A photo of a school blackboard in Santiago de Cuba shared by independent journalist Yosmany Mayeta Labrada has gone viral on Facebook "Achievements of a revolutionary education in Cuba," the reporter said sarcastically The image depicts the Josué País school in the city of Santiago you can see a piece of what was once a blackboard with a huge hole and on a table leaned against the wall Dozens of internet users commented indignantly on the post And then the ignorant come out to say that education is free," expressed a user You can't keep an entire people alienated while those who hold them captive live the sweet life," stated a resident of Santiago "The most painful thing is that our children go to the terrible schools that exist and learn nothing because even the teachers themselves don't care," a mother reported if a visit from the central level goes to that school because that's how it is in this country," assured a woman from Havana a mother in Havana exploded with anger over the poor conditions of her son's school The woman showed in a video the deterioration of the classroom with the ceiling stained from recent rainwater that had leaked in "What I feel is like crying just knowing that my son is going to study here the child who has vision problems is screwed," he emphasized By 2023 we already had a major housing problem in Malaga city I had the idea of suggesting - right here in this very column - that young people consider following the route of the C2 Cercanías line the actual distance you live from the city doesn't matter; what really counts is the mode of transport available to you - and the train is almost always a reliable option without needing a car or getting stuck in traffic - something that even those living in the city's outer neighbourhoods or in much closer municipalities within greater Malaga sometimes struggle to achieve and in it I argued that part of the solution to the housing crisis we are facing lies in opening up new areas of opportunity in the metropolitan region to allow for continued growth but I also suggested looking at Pizarra and Cártama let's just say Twitter (now 'X') had a field day with me - people absolutely tore into me for suggesting such an outrageous idea.. What a shame to be nothing more than a poor hack - there are rich hacks too If I'd been able to take my own visionary advice Cártama and Pizarra are now practically unaffordable for anyone on an average salary; and even in Álora demand is surging and house prices are on the rise this Guadalhorce valley corridor has become a prime area of opportunity attracting couples tired of viewing city-centre shoeboxes with million-euro price tags investors eyeing up rural tourism and developers on the hunt for plots to build on If this area's population boom isn't happening even faster it's largely because the rail service has too few trains and a limited timetable - something that really needs to be addressed the regional government is taking an alarmingly relaxed approach to expanding new sections of the A-357 road towards the interior This is the key to these towns becoming the second ring of Malaga's metropolitan area to those who were outraged when I suggested two years ago that they look for housing out there - sorry to say Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados I could say this maxim is true: “In the heart of every young person lies the potential for greatness.” That leadership role in our childhood days transcended up to our adult years served the government sector for decades; my father retired as provincial treasurer of the province of Bohol in 1992 after serving the government for more than forty years while my mother served as a public-school teacher progressing to supervisor for forty years until her retirement in 1997 You could say that the passion for public service was ingrained in our hearts and minds at an early age Manong Jordan was rooted in the values of public service he was a product of both private and public education he studied at the Holy Spirit School in Tagbilaran City and then transferred to San Francisco Pilot Elementary School from fourth to sixth grades when Papa was appointed as provincial treasurer of Agusan del Sur The entire family likewise moved to Agusan del Sur at the time He returned to Tagbilaran City for his high school education at Divine Word College of Tagbilaran and then studied and finished Commerce major in accounting at the same institution he was always a student leader and practiced his leadership skills and independence by writing for a local newspaper published by the father of Woman Lens columnist He was an active student leader and chairperson of the Student Council At one momentous point in his college years he led the movement to urge school authorities to defer the imposition of tuition fee increases fully understanding the plight of poor students who could hardly afford their tuition fees Aspiring to become a lawyer like Papa and inspired by his experience in student leadership and as a newspaper reporter and writer he went to Manila with two goals: to work and study law in the evenings his life as a working student was not easy The lives of working students are never easy my salute to all working students especially those who are enrolled in law school He worked in the accounting department of a big company in Makati At noontime when everybody’s light was out his light was on because he would read his lessons for the evening there was no more seat available so he would stand up for the whole ride he would continue reading his codes – codals – as law students called it This would be around 9:00-9:30 in the evening and the carinderia would be characteristically empty he would find a lone fried fish or a slice of chicken which he would order to alleviate the pangs of hunger so he could read until 12:30-1:00 in the morning He would wake up at 6:00 in the morning and start the day’s routine again This was his habit Monday to Saturday and only on Sundays did he have some free time where he would wash his clothes in the morning and after finishing the chore followed by his customary visits with friends and family The school was known for its Socratic method – meaning the professors asked the questions and the students answered a 70% grade was straightaway given; if he gave a satisfactory answer All his hard work paid off when on graduation day he achieved fourth place in a class of sixty-three graduates at San Beda University College of Law in 1987 He took and passed the bar exam that same year had the lowest passing average ever in the history of bar examinations at 16.95% it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle he was successively employed in law offices in Makati until he founded his own law firm in 2003 It was a fulfillment for him to start his own firm after fifteen years of serving other law partnerships he would go home every election to vote for the rightful candidates but he always begged off because he was not interested He was content to let others govern Bohol for as long as the Boholanos were served well He was comfortable working in the private sector he always helped his fellow Bol-anons in the areas of his expertise He always celebrated his wins especially if the wins were accomplished on behalf his fellow Boholanos a different calling has beckoned Manong Jordan: the call to serve his fellow Bol-anons through public service the families of both his parents – the Alay-Ano (Aleman-Lungay) clan of Balilihan and Tagbilaran City; Pizarras clans of Dauis and Maribojoc; Lantaka-Matig-a clan of Tagbilaran City fully anchored on his faith and the God who sees the future and who holds him in the palm on His hands The writer hosts Woman Talk with Belinda Sales every Saturday and website in this browser for the next time I comment If one thing was clear during Day 3 of United States v. Samuel Bankman-Fried Kaplan is very fed up with SBF’s legal team.* The questioning of the trial’s second witness former FTX coder and longtime SBF pal Adam Yedidia Rocking a baggy suit and unbuttoned shirt collar Yedidia described his role at FTX (focusing on code) as well as how money was transferred through FTX to SBF’s crypto hedge fund Yedidia had been aware that customer deposits in FTX were routed to a “North Dimension” bank account controlled by Alameda—but because he trusted his college friend SBF he likewise trusted that Alameda was simply there to hold the deposits not so that others could withdraw them to use Did FTX disclose the North Dimension ownership by Alameda around the time Yedidia and nine other FTX-Alameda friends of SBF moved into that fancy Bahamas apartment in October 2021 the coder discovered an FTX bug related to a project he’d worked on to automate the formerly manual process for recording users’ deposits Yedidia meant for the money to move automatically into North Dimension Did FTX customers deposit money with the expectation that it would end up in North Dimension you have to understand the one key way the relationship between FTX and Alameda expressed itself: in Alameda’s cash balance and FTX’s fiat record that monitored the cash deposits sent to FTX whether by credit/debit card or wire transfer and Alameda recorded those transfers as liabilities to FTX—meaning that the cash dumps showed up as negative balances on Alameda’s balance sheet while FTX continued to tell customers that their money was safe and secure in FTX itself What Yedidia discovered in late 2021 was that Alameda’s liabilities to FTX were inflated in comparison to the record kept by the fiat@ address because the bug had been lingering there since summer 2021 (i.e. but the bug stayed in the system until June 2022 after SBF held a meeting with top executives Caroline Ellison he instructed Yedidia to fix it—which the coder did “OBJECTION,” the defense once again barreled in SBF told him that “he and Caroline had had sex and asked if it was a good idea for them to date When the defense came up for cross-examination who sustained the prosecution’s objections on questions related to the differing business models between FTX.US and FTX International whether SBF “cared” about that bugging problem SBF’s motives in engaging with outside actors like lawmakers the “high” level of transactions FTX handled whether certain people at the exchange were working “hard” for the business and whether FTX was a billion-dollar business the questions asked by SBF lawyer Mark Cohen & Co the defense would press Yedidia on basic questions like his job duties the kinds of employees who worked with him and whether SBF could have taken more of that lavish money pile for himself (for “fancy watches” and clothes)—and Kaplan’s face became visibly tired as it all went on responded to the defense that he didn’t remember what car SBF drove and the defense asked if he had “seen a Toyota Corolla.” Kaplan retorted “I think there isn’t anybody in the room who’s never seen one the lawyers requested to pull back up a photo of SBF and Yedidia and ask if the witness recognized the people in the picture I have given you a lot of latitude,” Kaplan said “The purpose of cross-examination is not to repeat the defense asked Yedidia about the aforementioned fiat-to-Alameda arrangement: “You were aware of this right?” “That’s what he just said,” grumbled Kaplan the judge dismissed the jury so he could directly address Cohen and the rest of SBF’s legal counsel “I want to express my growing concern about the extent of the entirely unnecessary repetition,” he scolded them “I understand there are things that need to be repeated in this case because this is unfamiliar ground in some respects had Paradigm known that FTX was throwing around customer deposits—which are “sort of sacred,” the witness said—for executives’ own purposes that would have dented Huang’s enthusiasm to invest where it didn’t take long to tick off Kaplan again The judge was so primed for both the defense’s strange questions and the prosecution’s willingness to push back that at one point he yelled “sustained” before government attorneys stood up to register their objection The conflict escalated as SBF lawyer David Lisner pressed Huang repeatedly about how FTX lacked a board of directors a pre-investment point of worry for Paradigm “But that didn’t cause Paradigm to walk away from the deal?” asked Lisner “Fair to say that the lack of a board of directors was not a factor to your investment decision?” Well that was when Kaplan invited Lisner and friends to sidebar seemingly to reprimand them for their line of questioning Then came the most anticipated witness of the trial so far: Gary Wang who wasted no time in admitting to the prosecution that he “did financial crimes.” With his messy hair Wang cut right to the heart