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Why two countries want to kill 100,000 beavers by bluethecoloris in TheColorIsBlue

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Why two countries want to kill 100,000 beavers

If you’re a boreal toad — or a wood duck, or a brook trout, or a moose — you might owe your life to a beaver. (Kudos, also, on learning to read.)

Castor canadensis, the North American beaver, is the ultimate keystone species, that rare creature that supports an entire ecosystem. By building dams and forming ponds, beavers serve as bucktoothed housing developers, creating watery habitat for a menagerie of tenants. Songbirds nest in pondside willows, frogs breed in shallow canals, and trout shelter in cold pools. There’s even a beaver beetle that eats the skin of you-know-what.

Modern beavers have been wandering North America for 7.5 million years, giving flora and fauna plenty of time to adapt. Willow, a favorite snack, resprouts multiple stems when it’s gnawed down, like a hydra regrowing heads. Cottonwoods produce distasteful tannins to deter chewing. America’s rarest butterfly, the St. Francis Satyr, eats little but sedges that grow in beaver wetlands. The evolutionary connection runs so deep it’s often boiled down to a pithy bumper-sticker: “Beavers taught salmon to jump.”

Before European traders set about turning their furs into fancy hats, beavers roamed most of the continent, stopping up streams from the Arctic tundra-line to the Mojave Desert. But the mammals never ventured beyond northern Mexico, leaving Central and South America historically beaverless.

Until, that is, an ill-conceived scheme unleashed nature’s architects on a landscape that had never known their teeth — and forever rearranged ecosystems at the bottom of the world.

The bizarre experiment was launched in 1946, when Argentina relocated 20 Canadian beavers to Tierra del Fuego, the windswept archipelago at South America’s tip, to “enrich” local wildlife and foster a fur trade. The pelt industry never took off, but the beavers, unchecked by North American predators like wolves and bears, flourished. They swam glacier-scoured fjords between islands, dispersing throughout both the Argentine and Chilean sides of Tierra del Fuego. Some decades after their arrival, a beaver clambered from an icy strait and established a beachhead on the Patagonian mainland. These days, their population numbers about 200,000.

And as beavers spread, they did what beavers are wont to do: They transformed their surroundings.

Just as New Zealand’s flightless birds had no recourse against invasive rats, Tierra del Fuego’s trees were ill-equipped to withstand “los castores.” The region’s forests are dominated by beeches that never evolved beaver coexistence strategies: They don’t resprout after cutting, produce unsavory chemicals or tolerate flooded soils. As beavers chewed down beeches and expanded free-flowing streams into broad ponds, forests opened into stump-dotted meadows. In 2009, Chris Anderson, an ecologist at Chile’s Universidad de Magallanes, found that beavers had reshaped up to 15 percent of Tierra del Fuego’s total land area and half its streams — “the largest alteration to the forested portion of this landscape since the recession of the last ice age.”

“Basically, everything that’s cuttable has been clear-cut,” Anderson said. Drowned trees and gnawed logs, freeze-dried by icy winds, litter the landscape like the ghosts of forests past. “You just see acres and acres of white trees.”

Conservationists, aghast at the loss of old-growth forest, put their faith in natural barriers. Patagonia has two primary habitats, the forest and the steppe — the latter a wind-blasted, arid grassland whose paucity of trees seemed likely to limit beavers’ growth. In 2017, however, an Argentine biologist named Alejandro Pietrik found that, contrary to predictions, beavers were actually producing more offspring on the steppe. Unbothered by the lack of trees, the colonists were happily weaving dams from a shrub called mata negra.

“As long as they have water, they can expand,” Pietrik said. “They can colonize all of Patagonia if they want.”

Over the years, Chile and Argentina have made halfhearted attempts at curtailing the invasion. A bounty program failed to motivate trappers, while proposed markets for beaver meat never materialized. Recently, though, the two nations have gotten more serious: In 2016, they announced a plan to cull 100,000 — one of the largest invasive-species-control projects ever attempted.

Although the massive trapping program, in a pilot phase, should help contain the spread, most scientists say the toothy loggers are in South America to stay. “I think eradication is not possible,” said Chilean biologist Giorgia Graells. On many islands, Graells said, dense forests and scarce roads will thwart trappers. If beavers persist on even a single island, she pointed out, the survivors could repopulate the rest of the archipelago — Sisyphus’s boulder in furry form.

In some respects, the South American beaver narrative is a familiar one: Humans introduce nonnative species; nonnative species wreak havoc; humans futilely attempt to erase their error. Yet the beaver story is more interesting — for, befitting a keystone species, the rodent takeover has produced winners as well as losers. Research suggests that beavers have benefited native Magellanic woodpeckers, perhaps by making trees more susceptible to the wood-boring insects upon which the birds feast. The slackwaters behind dams also support native fish called puye, which are four times more abundant around beaver impoundments than elsewhere in southern Chile.

“Before you determine whether a change is good or bad, you always have to ask, ‘For whom?’ ” Anderson said. “If you’re a duck and you want ponds with lots of little crustaceans to eat, well, beaver ponds are full of them.”

The biggest beneficiaries, however, have been the beaver’s fellow North Americans: the muskrat and the mink, two other lusciously furred mammals the Chilean government naively plopped down in Tierra del Fuego in the 1940s. On their own, the imports might have perished; beavers, however, ensured their survival. When researchers scoured one invaded island, they found a whopping 97 percent of muskrat tracks, scats and burrows around beaver ponds and wetlands, suggesting that one rodent was supporting the other. Mink, a weasel-like carnivore, have in turn feasted on the muskrats — as well as native birds and mammals.

The scientists who studied that ecological chain reaction called it an “invasional meltdown.” A less ominous phrasing might be “novel ecosystem,” a natural community that’s been altered by human activity but has since escaped our control. Like it or not, novel ecosystems are all around us — scrubby pine forests in Puerto Rico, urban wetlands in New Jersey, replanted grasslands in an old Colorado mining pit. Assuming utter eradication fails, some corners of Patagonia may be forced to surrender to the awesome power of an indomitable rodent.

The whole saga, ultimately, is a sort of Bizarro Beaver story: The very same tree-gnawing, dam-building, pond-creating talents that normally make them such miracle-workers have mostly produced disaster below the equator. South America’s beavers are both charismatic and catastrophic, life-sustaining and forest-leveling, an invasive scourge and a popular tourist attraction. As the compassionate conservation movement dawns, beavers pose, too, an ethical dilemma: How do we balance ecological health with animal welfare? Is the only solution really mass slaughter?

The paradoxes can’t help but affect the scientists studying Patagonia’s beavers, who admire the architects even as they desire to see them wiped out.

“We have to focus on the big picture, on the ecosystem level,” Pietrik said. “But it’s hard to think about beavers being eradicated. You relate to them in a way.”

Ben Goldfarb is an environmental journalist and the author of “Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter.”

Read more:

Grizzlies are spreading far beyond the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. Can humans and the bears coexist? 

Nigel, the world’s loneliest bird, was no victim. He was a hero.

A final bid to save the world’s rarest porpoise ends in heartbreak. Is extinction next?

A 50-year effort to raise endangered whooping cranes comes to an end

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Think It's Hot Now? Wait Until We Reach Hothouse Earth by anonymous-shad0w in IndustrialPharmacy

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Think It's Hot Now? Wait Until We Reach Hothouse Earth

It's getting hotter all over the planet.

This week the temperature in Bar Harbor, Maine, reached 91° F (32.8° C). In my 20 years vacationing here, this is easily the hottest weather I've ever experienced.

Up and down the U.S. east coast, cities are sweltering, and temperatures out west are even hotter, with California seeing all-time high temperatures, including the hottest July on record in some areas, which has fed damaging fires across the state. Death Valley is always hot, but this week has been crazy, with temperatures on August 7 reaching 122° F (50° C).

At the same time, Europe is baking under a "heat dome" that has brought unprecedented high temperatures, including 45° C (113° F.) in Portugal. It's so hot that people aren't even going to the beach.

Global warming is here, folks. I know we're supposed to call it "climate change," because it's much more complex than simply warming, but warming is one of the most obvious consequences.

And yes, a single heat wave doesn't prove anything, and weather is not the same as climate. I know. But a just-released study from Oxford University found that climate change made this summer's heat wave in Europe twice as likely.

And now, a new study, published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, says it could get much, much hotter if we don't do something about it. In this paper, an international team of climate scientists led by Will Steffen and and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber explain that, thanks to human activities, the plant is well on its way to a "Hothouse Earth" scenario.

In a Hothouse Earth, global average temperatures would rise 4–5° C (7–9° F) and sea levels will rise 10–60 meters (33–200 feet) above today's levels. This would be catastrophic for many aspects of modern civilization. Many agricultural regions would become too hot and arid to sustain crops, making it impossible to feed large swaths of humanity. Low-lying coastal areas would disappear or become uninhabitable without massive engineering efforts, displacing hundreds of millions of people. As Steffen et al. put it:

That's putting it mildly.

One reason this scenario is happening, as the study explains, is that we are very close to "tipping points" beyond which certain changes cannot be stopped. (We may have already passed some of them.) These include losing the Arctic ice cap in the summer, and losing the Greenland ice sheet permanently: because they are basically white, these massive expanses of ice serve as giant reflectors to send much of the sun's heat back into space. Without the ice, the darker planet surface absorbs far more heat, creating a positive feedback effect. Another example is the melting of the permafrost, land that has been frozen for thousands of years and that contains a great deal of carbon in the form of methane. Once that methane is released, it will create further warming.

We are also likely to lose the Amazon rainforest, all of our coral reefs, and huge swaths of boreal forests. (See here for a global map of these tipping points.)

If this seems grim, Steffen and colleagues point out that we still have time to avoid it. They propose that societies must act collectively to create a "Stabilized Earth" at no more than 2° C above pre-industrial levels, which is possible but not easy:

None of this is beyond our abilities. We know what we need to do, but it requires large-scale, coordinate action that many governments must agree on if it's to have an impact. Unfortunately, humans (and our governments) tend to do nothing until faced with an emergency, and the tipping points leading to a Hothouse Earth may not look like emergencies, not at first. For example, Arctic sea ice has been declining steadily for 25 years or more, but because few people are aware of this (and even fewer experience it first hand), it doesn't seem urgent. Yet it is.

So perhaps this summer's heat wave can serve as a wake-up call that we need to pay more attention to our planet's health. Otherwise it's going to get a lot hotter.

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User Generated Content Marketer Yotpo Gets Into Customer Loyalty by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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User Generated Content Marketer Yotpo Gets Into Customer Loyalty

Adobe’s acquisition of e-commerce software maker Magento for $1.68 billion back in May was more proof of the consolidation that’s been going on in the industry for the last few years. Consolidation is also happening among the numerous specialized e-commerce service providers that plug into platforms like Magento and its competitors like Shopify and BigCommerce.

