifts and to make a political contribution. These things are all clearly prohibited under both federal and state charities law. No competent lawyer would advise a charitable foundation that such payments were allowable, and only someone with no respect for charity would so flagrantly violate these basic rules."
An Uncharitable Foundation - The New York Times
Careers at Pocket Become a Sponsor More How the Clinton-Trump Race Got Close By Paul Krugman, View Original September 30th, 2016
"Monday’s presidential debate was a blowout, surely the most one-sided confrontation in American political history. Hillary Clinton was knowledgeable, unflappable and — dare we say it? — likable. Donald Trump was ignorant, thin-skinned and boorish.
Yet on the eve of the debate, polls showed a close race. How was that possible?
After all, the candidates we saw Monday night were the same people they’ve been all along. Mrs. Clinton’s grace and even humor under pressure were fully apparent during last year’s Benghazi hearing. Mr. Trump’s whiny braggadocio has been obvious every time he opens his mouth without reading from a teleprompter.
So how could someone like Mr. Trump have been in striking position for the White House? (He may still be there, since we have yet to see what effect the debate had on the polls.)
Part of the answer is that a lot more Americans than we’d like to imagine are white nationalists at heart. Indeed, implicit appeals to racial hostility have long been at the core of Republican strategy; Mr. Trump became the G.O.P. nominee by saying outright what his opponents tried to convey with dog whistles.
If he loses, Republicans will claim that he was some kind of outlier, showing nothing about the nature of their party. He isn’t.
But while racially motivated voters are a bigger minority than we’d like to think, they are a minority. And as recently as August Mrs. Clinton held a commanding lead. Then her polls went into a swoon.
What happened? Did she make some huge campaign blunders?
I don’t think so. As I’ve written before, she got Gored. That is, like Al Gore in 2000, she ran into a buzz saw of adversarial reporting from the mainstream media, which treated relatively minor missteps as major scandals, and invented additional scandals out of thin air.
Meanwhile, her opponent’s genuine scandals and various grotesqueries were downplayed or whitewashed; but as Jonathan Chait of New York magazine says, the normalization of Donald Trump was probably less important than the abnormalization of Hillary Clinton."
Careers at Pocket Become a Sponsor More How the Clinton-Trump Race Got Close By Paul Krugman, View Original September 30th, 2016
Yet on the eve of the debate, polls showed a close race. How was that possible?
After all, the candidates we saw Monday night were the same people they’ve been all along. Mrs. Clinton’s grace and even humor under pressure were fully apparent during last year’s Benghazi hearing. Mr. Trump’s whiny braggadocio has been obvious every time he opens his mouth without reading from a teleprompter.
So how could someone like Mr. Trump have been in striking position for the White House? (He may still be there, since we have yet to see what effect the debate had on the polls.)
Part of the answer is that a lot more Americans than we’d like to imagine are white nationalists at heart. Indeed, implicit appeals to racial hostility have long been at the core of Republican strategy; Mr. Trump became the G.O.P. nominee by saying outright what his opponents tried to convey with dog whistles.
If he loses, Republicans will claim that he was some kind of outlier, showing nothing about the nature of their party. He isn’t.
But while racially motivated voters are a bigger minority than we’d like to think, they are a minority. And as recently as August Mrs. Clinton held a commanding lead. Then her polls went into a swoon.
What happened? Did she make some huge campaign blunders?
I don’t think so. As I’ve written before, she got Gored. That is, like Al Gore in 2000, she ran into a buzz saw of adversarial reporting from the mainstream media, which treated relatively minor missteps as major scandals, and invented additional scandals out of thin air.
Meanwhile, her opponent’s genuine scandals and various grotesqueries were downplayed or whitewashed; but as Jonathan Chait of New York magazine says, the normalization of Donald Trump was probably less important than the abnormalization of Hillary Clinton."
Careers at Pocket Become a Sponsor More How the Clinton-Trump Race Got Close By Paul Krugman, View Original September 30th, 2016
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Google's AI translation system is approaching human-level accuracy - The Verge
"Google is one of the leading providers of artificial intelligence-assisted language translation, and the company now says a new technique for doing so is vastly improving the results. The company’s AI team calls it the Google Neural Machine Translation system, or GNMT, and it initially provided a less resource-intensive way to ingest a sentence in one language and produce that same sentence in another language. Instead of digesting each word or phrase as a standalone unit, as prior methods do, GNMT takes in the entire sentence as a whole.
"The advantage of this approach is that it requires fewer engineering design choices than previous Phrase-Based translation systems," writes Quoc V. Le and Mike Schuster, researchers on the Google Brain team. When the technique was first employed, it was able to match the accuracy of those existing translation systems. Over time, however, GNMT has proved capable of both producing superior results and working at the speed required of Google’s consumer apps and services. These improvements are detailed in a new pape..."
