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Do Bryan Singer allegations hurt 'Bohemian's' Oscar chances? | "Bohemian Rhapsody" has had a lifetime's worth of trials and setbacks on its 10-year journey to the big screen. And yet despite everything working against it from Singer's surprise firing mid-production for absences and clashes with the cast, to the negative reviews right before its release it seems to have come out of the fires unscathed. The $50 million production became a global box-office phenomenon, grossing over $209 million in North America alone and over $834 million worldwide to become the most successful musical biopic of all time. It developed into a top awards contender too, winning the best drama and best actor for Rami Malek at the Golden Globes, while also receiving two key Screen Actors Guild nominations, a Producers Guild nod and five Oscar nominations, including best actor and best picture. But then on Jan. 23, almost exactly a month before the Oscars and one day after its nominations, The Atlantic magazine published an article in which four men claim they were sexually abused by Singer while underage. Singer has denied the allegations. A representative for Singer declined to comment further for this article. The next day, the advocacy group GLAAD removed the film from its Media Awards nominees, and four days later, "Bohemian Rhapsody" lost the coveted SAG ensemble award to "Black Panther." "I think that it would have won SAG ensemble if it hadn't been embroiled in controversy," said Sasha Stone, founder of the blog Awards Daily. The SAG voting period ended on Jan. 25, two days after The Atlantic article published. As if a precursor to what might happen at the Academy Awards, Malek walked away with his own acting prize. This week, just days before the British Academy film awards, BAFTA announced that Singer's nomination suspension because the alleged behavior was "completely unacceptable and incompatible" with its values. The film, however, will still compete Sunday for the Outstanding British film award, among others. Those involved with the film have, in general, opted not to talk about their ousted director. Singer was kept far away from the publicity tour but retained his directing credit and could stand to make $40 million, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Producer Graham King became the public face of the production along with Malek. And their messaging stayed laser-focused on Freddie Mercury and doing right by him and the band. Malek, on the day of his Oscar nomination, said that he was "not aware" of the allegations against Singer. He's since presented a more informed stance and said that his "heart goes out to anyone who has to live through anything like what I've heard and what is out there." When pressed, he's has often gone back to the refrain that audiences can take solace in the fact that Singer was fired. The Atlantic article didn't exactly light Hollywood on fire, either. Singer is still lined up to direct another movie for a $10 million payday . And people still like "Bohemian Rhapsody." "I don't see too many people even upset about the controversy. That Atlantic piece came out after nominations. I still think the movie would be nominated if it had run before. It's not like it contained anything surprising. Everybody has heard these whispers and these stories," said Glenn Whipp, the awards columnist for the Los Angeles Times. "It's just a movie that people really enjoy and they're not going to let anyone get in the way of their enjoyment." With just a few weeks to go before the Academy Awards, hardly anyone is predicting a "Bohemian Rhapsody" best picture win. New York Times Carpetbagger columnist Kyle Buchanan called it, "practically inconceivable." But the general sentiment is that a loss won't be because of Singer. Malek, on the other hand, seems to be a lock for best actor in spite of everything. "There's a real divide between what academy members seem to think about the movie and what they think about Rami Malek and his work in the movie," Whipp said. "People praise him for his commitment, his transformative turn. People are overlooking the film's flaws and still voting for Malek. And they're able to separate any qualms about Bryan Singer and this latest investigation from his work. It's complete compartmentalization. "An actor told me that if 'Bohemian Rhapsody' won best picture he would quit the academy," Whipp added. "But he's voting for Rami Malek for best actor." | http://www.startribune.com/is-bryan-singer-a-problem-for-bohemian-s-oscars-chances/505609602/ |
How Many Vehicles Will Tesla Deliver in 2019? | With the company having recently reported its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2018, it's a good time to start looking ahead at what electric-car company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) may be able to achieve in 2019. Last year, Tesla posted some extraordinary growth, delivering nearly as many vehicles during the year as it has in all of its prior years combined. Probably -- and here's why. Tesla vehicle production line at the company's factory in Fremont, California. More Tesla factory in Fremont, California. Image source: author. Expect about 55% growth Fortunately, management provided its own forecast for what to expect from vehicle deliveries in 2019. In Tesla's fourth-quarter shareholder letter, management said it expects to deliver between 360,000 and 400,000 vehicles during the year. This represents 45% to 65% year-over-year growth compared to the approximately 245,500 vehicles Tesla delivered in 2018. After all, the company has missed key production and delivery targets in the past. Fortunately, Tesla looks like it's approaching its guidance conservatively this time. While achieving the midpoint of Tesla's guidance range for vehicle deliveries would require 55% year-over-year growth, a significant increase in the company's production rate wouldn't be needed to pull this off. The company delivered 90,966 vehicles in its fourth quarter. This translates to an annual run rate of about 364,000 vehicles -- above the low end of management's guidance range. Put another way, to grow annual deliveries 48% year over year, all Tesla would need to do is maintain the rate of quarterly deliveries it exited 2018 with. Almost certainly. Of the 90,966 vehicles Tesla delivered in Q4, 63,359 were Model 3 -- all of which were delivered in North America. In 2019, Model 3 is expanding to Europe and China, giving demand for the vehicle a significant tailwind. Mix in Tesla's history of rapidly increasing vehicle production and the company's recent aggressive push to sell Model 3 at lower prices, and an estimate for deliveries to increase 55% year over year to 380,000 begins to sound conservative. For Tesla to deliver 400,000 vehicles in 2019 or -- better yet -- exceed its guidance range, the company will likely need to bring to market its promised $35,000 version of the Model 3. A $35,000 version of the vehicle, which is $7,900 less than the cheapest Model 3 version available today, would open Tesla up to a much broader customer base, easily pushing demand for the vehicle high enough for the company to hit the high end of its guidance range. Tesla says on its website it expects the lower-cost version of the car, which will feature a smaller battery than its current Model 3 variants, to be available in four to six months. But investors shouldn't count on this cheaper version. When asked about the promised $35,000 Model 3 on Twitter this week, Musk responded, "We're doing everything we can to get there. It's a super hard grind." More From The Motley Fool Daniel Sparks owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | https://news.yahoo.com/many-vehicles-tesla-deliver-2019-151600884.html |
Was Matthew Whitaker disrespectful in his Congressional hearing? | With days left before the Senate votes to confirm his successor William Barr, Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker was called in to answer questions from the House Judiciary Committee. Whitaker was asked about topics ranging from forced family separations at to the border to the continuation of the Mueller investigation. Yet Whitaker seemed at best dismissive and at worst downright disrespectful. Some could argue he answered the questions in a professional manner. PERSPECTIVES When presented with an intense line of questioning about forced family separations at the southern border from Representative Pramila Jayapal, Whitaker refused to acknowledge the seriousness of the ongoing situation. . @RepJayapal: "These parents were in your custody, your attorneys are prosecuting them, & your department was not tracking parents who were separated from their children! Do you know what damage has been done to children and families across this country?!" WHITAKER: [blames DHS] pic.twitter.com/ipx1SqVzoa -- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 8, 2019 Whitaker even went so far as to inform Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler that his allotted time had expired, causing gasps to fill the chamber. Jerry Nadler asks Matthew Whitaker if he has ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by the Special Counsel. Whitaker: "Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up." The response in the room is remarkable. Via CSPAN2 pic.twitter.com/UAcOyulX46 -- Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) February 8, 2019 He did technically respond to the questions, after some pushing. Well, a lot of pushing. But he answered. WATCH: Acting AG Whitaker answers yes to Rep. Lieu's questions about potentially indicting various people based on the Constitution, but refers to DOJ policy when asked about potentially indicting a sitting president. Lieu submitted the Constitution for congressional record. pic.twitter.com/5B9PFOdpba -- MSNBC (@MSNBC) February 8, 2019 Again, he dodged and obfuscated but eventually does answer the question honestly. . @RepEscobar: At SOTU, Trump said my community, El Paso, had high crime rates before we build a wall. But FBI data indicates El Paso has long been 1 of the safest cities in US. WHITAKER: We use da-- E: That's not what I asked W: Ok, I don't disagree pic.twitter.com/OXc8520nRW -- Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 8, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.nola.com/interact/2019/02/was_matthew_whitaker_disrespec.html |
