John Morgan Kimock Shares Debut Track From New JMMY Project [Watch]
Beloved drummer John Morgan Kimock recently sat down with us to go in-depth about his newest project, JMMY. A collaboration between Kimock and Alex Luquet, JMMY is unique in its creative direction from the drummer. While Kimock has played with Mike Gordon, K I M O C K, Everyone Orchestra and more, JMMY is his own creation.“I’ve been fussing around with infusing acoustic and electronic music since I was in high school, and wanted to take the jump moving it into a live context. There is an overall “role expansion” for a drummer in this age. A lot of my drummer friends are creating these amazing hybrid kits and triggering walls of sound, melodies, and in some cases make as much sound as a four-piece band,” said Kimock. He adds, “JMMY is a chance to experiment with these types on concepts and bring it into other bands that I play in.”With an EP called Partial due out later this year, Kimock has shared the first track from this exciting new release. Check out the video for “LowLands,” below shot and directed by Jason Gallagher:JMMY has three dates on the books, including a show supporting Congo Sanchez at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, NY on May 4th, as well as shows at the Arch St. Tavern in Hartford, CT on May 5th and The Funhouse in Kimock’s hometown of Bethlehem, PA on May 6th. The last two shows will feature support from Mammal Dap, and DJ Discreet will be on hand for the May 6th show. Don’t miss out!You can also check out JMMY on Facebook, and if you ask them, they just might share a track with you!Check out Kimock’s busy tour schedule below:w/ VOODOO DEAD –4/30 – Republic New Orleans LA5/1 – Republic New Orleans LAw/ JMMY5/4 – Knitting Factory Brooklyn NY5/5 – Arch St. Tavern 5/6 – The Funhouse Bethlehem PAw/ GRIMACE FEDERATION5/13 – Kung Fu Necktie Philadelphia PAw/ EVERYONE ORCHESTRA5/19 – Brooklyn Bowl Brooklyn NY5/20 – Gypsy Sallys – Washington DC5/21 – Live at the Lot Ardmore PA5/22 – Musikfest Cafe Bethlehem PAw/ K I M O C K 6/2 – Ophelia’s Denver CO6/3 – Aggie Theater Fort Collins CO6/4 – Fox Theater Boulder CO
Aqueous has been on the rise of late, playing–and selling out–bigger and bigger venues across the country and converting new fans left and right. However, for their submission to the 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest, the Buffalo-based quartet opted for a less prestigious stage–a non-descript, unfinished basement laundry room.The Tiny Desk Contest is an annual competition based on NPR’s long-running Tiny Desk Concert series, which brings a diverse stream of artists to NPR’s offices for intimate, stripped-down performances. The contest invites musicians to send a video of them playing an original song at a desk–any desk–the way they would if they were playing a real NPR Tiny Desk Concert. The winner of the contest (judged by a panel of experts including Tarriona “Tank” Ball of Tank and the Bangas, last year’s winners) will get the opportunity to play their own official Tiny Desk Concert, tour the U.S. with NPR and Lagunitas, and appear at a taping of NPR’s Ask Me Another.As their entry into the contest, Aqueous performed a rendition of “Underlyer” behind a seriously distressed-looking desk. The band took the “stripped-down” aesthetic of Tiny Desk to heart for their submission: Keyboardist/guitarist Dave Loss, normally surrounded by a wall of keyboards and other gear onstage, has just one keyboard (set up on the top of the dryer) and his microphone. Drummer Rob Houk plays a three-piece kit (kick, snare, hi-hat). Guitarist Mike Gantzer delivers the vocals with audible passion and sincerity, and Evan McPhaden keeps the whole ship afloat with his air-tight underlying bass line. The intentionally sparse rendition of the slow-funk cocktail lounge groove hits its mark with style, clearly conveying the band’s talent and chemistry.Good luck to Aqueous and all the other musicians that entered this year’s 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest. You can head here to check outAqueous – “Underlyer” – 2018 NPR Tiny Desk Contest Submission[Video: AqueousBand]For info about Aqueous’s upcoming shows and more, head to their website.
