THE BUSES are on time, the trams are shiny and new, and passengers usually get a seat. In many cities that would be remarkable enough. But in Tallinn locals are also not required to buy a ticket. In 2013 it became the world’s first capital city to offer residents free public transport. Estonia as a whole has been following suit, and last year set the ambition of becoming the first country with free public transport nationwide. Buses are now free of charge in 11 of its 15 counties.

Tallinn’s city government came up with the idea of free transport after the 2008 financial crisis. Estonia was hit badly, and even though the city paid more than 70% of public-transport costs, ticket prices were still too high for poorer residents. Congestion had also become a problem. Since Estonia regained independence in 1991, car ownership rates have doubled.

Opponents branded the idea populist and unaffordable. Estonia was pushing through tough austerity measures at the time, including a 10% pay cut for public-sector workers. Critics predicted the transport system would become overcrowded and underfunded. The row was only resolved by a referendum.

Surprisingly, though, instead of collapsing, public transport has improved, despite a €12m hit to the system’s finances from lost ticket sales. Tallinn’s population has grown, leading to a boost in local tax intake. Additional revenue comes from tourists and non-Tallinn residents, who still have to buy tickets. The use of public transport in Tallinn has gone up by 10%, while the number of cars in the city centre has gone down by 10%, meaning less congestion. In the countryside, free buses aim to halt rural depopulation by boosting mobility and access to jobs.

https://www.economist.com/europe/2019/05/11/free-public-transport-in-estonia?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/freepublictransportinestoniainthefastlane

This week, food and beverage chain Jamba Juice removed “Juice” from its name and expanded its vegan options in a bid to modernize the brand after nearly three decades in operation. The shop now offers a plant-based Vanilla Blue Sky Smoothie and Bowl made with spirulina, along with options such as oat milk, matcha, and pea protein. “We’ve been offering balanced ingredients on the go for almost 30 years and must continue to evolve to meet our guests’ ever-changing definition of wellness,” Jamba President Geoff Henry said. “We’re staying true to our heritage as an innovator in the space and refreshing the brand to stay focused on how we can make it easier, better, and faster for guests to live a more active lifestyle. We’re proud to have launched the smoothie and juice category three decades ago and can’t wait to join our guests’ wellness journey for decades to come.” Jamba will continue to update its menu with new plant-based food and beverage options throughout 2019, reduce sugar content in its offerings, and add digital and aesthetic enhancements to its in-store and online ordering platforms.

https://vegnews.com/2019/6/jamba-drops-juice-from-name-adds-more-vegan-options

A dairy farm in Indiana has come under immense scrutiny after an undercover video released by an animal rights group revealed newborn calves being abused by farm employees. Footage shows Fair Oaks Farms workers dragging calves by their ears, throwing them into small plastic enclosures and hitting them with milk bottles.

The abuse extends to kicking and beating calves, as well as force-feeding them until they can't breath. The video was filmed by a member of Animal Recovery Mission, who got a job at Fair Oaks Farms and went undercover as an employee from August to November of last year, CBS Chicago reports. The farm is located about 75 miles southeast of Chicago.

The Animal Recovery Mission recently released the video, which prompted local law enforcement to launch an investigation.


The undercover video shows various forms of abuse against the calves. Warning: the video is very disturbing.

The calves appeared to stay in filthy, overcrowded and hot conditions. Temperature readings show it was more than 100 degrees inside their hutches. Dead calves were dumped in mass grave sites by employees, the video shows.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-undercover-video-exposes-animal-abuse-at-fair-oaks-farms-grocery-store-removes-products/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=68707964

The Swank Social Club, #Clt’s oldest African American social club, took a beach trip to Atlantic Beach, SC in 1950. Atlantic Beach was the only black-friendly beach in SC & was a major tourist destination for African Americans. #ArchivesPoolParty #ArchivesHashtagParty #CltHistory



https://twitter.com/unccspeccoll/status/1137034218733789186

Scott Paul Beierle’s attack on a Florida yoga studio was fueled by male supremacy, a movement with ties to other hate groups.

TALLAHASSEE — The first thing Kate Pierson did after unlocking the yoga studio that November afternoon was set the mood, plugging in the soothing waterfall, selecting a cheery lemongrass oil for the scent diffuser. The thermostat was turned up to 98 for the 5:30 class.

Hot Yoga Tallahassee was styled as a calming haven for a mostly female clientele. The men who practiced there, Pierson said, were men at ease with the “light and love” mission of the place.

But the man who walked in about 5:15 that Friday was different. Pierson was still alone in the lobby when he entered, a big guy whose maroon Florida State University T-shirt was stretched over a paunchy belly, the wrapper still on the yoga mat under his arm. A black Planet Fitness bag was strapped across his chest. Inside, she would learn soon, was a Glock 9mm pistol.

The man wasn’t on the list of 11 students preregistered for the evening class, and he seemed disappointed so few were expected. Handing over a debit card for the $12 walk-in fee, he identified himself as “Scott .?.?. Paul,” hesitating between the two words.

...

