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Ask Amy: Customer trips over stylist tips

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

Dear Amy: I wear my hair short and have had the same stylist cut it regularly for the past 10 to 12 years.The stylist was always an employee at a pretty upscale salon, and as their prices continued to rise two to three times a year, I continued to go because I had built a rapport with the stylist.Knowing the salon owner took at least half of what I was paying her (because the stylist made no secret of saying so), I always tipped my stylist 20 percent to 25 percent.Now the stylist has left the expensive salon and gone out on her own in a small rented suite.I was taken aback when she kept the same high price for a haircut as the salon was charging.Am I still required to tip this person who is the business owner and has set the prices herself?I feel that leaving the price as high as it was at the salon would be enough to cover their costs and make a profit without me adding a tip.I feel awkward not tipping the same person because they don’t have a boss, but on the other hand I fe...

Vienna 'few degrees' exhibit tilts paintings to call for climate action

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

A Vienna museum where climate activists recently attacked the glass screen shielding a Gustav Klimt painting has responded with an exhibit entitled 'A Few Degrees More' that tilts works to draw attention to the need for action on climate change.Activists from the group Last Generation smeared the screen in front of Klimt's "Death and Life" at the Leopold Museum in Vienna and glued one of their hands to it in the November protest calling for an end to drilling for oil."We found this way to be absolutely the wrong one," the museum's artistic director, Hans-Peter Wipplinger, said on the opening day of its response: a small exhibition with the full title "A Few Degrees More (Will Turn the World into an Uncomfortable Place)".It involves hanging 15 works by artists including Klimt and fellow Austrian great Egon Schiele at an angle, with texts calling attention to the effect that global warming of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial levels would have on the l...

The new Packaging rules – so far, science hasn’t had much say in it

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

With its sights set on achieving a green circular economy as quickly as possible, the European Commission proposed a complex revision of packaging and packaging waste legislation late last year.- writes Matti Rantanen, Director General of the European Paper Packaging Alliance.Yet, the underlying assumptions and impact assessment on which the proposal is based leave much to be desired and have been questioned by the Commission’s co-legislators.  At the latest meeting of the Council of the European Union that took place on 16 March 2023, a number of representatives of the 27 Member States questioned the impact assessment and urged the Commission to publish more scientific impact assessments given the far-reaching consequences of the proposal.The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) proposal is the biggest overhaul to EU packaging rules in decades.  Among the many provisions, the Commission most notably proposes packaging reduction targets for Member States and strict r...

Sale closed in San Ramon: $2.1 million for a three-bedroom home

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

65 Longwood Court – Google Street ViewThe spacious property located in the first block of Longwood Court in San Ramon was sold on March 2, 2023. The $2,060,000 purchase price works out to $687 per square foot. The house, built in 1983, has an interior space of 2,998 square feet. The property features three bedrooms, three baths, an attached garage, and two parking spaces. The backyard also has a pool. The unit sits on a 0.3-acre lot.Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include:On Lone Pine Court, San Ramon, in June 2022, a 2,998-square-foot home was sold for $2,300,000, a price per square foot of $767. The home has 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.In July 2022, a 2,602-square-foot home on Longwood Court in San Ramon sold for $1,898,000, a price per square foot of $729. The home has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.A 2,460-square-foot home on the first block of Leigh Court in San Ramon sold in November 2022, for $1,720,000, a price per square foot of $699. The home has 4 bedro...

Kristof: What Americans can learn from India’s ‘Barefoot College’

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

TILONIA, India — It’s the Harvard of rural India, minus wingtips or heels: a 50-year-old institution called Barefoot College that offers lessons for empowering people worldwide. Maybe even in America.Barefoot College does empowerment as well as any institution I’ve ever seen, and here’s what that looks like in the rural state of Rajasthan: An illiterate woman named Chota Devi who never attended a day of school is hunched over a circuit board, carefully using color-coded instructions to solder resistors and diodes into place.Chota, who has no idea how old she is, is a Dalit, those at the bottom of the caste system once known as untouchables, and from a particularly low-ranking group called the Valmiki who often cleaned human waste.But now Chota is learning how to be a solar power technician. Barefoot College trains illiterate, low-status villagers like her to make solar-powered lanterns and install solar lighting systems. After three to six months of training, they return to their co...

