A quirk in the Unicode standard harbors an ideal steganographic code channel.

"No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment," Apple AI summarized.

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Electronic Resource- 

Location: Engineering Library- TS1767.P35 2016

Location: Main Oversize- BQ3080.S455S45 2014

Location: Electronic Resource- 

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

Welcome to hell week: Somehow, it's here. The 2024 election is tomorrow. If you haven't mailed yours in yet, do it today. Better yet, drop your ballot in a ballot box. Please do not drop any incendiary devices in ballot boxes. Tell your friends to vote. Tell your enemies to vote. Vote like your life depends on it. Vote like someone else's life depends on it. Then, take a nap or something. 

Scene setting: Wind and weather are turbulent today. Everything is astir. 

⚠️The next storm system will move into western WA Monday into Tuesday, bringing gusty winds, lowland rain, mountain snow, & high surf to the region. Details are highlighted below!

— NWS Seattle (@NWSSeattle) November 3, 2024

To make everything worse: The sun is dead. It isn't coming back until spring. Say goodbye to long days. Go to an antique store and buy a lamp. I went to the Antique Mall of West Seattle this weekend and bought myself one. It's saving me. We all deserve soft, buttery warm light this winter. 

Starting tonight, the sun will set in the 4 pm hour every night until Jan. 25.

Seattle area vampires, rejoice! ????

— Seattle Weather Blog (@KSeattleWeather) November 3, 2024

Iowaaaaat? Cross your fingers and hold your breath for this next part. The poll by respected pollster and possible soothsayer Ann Selzer commissioned by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Donald Trump 47% to 44% in Iowa. The state has voted staunchly red and resolutely for Trump. Back in June, Trump led President Joe Biden (before he decided he should lay down and take a nap instead of running for re-election) by 18 points. Even as recently as September, Trump led Harris in Iowa by 4 points. Apparently, the tables are turning and women are the ones doing the spinning. Particularly, older and independent women voters. Abortion is soooo on the ballot and Iowan women are not taking their futures lightly. If this poll is right, Harris wouldn't just win Iowa, she'd win it in a landslide. 

Trump says "actually, no:" Famous fact-lover Donald Trump says the Iowa poll is wrong and we are all mistaken. According to Trump, the truly accurate poll is the one from Emerson College that shows him up 53% to Harris' 43%. 

Someone who will not get to see if the Iowa poll is accurate: Music legend Quincy Jones died on Sunday. He was 91. 

Don't look a gift poll in the mouth: The knock-on-wood-worthy polling isn't just for national politics. In local news, a Northwest Progressive Institute poll found that in the Seattle City Council Position 8 race, Alexis Mercedes Rink leads incumbent Tanya Woo 52% to 28%. Remember how U2 slipped its album "Songs of Innocence" into everyone's iTunes libraries back in 2014? That's basically how it feels having the council-selected Woo, who knows nothing about anything, in a position of power. Seems as though Seattle is rejecting Woo the same way everyone rejected "Songs of Innocence"—moving her straight to the trash where we hopefully will never have to listen to her again. 

Not worried about the election? Must be nice. But, also maybe you should be. Gov. Jay Inslee clearly is. He signed a letter activating the National Guard in the event of civil unrest after the election.

Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee is activating the state's National Guard, directing personnel to make preparations in case they need to respond to “civil unrest” related to the election. pic.twitter.com/26JGFkv03a

— Mike Baker (@ByMikeBaker) November 2, 2024

Bad news for Peanut: Tragedy struck the squirrelly saga of Peanut, the social media sensation plucked from his owner's care last week by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Apparently, after removing Peanut, the DEC then euthanized him to "test for rabies." The squirrel who often donned tiny cowboy hats will only do so now from heaven. Rest easy, Peanut. 

Roaming police: City officials mysteriously placed Tacoma's police chief on a brief administrative leave back in September. Now, we know why. Chief Avery Moore was gabbing too much while on vacation. Moore racked up a $1,082 bill on his city-issued cellphone while he was in Sweden. Most of the charges appear to be international usage charges, but I like to imagine Moore couldn't stop gossiping on the phone while touring fjords. 

