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☆ In Harlem and Beyond, City Election Points to a Generational Power Shift
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Walking down 125th Street the day after taking a commanding lead in the race for a City Council seat in Central Harlem, Yusef Salaam couldn’t make it half a block without someone congratulating him on his likely victory. Voter after voter who greeted Mr. Salaam on Wednesday said they recognized him as one of the five Black and Latino men exonerated in 2002 in the rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park in 1989. “I think this election is largely about change,” Mr. Salaam, 49, said. The other candidate in the race was Al Taylor, 65, also an assemblyman serving his sixth year in the State Legislature. In both Harlem and East New York, voters went from supporting self-described socialists to backing moderate Democrats.

Persons: Yusef Salaam couldn’t, Mr, Salaam, “, Inez Dickens, Eric Adams, Al Taylor, Charles Barron, Inez Barron Organizations: Council, United Federation of Teachers Locations: Central Harlem, Central Park, Harlem, Brooklyn, East New York

☆ New York Primary Election Results
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-27 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

New York City Council Ninth DistrictThe Ninth Council District’s Democratic primary in Harlem pits two State Assembly members, Inez Dickens and Al Taylor, against Yusef Salaam, one of five men who were convicted and then exonerated in a 1989 rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park. The name of Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan, the incumbent, remains on the ballot despite dropping out of the race last month.

Persons: Inez Dickens, Al Taylor, Yusef Salaam, Councilwoman Kristin Richardson Jordan Organizations: Ninth, Council, Democratic, Assembly Locations: York, Harlem, Central Park

☆ Taylor Swift is an unlikely public transit icon
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Taylor Swift, public transit savior? Public transit systems across the United States are getting a much-needed, if temporary, boost from Taylor Swift fans flooding trains, buses and subways to her sold-out Eras Tour. As transit agencies scramble to recover from the pandemic, transit experts say all those Swifies taking mass transit offer lessons for policymakers on how to adapt to the post-pandemic world. Philadelphia’s SEPTA system and New Jersey Transit also got a boost from concertgoers taking mass transit to Swift shows. But public transit agencies still have yet to fully recover from the impact of the pandemic.

Persons: New York CNN — Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift’s, Swift, Raymond James, Matthew Dickens, Taylor, ”, Jim Aloisi, Aloisi, Yanfeng Ouyang Organizations: New, New York CNN, Chicago Transit Authority, CTA, Soldier, Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, Mercedes, Benz, SEPTA, New Jersey Transit, Swift, American Public Transportation Association, Public, MIT, Transportation, University of Illinois Locations: New York, United States, New Jersey, Pittsburgh , Minneapolis, Denver, Seattle, Santa Clara, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Massachusetts, University of Illinois Urbana, Champaign

☆ Harlem City Council Election Tests Limits of Progressive Politics
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-17 | by ( Jeffery C. Mays | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two years ago, when a democratic socialist narrowly won a crowded Democratic primary for a City Council seat in Harlem, some saw it as a sign that the historically Black neighborhood was becoming more politically progressive. But roughly a month before this year’s primary on June 27, the first-term councilwoman, Kristin Richardson Jordan, unexpectedly dropped out of the race. Her decision has recast the hotly contested Democratic primary, which now comprises three candidates — none particularly progressive. Two are sitting State Assembly members: Al Taylor, 65, a reverend in his sixth year in the Legislature; and Inez Dickens, 73, who held the Harlem Council seat for 12 years before joining the Assembly. All are moderate Democrats who, before Ms. Jordan’s withdrawal, had tried to distance themselves from Ms. Jordan and her political stances, which include redistributing wealth and abolishing the police.

Persons: Kristin Richardson Jordan, Al Taylor, Inez Dickens, Yusef Salaam, Jordan Organizations: Democratic, Council, Assembly, Harlem Council Locations: Harlem, Central Park

☆ Hundreds of activists packed Atlanta's City Hall to protest 'Cop City', but lawmakers approved $67 million in funding for it anyway
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( R.J. Rico | Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Hundreds of activists packed Atlanta's City Hall to protest the funding of "Cop City." But the City Council approved $67 million in funding for the police training center anyway. Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via APThe training center was approved by the City Council in September 2021 but required an additional vote for more funding. Though more than 220 people spoke publicly against the training center, a small handful voiced support, saying they trusted Dickens' judgment. Protestors gather in the atrium of Atlanta City Hall to protest the proposed police training center on Monday, June 5, 2023.

