My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There’s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness. | Christianity Today

My Larry Nassar Testimony Went Viral. But There’s More to the Gospel Than Forgiveness. | Christianity Today: "One of the areas where Christians don’t do well is in acknowledging the devastation of the wound. We can tend to gloss over the devastation of any kind of suffering but especially sexual assault, with Christian platitudes like God works all things together for good or God is sovereign. Those are very good and glorious biblical truths, but when they are misapplied in a way to dampen the horror of evil, they ultimately dampen the goodness of God. Goodness and darkness exist as opposites. If we pretend that the darkness isn’t dark, it dampens the beauty of the light.

"



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Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves - MIT Technology Review

Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves - MIT Technology Review: "Earlier this year, OLPC workers dropped off closed boxes containing the tablets, taped shut, with no instruction. “I thought the kids would play with the boxes. Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, found the on-off switch … powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child, per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs in the village, and within five months, they had hacked Android,” Negroponte said. “Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera, and they figured out the camera, and had hacked Android.”

"



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Her six-hour commute each day seems crazy, but her affordable rent is not

Her six-hour commute each day seems crazy, but her affordable rent is not:

"It's usually 8:15 or 8:20 when I get home at night," says Cherry, who has been doing this merciless long-distance commute for 16 years, getting by on just 4½ hours of sleep each night. "Nine hours of work and six hours of commuting. That's my story."

In a region of hellish commutes, it's one of the craziest I've heard of. But in Southern California, where being close to work is a luxury many in the middle and working class can no longer afford, readers keep telling me to quit pushing affordable housing measures and let the market determine who lives where.

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'I, Nauseated': The Oregonian's ex-sports columnist nails what the Tonya Harding movie gets wrong | OregonLive.com

'I, Nauseated': The Oregonian's ex-sports columnist nails what the Tonya Harding movie gets wrong | OregonLive.com: "Harding has changed her story over and over in the past 24 years, but it’s always that she is a victim and everyone else is horrible. She is habitually “truth-challenged” — this fantasy film is Harding’s dream come true.

"



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PrinceRainbow comments on Indians will abandon Chief Wahoo logo next year

PrinceRainbow comments on Indians will abandon Chief Wahoo logo next year:

But the dude actually changed my mind. He had a slide show (I’m so old it wasn’t yet PowerPoint) and he had all the old racist caricatures and drawings from newspapers in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There were black people with grotesque features or made to look like apes, there were brutish, drunken Irish people, greasy, hairy Italians, and native Americans with giant noses and buck teeth, much like what chief wahoo looks like today. The thing he said that stuck with me is that these caricatures were designed this way to make these groups of people seem less human. It makes it easier for segregation, lynching, or moving the remnants of a people into a desert if you don’t see these groups as humans. And we’ve gotten rid of all the other ones in our advertising and sports logos except for the Native American ones.



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An ER visit, a $12,000 bill — and a health insurer that wouldn’t pay - Vox

An ER visit, a $12,000 bill — and a health insurer that wouldn’t pay - Vox:

“We have a mortgage, we have bills, we have student loans,” says Cloyd, who works for the Kentucky government and has a 7-year-old daughter. “There is absolutely no way I could pay a $12,000 bill. I don’t even have $1,000 sitting around.”

Cloyd has her health insurance coverage through her husband’s job. His company uses Anthem, one of the country’s largest health insurance plans. In recent years, Anthem has begun denying coverage for emergency room visits that it deems “inappropriate” because they aren’t, in the insurance plan’s view, true emergencies.

The problem: These denials are made after patients visit the ER, sometimes based on the diagnosis after seeing a doctor, not on the symptoms that sent them, like in Cloyd’s case.

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2017: The Safest Year in Aviation History

2017: The Safest Year in Aviation History:

In decades past, one or two crashes every year involving one or more of the mainline U.S. carriers was considered normal, even expected. And in other regions of the globe the numbers could be staggering.

Consider for a moment the year 1985. During that one year, 27 major crashes around the world resulted in the deaths of almost 2,400 people! These included the Air-India bombing over the North Atlantic, with 329 casualties, and, two months later, the crash of Japan Airlines flight 123 outside Tokyo, with 520 dead. 

These, the second and fifth-most deadly accidents in aviation history, happened 49 days apart! Also in ’85 were the Arrow Air disaster in Newfoundland that killed 240 U.S. servicemen, the infamous British Airtours 737 fire, and the crash of an L-1011 in Dallas that killed 137.

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Dear Airlines: Please Don’t Take Away Our Video Screens!

Dear Airlines: Please Don’t Take Away Our Video Screens!:

Yet the days of the seat-back screen might be numbered. One of the big airline stories making the rounds of late describes how carriers are planning to do away with them. The future of inflight entertainment, we are told, is turning instead to wi-fi streaming, whereby passengers can stream shows and movies directly onto their own laptops, tablets or mobile phones.

And, we keep hearing, this isn’t just something the airlines want. Supposedly it’s what their customers want as well. People find the seat-back screens old-fashioned, or uncool — or something. They want streaming video instead.

I’m not buying it. Carriers might wish this were the case, but count me among those who don’t believe it. I suspect the media is simply repeating unchecked what airlines are telling them.

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Why I require FBI agents to visit the Holocaust Museum - The Washington Post

Why I require FBI agents to visit the Holocaust Museum - The Washington Post:

But I do know this: I know it is our duty, our obligation, to make sure some good comes from unimaginable bad. Not so we can comfort ourselves by saying, “Oh, that was worth it then.” That’s nonsense. That would be perverse. It will never be “worth it.”

Instead, I believe it is simply our duty to do that, and I believe this is truth no matter where you come from on a philosophical or religious spectrum. Our obligation is to refuse to let bad win, to refuse to let evil hold the field. As Abraham Lincoln said on a field of unimaginable pain and loss, it is essential “that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.” Our resolution does not justify the loss, but we simply cannot be alive and give up.

