#the national southwest associated university and us

[mariacallous]

ODESA, Ukraine—In his office overlooking Odesa’s Pivdennyi Port on the Black Sea, Viktor Berestenko smiled contentedly at the half-dozen large international cargo ships just beyond the harbor. “It’s as beautiful as your first kiss,” said the grinning president of the Association of International Freight Forwarders of Ukraine. Speaking to Foreign Policy in late March Berestenko was only too happy to inform me that Ukraine’s three free ports—all in and around Odesa—are operating 24/7, and that the country’s grain exports are back to prewar levels.

The restoration of Black Sea trade is a major breakthrough for Ukraine, in stark contrast to the losses it has endured this year on the eastern fronts. In the Black Sea theater, Ukraine has pulled off the unthinkable: beating back the esteemed Russian Navy even though it has next to no naval force of its own.

From the tiny swath of coastline around Odesa, Ukraine has stymied Moscow’s attempt to landlock and hobble its economy by rendering it unable to market its voluminous agricultural exports. In the spring of 2022, the Russian military barricaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and brought exports to a standstill. This forced Ukraine to shift to land routes to market its goods and caused worldwide grain prices to spike, which raised concerns about famine in the Middle East and Africa. Today, Russia still occupies 16 Ukrainian ports. But the Black Sea front looks more hopeful for Ukraine than at any time since the war’s onset more than two years ago.

The Ukrainian fleet lost 80 percent of its vessels after the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014. But, relying a combination of missile systems and unmanned drone boats guided by advanced GPS and cameras, Ukraine’s armed forces claim to have crippled a third of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. They have also upended the Russian supply lines that serve thousands of troops in the occupied areas of southern Ukraine.

On March 24, Ukraine landed another blow, reportedly using U.K.- or French-made air-to-surface missiles, taking out two large Russian landing ships and other infrastructure near the occupied Crimean port city of Sevastopol. Russia’s fleet has suffered such a drubbing that it prompted the firing of its top admiral, Nikolai Yevmenov, in mid-March. Today, Russia’s remaining ships are in docked in berths along the far side of the Crimean Peninsula, out of sight but not entirely out of Ukraine’s reach.

“Russia wanted to turn the Black Sea into a big Russian lake. But Ukraine reversed it,” said Volodymyr Dubovyk, the director of the Center for International Studies at the Odesa Mechnikov National University. “Russian ships today don’t venture into the northwest of the Black Sea.”

This cover has enabled Ukraine to improvise a sea corridor that begins in Odesa and hugs the safe shores of NATO members Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey as ships travel southwest en route to the Bosphorus Strait, through which most Black Sea trade passes. Exploiting a bumper crop, Ukraine is now exporting as much grain—corn, wheat, and barley—as it did before the war, as well as other goods, and has opened its Odesan ports for nighttime business to handle yet more. Prior to the war, Ukraine traded more grain than the entire European Union and supplied half of the globally traded sunflower oil, as well as iron ore and fertilizer, according to Bloomberg.

“This is enormously important for Ukraine’s economy, for the Odesa region, and for our future,” said Sergey Yakubovskiy, an economist at Odesa National University. “We have to do everything to keep this route open and reliable.”

Ukraine’s asymmetric Black Sea strategy relies ever more upon Ukraine-made drone boats—known as uncrewed surface vessels (USVs)—that speed across the water beneath Russian radar carrying up to 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) of explosives. These projectiles have sunk or disabled some of the 24 lost Russian warships, evidence that Ukraine’s domestic arms production has been stepped up and is increasingly consequential in the absence of anticipated U.S. and European assistance. According to the Guardian, there are currently 200 drone manufacturing companies in Ukraine, some of them bankrolled by crowdfunding campaigns. In December 2023, they delivered 50 times as many robotic explosives as in the entire year of 2022, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation.

Ukraine’s strategy is to maintain its presence in the Black Sea with the prospect of soon acquiring the longer-range missiles that it needs to hit Crimea itself and Russia proper beyond it, Dubovyk said. For Ukraine, he explained, the pressing issue is what comes next. “Crimea is in play, and if Ukraine can put more pressure on Russia there, it can make the occupation untenable. It would change the war’s logic if Russia couldn’t supply the eastern fronts from Crimea,” he said.

Russia’s response has been to target Odesa’s ports, energy infrastructure, and housing blocks with ballistic missiles. Seldom does a day pass without air raid sirens in the port city, which send its residents scrambling into their cellars. In March alone, Russian attacks killed 32 civilians.

One would think that the new coastal sea route would obviate Ukraine’s need to access EU markets via land, namely through Central Europe, and thus ameliorate the friction it has caused between the Central Europeans and Ukraine. Following Russia’s invasion, the EU allowed Ukraine tariff-free access to its markets, which had the effect of undermining the Visegrad Group states’ own grain trade and prompting farmers to take to the streets in anger, above all in Poland. Now, logically, trade could revert to its previous routes and the injurious tiff come to an end.

Not so quickly, explained Yakubovskiy, the economist. He pointed out that Ukraine’s new sea corridor is a temporary and unsanctioned byway, possible now only as a result of Russia’s naval weakness and an informal agreement between Russia and Ukraine not to target civilian shipping. It could end at any moment, he said.

As for Russia, it is not likely to improve its Black Sea positions soon. This is because Turkey controls the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, and Ankara has chosen to adhere to the letter of the 1936 Montreux Convention, which prohibits the passage of warships through the straights into the Black Sea in a time of war. Russia thus has no way of getting reinforcements to its ports.

The upshot of Russia’s retreat from Black Sea waters and Turkey’s control of the straits has put Ankara in the driver’s seat. Whether Ukraine maintains its new trade route thus depends, to some extent, on Turkey.

In the past, Ankara has shown itself deft at using leverage to promote its own interests, whatever they may be. It could turn Viktor Berestenko’s bliss into a short-lived fling.