Horoscopes March 24, 2023: Peyton Manning, finish what you start

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY: Amanda Brugel, 45; Peyton Manning, 47; Alyson Hannigan, 49; Jim Parsons, 50.Amanda Brugel (AFP PHOTO / Robyn BeckROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Happy Birthday: Don’t procrastinate when there is so much to do and so little time to finish what you start. Be thorough in your decisions of what to keep and what to discard. Take less time to think and more to act, and what you accomplish this year will carry you to a place that makes you feel comfortable. Your numbers are 3, 10, 17, 26, 33, 37, 49.ARIES (March 21-April 19): Sign up for something that makes you proud and grateful. Get involved, take your place and make a statement. Be the guiding light for others and instigate what you want to happen. 3 starsTAURUS (April 20-May 20): Make the changes that will improve your life and point you in a direction that brings you the joy and contacts you need to feel good about yourself and the world around you. Participate in what matters and see what happen...

Word Game: March 24, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

TODAY’S WORD — STEALTH (STEALTH: STELTH: A secretive way of moving intended to avoid detection.)Average mark 30 wordsTime limit 40 minutesCan you find 38 or more words in STEALTH? The list will be published tomorrow.YESTERDAY’S WORD — ADDICTION acid action addict addition anti antic dado danio diction didact dido dint icon idiot indict into ionic iota candid cant canto ciao coat coati coda coin taco toad tonic octadTo purchase the Word Game book, visit WordGameBooks.com. Order it now for just $5 while supplies last!RULES OF THE GAME:1. Words must be of four or more letters.2. Words that acquire four letters by the addition of “s,” such as “bats” or “dies,” are not allowed.3. Additional words made by adding a “d” or an “s” may not be used. For example, if “bake” is used, “baked” or “bakes” are not allowed, but “bake” and “baking” are admissible.4. Proper nouns, slang words, or vulgar or sexually explicit words are not allowed.Contact Word Game creator Kathleen...

Bridge: March 24, 2023

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

A church newsletter contained this: “Dan Smith and Lisa Jones were married Saturday. Thus ends a friendship that began in their high school days.”Rumor has it that today’s deal broke up the East-West partnership. When North opened 1NT, East doubled for penalty. South then indulged in a wild leap to four spades, and East hammered that.West led the ten of hearts: king, ace, ruff. South next led a trump, and East took his king, forced South to ruff another heart, won the next trump and forced with a third heart. South then drew trumps — he had one left — and let the jack of diamonds ride. East won … and South claimed. East was annoyed, West more so.CLUB TRICKEast might have saved the partnership. The defense needs a club trick to beat the contract, so East must lead the king at Trick Three. When in with the ace of spades, he leads the jack of clubs, and the defense cashes West’s ten when East takes the king of diamonds.As far as I know, East-We...

The Bloody U.S. Legacy in Iraq

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

This week marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of the War in Iraq. But the U.S. government’s involvement in the country tracks back decades prior. Jeremy Scahill retraces the U.S. government’s long history of meddling, destabilizing, and bombing Iraq — and how major players have faced no accountability for their crimes.Transcript coming soon.The post The Bloody U.S. Legacy in Iraq appeared first on The Intercept.

Crash involving Fairfax Co. fire truck sends several people to hospital

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:47:55 GMT

Several people were taken to the hospital after a crash Thursday involving a Fairfax County, Virginia, fire truck and three other cars, according to police.The crash happened around 5:15 p.m. on Richmond Highway at Memorial Street in Groveton, Fairfax County Police said in a tweet.Police initially reported that one person was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries but has since improved and is expected to survive.More Fairfax County NewsMore Virginia NewsMemorial Street was closed for a few hours due to the crash, but has since reopened.Below is a map of where the crash occurred.Source