of things: Yes FTX did grant unique access to Alameda Research; yes those advantages were not disclosed to the public; yes Wang himself implemented some of those features at Bankman-Fried’s behest Oh yeah—Alameda was 10 percent owned by Wang and 90 percent owned by SBF and those ownership numbers never changed from the firm’s beginnings up through its bankruptcy Wang signed off on multimillion-dollar loans from Alameda (using FTX customer deposits) to businesses SBF wished to invest in “the good stuff,” though it lasted less than an hour Although Wang will be back on the stand on Friday I think everyone in the room wished we’d seen more of him than we did on Thursday due to all the procedural squabbles After Kaplan finalized the next day’s schedule and dismissed the jury he reiterated to the defense that “cutting out repetition” would be something “the jury would appreciate.” Left unsaid was the obvious fact that Kaplan would clearly appreciate it too 2023: This article originally misstated the middle initial of the judge presiding over the Bankman-Fried trial Last Chance Animal Rescue in Pizarra is appealing for public donations to help repair and rebuild after the shelter was destroyed in the 'Dana' floods Volunteers helped evacuate the animals and have been fundraising for the shelter in the aftermath of the floods Heavy rain and hailstones brought down parts of the shelter ceiling.” Members of the local community have mobilised to help the shelter When the warning alert was issued before the second round of floods Jacqui put out an emergency call on social media groups set up for volunteers to coordinate rescue efforts after local police told her they could not help evacuate the animals “Our community rallied within the hour,” Jacqui said “People were turning up in cars and taking one dog She had to swim through the floodwater herself to rescue some of the animals One volunteer was a neighbour named Teresa Ramos “Since they didn’t have a way to transport the animals all together We had to line it well because the dogs were covered in mud The floodwater left behind thick mud and debris that Jacqui and volunteers have been trying to remove since the disaster sacrificed two working days to help with the clean-up We also brought food and a washing machine.” He said that his love of dogs inspired him to lend a hand Other members of the community have been helping in the aftermath of the floods who designed a makeshift flood alert system for the shelter using a car battery so that they will be warned if the water level begins to rise again “We have been begging for donations to help us pay for the machinery needed to clean up,” said Jacqui “To pay private boarding kennels holding our animals money to repair and replace what is broken or ruined - it's going to cost a huge amount.” who runs social media groups for women in the Malaga area to connect visited Last Chance to see the damage for herself after seeing photos of the ruined shelter on Facebook You could see where the water had come down the mountain and washed things away,” Natasha said She formed a Facebook group called Flooded Friends where she has been advertising the GoFundMe campaign as well as asking volunteers to donate construction materials “I was constantly making videos of the shelters and money started coming in from around the world The GoFundMe has so far raised over €7,000 which will be divided between Last Chance Animal Rescue Clean-up efforts are ongoing at Last Chance Last Chance Animal Rescue is a registered charity It was established in 2012 by Jacqui Ross and her daughter Alex Donations to Last Chance Animal Shelter can be made directly on the shelter’s website the bureaus turn that data and scores computed from it over to banks Sanders’ public credit registry would “use a public transparent algorithm to determine creditworthiness that eliminates racial biases in credit scores.” Sanders’ proposal would also remove medical debt from consumers’ credit reports and would end the use of credit report checks for housing and job applications But just changing the formulas used to calculate credit scores will not close those gaps much the credit scores built by the banks themselves for proprietary use are black boxes These specialized scores are entirely mysterious to the public and may often be unfair. (It’s not completely clear whether Sanders’ plan would prohibit banks from building their own credit scores.) As Cathy O’Neil reported in Weapons of Math Destruction American Express has created internal risk scores based on where customers shop and “it was up to the unhappy Amex customers to guess which establishment had poisoned their credit.” There’s every reason to believe that what Amex is doing is typical of the industry and it is certainly emblematic of the dangers of this system While these internal credit scores are monitored for racial bias by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the CFPB an OCC spokesperson told me by email that the office takes a “risk-based approach to fair lending supervision.” Regulators are forced to prioritize their attention; even with more staff it’d be impossible to deeply scrutinize every credit score made by every bank for racial bias If you “haven’t accumulated assets you can fall back on during hard times,” Lauer pointed out a job loss or an episode of bad health is more likely to cause a drop in your credit score—and a low credit score can cost more than your ability to borrow money But even in their narrowest use—forecasting the likelihood someone will default on a loan—credit scores are still a reflection of some things that an individual can control and many other things that they can’t I challenge you to name a single attribute that would influence or predict whether someone can repay a loan that is not in some way related to the circumstances of that person’s birth if we don’t change the underlying discriminatory forces that make Americans differentially able to weather financial shocks black Americans will continue to have lower scores than white Americans changing how local governments levy fines and fees—but that report stops short of implying that the credit scoring algorithms themselves are structurally flawed Maybe I’m being a curmudgeon to point out that the proposal could probably not reach its goal of eliminating racial bias in credit scores to aspire toward ambitiously idealistic futures; Sanders often reaches high and perhaps does not always expect his grasp to exactly match that reach But it’s important to reckon with what tweaking the algorithms behind credit scores can and cannot accomplish But the society they model still comes up short The ministry of transport is planning works to improve the railway infrastructure of the Guadalhorce C2 line which has enjoyed an increase in passenger demand in line with the population growth in the Guadalhorce valley The works will involve the enhancement of safety and quality the govenment has begun the tendering process with a budget of 7.35 million euros towards the improvement of the rail and electrical systems between the stations of Pizarra and Aljaima with the collaboration of Adif (the state rail infrastructure company) is the switch replacement and the renewal of the rails at both stations The overhead cables and safety installations will also be improved with the support of European funding through the NextGeneration plan for recovery the government aims to strengthen both the local and medium-distance services in the province To increase the reliability of these services the current switch type (type A) will be replaced by others of higher performance (type P1 and C1) Railways switches are fundamental elements in railway infrastructure as they allow a track to be split into two others and are necessary for the correct routing of trains Here is what will be replaced: the ballast and sleepers on tracks 2 and 4 at Pizarra station; the ballast sleepers and rail on track 3 leading to the electrical substation; the dismantling of 6 switches The works at Aljaima station will involve the replacement 6 turnouts and the installation of a new bedding layer at certain points the project includes modifications to the overhead contact line (catenary) and safety installations These upgrades involve raising poles and gantries installing bracket and compensation equipment adjusting overhead switches and grounding systems correcting catenary alignment and geometry replacing catenary wires on secondary tracks and realigning and re-tensioning the catenary on the main track improvements will be made to the safety installations such as the modification and adaptation of the electronic interlocking at Pizarra and Aljaima; new supply installation and commissioning of electro-hydraulic switch actuators; supply and installation of new main and secondary wiring; adjustment of track circuits; engineering and validation tests and functional verification of the new installations The work contract states that the supply of a large part of the track materials (ballast this movie is for you,” promises (or threatens) the trailer for Greta Gerwig’s Barbie like the rest of the film’s inescapable (and brilliantly executed) advance marketing campaign Are audiences meant to cheer on the empowered girlboss exploits of the live-action embodiment of a now 64-year-old fashion doll should we be critiquing the male gaze–driven industrial economy that made generations of little girls believe that the highest achievement of adult womanhood was an anatomically impossible waist-hip ratio And what about those of us who grew up Barbie-indifferent—say women who never owned the toys as children (perhaps because our second-wave-feminist mothers saw them as tacky and retrograde) but who willingly played with them at friends’ houses marveling over their high heel–ready arched feet the stereotype-dismantling student of pop culture the Barbie-neutral film fan just looking to be entertained But can any one movie be all those things at once Gerwig’s answer to that conundrum is to serve up a multilayered concoction that’s as busy as a fully accessorized Dreamhouse: an earnest feminist manifesto inside a barbed social satire inside an effervescent musical comedy all designed in colors and textures so sumptuous they make 1950s Technicolor look desaturated Barbie never completely resolves the paradox at its heart: This is a movie that casts a Mattel CEO (played by Will Ferrell) as its nominal villain yet begins with a prominent display of that very company’s logo It’s tough to voice a critique of capitalism from the point of view of a piece of merchandise the Barbie screenplay (co-written by Gerwig and her partner in life and art Noah Baumbach) wryly and repeatedly acknowledges After a cold open that riffs on the “Dawn of Man” sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey swimsuited Barbie replacing Kubrick’s black megalith Gerwig plonks us straight into the unsettling utopia of Barbie Land a realm where life-size incarnations of the dolls live in a state of matriarchal harmony All the women—with the exception of the discontinued pregnant doll Midge—are named Barbie from the fanciful realm’s president (Issa Rae) A typical day in Barbie Land begins with a toaster waffle and a glass of milk—held briefly to the mouth rather than actually consumed—a cheerful greeting of the neighbor Barbies glimpsed from the vantage point of one’s wall-free house There the Barbies encounter the eager-to-please if abject Kens as Helen Mirren observes in a dry opening voice-over seem to experience joy only when acknowledged by their infinitely more confident female superiors a setup that will be neatly reversed in the film’s second half The incarnation of Barbie who becomes our heroine is known only as Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) an example of the doll at her most conventionally blond hosting a blowout party at her fuchsia-hued Dreamhouse this Barbie confesses to her perky line-dancing cohort that she’s been troubled of late by recurring thoughts of death and her fellow playthings stare at her in horror—a reaction that’s repeated the next day when Barbie’s permanently arched feet inexplicably go flat Barbie pays a visit to the angular abode of Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) as a result of having been played with too roughly in the real world and a tendency to hang out around the house in the splits whose traumatic past seems to have given her special insight into the ways of the universe outside Barbie Land explains that whoever is playing with Stereotypical Barbie’s counterpart in the real world must be distressed and in need of her help After a complicated journey involving Rollerblades and a tandem bicycle—each method