I’ve got a great idea for a start-up. Want to hear the pitch?
It’s called the 75 Cent Dollar Store. We’re going to sell dollar bills for 75 cents — no service charges, no hidden fees, just crisp $1 bills for the price of three quarters. It’ll be huge.
You’re probably thinking: Wait, won’t your store go out of business? Nope. I’ve got that part figured out, too. The plan is to get tons of people addicted to buying 75-cent dollars so that, in a year or two, we can jack up the price to $1.50 or $2 without losing any customers. Or maybe we’ll get so big that the Treasury Department will start selling us dollar bills at a discount. We could also collect data about our customers and sell it to the highest bidder. Honestly, we’ve got plenty of options.
On March 15, some time ago, several dozen famous politicians—sturdy men, duly elected senators who claimed to love their republic—attacked their chief executive while he walked into the Senate. They stabbed Gaius Julius Caesar 23 times, as he fell to the floor, defenseless, and bled to death, setting off a chain of wars that formally ended the Roman Republic and initiated the Roman Empire.
Some 2,062 years have passed since that day, but we haven’t stopped arguing about it. From Central Park productions of Julius Caesar to op-ed accusations of “Caesarism,” the Roman dictator—and the world he inhabited—still looms in our political conversation. Even the architecture of Washington, D.C., suggests that it is a kind of New Rome.
But for all those years, the source material for the arguments have remained largely the same. Archaeologists can locate new sites and excavate for coins, plates, or jewelry; scholars can read and reread Roman writers like Cicero, Sallust, and Catullus, who all documented Caesar. These have been the techniques for learning about Rome for centuries, and they are indispensable. But lately, they have been joined by something new.
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Oskari Porkka / Gilmanshin / Shutterstock / Katie Martin / The Atlantic
A teacher and student on a field trip were killed Thursday when a school bus collided with a dump truck and flipped over in Mount Olive Township in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said.
More than 40 others were injured, some critically, and were taken to local hospitals, Murphy told reporters. The truck driver was also being treated at a hospital.
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The names of the teacher and student killed in the Interstate 80 crash were not released.
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“It’s a tough day here in Paramus,” Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco told reporters. “Sixty-five years I’ve lived in this town and it’s difficult to stand here today to talk about our education community suffering so deeply.”
An eruption from the Kilauea volcano’s summit shot ash and smoke into the air early Thursday on Hawaii’s Big Island, and the resulting plume is expected to cover the surrounding area, according to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
The volcanic cloud reached 30,000 feet, the US Geological Survey said. That’s a little below the cruising altitude of a jetliner.
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“At any time, activity may again become more explosive, increasing the intensity of ash production and producing ballistic projectiles near the vent,” the USGS said. “Ballistic projectiles may be produced should steam-driven explosions occur. Impacts will be limited to an area around Halemaumau.”
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Halemaumau is the crater within Kilauea’s summit caldera.
Los Angeles startup Local Roots retrofits 40-foot-long shipping containers, turning them into “TerraFarms” that yield as many leafy greens as five acres of farmland—only faster, using as little as 1 percent of the water.The company leases TerraFarms to wholesalers, restaurant chains, and SpaceX. The United Nations is preparing to field-test them, too. Chief Executive Officer Eric Ellestad, a venture capitalist who’s raised about $11 million for Local Roots, says he’ll stand by the taste of the greens grown in the former containers, no salad dressing required. “Chefs we work with,” he says, “that’s what sells them.”
He was reading chapter books and could string together a story about the Pokemon sitting on his shoulder who didn’t need a seatbelt because he could just fly into the air if we got into a collision—yes, he could use words like collision accurately—and he loved to learn and discover and invent things.
But he would NOT write three sentences a day in his “journal” for his first grade teacher
Every night, the same routine:
Me: What can you write in your journal?
Him: I don’t want to.
Me: It’s just three sentences. What happened today? Just write anything.
Him: dawdle dawdle dawdle …no writing…
Me: *threats of time out, no TV, ranting about how this should have taken 5 minutes but it’s already been 30, why won’t you just do it?*
Yeah, I have better skills than that, but sometimes I forget to use them.
Senate Democrats forced a vote Wednesday to repeal changes to Obama-era net neutrality rules, which are scheduled to expire next month.
The Federal Communications Commission voted in December to overturn the rules, which prevent internet service providers, or ISPs, from treating certain content differently. The change, internet freedom advocates warned, would allow ISPs to block, slow down or charge more for certain content ― including on popular streaming websites like Netflix or Amazon.
Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), John Kennedy (R-La.), and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined all Democrats in approving a resolution Wednesday that would undo the FCC’s decision. The effort to force a vote was made possible by the Congressional Review Act, which gives Congress the power to reverse any federal regulation within 60 legislative days of enactment.
Yes, last night’s primary contests in Idaho, Nebraska, Oregon and Pennsylvania maybe didn’t offer the same kind of high-profile races that last week’s races in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia did.
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Democratic 2nd District House candidate Kara Eastman is hugged by her campaign manager Ben Onkka, in Omaha, Nebraska, on May 15, 2018.Nati Harnik / AP
The victims of Larry Nassar ― the convicted sexual abuser of U.S. gymnasts who will spend the rest of his life in prison ― settled hundreds of lawsuits against Michigan State University on Wednesday.
The victims ― with more than 300 of them identified ― will receive portions of a $500 million settlement, The Lansing State Journal reported.
“Michigan State has shown leadership by its willingness to begin closing this dark chapter,” Jamie White, one of the attorneys suing MSU, told the publication. “The victims of Nassar can never be made whole but this is a step in the right direction.”
Nassar, 54, pleaded guilty to sex crimes on Nov. 22, admitting that he sexually assaulted young girls under the guise of medical treatment when he was a doctor.
“I’ve just signed your death warrant,” Michigan Circuit Judge Rosemarie Aquilina told Nassar during his January sentencing of 40 to 175 years in prison.
At least 58 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and more than 2,700 others were wounded Monday after thousands of protesters converged on the razor-wire fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel as the U.S. Embassy opened in Jerusalem.
The Israeli Defense Forces opened fire on protesters approaching the barrier and accused the militant Palestinian group Hamas of “leading a terrorist operation under the cover of masses of people.” The military said “firebombs and explosive devices,” as well as rocks, were being thrown toward the barrier.
The Israeli military said the demonstration involved 40,000 people “taking part in violent riots” at 13 locations along the boundary. Israel built the 40-mile fence along Gaza’s land border for security reasons in 1994.
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Palestinians run for cover from tear gas east of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on Monday.Mohammed Abed / AFP – Getty Images
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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“TerraFarm”
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Larry Nassar
Palestinians run for cover from tear gas east of Jabalia in the Gaza Strip on Monday.
James' World 2 