The party said Parliament should assert itself and not allow this to happen, as it called upon the Centre and the states to jointly formulate an action plan to ensure safe return of migrants to their homes.

A Saskatoon family physician wanted to find a way to help send supplies to the northern community of La Loche and set an initial goal for $15,000 - but within days the donations total over $26,000.

Filed under: Arts and Culture, North America, United States

Joanne and Gary, rival travel agents compete for their industry's top honor, the Globel Prize, while trying to address their clients' impossible demands in an Off-Broadway comedy that debuts this week, "Craving for Travel."

The 85-minute, two-actor, 30-character comedy was commissioned and produced by Jim Strong, president of the Dallas-based Strong Travel Services travel agency.

"Travel agents are always asked to do the impossible, and this play shows how that is done, from finding the impossible rooms to making dreams come true," Strong told the "Dallas Morning News." "I decided to bring it to life on stage as a comedy in New York."

From "Craving for Travel's" press release:

With their reputations on the line, travel agents Joanne and Gary will tackle any request, no matter how impossible, and any client, no matter how unreasonable. Full of overzealous travelers, overbooked flights, and hoteliers who are just over it, Craving for Travel reminds us why we travel-and everything that can happen when we do.

"Craving for Travel" opens Thursday at the Peter J. Sharp Theater, where it'll run through Feb. 9. Tickets are $32.50 and $49. They can be purchased at CravingForTravel.com, 212-279-4200 or the Ticket Central Box Office (416 W. 42nd St., 12-8 p.m. daily). More than half of the shows are already sold out.

Continue reading Off-Broadway Comedy 'Craving for Travel' Showcases Travel Agents Trying to do the Impossible

Off-Broadway Comedy 'Craving for Travel' Showcases Travel Agents Trying to do the Impossible originally appeared on Gadling on Tue, 07 Jan 2014 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It seemed like such a great idea at the time. You wanted to put together a video for a loved one, including all their family and friends singing their praises, making their life look as epic as a Hollywood production.

Oh, it was a Hollywood production, all right. Contributors showed up late and sent weird file formats, editing took forever, the music wasn’t right...and on it went. Before you know it, a simple tribute video you thought might take an hour or two consumed multiple nights and had you cursing the day you ever thought of the idea.

Video montages take work. But by enlisting Tribute to help you assemble your message of love, It’s all a lot more manageable.

In fact, the Tribute process is so easy that you probably won’t have to do more than a few minutes of work to produce a high-quality tribute video that brings tears of joy. No, seriously...Tribute swears 80 percent of their videos elicit actual tears of joy. Of course, there’s no way of knowing their metrics for judging the results of their 500,000 Tribute videos so far...but if they’re close, your odds for an emotional testament to your subject are pretty darn high.

With Tribute, you just enter the emails for all the people you’d like to contribute to the video. Tribute emails your participants, explains the project, and guides your subjects through how to shoot and submit their segment for the finished video.

Once all your videos are in, Tribute will compile all your clips into a touching, polished montage. Read the rest

The following article, Rep. Ilhan Omar Asks For Contributions To Her Campaign To Help MN Food Bank…Food Bank Director Says Omar Has Nothing To Do With Project: “I have no idea where this money is going”, was first published on 100PercentFedUp.com.

Ilhan Omar is a lot of things. First, and foremost, she’s deceitful. David Steinberg of PJ Media was one of the first investigative journalists to break the story about the anti-Semitic, freshman lawmaker’s marriage to her immigrant brother while she was still married to her first husband, who she has since divorced after having an […]

Continue reading: Rep. Ilhan Omar Asks For Contributions To Her Campaign To Help MN Food Bank…Food Bank Director Says Omar Has Nothing To Do With Project: “I have no idea where this money is going” ...

Whether driven by pragmatism, local laws, or federal civil-rights provisions, state and local governments and agencies across the United States increasingly have designed and implemented language access services (i.e. translation and interpretation) in response to growing Limited English Proficient populations. This commentary argues it is time for the federal government to follow suit.

Staff and visitors at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown were asked to fill in the blank. "When COVID-19 is over, I am going to …" Some of the answers are both heartwarming and hilarious.

Source: ftw.usatoday.com - Saturday, May 09, 2020
Justin Gaethje put on a show in front of zero fans Saturday night at UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Fla., winning the interim lightweight belt with a fifth-round TKO victory over the legendary Tony Ferguson after referee Herb Dean called the fight with just over a minute to go. But when it was time to get the belt from UFC boss Dana White, Gaethje wanted nothing to do with the impressive hardware as he quickly tossed it aside before talking to Joe Rogan in the Octagon. Why would he do that? Because interim belts in the UFC are pretty silly and Gaethje doesn’t want to waste his time celebrating an accomplishment that now sets him up to fight for the real lightweight belt against Khabib Nurmagomedov who still owns the belt and is one of the greatest fighters of all time. Look at how Gaethje treated his belt: Justin Gaethje tossed aside the interim lightweight title belt he won at #UFC249 "I'll wait for the real one." pic.twitter.com/GBxD1RUemj — ESPN (@espn) May 10, 2020 Seriously, he wanted nothing to do with that thing. He evenly let his coach leave Octagon with it: . @Justin_Gaethje truly wants no part of that interim belt. His head coach Trevor Wittman had to carry it out of the octagon. #UFC249 | More: https://t.co/N8mXceTwxO pic.twitter.com/MBDvMIHG1h — MMA Junkie (@MMAjunkie) May 10, 2020 Now that is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the fight game for quite some time. Sure, we haven’t seen fighting in quite some time, eithe