[kuramirocket]

Archeologists have unearthed the lost remains of a Teotihuacan village, including human burials, in the heart of Mexico City.

Ceramics found scattered around the site, which is located 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) northwest of the city's historical center, indicate the village dates from around A.D. 450 to 650 and may have housed a community of artisans and craftspeople.

"The finding was surprising," said an archaeologist at Mexico's National Institute of History and Anthropology (INAH) Directorate of Archeological Salvage, who co-led the dig. "It shows that 1,300 years ago, the islets inside Lake Texcoco, on which Mexico City was founded [after the lake was drained], already supported a permanent population that took advantage of the resources of the lake environment," he told Live Science in an email.

The newly excavated settlement may have formed during the "ruralization" of Teotihuacan, an ancient metropolis that flourished in the highlands of what is now central Mexico between A.D. 100 and 650.The village is located 25 miles (40 km) to the southwest of Teotihuacan and may have been one of several small towns that supported themselves through subsistence farming and fishing as the ancient city reached its zenith. These settlements maintained commercial ties to Teotihuacan, and the new discoveries shed light on the role these settlements played in the city's supply network.

"The discovery is rare because it occurred in a fully urbanized context where the possibility of finding archeological evidence associated with the Teotihuacan culture was very low," he added.

Gifted craftspeople

Archeologist Francisco González Rul discovered the first clues of this village's existence in the 1960s, during construction works in the Mexican capital. Based on ceramics he unearthed, González Rul suggested at the time that the inhabitants were self-reliant fishers and gatherers. The new excavations confirmed this.

Several previously unseen architectural structures — including post holes, flooring, channels and an artesian well — as well as ceramics have come to light. The excavation also unearthed three human burials containing the skeletons of two adults and a child.

Teotihuacan was an ancient metropolis that flourished in the highlands of what is now central Mexico.

Teotihuacan ceramics are categorized into phases, according to a 2016 study in the journal PLOS One. The newfound ceramics displayed features that correspond to the Xolalpan (A.D. 350 to 550) and Metepec (A.D. 550 to 600) phases in the 2016 study, which enabled the researchers to date the remains of the village and its inhabitants. 

The Teotihuacans were gifted artists and craftspeople, said a professor of archeology and director of the Teotihuacan Research Laboratory at Arizona State University. "To decorate the walls of their houses and temples, the Teotihuacanos used the same fresco technique used by Michealangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel," told the professor Live Science in an email. "They also used the fresco technique on ceramic vessels."

The ceramics could reveal important information about trade with Teotihuacan through chemical analysis, said the professor.

Archeologists have concluded the excavations and are now analyzing the discovered materials and bones. Much of Teotihuacan's sprawling architecture remains buried, but the site is largely unaffected by modern construction and will eventually be unearthed in its entirety.

[sciencespies]

Heavy Rain in California Causes Flooding but Offers Respite From Drought

https://sciencespies.com/environment/heavy-rain-in-california-causes-flooding-but-offers-respite-from-drought/

Heavy Rain in California Causes Flooding but Offers Respite From Drought

Rain, snow and wind were battering parts of California on Saturday less than a week after another “atmospheric river” pounded the West Coast.

LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — Heavy rain and snow caused landslides and flooding in parts of California on Saturday, shutting down two major highways as another “atmospheric river” system pounded the West Coast, but also brought a measure of relief to the drought-plagued state.

An hourslong torrent of rain forced Highway 101 to close south of San Francisco because of flooding, cutting off a major route between the city and the Silicon Valley. The storm temporarily forced the closure of Highway 50 in the Sierra Nevada, a route that connects skiers to South Lake Tahoe.

The heaviest flooding and risk of damage was in Northern California, where rain was expected to let up by Saturday evening, but some rivers and streams were already reaching flood stage levels. In Sacramento County, officials declared a local state of emergency and warned residents in one rural area to evacuate because of rising waters.

Authorities issued evacuation orders for several Northern California communities where rising waters swamped streets on Saturday. The evacuations included parts of El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, and areas of Santa Cruz County, southwest of San Jose.

In Monterey County, further south, the local sheriff issued an evacuation warning for one region due to flooding. In San Ramon, east of San Francisco, the local police reported evacuation efforts were underway on Saturday afternoon. San Ramon police lieutenant Tami Williams said the department used armored vehicles to reach “senior citizens who needed assistance with evacuations due to flooding.” She said the department came to the aid of 13 people.

A rock slide blocked State Route 299 near Burnt Ranch, Calif., east of Eureka.Micah Crockett/Caltrans, via Associated Press

The Cosumnes River in Northern California exceeded flood stage and was expected to crest at 15.5 feet by Saturday night. Parts of the state have already had up to seven inches of rain from Friday to Saturday. Downtown San Francisco was pushing close to its record for most rainfall on a single day, with 5.33 inches of rain reported by Saturday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service. (The record, set in 1994, is 5.54 inches in one day).

No injuries or deaths had been reported in the region Saturday night.

In Southern California, light to moderate rain was falling in the Los Angeles area on Saturday and was expected to be accompanied by strong wind gusts through the evening, forecasters said. A high-wind warning is in place for most of the area’s mountains and the Antelope Valley.

The current downpour is being driven by an atmospheric river flowing from the Pacific Ocean, a meteorological phenomenon that carries condensed water vapor from other parts of the world.

An unusually strong and long-lasting atmospheric river on the West Coast just after Christmas led to the deaths of five people after trees fell on vehicles in three separate episodes, the authorities in Oregon said. Tens of thousands in the Pacific Northwest lost power.

More on California

U.C. Employee Strike: Academic employees at the University of California voted to return to work, ending a historically large strike that had disrupted research and classes for nearly six weeks.

Wildfires: California avoided a third year of catastrophic wildfires because of a combination of well-timed precipitation and favorable wind conditions — or “luck,” as experts put it.

