June 8, 2018

He Wants to Be a Ballerina. He Has Taken the First Steps.

For the first time in modern ballet history, a male dancer is performing as part of the female ensemble at an international ballet company, signaling an important moment in an art form that often celebrates a particular ideal of femininity. Or, as the great choreographer George Balanchine said, “ballet is woman.”

But in a world with a heightened awareness of gender fluidity, and with transgender people increasingly accepted in a variety of professions, including acting and modeling, ballet is taking its own brave leap.

“I want to be seen as a ballerina,” said Mr. Johnsey, an American, who identifies as gender fluid but uses male pronouns. “My hair is up, I wear makeup, female attire. I am able to do female roles and look the part, so that is artistically what I do.”

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Mr. Johnsey is not appearing on point in “Sleeping Beauty,” but in what are known as character, or soft-shoe, dances, with costumes less revealing than those for point-work roles. His path even to these appearances has been arduous. Since beginning work at English National Ballet, he has lost 20 pounds, with the help of a nutritionist, and worked with both a physical trainer and a company ballet mistress, Loipa Araújo, to retrain and reshape his body.

“I am a small, petite guy, but I am a man,” Mr. Johnsey, who is 5 feet 5, said. “My shoulders are wider, my calves are bigger, the textures of my muscles are different.” He added, “I had to cannibalize my body, make it run on energy from muscles and figure out how to lose muscle mass without losing strength.”

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Mr. Johnsey, center, in a scene from the English National Ballet’s “The Sleeping Beauty.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/arts/dance/the-first-man-dancing-in-a-female-corps-de-ballet.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

June 8, 2018

caught in the act. illegal pooper was corporate big wig. loses his job. (NSFW)

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The feces fiend made more than 30 deposits outside an apartment complex in the Greenslopes neighborhood of Brisbane, according to media reports.

Fed-up residents tracking Macintosh’s regular movements could take no more crap — so they set up a sting operation to catch him in flagrante delicto.

“One of the neighbors set up a night camera and got a few images and so we had a time he was doing it, so then I decided to go and wait with a camera and I was there a few mornings and then last Friday I got him,” neighbor Steve Smith told news.com.au.

“There’s a red light which goes on before the camera’s flash goes off and he saw that and looked at me as the photograph was taken,” he said. “Then he just said, ‘Hello.’ At that point I decided to just walk away.”

Macintosh was charged with a single count of public nuisance.

The 64-year-old was a national quality manager for Aveo, a retirement village property and investment group, and a member of the Brisbane City Council’s Inclusive Board.

https://nypost.com/2018/06/07/poo-jogger-out-of-corporate-gig-after-residents-make-big-stink/

June 7, 2018

Donald Trump And Mike Pence Shared A Really Weird Moment With A Water Bottle

https://twitter.com/jules_su/status/1004475500721401856

June 7, 2018

Lava From Kilauea Boils Away Hawaii's largest Freshwater Lake within hours

The Green Lake was gone in hours.

Lava from the Kilauea volcano spilled across highways and into Hawaii's Green Lake — a major source of fresh water on Hawaii's Big Island — and evaporated all the water, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The flow created a huge plume of steam as it hit the lake Saturday on its way toward the ocean, according to Hawaii County's Civil Defense agency.

"The lava is quite hot, so it boiled away the water," Sally Sennert, a USGS volcanologist embedded at the Smithsonian's Global Volcanism Program, tells NPR.

"The lava flows, like a stream of water, are going to take the path of least resistance as they flow downhill," Sennert says, adding that she doubts the lake will return. "All I've heard is reports that lava has filled it up," she says.

The lava entered Green Lake at 10 a.m. local time and had evaporated all the water by 3 p.m., according to the USGS.


Lava steams after it hit Hawaii's Green Lake, which had been filled with water hours before, on Saturday.



https://www.npr.org/2018/06/07/617860832/lava-from-kilauea-boils-away-freshwater-lake-in-hawaii

A steam plume first appeared around 10 a.m. Saturday as lava poured into Green Lake in Kapoho, but by 3 p.m. a Hawaii County Fire Department overflight confirmed to the US Geological Survey that the lake had filled with lava and the body of water was no more.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/us/green-lake-lava-evaporates-hawaii-trnd/index.html

June 7, 2018

Donald Trump just dunked on Jeff Sessions in the most vicious way possible

Just when you thought the bullying couldn't get any worse -- Trump has repeatedly said he would never and should never have hired Sessions, called him "beleaguered," "very weak" and "disgraceful," and reportedly refers to the former Alabama senator as "Mr. Magoo" -- today happened.

The scene: A FEMA briefing in which Trump and a number of his Cabinet officials were seated around a table. For most of the Cabinet officials, Trump was effusive in his praise of the job they were doing. And then there was Sessions.

