At least 20 hurt as 94 vehicles pile up on North Carolina interstate https://t.co/FRn3qZA2Wf http://pic.twitter.com/4baRZCbs0s

— NBC News (@NBCNews)

March 14, 2016

via journal.theworldnewsmedia.org

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) will be deployed in Pakistan to protect the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor that connects the Chinese-operated Gwadar Port in Balochistan, Pakistan to China's Xinjiang region. Neighboring India has voiced concern about the planned move.

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The corridor is likely to be used, among other things, to transport fuel and petroleum products from the Gulf region into China. Its will shorten the route for China's energy imports from the Middle East by about 12,000 km.

Chinese President Xi Jinping had agreed to build the highway and committed a whopping US dollars 46 billion for the project, during his visit to Pakistan last April.

http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/chinese-troops-will-be-positioned-in-pakistan-security-agencies-to-government-1286550

Malaysia bans the recruitment of foreign workers after protests over plans to recruit 1.5 million people from Bangladesh.

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Ahmad Zahid, also the country's home minister, said employers who want to hire foreign workers should recruit from among foreign employees already in Malaysia.  

but of course... there are exceptions for the rich:

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However, the decision, which was made at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, would not involve the domestic help or the maid sector. 
 

Meanwhile the US Administration is pushing for it's lawmakers to accept the TransPacific Partnership Agreement. Hmmm.... what could go wrong?

Six people have been killed in Louisiana, Texas, and Oklahoma, with two Mississippi fisherman missing, in this week's flooding in the America's Deep South. More than 24 inches of rain has fallen in some of the hardest-hit areas with more rain today that is expected to lead to additional flooding later this week.

The rotating ship is simply Hollywood's answer to "Why aren't the actors floating around if they they are in space?"

There are several reasons why the ISS does not.

First, if you have gravity in a space ship, you are going to need floors that can support  the weight of the crew walking around.  You would also need carts to push stuff around in. Not only that, but now you only have walls and a ceiling to put all the other equipment.  Without gravity, you can attach anything to any surface. and nothing needs to support the weight.

Second, centrifugal force is not gravity so there are totally different rules in a spinning ship.  Anything that is spinning needs an axis.  And the closer you are to the axis, the less "gravity" and more dizzy you will feel.  Gravity has fields, centrifugal force does not.  So anything not moving along with the rest of the ship will appear to be flying down the hallway.  Anyone who has been on "The Gravitron" at the county fair when someone threw up knows what I'm talking about.

Basically a spaceship would have to be a perfectly balanced doughnut with one hallway down the outermost point.  It would have to be a doughnut because the space in the middle would be pretty useless anyway.  It would have a lot of wasted space and extra weight.  If everyone gathered together in one place, it would disrupt the balance and change the simulated "weight of different things in other areas of the ship unless it was so massive, that the ship itself made up of 95% of the total weight.

It's a fun idea, but a spinning ship is just too dangerous and not practical.  It would have to be more on the scale of a space city.

Another fun thought that also helps demonstrate the basic science behind the concept.... If the doughnut ship was fairly "small" (I don't know the exact math to figure out the ideal size) and well balanced you would be able to run down the hall in the opposite direction the ship was spinning and then just "fly" the rest of the way to the mass hall.  Because once you are running at the same surface speed as the rotation of the floor beneath you, then you are not really moving anymore, and the ship is just spinning around you.  You can just hover there, and try to grab the right doorknob as it goes by.

Phil McClellan, Life student

https://www.quora.com/Why-dont-they-generate-artificial-gravity-in-ISS-by-rotating-the-ship-on-its-axis-to-generate-centrifugal-force-equivalent-to-gravity

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Put simply, we just don’t use our cars very much.

Transportation adviser Paul Barter has confirmed longstanding claims by urban planners that, on average, cars are parked 95% of the time. Barter tries three different approaches, first using data on the number of car trips and their average time, then survey results about the time we spend driving, and finally extrapolates from reports on the distance and speeds cars travel.

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So even if the auto industry has recovered a bit from its post-recession nightmare of a generation of transit-loving, bike-riding hipsters, the future will probably include a big shift in spending away from the big hunks of steel that, mostly, just sit in the driveway.

http://fortune.com/2016/03/13/cars-parked-95-percent-of-time/?xid=soc_socialflow_twitter_FORTUNE

I had to learn a new term while reading this article. "Coinsurance".   (Distinct from "Copayments")

a couple quotes:

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Shannon said the shift toward coinsurance requirements for many Medicare Part D drugs will mean that customers will have "a lot of work" to do in evaluating drug plans, by checking to see if a plan subjects medication to coinsurance, and to what extent.