San Francisco’s Empty Downtown: Tech workers are still at home. The $17 salad place is expanding into the suburbs. Today San Francisco has what is perhaps the most deserted major downtown in America.

Los Angeles’s New Mayor: Karen Bass was sworn in as the first female mayor of the nation’s second-largest city in a ceremony that celebrated her historic win but also underscored the obstacles ahead.

Significant flooding was expected in the Sacramento area until 10 p.m. on Saturday, and heavy snow at higher altitudes, National Weather Service forecasters said.

Officials urged drivers to turn around if they came upon flooded roads. Sacramento firefighters rescued several teenagers from tree limbs early on Saturday after their car was stuck in floodwaters. No injuries were reported, the authorities said.

A map showing the precipitation forecast for California and surrounding areas for December 29 to January 3.

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Five-day precipitation forecast

1

2

3

5

10+ inches

.ditu-artboard display: none; margin: 0 auto;

Source: NOAA

Notes: Estimates are for Dec. 29 at 7 p.m. Eastern time to Jan. 3 at 7 p.m. Forecast is as of 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 29. Values are in inches of water or the equivalent amount of melted snow and ice.

By Zach Levitt

Highway 92 from Skyline Boulevard to Main Street in Half Moon Bay was closed because of flooding.

The greatest risk of the extreme weather is in previously burned areas along the coast, William Churchill, a forecaster and meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Md., said this week. Rapid, prolonged rainfall could cause mudslides or debris flows, he said.

But in California — where reservoir levels have fallen, major rivers have run nearly dry and residents have been under emergency conservation orders for months — a storm that is dumping rain and snow on the region brings hope that this winter could at last break the state’s punishing dry spell.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for parts of the Sierra Nevada in Central California, near Yosemite National Park, saying that as much as five feet of snow could accumulate at the highest elevations.

More rain is in the forecast across the state during most of the first week of the new year.

Water experts are normally circumspect when trying to explain the impact of a single atmospheric river on the state’s current drought, which began in 2020. But they have a glimmer of hope as a succession of storms are in the forecast.

“The whole weather outcome in parts of the West hinges on these atmospheric rivers,” said Marty Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The storm, he added, “is looking like a potent contributor to busting the drought.”

Karla Nemeth, the director of the California Department of Water Resources, the agency that manages the Golden State’s most precious resource, said that California must toe a fine line during intense winter storms. On one hand, the state desperately needs winter rain and snow to replenish water supplies before the annual dry spell that often persists from spring through fall.

But climate change has also intensified weather extremes in the West, and long bouts of heavy rain can cause devastating flooding or mudslides in areas that have recently burned. Warm storms in particular could melt snow prematurely and send a torrent of water down mountains and into already saturated cities.

“This is kind of a Goldilocks situation,” Ms. Nemeth said. “We’re cautiously optimistic.”

On California’s ski slopes, the unusually heavy snowfall was a welcome gift. Mammoth Mountain, a resort on the border of Yosemite National Park, expected to see several feet of snow on Saturday, with more snowfall expected through mid-January, said Lauren Burke, the resort’s director of communications.

The resort had already benefited from heavy snowfall this winter, including 10 to 15 feet of snow in the past month alone, Ms. Burke said. By midday Saturday, the resort was recording 90 to 131 inches of snow at its base depth, among the deepest in the country, according to data from On The Snow, which tracks snow cover at resorts nationwide.

“The snowpack holds up really well, even with this warmer, wet, heavy snow,” Ms. Burke said. “It just kind of slathers the mountain and builds up a really deep base.”

Significant snowpack has accumulated across the Sierra Nevada region, including, in the Southern Sierra, nearly 200 percent of the average snow water equivalent that is typically recorded at this time of year, according to data from the California Department of Water Resources.

While cautioning against the risk of flooding, experts say the storms are on track to be largely beneficial to the state. That’s in part because the water levels of the West’s major rivers and reservoirs are already so much lower than normal, so it would take an extraordinary amount of rain over a short period of time to fill them back up; the worst flooding takes place when big waterways and reservoirs spill over their banks in populated areas.

Ms. Nemeth noted, for instance, that the coming series of storms could boost the water storage supply by about a third at Lake Oroville, one of the state’s largest reservoirs and by some measures its most important. That would bring the stored water supply to about 1.5 million acre feet, which is still less than the 1.6 million acre feet that she said would be ideal.

Recent research has shown that atmospheric rivers are the source of as much as half of the precipitation along the West Coast.

Dr. Ralph and his colleagues have developed a system for categorizing the storms borne by atmospheric rivers that is similar to the system for categorizing hurricanes. And they believe that with the recent advances in the accuracy of forecasting, water managers can take better advantage of wet periods by more precisely releasing or holding water at reservoirs.

He said that the center’s high-tech forecasting tools and models show there could be more rain deep into January in California.

Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy Center, said that a rainy January would not only deliver relief to the state’s residents, but it would also be a lifeline to salmon, migratory birds and other species that have been struggling in the state’s ailing waterways and wetlands.

Still, he emphasized that one downpour will not end the extreme drought in the West, nor should it cause state leaders to bring any less urgency to figuring out how to live with less water.

Dr. Mount pointed to last winter, when an “epic snowfall” in December gave way to the three driest months on record in January, February and March, leaving California’s water managers scrambling.

#Environment

[lboogie1906]

Ambassador Ulric St. Clair Haynes Jr. (June 8, 1931 - August 21, 2020) was born in Brooklyn. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, graduating cum laude, and earned a JD at Yale University. He worked as an executive assistant with the New York State Department of Commerce. He was an administrative officer with the UN’s European Office in Geneva, assigned to recruit military and police officers for the UN’s Palestine peacekeeping missions and attend to UN concerns in the newly independent Republic of Guinea.