of transportation matched with its own jaunty travel outfit—Barbie arrives in the human world accompanying her as a stowaway is the neediest of all the Kens: “Just Ken,” as he refers to himself played with complete commitment and perfectly judged pathos by a never-funnier Ryan Gosling The real-world situation that needs sorting out ends up involving not a child but a parent: Gloria (America Ferrera) the mother of a surly teenage daughter (Ariana Greenblatt) has been doodling designs for a depressed Barbie as she endures her dull day job at Gloria’s disillusionment with the ideal of womanhood she once thought the doll represented has been incepting dark thoughts into Barbie’s head soon takes second place to a more urgent problem: The executive board of Mattel discovers that a doll has escaped Barbie Land and is at large in the human world The quasi-feminist babble the Mattel CEO loves to spout—he is “the son of a mother and the nephew of a female aunt”—is at odds with his desire to capture Barbie and send her back home in a pink plastic box her wrists and ankles bound with the stiff white twist ties any parent who’s ever unpackaged a toy will recognize Barbie’s second hour suffers from a pileup of conflicts In addition to the tension between Gloria and her daughter and the Mattel execs’ search for the renegade Barbie there is trouble afoot back in Barbie Land having witnessed up close the reality of patriarchal power in the human world decides to turn the pink-hued paradise into a realm controlled by manly men which in his limited understanding means plenty of broomstick hobbyhorses poolside “brewski beers,” and nights by the campfire serenading the unimpressed Barbies by “playing guitar at them.” This plotline resolves itself a little too quickly though it does include a beachfront battle of the Kens that’s one of the movie’s visual high points played over a montage of home movies made by families of the film’s cast and crew—had tears starting to my eyes those tears were succeeded by a giggle at the movie’s closing joke a reference to the aforementioned childish fascination with the featureless genital region of the titular doll it’s as if she’s symbolically donning the liberatory Birkenstock sandals that the suddenly flat-footed Barbie first resists and later embraces it’s present in the writer-director’s similarly nuanced approach to her complicated source material: There a classic 19th-century novel ripe for a 21st-century update a classic 20th-century toy reenvisioned for a different era of female self-invention Ferrera’s Gloria delivers a monologue that’s an eloquent rejection of the impossible and frequently conflicting expectations our culture tends to place on women but it nails the trickiest part of all: finding and maintaining its own distinctive voice Arm bent at a right angle and dart held horizontally to the ground: darts players know the technique It was just five years ago that Salvador Rodríguez used to meet other residents of Pizarra This is where the idea of making Pizarra an official home for darts players was born He formed a team made of a few friends and acquaintances the foundations of a club that now has 40 members and "continues to grow" they had the idea of forming an association to eventually obtain their own premises where they could play regularly and promote the sport to younger players this organisation is known as the Club de Dardos de Pizarra (Pizarra Darts Club) and has become a benchmark for the sport at a provincial and even international level The organisation has been able to hold three darts tournaments with participants from all over Spain and prizes for its players The first tournament took place two years ago a testament to the competition's success and popularity but this year we are finally going to have our own premises from September; it is a great achievement for us and a means to have a good pool of younger players," said Rodríguez the tournament took place in the events room at local restaurant Entrevalles about 100 metres from the municipal swimming pool what we are doing creating a home for this sport because in Malaga there have always been people who are dedicated to playing darts but there hasn't been a real nucleus for the sport as there is in countries like Germany or England where there are people who make a living from darts," said Rodríguez One of the highlights of this year's tournament was the participation of a women's team it is not really necessary to create a separate category for them; a year ago we dreamed about this." there were six different categories and a prize pool of 5,550 euros for the winners One of the participants who stood out was Riky Pérez who travelled down to Malaga from Pilar de Horadada Pérez is a military man and a professional darts player: he is an EDU European Darts Champion "I started playing with my friends when we went out for coffee they would play table football and I would play darts the owner of the place where we played was a semi-professional player and he signed me up to play in a team because he saw that I was quite good at it," said Pérez when we are at this level we play as many leagues as we can from Monday to Thursday we play league matches that last an hour or an hour and a half then we try to train at home or at work," he said Pérez also took the opportunity to display his own darts which he designs himself and are available to buy If the world had ended between last week and this—destroyed by a swarm of giant flying shrimp—The Good Place would still have ended on a perfect note with its central couple frozen in a moment of romantic bliss But the show’s actual finale asked the question that happily-ever-after endings try to finesse: What happens next “Patty” found the series’ formerly damned souls finally arriving in actual heaven even perfect happiness would become intolerably dull That meant that the only true paradise was one from which you could eventually opt out: Life is made meaningful by death and the afterlife by … whatever comes after that It seemed inevitable that the finale would find the Soul Squad making the choice to step through the door that would end their existence for good “Whenever You’re Ready,” coached us to brace for a series of teary farewells It made sense that Jason was the first to go: When your highest goals are racing go-karts with monkeys and playing a perfect game of Madden trading the endless on-demand resources of the Good Place for the challenge of building new places Their ends were fitting—especially when it turned out that even walking through a doorway was too complicated a task for Jason to handle—but it also felt like they were being moved aside so the show could get to the really important stuff The Good Place’s final season reminded us on numerous occasions that its core quartet had only persevered through their collective strength when it comes to explaining how four morally compromised humans managed to rewrite the laws that govern all of existence But it was clear as far back as the end of the third season that the union of Eleanor and Chidi was the show’s endgame and that its aspirations to take on the weighty issues of what it means to live a good life especially in a world where even the smallest actions can have consequences thousands of miles away would be constrained by the need to push them together and make it stick Chidi and Eleanor had eternities on end together, but when Chidi traded his philosophy texts for a copy of The Da Vinci Code, it was clear that his end, at least, was nigh. (And that was even before the familiar notes of Arvo Pärt’s “Spiegel im Spiegel” faded in.) They took a final tour of the sites where Chidi’s idols once lived gazing at the Acropolis and passing by Les Deux Magots but the man whose life was a torment of indecision had no doubts about his choice which filters Buddhist ideas about reincarnation through the “never let go” pledges of Titanic was as pure and crystalline a moment of emotion as the show ever achieved But it was Kristin Bell’s reaction that opened the floodgates as Eleanor realizes that the only selfless Introducing a painless exit from the afterlife allowed The Good Place to punt on some of its biggest questions like who created the universe (the highest-ranking figure we ever meet still feels like she’s enforcing someone else’s rules) and what happens after we die (the second time) The idea that going through the door would simply allow a person’s energy to rejoin the universe—as Eleanor took the fateful step she dissolved into otherworldly fireflies that wafted down to Earth—felt more like New Age goop than moral philosophy or maybe just a midway point between Immanuel Kant and Dan Brown But in an era when TV shows are disproportionately judged on whether or not they stick the landing there was something apt about the idea that the ultimate reward is the ability to leave before you get sick of the damn place With its endless reboots and play-acting demons The Good Place was as much a show about TV shows as it was about the mysteries of the universe One of its underlying questions was whether we can inch our way towards enlightenment by replaying the same scenarios over and over again or whether real change involves ripping everything up and starting afresh As a network sitcom—perhaps the last great one—the show was inherently incrementalist bound to commercial breaks and setup-joke structures although there were stretches of the last season when humor took a distant backseat to heart But as virtually all of TV’s creative energy drifts in the direction of cable and streaming the show’s dedication to working within those constraints—its insistence that you could make something meaningful and distinctive and still send it out over the airwaves for free—was in itself a small act of moral generosity with a finale that argued that choosing your own ending is both a reward you earn and a gift you give Torrential rain in the upper Guadalhorce area of Malaga province has left dozens of houses and schools flooded in Álora and Pizarra this Tuesday morning The downpours have also caused several cars parked near the river to wash away and float downstream It comes as 100mm of rain was dumped on the upper Guadalhorce during the early hours of this Tuesday morning according to the Junta de Andalucía's Hidrosur network with rain continuing throughout the morning around the Estación de Álora neighbourhood where emergency services are having difficulty accessing and rescuing residents who have been cut off from their homes The Valle del Sol secondary school in the same area has suspended classes due to flooding The storm is also severely impacting the neighbouring town of Pizarra The Camino Villalón has also been closed due to rising water levels Local authorities are managing the situation responding to emergencies and assessing damage The area remains on alert for possible further incidents caused by the storm Unfortunately, after seeing IBM’s “Dear Tech” ad during the Oscars, I realized that perhaps the worst is yet to come. This commercial would be funny if it were a deliberately ironic self-indictment of how little has changed for the big tech companies after the techlash which features folks rattling off an aspirational wish list is an insipid gimmick that does two awful and interrelated things The infantilizing ad depicts technology as if it were an autonomous person a benevolent Santa Claus figure that can give great products to all the good little girls and boys if they ask politely Mayim Bialik helps set the tone by writing a letter addressed to “Dear Tech” on a laptop Arianna Huffington quickly makes the conversation more intimate “We have a pretty good relationship.” In short order other voices join the chorus to ask questions (such as without bias?”) and make declarations (including “Let’s champion data rights as human rights”) that expand upon Bialik’s hope that the relationship can be even better tech “has the potential to do so much more.” But the message obscures the fact that technology hasn’t fallen short of its promise It’s recalcitrant tech companies that need to change That includes IBM. In the fall, it deflected a journalist’s questions about whether it “secretly used footage from NYPD CCTV cameras to develop surveillance technology that could search for individuals based on bodily characteristics like age and skin tone.” Rather than providing information it responded with PR about being “absolutely committed to responsibly advancing new technologies.” tough questions should be asked about the honesty of the entire tech industry every time a product is depicted as more humanlike than it really is since anthropomorphism triggers cognitive biases that can get in the way of us