Snowflake's Forum

Historic peace deal in Afghanistan reached with Taliban, allowing withdrawal of US troops WASHINGTON – U.S. and Taliban negotiators signed  an historic agreement Saturday in Qatar that could end 19 years of war in Afghanistan and allow President Donald Trump to begin the promised withdrawal of American troops.  The four-page pact spells out a timetable for the United States to withdraw its 13,000 troops from Afghanistan; in exchange, the Taliban agreed to sever its ties with al Qaeda, the terrorist group that launched the Sept. 11 attacks against the U.S.  It also sets the stage for further negotiations between Afghanistan's government and the Taliban, a militant Islamist group that once ruled Afghanistan and provided safe haven to Osama bin Laden. American officials hope those talks will lead to a power-sharing deal, a permanent end to the bloody conflict, and a full withdrawal of American forces. However, a...

Inside the Taliban: What these jihadis say about long-sought peace Why We Wrote This Scott Peterson February 28, 2020 MAIDAN SHAHR, Afghanistan On a stony hillside in Taliban territory southwest of Kabul, a cluster of graves of Afghan security forces killed fighting the Taliban are marked with the red, green, and black flags of Afghanistan. A stone’s throw away, a cluster of graves of Taliban fighters – entombed in the same frozen Afghan soil, and buffeted by the same winter wind as their dead enemies – are marked with the white flags of the jihadist insurgency. As Afghanistan today nears the end of a seven-day reduction in violence to test the possibilities of peace – and with a U.S. troop withdrawal agreement due for signing Saturday to pave the way for ending America’s longest war – the proximity of these graves in Taliban-controlled Wardak Province symbolizes how minds have shifted toward peace among some insurgent fighters. Taliban leaders have been negotia...

By TYLER SAGE    February 7, 2020 The Breakfast Club , which premiered in Los Angeles on Feb. 7, 1985, may be the finest movie about American high school life ever made. Regarded as one of the seminal films of the '80s,  John Hughes ' movie is a compendium of the anxieties, confusion and joys of teenage existence. It made Hughes a star, and he'd go on to write or direct other classics like  Ferris Bueller's Day Off ,  Home Alone,  and  Planes, Trains and Automobiles . It also helped launch the careers of  Molly Ringwald , Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and  Ally Sheedy . But its most lasting effect was to create a template for taking the inner life of its characters seriously. The force of the film comes from its reduced simplicity. Five students are remanded to detention in the library of their high school one Saturday. They each represent a stereotype: John Bender (Nelson) is the bad boy, Claire ...

School policy forbids kids from saying 'no' when asked to dance School policy forbids kids from saying 'no' when asked to dance Alicia Hobson’s 11-year-old daughter, Azlyn, was counting down the days until the Valentine’s Day dance at her Utah middle school. “She was so excited she could barely sleep,” Hobson told  TODAY Parents , noting that the sixth-grader picked out her outfit a week ahead of time. "It was supposed to be the best day ever," Hobson, 37, said. But it wasn't. That afternoon, when Azlyn got home, she had an "emotional explosion" in the kitchen, while recounting how a boy who makes her uncomfortable had asked her to dance. “She politely said, ‘No thank you,’” Hobson revealed. The problem? At Rich Middle School in Laketown, Utah, it's against the rules to say "no," and principal Kip Motta allegedly intervened when he heard Azlyn decline the invitation at the dance. “He said something like, ‘No, no. You...

Some personal reflections… As a child back in TV’s infancy (the 1950’s), or even if you were already an adult back then, this new black-and-white thing called “television” really opened up a whole new world of excitement and wonder for us.   Unlike today's hi-res, behemoth, plasma/LED, "smart capabilities" standards, it was a rather crude beast that entered the privacy of our living rooms, and brought the outside world in with it. You had to wait for about 30-seconds for it to “warm up” before it actually came on, but the anticipation was well worth it.   Once some blurry images finally came into view, it usually had to be further coax into submission by turning the dials and adjusting the antenna just so.   Like some mad chemist at work in his lab, it was all tweaked manually, usually by the dad, with no remote control to help him along.   Maybe one of the best things about TV was that you had “invitation control” over it.   Unlike that pesky neighb...

The road opens up, windows are down, fresh air pours in and the thrill of adventure surrounds you. And then...Neil Diamond? Again? Dude, no one wants to hear "Sweet Caroline" more than once a year. And so the battle begins, with hands being swatted away from the stereo controls and arguments over whether Cardi B or Led Zeppelin is better to drown out the monotony of central Iowa. So, let's settle it now. Driver or passenger, who controls the music? #DriverSide The rule is simple: The driver chooses. They're doing the work; they focus on the road and keep the passengers safe and happy without getting lost. The driver can't take in the scenery and relax the way the shotgun side can. #PassengerSide The co-pilot covers the navigation, the snack distribution, and keeping the driver alert and engaged through a long haul. It follows, then, that the passenger should control the radio. VOTE NOW! https://thetylt.com/culture/roadtrip-music-driv...

New green technology generates electricity 'out of thin air' Graphic image of a thin film of protein nanowires generating electricity from atmospheric humidity. UMass Amherst researchers say the device can literally make electricity out of thin air. Credit: UMass Amherst/Yao and Lovley labs Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have developed a device that uses a natural protein to create electricity from moisture in the air, a new technology they say could have significant implications for the future of renewable energy, climate change and in the future of medicine. As reported today in  Nature , the laboratories of electrical engineer Jun Yao and microbiologist Derek Lovley at UMass Amherst have created a device they call an "Air-gen." or air-powered generator, with electrically conductive  protein nanowires produced by the microbe Geobacter. The Air-gen connects electrodes to the protein nanowires in such a way that electrical current is ge...

How Do You Solve a Problem Like a Horde of Herpes-Infected Monkeys? Feral rhesus macaques are invasive in Florida, but there are no easy solutions for managing them A rhesus monkey photographed in Florida in 2017.  (AP Photo/John Raoux) smithsonianmag.com  February 26, 2020 In the 1930s, a Florida cruise boat operator named Colonel Tooey (Colonel  was in fact his first name ) had a grand idea for jazzing up his tours. He decided to deposit six rhesus macaques on a man-made island near Silver Springs, hoping to entice tourists with the promise of monkey sightings. What he did not appear to know, however, is that rhesus macaques can swim. Tooey’s star attractions quickly hightailed it into Silver Springs State Park, where they established a troop that now numbers around  300 individuals . The monkeys are cute and popular with tourists. They are  invasive  and about a quarter of their population is infected with the herpes B virus. Now, accordin...