A gas station in Los Angeles on March 10. Mike Blake/Reuters

Life at $4 a gallon

	By Claire Brown

Average U.S. gasoline prices hit $3.98 per gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA, on the cusp of a level that was last hit when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

The last month has seen the second-largest gas price spike in three decades, with average prices climbing more than 30 percent since the war in Iran effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that conveys up to a fifth of the world’s oil.

Though there’s no hard and fast rule that dictates exactly what choices consumers make at $4, $5, and $6 per gallon, higher gas prices are already stressing household budgets. At $4 per gallon, more than half of Americans said they’d change their driving behavior, according to a 2022 survey by AAA. More recent data has also shown that Americans are delaying some forms of spending.

The energy shock has hit Asia hardest: The Philippines declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said grounding planes because of a jet fuel shortage was a “distinct possibility.” South Korea is urging citizens to ride bicycles instead of driving.

Transportation, of course, is the single-largest source of planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and a big contributor globally. Here’s what we know about how a long period of high gas prices could change how willing people are to drive gas-powered vehicles, both here and abroad.

Driving less, window-shopping

Already, Americans are looking for ways to cut back. In New Orleans, drivers are lining up at gas stations with the best prices. Michele Tafoya, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, encouraged people to take “one less trip to Starbucks.” The state of Georgia has implemented a fuel tax holiday, waiving a 33-cent-per-gallon tax.

When gas prices spike, drivers tend to respond by cutting out unnecessary trips, by car-pooling and using public transportation, according to AAA. Spending on discretionary expenses like plane tickets and restaurant meals has fallen, too, as transportation costs eat up a bigger share of household budgets.

Yet while plenty of people who own electric vehicles have been boasting about their fuel savings on social media over the last few weeks, gas prices would have to stay high for a much longer period of time to trigger a broader shift away from gas-powered vehicles, according to Stephanie Valdez Streaty, research and development director at Cox Automotive, a research firm.

Still, the war in Iran appears to have driven a modest uptick in E.V. curiosity among U.S. drivers, according to the car shopping site Edmunds. If high prices persist, more people may feel the urge to hop off what Jessica Caldwell, the head of insights at Edmunds, called the “gas price roller coaster.”

New E.V.s in the U.S. are still more expensive than gas-powered cars, but the gap is closing for used vehicles. In February, the average listing price for a used E.V. was $34,821, about $1,300 more than a gas-powered car, Valdez Streaty said.

Hundreds of thousands more used E.V.s could enter the market this year as leases expire, Valdez Streaty said. “Consumers are going to have a lot of good options at a lower price point,” she said.

The global E.V. tipping point

If you’re curious about buying whether the economics of buying an E.V. are in your favor, The Times has a calculator that can help. The math looks very different abroad, where gas price shocks have been more intense and E.V.s are often far more affordable than in the U.S.

The scales could tip fastest in countries with access to inexpensive Chinese E.V.s, like Brazil, parts of Asia and soon, Canada, wrote David Brown, the director of energy transition research at Wood McKenzie.

In Vietnam, for example, gas prices have risen by around 30 percent since the start of the conflict. But the increase coincides with a rapid increase in the share of electric cars sold each year as government incentives meet affordable options from local manufacturers.

In December, the Vietnamese E.V. maker VinFast broke records when it reported the highest monthly sales volume ever recorded by any automaker in the country. Its best-selling car last year, the VF 3, hit the market in 2024 at just under $13,000.

VinFast has begun offering discounts of 3 to 5 percent to people switching from gas-powered cars and scooters, Reuters reported.

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#stephanie #nelson #thanksgiving #americans #holiday #gift #buying #careful #cyber #monday #coupon #mom #mouse #online #shopping #secrets #share

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#molly #gold #family #time #makeover #fine #living #network #good #morning #america #today #go #mom #mompreneur #inventor #creator #publisher #holiday #shopping #tips

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This is a practical and useful book that is unified to combine a regular textbook containing conversation/vocabulary/phases with four language tools such as writing/reading/speaking/listening.

