Daily Archives: May 28, 2017

AF rolls out fiscal 2018 space budget – Aerotech News – Aerotech News (blog)

Posted: May 28, 2017 at 8:08 am

Air Force leaders met with media to discuss specifics of the services fiscal 2018 space investment budget at the Pentagon May 24, 2017. The request totals $7.75 billion, an approximately 20 percent increase from fiscal year 2017.

Dr. David Hardy, the acting deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, and Maj. Gen. Roger Teague, the director of space programs for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, highlighted the importance of the fiscal 2018 space budget to the nations security and the Air Forces strategic understanding of the space environment.

According to Hardy, for decades, the U.S. has enjoyed unimpeded freedom of action in the space domain. However, the global space domain is evolving and in the not too distant future, near-peer competitors will have the ability to put U.S. space assets at risk.

As in every other domain, when an adversary understands that something provides a strategic advantage they do two thingsmirror our capabilities and work strenuously to figure out means by which they can deny us, said Hardy. You can summarize the progress we have made over the last three budget cycles by saying we really do have a much firmer understanding of all the component parts that are required to build an overall resilient enterprise.

The Air Forces fiscal 2018 space budget emphasizes investments and improvements in future technology in three major focus areas: space superiority, space support to operations and assured access to space.

Teague explained the focus areas emphasize developing the resilient capabilities the Air Force needs to negate adversary actions and ensure America maintains the critical space capabilities required for national security.

Space is increasingly congested and contested, he said. With this evolving and changing environment, its increasingly critical we must ensure that our capabilities, our future capabilities, outpace the advances in space threats.

To gain and maintain space superiority, the Air Force plans to increase investments in advanced space situational awareness, counterspace and command and control. In addition, the service is committed to the continuation of investments in the Space Fence.

All of these capabilities are going to continue to enhance our ability to understand our operational environment, Teague said. We need to be able to command and control our space forces and capabilities to preserve freedom of operations as well as freedom of maneuver.

The Air Forces space support to operations is integral to combat, mobility and nuclear forces. The budget reflects this role with support to programs including the Space-Based Infrared System, Space Modernization Initiative, Tech Maturation and Cyber Security, space-based environmental monitoring and modernization of protected satellite communications.

To ensure the Air Forces ability to continue to own the high ground, the space budget provides funding for infrastructure, studies and analysis for the three evolved expendable launch vehicle launch services, which are competitive launch opportunities. The Air Force has a total of six launches planned for fiscal 2018.

Teague said the Air Force will continue to evolve the space enterprise to be more flexible, survivable and resilient to ensure the capability to provide space superiority across the spectrum of conflict for tomorrows highly contested environment.

We must, as the (chief of staff of the Air Force) has emphasized several times, normalize space as a war fighting domain and focus our efforts to outpace and defeat advanced, demonstrated and evolving threats, said Teague. (The) increases in investment will continue to be necessary to maintain our space superiority and our capabilities in FY 18 and in the future.

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Trump’s budget draws comparisons to Reagan – Washington Examiner

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Leading fiscal conservatives are showering President Trump's first federal budget proposal with some of their highest praise: comparisons to Ronald Reagan.

"This is the most fiscally conservative budget since Reagan," Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute and editor of Downsizing Government, told the Washington Examiner.

Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, called it a "very strong budget" and said it's what the 40th president himself would have submitted if he had both a Republican House and Senate. Democrats controlled the House for all eight years of the Reagan administration, one of the reasons conservatives cite for why even Reagan was unable to achieve enduring federal spending cuts.

Norquist then went a step further. "This is a Reaganite, limited-government, anti-waste and anti-duplication budget," he said. "It certainly makes those Republican critics who said that Trump would be a big-spending populist look like idiots."

Trump didn't run as a government-cutter during the campaign. He explicitly promised to leave Social Security and Medicare spending alone, which his first budget largely does. He campaigned on a populist platform emphasizing both economic and cultural solidarity with mostly white working-class voters.

Some Republicans argued that Trump was essentially a liberal, pointing to his past advocacy of a wealth tax and single-payer healthcare. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a staunch fiscal conservative, was his strongest opponent in the GOP primaries.

Once Trump was elected, many on the Right expected a more protectionist version of the compassionate conservatism of the most recent Republican president, George W. Bush. The Bush administration, the Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes wrote, believed in "using what would normally be seen as liberal means activist government for conservative ends. And they're willing to spend more and increase the size of government in the process."

That's why some fiscal conservatives have been pleasantly surprised by the very un-Bush like discretionary domestic spending cuts in the president's budget, while liberals portray it as a typically draconian Republican attack on the social safety net and a betrayal of Trump's working-class supporters.