seeing things clearly this is the basic problem with the feel-good appeal to human rights in IBM’s Dear Tech commercial The person who championed the ideal may very well have specific and uncompromising principles in mind But in the messy world where actual policy is made plenty of people who see the world differently can claim to be endorsing the sound bite A commercial like this one can’t avoid being an empty marketing pitch when it represents a contested concept as a clear and unambiguous wish that technology can magically grant just as easily as Santa can satisfy a request for a new smartphone The local Cercanías C-2 rail service between Álora and Málaga was interrupted this Monday morning after a train hit a man at a point with no authorised pedestrian access between Pizarra and Aljaima (Cártama) The Media Distancia medium-distance service was been affected This is the third person to die after being hit by a train in the province so far this year they were trespassing on the line and not at authorised crossing places The incident happened at around 11.20am some 500 metres from Aljaima station After the relevant police investigation was carried out at the scene was difficult given the state in which the body was found Initial information suggests that the man had thrown himself onto the track This is the second fatal accident in less than a month on the same line a 73-year-old man was run over by a train in Pizarra The incident this Monday forced rail infrastructure management Adif to interrupt the service between Álora and Pizarra on the Malaga commuter line medium-distance trains linking Malaga and Seville were also affected While the line was closed a bus was provided for passengers between Álora and Pizarra in the case of the Seville-Malaga connection passengers were redirected to trains to Antequera and from there to Seville a woman reportedly jumped onto the tracks in the town of Íllora in Granada; she was seriously injured Communications between Granada and Antequera were also affected then A woman died in July this year near Jimera de Líbar one kilometre from the station on the Bobadilla-Ronda-Algeciras line through the Serranía de Ronda a tractor was hit by a train but on this occasion no one was hurt The medium-distance train between Malaga and Seville hit the vehicle near the town of Osuna at a private level crossing (only for access the private farmland The vast troves of evidence released to the public during the trial made apparent that some of these stones relate to one of SBF’s more peculiar and revealing ventures: the time he and his network spent a fortune to try to elect an EA-minded congressman in Oregon for all their high-minded rhetoric about using their earnings to save lives and better humanity’s future they often ended up just circulating their funds among themselves Here’s the tale we previously knew: In February 2022 when the Democratic primary for Oregon’s newly drawn 6th District was already well underway policy specialist named Carrick Flynn suddenly shook up the race by announcing his candidacy (He did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this piece.) Although Flynn had grown up in the state and attended the University of Oregon as an undergraduate his campaign almost immediately elicited suspicion within the district which encompasses some of the state’s most populous and liberal areas (Salem the regions where Flynn grew up and attended college lie in the 1st and 4th districts Throughout the race, as local and national journalists zoomed in on some of those connections, Flynn and his campaign constantly denied that he knew SBF or was being supported by SBF for any reasons that were not altruistic in nature This was despite the fact that both of them had embedded within the same EA circles for years sharing mutual acquaintances and business partners like Nick Beckstead and Andrew Snyder-Beattie two FHI alumni who’ve since worked with the EA-boosting Open Philanthropy Project nonprofit (Neither of them responded to multiple requests for comment.) So what if effective altruists were pouring a total of $11 million into his race for a district Flynn was hardly familiar with The campaign’s line was that this was simply a result of Flynn’s political prowess and of his dedication to EA priorities like pandemic prevention (and nothing “Very into effective altruism reasoning” is certainly one way of describing them Snyder-Beattie was communicating with Sam Bankman-Fried and others at FTX and Alameda in several Signal group chats as revealed in a table presented as evidence during the SBF trial: A Signal group called “ASB/Ethan/Alameda/FTX,” used around October 2021, involved SBF, his three inner-circle business partners (FTX’s Gary Wang and Nishad Singh, and Alameda Research’s Caroline Ellison), Snyder-Beattie, Ethan C. Alley (a co-founder of the now-defunct EA-backed biotech firm Alvea) called “Biosecurity Conference Bahamas,” used around November 2021 featured all the aforementioned folks plus Chris Bakerlee And one called “Bahams-NYE-EA-Meeting,” used on Jan. 1, 2022, featured the FTX execs, Snyder-Beattie, Beckstead, Claire Watanabe (Singh’s girlfriend and FTX colleague), Claire Zabel (another Open Philanthropy employee), and the philosopher William MacAskill, a prominent EA figure and proponent of the associated “longtermism” movement (Neither Zabel nor MacAskill responded to requests for comment.) it received a $5,000 donation from Michael Sadowsky a former colleague of Gabe’s at the political data firm Civis Analytics Sadowsky’s People for a Progressive Governance outfit got $500,000 from Singh; Sadowsky did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) On Nov Beckstead left Open Philanthropy to become CEO of FTX’s own philanthropic arm the FTX Foundation; shortly after Christmas the Silicon Valley Community Foundation Donor Advised Fund would receive a “tax deductible” and “flexible” donation from FTX’s Singh that amounted to an overwhelming $10 million Also coinciding with the September 2021–January 2022 time frame were a series of “gifts” from SBF and Singh to EA supporters like Zabel ($21,250) These transactions were recorded on an FTX-internal spreadsheet exhibited at the SBF trial during Singh’s testimony—during which he admitted that Alameda money (read: FTX customer deposits) wired into his Prime Trust bank account was often disbursed by others under his name (That post seems to have successfully netted Flynn a few dozen small-dollar ActBlue donations.) then got $400,000 from SBF near the end of the month the Bankman-Fried brothers donated $5,000 each to the Next 50 PAC—which in turn dispatched $5,000 to Flynn’s campaign and another $5,000 to Guarding Against Pandemics the very next day John Kitzhaber’s successful 2014 reelection effort.) a peer of West’s who’d previously made a 2020 bid for the U.S if that kind of money was going to come out of the crypto industry that West wasn’t getting at least a significant portion of that.” The only conclusion Gamba could derive was that it was less a crypto-focused campaign than it was “a pretty focused effort to get a particular individual elected.” He added that Flynn I told him I was willing to meet with him but that I had already endorsed Matt the pro-crypto lobbying firm headed by Anthony Scaramucci that also received millions of dollars in donations from SBF Such vast sums of money going into such small races—it was bizarre enough to capture national attention, but it was local enough for Oregonians to understand why their state had become a lab for free-flowing money, as its local campaign finance regulations are looser than other states’ The irony was especially pronounced with Flynn’s strongest opponent being a loud supporter of campaign finance reform Yet Flynn’s financial backing allowed him to blanket the area with TV she came upon constant Flynn promos in the 4th: “We saw ads even here I dug up that Facebook post and could not find an SBF like there—yes he still has an account—but that doesn’t rule out the possibility that he could have removed his like after the fact another person who “liked” that Facebook post was Nick Beckstead especially when Sam was saying he would spend $1 billion.” Balwit went on to join the FTX Future Fund full time in June becoming part of a team that had grown under Beckstead’s leadership and FHI alum Leopold Aschenbrenner having all joined on Feb who did not respond to multiple requests for comment had also worked at the Forethought Foundation a MacAskill-founded EA org that was party to the $10 million donation Nishad Singh had given to the Silicon Valley Foundation Donor Advised Fund in December He now works for Ilya Sutskever’s “superalignment” team at OpenAI.) 🚨 JUST IN —The entire team behind the FTX Future Fund, the Sam Bankman-Fried philanthropy, has resigned.A holy-shit moment in the world of effective altruism. pic.twitter.com/5YY886OdNh Balwit would be the last Future Fund hire before FTX collapsed in November—after which all fund advisers formally resigned claiming in a statement that they “have fundamental questions about the legitimacy and integrity of the business operations that were funding the FTX Foundation and the Future Fund,” that they “condemn” the “extent that the leadership of FTX may have engaged in deception or dishonesty,” and that their “hearts go out to the thousands of FTX customers whose finances may have been jeopardized or destroyed.” Balwit herself ended up joining many SBF-led Signal group chats: “FTX Foundation Funding,” “EA Discussion,” “FTX Foundation + GAP Chatter,” and “Donation Processing,” to which Beckstead added Balwit in September 2022 It’s unclear whether the latter had anything to do with the Future Fund considering that neither Ramakrishnan nor Aschenbrenner appears to have been a member of that chat is that “Donation Processing” was at the very least a key instrument for SBF & Co.’s straw-donation schemes—screenshots introduced as evidence show how Guarding Against Pandemics employees like Michael Sadowsky and Keenan Lantz all worked with SBF and Singh to coordinate donations to particular organizations under one another’s names It may seem odd that Balwit would join forces with the very people she said were not involved with the political campaign she’d managed according to the messages exhibited in the SBF trial FTX exec Ryan Salame sent “Donation Processing” a screenshot of an Oregonian article that initially credited a recent $500,000 donation to the Democratic Party of Oregon PAC to a “Las Vegas cryptocurrency startup called Prime Trust.” Salame insisted on the need to have it “corrected,” which Lantz said should fall to Singh; in response It appears what happened is that Singh, in October 2022, had tried to broker the donation to Oregon Dems through a consultant for Balwit’s old boss Ron Wyden. Thanks to Singh’s own obfuscation which is otherwise spotlighted in internal FTX documents as the home to the bank account Singh would draw upon for gifts to EA folks as well as political donations (Company president Daniela Amodei had also donated to Carrick Flynn’s campaign on Jan preceding its FEC registration.) In June of this year regulation for Asterisk Magazine; her bio mentions her roles at Anthropic and FHI and that she was selected for a Rhodes scholarship 2023: This piece originally misstated that Matt West claimed he and the Oregon Democratic Environmental Caucus used their own money to help the state party’s PAC recover its $500,000 loss West clarified to Slate that Oregon’s elected Democrats used money from their campaign funds to help cover for the loss roughly 100 protesters from the AIDS activist group ACT UP New York descended on Trump Tower at 5th Avenue and 56th Street “Surrender Donald.” ACT UP was in a fight for the lives of people with HIV and AIDS striking out against government indifference and corporate greed And they saw Trump for what he was: a monster in the making had been formed two-and-a-half years earlier out of mounting anger over inadequate city and federal government responses to rising numbers of HIV/AIDS cases and related deaths The group quickly became known for their disruptive calling for expanded and faster drug research The Trump Tower protest was organized by ACT UP’s Housing Committee which hoped to draw attention to the lack of housing for homeless people with AIDS Photographs from the October 1989 Trump Tower demonstration give a sense both of its boldness and its humor They were taken by photographer Lee Snider who had been documenting LGBTQ life and politics in New York for the gay press since the 1970s carrying a range of printed and handmade signs: “Silence Equals Death,” “In NYC 10,000 Homeless PWAs 64 Beds,” “Money For AIDS Not For