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Holocaust survivor breaks decades-long silence to share her horrific story – The Buffalo News

Holocaust survivor breaks decades-long silence to share her horrific story – The Buffalo News:

For more than seven decades, Edith Fox kept her Holocaust story inside.

She sometimes told friends she wanted the words “Holocaust Survivor” on her tombstone. But she didn’t want to talk about what she had endured. It was simply too painful.

After surviving four years in Auschwitz as a teen, Fox waited two years before emigrating to the United States. She ended up in Buffalo, where she met her husband, Joseph. They raised three children here.

Fox now lives in Tucson, Ariz. In recent months, her health began to fail and she decided – at age 90 – she didn’t want her story to die with her. She was concerned people were forgetting about the Holocaust, and was horrified to hear that some deny it ever took place. She wanted to do her part to make sure people never forget.

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Former Colorado GOP chairman sentenced for voter fraud - CBS News

Former Colorado GOP chairman sentenced for voter fraud - CBS News: "GREELEY, Colo. -- The former chairman of the Colorado Republican Party was sentenced to four years of probation and 300 hours of community service for voter fraud. Steve Curtis blamed a "major diabetic episode" for causing him to vote his ex-wife's absentee ballot in October 2016.

"



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Why Does Our Justice System Fight So Hard to Keep Innocent People Behind Bars? | The Nation

Why Does Our Justice System Fight So Hard to Keep Innocent People Behind Bars? | The Nation:

MG: The first thing that shocked me when I started doing post-conviction innocence work is when we had several cases with DNA evidence, and it was absolutely clear the person was innocent. I saw these prosecutors just going into denial and spinning all these ridiculous theories about how the person might still be guilty. They almost make you laugh. My first reaction was, “Are these people kidding? Are they serious?” I’m in court thinking, “Is this Candid Camera?”

That’s how ridiculous these theories could be. And I realized that the Innocence Movement is really pointing out some flaws at the basic core of the criminal-justice system, and those in the system are really in denial about it. I think I was too, as a prosecutor. So I started studying the psychology behind it and seeing how, when you’re in a bureaucracy that’s cocky and has been around for centuries, and you become a part of it as a prosecutor, and you believe that it’s something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and then somebody comes along and says there are all these flaws in it, it’s very hard to accept.

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This PhD student wants to prove its possible to pursue higher ed as an enlisted Marine

This PhD student wants to prove its possible to pursue higher ed as an enlisted Marine: "In 2012, I completed by bachelor’s in psychology from Ashford University with a 3.8 GPA, graduating with magna cum laude honors. I also worked on this ­degree while being deployed to the Middle East in 2011, which is why I switched to an online degree plan. Following my bachelor’s degree, I decided to shoot further and pursue a master’s degree. This presented a daunting challenge as I volunteered to serve as a recruiter being stationed in New York. Despite the adversity, challenges and crucial time management necessary, I completed my master’s degree in organizational management with an emphasis in organizational leadership with a 4.0 GPA, earning the prestigious summa cum laude honor.

"



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[Image] "Found attached to a popped balloon in my front yard a few years ago" (top post ever on /r/foundpaper) : Frisson

[Image] "Found attached to a popped balloon in my front yard a few years ago" (top post ever on /r/foundpaper) : Frisson: "This note sounds exactly like something my mother would have left for him. We would do the same thing, attach a sweet note to a balloon and "send it to heaven" for him. Not a day goes by that I don't miss him, and more than anything I wish that my mother and father never had to experience such trauma. I'm happy that my brother didn't suffer very long, but even so it was a tragedy."

Hey sweet baby boy
 I can't believe you'd be six
years old today. We miss you
 every day. miss you in every way
I hope you're having fun in
heaven.
Mommy loves you always +
   forever

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SilentDis comments on [Video] The scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 - where the teachers cast defensive spells around Hogwarts.

SilentDis comments on [Video] The scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 - where the teachers cast defensive spells around Hogwarts.: "Real magic. The kind you and I experience every day. It's your parents who love you, and would stand before any madman with a gun to take that bullet, rather than anything happen to you. It's your teachers, who will hold you safe, so you can make your mistakes there at school, rather than when you screw up and end up without a home. It's your friends, who cherish you to a point where they'll put their lives on hold to help make your dreams come true.

"



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Rachael Denhollander: The voice that began end of Nassar

Rachael Denhollander: The voice that began end of Nassar:



“It’s worth remembering that it was one woman who came public first, and when she did she was ridiculed, folks rallied behind him, they tried to discredit her, they signed petition and supported him. They believed him over her because of who he was purported to be,” said Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis in her closing statement before Nassar was sentenced.



It wasn’t until December 2016, when Nassar’s collection of child pornography emerged, that Denhollander’s claims were taken more seriously. Other charges followed and Nassar eventually admitted guilt.



“It has not been an easy process for these victims, especially Rachael, all alone publicly for many, many months,” Povilaitis said.



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How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine - The New York Times

How Arafat Eluded Israel’s Assassination Machine - The New York Times:

Ivry couldn’t stall much longer. He had been given a direct order. If he didn’t take down the aircraft soon, he would have to explain why to Eitan and Sharon.

Tension was heightening. The minutes dragged on.

And then, five minutes before 5 o’clock, 25 minutes after the fighters took off, a phone jangled in Canary. It was the secure line that connected directly to Mossad headquarters. “Doubts have arisen,” said the voice on the line, with embarrassment. Mossad had other sources who insisted that Arafat had been nowhere near Greece, and that the man on the plane couldn’t possibly be Arafat.

In the absence of another order, the pair of F-15s continued to track the Buffalo. Ivry repeated his orders. “We’re waiting for more information. Keep eyes on the target and wait.”