"When you've got $20 trillion in debt, it's nice to see a White House that's actually interested in the issue," said Andy Roth, vice president of government affairs at the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative group that was critical of Trump during the primaries. "We welcome the spending cuts."

"A lot of the cuts are thoughtful cuts, not just blunt cuts," Edwards said. "People are getting trapped on disability where frankly they should be in the workforce."

Consequently, the Trump budget has received strong if qualified praise from leading Tea Party groups.

"Budgets are visionary documents, and President Trump's proposal would put taxpayers first by starting to direct their dollars more efficiently to the most effective programs," Heritage Action CEO Mike Needham said in a statement. "It is the type of document the president promised on the campaign trail, including some serious, structural reforms to our nation's entitlement system."

"Unfortunately, the failure to address Social Security and Medicare will make it difficult to truly rein in our nation's ever growing debt," Needham added. "Nonetheless, Trump's budget presents an opportunity to unite Republicans around fiscally responsible reforms to food stamps, disability insurance and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Even with unified Republican control of government, delivering policy victories has proven difficult in Washington, but enacting these reforms would demonstrate a true commitment to putting taxpayers first."

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney, a former South Carolina Republican congressman who was a member of the House Freedom Caucus, is hailed by fiscal conservatives as a hero in this process, especially given Trump's lack of a track record as a small-government advocate.

"I've told the story several times of sitting in the president's office with a list of possible reforms to mandatory what some people call entitlement spending and have the president at the end of the list go: Yes, yes, no, no, no, no," Mulvaney told reporters during Tuesday's budget briefing. "And the no, no, no's' were always Social Security retirement and Medicare. Didn't change those at all because he promised people that he wouldn't."

"We have great respect for [Office of Management and Budget] Director Mulvaney," said Roth.

"He's got a very good team," Edwards added. "They're taking the job seriously. I give Trump credit for giving [Mulvaney] a lot of running room."

The conservative applause wasn't unanimous. Many considered the 3 percent growth projections required to bring the budget into balance unrealistic. Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., called it a "Goldilocks scenario." Budget hawks thought it boosted Pentagon spending too much, defense hawks too little.

"[W]hile on its face, the president's budget request is balanced, the budget only accomplishes this through a combination of very strong economic forecasting and unrealistic future cuts in domestic discretionary spending," Sanford, a Freedom Caucus member, said in a statement. "Meanwhile, the proposal doesn't touch 40 percent of the annual budget Social Security or Medicare, even though both are on a path toward insolvency."

New York Times conservative columnist Ross Douthat dismissed the Trump budget as "just Reagan-era leftovers minus the actually-serious portion of Ryanism (Medicare reform)," the latter a reference to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

"Ivanka's paid leave program is dumb, not a federal responsibility," said Edwards.

Yet even many of the Republicans in Congress who have declared the budget dead on arrival oppose it for cutting too much. "If Republicans actually do what they said they would do, the prospects [for cuts] would be high," said Roth, whose organization supports conservative GOP primary challengers. "But a lot of Republicans campaign one way and then don't follow through. It is my hope that if they don't follow, there will be consequences."

"We just want to see spending cuts," he continued. "That's a foreign subject to a lot of politicians here on Capitol Hill."

Federal spending is a congressional responsibility under the Constitution and presidential budget requests are frequently modified or set aside. Some of former President Barack Obama's budget proposals failed to receive a single vote in either chamber of Congress.

Some conservatives nevertheless find themselves rooting for the unconventional Trump against more traditional Hill Republicans.

"He's governing as Reagan would have, completely in the mainstream of the modern Republican Party," said Norquist. "What's interesting will be to watch those Republicans who wanted to criticize Trump when he was running to see if they are as Reaganite as Trump is."

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How to become a millionaire by 30 and retire by 40, according to Sweden’s hottest money-saving guru – Business Insider Nordic

Posted: at 8:07 am

The path to become rich, in Swedish 'Vgen mot rikedom', has for a long time been a popular blog in Sweden, filled with advice aimed at people who want to become financially independent.

Now the blog's key advice have been summed up in a book called Millionaire before 30 and a retiree before 40. The anonymous author/blogger uses the pseudonym Millionaire before 30. What we know for sure is that he or she is around 35 years old and lives in Stockholm.

Here are the books seven best pieces of advice that help you become wealthy early in life:

1. Dont overcomplicate things

Everybody living in Sweden with a good job can become a millionaire. You dont need to start a unique company, invent anything or win the lottery. Its enough to earn a normal salary and being smart about saving some of that income.