Persons: —, Andre Dickens, Dickens, Jason Getz, Manuel Paez Terán, Matthew Johnson, Johnson, Arvin Temkar, Councilmembers, Natrice Miller, Sen, Raphael Warnock, Devin Franklin, Franklin, Sara McClintock, councilmembers, McClintock, It's Organizations: Council, Service, ATLANTA, Atlanta City Council, City Council, Atlanta Police Foundation's, Atlanta, Beloved Community, Protesters, Hall, Atlanta Police Foundation, Atlanta City Hall, AP, Atlanta Solidarity Fund, Prosecutors, Democratic, Civil Rights Movement, Southern, For Human, City Hall, Emory University Locations: Atlanta, DeKalb County, City

☆ ChatGPT Secret Training Data: the Top 50 Books AI Bots Are Reading
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

To figure out what GPT-4 has read, they quizzed it on its knowledge of various books, as if it were a high-school English student. One way to answer the question is to look for information that could have come from only one place. Genre — sci-fi, mystery, romance, horror — is, broadly speaking, more interesting, partially because these books have plots where things actually happen. Bamman's GPT-4 list is a Borgesian library of episodic connections, cliffhangers, third-act complications, and characters taking arms against seas of troubles (and whales). See what a bot makes of Gene Wolfe's "The Book of the New Sun," maybe, or Sheri Tepper's "Grass."

☆ Opinion | Don’t Kill ‘Frankenstein’ With Real Frankensteins at Large
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Maureen Dowd | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

WASHINGTON — By the time I took off my mortarboard two weeks ago, my degree in English literature was de trop. Instead of a Master of Arts, I should have gotten a Master of Algorithms. As I was pushing the rock up a hill, mastering Donne, Milton, Shakespeare, Dickens, Joyce and Mary Shelley, I failed to notice that the humanities had fallen off the cliff. It was as if the bottle of great wine I saved to celebrate my degree was bouchonné. Students were fleeing to the hotter fields of tech and science.

☆ Why Should Charles III Be King?
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Tanya Gold | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +7 min

King Charles(Francis Xavier,Professor X) III Prof. King Charles III, a telepath and the leader of the X-Men, is powerfully gifted, like the real Charles III (a noted gardener and watercolorist). King Charlize (Theron) III Charlize III is a gifted actor, which all good monarchs need to be, and an extraordinarily beautiful woman. King Charles III, theMadame Tussauds waxwork Wax Charles III lives in Madame Tussauds on Baker Street, and more people met him in 2022 — 2.5 million — than the real king will meet during his whole reign. King Charlie (Sheen) III Another actor, who has the advantage of already being from a famous dynasty: his father played Jed Bartlet, the philosopher king from “The West Wing.” King Charlie (Sheen) III would be handsome but not as handsome as King Charlize (Theron). King Charles (Dickens) III could not function in a country with failing public services and a system that taxes earnings, not wealth.

☆ Midtown Atlanta shooting: A military vet is in jail, his mother apologized, and hospital patients and staff are traumatized
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Ryan Young Gary Tuchman Elizabeth Wolfe Sara Smart Holly Yan | Ryan Young | Gary Tuchman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

The suspect, Deion Duwane Patterson, 24, was armed when he was arrested Wednesday evening, Cobb County Police Chief Stuart VanHoozer said Thursday. “Just be careful.”A mother of two was killedAmy St. Pierre was killed in the Atlanta shooting, medical examiners confirmed. Generous supporter of worthy causes, she was the social conscience of our family.”The family of Amy St. Pierre, who was killed in the Midtown Atlanta shooting, said she was their pride and joy. On Friday, two of the victims were still in critical condition in the ICU, said Robert Jansen, chief medical officer at Grady Health System. They need help.”‘The impact … is something you can’t imagine’The rush of shooting victims who arrived at Grady Memorial Hospital is not uncommon, the chief medical officer said.

☆ Shooting at Atlanta medical building leaves at least one dead, police say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-03 | by ( Rich Mckay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ATLANTA, May 3 (Reuters) - At least one person was killed in a lunchtime shooting at a medical building in a busy commercial area of Atlanta, and the suspected gunman was still at large, police said on Wednesday. ET in the Midtown section of the city, the Atlanta Police Department said in a tweet. Authorities identified the suspected shooter as 24-year-old Deion Patterson and said he was armed and dangerous. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens advised people in the area to shelter in place, and police cordoned off some streets in Midtown. Atlanta Public Schools said several schools in the area would operate on external lockdown for the rest of the day as a precaution.

☆ King Charles' coronation is a great fit for London's Savile Row tailors
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Kate Holton | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] Handmade suits are seen at Anderson & Sheppard tailor on Savile Row, ahead of the Coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla, in London, Britain, April 27, 2023. REUTERS/Dylan MartinezLONDON, May 2 (Reuters) - On Savile Row, the London street long celebrated for turning out sharp suits, tailors have been racing to prepare the red and gold uniforms that will feature in Britain's first coronation for 70 years, adorned with the new insignia of King Charles. Savile Row tailors have dressed kings, queens and their offspring for more than 150 years, and their craft gets a particular boost from long-time customer Charles - a lover of the countryside who also champions the farmers, weavers and mills producing much of the fabric. 'SLOWEST FASHION'Henry Poole, credited with creating the dinner jacket, or tuxedo, has held a British royal warrant since the 1860s when it supplied Queen Victoria. "The sustainability side of that is a major part of what Savile Row has always had," he said.

