I’m not a hoarder. I am a collector and an archivist. There’s a difference. I collect and archive reel-to-reel tapes, cassettes, vinyl. I have a huge collection of books and own many instruments. I need them for my work and have since 1964. Like you, I have a collection of T-shirts with band names and political candidates, slogans and sayings. I have a favorite pair of grey cargo pants that I bought duplicates of. And then, there’s this book bag. Or knapsack, or backpack, whatever the kids are calling theirs now. It’s very ordinary. It’s the same Jansport basic black book bag you see hanging on the hangers in either the side or back aisles at Staples or in the “Back To School” section at Target or TJ Maxx. It has lots of pockets and, at one time, it had wheels. That was when I knew the end might be near. The wheels literally fell off. I would find little chunks of black plastic around the house and wonder “What is this from?” When I finally made the connection, I realized what it meant: my traveling companion was headed down another road. Understand, I am sentimental about many, many things. But, this backpack literally carried my life during two very important stages: one as a teacher, the other as a sound designer. I really feel for kids who have to cart an entire library of school books on their backs every day and wonder if they’ll develop osteoporosis later on in life. Some school districts have switched to iPads, but you can’t dog ear an iPad, or make notes in the margins. You can highlight it, but not with a marker. So many kinesthetic touches vanish with new technology. Anyway, for the last five years of my teaching career, this backpack traveled with me every day. Its contents would change depending on the lessons for that week. Sometimes a book on musical notation, or a photo album of foreign places, sometimes a VHS tape, always my lesson plan book and a bottle of water, plus a three point snack. I carried my lunch in a separate thermal container. It got me through my last three years which were horrible not because of the kids (my last class excluded), but because of the pressure placed on me to resign. That backpack came back when I started to design sound for Seaview Theatre about two years ago. A trusted and already tested companion, I could fit my laptop and all the accompanying wires and adapters into its cavernous folds. Then, I started noticing the missing wheels and all bets were off. I also had to start carrying it or slinging it across my back because i couldn’t wheel it anymore. It’s funny how we hold onto certain things: some things you understand like a musical instrument, a cherished book or a family photo. But, a book bag? A backpack? A whatchamacallit? Why? Convenience. Familiarity. Stinginess. Why buy a new one when the old one works just fine? Until it doesn’t. Joan bought me a new one last December for my birthday/Christmas present. It was more expensive than any other backpack I ever had. It was sleeker, sexier, better insulated. But, it doesn’t have wheels. Which is good, because there’s nothing to fall off, but bad because now, I definitely have to carry it or sling it over my back. Ouch! Call the chiropractor! I’ve had a few trial runs with the new book bag and it seems to do just fine. But, when I placed the older one in a separate garbage bag and put it out for disposal last Monday night, I gave it one last hug and thanked it for its service. And, I suddenly felt a bit relieved. Because, a large part of that book bag’s history had to do with the unhappy final three years of my teaching career. That bag became a symbol for the weight and responsibility I carried to see out my term until I could retire with my pension intact. And now, I was saying goodbye to that memory. And I could breathe again. We hold onto things for a variety of reasons: because they bring joy, because they represent the past or because they are irreplaceable. We hold onto things because the past teaches us how to proceed into the future and as a kind of spiritual mooring to a time when we had more friends to guide us, more mentors to instruct us, more things to learn. RECOMMENDED • silive .com NYPD: Individual sought in connection to alleged robbery at Brooklyn pharmacy Nov. 21, 2024, 10:25 p.m. E. coli in contaminated carrots sicken 5 in New York; 1 dead in U.S. Nov. 17, 2024, 6:00 p.m. It’s not a bad thing to hold onto the past. It’s the reason we love art and food and music from centuries ago. But, it’s also good to, when they have served their purpose, be able to let go and walk away, without remorse or regret. Hang on friends. The best is yet to be. Hold those magnificent grey heads high! Comments may be submitted to “Talk To The Old Guy” on Facebook.The Salvation Army came to the aid of folks who were having a tough time paying their medical bills in 1921. In November, the Salvation Army announced a free medical clinic each week on Tuesdays from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. All of the community physicians agreed to participate and for two hours per week, their services were free. ADVERTISEMENT Even the pharmacies in Jamestown got involved, offering medicine at cost for any prescription written during the free clinic. “All residents of the city who cannot afford medical attention along the regular channels will not only be permitted but urged to take advantage of the clinic,” wrote The Jamestown Alert. The officers of the Salvation Army saw a need in the community. “It is stated by Captain Larsen that many people in Jamestown without funds are doing without medical attention,” The Alert wrote. While the Great Depression did not officially begin until the stock market crash in 1929, hard times struck rural areas that relied on agriculture much sooner. Crop prices fell dramatically when the battlefields of France and Belgium returned to agricultural production. That decline in prices hit farm towns like Jamestown hard with some of the businesses of the community failing or cutting their payrolls. This left a lot of people unable to afford a trip to the doctor for themselves and their children. ADVERTISEMENT In fact, the Salvation Army was considering a special Saturday afternoon free clinic for children. Clinic planners thought the clinic would specialize in “undernourishment or other trouble.” Keep in mind this was eight years before the start of what we now know as the Great Depression. There is no record of how many people took advantage of the Salvation Army’s free clinic in 1921. We do know that the folks in need a little more than a century ago had a chance to get the help they needed right in Jamestown. Author Keith Norman can be reached at www.KeithNormanBooks.com