Source: www.mprnews.org - Saturday, May 09, 2020
A barber cuts a woman's hair at a salon amid the coronavirus pandemic in Round Rock, Texas, on May 8, following a slow reopening of the Texas economy. Sergio Flores | AFP via Getty Images As of Friday, in Texas you can go to a tanning salon. In Indiana, houses of worship are being allowed to open with no cap on attendance. Meanwhile places like Pennsylvania are taking a more cautious approach, only starting to ease restrictions in some counties based on the number of COVID-19 cases. By Monday at least 31 states will have partially reopened after seven weeks of restrictions. The moves come as President Trump pushes for the country to get back to work — while many public health experts warn that it's too soon. "The early lesson that was learned, really, we learned from the island of Hokkaido in Japan, where they did a really good job of controlling the initial phase of the outbreak," said Bob Bednarczyk, assistant professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Rollins School of public Health at Emory University in Atlanta. COVID-19 in Minnesota Full coverage from MPR News Tracking the spread Minnesota and the Upper Midwest COVID-19 How it compares with other diseases in 5 charts But then because of that success many of the restrictions on the island were lifted. Cases and deaths surged in a second wave of infections. Twenty-six days later, the island was back on lockdown . "That's the concern that we have right now," he said.

As uncertainty looms large, volatility again jumped 28% on Monday as equity markets resumed trading after a long weekend.

Caracas, which buys medicines and other products from India, is looking for alternative payment methods after the United States imposed stringent sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil firm PDVSA in a bid to push out President Nicolas Maduro.

PM Modi said that the action should be taken for a more proactive approach to handhold the investors.

Under the scheme from 200 to 400, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government has agreed with the French government to increase the 2015 quota with the view by Working Holiday Scheme (WHS) of enthusiastic response to Hong Kong or France. The…

GDF Suez SA plans to double renewable power production capacity in Europe over the next decade as the utility shifts its focus away from developing more historic natural gas and nuclear energy sources in the region.

Clean energy assets in the Middle East and North Africa will more than double in capacity by the end of next year, the Dii GmbH industry association said.

GDF Suez SA plans to double renewable power production capacity in Europe over the next decade as the utility shifts its focus away from developing more historic natural gas and nuclear energy sources in the region.

Every morning, marketing professional Sagari starts her day at 9am by sweeping the floors of her two-bedroom flat in suburban Mumbai. The 35-year-old then makes breakfast for her husband, father and three-year-old son, before preparing lunch and parking herself in front of her laptop to work, in between responding to calls for tea from her husband and demands from her toddler. At 9pm, she cooks dinner then washes up and listens in on international client calls that can last until 2am. How…

The inquiry into the management of the ship’s arrival in Sydney in March has revealed a detailed timeline of who knew what and when

A special commission of inquiry has held five days of hearings into the Ruby Princess cruise ship, which has so far has been linked to 21 deaths and almost 700 cases of Covid-19 across Australia.

The inquiry, overseen by Bret Walker SC, had two days of hearings on 22 and 23 April, and then three days of hearings this week.

Continue reading...

Experts say to prevent future outbreak clusters, workers need to have job safety if they are feeling sick and unable to work

• Sign up for Guardian Australia’s daily coronavirus email
  
• Download the free Guardian app to get the most important news notifications
• Coronavirus Australia maps and cases: live numbers and statistics

Improvements in communication, personal protective equipment training, initial infection responses and social distancing have emerged as key areas of improvement if Australia is to avoid a second wave of coronavirus infections after lockdowns ease.

While the government has linked the uptake of its Covidsafe tracing app to a return to normal, the chief medical officer, Brendan Murphy, in April identified the bolstering of health authorities’ ability to respond to and contain localised clusters as an essential step to reassessing measures.

Continue reading...

Semi-retired in Westwood, he'd rather stay at home, but begins each day taking a homeless tent census.

Red Bull's Christian Horner admitted the mechanical failure which cost Sebastian Vettel a likely win at the Bahrain Grand Prix was "very frustrating" but said overall he was happy

Mercedes GP managing director Nick Fry says Jenson Button will spend the next two weeks wondering what he has to do to beat team-mate Lewis Hamilton

Felipe Massa admitted the team has much hard work to do in the weeks ahead if it is to hold onto the lead of the drivers' and constructors' standings

The world’s consumption of raw materials is set to nearly double by 2060 as the global economy expands and living standards rise, placing twice the pressure on the environment that we are seeing today, according to a new OECD report.