At 5:23 p.m., another report came in to Canary. Sources from Mossad and AMAN said the man on the plane was Fathi Arafat, Yasir’s look-alike younger brother, a pediatrician and the founder of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. With him were 30 wounded Palestinian children, survivors of the massacre that the Lebanese Maronite Christian Phalange militia had perpetrated in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut a month before. Fathi Arafat was escorting them to Cairo for medical treatment.

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(1) Former gymnastics coach says ‘go to hell’ then judge lets him address Larry Nassar - YouTube

(1) Former gymnastics coach says ‘go to hell’ then judge lets him address Larry Nassar - YouTube:



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Read Rachael Denhollander's full victim impact statement about Larry Nassar - CNN

Read Rachael Denhollander's full victim impact statement about Larry Nassar - CNN:

Look around the courtroom, remember what you have witnessed these past seven days. This is what it looks like when someone chooses to put their selfish desires above the safety and love for those around them and let it be a warning to us all and moving forward as a society, This is what it looks like when the adults in authority do not respond properly to disclosures of sexual assault.

This is what it looks like when institutions create a culture where a predator can flourish unafraid and unabated and this is what it looks like when people in authority refuse to listen, put friendships in front of the truth, fail to create or enforce proper policy and fail to hold enablers accountable.

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Open Letters To Team USA Athletes Regarding Nassar Case

Open Letters To Team USA Athletes Regarding Nassar Case: "1. We Must Change the Culture of the Sport. This was the primary recommendation of the independent Deborah Daniels Report on USA Gymnastics and the athlete testimony underlined its importance. We heard athletes describe being unsure or unaware of how to report abuse and to whom, and sometimes even what constitutes abuse. We heard athletes describe being afraid or discouraged from reporting abuse. We heard athletes describe feeling hurt, betrayed, discounted and alone. Since October of last year, we have been engaged in direct talks with USAG leadership on this fundamental point. New leadership at the board level is critical and you recently saw three USAG board resignations. Further changes are necessary to help create a culture that fosters safe sport practice, offers athletes strong resources in education and reporting, and ensures the healing of the victims and survivors. This includes a full turnover of leadership from the past, which means that all current USAG directors must resign.

"



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‘I knew what the cost would be’: Why sexual abuse victims stay silent

‘I knew what the cost would be’: Why sexual abuse victims stay silent:

Q: What do you think it would have meant to you to have the #MeToo movement when you came out about being abused?

A: Those first few weeks and months waiting to see if anyone else was going to speak up was absolutely hellish. Within 24 hours, Nassar knew that I'd come forward. And I was alone. That was really scary.

In the first few weeks until the child porn was found, the things that were said about me, the things that were said about Jamie (Dantzscher), who was anonymous at the time, were really quite vile. And it demonstrated perfectly why these victims were silent.

I was not surprised. I knew what the cost would be.

With Harvey Weinstein, people are asking, why didn't these women speak up earlier? The process you have to go through is so revictimizing. Then, society as a whole has really turned against you for speaking up. Victims know they're going to be vilified. Their character is going to come under attack immediately.

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In Larry Nassar’s Case, a Single Voice Eventually Raised an Army - The New York Times

In Larry Nassar’s Case, a Single Voice Eventually Raised an Army - The New York Times:

Rachael Denhollander had the first word and the last one.

A former gymnast who became a lawyer and a coach, Ms. Denhollander told The Indianapolis Star in 2016 that Dr. Lawrence G. Nassar had molested her as a child.

She had just read a report in The Star about U.S.A. Gymnastics’ mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against coaches. But no one had yet spoken up about Dr. Nassar, who molested young athletes for about two decades while pretending the abuse was therapy.

The Star soon published an article about the doctor, based on reports from two former gymnasts. One remained anonymous. The other was Rachael Denhollander — front and center, all alone there.

In a Michigan courtroom Wednesday, before Dr. Nassar received a prison sentence of 40 to 175 years for multiple counts of criminal sexual misconduct, Ms. Denhollander, 33, spoke again. This time, she was not alone.

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Mosul Today 09-18-2017 - Album on Imgur

Mosul Today 09-18-2017 - Album on Imgur: "Mosul Today 09-18-2017
"



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DACA & Our Responsibility for the Undocumented Population | National Review

DACA & Our Responsibility for the Undocumented Population | National Review: "It might also be objected that I do not care enough about citizens who have been adversely affected by illegal immigration, for example as victims of crime or downward wage pressure. I have said nothing against deporting seriously criminal aliens; I also have no reason to think that the undocumented population is unusually seriously criminal. As for the working class, illegal (and unskilled) immigration is only one source of its woes, and hardly the most important, but it is a source with a human face and therefore provides a suitable object of hatred."



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Women, please pick up your trash. It makes all of us look bad.

Women, please pick up your trash. It makes all of us look bad.: "However, once the marching has ceased and the sun has gone down the march turns from a beautiful show of democratic freedom to a representation of everything wrong with our wasteful society as bags of garbage, used signs and pink hats are being simply tossed to the curb instead of thrown out and recycled.

"



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Holocaust hero: US soldier told Nazi captors 'We are all Jews' - CSMonitor.com

Holocaust hero: US soldier told Nazi captors 'We are all Jews' - CSMonitor.com:

The Nazi soldiers made their orders very clear: Jewish American prisoners of war were to be separated from their fellow brothers in arms and sent to an uncertain fate.

But Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds would have none of that. As the highest-ranking noncommissioned officer held in the German POW camp, he ordered more than 1,000 Americans captives to step forward with him and brazenly pronounced: "We are all Jews here."

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This Country's Democracy Has Fallen Apart — And It Played Out To Millions On Facebook

This Country's Democracy Has Fallen Apart — And It Played Out To Millions On Facebook:


“Facebook has a moral duty toward Cambodia,” she said. “Because the radio and TV and everything is controlled by Hun Sen, Facebook has become the only place where people can freely express themselves.”

