Could this happen to the entire island?

Last time I heard the infrastructure and services of almost all of Manhattan were needing BILLIONS worth of reconstruction.

Let's not even talk about the ancient Subway system.

between 10am and 2pm.

This launch hasn't gone so well.....

• What went wrong: It wasn’t clear what exactly caused the Boeing 737 Max 8 to go down in clear weather. But the pilot sent out a distress call and got clearance to return to the airport.

This is all too familiar

It’s the second deadly accident in five months for this model of Boeing’s best-selling jet. The Lion Air plane that plummeted into the Java Sea near Indonesia in October (killing 189 people) was also a Boeing 737 Max 8.

Both were brand-new planes. Both failed minutes after takeoff. Both left no survivors.

• “It’s highly suspicious...Here we have a brand-new aircraft that’s gone down twice in a year. That rings alarm bells in the aviation industry, because that just doesn't happen,” said CNN aviation analyst Mary Schiavo.

The mega-popular plane—a redesigned (and re-engined) version of the model that’s “formed the backbone of global fleets for five decades,” writes Bloomberg—started commercial service less than two years ago. Customers including Southwest, United, Ryanair, and more have made the model Boeing’s fastest-selling plane in history.

Zoom out: While the Lion Air crash was the first fatal one for this model, questions are still swirling around that disaster. Investigations into plane crashes typically take months, but authorities will surely be looking for any link between the two tragedies.

As for Ethiopian Airlines…

The deadly crash is a major setback for the rapidly expanding carrier.Ethiopian Airlines has recently outpaced its rivals in Africa to build the capital city of Addis Ababa into a major aviation hub—and even steal some business from Dubai-based Emirates.

And on a continent with a pretty dismal aviation safety record, Ethiopian Airlines has enjoyed a strong reputation. It’s a codeshare partner with United, a member of the Star Alliance, and Africa's only consistently profitable carrier.

Ok... maybe you @James Thomas Rook Jr...... the rest of us would be morsels....

I bet you that your bullets (if you could get your gun out in time) would feel like insect bites to him as he squeezes the life out of you and swallows you like I eat a tasty morsel of cheeseburger... one bite. Gulp....

We probably wouldn't even know what hit us before we could go firing off in every direction.

The video opens in my Safari browser. Maybe it is one of your settings?

This baby is only ten months old. No science can explain how n when she has learnt this 😱

Gulp!!

Update:

You Can Bank on Deregulation

Big financial firms were just told the equivalent of “We trust you to stay out past 11 pm...just don’t crash my Buick” from regulators.

Zoom out before we zoom in: The measures announced yesterday mark another step away from the strict oversight banks faced following the 2008 crisis.

So what’s new?

• During the Fed’s next annual stress test, the “qualitative” portion (the more subjective part) won’t determine whether U.S. banks pass or fail.
• U.S. firms better be ready to answer questions in the “quantitative” section, though, such as if they have sufficient capital to withstand challenging times.
• Scantrons will replace blue essay books.

There are more potential rollbacks: A panel of regulators proposed a revamp of the way they monitor nonbank financial firms like insurance companies. Remember, in October the same panel reduced oversight of Prudential, the biggest U.S. insurer by assets.

Fast forward 2 years....

the growing U.S. trade deficit. It hit $621 billion in December, a 10-year high, despite President Trump’s intentions to reduce the gap through a more protectionist trade policy.

What does a widening trade deficit mean? We’re boosting imports relative to exports. Here’s what’s going on...

1. American consumers, feeling emboldened by tax cuts, upped their demand for goods from abroad.
2. Meanwhile, a strong U.S. dollar made domestic goods less competitive in the global marketplace.
3. Last, retaliatory tariffs placed on U.S. products (such as soybeans) contributed to a reduction in exports. Those duties came in response to the Trump administration’s own tariffs on other countries’ goods.  

Why it matters: Because trade deficits reflect sweeping, macroeconomic trends, most economists don’t lose sleep over them...except when deficits get so large that they take a bite out of GDP—which happened in Q4 2018.