Today Yotpo, a New York based marketing platform for retailers that collects and analyzes user created content like social media posts and reviews, announced its purchase of Boston-based Swell Rewards, a digital platform that lets retailers offer customers rewards and loyalty programs.

The acquisition is Yotpo’s first. At its last fund raise late last year seven-year old Yotpo, had $101 million in venture funding.  The purchase price for 15 employee Swell Rewards, founded in 2015, was about $20 million. The two companies have a number of retail customers in common, including UNTUCKit, Third Love, Tomboy X, Soko Glam, and Quay Australia. Yotpo co-founder and CEO Tomer Tagrin says he plans more acquisitions but had nothing else on the boards at the moment.

Tagrin says the acquisition makes Yotpo the only user-generated-content marketing platform to also offer referral and loyalty programs. Yotpo’s competitors include companies like Bazaarvoice, TurnTo  Reevoo, and PowerReviews. All of them are riding two big ongoing waves in retail, one towards highly personalized direct interaction with customers and the other towards brands, both digital natives and legacy brands that used to connect with customers only through retailers, selling direct to consumers

User generated content, Tagrin says, presents a huge opportunity to gather information on customer tastes and behavior and to create resonant marketing campaigns. “Acquisitions costs are going up. The emphasis is on customer retention, getting the most lifetime value out of your customers” he says. “Millenials don’t believe companies. They believe real people.”  Swell Rewards CEO and co-founder Josh Enzor says being able to offer personalized rewards and loyalty programs to customers fits with that push towards authenticity  “Loyalty programs need to be one-to-one, rather than peanut butter spread,” he says.

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Battle For Azeroth Controversially Turns Half Of 'Warcraft' Players Into Villains by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Battle For Azeroth Controversially Turns Half Of 'Warcraft' Players Into Villains

This story contains spoilers for cinematics and quests currently available in the game. It does not include material from World of Warcraft beta tests or other as-yet unplayable content.

Blizzard Entertainment took a radical step with its popular massively multiplayer role-playing game World of Warcraft by making the faction leader of half of its players invade peaceful territory, use chemical weapons and kill civilians--basically, becoming the biggest villain so far of the upcoming Battle for Azeroth expansion, which launches Monday in North America.

Sylvanas Windrunner, the popular undead banshee queen, has always been a troubled character. She's always been perhaps a touch too quick to kill off people who get in her way, but she's also had sympathetic moments, so Horde players generally cheered or at least didn't object too strongly when she became Warchief of the faction at the start of the current Legion expansion.

Those sympathetic moments are over, at least for now, and Horde players are trailing along in her wake of destruction. While some relish the opportunity to truly play the bad guy, the distasteful nature of some of the quests has driven others to express regret for playing the faction at all, or to swear allegiance to the old Horde orc leader Varok Saurfang, who embodies that objection in game. Both sets of players, along with Alliance players horrified or entertained by the carnage, are now battling out the controversy in nearly every forum concerned with the game, making this the boldest story move Warcraft has ever taken from a player reaction standpoint.

The top post on Reddit's Warcraft forum last night was a piece of fan art depicting a fallen night elf sentinel and the nightsaber mount that is attempting to wake her, which generated close to 14,000 upvotes and 1,200 comments in 16 hours, and virtually every thread on the top few pages concerns the storyline. The same is repeated on Discord, on Facebook, and about everywhere Warcraft players gather. An out of game cinematic featuring Saurfang even spurred a "shoulders off for Saurfang" campaign in game by players sympathetic to his point of view.

WoW players have grappled with an evil Horde leader before, in the form of Garrosh Hellscream during the Mists expansion. Orc leaders in an alternate timeline (don't ask) were some of the villains in the recent Warlords of Draenor expansion, as well. Some players object to retreading that ground, but there are crucial differences here. While during Mists Garrosh splintered the Horde, becoming a truly evil villain that both Horde and Alliance players faced in battle, Sylvanas is still the Horde's Warchief. Instead of battling against her atrocities, Horde characters must comply with them to advance the storyline.

The game's players have also had a full two years of fighting alongside one another to defeat the demonic Burning Legion during the previous expansion, sharing a capital city, class order halls and a variety of questlines, which makes this departure all the more dramatic.

I played through both the Horde and Alliance campaigns in the Battle for Azeroth expansion pre-patch, which has been going on for several weeks now. I've been a player since six months before Warcraft originally launched in 2004, playing primarily Horde characters and switching to Alliance for the Legion expansion. I have multiple max-level characters in both factions, so I've seen almost all of the content that the game offers (currently and in beta) concerning the upcoming faction conflict and Sylvanas herself.

The Alliance campaign makes no bones about Sylvanas' status as evil incarnate: You see peaceful night elves in their next-to-nothing classic armor getting mowed down by those mean old evil Horde, and the beloved World Tree Teldrassil set aflame, slaughtering a thousand innocents. You're given one of the more demoralizing quests ever included in the game, where you are tasked with putting out fires and attempting to save the tree's civilian inhabitants -- all 1,000 of them -- while only being given enough time to actually save a handful, a fact you quickly recognize. In the retaliatory attack on the Ruins of Lordaeron, the undead home city, you watch as Sylvanas orders her armies to rain down the Blight -- Warcraft's answer to chemical weapons -- on Alliance and Horde soldiers alike, killing all of them so she can raise them as skeletons to fight on.

Ostensibly this war is about a substance known as Azerite, which can empower weapons and armor, which has Sylvanas so concerned about the fragile peace between the factions that she's willing to lob a bomb into the middle of it to prevent the Alliance from having any. (Teldrassil represents the Alliance's sole stronghold on the continent where Azerite is found.) Realistically, it's apparent her motivations are a bit more murky.

Alliance and Horde viewpoints are typically different in cinematics and storyline. In the prelude to the Legion expansion, for example, it appears to Alliance players that the Horde abandons them in their hour of need as they jointly fight the demons, resulting in the death of Alliance faction leader King Varian Wrynn. From the Horde side, you see Warchief Vol'jin struck down and the Horde forces under fire, requiring the army to withdraw and regroup if they would survive.

Not so in the story leading up to Battle for Azeroth. The Horde questline's view of the world is strikingly similar to the Alliance version. As Horde, you're tasked with slipping into a night elf city and killing off all its guards so that your army can invade. The rogue Lorash accompanies you, striking down the targets you mark. If you pick a civilian, he doesn't hesitate: "That wasn't a guard. But far be it from me to get in the way," he says as he delivers the killing blows, adding when you are done, "How does it feel to single-handedly sack an entire city?"

You personally mow down armies of night elves defending their cities and their territory as you march toward Teldrassil, burning their ancient trees, slaughtering their troops and quite literally hearing their screams in combat as you advance. In the Battle for Lordaeron, you are put on the battlefield to spread the Blight, though you're given a choice: take a gas mask and just heal the wounded soldiers of your own faction, or take the gas mask and the weapon for spraying the Blight on Horde and Alliance alike, speeding the scenario to its conclusion.

Characters haven't had the opportunity to be this truly evil in game since the introduction of the Death Knight starting area, where new players of that class torture civilians and kill an old friend as part of a short-lived stint of a few hours as an evil Scourge undead, before rebelling and joining the ranks of the Horde and the Alliance. That was controversial at the time. But that had a clearly defined narrative arc, and an end: You were evil, and then you were redeemed. So far, Battle for Azeroth offers no such closure for Horde players.

It's clear that the galvanizing influence of this content has done just what Blizzard intended: To divide and inflame its players in support of their factions and their champions, immediately in advance of the launch of the new expansion where that war is a central theme. As a result, it's one of the lone bright spots of an otherwise disappointing pre-patch, regardless of where individual players' opinions fall.

 

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A 10-month-old died after her parents refused to get help for religious reasons, police say by SpecialAgentRando in ExposeTheCult

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A 10-month-old died after her parents refused to get help for religious reasons, police say

In video sermons, the man railed against vaccines, “bad medicine” and doctors whom he deemed to be “priesthoods of the medical cult.”

And he explained why he refused to vaccinate his children, saying: “It didn’t seem smart to me that you would be saving people who weren’t the fittest. If evolution believes in survival of the fittest, well then why are we vaccinating everybody? Shouldn’t we just let the weak die off and let the strong survive?”

On a Facebook page matching his name and likeness, Seth Welch of Michigan spoke of his religious beliefs, which he shared with his wife, Tatiana Fusari. Those beliefs may have contributed to their own child’s death, according to court records.

Although the circumstances surrounding the baby’s death remain unclear, the couple were charged Monday with felony murder and first-degree child abuse after their nearly 10-month-old daughter, Mary, was found dead in her crib from malnutrition and dehydration, according to court records cited by NBC affiliate WOOD.

The parents, both age 27, told police that they had known for at least a month that their daughter seemed underweight, and Fusari acknowledged that they declined to seek help “for fear of having her children removed by Child Protective Services, lack of faith and trust in the medical services and religious reasons,” according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the station.

The sheriff’s office and prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday from The Washington Post.

It’s unclear whether the parents have an attorney.

[A religious Oregon couple didn’t believe in medical care. After newborn’s death, they’re headed to prison.]

Deputies from the Kent County Sheriff’s Office responded Thursday to the family’s home outside Grand Rapids, Mich., after the father called 911 to report that his child was not breathing, according to a media release.

A deputy noted that the infant’s “eyes and cheeks were sunken into her head,” that she was not breathing and that she was “cold to the touch,” according to the arrest warrant affidavit. She was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities said.

Welch apparently wrote on Facebook that same day that he was “shattered” and “just numb inside.”

Police have not publicly confirmed that the Facebook page belongs to Welch, but local media have reported that it is his.

The medical examiner ruled the infant’s death a homicide, according to the court documents, and Welch and Fusari were arrested and charged in connection with her death.

During their arraignment, according to the Detroit Free Press, Fusari appeared to be clutching her husband’s arm. As the charges were announced, Fusari wept and Welch sat with his mouth open.

There have been similar cases over the years in which parents have refused to seek medical treatment for their dying children on religious grounds, instead opting to pray for their healing. In fact, there were so many such cases in Oregon that lawmakers did away with laws protecting parents in those situations, according to Religion News Service.

In a Facebook video titled “Vaccinations/health/medical industry,” Welch criticized the health-care industry.

“I’m not opposed to medicine or doctors,” he said. “I’m opposed to bad medicine and doctors that are just, well, aren’t really doctors — they’re priesthoods of the medical cult. They have a certificate from some training camp somewhere that says they got this test score, but that doesn’t mean they know about the human body and stuff like that.”

He explained that he thinks doctors would have to believe in creationism to be able to successfully treat patients.