Those who engage in political speech on Facebook say, however, that they’re being more and more careful with what they say. The platform stopped being a place for free expression in Cambodia when the government started arresting people over Facebook posts.



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High-end art is one of the most manipulated markets in the world — Quartz

High-end art is one of the most manipulated markets in the world — Quartz: "Art collectors are different than consumers or investors in any other market. High-power art collecting is both time consuming and expensive, so collectors tend to be very wealthy. I spoke to a collector who is a member of one of America’s best-known collecting dynasties. His family has been extraordinarily influential in American art. “Art collection is more of an avocation than a utilitarian pursuit,” he says. He loves the art in his collection, but the social benefits are a large part of his enjoyment. He’s part of community of collectors who go to fairs together and enjoy a friendly rivalry around acquiring the work of certain artists. He’s spent his life in the company of major collectors, dealers, and artists, but is skeptical of the industry. He believes prices are often bogus; bad art often sells for far too much and he questions the integrity of many dealers. Several collectors I spoke with echoed this sentiment, yet each of them are avid collectors because they believe they are well informed, rarely overpay and enjoy what they’ve acquired.

"



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Will 16,000 Sears Canada retirees see their pensions? | Toronto Star

Will 16,000 Sears Canada retirees see their pensions? | Toronto Star:

Despite the challenges, the Sears pension fund managed to rack up a surplus of $65 million by 2004.

But it was about to face another problem.

In 2005, U.S. hedge fund manager Edward Lampert gained control of Sears Roebuck in the U.S., becoming the controlling shareholder of Sears Canada. He would retain a controlling interest in Sears Canada, through Sears Holdings and later through his hedge fund, ESL & Associates, that has fluctuated, but which continues to this day.

Between Dec. 9, 2005 and Dec. 9, 2013, Sears Canada paid $3.4 billion in dividends to shareholders, including $2 billion in 2005, $377 million in 2010, $102 million in 2012 and $509 million in 2013.

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Jewish Canadian billionaire couple Honey and Barry Sherman were murdered, report says - Americas - Haaretz.com

Jewish Canadian billionaire couple Honey and Barry Sherman were murdered, report says - Americas - Haaretz.com: "Canadian Jewish couple Barry and Honey Sherman were murdered in December in what hired private investigators called a professional, contract killing, The Toronto Star reported on Saturday.

"



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What it's really like to be sued by a patent troll -- and how to stop it | VentureBeat

What it's really like to be sued by a patent troll -- and how to stop it | VentureBeat: "I believe in the Constitutional protections afforded to inventors that bring products to market. But, I think it’s wrong that PAEs, whose sole business is to make money from suing other businesses, should legally attack everyone from engineers to suppliers by trying to force a “nuisance value” settlement. These “small” settlements can cost a kid’s mom or dad their raise, or worse, their job. This PAE problem, in my view, will not be solved by our lawmakers, and I can’t continue to accept them as a “cost of doing business.” That is why I have become an evangelist for initiatives that aim to combat PAEs on a more systematic basis.

"



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Old Local Figures

http://www.dekalbhistory.org/documents/11ClarkHarrisonOctober1985.pdf



Clark’s account made me laugh out
loud and also shed tears and made me think, which is a tribute to any book. Intensely personal, it deals
with youth, fearful combat, terrible injury, recuperation, love, marriage, business, politics, flying, family,
risk-taking, defeat, triumph, the mystery of joy and suffering, and the he



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Your Dekalb Famers Market

Home:

We declare that the world is designed to work.

We are responsible for what does not work.

We make the difference.



No matter how technologically advanced

we become, we cannot escape our fundamental

relationships with food and each other.



The possibility of these relationships is

the world market. In this context, the world works

for everyone free of scarcity and suffering. We commit ourselves to the possibility

this world market is for the

future generations of this planet.



 If we can imagine as real a world that works free of

scarcity and suffering, then it is possible.

Each of us has in us that which makes the difference.

Dare we be ourselves.

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Andrew Sullivan: #MeToo and the Taboo Topic of Nature

Andrew Sullivan: #MeToo and the Taboo Topic of Nature: "The alternative explanation — that these core natural differences between men and women have been supplemented by centuries of conscious oppression — is staring us in the face. The fascinating conundrum is where one ends and the other begins. How much of this difference is natural and how much is social? That is the question. And the answer is a tricky one. Is the fact that the vast majority of construction workers are male and the huge majority of nurses are female a function of sexism or nature? Is male sexual aggression and horniness a function of patriarchy or testosterone? Is the fact that women now outnumber men among college graduates a function of reverse sexism or nature?"



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An Iraqi boy saved my squad in 2005 : Military

An Iraqi boy saved my squad in 2005 : Military: "I was lead vehicle gunner for PSD for a GO. I wrote home and asked for stuffed animals to be sent to me to share with the kids who lined to streets in certain areas to wave to us as we drove through. We had a mission to set up a hasty landing zone for the Boss to fly into and then go check out a bridge to an oil field that kept getting blown up. On our way there was a kid on the side of the road I tossed a teddy bear to him and he caught it and jumped up and down. This was wide open desert and the only kid in the area. After our mission was complete we returned to base to be informed the following day we would be tasked with the same mission. Set up LZ for General to land and then drive back to base after. As we headed home on our same route as the day before the kid with the bear from yesterday was in the middle of the road. He was frantically waving us to stop. I yelled down to my team leader that this was the kid from the previous day. Since the area was pretty wide open we felt safe to stop and see what was up. My team leader dismounted the truck and walked to the boy. He spoke no english and my team leader very little Arabic so the boy took his hand and to the side of the road he pulled him. The boy then reached down and moved some dirt uncovering wires and what appeared to be an IED. "



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This Is Survival | By Aly Raisman

This Is Survival | By Aly Raisman:

I also want people to understand that abuse is never O.K. One person is too many and one time is too often. We must protect the survivors and people who are suffering in silence. We must support those who come forward, whether it is today, tomorrow, in three months, one year from now, 10 years from now. Whenever it is, everyone must show support. Victim shaming must stop. There are those who ask tough questions. Why didn’t you speak up? Why are you just speaking now? Are you nervous this will define you? To them I ask that they consider how complicated it is to deal with abuse. Abusers are often master manipulators and make their survivors feel confused and guilty for thinking badly of their abusers. And the abusers also often make everyone around them stand up for them, leaving the survivor afraid that no one will believe them. That needs to stop. Those who look the other way must stop and help protect those being hurt. Abusers must never be protected.

