Daily Archives: July 29, 2017

Tiny Shows Off Hourglass Curves In Snake Print Bikini Tempting TI After Bahamas Getaway? – Hollywood Life

Posted: July 29, 2017 at 7:31 pm

Dayum, girl! It looks like Tiny Harris had a great Bahamas vacation with her estranged hubby T.I. But was she tempting him with a dangerously sexy bikini?

Tiny, 42, is looking FINE. The mother of five flaunted her amazing bikini body on July 29 in some insane pics she posted to Instagram to show off her recent family getaway with estranged hubby T.I., 36. Just a lil recap of my vacation in the Bahamas , Tiny captioned the Instagram gallery of photos of her in a skimpy snake print bikini. The singer is enjoying a breathtaking day at the beach in the snaps, and goes from standing sassily above the tide, to crouching in the water, to lounging on the sand beneath the glistening waves.

The singer wore her hair in long blonde and black cornrows and rocked some large silver hoops to add even more personality to the look. She was spectacular while showing off her hourglass curves. Maybe a little toospectacular. Could it be she had been trying to tempt TIP with her smoking hot bod? Possibly, but with the amount of mixed messages these two have been sending since filing for divorce, we have no idea!

Though the couple are in the process of dissolving their marriage (amidrumors of T.I.s infidelity) they have made it very clear they are committed to co-parenting and raising the three children Clifford King, Major, 9, Heiress, 1 they share together, as a team. Thats why the entire family went on vacation together at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas. They even brought along the children they do not share together. And based on the photos they posted of the whole fam hanging out in the hotel, scuba diving and generally having an amazing time bonding, it looks like they are doing a great job of staying close. Even if they arent getting close likethatanymore. Click here to see pics of T.I. and Tinys children.

HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Tinys hot bikini pic? Let us know below!

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Sars red tape makes it harder to invest offshore – Independent Online

Posted: at 7:31 pm

The South African Revenue Service (Sars) has made it harder for South Africans to send money abroad, says Jill Wilmans, the managing director of Currencies Direct South Africa, which specialises in foreign exchange payments.

Previously, if you wanted to invest more than R1million but less than R10m offshore in a calendar year, Sars required a bank statement not older than three months, a statement of your assets and liabilities, and proof of the source of capital.

Now if you applying for tax clearance for a foreign investment allowance, Sars requires you to disclose information going back three years. This includes disclosing all your investments, loan accounts and distributions from local and foreign companies and trusts.

Wilmans says the change is causing major headaches. Prior to the introduction of these changes, it used to take us a few days to get tax clearance for our clients and have the funds ready to transfer into a foreign currency account. Now its taking three to four weeks.

Wilmans says it is tempting to assume that Sars is trying to make life difficult for well-off South Africans whom it believes are seeking shelter from political developments in this country.

She says that two years ago about half the applications processed by her company were from offshore clients wanting to convert euros, dollars or pounds into rands. These were foreigners keen to set up home, even for a few months of the year, in South Africa. Currently, its about 70% outgoing and 30% incoming.

Wilmans says political uncertainty has also motivated many citizens of the United States and European Union to diversify their asset base.

Were living in a turbulent global village, and we often forget it was the post-1994 government that gave us the ability to manage some of that turbulence by allowing individuals to set up offshore accounts. Having to disclose three years of information is cumbersome, but it will make it much more difficult for individuals to send money offshore that has escaped the tax net.

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African LNG exports to get boost from offshore projects – Reuters – Reuters

Posted: at 7:31 pm

* At least four offshore LNG plants in the works

* Plants will take offshore gas directly overseas

* Projects could be cheaper than large-scale onshore plants

By Edward McAllister

DAKAR, July 27 (Reuters) - Cameroon plans to begin exporting liquefied natural gas later this year using a newly designed offshore plant that analysts say could slash production costs and unlock African reserves not previously considered economically viable.

West and Central Africa's Gulf of Guinea has seen a wave of new oil and gas exploration, particularly since Tullow Oil discovered Ghana's huge Jubilee gas field in 2007. But the cost of pipelines and onshore liquefaction facilities means that relatively few gas finds have been developed.

However, a new technology has the potential to boost West and Central Africa's efforts to exploit its vast gas resources by allowing smaller plants to ship gas from less accessible fields.

A specialised vessel owned by Golar LNG will dock offshore Cameroon's Atlantic coast in the coming weeks for testing. It will liquefy natural gas produced in nearby offshore fields for shipment directly overseas. Russia's Gazprom has the rights to ship the gas to customers in Asia, Europe or South America.