Malls.” Two participants hung a banner “10,000 Homeless With AIDS,” from the windows across the street Trump Treated to Tax Abatements,” and “Don’t Let New York Become a Ghost Town.” One participant wore a vampire costume and held a sign depicting Trump as Freddy Krueger “Nightmare on Trump Street.” Others wore paper masks featuring Trump with his lips pursed Eventually some protesters went inside Trump Tower where they threw fliers from the escalators the police put a stop to the protest and arrested six people on charges of illegal trespass But 24-year-old Ronny Viggiani—the activist dressed as Dorothy—escaped capture As the gay magazine Outweek reported at the time police stopped the escalators with Viggiani at the top because I can’t walk [down] in these heels.” The police eventually relented I first came across Snider’s photographs of Dorothy and the 1989 Trump Tower protest a few weeks ago while doing research on ACT UP’s housing activism at New York University’s Fales Library I smiled when I saw the images; I could not imagine at the time that Trump might actually win the election and heard the urgency in the words “Surrender Donald,” as ACT UP protesters did in 1989 ACT UP saw in Donald Trump a symbol of a flawed system where government policies empowered the wealthy at the expense of the poor and marginalized a “greedy monster,” and were among the few prescient and bold enough to draw their swords—not only for the sake of queer people but for a wider community of people living with HIV and AIDS disregarded and disempowered by their government The group had first targeted Trump Tower a year earlier when wealthy shoppers could be expected to flock to the luxury stores in the building’s atrium Trump Tower was a garish symbol of the disparity between rich and poor in New York Trump had received a $6.2 million tax abatement to construct the building that might have been used to turn vacant city-owned buildings into housing facilities “Donald Trump gets richer while homeless people get sicker.” The 1989 protest at Trump Tower repeated many of the key points—a signal of how little had changed—how little except the rising estimates of homelessness among people with AIDS: 5000 in 1988 Trump was hardly alone in benefiting from city policies that privileged wealthy developers “The city’s tax abatement policy is shamelessly political … It favors the projects of the rich and powerful campaign contributors—the Zeckendorfs the Chase Manhattan Bank—over those of grass roots service organizations.” But Trump was a canny choice: Trump Tower was completed in 1983 Trump had gained a new level of national prominence Time featured Trump on the cover with a story titled loathes losing and has an ego as big as the Ritz — er Plaza”—a reference to his latest hotel purchase The essay featured many choice (and tweet-length) quotes: “Who has done as much as I have No one has done more in New York than me,” “I love to have enemies I like beating my enemies to the ground.” It pointed to his many unethical and often illegal real estate practices; the construction of his three-story onyx and gold-embellished home atop Trump Tower; as well as colorful insults lobbed at journalists who criticized him and politicians who blocked his construction plans there were also hints that Trump had his eye on politics In an interview on the Oprah Winfrey Show in 1988 in terms nearly identical to those he would use three decades later in his presidential run: “We are a debtor nation …and I think people are tired of seeing the United States ripped off.” And in the summer of 1989 Trump waged a campaign against the Central Park Five—five young black and Latino men wrongfully accused of raping a white woman—placing an ad in the New York Times calling for the death penalty to be reinstated has stood by his actions despite DNA evidence Trump in 1989 was already the man who would run for president in 2015—and ACT UP was already calling him out activists have organized demonstrations at Trump Tower and across the country even as others have questioned the purpose of protest after the election Commentators from the right and the left have dismissed the protests as hapless or mere “whining.” Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mark Brown has suggested leftists forgo demonstrations until Trump takes office and a “clear issue” emerges: “Better now to stand down and stay alert and follow the sound guidance of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to respect our democratic traditions and give Trump a chance to lead.” But the dangers posed by Trump and his supporters—to Muslims the danger of bad government is not abstract or immaterial This week I tracked down Ronny Viggiani—Dorothy from the photograph—and we spoke on the phone Viggiani was working at the library at the Fashion Institute of Technology when a friend invited him to attend one of ACT UP’s regular Monday night meetings at the LGBT Center on 13th Street When the Halloween protest was planned for Trump Tower Viggiani thought of the beautiful Dorothy costume a friend had designed either for Halloween or for a stage production—he couldn’t now recall—and decided to wear it to the demonstration “Surrender Donald.” The words were a reference to a scene in The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch of the West rides her broomstick over the Emerald City “Surrender Dorothy.” Viggiani explained: “I did love The Wizard of Oz when I was a kid and I have very vivid memories of watching it the flying monkeys.” In dressing as Dorothy and taking on Trump you might say Viggiani was conquering his demons Viggiani continued to take part in ACT UP actions but he also began working at the HIV clinic of the Community Health Project at the Center And in 1992 he decided to go to medical school—eventually working in St Viggiani marvels still at the creativity and intelligence of so many of ACT UP’s members “It called attention to this epidemic in lots of different ways and in identifying or recognizing that HIV existed in lots of different populations and not just one population.” As historian Tamar Carroll documents in her 2015 book ACT UP New York consisted largely of white gay men but women and people of color quickly organized to be heard within the group ACT UP New York organized a separate Women’s Caucus as well as a collective for people of color called the Majority Action Committee—a name recognizing that racial minorities made up the majority of people living with HIV and AIDS ACT UP New York also began collaborating with Women’s Health Action and Mobilization most famously at a massive demonstration at St both Donald Trump as well as Democrats like Bernie Sanders have criticized the Left for focusing too heavily on “identity politics” at the expense of the white working class But the leadership of activist groups from ACT UP to Black Lives Matter (another queer-led movement) demonstrate that racial and sexual oppression cannot be separated from economic injustice The housing crisis that ACT UP decried in 1989 at the door and on the escalators of Trump Tower was not the simple result of financial policies but of deeper prejudices against women and the poor—prejudices that rendered their struggles less important and less visible There are clear parallels between ACT UP and Black Lives Matter: These are not movements about “political correctness” but about survival Despite some recent claims the left is all rhetoric rooted in a fundamental understanding that poverty is most dangerous for people whose lives have been valued less I’ve felt and seen so much sadness these weeks since the election but I also have a feeling Trump does not know the force and creativity of the movement building in response to his coming administration The photographs of the Trump Tower protest in 1989 give me a sense of hope in the power of activism to make injustice visible and make change imaginable in the fantastic reversal of Ronny Viggiani’s 1989 poster “Surrender Donald,” I hear a queer call to action: to team up in recognition of difference and make Donald Trump miserable I see a hashtag #surrenderdonald when he tries to deport immigrants and their children roll back protections for women and LGBTQ people “Surrender Donald,” demanding Trump stand down I see a thousand Dorothys with signs in front of Trump Tower and I hear cries at the steps of the White House the Limited Edition (LE) Nike Air Huarache “Slate” will be making a return during the holiday season Arriving true to its OG release, the shoe comes dressed in a Shadow, Midnight Navy, and Black color scheme. This offering of the Nike Air Huarache comes constructed with a neoprene base and suede overlays with a two-tone heel pull tab atop a solid Black rubber sole and look for the Nike Air Huarache LE “Slate” to release on December 16th at select retailers and Nike.com UPDATE 12/9: Nike confirms that the “Slate” Air Huarache returns December 16th for $120 USD via SNKRS SBD provides millions of monthly visitors with sneaker updates on Jordan Sneaker Bar Detroit has quickly become one of the top sneaker sources on the web Advertise With Us || Email: info[at]sneakerbardetroit.com You can find the full list of Luke’s Diner locations here More and more big players in the food industry are promising to start labeling GMO products The fight over genetically modified ingredients is almost over packaged foods made with GMOs will be labeled at your supermarket Some could be better for independent farmers and their families The scarlet GMO blankets all this variation and replaces it with dread chairman of both the organic yogurt producer Stonyfield Farm and the organic-industry–backed advocacy group Just Label It The movement Hirshberg represents makes assertions about public health but draws its energy from public values. Like the push for Prohibition or the recent fights to regulate what can be called a “natural“ food it builds from intuitions rather than observations and from theology rather than epidemiology Avoidance of genetically modified foods is more religious than rational: It’s a cultural taboo akin to keeping kosher based on core beliefs about purity and the natural order its adherents deserve the same respect and deference that we afford to other spiritual communities it declares the need to “provide consumers with data from which they may make informed decisions for religious reasons.” “The scholars and practitioners in almost every case have fundamentally different ontological views about the nature of reality,” Brunk told me the experts were somewhat more forgiving in their appraisal of GMOs and how they might fit into each faith didn’t think that a tomato would become un-kosher just because its genome had been augmented with a pig gene Brunk and his colleagues found that regular practicing Jews might see the “pig-ness” of that extra gene as a contaminant the real beliefs and practices of religious folks are more relevant to public policy than the hairsplitting theories of scholars and theologians Religious objections to GMOs aren’t limited to esoteric sectarian debates over pig-ness and eel-ification Members of Brunk’s focus groups expressed more ecumenical concerns that genetic engineering might be an unnatural violation—a way of “playing God” or abusing God’s creation Even for those who don’t belong to any church these generic fears about messing with the sanctity of nature define their own And familiar claims that GM foods are hazardous to human health or harmful to the planet can be understood as offshoots of an underlying theological position: One pays a price for sacrilege Beverages in the restaurant’s soda machines were made with GM corn syrup Meat in the restaurant’s entrees was cut from animals that had eaten GM feed the Vermont law specifically excludes these same ingredients from mandatory labeling as well as those produced from genetically engineered “processing aids” such as yeast or enzymes The fact that anti-GMO clerics can argue over how many genes fit on the head of a pin doesn’t mean their entire system of beliefs—including all its worries over hidden dangers—isn’t worth considering religious food taboos often overlap with important matters of human health and local ecology It would be a mistake to discount the stated concerns of the GMO-labeling movement on account of its naked religiosity Indigenous populations in Ecuador and Peru and giant armadillos—each of which had been deemed a “vulnerable species” by the World Conservation Union The anti-GMO position, on the other hand, makes explicit claims about environmental and personal health in the absence of clear, real-world benefits. That’s not unusual, as many religious food injunctions stem from a mixture of essentialist dogma and dubious