You have plenty of time to realize your ambitious dreams once youve achieved financial independence.

2. Go your own path

Disregard the outer worlds expectations. Most people dont become millionaires by 30 and retire by 40. You have to look at consumption and saving differently than Average Joe. You need to make your own active choices and decide what gives you the best possible life in the long run.

3. Love saving

Make saving into an interest, and something that you are proud of and that you think of as fun. Go home after two beers, and say to your friends that you aim to become a millionaire before 30. Thats way better than having to say you cant afford that third beer.

Make sure to hang out with people who share your passion!

4. Start today, if you havent already

Time goes fast and time, together with compound interest, are your two best friends as you pursue financial independence. So start right away otherwise ten years will have passed very soon and you will be regretting the fact that you didnt get started earlier.

You will probably have your first million faster than you thought possible.

5. Trust the stock markets

Have faith in the long-term historical behavior of the stock markets. That means buying regularly and diversifying risks through index funds. In case the corporates would stop evolving and stocks would become a bad investment in a 20-30 year window then its not just the stock markets that will have stalled, but probably the whole of civilization.

6. Do a couple of fairly tough years of grinding

You need to grind away at work and show that you can achieve results. Try to negotiate a better salary in order to grow savings.

Get your saving career off the ground by doing a couple of austere years. But think about your saving as a long-term activity theres no point in burning yourself out or hating your life because of your work or saving habits. Find a level that you can maintain during at least 10 years.

7. Hate getting duped

Never pay more than what is necessary for anything. When you pay too much, try to imagine somebody conning you and laughing at you behind your back. Get out of the expensive funds, find the cheapest utility, and dont pay unnecessary premiums for designer clothes.

Good luck on your way to financial independence!

Footnote: The book is published by Sterners.

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How Does Your Financial Health Stack Up? – Boulder Daily Camera

Posted: at 8:07 am

David Gardner For the Camera

One of the most common questions from prospective clients can be boiled down to this: how are we doing? In our culture, our finances are often kept secret even from extended family. We don't have anyone to talk to about our financial strength (or weakness) besides our spouse and that's only if you're married.

Sure there are online calculators that can be used to gauge your fiscal fitness, but most of us need something beyond that for clarity. We need to know whether we're ahead of schedule, or need to scramble, scrimp, and save to meet our goals.

One tool we use is the Financial Life Cycle, which is the brainchild of fellow financial planner Bert Whitehead, founder of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners and author of Why Smart People Do Stupid Things with Money updated in 2013.

The Financial Life Cycle only needs three or four data points to render its verdict on your finances. First, we need to understand your net worth, which is the value of your investments, cash, and real estate less any debt that you have. Have your investments (including equity on real estate investments) broken out separately as we'll need that precise figure later. Second, we need your annual salary.

Finally, look at your level of spending for a year. Don't worry about the exact budget categories at this point. Instead consider your annual take home pay, and how you build up or drain down savings throughout the year.

Getting Started. This is the first adult Life Cycle, and is defined as your net worth being less than your annual salary. You enter Getting Started when you become self supporting. In this stage, you want to focus on the fundamentals. Save 15 percent of your income, accumulate one to two months of spending in cash, pay off your consumer debt with the possible exception of a low interest car loan, consider investing in your human capital in the form of education, and get on track to own your own house. These financial fundamentals are important throughout your life, but are vital at this early stage.

Early Accumulation. You enter this stage when your net worth exceeds your annual salary. At this stage, we educate them on the benefits of diversification and about the options for regular investing outside of their work retirement plans. It could be a Roth IRA or brokerage account at a low cost custodian such as Charles Schwab or saving for an investment property.

Rapid Accumulation. This stage begins when your net worth exceeds three times your annual salary. We say this stage is when your financial trajectory moves upwards like a hockey stick. In general, in Rapid Accumulation your investments start appreciating and earning more than you are able to save out of your salary. At this stage we focus on tax efficient investing using the three major account types: pre-tax (such as a 401(k)), taxable, and tax-free (Roth IRA).

Financial Independence. When your investments (not net worth) are more than seven times your annual spending, you've entered Financial Independence. There is an important shift here, as we move from looking at your net worth and salary, toward a focus on investments and annual spending. The idea is that we consider your investments in the context of supporting your living expenses by using your investment earnings.

Conservation. Once your combined investment value has passed ten times annual expenses, you have reached Conservation. Depending on your age, this could mean that you are financially strong enough to stop working all together. If you reach Conservation at age 68, you're close to receiving maximum Social Security benefits, and generally eligible for Medicare health insurance.