Work stoppage for NYT tech guild: The "over 600 software engineers, product managers, data analysts, and designers" keeping the New York Times website up and running went on strike at 12:01 this morning, in the latest attempt to win a union contract with the media company. The work stoppage comes at a pivotal time for the NYT; Election Day coverage on the ~newspaper of record~ requires a lot of tech. Maybe this squeeze will give these workers the contract they're asking for. In the meantime, don't cross the digital picket line. No Wordle. No Connections. Just solidarity. 

Have you seen this prayer wheel? Capitol Hill Himalayan restaurant Annapurna needs helping finding the handmade Tibetan prayer wheel that normally sits outside its front entrance. Someone nabbed the prayer wheel last week. Last time a business's prayer wheel went missing, someone found it in Lake Washington. 

WA GOP's sexist, racist, anti-LGBTQ text campaign: In Washington's 14th legislative district, the texts are getting out of hand. The Spanish texts spread lies about Latina Democratic candidates, saying they "support chemical castration of children at school," they want to "eliminate the Spanish language," and they "hate your family, they hate God, and they hate the truth." Washington GOP chair Jim Walsh confirmed the organization footed the bill for these texts. The Democrats are pissed and believe these texts are defamatory and broke campaign finance laws. They'll be taking legal action.  

The Washington State GOP is sending out these texts in an increasingly Latino state senate district (14), per a source who sent these along.

(I speak French, not Spanish, so these translations are not my own).

Demographic data on the district here, which is held by 3… pic.twitter.com/ZLy0TCf3As

— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) November 2, 2024

Volcanic eruptions in Indonesia: Mount Lewotobi Laki Laki erupted at around midnight Monday. The hot ash shot as high as 6,500 feet into the air and hit several villages, burning down several houses, including a convent of Catholic nuns. Ten people are dead so far. 

South Africa's Steve Irwin died: Dingo Dinkelman, 44, was a wildlife content creator and a conservationist. Dinkelman died from a venomous snake bite after spending a month in an induced coma. 

Something to take your mind off the election: Make this chili. 

The Stranger's morning news round-up. by Nathalie Graham

One more for the blue: After a neck-in-neck race, Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez officially won re-election to the House in the 3rd Congressional District, beating out far-right challenger Joe Kent. Her win is another step forward for Democrats as they try to take back the House and retain a shred of power in the coming administration from hell. About two dozen races nation-wide still need to be decided.

Please spare us, H5N1: The Centers for Disease Control want more testing done for bird flu after blood tests on 115 of dairy workers showed 7% had bird flu antibodies, meaning they'd already contracted the disease at some point. Previously, we only confirmed 46 cases of bird flu jumping from cows to farmworkers. This new study suggests that bird flu has infected many more people than the confirmed cases. Experts say this indicates the H5N1 viruses are a greater threat than we realized. Great! Another flu just in time for the vaccine-doubters to take office. 

Wet weekend—and then week—ahead: Friday will likely be our last dry day for a while. Get your galoshes ready. The rain starts Saturday and it'll continue at least throughout the week.

I hope you like rain this weekend! ????️

It could be wet for the State H.S. football tournament games across the Puget Sound region. #pnw pic.twitter.com/JAvPx7hegV

— Jake Whittenberg (@jwhittenbergK5) November 8, 2024

That's nice: Boeing said it will pay the employees the money they lost while being furloughed during the machinists' strike that started in September. 

Egyptian flooding: A pipe leak at the historic Egyptian Cinema on Capitol Hill shut down the 108-year-old theater for the "foreseeable future." Repairs will be expensive and take months. The universe does not want me or my people (progressives, art house movie lovers) to be happy this week. 

INBOX: The SIFF Cinema Egyptian is going to be closed for "the foreseeable future and the Fine Arts building leadership expect that it will take multiple months of building closure to assess, repair and reopen." Sad news especially during what is a big time of the year for film. pic.twitter.com/v2ItPx5Lpi

— Chase 'Hutch' Hutchinson (@EclecticHutch) November 7, 2024

Another hit while we're down: Don't forget, five light rail stops will close this weekend. Starting at 10 pm on Friday through 5 am Monday, Westlake, Symphony, Pioneer Square, International District/Chinatown, and Stadium stations will all be closed and inaccessible. Trains will run between Lynnwood and Capitol Hill and between Sodo and Angle Lake. Shuttle buses will be available to bridge gaps between open and closed stations. It’s all part of the crawling effort to connect Line 1 to the Eastside line.

