Baking Bread in the Earthen Oven - 18th Century Cooking Series Video:
Tuesday, 13 February 2018
18th Century Cooking How To Build An Earthen Oven (27 Pics)
Baking Bread in the Earthen Oven - 18th Century Cooking Series Video:
Monday, 12 February 2018
Donald Trump plan to overhaul US infrastructure faces steep hurdles
U.S. President Donald Trump will roll out an infrastructure plan on Monday that already faces significant hurdles in Congress because it does not offer as much new federal funding as Democrats want or directly address how to pay for the effort.
The plan to use $200 billion in federal funds to try to stimulate $1.5 trillion in infrastructure improvements over 10 years could reshape how the federal government funds roads, bridges, highways and other infrastructure.
The administration also says it will eliminate bureaucratic roadblocks to completing projects that can tie up new roads for years.
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that in addition to the $200 billion the administration seeks for its infrastructure proposal, the White House wants $21 billion over two years for infrastructure that was part of a budget framework deal approved last week in Congress.
Mulvaney said in a statement that the plan “reduces the regulatory burdens we face, shortening and simplifying the approval process for projects, and eliminating barriers that prevent projects from being efficiently developed.”
But in the face of a divided U.S. Senate and congressional elections in November, administration officials acknowledged the plan faced a difficult road to winning approval.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s plan "shifts the burden onto cities and states."
White House aides told reporters in a phone briefing on Saturday that the proposal, billed only as "infrastructure principles" and to be part of Trump`s budget plan on Monday, was just a starting point.
"This in no way, shape or form should be considered a take-it-or-leave-it proposal.
This is the start of a negotiation - bicameral bipartisan negotiation - to find the best solution for infrastructure," said a senior official, who was not allowed to be identified under the ground rules for the briefing.
The White House is pointing to a wide variety of potential cuts in its budget proposal that could be used to offset the costs of the plan.
HIKE IN GAS TAX?
The White House proposal will offer $100 billion in incentives to state and local governments, but will propose a smaller percentage of matching finds than the federal government has typically offered.
The remaining $100 billion involves $50 billion for rural project grants distributed to all states, $30 billion for government financing of projects and $20 billion toward “transformative projects” or new ideas that are not simply repairing existing infrastructure.
Democrats insist that any plan must include new revenue, which could mean raising the federal gas tax.
That levy has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, and inflation, as well as rising vehicle fuel efficiency, have reduced its usefulness in raising enough money to keep pace with repair needs.
Government auditors note Congress transferred $140 billion to the Highway Trust Fund from 2008 through 2015. Lawmakers, to maintain current spending levels, would need to approve an additional $107 billion from 2021 through 2026.
Trump has not ruled out a gas tax hike and some in Congress have said they are open to the idea.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently came out in support of an increase.
Democrats in Congress called last week for $1 trillion in direct federal spending, including $100 billion on schools alone as well as billions to expand rural broadband internet service, improve airports, mass transit, roads and ports, boost energy efficiency and improve ageing water systems.
The Democratic proposal did not identify any specific plan to pay for improvements, but aides said they were committed to finding a way.
The administration also plans on Monday to unveil workforce training proposals, including expanding apprenticeships and seeking changes to federal work-study programs that typically are used by students at four-year institutions.
It would allow more students interested in skilled trades to use them.
It will propose as well that states that accept federal funds for infrastructure projects would have to accept workers with out-of-state skilled-trades licenses on those projects.
Trump will meet with state and local officials including the governors of Wisconsin, Louisiana, Virginia and Maine on Monday, before meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday.
He will head to the Orlando, Florida, area on Friday to tout the plan, officials said.
The plan to use $200 billion in federal funds to try to stimulate $1.5 trillion in infrastructure improvements over 10 years could reshape how the federal government funds roads, bridges, highways and other infrastructure.
The administration also says it will eliminate bureaucratic roadblocks to completing projects that can tie up new roads for years.
White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said on Sunday that in addition to the $200 billion the administration seeks for its infrastructure proposal, the White House wants $21 billion over two years for infrastructure that was part of a budget framework deal approved last week in Congress.
Mulvaney said in a statement that the plan “reduces the regulatory burdens we face, shortening and simplifying the approval process for projects, and eliminating barriers that prevent projects from being efficiently developed.”
But in the face of a divided U.S. Senate and congressional elections in November, administration officials acknowledged the plan faced a difficult road to winning approval.
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s plan "shifts the burden onto cities and states."
White House aides told reporters in a phone briefing on Saturday that the proposal, billed only as "infrastructure principles" and to be part of Trump`s budget plan on Monday, was just a starting point.
"This in no way, shape or form should be considered a take-it-or-leave-it proposal.
This is the start of a negotiation - bicameral bipartisan negotiation - to find the best solution for infrastructure," said a senior official, who was not allowed to be identified under the ground rules for the briefing.
The White House is pointing to a wide variety of potential cuts in its budget proposal that could be used to offset the costs of the plan.
HIKE IN GAS TAX?
The White House proposal will offer $100 billion in incentives to state and local governments, but will propose a smaller percentage of matching finds than the federal government has typically offered.
The remaining $100 billion involves $50 billion for rural project grants distributed to all states, $30 billion for government financing of projects and $20 billion toward “transformative projects” or new ideas that are not simply repairing existing infrastructure.
Democrats insist that any plan must include new revenue, which could mean raising the federal gas tax.
That levy has been 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, and inflation, as well as rising vehicle fuel efficiency, have reduced its usefulness in raising enough money to keep pace with repair needs.
Government auditors note Congress transferred $140 billion to the Highway Trust Fund from 2008 through 2015. Lawmakers, to maintain current spending levels, would need to approve an additional $107 billion from 2021 through 2026.