Welcome back Forums.

The same old "Town Square" that has always been here.....

Yesterday, Facebook’s CEO posted a manifesto outlining plans for a seismic shift in strategy—one toward encrypted, private, and ephemeral communication.

• Instead of focusing on the kind of publicly shared content that 1) made Facebook worth hundreds of billions and 2) continues to haunt you in your “On This Day” feature, Facebook will become a “privacy-focusedcommunications platform.”

The motive: People increasingly want to communicate privately or in smaller groups instead of “the digital equivalent of a town square,” Zuck said. Don’t believe him? Poll your 10 group chats. And to adapt to that evolution, Facebook (+0.73%) will rebuild many of its features.

How does that happen?

Glad you asked, since we’ve got 3,220 of Zuck’s own words to figure it out.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever,” Zuck wrote.

• All of FB’s messaging platforms will start looking more like WhatsApp—with end-to-end encryption becoming standard. It’ll also consider deleting messages by default after a month or year.

Will the changes dent business? Well, private/encrypted messaging tools could breed new business ventures like payments and commerce—which have become Facebook’s “current pet obsessions,” writes The Verge’s Casey Newton.

Keep in mind: Zuck told the WSJ he doesn’t “view this as replacing the public platform,” but instead developing more “around the intimate and private communications.” Which, Zuck admits, could use work.

• “Frankly we don’t currently have a strong reputation for building privacy protective services...But we’ve repeatedly shown that we can evolve to build the services that people really want.”

While this is a big shift for Facebook, money talks and a blog post without any follow through walks. Unless he can actually deliver on his promise of Facebook 2.0, Zuck will be stuck with his bad reputation for keeping data safe.

And your crybaby whinny opinion would be...?

This isn't an office. It's Hell with fluorescent lighting.

I started out with nothing & still have most of it left.

I pretend to work. They pretend to pay me.

Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.

If I throw a stick, will you leave?

If I want to hear the pitter patter of little feet, I'll put shoes on my 
cats.

Does your train of thought have a caboose?

Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.

A PBS mind in an MTV world.

Whatever kind of look you were going for, you missed.

Suburbia: where they tear out the trees & then name streets after them.

Well, this day was a total waste of makeup.

See no evil, hear no evil, date no evil.

Not all men are annoying. Some are dead.

A woman's favorite position is CEO.

I'm trying to imagine you with a personality.

A cubicle is just a padded cell without a door.

Stress is when you wake up screaming & you realize you haven't fallen asleep 
yet.

Can I trade this job for what's behind door number 1?

I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted paychecks.

Too many freaks, not enough circuses.

Macho Law prohibits me from admitting I'm wrong.

Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?

Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.

I plead contemporary insanity.

How do I set a laser printer to stun?

Meandering to a different drummer.

I majored in liberal arts. Will that be for here or to go?

 

7 minutes ago, Space Merchant said:

 

@JOHN BUTLER Just next time never use speech mockery, in this sense, Ebonics. The type of speech isn't the best to express and or explore, when in some situations, be it of a person of said community and or knows such ones of said community, rich or poor, can easily trigger, provoke strong, and often negative responses - this is not an just fact, it is absolute and certain lines can nearly be crossed. As for you @Equivocation, when it comes to linguistic mockery, especially the use of mock speech, in this case, the use of Ebonics, sometimes people do not know any better, in Mr. Butler's case, he believes misconceptions, so that alone shows. Other than that, assuming leads to conflict of such things, hence the outcome of the off-topic discussion. Unfortunately, things tend to go on like this when things get a bit too off-topic, ironically enough it began with "uncle".

 

What about “post in their wall or PM them” was not clear?

The plot thickens...

So they denied the abuse when they were young in court..... .hmmm....

And now years later are reversing their statements after he is dead..... hmmm....

Wow! 

This true genius never got the benefit of his creations. 

Sad ending.

But he deserves a thank you nonetheless.

It's good.... it's bad.... it's good....

I bet there is a documentary story all about this man somewhere.