Distribution. If your investment balance exceeds 15 times annual expenses, you're in the Distribution stage. If you're close to normal retirement age, this stage tells us that it's very unlikely that you will run out of money in your lifetime unless you acquire bad habits or make destructive financial decisions. At this point you've won the financial game, and care should be taken to design your portfolio and cash flow to insulate you in the near term from the ups and downs in the market.

We like clients to progress through at least one Life Cycle stage per decade, with two jumps within reach for uber savers. Chart your progress over time. You may think you're not making progress because cash is tight every month, but when you consider the whole picture you're making tremendous progress.

David Gardner is a certified financial planner with a practice in Boulder County and can be reached with questions at dave@confluencefa.com and on Twitter @Dave_CFP

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Foods to try while in Seychelles – Independent Online

Posted: at 8:04 am

There is so much to indulge in. Picture: Seychelles Tourism Board.

While the Seychelles is synonymous with brightly coloured fruits and vegetables and of course fresh sea food, there is actually quite a bit more to be found on the menu that you may not even have thought of considering.

Breadfruit

While the name may sound less than appealing to most, breadfruit is quite popular in the Seychelles.

At first glance it may not look like much with its rather tough exterior and potato like interior, but breadfruit or friyapen as it is known locally, is delicious whether boiled, baked, mashed or fried. You can enjoy it as a side, snack or as a dessert. Best of all is that this fruit is very healthy being rich in energy, dietary fibre, minerals, and vitamins.

And, to let you in on a little secretlegend has it that if you eat breadfruit at least once in the Seychelles, there is a great chance that you will again one day visit the island paradise again.

Some bat for you?

If you fancy yourself somewhat of an adventurous eater and you dont mind having somewhat of a tussle with your meat, you should try fruit bat of flying fox as it is also known.

Fruit bats or flying foxes due to their orange fur, make for one the Seychelles signature dishes. It is served in many local restaurants and can be prepared in a variety of ways. It is said to taste like venison, but apparently, it is quite challenging to eat due to the many tiny bones you have to work around to get to the actual meat.

A lot of menus may also not directly state that they have bat on the menu and often put it down as Rousettes.

Sweet or savoury

Ladob is another famed dish in the Seychelles and can be enjoyed in a savoury version or sweet dessert version.

When enjoyed as a dessert, it is made with sweet potatoes and ripe plantain and may also include bread fruit cassava or corossol. The ingredients are then boiled in coconut milk with a dash of nutmeg, sugar and vanilla.

The savoury version is cooked the same way as the desert version, but with salted fish added, salt is used instead of sugar and no vanilla is used.

I

Soup with a twist

You will find no shortage of delicious seafood to eat in the Seychelles, but if you are looking for something out of the norm try some Tec Tec. The small white shellfish is collected from the beach and cooked with pumpkin for the makings of a delectable soup.

And to drink?

With so much eating going on, you will probably be on the lookout for something interesting to quench your thirst.

Bacca and calou are two of the Seychelles favourite beverages. Similar to rum, Bacca is made from sugar cane liquor and normally consumed at ceremonial events. Bacca is usually home-brewed and you will find varying quality of this drink throughout the Seychelles.

Also known as palm wine, calou is fermented wine, sourced from inflorescence of coconut trees, which tastes sweet or tart after fermentation. As a rule of thumb, the drier the flavour, the higher the alcohol content. It is also used in a variety of dishes. Coco dAmour is a tropical coconut liqueur that is made with coconut extract.

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‘Pirates of the Caribbean’: About that death and post-credits scene – USA TODAY

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From vengeful pirate ghost to bitter cyberterrorist, Javier Bardem ranks his most chilling characters. USA TODAY

Johnny Depp returns for a new sea adventure in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.' Hollywood will be watching (and hoping) for a hit.(Photo: Film Frame/Disney)

(SPOILER ALERT: stop readingif you haven't seen Dead Men Tell No Tales).

It isn't all Captain Jack Sparrow-inspiredlaughs from Johnny Deppin Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Men Tell No Tales.

The fifth film in the Pirates franchise features the emotional death of a key, belovedcharacter (even if he was often bad).

Captain Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who has appeared as a villain in all five Pirates films,dramatically jumps to hisdeath to take out theclimbing pursuit of Captain Salazar(Javier Bardem).

Barbossa's plunge pulls downSalazar, who was about to kill adventurer/astronomer Carina Smyth(Kaya Scodelario).Smyth was revealed to beBarbossa's estranged daughter earlier.