Sign of the times: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale rocketed to the top of Amazon's bestsellers list this week.  

Racist texts: In the days after the election, Black and Brown people across the country received spammy, racist texts telling them they had "been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation" and that the senders' "executive slave catchers" would pick them up. State attorney generals say they will root out who sent these texts. A second Donald Trump term means the masks covering the depravity in America are well and truly off. Racists are emboldened. 

Nobody panic: Forty-three monkeys escaped from a medical lab in South Carolina. "There is almost no danger to the public," a local police chief said. No danger? Isn't this how Planet of the Apes started? 

Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam: Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv and Dutch's Ajax faced off in a Europa League soccer game Thursday. After the game, people attacked Israelis in hit-and-run scooter attacks. Five Israeli fans went to the hospital, but have since been released. Around 20 to 30 other Israelis sustained light injuries. Police arrested 63 people, and ten are still in custody. Context, as always, is important. In the days leading up to the match, social media videos showed Maccabi fans "chanting anti-Arab slurs, praising Israeli military attacks in Gaza, and yelling 'fuck the Arabs,'" according to CNN. Ajax won the game 5-0. 

And now, something from Ashley about the cops: 

Fill’er up: The King County Jail officially lifted misdemeanor booking restrictions for the Seattle Police Department (SPD) allowing officers to finally lock up all those pesky Target shoplifters and people who tried to use the bathroom at PCC one too many times and ended up trespassed. I wrote about how SPD Deputy Chief Eric Barden told officers in a department wide email Tuesday that they should book people into jail whenever a public safety interest existed and only show additional discretion when the department neared their misdemeanor bed limit of 135 people per day. Most people charged with misdemeanors spend less than a week in jail, so could be a lot of people cycling through, which King County Department of Public Defense Interim Director Matt Sanders said will ultimately make it harder for people to hold down jobs, maintain housing, and secure behavioral health treatment, ultimately undermining public safety in the city.

Did you hear about San Francisco's new mayor? He's a centrist Democrat and he's the heir to the Levi's fortune. Daniel Lurie won the ranked-choice voting election with 56.2% of the vote. Incumbent London Breed only received 43.8%. San Franciscans made clear they are sick of seeing poverty and being confronted with crimes of desperation. Unfortunately, as we know very well in Seattle, electing a centrist may hide the problems for a bit, but it will do nothing to fix them. 

A porn gorge: North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia have unrestricted internet access for the first time in their lives and they're using it to watch mountains of porn and jerk themselves silly. Boys will be boys! 

Need something to do tonight? The world is bleak. Why not laugh a little at an improv show? The improv theater I wrote about for my column is having a battle of the star signs show tonight followed by an open-to-all improv jam. I'll be performing on the Scorpio team even though I'm not a Scorpio (don't tell anyone). 

A song for your Friday: This just feels like the sound of my psyche right now. 

Talk about a well-oiled machine…

In this episode, Thomas Domville discusses how to turn off repeated text message alerts on iOS and iPadOS. By default, your device will send a second notification alert two minutes after you receive a text message if you don't check it right away. This feature is designed to help ensure that you don't miss any important messages, but some users find it to be more annoying than helpful.

If you're one of those users, don't worry, it's easy to turn off repeated alerts. Here's how:

1. Open the Settings app and double-tap Notifications.
2. Double-tap Messages, and then double-tap "Customize notifications" at the bottom of the page; note that you can quickly jump to this button by performing a four-finger single-tap near the bottom of the screen.
3. Double-tap "Repeat Alerts," and select "Never" to only be notified of an incoming text message once.

In this episode, Thomas Domville introduces us to the Text Detection feature added to the Magnifier app in iOS 17. This tool can read text aloud that is detected in real-time by your device camera or display it on the screen, making it a valuable resource for those with visual impairments or difficulties reading small or challenging text.

Here are the steps to access Text Detection:

1. Open the Magnifier app.
2. Choose the Detection Mode option.
3. Press the Text Detection button.
4. Aim your iPhone at the text you want to read.

