All posts tagged: Crushed

My best corn chowder starts with crushed chips

My best corn chowder starts with crushed chips

Published by Sam Flores

The best corn chowder I make starts, and ends, with a handful of tortilla chips. It’s one of those recipes I’ve been trying to perfect for many, many months simply because a good corn chowder is craveable: creamy, spicy and just indulgent enough to feel like care. I started mentally cataloguing my favorite versions, from the corn-and-crab chowders of my childhood summers in South Carolina; to hearty, no-nonsense potato and bacon-flecked stews; to elote-inspired bowls topped with cotija cheese, green onions and a hot-red sprinkle of Tajín. And then, I got in the kitchen. Each iteration got me closer. In time, I stripped away the fussy parts — ditched the potatoes, leaned on pantry shortcuts like jarred roasted red peppers, canned green chiles and fresh pico de gallo, and swapped in coconut cream for a richer, dairy-light base. The protein shifted, too, from bacon to a combination that felt more complete: spicy pork sausage for depth, tender chicken breast for substance. Eventually, I landed on serving it over rice, a small move that made the …

World’s Biggest Hedge Funds Crushed By Oil Price Surge

World’s Biggest Hedge Funds Crushed By Oil Price Surge

Published by Jenni Sidey

We knew something was off when Bloomberg reported yesterday that Balyasny’s chief commodities strategist, Damien Courvalin, whom the multi-strat hedge fund poached from Goldman in 2023 after a 16-year span at the bank where he led the bank’s oil research and become one of the most prominent oil analysts on Wall Street, had left the hedge fund where he oversaw the fimr’s central commodities intelligence effort, including implementation in cross-commodity portfolios, after the rollercoaster moves in oil. We are just guessing, but Courvalin may have been just a bit bearish on oil: after all, he led Goldman’s research when the bank predicted, correctly, a price plunge in early 2020, just before oil prices fell below zero. He also covered gold, agriculture, natural gas and commodity asset allocation through his tenure at the bank. There is another reason why Courvalin was likely bearish: according to Bloomberg, his (now former) employer Balyasny Asset Management declined by 3.5% last week after a 0.4% increase in the two months through February. It wasn’t just Balysani: according to Bloomberg, some of the world’s biggest …

If middle leaders are crushed schools have no one to step up

If middle leaders are crushed schools have no one to step up

Published by skeptic

An Edurio staff experience survey found heads of year and their middle-leader peers reported badly on physical and mental health, and it’s due to workload, says Danni Fothergill Middle leadership was never meant to carry this much weight. Yet in many schools, it has quietly become the role where accountability, implementation and pastoral responsibility collide, often without the time, authority or protection to match. Analysis of Edurio’s national staff experience survey from 2024-25, drawing on responses from more than 85,000 school staff in England, reveals a stark pattern. When asked, “Overall, how well have you felt lately, physically and mentally?”, positive responses were given by 60 per cent of senior leaders, 46 per cent of admin staff, 38 per cent of teaching assistants, 35 per cent of teachers and 34 per cent of middle leaders. The wider context matters. Schools are operating under sustained and compounding pressure, shaped by the legacy of Covid, funding constraints, workforce shortages and relentless policy change. Middle leaders are where much of this pressure lands. Extra responsibilities Department leads, heads …

Primary Losers: Crockett Cries ‘Disenfranchisement’, Crenshaw Crushed

Primary Losers: Crockett Cries ‘Disenfranchisement’, Crenshaw Crushed

Published by Jenni Sidey

Rep. Jasmine Crockett has just lost her Democratic Senate primary in Texas to Democratic state lawmaker James Talarico, who will now try to become the first Democrat in nearly 40 years to win a Senate election in Texas. He will face the Republican winner between longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Texas AG Ken Paxton.  Crockett, a racist, who says that entering the USA illegally is ‘not a crime’ and is under FEC investigation for suspicious ActBlue donations, says she’s going to file a lawsuit challenging the results due to alleged confusion among some voters in Dallas County over where they were supposed to vote.  Speaking with supporters Tuesday night, she says that because of the confusion, “people have been disenfranchised,” and that the outcome of the race wouldn’t be known until Dallas County’s votes are counted.  As noted above, Cornyn and Paxton will advance to a runoff in the Texas Republican primary race, after neither candidate manged to receive 50% of the vote.  Crenshaw Loses Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, was unseated in Tuesday’s primary. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll …

Why California’s wine industry is being crushed

Why California’s wine industry is being crushed

Published by Sam Flores

Winery owner Stuart Spencer estimates that he left about 50 tons of grapes to rot on vines in Lodi, Calif., last fall, as harvesting and processing them would have cost more than they were worth. “We’re doing our best to keep our head above water,” said Spencer, the owner of St. Amant Winery and executive director of the Lodi Winegrape Commission. Spencer blames a mix of factors: weak demand, a worsening grape oversupply crisis and an influx of cheap bulk imports flooding the market and collapsing California bulk wine prices. Tariffs have increased the costs of labels, capsules and corks and triggered a backlash from the biggest international consumer of Californian wines, Canada. Share via Close extra sharing options Wineries of all sizes across California have started laying off workers and shutting down production facilities to cut costs. “People [are] having to face their balance sheet,” said wine industry consultant Dale Stratton, who spent more than 30 years in leadership roles across Gallo Wines and Constellation Brands. The two companies — among the largest U.S. …

Spreading crushed rock on farms could absorb 1 billion tonnes of CO2

Spreading crushed rock on farms could absorb 1 billion tonnes of CO2

Published by skeptic

Crushed basalt being spread in a field trial of enhanced rock weathering for carbon dioxide removal in Queensland, Australia Paul Nelson Spreading crushed silicate rocks like basalt on fields could remove up to 1.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually while increasing crop yields, according to an analysis of the method’s global potential. But some researchers question whether that figure is really achievable. Known as enhanced rock weathering, this technique accelerates the breakdown of rocks by rainwater, a natural process that, over millions of years, has transferred CO2 from the atmosphere to the ocean and helped cool the planet in hothouse-Earth periods. Farmers have been spreading ground limestone on fields for centuries to improve nutrient uptake in crops. “The main benefit is through sort of solving atmospheric CO2 through chemical reactions,” says Chuan Liao at Cornell University in New York. “And there are also some side benefits, such as adding… magnesium, calcium potentially, to supplement soil nutrients.” As emissions continue to increase, the United Nations climate body has said humanity will require …

The troubling rise of longevity fixation syndrome: ‘I was crushed by the pressure I put on myself’ | Health

The troubling rise of longevity fixation syndrome: ‘I was crushed by the pressure I put on myself’ | Health

Published by Sam Flores

It was a pitta bread that finally broke Jason Wood. It arrived with hummus instead of the vegetable crudites he had preordered in a restaurant that he had painstakingly researched, as he always did, weeks before he and his husband visited. “In that moment, I just snapped,” he recalls. “I hit rock bottom, I got angry … I started crying, I started shaking. I just felt like I couldn’t do it any more, like I had been crushed by all this pressure I put on myself.” Today, Wood, 40, speaks calmly. Neat and groomed, he seems orderly by nature. But at that time, his attempts to control every aspect of his life had spiralled. He painstakingly monitored what he ate (sometimes only organic, sometimes raw or unprocessed; calories painstakingly counted), his exercise regime (twice a day, seven days a week), and tracked every bodily function from his heart rate to his blood pressure, body fat and sleep “schedule”. He even monitored his glucose levels repeatedly throughout the day. “I was living by those numbers,” he …

Angela Rayner’s plot against Starmer’s leadership crushed | UK | News

Angela Rayner’s plot against Starmer’s leadership crushed | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

Angela Rayner faces potential obstacles to mounting a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer due to an outstanding tax investigation, Labour MPs have warned. Backbenchers stand prepared to support the former deputy prime minister as calls intensify for Starmer to resign over his management of the Lord Mandelson scandal, yet Labour MPs including Rayner allies believe she may struggle to launch a bid while an HMRC inquiry into her £40,000 unpaid stamp duty bill remains unresolved. Labour anger escalates over Epstein connections The concerns emerged following another day of party fury surrounding Sir Keir’s appointment of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador amid revelations about the peer’s Jeffrey Epstein ties, including evidence he transmitted sensitive government information to the paedophile during his tenure as Gordon Brown’s business secretary – allegations now subject to police investigation. Labour ministers have cautioned Sir Keir that internal party anger has reached “existential” levels for his premiership, with MPs actively plotting against him and colleagues urging both Rayner and Wes Streeting to mount leadership challenges. One Cabinet minister said: “The only …

How We Know Iran Crushed Protests with Lethal Force

How We Know Iran Crushed Protests with Lethal Force

Published by Sam Flores

new video loaded: How We Know Iran Crushed Protests with Lethal Force The New York Times collected and analyzed hundreds of videos of a crackdown on anti-government protests that Iranians shared despite an internet blackout. Sanjana Varghese explains how the Visual Investigations team at The Times verified them. By Sanjana Varghese, Christina Thornell, James Surdam, Jon Hazell and Zach Caldwell February 5, 2026 Source link