He was the Ford Foundation’s Assistant Regional Director for West Africa. He was the US State Department’s desk officer for Southwest Africa, he monitored politics in Africa for the National Security Council. He taught as an adjunct business professor at Harvard University. He was Vice President of Management Development for Cummins Engine Company. He became the company’s Vice President for the Middle East and African Affairs.

President Jimmy Carter nominated him as Ambassador to Algeria. In 1979, Americans were riveted by reports out of Iran concerning 66 persons taken hostage at the US Embassy in Tehran. He helped negotiate the release of the hostages. Fluent in five languages, he was credited with having improved American-Algerian relations before the crisis, and Algeria in turn proved the crucial intermediary in negotiations to free the hostages.

He returned to Cummins Engine Company as Vice President for International Business. He became a senior vice president at the human resources consulting firm of Drake Beam Morin, Inc. He was Acting President of the Old Westbury campus of State University of New York and he was appointed Dean of the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University.

A collector of fine African art, continued lecturing on foreign affairs and maintained his ties to professional associations, businesses, nonprofits, and artistic and cultural groups. He is the recipient of numerous recognitions including seven honorary doctorates. He married Yolanda Toussaint (1969) and they have two children. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[evoldir]

Fwd: Job: WashingtonStateU-Vancouver.LabTech.PlantMicrobes

Begin forwarded message: > From: evoldir@evol.biology.mcmaster.ca > Subject: Job: WashingtonStateU-Vancouver.LabTech.PlantMicrobes > Date: 20 March 2024 at 04:12:05 GMT > To: rdmpage@gmail.com > > > > Research Technician > > Washington State University - Vancouver > > The Porter Lab in the School of Biological Sciences at Washington State > University - Vancouver is searching for a Research Technician. Research > in the lab investigates the evolution and ecology of plant-microbe > cooperation in both wild and agricultural systems. > > SCOPE: To reveal whether symbiosis between plants and microbes has > shifted over the course of crop domestication, the technician will > help design and conduct manipulative experiments in the greenhouse > and laboratory (see research questions in Porter & Sachs (2020) TREE: > https://ift.tt/UtOrbmI). Our lab has a large > collection of wild and domesticated legume seeds and rhizobia bacteria > ready for plant-microbe growth experiments to compare symbiotic outcomes > for crops and wild species. Successful applicants should be experienced > in cultivating plants under controlled conditions and interested in using > microbial inoculations in experiments. Experience with the collection, > analysis, and curation of experimental data, and training in plant > science/horticulture and/or microbiology are preferred. > > POSITION DETAILS: We will be working in a new, state of the art greenhouse > facility with automated climate and irrigation controls, as well as > an adjacent new Life Sciences Building on the Vancouver campus. This > position is open until filled with potential start dates in Spring > 2024. The successful applicant will be compensated with benefits and > a salary commensurate with WA state guidelines (likely starting around > $36,000). The position is funded by a grant from the National Science > Foundation and will initially be for one year, with the possibility of > renewal for a second year based on satisfactory performance. > > COMMUNITY: The Porter Lab is committed to creating a diverse, equitable, > and inclusive working environment. All members of the group are expected > to share in this commitment. Candidates from groups historically > underrepresented in biological science research are especially > encouraged. The Natural Sciences community at WSUV is collaborative, > supportive and conducting research on a wide variety of topics across > ecology and evolution across several PhD-granting departments. > > LOCATION: Vancouver, WA is located in the Portland, OR metro area and > is a beautiful place to live and work. As the only public four-year > educational institution in Southwest Washington, WSU Vancouver is > dedicated to its land-grant tradition for openness, accessibility > and service to people. Situated on 351 scenic acres, WSU Vancouver > is in the homelands of the Chinookan and Taidnapam peoples and the > Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Employees and students alike value the beauty of > campus. Recognized by Insight Into Diversity magazine as a top college > for diversity, WSU Vancouver is committed to advancing equity, diversity, > inclusion and belonging in all that it does. > > > > TO APPLY: Interested applicants, please send a cover letter, CV, > and contact information for 3 references to stephanie.porter@wsu.edu > Informal email inquiries are also welcome. > > > Stephanie S. Porter > Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences > Washington State University, Vancouver > https://ift.tt/eZwE6C0 > > > stephanie.porter@wsu.edu > > (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to > golding@mcmaster.ca

[thedaveandkimmershow]

The thing that blows me away every time is that we can leave our place, drive down to Sea-Tac, park with Doug Fox, take their bus, ride a coupla elevators, check in and check our bags, and get all the way through TSA in under an hour.

Just barely. But still.

Just under one hour.

I wanted to put that out there because I really am amazed when that happens. Especially this time around with everyone heading out for Spring Break.

So where... are we going?

Well, we're hanging out with family at Moro Campground, Crystal Cove State Park. Only...

We missed the reservation window at the top of this year because we were dealing with the unexpected death of Kimmer's uncle and the logistics that played out during the week after he died. Consequently, we do have a coupla days somewhere in front of us at Crystal Cove but most of the time we're at Lake Perris Campground which is just this side of the mountains before Palm Desert and Palm Springs.

This is also usually the time Kimmer's down here to check in on her aunt so, while we're in the neighborhood we'll do a little double duty.

Now, we've done this Crystal Cove trip a number of ways at a number of times over the years. Last year, though, we rented an Escape Campervan from their Des Moines location just south of Sea-Tac and drove the full route from home 'n back.

On our return, we had a little trouble with our van, "Nessie", and switched it out in Inglewood. While we were at that location, Kimmer got to talking with one of the associates who explained how a lot of their clients fly into LAX, Uber or Lyft themselves and their gear the couple miles to the Inglewood lot, load up, and drive off on their adventures from there.

We actually proof of concepted that concept for ourselves when we flew into Salt Lake City last year and adventured with an Escape Campervan to all the National Parks in the south of the state.

