Unlocking the Power of the World's Educators—

Teachers Pay Teachers: 'To make the expertise and wisdom of all the teachers in the world available to anyone, anywhere, at any time.' — TPT

Teachers Pay Teachers, an online platform that allows teachers to sell classroom resources they’ve created, such as worksheets and bulletin board decor. TpTs is the World's Most Popular Online Marketplace for Original Educational Resources

TpT is the go-to place for educators to find the resources, knowledge, and inspiration they need to teach at their best. Offering more than 3 million free and paid resources, created by educators who understand what works in the classroom. Teachers Pay Teachers marketplace is growing every day to meet the evolving needs of the PreK-12 classroom. When educators get the resources and support they need, they're best equipped to inspire the next generation of learners.

Julia Reinstein
BuzzFeed News Reporter Article: Teachers Are Moonlight To Make Ends Meet
If you saw Amy Groesbeck during school hours, you’d think she’s just your typical third-grade teacher.— Not!

A Platform for Sharing Educator Expertise
TpT believes that the best ideas and approaches to learning comes directly from educators who have experience teaching and connecting with students. Each resource on TpT is created by a Teacher-Author and is tailored to a unique need or niche.

When one teacher deeply understands how to bring rich, relevant, active learning to a classroom and shares that with other teachers around the globe, the benefits reach everyone, most of all the students. Today, the demands on teachers are as high as they’ve ever been. Many teach multiple subjects to a wide array of learners. Meanwhile, the standards — and even the educational environment — are changing rapidly. 
Through TpT: Teacher-Authors are able to respond to the changing landscape immediately.
Teachers provide feedback and support along the way, therefore; TpT's content continues to evolve and improve with every use.

'We believe that when teachers work together, great things happen.'
— Teachers Pay Teachers:

Teaching Resources & Lesson Plans | Teachers Pay Teachers

World's most popular online marketplace for original educational resources with more than three million resources available for use today.

Reduce your exposures to common drinking water pollutants:

State of American Drinking Water

When most Americans drink a glass of tap water,
they're also getting a dose of industrial or agricultural contaminants linked to cancer, brain and nervous system damage, developmental defects, fertility problems or hormone disruption. That's the disturbing truth documented by EWG's Tap Water Database – the most complete source available on the quality of U.S. drinking water, aggregating and analyzing data from almost 50,000 public water utilities nationwide.

The vast majority of the nation's drinking water supplies
get a passing grade from federal and state regulatory agencies. However, many of the 250-plus contaminants detected through water sampling and testing are at levels that are perfectly legal under the Safe Drinking Water Act or state regulations, but well above levels authoritative scientific studies have found to pose health risks.

Unanswered questions
Utilities must treat their water to meet state and federal standards before piping it into homes, schools and businesses, but water treatment chemicals can themselves produce other potentially harmful contaminants. Utilities must also provide annual water quality reports to their customers, but those reports leave many unanswered questions.

Related Article via NPR
Which Water Is Best For Health? Hint: Don't Discount The Tap

EWG'S GUIDE: SAFE DRINKING WATER
Reduce your exposures to common drinking water pollutants with EWG's handy tipsheet.
Includes the latest news, tips, action alerts, promotions and more - from EWG.

EWG's Tap Water Database: What's in Your Drinking Water?

Look up your local water system to find out which pollutants might be of concern, and find suggestions on the best kinds of home filters to remove those chemicals.

Sleeping At The Office: High-Tech Pods on the Rise

'Sleeping on the job is no longer frowned upon'
Office napping may finally be climbing out from under the desk.
A small but growing number of businesses are encouraging sleep-deprived employees to grab 40 winks during the workday, providing rooms — or, in some cases, high-tech napping pods — to get the job done right. Benefits include a more productive workforce and, hopefully, the end to stealth sales meeting snoozes.—
Citation: Article by Robert Channick via Chicago Tribune

High-Tech Pods: Biz-Office Napping

 Photo Courtesy: (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune)

In response to growing demand for offices to dump the cubicle desk and foster a more welcoming environment for talent, two European manufacturers were among those unveiling new nap pods to the North American market at the annual NeoCon commercial interiors show in Chicago: Silence Business Solutions, and Framery.

On Monday Mornings: How do you feel? 
Framery Innovations;
tools for a happy workplace.
How do you feel on Monday mornings?
Studies show that most of us work for over 30 years of our lives.
That’s more than the time you spend with your partner, eating, travelling, exercising or watching movies – combined. However, research shows that most of us won’t go to work happily. Find out how Framery increases happiness at work and the tools used to achieve that.