"Deploying offshore liquefaction facilities bypasses some of the difficulties associated with building infrastructure onshore. Sometimes, offshore is simply easier," said Jean-Baptiste Bouzard, sub-Saharan analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

In sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Angola already export over 20 million tonnes each year (mtpa) of LNG, mainly to Europe and Asia. But those kinds of onshore facilities, which require large refrigeration units and storage tanks that take up acres of land, can be prohibitively expensive.

The dominance of cheap diesel and fuel oil in the region's domestic power markets also hindered the exploitation of reserves.

"Demand in the region is, at present, insufficient to justify the development of such big gas reserves for domestic consumption only," CITAC analysts said in a report this month on LNG in sub-Saharan Africa. "Consequently, most projects...are liquefaction units for exports."

The new offshore vessels will do the same job as the onshore facilities, albeit in smaller volumes, for a fraction of the cost in infrastructure.

Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Congo Republic are already developing four such offshore plants. Together they are expected to cost around $6 billion, a price tag comparable to that of some single onshore facilities.

In Senegal, BP is also considering using similar technology to export newly-discovered gas in deep waters there.

The exact volumes produced by the new offshore projects is not yet clear. Cameroon's project, a joint venture between Golar, Perenco and Cameroon's state-run SNH, will produce 1.2 mtpa.

Together, the four planned offshore projects are unlikely to produce much more than 7 mtpa of LNG.

But small scale has its advantages. In a market already glutted by a 7.5 percent growth in supply last year, having the cheapest gas will help win customers. A smaller-scale plant could help keep costs down.

Only one other plant like the one in Cameroon currently exists. It went online in Malaysia in March, and the market will be closely watching progress in Cameroon. (Additional reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in London; Editing by Joe Bavier and Susan Thomas)

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Harnessing The Power of Decentralization: Max Borders of Social Evolution Speaks – Inside Bitcoins

Posted: at 7:30 pm

This story was shared from this site

As the founder and Executive Director of Social Evolution, Max Borders is relentlessly seeking to liberate people and resolve social problems through innovation. Much of what drives him has been informed by his work as co-founder of the Voice & Exit event and as the former editor at the libertarian non-profit Foundation for Economic Education (FEE). Max is a futurist, a theorist, a published author and an entrepreneur.

Through his work with Social Evolution, Max is championing the following beliefs:

Here at BTCManager, we had a chance to interview Max about his aims and visions around todays emerging world of decentralization.

I started Social Evolution for two basic reasons.

First, I was frustrated with politics; how acrimonious it makes people, as well as the fact that most people think elections, legislatures and bureaucracies are the only means of making social change. I know there is a community out there that agrees that politics is a big, destructive illusion.

Second, and relatedly, I know there is a group of people out there already building new protocols for peaceful human interaction; systems that are decidedly less centralized and hierarchical. Social Evolution: the digital hub (forthcoming publication) will be an intellectual and spiritual home for this group. I want to unite and galvanize them.

I had been editor of FEE.org for years, and it was probably the best job I ever had. But I knew at some point I needed to create something different. I needed not to get too comfortable. I decided to build a media organization, a digital hub, that lies at the intersection of innovation and culture. I am in the process of building that hub; Social Evolution.

Sure. Decentralization has a certain inevitability to it. Just as I believe the technological singularity is coming, I also believe the social singularity will emerge as well. Thats not to say there wont be conflict. There will be convulsive wars between the old and new structures. Hostile state actors will be saboteurs, where possible, and there will be a lot of fallout. But decentralization is going to continue.

The blockchain is not just about decentralization. Its about disintermediation. And that means removing middlemen. And by middlemen, I dont just mean bankers. I mean all the great hierarchical mediating structures operating today; in media, government, corporations, and education. These structures are already showing their cracks.

But as they collapse there will be a great displacement. The middlemen will kick and scream on their way out because these obsolete structures butter their bread. They will have to transition. But first, they will try to reinsert themselves through various means, including attempts to ban or regulate the very technologies supplanting them.

Great question! A lot of people hear legal technologies and think there is some kind of app for dispute resolution or contracts. Im sure those are in development. But the law itself is a kind of technology because it involves a set of protocols or rulesets. And some of these rulesets are better than other when it comes to creating incentives to be productive. In countries with corrupt legal systems, the incentives are predatory. In countries with less corrupt legal systems, the incentives are to be productive. We can see this when you look at the difference between Venezuela and Hong Kong, for example. And put more cheekily, the US itself runs on DOS (Democratic Operating System). Isnt it time for a better social operating system?