This textbook provides English translations for Chinese language in writing/reading/speaking and listening. The chapters of the book help American-speaking individuals quickly translate English words and phrases into Chinese. Including many situations that occur in daily life; such as asking for help, finding a doctor, identifying food allergies, restaurant dining, shopping, greetings, and etc. can be found in the chapters. Best of all, you can gain confidence in communicating in the 21st century with Chinese-speaking individuals.

Students found this textbook useful during interactions with others because of the simplicity of the chapters. The book is also convenient to carry because it’s soft cover.

As the author, I would like to reiterate that my purpose in writing each chapter of this resourceful book is similar to the trunk of a big tree that establishes and prepares students for a solid and stable language foundation in Chinese. I am hopeful that you too, find the text, conversations, vocabulary, and phrases practical and useful in assisting your ability to listen, speak, read, write, and learn Chinese.

Jasmine Tang is currently a professor at SUNY Geneseo in Geneseo, NY and MCC (Monroe Community College) in Rochester, NY where she enjoys teaching the Chinese language to students and has written this book to enhance the learning experience for anyone that seeks to travel to China or learn the Chinese language.

#jasmine #tang #chinese #book #textbook #text #conversation #vocabulary #phrases #practical #useful #listen #speak #read #write #shopping #food #help #travel #life #learning #learn #experiences #language #teacher #student

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Here is a daily guide to tell you how Chinese people celebrate Chinese New Year in 2021.

Pre-Chinese New Year Preparations (Jan. 20–Feb. 10, 2021)
Jan. 20, 2021: Laba Festival
Some Chinese start to celebrate and prepare for New Year as early as day 8 of the 12th month of the lunar calendar. This is a festival called Laba ( 腊八 Làbā /laa-baa/ ’12th lunar month’ + ‘8’). In 2021, it corresponds to January 20.

Feb. 4, 2021: House-Cleaning

Beginning on the 23rd day of the 12th lunar month Chinese people carry out a thorough ‘winter-cleaning’ of their houses.

This is called “sweeping away the dust”, and represents a wish to put away old things, bid farewell to the old year, and welcome in the New Year.

Feb. 4–10, 2021: New Year Shopping
Before Chinese New Year’s Eve, people buy New Year’s food and snacks, New Year’s decorations, and New Year’s clothes. Chinese New Year in China, like Christmas, is a boom time for shopping.

Chinese New Year market
Chinese people may be thrifty most of the time, but they seem to spend generously during their traditional festivals.

For example, they buy everyone new clothes for the festival, whether they need them or not. On the days leading up to the festival, there are many New Year’s street markets.

Chinese New Year’s Eve (Feb. 11, 2021): 7 Activities and Celebrations
1. Putting Up New Year Decorations

Putting up spring couplets
Although some people decorate their houses several days before the festival, most people do it on New Year’s Eve. Houses are decorated with red lanterns, red couplets, paper Cutouts, and New Year’s paintings.

Putting up those decorations are thought to keep evil away and pray for blessing, longevity, health, and peace. 2021 is the Year of the Ox, so ox images will appear on decorations.

Read more about the Top 7 Chinese New Year Decorations.

2. Offering Sacrifices to Ancestors
Offering sacrifices to ancestors shows respect and piety. In addition, ancestral spirits are believed to protect their descendants and help them become prosperous.

Many worships on New Year’s Eve, before the reunion dinner, to show that they are letting their ancestors “eat” first. Offerings of meat, wine, joss sticks, and joss paper are placed in front of the shrine/grave.

3. Enjoying a Reunion Dinner

The New Year’s Eve Feast is a “must-do” dinner with all family members reuniting. Chinese try very hard to make this family event, often traveling long distances. This is the main reason for the huge travel stress throughout China.

Big families including several generations sit at round tables and enjoy the food and time together.

Dishes with lucky meanings must be included in the dinner such as fish, dumplings, niangao (sticky rice cake), and spring rolls. Many New Year foods are symbolic.