Alternatively,

1. Initiate Detection Mode with a four-finger triple tap.
2. Press the Text Detection button.
3. Aim your iPhone at the text you want to read.

Note that Text Detection is only available on iPhone and iPad models with a LiDAR scanner.

In this episode, Thomas Domville demonstrates how to enable the Fast long-press speed option on iOS 17. This new feature allows for quicker access to context menus and other Haptic Touch actions, enhancing your workflow and making your iPhone feel more responsive.

Here’s how you can activate the Fast Long-Press Speed Option:

1. Launch the Settings app.
2. Navigate to Accessibility.
3. Select Touch.
4. Choose Haptic Touch.

5. Under Touch Duration, opt for Fast.

   You can gauge the new response time by long-pressing on the flower image displayed on the same screen. This simple adjustment can significantly boost your iPhone’s responsiveness.

In this episode, Thomas Domville demonstrates how to enable or disable predictive text and inline predictive text on iOS. Predictive text allows you to write entire sentences with just a few taps. As you type, suggested words, emoji, and information appear above the onscreen keyboard. You can double tap a suggestion to apply it. Inline predictions complete the word or phrase you’re currently typing, appearing in gray text. To accept an inline prediction, double tap the Space bar; to reject it, keep typing. You can manage predictive text settings in Keyboard settings on your iPhone 12 or newer models running iOS 17 or later versions.

Open Settings on your iPhone.
Scroll down and double tap on General.
Double tap Keyboard.
Double tap the Predictive switch to enable or disable predictive text.
To manage inline predictive text, ensure that the Predictive switch is enabled or disabled.
While typing, you’ll see inline predictions. To accept a suggestion, double tap the Space bar; to reject it, keep typing.

transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello and welcome.

My name is Thomas Donville also known as AnonyMouse.

Now every so often when I am composing an email or I'm trying to send off a text to a friend or family whatever that might be and I'm using the keyboard as I'm typing there is something called predictive text that will pop up so it tries to predict what you are going to spell out and this feature what this does it tries to help you shorten your typing that you have to do so you just find the various words on top of your keyboard tap on that and it selects that then they have this inline predictive text now which is a newer feature which takes it a next step that allows you to highlight within the text itself and allows you to choose those words but for me those are distracting I am trying to focus and I am NOT a multitasker as I would love to be but as I'm typing along I it just bothers me hearing these words pop up and they don't help me at all I want to kind of stay focused and type in what I want so I'm going to show you how you can turn those features off if you are interested in doing so and if you are distracted like I am when those things come up I'm also going to show you some pointers and advice some other things you can turn off as well what they call features and for some may be distracting to you as well or something that drives you bonkers so do in order to go and change this settings we are going to head over to the native settings itself settings double tap to open now that you located the settings let's do one finger double tap to open this up settings now you are going to need to swipe to the right until we get to something called general general button and we are going to do one finger double tap here about button and now we are looking for something called keyboard so swipe to the right until you get to keyboard keyboard button and at last we are here one finger double tap on keyboard keyboards to button now the easiest way to get to the area that we need to do is set your rotor to headings and go to the first heading all keyboards heading and now what we're looking for is predictive text so swipe to the right a couple times and…

In this episode, Tyler demonstrates how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS.

As you type on your Mac, macOS by default attempts to finish words and phrases it thinks you're trying to type. If you find that hearing these suggestions spoken by VoiceOver is more distracting than helpful, you can turn them off by going to System Settings > Keyboard, clicking the Edit button under the "Text input" heading, and toggling the "show inline predictive text" switch off.

transcription:

Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hey, Apple vissers, Tyler here, with a quick tip for how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS.

By default, as you type on your Mac, macOS attempts to finish words and phrases that it thinks you're trying to type.

While this may increase the speed of text entry for some, if you're a voiceover user, you may find that hearing these suggestions spoken while you're trying to type is more distracting than helpful, in which case you can turn them off.

To do that, go into system settings, keyboard, hit the edit button under the text input heading, and turn the show inline predictive text switch off.