medical assertions. In his 2009 study of the origins and purposes of food taboos biologist Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow describes several such beliefs including those among communities in Nigeria where children are told not to drink coconut milk on the grounds that it causes cognitive impairment That may be why the labeling of kosher foods is on the rise. A more recent Mintel study found that kosher claims appeared on almost half of all new food products in 2015 the proportion of new products making non-GMO claims is also going up from 3 percent in 2012 to 16 percent last year Both marketing categories serve the latent religiosity of a growing population of consumers Like the circled K or U that signifies a food is kosher a GMO-free label would offer nothing more and nothing less than spiritual reassurance It hints at something deeper than the chemical makeup of ingredients and something more fundamental than any set of scientific facts It interrogates the nature of a salmon or burrito and opens up its soul Consumers with kosher or anti-GMO beliefs share a set of common interests Both hold religious or quasi-religious views about the sanctity of food and demand transparency about agricultural practices and other modes of food production The two groups also share a common problem: The products they want are indistinguishable Once a chicken nugget has been packaged and prepared there’s no way to tell the difference between a kosher and nonkosher version or whether it was made from GMOs Freeform is a rare new app from Apple that launched with iOS 16.2 by Mitchell Clark it’s a virtual whiteboard you can use with friends — so we tried it out to see how well it handled that task Apple announced Freeform during its WWDC keynote earlier this year Freeform also integrates with other Apple apps — the app has buttons that let you launch a discussion on what you’re working on with other collaborators via iMessage or FaceTime I’m happy to say that Freeform gave me a pretty good first impression Changes generally synced between devices and accounts in almost real time which is an important thing to nail for an app focused on collaboration I was also surprised at how often I quickly found the features I was looking for I was able to move images I had inserted to the back layer so handwritten text would appear over top of them and I could add descriptive text to elements that VoiceOver would read out loud You can also copy and paste styles between text boxes or premade shapes and lock things that you don’t want to accidentally move around There were a few reminders that this software was just released I had to go into settings and manually turn on iCloud syncing for Freeform (something the app helpfully told me to do though one of the error messages was a little vague) It also took a moment for the app to actually show up on my iPhone after I updated; I had to launch it through the App Store a few times before it showed up in my App Library or Spotlight That’s not to endorse the Freeform experience on the iPhone; it’s definitely designed with big-screen devices in mind though the handheld version could probably get you by in a pinch I also managed to knock my devices out of sync which took them a little while to figure out and the collaboration features sometimes told me that nobody else was viewing the board It’s also worth noting that all these problems cropped up in a document shared by two people — Apple promises you can have up to 100 users on the same board which I imagine would be extremely chaotic A weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe. and included details about the church’s finances along with accounts from former employees and church members who said MacDonald “fostered an abusive and fear-based culture.” All of that was before Mancow Muller, who has been a fixture in Chicago since the 1990s, started speaking out. Muller has a reputation as “the wild man of Chicago radio,” known for stunts like taping himself being waterboarded and for racking up big fines from the Federal Communications Commission Muller had also attended MacDonald’s church since 2014 They traveled together and spent time together outside of church Muller says that MacDonald baptized him in the Jordan River “I was one of his dummies,” Muller told me in a private message on Twitter “We wanted to believe that that guy up on stage was real and genuine and actually cared about us and our families and was channeling Jesus Christ.” in which he accused MacDonald of fostering “a culture of authoritarianism poor financial controls and debt.” Muller described the atmosphere at Harvest as “cult-like,” and he urged parishioners to stop donating money to the church almost good with all gays and closet Palestine-promoting Christianity.” Parsing those epithets would make a decent master’s thesis on contemporary American evangelicalism where he played more excerpts from the tapes and revealed that one of the voices MacDonald was speaking with belonged to public relations executive Johnnie Moore one of President Trump’s evangelical advisers Moore seems to agree when MacDonald calls Galli Moore said his job sometimes involves acting as a “shock absorber” who listens when clients become frustrated But “the fact that it was a private conversation meant to absorb the emotions of the moment did not make it right for me to respond offensively and thoughtlessly seriously and personally.” (Requests for comment emailed to MacDonald and his long-time assistant did not receive replies.) So doesn’t it make sense that simply delivering cash to poor people can be an effective strategy for alleviating it Transferring money to poor Americans has been a much bigger success than most of us realize When it comes to the global poor—the hundreds of millions of slum-dwellers and subsistence farmers who still populate the world—one might be more skeptical Perhaps the problems facing these unfortunates are simply too profound and too complex to be addressed by anything other than complicated development schemes But there’s striking new evidence that helping the truly poor really is as simple as handing them money Money with no strings attached not only directly raises the living standards of those who receive it but it also increases hours worked and labor productivity seemingly laying the groundwork for growth to come These results come to us from Christopher Blattman of Columbia Nathan Fiala of the German Institute for Economic Research and Sebastian Martinez of the Inter-American Development Bank They suggest both a promising new approach to fighting intense poverty and bolster a refreshingly old-fashioned account of its causes The research comes from a 2008 initiative in Uganda’s very poor northern sections The government announced plans to give roughly a year’s worth of average income (about $382) to young people aged 18-34 Youths applied for the grants in small groups (to simplify administration) and were asked to provide a statement about how they would invest the money in a trade But the money was explicitly unconditional—parceled out as lump sums with no compliance monitoring It’s easy to see that a nice injection of cash would make people better off Give money to a person whose only job prospects are low-paying and unpleasant and perhaps he’ll simply respond by working less That kind of income support would increase human welfare The government selected 535 groups—a total of about 12,000 people—for the experiment about one-half were randomly selected to actually get the money and Martinez then surveyed 2,675 youths from both the treatment and the control group before dispersal of money The results show that the one-off lump-sum transfer had substantial long-term benefits for those who got the cash the people who received the cash “invest[ed] most of the grant in skills and business assets,” ending up “65 percent more likely to practice a skilled trade mainly small-scale industry and services such as carpentry recipients of cash grants acquired much larger stocks of business capital and thus earn more money—a lot more money the treatment group saw a 49 percent earnings boost after two years and a 41 percent boost after four Those strikingly high returns are reminiscent of one of the oldest and simplest accounts of economic growth there is Because the absence of capital is so immiserating the return on investment in poor places is extremely high Thus capital ought to rapidly flow from rich places to poor ones rapidly boosting incomes and inducing economic convergence That’s inspired a lot of complicated thinking about the roles played by institutions and just about everything else under the sun The Ugandan experiment suggests a simpler answer Maybe there’s just no feasible way for subsistence farmers and casual laborers in rural Africa to get loans at reasonable interest rates they’re able to put it to such good use that it’d be well worth their while to pay interest in order to get their hands on it But there’s no Ugandan equivalent of federally subsidized student loans for youth to jump-start their tailoring careers the message is that taking a huge bite out of global poverty may be easier than most people realize a Filpino priest and vocation director of the Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus has shared his thoughts on a recent initiative of the Rogationist Fathers and Brothers in Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Parish The parish marked the 60th World Day of Prayer for Vocations with a prayer vigil entitled “Let’s Go and have Vocation Discernment” (in Tagalog: Tara The Filipino Rogationist priest conveyed that his congregation’s mission is connected to the prayer vigil event which aimed to cultivate each person’s prayer life and urge people to think about a vocation to the priesthood or religious life this event is very close to our hearts because rogate [from the Latin “to ask” or “to pray”] is our identity and mission; to pray and promote for more Holy Vocations for the Lord,” he said Arreza shared his enthusiasm in educating people about how to pray to God “Being blessed with the charism of understanding and zeal for the Rogate I'm excited to share the importance of praying for more laborers in the harvest,” he continued we teach them to recite a prayer of "Send O Lord Holy Apostles into your Church!" as a regular part of their prayer.” Aside from teaching young people about faith Arreza emphasized that the occasion “aims to inform the individuals about the scarcity of holy workers in the Church and highlighting the necessity of petitioning for Good Laborers.” He also said that the event is connecting the people to God because “some people are getting bogged down in the humdrum of life and losing sight of their faith,” he added “The Church event helps to identify ways of collaborating effectively to promote vocations among the different generations.” Arreza hopes that the parish events will “help people to be transformed to become a Holy Apostle.” He added that Filipinos have evident faith in the Lord “Filipinos have a strong inclination towards religion and truly believe in God and those who are sent by Him,” he continued “The event was attended by 850 individuals from the Diocese of Paranaque The Filipino Rogationist priest also discussed various parts of the event such as “testimonials on vocation and participants' personal sharing of encounters with God.” Arreza shared a participant's experience from the event who spoke about how her relationship with God has grown “The booths facilitated by the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ allowed her to socialize and restore her faith in God,” he narrated.  Arreza concluded the interview by expressing the hope of the congregation to help connect people with Christ and spread the Word of God in the world “It is our intention to transform this activity into a meaningful experience for the congregation fostering a deeper connection between the sheep and the Good Shepherd Our aspiration is to propagate this culture of Vocation to other dioceses in the country Thank you for reading our article. 