Faculty consider the massive logistical, political challenges facing states in November For instance, in the upcoming election the GOP hopes to recruit an estimated 50,000 volunteers to act as “poll watchers” to ensure voters’ legitimacy. Republicans have also set aside $20 million as a legal fund to resist attempts to enlarge voting rolls. The two parties are enmeshed in a battle in Florida about overturning a law that kept most convicted felons from voting. Both President Trump and Attorney General William Barr have voiced opposition to mail-in voting, saying it invites fraud, though they have not provided any evidence to support their claim. Citing his concerns, Trump has refused to say that he would unequivocally accept the result of the election should he lose.Many of the complications around the election are being further tangled by the issues arising from the pandemic. “Part of what we’re seeing is that these various problems are taking place in a climate that doesn’t make it easy to solve them,” said Keyssar. He cites the delays expected from the increased number of mail-in ballots. “It’s very unlikely that the outcome of the election will be determined by election night,” said Keyssar. “A number of states are not going to have had a chance to start counting ballots, and the current administration is trying to make it harder for people to count.”Citing the 2000 presidential election, when Florida’s electoral vote was decided by the Supreme Court, Keyssar notes other possible complications, none of which are likely to promote voter confidence. “There is the question for any given state about who certifies the choice of electors and who certifies the electoral votes of that state,” he said. When tallies are delayed or unclear, he said, “it may be legal and constitutional for a state legislature to choose electors by itself. The challenge is getting a transparent and clear outcome and getting broad popular consent to that outcome.”A recent article in The Atlantic hints at how difficult that might be. The piece reports that Republican Party officials told journalist Barton Gellman that the Trump campaign is considering pushing battleground states with GOP majorities in their legislatures to appoint electors who will support the incumbent should he lose in the voting, the justification being a concern over widespread fraud. Lawrence Tabas, Republican Party chair in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania, was quoted as saying, “I’ve mentioned it to them, and I hope they’re thinking about it too.”“I think the remarkable fact about this election is that the outcome would not be in doubt, and we would not be having all this drama, if we had a national popular vote,” Keyssar said. The Daily Gazette Sign up for daily emails to get the latest Harvard news. How white evangelicals tour the nation’s capital and redeem a Christian America How to change an election Faith in the ballot
With both sides wary of tampering, a government professor tries to game the game on what tactics could follow a close result Presidential elections are always fraught, but this year’s is in its own league. Between pandemic precautions and potential crises of voter confidence, election officials are anticipating multiple new challenges as Americans prepare to head to the polls.COVID-19 is affecting the election in multiple ways. For starters, worries about exposure at polling places have already led to increased interest in mail-in voting, which is expected to hit record levels. However, while for many voting by mail seems like the safest and easiest option, “There are a lot of steps involved,” said the Kennedy School’s Archon Fung, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government. “Because our elections are regulated at the local level, it’s different everywhere.”For example, while registered voters in some states are now automatically mailed ballots, in others — including Massachusetts — mail-in ballots are limited to those who meet certain requirements and must be requested. (Massachusetts now allows any registered voter to request a ballot, citing COVID-19 concerns.)These ballots must then be properly filled out and signed in accordance with state-specific rules. In some states, including Alabama, Alaska, and Wisconsin, those signatures must be witnessed, a rule that is in flux: Virginia recently dropped the witnessing requirement. Finally, these ballots must be returned properly — for example, Pennsylvania voters must use a “secrecy envelope” — for their ballot to be accepted, certified, and counted. (The nonpartisan website Turbovote offers up-to-date guidance on navigating these state-by-state regulations.) As ongoing court cases argue over the differing deadlines for states to accept ballots, all election officials urge voters to request (if necessary) and return their ballots as soon as possible.The fact that many voters may be opting for mail-in ballots for the first time raises other, more basic questions as well. Professor Alexander Keyssar ’77, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, poses just one of them: “If I apply for an absentee ballot, but I haven’t mailed it in yet, can I go vote?” (Again, this depends on your state. Massachusetts voters can opt to vote in person if they have not mailed in their ballots or if their mailed ballot is deemed invalid.) “There are answers to those questions, but they are not obvious” said Keyssar, author of “Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?”If that sounds complicated, it is. “My friends who study