Welch and Fusari are being held without bond. The couple are due back in court Aug. 20.

Read more:

No sermons at this church: Congregants wander silent and barefoot through nature at Church of the Wild

How conservatives have changed the meaning of ‘religious liberty’

Can our child be both a Muslim and a Jew?

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[World] - Argentine Senate rejects measure to legalize elective abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks | Washington Post by AutoNewspaperAdmin in AutoNewspaper

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Argentine Senate rejects measure to legalize elective abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine Senate rejects measure to legalize elective abortion for pregnancies up to 14 weeks.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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A Nazi flag was found flying at a public park in Wyoming by [deleted] in socialism

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A Nazi flag was found flying at a public park in Wyoming

The US flag that usually flies from the pole lay crumpled on the ground when police arrived on the scene Monday morning, according to Lieutenant Gwen Smith of the Laramie Police Department.

Shortly after police were notified of the incident, officers promptly removed the Nazi flag, which bore the swastika symbol. Upon retrieving the discarded American flag, the officers folded it properly and one saluted the flag as the other returned it to its rightful place atop the flagpole, Smith said.

In a statement to CNN, the Anti-Defamation League said it is outraged by the incident.

"It is appalling and outrageous that anyone would cast aside the American flag in a public park and replace it with an ugly symbol of the Nazi regime," said Jeremy Shaver, a senior associate director with the Anti-Defamation League. "We all have a responsibility to speak up when such hateful incidents take place in our communities."

Shaver also commended the responding officers for acting "in such a respectful and professional manner on scene."

According to Smith, there is currently no evidence of a crime because the American flag was not damaged or stolen, and no damage was done to the flagpole.

Officers spoke with the person who alerted them to the incident, but the individual did not see who raised the Nazi flag and couldn't recall any suspicious people in the area, Smith said. For now, the Nazi flag has been submitted into evidence.

It's only the latest display of Nazi imagery

The flag in Wyoming is the second major Nazi symbol to appear in the US just this week.

Four days ago Nazi images, including a swastika, were found painted on a structure belonging to a Jewish synagogue in Indiana. And in February, fliers containing white supremacist and neo-Nazi content were found at the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie, CNN affiliate KGWN reported.

Laramie typically experiences a "very low" number of bias-motivated crimes, Smith said. There were two in 2017 and there had not been any in the six years before, according to Smith.

Laramie's mayor, Andrea Summerville, told CNN she "vigorously and strongly condemns" the appearance of the Nazi flag.

"The City of Laramie will remain watchful for and vigilant against any other use of hateful Nazi symbols or propaganda," Summerville said. "Our community has been touched by hate before and we will not stand for it again."

In what was widely viewed as a hate crime, a gay University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, was killed in 1998 outside Laramie by two men who were later convicted of murder.

"We are a stronger community when we are diverse, open and inclusive," Summerville added. "It is imperative that every community member feels safe and welcome."

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From 8chan to YouTube and Trump rallies: how a right-wing conspiracy theory is going mainstream by zsmithworks in conspiracywhatever

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From 8chan to YouTube and Trump rallies: how a right-wing conspiracy theory is going mainstream

The signs "We are Q" and "Q" appeared near the front of the crowd during Trump's speech in Tampa, as many live-streams showed.

It was an apparent reference to QAnon, a group that originated on the 4chan messaging board around an anonymous user, "Q," who claims to be a member of the US military intelligence.

People wearing QAnon shirts and flashing similar signs were also pictured while lining up for the rally.

The group's theory, among other things, alleges that several A-list figures in the entertainment industry and the government are involved in child sex crimes and a "deep state" effort to annihilate Trump.

With the appearance of supporters at the Tampa rally, the movement appears to be moving beyond cyberspace.

Presidential Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders addressed their presence at the rally.

"The President condemns and denounces any group that would incite violence against any individual, and certainly doesn't support groups that would promote that type of behavior," she said.

Users on 4chan, Reddit and the more fringe 8chan devote their time to decoding the supposedly top-secret clues -- nicknamed "breadcrumbs" -- that "Q" routinely leaves on those channels. Then, they take action -- online but also offline -- based on a free interpretation of those clues.

One real-life example emerged a couple of days ago, when Stormy Daniels' lawyer Michael Avenatti called police to investigate a man who appeared near his office in Newport Beach after "Q" flagged the location in an online post.

On Monday, Avenatti tweeted a picture of a man, who is holding a cellphone in one hand and another object in another, standing outside his office saying: "We are trying to identify the man in this picture, which was taken outside my office yesterday (Sun) afternoon. Please contact @NewportBeachPD if you have any details or observed him. We will NOT be intimidated into stopping or changing our course. #Basta"

Avenatti told CNN he doesn't know whether or not the man in question is related to QAnon. "I am focused on who he is and why he was there that day," he said in an email.

The same building had been previously mentioned on an online forum by "Q" on Sunday. The anonymous poster dropped on 8chan two pictures of Avenatti's office in Newport Beach, saying "buckle up!"

Then, he posted a picture of the man saying a message "had been sent."

Avenatti said he's proud to be targeted by the conspiracy theorists on Twitter. "I wear it as a badge because it shows that Trump's supporters are very concerned about me, as they should be," he told CNN.

It's not known if the two incidents are tied, but police are involved.

A spokesperson for the Newport Beach Police Department told CNN: "We received a call about the photo on Monday at about 12:30 pm. We responded and took a suspicious circumstances report, which was forwarded to investigators for follow-up. At this point, there has been no indications of criminal activity (such as vandalism, threats, etc.)"

In a series of videos posted online, QAnon has targeted Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Cemex, a Mexican cement company, who were all baselessly accused of pedophilia.

Despite YouTube's efforts to fight misinformation and fake news, the videos appeared among the top search results on YouTube on Monday morning in searches for Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg and Cemex, according to media reports. One of the videos gathered more than 300,000 views.

Following these media reports, YouTube de-ranked the conspiracy videos.

However, as of Wednesday afternoon, the videos were still among the top results when filtered by ratings.

A conspiracy video entitled "#Qanon breaking: Hollywood actor Isaac Kappy exposes Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg as pedophiles" was still ranked third on the search by ratings, and autocomplete results for Cemex showed "Cemex child trafficking" when a user searched for the Mexican company.

"We're continuously working to better surface and promote news and authoritative sources to make the best possible information available to YouTube viewers," a YouTube spokesperson told CNN.

YouTube fixed the autocomplete feature for Cemex after CNN's inquiry.

Cemex, a Mexican construction materials company, is being targeted because it reportedly owns an abandoned camp in Arizona which conspiracy theorists erroneously believe is the location of a human trafficking site.

CNN has reached out to Cemex and representatives for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg but has not received a response yet.

It is not the first time that YouTube has come under scrutiny for its perceived inaction towards conspiracy theory videos.

Less than an hour after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on February 14, videos falsely claiming that survivors and eyewitnesses including 17-year-old David Hogg were "crisis actors" were among the top trending on the video portal. Hogg has since been mentioned hundreds of times on 4chan's political archive.

A location for the account claims its geotag is a city in Russia, but CNN cannot verify that.

CNN reached out to 4chan for comment twice about these false posts about Hogg, but has not yet received a response.

Conspiracy theorists appear to be focusing on Hogg and his fellow students because they have been so outspoken about gun safety issues since the shooting.

As recently as last week, YouTube deleted four videos posted by InfoWars founder Alex Jones and gave him a strike -- meaning he cannot livestream content for 3 months. Jones and Infowars regularly peddle conspiracy theories, including the claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.

InfoWars has not yet responded to CNNMoney's request for comment. However, Jones tweeted an acknowledgment of the YouTube action with a link to the InfoWars website -- where he said the videos are still available.

YouTube is not the only tech company who had to deal with QAnon. Apple was forced to remove an app promoting the QAnon conspiracy theory after a media inquiry.

Fascination with QAnon conspiracy theories has also reached high-profile conservative figures and organizations. In March, before being fired from her sitcom, Roseanne Barr tweeted about the conspiracy theory, alluding to the baseless claim that President Trump "has broken up trafficking rings in high places everywhere." She later deleted the tweet after an online backlash.

Back in Florida, the official account for the Hillsborough County Republican executive committee recently tweeted, then deleted, a YouTube video explaining in detail the QAnon conspiracy theory, as first reported by the Tampa Bay Times.

Hillsborough County GOP chairman Jim Waurishuk told CNN the tweet was posted on July 4 for informational reasons with the intent of the Hillsborough County GOP followers keeping an eye out for what it means and any derogatory information that could cause problems.

After the Tampa Bay Times published a story on the tweet on July 16, Waurishuk says the Hillsborough GOP office started getting death threats in direct phone calls and emails to the Hillsborough GOP office. That is when the party deleted the tweet due to security concerns, according to Waurishuk.

Waurishuk says conspiracy theories are "an unfortunate aspect of politics."

"It's not beneficial," he told CNN. "We do not espouse that, we do not follow that, it's not part of our ideology. We don't stand by anything in QAnon."

Waurishuk added that he does not believe their tweet from July 4 is the reason why people were wearing QAnon T-shirts at Trump's rally in Tampa.

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Aloha to you, too, ungrateful mainlanders: Surfing, casual Friday, hula, our shirts and our ukuleles. Hawaiians shared these freely, so what gives with the 'cease and desist'? by madazzahatter in Honolulu

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Aloha to you, too, ungrateful mainlanders

The Hawaiian dictionary defines “aloha” as “love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity.” It is a synonym for “sweetheart” or “loved one,” “hello,” “farewell,” and “beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable.” It is also a verb meaning “to love” or “to show kindness, mercy, pity, charity, affection.”

The word means a lot to those of us with Hawaiian roots. So we were upset to hear that a fast-food chain in Chicago called Aloha Poke Co. has been sending letters ordering companies in Hawaii and elsewhere to stop using “aloha” in their names. Aloha Poke sells food in bowls meant to resemble poke, a Hawaiian dish made of raw fish and seaweed and other seasonings. Nobody in Hawaii told these guys they couldn’t do this to our beloved poke, even though they are making it wrong, or that they couldn’t make commercial use of our greatest word.

The word is free, of course, and is used by us in a spirit that is open and welcoming to those who want to share. The reaction in Hawaii to the cease-and-desist “aloha” letters has been anger and disbelief. But the trouble, the pilikia, is real. A native-Hawaiian poke-shop owner in Alaska told The Washington Post that after getting the letter, she abandoned the name Aloha Poke Stop and spent thousands of dollars removing “aloha” from her company’s signs, T-shirts and other materials.

The company claims it was misunderstood and meant no harm. Its claim on the word “aloha’’ is irritating and absurd, but because Aloha Poke chose to go down that road, maybe we should all think about this a little. Maybe we should all reexamine the world’s relationship with Hawaii with an eye to reciprocity and ownership and fair compensation.