And I'm going to demonstrate that now, I'm going to system settings on my Mac, k for keyboard, vio command h to get to the text input heading, vio right, edit, and at the leftmost of this dialog, k, that's what we want, vio right, scroll area, interact with vio shift down arrow, and vio right until I find the setting I want, show inline predictive text, if I vio right once more, show inline predictive text off switch, it's off for me because I turned it off.

If it's on for you and you want to turn it off, just press vio space, then stop interacting with the scroll area, with vio shift up arrow, and vio right to done, hit it, and here we are back in keyboard settings.

So now as you type, you will not hear text suggestions predicted by macOS, which could almost ironically increase your speed of text entry because this feature is off and is no longer giving you distracting or potentially distracting feedback.

So that's a tip for how to disable predictive text suggestions on macOS, I hope you found it helpful.

Peace.

Thank you.

In this episode, Thomas Domville provides a detailed walkthrough of the ElevenLabs Reader for iOS. This versatile app transforms any text content into natural, expressive speech using advanced AI-generated voices. Perfect for articles, ePubs, PDFs, and more, it enables users to enjoy their favorite content on the go. With an extensive and ever-growing library of voices, the app offers a personalized listening experience tailored to any mood or occasion.

ElevenLabs Reader: AI Audio on the App Store
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/elevenlabs-reader-ai-audio/id6479373050

transcription:
Disclaimer: This transcript is generated by AIKO, an automated transcription service. It is not edited or formatted, and it may not accurately capture the speakers’ names, voices, or content.

Hello and welcome.

My name is Thomas Domville, also known as AnonyMouse.

I'm going to introduce you to an app called 11 Labs Reader, and it's spelled just as it sounds like.

So 11 Labs is one word, E-L-E-V-E-N-L-A-B-S, 11 Labs, space, reader.

This is an amazing app that you definitely want to check out if there's something that interests you, of course.

So I'm going to do a nice little review and walk through and show you a demonstration how to use 11 Labs Reader.

Now before I do that, 11 Labs should sound familiar for most of you out there.

If you haven't heard of 11 Labs, no problem.

11 Labs has been around for some time now, and what they're known for is being able to take any text and convert it into audio for you to listen.

It's incredible technology.

It sounds marvelous, and it's trying to do its best to sound as natural as possible.

And I personally think they're getting really close to that moment where we will be able to say, wow, this is definitely a hit on their hands.

And I think this app is no doubt going to be something that's going to be popular by some of you out there.

Now I have used other apps.

I won't mention those names.

They will take various files like text files or probably PDFs or EPUBs and try to read it out using whatever voice over voices that we have now.

And as you know, well, for myself, I'm not a big fan of those things.

And it's really kind of hard to read books or listen to articles with those voices, especially when I come back in a background where I'm not used to using older voices such as eloquence and such things like that.

It just sounds very unnatural, very robotic.

So I'm really more into more natural sounding speech.

So this is no doubt one of the big app that I definitely going to keep on my main home screen from now on.

Now it's saying that there are some quirks and issues with this app.

Yeah, for the most part, it is accessible and usable.

Now there are some things that if you need to do, it can be difficult.

So I won't be pointing that out.

But I'm hoping that there's definitely going to be some update to this app and to making things more efficient for voice over users.

Overall, I think this app definitely has potential and it definitely is going to be something I'm going to be using a lot.

So let's go ahead and…

India's home textile industry is set to witness 6-8 per cent growth this fiscal, riding on resilient demand from the US and expansion in the domestic market, according to a report on Tuesday.

The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) on Monday said the return of Donald Trump as the next US President will bolster India's textile and apparel trade with its largest international market.

Driven by strong demand from the US and growth in the domestic market, India's home textile industry is poised for a 6-8% growth this fiscal year. Despite economic concerns in the EU, the industry's credit profiles are expected to remain stable, supported by healthy cash accrual and moderate capital expenditure plans.

Jason Kottke returns to the show to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Kottke.org.

La Luciérnaga se enciende para hablar de las reformas que aún no han presentado un texto ante el Congreso. Además, le contamos sobre qué está pasando con los dineros para reparar a las victimas de la guerrilla de las FARC. También, ¿Los colombianos aún prefieren el efectivo a los pagos electrónicos?La Luciérnaga, un espacio de humor, análisis y opinión de Caracol Radio que acompaña desde hace 30 años a sus oyentes en el regreso a casa.

