Demovictory9
Demovictory9's JournalDonald Glover launches new Adidas line in honor of the worn and dirty shoe
Glover's shoe collection takes three classic Adidas shoe styles -- the Nizza, the Continental 80, and the Lacombe -- and highlights a series of details that are typically frowned upon in a shoe, such as uneven stitching and shoelaces designed to fringe over time.
"Rich is a concept," Glover said in a statement from Adidas. "With this project, I wanted to encourage people to think about how their stories can be told on their feet. Value isn't quantified by what you wear, rather the experiences from them."
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/entertainment/donald-glover-adidas-trnd/index.html
Boston Dynamics latest video shows a herd of robotic dogs hauling a massive truck with ease
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/18/boston-dynamics-latest-video-shows-herd-robotic-dogs-hauling-massive-truck-with-ease/?utm_term=.5811d7433226
An individual SpotMini can carry only 31 pounds, but they apparently contain enough collective power to pull a vehicle that likely weighs at least 10,000 pounds. It only takes 10 of the 66-pound robots — hitched together like metallic sled dogs and marching with militaristic precision — to get the vehicle rolling.
[Boston Dynamics’ newest robot is a massive birdlike machine that works in a warehouse]
That unmistakable power and precision left many of the video’s nearly two million YouTube videos feeling deeply uneasy.
“Boston Dynamics CEO: “Okay, team. We haven’t freaked out the YouTube crowd in about two weeks,” a viewer named Scott Davidson wrote. "We need to stay on top of it. What have you got?”
“Wow now that they are making an army all they need to do is give those spots mounted machine guns and the end of the world is near,” another viewer with the name BlitzSterz added.
Boston Dynamics appears to delight in dropping simple yet startling videos without warning, revealing stunning advances in robotic technology without much context or comment. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about their latest video, but a caption at the bottom hinted at the machine’s commercial debut:
“These Spot robots are coming off the production line now and will be available for a range of applications soon,” the caption states.
Sarah Sanders keeps digging herself in deeper after Mueller showed she lied
Sarah Sanders keeps digging herself in deeper after Mueller showed she liedThe press secretary is now lying about lies.
Press secretary Sarah Sanders was caught lying several times in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, and now she’s defending herself with more misdirections.
During a string of media appearances following the release of the Mueller report on Thursday, Sanders has faced questions about a claim she made during a May 2017 press briefing that she later admitted was false during testimony to Mueller’s team. In an attempt to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to fire then FBI director James Comey, Sanders told reporters that “countless members of the FBI” had contacted her to say they had lost confidence in Comey, when in fact that wasn’t the case.
On Thursday evening and Friday morning, Sanders repeatedly downplayed that lie as a mere “slip of the tongue.” But as ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pointed out to her in an interview on Friday morning, she used the line about “countless members of the FBI” multiple times in the days following Comey’s firing — a revelation undercutting her claim that she merely misspoke.
“You said it was a ‘slip of the tongue’ when you talked about ‘countless FBI members,’ yet you repeated it twice the very next day,” Stephanopoulos said. “That’s not a slip of the tongue, Sarah, that’s a deliberate false statement.”
Sanders, however, refused to own it, and bizarrely blamed her lie on Democrats.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t a robot like the Democratic Party that went out for two-and-a-half years and stated time and time again that there was definitely Russian collusion between the president and his campaign, that they had evidence to show it, and that the president and his team deserved to be in jail,” she said. “That he shouldn’t be in office, when really they were the ones that were creating the greatest scandal in the history of our country.”
https://www.vox.com/2019/4/19/18507639/sarah-sanders-george-stephanopoulos-mueller-report-lie-comey
Black Columbia Student's Confrontation With Security Becomes Flashpoint Over Racism on Campus
https://twitter.com/andrwwang/status/1116796580680613889Black Columbia Student’s Confrontation With Security Becomes Flashpoint Over Racism on Campus
A video of Alexander McNab being pinned down by security officers is adding to a broader conversation about how students of color are treated at one of the nation’s most prominent universities.
Alexander McNab, a black Columbia University senior, was walking through the gates of Barnard College on his way to the library at about 11:30 p.m. last Thursday.
He heard a voice calling out “Hello, Sir,” repeatedly, after he had entered the gates. He figured it was a school public safety officer, wanting to see his school ID.