How do we curb the rise of the distracted pedestrian? | Open this photo in gallery Pedestrians look at their phones as they use the scramble crossing at Bay and Bloor Streets in Toronto on Feb. 18, 2015. Kevin Van Paassen/The Globe and Mail The second annual Drive Summit on urban mobility takes place on Tuesday, Feb. 12, during the afternoon, at the Globe and Mail conference centre. To attend, free of charge, register here: www.globeandmailevents.com/mobility19. Spaces are limited. Weve all seen some kind of sidewalk rage, pushiness, arrogance, cellphone-wielding obliviousness as bad as Richard Ashcroft, the singer of the Verve, walking with determined carelessness past pedestrians to the tune Bitter Sweet Symphony. In that popular late-1990s music video, he brushes shoulders, bumps arms. Angry retorts ensue, but he doesnt acknowledge anyone. Hes in his own world. An embattled, laddish self-autonomy is at play. He even walks over the hood of a womans car (even though, of course, the whole thing was staged). Story continues below advertisement Still, the clip proclaimed wanton sidewalk obliviousness as being a thing, at least worthy of a music video concept. For weve all been there, witnessed some form of pedestrian nonsense. Cue two decades of punditry about the end of civility and the very real, very serious danger when that attitude intersects with cars. One report provided by the Toronto Police Service tallied 40 pedestrian fatalities in Toronto in 2018, up from 37 in 2017, with 1702 pedestrian-involved collisions in 2018, down from 1845 in 2017. And now theres the added distraction of cellphones. Civil engineers at the University of British Columbia found that whats interesting is how to measure and analyze these sidewalk dangers better and even prevent them. The research, of course, echoes recent measures to curb distracted drivers and their multitasking flirtation with calamity. In the study, the engineers used video footage taken of a big, busy intersection in Kamloops, B.C., with two traffic lanes in every direction and heavy pedestrian use. (The video footage was also used for another safety study and so was readily available, and its an intersection close to a university campus, with many young, distracted pedestrians, hence the choice of that particular location.) The problem with safety studies is that they typically record and analyze collisions, which are rare. The UBC engineers instead used software to detect and analyze near collisions and evasive actions, which are far more plentiful. What they discovered were clear characteristics of distracted walking and a different response to close calls. A pedestrians gait, walking speed and the frequency and length of steps can reveal whether they are distracted. But what was more important was their stability, said Tarek Sayed, an engineering professor and Canada research chair in transportation safety and advanced mobility at UBC, who co-wrote the report. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Distracted walkers simply walk differently. They are slower. Texters tend to reduce their step length, the study found, while cellphone callers tend to reduce their step frequency. All of this varies depending on how engrossed they are in their calls, running the risk of annoying fellow pedestrians and confusing drivers. If we look at the distance walked and analyze their gait parameters, we can with about 80-per-cent accuracy determine whos distracted and whos not, which means that their walking behaviour is quite different, Sayed said. With data on near misses, rather than just collisions, we can quickly identify safety issues and come up with countermeasures much faster, in a matter of hours, than waiting three, four or five years to collect collision data, Sayed said. The next step is determining what preventative measures to install. So, lets return to the Ashcroft example. The point of the music video is to depict how out of step the singer is with other foot traffic. Hes clearly in the wrong, bumping and pushing everybody. (But life is rough, man!) Yet the UBC engineers with their software are less interested in placing blame and are more in prevention. Given the near impossibility of clamping down on aggressive or distracted walkers in any meaningful way (even if the city of Honolulu has tried to legislate distracted cellphone use while crossing intersections), blameless prevention might make more sense and is more cost-effective, Sayed said. Story continues below advertisement Just as roads have rumble strips to alert distracted drivers veering too close to the shoulder, sidewalks can be built with ways to warn pedestrians of congested areas or dangerous intersections, whether with different sidewalk textures or warnings painted on the pathway, for instance. Or some sidewalks could have a step running lengthwise, encouraging faster walkers to take the outside pedestrian lane. Or trees in planters, serving as pleasant obstacles, could help keep pedestrians alert. For traffic, the turn signals on traffic lights can be delayed to give more leeway to slower, distracted pedestrians crossing the road, Sayed suggested. Another measure is the now commonplace scramble crossing, where all traffic is brought to a stop, letting pedestrians cross in all directions. The trick is to find what works best in what locales. We are changing the way we look at safety. Before, we used to look at whos at fault, Sayed said. The aim should not be to blame the pedestrian and to implement costly enforcement, he argued. Were interested in the most cost-effective solution to the problem. Yet, only so much can be done to make sidewalks safer and more civil. Theres the argument that punitive measures can send the wrong message and discourage sidewalk use. Any talk of distracted-walking legislation in Vancouver, for instance, seems to have been shot down, because it would be counter to the citys environmental policies. It has come up in city councils, but it tends to die on the floor. The reason for that is pretty simple. Its very hard to legislate common sense, said Lewis Smith, spokesman and manager of national projects at the Canada Safety Council. And so, if someone is going to walk around distracted and entitled, maybe we should simply let them have their rock-star moment. Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price. Story continues below advertisement Stay on top of all our Drive stories. We have a Drive newsletter covering car reviews, innovative new cars and the ups and downs of everyday driving. Sign up for the weekly Drive newsletter, delivered to your inbox for free. Follow us on Instagram, @globedrive. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/culture/article-how-do-we-curb-the-rise-of-the-distracted-pedestrian/ |
Is Cisco Systems a Buy? | Many investors like to buy and hold shares of companies that are leaders in their respective fields, generate a substantial amount of cash (preferably with a generous capital return program in place), and have reasonable long-term growth prospects. I think Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) easily fits that profile, and could be an attractive stock pick for investors who want such a company in their portfolios. A room filled with data center servers with Ethernet cables plugged into them More Image source: Cisco. Clear dominance in networking During Cisco's fiscal year 2018 -- which ended on July 28, 2018 -- the company generated $28.27 billion in revenue from sales of network infrastructure products, rising about 2% from the $27.78 that it generated in the prior year. Cisco's large revenue from network infrastructure products is underpinned by significant market share in many types of infrastructure products. According to market researchers with IDC, Cisco led the Ethernet switch market, capturing 54.4% market share in the third quarter of 2018. In the router market, though its share wasn't as high, Cisco also led at 39.4%. Cisco's market position in important network infrastructure products like Ethernet switches and routers is large, and helps the company generate massive amounts of revenue. A cash-generation machine Cisco also generates a significant amount of cash -- and, perhaps unsurprisingly, gives a lot of it back to shareholders: CSCO Free Cash Flow (TTM) Chart More CSCO Free Cash Flow (TTM) data by YCharts. Over the last 12 months, Cisco has generated $13.47 billion in free cash flow, which works out to a little over $2.80 per share. The company doesn't just let that cash pile up, though -- it gives plenty of it back to stockholders. Cisco currently offers a dividend of $1.32 per share (for a dividend yield of 2.79%), and has a solid track record of giving shareholders annual dividend raises. The company also has a robust share-repurchase program in place and, according to its most recent quarterly filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has about $14 billion remaining on that repurchase plan -- good for nearly 6.6% of current shares outstanding as of this writing. Decent growth prospects Cisco isn't the hottest growth stock on the planet; it's a large, mature, and highly profitable leader in its field. That doesn't, however, mean that growth isn't in the cards. | https://news.yahoo.com/cisco-systems-buy-161700877.html |
Will Pledges for 100% Carbon-Free Electricity Catch On in 2019? | Late last year, Xcel Energy (NASDAQ: XEL) became the first utility to publicly and boldly commit to generating all of its electricity from 100% carbon-free sources by 2050. While individuals and groups who take environmental stewardship seriously cheered the news, individual investors and Wall Street analysts should be cheering, too. Publicly committing to such an ambitious long-term goal provides a good deal of certainty for the road ahead. That will benefit individual investors, especially considering few things are as detrimental to a stock as uncertainty. The advantage of mitigating future policy risks by going all-in on zero-carbon power, coupled with continually improving economics for renewable energy and an increased appetite for states to provide incentives for nuclear power, suggest other utilities will follow Xcel Energy. The Lower 48 painted in the American flag and turbines and solar panels sitting on top. More Image source: Getty Images. Xcel Energy's path to 100% carbon-free electricity Amid the doom and gloom coverage of climate change in the news media, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. While there's room for smart policy changes to expedite the transition away from coal-fired power plants and toward cleaner energy sources, innovation and market forces actually have the power sector in the United States on pace to meet its climate pledges. In fact, half of electric utilities are well ahead of even the most optimistic decarbonization projections. Xcel Energy has been a shining example. In 2005, the utility, which serves three states in the Southwest as well as five upper Midwestern states, relied on coal power for 56% of its electricity generation. Wind and solar, categorized as "modern renewables," made up just 3% of its generation mix that year. By 2017, the utility cut the share of coal in its portfolio to 37% and increased modern renewables to 23%. The 35% drop in carbon emissions from the 2005 baseline in that span exceeds the Paris Accord commitment of reducing carbon emissions 27% by 2025, and it exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean Power Plan goal of a 32% decline by 2030. Xcel Energy has no intention of easing up on its assault on more expensive and dirtier coal-fired power. The utility expects carbon emissions -- compared with 2005 -- to fall 45% by 2021, 80% by 2030, and 100% by 2050. The near-term targets aren't too surprising considering that the recently approved Colorado Energy Plan will shift the company's generation mix to just 19% coal and 46% modern renewables by 2027. The longer-term targets are perhaps a little more surprising, as they suggest the utility will need to jettison natural-gas-fired power plants -- which will provide 21% of its electricity in 2027 -- from its portfolio. Current economics don't provide any easy ways to stop using the cleaner-burning fuel (natural gas emits half the carbon emissions as coal to generate an equal amount of electricity), although that could change in the coming decades if wind, solar, and energy storage continue to walk down the cost curve. And if Xcel Energy sees a path to zero natural gas, then so could some of its well-positioned peers. | https://news.yahoo.com/pledges-100-carbon-free-electricity-162100096.html |