So one of the more interesting developments in recent history are special economic zones (SEZs). These can be ports or territorial carve-outs, like Dubai or Shenzhen. A decade from now, it might be more speculative micronations, such as seasteads. As new SEZs come online, they can adopt new legal technologies, which is simply to say novel forms of law, which might be implemented with the help of bits and bytes. But given the corruptibility of people, one can imagine that the most competitive SEZs will use the blockchain for as much as they can because the most competitive and attractive SEZs for investment will be the least corrupt.

I believe well see five things. They are:

Social Evolution is for subversive innovators, those prepared to create systems of human interaction that have never before been possible. Our culture will coevolve with those systems. Social Evolution can be a standard bearer for a movement dedicated to liberating people and solving social problems through innovation (not politics).

My great hope is that we can be a major catalyst for peaceful social change. One day I want to get an email every day that reads: Because I read article X on Social Evolution, I started working on project Y that has revolutionized Z. Without the inspiration you provided, wed still be doing things the old way.

The geeks will inherit the earth.

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Quest to buy one’s own island need not extend beyond WV’s border – Charleston Gazette-Mail (subscription)

Posted: at 7:29 pm

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

A house built on flood-thwarting piers is the only structure on 36-acre Johnson Island in the Greenbrier River near Alderson.

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

Island co-owner Kay Sparks admires one of many mature hardwoods thriving on Johnson Island.

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

Kelly and Kay Sparks walk past a set of shoals while strolling the perimeter of their 36-acre Greenbrier River island, now on the market for $1.4 million.

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

The upstream end of Johnson Island is easily viewed from the W.Va. 3 bridge over the Greenbrier River in Alderson.

KENNY KEMP | Gazette-Mail

Kelly Sparks closes the gate leading to the bridge he built to access the Greenbrier River island he and his wife recently put up for sale.

ALDERSON Among properties featured in the current issue of Private Islands magazine are:

--Trump Island, a 29-acre expanse of rocky terrain and evergreen forest in Washingtons San Juan Islands, with sweeping ocean views perfect for whale watching, a private heliport for shopping trips to Seattle or Vancouver, an 8,000-square-foot home and an $8.75 million price tag.

--Cerboli Island, a 10-acre, $4 million chunk of limestone in Italys Tuscan Archipelago that comes equipped with a 1,000-year-old lookout tower built of hand-cut stone blocks overlooking Elba, its nearest neighboring island and, 200 years ago, the site of Napoleon Bonapartes exile.

--Johnson Island, a 36-acre, $1.4 million West Virginia getaway shaded by its own mature deciduous forest, surrounded by the rippling waters of the longest free-flowing river in the East, yet less than a half-mile from Aldersons Wagon Wheel cafe, should the yen for one of its signature barbecue sandwiches strike after a day of kayaking or fishing from a private island beach. The Greenbrier River island is one of 22 islands included in the spring-summer edition of Private Islands, which retails for $14.95 an issue and caters to the independent, adventurous personality, according to its cover. Johnson Island is the only river property featured in the issue.

Johnson Island is owned by Kelly Sparks, who grew up in Dille near the Clay-Nicholas border, and his wife, Kay, a Wisconsin native and a political campaign aide. They met and married while he was working as a regional legislative director for the United Auto Workers before returning to West Virginia 17 years ago.

I love it here, said Sparks, as he stood in the shade of the couples self-designed, pier-elevated island home, which escaped last summers epic flooding with several feet to spare. You can sit down and relax and listen to the river passing through the shoals and the worries of the world just melt away. The island is covered in bluebells in April, and geese build nests and lay eggs all over the island in spring.

Sparks left West Virginia at age 15, using doctored documents to accommodate a premature enlistment in the Navy.

By the time I was 17, I was sailing through the Straits of Gibralter, he said.

Later, he absorbed all the knowledge and skills he could learn from various Navy schools and training programs. After his military career ended, he found work in the Louisiana oil fields and later moved to the upper Midwest, where he worked in tractor plants in Wisconsin and became active in UAW affairs at the local and regional levels before becoming the unions top legislative liaison for a six-state area.

The couples unique boathouse style home is the islands sole dwelling and was designed to feel roomier than its relatively small size through the use of wraparound decks and the installation of 25 windows and five skylights. A walkway from the home leads to a small private dock at the head of a two-mile-long Greenbrier River pool, while a crushed rock vehicle lane leads to a deliberately overbuilt bridge crossing a Greenbrier River back channel atop four 36-inch steel I-beams and a huge quantity of concrete to connect the island roadway with W.Va. 20 near the mouth of Muddy Creek and the Alderson city limits.