In 2020, pivotal events ushered in a season of antiracism rhetoric in the U.S. The brutal deaths of unarmed black Americans at the hands of police officers and white vigilantes, and the disproportionately harsh impact of COVID-19 in the black American community, launched the nation into a discussion about systemic racism. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the 2020 antiracism discourse was merely seasonal rather than enduring, and unlikely to result in meaningful change. 

Black American’s vulnerability in the face of systemic racism is not limited to death, sickness and injury as a result of COVID-19 or antiblack bias in police departments. Our vulnerability is precipitated by things like lack of access to nonpredatory financial services. This is just one of the contexts that compromise black Americans’ economic survival. Unacknowledged systemic racism destroys the wealth and wellbeing of black individuals, families and communities, sometimes causing working and middle-class black Americans to plummet into poverty. As 2020 comes to a close, an election that threatened democracy in the U.S. and the existential threats of an uncontrolled pandemic, eclipse a system of intentional antiblack racism on the part of the financial institutions that engaged in predatory mortgage lending in the years leading up to and beyond the 2008 recession. It is now well documented that lenders, brokers, and mortgage servicers engaged in conduct that was fraudulent and misleading. The mortgage market charged excessively high rates and fees, engaged in high-pressure sales tactics, imposed unnecessarily harsh prepayment penalties, and distorted loan structures to avoid the application of consumer protection statutes.  But, more than a decade later, many black Americans are still fighting to prevent financial institutions from taking away their homes. 

In a book I coauthored with Dr. Janis Sarra, a law professor at the University of British Columbia, Predatory Lending and the Destruction of the African American Dream (Cambridge University Press, 2020), we describe new iterations of predation that continue to target black consumers years after financial institutions settled litigation that alleged pervasive fraud on their part for steering black Americans into predatory subprime loans. But these renovated predatory practices are obscured by the nation’s focus on COVID-19 and a vitriolic election season. Meanwhile, more black Americans will lose their homes even after investing all or most of their wealth in attempts to keep them. This reality requires the calls for moratoriums on mortgage foreclosures to be answered in the affirmative.

Site with free patterns and textures.

Cleverly disguised WebCam Spam from MySafeStreams.com

Sometimes it's better to talk on the phone over texting.

Legislation will be amended to increase maximum allowable severance pay from 26 weeks to 32 weeks for employees in continuous employment for 13 years or more, the Banks and Deposit Companies Act 1999 will be amended to require basic banking services to be provided for all persons, and the Ministry of Justice will support the […]

Apex Group Ltd. announced it has acquired the technology platform and conference business of Context365, “an established global provider of technology and events that connects alternative asset class investors with high quality asset managers.” A spokesperson said, “Context365 connects LPs and GPs through its software as a service [SaaS] digital networking and research platform, further […]

This time next year, we'll bring back the Greek, Old Church Slavonic, three kinds of Swedish, Haitian, Icelandic, and Quenya....

In 1999, Maureen Dowd devoted her existence to ruining Monica Lewinksy's life. She was 47 then. She had just been dumped by Michael Douglas for Catherine Zeta-Jones. Dowd is 72 now.

In the quest for a more sustainable future, the Finnish city of Lahti has taken a remarkable step with an innovative pilot program called the Textile Deposit scheme. This incentivized recycling program aims to encourage locals to actively sort and recycle their textile waste instead of sending it to the landfill. [...]

It all starts with the anything-but-smooth introduction...

7-minute video shows how you can a single line of text from either a .txt file or a database, for example, displaying name of duty manager. The ability to display database information is available in the Corporate and Media Wall editions of Repeat Signage digital signage software. Ideal for displaying company information on any screen anywhere.

Informational text — resources whose purpose is to inform — is essential to daily life and fundamental to literacy. Unfortunately, young children typically have limited exposure to informational text. Two 9-week randomized controlled trials with 263 first-grade children from low-income communities examined whether free educational videos and digital games from the PBS KIDS show “Molly of Denali” supported children’s ability to use informational text to answer real-world questions. Study 1 found significant positive intervention impacts on child outcomes; Study 2 replicated these findings.