Google's AI translation system is approaching human-level accuracy - The Verge
"The advantage of this approach is that it requires fewer engineering design choices than previous Phrase-Based translation systems," writes Quoc V. Le and Mike Schuster, researchers on the Google Brain team. When the technique was first employed, it was able to match the accuracy of those existing translation systems. Over time, however, GNMT has proved capable of both producing superior results and working at the speed required of Google’s consumer apps and services. These improvements are detailed in a new pape..."
Google's AI translation system is approaching human-level accuracy - The Verge
Trump? How Could We? - The New York Times Milton Friedman
"My reaction to the Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton debate can be summarized with one word: “How?”
How in the world do we put a man in the Oval Office who thinks NATO is a shopping mall where the tenants aren’t paying enough rent to the U.S. landlord?
NATO is not a shopping mall; it is a strategic alliance that won the Cold War, keeps Europe a stable trading partner for U.S. companies and prevents every European country — particularly Germany — from getting their own nukes to counterbalance Russia, by sheltering them all under America’s nuclear umbrella.
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who does not know enough “beef” about key policies to finish a two-minute answer on any issue without the hamburger helper of bluster, insults and repetition?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who suggests that the recent spate of cyberattacks — which any senior U.S. intelligence official will tell you came without question from Russia — might not have come from Russia but could have been done by “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds”?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who boasts that he tries to pay zero federal taxes but then complains that our airports and roads are falling apart and there is not enough money for our veterans?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who claims he was against the Iraq war, because he said he privately told that to his pal Sean Hannity of Fox News — even though he publicly supported the war when it began. Trump is so obsessed with proving his infallibility that he missed scoring an easy debate point for himself by saying, “Yes, I supported the Iraq war as a citizen, but Hillary voted for it as a senator when she had access to the intelligence and her job was to make the right judgment.”
How do we put in the Oval Office someone who says we should not have gone into Iraq, but since we did, “we should have taken the oil — ISIS would not have been able to form … because the oil was their primary source of income.”
ISIS formed before it managed to pump any oil, and it sustained itself with millions of dollars that it stole from Iraq’s central bank in Mosul. Meanwhile, Iraq has the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves — 140 billion barrels. Can you imagine how many years we’d have to stay there to pump it all and how much doing so would tarnish our moral standing around the world and energize every jihadist?
How do we put in the Oval Office someone whose campaign manager has to go on every morning show after the debate and lie to try to make up for the nonsense her boss spouted? Kellyanne Conway told CNN on Tuesday morning that when it comes to climate change, “We don’t know what Hillary Clinton believes, because nobody ever asks her.”
Say what? As secretary of state, Clinton backed every global climate negotiation and clean energy initiative. That’s like saying no one knows Hillary’s position on women’s rights.
Conway then went on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and argued that Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, had never created a job and was partly responsible for the lack of adequate “roads and bridges” in our country. When challenged on that by MGM Resorts’s C.E.O., James Murren — who argued that his business was up, that the economy was improving and that Clinton’s job as secretary of state was to create stability — Conway responded that Clinton had nothing to do with any improvements in the economy because “she’s never been president so she’s created no financial stability.”
I see: Everything wrong is Clinton’s fault and anything good is to the president’s credit alone. Silly.,,,"
Trump? How Could We? - The New York Times
How in the world do we put a man in the Oval Office who thinks NATO is a shopping mall where the tenants aren’t paying enough rent to the U.S. landlord?
NATO is not a shopping mall; it is a strategic alliance that won the Cold War, keeps Europe a stable trading partner for U.S. companies and prevents every European country — particularly Germany — from getting their own nukes to counterbalance Russia, by sheltering them all under America’s nuclear umbrella.
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who does not know enough “beef” about key policies to finish a two-minute answer on any issue without the hamburger helper of bluster, insults and repetition?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who suggests that the recent spate of cyberattacks — which any senior U.S. intelligence official will tell you came without question from Russia — might not have come from Russia but could have been done by “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds”?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who boasts that he tries to pay zero federal taxes but then complains that our airports and roads are falling apart and there is not enough money for our veterans?
How do we put in the Oval Office a man who claims he was against the Iraq war, because he said he privately told that to his pal Sean Hannity of Fox News — even though he publicly supported the war when it began. Trump is so obsessed with proving his infallibility that he missed scoring an easy debate point for himself by saying, “Yes, I supported the Iraq war as a citizen, but Hillary voted for it as a senator when she had access to the intelligence and her job was to make the right judgment.”
How do we put in the Oval Office someone who says we should not have gone into Iraq, but since we did, “we should have taken the oil — ISIS would not have been able to form … because the oil was their primary source of income.”
ISIS formed before it managed to pump any oil, and it sustained itself with millions of dollars that it stole from Iraq’s central bank in Mosul. Meanwhile, Iraq has the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves — 140 billion barrels. Can you imagine how many years we’d have to stay there to pump it all and how much doing so would tarnish our moral standing around the world and energize every jihadist?
How do we put in the Oval Office someone whose campaign manager has to go on every morning show after the debate and lie to try to make up for the nonsense her boss spouted? Kellyanne Conway told CNN on Tuesday morning that when it comes to climate change, “We don’t know what Hillary Clinton believes, because nobody ever asks her.”