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Just click here Esp Eng IVAM Efecte d’una força aplicada bruscament és un projecte artístic i d’investigació que té com a objectiu constituir una genealogia en què s’incloguen els relats orals les vivències privades i la memòria històrica dels impactes que el VIH i la sida han causat en els cossos i els espais psicosocials de les comunitats d’homes que tenen relacions sexuals amb homes La investigació es basa en la re-construcció de relats l’arxiu i la comunicació de les trajectòries de vida i les conseqüències de la infecció i la malaltia en homes seropositius per tal de respondre a la necessitat de restaurar la memòria esborrada de les experiències pràctiques i vivències dels homosexuals seropositius en el nostre país en un instrument d’estudi i investigació en la mesura que recull la història de dolor i sofriment; però també de lluita que els homes seropositius han hagut de patir sinó per la construcció ideològica subjacent Aquesta investigació s’ha estructurat en set parts: “accions formatives” l’objectiu de les quals és formar l’equip de treball mitjançant l’anàlisi de projectes i procediments de mediació; “reunions vinculants” amb diversos membres de les associacions que col·laboren amb aquest projecte; “activacions” una sèrie d’activitats a partir de les quals es conformaran l’estructura i els continguts de l’arxiu; “ELISA” un dispositiu de detecció elaborat mitjançant un temps expositiu durant el qual es poden fer assajos que permeten detectar mediar i arxivar els impactes del VIH; “política de l’escolta” estructurada mitjançant una sèrie d’entrevistes a persones afectades pel VIH i per la sida en la metodologia de la qual han incidit notablement les possibilitats que ofereix la mediació en projectes d’aquesta naturalesa; “grup de pensament” en què s’analitzen textos literaris i fílmics en un espai alliberat dels mandats de l’arxiu i compartir la investigació en diversos àmbits socials Els continguts de la genealogia s’estan elaborant en col·laboració amb diverses associacions (com AVACOS-H Col·lectiu Lambda i el Comité Ciutadà Antisida de la Comunitat Valenciana) així com altres comunitats i persones vinculades amb aquesta infecció Efecte d’una força aplicada bruscament tindrà com a conseqüència un arxiu que serà el centre d’una exposició que es mostrarà en el mes d’octubre a les sales de la biblioteca i que més tard passarà a formar part dels fons de manera que se’n facilitarà la consulta i conservació Aquest projecte s’inscriu dins del programa IVAM Produeix una línia d’actuació fonamental de l’IVAM en què se subratlla el treball del museu com a centre de producció artística i de coneixement i s’evidencia el seu compromís amb la contemporaneïtat #Diagnostica #Vincula #Media #Activa #Cuida #Dialoga #Escolta #Conversa #Arxiva #Projecta #Comparteix Per a participar en el grup de lectura cal inscriure’s enviant un correu a l’adreça electrònica següent: actividades@ivam.es Per a participar en el grup de lectura cal inscriure’s enviant un correu l’adreça electrònica següent: actividades@ivam.es Per a participar en aquesta trobada cal inscriure’s enviant un correu a la següent adreça: actividades@ivam.es BIOGRAFIES Consultar excepcions Located in the north-eastern Belgian city of Namur this new house in Fernelmont fuses a traditional residential form with contemporary materiality A skin of natural slate wraps the entire building envelope creating a seamless transition over the roof and walls The clients and the architects – Urban Architects - chose natural slate for its minerality About Cupaclad 101 If you have done all of this and still can't find the email Shiba Inu team announced the upcoming SHIB Burn Visa Card with the slogan "Make payments Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content Shiba Inu’s team announced the coming of the new SHIB Burn Visa card on July 25 The announcement was made through Shiba Inu’s burn tracker Twitter account The three-second announcement video only showed an orange-colored Visa card with SB initials Shibburn is going in a new direction. #shib #shibarium pic.twitter.com/IzcQMtvs6P — Shibburn (@shibburn) July 24, 2022 In April 2022, Shiba Inu and Ryoshi Vision collaborated to create the Shiba Inu burn portal The portal is aimed at motivating SHIB holders to burn tokens The burners are supposed to gain RYOSHI tokens and 0.49% of all transactions in return reward distribution has been extremely slow Even though SHIB holders burned around $110 million worth of SHIB only in 24 hours they have been getting impatient with the reward RYOSHIs The frustration has been noticed by the Shiba Inu team as well. The team posted on Shiba’s official blog and said: “What is apparent is the continued failure to deliver such workflows precisely based on the platform’s promise The fluidity of rewards is under-performing.” The Shiba team also added that they have reached out to Ryoshi Vision about the lagging “The shape of our community’s confidence is of utmost importance to the team.” no changes were made to the reward distribution process The new SHIB Visa aims to improve the burn process without being tied to the Ryoshi team A recent survey by Finders.com found that 73% of the participants see the end of Shiba Inu by 2030 while 30% think the coin won’t make it by the year-end Prominent names argue that the current bear market will get rid of “joke-type” coins and open room for “real innovation.” Shiba Inu has been making serious changes to itself the most recent changes include the Shiba metaverse and stablecoin The Shiba team has announced the upcoming Shiba Metverse in February 2022 saying that they have been monitoring the growth of the metaverse and believe in its future The team said they have been exploring various ideas, including establishing partnerships with metaverse giants like the Sandbox and Decentraland it is certain that the Shiba metaverse will be a dog-themed reality SHIBA stablecoin was announced on May 12 the team said that the ultimate goal for SHIB is to become a “global stable currency that plebs across all countries.”  so it can be used both as a store of value and a method of payment Zeynep is an academic who turned to crypto in 2018 she is especially interested in the social impact of blockchain and cryptocurrencies and strongly believes in their transmuting power Follow us on X for instant crypto news and insights updates Disclaimer: Our writers' opinions are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of CryptoSlate None of the information you read on CryptoSlate should be taken as investment advice nor does CryptoSlate endorse any project that may be mentioned or linked to in this article Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity Please do your own due diligence before taking any action related to content within this article CryptoSlate takes no responsibility should you lose money trading cryptocurrencies The Web3 community is mobilizing to recover TUSD assets misappropriated through regulatory loopholes in a high-profile digital asset breach Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a decentralized meme token that aims to be the Ethereum-based counterpart to Dogecoin’s Srypt-based mining algorithm the reasoning behind the creation of SHIBA is that Shibas constantly forget where they bury their treasure Visa is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Foster City Decentraland is a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain Disclaimer: By using this website, you agree to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy CryptoSlate has no affiliation or relationship with any coin project or event unless explicitly stated otherwise CryptoSlate is only an informational website that provides news about coins Please do your own diligence before making any investment decisions in connection to the use or reliance of any content you read on the site © 2025 CryptoSlate. All rights reserved. Disclaimers | Terms | Privacy Please add "[email protected]" to your email whitelist PEP.ph has been granted the NPC Seal of Registration in recognition of the successful registration of its DPO and DPS Celebrity kids born in the early 2000s are now showing what they're made of Rian is just a nickname as well as her artist name which means she will be 22 years old before 2023 ends and Raine Pizarras strike a pose on Rian's debut PHOTO: Screengrab from Instagram Rian comes from a family of showbiz personalities Her mom is actress Jan Marini Alano who rose to stardom as one of the resident singers of the defunct teen-oriented gag/variety show Ang TV Her only brother, five years younger than her, is Raine Jarvis A. Pizarras Before going to college at the Ateneo de Manila University Jan and Gerard opened up about how they managed to homeschool Rian and Raine for seven years Read also: Showbiz couple Jan Marini, Gerard Pizarras proud of homeschooling their kids "Parent educator is what it’s called "So naka-enroll kami as a family sa provider meaning para ma-credit yung mga itinuturo ko."And we decided to enroll in the U.S graduate sila."Ginagamit namin yung curriculum ng American school Para i-honor din yung mga units na itinuro mo sa anak mo after ko siyang mag-homeschool hanggang senior high In an exclusive interview with PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) in 2020 the 44-year-old celebrity mom said she was confident about Rian pursuing a college degree at the height of the pandemic when online learning was the standard mode of education "Ang lakas ng loob ko lalo kasi Rian is a homeschool graduate Rian passed in all the schools that she applied for Hindi magpapahuli ang mga homeschooled kids!" All records of Rian's social media footprint do not fail to mention her passion for music She is currently signed with Viva and Blacksheep Records Manila Rian posted a screenshot of her song being on Spotify's list of most streamed songs under the Pinoy alt rock genre Rian Pizarra's single "C-5" ranks high on Spotify's list of most streams Pinoy rock alternative songs PHOTO: Screengrab from Instagram "Happy to be in playlists dominated by men "Stream 'C-5' and support women like me in the music industry!" She also appeared on the Wish FM 107.5 bus back in October 15 Rian Pizarras makes an appearance on Wish 107.5 bus PHOTO: Screengrab from Instagram she captioned the milestone: "A wish came true." in a lengthy post marking Rian's 19th birthday described her daughter as a "very determined musician/songwriter." "She got signed for a record label/management company without namedropping us or using any of our little influence or connection "The label manager did not even know we were her parents until he saw us during their meeting." Rian's first gig ever was at the Conspiracy Garden Cafe where she covered the song "Cool Ka Lang." Rian is an active member of the Christ's Commission Fellowship (CCF) Rian Pizarras sings at the CCF PHOTO: Screengrab from Instagram She regularly posts their church gatherings as well as praise and worship sessions and played host in the church's activities Rian has been working out and keeping herself fit with her dad Gerard being a fitness coach and her mom Jan a fitness enthusiast Based on their posts in their respective social-media accounts the three of them often work out and do their routines together Rian Pizarras exercises with dad Gerard Pizarras PHOTO: Screengrab from Instagram We use cookies to ensure you get the best experience on PEP.ph. By continued use, you agree to our privacy policy and accept our use of such cookies. Find out more here a new Álora-Pizarra fire station - which will reinforce emergency coverage in the Guadalhorce valley area - is closer to becoming a reality according to the president of the Malaga provincial authority This new CPB (provincial fire brigade consortium) project was announced two years ago it was not approved by the provincial authority until last week Salado said the new facility will be built on a plot of land located in the district of Zalea (Pizarra) and it will also serve remote municipalities such as Ardales drawn up by the architecture and planning department of the provincial authority will have a total constructed area of 1,340 square metres Salado said the new fire station will go out to tender shortly for 2,934,330.08 euros The single-storey building will include an area for storing firefighting apparatuses which has an estimated build period of 18 months also foresees the construction of a 14-metre-high drill tower as well as an adjacent construction intended for other operations which will include the future group of CPB mountain rescue specialists Hitachi It has a wide range of interactive whiteboards for both the educational and business worlds. The Japanese firm and its distributor in Spain, Charmex have presented the new StarBoard FX-TRIO-77 interactive whiteboard from the Japanese brand which is characterized by its precision and ease of use Head of the Interactive Department at Charmex International "The key to Hitachi's new interactive solution is its multi-input surface an electronic pointer or even a pen to write down on the whiteboard and easily navigate computer applications The 77" Hitachi Starboard POI can be operated using both hands and allows interactive group work: until 3 Users can operate the whiteboard and perform the same