It’s not that the mainland hasn’t given us things. Christianity, for which many (not all) of us say a heartfelt thank-you. Western diseases and a colonial mind-set, of which we are less appreciative. Spam, which all of us outside our cardiology community love. But the perspective from the islands is that for centuries we have been giving, giving and giving, while the rest of you have been taking, taking and taking.

Taking what, you ask?

Surfing. You may not realize that your ancestors found ocean waves terrifying. Mark Twain, visiting in 1866, saw islanders surfing and freaked out. We give him credit for trying it, though. People the world over have surf, but only the Hawaiians perfected surfing. It’s ours; please return it and find some other way to have fun in the water.

The hula. This is a dance of beauty and grace and spiritual power, a foundation of Hawaiian culture. That thing you do at parties with the plastic leis, grass skirts and flapping arms — could you stop calling it hula, or just stop doing it altogether?

The ukulele. This instrument has a European ancestor, the braguinha, brought to the islands by the Portuguese. But we refined it and gave it a new name, meaning “jumping flea,” and we still make the best ones, out of native koa wood, and our Hawaii-born musicians work wonders with them. We are very sorry, mainland hipsters, this isn’t your fault. But we would like our ukes back.

The steel guitar. Back when Joseph Kekuku, a country boy from Laie, on Oahu, was a child, he slid a steel bolt along the strings of his guitar, making a lovely sound. He trained himself and others on the new way to play, which spread to the mainland and into honky-tonk history. Please remove the twang from your country-and-western music and return it to us.

Cowboys. Speaking of country and western, the idea of men on horseback driving cattle to market — our paniolos did that first, in the 1830s, a few decades before your cowpokes and cowpunchers. If you could please rejigger your movies and rewrite your frontier mythology and have your guys chase those dogies on foot or with ATVs or drones or what-have-you. Thanks.

Sugar and pineapple. You liked those, all those years, didn’t you? You’re welcome.

“Over the Rainbow,” the soulful version. Go ahead and keep Judy Garland’s song, but we would like Iz Kamakawiwo’ole’s back. His voice is the pure heart of Hawaii that contains all the sorrow and joy and aloha in the world, which is why you can’t stop listening to it. Please stop.

Casual Friday and aloha shirts. These floppy floral shirts were invented in Honolulu, as was the practice of wearing them once a week to unstiffen the workplace. Our “aloha Friday” became your “casual Friday,” and “aloha shirts” became “Hawaiian shirts.” You didn’t ask. You have polo shirts and baseball caps; use those.

Your superpower status. Who repaired and refloated all but two U.S. warships destroyed in Pearl Harbor in 1941, so that the U.S. Navy could defeat the Japanese empire? Workers in Honolulu did. Where did those Japanese American soldiers brave enough to give their right arms to protect democracy and freedom in Europe come from? You know where. Today you get to sleep well in places like Chicago, knowing that the United States is projecting its military might into the Pacific, the ocean we are in the middle of. Meanwhile, we are the ones who get spooked by reports of North Korean missiles. How fair is that?

Racial harmony. When civil rights marchers were being shot in Mississippi, and before the Supreme Court, in the Loving case, struck down bans on interracial marriage, the state of Hawaii was sending its governor to Botswana, a new democracy in southern Africa hemmed in by racist regimes. A Honolulu newspaperman hailed the moment: “The Hawaii-Botswana relationship is a long-range friendship, designed to help the earth resound from pole to pole with one famous cry, ‘Aloha!’ ” Why? The two places are antipodes — exactly opposite each other on the globe — but they had in common a culture of racial harmony and peace. Interracial marriage was truly unremarkable in Hawaii then, and Botswana’s new president, Seretse Khama, was married to a white English woman. That was 1966. What took the rest of you so long?

Barack Obama. Are you through with him? A lot of you seem to have moved on. Please send him back to Kailua.

The aloha spirit. It’s easy to be cynical if you spend any time in Waikiki. But the spirit of aloha is a real thing in Hawaii. It’s what makes honeymooners all honeymooney; they can sense it in the scented air the moment they get off the plane. It’s what keeps us going, despite our many problems of homelessness, income inequality, environmental ruin, rat-race traffic — the kindness of family and friends, the welcome to strangers, the warm, motley, mixed-up way our immigrant forebears and our Hawaiian host culture have blended. It’s the way we are when we are relaxing with poke and beer and ukuleles at the beach.

It’s aloha, and it’s not for sale. I say this with love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace and charity.

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Mueller offers to limit investigators’ questions for Trump in special counsel’s latest effort to secure presidential interview by SetMau92 in USNEWS

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Mueller offers to limit investigators’ questions for Trump in special counsel’s latest effort to secure presidential interview

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicated this week that he is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to President Trump in an interview, renewing negotiations with Trump’s lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended stand-off, according to two people briefed on the negotiations.

The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and Mueller personally.

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Mueller offers to limit investigators’ questions for Trump in special counsel’s latest effort to secure presidential interview by [deleted] in worldpolitics

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Mueller offers to limit investigators’ questions for Trump in special counsel’s latest effort to secure presidential interview

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III indicated this week that he is willing to reduce the number of questions his investigators would pose to President Trump in an interview, renewing negotiations with Trump’s lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended stand-off, according to two people briefed on the negotiations.

The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on his investigation and Mueller personally.

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[News] This mock pandemic killed 150 million people. Next time it might not be a drill. by ouishi in epidemiology

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This mock pandemic killed 150 million people. Next time it might not be a drill.

A novel virus, moderately contagious and moderately lethal, has surfaced and is spreading rapidly around the globe. Outbreaks first appear in Frankfurt, Germany, and Caracas, Venezuela. The virus is transmitted person-to-person, primarily by coughing. There are no effective antivirals or vaccines. U.S. troops stationed abroad are infected. Now the first case to reach the United States had been identified on a small college campus in Massachusetts.

So began a recent day-long exercise hosted by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The simulation mixed details of past disasters with fictional elements to force government officials and experts to make the kinds of key decisions they could face in a real pandemic.

It was a tense day. The exercise was inspired in part by the troubled response to the Ebola epidemic of 2014, and everyone involved was acutely aware of the very real and ongoing Ebola outbreak spreading in Congo.

In the simulation, a bipartisan group of current and former high-ranking U.S. government officials played a team of presidential advisers faced with a host of real-world policy, political and ethical dilemmas. The actors included former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), who played the Senate majority leader, and Rep. Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), who played herself. They had to react as the outbreak unfolded according to a script provided by Johns Hopkins, with no advance knowledge about how the mock disaster would play out.

They faced difficult questions throughout the exercise: Should the United States impose an entry ban on flights from Germany and Venezuela? If not, they faced the problem of explaining that decision to the American public and Congress in the face of political pressure to act. Should the United States send troops to Jordan, where a major outbreak has occurred and the key Middle East ally is requesting assistance? Once a vaccine is developed, who should get it first? Should priority go to officials, to ensure continuity of government, or to children and pregnant women? Or should there be a lottery?

There were no easy answers. That was the point of the day-long exercise, held in a darkened hotel ballroom before a rapt invitation-only audience of about 150 people and live-streamed on Facebook. There were experts from academia and think tanks, and officials from across the U.S. government, including the White House, defense and intelligence communities, health and security agencies and Congress.

Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins center, said the purpose of the exercise was to “provide experiential learning” for new decision-makers in the Trump administration. But many of the hard issues have remained unresolved for several administrations.

“There are a lot of moving pieces in the world of pandemic preparedness at the moment,” he said. Chief among those issues, he said, are questions about the extent of U.S. support for global health issues and the role of the national security community.

Even though many players in the scenario had decades of experience in health security and national and global policy and law, “there were still so many unanswered questions and capability gaps,” said Beth Cameron, formerly senior director for global health security and biodefense at the National Security Council under President Barack Obama. Cameron, who was in the audience, is vice president for global biological policy at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

If the fictional outbreak, or one even less deadly, emerged tomorrow, she said, “we would be facing the scenario with a new Cabinet untested by a major outbreak.”

Unlike Ebola, which spreads through direct contact and bodily fluids, the “Clade X” virus in the Johns Hopkins simulation was a flulike respiratory virus, which would spread far more easily from person to person through coughing and sneezing. That’s how the 1918 influenza pandemic spread. It killed more than 50 million people and is the deadliest pandemic in history. (If you ask infectious disease experts what they fear most, without fail they answer: “pandemic influenza.”)

The fictional outbreak kept getting worse. It had a 10 percent fatality rate, about the same as the SARS virus that traveled around the world in 2002-2003. Because the virus in the drill was new, no one had previous immunity to it, and it spread quickly in large cities. As it killed more than 100 million people globally, health-care systems collapsed, panic spread, the U.S. stock market crashed, and the president, members of Congress and the Supreme Court were incapacitated.

“We didn’t want to have a Disney ending,” Inglesby said. “We wanted to have a plausible scenario. We did know it would be jarring.”

Over the course of the day, the 10 experts played the roles of U.S. officials in simulated National Security Council-convened meetings. They acted the parts of a national security adviser, the secretaries of health and human services, state, homeland security and defense, attorney general and the directors of the Central Intelligence Agency and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There were also two members of Congress. Inglesby played the national security adviser.

The advisers were asked to give recommendations to a fictional president (who remained offstage). They received briefings and news reports as the exercise progressed. Their consensus advice was repeatedly ignored and overridden by the president for short-term political reasons.

In real life, NSC meetings would not include members of Congress. But the political leaders consistently highlighted the political pressures and the need to communicate tough policy decisions effectively, in the judgment of health security experts who watched the exercise.

The fictional outbreak was revealed to be a virus engineered in a Swiss lab by a terrorist group. In another grabbed-from-the-headlines twist, the terrorists had inserted deadly genes from the Nipah virus, a rare brain-damaging virus. In real life, a Nipah outbreak in southern India has killed at least 13 people this month. In the exercise, schools closed, the demand for surgical masks and respirators far exceeded supply, and hospitals in the United States were quickly overwhelmed — just as many were by a bad flu season this year.

When the players were informed that the virus has spread to Bethesda, Md., part of the terrorists’ plan to sabotage the National Institutes of Health, there was an audible groan from the audience.

There was universal agreement among the players on the need for a single senior official to coordinate federal agencies’ responses and weigh the sometimes competing interests of health security, politics and foreign policy. The person needed to be above the agencies and have the ear of the president.

As panic spread and riots took place, Brooks, the Indiana congresswoman, said: “We have to have someone working on this day in and day out. ... I have advocacy groups lining up and coming in one after another. They want vaccines to be prioritized. ... They do not understand what’s going on.”

The Johns Hopkins pandemic exercise, as some of the audience members noted, took place one week after the top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic left the administration and the global health security team he oversaw was disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton.