Are Welbilt, Inc.s Returns On Capital Worth Investigating? | Help shape the future of investing tools and you could win a $250 gift card! Today well look at Welbilt, Inc. (NYSE:WBT) and reflect on its potential as an investment. To be precise, well consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that will inform our view of the quality of the business. First, well go over how we calculate ROCE. Second, well look at its ROCE compared to similar companies. Then well determine how its current liabilities are affecting its ROCE. ROCE measures the return (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. Overall, it is a valuable metric that has its flaws. Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed: Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) (Total Assets Current Liabilities) Or for Welbilt: 0.13 = US$228m (US$2.1b US$323m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to September 2018.) So, Welbilt has an ROCE of 13%. One way to assess ROCE is to compare similar companies. We can see Welbilts ROCE is around the 12% average reported by the Machinery industry. Regardless of where Welbilt sits next to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms appears satisfactory, and this company could be worth a closer look. In our analysis, Welbilts ROCE appears to be 13%, compared to 3 years ago, when its ROCE was 9.8%. This makes us think about whether the company has been reinvesting shrewdly. NYSE:WBT Last Perf February 9th 19 More When considering this metric, keep in mind that it is backwards looking, and not necessarily predictive. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. Future performance is what matters, and you can see analyst predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company. Current liabilities include invoices, such as supplier payments, short-term debt, or a tax bill, that need to be paid within 12 months. Due to the way ROCE is calculated, a high level of current liabilities makes a company look as though it has less capital employed, and thus can (sometimes unfairly) boost the ROCE. To counter this, investors can check if a company has high current liabilities relative to total assets. Welbilt has total assets of US$2.1b and current liabilities of US$323m. As a result, its current liabilities are equal to approximately 15% of its total assets. Low current liabilities are not boosting the ROCE too much. Our Take On Welbilts ROCE Overall, Welbilt has a decent ROCE and could be worthy of further research. You might be able to find a better buy than Welbilt. If you want a selection of possible winners, check out this free list of interesting companies that trade on a P/E below 20 (but have proven they can grow earnings). | https://news.yahoo.com/welbilt-inc-returns-capital-worth-144726780.html |
Could Boeing Kick Textron Out of the Drones Market? | Weighing in with just a $13.2 billion market cap, Textron (NYSE: TXT) has always been a sort of second-string defense contractor, overshadowed by giants like General Dynamics ($50 billion market capitalization) on the ground, and Lockheed Martin and Boeing (NYSE: BA), valued at $85 billion and $224 billion, respectively, in the air. In 2013, Textron made a bold move to break into the fighter jets market and challenge those last two companies -- building a "Scorpion" fighter jet on its own dime and using off-the-shelf parts -- but to date, Textron has failed to sell a single one. One place where Textron found success, though, was with its early entry into the drone wars, where its Shadow unmanned aerial vehicle found quick acceptance from the U.S. Army and has racked up "over one million flight hours" in service with the militaries of the United States, Australia, Sweden, and Italy. Soon, though, Textron could find itself kicked out of this market as well. A drone firing rockets at a tank More The U.S. Army is looking to buy a new drone -- and this one should be able to shoot. Image source: Getty Images. Looking for a new drone First introduced into service nearly two decades ago, Shadow is beginning to show its age. Earlier this week, multiple news outlets, including Aviation Week and Janes, reported that the U.S. Army is dissatisfied with the Textron RQ-7 Shadow's size (requiring C-130 transport planes to carry it), its need for a runway (to land), and -- perhaps most importantly, its noisiness. AW in particular noted Army complaints that Shadow is "a bit noisy over the target," which can alert targets to the drone's presence, neutralizing its effectiveness. To remedy these perceived faults, Janes reports that the U.S. Army is planning to "downselect" three potential replacements for the RQ-7 Shadow. The Army will be seeking a new solution that's small enough to transport on a Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopter but large enough to carry weapons, a drone that can operate without runways, and one with "a lower acoustic signature" than the Shadow. To date, the Army has not disclosed which companies will be submitting UAVs for consideration to become the Army's new go-to drone. AW did note, though, that when faced with a similar decision last year, the U.S. Marine Corps traded in its Shadows for RQ-21A Blackjacks built by Boeing subsidiary Insitu. Despite sporting a wider wingspan than the Shadow, Boeing's Blackjack is about 27% shorter and weighs half as much, allowing the Boeing drone to be launched from a mechanical launcher, without the need for a runway. At present, it's not known if Blackjack can carry weapons, although Boeing is said to be working with the Marines to modify Blackjack to carry "various payloads" -- which may or may not include weapons. Ultimately, I suspect the Army will have to make a decision to choose a drone that's small enough to launch mechanically and small enough to be helicopter-transportable, or one large enough to carry weapons -- because you can't always get everything you want. As I said, it's not certain which UAV that will be. Once the Army has selected its three finalists, each will be asked to submit two sample UAVs for the Army to experiment with before making a decision -- a process dubbed "try-decide-buy." | https://news.yahoo.com/could-boeing-kick-textron-drones-154800722.html |
Should parents let kids be influencers? | Not long ago, the height of ambition for many children was to be a children's television presenter. Then there was a brief period when everyone wanted to be an X Factor star. We may mourn the days when children dreamed of becoming firemen and astronauts, but all of this sounds quaint now we are living in the age of Generation Influencer. Today's children are not even interested in waiting for the chance to appear on TV once they've left school. A new survey of 2000 British parents of 11- to 16-year-olds shows 17 per cent want to be a social media influencer and 14 per cent want to be a YouTuber. Only doctors (18 per cent) score higher than influencers in the study by marketing company Awin. And according to research late last year by Smartphone maker OPPO, nine out of 10 Kiwis aged between 18 and 24 named becoming an Instagram influencer as their dream job. Advertisement Now, in what is thought to be the first job of its kind in New Zealand, OPPO has hired Auckland student Lucy Clarke (8900 followers) for a three-month influencer job, aka, an "ultimate intern". The company was innundated with applicants. She is being flown around New Zealand and Australia to the most "Instagrammable locations" for the sole purpose of capturing and sharing content on both her own and OPPO's social media profiles. "It's literally the dream job," she told the Herald on Sunday. "Being put on a plane and flown to these beautiful places ... you can't help thinking 'wow, I'm getting paid to do this'." Clarke, 22, is being mentored by the company's other staffers and ambassadors, including Kiwi lifestyle influencer Libby Kay. Lucy Clarke, 22, who has been hired by smartphone maker OPPO for a three-month influencer job. Photo / Instagram She's in her fifth year of a law and arts degree at the University of Auckland but is weighing up life as a paid influencer and a career in law. "I do love my law degree and do want to practise law at some point. I guess it's about working out how it might all fit together." Influencers can notch up millions of followers by posting about their passions and lives across social media, principally Instagram and YouTube. The hysteria they generate among their followers is like that once reserved only for pop stars exemplified last week by American beauty YouTuber James Charles, who brought Birmingham city centre to a standstill after 8000 fans flocked to see him at the Bullring. The honour for most-followed Kiwi YouTubers goes to Shaaanxo (1.5 million followers on Instagram, 546,000 on YouTube) and Jamie's World (1.3m on YouTube, 404,100 on Instagram). And, like the pop industry, the influencer industry is big business digital marketing experts ClickZ says it will be worth $14 billion by 2020. So big is the industry that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) last year updated its guidelines with a section dedicated to influencers, outlining transparency for social media advertising. Jamie Curry of Jamie's World. Photo / Facebook The OPPO research found almost half (47 per cent) of those surveyed had made a purchase or travel decision based on an influencer's social media endorsement. Often brands offer free clothes and holidays, payments per post or longer-term sponsorship and brand ambassadorships in return. The most popular influencers are hired to promote launch events and to speak at conferences, such as Vid Con events, held around the world, including Australia, London and the United States. Such is the want for followers, Auckland influencer Samuel Levi, who has 54,600 on Instagram, decided to front-foot any criticism that he was seeking fame when he joined the second season of Married at First Sight last year. "I'll tell you this, my social media is a business I have cultivated over years," he told Spy. "I had to weigh up when I jumped in this bubble who would cringe and who would support me, and I can tell you many of the followers I already have would cringe at me doing a reality show. That being said, I have always been a fan of the show and the idea that the experts could find something for me I have not found myself. I am definitely in this looking for love." But the career choice is at odds with what parent for their children the Awin research showed the most popular jobs chosen by parents were lawyer (29 per cent), doctor (28 per cent) and teacher (24 per cent). And questioned on their knowledge of influencer marketing, it was found almost half (45 per cent) of parents didn't understand what a social media influencer did and 58 per cent were unaware you could make money as one. Many parents are now confused about whether the ambition to make a career out of influencing is to be encouraged. It may sound like a lucrative option Sarah Jane Thoms, who is an account executive at PR company Fourth Day, says hundreds or thousands could be paid for a product mention depending on follower count but the job itself is still in its infancy in New Zealand. Only time will tell if influencing will have an impact on our, law, teaching and medical schools. Auckland influencer and Married at First Sight's Samuel Levi. Aspiring influencers often don't take into account the mental health problems associated with social media use, says psychotherapist Samantha Carbon. "As social media is evolving, there is a risk young influencers may experience feelings of inadequacy and feeling challenged as they get older, which can be detrimental to their emotional wellbeing." Some users can become obsessed with checking how their posts are performing online, which has all sorts of implications, including alienating friends and family. The stress from such a job has its own name: creator burnout. Brit Elle Mills (1.2m followers on YouTube) whose coming-of-age videos went viral and whose video, in which she came out as bisexual in November 2017, pushed her over the million-subscriber mark, shocked her subscribers when she uploaded a