task simultaneously It has a replaceable digitizer and 16 Function buttons 14 of which are customizable for ease of use the surface without electronic components of the StarBoard FX-TRIO-77 has an anti-reflective layer that minimizes the reflection of the projector and is very resistant Can also be used as a conventional whiteboard Charmex offers a free online course with a tutor to learn how to use this interactive whiteboard that incorporates free multilanguage software Teleconferencing options and math teaching resources To demonstrate the simplicity of its operation consultant to Cambridge University Press and expert teacher in the use of interactive whiteboards of the multiple possibilities that Hitachi's interactive solution brings to the educational environment Charmex has taken the opportunity to announce the launch in 2012 of another Hitachi solution for the educational environment the only one that turns a whiteboard into a tactile It is a digital whiteboard with a very simple operation that operates with manual gestures with an electronic pen or any other object and that allows you to take advantage of the material already existing in the classroom (Projectors Subscribe to our Feed And you won't miss a thing © 2024 Digital AV Magazine - Underwood Comunicación SL A Guardia Civil officer was admitted to hospital on Sunday after being involved in a collision with a car at a crossroads in Pizarra who was on a motorbike and had right of way was hit by the vehicle after the driver reportedly ignored the 'stop' sign at the junction The accident occurred on the A-357/A-353 around 8.40pm Both men were taken to hospital: the Guardia Civil officer to the Clínico in Malaga and the 70-year-old driver of the car to the Valle del Guadalhorce hospital but there is no information about the condition of the other driver The AUGC Guardia Civil union has been calling for some time for airbag jackets to protect officers on motorcycles such as those worn by the Spanish royal family’s protection officers CUPA R12 Excellence slate from CUPA PIZARRAS has been installed as part of a spectacular redevelopment of Heworth House in York Matthew Groom of Brierley Groom Architects specified the Spanish natural slate as it was in keeping with the original character of the building and the surrounding architecture originally constructed in 1865 as the old Heworth Rectory embodies the essence of high Victorian Gothic architecture expertly envisioned by the York-based architect George Fowler Jones the property has had several changes of use The building was recently sold to Flanstead Ltd (managed by Integra Property Management) which is converting it back into a residence with six high-quality apartments Since visiting the CUPA PIZARRAS quarry in the North West of Spain to see the slate being processed CUPA PIZARRAS’ natural slate has been architect Matthew Groom’s go-to choice for his projects “We consulted with the team at CUPA PIZARRAS who provided us with samples of a suitable slate It was important to respect the character of the building we were able to achieve this,” said Matthew CUPA R12 Excellence is a high-quality dark grey slate with a smooth surface that helps to maintain the building’s original architecture With a guaranteed lifespan of more than one hundred years and minimal maintenance uniform and visually striking finish that will last CUPA R12 is has also been approved for use in Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park – tested and approved as an equal to local Welsh slate in terms of its characteristics “This was a large roofing project with a lot of details for us to work with but CUPA 12 was easy to install,” explained Michael Breen of MB Roofing “We use CUPA PIAZARRAS Spanish slate all the time and really like the finished look of the slates.” natural slate is the most sustainable product for roofs as it goes through a simple production process that requires no chemicals and less water and energy than alternative roofing products This sustainable approach has resulted in CUPA 12 gaining BRE Global Certification we became more aware of sustainability and what was practical for this development As well as trying to maintain many of the original features we wanted to convert the property as sympathetically as possible to the age of the building,” commented Debbie Terry “CUPA PIZARRAS natural slate roof has met our brief perfectly We’re delighted with the level of workmanship and the aesthetic appearance of the roof.” >> Read more about CUPA PIZARRAS in the news Issue 117 - March 2025 Sign up now to get news by email from Roofing Today Osma StormLine: Designed to weather the storm Unlocking roofing potential: Onduline & Northstone Partnership Traditional Roofing spring 2025 Álora town hall has announced the opening of the new wooden pedestrian walkway that will connect the neighbourhoods of El Puente and La Estación the new structure has replaced the old bridge which was damaged after heavy floods in 2012 The characteristics of the new bridge are similar to the wooden platforms used on the province's Senda Litoral coastal path with deep foundations to guarantee their resistance to heavy rain The Diputación de Málaga has invested 800,000 euros in the project which will be integrated into the route of the Guadalhorce Valley (GR-248) The walkway is the first section of the Guadalhorce Green Corridor a project of the provincial authority that aims to create the largest river park in Spain with four and a half million square metres This initiative includes the eight municipalities that form part of the lower basin of the river (Álora Alhaurín de la Torre and Malaga) on a 54-kilometre route between the natural landscapes of the Los Gaitanes gorge and the mouth of the Guadalhorce river It was developed to complement the Caminito del Rey and will allow the environmental improvement of the river and favour the revitalisation of the municipalities The Guadalhorce Green Corridor Strategic Plan has eight lines of action which include the environmental recovery of the banks of the Guadalhorce along with the creation of several large recreation areas The project also includes the introduction of new trails and the construction of 16 new bridges and footpaths in the steepest areas to guarantee the improvement of mobility and accessibility along with new cultural and tourist facilities The Green Corridor project has a total investment of 156 million euros One of the stages which will begin in the coming months is a trail with three viewpoints in Pizarra The provincial council will invest 1.8 million euros in the project which is expected to be complete within eight months This route will link the urban centre of Pizarra with the Vega Hipólito neighbourhood crossing an area with privileged views over the Guadalhorce valley the river and the Sierra de las Nieves National Park parking spaces will be installed and a wooden walkway will be built to cross the Fuensanta stream Hundreds of people joined demonstrations in Pizarra on Friday and Alhaurín el Grande on Saturday to show their support for the parents of a toddler who was found dead by the railway line between Pizarra y Álora three months ago who had turned three just days before the events of 26 July when she disappeared from the bar near Pizarra station where her family were having dinner Her body was found early the next morning more than four kilometres away next to the railway line between Pizarra and Álora She had been hit by a train and had died from a blow to the head said in an interview with SUR at the end off last week that they would fight for "justice" and to find out the "truth" about what happened that night They believe it impossible for the toddler to have walked that distance alongside the railway line by herself in the dark thanked the more than a thousand people who joined the demonstration for their support The crowds walked to the railway line where Lucía's parents released two balloons More supporters turned out in their white T-shirts showing a black hand a symbol that has come to represent the family's struggle to find the truth about what happened to Lucía has added to its extensive portfolio with the launch of CUPA 50 CUPA 50 can also be produced in larger sizes making it a versatile option for the UK market – ideal for both new builds and renovations WITH A STRONG REPUTATION and a rich history of quality slate production, the site of the product’s extraction is newly acquired by CUPA PIZARRAS The company is currently building a new factory in order to further capacity as part of its ongoing investment and expansion CUPA 50 will be available in a range of sizes between 20x20cm and 64x45cm – popular dimensions in the UK market a variety of formats that are traditionally difficult to source will also be available including the larger formats of 50x25cm many of which are popular in the UK market CUPA PIZARRAS prides itself on the durability of its slate solutions This is guaranteed by the company’s meticulous approach to quality control throughout the entire slate production process; from extraction to processing CUPA 50 is no exception – undergoing thorough examinations to test properties such as water absorption and temperature extremes These tests offer customers the assurance that the slate can endure the harshest weather conditions “We are delighted to be adding yet another product line to our portfolio especially within the current economic climate,” commented Steve Pearson “Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic we have been able to expand and continue to support our customers with regular lead times and excellent product availability The new CUPA 50 quarry will only help to bolster that service further.” For more information on CUPA 50 and to request your sample today, visit CUPA PIZARRAS online. >> Read more about CUPA PIZARRAS in the news Young people and leaders from all sections of the 1st Fuengirola Scout Group (Beavers Scouts and Explorers) recently got together with the Brownie Unit for a group camp in the Pizarra area Fun activities taught the youngsters a range of skills from pioneering and firelighting to first aid and survival Anyone interested in becoming a leader or seeking more information about the Fuengirola Scout Group is invited to visit www.fuengirolascouts.com or contact fuengirolacubsandbeavers@outlook.com which will treat the wastewater from Álora Located within the municipal boundary of Pizarra in the area known as La Aljaima where the Río Grande meets the Guadalhorce the plant is currently operating in a test phase treating the wastewater produced by the 22,000 residents in Pizarra and Álora It is expected that in a few months' time it will also serve the municipality of Coín taking the total catchment area up to 44,000 residents It's now two decades since the Junta de Andalucía first envisaged building the treatment plant to prevent untreated sewage ending up in the river Guadalhorce and 12 years since the construction contract was awarded It was first thought that the plant would also include Alhaurín el Grande and Cártama but the latter two towns have now been included in the Málaga Norte wastewater treatment plant to be built north of the airport and serving Torremolinos and Alhaurín de la Torre as well as taking the pressure off the city's current sewage works This project is still on the drawing board and is not expected to be in operation until 2022 ten years after the first plans were put on the table The delay of the Malaga plant also took its toll on the Guadalhorce works the local councils' difficulty in obtaining the land needed held up progress as did the idea of Coín to build its own plant (this was eventually ruled out due to costs) and funding problems from the regional government In the end the works did not get under way until 2017 The most recent hold-up in the Guadalhorce project was due to the damage caused by the heavy rain last October to almost three kilometres of pipes The new Guadalhorce works have cost the Junta de Andalucía 15 million euros including the plant itself and the 28 kilometres of sewage pipes It has a capacity to treat 8,295 cubic metres of wastewater every day While the new plant goes some way towards reducing the province's sewage treatment black spots (still pending are the aforementioned Alhaurín el Grande and Cártama as well as Nerja on the eastern Costa del Sol) it will not go far enough to allow the reuse of recycled waterwater The treatment plant is not equipped with a tertiary treatment system which would mean that the wastewater could be used for irrigation The position of the regional authority so far is that it should be the local councils or growers' organisations that foot the bill of this tertiary treatment stage