A radical transparency
'One of the key things for a happy company is transparency.
Framery wanted to go further and developed a culture of radical transparency.
The idea was simple: Framery organization is truly flat – no strong hierarchy, no unnecessary middle management nor hidden secret processes. All the information can be found in Framery’s internal wiki page.'—Framery.

NeoCon: A Retrospective
NeoCon has provided a platform for ideas that have transformed the ways we live and work for the past 50 years. Through its first five decades, NeoCon has showcased commercial design’s response to technological advances, cultural change, and growing ecological consciousness. Retrospect: 50 Years of NeoCon, 1960 ― Present.

- NeoCon

NeoCon marks its 51st edition as the world's leading platform and most important event of the year for the commercial design industry.

An Idea Whose Time Has Come:

The 'Just City' Concept
The “just city” concept infuses social justice concerns throughout planning and design process. It’s a style Toni Griffin has been honing over nearly two decades while practicing as an architect, designer, and urban planner, leading major civic projects such as the Washington Nationals Ballpark District in D.C. and the Detroit Future City master plan.

(Harvard University Graduate School of Design)

Griffin has formed a pedagogy from this as well, drawing on her field experience to become the founding director of the J. Max Bond Center on Design for the Just City at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York in 2011.

Toni Griffin, one of the leading black women in architecture and design,
is leading her students at Harvard in envisioning and designing the "just city."
And it looks different in Boston than it does in Rotterdam.
Citation: In Search of the ‘Just City’ by Brentin Mock via CityLab

Imagine that the issues of race, income, education and unemployment inequality, and the resulting segregation, isolation and fear, could be addressed by designing for greater access, agency, ownership, beauty or empowerment.

Now imagine the Just City — the cities, neighborhoods and public spaces where all people, but especially the ‘least not' are included, have equitable and inclusive access to opportunities and tools that allow them to be productive, thrive and advance through the ranks of social and economic mobility. The Just City Lab investigates the concept:

Design and the Just City - Harvard Graduate School of Design

The Just City Lab investigates the concept of the Just City, and how design and planning contribute to the conditions of justice and injustice in cities, neighborhoods and the public realm. This exhibition presents our interrogation of whether design can have an impact on correcting urban injustice, inequality and disparity.

What is the HARP Program

Home Affordable Refinance Program
When you have little equity in your home, or owe as much or more on your mortgage than your home is worth, it can be difficult to find a lender willing to help you refinance.
But for borrowers who have remained current on their mortgages, and have loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, there is hope. It’s called HARP.

Introduced in March 2009, HARP enables borrowers with little or no equity to refinance into more affordable mortgages without new or additional mortgage insurance. HARP targets borrowers with loan-to-value (LTV) ratios equal to or greater than 80 percent and who have limited delinquencies over the 12 months prior to refinancing.

Significant changes have been made to HARP since the program was first introduced. For example, in 2011 the LTV ceiling was removed, property appraisal requirements were waived in certain circumstances, certain risk fees for borrowers selecting shorter amortization terms were eliminated, and certain representations and warranties were waived.

In 2013, the eligibility date was changed from the date the loan was acquired by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac to the date on the note, increasing the pool of eligible borrowers.
Through HARP, you can get a lower interest rate (which means less out-of-pocket costs each month), get a shorter loan term, or change from an adjustable to a fixed-rate mortgage. There’s no minimum credit score needed, either. And now that HARP guidelines are simpler, even people who were formerly turned down may now be eligible for HARP refinancing.

It's hard to believe that many homeowners don't know the Home Affordable Refinance Program® (HARP) actually exists, millions of Americans could reduce their monthly payments by as much as $3,500 a year. This program isn't talked about often.

The reality is most people think the savings are too good to be true. Even worse, some think the program is only for homeowners with bad credit or foreclosures. This couldn't be farther from the truth. HARP was made for the average American and good credit helps you qualify for even better rates!

HARP

FHFA Home Affordable Refinance Program site -- helping homeowners who've seen drop in home values refinance with better mortgage terms.

The government is making a final push and urging homeowners to take advantage of HARP before the program ends. If lowering your payments and shaving years off your mortgage would help you, it's vital that you take action now.

HARP: 'Not A Scam' Homeowners may be getting a big pay day.