So Barbossa's decisionto sacrifice his own life was a full-turn from the untrustworthy, ultimate-survivor who plagued Sparrow throughoutthe franchise. It camecomplete with Barbossa'shands-open fall in slowmotion while looking at his saved daughter.

Geoffrey Rush as, left, and Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.'(Photo: Disney)

"For Barbossa, we really wanted a strong emotional core to give him a great story arc like that,"says Joachim Rnning,who directed Dead Men Tell No Tales withEspen Sandberg."We fought hard for that ending. Its the fathers story. Were both dads. And we can totally relateto that."

As for the hands-open fall,Rnning says it's less Jesus savior symbol, more Die Hard.

"I would say it was more Hans Gruber," saysRnningof the famed demise of that Die Hard villain played by Alan Rickman.

As for whether this is the end of the line for Barbossa, hold off on wagering your pirate's fortune. While this death had a sign of finality, Barbossawas killed by Jack Sparrow in the first film, 2003'sPirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and resurrected in 2006'sPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

"He's been dead before," says Sandberg.

Bill Nighy as Davy Jones.(Photo: Disney)

What's up with the post-credits scene?

After the final credit rolled, a scene featured a newly reunited husband and wife, Elizabeth Turner (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom).The two are sleeping blissfully in their home after being reunited at movie's end following the removal ofWill's wretched curse of The Flying Dutchman.

But Turner is awakened by the shadow of someone approaching and the site of a strange clawed hand. That can only be the left hand of Davy Jones(Bill Nighy)whom Turner killed with a knife to the heartat the end of 2007'sPirates of the Caribbean: The World's End.

Turner awakens from what appears to be a bad dream, and all seems normal except for barnacles under the bed.

Rnning confirms that the image was of Davy Jones and the scene paysrespect to "a legendary villain in the franchise."

But the end scene suggests that Knightley (who was brought onto the movie late in the process by popular demand) and Bloom's characters might have further adventures with their seemingly resurrected arch-nemesis with whom they tangled in the second and third Pirates.

"It's a little tease. We just wanted to throw in a hint that this might not be the end,"Sandberg says. "But the beginning of the end."

"Or was it all just a dream or a nightmare?" saysRnning.

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‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ Says Ahoy To $86.5M Int’l Box Office Update – Deadline

Posted: at 8:03 am

UPDATED, 9:04 AM:Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Talesopened in nine more territories on Friday and now sits at an international tally of $86.5M (and climbing) with China leading the way at the box office. Audiences in the Middle Kingdom which enjoyed a Pirates premiere the first world premiere of a Hollywood film in China have bought tickets to the tune of$21.3M for the studio. The film is now open in more than 90% of its international footprint. Only the key market of Japan (the country that loves Disney movies) is yet to open; it sails into that country on July 1.

So far, Disney has taken in $110M through yesterday and is now looking at a worldwide haul by tomorrow of$275M. The overseas box office has grown in importance over the years for this and other franchises. Specifically for the Pirates franchise, 53% of the worldwide gross in 2003 came from overseas and on the last go around in 2011, that percentage grew to 76%.

Speaking of percentages, Pirates has a big 87% marketshare in China right now, and it already ranks as the 4th highest Disney opening day ever. It has already surpassed the entire cume of the third Pirates movie, At Worlds End.

Pirates is also No. 1 in Mexico with a 68% marketshare and already 29% ahead of the opening day of Pirates 4 On Stranger Tides. Spain opened to about $1.5M, which ranked No. 1 for the opening day (it also has a strong 67% of the market).

Update reported by Anita Busch

PREVIOUSLY FRIDAY, 8:44 AM: Disneys return to the swashbuckling adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow is off to a No. 1 start in all offshore markets. Through yesterday, Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales has reeled in $34.5M at the international box office. With domestic previews, that brings the global total to $40M as we head into the weekend.

Early estimates out of China, a key swing on how this Johnny Depp-starrer fares abroad, indicate an opening day today of $20M+ (that includes previews, but is not included in the overseas number above).

The launch day for Pirates 5, also known as Salazars Revenge in some overseas markets, ranks among the top debuts of the year in several hubs including Germany, Austria, France, Finland, Sweden, Belgium, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The Joachim Ronning-Espen Sandberg-directed movie began overseas rollout on Wednesday with a strong opening in France ($2.3M, 2nd biggest bow of 2017, 5% behind opening day of Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, 4% ahead of Captain America: Civil War, 34% ahead of Jungle Book all in admissions).