Mr. McNab had been stopped several times around campus recently — when students wouldn’t normally be asked to show ID, he said — and he thought to himself, “not this time,” and kept walking.
Within a few minutes, Mr. McNab was being forcibly pinned down by public safety officers inside the library. And within 24 hours, a video of the encounter had gone viral, drawing accusations of racial profiling and adding to a broader conversation about how students of color are treated at one of the country’s most prominent universities.
The incident has highlighted growing tensions between students, the administration and public safety officers, and has led to several protests and listening groups over the past week. A petition stating that acts of harassment by Barnard and Columbia public safety officers against people of color are daily occurrences has been signed by dozens of student groups, 15 professors and some 2,000 individuals.
In an interview, Mr. McNab said he “intended this to be a communicative act” and he had decided to keep walking to draw attention to how students of color seemed to be asked to show their IDs more often than white students.
“What I realized,” he added, “is every time I show my ID when I’m asked, the conversation about this remains silent.”
But, he said, he did not intend for the encounter become physical: “Neither my words nor my body at any point connoted any form of threat to them.”
On Friday, the five officers and their supervisor were placed on paid administrative leave by Barnard and the school said it had hired an independent firm to investigate the encounter. Barnard, a women’s college that is part of Columbia but has its own administration and public safety department, released a statement, calling the incident “unfortunate.” Columbia University’s three undergraduate deans sent a note to students decrying racism and calling the incident “disturbing.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/nyregion/black-columbia-student-alexander-mcnab.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage
Man With Gasoline, Lighters Arrested at NYC Cathedral, Police say he lied about car being out of gas
Man With Gasoline, Lighters Arrested at NYC Cathedral
Police say he lied about car being out of gas
https://www.newser.com/story/274058/man-with-gasoline-lighters-arrested-at-nyc-cathedral.html
The NYPD released this photo of the items the suspect was carrying. (NYPD)
A potential Notre Dame copycat was arrested Wednesday night after walking into St. Patrick's Cathedral with four gallons of gasoline, lighter fluid, and lighters, police say. Authorities say 37-year-old New Jersey resident Marc Lamparello was confronted by a security officer as he tried to enter the building carrying two red gas cans, the New York Daily News reports. NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller says some gasoline was "apparently spilled on the floor" as Lamparello was turned around. Counterterrorism officers stopped him as he walked down Fifth Avenue. Miller says the suspect claimed his vehicle had run out of gas and he was taking a shortcut through the cathedral, but police found his vehicle "was not out of gas."
Miller says the suspect, who has not been charged with a crime yet, is "known to police," the New York Times reports. The cathedral was undamaged, but there was a heavy police presence there Wednesday night. The arrest came two days after a fire devastated the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. "It’s hard exactly to say what his intentions were. But I think the totality of circumstances, of an individual walking into an iconic location like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, carrying over four gallons of gasoline, two bottles of lighter fluid, and lighters, is something that we would have great concern over," Miller says, per CNN. (Read more New York City stories.)
Stephen Miller - staying up late, thinking of new ways to go after undocumented
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/04/18/trump-proposal-would-evict-undocumented-immigrants-public-housing/?utm_term=.ecc6279cc9dfBillionaires raced to pledge money to rebuild Notre Dame. Then came the backlash.
"Of course, I find it nice, this solidarity," said Ingrid Levavasseur, a leader of the yellow vest movement that has protested inequality in a series of often violent Saturday demonstrations since mid-November. The stream of donations essentially confirmed the movement's broader social critique, Levavasseur said.
"If they can give tens of millions to rebuild Notre-Dame, then they should stop telling us there is no money to help with the social emergency," Philippe Martinez, head of the CGT trade union, said on Wednesday.
The cash flow has also furrowed brows abroad, with critics emphasizing that destroyed landmarks in non-Western locales - such as the ancient sites destroyed by the Islamic State in Syria - have hardly inspired such a global groundswell.
"In just a few hours today, 650 million euros was donated to rebuild Notre Dame," South Africa-based journalist Simon Allison tweeted. "In six months, just 15 million euros has been pledged to restore Brazil's National Museum. I think this is what they call white privilege."
Rio de Janeiro's National Museum was incinerated in a fire in September.
Inside and outside of France, the unease has centered on a perceived disparity between concern for the fate of beautiful monuments and concern for the struggles of real people, which can be more difficult to sell to donors.