Trump has not ruled out a gas tax hike and some in Congress have said they are open to the idea.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently came out in support of an increase.
Democrats in Congress called last week for $1 trillion in direct federal spending, including $100 billion on schools alone as well as billions to expand rural broadband internet service, improve airports, mass transit, roads and ports, boost energy efficiency and improve ageing water systems.
The Democratic proposal did not identify any specific plan to pay for improvements, but aides said they were committed to finding a way.
The administration also plans on Monday to unveil workforce training proposals, including expanding apprenticeships and seeking changes to federal work-study programs that typically are used by students at four-year institutions.
It would allow more students interested in skilled trades to use them.
It will propose as well that states that accept federal funds for infrastructure projects would have to accept workers with out-of-state skilled-trades licenses on those projects.
Trump will meet with state and local officials including the governors of Wisconsin, Louisiana, Virginia and Maine on Monday, before meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday.
He will head to the Orlando, Florida, area on Friday to tout the plan, officials said.
Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster spotted 'zooming' in space
The new observation of the Roadster, obtained by a robotically controlled telescope, showed the car moving across the night sky.
As Elon Musk's cherry red Tesla Roadster that was sent to an orbit around Mars took a different trajectory well beyond its destination, a space observatory in Arizona, US caught it 'zooming' in space.
The car with a dummy driver dubbed 'Starman' was tied to the Falcon Heavy rocket by SpaceX and was originally intended to be inserted into an orbit that would fly closer to Mars but the third engine burn of the Falcon Heavy upper stage "exceeded" that orbit, sending the car into deep space, Elon Musk had said earlier this week.
The Roadster is being tracked by the Virtual Telescope Project of Tenagra Observatory in Arizona as it ventures beyond the Moon's orbit, Space.com reported.
The new observation of the Roadster, obtained by a robotically controlled telescope, showed the car moving across the night sky.
"In its current orbit around the Sun, the car will travel between 91.3 million and 161.5 million miles (147 million and 260 million km) from the star," Virtual Telescope Project was quoted as saying.
Gianluca Masi of the Virtual Telescope Project and Michael Schwartz of the Tenagra Observatory were able to pinpoint the car's location by using data generated by the Solar Systems Dynamics Laboratory at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The project said that Tesla was "quite bright".
It released a GIF showing the Tesla moving across space, looking a lot like a comet or asteroid. The GIF strings together 54 images captured by Tenagra, CNET reported.
The car, owned by Musk, would eventually settle into its own orbital path around the Sun and not end up in pieces on the red planet.
Rare Vintage Photos From America’s Most Famous Party (16 Pics)
Early on in its decades-long run as a weekly magazine, LIFE turned its eye toward always-enticing, ever-vivid New Orleans and that great city’s signature annual event: Mardi Gras. In February, 1938, editors sent photographer William Vandivert to the Big Easy to chronicle the carnival, and to show LIFE’s readers how one American city — in so many ways a Caribbean, as opposed to a purely Southern, town — maintained a centuries-old tradition of refined debauchery and unalloyed fun in the midst of the Great Depression.
The story that ran in the March 14, 1938, issue of LIFE, alongside some of Vandivert’s photographs, was interesting enough, in its own way. Titled “LIFE goes to America’s Most Famous Party,” the five-page feature focused almost exclusively on the aristocratic Comus Ball, and the pomp and ceremony that attends the crowning of the ball’s king and queen.
In fact, in 1938, LIFE was invited to the Comus Ball — “to photograph it,” the magazine gently boasted to its readers, “for the press for the first and only time in its 81 years.”
But Bill Vandivert was in New Orleans for more than a few days and nights in the late winter of 1938, and he made hundreds of photographs — far more interesting photographs, it turns out, than those that ran in the magazine — on the crowded, chaotic streets and boulevards of that singular town.
Here, in tribute to the undying spirit of the Crescent City, and to celebrate the ancient festival of carnival (from Latin, carne vale, or “farewell to meat”) that traditionally marks the beginning of the Christian observance of Lent, LIFE.comoffers a gallery of those previously unpublished Vandivert photos: pictures of men, women and children happily caught up in the whirlwind of Mardi Gras, in a vanished New Orleans that feels at once ghostly and somehow inimitably, intensely alive.
The story that ran in the March 14, 1938, issue of LIFE, alongside some of Vandivert’s photographs, was interesting enough, in its own way. Titled “LIFE goes to America’s Most Famous Party,” the five-page feature focused almost exclusively on the aristocratic Comus Ball, and the pomp and ceremony that attends the crowning of the ball’s king and queen.
In fact, in 1938, LIFE was invited to the Comus Ball — “to photograph it,” the magazine gently boasted to its readers, “for the press for the first and only time in its 81 years.”
But Bill Vandivert was in New Orleans for more than a few days and nights in the late winter of 1938, and he made hundreds of photographs — far more interesting photographs, it turns out, than those that ran in the magazine — on the crowded, chaotic streets and boulevards of that singular town.
Here, in tribute to the undying spirit of the Crescent City, and to celebrate the ancient festival of carnival (from Latin, carne vale, or “farewell to meat”) that traditionally marks the beginning of the Christian observance of Lent, LIFE.comoffers a gallery of those previously unpublished Vandivert photos: pictures of men, women and children happily caught up in the whirlwind of Mardi Gras, in a vanished New Orleans that feels at once ghostly and somehow inimitably, intensely alive.
Dad Creates Epic Masterpieces By Doodling On His Baby’s Snapchat Pics (20 Pics)
SNAPDAD is a Tumblr blog which was created by Lukas Costeur, a Belgian graphic designer. He spends his days taking pictures of his son Felix and then improving them with doodles. His work has made Felix into an Internet superstar thanks to the fact that they make him look adorable.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)