Most of the island is covered by a mature hardwood forest with an abundance of huge, sentinel-straight specimens of oak, hickory and poplar and numerous groves of pawpaws already bearing fruit.

The couple first visited the island several years after moving to Greenbrier County, where they built their primary residence, a concrete home built on a cliff-top rock formation near Ronceverte with an aerial view of a miles-long stretch of the Greenbrier.

Back then, we liked to walk it, said Kay Sparks, since the islands owner at that time kept a pathway around the property mowed and cleared of debris.

After lengthy research to locate the title to the property, the Sparkses and another couple bought the island. Later, the former Wisconsinites bought their friends share of the island and built their home.

Johnson Island apparently gets its name from a brief period during the Civil War when it served as a temporary stockade for prisoners of war, Sparks said. Its namesake was Johnsons Island, a 300-acre island in Lake Erie near Sandusky, Ohio, that housed nearly 15,000 Confederate troops during its three years of operation.

During the Civil War, both Confederate and Union troops crossed the Greenbrier on several occasions at Aldersons Ferry, a short distance upstream from the island. On July 12, 1862, two companies of Union cavalry skirmished with a like-sized Confederate force at the ferry, killing, wounding or capturing seven of them.

Although the Sparkses were nominally retired when they moved to Greenbrier County, they have bought, revamped and sold more than 30 homes in the area since then, charging buyers 80 percent of the homes appraised value to make them more affordable, and in many cases, eliminating the need for buyers to come up with down payments.

Kay and I used to fix up and sell three of these houses a year, he said. Right now, were finishing up one, and it may be our last.

At age 71, Sparks said the time has also come to divest himself of the maintenance chores that need to be done to keep Johnson Island in tip-top shape.

I love it here, but it will be nice to have someone else taking care of it, he said. Weve had a $1 million offer on the island, but I turned it down. I want to sell it to someone who values seclusion, appreciates all these trees and wants to preserve all the other plants and animals that live here.

I want the next owner to be someone who has a vision for this place and the ability to make it happen.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169, or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.

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Apollo astronauts talk space travel in reunion – WXIA-TV

Posted: at 7:28 pm

This is the first time in 25 years the remaining astronauts have been under the same roof. (NBC RAW)

NBC , WXIA 5:59 PM. EDT July 29, 2017

NBC

Astronauts from most of the Apollo missions that put the first humans on the moon got together for a reunion in Wisconsin.

They gathered at the EAA Air Venture Show in Wisconsin Friday night to celebrate the 50th anniversary of NASAs Apollo space program.

This is the first time in 25 years that this many astronauts have been under the same roof.

"I would like to know how many people in the audience would like to spend 14 days in a volume the size of a front seat of a Volkswagen Beetle with a sailor," asked Frank Borman.

"I suspect that the space program will eventually go back to the Moon, said Jim Lovell. I think in my mind to go to Mars we should get very comfortable making lunar voyages, building up the infrastructure and the architecture to be comfortable landing on the moon, exploring the moon, then using that architecture to expand to eventually to going to Mars."

2017 NBCNEWS.COM

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Three-man crew reaches International Space Station – Phys.Org

Posted: at 7:28 pm

July 29, 2017 U.S. astronaut Randy Bresnik, right, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazanskiy, centre, Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli, members of the main crew of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS), walk prior the launch of Soyuz MS-05 space ship at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Friday, July 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Shamil Zhumatov, Pool)

A three-man space crew from Italy, Russia and the United States on Friday arrived at the International Space Station for a five-month mission Friday.

Footage broadcast by Russia's space agency Roscosmos showed the Soyuz craft carrying NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Russian cosmonaut Sergey Ryazansky and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency take off into the dusky sky from Kazhakstan's Baikonur cosmodrome.

Six hours later, after orbiting Earth four times, the Soyuz docked with the space station. The hatches between them were to open later, after pressurization and leak checks are carried out, according to the US space agency NASA.

The arrival of the three astronauts boosted the ISS back up to its full capacity of six for the first time since April, after Russia decided to cut the number of its cosmonauts to two.

NASA has responded to Russia's reduction by boosting the number of astronauts that will operate in its half of the ISS.

In total, four astronautsPeggy Whitson, Jack Fischer, Bresnik and Nespoliwill now conduct experiments in the NASA-run segment, with Ryazansky joining Fyodor Yurchikhin to man the Russian section.

'Ton of science'

Bresnik said at a pre-launch press conference on Thursday that the extra member would help the crew conduct experiments and carry out repairs.

"There is a ton of science to do," he said ahead of the flight.

Bresnikwho is on his second flightalso praised the work of Whitson, Fischer and Yurchikhin, already aboard the orbital lab.

