December 6, 2013

Nelson Mandela Dies at 95

As soon as she woke up her demeanour had changed. She became alert and businesslike, put her clothes on, knotted the scarlet sash about her waist, and began arranging the details of the journey home. It seemed natural to leave this to her. She obviously had a practical cunning which Winston lacked, and she seemed also to have an exhaustive knowledge of the countryside round London, stored away from innumerable community hikes. The route she gave him was quite different from the one by which he had come, and brought him out at a different railway station. "Never go home the same way as you went out," she said, as though enunciating an important general principle. She would leave first, and Winston was to wait half an hour before following her.

Nelson Mandela, who rose from militant antiapartheid activist to become the unifying president of a democratic South Africa and a global symbol of racial reconciliation, died at his Johannesburg home following a lengthy stay at a Pretoria hospital, the government said Thursday. He was 95.

She had named a place where they could meet after work, four evenings hence. It was a street in one of the poorer quarters, where there was an open market which was generally crowded and noisy. She would be hanging about among the stalls, pretending to be in search of shoelaces or sewing thread. If she judged that the coast was clear she would blow her nose when he approached; otherwise he was to walk past her without recognition. But with luck, in the middle of the crowd, it would be safe to talk for a quarter of an hour and arrange another meeting.

In a state television address, President Jacob Zuma said Mr. Mandela had died that evening after a long illness. "Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," said Mr. Zuma, dressed in a dark jacket and reading his statement in deep somber tones. "Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss."

"And now I must go," she said as soon as he had mastered his instructions. 'I'm due back at nineteen-thirty. I've got to put in two hours for the Junior Anti-Sex League, handing out leaflets, or something. Isn't it bloody? Give me a brush-down, would you? Have I got any twigs in my hair? Are you sure? Then good-by, my love, good-by!'

In a somber statement from the White House, President Barack Obama said Mr. Mandela "achieved more than could be expected of any man. Today he's gone home and we've lost one of the most influential, courageous and profoundly good human beings that any of us will share time with on this Earth."

December 5, 2013.

Moving Crude by Railcar Stalls on the Track

Winston woke first. He sat up and watched the freckled face, still peacefully asleep, pillowed on the palm of her hand. Except for her mouth, you could not call her beautiful. There was a line or two round the eyes, if you looked closely. The short dark hair was extraordinarily thick and soft. It occurred to him that he still did not know her surname or where she lived.

Companies that thought they had found a relatively easy way to move crude from the booming oil fields of North Dakota to the West Coast are encountering obstacles.

The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke in him a pitying, protecting feeling. But the mindless tenderness that he had felt under the hazel tree, while the thrush was singing, had not quite come back. He pulled the overalls aside and studied her smooth white flank. In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl's body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act.

Half a dozen companies are trying to build rail terminals on the coast of Washington state to receive trainloads of crude from the Bakken field in North Dakota. The oil would then be transferred to ships and barges that could carry it to refineries in the Pacific Northwest or south to California.

THREE

"We can come here once again," said Julia. "It's generally safe to use any hide-out twice. But not for another month or two, of course."

Analysts say regulatory hurdles make it difficult to build the necessary rail yards and tank farms in California, and it's more expensive to ship crude there. But getting a permit in Washington is proving more challenging than companies expected.

December 4, 2013.

Obama Urges Steps to Resolve Income Inequality

"You like doing this? I don't mean simply me: I mean the thing in itself?"

President Barack Obama, seeking to renew focus on the economy after months of mostly bad news about the health-law rollout, said Wednesday that growing income inequality is harming the U.S. economy and called on Congress to increase the minimum wage.

"I adore it."

"The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American dream, our way of life and what we stand for around the globe," Mr. Obama said in a 45-minute speech hosted by the Center for American Progress, a think tank closely aligned with the White House.

That was above all what he wanted to hear. Not merely the love of one person but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces. He pressed her down upon the grass, among the fallen bluebells. This time there was no difficulty. Presently the rising and falling of their breasts slowed to normal speed, and in a sort of pleasant helplessness they fell apart. The sun seemed to have grown hotter. They were both sleepy. He reached out for the discarded overalls and pulled them partly over her. Almost immediately they fell asleep and slept for about half an hour.