"As coinsurance becomes more common in Part D plans, consumers will find their drug costs are less predictable and will need to rely more on tools like the Medicare Plan Finder to help estimate out-of-pocket costs," Shannon said. The shift to coinsurance "could lead to significant changes year over year in what patients are paying out of pocket."

 

......

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Medicare Part D plans typically sort their covered drugs into five tiers, with different rates of cost sharing for each tier. This system is designed to encourage customers to use lower-cost drugs, and to help health plans negotiate better rebates from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for placement of their drugs on lower tiers.

Historically, Avalere's report noted, most plans applied coinsurance requirements to the specialty drug tier, which covers higher-priced medications. 

But in the past several years, coinsurance has been increasingly applied to drugs in lower-priced tiers, including preferred and nonpreferred brand tiers, the report said. 

Shannon said it can be "startling to people" to see coinsurance applied to lower-priced drugs. 

Medicare rules require plans to charge coinsurance rates of no higher than 33 percent for drugs in the specialty tier. But the maximum coinsurance rate is 50 percent for nonpreferred brand tiers this year. 

He said that about 11 million people enrolled in Medicare Part D plans have incomes low enough that they get federal subsidies to cover their out-of-pocket drug costs, which will mean they won't feel all or more of the effects of the shift to coinsurance requirements. 

But the remaining beneficiaries will be likely to see the effects, he said.

 

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/new-drug-cost-picture-for-seniors-in-medicare-part-d.html

That is creepy.

I posted the video of him from Spanish news here:

They actually had him sitting at the table embalmed and playing a game of poker with the cadaver.

Hard to believe that is even legal in the USA.

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In January, Human Rights Watch lamented a “sinister turn” last year to a Russian government crackdown on public debate.

Of course the official reaction is:

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Ambassador Alexey Borodavkin was quoted as saying the office had already helped to create human rights institutions in Russia and “we do not see anything extraordinary” in its closing.

No surprise there. Welcome back USSR.

Thank you. I just noticed mine was gone as well. I will have the admin submit a ticket to IT team about this.

Anke A. had that same problem for a time. I'm not sure what fixed it.

If you upload it below in a response I will try to upload it for you to see if that helps

I moved your request to the JW section.

Heavy rain in Pakistan has led to fifteen deaths in two days including at least eight deaths in a coal mine collapse in the Orakzai Tribal Area. 

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Can someone find some relevant videos from youtube or Facebook

Five people are dead after a building collapses in the Indian city of Meerut caused by heavy rain.

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Can someone look for any relevant youtube.com videos pertaining to this collapse?

Turkey declares a curfew in the town of Yüksekova on the border with Iran as Turkish forces prepare an offensive against the PKK. 

An explosion occurs in central Ankara, Turkey, with at least 34 people killed and 125 wounded.

Gunmen attack two hotels in the Ivory Coast town of Grand-Bassam. At least 11 people are reportedly killed. Witnesses claim the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is [the] greatest") during the gunfire.

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Can someone find a video or better sources?

A four-year-old Asian boy who mispronounced “cucumber” as “cooker bomb” was recommended for a de-radicalization program by staff at a UK nursery, the boy’s family has said.
 

More than 3,000 farmers in Finland on Friday descended on Helsinki to protest against the government's agriculture and food policy. 
The farmers, along with 600 tractors, came from across the country and parked on Senate Square in the heart of the capital to call on the government to support the country's agricultural sector, which has been suffering as a result of falling food prices and European Union sanctions on Russia, a key export market for the sector.

More than a hundred protesters have blocked several routes for migrants, preventing them from gaining access to Calais. The activists’ banners called to 'stop the invasion of Europe' and 'defend' their city.

The United States and South Korea held a Combined Amphibious Exercise in Pohang on Saturday. Approximately 12,200 US military personnel and 4,500 South Koreans took part in the exercise, which formed part of annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington.

Israeli Airstrike Kills 10 Year Old In Gaza

The migrant problem is a major issue in Germany which is preparing for key local elections, which will take place this Sunday. The regional elections involve three key German states and has already been dubbed 'Super Sunday'. The vote is also seen as a litmus test for Merkel and her refugee policies as it takes place amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment.

Russian engineer Igor Sukhorukov showed off his unusual customized cross-country vehicle in Biysk in the Altai region on Saturday. The vehicle is raised far above the traffic by its imposing wheels, has aerodynamic body and a protective cage around the car’s body.

Get to know the Tesla Model X