This time around, because of how our pair of reservations went down and how we're coordinating our schedules with family, we've got a few days before we've got to pick up our ride from Inglewood. So we're flying into our favorite airport, Long Beach, renting a car (Go Alamo!), and killing some days in Orange County starting with Universal Studios Hollywood later this morning where, due to a very random aligning of the planets, we're gonna see Linzy's old high school band, the Wildcats, performing because they're actually down here right now with gigs at Disney and Universal.

Crazy how that worked out... but we're very much looking forward to hanging out with the band director again. 😊

Okay. One last thing.

Yesterday morning, while we're at the airport waiting on our first flight, Kimmer turns to me and says

"So... are you amazed at my packing job?"

And the answer, which should've been an unqualified Yes... wound up being a qualified Yes. You see, our big bags of gear are subject to Southwest's fifty pound limit in order to avoid fees... and she came in at 47 and 47 and a half using the scale at our place. Which is really, really good. Only...

At the end of our Utah trip last year, she came in at 49 and 50 by dead reckoning. No scales involved.

Now that.

Was really impressive. 😁

Anyway...

It's a little vacation for us, a bunch of family, some coordinating Kimmer's gonna do on her aunt's behalf, a bit of catching up with an old friend, and yes... doing a touch of work on the road 'cause that was always gonna be unavoidable.

Still...

It's an adventure.

And we're on it.

☺️

[creativinn]

Scuttled/Transformed art exhibition available for viewing at Carson City Community Center through July

Marietta Sophie Paul fills her prints and recycled-material collages with repeated patterns that create active scenes and narratives.

Paul’s show will be in the Community Center’s Crowell Board Room, from March 6 through July 6, 2023. CCAI will host a reception for the artist on Wednesday, March 30, 5:00 – 6:30PM with an artist introduction at 5:30PM. The Community Center is located at 851 E William Street, Carson City. The Crowell Board Room is open for all the city’s public meetings.

Marietta Paul said, “The ‘Scuttled/Transformed’ series came out of my desire to eliminate waste, and in turn, create beauty. I was disturbed by the vast amount of squandered paper from my printmaking discards and finally landed on the idea of cutting up rejected prints to create collages. While on my morning walks, I noticed myriad soda & beer cans littering the side of the road. I found the colors compelling and gathered hundreds of cans over the miles walked, not as a good citizen keeping the streets of Carson City clean, but rather as an artist obtaining materials to incorporate into my collages.”

Paul learned her trade as a metalsmith while during a silversmith apprenticeship in the UK. Returning to the states, she attended the University of New Hampshire and earned a BA in Psychology in 1983. She established her business, Bench Designs, working in the jewelry trade as a goldsmith in 1984.

She became skilled at cloisonné enameling & hand engraving. As one who “uses the same techniques as her medieval counterparts,” she was invited by the Ringling Museum of Art to lecture on the techniques & tools used to create objects in several exhibitions: “Waking Dreams: The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites”, “Bedazzled! 5,000 Years of Jewelry” and “Gothic Art in the Gilded Age.”

The Ringling also exhibited one of her silver and cloisonné chalices, with the tools used to fabricate it, alongside the Medieval & Renaissance treasures, highlighting the bridge between craftsman past & present. Expanding her skills, Paul now takes printmaking classes at Western Nevada College and frequently combines her prints with recycled metal materials to create collages. She lives in Carson City.

CCAI is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, illustrated talks, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Initiative is funded by the John Ben Snow Memorial Trust, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, Carson City Cultural Commission, U.S. Bank Foundation, Kaplan Family Charitable Fund, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, Steele & Associates LLC, and CCAI sponsors and members.

For additional information, please visit CCAI’s website at .

This content was originally published here.

[hakesbros]

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Each of our totally integrated scheduling options, together with our 24/7 customized showing service, streamline the displaying course of for brokers, groups, places of work and MLSs/associations. I acknowledge that I even have learn and comply with the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. This web site and the information set forth herein are present as of September 30, 2022, and aren't meant to provide funding recommendations or recommendation. If the vendor accepts your supply, we'll buy the house and maintain it whilst you store for a mortgage. When you discover a loan you want, we'll information you through the method of buying for the home again for the same value that we bought it for. You’ll find all the identical homes for sale on the MLS as you'd with an actual property agent or on another real estate app.

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There are a quantity of landmarks and historic sites, specifically within the Sunset Heights district. Other places to make note of are Chihuahuita and the El Segundo Barrio neighborhood, which used to be another point of entry between the united states and the Mexican border. Visit our News & Advice part to be taught extra about shopping for and leasing commercial real estate, from calculating the correct quantity of space to the phrases you should perceive.

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[brookstonalmanac]

