June 17, 2015

Photos: Holiday-makers are unfazed by migrants straggling onto their beaches

An incongruous scene has become increasingly common on Europe’s beaches: tourists sunbathing, fishing and playing as bedraggled migrants make their way ashore.

“This is an era of unprecedented movement across borders,” Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organization of Migration in Italy, told the Washington Post in April. In 2014, the European Union received about 626,000 applications for asylum, the most since 1992.

So far this year, more than 100,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean, bound for European shores. Nearly 2,000 have died at sea. The photos below suggest how chillingly unremarkable this flow of lives has become, at least to some seaside habitués.









http://qz.com/428741/photos-holiday-makers-are-unfazed-by-migrants-straggling-onto-their-beaches/

June 16, 2015

Women escape to backyard She Sheds

HOUSTON --
Men have their caves, and now women have their sheds.

"She Sheds" are a new trend sweeping the nation that allow women to escape to their own personal private retreats, without leaving home.

Nestled behind Tamara Harbert's Houston home is her great escape into a little backyard bliss.

It's being away, without being away, which I love," said Harbert.

A She Shed is much different from a man cave, but the quaint 144 square foot bungalow serves a similar purpose.


http://abc7chicago.com/home/women-escape-to-backyard-she-sheds/780110/



Introducing “She Sheds”: Women’s Answer To The Man Cave

http://lightersideofrealestate.com/real-estate-life/cool-stuff/introducing-she-sheds

June 16, 2015

should a balcony be able to withstand the weight of everyone who could squeeze on it?

This is a pic of the broken off balcony in Berkeley. 12 to 14 people were on it. It looks like it was meant to hold four people max

June 16, 2015

St. Cloud to get its first tiny house for the homeless...need place to put it

St. Cloud to get its first tiny house for the homeless
A St. Cloud group has built the state’s first tiny house for the homeless; now the house needs a spot to call home.

http://www.startribune.com/st-cloud-to-get-its-first-tiny-house-for-the-homeless/307498991/

The tiny house is nearly ready. Sitting atop a trailer, the 16-by-8-foot structure boasts big windows and careful woodwork. The roof, at last, is on.

But before Dave, who’s been homeless for three years, can move in, advocates in St. Cloud have to find a place for it. The city’s codes don’t allow people to stay in such dwellings on streets or even in yards.

So this week — once it’s hauled from Willmar, where it was built by high schoolers — the little gray house will sit on display, unoccupied.

“In order for someone to physically live there, we have some hurdles to get over,” said Tina Lamberts, a musician who formed the St. Cloud Coalition for Homeless Men after meeting men camped in her neighborhood.

June 16, 2015

Michelle's dress today

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3124845/Michelle-Obama-mother-two-daughters-fly-Britain-meet-Prince-Harry-tea-Number-10.html

June 15, 2015

Canoeists rescue exhausted dog from River Thames

In the footage, captured by a local resident near Kew on Sunday afternoon, the dog can be seen scrabbling at a high wall while its owners try to reach it from the riverbank.

Fortunately, a pair of canoeists paddle over and manage to haul the exhausted dog onto one of their boats.
According to the filmer, the canoeists then drifted out of his line of vision, “but – there are some places a short distance downstream where they'd have been able to put the dog on to land and unite it with it owners,” he added.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11675510/Canoeists-rescue-exhausted-dog-from-River-Thames.html

June 15, 2015

Rod Stewart's wife says that cooking "belittles men, but takes the masculinity"

Penny Lancaster, wife of singer Rod Stewart, has claimed men should not cook because “putting the apron on” robs men of their masculinity.

Lancaster conceded her views may be “a bit old-fashioned” but said she believed men should be “the hunter-gatherer, the macho man, looking after the family”.

“I do agree with equal rights and if women want to go and work that’s fabulous,” said Lancaster, 44.



If anything, when men come home I think it’s more a case of being part of the family, spending more time with the children, being a strong role model.