other countries tell me that they think it’s harder to vote in the United States than in just about any other country,” said Fung.,The pandemic is also affecting in-person voting. Protocols around social distancing and masking are being enacted, again at the state and local levels, but many former polling places — such as schools and nursing homes — are considered too vulnerable to utilize. Especially as concern rises over long waits to vote, viable alternatives are sought. “There is a lot of uncertainty around both the safety of in-person voting and how in-person voting will occur,” said Fung. “A lot of states are shifting around polling places and trying to accommodate increased early voting.”Who will staff those polling places is also a concern. Historically, retirees have made up the bulk of poll workers, but this population is at greater risk from the pandemic. “Some of the people who are the most reliable poll workers are also the most vulnerable,” said Fung. Nonpartisan campaigns to recruit younger poll workers are ongoing. “One of the silver linings of this election is that a new generation of people will have the experience of working the polls,” said Fung.Another positive development is that many corporations are engaged in increasing voter participation. More than 1,100 companies, including Patagonia, Walgreens, and PayPal have joined the nonpartisan Time to Vote coalition, with many either giving their employees paid time off to vote or making other concessions, such as opening later on Election Day, Nov. 3.Potentially undermining all these developments and the best of precautions is public opinion. “The confidence in our elections is weaker,” said Fung. “There are legitimate concerns in how elections are administered and whether they are free and fair.” These concerns come from across the political spectrum. “Some people think there is voter suppression,” said Fung. “Other people think that there’s some voter fraud.”Overall, Democrats favor lowering the bar and making access easier. There is a general belief that Democrats benefit from higher turnouts. Republicans historically have backed higher barriers that often include a focus on voter identity and other security measures. “I think the remarkable fact about this election is that the outcome would not be in doubt, and we would not be having all this drama, if we had a national popular vote.” — Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy Related A big election amid pandemic in a riven land
We’re about to hit you with something big. Ready?Flash is now a standard enterprise storage option in the block world. That’s certainly not news. But did you know that block only represents 20% of all data, and the other 80% is unstructured or file data that doubles every 2-3 years?Naturally, Dell EMC has a fix for that.New today, Isilon All-Flash storage (formerly “Project Nitro”) will ignite the Isilon data lake for storing and managing unstructured data in the core data center. With 6X more IOPS, 8X more aggregate throughput, 47% more capacity, the blazing performance of Isilon All-Flash is sure to accelerate demanding and business critical workloads to new levels. The Isilon All-Flash storage device is a 4U chassis that can accommodate up to four all-flash nodes. Each node holds up to a total of 15 SSDs. Since Isilon All Flash leverages commodity components as core platform building blocks, as density and capacities increase we can quickly and easily continue to grow the node and chassis density. Dell EMC Isilon is continuing to innovate; this scale out all-flash cluster can reach extreme scale, with up to 400+ nodes providing a cluster that delivers aggregate bandwidth of 1.5TB/s and capacity of a whopping 100 PB.It’s all about the SOFTWARE!Isilon All-Flash runs the same Isilon OneFS operating system that our customers know and love, so it can participate in the cluster with other Isilon nodes, thus providing interoperability and investment protection. As an integral part of the data lake, it gives customers the flexibility of choosing protocols from file protocols like NFS, SMB, to object protocols like REST and Openstack/Swift to enabling customers to run in-place analytics with HDFS. OneFS strengthens the data lake by including the enterprise grade storage and data management features like data protection, security and performance management. Finally, with storage pools, you can take advantage of optimizing the data placement to provide the right storage tier based on the business criticality, age or value of the data.Why All-Flash?We see customers using Isilon All-Flash to accelerate the throughput and scale of Media and Entertainment workloads like 4K streaming, animation rendering and content creation. Additionally, compute intensive workloads like Electronic Design Automation logic design and verification will allow customers to shift the bottleneck from storage to compute by increasing the IOPS and the ability to run more jobs concurrently. Lastly, Hadoop and other near real-time big data analytics workloads as well as human genome sequencing in Life Sciences will reap the rewards of Isilon’s all-flash technology.Isilon All-Flash is all about solving customers’ challenges and meeting these new application demands from a workload perspective. While business is changing faster than ever before, Isilon All-Flash—and the entire Isilon family—are designed to help customers meet their challenges head on.Customers can Pre-Order Isilon All Flash today, click here! Isilon All-flash will be generally available in 1H 2017.