As online content encouraging disordered eating behaviors rears its ugly head once again, generative AI is adding fuel to the fire. According to a Futurism investigation, popular AI startup Character.AI is hosting numerous pro-anorexia chatbots that encourage dangerous weight loss and eating habits. Many are advertised as "weight loss coaches" or even eating disorder recovery experts. Several include thinly-veiled references to eating disorders, while even more are designed to romanticize dangerous and often disturbing habits while mimicking favorite characters. The site, popular among younger users, has not made efforts to remove chatbots of this kind as of Futurism 's publishing — despite violating its terms of service. This isn't the first scandal hitting Character.AI 's customizable, user-generated chatbots. In October, a 14-year-old boy took his own life after allegedly forming an emotional attachment to an AI bot mimicking Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen. Earlier that month, the company came under fire for hosting a chatbot that mimicked a teen girl who had been murdered in 2006—her father discovered the bot and it was later removed. Previous reporting has found the site also hosts suicide-themed chatbots, as well as ones promoting child sexual abuse. A 2023 report from the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that popular AI chatbots, including ChatGPT and Snapchat's MyAI, generated dangerous responses to questions about weight and body image. "Untested, unsafe generative AI models have been unleashed on the world with the inevitable consequence that they're causing harm. We found the most popular generative AI sites are encouraging and exacerbating eating disorders among young users—some of whom may be highly vulnerable," wrote Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, at the time. Teens (and adults) are increasingly turning to digital spaces and technologies, including AI-powered chatbots, for companionship. And while some of these are created and monitored by trusted organizations, even those are at risk for untoward behaviors. For chatbots and online forums that go unregulated by watchdogs, the risks are multifold, including predation and abuse .Ghana's opposition leader John Mahama officially won the country's election on Monday, easily defeating the ruling party candidate after voters punished the government's economic management and high living costs. Mahama won 56 percent of the votes in Saturday's presidential ballot, compared to the ruling party candidate and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who secured 41 percent, the electoral commission said announcing official results. The landslide comeback for former president Mahama ended eight years in power for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose last term was marked by Ghana's worst economic turmoil in years, an IMF bailout and a debt default. "These eight years have witnessed some of the darkest periods of our governance," Mahama told crowds of supporters blowing horns and whistles in his party office in Accra. "This mandate also serves as a constant reminder of what fate awaits us if we fail to meet the aspirations of our people." Bawumia, a former central banker, had already quickly conceded defeat on Sunday, acknowledging Ghanaians wanted change after the government failed to shake off widespread frustration. Bawumia also said the Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) party had won the parliamentary vote in Saturday's election. Official results for the parliament are still being tallied. Mahama, 66, had previously failed twice to secure the presidency, but in Saturday's election he managed to tap into expectations of change among Ghanaians. He promised to "reset" Ghana, usher in economic revival and renegotiate parts of the country's $3 billion IMF accord. In his acceptance speech, Mahama promised reforms and "severe" measures to bring Ghana back on track. "The journey is not going to be easy... because the outgoing government has plunged our dear nation into the abyss," he said. "I am certain that we shall win the battle." With a history of democratic stability, Ghana's two major parties, the NPP and NDC, have alternated in power equally since the return to multi-party politics in 1992. But Ghana's economic woes dominated the 2024 election, after the continent's top gold producer and world's second cacao exporter went through a debt crisis, the default and currency devaluation. Turnout for Saturday election was 60.9 percent, a slide in participation from 79 percent in the 2020 election, results showed. With a slogan "Break the 8" -- a reference to two, four-year terms in power -- Bawumia had sought to take the NPP to an unprecedented third mandate. But he struggled to break from criticism of Akufo-Addo's economic record. While inflation slowed from more than 50 percent to around 23 percent, and other indicators stabilised, economic concerns were still a clear election issue for most Ghanaians. That frustration opened the way for a comeback from Mahama, who first came to the presidency in 2012 when he was serving as vice president and then President John Atta Mills died in office. During campaigning, the former president also faced criticism from those who remember his government's own financial tribulations and especially the massive power blackouts that marred his time in office. bur/pma/giv