Texts classified according to guided reading levels (GRL) are ubiquitous in U.S. beginning reading classrooms. This study examined features of texts across three grade bands (kindergarten, early first grade, final first grade) and the 10 GRLs within these bands. The 510 texts came from three programs with different functions in beginning reading instruction: core, intervention, and content areas.

Teacher question: I understand your claims that teaching students with grade-level texts instead of instructional level texts increases children’s opportunities to learn. However, what about children’s emotional needs, self-esteem, motivation, and self-starting skills when text is challenging. Children who struggle with sight words or sounding out words who are given a hard piece of text will shut down and refuse to try or will act out in the classroom.

I’m writing this blog because of the disarray I see over the topic of context instruction and the poor instructional practice that it seems to manifest. One confusion is already well recognized, but merits some mention here. The other befuddlement usually goes without remark, and yet it, too, has unfortunate consequences for young readers.

AUKUS reveals much about the new global strategic context Expert comment NCapeling 17 September 2021

The new AUKUS partnership as well as the furore in Paris surrounding its announcement says a lot about the new geopolitical landscape.

The growing diplomatic drama surrounding the announcement of the new Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) risks concealing rather than highlighting what the deal reveals about profound changes in the global strategic context. Several elements stand out.

First, Australia’s decision to break off the $66 billion contract it signed with France in 2016 to purchase a new fleet of diesel electric submarines underscores the heightened level of concern in Canberra about China’s growing naval capabilities.

Despite all the industrial, legal, and diplomatic disruption, the Australian government has decided only the stealthy nuclear-powered submarines developed by Britain with US support can provide the genuine naval capability it needs long-term.

Next, in helping Australia resolve this conundrum, the British government has revealed the versatility of its new foreign policy. Part of the reason UK prime minister Boris Johnson eschewed the concept of a formal foreign policy and security treaty in the post-Brexit deal with the European Union (EU) was to pursue freely new ventures such as the recent ‘G7-plus’ summit in Cornwall, and enhanced cooperation among the Five Eyes allies. AUKUS reveals that this approach can produce real results.

Europe or the Indo-Pacific

During this week’s Polish-British Belvedere Forum in Warsaw, one of the main Polish concerns was that this ‘tilt’ to the Indo-Pacific could overstretch Britain’s scarce resources when it should be focusing on Europe, where they are most needed.

But AUKUS does not over-extend Britain. There is no military commitment involved in the agreement. The UK also remains outside the Quad – made up of the US, India, Japan, and Australia. And the ongoing stately voyage of its new aircraft carrier from the Mediterranean into the South China Sea provides better insight into the substance of the UK’s Indo-Pacific tilt.

Much derided for not carrying enough of its own aircraft – and for depending on US and Dutch escort vessels – the UK has in fact managed to coalesce a flexible group of allies around the Queen Elizabeth while enabling it to fly the British flag in Asian waters and strengthening interoperability with its allies for future joint operations.

Despite the hype, Britain’s main defence investments and deployments remain firmly focused in Europe, as laid out by the recent Integrated Review. And the decision to draft a new NATO Strategic Concept – midwifed by Britain at the 70th anniversary NATO summit hosted in London in December 2019 and confirmed during Joe Biden’s visit to NATO headquarters in June – will give Britain’s role in European security a new purpose and focus in the coming years.

Alone on the strategic landscape

For France, of course, the cancellation of its submarine deal is a painful humiliation, and a severe blow to thousands of workers in its hi-tech defence industry. It also comes at a sensitive moment politically, with Emmanuel Macron keen to demonstrate his international standing ahead of the 2022 presidential election. Instead, France now looks rather lonely on the strategic landscape alongside the more homogeneous and collectively powerful AUKUS trio.

But, rather than take the high road, a furious French reaction has compared Biden to Donald Trump and argued that this defence industrial failure for France should drive an acceleration towards European – for which, read EU – strategic autonomy.

This implies France sees European strategic autonomy as protecting and extending its own sovereign power and industrial interests rather than as a process for EU members to achieve more together in security and foreign policy than they can alone – thereby undermining rather than enhancing its case.