Korea was also a good opening, 6% behind POTC4, and in Norway, the helmers home country, POTC5 had an 83% market share. Indonesia bowed significantly ahead of the opening day of Pirates 4. Thailand, at $400K, had its 2nd biggest opening day of 2017 to date. In a sign of how some Asia Pacific markets have grown over the years, this was 66% ahead of the opening day of Pirates 4

Thursdays openings brought Germany the biggest start for a film of 2017 at 40% above POTC4. The UK was also a No. 1 bow, although this weeks Manchester terrorist attack is expected to impact box office this weekend. In the Netherlands, POTC5 was the top opening day of 2017 with $900K and the 2nd highest opening day for any Disney release behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It came in 47% ahead of POTC4.

Other markets topping the 2011 films performance on opening day include the UAE, Russia ($3.6M), Malaysia and Argentina.

In addition to China which is heading into the Dragon Boat holiday Spain and Mexico open today along with several other markets. Major markets not opening this weekend include Japan, which opens July 1.

For reference, On Stranger Tides opening weekend was about $175M in the same markets and at todays exchange rates; it went on to gross $805M offshore.

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CARIBBEAT: Here comes "Caribbean Week in New York" 2017 – New York Daily News

Posted: at 8:03 am


New York Daily News
CARIBBEAT: Here comes "Caribbean Week in New York" 2017
New York Daily News
A lone steel pan standing at the 2016 Rum and Rhythm Benefit and Auction at the Capitale event space in Manhattan is a bold iconic representative of the Caribbean Week New York, the annual Caribbean Tourism Organization event which returns next ...

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The real pirates of the Caribbean – CNN.com – CNN

Posted: at 8:03 am

Did duels to the death really take place between naval authorities and these wild men of the seas?

But the real stories are more amazing that anything seen on the big screen.

Captain Henry Avery: One of the most famous pirates of all time.

If one man can be said to have inspired the so-called Golden Age of Piracy, it's Captain Henry Avery.

In his book, "The Republic of Pirates," Colin Woodard writes that Avery's "adventures inspired plays and novels, historians and newspaper writers, and, ultimately the Golden Age pirates themselves."

"He was a really important inspiration and symbol to the subsequent generation who became the Golden Age pirates," Woodard tells CNN. "Part of the reason is that Henry Avery became a pop culture phenomenon when these other pirates would have been children and teenagers."

By the time they were young men, Avery was a legend.

A sailor aboard a merchant vessel, Avery, like many other sailors, was getting increasingly disillusioned with the way the system worked.

"Sailors were so badly treated in many of these merchant vessels by the captains and owners," Woodard says. "They were given lousy rations, cheated out of their pay at the end of journeys, often fed spoiled food and placed on vessels that intentionally didn't have enough provisions on board."

Enough was enough. In 1694 Avery rounded up others to the cause of freedom, riches and glory and seized a ship under the cover of darkness while its captain, Charles Gibson, was sleeping in his quarters.

Avery placed Gibson in a rowboat before sailing away, reportedly telling him: "I am a man of fortune, and must seek my fortune."

Avery and his crew sailed for the Indian Ocean, using Madagascar as their base of operations. Soon they came across and took a ship belonging to an Indian emperor.

Accounts vary on what happened aboard the ship but they all agree on one thing -- Avery made off with staggering haul of money, jewels, gold, silver and ivory, worth more than $200 million today.

Avery had his fortune and each member of his crew received the equivalent of 20 years of wages aboard a merchant vessel.

With his ship laden with treasure and naval forces all over the world scrambling to track him down, Avery sailed for the Bahamas where he bribed the governor of Nassau with ivory and weapons into allowing him to ditch his ship and take a smaller vessel, bound for Europe.

Landing in Ireland, he bid his crew farewell. Then he and his plunder disappeared into history, never to be heard from again.

Rumor and myth surrounds Avery's fate.

One report claimed Avery died a beggar, cheated out of his fortune. Another had him returning to Madagascar as king of the pirates, ruling over a piratical empire with a squadron of ships commanded from a fortified palace.

"Avery is one of the very few who turned full pirate and got away with it," Matt Albers of the Pirate History Podcast says. "He just disappeared into the winds of history.

"It might be that he died as a penniless beggar on the streets of London or he may have died with a fabulous kingdom out in the jungle somewhere.

"No one is entirely sure what happened to him. But we do know that he was never taken by the authorities."

Getting away with it was a 17th-century thing. For the men he inspired in the early 18th century there would be few, if any, happy endings.

"The thing about those famous pirates is that all of them got caught," Albers says. "At some point they had a run in with the authorities that didn't go well for them."

A map of the Caribbean depicting some of the pirates' bases and the location of significant events.