video last May which showed her mid-breakdown. "My life just changed so fast," she says. "My anxiety and depression keeps getting worse and worse. I'm literally just waiting for me to hit my breaking point." Ruben "El Rubius" Gundersen, (30m, YouTube) a Spanish-Norwegian YouTube personality known for his gaming vlogs, used his platform to explain he feared burning out and was taking a break from vlogging for his mental health. What started as lighthearted entertainment became a huge source of stress. And then there is the online bullying. One mother tells how when her daughter was 11, obsessed with influencers, she launched a YouTube channel playing around with makeup. "It was pretty cringe-worthy," admits the mum. "Then some boys in her class heard about it and started leaving nasty remarks in the comments section, saying how spotty she was and so on." After the teasing became unrelenting, she quickly retreated. Influencing can be a full-time job, thanks to the audience's bottomless appetite for content. Teens are often not aware of the hard work that can go behind a single photo. Even after a company expresses interest in working with someone, there is the tricky task of negotiating the terms of the deal, chasing businesses that sometimes don't pay on time, and chasing those which use images in ways that violate terms of the deal. The biggest stars can afford to outsource the admin to an agency there's now support services directed specifically at influencers. New Zealand YouTube sensation Shaaanxo. Photo / Doug Sherring But, as Bloomberg reports, agencies can take a cut of influencers' earnings often up to 50 per cent making it only financially tenable for only those with a significant enough following. Brit Misha Grimes (followers: 135,000 YouTube, 62,000 Instagram), who has been vlogging about fashion for two years, admits that "just like any other self-employed career this has its drawbacks, from 3am bedtimes, late payments, lack of financial security and being an easy target for hate". And influencing might not be as simple as taking a photo on your smartphone and posting it online some influencers hire professional photographers, who are well versed in the right lighting and airbrushing techniques to make a person look good, so that their feed is curated with quality images. Teenagers also need to know their digital footprint stays with them for life. As history tells us, society will have moved on so much that what they post online at 15 won't still be relevant when they are 35. And they're often not likely to have the same views. We only have to look at the recent slew of old celebrity tweets, uncovering views they are now so ashamed of. The current climate's audience don't want to hear jokes at the LGBTQ+ community's or a minority group's expense. Comedian Amy Schumer has said her jokes earlier in her career were "privileged and racist": "there are things that I would have joked about even a year ago that I wouldn't now, just with the times changing ... You know, with the #MeToo movement happening ... I don't wanna risk hurting their feelings." Last year, actor Kevin Hart stepped down from hosting the Academy Awards, a gig he once described as a dream, after tweets from 2009 to 2011 surfaced containing homophobic language. Homophobic and transphobic tweets from 2010 and 2011 also came back to haunt New Girl's Damon Wayans Jr. Netsafe offers general advice for parents when it comes to their child's social media use and this week released a parents guide to Instagram, which includes tips on managing their privacy, interactions and time spent on the app. At its best, influencing can be a gateway to the world. Clarke is being paid hourly for her internship, "well above minimum wage", according to a OPPO spokeswoman, and her travel expenses are covered. She is currently travelling around Australia and so far has been flown to Cairns and Tasmania. "We went out and did some exploring in the rainforest and that kind of thing we captured some really cool content," she says. "The thing with Cairns and Tasmania, I wouldn't have known to go there." She plans on travelling to London at the beginning of next year, and using this as a base to explore Europe. Clarke has also been given OPPO's new flagship smartphone, the R17 Pro and has been shooting some of the photos for her feed on her new gadget. A professional photographer for the company added to this collection with photos of her and Australian intern Alex Bradley. Grimes is confident she is on a path to something even if she doesn't know what yet. "I will forever post to YouTube and whether people will watch me in 10-plus years I don't know, but right now I can't see myself doing anything else." When I grow up, I want to be a... 11-16-year-olds career aspirations Doctor 18% Social Media Influencer 17% YouTuber 14% Veterinarian 13% Teacher 9% SOURCE: Survey by British marketing company Awin of 2000 British parents. - Daily Telegraph, Herald staff reporter | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12200929 |
What happened to the migrant caravan that arrived in Tijuana? | TIJUANA, Mexico The familiar ritual unfolds each morning like clockwork now, next to the giant "Mexico" in block letters that greets visitors and migrants to the Chaparral pedestrian crossing into San Diego. A woman standing under a temporary shade looked at a large book containing a list of migrants waiting to claim asylum in the United States. She raised a megaphone and yelled, "1933." It was the last number of the day, a day during which U.S. immigration officials would only process 30 individuals. Thousands more were waiting their turn. Omar Rivera Martinez, a migrant from El Salvador, looked on. He and his family were number 1935. They'd have to wait until their number was called on the following day, but his spirits were high. "I'm so happy that they're going to go to the other side," he said,referring to his family. "I hope God looks after them because I won't be with them." Rivera Martinez left El Salvador with his wife and three kids in October. They are among 6,000 migrants from Central America who flooded into Tijuana in November after traveling through Mexico in caravans, overwhelming local authorities, and drawing the wrath of President Donald Trump, who in response deployed several thousand activity-duty military troops to the southern border. Three months later, most of the 6,000 migrants are gone. Nearly half chose to wait in line for a chance to ask for asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry, despite the long waits. Most have already seen a U.S. immigration officer. RELATED:Missing caravan organizer deported to Honduras The remaining migrants chose to stay in Mexico, return home, or travel to other areas of the border, where they either attempted to enter the U.S. illegally or asked for asylum at other ports of entry, according to initial estimates from the Mexican government. Rivera Martinez was deported from the U.S. in 2018, and therefore won't ask for asylum with the rest of the family. But he's relieved his family will finally get the chance to make their case for asylum in the U.S. after months in limbo in Tijuana. When the caravan arrived, there were already 2,000 migrants waiting to claim asylum. They had arrived on their own. With shelters at capacity, the city government opened a makeshift shelter at a sports complex to house the waves of Central Americans who arrived weekly for nearly a month. A child plays at one of the shelters in Tijuana, Mexico, February 2019, where migrants wait to meet with U.S. immigration officials and claim asylum in the United States. (Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic) But as more migrants arrived, living conditions began to deteriorate, and small groups of asylum seekers started crossing the border illegally. By December, when 6,000 people packed the sports complex designed to hold 3,500, the federal government stepped in. They opened a larger shelter at a former concert venue farther from the border. Mexican immigration officials shut it down the last week of January, with only a few dozen families remaining at the facility. The remaining families were transferred to permanent shelters. With wait times to claim asylum stretching up to six weeks, it's unclear how many caravan members chose to cross the border illegally. The Mexican government estimated about 1,000 had made the attempt and were caught. RELATED: 325 Central American migrants latest group found in SW Arizona U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not corroborate that figure, only pointing to overall enforcement statistics. "We do not identify those apprehend as members of the so-called caravan," a spokesperson for CBP in San Diego said. "However, San Diego Sector Border Patrol apprehended 5,812 in the month of December." Total apprehensions that month is nearly 1,300 more than November, when the caravan arrived. The increase was largely driven by migrant families, the statistics show. In January, as remaining members of the caravan waited to claim asylum, Border Patrol agents in the sector "averaged around 160 apprehensions daily," CBP added. 'Tremendous numbers' Meanwhile, a large group of Central American migrants traveling in a new caravan is making its way toward the U.S. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump vowed to build a "human wall" to stop "the tremendous numbers of people" coming through Mexico. "Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border. We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event!," Trump said in a post to Twitter. Tremendous numbers of people are coming up through Mexico in the hopes of flooding our Southern Border. We have sent additional military. We will build a Human Wall if necessary. If we had a real Wall, this would be a non-event! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 5, 2019 About 1,800 migrants from Central America reached Piedras Negras, a border city in Mexico across from Eagle Pass, Texas on Tuesday, to ask for asylum in the U.S., the San Antonio Express-News reported. Local and state governments paid to transport the migrants the 270 miles from Saltillo, the capital of the state of Coahuila, to Piedras Negras, the newspaper reported. Migrants from Central America in a Tijuana, Mexico, February 2019, wait to meet with U.S. immigration officials. (Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic) The governor of Coahila said a shelter in Piedras Negras was at capacity and that no more migrants would be allowed into the state, Mexico News Daily reported. In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Donald Trump said he had ordered another 3,700 troops to the southern border to help stop migrant caravans from entering the United States. More troops being sent to the Southern Border to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals, through large Caravans, into our Country. We have stopped the previous Caravans, and we will stop these also. With a Wall it would be soooo much easier and less expensive. Being Built! Trump tweeted on Jan. 31. More troops being sent to the Southern Border to stop the attempted Invasion of Illegals, through large Caravans, into our Country. We have stopped the previous Caravans, and we will stop these also. With a Wall it would be soooo much easier and less expensive. Being Built! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 31, 2019 The caravan left San Pedro Sula, a city in Honduras, on Jan. 15, with several hundred people. On Jan. 29, U.S. Defense Under Secretary for Policy John Rood tolda House Congressional hearing that the government was tracking three caravans, one with more than 12,000 people. There are three that we are tracking, the Department of Homeland Security is tracking, en route, one of which is over 12,000 people, in the latest estimate, he said. The hearing focused on troop deployments to the southern border. Whether the latest caravan had, in fact, grown to 12,000 remained unclear. On Thursday, Jan. 31, several media outlets in Mexico reported that about 2,374 migrants left a sports stadium in Mexico City that morning headed for the U.S. border. Mexico began fast-tracking humanitarian visas for migrants traveling with the latest caravan but abruptly canceled the program on Jan. 29, after 12,600 migrants applied and 4,000 had already received humanitarian visas, The Wall Street Journal reported. 'We may try Nogales' Migrants from Central America hoping to seek asylum in the U.S. increasingly travel in groups, or caravans, because they believe it is safer than traveling on their own. The large groups, they believe, reduce the risk of being preyed upon by criminal gangs or police seeking bribes in exchange for passages through Mexico. The caravans often break into smaller groups or spread out as the migrants travel from Central America through Mexico. RELATED: Nearly 2,000 migrants arrive at Texas-Mexico border Earlier caravans have traveled to Tijuana, this border city on Mexicos Pacific Coast, across from nearby, San Diego. That's because Tijuana is considered safer than other Mexican border cities, it has a large network of shelters and humanitarian organizations that provide housing and legal assistance to migrants, and it borders California, a so-called sanctuary state that is considered more welcoming to undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers. But migrants in the latest caravans told media outlets they are headed to cities other than Tijuana, possibly to avoid waits lasting weeks or months to ask for asylum in the U.S. In January, the Trump administration launched a new policydubbed Remain in Mexicothat forces migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to wait in Mexico while their cases are pending. The policy is aimed at discouraging migrants from making the trip to the southern border to ask for asylum, many of whom the Trump administration believes are making fraudulent claims to exploit the U.S. immigration system. The Trump administration implemented the policy at the San Ysidro border crossing near Tijuana on Jan. 25, when a single asylum seeker from Honduras was sent back to Mexico to await his hearing. "We may try Nogales, or another port," Carlos Nunez, a migrant from Honduras, told Fox News. CLOSE U.S. officials have bolstered security along the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas, across from Piedra Negras, Mexico, where a caravan of mostly Honduran migrants is being held. It's the first caravan in recent months to have arrived at the Texas border. (Feb. 7) AP Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/02/09/immigration-migrant-caravan-tijuana-mexico-us-border-central-america/2747809002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2019/02/09/immigration-migrant-caravan-tijuana-mexico-us-border-central-america/2747809002/ |
Does De Sousa decision mean KU, Self will be punished next? | Silvio De Sousa is suspended two years for a rules violation that investigators agree he did not know about or benefit from. That is patently unfair and at different points in NCAA history would not have been punished. The bigger story here, though, is that many in and around college sports believe this is merely the first step in a bigger play against the Kansas mens basketball program and Hall of Fame coach Bill Self. De Sousa, in that way, may simply be collateral damage in a bigger power move. I think that very much is the case, said Don Jackson, a lawyer with extensive experience representing coaches and athletes against the NCAA. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star KU athletics counsel and a spokesperson for the NCAA would not comment, but this column is informed by sources familiar with the case, in and around KU athletics, and with experience on the NCAAs side. Those with NCAA backgrounds disagreed with the assumption that De Sousas suspension was the beginning of a broader and more serious case against the university. One pointed out the difference between an eligibility case and infractions, though the former can lead to the latter. Either way, its worth noting that the perception exists and not just inside KUs athletic department. The NCAA wants to prove something and thats the way its been for a while, said a Division I coach. Right or wrong, theres been smoke (around KU basketball) but they havent been able to get anything to stick. The FBI and the (Adidas) trial ... this is their best chance. Thats what I see. Notably, there is at least some optimism inside KUs program that an appeal on De Sousas case could be successful. The case centers around former Adidas representative T.J. Gassnolas testimony that he paid $2,500 to De Sousas guardian. The NCAA specified that KU must declare Gassnola as a booster before a reinstatement case is heard. Its a critical distinction, because booster behavior triggers stiffer penalties. But Josephine Potuto, a Nebraska law professor and former chair of the NCAA infractions committee, said that KU could classify Gassnola as a booster for the sake of the appeal and decide to change later. The appeal would be heard by people from universities and conferences, not NCAA staff. The argument from KU and De Sousa would be that the guideline leading to the punishment is unfair, or has been misapplied. The general hope is that the suspension would be reduced and De Sousa made eligible for next season. Scott Tompsett, De Sousas lawyer, was more direct when discussing the appeal. The NCAA still has an opportunity to do the right thing for Silvio, he said. They should take it. NCAA enforcement is seen by many as a swinging pendulum, affected by recent cases, public opinion and self-worth. In separate conversations, three different sources who work in college athletics drew a connection between the punishments against De Sousa and Mizzou. Mizzou was given a one-year bowl ban, recruiting restrictions, and a substantial fine among other punishments after it was discovered that a tutor completed some course work for 12 athletes. Mizzou was not found to have known about or encouraged the violations, and cooperated fully with the investigation. North Carolina is seen by many to have gotten away with an academic scandal that spanned more than a decade, and the details that came out in the Adidas trial embarrassed the NCAA. Here comes the pendulum, then, swinging back toward the side of overly harsh punishments Mizzou and Kansas are the first to pay. Again, thats the perception from some. What seems to be occurring is a knee-jerk reaction to the FBI investigation, Jackson said. In an effort to quote clean up college basketball, you essentially have an overreaction by the eligibility center staff, by the enforcement staff. Theyve lost perspective. Because how can you in good conscience take a player off the floor for two years who, according to everyone, had no knowledge and did not benefit in any way from what allegedly occurred? While Potuto said that labeling Gassnola as a booster would be a reversible decision and necessity to get the case going, Jackson saw it as potentially part of the groundwork for a bigger case against Kansas. Separate cases have separate timelines and separate motivations, and here one could work against the other. Jackson said hes experienced that, and could see it happening at Kansas. Student-athletes are always collateral damage, Jackson said. Thats always one of my concerns. Im sometimes representing student-athletes with universities who retain me to represent these athletes, and I sometimes get in fights with the university because I know these young people are not guilty of violations but the reality is its sometimes quicker to accept a declaration of ineligibility, go through a student-athlete reinstatement, have withholding penalties, and get back on the court quickly. In that case, the student-athlete is collateral damage. If the goal is to go after that program or this head coach, then frankly from the enforcement staff standpoint they could give a damn about this kids eligibility and I think thats wrong. Thats the part that has some inside KUs athletic department worried. If the NCAA has been embarrassed by the Adidas trial, and sensitive to the accusations from many that it was toothless against North Carolina, then this could be the beginning of an enforcement body looking to blow off some steam. Mizzou took the first hit, De Sousa the second. Now the NCAA could be working on more fallout from the trial, and if so, there is no bigger target than Self and a blueblood program with a Final Four run from last year. | https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mellinger/article226031420.html |
Can the Waiters-Winslow backcourt work for the Miami Heat? | As the Heat continues to make changes to its starting backcourt, it has arrived at a new pairing. Dion Waiters and Justise Winslow. Waiters and Winslow have been in the Heats starting lineup together before during the previous two seasons, but never as backcourt mates. With Waiters making his first start of the season in Fridays loss to the Kings, it was the first time he started next to Winslow (the point guard). Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Miami Herald It was great. I have no complaints, Winslow said of playing next to Waiters, with the Heat moving on to Sundays game against the potent Warriors. The ball was moving. I think other than [Josh Richardson], me and Dion didnt shoot the ball too well. Waiters finished with 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting and two assists, and Winslow finished with five points on 2-of-11 shooting and six assists. The duo also combined for five turnovers. In the 30 minutes Waiters and Winslow played together Friday, the Heat was outscored by four points. And Miamis offense didnt exactly run smoothly, with a 39.3 team shooting percentage to go with 16 assists and 13 turnovers during that time. But for the season, Miami has outscored opponents by 10 points in 138 minutes with the Waiters-Winslow combination on the court. You pretty much just figure it out, Waiters said of learning how to play with Winslow, the point guard. Hes aggressive. Hes still learning how to play the position a little bit. But hell be fine. He does a great job of pushing the ball, tempo and things like that. Its all about playing off him, just figure out his tendencies and mine, J-Rich and things like that and getting acclimated with each other. The biggest challenge the Waiters-Winslow pairing faces is they both seem to be more effective with the ball in their hands. Waiters has made just 31.5 percent of his catch-and-shoot opportunities this season. And while Winslow has hit a respectable 40.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot chances, hes played the best basketball of his career over the last two months in a ball-dominant role as hes taken over at point guard for the injured Goran Dragic. I think the thing that were going to hopefully figure out is how to get him the ball off actions, Winslow said of Waiters. So it wont be as much dribbling, a lot of pindowns, coming off of floppys, down screens, that sort of thing, where its just not him pounding the life of the ball which hes great at. Yeah, just trying to get him some easy opportunities where he can be that natural scorer and Im going to be that guy to try to get guys into their comfort zone. But Waiters wants to play the role of creator, too. The way Justise is transforming at the one, you got to communicate things he likes to do off the ball because I like to have the ball also, Waiters said. So hes working on his jump shot, his jump shot has improved a whole lot. Im going to be the guy thats going to get in the paint and then that opens it up because hes hitting that shot. They still might help off and they might make him shoot it, and hes got to have confidence that he knows hes going to make the shot. Just be ready to shoot the ball. Figuring out who is going to play the role of initiator during each half-court set is the challenge. Its not impossible to solve, though, as Dragic and Waiters displayed during their first season together in 2016-17. The Heat outscored opponents by 42 points with Dragic and Waiters on the court that season. In the end, that could be Miamis starting backcourt again when Dragic returns from knee surgery at some point after the All-Star break. Until then, Waiters and Winslow will have to figure out how to play together. I didnt really get a chance to play with Justise yet, Waiters said Friday just hours before starting next to Winslow. Ive played with him in spurts and things like that. We had games where we played, but its a little different. Im comfortable with Goran. I know what he likes to do, he knows what I like to do. He makes it easy on me and I make it easy for him. | https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article226034445.html |