"They've really got their groove on. They are working very, very well. They have good technique and tempo," he said.

Ryazansky, 42, who is embarking on his third stint aboard the ISS said at the press conference that he would be taking a small gnome into space in tribute to a song beloved by his family.

Live footage broadcast on Roscosmos's website showed the toy gnome hanging inside the capsule as the trio prepared for takeoff.

At 60 years old and with 174 days logged in space, Nespoli is the most experienced of the three fliers, but the Italian made it clear his love for space travel hasn't faded over time with a tweet showing him pulling his space suit on Friday.

"Beam me up S...oyuz! Hitching another ride soon to the @Space_Station," he wrote.

Nespoli became the oldest astronaut onboard, edging Fyodor Yurchikhin, 59 and Whitson, 57.

But Whitson is the oldest female astronaut in the history of space exploration and has broken other records during her latest mission at the ISS.

In April, Whitson became the NASA astronaut with the most cumulative time spent in space, having already broken the record for spacewalks by a woman the month before.

Whitson was expected to return home in June with Russian Oleg Novitsky and Frenchman Thomas Pesquet, but had her mission extended into September by NASA in a decision connected to the Roscosmos crew reduction.

Roscosmos has said its two-man crew format will help it save costs while the ISS waits on the arrival of a long-delayed Multipurpose Laboratory Module that will generate enough work on board to justify a third cosmonaut on board.

The $100 billion ISS space laboratory has been orbiting Earth at about 28,000 kilometres (17,000 miles) per hour since 1998.

Space is one of the few areas of international cooperation between Russia and the US that has not been wrecked by tensions over Ukraine and Syria.

Explore further: Space capsule with 3 astronauts blasts off to orbiting lab

2017 AFP

A Soyuz space capsule successfully blasted off for the International Space Station on Friday, carrying an American astronaut, a Russian cosmonaut and an Italian astronaut.

A Soyuz space capsule blasted off Thursday for the International Space Station, carrying an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut.

A Soyuz space capsule on Thursday safely delivered an American astronaut making his first space flight and a veteran Russian cosmonaut to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft that will carry ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli, NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik and Roscosmos commander Sergey Ryazansky to the International Space Station is now on the launch pad in Kazakhstan.

Two Russian cosmonauts and a US astronaut touched down safely in central Kazakhstan Monday following a 173-day mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The world's oldest and most experienced spacewoman is getting three extra months in orbit.

A three-man space crew from Italy, Russia and the United States on Friday arrived at the International Space Station for a five-month mission Friday.

August 21st will bring a history-making opportunity for the entire United States. On that day, every person in the country, including Hawaii and Alaska, will have an opportunity to witness at least a partial solar eclipse ...

Carnegie's Benjamin Shappee is part of a team of scientists, including an Australian amateur astronomer, which discovered a new comet last week.

(Phys.org)A team led by David Kipping of Columbia University has spotted what might be the first evidence of an exomoon. They have written a paper describing their findings and have uploaded it to the arXiv preprint server.

NASA scientists have definitively detected the chemical acrylonitrile in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan, a place that has long intrigued scientists investigating the chemical precursors of life.

For many years astronomers have struggled to get good-quality 3-D data of galaxies. Although this technique is very powerful as it allows researchers to "dissect" objects, this was a slow process as each galaxy had to be ...

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‘Absolutely crazy’ or ‘next level’ idea? Group wants to abolish position of parish president in Ascension – The Advocate

Posted: at 7:25 pm

GONZALES With an attempted bribery indictment hanging over the head of Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa, a group of business people are pressing to abolish the position of elected parish president in favor of an appointed parish manager.

The nonprofit A Better Ascension, a group formed in February with leadership that includes Eatel Corp. president John Scanlan, wants to change the parish home rule charter and create the new parish executive position. The parish manager model follows the leadership structure of large companies with a CEO and board of directors.

The group, which has been meeting for eight months, plans for a public roll-out of their idea in mid-August. They would not only need to convince voters of the concept, but the proposal would likely have to be put on the ballot by the Parish Council.

"We believe the Parish Manager-Council form of government will bring Ascension Parish to the next level," Scanlan said in a statement this week. "This style of government has proven to be much more effective and efficient than our parish government's current model."

The group pointed to a 2011 IBM study, titled "Smarter, Faster, Cheaper," that compared 100 cities and concluded that municipal governments with a city manager were nearly 10 percent more efficient than cities with a strong elected mayor.

ANational Association of Countiesanalysisfound in a May 2015 study that 43 percent of counties are run by appointed administrators.

Matassa said the proposal would take away "people's right to vote."