David Wilson, an academic specializing in historical piracy, says authorities tried to push stories of piratical downfall as a deterrent.

"Really they're trying to publicize that piracy ends in death," he says. "The message is these men meet their doom through piracy to try to discourage any future pirates."

And there were plenty to choose from.

"Black Sam'" Bellamy, for example, was a rising star in the pirate world, calling himself "the Robin Hood of the Seas." In 1715, at the age of 26, as captain of his own ship, the Whydah, he was the most feared man up and down the Americas.

Having amassed a small fortune and a reputation for being unbeatable, he was sailing for Cape Cod in 1717 when disaster struck.

"Cape Cod had a weather system that would drive ships against the brutal cliffs of sand and shoals," Woodard explains.

The Whydah was caught in a storm and ran aground with shocking force and sank with its treasure still on board. Some 160 men perished and Bellamy's body was never recovered.

Newspapers of the day claimed God had punished him for becoming a pirate.

Another famous story is that of Calico Jack Rackham, named for the flamboyant Calico clothing he liked to wear.

As a pirate, Rackham was pretty unsuccessful. He was captured quite easily in 1720 and hanged.

His flag fared better. It's the one we all associate as the pirate flag, the skull and crossbones, the Jolly Roger. Made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island."

"They all had different flags and black flags with all these different symbols on," Wilson says. "They all had symbols of death in some way or other just to enact fear in ships.

"If you could throw that flag up and the ship gives in without a fight you're doing much better than if you had to then engage with them."

Engraving of female pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read holding swords.

Rackham is also famous for the company he was keeping when he was arrested: Mary Read and Anne Bonny, the only known female pirates of the era.

"There was Ching Shih in China but she wasn't so much a pirate as a pirate queen who ran a pirate empire," Albers says. "The same with Grace O'Malley in Ireland, less an actual pirate and more someone who ran the pirates' base."

Rackham's female crewmates helped cement his own myth and legend, Wilson adds.

"A lot is made out of the female pirates, there were some but they were an anomaly, as were any women on sailing ships at that time," says Charles Ewen, professor of anthropology at East Carolina University.

"Usually they were just passengers, but there were female sailors from time to time. But for the most part they were a disruptive influence."

Read and Bonny were to be tried on charges of piracy and surely hanged. But, knowing that expectant mothers were exempt from the gallows, both women seduced guards while being held captive and fell pregnant.

"Their histories are fairly short and I think that the reason they're so popular is because of their trial," Albers explains.

Their arrest and the subsequent escape from the noose was big news in the London press at the time, but no one got more coverage than the notorious Edward Teach, the most fearsome of all the Golden Age Pirates.

A man more commonly referred to as Blackbeard.

In this woodcarving you can see the lighted fuses Blackbeard would keep in and around his beard so that during battle a demonic halo of sparks, fire and smoke would surround him.

"The interesting thing about Blackbeard is, if you were doing a ledger of who got the most treasure and was the most successful in monetary terms or plunder terms Blackbeard wouldn't make your top 10 list at all," Woodard says.

"But he is by far the most famous real pirate who ever lived, and the reason is that he cultivated this image of terror."

Blackbeard ruled the seas through fear. He let his beard grow wild and long, wore clothes stolen from aristocrats and cultivated an image of a wild man in gentlemen's fittings.

"You had all these pirates with bandoliers and grenades and axes wearing a gentleman's wig or a woman's silk dress or scarves and all this finery." Woodard says. "His fellow pirates would be dressed up like a 'Mad Max' movie."

During battle, Blackbeard would also put lighted fuses in and around his beard, giving him a demonic halo of sparks, fire and smoke.

"It would be utterly terrifying to people on another vessel. And that was the whole point," Woodard says.

Blackbeard also had serious firepower.

"Blackbeard put 40 cannon on his ship, the Queen's Anne Revenge, and that was so he could sail up, run up the black flag, which apparently they really did, and then scare the folks into saying, 'Ok I give up, don't kill us,'" Ewen says. "You wanted to have a scary reputation."

Blackbeard's scare tactics were so successful that there's no documented account of him killing or hurting anybody. Everybody just simply gave up.

Until his final fatal battle with Britain's Royal Navy in 1718.

"It was the gallant young Lieutenant Robert Maynard who was leading the detachment of sailors charged with finding Blackbeard," Woodard explains.

"This is precisely where Robert Louis Stevenson and later the Disney movies and pop culture -- this is exactly the famous scene from where all this was constructed.

"Blackbeard's battle was the model for your cliche shipboard fight between the dashing young officer and the rogue pirate," Woodard continues.