How much disruption will Francisco Lindor's calf injury cause the Cleveland Indians? | Oh, those stinking calf injuries CLEVELAND, Ohio Unless youre Keith Hernandez, careers usually dont end with a calf injury. Since Hernandez limped into the Tribe Twilight in 1990, Lonnie Chisenhall has come the closest to having his career threatened by not one, but two balky calves. Chisenhall missed most of the second half of the 2017 season with a strained right calf. Last year he played just 29 games, the last one coming on July 1, and then dropped off the grid for the rest of the season with his right and left calves barking in protest. Chisenhall resurfaced in November to sign a one-year $2.5 million deal with the Pirates. Now its Francisco Lindors turn to deal with unhappy calf muscle. This is a most unwelcome development for the Indians, who have spent the winter jettisoning their most expensive offensive players to cut payroll with the idea that Lindor and Jose Ramirez could still drive in enough runs to help them win a fourth straight AL Central title. The Indians said Lindor injured his right calf last weekend doing agility drills in Orlando. It was the same weekend he spent a couple of days in his native Puerto Rico doing promotional work for New Balance and Champs Sports. On Sunday he called the Indians and said he was still having trouble with the calf. By Wednesday he was being examined at Cleveland Clinic and Friday the Indians announced that he would be sidelined for seven to nine weeks. Lindor will join the Indians in spring training on Wednesday in Goodyear, Ariz. to begin his rehab in earnest. Pitchers and catchers report Tuesday. If Lindor misses a week to 10 days of the regular season, it will not be the end of the world. If its longer than that, well, you may want to start stockpiling canned goods. The Indians trainers, given Lindors age and conditioning, are leaning toward him being back ahead of schedule. But still the Indians have to prepare for the worst. Yu Chang had a great Arizona Fall League season, but hes probably not quite ready. If the Indians wanted someone to play good defense, Eric Stamets is the guy. Chang and Stamets shared shortstop at Class AAA Columbus last year. Ramirez could play there, but the Indians would probably like to leave him at third base. Utility men Max Moroff, Mike Freeman and Ryan Flaherty could get a look as well. Or the Indians could sign a free agent such as Alcides Escobar, Jose Iglesias, Jose Reyes or Adeiny Hechavarria. What they really need is for Lindor to get healthy as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. The last thing they need is a lingering calf injury to the face of the franchise in preparation for a season in which a single misstep offensively could leave them exposed despite PECOTA's projections of a 97-win season. | https://www.cleveland.com/expo/sports/g66l-2019/02/558effecf62460/how-much-disruption-will-francisco-lindors-calf-injury-cause-the-cleveland-indians.html |
What is autonomous sensory meridian response and does it work? | Nails clicking against the side of a glass. That release of air when a cap is twisted off a bottle. The fizz when the cold liquid is poured into a tall glass. The sounds from the Michelob Ultra beer commercial that aired during Super Bowl LIII were meant to illicit a physical or emotional response. The commercial even featured a gorgeous tropical setting and a seductive Zoe Kravitz whispering into a microphone for added effect. While there have been anecdotal claims that ASMR can help with insomnia, depression, anxiety and panic attacks, some researchers found that ASMR shares characteristics with misophonia, a disorder that can trigger a negative emotional or psychological response. ( Keith Beaty / Toronto Star File Photo ) The beer company was using autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a type of video that uses sound to evoke a physical response from viewers. Some people feel tingles on the head and scalp that sometimes spread down the neck, arms or back. Others report feeling very relaxed. And some report no response. ASMR has been around for about a decade, according to Vox Media Inc. Article Continued Below Read More: Relax, you may have ASMR Why stressed-out pregnant women are turning to ASMR videos for relief It has been a huge hit on YouTube, where there have been more than 21 million views of a video of a woman whispering. There have been anecdotal claims that ASMR can help with insomnia, depression, anxiety and panic attacks. But very little scientific research has been done to support the claims. And those who have studied the effect of ASMR often end with the conclusion that more research is needed. In a study from Louisiana State University and the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Baton Rouge, researchers found that they do not understand why some individuals experience the ASMR phenomenon and others do not. They wonder whether those who experience the effects did so because they expected they would. In another study, researchers at the University of London found that ASMR shares characteristics with misophonia, a disorder that can trigger a negative emotional or psychological response. It would be like the feeling you get when you hear nails on a chalkboard. Article Continued Below Researchers in Cardiff, Wales, acknowledge that while there is little data, they believe that this intriguing phenomenon should be investigated further to explore its effects and potential as a therapy for sleep disorders, anxiety and depression. Of course, Michelob just wants to see if ASMR helps it sell beer. | https://www.thestar.com/life/2019/02/08/what-is-autonomous-sensory-meridian-response-and-does-it-work.html |
Are Microbes To Blame For The Loss Of Underwater Seaweed Forests? | Dense aggregations of tall, brown seaweeds are commonly found along temperate coastlines. These underwater kelp forests thrive in cool, nutrient-rich waters and are often teeming with life because their large, tree-like bodies form nooks and crannies for a wide variety of sea creatures to hide in. However, as the oceans warm, nutrients become harder to come by and the kelps begin to deteriorate, taking the habitat they create with them. And now, a new study shows that the microscopic life forms that live on the kelp ("microbes") may also be sensitive to changing ocean conditions, leaving the kelps vulnerable to infections and diseases. "Kelp forests are sensitive to warming because kelps are cold water species - they evolved to live in polar to temperate waters. Once kelps get above that temperature range, they can't function normally," says Dr. Christina Bonsell, a research associate at the University of Texas Marine Science Institute. In a month-long laboratory experiment, the researchers exposed young kelps that were 12 - 24 inches tall to increased temperatures and acidity representative of ocean conditions in the year 2100. Within one week, the microbial communities on the kelp began to change and soon the kelps' tissues began to blister and bleach. Interestingly, the microbes associated with damaged kelps differed from those that lived on healthy kelps. However, as the kelps continued to degrade in response to changes in temperature and seawater chemistry during the second week of the experiment, the microbes exposed to both warming and increasing acidity began to revert back to a community that resembled those on the healthy kelps. "Some symbiotic relationships between kelps and their associated microbiomes, as well as for other organisms, including humans, are essential and provide a stable balance, " says Dr. Raquel Peixoto, professor of microbiology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and visiting professor at the University of California, Davis. "The microbiome can benefit the kelp, for example, by producing vitamins, enhancing nutrient uptake or degradation, avoiding colonization by pathogens ... and toxic compounds. If the microbial community is affected ... the symbiotic relationships, and consequently, the organism's health, are also affected." However, it remains unclear why the microbial community backslid into its healthy formation while the kelp hosts continued to degrade. Given the critical role that microbes play in ensuring that kelps can continue to provide habitat for numerous sea creatures, more research is necessary to understand how microbes and other seaweeds will respond to changing ocean conditions. "My research shows that California giant kelp is much more resistant to warming events than Chilean kelp," says Jordan Hollarsmith, a PhD candidate at UC Davis studying the impacts of climate change on kelp forests at different latitudes. "When it comes to understanding how kelp forests will respond to climate change, we need to incorporate information from as many species and populations as possible. This fascinating study is one more piece of the giant puzzle." | https://www.forbes.com/sites/priyashukla/2019/02/09/are-microbes-to-blame-for-the-loss-of-underwater-seaweed-forests/ |