The power needs to shift to the survivors.

Sexual abuse isn’t just in the moment. It is forever. Healing is forever.

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How a Mormon lawyer transformed archaeology in Mexico—and ended up losing his faith | Science | AAAS

How a Mormon lawyer transformed archaeology in Mexico—and ended up losing his faith | Science | AAAS:

Ferguson learned the news from a frontpage article in the newspaper Deseret News on 27 November 1967. Within days, he wrote to a friend in the church leadership, begging to know whether the papyri would be studied. Hearing that no studies were planned, Ferguson, as ever, took matters into his own hands. He received photos of the documents from the church and hired Egyptologists at UC Berkeley to translate them. He told the scholars nothing about the religious significance of the papyri. "He was conducting a clearly blind test," Clark says.

The results started coming in 6 weeks later. "I believe that all of these are spells from the Egyptian Book of the Dead," UC Berkeley Egyptologist Leonard Lesko wrote to Ferguson. Three other scholars independently gave Ferguson the same result: The texts were authentic ancient Egyptian, but represented one of the most common documents in that culture.

After decades of stressing the importance of the scientific method and using it to shore up his own faith, Ferguson now found himself at its mercy. "I must conclude that Joseph Smith had not the remotest skill in things Egyptian-hieroglyphics," he wrote to a fellow doubting Mormon in 1971. What's more, he wrote to another, "Right now I am inclined to think that all of those who claim to be ‘prophets’, including Moses, were without a means of communication with deity."

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The Man Who Invented the Government Shutdown | TIME.com

The Man Who Invented the Government Shutdown | TIME.com:

As Jimmy Carter’s attorney general, Civiletti was asked for a legal opinion parsing out what exactly the federal bureaucracy is supposed to do when Congress doesn’t pass a budget by deadline. Congress had missed the mark many times before but the issue was becoming particularly urgent; in the four fiscal years from 1977 to 1980—every year of the Carter presidency to that point—Congress had failed to pass a budget on time. Remarkably, Civiletti determined that Carter’s request for a legal opinion on the matter “apparently represents the first instance in which this Department has been asked formally the address the problem as a matter of law.”

Civiletti based his opinion in the Antideficiency Act of 1870, enacted by Congress to stop the then-routine practice of agencies intentionally overspending, secure in the knowledge that Congress would eventually have to pick up the tab. Writes Civiletti, “On its face, the plain and unambiguous language of the Antideficiency Act prohibits an agency from incurring pay obligations once its authority to expend appropriations lapses.”

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Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Ecstasy of Hedy Lamarr - The Hairpin

Scandals of Classic Hollywood: The Ecstasy of Hedy Lamarr - The Hairpin:

A small Motion Picture piece from 1941, suggestively entitled “Hedy’s Secret Weapon,” broke the news that The Ecstasy Girl was also a Girl Inventor: “They say it isn’t right, that it shouldn’t happen. Anyone as fabulously beautiful as Hedy Lamarr simply cannot possess brains!” Yet it was “undeniably true” — Patent Number 2292387 belonged to Lamarr.

Over the course of the two-page feature, Anthiel gives full credit to Lamarr, claiming his work on the patent was merely technical.

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How To Kill A Possum - The Awl

How To Kill A Possum - The Awl: "I pathetically consulted my iPhone for ideas, but realized it had done its job: illuminated the problem, and Googled the crap out of it. But as of yet, there isn’t an app that can kill things. Now it was time for me to do my job. Nobody was going to take care of this problem but me, and so far, I had been failing miserably. I had one idea left, and as much as I hate to admit it, it had come from my boyfriend. Lying in bed one night, soon after the “Rooster Incident,” listening to me go on and on obsessively about the possums and how to protect the flock, he told me he had read online about someone who had duct taped a butcher knife to the end of a broom handle and stabbed a possum to death.

"



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When Truth Falls Apart - The Awl

When Truth Falls Apart - The Awl: "Dismediation isn’t discourse. It doesn’t disinform, and it’s not quite propaganda, as that term has long been understood. Instead, dismediation seeks to break the systems of trust without which civilized society hasn’t got a chance. Disinformation, once it’s done telling its lie, is finished with you. Dismediation is looking to make you never really trust or believe a news story, ever again. Not on Fox, and not on NPR. It’s not that we can’t agree on what the facts are. It’s that we cannot agree on what counts as fact. The machinery of discourse is bricked. That’s why we can’t think together, talk together, or vote together.

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Access Denied - The Awl

Access Denied - The Awl: "To make this as crude and simple as possible, a generation of publications and channels that were built and configured around the maintenance of large and exclusive audiences now find themselves borrowing much less coherent audiences from platforms that mediate their every action. The first and most apparent effects resulting from this change were in their styles of coverage: their stories, videos, and beats changed to better suit the new places in which they’re consumed. These changes were apparent in viral news and curiosity gap headlines; in strange patterns of coverage and new styles of bizarre colloquial feed writing and video. It was a story told largely in terms of publications and their traffic.

