Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Illustrator Training

Silver Star Inspired


Science Fair Inspired




FFA Inspired

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

News Values

Timeliness

Austin police: Teen killed by officer identified as David Joseph, 17

"Tuesday’s revelation that a naked 17-year-old had no weapon when he was killed Monday by an Austin police officer ignited an outcry about how police responded and left some leaders in the African-American community questioning the officer’s actions before he pulled the trigger.

The slain teenager, David Joseph of Austin and the veteran officer, Geoffrey Freeman, are both African-American."

 This is timeliness because it happened only a day or two ago and it is still very relevant.
Novelty
Wild elephant rampages through India town
"KOLKATA, India -- A wild elephant rampaged through an east Indian town on Wednesday, smashing homes and sending panicked residents running.
As the frightened elephant ran amok, trampling parked cars and motorbikes, crowds of people gathered to watch from balconies and roof tops. Some followed from a distance as the elephant moved through the streets.
"The elephant was scared and was trying to go back to the jungle," said Papaiya Sarkar, a 40-year-old homemaker who watched the elephant amble down a street near her home.
The elephant had wandered from the Baikunthapur forest, crossing roads and a small river before entering the town of Siliguri in West Bengal state.
Divisional Forest Officer Basab Rai said the female elephant appeared to be a loner without a herd, and was likely searching for food when it strayed into the town.
He said it did not attack any people, and appeared to be afraid of them. After several hours, it became clear the elephant was unable to find its way back to the forest.
Authorities eventually shot the elephant three times with a tranquilizer gun and used a crane to lift it into a truck once it had calmed down.
It was then taken to a special park for domesticated pachyderms that is maintained by the forest department. Once the effect of the tranquilizer wore off, authorities planned to return the elephant to the forest, Rai said.
Elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people in India, as the human population of 1.25 billion soars and cities and towns grow at the expense of jungles and other elephant habitats. In India and Sri Lanka, more than 400 elephants and 250 humans are killed each year.
On Wednesday, another wild elephant trampled a farmer to death in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. The farmer had been sleeping in his paddy field when the elephant appeared, police told Press Trust of India.
India's elephants are also threatened by speeding trains and illegal poachers looking for ivory to sell on the black market. Today, there are about 30,000 elephants across the country, restricted to about 15 percent of their historic habitat, according to the environment ministry.
Worldwide, elephants have disappeared from some 95 percent of their historical range, which once stretched from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Yellow River in northern China."

 Rarely do you see an interesting story about wild elephants so it is a novelty story due to its unique qualities.