The world’s consumption of raw materials is set to nearly double by 2060 as the global economy expands and living standards rise, placing twice the pressure on the environment that we are seeing today, according to a new OECD report.

The Survey of Adult Skills finds that adults aged 55 to 65 are less proficient in literacy and numeracy than adults aged 25 to 34. But differences in skills proficiency that are related to age vary widely across countries, implying that skills policies can affect the evolution of proficiency over a lifetime.

The Eagles have also called season-ticket holders and offered to help them with their shopping. @LiamWalker_7 on Twitter described how a member of staff from the London club contacted his dad.

These are the last-mile months to convince your boss that you deserve the coveted grade with some quick moves

Congress said Parliament should assert itself and called upon the Centre and the states to jointly formulate an action plan to ensure safe return of migrants to their homes

From PPEs to ventilators to face shields, manufacturers have invested money to ramp up production and deliver during this crisis

NGO charts unique way to induce people into donating

Compasses at Greenwich Are About to Do Something Not Observed in Over 300 Years  ScienceAlert

Smithsonian scientists report fledgling catbirds in suburban habitats are at their most vulnerable stage of life, with almost 80 percent killed by predators before they reach adulthood. Almost half of the deaths were connected to domestic cats.

The post Alarming number of fledgling, suburban catbirds fall prey to domestic cats, study finds appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Hundreds of thousands of asteroids are known to orbit our Sun at distances ranging from near the Earth to beyond Saturn. The most widely known […]

The post Asteroids: Breaking up is Hard to Do appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Tool use by sea otters to break open well-armored food is not necessarily a family matter, according to a new study published this week by […]

The post Tool use by sea otters has little to do with genetic ties: Smithsonian study appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Today’s cutting-edge laboratories rely on ultra-cold refrigeration to keep delicate cells like sperm viable for use in the future. But a new technique using microwaves […]

The post What does candied, microwaved sperm have to do with saving endangered species? appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smithsonian Scientist Helen James dives into dormant Hawaiian volcanoes to find bird fossils. Her work to identify these species (some new species, some extinct) helps us learn about the past--specifically, how humans might have caused the extinction of certain bird species.

The post Meet Our Scientist–Helen James dives into dormant Hawaiian volcanoes to find bird fossils appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

The Encyclopedia of Life is an unprecedented global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other forms of life on Earth. For the first time in the history of the planet, scientists, students, and citizens will have multi-media access to all known living species, even those that have just been discovered. The Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library joined together to initiate the project, bringing together species and software experts from across the world. Lean more at www.eol.org

The post The Encyclopedia of Life is a global effort to document all 1.8 million named species of animals, plants and other life forms on Earth appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

As of today all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press will be downloadable to anyone free of charge. This includes a current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports produced by the Press.

; Credit: Beatrice the Biologist / Scientific American

Jed Kim

Today's dryku:
Food budgets are tight
Droughts do raise vegetables' price
But don't make snakes bite

Food:

• The USDA released its monthly food price outlook. Looks like prices are going to be up at least 3.5%. Fresh fruit could go up by 6%. Bloomberg has a chart showing how produce is projected to hit its highest price in 18 years. (LA Times)

Critters:

• Southern California seems to be seeing a higher rate of rattlesnake bites this year. Despite the article's headline, experts in the story say it's not because of the drought. A shorter winter has brought snakes out of hibernation earlier, meaning a longer active season, meaning more need for anti-venin.

As of June 12, 128 people were admitted to a hospital for a snakebite and of those, 93 received doses of anti-venin, Heard said. In 2013, 269 Californians went to a hospital for a snakebite and of those, 166 received anti-venin, he said. Simply doubling the number of patients needing anti-venin treatment would equal 186, more than 2013. (Some patients get “dry bites” meaning no venom is injected and therefore do not need anti-venin, he said). (Contra Costa Times)

• It's been a mixed bag for salmon this year. Some have needed to be trucked out to the ocean, because their streams are too dry. In the case of coho salmon, the drought has actually caused a record number to enter the ocean. It's not all good news though:

Biologists say that only 206 salmon egg clusters, known as "redds," were counted in the Lagunitas this year, well below the 20-year average of 250 "redds." And the fish that headed off to the ocean may not fare as well. They are smaller than normal and could face more difficult ocean conditions due to the warming pattern known as El Niño, scientists say. (Chico Enterprise-Record)

Fireworks:

• Sacramento cops are out in force, looking for illegal fireworks. The sheriff's department will double its number of officers on the hunt. Starting this week, having the little fire starters can mean jail time. (CBS Sacramento)

Water jerks:

• Everyone seems to be at a loss on how to get people to start saving water. Beatrice the Biologist may have stumbled onto the answer — it's a mixture of shame and badges. I'm going to print out the car one and post it in my window. Maybe then people will stop judging me for my filthy Camry. (Scientific American)

How has your community been affected by the drought? Share your story with a photo on Twitter or Instagram. Tag it #mydrought. For more details on our photo project, click here.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.