Journalist ‘stalked ex-Chancellor George Osborne & his wife for a year and accused them of drug abuse’
US and European stock markets wobbled Wednesday as key US inflation data showed an uptick, with traders also weighing US President-elect Donald Trump's tariff threats and a political standoff in France. Wall Street saw red with both the Dow and S&P 500 retreating from records on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. The Nasdaq also declined. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Get the latest need-to-know information delivered to your inbox as it happens. Our flagship newsletter. Get our front page stories each morning as well as the latest updates each afternoon during the week + more in-depth weekend editions on Saturdays & Sundays.Coleen Rooney almost quit I'm A Celeb after a few days due to campmate worries
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PHOTO: Augetto Graig ... If you are an active subscriber and the article is not showing, please log out and back in. Free access to articles from 12:00.Mahama won 56 percent of the votes in Saturday's presidential ballot, compared to the ruling party candidate and Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who secured 41 percent, the electoral commission said announcing official results. The landslide comeback for former president Mahama ended eight years in power for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) under President Nana Akufo-Addo, whose last term was marked by Ghana's worst economic turmoil in years, an IMF bailout and a debt default. "These eight years have witnessed some of the darkest periods of our governance," Mahama told crowds of supporters blowing horns and whistles in his party office in Accra. "This mandate also serves as a constant reminder of what fate awaits us if we fail to meet the aspirations of our people." Bawumia, a former central banker, had already quickly conceded defeat on Sunday, acknowledging Ghanaians wanted change after the government failed to shake off widespread frustration. Bawumia also said the Mahama's National Democratic Congress (NDC) party had won the parliamentary vote in Saturday's election. Official results for the parliament are still being tallied. Mahama, 66, had previously failed twice to secure the presidency, but in Saturday's election he managed to tap into expectations of change among Ghanaians. He promised to "reset" Ghana, usher in economic revival and renegotiate parts of the country's $3 billion IMF accord. In his acceptance speech, Mahama promised reforms and "severe" measures to bring Ghana back on track. "The journey is not going to be easy... because the outgoing government has plunged our dear nation into the abyss," he said. "I am certain that we shall win the battle." With a history of democratic stability, Ghana's two major parties, the NPP and NDC, have alternated in power equally since the return to multi-party politics in 1992. But Ghana's economic woes dominated the 2024 election, after the continent's top gold producer and world's second cacao exporter went through a debt crisis, the default and currency devaluation. Turnout for Saturday election was 60.9 percent, a slide in participation from 79 percent in the 2020 election, results showed. With a slogan "Break the 8" -- a reference to two, four-year terms in power -- Bawumia had sought to take the NPP to an unprecedented third mandate. But he struggled to break from criticism of Akufo-Addo's economic record. While inflation slowed from more than 50 percent to around 23 percent, and other indicators stabilised, economic concerns were still a clear election issue for most Ghanaians. That frustration opened the way for a comeback from Mahama, who first came to the presidency in 2012 when he was serving as vice president and then President John Atta Mills died in office. During campaigning, the former president also faced criticism from those who remember his government's own financial tribulations and especially the massive power blackouts that marred his time in office. bur/pma/giv
Shares of Autodesk, Inc. ADSK are trading lower on Wednesday but they may have found support. The company posted earnings that were slightly better than estimates but investors are concerned about decreasing margins. Our team of traders and technical analysts has made it our Stock of the Day . Operating margin is the percent of profit a company has on a dollar of sales after all costs are considered. In Q3 of last year, Autodesk had an operating margin of 24%. This means that for every dollar of sales, the company kept 24 cents. But this year, the margin has dropped to 22%. This means they are now only keeping 22 cents. This may not sound like a significant drop, but it shows that the company is becoming less efficient. This may be a bearish sign for the longer-term and some investors are selling. It isn't a coincidence that the shares found support around the $293 level. Read Also: Fed’s Favorite Inflation Gauge Heats Up As Predicted, Personal Incomes Soar As you can see on the chart, this level was resistance in October. Many of the investors and traders who sold at this resistance thought they made a good decision when the price dropped soon after. But in early November the resistance broke and the stock gapped higher. When this happened, some of those who sold came to regret their decision to do so. A number of them decided to buy their shares back. But they would only do so if they could buy them at the same price they were sold for. As a result, now that the stock has dropped back to their selling prices they are placing buy orders. The large concentration of these orders has formed support at the