Events 11.19

461 – Libius Severus is declared emperor of the Western Roman Empire. The real power is in the hands of the magister militum Ricimer. 636 – The Rashidun Caliphate defeats the Sasanian Empire at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah in Iraq. 1493 – Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island called Borinquen he first saw the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed again Puerto Rico). 1794 – The United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to resolve some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War. 1802 – The Garinagu arrive at British Honduras (present-day Belize). 1808 – Finnish War: The Convention of Olkijoki in Raahe ends hostilities in Finland. 1816 – Warsaw University is established. 1847 – The second Canadian railway line, the Montreal and Lachine Railroad, is opened. 1863 – American Civil War: U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivers the Gettysburg Address at the dedication ceremony for the military cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. 1881 – A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odessa, Ukraine. 1885 – Serbo-Bulgarian War: Bulgarian victory in the Battle of Slivnitsa solidifies the unification between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia. 1911 – The Doom Bar in Cornwall claims two ships, Island Maid and Angele, the latter killing the entire crew except the captain. 1912 – First Balkan War: The Serbian Army captures Bitola, ending the five-century-long Ottoman rule of Macedonia. 1916 – Samuel Goldwyn and Edgar Selwyn establish Goldwyn Pictures. 1941 – World War II: Battle between HMAS Sydney and HSK Kormoran. The two ships sink each other off the coast of Western Australia, with the loss of 645 Australians and about 77 German seamen. 1942 – World War II: Battle of Stalingrad: Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch the Operation Uranus counterattacks at Stalingrad, turning the tide of the battle in the USSR's favor. 1942 – Mutesa II is crowned the 35th and last Kabaka (king) of Buganda, prior to the restoration of the kingdom in 1993. 1943 – Holocaust: Nazis liquidate Janowska concentration camp in Lemberg (Lviv), western Ukraine, murdering at least 6,000 Jews after a failed uprising and mass escape attempt. 1944 – World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the sixth War Loan Drive, aimed at selling US$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort. 1944 – World War II: Thirty members of the Luxembourgish resistance defend the town of Vianden against a larger Waffen-SS attack in the Battle of Vianden. 1946 – Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden join the United Nations. 1950 – US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of NATO-Europe. 1952 – Greek Field Marshal Alexander Papagos becomes the 152nd Prime Minister of Greece. 1954 – Télé Monte Carlo, Europe's oldest private television channel, is launched by Prince Rainier III. 1955 – National Review publishes its first issue. 1967 – The establishment of TVB, the first wireless commercial television station in Hong Kong. 1969 – Apollo program: Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum (the "Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon. 1969 – Association football player Pelé scores his 1,000th goal. 1977 – TAP Air Portugal Flight 425 crashes in the Madeira Islands, killing 131. 1979 – Iran hostage crisis: Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran. 1984 – San Juanico disaster: A series of explosions at the Pemex petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City starts a major fire and kills about 500 people. 1985 – Cold War: In Geneva, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. 1985 – Pennzoil wins a US$10.53 billion judgment against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in the history of the United States, stemming from Texaco executing a contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty. 1985 – Police in Baling, Malaysia, lay siege to houses occupied by an Islamic sect of about 400 people led by Ibrahim Mahmud. 1988 – Serbian communist representative and future Serbian and Yugoslav president Slobodan Milošević publicly declares that Serbia is under attack from Albanian separatists in Kosovo as well as internal treachery within Yugoslavia and a foreign conspiracy to destroy Serbia and Yugoslavia. 1994 – In the United Kingdom, the first National Lottery draw is held. A £1 ticket gave a one-in-14-million chance of correctly guessing the winning six out of 49 numbers. 1996 – A Beechcraft 1900 and a Beechcraft King Air collide at Quincy Regional Airport in Quincy, Illinois, killing 14. 1998 – Clinton–Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against U.S. President Bill Clinton. 1999 – Shenzhou 1: The People's Republic of China launches its first Shenzhou spacecraft. 1999 – John Carpenter becomes the first person to win the top prize in the TV game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.[8] 2002 – The Greek oil tanker Prestige splits in half and sinks off the coast of Galicia, releasing over 76,000 m3 (20 million US gal) of oil in the largest environmental disaster in Spanish and Portuguese history. 2004 – The worst brawl in NBA history results in several players being suspended. Several players and fans are charged with assault and battery. 2010 – The first of four explosions takes place at the Pike River Mine in New Zealand. Twenty-nine people are killed in the nation's worst mining disaster since 1914. 2013 – A double suicide bombing at the Iranian embassy in Beirut kills 23 people and injures 160 others.

[canolove]

Wang Dylan He Di for Nylon China May 2021 issue

(May 2021)

©️ tto

[cfensi]

Republican Era dramas The Love Never Lost, The National Southwest Associated University and Us release stills

Republican Era dramas The Love Never Lost, The National Southwest Associated University and Us release stills

The National Southwest Associated University and Us – Wang Hedi

Two upcoming late-Republican/Pre-revolution dramas, The National Southwest Associated University and Us with Wang Hedi and Zhou Ye, and The Love Never Lost with Li Xian and Chun Xia, have both recently released stills.

It’s pretty rare to use popular young actors for this period, but the casting for both seem spot-on . Wang…

[theleftycanadianradical]

We are 2 years and 1 day, from the anniversary of Trudeau's Blackface scandal.

It wasn't even the scandal, as much as how little Liberals cared and the paternalistic ways they spoke to me about how good I had it, that cemented my vote with the #NDP. The LPC is not an ally to Black people.

Voting Liberal to defend against racism is like the Liberals who haven't met a climate target in 29 years, even after adopting Harper's weak ones; saying we're building pipelines for climate change. We have a systemically racist Police Chief from #Scarborough-Southwest who made a career our of targeting Black Torontonians, Liberals appointed him Public Safety Minister.

We have a tone-deaf Liberal MP from #Winnipeg North who spent $3,000 to draft a petition to make criticism of police akin to hate speech. When Indigenous and Black people and other POC are likely to be overpoliced and at the receiving end of excessive force.

We have a Prime Minister, who when trying to explain how progressive he is, talks about learning about racism and privilege in university, and then went on to wear my skin colour as a costume, multiple times after that then claimed to be blinded by privilege.

We have a Liberal MP from #NorthYork who insisted that Black people like me, felt flattered by this mockery. I'm sorry, Judy, I don't. If you wear shredded clothing, stuff your pants and paint your skin black, as a costume, that's an insult. Don't get me started on how the Liberal Party maintained Stephen Harper's mandatory Minimums for 6 years, then made their own changes to the CCC that the Bar Association and CCLA et al. said weren't evidence-based and are systemically racist. https://vice.com/en/article/paxknk/how-the-governments-new-crime-bill-could-screw-over-people-of-colour…

Delayed water progress, increased arm sales used in genocides in Yemen, spending more than Harper battling First Nations in court, 3 failed grades on the MMIWG, backing coups in Bolivia that oppressed Indigenous people... I can go on. Vote Liberal by all means. Just don't say you're doing it for me, because you're not.