Say what? As secretary of state, Clinton backed every global climate negotiation and clean energy initiative. That’s like saying no one knows Hillary’s position on women’s rights.
Conway then went on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and argued that Clinton, who was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, had never created a job and was partly responsible for the lack of adequate “roads and bridges” in our country. When challenged on that by MGM Resorts’s C.E.O., James Murren — who argued that his business was up, that the economy was improving and that Clinton’s job as secretary of state was to create stability — Conway responded that Clinton had nothing to do with any improvements in the economy because “she’s never been president so she’s created no financial stability.”
I see: Everything wrong is Clinton’s fault and anything good is to the president’s credit alone. Silly.,,,"
Trump? How Could We? - The New York Times
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
What Donald Trump Got Wrong on Stop-and-Frisk - The New York Times
"Donald J. Trump attributed a nonexistent increase in murder to actions that never happened, namely, the ending of the stop-and-frisk practice by, variously, “a judge, who was a very against-police judge,” and the “current mayor.”
This was multilayered fiction.
Murder declined. A judge did not end stop-and-frisk. Neither did the current mayor.
In fact, the Police Department began to drastically curtail its use in 2012, under the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an independent. This is well documented but only lightly noticed. On July 9, 2012, an editorial in The New York Post warned that the reduction in its use would lead to “more blood in the street.”
By the way, did more blood run in the street?
No, less blood did.
Murder is down 32 percent since 2011, the last year of the old stop-and-frisk era, having dropped to 352 homicides in 2015 from 515 in 2011."
What Donald Trump Got Wrong on Stop-and-Frisk - The New York Times
This was multilayered fiction.
Murder declined. A judge did not end stop-and-frisk. Neither did the current mayor.
In fact, the Police Department began to drastically curtail its use in 2012, under the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, an independent. This is well documented but only lightly noticed. On July 9, 2012, an editorial in The New York Post warned that the reduction in its use would lead to “more blood in the street.”
By the way, did more blood run in the street?
No, less blood did.
Murder is down 32 percent since 2011, the last year of the old stop-and-frisk era, having dropped to 352 homicides in 2015 from 515 in 2011."
What Donald Trump Got Wrong on Stop-and-Frisk - The New York Times
Monday, September 26, 2016
Obama Is the Greatest Force for Equality in 50 Years - The Atlantic
A new examination from the Council of Economic Advisers credits the Obama presidency for the most aggressive and successful attempt to reduce inequality in half a century. “President Obama has overseen the largest increase in federal investment to reduce inequality since the Great Society,” the economists write."
Obama Is the Greatest Force for Equality in 50 Years - The Atlantic
Why Donald Trump Should Not Be President - The New York Times
"When Donald Trump began his improbable run for president 15 months ago, he offered his wealth and television celebrity as credentials, then slyly added a twist of fearmongering about Mexican “rapists” flooding across the Southern border.
From that moment of combustion, it became clear that Mr. Trump’s views were matters of dangerous impulse and cynical pandering rather than thoughtful politics. Yet he has attracted throngs of Americans who ascribe higher purpose to him than he has demonstrated in a freewheeling campaign marked by bursts of false and outrageous allegations, personal insults, xenophobic nationalism, unapologetic sexism and positions that shift according to his audience and his whims.
Why Donald Trump Should Not Be President - The New York Times
From that moment of combustion, it became clear that Mr. Trump’s views were matters of dangerous impulse and cynical pandering rather than thoughtful politics. Yet he has attracted throngs of Americans who ascribe higher purpose to him than he has demonstrated in a freewheeling campaign marked by bursts of false and outrageous allegations, personal insults, xenophobic nationalism, unapologetic sexism and positions that shift according to his audience and his whims.
Why Donald Trump Should Not Be President - The New York Times
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Donald Trump Either Lied to the Republicans or Broke the Law (Exclusive)
"Donald Trump committed perjury. Or he looked into the faces of the Republican faithful and knowingly lied. There is no third option.
It has become an accepted reality of this presidential campaign that Trump spins a near-endless series of falsehoods. For months, the media has struggled with this unprecedented situation—a candidate who, unlike other politicians who stretch the truth, simply creates his own reality. Trumps regularly peddles “facts” that aren’t true, describes events that never happened or denies engaging in actions that everyone saw him do. He utters his falsehoods so fast that before reporters have the chance to correct one, he has tossed out five or six more."
Donald Trump Either Lied to the Republicans or Broke the Law (Exclusive)
It has become an accepted reality of this presidential campaign that Trump spins a near-endless series of falsehoods. For months, the media has struggled with this unprecedented situation—a candidate who, unlike other politicians who stretch the truth, simply creates his own reality. Trumps regularly peddles “facts” that aren’t true, describes events that never happened or denies engaging in actions that everyone saw him do. He utters his falsehoods so fast that before reporters have the chance to correct one, he has tossed out five or six more."