Here's what Trump said about each of the Cabinet members; I saved Sessions until last because, well, you'll see.

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* Attorney General Jeff Sessions: "Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Thank you, Jeff. Thank you very much." (11 words)

Eleven words. And five of those 11 are either Sessions' name or his title!!! Trump was even capable of coming up with 91 nice words about Pruitt, his beyond embattled EPA administrator.
It's like if you are at a big company dinner and your boss praises everyone else and then turns to you and says: "Chris Cillizza. He works here. Chris Cillizza."

Ice cold.

Most other Cabinet members -- or, really, people -- would have quit long before this most devastating of embarrassments. Jeff Sessions isn't most people.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/donald-trump-jeff-sessions/index.html

June 7, 2018

Leaked audio from hurricane meeting, Trump highjacked meeting to talk about stuff

Leaked audio from the 40-minute meeting at Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters captured Trump musing about the cost of purchasing military equipment, attacking California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom, praising Foxconn for building a factory in Wisconsin and attempting to reassure his Cabinet members that they were very popular.

While speaking to the cameras for about 15 minutes, Trump briefly mentioned Puerto Rico and states hit by disasters, but didn’t address the recent Harvard study that estimated nearly 5,000 deaths on the island may be linked to Maria. The government’s official death toll from the storm was 64.

Trump did, however, thank FEMA officials and Cabinet members for their response to last year’s hurricane season.

m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5b18f571e4b09578259f3008

June 7, 2018

teacher on leave for making racist gesture at student

http://abc7news.com/education/sj-teacher-on-leave-not-facing-charges-for-racist-incident/3570072/
A San Jose teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave but does not face criminal charges for making a racist gesture towards a black student at Santa Teresa High School earlier this year.

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A San Jose teacher has been placed on paid administrative leave for making a racist gesture towards a black student at Santa Teresa High School earlier this year.

The student was in PE class, walking into the weight room, when the teacher, who is white, reportedly said "stay away from me" and used a nearby rope to make a noose around his own neck. Activists say the action was unprovoked, and the student is traumatized. The teacher reportedly called it a joke. It happened at the end of April.


The East Side Union High School District announced its investigation into the event is complete and credible evidence was found that the incident happened as described. The district says a report has been made to San Jose police.

San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia says, "Actions such as this that occurred are not tolerated. The case was taken to the District Attorney's Office, was deemed to be a hate incident, not hate crime, so there were no charges filed."

June 7, 2018

yesterday lava destroyed hundreds of homes, filled Kapoho Bay, & reshaped the coastline of Hawaii

Lava Flow Completely Fills The Beautiful Kapoho Bay

https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/06/06/hawaii-volcano-lava-flow-completely-fills-the-beautiful-kapoho-bay/#40f55c8c491e

Hawaii's Kilauea volcano claimed its latest victim, the picturesque Kapoho Bay as it filled the bay with molten lava flows. Overnight, hundreds of homes were destroyed as rivers of lava poured into oceanfront communities.

Just a few days ago Kapoho Bay was a beautiful vacation destination, filled with vacation homes, beautiful beaches and clear water. Today, the bay is filled with a lava field that extends 0.8 miles from the old bay, completely reshaping the coastline of Hawaii.

Lava filled up this Hawaiian bay and destroyed what could be hundreds of homes

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/us/hawaii-volcano-kapoho-bay/index.html

A slow-moving flood of lava destroyed hundreds of homes in the southeast area of Big Island, turning what had been a scenic bay dotted with beach homes, lush greens and turquoise waters, into a dark slab of steam and lava.

By Tuesday morning, the lava had completely filled Kapoho Bay -- shocking residents and frequent visitors who realized that their beloved bay was gone. It was where vacationers enjoyed tide pools, snorkeling and picnics, reported CNN affiliate Hawaii News Now.

June 7, 2018

Two of Scott Pruitt's top aides resign amid EPA scrutiny

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/two-epa-aides-resign/index.html

Two of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's closest aides at the agency resigned on Wednesday, an EPA official confirms to CNN.

Sarah Greenwalt, a senior counselor to Pruitt, and Millan Hupp, who worked as Pruitt's scheduling director, both resigned on Wednesday, the official told CNN. Their resignations are set to take effect late this week and early next week, the source said.

Hupp recently testified before the House oversight committee that she did many personal tasks for Pruitt, including house-hunting and inquiring about obtaining a used Trump hotel mattress.

Their resignations leave Pruitt increasingly isolated at the EPA, where he has lost the confidence of most of the agency's career staff and many conservative political appointees who feel that Pruitt's ethical lapses have done a disservice to the President's agenda.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/06/politics/two-epa-aides-resign/index.html

June 7, 2018

grow from your groceries

anyone do this? I plant the green onions bottoms. super easy way to have green onions. Have planted the celery bottom also.