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Breaking Bad Cast Interview – How Breaking Bad Became a Phenomenon

Breaking Bad Cast Interview – How Breaking Bad Became a Phenomenon: "On premiere night, we did all the planning in the world to launch the show. We scheduled the pilot for the night of the NFC championship game, which was typically the highest non-Superbowl event in sports. We thought the show would be male-skewing, so there’s forty to fifty million men who will be coming off this event, and this is what we would launch Breaking Bad into. Lo and behold, the Giants played the Packers, and the game went into overtime. Only one championship game in the history of the NFL had ever gone into overtime before, and this one did! So for the first fifteen minutes of the premiere, most of America was still watching the game. Looking back, there were countless moments like that where Breaking Bad shouldn’t have succeeded, but the material was strong enough to overcome it."



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Wikipedia:Chesterton's fence - Wikipedia

Wikipedia:Chesterton's fence - Wikipedia: "In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, "I don't see the use of this; let us clear it away." To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: "If you don't see the use of it, I certainly won't let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.""



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The Humiliation of Aziz Ansari - The Atlantic

The Humiliation of Aziz Ansari - The Atlantic: "Was Grace frozen, terrified, stuck? No. She tells us that she wanted something from Ansari and she was trying to figure out how to get it. She wanted affection, kindness, attention. Perhaps she hoped to maybe even become the famous man’s girlfriend. He wasn’t interested. What she felt afterward—rejected yet another time, by yet another man—was regret. And what she and the writer who told her story created was 3,000 words of revenge porn. The clinical detail in which the story is told is intended not to validate her account as much as it is to hurt and humiliate Ansari. Together, the two women may have destroyed Ansari’s career, which is now the punishment for every kind of male sexual misconduct, from the grotesque to the disappointing.

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I'm In Hawaii And Just Got The Scariest Alert Of My Life. Here's What I Did Next.

I'm In Hawaii And Just Got The Scariest Alert Of My Life. Here's What I Did Next.:

As I looked through a big window in the living room, I could see most of Honolulu below. On the edge of the city is the lush Diamond Head extinct volcanic crater. Beneath that lies rows and rows of homes that seem to melt together. The suburban boxes feel like they would just fall into the sea, if not for the skyscrapers that dot Waikiki and Downtown Honolulu and form a wall that stops them from flowing straight into the ocean.

It was the view I had looked at my whole life. But for a split second, I saw it all gone — just gray dust and rubble, like a photo I might have seen of a bombed-out city in World War II.

I saw the people I loved gone, as well as the city that had given me everything, opening its arms to me when I born at Kapiolani Hospital and shaping me into the person I am now.

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The President is Wrong to Accuse the FBI of Treason - Lawfare

The President is Wrong to Accuse the FBI of Treason - Lawfare: "The president seems to have determined that Agent Strzok and Lisa Page, the FBI lawyer to whom he sent the message, were plotting to overthrow him if he were elected. But as the Journal itself reported earlier, that is not the only interpretation of the message. Citing persons familiar with Strzok’s account of the events, the Journal reported that Strzok was responding to Page’s suggestion that the investigation into Russian interference with our election should proceed slowly to avoid compromising sources; Strzok urged that it move quickly because if Trump were elected “some of [his] associates could land administration jobs and it was important to know if they had colluded with Russia.” This interpretation, which is entirely plausible on its face, would reflect not treason but an admirable and entirely appropriate concern to protect our government from possible covert foreign influence. One would hope that the president would at least wait to hear from Strzok and Page before convicting them of a capital offense.

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s1ugg0 comments on Rumor has it he did this even with bone spurs

s1ugg0 comments on Rumor has it he did this even with bone spurs: ""Private Emmanuel Mensah selflessly ran into super heated neurotoxins without a breathing apparatus to save his neighbors. He selflessly venture into the immediately IDLH environment repeatedly to effect rescue."

Make absolutely no mistake. This man suffered to save these people. And he consciously made the choice more than once. To put it another context this is like him running repeatedly into enemy fire, getting shot each time, and still going back to help more people. And, personally, I'd rather be shot then breath in toxic smoke that is a few hundred degrees. In fire school they tell you if you run out of air you should try to keep your mask on and asphyxiate instead of breathing that smoke. Please think about that for a moment. It is literally preferable to be suffocated to death than to breath that smoke. That is what they teach us at the fire academy.

America as a whole is worse off without him. The world is worse off without him."



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The other evangelicals – The Immanent Frame

The other evangelicals – The Immanent Frame: "Across the country in Atlanta—in a decidedly different social and political environment—I encountered the same spirit of openness and intellectual humility across difference in multiple evangelical contexts. In a disadvantaged historically black neighborhood in Atlanta, for example, white evangelicals are getting an immersive crash course in intersectional inequality through “strategic relocation”—the intentional practice of moving into disadvantaged urban contexts in order to learn from and participate with residents in projects of social empowerment and transformation. Their experiences have transformed these white evangelicals’ understanding of racial and economic inequality, politics and social change, their faith, and themselves. Strategic relocation has also led them to abandon ineffective and paternalistic strategies of social engagement in favor of collaborative strategies built on reciprocal relationships across difference."



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Andy Savage’s Standing Ovation Was Heard Round the World. Because It Was Wrong. | The Exchange | A Blog by Ed Stetzer

Andy Savage’s Standing Ovation Was Heard Round the World. Because It Was Wrong. | The Exchange | A Blog by Ed Stetzer:

But the place to start is in calling it what it is when a youth pastor engages in sexual activity with a teenager in the youth group.

Others will debate whether it’s a crime, or whether someone can be restored to some form of leadership after abusing their authority. There’s certainly more to be said and done here.

But, before all that, we should be clear on one thing.

It’s not an incident. It’s abuse.

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(11) James Gunn - Posts

(11) James Gunn - Posts:

This constant line that EVERYONE IN HOLLYWOOD KNEW being pushed by the far right wing, fake news, conspiracy press, and Russian bots, is illogical. I am as plugged into Hollywood as anyone. I have refused to work with Harvey Weinstein, or the Weinstein brothers in general for the past twenty years, NOT because Harvey was a sexual predator, but because trusted friends told me they were horrible to work for. I like being around nice people, so I didn't want to work for them. I certainly didn't know Harvey was a serial sexual predator.