Donald Trump Either Lied to the Republicans or Broke the Law (Exclusive)
Can Trump really win Pennsylvania? Stranger things have happened in 2016 | US news | The Guardian
"For decades, Republican presidential candidates have had the same relationship with the state of Pennsylvania that Charlie Brown had with a football.
With 20 electoral votes, the Keystone State has always been a tempting prize to aim for. But since 1988, in a geographically diverse state famously described by Clinton aide James Carville as “Philadelphia on one side, Pittsburgh on the other and Alabama in between”, the GOP has seen that prize swept away from its sights.
As John Brabender, a veteran Republican consultant in the state, told the Guardian, Pennsylvania is simply tough for any Republican to win. He or she would always need to build a “strange coalition”, he said, “of blue-collar conservative Democrats that are in the western side of the state with moderate college-educated professional women in the eastern side of the state”.
Can Trump really win Pennsylvania? Stranger things have happened in 2016 | US news | The Guardian
Friday, September 23, 2016
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Obamacare Has Increased Insurance Coverage Everywhere | FiveThirtyEight
"When congressional candidates last hit the campaign trail in 2014, one word seemed to be at the top of the agenda for virtually every Republican: Obamacare. But that was before most of the law’s provisions took effect. Two years later, the health law seems to have faded as a campaign issue.
New data released this month might give a hint as to why: The uninsured rate — the share of the population without health insurance — dropped in every congressional district in the country between 2013 and 2015, according to the American Community Survey."
Obamacare Has Increased Insurance Coverage Everywhere | FiveThirtyEight
New data released this month might give a hint as to why: The uninsured rate — the share of the population without health insurance — dropped in every congressional district in the country between 2013 and 2015, according to the American Community Survey."
Obamacare Has Increased Insurance Coverage Everywhere | FiveThirtyEight
Clinton’s Leading In Exactly The States She Needs To Win | FiveThirtyEight
"Here at FiveThirtyEight, our favorite election-related chart is what we officially call the “winding path to 270 electoral votes” and unofficially call the snake. Designed by my colleague Aaron Bycoffe, it lines the states up from most favorable for Hillary Clinton (Hawaii, Maryland) to best for Donald Trump (Wyoming, Alabama) based on the projected margin of victory in each one. The snake is bisected by a line indicating 269 electoral votes: cross this line — meaning you get 270 electoral votes — and you win the election."
Clinton’s Leading In Exactly The States She Needs To Win | FiveThirtyEight
Clinton’s Leading In Exactly The States She Needs To Win | FiveThirtyEight
"Here at FiveThirtyEight, our favorite election-related chart is what we officially call the “winding path to 270 electoral votes” and unofficially callthe snake. Designed by my colleague Aaron Bycoffe, it lines the states up from most favorable for Hillary Clinton (Hawaii, Maryland) to best for Donald Trump (Wyoming, Alabama) based on the projected margin of victory in each one. The snake is bisected by a line indicating 269 electoral votes: cross this line — meaning you get 270 electoral votes — and you win the election."
Clinton’s Leading In Exactly The States She Needs To Win | FiveThirtyEight
Clinton’s Leading In Exactly The States She Needs To Win | FiveThirtyEight
The Folly of the Protest Vote - The New York Times
"Last week, after I delivered a speech at the impressive campus of Morgan State University, a historically black college in northeast Baltimore, a woman approached the mike during the question-and-answer period to raise an issue that she and I both found frustrating: What to say to young people, particularly young African-Americans, who have decided either not to vote in the forthcoming presidential election or to cast a protest vote for a third-party candidate who will most assuredly lose?
This is a very real issue this cycle. Many of these young people feel that there is no good choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
On Sept. 4, The New York Times published an article pointing out the devastating impact this lack of enthusiasm could have on Clinton’s prospects:
“Young African-Americans, like all voters their age, are typically far harder to drive to the polls than middle-aged and older Americans. Yet with just over two months until Election Day, many Democrats are expressing alarm at the lack of enthusiasm, and in some cases outright resistance, some black millennials feel toward Mrs. Clinton.”
The Folly of the Protest Vote - The New York Times
This is a very real issue this cycle. Many of these young people feel that there is no good choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
On Sept. 4, The New York Times published an article pointing out the devastating impact this lack of enthusiasm could have on Clinton’s prospects:
“Young African-Americans, like all voters their age, are typically far harder to drive to the polls than middle-aged and older Americans. Yet with just over two months until Election Day, many Democrats are expressing alarm at the lack of enthusiasm, and in some cases outright resistance, some black millennials feel toward Mrs. Clinton.”
The Folly of the Protest Vote - The New York Times
Foreign Wars and Terrorism - The New York Times
"Dealing with extremism abroad and its spillover at home will present an enormously complex challenge for the next president. Over the last five years, conflicts in Syria and Iraq have continued to frustrate the United States diplomatically, sapped military resources and provided a breeding ground for Islamic State radicals, who have spread bloodshed and destruction in the region and the West.
