August 20, 2019

Watch a Man Be Surprised by a Room Full of People He Rescued During the Holocaust

Sir Nicholas Winton saved hundreds of Czech children from the Nazi death camps and never told a soul; over 50 years later, he got to meet some of them.
Sir Nicholas Winton is one of the lesser-known figures of World War II. He organized the rescue of over 650 children (mostly Jewish Czechoslovakians) in an operation called the Czech Kindertransport.

The children were destined for the Nazi death camps, and Winton was instrumental in getting them safe passage to Britain.

After the war was over, Winton didn’t brag about his exploits. In fact, he didn’t tell a soul for half a century, not even his wife Grete. Then, in 1988, Grete found a scrapbook dating to 1939 in their attic.
It held all the children’s photos, a list of their names, letters from some of their parents, and other documents. It was the first time she’d learned of her husband’s story.

Later that year, the BBC program That’s Life aired a reunion between Winton and the children – obviously now grown adults – he rescued. Winton was surprised when one of the children he rescued was revealed to be seated beside him, so imagine how he felt when the show’s host asked if there were any other people he’d helped to save in the audience and two dozen others stood and applauded.

What an amazing and inspiring man.

August 7, 2019

Biden going live in a couple minutes

https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/posts/10156135704056104?source=JB_EM_INFO_2019.08.07_B1_livestream_X__F1_S1_C1__AT_T1&utm_medium=email&utm_source=bsd&utm_campaign=JB_EM_INFO_2019.08.07_B1_livestream_X__F1_S1_C1__AT_T1

August 7, 2019

Life advice from Herman Munster

August 5, 2019

Hours after El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell tweeted photo of a graveyard with name of his opponent

Mitch McConnell has had a rough weekend. First up, he made a rare public appearance in his home state of Kentucky, where his speech was drowned out by people fed up with Moscow Mitch.
Next, he had a fall at his home and fractured his shoulder. But it wasn’t just his shoulder and speech that took a pummeling over the weekend. He’s also taking heat for sending out a tweet with a photo of a graveyard. The graveyard markers have the names of Moscow Mitch’s opponents, including former Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland and current McConnell Senate opponent Amy McGrath, a veteran Marine fighter pilot who spent 20 years defending this country in a combat role. McGrath noted how grossly inappropriate it was for McConnell to send such a message, especially at a time when the nation mourns dozens more killed in multiple mass shootings.

Some of the other names on the graveyard markers include Kentucky Attorney General Alison Lundergan Grimes (who ran against him in 2014), the Green New Deal (because he intends to kill any effort to combat climate change), and socialism (which is ironic given Kentucky takes $2.61 from the federal government for every $1 they put into federal coffers).

The sooner Mitch McConnell is away from our government, the better this entire nation will be. Then and only then can we make progress.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/5/1876897/-Hours-after-El-Paso-shooting-Mitch-McConnell-tweeted-photo-of-a-graveyard-with-name-of-his-opponent?detail=emaildkre

Amy McGrath's response:
Hours after the El Paso shooting, Mitch McConnell proudly tweeted this photo. I find it so troubling that our politics have become so nasty and personal that the Senate Majority Leader thinks it's appropriate to use imagery of the death of a political opponent (me) as messaging.

And at the bottom of the article:
UPDATE: Mitch McConnell’s team of bros shared a photo of themselves choking Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.


The disgust level knows no bounds.

August 5, 2019

Kentucky miners' struggle is that of many working Americans

https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/455886-kentucky-miners-struggle-is-that-of-many-working-americans?amp=1&_recirculation=1

?itok=CxT4DxAA

(snip)
Many people in Harlan County, Ky., are poor but proud. The county has a storied history of militant labor action. The miners' protests reflect that history. These men have watched as some of their friends have been stiffed and their health benefits stolen by some coal companies that shift assets around various corporate entities. These miners feel they are not only demanding what they are owed but also demanding something better for their community from the powerful politicians representing them. On The Hill's "Rising," miner Collin Cornette said he expects McConnell will not intervene. "He's not pro-coal," Cornette said. "I don't even think he's pro-Kentucky." Ouch.

Now I suspect my progressive friends are thinking, "These people voted for Mitch and they voted for Trump, and they get what they deserve." What I'd say is this: Don't presume to know how and why and who people vote for. Condescending stereotypes are just as bad when they come from the left as when they come from the right. Secondly, the struggle of these men is the struggle of so many working people in this country who have no union to represent them. The minute we start picking and choosing the workers we care about is the moment we lose and allow the other side's divide-and-conquer tactics to succeed.

There's something stirring in Kentucky. The teacher's movement is still going strong there. The Republican governor, an ally of Trump, is unpopular and may lose his reelection bid this fall. McConnell isn't exactly Mr. Popular in the state, either. He consistently polls as one of the least popular senators in the country among his constituents. In fairness, last year he was ousted from last place by former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) and Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.).

August 1, 2019

Car Charging Smart Roads--The future of transportation

Inductive charging, replenishing electric battery power wirelessly, is an idea that could completely wipe out concerns about range anxiety and improve efficiency and performance levels for electric vehicles.

The technology, or at least the theory behind it, is relatively old. “You’re looking back at Maxwell’s equations of electromagnetism; it’s really fundamental physics,” explained physicist Laurie Winkless. “It’s about the connection between electricity and magnetism and [how you] can switch one with the other and you can use that in some ways. It’s quite old, in theory anyway, [but] doing it practically is quite new.”

The idea has been taken up by technology giants around the world. Smartphones and electric toothbrushes can be charged by simply placing them on a charging pad, but for EVs, inductive charging built into roads could be even more useful.

Qualcomm, the wireless telecommunications provider, has put the inductive charging theory into a practical solution for charging EVs with its Halo charging pads. But it wants to take the solution further: by putting the Halo plates into the road and charging EVs on the move. “The vision of the technology and our ultimate goal is the idea that you have a charging lane on motorway,” said Graeme Davison, vice president of technology at Qualcomm.

“You pull into that charging lane with your car and you get off 200 miles later with exactly the same amount of charge, if not more perhaps, than you pulled on and you’ve got no range anxiety whatsoever and you’ve got an EV that does everything we want.”

Before getting to that stage Qualcomm’s idea is to demonstrate inductive charging by getting a fleet of electric taxis that replenish their batteries from charging plates as they move slowly through taxi ranks.

“Then you continue the development of that process and start putting the infrastructure in the roads and junctions and red lights,” explained Davison, “so that as you approach the junction and you slow down, you start charging the vehicle whilst you’re sat at the junction. You also charge the vehicle as you accelerate through the junction and pull away – which is quite often the worst situation for the battery because you have to give more energy per velocity to get the car going.”

https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2015/08/electric-vehicles-inductive-charging-extends-the-range/

August 1, 2019

Epic smack down!