Conflict

US election 2016: Trump and Sanders win New Hampshire
"Feb 10, 2016- Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders have shaken up the US presidential race with decisive victories in the New Hampshire primary.
Billionaire Mr Trump is likely to get more than twice the number of votes of the next Republican candidate.
Senator Bernie Sanders, who beat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton by a huge margin, said his victory showed people wanted "real change".
Both candidates are riding on a wave of discontent with mainstream politics.
Ohio Governor John Kasich came second in the Republican vote, with former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Florida Senator Marco Rubio all vying for third place.
New Hampshire is the second state to choose delegates in the long nomination battle following last week's Iowa caucuses, which were won by Mr Cruz for the Republicans and Mrs Clinton for the Democrats.
The result gives momentum to the winners ahead of the next contests in South Carolina and Nevada.
Counting the votes
Mr Trump's lead in New Hampshire is the first time the New York businessman - who has never held elected office - has translated his widespread support in opinion polls into a victory at the polls.
In his victory speech, the real estate mogul congratulated Democratic winner Mr Sanders but sideswiped that "he wants to give away our country, folks!"
Mr Trump, 69, has pledged to deport millions of migrants who are living in the US illegally; build a wall along the border with Mexico; and impose a temporary ban on all Muslims entering the country.
With more than 80% of the votes counted, Senator Sanders has a lead of more than 20 percentage points over Mrs Clinton in the two-horse race for the Democratic nomination. He had topped polls in New Hampshire in recent months, but it is still a significant victory for the self-described Democratic socialist candidate.
"What the people here have said is that given the enormous crises facing our country, it is just too late for the same old, same old establishment politics and establishment economics," Mr Sanders said in speech to his supporters late on Tuesday.
The 74-year-old has vowed to eradicate income inequality, provide free university education and break up big banks.
Mrs Clinton congratulated Mr Sanders, but said in a speech she would continue to fight for every vote in the campaign. Despite the setback, she still remains the frontrunner for the nomination.
More from the Republican candidates:
  • Ohio Governor John Kasich, who' performed strongly in New Hampshire, says he wants to lead America and "leave no-one behind"
  • Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who came a close third in Iowa, says he is "disappointed" with his New Hampshire finish and apologised to his supporters on Twitter
  • New Jersey Governor Chris Christie delivered a sombre speech, saying he would head home before deciding whether to proceed on to South Carolina or not
  • Jeb Bush, once considered the Republican frontrunner, tells a crowd of supporters "we're going to South Carolina!"
Analysis: Anthony Zurcher, BBC North America reporter in New Hampshire
Donald Trump is back, and Bernie Sanders is booming. That's the clear takeaway from a New Hampshire primary night that ended with little drama at the top. Both the New York billionaire and the Democrat who derides the billionaire class appear posed to confirm their consistently large opinion poll leads here with double-digit wins.
For the last few weeks the drama on the Republican side has been the identity of the candidate who will finish second - and perhaps become the establishment candidate to take on Mr Trump and Iowa caucuses winner Ted Cruz.
For a while it looked like that man would be Florida Senator Marco Rubio, but he seems destined for a middle-of-the-pack finish after a flop in Saturday's debate. Instead it could be John Kasich. But the Ohio governor has little in the way of campaign infrastructure set up in the southern states that vote next in the primary process.
Tuesday's results are likely to lend little clarity to the question of who gets the backing of mainstream Republicans. That's good news for Mr Cruz and Mr Trump, who will benefit from a fractured establishment field for at least a while longer.
Mrs Clinton's campaign manager, Robby Mook, said in a memo that they expected the race for the Democratic nomination "very likely" to be decided in March.
The former secretary of state acknowledged before the polls that Mr Sanders had a natural advantage in New Hampshire because he represents the neighbouring state of Vermont as senator.
Mrs Clinton, who has more support from the Democratic establishment, narrowly won in Iowa.
Most polls in New Hampshire closed at 19:00 local time (midnight GMT), with state officials forecasting a historic turnout in the vote.
What are primaries and caucuses?
They are the first contests in the US presidential race in which states decide who becomes each party's official candidate
  • Caucuses are a series of private meetings in which voters express support for candidates with a show of hands. Usually only registered voters, affiliated with a specific party, can take part
  • Primaries are run by state governments and voting is done in a secret ballot
  • Each primary or caucus earns delegates for the winning candidates who then vote for them at party conventions in July in which the final candidates are formally confirmed"
This story is very literal example of conflict because it is about a competition between two people.