“But going as far as cooking and putting the apron on, I think that it, not belittles men, but takes the masculinity and I would miss that.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11676285/Penny-Lancaster-cooking-takes-away-a-mans-masculinity.html

June 15, 2015

70 retired Honolulu buses will be gutted and turned into sleeping shelters for the homeless

There’s a new solution offered in solving the problem of Oahu’s homeless — it’s called LIFT, where decommissioned buses serve as homeless shelters. The city donated the buses and the design is under way.




The LIFT buses will serve as safe living, showering, and learning facilities for a community of people who normally don’t have free or easy access to such necessities. The Executive Director for the Mayor’s Office of Housing, Jun Yang, proposed the challenge last year to Group 70 International’s newest Principal and Design Director Ma Ry Kim and Reid Mizue of Omizu Architecture Inc.

They accepted the project and are working in collaboration with the city and county. Kim said Group 70 Associate Ryan Sullivan and Designer Charles Siu have also been instrumental in bringing this idea to life.

The architects hope to roll out three retrofitted buses this summer. They said the city has set aside about 70 buses to become temporary shelters.
http://wthitv.com/2015/06/14/decommissioned-buses-to-serve-as-homeless-shelters-in-hawaii/
The retired buses still run smoothly. Right now, they are off the road and are being stored because they have hit too many miles.

"For starters, we're looking to build sleeping buses," said Reid Mizue of Omizu Architecture.

Each bus will be gutted. Once complete, the bus will be equipped with four to eight beds. If all goes well, eventually, the buses will have working bathrooms.

The cost of the facelift? Next to nothing. The retired buses have been donated. The material given to the organization as a gift. All that's needed is volunteers.
http://m.kitv.com/news/old-honolulu-buses-get-a-makeover-for-homeless/33537892

June 15, 2015

Montana Republican: Christians have “an obligation to work” until they are hundreds of years old

Montana Republican: Noah Was 600 Years Old When He Built the Ark, So Why Do Americans Need Retirement

Greg Gianforte, aspiring Republican governor of Montana, urges college students to reject policy that favors savings plans and retirement options because, like Noah, Christians have “an obligation to work” until they are hundreds of years old, the Huffington Post reports.

Speaking at the Montana Bible College in February, Gianforte told students, “There’s nothing in the Bible that talks about retirement. And yet it’s been an accepted concept in our culture today. Nowhere does it say, ‘Well, he was a good and faithful servant, so he went to the beach.’ It doesn’t say that anywhere.”

“The example I think of is Noah,” Gianforte continued. “How old was Noah when he built the Ark? 600. He wasn’t like, cashing Social Security checks. He wasn’t hanging out; he was working. So, I think we have an obligation to work. The role we have in work may change over time, but the concept of retirement is not biblical.”


Gianforte is a tech millionaire. He founded RightNow Technologies, and assumed a senior leadership position at Oracle in 2012 after the software giant bought him out. Lately, Gianforte has been touring the state promoting his “Bring Our Families Back” initiative, which aims to lure ex-pats back to Montana with the modern miracle of telecommuting.
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/montana-republican-noah-was-600-years-old-when-he-built-ark-so-why-do-americans

June 15, 2015

Bush in 1995: Corporal punishment may prevent school shootings

Washington (CNN)Jeb Bush suggested in his 1995 book "Profiles in Character" that paddling school children could prevent school shootings.

Writing in the same section on shaming for single parents that drew so much heat earlier this week, Bush wrote that poorly performing students should be shamed, too.

To illustrate his point, he noted Walton County, Florida's success in using corporal punishment.



"The students of these schools will tell you, as will anybody who experienced corporal punishment in school, that it is not the brief spanking that hurts, but the accompanying shame," he wrote.

He closed with the line, "To date, Walton County has never experienced a shooting in any of its schools."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/politics/jeb-bush-corporal-punishment-school-shootings/?iid=ob_homepage_showcase_pool&iref=obnetwork