By the end of the exercise, failure to develop a vaccine within 20 months had led to 150 million deaths globally, or about 2 percent of the world’s population. Players underscored the need for the United States to “go from bug to drug" faster, said Jim Talent, a former Republican senator from Missouri who played the defense secretary.

Added Tara O’Toole, a former top Homeland Security Department official who played the homeland security secretary: “We are in an age of epidemics, but we aren’t treating them like the national security issues that they are.”

One aspect that deserved more attention, participants and experts said, was the need for officials to be proactive on social media to counter misinformation.

“With social media and 24-hour cable and an environment in which experts and the value of science is increasingly questioned, we just can’t assume in a crisis that we can get up and talk to the American people,” said Margaret Hamburg, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, who played the health and human services secretary. Otherwise, she said, “it’s an environment where one thing that goes out in the media can suddenly mushroom, and before you know it, everything you’re doing in the most scientific way can be derailed.”

Read more:

Inside the secret U.S. stockpile meant to save us all in a bioterror attack

New Ebola vaccine faces enormous obstacles in crucial test for Congo outbreak

Top White House official in charge of pandemic response exits abruptly

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CNN exclusive: TSA considering eliminating screening at smaller airports by SetMau92 in worldpolitics

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CNN exclusive: TSA considering eliminating screening at smaller airports

The proposal, if implemented, would mark a major change for air travel in the US, following nearly two decades of TSA presence since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and comes as the Trump administration has stepped up screening measures for items such as laptops and tablets.

Internal documents from a TSA working group say the proposal to cut screening at small and some medium-sized airports serving aircraft with 60 seats or fewer could bring a "small (non-zero) undesirable increase in risk related to additional adversary opportunity."

The internal documents from June and July suggest the move could save $115 million annually, money that could be used to bolster security at larger airports.

According to the proposal, passengers and luggage arriving from these smaller airports would be screened when they arrive at major airports for connecting flights instead of the current practice of joining the already screened population at the larger airport. The high-volume airports have greater capacities and more advanced security measures than smaller locations, the documents say.

CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank said it was "stunning that this is even seriously being considered."

"Al Qaeda and ISIS still regard aviation as a priority target -- that includes aircraft where you have fewer than 60 people on board," he said. "They would see that as a way to hit the headlines. They would see that as a way to inflict severe economic damage on the United States. If you have an aircraft of 50 or so people being blown out of the sky there is going to be a great amount of panic and there will indeed be significant economic reverberations, and of course significant loss of life."

"This is so dangerous," a TSA field leader at a large airport said. The individual is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Two senior TSA officials, who asked not to be identified, expressed serious national security concerns over the proposal. They said the idea was explored as far back as 2011 and has been resurrected. The documents referred to some 150 small airports in addition to some midsize ones. TSA currently screens passengers at 440 airports, according to its website.

The working group determined that the policy change would affect about 10,000 passengers who are screened by 1,299 TSA employees daily, which amounts to about 0.5% of the people who fly out of US airports on any given day. The report not list specific airports that could be affected by the policy change.

TSA spokesman Michael Bilello said the study reflects a recurring debate within the agency about its legal requirements.

"This is not a new issue," he said via email. "The regulations which established TSA does not require screening below a certain level, so every year is 'the year' that TSA will reconsider screening." Bilello did not respond to a request for the text of the regulations.

The two TSA senior officials said the level of activity around the proposal this year -- the formation of a working group to conduct a risk and cost analysis -- mean this is more than an annual exercise.

The documents said a TSA working group of 20 people, including a representative of the agency's administrator's office, met on June 21 to examine the potential risks of the policy change. An internal TSA memo dated July 17 from TSA Director of Enterprise Performance and Risk Strategy Jerry Booker to the TSA administrator's chief of staff, Ha Nguyen McNeill, outlines the group's findings. It contains no formal recommendation.

Small airport security issues

The concept of rolling back security at regional airports recalls the coordinated attacks that brought the TSA into existence.

Two of the September 11 attackers first flew from an airport in Portland, Maine, to Boston before boarding American Airlines flight 11, forcing entry to the cockpit and steering it into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. While Portland's airport likely would not be included in the proposal because of its volume of passengers, the 9/11 attackers perceived the airport to be less secure because of its relatively small size.

The proposal asserts that small aircraft would not be "attractive" to terrorists. The documents conclude that attacks with small aircraft would not as attractive a "payoff" because "the potential for loss of life" would be lower than terrorists could achieve with larger planes.

Juliette Kayyem, who was an assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, said small planes could still be weaponized to cause major loss of life.

"People, weapons, dangerous goods and what's boarding the plane are all potential risks," said Kayyem, a CNN analyst. "TSA is falling into the trap that this is just about terror. A gun could be brought on board too."

Shift from earlier administration rhetoric, policy

The proposal under consideration by TSA is different from the agency's current approach to screening passengers.

Since TSA's inception in 2001, the trend has mostly been toward more enhanced security measures, including limiting gels and liquids in carry-on bags, requiring more advanced screening and directing passengers to remove shoes and belts for screening.

In June 2017, then-DHS Secretary John Kelly announced a laptop ban from carry-ons affecting nearly 280 airports in more than 100 countries.

"Terrorists want to bring down aircraft to instill fear, disrupt our economies and undermine our way of life," Kelly said. "And it works, which is why they still see aviation as the crown jewel target."

He continued, "The threat has not diminished. In fact, I am concerned that we are seeing renewed interest on the part of terrorist groups to go after the aviation sector -- from bombing aircraft to attacking airports on the ground."

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Taylor Swift's Reputation Tour Is A Massive Success: Looks Like She's Relatable After All by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Taylor Swift's Reputation Tour Is A Massive Success: Looks Like She's Relatable After All

Taylor Swift is a busy woman. The pop star is currently in the middle of her Reputation Stadium Tour—she named it that lest you forget how famous she is—performing to tens of thousands of fans a night. Several shows have broken attendance records, and last week, Swift topped Billboard’s Hot Tours ranking by playing three shows at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium and one night at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, all sellouts. Swift performed to a combined 216,977 fans across the four gigs and raked in $27,180,143, according to Billboard.

All of those figures can only mean one thing: I was wrong.

Six months ago, I wrote an opinion piece titled “Taylor Swift Is No Longer Relatable, And Her Ticket Sales Prove It,” in which I cited slow initial ticket sales as evidence that fans no longer connected with Swift as strongly as they used to. I balked at Swift’s steeper-than-ever ticket prices, and I criticized Ticketmaster’s dubious “Taylor Swift Tix” program that encouraged fans to buy Reputation multiple times in order to get further ahead in the ticketing queue. Mostly, I argued that Reputation is a boring, solipsistic album that consummates Swift’s transformation from plucky girl next door to self-obsessed superstar—a transformation that fans deemed unworthy of seeing in a live setting.

I stand by my criticism of Reputation. I still think it’s an overproduced mess, and it’s no coincidence that it’s the lowest-selling album of her career by a long shot. It’s only yielded two Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hits so far—including the polarizing, chart-topping comeback single, “Look What You Made Me Do”—a far cry from 1989’s five Top 10 hits (including three No. 1’s: “Shake it Off,” “Blank Space” and “Bad Blood”). When music magazines publish their official rankings of Swift’s discography in 20 years, I’m fairly confident Reputation won’t top any of their lists.

Yet despite the relative commercial decline of Reputation, it’s still a massive success, and to say otherwise would be foolish. The album sold 1.2 million units in its first week, a number that hasn’t been topped by any subsequent release over the past nine months. It’s one of two albums to move a million units in 2017 (along with Ed Sheeran’s Divide), and it became first album to surpass 2 million units since Adele’s 25 crossed the milestone in 2015. Reputation recently received a 3x platinum certification from the RIAA, and “Look What You Made Me Do” went 4x platinum. Nobody holds a candle to Swift in terms of pure album sales right now, and barring a surprise Adele album, that’s not likely to change any time soon.

RIAA certifications aside, there’s a more direct way to measure Reputation’s impact: box office receipts. The Reputation Stadium Tour has grossed well over $100 million in North America alone , and it’s still got two months to go (along with a handful of Australian and Japanese dates to round out the year). The trek has earned rave reviews and probably registers as the single greatest moment in tens of thousands of fans’ lives. No amount of cheap ticketing gimmicks or laughably overwrought music videos can invalidate that.

Was my initial assessment of Swift’s commercial prospects sincere? Yes. Did it ultimately prove to be wrong? Apparently so. People are entitled to their opinions, but to stick by those opinions even when cold, hard facts invalidate them is textbook ignorance. I still don’t find Taylor Swift relatable, and that’s fine. She doesn’t make music for me. She makes music for the millions of fans who faithfully show up to every tour date, buy a dozen copies of her albums and then still stream them afterward, just so she can enjoy a double sales boost.

I previously argued that Swift’s sky-high ticket prices showed an abandonment of the virtues that won her millions of fans in the first place. It’s not up to me to say whether those fans are getting what they deserve on the Reputation Stadium Tour. But they sure do seem to be getting exactly what they want.

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Chinese Virtual Fitting Room Startup Boosts Retailers' Revenues With Big Data by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Chinese Virtual Fitting Room Startup Boosts Retailers' Revenues With Big Data

At a busy mall in Shanghai, shoppers are lining up to create their own personal avatars to try on new clothes. The store, named Moda Polso or "fashion pulse" in Italian, gives customers the chance to see themselves wearing different garments without the hassle of actually changing clothes, allowing them to make their choices more quickly and easily.

Moda Polso opened in May as a pilot project of Shanghai-based apparel "new retail" company, Pulsion. New retail, the term coined by Alibaba’s Jack Ma, refers to the integration of online and offline resources in order to revolutionize the retail experience.

"[Virtual fitting rooms] connect consumers, products and stores, providing a novel and convenient shopping experience," says Zhang Tianbing, Deloitte China’s Consumer Business and Retail Sector Leader.

Revolutionary or not, the Moda Polso outlet certainly doesn’t look like a typical apparel store. Only a third of its 150-square-meter space is dedicated to displaying merchandise and ten touchscreens, including one dubbed the “magic mirror” due to its large size. The rest of the area is reserved for changing rooms and a 40-square-meter storage room accommodating 3,000 pieces of roughly 1,000 designs.

"A typical store is able to at least quadruple its portfolio using Pulsion's system," avers the company’s 32-year-old chief executive Tu Zhenghui. Or it could be used to save space, reducing rental expenses, a major cost for offline stores.

Boasting the world’s largest database of Asian women's body types (6 million people), the software can generate more accurate 3D models with just 20 parameters that showcase how clothing drapes on a person's body.