4. Watching CCTV’s New Year Gala
It’s become customary for many families to watch the CCTV New Year Gala while having their dinner. The Gala starts at 8 pm and ends when the Chinese New Year arrives at midnight.

It features traditional, folk, and pop performances from China’s best singers, dancers, and acrobats.

5. Giving Red Envelopes (Lucky Money) to Kids

Parents usually give their children red envelopes after the reunion dinner, wishing them health, growth, and good studies in the coming year.

Money in red envelopes is believed to bring good luck, as red is China’s lucky color, so it’s called lucky money.

6. Staying Up Late
This custom is called shousui (守岁/show-sway/‘to keep watch over the year’). In the past, Chinese people used to stay up all night, but now most stay up only until the midnight firecrackers and fireworks die down.

7. Listening to a New Year Bell
A bell is a traditional symbol of Chinese New Year, and Chinese people believe that ringing a large bell can drive away bad luck and bring good fortune.

At midnight on New Year’s Eve some people like to go to large squares or temples where huge bells are rung. In recent years people have begun to go to mountain temples to wait for the first ringing of a bell in the New Year.

Chinese New Year’s Day (Feb. 12, 2021)
Chinese people believe that what they do on the first day of the lunar year will affect their luck during that year.

1. Setting Off Firecrackers and Fireworks

The moment New Year arrives there is a cacophony of fireworks and firecrackers all around, even in rural China. Families stay up for this joyful moment.

In many rural areas, it’s customary to set off firecrackers before dinner, each day from New Year’s Eve to day 3 of CNY. See Why Chinese New Year Must Have Firecrackers.

It’s believed that the louder the firecrackers, the better and luckier it will be for business and farming in the coming year.

Kids, with (mini) firecrackers in one hand and a lighter in another, cheerfully celebrate by throwing the small explosives one-by-one on the street whilst plugging their ears.

2. Putting on New Clothes and Extending New Year Greetings

On the first day of New Year, Chinese people put on new clothes, and say “gongxi” (恭喜/gong-sshee/literally ‘respectful joy’, meaning ‘greetings’ or ‘best wishes’), wishing each other good luck and happiness in the New Year.

It is customary for the younger generation to visit their elders, and wish them health and longevity. See Top 10 Popular Chinese New Year Greetings and Sayings.

In recent years, a new way to do New Year greetings has appeared, especially among the young. People who are too busy to visit their friends or relatives send a New Year’s card, a WeChat red envelope, or a text message instead.

3. Watching Lion and Dragon Dances

Chinese New Year dragon dances
Lion dances and dragon dances are also seen on New Year’s Day. Once very popular in China, they are reappearing in many places. They are more popular in Hong Kong and Macau.

4. Public Celebrations at Parks and Temple Fairs
Beijing’s temple fairs are the places to go for traditional activities in Beijing. Such activities are held in parks from the first day of the lunar year to the last (when celebrating the Lantern Festival).

Generally, parks and temples are the best places to go for festive celebrations at Chinese New Year.

New Year: Day 2 (Feb. 13, 2021)
Traditionally married daughters visit their parents’ home on the second day of Chinese New Year. They bring gifts and red envelopes to families and relatives.

On this day, people offer sacrifices to the God of Wealth, wishing for a luckier and more prosperous year.

New Year: Days 3–7 (Feb. 14–18, 2021)

Chinese people visit relatives and friends from the 3rd day to the 7th day.
From the third to the seventh day of New Year, Chinese people visit relatives and friends.

On the third day, some people go to visit the tombs of their relatives, but others think being outside there on the third day is inauspicious, because evil spirits roam around.

The first house-sweep of the New Year: Chinese people don’t clean their homes during the first two days of New Year, as sweeping then is believed to sweep away the good luck accrued by the litter of firecrackers, red paper, wrappers, and other evidence of celebration on the floor.

New Year: Day 8 (Feb. 19, 2021)
People normally return to work on the eighth day. As eight is the luckiest number in China, most businesses like to reopen on day 8 of the New Year.