Is a top Texas official paying his share of property taxes? | First as a talk-radio showman and then as a showoff in Austin, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been screaming for 16 years how property taxes are too high. Turns out his are too low. Patricks tax bill on his new $1 million home on Lake Conroe went down 14 percent last year, the Houston Chronicle reported Friday. He is undertaxed by 8 percent compared to what he actually paid for the house. Too bad we cant protest his tax appraisal. If we could, hed pay several thousand dollars more that he should owe Montgomery schools and Montgomery County instead of getting a suspiciously lucky break. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram The news comes three months after Patrick won a closer-than-expected election over a weak Democrat, and the same week as a raucous Texas Senate hearing in Austin on a bill that would throttle cities, counties and schools authority to raise local taxes more than 2.5 percent for inflation. They keep referring to skyrocketing property taxes, said Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley, a Hurst Republican. It amazes me that they dont say, Hey, of course, we havent experienced that. Whitley, 66, is an accounting executive in his 22nd year on commissioners court. He testified in Austin against the bill, saying local taxes go up mainly because the Legislature doesnt spend enough to pay for jails, courts or schools. I think theyve manufactured a problem, Whitley said Friday. I think Chicken Little is alive and well. Since 2003, Patrick has brought evangelical zeal to the crusade for lower property taxes, even though Texans tax burden is around the national average. As a conservative talk show host in politically volatile Houston, he helped lead CLOUT (Citizens Lowering Our Unfair Taxes) to a High Noon political showdown in Austin, but got the brush-off from a Senate committee chairman a Dallas Republican. Four years later, he was elected to the Senate. Patrick was not quoted by the Chronicle in the Friday report. He and his wife, Janet, bought the house in May 2017, according to Montgomery Central Appraisal District records. The three-bedroom, 4,326-square-foot home was built in 2013 and appraised in 2016 at a value of $1,164,230. The taxable value has since declined to $968,200 and now to $921,110. So his taxes this year went down about $2,700. Property values on Benthaven Isle went down in 2017 based on sales data, the chief appraiser told the Chronicle. But only a handful of nearby homes went down in value again this year. The newspaper quoted appraiser Tony Belinoski: We treat political figures no differently than any other property owner in Montgomery County. Patrick still pays more per square foot than many neighbors, the newspaper said. But either he overpaid and the value has suddenly gone down, or his taxes are too low. At the Austin hearing, Whitley and other doubters of Austins property-tax panic were badgered and belittled by committee members. Youd think we were going of the cliff with taxes, Whitley said. But the increase in city and county taxes the last 10 years works out to about $2 per person per week, he said. School taxes have gone up more, because the state hasnt added enough spending to meet inflation or the 700,000-student increase in school population. Part of the tax bill makes sense. Lawmakers have good ideas about making taxes easier to understand and making appraisals more honest. Including their own. | https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article226038260.html |
Have National Enquirer and AMI met their match in Amazon's Jeff Bezos? | Supermarket tabloid National Enquirer has long employed hardball tactics in pursuit of salacious scoops about Hollywood celebrities and politicians, while simultaneously covering up embarrassing stories about its friends, including President Donald Trump and former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the tabloid may have underestimated its latest target: the worlds richest man, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com and owner of the Washington Post. The National Enquirer last month revealed that Bezos had been engaged in an extramarital affair with Lauren Sanchez, a former local Fox TV anchor in Los Angeles and wife of a prominent Hollywood talent agent. Bezos unleashed private investigators, giving them an unlimited budget to learn how the tabloid got photos and text message exchanges between him and Sanchez. The Enquirer bristled over the investigation and tried to get Bezos to back down. Instead, Bezos published an extraordinary blog post this week, accusing the tabloid and its parent company, American Media Inc., of extortion and blackmail, alleging it threatened to publish more embarrassing pictures unless he abandoned his investigation of the leaks. I think they met their match in Bezos, said Dan Ives, a technology analyst with Wedbush Securities. This remains a heavyweight fight. The public, the broader tech industry, and D.C. insiders are watching closely. On Friday, American Media said it was investigating the billionaires allegations and that it believes fervently that it acted lawfully in the reporting of the Bezos story. David Pecker at Hotel Talleyrand in Paris on January 19, 2012. Federal prosecutors in New York also are examining Bezos allegations, according to two sources familiar with the review but not authorized to discuss it. Prosecutors are looking at whether AMI violated a recent agreement in which AMI pledged not to commit any crimes for three years. The Bezos drama quickly dragged American Media Chairman David Pecker, whose close ties with Trump already have come under scrutiny, back into the spotlight. AMI owns numerous supermarket tabloids and gossip magazines, including Us Weekly, the Star and the Globe. Bezos blog post noted that his ownership of the Post may have brought another level of complexity to the situation, and alleged that the coverage of his extramarital affair may have been politically motivated. Its unavoidable that certain powerful people who experience Washington Post news coverage will wrongly conclude I am their enemy, Bezos wrote in the post on the Medium website. President Trump is one of those people, obvious by his many tweets. Bezos also pointed out connections between Pecker and the Saudi government, and seemed to suggest that the Saudis may be involved, too. Bezos wrote that The Posts essential and unrelenting coverage of the murder of its columnist Jamal Khashoggi is undoubtedly unpopular in certain circles. Khashoggi was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Turkey in October. Whether American Media and its controversial accountant-turned-CEO broke the law is a pivotal question. The company reached a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan in December, but it admitted its role in a scheme that began two months after Trump announced his candidacy in 2015. Thats when Pecker offered to help suppress stories about Trumps relationship with other women, according to court filings. That case began after special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, passed information to the U.S. Attorneys Office in Manhattan about dealings between Pecker and Trump and his longtime lawyer Michael Cohen. Cohen said Trump ordered him to arrange hush money payments to two women the porn star Stormy Daniels and the former Playboy playmate Karen McDougal who said they had affairs with him years ago. The payments were made during Trumps presidential campaign. AMI acknowledged using a tabloid tactic called catch and kill, in which it would buy the rights to someones story and then not publish it. Cohen pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations, among other crimes, because the payments were intended to influence the campaign and were not properly disclosed. Cohen, who was sentenced to three years in prison, made the $130,000 payment to Daniels. American Media paid $150,000 to McDougal. The McDougal arrangement is similar to one involving Schwarzenegger more than 15 years ago. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2005 that days after Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor in 2003, American Media promised to pay a Malibu woman $20,000 to keep quiet about an affair she alleged shed had with the star of The Terminator. The woman agreed to disclose to no one but American Media any information about her interactions with Schwarzenegger during his marriage to Maria Shriver. Others, including former presidential candidate John Edwards, a Democrat, received much different treatment. The Enquirer exposed the former senator from North Carolinas extramarital affair with Rielle Hunter, revealing that he had fathered her child. After Bezos post, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ronan Farrow said in a Twitter message that he and another journalist involved in breaking stories about the National Enquirers arrangement with Trump fielded similar stop digging or well ruin you blackmail efforts from AMI. Legal experts said the National Enquirer has pushed the envelope with its hardball negotiations with Bezos and his legal team, but proving a crime of extortion may be difficult. That can be a murky line. The e-mails released suggest that line may have been crossed, said James Sammataro, head of the media and entertainment group at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. High-profile criminal defense attorney Louis Shapiro said, This isnt your traditional extortion. It is usually if you dont give me something, then I will reveal or report something. The person usually wants money. The Enquirer has been sued by prominent figures and celebrities before, most notably Clint Eastwood and Carol Burnett. Most of the cases were settled out of court. Theres no reputational risk to the National Enquirer its been the butt of jokes in the media industry for the last century. But there could certainly be some criminal liability, said Gabriel Kahn, a University of Southern California Annenberg journalism professor. Clearly this is a media enterprise that evidence seems to indicate is running an extortion racket. Like other magazine publishers, American Media has lost advertising revenue. The 92-year-old Enquirer is operating with a skeleton crew and many of its staff writers have been let go, according to an individual with knowledge of the company. Possible financial difficulties added to the intrigue over AMIs publication of a 100-page glossy magazine last year, titled The New Kingdom, that extolled the leadership of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The magazine, which circulated in Hollywood, carried no ads. Something like that would not have happened without Saudi government involvement, said Shadi Hamid, senior fellow at the Brookings Institutions Center for Middle East Policy. Adel Jubeir, the Saudi minister of state for foreign affairs, was in Washington on Friday. Asked if the Saudis had played a role, he said he doubted it. Then, he added, As far as I know: flat no. | http://www.startribune.com/have-national-enquirer-and-ami-met-their-match-in-bezos/505619592/ |
Is Billionaire Michael Bloomberg Really the Democrats Best Chance to Beat Trump in 2020? | Steven Rattner, a major Democratic donor, told Yahoo! Finance in a recent interview for the websites Influencers with Andy Serwer podcast that he thinks billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg could absolutely defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 U.S. presidential election as the Democratic nominee. Rattner, whose net worth is in the hundreds of millions of dollars according to public disclosures, is an investment financier who manages Michael Bloombergs personal and charitable wealth assets as the CEO of Willett Advisors LLC. He got his start in finance as a journalist reporting on business and economics for the New York Times, then became an investment banker, working for such infamous names on Wall Street as Morgan Stanley and the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. Read the full story on CCN.com. | https://news.yahoo.com/billionaire-michael-bloomberg-really-democrats-234708589.html |