The multidimensional nature of the problem was on full view this week: a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war seemed ready to collapse; American forces prepared to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State; and terrorist attacks occurred in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota. President Obama’s successor will have to confront these threats and understand what connects them.
As Mr. Obama has discovered, there is no easy solution to any of these problems, not least the sources and consequences of extremism, which may account for the lack of a sustained discussion in the presidential campaign about how America should deal with the issues.
Hillary Clinton responded in an even-tempered fashion after the latest attacks in the United States last weekend. And she has advanced prescriptions for the Middle East, which mostly make sense, apart from a questionable idea for a no-fly zone in Syria, which Mr. Obama has rejected in part because it risks a confrontation with Russia.
Donald Trump has offered virtually nothing except fearmongering and notions that could make matters worse, including a proposal for “extreme vetting” that could prevent most Muslims from immigrating to America. Apart from its vindictiveness, such an approach can only help the extremists by fueling anti-American sentiment among moderate Muslims everywhere. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump claims he has a plan somewhere in his possession to defeat the extremists but refuses to divulge it, perhaps because he hasn’t the foggiest idea of what to do."
Foreign Wars and Terrorism - The New York Times
The multidimensional nature of the problem was on full view this week: a cease-fire in the Syrian civil war seemed ready to collapse; American forces prepared to recapture Mosul from the Islamic State; and terrorist attacks occurred in New York, New Jersey and Minnesota. President Obama’s successor will have to confront these threats and understand what connects them.
As Mr. Obama has discovered, there is no easy solution to any of these problems, not least the sources and consequences of extremism, which may account for the lack of a sustained discussion in the presidential campaign about how America should deal with the issues.
Hillary Clinton responded in an even-tempered fashion after the latest attacks in the United States last weekend. And she has advanced prescriptions for the Middle East, which mostly make sense, apart from a questionable idea for a no-fly zone in Syria, which Mr. Obama has rejected in part because it risks a confrontation with Russia.
Donald Trump has offered virtually nothing except fearmongering and notions that could make matters worse, including a proposal for “extreme vetting” that could prevent most Muslims from immigrating to America. Apart from its vindictiveness, such an approach can only help the extremists by fueling anti-American sentiment among moderate Muslims everywhere. Meanwhile, Mr. Trump claims he has a plan somewhere in his possession to defeat the extremists but refuses to divulge it, perhaps because he hasn’t the foggiest idea of what to do."
Foreign Wars and Terrorism - The New York Times
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Monday, September 19, 2016
Sunday, September 18, 2016
Manhattan Blast That Injured 29 Does Not Appear to Be International Terrorism - The New York Times
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Manhattan Blast That Injured 29 Does Not Appear to Be International Terrorism - The New York Times
Manhattan Blast That Injured 29 Does Not Appear to Be International Terrorism - The New York Times
Friday, September 16, 2016
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Apple's iOS 10 update is causing major problems for some users | The Verge
"Apple's just-launched iOS 10 update got off to a rough start Tuesday afternoon. According to widespread complaints across social media, many iPhone and iPad users ran into installation problems. For some, the update process failed with a subsequent error message asking users to plug their iOS device into a PC or Mac for a complete restore of the operating system. Here's Apple's support page with a step-by-step explanation of how to do that.
In a statement to The Verge, an Apple spokesperson said "We experienced a brief issue with the software update process, affecting a small number of users during the first hour of availability. The problem was quickly resolved and we apologize to those customers." The company says users should now be able to safely proceed with installing iOS 10. But the initial bug proved a major headache for people who installed Apple's big update in the middle of their workday or for away from their personal computer."
Apple's iOS 10 update is causing major problems for some users | The Verge
In a statement to The Verge, an Apple spokesperson said "We experienced a brief issue with the software update process, affecting a small number of users during the first hour of availability. The problem was quickly resolved and we apologize to those customers." The company says users should now be able to safely proceed with installing iOS 10. But the initial bug proved a major headache for people who installed Apple's big update in the middle of their workday or for away from their personal computer."
Sunday, September 11, 2016
With pneumonia diagnosis, questions about Clinton’s health move from the fringe
"Clinton’s campaign at first said nothing about her departure Sunday. Aides then said she had felt overheated at the outdoor ceremony and quickly recovered at her daughter’s Manhattan apartment. The campaign hours later released a statement from Clinton’s doctor saying they had known since Friday she has pneumonia.
“Secretary Clinton has been experiencing a cough related to allergies, “ Dr. Lisa R. Bardack said in the statement. “On Friday, during follow up evaluation of her prolonged cough, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. She was put on antibiotics, and advised to rest and modify her schedule.”
The doctor also addressed Sunday’s episode, saying she had examined the 68-year-old former Secretary of State at the Clinton home in suburban New York.
“While at this morning’s event, she became overheated and dehydrated. I have just examined her and she is now rehydrated and recovering nicely.”