New Year: Day 15 (Feb. 26, 2021), the Lantern Festival

Lantern Festival
The fifteenth day of the New Year is the Lantern Festival (元宵节 Yuánxiāo Jié /ywen-sshyaou jyeah/). It is the traditional end of Spring Festival celebrations.

Some people send glowing lanterns into the sky, while others release floating lanterns onto the sea, onto rivers, or adrift in lakes.

Regional Variations in New Year Celebrations in China
Traditions and celebrations vary greatly across China. In the north, Chinese dumplings are the must-eat food on Chinese New Year’s Eve, but south of the Yangtze River most people eat spring rolls or sticky rice cake. For more on this, read How Chinese New Year Is Celebrated in Northern and Southern China.

Chinese New Year Celebrations around the World
Chinese New Year is not only celebrated in China, but also in several other East Asian countries (among non-Chinese Asians it’s known ‘Spring Festival’) as well as Chinatowns in Western countries.

For the numbers of people celebrating around the world see Chinese New Year Facts.

You can experience Chinese New Year celebrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, London, Paris, etc. You can walk through their Chinatowns and see the restaurants and shopfronts adorned in red and gold, and experience firecrackers, colorful parades, and dragon dances.
for more info, go to https://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/festivals/chinese-new-year-celebration.htm#:~:text=Chinese%20New%20Year%20is%20celebrated,some%20are%20quite%20new

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Ask him and chances are, HIS FAVORITE JOB EVER is Being Your Father!

Lifestyle Expert Says the Clues to the Perfect Father’s Day Gift May Be Right In Front of You

It’s that time of the year – when we show the men in our lives how much they mean to us. So, as we all turn into amateur sleuths trying to figure out the perfect gift to make dad smile, lifestyle expert and new dad Lance Smith says the clues are all around you. Step one, don’t ask mom. He has enough socks and underwear.

Is Dad’s idea of a perfect Sunday afternoon outside in the backyard or inside falling asleep on the couch? Is he always talking about getting in better shape, but says he’s too busy for the gym? They’re all clues to that one must-have gift Dad will love. Lance is available via satellite and phone to share:

• Father’s Day Must-Haves – Top Gifts for Dad
• How you can get everything on your list in one place
• Shopping tips to help you save a TON of time AND money

Lance Smith does it all in the entertainment industry. In addition to being an actor, an acting coach and children’s book author, Lance was the face of CMT for a decade hosting numerous weekly shows and specials before taking on co-host duties for The Daily Buzz from 2012-2014 and its new launch in 2017. This avid Tennessee Titans fan can be found at most home games broadcasting highlights on the jumbotron. Still, with all of this, Lance’s newest job is the closest to his heart, being dad to his beautiful baby girl.

Courtesy: DICK’S Sporting Goods

The post Dad, Daddy, Pop or Padre, Whatever the Title…Click Here for Video & Podcast… appeared first on Good News!.

Cooking and entertaining doesn’t have to be stressful around the holidays.

HGTV Host Sandra Lee has teamed up with Verizon to launch the “Fast Festive Fun with Sandra Lee Contest” to show how you can streamline all of your cooking and entertaining needs.

October 29 – December 19, cooks can submit their best homemade recipes that can be shared and used to entertain friends and family across America. Entries will be judged based on originality, cost, speed and ease across different categories. Categories include appetizers, side dishes, entrees and leftover lunches.

The top three entries in each category, and winners, will receive a signed copy of “Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade Fast-Fix Homemade Favorites,” and will be featured on both www.sandralee.com and www.verizoninsider.com and social media channels (Twitter and Facebook).

The grand prize winner (from entered category winners) package for the Fast Festive Fun with Sandra Lee Contest (announced on New Year’s Eve), includes a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 and a Sandra Lee 10pc Stainless Steel Cookware set.

Sandra can also discuss how to incorporate technology into your kitchen:

• Use your mobile device to complete your grocery shopping list

• Use your tablet to instantly look up recipes

• Show off your culinary creations to friends and family via Facebook and Twitter

• Introducing technology into your kitchen can empower you to be creative, efficient, and fun!