Mr. Obama echoed many of the ideas he's offered before: closing tax loopholes and using the increased revenue for infrastructure projects; unwinding the across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester; and raising the federal minimum wage, now at $7.25 an hour.

December 3, 2013.

Detroit Eligible for Bankruptcy Protection

"Yes, perfectly."

DETROIT----Detroit, the fallen capital of U.S. industrial might, was declared eligible for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, clearing an important hurdle for the cash-poor city to restructure billions of dollars in long-term debt.

"I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones."

Five months after the city filed for Chapter 9 protection, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that Detroit was legally entitled to pursue the move. The judge found that the nation's 18th-largest city was insolvent before its July bankruptcy filing.

"Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I'm corrupt to the bones."

Judge Rhodes also concluded that Detroit was legally permitted to file for bankruptcy because it had too many creditors----more than 100,000----to expect it to be able to reach a realistic out-of-court settlement with them.

December 2, 2013.

Metro-North Train Exceeded Speed Limit Before NYC Crash

"Not with those swine, no. But there's plenty that would if they got half a chance. They're not so holy as they make out."

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the Metro-North train that derailed Sunday morning in the Bronx was traveling 82 miles per hour as it entered a tight curve with a speed limit of 30 mph.

His heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it: he wished it had been hundreds----thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew, perhaps the Party was rotten under the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self-denial simply a sham concealing iniquity. If he could have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly he would have done so! Anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine! He pulled her down so that they were kneeling face to face.

The investigators are "not aware of any problems or anomalies with the brakes," NTSB Member Earl Weener said at a news conference Monday.

"Listen. The more men you've had, the more I love you. Do you understand that?"

Four people were killed in the accident and more than 60 were injured, the first passenger deaths in Metro-North's 30-year history.

December 1, 2013.

Philippine Typhoon Spurs Diaspora to Action

"With Party members."

In the weeks since Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines, Rogelio "Vonz" Santos Jr. has chartered private helicopters to deliver more than four tons of water, sardines and antibiotics to typhoon-ravaged areas that have seen little aid.

"Yes, always with Party members."

"My friends lost their families," said Mr. Santos, a 33-year-old Filipino-American who lives in New York, where he runs a U.S. biotech company with a Manila office. "A lot of things got de-prioritized, and this is my priority now." He said he has funded 14 relief missions with the $50,000 he and his friends have raised so far.

"With members of the Inner Party?"

Few countries have such a large part of its population living overseas as the Philippines, with about 10.5 million Filipinos, or more than 10% of the country's population, living abroad. Now, that sprawling network of people is springing into action, pumping in badly-needed aid after Typhoon Haiyan flattened large portions of the 7,000-island nation.

November 30, 2013.

As Deadline Expires, Problems Persist With Health Site

Quickly, with an occasional crackle of twigs, they threaded their way back to the clearing. When they were once inside the ring of saplings she turned and faced him. They were both breathing fast, but the smile had reappeared round the corners of her mouth. She stood looking at him for an instant, then felt at the zipper of her overalls. And, yes! it was almost as in his dream. Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated. Her body gleamed white in the sun. But for a moment he did not look at her body; his eyes were anchored by the freckled face with its faint, bold smile. He knelt down before her and took her hands in his.

Technicians in the Washington area raced up to a month-end deadline set by the Obama administration to make the troubled federal insurance website work for a majority of users, but officials acknowledged they still faced a raft of problems that could take weeks or more to fix.

"Have you done this before?"

By Saturday evening, technicians completed a major hardware upgrade, adding computing, storage and database capacity to their data center, said one person familiar with the situation. "There was a big install and it worked," the person said.

"Of course. Hundreds of times----well scores of times anyway."

Contractors believe the upgrades will improve the system's performance and let it handle more visitors, but the person said they are testing the system and aren't yet sure it can handle 50,000 simultaneous users, the administration's stated objective. A few days before the deadline, officials said the site was only able to handle 25,000.