Certainly many of you have known someone in the past - maybe in your church or your neighborhood or your school - who was later discovered to have abused or harassed someone sexually. Did you know about it beforehand just because you were part of the same group? Probably not.

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The day I accidentally killed a little boy - BBC News

The day I accidentally killed a little boy - BBC News:

I heard that voice many times every day, and so although I enjoyed my studies and I loved living in California, there was always that voice holding me back. I had killed a child and I could never forget that.

I thought about Brian the day I got married. I thought about Brian the day my father died. I thought about Brian the day I defended my dissertation. I thought about Brian the day I started a new job. He lived with me.

I married in my early 30s. I told my husband that I'd had this accident but we never talked about it. He didn't ask and I didn't want to impose my pain on him - this was my issue to deal with and I didn't really feel I had the right to ask for comfort.

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HOLLY BUTCHER: 1990-2018 — SAMANTHA WILLS FOUNDATION

HOLLY BUTCHER: 1990-2018 — SAMANTHA WILLS FOUNDATION: "Let all that shit go.. I swear you will not be thinking of those things when it is your turn to go. It is all SO insignificant when you look at life as a whole. I’m watching my body waste away right before my eyes with nothing I can do about it and all I wish for now is that I could have just one more Birthday or Christmas with my family, or just one more day with my partner and dog. Just one more. 

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(((≠))) on Twitter: "So a judge begins with the proposition that an executive order is lawfully entered; executive orders by definition lie entirely in the discr… https://t.co/sNpSNAUIzt"

(((≠))) on Twitter: "So a judge begins with the proposition that an executive order is lawfully entered; executive orders by definition lie entirely in the discr… https://t.co/sNpSNAUIzt": "The problem with our system of government right now is diffuse responsibility and a categorical unwillingness by the legitimately-enumerated-and-responsible actors to retake their power and responsibility."



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France's Deneuve denounces #Metoo campaign for 'puritanism'

France's Deneuve denounces #Metoo campaign for 'puritanism':

“This urge to send men to the slaughterhouse, instead of helping women be more autonomous, helps the enemies of sexual freedom,” the 100 women, including 74-year old Deneuve, one of France’s most famous screen stars, said in a column published by Le Monde daily.

The man’s right to “pester” a woman was an essential part of sexual freedom, they said, describing the campaign as “puritanism”.

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Uncle_Erik comments on I'm an architect in LA specializing in multifamily residential. I'd like to do my best to explain a little understood reason why all new large development in LA seems to be luxury development.

Uncle_Erik comments on I'm an architect in LA specializing in multifamily residential. I'd like to do my best to explain a little understood reason why all new large development in LA seems to be luxury development.: "The broader effect of the Shriver project is that because the costs of evictions are now so high (and financially catastrophic, especially to mom-and-pop landlords), these landlords, owners of rent-controlled buildings, are selling out to deep-pocketed investors who have been Ellis-evicting entire buildings to get their properties out of rent control. It's funny how Curbed L.A. and all these other local real estate blogs have never really addressed the high cost of evictions as a factor in why affordable housing has worsened significantly, but from my experience in managing apartment buildings, this is a huge factor why the numbers of rent-controlled buildings have steadily dwindled.

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Stanford paper says rent control drives up San Francisco rents - Curbed SF

Stanford paper says rent control drives up San Francisco rents - Curbed SF: "But the loss of housing might drive up rents elsewhere. “We find that six percent decrease in housing supply led to seven percent increase in rental prices. These caused an aggregate welfare loss to renters of $5 Billion. This is almost as large as the benefits accrued by the lucky beneficiaries of rent control.”
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Falcon 9 launches the secretive Zuma payload and lands its first stage back at Cape Canaveral in this three-photo long exposure composite photograph — @johnkrausphotos : spacex

Falcon 9 launches the secretive Zuma payload and lands its first stage back at Cape Canaveral in this three-photo long exposure composite photograph — @johnkrausphotos : spacex:



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This county voted for Trump and welcomes hundreds of refugees | New York Post

This county voted for Trump and welcomes hundreds of refugees | New York Post:

Erie County seems like a contradiction to many outsiders. It voted by 17 percentage points for Barack Obama in 2012 and then turned around four years later and supported Donald Trump in 2016. It’s also home to the one of the largest refugee populations in Pennsylvania, which took in 3,219 refugees in 2016 — ranking ninth among all states in the union.

“In 2016 we placed nearly 700 hundred Syrian refugees in Erie,” said Ed Grode, still energetic at 70. “They come from places like Kenya, Bosnia, the Congo and Iraq. Refugees now make up roughly 20 percent of the city’s population of 100,000.”

For a decade, Grode sat on the board of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a national nonprofit that partners with the State Department to resettle refugees. Today he is still intensely involved in helping those fleeing tribal warfare, political upheaval or religious persecution in their native nations — people like Bahati.

“Everyone finds a job once they settle here. Some find two or three,” Grode said.

'via Blog this'

‘Learn his name first’: The politicizing of military widows is touching a nerve - The Washington Post

‘Learn his name first’: The politicizing of military widows is touching a nerve - The Washington Post: "In a way, Jenn Budenz lies with him, her right hand resting on their infant, with a gaze fixed on a framed photo of Maj. Andrew Budenz in a sharp Marine Corps uniform.

His face is everywhere at the grave — screened on a blanket and printed on a shirt worn by Andrew Jr., who is tucked in a car seat, staring back at his mother with blue eyes inherited from his father. Andrew Sr. had been dead for eight months in 2014, yet Jenn and her son visited daily."