It is a kind of hatred that experts in extremism warn is becoming more common and more dangerous, providing what amounts to a new feeder network for white supremacy and neo-Nazi groups.

“More and more, we see misogyny as the gateway drug for extremists,” said Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, one of more than 20 people interviewed to compile this account of Beierle’s history and the phenomenon it represents.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/local/yoga-shooting-incel-attack-fueled-by-male-supremacy/?utm_term=.84aede149a37&tid=sm_tw

Joe Biden’s aides knew the 2020 frontrunner was going to get ripped apart over his support of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funding for abortion procedures. They were frustrated that the former vice president wouldn’t change his stance, and that he wasn’t initially receptive to their concerns. Now that Biden has come out against Hyde, his aides are trying to prevent him from being labeled a flip-flopper.

This was a tense two days in Biden’s D.C. headquarters. The candidate was caught off guard after an NBC News story published Wednesday morning attempted to nail down where he stands on abortion policy—specifically Hyde. Symone Sanders, one of Biden’s senior advisers, confronted him, she confirmed to me Thursday night, telling Biden that he was missing how his position disproportionately affected poorer women and women of color without easy access to abortion. Alyssa Milano, the actress who’s become a major online presence on issues of women’s rights as well as a friend of the Biden team, spoke by phone Wednesday to Biden campaign manager Greg Schultz, telling him the candidate needed to change. More calls came in, more tough conversations.

On Wednesday night, his campaign co-chair, Louisiana Representative Cedric Richmond, went on CNN in defense, saying, Biden’s “position on the Hyde Amendment has been consistent." Sort of. Biden supported Hyde until just a few weeks ago, when he seemed to say he was against it when responding to a woman’s question while shaking hands after an event. Then, according to his campaign, he was always for it as a matter of consistency and principle (and supposedly had only said he was against it because he’d misheard the question). When Biden stepped on stage in Atlanta to speak at a Democratic National Committee event last night, he brought a few pages with him to the podium to add to what had already been fed into the Teleprompter. He told the audience he’d been thinking about the Hyde Amendment as he worked on the health-care policy plan for his campaign, adding, “I can’t justify leaving millions of women without access to the care they need and the ability to constitute, exercise their constitutionally protected right.”

That may be true, but everything that Biden attributed to the change was apparent long before he pivoted. The only thing that had changed was that he was now under attack from almost all of his 2020 rivals and other major Democratic players, and from people within his campaign.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/06/biden-abortion-hyde/591241/

The legend of Kópakonan, literally meaning “the Seal Woman”, is one of the best-known folktales in the Faroe Islands.

Seals were believed to be former human beings who voluntarily sought death in the ocean. Once a year, on the Thirteenth night, they were allowed to come on land, strip off their skins and amuse themselves as human beings, dancing and enjoying themselves.

A young farmer from the village of Mikladalur on the northern island of Kalsoy, wondering if this story was true, went and lay in wait on the beach one Thirteenth evening. He watched and saw the seals arriving in large numbers, swimming towards the shore. They clambered on to the beach, shed their skins and laid them carefully on the rocks. Divested of their skins, they looked just like normal people. The young lad stared at a pretty seal girl placing her skin close to the spot where he was hiding, and when the dance began, he sneaked up and stole it. The dancing and games went on all night, but as soon as the sun started to peep above the horizon, all the seals came to reclaim their skins to return to the sea. The seal girl was very upset when she couldn’t find her skin, though its smell still lingered in the air, and then the man from Mikladalur appeared holding it, but he wouldn’t give it back to her, despite her desperate entreaties, so she was obliged to accompany him to his farm.

He kept her with him for many years as his wife, and she bore him several children; but he always had to make sure that she didn’t have access to her skin. He kept it locked up in a chest to which he alone had the key, a key which he kept at all times on a chain attached to his belt.

Disapperance

One day, while he was out at sea fishing with his companions, he realised he had left the key at home. He announced to his companions, ‘Today I shall lose my wife!’ – and he explained what had happened. The men pulled in their nets and lines and rowed back to the shore as fast as they could, but when they arrived at the farm, they found the children all alone and their mother gone. Their father knew she wasn’t going to come back, as she had put out the fire and put away all the knives, so that the young ones couldn’t do themselves any harm after she’d left.

Indeed, once she had reached the shore, she had put on her sealskin and plunged into the water, where a bull seal, who had loved her all those years before and was still waiting for her, popped up beside her. When her children, the ones she had had with the Mikladalur man, later came down to the beach, a seal would emerge and look towards the land; people naturally believed that it was the children’s mother. And so the years passed.

...

http://landoflegendslv.com/03ports/mystsofavalon/13Mermaids/mermaidsA004.html

https://www.visitfaroeislands.com/about/stories-legends/kopakonan-the-seal-woman/

Visited the grave of my friend’s father and witnessed a remarkable ceremony. The letters on the white crosses almost disappear in the brightness of the stone, so a soldier fills the indentations with sand from Omaha Beach to bring the name forward. It sent shivers down my spine.

https://twitter.com/RepSpeier/status/1136744058779389952