In February, for instance, the United Nations launched a record call for $4 billion dollars in aid for Yemen, in the midst of a humanitarian crisis. "Almost 10 million are just one step away from famine," Secretary General António Guterres said in his pitch at a donor conference in Geneva. In the hours after his call, roughly $2.6 billion came in - a feat in itself. But still well short of the goal.
Notre Dame offers a striking contrast: No one was killed, no one is starving, but philanthropists likely provided the full amount - if not more - instantaneously and unprompted.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Billionaires-raced-to-pledge-money-to-rebuild-13777806.php
After Notre Dame fire, a GoFundMe ensured black churches burned in Louisiana got $1.6 million, too
https://www.gofundme.com/f/church-fires-st-landry-parishmacedonia-ministryOn Sunday, a fundraiser to help three black churches rebuild from arson had raised just below $50,000.
By Wednesday morning, the total had skyrocketed to $1 million.
After the world watched in anguish as the famed Notre Dame cathedral in Paris caught fire Monday, politicians, activists, celebrities and journalists rallied on social media Tuesday to spread word of the GoFundMe campaign for three much smaller houses of worship.
In late March and early April, fires consumed St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church within 10 days in St. Landry Parish, La. Longtime pillars of the African American community were reduced to smoldering walls and piles of rubble. Authorities have accused Holden Matthews, 21, of setting the fires, and this week, prosecutors charged him with hate crimes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/17/after-notre-dame-fire-gofundme-ensured-black-churches-burned-louisiana-got-million-too/?utm_term=.6240f081bde2
The Deer/Elk Hybrid a Man Kept as a Pet Ends Up Killing Him
Paul McDonald, 47, had gone out to feed the animal on the property at Moyhu, south of Wangaratta, when the deer attacked him about 8:20am.
His wife, Mandi McDonald, was then attacked when she tried to help her husband.
The ABC has been told the couple's teenage son hit the deer with a lump of wood to save his mother.
The couple suffered critical injuries and Mr McDonald died a short time later.
His wife was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne where she was in a critical condition on Wednesday night.
Ambulance Victoria said she had suffered upper body and leg injuries.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-17/deer-kills-man-and-critically-injuries-woman-near-wangaratta/11024706
Mandi was taken to a hospital in critical condition with life-threatening upper body and leg injuries after police shot the deer, per News.com.au. Officer Paul Pursell called it an "absolute tragedy," adding "the family is just devastated." A rep for the Australian Deer Association describes such an attack as rare but says farmed deer are usually more aggressive than wild ones. ABC reports the family had the deer since 2013; other outlets report it was kept for two years. (A deer previously killed a French hunter.)
https://www.newser.com/story/274018/pet-deer-kills-owner-then-nearly-kills-his-wife.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top
He said the deer was a cross between a red deer and an elk, known as a wapiti.
The family had kept the stag for six years and it was the only deer living on the property, along with a small number of sheep.
"I'm the Child of Immigrants. I'm Not Giving Up on the Republican Party." NYT article
I was drawn to the Republican Party because of my conservative principles — family-oriented, religious and socially conservative. But it has been difficult to reconcile my allegiance to the party with its devolving evermore into a mouthpiece for President Trump’s dangerous views and policies, especially with regard to immigration. This is deeply disturbing. It has forced me to reconsider my affiliation and it could prove to be the thing that drives me away from the party for good.
Immigration isn’t just a political issue to me. It’s personal. Members of my extended family in the United States are DACA recipients. My parents immigrated to Miami from El Salvador and Guatemala in the late 1980s and early ’90s. The Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act gave them a pathway to citizenship and a chance at a better life. They worked their way up from dishwashers to restaurant managers while raising me and my two siblings.
During the run-up to the midterm election last year, I saw how the toxic national rhetoric around immigration trickled down to local communities. In Oklahoma’s fifth district, where my family is now living, the Republican incumbent, Steve Russell, ran ads that stoked fears of “pipe bombs, shootings, migrant caravans,” equating migrants with criminals. And so last year I found myself doing something I never thought I’d do: I gave up my Republican Party affiliation.
I not only voted Democrat but also actively campaigned for Kendra Horn, the first female Democrat elected to Congress from Oklahoma. Ms. Horn was an advocate for families like mine. She understood that a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers doesn’t compromise border security and that millions of taxpayer dollars would be much better spent on health care and education than on building an ineffective, expensive wall.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/opinion/republican-party-immigration.html
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