http://kathmandupost.ekantipur.com/news/2016-02-10/us-election-2016-trump-and-sanders-win-new-hampshire.html
Proximity
Austin, Texas Lawmakers Put Brakes on Uber
"Lawmakers in Austin, Texas approved new regulations on peer-to-peer economy transportation network companies, such as Uber and Lyft.
Starting in February, the new city ordinance, signed into law by Mayor Steve Adler (D), restricts how many hours a transportation-network company (TNC) driver may work, and it requires them to submit to criminal background checks administered by the city’s police department. 
James Quintero, director of the Center for Local Governance at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, says such transportation regulations benefit cartels, not consumers.
“In addition to revolutionizing the way people travel, transportation networking companies like Uber and Lyft have reshaped the entire policy landscape by unleashing forces of creative destruction on legacy industries, like taxicab companies,” said Quintero. “To slow their advance, taxi cartels in certain cities have tried to use the levers of government to hoist reams of red tape on these TNCs.
“Uber and Lyft are uniquely challenged by big government because of the influential special interests that exist and seek to suffocate their competition with onerous and costly regulations,” Quintero said. “Each new local regulation means added costs for consumers, extra hoops to jump through for jobseekers, or both. This ultimately leads to an inferior product or an experience that’s less than it could be otherwise.”
Regulations such as the new Austin rules cost consumers both convenience and money, Quintero says.
“Excessive regulations stifle innovation, create extra costs for consumers and jobseekers, and make it hard for entrepreneurship,” Quintero said. “Government diktats are the more inferior option compared to free people operating in the free-market system responsible for their own decision-making.”
Austin City Councilwoman Ellen Troxclair (District 8) says lawmakers should protect consumers’ interests, not the advantages of government-mandated monopolies.
“It is important that we recognize the important role local governments can have in ensuring consumer safety,” Troxclair said. “I think we disrespect Austinites, however, when we close off choices, especially affordable and innovative choices, and keep people from being able to make decisions about their own transport and employment.”
Troxclair says the regulatory burden on taxicab companies should be reduced, instead of making more regulations for taxicab companies’ competitors.
“In fact, perhaps it’s past time we allowed taxi companies a lifting of their regulatory burden, so they may better innovate and compete with these new arrivals,” Troxclair said. “When government picks favorites in the marketplace, employees, customers, and taxpayers all suffer. Choice is lessened, and those with close ties to regulatory authorities profit.
“A freer marketplace benefits everyone except those who wish to cull revenue from taxpayers for their political agenda,” said Troxclair."

 This story is based off proximity because it is addressing an issue within Austin, which is very close compared to many other stories.
http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2016/01/13/austin-texas-lawmakers-put-brakes-uber