GONZALES Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa said Thursday that parish leaders will d

"This isnt a grassroots movement. Its an attempt by a secretly funded group of special interests to take control for themselves," Matassa added in a statement. "The people want to elect their president, their sheriff and their mayor. Im with the rights of the people, not the special interests.

Under the Ascension proposal, the new parish manager would be required to have a master's in public administration or business administration, and have at least five years of experience as a government executive. The manager would also have to take ethics training and be an Ascension Parish resident at least 90 days before taking the job.

But the proposed change would take away power from voters, who now directly select parish government's only parishwide elected official. The proposal calls for an appointed board to vet candidates for manager, while the final choice would be made by the 11 elected members of the Parish Council.

After narrowly beating surveyor Clint Cointment in the fall of 2015 runoff, Matassa's administration has run into head winds. He was caught on tape last year allegedly trying bribe a candidate to drop out of a Gonzales City Council race last year. Matassa has disputed that allegations, saying he was discussing a loan and offering political advice.

GONZALES For the first time, the Ascension Parish Council on Thursday will try out a new a

Matassa and Olin Berthelot, one of his businessman allies also caught on tape in the alleged scheme, were indicted March 10, about a month after A Better Ascension filed its nonprofit incorporation papers, on counts of attempted election bribery.

But Jamie Bourgeois, another member of A Better Ascension's board, said their plan isn't a response to Matassa's troubles, but concern about the lack of infrastructure investment despite Ascension's growth and strong revenue.

He said the proposed structure would model the parish school system. The School Board selects a superintendent and the superintendent has autonomy to hire and fire and manage the school system. The board hires and fires the superintendent.

"So this is the same type of concept," said Bourgeois, an industrial project manager from St. Amant who served on the School Board for one term that ended in 2014.

Unlike the School Board, however, a five-member citizen board with heavy business leanings would vet and nominate candidates for parish manager. That board would be made up of the parish school system superintendent, one Ascension Rotary Club member appointed by the Parish Council, one business executive appointed by the Parish Council and two members appointed by the Ascension Chamber of Commerce.

J Hudson, a spokesman for A Better Ascension, said the Parish Council could select up to two city manager candidates from the nominating committee but could not independently select replacement candidates. The nominating board would have to restart the process if the council rejects candidates.

A Better Ascension says in a statement that the group's members want this selection structure to ensure "Ascension citizens who have experience in hiring qualified employees lead the Parish Manager search."

A major structural change to parish government, the proposal would require an amendment or possibly several to the home rule charter, Ascension's broad plan of government adopted in July 1993. The charter shifted Ascension away from the old police jury system to a parish council-parish president form of government.

A majority of voters in Ascension must approve any change to the charter, which has never been amended. In May 2010, voters soundly rejected 28 proposed changes to the charter incorporated into eight ballot amendments, which included a series of technical changes but also a pay boost for the parish president under the argument then that a heftier salary would attract a better parish leader.

Ascension Parish is about to receive a big batch of federal reimbursement dollars for money

For the A Better Ascension proposal to get on the ballot, which backers say they want to do this fall, at least eight members of the 11-member Parish Council would have to agree. The group could also start a petition drive but would need the signatures of one-third of the parish's registered voters, which is about 25,000 voters.

The group plans informational meetings at 6 p.m. on the following dates: Aug. 14 in Gonzales, Aug. 15 in St. Amant, Aug. 21 in Donaldsonville and Aug. 22 in Prairieville. Meeting locations will be announced later.

Hudson provided a list of A Better Ascension's board members Friday at The Advocate's request. He said the group would be gradually identifying donors who wished to be identified.

In addition to Scanlan and Bourgeois, other members are Brandon Trosclair, Bryan Melancon, Don Ramsey, Jeremy Epps, John Diez, Marty Martin, Pat Bourque and Vance Daigle.

Some Parish Council members, like Teri Casso and Aaron Lawler, expressed in an interview and written social media posts their interest in the idea or at least openness to letting voters decide.

Councilman Randy Clouatre said he is also open to the idea, but wants to learn more first. Councilman Travis Turner said he wanted more information.

Councilman Daniel "Doc" Satterlee, one of Matassa's toughest council critics who pushed for and got a non-binding vote of no-confidence against the parish president this spring after the indictment, is fiercely opposed to the concept.

He called it an "absolutely crazy idea" that essentially does away with one of the three branches of government, a "tried and true" system upon which the nation was founded.

"The problem we have right now is that we have a corrupt leader of our executive branch, so we shouldn't, in my mind, be throwing out the baby with bath water by eliminating the entire executive branch thinking that that's going end corruption," Satterlee said.