For more information, please visit www.verizoninsider.com/SandraLee

About Sandra Lee

Sandra Lee is a multi-Emmy® award-winner and internationally-acclaimed expert in all things kitchen and home. Sandra is the host of two highly-rated shows on Food Network, Sandra’s Money Saving Meals and Semi-Homemade Cooking. Additionally, Sandra is the host of HGTV’s Sandra Lee Celebrates, a series of primetime entertaining specials.

Sandra works with numerous philanthropic organizations including UNICEF® and Feeding America®. Sandra is the national spokesperson for Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign and the anchor of their largest annual fundraiser, The Great American Bake Sale – two groundbreaking programs focused on ending childhood hunger in America. Sandra has received both the President’s Volunteer Service Award and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

The post Sandra Lee asks “Do you have Fast, Festive Fun Holiday Recipes?” Food is always Good News, here is our interview from years ago, Still tastes Good!! Click Here for Video & Podcast… appeared first on Good News!.

A growing number of Asian/ Asian-American fashion designers now command growing clout in the fashion world. Every year, they present their best collections during New York Fashion Week.

Who are some of your favorite Asian designers? AsianInNY team will be busy covering and interviewing designers so if you have any questions you want to ask, send to info@AsianInNY.com, we will get the answers from all the top Asian designers!

New York Fashion Week is approaching, are you ready?

We have worked with 247Features.com to showcases up and coming Asian/Asian American designers and emerging brands as a way to give people a sampling of their collections and offer our readers with special discounted prices. Most importantly, you are not just shopping for yourself, but also for a charity. A portion of our proceeds go towards a charity from our lists of participating charity organizations. For more, please visit: http://www.247features.com/

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See the Faces and Listen to the Stories of Our Society’s Most Overlooked Outcasts:

The Mentally Ill and Homeless http://www.robertokinmd.com

From L.A. to Philly to Miami, they’re out there—pushing their carts, digging through garbage, sleeping on park benches, sometimes ranting about nonsense to no one. They often look and sound crazy, smell bad, and make us uneasy, so we avoid them. We know better intellectually, yet most of us shun people suffering from homelessness and mental illness because we view them as deeply flawed—somehow less human than the rest of us.

As part of his career devoted to the mentally disabled, Dr. Robert Okin decided to use a powerful artistic medium to advocate for these people. In SILENT VOICES: People with Mental Disorders on the Street (Golden Pine Press, October 2014), Dr. Okin invites all of us to get to know the people society treats like pariahs, people who, beneath their symptoms and rags, struggle with feelings and needs similar to those of the rest of us. He shares the striking and evocative photographs and stories—most often, in their own words—of more than 40 mentally ill people he met on the streets of San Francisco. “I wrote this book,” Dr. Okin reflects, “to contribute to making these people known as human beings.”

SILENT VOICES offers a glimpse of the dark pasts—marked by abuse, violation, tragedies, crime, drugs, and addiction—and everyday challenges of homeless men and women suffering from bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and other serious mental disabilities.

Based on his interviews, research, and decades of professional experience, Dr. Okin discusses:

 Staggering facts on how the mentally ill are neglected, mistreated, and discriminated against. In America today, over 200,000 people with mental disorders are abandoned in the streets and another 250,000 are locked up in jails and prisons.

 Measures needed to reduce the widespread, escalating problem of the homeless mentally ill, including increased government funding for affordable housing, partnerships between the public and private sector to provide job training, and legal reform.

 The critical need for well-trained, dedicated professional clinical case managers. “Without excellent clinical case managers, a mental health system will tend to be mechanistic, inaccessible, and exclusively focused on the management of symptoms with medication, rather than also on clients’ human development and rehabilitation,” Dr. Okin asserts.

 What everyone can do to overcome the stigma of mental illness and prevent homelessness, with the goal of not just social acceptance for people with mental illness but genuine inclusion in society. “Treatment cannot occur first and inclusion second,” stresses Dr. Okin.