price that had been resistance. Sometimes stocks rally after they drop to resistance. This happens because some of the buyers become nervous. They know that the sellers are going to go to whoever is willing to pay the highest price. They are afraid that they will be outbid by other buyers. So, they increase their bid prices. Other nervous buyers see this and do the same thing. It could result in a snowball effect or bidding war that pushes the price up. Levels that had been resistance can become support. Stocks tend to rally after reaching support. Shares of Autodesk may be about to move higher. Price Action : Autodesk closed Wednesday at $290.64 per share, down 8.6%. Read Next: Anthony Scaramucci: Trump Win Is ‘The Greatest Political Comeback In US History,’ Crypto Surge Following It Was 3 Years Overdue © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.Pennsylvania legislators’ base salaries will crack the $110,000 mark for the first time starting next month due to inflation-based cost-of-living adjustments. Rank-and-file members of the state House of Representatives and Senate will receive annual salaries of $110,015.54 starting Dec. 1, according to soon-to-be published pay tables. Lawmakers receive their salaries in monthly payments. Current pay is $106,422.33, with the 3.38% raise coinciding with October’s year-over-year Consumer Price Index increase for the mid-Atlantic metro region that includes Pennsylvania. Under a 1995 amendment to Pennsylvania’s compensation law, pay for judges, legislators and most state-level officials is tied to regional CPI inflation. Lawmakers’ automatic raises are based on the October CPI data that is published in November, with the raises kicking in Dec. 1. Lawmakers who hold leadership positions within the House and Senate receive additional compensation that also rises with the CPI. The president pro tempore of the Senate and the speaker of the House will have salaries of $171,741.28 as of next month. The four floor leaders – both parties in both chambers – will see their pay rise to $159,398.47, with each caucus’ officers receiving slightly smaller premiums over base lawmaker pay. Pennsylvania’s legislature is one of the largest and highest-paid in the nation, with 203 members of the House and 50 state Senators. Only New York and California have higher base pay for lawmakers, according to tracking by the National Conference of State Legislatures. By contrast, many other states have much smaller legislatures that do not meet year-round, as Pennsylvania’s does. Maryland, for instance, pays legislators $54,437 for a session that is limited to 90 days from January to April, according to the NCSL. The commonwealth’s automatic salary-setting has its supporters and detractors. The main argument in favor of the law is that it saves legislators from spending time and political capital debating their own pay every year, and guarantees that lawmakers who aren’t independently wealthy will be able to continue to serve despite rising costs-of-living. Critics have said the raises are often excessive; when the pay amendment passed in 1995, legislative salaries were just $47,000. Several legislators have long told PennLive that they return their raises to the state treasury or give the amount to charity. In 2020, the legislature passed a law to cancel its own pay increases amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. But the freeze was one-year-only and had limited impact given that inflation was low during the COVID recession. Lawmakers then received large raises in December of 2021 and 2022 amidst large CPI increases. The legislature’s automatic cost-of-living adjustments also stand in contrast to some sectors of Pennsylvania’s public workforce, whose raises have been sporadic at best. In 2001, the state overhauled the benefit scales for public school teachers’ pensions – but those teachers who retired prior to 2001 have seen stagnant retirement pay for over two decades, and the legislature has thus far failed to reach a deal to rectify this.Hisar: Indian National Lok Dal general secretary and former MLA Abhay Chautala said on Monday that his party has decided to support the farmers’ movement and is ready to provide whatever help they need. “The BJP govt has only one job, that is to not let the farmers of Punjab go to Delhi. By doing this, the BJP govt of Haryana is committing atrocities on the farmers,” said Abhay. tnn We also published the following articles recently Haryana khap leaders respond to farmers march to Delhi: Demand unity among Punjab farmers Haryana's Khap leaders have expressed their willingness to join the farmers' protest march to Delhi, but only if the divided farmer groups, especially in Punjab, unify under the United Morcha (SKM). They stressed the need for a united front to strengthen the movement and criticized the lack of prior communication. Farmer leader supports protests against tungsten mining Farmer leader P R Pandian voiced support for villagers protesting the proposed tungsten mine in Arittapatti, urging permanent protection for the area's biodiversity and agriculture. Protests intensified near the Madurai collector's office, with locals demanding the central government abandon the project, citing environmental concerns and the region's rich heritage. Statewide protests are planned if the project proceeds. CM misleading all over farmers support to Shaktipeeth: Forum Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis's claim of farmer support for the Nagpur-Goa expressway is facing strong opposition. The All Party Forum Against Shaktipeeth Expressway alleges Fadnavis misled the public, citing farmer dissent in Marathwada and Vidarbha. The forum demands the project's cancellation, highlighting ecological concerns and proposing the Nagpur-Ratnagiri highway widening as an alternative. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .
AfD call for return to Nazi term for Remembrance Day