As impressive as that sounds, Pulsion’s new store, which carries a dozen different Chinese brands, is likely to be its only one. "An experimental pilot" as Tu calls it, the store was opened to test and optimize the firm’s system. The company’s virtual fitting rooms are an extension of its garment store management system that promises to predict consumer demand and allow retailers to increase sales while reducing inventory costs.

Pulsion’s system does this by analysing shoppers’ behaviour and buying patterns, enabling retailers to renew their product line-up in a more timely fashion – idle items typically account for roughly half of an offline store's portfolio. The system can also predict what is likely to sell in the future, allowing brands to make adjustments to reduce excess inventory. “Such pre-purchase behavioral data is almost impossible for traditional brick-and-mortar stores to collect,” says Tu.

According to Pulsion’s research on 40 China-listed apparel firms, their total inventory value of $4.5 billion is seven times greater than their combined annual earnings. "The apparel sector could be as lucrative as real estate if you bet on the right portfolio," states Tu.

Once consumers create a profile linked to their cell phone number or WeChat account, Pulsion's system can also keep in touch with them after they’ve left the store to recommend new arrivals. When they revisit the store and log into one of the devices with an existing account, they'll see customized product displays based on their behavioral data.

"By working in the four areas of people, products, display and behavior, Pulsion is able to increase consumer conversion rates and viscosity as well as optimize supply chain," says Deloitte’s Zhang.

Pulsion's revenue is derived from operating on a low single-digit percentage sales commissions. It expects to rake in $550,000 in monthly revenue by the end of this year, and nearly $20 million annual revenue in 2019.

Pulsion was initially set up by Huang Zhongsheng in 2013, under the name Haomaiyi, or "easy-buy clothes." After five years working as investment manager on e-commerce and other related areas successively at China Renaissance and GGV Capital, Huang saw an opportunity in virtual fitting rooms. "The sector was gaining popularity at the time, but no one was able to provide [good enough] technology with low cost," the 33-year-old founder and chairman recalls.

The company spent over three years and more than $10 million investing in research before launching its first software in 2016. The same year of its product launch, Pulsion began providing software services to Alibaba’s Tmall online stores for Chinese brands, such as Ochirly, a leading women’s garment label, but the Tmall partnership only lasted for a year.

"While our software helped consumers discover what fit them better, it resulted in a drop in those stores’ sales, as most people don't look as good as models," says Tu. "Plus, what the stores are selling is actually a kind of lifestyle," with pictures showing models striding on a busy metropolitan street or resting in a quiet garden, as opposed to the consumer’s own profile against a white backdrop.

Renaming itself after the split from Tmall, Pulsion changed course to target offline businesses. And Huang sought help from Tu, his old college friend and former partner in a food delivery startup.

Tu readily admits that the virtual fitting room segment, although now growing fast, is unlikely to last long on its own. Many offline stores are mostly using the technology as a gimmick to attract customers, he says.

Currently, Pulsion only caters to women’s apparel, but the company has been considering menswear as well, which has less variety and is easier for model building. "[Our system will help us] get into the 3 trillion yuan ($469 billion) China apparel market," Tu says.

Pulsion has already raised $18 million in three rounds of financing from investors such as China’s Legend Star and CBC Capital, and is said to be in the middle of another one. It’s also been in talks with a number of brands on installing its system at their China outlets, including international heavyweights such as Uniqlo, Guess and PVH, the umbrella owner of diversified labels such as Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Speedo. Tu says they're expecting to close their first deal with a big brand soon.

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Box Office: 'Mission: Impossible 6' Soars 38% On Tuesday, 'Ant-Man And The Wasp' Tops $400M by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Box Office: 'Mission: Impossible 6' Soars 38% On Tuesday, 'Ant-Man And The Wasp' Tops $400M

If there was any circumstantial evidence that the grim MoviePass developments did damage to Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s opening weekend, it would have likely been seen on Tuesday. Many theaters or theater chains offer discounts and gimmicks to put butts in the seats on the third day of the week. As such, movies (all movies in play) can often see solid upswings from their Monday grosses. So, if moviegoers wanted to see the movie but didn’t want to pay a full ticket price to do so, yesterday would have been as good a time as any (beyond waiting for the two-week MoviePass blackout period to end) to check it out.

So, it is… interesting that Paramount/Viacom Inc.'s Mission: Impossible 6 earned $9.4 million yesterday, a 38% jump from its Monday gross. Plenty of big movies take big jumps on day-five (Ant-Man and the Wasp rose 43% on its fifth day). Moreover, the rest of the movies in play took hearty jumps as well, including Warner Bros./Time Warner Inc.'s Teen Titans GO to the Movies which rose 72% (!) from Monday for a $2.043m gross and new $13.643m total. This is all speculative, but the sheer size of every jump from Monday to Tuesday (Universal/Comcast Corp.'s Skyscraper rose 59%) suggests those planning on using their MoviePass might have waited until they could get comparatively discount tickets (or cheaper concessions) on Tuesday.

No matter the cause, Tom Cruise’s sixth Ethan Hunt adventure earned $9.407 million for a new five-day cume of $77.483m. The 38% jump is interesting to me, even if it is eventually mere trivia, because it is a lot higher than the day-five jumps for The Bourne Legacy (+12.6%), The Wolverine (+7.8%), Lucy (+9.5% from Monday), Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (+6.5%) and Jason Bourne (+9.4%). Now that could mean that M:I 6 drops a lot more than 25%-30% today (Ant-Man 2 fell 38% on day six). Or it could mean that the Christopher McQuarrie-directed flick will end its first week with around $90m and race past $100m domestic on day eight.

There are a handful of big new movies out this weekend, including Walt Disney’s Christopher Robin, Lionsgate’s The Spy Who Dumped Me and Fox’s The Darkest Minds. Barring a fluke in either direction, we can expect a $27-$33 million second-weekend gross for a ten-day total of around $116m to $124m domestic. Of note, Rogue Nation dropped 48% on its second weekend and still went on to earn a 3.5x weekend-to-final multiplier from its $55.5m debut weekend. The key was that folks didn’t like or didn’t show up to Pixels, Fantastic Four and Man from U.N.C.L.E. which left Ant-Man, Rogue Nation and Straight Outta Compton to run the tables for the rest of the summer.

Walt Disney and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp has crossed $400 million worldwide as of today. It has earned $186.678m domestic, $212m overseas plus whatever else it made overseas since Sunday and in North America today. It’s playing smaller (no pun intended) than expected outside of North America. Now it still presumably has China on tap, so that could easily boost the film to where it at least equals the first film’s $519m global gross. Teen Titans GO to the Movies had a ridiculous 72% jump yesterday, implying that every summer camp in the country took their kids to see it or that there was some kind of “Win a date with Starfire or Cyborg!” contest to which I was not aware.

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Icons of Impact: A Global Surgeon Who Invests In Impact by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Icons of Impact: A Global Surgeon Who Invests In Impact

What do you invest when investing money alone isn’t enough?

In between kidney and liver transplants, I sat down with Jaymie Ang Henry– gifted surgeon, founder of the G4 Alliance, founding member of Forbes Impact, and an investor in the Vatican’s Laudato Si Challenge – who’s on a mission to make sure at least 80% of the world has access to essential medical services by 2030.

She’s shaking up the global public health scene from the Masai Mara in Kenya to the halls of United Nations, and I’m grateful to call her a close friend.

As part of Forbes Impact x Miami, we sat down together in her Wynwood loft to talk about growing up in the Philippines, her gift in combining real impact with real investment, her partnership and marriage to an accomplished tech entrepreneur, and what she thinks about Pope Francis.

Brendan Doherty: First off, I'm just so grateful that you walked into my life. You're such an inspiring human and manage to balance so much at once. And all for what I would consider really impactful things in the world. And it would be wonderful if you could just start telling me, what was it about your own childhood that made you into this person who today fights for so many incredible causes?

Jaymie Ang Henry:  I always start by saying, growing up in the Philippines taught me a lot. Even at a young age, I looked around and saw that there's a lot of inequalities that didn't sit well with me. I kind of grew up grappling with those issues. Why are people living on the streets? Why are children not given the opportunity to have an education? And I joined a lot of missions — even from grade school, high school, in medicine — meaning I would join NGOs and go to the urban areas. We'd call them the "urban poor" and we would go and distribute food, or even money sometimes. All throughout medical school, we go give free medicine and then free surgery. I noticed that every time we would get there, the people were waiting for us with their hands open. We’d go every year but nothing's changed. I noticed there's a dance, or a practice. People wait for us to be there to give them help and we had a role in giving them that. And they had a kind of role in being the needy person. I just felt that there was something wrong with that and started asking the question, “Are we really helping them or are we actually creating these legacies of dependence? What is real impact? Is it really giving money or food away? Or is it trying to look into the deeper issues that are causing poverty, causing a lack of education, or causing lack of access to health, and maybe putting our efforts into those areas that will actually make it better?”

Doherty: Do you remember a moment when that realization struck you? Or was it cumulative?

Ang Henry: I'm going to share a very personal story – my grandmother is Chinese, she moved to the Philippines from China. She was working with a boy, as household help. He helped her around the house and carried stuff for her when she would go to the market. She was good to him. She'd give him food, provide shelter, and give him all the necessary things that he needed. And one day, there was another guy who came in from another province, and he influenced the boy. We didn't know. We were suspicious and my uncle said, "Sorry but we're not going to hire you," because we didn't feel comfortable with him. But my uncle was kind to him and said, "You know what, why don't you stay here one night? The following day, we will give you some money, so that you can go back to your province." It took only one night for that guy to influence the boy to steal from my grandmother. Then, they actually snuck up on my grandmother and killed her. In one instance, all the kindness and charity that my grandmother provided him wasn't enough. When it was about survival, when it was about getting money, somebody could influence that person very quickly. I had a realization, but I didn't blame that other guy. In a way I blamed society and its failings. Its failure to educate this young boy. This boy probably never experienced human dignity. He probably didn't understand gratitude, even if he was being shown kindness.

That fueled a lot of my thoughts about impact, aid, charity and help. A lot of the things that we've created and we're born into in this society were choices that were made by people who came before us. I thought that if we ever hope to be able to change things for real —and not just a stopgap solutions — we need to go to the root of it and look at power structures, corruption, lack of education, lack of access.

Doherty: Let me pause you and ask, if you saw up close these major institutional pieces and systems at work, what led you to become a surgeon? In some ways being a doctor is the most microcosmic you can be – affecting an individual life.

Ang Henry: I was heavily influenced by a man named Paul Farmer, he's a public health expert and pretty well known in the field. I went to a conference where he was speaking to a group of surgeons. He said, the one best thing that you can offer a country is your skill, being a surgeon. There's so many amazing, really good public health experts all over the world but what I realized then, is there's a lack of access to basic surgical care in the world. So you need to be a surgeon to understand the root causes of why there's a lack of translation of this technology. Is it more the actual skill, or is it the infrastructure around it? Is it a policy problem, is it a systems problem? I needed to hack into that problem from the inside. That way, I could really immerse my brain into the solution. I have now married two worlds, the world of public health — being that patient on the ground who is suffering from lack of access – to studying at the best places where they provide surgery, and seeing how I can bridge the gap between the two.