Share:Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window),Legalize marijuana,Stop funding illegal immigrants. Since under our state officials the state is not upholding the constitution and laws of the United States and the State of New York, due to the bad decisions of our state officials maybe they should be the first people of this state to feel the pinch. All state elected and appointed officials should have there pay frozen indefinitely until this situation is resolved. This would include the retirement accounts of all said officials. Past present and future.Also any burdens they put on the legal citizens and businesses of this states should be applied double to them. That is to includes taxes, fees,tolls, and other schemes they come up with inflect the people and business of New York.,Free healthcare…. Free College….. Free Rent….. Free Welfare…….. Free Foodstamps……Never thought that the $$$$$ had to come from somewhere… Spend.. Spend… Spend…. (It must be nice to be able to spend MORE than you make)And now we’re in the hole & guess what …. the working tax payers will have to pay the price for all the FREEBIES Photo: Matt H. Wade / CC BY 3.0ALBANY — The New York State budget deficit of $14.5 billion has state officials scratching their heads on how to close the gap, especially if the federal government doesn’t offer some form of bailout.On a Thursday conference call, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said if there’s no federal aid, there are options than can be taken to “try to fill” the gap.“Taxes, cuts, borrowing, early retirement, all of the above, and all of the above won’t fill that hole,” Cuomo said,Permanent across the board 20 percent cuts for schools, hospitals and local governments haven’t been made, yet, there have been with-holdings, and counties across the state are already feeling financial pains. “They are now slowly turning off the reimbursement, and state funding valve to local governments and schools, so they can meet there they can slow the funds, going out of the state budget and try to close their budget gap. There are other ways that they can go about doing this, but this is the way that they have chosen,” said New York State Association of Counties Deputy Director Mark LaVigne.The New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) has put together a report of more than 80 recommendations that can be taken to close budget gaps.“I don’t think we can wait any longer. Honestly, there’s a good chance that Washington either doesn’t come through at all or comes through but not to the level that we need to continue to provide services that our residents need locally. So, we need some action from the state, we need some decisions from the state that will help counties and local governments and schools get through these times,” LaVigne said.Some actions include granting “permanent sales tax authority for all counties for a local sales tax at their existing rate or up to 4 percent,” temporarily allowing counties to exceed the property tax cap “without penalty” in certain cases, increasing Thruway tolls for out of state residents, and allowing mobile sports gaming that shares revenue with counties.
Related Shows View Comments Star Files Heisenberg Show Closed This production ended its run on Dec. 11, 2016
Heisenberg, the new show from Simon Stephens, the Tony-winning playwright of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has extended again off-Broadway. The world premiere, starring Tony winner Mary-Louise Parker and Denis Arndt, will now play through July 18; the production had been set to shutter on July 11.Amidst the bustle of a crowded London train station, Clare (Parker) spots Alex (Arndt), a much older man, and plants a kiss on his neck. This electric encounter thrusts these two strangers into a life-changing game.Mark Brokaw directs the limited engagement at Manhattan Theater Club’s New York City Center—Stage II. Denis Arndt Mary-Louise Parker
Lawmakers debate mammogram immunity Bills that would make radiologists reading mammograms immune from medical malpractice suits unless they are grossly negligent has advanced through a House Committee. But a Senate panel amended the upper chambers version of the bill to only study the availability of mammograms for Florida women.Supporters said the House bill is necessary to guarantee there are enough radiologists to read mammograms for Florida women, while opponents said it would endanger women by encouraging sloppy test reading and leaving them with no recourse when they are victimized by malpractice.HB 1087 passed the House Health Care Committee on April 13. SB 2306 passed the Senate Health, Aging, and Long-Term Care Committee 6-4 on April 12, but was amendment to call for only the study in the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 19.Senators said they wanted to give last year’s medical malpractice law changes a chance to work before making further changes.The House committee meeting showed the lively debate on the issue.Sponsor Rep. Carole Green, R-Ft. Myers, introduced and got passed amendments to her bill requiring radiologists to meet certain training and continuing education standards to qualify for the enhanced immunity. The bill would also sunset on July 1, 2007.The bill also set up a work group to study the issue further.She said women around the state already face delays of several months in getting mammograms and getting them read, and without extra immunity for radiologists, the problem will only get worse.