The billionaire who shocked a graduating class

In an astonishing commencement address, billionaire Robert F. Smith announced  last  Sunday that he and his family will pay off  student debt  for the entire 2019 graduating class at Morehouse College, prompting cheers and more than a few tears from shocked listeners to his commencement speech.

News of his generosity quickly went viral, but unlike other high-profile billionaires Smith has a bit less name recognition.

Smith, who has a net worth of about $5 billion according to Forbes , is the chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity group he founded in 2000 that specializes in investing in software companies. Vista is a big deal in the world of software investing, currently managing about $46 billion in investments with a portfolio of more than 50 software companies that employ over 60,000 people around the world.

Before he earned his billions, the 56-year-old from Colorado went to Cornell for his undergraduate degree, earning a BS in chemical engineering, followed by an MBA from Columbia Business School. He went on to work first at Kraft General Foods, then at Goldman Sachs before founding his own investment firm.

Though Smith’s gift to the 2019 graduates of Morehouse College may be his most eye-catching philanthropic effort, it isn’t his first. In 2017,  he joined the Giving Pledge, a group of ultra-wealthy individuals — including Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett — who have publicly committed to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy. 

 In addition to his approximately $40 million dollar gift to Morehouse College graduates, Smith announced a $1.5 million gift to the historically African American, all-male college. In 2016, Smith made a $20 million dollar gift to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC. Smith also donated $50 million to the Cornell school of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

Smith is also the founding director and President of the Fund II Foundation,  which makes grants related to African American cultural preservation, human rights, environmental conservation, music education and “sustaining the American values of entrepreneurship, empowerment, innovation and security.”

In 2016, Smith became the first African American chairman of New York’s Carnegie Hall, one of the world’s most prestigious concert venues. The billionaire investor also hired Seal and John Legend to perform at his 2015 second wedding to 2010 Playmate of the Year, Hope Dworaczyk. And Smith’s two youngest sons, Hendrix and Legend, are named after guitarist Jimi Hendrix and singer John Legend.

But despite his past generosity, none can quite compete with his gift to the Morehouse Class of 2019. One stunned graduate said, “I was shocked. My heart dropped. We all cried. In the moment it was like a burden had been taken off.”

Article from Time (edited)

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Chevy Has A Surprise For You

Know a young driver who's ignoring your pleas to buckle up? Chevrolet suggests you might try to see if they'll listen to a different authority figure: their car.

Chevrolet  is introducing a feature that will temporarily block the auto from shifting into gear if the seat belt isn't buckled. A message will alert the driver to buckle up in order to shift into gear.

After 20 seconds, the vehicle will operate normally.

The feature, which Chevrolet says is an industry first, will come standard in the 2020 models of the Traverse SUV, Malibu sedan and Colorado pickup truck. It will be part of the “Teen Driver” package, which can also be used to set speed alerts and a maximum speed, among other controls, and give parents "report cards" tracking a teen's driving behavior.

Teens have among the lowest rates of seat belt use, with less than 60% of high school students saying they always wear their seat belts as passengers.

Chevrolet safety engineer Tricia Morrow, herself the mother of a teen driver, hopes the feature "will help guide more young drivers to wear their seat belts and encourage positive conversations among teens, their peers and parents."

A similar feature was available for some fleet customers who purchased GM vehicles in the past, but the new teen driver rollout is an industry first for consumer vehicles.

Research from the Highway Loss Data Institute found that Chevy's system of keeping the car in park increased seat belt use by 16%, compared to a vehicle that simply made a warning noise when a seat belt was unbuckled.

However, more recent research from the institute, which is supported by the auto insurance industry, has found improving warning sounds — making the beeping last longer, or even continue indefinitely — could increase seat belt use by more than 30%.

Lead author David Kidd, a senior research scientist at the institute, says the result was a surprise.

"We completely expected that restricting vehicle function in some way ... would be more effective than providing this ongoing beeping," he says.  However, Kidd notes that those who are truly opposed to wearing seat belts might be more likely to be swayed by a car that won't move than a car that won't stop beeping.

This is not the first time the car industry has tried to use technology to improve human behavior.

In the 1970s, when seat belt use was much lower, vehicle manufacturers introduced ignition interlocks — devices to block cars from starting until the driver or front passenger buckled up — to comply with federal safety standards.

People hated them.

"There was so much pushback from consumers that Congress passed a law that drastically limited what the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration could do," Kidd says.

But in the decades since, laws requiring seat belt use have dramatically shifted patterns of behavior; nationwide, seat belt use has increased from about 14% in the ealy 1980s to about 90% today.

And manufacturers are testing out other ways cars can more proactively promote safety. Increasingly, vehicles are being designed not only to protect occupants in a crash, but to prevent crashes from occurring in the first place. For example, an automatic emergency braking system that will avoid striking a pedestrian, or a driver monitoring system that will notice when drivers are distracted or drunk.

From NPR (edited)

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Social worker led frugal life but …….

Part A – Please fill in the blanks with the verbs in parentheses

Friends remember Washington state social worker Alan Naiman as being frugal. He _____________ (wear) old shoes _____________ (hold ) together with duct tape, _____________ (buy ) his apparel at the grocery store, _____________ (drive) old model cars and _____________ (eat) at cheap restaurants. But when he _____________ (die) of cancer in January, at age 63, the people around him _____________ (get) to know that he quietly _____________ (save) millions for a higher cause.

Naiman _____________ (leave ) most of his $11 million estate to organizations serving abandoned, impoverished, sick and disabled children.