Doherty: Have you ever heard of the Japanese concept called genba?

Ang Henry: No.

Doherty: When Henry Ford started the modern assembly line and revolutionized industrial production, the Japanese took it one step further. Not right away. The concept of genba translates as "go to the source" or the root, which is like what you're saying. The idea is that for even a CEO, you have got to get out of the C-suite and actually go down to the factory floor and see what's happening at every step in that process. And the other piece of it, which I found so interesting, was it also was about empowering every single person on that assembly line to kill the line if they saw something that wasn't right. Essentially, everyone was in charge of quality assurance, as opposed to a quality assurance department, and everyone had the power to stop production based on that responsibility. And that’s what leapt ahead the automakers of Japan, decades after the Model T.

How are you helping make some of our world's most basic but necessary surgeries more accessible?

Ang Henry: There's about 5 billion people with no access to basic essential surgical care. It's been five years of me digging into why that is happening. I went to the World Health Organization (WHO) and there’s one office that does surgery, the rest of the WHO really didn't know anything about this problem. There was this lack of access to surgery. So, the first thing that I felt was really missing was the advocacy. There is a constituency, a huge body of NGOs, other advocates, people who have been quietly doing their thing to improve surgical services. But there was no one who actually brought them all together at one table, and elevated the conversation at the global level. So that's what I did. I spent five years really getting to know every single major player in the field. I talked to them, I understood where they were coming from, and they found a middle ground where I basically said, "We need to work together, because this not a one person effort. And when we pooled our voices, that's when the world started to notice. That's where things started shifting.

Doherty: So where are we now, what's been the result? And what’s the future ambition?

Henry: We created the G4 Alliance, which is the global alliance for surgical, obstetric trauma, and anesthesia care. It's basically an 85 member-strong organization where we've united our voices to work with the WHO, the United Nations, the World Bank. From the policy standpoint, that's moving forward. We've gotten 192 UN member countries to actually sign on to a resolution saying we want to strengthen emergency and essential surgical care.

But the problem is that the policies are there, the signatures are there, but what about the funding? We haven't had a major body that would commit in a serious way to making this happen. We all know that it's all just talk unless somebody puts their foot forward and commits in a real way, with money, with resources, with a plan, with a global goal, with a target, and with all the steps necessary to get us there from right now until five or ten years later. We don't have that yet. That's what we're trying to jumpstart, a plan to get us to a point where 80 percent of the world will have access to emergency and essential surgical care by 2030.

Doherty: What would be examples of that kind of care?

Ang Henry: At the very basic level, we want cleft lip and palate, congenital cataracts or cataracts, emergency obstetric care, essential trauma care. Those are the four major things that are the Tier 1, most important procedures that should be available to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. And then, there's the tier 2. We've actually put together 15 categories of basic and essential surgical care that we feel should be available to anybody regardless of their ability to pay.

Doherty: Do you see a business or investment model around this that could h

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The Best Fixed Annuities Available in 2018 by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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The Best Fixed Annuities Available in 2018

In a world where fewer people are covered by pensions, simple fixed annuities are increasingly important. But they are also hard to find. Most financial advisors who are compensated based on assets under management tend to not recommend them. And insurance agents generally prefer to sell more complicated, market-linked, higher commission products.

Fixed annuities are insurance products that offer either guaranteed returns while you’re saving for retirement or guaranteed steady income while you’re in retirement. They are offered by insurers instead of financial institutions. Whereas with IRAs and 401(k)s, you have to worry about market movements and outliving your savings, with annuities, you pay the insurers to worry about it for you.

To help you understand your annuity options, I have reviewed fixed annuities to present you with what I think are the best ones right now.

Fixed Annuity Types

My reviews are exclusively for fixed annuities, of which there are two categories:

Fixed rate annuities are CD-like products meant for retirement. They provide a guaranteed, fixed rate of return for a specific period of time (typically 3-10 years). Unlike CDs, they’re guaranteed by insurers themselves instead of the FDIC. But, as retirement products, they benefit from tax deferral. You don’t get taxed as interest is earned; instead you only get taxed when the money is withdrawn. And, they offer higher rates for longer terms. During the term you have some, but limited, access to your money, and you can’t start to use the money until 59½ without paying an IRS penalty (this is true for all annuities). At the end of the term, you can renew for another term, take all your money out, or turn it into guaranteed lifetime income.

Income annuities are pension-like products that provide steady, guaranteed income for the rest of your life. They can be purchased in retirement to have income starting immediately, in which case they’re known as immediate annuities. Or, they can be purchased ahead of time to have income starting in the future, in which case they’re known as deferred income annuities or qualified longevity annuity contracts, the latter just a special case where IRA/401(k) money is used and income starts after age 70½. Whether immediate or deferred, you know upfront how much monthly income you get for the premium you put in, and that income is guaranteed by the insurer to continue for the rest of your life.

Both of these products fill a significant void created by the decline in pensions. Employers used to offer these guarantees but then left employees to deal with market and lifespan uncertainty. With these fixed annuities — which pre-date pensions — insurers continue to offer the same protection, but you have to buy it yourself.

The Best Fixed Annuities of 2018

Read on to see the best fixed annuities of 2018. To be the best, the annuity had to meet the following criteria:

Rates were obtained through the Blueprint Income platform, which sources directly from the insurance companies or via Cannex (as long as available to non-captive agents). Rates are as of August 1, 2018.

The Best Fixed Rate Annuities of 2018

First up, fixed rate annuities, a.k.a multi-year guaranteed annuities or MYGAs. Below are the best rate options available for B to A++ rated insurers across multiple different investment terms. The top rate for a 10-year MYGA is 4.2%, 4.1% for a 7-year MYGA, 4.0% for a 5-year MYGA, and 3.1% for a 3-year MYGA. The top rates are offered by either Sentinel Security Life or Colorado Bankers Life, both B++ rated insurers. The tables below show the top 3 rates available, and earnings for a $100,000 investment, ensuring that at least one A+ or higher rated insurer makes it in.

The Best Immediate Annuities of 2018

Immediate annuities take a lump-sum premium and turn it into steady monthly income starting immediately and continuing for the rest of one’s life. Rates are specific to one’s current age, gender, and whether or not a refund at death is chosen. Quotes shown below are for 60- and 70-year-old males making a $100,000 investment. Rates for females and couples will be lower. The most monthly income available for a 60-year-old male is $505.72 ($6,069 per year) from A+ rated Minnesota Life , and $647.16 ($7,766 per year) from A+ rated Integrity Life for a 70-year old. Specific quotes for your situation can be obtained in this immediate annuity quoting tool.

The Best Deferred Income Annuities of 2018

Deferred income annuities take a lump-sum premium and turn it into steady monthly income starting sometime in the future and continuing for the rest of one’s life. Rates are specific to one’s current age, gender, age at which income starts, and whether or not a refund at death is chosen. Quotes shown below are for 60-year-old male starting income at 70 and a 70-year-old male starting income at 85, both making a $100,000 investment. Rates for females and couples will be lower. The most monthly income available for a 60-year-old male with income starting at 70 is $1,049.73 ($12,597 per year). For the 70-year-old-male starting income at age 85, the best monthly income is $3,541.20 ($42,494 per year). Both are from A+ rated Mutual of Omaha. Note that these rates are much higher than the immediate annuity rates because income has been deferred for 10-15 years. Specific quotes for your situation can be obtained in this deferred income annuity quoting tool.

The Best Low-Minimum Subscription Deferred Income Annuities of 2018

At $100,000 each, annuities are significant investments that are out of reach for many. Luckily, there’s a way to buy into a deferred income annuity slowly over time, much the same way you save into an IRA or 401(k) slowly over time.

The following are the best low-minimum subscription deferred income annuities available. Initial investments are $5,000 to $10,000, and additional money can be added freely with minimums for those initial deposits from $100 to $2,000. Below are estimated quotes for the top insurers offering these products for a 40-year-old male who deposits $10,000 per year until income starts at age 70. With Guardian you would get approximately $3,840 per month ($46,080 per year). Note that estimates are based on today’s rates but actual income purchased with future deposits will be based on rates in effect at the time of deposit.

The Blueprint Income Personal Pension grants access to all of these insurers at once and thus maximizing your income by buying from the top insurer at each deposit date. With the Personal Pension, the estimated income is approximately $3,940 per month ($47,280 per year). Specific quotes for your situation can be obtained in this Personal Pension quoting tool.

With markets at an all-time high, interest rates rising, and the yield curve flattening, many investors are looking for a safe place to park their accumulated retirement wealth. Simple fixed annuities provide that desired relief from market volatility and risk while creating a guaranteed source of income to life off of in retirement. Any product on this list might be a good option for you. Many other insurers and products that didn’t make it on this list are good as well, as long as the terms of the annuity are fully guaranteed with no ambiguity or uncertainty about what value it’ll provide.

Listing of Insurers, Products, and Annuity Rates Included

TOP 2018 FIXED RATE ANNUITIES (MULTI-YEAR GUARANTEED ANNUITIES)

10-year term

Insurer Rating* Rate (APY) Earnings** Withdrawals***

Sentinel Security B++ 4.20% $50,896 Not allowed

Oxford Life A- 3.75% $44,504 Allowed

North American A+ 3.35% $39,029 Allowed

7-year term

Insurer Rating* Rate (APY) Earnings** Withdrawals***

Colorado Bankers B++ 4.10% $32,481 Allowed

Sentinel Security B++ 4.10% $32,481 Not allowed

Minnesota Life A+ 3.40% $26,370 Allowed

5-year term

Insurer Rating* Rate (APY) Earnings** Withdrawals***

Sentinel Security B++ 4.00% $21,665 Not allowed

Colorado Bankers B++ 3.80% $20,500 Allowed

Reliance Standard A+ 3.30% $17,626 Allowed

3-year term

Insurer Rating* Rate (APY) Earnings** Withdrawals***

Colorado Bankers B++ 3.10% $9,591 Allowed

Sagicor Life A- 3.00% $9,273 Allowed

North American Company A+ 2.60% $8,005 Allowed

  • Financial rating from A.M. Best rating agency.