“I am tremendously concerned that this test, albeit not perfect, will go away and women will die,” said Green, who is a breast cancer survivor and who used to work with radiologists as a radiation therapist. “What I really want in the long run is a good bill. I want something to make sure that women are seen and protected and get their mammography.”Rep. Yolly Roberson, D-Miami, said the gross negligence standard would be like proving manslaughter in a criminal case, and the law would leave malpractice victims — or their survivors — with no way to be compensated for devastating injuries or death.Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, questioned whether there was a shortage of radiologists to read mammograms, noting a federal General Accounting Office study showed Florida women using mammograms at a much higher rate than the national average. Rep. Shelley Vana, D-West Palm Beach, agreed and said evidence of long delays was only circumstantial. “We do not have the evidence to lower the standard of health care,” she said. “And until we have that evidence, I am not willing to take away the safety net and lower the protections for women.”The committee rejected a series of amendments. One would have stricken all of the bill except for the study group and another would have extended the immunity to radiologists reading testicular cancer tests, and a third would have set the gross negligence standards for doctors treating legislators and their families. Lawmakers debate mammogram immunity
May 1, 2004 Regular News
When 1000 people from all over Croatia appear at the conference in Zagreb on the first snowy weekend this year, despite the barely passable roads, it is a confirmation that they are very eager for new knowledge and the need for networking because they are aware that this is the only way they can be more successful. .The Fourth National Forum of Family Accommodation (FOS), held on February 2 and 3 in the Congress Hall of the Zagreb Fair, will be remembered not only for the excellent attendance and good organization, but also for the news that could be heard there, which should further strengthen the largest branch of tourism. markets in the country. The great response was also impressed by the Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli, who stated on stage that Croatia has what others do not have, and that is family accommodation!It was a moment of encouragement for those gathered that the state is aware of the importance of small private renters and wants to help them raise the quality of this service, which with 92.000 registered facilities makes up more than half of the domestic market. Cappelli said that finally this year we can expect recategorization and favorable HBOR loans for this type of accommodation with interest rates of up to 3 percent, which will be preceded by the adoption of changes in the law in the hospitality industry. He explained that this does not mean that someone will have to stop dealing with it due to high categorization due to high investment costs, but that the state will make it easier for him to invest since the quality of this accommodation is just as important as in camps and hotels.Today, the guest will rather pay more for an experience in a hut at 1000 meters altitude, where the host will prepare organic potatoes under the baking lid, than for a 5-course gala dinner in a hotel or restaurant.The first man of the European Association of Family Accommodation, Carlos Villaro Lassen, also landed at the Forum from Brussels, supporting the demand for household accommodation and higher-than-expected growth. Numerous online platforms that have built their businesses on the offer of accommodation have certainly contributed to this, as well as the ever-improving quality of the offer and the need to experience local communities and people. He confirmed that the trends are changing rapidly in favor of small household capacities, saying that 11 million beds were registered in hotels in Europe, and as many as 20 million in “short-term rental” facilities. While some European cities such as Berlin, Paris and Portugal are trying to suppress it, and some are even denying it, such as Venice, he cited Croatia as a country that has managed to adequately regulate it. Lassen personally congratulated Cappelli on our model of flat-rate taxation of household service providers and more than 540.000 registered beds, noting that we are cited in Europe as an example in creating legislative frameworks.That we managed to create recognition, we convincingly confirmed at last year’s awards ceremony for the best European holiday homes, where Croatia won in 4 of 8 categories. The winners (Villa Vista Zamask in Istria in the category of the most original house, Villa Sreser from Peljesac for the best house on the coast, Villa Falcon Rook from Konavle for the best family house and Villa Vadedija near Zminj for the best wellness house) were awarded by Lassen at the Forum.Photo: HGKAt the same time, the awards “Tourist