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Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance - Bloomberg

Millions Are Hounded for Debt They Don’t Owe. One Victim Fought Back, With a Vengeance - Bloomberg: "Americans are currently late on more than $600 billion in bills, according to Federal Reserve research, and almost one person in 10 has a debt in collectors’ hands. The agencies recoup what they can and sell the rest down-market, so that iffier and iffier debt is bought by shadier and shadier individuals. Deception is common. Scammers often sell the same portfolios of debt, called “paper,” to several collection agencies at once, so a legitimate IOU gains illegitimate clones. Some inflate balances, a practice known as “overbiffing.” Others create “redo” lists—people who’ve settled their debt, but will be harassed again anyway. These rosters are actually more valuable, because the targets have proved willing to part with money over the phone. And then there are those who invent debts out of whole cloth.

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The 100-year capitalist experiment that keeps Appalachia poor, sick, and stuck on coal — Quartz

The 100-year capitalist experiment that keeps Appalachia poor, sick, and stuck on coal — Quartz:

At the root of these problems lies the ironic insight that struck Nick Mullins as he mined coal deep in the earth his family once owned. The extreme imbalance of land ownership in central Appalachia shifted the power over where and how Appalachians lived to corporations. The political and economic impotence of Appalachian residents that resulted has permitted a deeply cynical capitalist experiment to take place, in which coal companies are kept profitable by passing on the costs they incur to the public. The many ways in which politicians and coal barons have kept coal artificially cheap has, over the course of generations, devoured the potential of the area’s residents, and that of their economy.

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Education in 2017, As Told Through Charts and Graphs - The Atlantic

Education in 2017, As Told Through Charts and Graphs - The Atlantic: "As trends in education ebb and flow, it gets hard to keep track of the current state of things. Visuals can clarify what’s changed over the past year and what has stayed the same. As 2017 comes to a close, we’ve compiled some graphs and charts that help contextualize the year in education issues.

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“I Have Power”: Is Steve Bannon Running for President? | Vanity Fair

“I Have Power”: Is Steve Bannon Running for President? | Vanity Fair: "The next morning, Bannon was pacing in front of a packed auditorium in a squat building on the grounds of the Olympic Village built for the ‘64 Tokyo Summer Games. “I feel like I’m at a Trump rally!” he said, pointing out a young woman sporting a Make America Great Again hat. For the next hour, Bannon held court, microphone in hand. “The elites in our country have been under a very false premise that as China became more prosperous and economically developed that there would be an underlying increase in democracy,” he said. “What we found out over the last decade is the exact opposite has happened.” He speculated that dark unseen forces are at work. “The question has to be asked: Are the elites in the United States that stupid? Did people actually sit there year after year after year and not understand what was going on? Or was something else going on? Were these elites either bought off or did they just look the other way? That question is going to have to be answered.”

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The Giant, Under Attack - The New York Times

The Giant, Under Attack - The New York Times:

Yet the industry focused on curing addiction has its shortcomings. One of the most significant: There is little consensus on the most effective ways to treat patients.

Should patients travel far from home, as Mr. Benefield did, to isolate them from temptation? Or should they stay close to their support networks of family and friends? Should they be treated with medications that reduce the appetite for opioids? Or should they be coached to conquer their illness through willpower?

The field is also covered by a patchwork of regulations that haven’t kept pace with its growth. That has created room for opportunistic small operators to spring up, some with questionable track records.

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A Rejected Modern Love Essay — Well & Woke

A Rejected Modern Love Essay — Well & Woke: "So, it turns out that my dad did manage to give me away - it just doesn’t look like I thought it would. There’s no request for permission, no father-daughter dance, no walk down the aisle. Those things are lost. But the way I see it, he left me in Dan's hands knowing that I would be handled with the utmost care. And that's the only blessing I need.

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Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks on the #MeToo Moment and ‘The Post’ - The New York Times

Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks on the #MeToo Moment and ‘The Post’ - The New York Times:

You’re both beheld as icons. The Washington Post review said, “Icons playing icons.”

HANKS Oh dear.

STREEP Uh oh.

HANKS Oh my.

STREEP Good thing we don’t read the reviews.

HANKS Here comes hubris right up the track to take us down.

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Gene Wilder's Widow Pens Heartfelt Essay on Actor's Battle With Alzheimer's | Hollywood Reporter

Gene Wilder's Widow Pens Heartfelt Essay on Actor's Battle With Alzheimer's | Hollywood Reporter: "After watching her husband contend with the consequences of his disease, Wilder emphasized that it also destroyed her. “There’s another particularly cruel aspect to the disease of Alzheimer’s, because in addition to destroying — piece by piece — the one who’s stricken with it, it ravages the life of the person caring for its victims. In our case, I was that person,” she wrote.

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StubHub quickly crashed after the Georgia Bulldogs made the title game in Atlanta | For The Win

StubHub quickly crashed after the Georgia Bulldogs made the title game in Atlanta | For The Win:

The Georgia Bulldogs will be playing for their first national title since 1980. The game will be in Atlanta.

The prospect of Georgia playing for the title game in Atlanta was already expected to draw absurd resale prices for tickets — even the proximity of Clemson and Alabama was going to be a major draw. But after Georgia’s thrilling double-overtime win over Oklahoma at the Rose Bowl, demand somehow managed to exceed even the loftiest expectations.

Georgia fans were so excited that StubHub’s national title game page crashed shortly after the Bulldogs’ win.

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After Green Beret Is Sentenced to Night in Jail, Security Camera Catches Judge Going Into Cell

After Green Beret Is Sentenced to Night in Jail, Security Camera Catches Judge Going Into Cell:

A North Carolina judge sentenced a Green Beret veteran to spend a night in jail. But when he remembered his own story and all he had gone through, he couldn’t just let him spend the night alone.

Judge Lou Olivera, a Gulf War veteran, is a district court judge over the Veterans Treatment Court in Cumberland County, North Carolina. He had to sentence Green Beret Joe Serna to one night in jail for a probation violation.

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