Since the Friday diagnosis, Clinton kept a schedule of events, including a Friday evening fundraiser at which she described half of rival Donald Trump’s supporters as “deplorable” and Sunday’s memorial on the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. A senior aide said late Sunday the campaign was discussing whether to go ahead with a planned trip to California Wednesday.
With pneumonia diagnosis, questions about Clinton’s health move from the fringe
Saturday, September 10, 2016
Friday, September 09, 2016
A Dreamer's Message "How To Overcome Adversity" Donald Trump Are You Listening?
By Estephany Martinez
"It seems as if it was just yesterday that I left all of my belongings, my home, and the people I loved behind in Mexico. At first, it was devastating having to leave everything without knowing why. When I first arrived in the United States of America, I learned what feeling claustrophobic felt like, it felt like being caged in a small, dim, airless apartment and that I couldn’t ever possibly adjust to such incarceration. Little did I know, though, that those early days would be the beginning of a better life, a life that was incomparable to the one I had been having up until that moment. From there on, everything changed- from one day to the other, from one country to another.
I was just eight years old when my parents decided to bring my older sister and me to this amazing country. I came in as a novice to the English language and the whole country itself. The hard work it took to learn the new language and to accommodate myself to a whole new place was worth the sacrifice. It wasn’t until I started high school that I came to realize I had what was needed to thrive just as well as any of my peers.
Therefore, I started to put my all into my education. I made straight A’s throughout most of all my classes, with the exception of the perfectionist subject, math. This was, in my case, a significant achievement for someone who was always used to, just getting by grades. On the other hand, being a minority in honor classes was a nuisance . I felt like I didn't fit in, I didn't have much in common to talk about, for example, sports, weekend activities, or other “regular” activities that I was never part of. I never really felt as bright as my classmates were. I’ ve always just been a hard worker that gets to that same point by doing a bit of extra studying, extra note taking, and some extra tutoring. Nevertheless, all of that studying has definitely been worth the grades.
Once I graduated high school I applied for a scholarship to a private college where my sister was attending. Fortunately, I was awarded a full ride scholarship that would cover all the way up to a bachelor’s degree. You can imagine my excitement for that day. It was beyond belief this was happening. Even Though I’ve got some chains in this state to not enter any public university or college, I made my way through to make it in somewhere. I used this as my motivation that school was possible and that I could do it.
Here I am now two years later and my college decides to close it’s doors nationwide. As an undocumented student, there’s this fear of not being able to get a secondary education that surrounds you like a gray cloud over your head and you just feel like sitting there and letting rain over you. It is a scary feeling when you’ve put your all into something and then at the end of it all you see everything in front of you has been blocked from you. I got the grades I needed in order to obtain our state’s scholarship that pays half of tuition depending on your family’s financial needs. I also went to a lot of college expositions so that I could explore the different opportunities I had in each, yet my state bans me from attending to more than half of those schools.
Yes, being an undocumented student at this point in time in this country may be harder than ever, but it doesn’t mean impossible. People say our life is like a book, well my book is at its very climax. These difficult chapters will be the most exciting ones to read in a brighter future. The challenges I now face are nothing but just that, challenges. The decision is mine, and I have decided to do my best at seeing the positive out of everything. Anything that comes upon me I have to face with optimism because everything has a lesson. It doesn’t matter if takes ten years from now to read those brighter chapters, but I know I will get there one day. I have a goal and I’ve already written that goal in my book and there is no one or anything that will stop me from getting to where I have set myself to be."
How To Overcome AdversityThursday, September 08, 2016
Trump Doesn’t Want to Lead the Country—He Wants to Lead a Culture War | The Nation
"In many ways, this encounter was itself a pantomime of Donald Trump’s candidacy: unusual hair, dramatic arrival in clouds of smoke, spectacular parking job smack-dab on center stage—and then, with all eyes captured, the peevishly threatening demand not to be looked at so closely. Trump is the gilded monster truck of political ambition."
Trump Doesn’t Want to Lead the Country—He Wants to Lead a Culture War | The Nation
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Questions about Trump Foundation Donation Donald Trump’s foundation made a donation in support of Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s re-election campaign- shortly before Bondi’s office declined to investigate Trump University. Lawrence discusses with David Cay Johnston. Questions about Trump Foundation Donation | MSNBC
Monday, September 05, 2016
Donald Trump's Essential Cowardice - The Atlantic
"Crusaders against “political correctness” often portray themselves as brave. They deride others for knuckling under to left-wing orthodoxy, for being too afraid of African Americans, Latinos, feminists, and gays to speak the truth. They, on the other hand, speak their mind, come what may.
No presidential candidate has used this conceit more effectively than Donald Trump. His supporters love his willingness to say things about Mexicans, Muslims, and African Americans that ordinary politicians won’t say for fear of being called a bigot. That’s part of what they mean they say he “doesn’t talk like a politician.”
Donald Trump's Essential Cowardice - The Atlantic
The Health Effects of Growing Old, and Lonely - The New York Times
"Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quiet devastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious public health issue deserving of public funds and national attention.
Working with local governments and the National Health Service, programs aimed at mitigating loneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trained to inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.