flower-quality for Croatia 2017″ were awarded. in 11 categories, and the title of the best accommodation of the year was awarded to Linden Tree resort & ranch from Velika Plana. This intimate and luxurious refuge nestled on 50 hectares of the Velebit mountain also won in the category for the best eco-accommodation. The best accommodation for a family is Sunny Apartments in Zagreb, the best accommodation for an active vacation is Villa Falcon Rook from Konavle, the best accommodation for pets is the cottage Bobica from Pokupsko, the best accommodation without barriers is boarding house Mamica from Puscina, and the most original accommodation Bear’s Log from Rakovica. The award for the best accommodation in rural tourism went to B&B Tinka from Momjan, for the best accommodation in nature was chosen B&B Casa Rustica from Vodnjan, the best accommodation on the coast was Villa Evelyn from Fažana, and the best accommodation in the city was the apartment Emerald from Zagreb.On the first day, a panel was held on the possible impact of the recently postponed real estate tax on family tourism, where we heard that Croatia is not even close to its introduction because, as Željko Uhlir, State Secretary of the Ministry of Construction and Physical Planning, said, we have only 3,5% data between land registers and cadastres, and we lack a real estate register. Assistant Director of the Tax Administration Marijana Vuraić Kudeljan confirmed that this tax is not currently a topic in the Ministry of Finance, and hopes that it will remain so, said Nedo Pinezić, one of the most deserving persons for the development of family accommodation in Croatia, saying that the introduction of new charges is unacceptable. just because we have too expensive and inefficient public administration.However, Luka Benko from the Zagreb Tourist Board showed that the rapid development of short-term rent should not be left to itself. In the last 10 years, private accommodation there has grown by an incredible 3181 percent! Not so long ago in 2007 there were only 57 renters in the city, and today there are 2954 of them with a total of 7121 beds. Such growth brings with it the other side of the coin. Out of 100 open facilities, 25 are closed, which means that this activity is not for those who think that it is enough to refresh the paint on the walls and change the bed linen and towels, and guests will flock in large numbers. To survive in an increasingly competitive market, it is necessary to understand the rules of the new digital revolution, market trends, finances, communication skills, speak foreign languages and be original and excellent in the offer because guests are looking for the maximum for their money.What financially means short-term bed rental we heard from family accommodation advisor Anamarija Cicarelli, who showed the average annual amount of basic costs of a double apartment (which includes VAT on commission, price of advertising on portals, investment in real estate, overhead costs, cleaning, bed linen washing, welcome of guests and flat tax and sojourn tax) in the amount of 17.000 kn. Only when we take all this into account, we can create the price of our bed and see if it is achievable given the competition and the attractiveness of the destination. We saw that Croatia with an average price of 45 euros is cheaper than Montenegro and Slovenia, which is not in our interest because we really have something to offer and according to guest ratings and the latest Booking.com research, we are the best hosts in Europe. We strengthen the price by additional offer and connecting in clusters through the branding system, which is the only way to avoid the image of a cheap destination and sustainable tourism.One of the most interesting lectures was by Vanja Šebek from the University of Algebra on the life cycles of our users and their behavior on the Internet. This certified Google trainer explained how the user goes through 4 key stages before choosing a destination before becoming our guest, and the better we understand his habits, the sooner we will catch him in our network, i.e. sell him our bed. This process can take from a couple of hours to a year, and when the guest finally arrives, in 85% of cases it is only on the spot that he decides on the activities at the destination. By then we must already have enough information to offer him innovative content according to his wishes. “Learn from your guests because they are your mirror”, Said Sebek.RRIF advisor Ljerka Markota spoke about the tax obligations of household accommodation providers, emphasizing that everyone must have a VAT identification number and pay VAT on commission to foreign OTA platforms as small taxpayers because it is our obligation since joining the EU. The head of the Croatian Climate Change Panel, Vjeran Piršić, reminded that Croatia, like the rest of the world, is exposed to the negative effects of climate change, which also result in significant economic losses. Disasters such as prolonged droughts, floods or fires paralyze tourism, but this topic is often imposed too late only when disasters like last year’s fire in Dalmatia occur.The forum was best concluded by UNDP international tourism expert Tim Clancy, who said that we are our greatest