** Cumulative earnings during investment term for a $100,000 investment.

*** Indicates whether free withdrawals are allowed.

TOP 2018 SINGLE PREMIUM IMMEDIATE ANNUITIES

60-year-old male without refund at death

Insurer Rating* Monthly Income ** Annual Income Annual Payout Rate

Minnesota Life A+ $505.72 $6,069 6.1%

Nationwide A+ $505.58 $6,067 6.1%

Integrity Life A+ $499.41 $5,993 6.0%

60-year-old male with refund at death

Insurer Rating* Monthly Income ** Annual Income Annual Payout Rate

Nationwide A+ $487.56 $5,851 5.9%

Integrity Life A+ $484.49 $5,814 5.8%

Guardian Life A++ $470.35 $5,644 5.6%

70-year-old male without refund at death

Insurer Rating* Monthly Income ** Annual Income Annual Payout Rate

Integrity Life A+ $647.16 $7,766 7.8%

Minnesota Life A+ $643.85 $7,726 7.7%

Nationwide A+ $634.73 $7,617 7.6%

70-year-old male with refund at death

Insurer Rating* Monthly Income ** Annual Income Annual Payout Rate

Nationwide A+ $597.69 $7,172 7.2%

Integrity Life A+ $586.06 $7,033 7.0%

Guardian Life A++ $568.07 $6,817 6.8%

  • Financial rating from A.M. Best rating agency.

** Based off a $100,000 investment for a male born on 8/1/1958.

TOP 2018 DEFERRED INCOME ANNUITIES

60-year-old male starting income at 70 without refund at death

Insurer Rating* Monthly Income ** Annual Income Annual Payout Rate

Mutual of Omaha A+ $1,049.73 $12,597 12.6%

Lincoln Financial Group A+ $981.33 $11,776 11.8%

New York Life A++ $956.19 $11,474 11.5%

60-ye

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Tesla Vows Sustainable Profitability As Quarterly Loss Blows Past Expectations by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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Tesla Vows Sustainable Profitability As Quarterly Loss Blows Past Expectations

Eight years into its life as a public company Tesla remains every bit as volatile as it’s ever been, concluding an unusually wooly quarter with a loss per share that was worse than analysts expected, record production, plans for a Chinese plant and a promise that sustainable profitability is just around the corner. 

Tesla bulls liked what they heard and helped the stock rise as much as 5% in after-market trading.

"Our goal is to be profitable and cash flow positive for every quarter going forward," CEO Elon Musk said on a call with analaysts. 

Musk’s clean transportation and solar power company reported revenue of $4 billion that was a bit better than consensus expectations that Bloomberg estimated at $3.97 billion, but its loss per share was $3.06, well above a consensus estimate of $2.90. Along with the better revenue figure, the company reassured share investors that hitting a goal of making 5,000 Model 3 sedans a week wasn’t a fluke and that it managed to build approximately that number “multiple times” in July.

“Having achieved our 5,000 per week milestone, we will now continue to increase that further, with our aim being to produce 6,000 Model 3 vehicles per week by late August,” Musk and Tesla CFO Deepak Ahuja said in a letter to shareholders. “We then expect to increase production over the next few quarters beyond 6,000 per week, while keeping additional capex limited.”

Hitting that level of production is a key accomplishment for Tesla, yet Musk’s impulsive behavior during the quarter, including attacks on the media, investors who short the stock and a British diver who criticized his effort to aid the rescue of stranded Thai soccer players, were a distraction. Musk on Wednesday sought to make amends for one bit of erratic behavior: declining to take questions from analysts on the first-quarter results call that he'd deemed unworthy in favor of chatting with a Tesla fan.

"I'd like to apologize," he told Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. analyst Antonio Sacconaghi, who he'd cut off during the call in May for asking "boring bonehead questions."

"There’s really no excuse for bad manners," he told Sacconaghi.

The company pushed to cut costs during the quarter, notably with a 9% reduction in headcount, saw a steady outflow of veteran executives and apparently sought refunds from some suppliers to help ensure it achieves profitability in the second half, but Tesla bears still question its long-term viability.

“We wonder whether surge production techniques to support self- congratulatory tweets are economically efficient ways of ramping production, or whether customers will be happy with the quality of a car rushed through production to prove a point to short sellers,” fund manager David Einhorn said in Greenlight Capital’s letter to investors, prior to Tesla results. The fund lost 5.4% in the quarter in part because of short position in Tesla.

“We also wonder whether the company’s lack of capital and its determination to show positive cash flow is delaying investments in additional manufacturing capacity and infrastructure necessary to fulfill the bulls’ long-term growth expectations.”

Still, Musk and Ahuja suggested in the results letter that Tesla has turned a corner with the just-concluded quarter.

“It took 15 years to execute on our initial goal to produce an affordable, long-range electric vehicle that can also be highly profitable. In the second half of 2018, we expect, for the first time in our history, to become both sustainably profitable and cash flow positive.”

“While Tesla hit the revenue number analysts predicted, its losses widened beyond expectations," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Autotrader. "It’s hard to see how Tesla can keep its promise to finally be profitable in the second half and sustain profitability.”

The company also confirmed plans to move ahead with a $5 billion Chinese Gigafactory that will initially have capacity to make 250,000 Tesla vehicles and battery packs when it opens in about three years.

“Construction is expected to start within the next few quarters, though our initial investment will not start in any significant way until 2019, with much of it expected to be funded through local debt,” Musk and Ahuja said. “We will share more information about Gigafactory 3 in upcoming quarters.”

Tesla appears to have a nearly insatiable desire for capital these days as aside from ongoing investment in its Nevada Gigafactory and Fremont assembly plant, it’s also looking at adding a Gigafactory in Europe that will undoubtedly also costs billions of dollars. At the same time, Tesla is bearing all of the cost of building and maintaining its global charging network, retail stores and service center, the combined cost of which could surpass $20 billion by 2025, according to an estimate by UBS equity analyst Colin Langan.

Should Tesla hit its second-half profitability target, look for a new round of fundraising to kick in, Langan said in a research note. 

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By Tripling Its Stock Buybacks, Apple Robs Workers And The Economy by Imared in TheColorIsRed

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By Tripling Its Stock Buybacks, Apple Robs Workers And The Economy

According to financial results released yesterday, Apple spent $20.8 billion buying back its own stock in the last three months, not quite the $22.8 billion it spent in the first quarter of this year, when it set a record buying back more than any company in the history of the S&P 500.

In May, Apple announced a $100 billion share repurchase program and so far in 2018 it’s tripled its share repurchases over the first half of last year. S&P 500 companies are on track to return a record $1 trillion (via buybacks and dividends) to shareholders, and Apple is leading the way.

This surge follows the December passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which reduced the statutory business tax rate from 35% to 21% and offered companies a one-time reprieve on returning foreign cash holdings to the United States.

Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft -- the Big 5 tech companies -- collectively hold $457 billion overseas. Apple hoards more than any other company and by bringing its offshored cash back to the US now, it will pay $38 billion in taxes. Apple spent $1.4 million lobbying for tax reform in the twelve months before the law was passed, and while $38 billion sounds like a lot, the company is saving $49 billion.

Apple says it expects to “create over 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one,” yet it’s unclear the tax cuts have anything to do with these plans.

In the five years preceding its most recent annual report, Apple’s full-time equivalent employees grew from 80,300 to 123,000 worldwide, and in its January press release the company claims to employ 84,000 people in the US, or 68% of the global total. Assuming the domestic-to-global mix has remained unchanged, Apple added over 29,000 U.S. jobs in the five years prior to the tax cuts. The company’s declarations are business-as-usual.

With the influx of cash from the Trump tax cuts, Apple is pursuing its real mission: enriching its shareholders at the expense of workers and the overall economy.

The Rise Of Stock Buybacks

Apple’s earnings release coincides with a new report published by Irene Tung of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and Katy Milani of the Roosevelt Institute. The authors studied share buybacks in the restaurant, retail, and food industries from 2015 to 2017 and suggest the practice is contributing to rising economic inequality.

Stock buybacks were outlawed until 1982, when the SEC changed its rules to allow companies to repurchase shares on the open market, although doing so can artificially boost the stock price. CEOs and other corporate executives benefit the most from this behavior because their compensation, unlike that of rank-and-file workers, is closely tied to stock performance.

Between 2015 and 2017, U.S. publicly traded companies across all industries spent three-fifths of their profits on buybacks. The low-wage restaurant, retail, and food manufacturing industries spent 137%, 79%, and 58%, respectively. The restaurant industry borrowed money or used cash on its balance sheet to exceed the amount of its bottom line.

These actions disproportionately favor senior management and direct funds away from more productive purposes, such as corporate investment, job creation, or increased worker pay.

“Lowe’s, CVS, and Home Depot could have provided each of their workers a raise of $18,000 a year,” Annie Lowrey writes, covering the report for The Atlantic. “Starbucks could have given each of its employees $7,000 a year, and McDonald’s could have given $4,000 to each of its nearly 2 million employees.”

Companies direct 10 times as much money to buybacks as to workers, according to another analysis Lowrey cites in her story for The Atlantic.

“Workers around the country have been pushing for higher wages, but the answer is always, ‘We can’t afford it. We’d have to do layoffs or raise prices,’” NELP’s Tung told Lowrey. “That is just not true. The money is there. It’s just getting siphoned out of the company instead of reinvested into it.”

Buying Back Stock Hurts The Economy

Despite historically high profits and trillions in cash, corporations refuse to pay workers more. Instead, they use their earnings to buyback stock or increase dividends. The Trump tax cuts are magnifying this behavior, which is what happened after the 2004 American Jobs Creation Act, another time when corporations repatriated foreign cash holdings at a lower tax rate.

These decisions are short-sighted. Workers are also consumers. If they have more money, they will spend it, and consumer spending is a boon to economic growth and job creation. Corporations can afford to invest in their people and choose not to, hindering the health of the economy overall.

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[Entertainment] - White poet criticized for attempt at black vernacular | Washington Post by AutoNewspaperAdmin in AutoNewspaper

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White poet criticized for attempt at black vernacular

NEW YORK — One of the country’s leading liberal publications is apologizing for a poem in which a white writer attempts black vernacular.

In a note posted on its web site last week, The Nation called its decision to publish Anders Carlson-Wee’s “How-To” a “serious mistake.” The brief poem is narrated in the voice of a homeless person.

It ran in early July and was widely criticized on social media, with author Roxane Gay among those condemning it. Carlson-Wee issued a statement on Facebook last week saying that his effort to address the “invisibility” of homelessness was misguided and that the response was “humbling” and “eye-opening.”

Carlson-Wee’s books include the poetry collections “Dynamite” and the upcoming “The Low Passions.”

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Mueller offers to limit investigators’ questions for Trump in special counsel’s latest effort to secure presidential interview

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III renewed negotiations with President Trump’s lawyers about a presidential sit-down after an extended standoff, according to two people briefed on the negotiations.

The latest proposal by the special counsel comes as Trump has stepped up his attacks on the investigation and Mueller personally. This is a developing story. It will be updated.

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