He said he has found examples of city and county manager-type governments with corruption problems by those managers.

At the same time, Satterlee said he is still weighing whether to vote to put the changes on the ballot so voters can have the final say. Satterlee has taken the same approach with tax proposals he has opposed.

Councilman Bill Dawson, whose career was spent in the oil and gas industry, said he has worked under the type of management structure that A Better Ascension is proposing throughout his working career and is open to the idea, but has not decided.

As council chairman, Dawson also sets the agenda with Matassa. He said he will give the proposal "serious consideration," but considers the threshold to bring an idea forward for public debate fairly low.

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'Absolutely crazy' or 'next level' idea? Group wants to abolish position of parish president in Ascension - The Advocate

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A century before Bezos and Musk, rich men were already funding space exploration – Quartz

Posted: at 7:24 pm

If you think of space exploration and the United States, you probably imagine NASAs Apollo moon rockets and one giant leap for mankind.

But you shouldnt be thinking about big government.

Instead, picture a billionaire who earned a fortune building the infrastructure for a booming California economy, searching for a legacy-making investment in technology to highlight his accomplishments. Or picture a science-fiction-loving engineer who tests his rockets through public-private partnerships with the US government and is obsessed with colonizing other planets to preserve the human species.

You doubtless thought of Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, whose companies Blue Origin and SpaceX are breaking aerospace barriers today. But thats not who were talking about.

Rather, think of their predecessors. One, James Lick, was a real-estate baron who profited from land deals during the California gold rush, then in 1876 spent the equivalent of $1.5 billion today on the construction of an observatory with the worlds then-largest refractor telescope in the Diablo mountains of California. The other, Robert Goddard, invented and launched the first liquid-fuel rocket in 1926, arguing that the navigation of interplanetary space must be effected to ensure the continuance of the race.

These are famous figures in space history, but a book by NASA economist Alexander MacDonald helps put their contributions in the correct context. In The Long Space Age, MacDonald gathers new data about spending on space exploration to argue that private citizens, not the government, have been the key backers of American space exploration.

In the long historical perspective, the American movement out into space is much more than the story of one giant leap by its government in service of geopolitical competition; it is a cumulative story of the many small steps of its people, MacDonald writes. The spending on space by the likes of Musk and Bezos is a persistent, enduring trend that is now reemerging (authors emphasis).

Consider the data set MacDonald assembled of spending on observatoriesthe 19th-century equivalent of space probes, bringing human senses closer than ever before to astronomical bodies. Lick, and other philanthropists and amateur scientists, poured the modern equivalent of billions of dollars into observatories that delivered major scientific advances.

MacDonald also carefully traces the money that Goddard, who combined engineering brilliance with a flare for fundraising, received to finance his rocket investigations. Of the 2015-equivalent $73 million in funding Goddard spent over the course of his program, 65% came from private sources, much of it from the Guggenheim Foundation. MacDonald raises a fascinating historical counterfactual in John Jacob Astor IV, the wealthy heir who in 1894 published a book entitled A Journey in Other Worlds, apparently a meticulously researched 19th-century equivalent of The Martian and with similar cultural impact. If Astor had not died onboard the Titanic, he might have joined his wealthy peers as an important space funder.

The economic explanation for all this spending comes in two flavors, and neither one is market return. One is intrinsic motivation; some humans are attracted to the idea of exploring space and just want to do it, and people with a lot of money can make those dreams real. The other is signaling; Americans in the 19th century were eager to show their European cousins that they could contribute to the Enlightenment game of generating scientific knowledge.

It is signaling, too, that explains the Apollo experience, when massive amounts of public resources surged into the space sector. That Cold War moment created a huge value on space demonstrations because of the polarized global power structure and a lack of effective global communications networks. Putting a satellite into space or a human on the moon was an extremely powerful way for the US or the USSR to say, in essence, we are a well-organized technological power that you want to befriend.

With the end of global ideological conflict and the rise of interconnection, that kind of signaling isnt as valuable as once it was, and NASAs budgets are commensurately not as large. The Apollo program should not be seen as the classic model of American space exploration, but rather as an anomaly, MacDonald concludes.

It may be surprising for a NASA economist to say that the space agencys defining accomplishment was an outlier, but MacDonald says that an evolving NASA is embracing its role as an incubator of commercial space as well as an exploration agency. He is also skeptical that companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin will become serious money-makers for their founders in the near term. He sees their commercial bent as a reflection of how society is organized today.

Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are really following their own intrinsic motivations; they want their own futures in space, he told me. Whats different from them to [philanthropist] Andrew Carnegie or [Smithsonian director] Charles Abbot? The best mechanism for achieving their motivations is a corporation. The Carnegie model was make all your money and donate it through a philanthropic foundation. These guys are still in their forties. They intend to be in the game of trying to advance our activity in space for the rest of their lives.

Goddard, at least, would sympathize with their struggles. MacDonald writes about a press clipping in which the rocket pioneer laments his business prospects.

It would cost a fortune to make a rocket to hit the moon, Goddard mused in 1920. But wouldnt it be worth a fortune? The great pity is that I cannot commercialize my idea. If I could rant of a 100 percent return in forty-five days, Id have been financed long ago.

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A century before Bezos and Musk, rich men were already funding space exploration - Quartz

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NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) Price Lingering Below the Cloud – Clayton News

Posted: at 7:24 pm

Shares of NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) opened the last session at 0.0200, touching a high of 0.0200 and a low of 0.0200 , yielding a change of0.0005. The latest reading places the stock below the Ichimoku cloud which indicates negative momentum and a potential sellsignal for the equity.

The Ichimoku cloud is a favorite technical indicator used primarily in Asian markets. The cloud is one of the only indicators that is both forward and backward looking. The cloud produces better levels of support and resistance and is a breakout traders best friend. The cloud is also one of the easiest indicators to use. Any trader, regardless of skill level or expertise, can use the cloud to quickly and efficiently analyze any product on any time frame. The cloud shines in the fact that it can be universally applied to any trading plan by any trader.

It is a type of chart used in technical analysis to display support and resistance, momentum, and trend in one view. TenkanSen and KijunSen are similar to moving averages and analyzed in relationship to one another. When the shorter term indicator, TenkanSen, rises above the longer term indicator, KijunSen, the securities trend is typically positive. When TenkanSen falls below KijunSen, the securities trend is typically negative. TenkanSen and KijunSen as a group are then analyzed in relationship to the Cloud, which is composed of the area between Senkou A and Senkou B.A multi-faceted indicator designed to give support/resistance levels, trend direction, and entry/exit points of varying strengths. General theory behind this indicator states that if price action is above the cloud, the overall trend is bullish, and if below the cloud, the overall trend is bearish. There are also moving averages (the Tenkan and Kijun lines) which act like the MACD crossover signals with the Tenkan crossing from underneath the Kijun as a bullish signal, while crossing overhead giving a bearish signal.

It is no secret that most investors have the best of intentions when diving into the equity markets. Making sound, informed decisions can help the investor make the most progress when dealing with the markets. Often times, investors may think they have everything in order, but they still come out on the losing end. Investors may need to figure out ways to keep emotion out of stock picking. Sometimes trading on emotions can lead to poor results. Making hasty decisions and not paying attention to the correct data can lead to poor performing portfolios in the long-term.

Checking on some popular technical levels, NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) has a 14-day Commodity Channel Index (CCI) of -73.55. The CCI technical indicator can be employed to help figure out if a stock is entering overbought or oversold territory. CCI may also be used to help discover divergences that may signal reversal moves. A CCI closer to +100 may provide an overbought signal, and a CCI near -100 may provide an oversold signal.

Tracking other technical indicators, the 14-day RSI is presently standing at 40.15, the 7-day sits at 41.65, and the 3-day is resting at 48.86 for NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK). The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is a highly popular technical indicator. The RSI is computed base on the speed and direction of a stocks price movement. The RSI is considered to be an internal strength indicator, not to be confused with relative strength which is compared to other stocks and indices. The RSI value will always move between 0 and 100. One of the most popular time frames using RSI is the 14-day.

Moving averages have the ability to be used as a powerful indicator for technical stock analysis. Following multiple time frames using moving averages can help investors figure out where the stock has been and help determine where it may be possibly going. The simple moving average is a mathematical calculation that takes the average price (mean) for a given amount of time. Currently, the 7-day moving average is sitting at 0.02.

Lets take a further look at the Average Directional Index or ADX. The ADX measures the strength or weakness of a particular trend. Investors and traders may be looking to figure out if a stock is trending before employing a specific trading strategy. The ADX is typically used along with the Plus Directional Indicator (+DI) and Minus Directional Indicator (-DI) which point to the direction of the trend. The 14-day ADX for NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) is currently at 46.03. In general, and ADX value from 0-25 would represent an absent or weak trend. A value of 25-50 would support a strong trend. A value of 50-75 would signify a very strong trend, and a value of 75-100 would point to an extremely strong trend.

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NanoTech Entertainment Inc (NTEK) Price Lingering Below the Cloud - Clayton News

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