Naiman _____________ (have) no spouse or biological children. But his elder brother, who _____________ (be) disabled and_____________ (die)  in 2013, _____________ (color) the way he _____________ (look) at things.

After _____________ (be) a banker for some years,  Naiman _____________ ( spend)  two decades at Washington's Department of Social and Health Services, where he reportedly _____________ (earn ) about $67,200 a year.

Despite _____________ (live ) a modest life, he _____________ (amass ) a great deal of wealth by _____________ (save ) his work wages, taking on side jobs and inheriting millions from his parents.

Part B – What about asking questions to get the underlined answer?

Before he was diagnosed with cancer, Naiman thought about taking more road trips or moving to a house with a view. But those dreams receded after the diagnosis. Instead, he spent his time researching charities.

He used to joke that he was doing "work at the foundation," alluding to Microsoft founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates.

Naiman was cheered up by the knowledge that he was leaving the organizations his money and said, "My gift is going to be bigger than their annual budget. It's going to blow them away." He was right.

Naiman gave a reported $2.5 million to a Washington state charity that helps newborns who were exposed to opiates, cocaine and other drugs.

Part C – What about provide the missing prepositions?

"We first became aware ___________Alan's generosity last fall when we received a $10,000 donation from him online," the Pediatric Interim Care Center said.  "Thinking that large amount might be a mistake, we called him  ____________ make sure he had entered the right number of zeroes! Yes, he told us, the donation was right, and there would be more to come ____________ the future."

Naiman then wrote a letter to staff that explained why: One frantic night____________ the early days of his career____________ the Department of Social and Health Services, he was trying to find a home for a fragile baby. The center's founder himself came to his office to take the child.

The organization will use the funds ____________ pay off the mortgage on its building. 

Naiman also surprised a foster care group called Treehouse. He made a first-time donation of $5,000 in the months before he died — a lot of money ____________ the organization. "Then, shortly after his death, we learned he would be donating an additional $900,000. The donation is completely unexpected," Chief Development Officer Jessica Ross said. 

He told staff that he brought his foster children on shopping sprees ____________ Treehouse's free clothing store. The money will help fund a planned expansion of a graduation support program as well as career services for fostered youth.

From NPR (edited)

Paris new 200km loop

Deep in the ground beneath the western Paris business district, workers are excavating rubble from 22-meter shafts. These will take 60 supporting pillars for a vast new train station that will be buried 35 meters underground. 

Welcome to one of Europe’s biggest infrastructure projects: an ambitious plan to encircle Paris with a new metro loop, and shift the way people think and move about the capital.

The new station at La Défense, built as part of the westward extension of the E line, will link up to a huge looping network known as the “Grand Paris Express”. Most of the French capital’s existing rail and metro lines are there to carry people in and out of the city center. The new underground loops, by contrast, will focus on moving them around the suburbs.

When complete, the new driverless underground network will feature 68 new stations and cover 200km, nearly twice the length of London’s new Crossrail.

Like Crossrail, the new Paris express has faced delays and cost increases. A report by the French national auditor, in December 2017, pointed to an estimated total cost of €38.5bn ($43bn), up from €19bn in 2010, when the publicly financed project began. 

Last year, the government finally acknowledged that only part of the network will be finished by 2024, when Paris hosts the Olympic games. A new fast link to Charles de Gaulle airport may also not be ready by then. Part of the southern loop will not open until 2030, or later still.

Naturally, everyone blames everyone else, easy to do in a city with overlapping layers of local and regional government. However, in time, the effect will be radical. The new network will help commuters who live in one suburb and work in another and now must pass through the center. This will relieve pressure on city-center lines, and will give a boost to suburban business hubs. 

The new network, says Jean-Louis Missika, deputy mayor for planning at the capital’s town hall, marks the end of a model that “assumes Paris is the center of the world”.

From The Economist 

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Rooftop pool? Notre Dame restoration

An architecture firm has proposed replacing the roof of Notre Dame Cathedral with a swimming pool, as France prepares to launch an international competition to restore the fire-damaged gothic edifice to its former glory.

The ideas aired publicly so far will not please traditionalists.

The French firm Studio NAB proposes a giant greenhouse roof; others suggest a park or terrace or even forest along with a plain or stained-glass or metal spire. The British architect Norman Foster says the new spire should be “contemporary and very spiritual.” Some say it should not be rebuilt at all but given an ephemeral spire made of beams of light.

“We’re not obliged to rebuild identically,” said architect Alexande Chassang, who has designed a proposal for a glass spire. 

Stockholm UMA Architects plan a cross-shaped pool covering the entire roof area, watched over by the statues of the 12 apostles that escaped the inferno because they had been removed for restoration.

“A cathedral is in our opinion not an isolated island in the urban fabric; it belongs to the city and to the people,” UMA added.

As Twitter users had fun with their own, most often bizarre, ideas, heritage experts urged caution. 

Florian Renucci, a master mason at the experimental medieval building site at Guédelon in Burgundy, believes Notre Dame should be – and can be – restored as it was-

“The restoration of Notre Dame should respect the techniques of the era in which it was built, with respect for the overall gothic harmony  and the materials they used, stone, wood, iron and glass. We must respect the spirit of that work. The gothic period was a high point in architecture … if we do it right it will last another 1,000 years”, Renucci said.

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PierreTrollment@PierreTrollment

Pour la transissions écologique. #UneFlechePourNotreDame

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From The Guardian

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