☆ Why Prices, Inflation Are Still Soaring: Corporate Price Gouging
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Juliana Kaplan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

While many of the problems that helped trigger the upward spiral have abated, prices are still high and getting higher. The idea that companies are taking advantage of disruptions to push price increases on consumers has many names — greedflation, excuseflation, price gouging, corporate profiteering — but the gist is the same. Supply-chain issues and other disruptions made sense as drivers of higher prices, Chris Becker, a senior economist and the associate director of policy and research at the Groundwork Collaborative, told me. "Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge." Working people are suffering thanks to corporate greed, so we need to enact tougher rules to ensure corporations pay a price when they price gouge.

☆ US State Department monitoring reports of kidnapped couple in Haiti
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 25 (Reuters) - A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Saturday the government is aware of reports of two U.S. citizens missing in Haiti, after media outlets said a Florida couple had been kidnapped. The couple was on a trip to visit family and attend a festival when they were kidnapped during a bus ride, the relative said, according to CNN. "We are aware of reports of two U.S. citizens missing in Haiti," the State Department spokesperson said. The security situation has devolved further in recent months with routine gun fights between police officers and the gangs. The group said ransom money was paid for the release of the captives, but a dozen had escaped on their own.

☆ Malawians search for relatives buried under the mud as death toll jumps
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

While the storm had dissipated, rain continued to hamper rescue efforts as vehicles struggled on flooded roads. Lieutenant Colonel Dickens Kamisa, who participated in the search, said local authorities identified about eight areas where dead bodies should be buried and were using sniffer dogs to find trapped Malawians. Chifundo Chilimba, a local resident, told Reuters he could not find his family members as the depth of the mud was too deep. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said it was providing food assistance by distributing partially pre-cooked food called corn-soya blend to displaced people. The storm had already killed about 27 people in Madagascar and Mozambique before it lashed Mozambique a second time.

☆ UK house prices fall by most since 2012, mortgage approvals drop
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( William Schomberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Analysts in a Reuters poll published on Tuesday expect house prices to fall by 2.4% in 2023, less than previously as a resilient job market and easing recession fears soften the blow of higher borrowing costs. Economists polled by Reuters had expected prices to fall by 0.9% from a year earlier and by 0.4% in monthly terms. "Solid gains in nominal incomes together with weak or declining house prices will also support housing affordability, especially if mortgage rates edge lower in the coming months." Nationwide forecast in December that house prices would fall 5% in 2023. Gabriella Dickens, an economist with consultancy Pantheon Macroeconomics, said she expected house prices would fall to about 8% below last year's peak.

☆ Charles Dickens' former summer home is on sale for $27 million in one of London's most exclusive areas — take a look inside
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Joshua Zitser | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

It was once the summer home of world-famous author Charles Dickens and his family. Knight Frank/InsiderThe "Oliver Twist" author purchased the house in 1861 for the summer social season, bringing his wife and children along to stay there that summer and several summers after, according to The Telegraph. The author described the house as "really delightful" and often hosted other members of London's literary elite in it, the newspaper said.

☆ Drop in business activity flags UK recession risk - flash PMI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( David Milliken | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The fall contrasted with a slight rise in business activity in the euro zone. "Weaker-than-expected PMI numbers in January underscore the risk of the UK slipping into recession," S&P Global's Chief Business Economist, Chris Williamson, said. However, a widely expected fall in output this year will weigh on the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) as it considers how much further to raise interest rates on Feb. 2. Tuesday's PMI data showed that prices charged by businesses rose at the slowest rate since August 2021, although the increase was still steep by historic standards. Businesses cut a small number of jobs, in contrast to the rapid hiring through much of 2021 and 2022.

WASHINGTON — Patrick Leahy was swept into the Senate nearly a half-century ago in the wake of the Watergate scandal and President Richard Nixon’s resignation and pardon. Ron Frehm / APSen. Leahy take photos on the inaugural stand during Barack Obama's presidential inauguration at the Capitol on Jan. 21, 2013. Let’s stay here and vote where we can be seen.”Sen. Leahy, D-Vt., walks to the Senate Chamber on Jan. 6, 2021. Ira Schwarz / APSupreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is sworn in by committee chairman Sen. Leahy, D-Vt., during her confirmation hearing in 2009 in Washington. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in the Senate subway.