“There’s been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Department of Health to the media,” said Paul Cann, chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and a founder of The Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year-old group based in London. “Loneliness has to be everybody’s business.”
Researchers have found mounting evidence linking loneliness to physical illness and to functional and cognitive decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity.
“The profound effects of loneliness on health "
The Health Effects of Growing Old, and Lonely - The New York Times
Working with local governments and the National Health Service, programs aimed at mitigating loneliness have sprung up in dozens of cities and towns. Even fire brigades have been trained to inspect homes not just for fire safety but for signs of social isolation.
“There’s been an explosion of public awareness here, from local authorities to the Department of Health to the media,” said Paul Cann, chief executive of Age UK Oxfordshire and a founder of The Campaign to End Loneliness, a five-year-old group based in London. “Loneliness has to be everybody’s business.”
Researchers have found mounting evidence linking loneliness to physical illness and to functional and cognitive decline. As a predictor of early death, loneliness eclipses obesity.
“The profound effects of loneliness on health "
The Health Effects of Growing Old, and Lonely - The New York Times
Sunday, September 04, 2016
G20 Ends Abruptly as Obama Calls Putin a Jackass - The New Yorker
"The press corps appeared stunned by the uncharacteristic outburst from Mr. Obama, who then unleashed a ten-minute tirade at the stone-faced Russian President.
‘Look, I’m not just talking about Snowden and Syria,’ Mr. Obama said. ‘What about Pussy Riot? What about your anti-gay laws? Total jackass moves, my friend.’
As Mr. Putin narrowed his eyes in frosty silence, Mr. Obama seemed to warm to his topic.
‘If you think I’m the only one who feels this way, you’re kidding yourself,’ Mr. Obama said, jabbing his finger in the direction of the Russian President’s face. ‘Ask Angela Merkel. Ask David Cameron. Ask the Turkish guy. Every last one of them thinks you’re a dick.’"
G20 Ends Abruptly as Obama Calls Putin a Jackass - The New Yorker
The boozy, narcissistic culture shock of working in South Korea | New York Post
"Frank Ahrens was director of global p.r. for Hyundai, based out of their Seoul, South Korea, headquarters. One day, his employee Eduardo gave him shocking news.
“Sir, I got a hair transplant!”
Eduardo, in his mid-20s, had “a full head of hair worn long enough to touch his collar and cover his ears and his forehead. If you looked at Eduardo’s head, there was no place you could think of to put more hair,” Ahrens writes.
As Eduardo proudly showed him the stitches from the transplant, which cost almost $3,000, an incredulous Ahrens asked why he did it.
Eduardo explained that he’d seen hair come out in the shower and thought he noticed his hairline begin to recede just slightly. He added that everyone he’d spoken to — from his team members at work to his parents, who paid for the procedure — agreed this was the right thing to do."
The boozy, narcissistic culture shock of working in South Korea | New York Post
The Chinese governments arrogance is only exceeded by the crude ignorance and lack of social graces of it's officials. .Barack Obama 'deliberately snubbed' by Chinese in chaotic arrival at G20 | World news | The Guardian
"The US president was denied the usual red carpet welcome and forced to ‘go out of the ass’ of Air Force One, observers say
03.27 EDT Last modified on Sunday 4 September 2016 10.14 EDT
China’s leaders have been accused of delivering a calculated diplomatic snub to Barack Obama after the US president was not provided with a staircase to leave his plane during his chaotic arrival in Hangzhou before the start of the G20.
Chinese authorities have rolled out the red carpet for leaders including India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, and the British prime minister, Theresa May, who touched down on Sunday morning.
But the leader of the world’s largest economy, who is on his final tour of Asia, was forced to disembark from Air Force One through a little-used exit in the plane’s belly after no rolling staircase was provided when he landed in the eastern Chinese city on Saturday afternoon."
Barack Obama 'deliberately snubbed' by Chinese in chaotic arrival at G20 | World news | The Guardian
03.27 EDT Last modified on Sunday 4 September 2016 10.14 EDT
China’s leaders have been accused of delivering a calculated diplomatic snub to Barack Obama after the US president was not provided with a staircase to leave his plane during his chaotic arrival in Hangzhou before the start of the G20.
Chinese authorities have rolled out the red carpet for leaders including India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, Brazil’s president, Michel Temer, and the British prime minister, Theresa May, who touched down on Sunday morning.
But the leader of the world’s largest economy, who is on his final tour of Asia, was forced to disembark from Air Force One through a little-used exit in the plane’s belly after no rolling staircase was provided when he landed in the eastern Chinese city on Saturday afternoon."
Barack Obama 'deliberately snubbed' by Chinese in chaotic arrival at G20 | World news | The Guardian
For a Long Life, Retire to Manhattan - The New York Times
"Aging means giving up, de-accessioning, and knowing that wealth and worldly achievement count for little. Like urban life, it makes you feel a nobody. Paradoxically, it also makes you feel alive.