[simply-zhouye]

20 May 1998 aka #ZhouYe520day ❦ Happy 23rd Birthday to our loveable beautiful daughter Zhou Ye 周也 ! She plays Wen Kexing’s maid-servant/daughter/sister, Gu Xiang in Word of Honor, the evil villain Wei Lai in Better Days, the adorable Tang Susu in The Cradle & coming up, Lin Hua Jun in The National Southwest Associated University and Us! ~ It’s already 520 in some parts of the world so just Wishing this lovely, down-to-earth, hard working, talented, quirky, funny and super lowkey beauty the happiest of birthdays!  ~ May she continue to persevere and strive for her goals and dreams in life, gain more experience and hone her skills as an actress and receive all the love that she deserves in return while staying grounded and humble surrounded by the people she loves. <3

[hakesbros]

4900 Alma Street, Las Cruces, Nm 88011, Mls# 2203587 Nmlcar

The NM Home Fund includes multiple state companies, native government divisions, and nonprofit organizations. We carry nothing but the highest high quality homes from Champion Home Builders. We provide a wide selection of Single & Multi-Section homes, all of which come normal with upgraded gas home equipment, good panel exteriors, and inside design options. The Arista team home builders in las cruces has the mandatory experience, knowledge, and expertise to ensure that your new home exceeds your expectations. We go above and beyond to hold up a strong status within the Las Cruces neighborhood. If so, you may want to consider shopping for in a model new home community.

In the finest custom of American quality and innovation, our master-builders create buildings to last for generations, not years. Southwest Airlines currently homes for sale las cruces operates 4 flights between the Sunport and Las Vegas each day. Spirit provides daily flights between the 2 airports.

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Las Cruces is a college town -- it's the location of New Mexico State University, the only land-grant university in the state. It is also the location of the White Sands Missile Range. Mountains encompass Las Cruces, offering wonderful views as properly as opportunities for mountaineering, mountain biking, and camping.

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You have reached this page because you are trying to access our site from an area the place MHVillage does not provide products or services. As you get able homes for sale in las cruces nm to celebrate with family and friends at home, several... We are unique factory-direct distributors of a variety of the greatest manufactured home floorplans in the nation.

This home comes with plenty of room to park an RV or boat on the facet of the house... There have been two further rooms that could possibly be used as another... This charming home has a grassy back yard with mature shrubs great for entertaining family homes for sale in las cruces new mexico and friends, and desert landscaping in... The new customized property homes at Picacho Mountain blend seamlessly into the rolling hills. The concord with nature is remarkable… lovely new homes in a naturally lovely setting.

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Portland protests see clashes between far-right, far-left groups (Reuters) Protests by rival far-right and left-wing groups in Portland descended into violence on Sunday, as the opposing sides engaged in clashes and at least one man was arrested for firing a gun at demonstrators. Nobody was hurt in an exchange of gunfire—and by Sunday evening there was no word on any injuries in numerous other skirmishes that saw opposing sides brawling, dousing each other in what appeared to be bear spray and breaking car windows of rivals. Police Chief Chuck Lovell said during a briefing on Friday that officers would not necessarily intervene to break up fights between the groups. But he added that “just because arrests are not made at the scene when tensions are high, does not mean that people won’t be charged with crimes.”

Henri hurls rain as system settles atop swamped Northeast (AP) The slow-rolling system named Henri is taking its time drenching the Northeast with rain, lingering early Monday atop a region made swampy by the storm’s relentless downpour. Henri, which made landfall as a tropical storm Sunday afternoon in Rhode Island, has moved northwest through Connecticut. It hurled rain westward far before its arrival, flooding areas as far southwest as New Jersey before pelting northeast Pennsylvania, even as it took on tropical depression status. Over 140,000 homes lost power, and deluges of rain closed bridges, swamped roads and left some people stranded in their vehicles.

Classes starting, but international students failing to get U.S. visas (Reuters) Kofi Owusu occasionally waits outside the U.S. embassy in Accra to ask fellow students what they have done to secure a timely visa appointment. Classes for his master’s program at Villanova University in Pennsylvania are scheduled to start Monday, but his in-person interview appointment for a first-time U.S. student visa is still nine months away. It’s the second time the political science student from Ghana won’t make it to the United States in time for school. Visa processing is delayed as U.S. embassies and consulates operate at reduced capacity around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving some students abroad unable to make it for the start of the academic year. The wait and the hassle threaten both the country’s standing as a preferred choice for international students and their economic contribution of around $40 billion annually to many universities and local economies. New international student enrollment in the United States dropped 43% in fall 2020 from the year prior, months after COVID sent the world into lockdown. The number of new students who actually made it onto campus in person declined by 72%, according to an enrollment survey by the Institute of International Education (IIE).

FDA approves Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (Bloomberg) The pioneering coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer was granted full approval by U.S. regulators. The government imprimatur is expected to trigger a flood of mandates by municipalities, agencies and private employers that had been waiting for the Food and Drug Administration sign-off. Following the announcement, the Pentagon said it would make vaccinations mandatory for military personnel worldwide and President Joe Biden called for mandates by companies.

Hospitals and Insurers Didn’t Want You to See Their Prices (NYT) This year, the federal government ordered hospitals to begin publishing a prized secret: a complete list of the prices they negotiate with private insurers. The insurers’ trade association had called the rule unconstitutional and said it would “undermine competitive negotiations.” Four hospital associations jointly sued the government to block it, and appealed when they lost. They lost again, and seven months later, many hospitals are simply ignoring the requirement and posting nothing. But data from the hospitals that have complied hints at why the powerful industries wanted this information to remain hidden. It shows hospitals are charging patients wildly different amounts for the same basic services: procedures as simple as an X-ray or a pregnancy test. And in many cases, insured patients are getting prices that are higher than they would if they pretended to have no coverage at all. This secrecy has allowed hospitals to tell patients that they are getting “steep” discounts, while still charging them many times what a public program like Medicare is willing to pay.