The gap between European strategic rhetoric and practical action was further highlighted by the AUKUS partnership being announced the evening before the EU launched its own Indo-Pacific strategy, and on the same day as China refused to allow a German frigate its first planned port visit to Shanghai.

America is still back

There is still a long way to go before the new submarine deal becomes reality. Australia needs to extricate itself from the French deal, decide how to secure the highly enriched uranium to power its new nuclear submarines, decide with the US and UK the division of labour and technology transfer of production, and assuage the International Atomic Energy Agency’s concerns about the precedent this deal sets. The fruits of this dramatic announcement will, therefore, be a long time in coming.

But, however the details play out, 15 September 2021 was a consequential day. The AUKUS announcement showed that China’s growing hard power is now eliciting a genuinely tough and structural political-military reaction.

Across the Atlantic, it also allowed President Biden – flanked ‘virtually’ by the British and Australian prime ministers – to send the global message that America is indeed back, just three weeks after the ignominious retreat from Afghanistan and chaotic exit from Kabul. And it offered him the opportunity to remind the world that the Indo-Pacific is where the US will be putting its main effort in the future.

For many in China, AUKUS now confirms their belief that the US and its principal allies are determined to contain China’s rise in its own ‘backyard’, where it believes it has the right to flex its muscles. For others, it will confirm Xi Jinping has overreached and China is now paying the price of his more assertive strategy. Either way, the Chinese are on notice that the ambivalent nature of the Obama pivot to Asia has given way to a more determined pivot under Biden.

While the US is stepping up, the UK has shown it is in the mix, leveraging opportunities as they arise. For example, the goodwill the UK has generated in Tokyo with this new partnership with Australia could help its case as it pursues membership of the Transpacific Partnership trade area in 2022.

The EU looks like a bystander in comparison and ill-equipped for the geopolitical competition inherent in this new strategic context. It is essential, therefore, once the dust has settled from these fraught few days, that the US and UK reach out to find ways to involve France and its EU partners in a meaningful, shared transatlantic approach to the Indo-Pacific.

Adopting a Market-based Approach to Boost Energy Access in Displaced Contexts Research paper sysadmin 25 March 2019

This paper evaluates the market-based approaches adopted in the MEI projects in Kenya and Burkina Faso. It articulates how such commercial strategies can be applied to the delivery of energy in displacement settings and compares this to real world examples.

• Development of long-term energy solutions in displacement settings tends to be perceived as investment that falls outside the remit of emergency responses. In addition, when emergency energy supply measures are implemented they often result in expensive, unreliable and unhealthy energy provision for those in protracted or recurrent crises.
• There is widespread agreement among humanitarian and development experts that an effective refugee response should include long-term development solutions as well as emergency relief.
• The energy access imperative is more pronounced when considering the need for effective energy distribution in practically all camp activities and basic necessities: pumping and treatment of clean water; heating and cooling for food storage and cooking; energy for livelihood activities; and provision of light for schooling, hospitals and the prevention of violence against women and children.
• Minor shifts in household energy use to basic solar lighting options and non-wood fuels would save $303 million annually on refugee fuel costs.
• Within refugee contexts in Kenya and Burkina Faso, the MEI sought to examine opportunities to use market interventions, rather than in-kind distributions, to improve clean energy access over the long-term and test the delivery of market-based approaches.

South Africa's Economic Reform and Employment in the Context of the Coronavirus Pandemic 3 September 2020 — 3:00PM TO 4:00PM Anonymous (not verified) 26 August 2020 Online

President of COSATU, Zingiswa Losi, discusses the organization’s priorities for protecting jobs and workers, and working with other stakeholders to build a sustainable post-pandemic economy.

Employment in South Africa fell by an estimated 18 per cent between February and April 2020. The measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 suffocated an already weak economy and unemployment has hit a new high.

The stated aims of the government’s economic reform plans include the support of job creation in labour intensive industries, but the reform of the state and rebalancing of the economy and fiscus could lead to further job losses in state agencies and enterprises.

Protecting jobs while ensuring the health and safety of workers are dual priorities, and require the joint commitment and ‘social compact’ of labour, business and government.

But some Democrats say that could make the selection process more political.