Robert L. Okin, MD, served as chief of psychiatry at San Francisco General Hospital and professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, for 17 years. He is also a former state commissioner of mental health for both Vermont and Massachusetts. Throughout his career, he developed crucial services and clinical case management programs to enable mentally ill people to live with dignity in the community. A member of the board of advisors of Disabilities Rights International (DRI), he has provided psychiatric advocacy and consultation for missions to Mexico and Turkey, among many other countries, to investigate human rights violations in mental institutions. He lives in San Francisco.

I hope you will be moved, uplifted, and outraged by the stories in SILENT VOICES.

Dr. Robert Okin, Author of SILENT VOICES

1. You’ve forged relationships with the homeless, but you’re a trained psychiatrist. What can the average person do to help a homeless person they see on the street?

It is true that I was able to forge such relationships, but I don’t think this primarily resulted from any particular skill I had as a psychiatrist. It was more the result of my openness and expressed interest in the people I met. This may sound corny, but saying a simple “Hello, I hope you have a good day” or “I wish you well” is probably the best and easiest thing to do. It won’t change the actual living conditions of the homeless people, but at least it will make them feel that they’re not invisible. It would be great if you could follow up with an e-mail to your city supervisors and congressperson about the need for supportive housing for homeless people. And if you really want to move this project forward, get your friends to send e-mails as well.

2. What is the root of society’s fear and stigmatization of mental illness?

Some of society’s fear comes from the strangeness and unpredictability people associate, sometimes correctly, with mental illness. Because mentally ill people seem strange, it’s hard for us to empathize with them and to remember that they were once children with hopes and dreams like our own. At a deeper level, people have always projected the most feared and hated parts of themselves onto those who have mental illness. Mentally ill people become the living representation of the most disavowed parts of ourselves and thus become stigmatized. Not wanting to be reminded of these parts of ourselves, we, as a society, have burned these people, drowned them, isolated them in mental hospitals, and put them away in jails where we can’t see them. But those who become homeless and aren’t put out of sight evoke in us responses that cause us to avoid them in other ways: basically, we close our eyes to them.

3. Did you have any preconceived ideas about the homeless? What was your biggest misconception about them?

I expected to be dismissed and rejected when I reached out to them. I was a stranger, so I assumed they wouldn’t want to talk with me. I also assumed that if they did, they wouldn’t reveal their feelings. I was wrong on all counts. Most of the people I met genuinely welcomed my overtures and quickly warmed up to me. I was repeatedly surprised at how much grief these people were carrying just under the surface and how willing they were to reveal it to me. More than anything else, I was reminded of just how human and vulnerable these people are. I easily identified with and felt close to them. At the end of a day of talking with them, I felt sad, wrung out, and anxious about my grip on my own financial and emotional security.

4. How did your own opinions change after meeting and getting to know some of them?

I developed an abiding admiration for many of them—I respected how they were willing to continue living, despite the brutal conditions they were dealing with day after day. I often wondered if I would have the grit and the courage to stick it out if I were in their position. I don’t know if I could stand living their lives and dealing with the hopelessness most of them feel.

5. What percentage of the homeless suffer from mental illness?

Approximately 25 percent primarily have severe and chronic mental illness and another 15 percent have significant drug abuse disorders.

6. What can city and state governments do to help the homeless mentally ill integrate back into society?

First, these people need supportive, supervised housing and a sufficient income that allows them to escape the deprivations of poverty. Without housing, any other intervention is ineffective. Second, they need case management from a social worker with a relatively small caseload who has the time to meet them where they live, provide a loving human connection with them, help them with their daily tasks (laundry, shopping, budgeting), help them reduce their drug intake, and when indicated, help them to be evaluated by a psychiatrist to get them on psychiatric medications. These social workers also have to play a major advocacy role in helping their clients rejoin society. And third, the homeless mentally ill need something productive to do during the day—some sort of job.

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