Blackbeard and his men boarded Maynard's ship. Cutlass in one hand, pistol in the other, Blackbeard engaged the lieutenant in a duel to the death.

Maynard shot Blackbeard, but the pirate carried on fighting furiously with his cutlass, Maynard's own sword breaking as he tried to stave him off.

As Blackbeard was about to deliver the final blow, one of Maynard's men delivered the pirate a "terrible wound in the neck and throat."

Maynard then shot Blackbeard again in the stomach and though he cocked his pistol ready to return fire, he fell down dead before he could.

Maynard decapitated Blackbeard and hung his head from the front of his ship. He sailed up the east coast of America, causing shockwaves as news spread that the notorious Edward Teach had perished in battle.

"There was only one newspaper in what is now the United States, the Boston Newsletter and they covered it exhaustively, as did the London papers at the time. It was the big media phenomenon of the early 18th century," Maynard says.

Yet there remains a mystery with Blackbeard -- the whereabouts of his journal.

The journal was recovered by Maynard and used as evidence to try Blackbeard's captured crew on charges of piracy. But after the trial, the journal, along with court documents, vanished from history.

"People have been looking for it for years," David Moore, a nautical archaeologist says.

Under protocols of the time, there should have been a copy of the documents in the place of trial and another sent back to the Admiralty in London.

"For whatever reason that copy was never sent or it disappeared or it got lost in the filing system," Moore says.

"Certainly if it had been misfiled somebody would have stumbled across it by now. It would have been too fascinating a document even though they were probably looking for something else.

"To me that's odd," Moore says.

Recovering the documents would likely be one of the most significant finds in pirate archaeology.

Who knows, perhaps there's even a map inside with an X that marks the spot.

But those who took it died a long time ago -- and dead men tell no tales.

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Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)Buy Photo

Step into Diane Palmer's Naples Park backyard and you're transported to the Caribbean.

The bougainvillea and the yellowmandevilla blooms have taken over the fence line. She likes it to look wild, like it does on the islands.

"It's not manicured," she said. "I like that. It looks like a bouquet."

Coconut and areka palms shoot up to the sky, and a towering mango tree has started to sproutits sweet fruit. Metal stars and spheres hang from the branches.

"It's our tropical paradise," said Palmer, a former Head Start teacher enjoying her firstyear of retirement from Vineyards Elementary School in North Naples.

Palmer and her husband, Alan, have lived in the little yellow house with the white picketed porchfor 25 years.In Naples Park, where the property lots are a just small postage stamp, the Palmers have carved out a backyard escape dedicated to the Caribbean.

"People say Naples Park is such a small lot, you don't have much ground," she said. "But if you're out there working in the garden, it's big enough, you don't need any more. You do it yourself."

And so that's what the Palmers did.

Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

After living in Haiti for 18years, they found a location in Naples where they could sell Haitian artwork wholesale right out of their home. Inside, they painted the walls pink Diane Palmer's favorite color and removed the screens enclosing the front and back porches.

"We felt very enclosed," she said. "In Haiti we were used to the breezes and everything being very open."

The mango tree was one-third of the size it is now, and they put up fences to add a little privacy. The Haitian influences are around every corner.

There's something about the people that arefrom warm climates...When you go to the islands they have a great outlook on life.

In Haiti, nothing goes to waste, Palmer said, so the coconuts that have fallen to the ground now serve as boundaries among the garden patches, like around the sections of kangaroo fern, theleaves spotted with spores.

Haitian artwork and sculptures scatter the patio. A babbling Buddha water fountain is surrounded by Palmer's "orchid row."Nearby, a medinilla magnifica rests in a pot, with its droopy flamingo pink blossoms one of Palmer's most exotic plants.

Even the pink paint on the walls of the patio, a sort of dusty fuschia color, is titled "Calypso ruffle." Palmer liked that name.

"We really like to travel to warm places," she said. "There's something about the people that arefrom warm climates...When you go to the islands they have a great outlook on life."

She also pays tribute to her New York roots with a section of flowers from the northeast geraniums and a hydrangea Palmer hopesto nurse back to health.

She hopes to add more to her backyard, like a small pool that's part below ground, part above ground, and a wooden pathway.

Despitea small backyard space, Palmer saidgardeners shouldn't feel limited by the size of what they plant.

"Make it your retreat," she said."When you get home, it should feel like you're somewhere else."

Diane Palmer has spent 25 years fine tuning her outdoor escape into a Caribbean paradise at her Naples Park home Tuesday, May 23, 2017 in Naples. (Photo: Luke Franke/Naples Daily News)

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