Conventional wisdom holds that New Yorkers, like Parisians, are snooty, too busy to be approachable. Walking with speed and determination, they cannot be stopped. I have never found the stereotypes accurate. Manhattan is a series of small villages. It replicates itself every five blocks or so. The shoemaker, neighborhood market, barber shop, dry cleaners, liquor store all become part of one’s daily drill. You make friends in the shops.
There’s an urban fable, the kind of thing you see written up in The New Yorker’s “Talk of the Town.” At the redoubtable Fairway Market on Broadway at 74th Street, the reporter overhears a woman examining string beans, entranced by their quality: “Such beans, I’ve never seen such gorgeous beans.” She then turns to him: “Have you ever seen such beans? You can’t get green beans like these where I live.”
Thinking that perhaps she has come from the Bronx, New Jersey or even farther way, he politely asks: “Where are you from, Madam?”
“I’m from 85th Street.”
For a Long Life, Retire to Manhattan - The New York Times
Saturday, September 03, 2016
Friday, September 02, 2016
Garrison Keiler Takes Down Trump. When this is over, you will have nothing that you want - Chicago Tribune
Garrison Keillor takes down Donald Trump - "The cap does not look good on you, it's a duffer's cap, and when you come to the microphone, you look like the warm-up guy, the guy who announces the license number of the car left in the parking lot, doors locked, lights on, motor running. The brim shadows your face, which gives a sinister look, as if you'd come to town to announce the closing of the pulp factory. Your eyes look dead and your scowl does not suggest American greatness so much as American indigestion. Your hair is the wrong color: People don't want a president to be that shade of blond. You know that now.
Why doesn't someone in your entourage dare to say these things? So sad. The fans in the arenas are wild about you, and Sean Hannity is as loyal as they come, but Rudy and Christie and Newt are reassuring in that stilted way of hospital visitors. And The New York Times treats you like the village idiot. This is painful for a Queens boy trying to win respect in Manhattan where the Times is the Supreme Liberal Jewish Anglican Arbiter of Who Has The Smarts and What Goes Where. When you came to Manhattan 40 years ago, you discovered that in entertainment, the press, politics, finance, everywhere you went, you ran into Jews, and they are not like you: Jews didn't go in for big yachts and a fleet of aircraft — they showed off by way of philanthropy or by raising brilliant offspring. They sympathized with the civil rights movement. In Queens, blacks were a threat to property values — they belonged in the Bronx, not down the street. To the Times, Queens is Cleveland. Bush league. You are Queens. The casinos were totally Queens, the gold faucets in your triplex, the bragging, the insults, but you wanted to be liked by Those People. You wanted Mike Bloomberg to invite you to dinner at his townhouse. You wanted the Times to run a three-part story about you, that you meditate and are a passionate kayaker and collect 14th-century Islamic mosaics. You wish you were that person but you didn't have the time."
When this is over, you will have nothing that you want - Chicago Tribune
Why doesn't someone in your entourage dare to say these things? So sad. The fans in the arenas are wild about you, and Sean Hannity is as loyal as they come, but Rudy and Christie and Newt are reassuring in that stilted way of hospital visitors. And The New York Times treats you like the village idiot. This is painful for a Queens boy trying to win respect in Manhattan where the Times is the Supreme Liberal Jewish Anglican Arbiter of Who Has The Smarts and What Goes Where. When you came to Manhattan 40 years ago, you discovered that in entertainment, the press, politics, finance, everywhere you went, you ran into Jews, and they are not like you: Jews didn't go in for big yachts and a fleet of aircraft — they showed off by way of philanthropy or by raising brilliant offspring. They sympathized with the civil rights movement. In Queens, blacks were a threat to property values — they belonged in the Bronx, not down the street. To the Times, Queens is Cleveland. Bush league. You are Queens. The casinos were totally Queens, the gold faucets in your triplex, the bragging, the insults, but you wanted to be liked by Those People. You wanted Mike Bloomberg to invite you to dinner at his townhouse. You wanted the Times to run a three-part story about you, that you meditate and are a passionate kayaker and collect 14th-century Islamic mosaics. You wish you were that person but you didn't have the time."
When this is over, you will have nothing that you want - Chicago Tribune
Donald Trump, Deporter in Waiting - The New York Times
"tt was a mass-deportation speech, even if he avoided that phrase. Its intent was hard to miss.
Leave aside the bit about the “impenetrable” wall, an applause line for an engineering fiction. To understand what’s so appalling and frightening about Mr. Trump, focus instead on some things he could actually try to do, if America gives him the job and Congress gives the money:
1. “Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came. And they’ll be brought great distances.”
Leave aside the bit about the “impenetrable” wall, an applause line for an engineering fiction. To understand what’s so appalling and frightening about Mr. Trump, focus instead on some things he could actually try to do, if America gives him the job and Congress gives the money:
1. “Under my administration, anyone who illegally crosses the border will be detained until they are removed out of our country and back to the country from which they came. And they’ll be brought great distances.”
Thursday, September 01, 2016
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