☆ Charles Dickens’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Review: The Soul’s Rebirth
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Brad Leithauser | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” is an evergreen delight for a host of reasons, not least for its length. The book’s events—which track the elderly, prosperous, stingy Ebenezer Scrooge’s psychic transformation from grouchy bear to purring pussycat—unfold in the course of one night. And, likewise, the book can, and should, be consumed in a single night, preferably Christmas Eve. In the book’s fictional world, Scrooge’s stunted soul is redeemed after serial visits from four ghosts, each conveying messages of fear and censure. If everything goes well, the evening’s two prime participants, Scrooge and you, wind up at the same juncture: releasing tears of joy.

As the storm took shape over the Great Lakes on Thursday, a weather phenomenon known as a bomb cyclone was likely to develop from a "rapidly deepening low-pressure" system, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. The cyclone could spawn snowfalls of a half inch (1.25 cm) per hour and howling winds from the Upper Midwest to the interior Northeast, producing near-zero visibility, the weather service said. "It's dangerous and threatening," President Joe Biden said at the White House, urging Americans with travel plans to not delay and to set off on Thursday. Hundreds of Texans died in February 2021 after the state's power grid failed amid wintry storms, leaving millions without electricity. Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations at the NWS Weather Prediction Center in Maryland, said freezing or below-freezing cold would bisect central Florida, with temperatures about 25 degrees below normal.

☆ A Wintry Twist on an Age-Old Tale
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Keith Christiansen | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Unless you are a miserly curmudgeon, such as Charles Dickens imagined as the protagonist of his famous Christmas tale, the likelihood is that you have a favorite Old Master painting that depicts the birth of Jesus and his veneration by shepherds or those mysterious “wise men from the east.” These are among the most frequently painted subjects of Western art; illustrations of a story that has proved irresistible. Already by the second century, the account found in the Gospels had been fleshed out to create a narrative that resonated on multiple levels. On the one hand, there is the tale of a pious, 12-year-old girl whose virginal state is entrusted to an old widower, Joseph—a carpenter by profession—who is shocked when he discovers she is pregnant and considers what action he should take to avoid the disgrace that will inevitably follow.

☆ Strange reports have claimed humans spontaneously burst into flames, but science can explain how bodies sometimes act like a candle wick
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Paola Rosa-Aquino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Nearly a year later, a coroner officially ruled that he'd died of a peculiar phenomenon, the Irish Independent reported — spontaneous human combustion. But if spontaneous human combustion is a real phenomenon, Byard added, why doesn't it happen more often? 'Spontaneous' human combustion over the centuriesIn the 17th century, a Danish anatomy expert described the first known case of spontaneous human combustion. Science says bodies can act like a candleThe prevalent scientific explanation for spontaneous human combustion is known as the wick effect, which proposes that humans can act like candles do. The pig's feet were left behind — exactly the result of many reported cases of spontaneous human combustion.

☆ New York City Delays Enforcement of AI Bias Law
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Richard Vanderford | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

New York City is delaying the enforcement of a law requiring bias audits of artificial intelligence systems used in hiring, following questions from industry over the specifics of how in practice the groundbreaking legislation would apply. The move comes after an outpouring of concern among businesses, AI vendors and professional firms about how exactly they could comply with the city’s law. Detractors have expressed concern that the use of AI tools could inadvertently apply prejudices at scale to the recruitment process. Proponents, though, have argued that AI systems used in hiring could ultimately be fairer and more transparent than human resources staff, who can bring their own biases to the job. The scrutiny of AI tools is good, but should be balanced, said Emily Dickens, head of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management.

☆ Regular homebuyers feel they struggle to compete with investors who turn properties into Airbnbs and Vrbos. Government officials are trying to change that.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Atlanta lawmakers want short-term rentals to be licensed and to fine owners who violate city laws. In some cities, government officials are trying to regulate the number of short-term rentals that investors can purchase. The debate over short-term rentals in Atlanta is emblematic of similar debates in other cities. For instance, voters in Colorado towns like Dillon, Aspen, and Steamboat Springs this year approved measures to tax short-term rentals to help regular homebuyers afford homes. There are more than 1,300 short-term rentals in Joshua Tree, according to AirDNA, compared with a population of 7,700.

☆ More holiday shoppers are using 'buy now, pay later' services like Affirm & Afterpay. Financial advisors warn that it's a useful tool that can quickly pile on debt.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Buy now, pay later usage surged 85% during Cyber Week, according to data from Adobe Analytics. According to recent data from Adobe analytics, "buy now, pay later" usage surged 85%, and revenue increased 88% during Cyber Week compared to the week before. Unlike credit cards, most BNPL services don't require a credit check and don't charge interest. Rules of the roadMany experts agree that using a buy now, pay later service can be helpful when shoppers exercise caution. Dickens said he advises his clients to "Make sure you don't have more than two buy now, pay later installment loans.

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