strength and that today the guest would rather pay more for an experience in a hut at 1000 meters, where the host will prepare organic potatoes under the baking lid, than for a 5-course gala dinner at a hotel or restaurant. According to UNWTO estimates, the passion for travel will continue to grow in the coming period, and we are the ones who must attract them with original content and hospitality as promoters of the indigenous lifestyle. At the same time, we must be careful not to eat ourselves because of tourism, because as a small country we already have one of the highest tourist traffic densities in the EU of as many as 3 arrivals per capita.Otherwise, we could be hit by a Spanish or Italian scenario where their most visited destinations suffer greatly from the consequences of mass tourism. One of the founders of the concept of sustainable tourism, Jost Krippendorf, best described it in the eighties – “Where a growing crowd seeks rest, fewer and fewer find it”.Related news:MINISTER CAPPELLI ANNOUNCES RECATEGORIZATION OF FAMILY ACCOMMODATION AND FAVORABLE HBOR LOANSLINDEN TREE RETREAT & RANCHA FROM VELIKA PLANA NAMED THE BEST FAMILY ACCOMMODATION IN CROATIA
Fears over the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak have affected tourism in West Java, with a number of European tourists reportedly canceling their trip to the province.According to the West Java chapter of the Association of Indonesian Tours and Travel Agencies (ASITA), European tourists have expressed concerns over the new coronavirus as the pneumonia-like disease has spread from China to Indonesia’s neighboring countries.“Singapore has recorded confirmed cases of [the coronavirus], while their flights [to Indonesia] are supposed to transit in Singapore,” ASITA West Java chapter head Budijanto Ardiansjah said on Friday as quoted by kompas.com. “Some European tourists have canceled their trips. They asked for confirmation whether Indonesia is safe [from the virus] or not and they have decided to postpone their visits until the outbreak subsides.”He declined to reveal just how many tourists have canceled their plans. In line with recent government policy, airlines have suspended their flights to and from China in response to the outbreak, subsequently affecting the visit of Chinese tourists, one of the largest contributor of foreign tourist arrivals in Indonesia. The ASITA Bali chapter previously said that thousands of Chinese tourists had canceled their trips to Bali in the wake of the virus outbreak, which has killed more than 1,300 and spread to nearly 30 countries since it first emerged in the city of Wuhan in late December last year. Indonesia has no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus so far, though its neighboring countries have reported multiple positive diagnoses. Singapore, for instance, has confirmed that 67 people have been infected in the city-state as of Friday, The Strait Times reported.The cancelations came amid the West Java administration’s efforts to attract more European and American tourists to the province, which has a number of famous destinations such as the provincial capital of Bandung as well as Ciwidey regency. According to Statistics Indonesia (BPS), a total of 1,565,200 European tourists visited Indonesia from January to September last year. The number showed a slight decline compared to the same period in 2018 when 1,566,900 Europeans visited the country. Budi conceded that West Java was still less enticing compared to Bali, saying that only 8 to 10 percent of tourists from Europe visiting Indonesia included West Java in their itineraries. He said West Java was still lacking in promotion despite the beauty of its nature and culture, which had become the main attractions for European tourists, including those from the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.“European tourists are different from Asian tourists. Asian tourists like shopping, while Europeans are more into nature and the culture,” Budi said. ASITA has been mulling over strategy to attract more European tourists to visit West Java before going to Bali, such as by encouraging them to take trains from Jakarta to Bandung or to drop by Puncak in Bogor before continuing to Yogyakarta or Bali. (gis)Topics :
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would be happy to get a coronavirus test but that he has been told there’s no need, despite having had contact with several lawmakers who chose to self-quarantine.”I feel extremely good. I feel very good but I guess it’s not a big deal to get tested and it’s something I would do,” Trump told reporters in Washington.However, the White House doctor declared there was “no reason to do it,” Trump added. “There’s no symptoms, no anything.” Trump’s health has come under the spotlight as the coronavirus spreads in the United States, with three Republican lawmakers who met with the president having being exposed recently to someone who had tested positive.One of those deciding to go into self-imposed quarantine was Trump’s pick for White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, although his test result was negative.Another, Matt Gaetz, who traveled with Trump on Air Force One on Monday, said Tuesday that he had also tested negative.Topics :