Don't be surprised that you may even take some cash out of your home to help you with bills, renovations, your child's education, a vacation, or to start saving for retirement.
HARP may be your best route to a better mortgage.
Frequently Asked Questions

The Home Affordable Refinance Program ends December 31, 2018

New Power; reshaping politics, business, and life—

The key to understanding the 21st century: New Power

The rules have changed, make sense of the world around you.
The world seems chaotic. Polls failed to predict that Trump would win.
Airbnb is worth more than Hilton. #MeToo is taking down powerful, previously untouchable heads of industry. But when you step back from the chaos, you can notice there’s an underlying force at work: “new power.”

By understanding new power you can reshape the world around you.
The future is a battle for mobilization. Those who flourish will be those best able to channel participatory energy — for the good, the bad, and the trivial. And this battle will have big implications for people, organizations, and for the world at large.

Understand and navigating the 21st century
Two visionary thinkers reveal the unexpected ways power is changing— and how new power is reshaping politics, business, and life.

New Power shines fresh light on the cultural phenomena of our day,
from #BlackLivesMatter to the Ice Bucket Challenge to Airbnb, uncovering the new power forces that made them huge. Drawing on examples from business, activism and pop culture, Heimans and Timms explain how to build new power and channel it successfully. They also explore the dark side of these forces: the way ISIS has co-opted new power to monstrous ends, and the rise of the alt-right’s “intensity machine.”

What new power looks like,
Jeremy Heimans shares the ideas behind New Power and their role in our shifting world:
HBR: Understanding "New Power"
Some foundational research and thinking behind New Power gets shared with the Harvard Business Review. New Power informative, to inspire all those wanting to make change... and achieve a goal against all odds. Your new roadmap to building movements, spreading ideas, growing organizations, and leading differently.

New Power

The indispensable guide to navigating the 21st century

How will you use #newpower in your life? Tell the world.

Citation Article: Can Social Media Be Saved?
By Kevin Roose via THE SHIFT/NYT

The Evolution of Automated Safety Technologies:

                         What does this mean for you as a driver?

                                           Is there anything unusual about this car?

General Motors is getting ready to ditch the driver for good—at least in its newest R&D vehicles. In 2019, Cruise—the self-driving startup acquired a couple of years ago by GM—wants to begin testing the fourth generation of its autonomous vehicle, the Cruise AV.
(This is a modified Chevrolet Bolt EV, no relation to the Chevrolet Cruze.)

The company has filed a safety petition with the US Department of Transportation requesting permission to deploy the fourth-generation Cruise AV, which will be completely driverless, without any steering wheel, pedals, or other form of manual controls.
— Read Full Article by Jonathan M. Gitlin /  Ars Technica

The Evolution of AST:
A number of today’s new motor vehicles have technology that helps drivers avoid drifting into adjacent lanes or making unsafe lane changes, or that warns drivers of other vehicles behind them when they are backing up, or that brakes automatically if a vehicle ahead of them stops or slows suddenly, among other things.
These and other safety technologies use a combination of hardware (sensors, cameras, and radar) and software to help vehicles identify certain safety risks so they can warn the driver to act to avoid a crash.

The continuing evolution of automotive technology aims to deliver even greater safety benefits and – one day – deliver Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that can handle the whole task of driving when we don’t want to or can’t do it ourselves.

Overview of AVS

Automated Vehicles for Safety

The continuing evolution of automotive technology aims to deliver even greater safety benefits and Automated Driving Systems (ADS) that-one day-can handle the whole task of driving when we don't want to or can't do it ourselves. Fully automated cars and trucks that drive us, instead of us driving them, will become a reality.

AVs full societal benefits are difficult to project, the transformative potential of automated vehicles and their driver assistance features can also be understood by reviewing U.S. demographics and the communities these technologies could help to support.

For example, automated vehicles may also provide new mobility options to millions more Americans. Today there are 49 million Americans over age 65 and 53 million people have some form of disability.

In many places across the country employment or independent living rests on the ability to drive. Automated vehicles could extend that kind of freedom to millions more.
One study suggests that automated vehicles could create new employment opportunities for approximately 2 million people with disabilities. A necessary conversation to continue; the benefits of this transformative technology.
The future is closer than you think.

Update: SAN FRANCISCO — A woman in Tempe, Ariz., died after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, in what appears to be the first known death of a pedestrian struck by an autonomous vehicle on public roads. Report via NYT