‘A Beautiful Feeling’: Refugee Women In Germany Learn The Joy Of Riding Bikes (NPR) Like most Americans, I learned to ride a bike as a kid. I still remember the glee after learning how to ride a bike on a subdivision road where I grew up in Florida. But girls around the world don’t always get to experience the joy of a first bike ride. In some countries, conservative societies frown upon women and girls who ride bikes—it’s not considered dignified or appropriate—and gives a girl too much independence. Joumana Seif, a Syrian lawyer and activist, recalls riding a bike as an 11-year-old in the capital city of Damascus. “For the people [watching on the street], and even for the children, it was shocking to them that I was riding a bike. They started to say, ‘Oh, shame on you, you are a girl riding a bike,’” Seif says. “It just wasn’t in our culture.” But it’s never too late to learn. In Germany, a nonprofit group called Bikeygees is teaching refugee women from countries such as Iran, Iraq and Syria how to ride. Since the group first started, it has taught 1,100 women how to ride a bike, says founder Annette Krüger. “It is possible to change the life of a woman in two hours. It is really magical,” says Krüger, an avid cyclist. “It’s a beautiful feeling when a person is riding a bike,” one refugee says with a broad grin.

Gunfire at Kabul airport kills 1 amid chaotic evacuations (AP/Foreign Policy) A firefight at one of the gates of Kabul’s international airport killed at least one Afghan soldier early Monday, German officials said, the latest chaos to engulf Western efforts to evacuate those fleeing the Taliban takeover of the country. The shooting at the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month. The Taliban said they retook three districts seized by opponents the day before and had surrounded Panjshir, the last province that remains out of their control. The tragic scenes around the airport have transfixed the world. Afghans poured onto the tarmac last week and some clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, later plunging to their deaths. At least seven people died that day, in addition to the seven killed Sunday. Tens of thousands of people—Americans, other foreigners and Afghans who assisted in the war effort—are still waiting to join the airlift, which has been slowed by security issues and U.S. bureaucracy hurdles. Meanwhile, Afghanistan faces a quickly deepening economic crisis, with financial hardships increasingly affecting those in Kabul and other cities. Banks remain closed, food prices are rising, and the value of the local currency has plummeted. The suspension of commercial flights to Kabul’s international airport has in some ways exacerbated the crisis, halting the flow of some medical supplies and aid.

US special operations forces race to save former Afghan comrades in jeopardy (ABC News) Current and former U.S. military special operations and intelligence community operatives are using their own networks of contacts to get elite Afghan soldiers, intelligence assets and interpreters to safety as they’ve become increasingly disillusioned and fed up with the U.S. government-led evacuation effort in Kabul, ABC News has learned. One informal group, dubbed “Task Force Pineapple,” began as a frantic effort last weekend to get one former Afghan commando into Hamid Karzai International Airport as he was being hunted by Taliban who were texting him death threats. They knew he had worked with U.S. Special Forces and the elite SEAL Team Six for a dozen years, targeting Taliban leadership, and was therefore at high risk of reprisal. The former elite commando was finally pulled into the U.S. security perimeter at the airport, where he shouted the password “pineapple” to American troops at the checkpoint. Two days later, the group of his American friends and comrades also helped get his family inside the airport to join him. Other former members of the military and CIA have consolidated their own efforts with a separate group calling itself “Task Force Dunkirk,” a reference to the massive evacuation of British and other Allied forces from France in 1940 under threat of the Nazi juggernaut. Task Force Dunkirk and the groups it has banded together with have helped get at least 83 at-risk Afghans out of the country.

Lebanese hospitals at breaking point as everything runs out (AP) Drenched in sweat, doctors check patients lying on stretchers in the reception area of Lebanon’s largest public hospital. Air conditioners are turned off, except in operating rooms and storage units, to save on fuel. Medics scramble to find alternatives to saline solutions after the hospital ran out. The shortages are overwhelming, the medical staff exhausted. And with a new surge in coronavirus cases, Lebanon’s hospitals are at a breaking point. The country’s health sector is a casualty of the multiple crises that have plunged Lebanon into a downward spiral—a financial and economic meltdown, compounded by a complete failure of the government, runaway corruption and a pandemic that isn’t going away. The collapse is all the more dramatic since only a few years ago, Lebanon was a leader in medical care in the Arab world. The region’s rich and famous came to this small Mideast nation of 6 million for everything, from major hospital procedures to plastic surgeries.

China changes law to allow married couples to have three kids (NY Post) China will now allow married couples to legally have a third kid amid concerns that its shrinking number of working-age people will threaten the country’s future prosperity and global influence. China has tried for decades to control the population, beginning with a policy imposed in 1979 that strictly limited couples to one child. Couples who didn’t follow the rule faced fines or loss of jobs—and in some cases, mothers were forced to undergo abortions. A preference for sons also led parents to kill baby girls, causing a massive imbalance in the sex ratio. The number of working-age people, meanwhile, has fallen over the past decade and the population has barely grown, adding more strain to an aging society. With growing fears that the country would grow old before it became wealthy, the family planning rules were changed for the first time in 2015 to allow two children.

Cases up down under (CNN) Australia, like China, New Zealand, and some other countries, has attempted to completely eradicate Covid-19 inside its borders. The strategy had largely worked until recently; Australia has just 44,026 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 981 deaths. But several major cities, including Sydney, Melbourne, and the capital Canberra, are again under lockdown as authorities struggle to contain an outbreak of the Delta variant. On Saturday, thousands took to the streets of Melbourne and Sydney to protest the long lockdowns; hundreds were arrested, and at least seven police officers were injured during violent clashes. In an opinion piece published Sunday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison hinted at an end to the country’s zero Covid-19 infections strategy, but warned Australians to expect a rise in infections as restrictions relax.