Impact

Harper Lee, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Author, Has Died

Harper Lee, an unknown writer from Alabama whose story about racial injustice in the American South would become one of the most acclaimed novels and then movies of all time, has died. The author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird was 89. Her death was confirmed by HarperCollins, her publisher, and by the mayor of her hometown of Monroeville.
Robert Mulligan’s film starred Gregory Peck in the iconic role of small-town attorney Atticus Finch; Brock Peters as Tom Robinson, the accused black man he defends; Robert Duvall as “Boo” Radley; and Mary Badham as Atticus’ daughter Scout, the story’s narrator. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three — for Peck’s performance, Horton Foote’s screenplay, and the black-and-white art direction by Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead and Oliver Emert.
Never out of print, To Kill A Mockingbird along with its reclusive author were back in the news in recent months, when HarperCollins published an earlier manuscript under the title Go Set A Watchman. The early draft of Mockingbird was set 20  years after the incidents recalled by Scout, and portrayed Atticus Finch as an embittered racist. The publication prompted several controversies concerning the state of Lee’s health, her ability to consent to the publication and, perhaps most compellingly, a re-examination of a fictional character who had taken on heroic proportions in the American — indeed, the worlds — conscience as a champion of human rights and dignity.
And as recently as last month, producer Scott Rudin announced that he had commissioned Aaron Sorkin to write a new adaptation of Mockingbird, to be presented as a Broadway play during the 2017-2018 season. Rudin pointedly said that “the Atticus we do is going to be the Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird.”
“Like millions of others, I was saddened to learn this morning of the passing of Harper Lee, one of America’s most beloved authors,” Sorkin told Deadline this morning. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to adapt her seminal novel for the stage.”
Like J.D. Salinger, another writer who came of age in the 1950s and assiduously shunned the spotlight (as Slinger did after the publication of The Catcher In The Rye), Nelle Harper Lee lived a quiet life far away from the publishing hotspots like New York.
“I never expected any sort of success with Mockingbird,” sh told a radio interviewer in 1964. “I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of the reviewers, but, at the same time I sort of hoped someone would like it well enough to give me encouragement.”
Encouragement she certainly got, but no follow-up to her debut was in the offing. Unlike Salinger, who continued to publish, Lee’s promise of new work was unfulfilled across more than five decades. She returned to Monroeville after a flirtation with city life in New York that had one noteworthy consequence: She was befriended by fellow Southern writer Truman Capote.
Partly to escape the drudgery as Mockingbird went through rewrites before publication, Lee accepted Capote’s invitation to accompany her on the research mission for what would become his magnum opus, In Cold Blood. Although the friendship later cooled and even soured, they were for a time a rather unconventional literary duo: he a gay extrovert whose gift for drawing unlikely confessions out of people placed him at the center of Manhattan society (until he became a pariah with the same crowd following the publication of La Cote Basque 1965, the thinly veiled portrait of his circle). She was the quiet observer, playing the amanuensis, taking detailed notes while disappearing into the background (Lee was played, memorable, by Catherine Keener in Capote, Bennett miller’s 2005 film about the writing of In Cold Blood, with an oscar-winning performance by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role. Sandra Bullock played her the following year in the similar Infamous).
Then in February 2015, Harper announced that it wold publish what was thought to have been a long-lost manuscript titled Go Set A Watchman, discovered by her lawyer Tonja B. Carter apparently attached to  a manuscript of  To Kill a Mockingbird. It told the story of Atticus and Scout two decades after the events described in Mockingbird and seemed to reflect Lee’s struggles to find her voice as a writer while liven in New York.  The manuscript included several scenes in which Atticus gives voice to views sharply different from the man of conscience portrayed in Mockingbird.
Although Watchman was a best-seller and had an initial, sold-out printing of 2 million copies, it became better known for the debate it inspired about Atticus Finch — as if he had been a real-life character — than for the quality of the writing.
“The depiction of Atticus in Watchman makes for disturbing reading, and for Mockingbird fans, it’s especially disorienting,” Michio Kakutani understated in her New York Times review of the book. “Scout is shocked to find, during her trip home, that her beloved father, who taught her everything she knows about fairness and compassion, has been affiliating with raving anti-integrationist, anti-black crazies, and the reader shares her horror and confusion.”
This story is human interest because Harper Lee was famous and valued to many people so when she passed, it was major for many people.
Human Interest

US election 2016: How Clinton and Sanders are vying for black voters


As the competition for the Democratic nominee for president heats up, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are courting black voters. 
Mrs Clinton's "firewall" strategy is based on using the strength of her support in the black community to protect her against a surging Mr Sanders.
Meanwhile, the Vermont senator has been making in-roads with younger voters, scoring endorsements from leading figures like writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and rapper Killer Mike. 
It is evidence that there is no such thing as the "black vote" - that black Americans do not vote as a monolith, and that each individual black voter has individual criteria and concerns that determine who they favour. 
Still, gaining support from black voters is important in this closely-fought contest. With that in mind, how are the two of them targeting black voters?

Policy

Both candidates think they have a winning prescription for improving the lives of African Americans.
Mr Sanders' policy is focused on the economic struggles of middle and lower-class Americans, and how that translates to inequity in the African-American community. 
His website lays out a more comprehensive strategy: "We must pursue policies to transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of colour. That starts with addressing the five central types of violence waged against black, brown and indigenous Americans: physical, political, legal, economic and environmental." 
Mrs Clinton, the former US Secretary of State, has spoken about the systemic problems of racism that she says cannot be solved by economic means alone.
"We aren't a single-issue country," she said this week in Harlem, in a rebuke of Sanders. "We face a complex set of economic, social and political challenges. They are intersectional."
Both talk about issues like reducing mass incarceration rates and improving relationships with the police.
For a long time, support for African Americans in voting is rare and it is unique and important to many.



Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)