Does Nigeria's 'generation democracy' want to vote? | Nigeria's first presidential election with a generation of voters who have only known democracy takes place next weekend. Up until 20 years ago, the country was led by a succession of military rulers or short-lived civilian administrations. Some 18 to 20-year-olds in Lagos and Abeokuta spoke to the BBC: 'Nigerian politics is messed up' Emmanuel Odumade, artist, 19 When it comes to the elections, I did register to vote. But I won't lie, the registration process was so stressful, and we had to wait for two days to get the card. If it was up to me, I wouldn't have gone through the process, but people said that I needed to get the card to use it as an ID card. It's not that I'm not interested in politics but I would just say Nigerian politics is messed up. To me, I just feel like it's not sincere. It's not that your vote really counts. Main presidential contenders: Everything is just in a mess, we just need God's intervention. I am an artist - I discovered that I could draw because I fell in love with a girl at school. I was trying to impress her and every day I would go to school with a new portrait of her. At the end of the day, she didn't fall in love with me but I still had the talent. As I get older, I want to be someone who speaks for my people through my art. 'Are we practising democracy?' Monday Victory, hawker and designer, 19 I didn't register to take part in the election as I'm worried about violence. No-one is talking about it, but there is tension. I don't want to vote because I hate something that might cause a fight. I don't know what to say, but I don't think so. If we were practising democracy then there should be rules and regulations that people abide by. But I don't want military rule. I just want betterment for this country, not all this grab, grab, grab. It should be about showing your talents. And there are many things that need fixing. For example, for a long time there are places where the roads are bad. And also electricity, like in the place where I'm staying - they should bring light there. I am a fashion designer but I also help my aunt to sell groundnuts. I've finished school and I hope to study mass communication, but I'm struggling to get into university with the little money that I have. I am an orphan - my mum died in 2013 of a terrible illness and my dad died in 2005 - so they can't support me. 'We have to make our nation proud' Nasir Muhammad, gold trader, 19 It's important for me to take part in the election, to help get a good leader for the nation. To know the kind of person we are voting for, that will help us and give us a caring nation. By not voting you're not helping the nation. We have to come together and make our nation proud and strong. In this life, education is the key and I would like the government to pay our lecturers more and provide better equipment. There should also be better transportation and roads, good enough for vehicles and for people to walk along. More on Nigeria's vote: I prefer democracy to military rule as we have the right to speak our mind and talk about what's bothering us. If I was the president, I would make sure that corruption is finished in Nigeria, because people are always shouting "corruption, corruption, corruption". I help my dad in the gold trading business. It's a good business, which has paid for school fees and food for me and my eight siblings. I'm now done with my secondary school, and I'd like to go to university to study zoology. 'I want everything to cost less' Andrew Ogunnorin, furniture maker, 20 I wanted to register to vote to get the ID card but I didn't have the time. We start work at 07.30 and we close at 21:00 and I couldn't say to the boss that I wanted to go. But even if I had registered I wouldn't vote. There might be a fight afterwards and I don't want a fight. They'd be shooting guns, taking out cutlasses and I don't like that. I don't know anything about the people in charge, but I don't think the president does any work. Look at how much things cost. At one time if I wanted to buy a cup of rice it was 40 naira ($0.11; 0.09) - now it's 80 naira. The money that used to buy two cups, now buys one cup. I want everything to cost less like before. As an apprentice furniture maker I get 1,100 naira ($3; 2.30) a week. Also, there is no regular electricity. Since morning we haven't had power and nothing is working. I'd like to continue my schooling and learn technical engineering, but I don't have the money. My dad is a fisherman and my mum is a trader and they can't pay to support me. 'The leaders don't listen' Favour Ifadah, student, 20 I actually wanted to vote at first and went to register. But at the registration centre we had to spend hours waiting, waiting, waiting, and then we heard that the person responsible had not turned up. We were told to come another day and I got annoyed as I have a lot of things to do. I ended up abandoning efforts to get a voter's card. You may also be interested in: When I think about our leaders, I'm not saying they're bad, but one thing I've noticed is that they don't really listen to what the people have to say. These are the people that they are leading and they should be concerned about our affairs. The most popular definition of democracy is "the government of the people, for the people and by the people". But when we give this definition, it's obvious that even the government doesn't follow it. The people are suffering. I love democracy since it has to do with the people. It's about "we", it's not about the military imposing things on people saying: "You do this, you do this". 'Corruption is very, very bad' Adijat Balogun, laundry worker, 19 I didn't register to vote. I wanted to but I was so busy with work that I couldn't make the time. I want to join the air force and at the moment I'm just focusing on that application. All I want is for this country to be better. I'm a bit scared of the election and in the past I have heard that there have been killings. I don't really know about politics. I do think it's important to be involved but I'm just not ready yet. There are a lot of things to change. Corruption is very, very bad and there's poverty and hunger, and we want better jobs. But I don't know how to solve these things. I started as a laundry girl last year after finishing secondary school. I don't do the washing, my job is to collect the dirty clothes and deliver the clean ones. I make 15,000 naira ($41; 32) a month. It's not enough, but I have to keep on going. I'd like to join the air force because I want to be proud of myself. I love the uniform and there is respect. I pray to God that it works out. 'We need more and better jobs' Caleb Obiefunwa, 18, cloth seller I didn't go and register to vote. I'm not interested in politics. For me it's all about the business and making money. Now I need money to build my business, that's it. I hear about the election and I hear about the voting but at the end of the day it has already been decided who will win. This country needs more and better jobs. There are so many graduates without work and something should be done for them. I don't know anything about the time of military rule. I don't believe in history, I believe in tomorrow. At the moment, I'm an apprentice, but after six years my boss will set me up with my own shop. What I earn is enough for me. I hope that in 10 years' time, by God's grace, I will have what I need. I would like to be able to help the younger ones, if there is any way I can help I will do it. 'No country is without problems' Aribide Abiodun, cloth dyer, 19 I registered to vote and the process was good, everything went smoothly, and I'm going to vote. People talk about the problems but I think the economy of Nigeria is good. There is no country that hasn't had problems. I went to Cotonou in Benin last week and I saw over there that they have issues. And I can see on my phone that there is a problem in Togo. So all we need is to be praying for the economy to be better and everything's going to be good. I think the president has been trying to get rid of the bad things in Nigeria. For example, the anti-corruption people are getting back stolen money. My cloth dyeing business is going fine and I make about 10,000 naira ($28; 21) a week. I was born into this and have been working here since primary school. When someone is working they are not going to suffer. In Nigeria, some of the youths don't want to work, and because they don't want to work, they get involved in things like internet fraud. The only thing is to work and move closer to God. Pictures by Grace Ekpu, BBC | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47122192 |
Who controls Canada's indigenous lands? | The courts in Canada are grappling with a decision central to the relationship between Canadian and traditional indigenous laws. The dispute involves the construction of a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline in the province of British Columbia. It's a project which has exposed a rift between elected and hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en people, who disagree about whether to allow the pipeline to be built through traditional lands. The elected councils have jurisdiction within the boundaries of the reservations to administer federal government legislation, but not the wider traditional territory which the pipeline would pass through. The hereditary chiefs of the Wet'suwet'en nation are stewards and protecters of 22,000 square km (13,670 square miles) of traditional territory, outside the reservations. They are concerned about the impact of the project on their land and natural resources. Hereditary Chief Na'Moks of the Tsayu clan, which is part of the Wet'suwet'en people, told the BBC: "You always have to put the environment first." The pipeline The proposed pipeline would carry gas to the port of Kitimat from the interior of British Columbia, a journey of 670 km (420 miles), passing partly through indigenous lands. The construction company Coastal GasLink has reached deals with elected indigenous councils along the route. Image copyright PA Image caption Protesters in Vancouver have been trying to get the project stopped This involved permission to build the pipeline in return for local jobs and investment in the area. Coastal GasLink says it also consulted the hereditary leaders. But the chiefs say that did not happen, and that they did not give their approval because of environmental concerns. Suzanne Wilton, a communications adviser for the company, told the BBC: "Coastal GasLink initiated consultation with the Office of the Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs in June 2012 by providing formal notification of the proposed project. "Since then, Coastal GasLink has engaged in a wide range of consultation activities with Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs." Chief Na'Moks responded: "That is their statement...we ensured that we stated at any meetings that these meetings cannot be misconstrued as 'consultation'." Protests by groups supporting the hereditary leaders' decision have followed near the proposed construction site, and across Canada. In December, the Supreme Court in British Columbia issued an injunction so that construction could go ahead, and protesters were ordered to remove barriers from access roads. Police arrived to break up the barriers and remove the protesters, 14 of whom were arrested. But this provincial Supreme Court ruling was only temporary, and it will shortly make a final decision on the case. At its heart, this is a dispute about who represents and speaks for Canada's indigenous communities. Responding to a question at a recent town hall meeting, Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau highlighted the problem of dealing with two distinct groups of indigenous representatives. "It is not for the federal government to decide who speaks for you. That's not my job," he said. Hereditary chiefs are chosen by elders and clan members. The elected indigenous councils were set up by the federal government under the Indian Act of 1876, which defined "Indian" status in Canada, and were designed as a means to assimilate indigenous people. As such, the elected councils remain a controversial legacy of the past. Image copyright PA Image caption A protest camp on a road near the pipeline construction project "Canada has a long and terrible history in regards to indigenous people," said Justin Trudeau at the same town hall meeting. "We have not treated indigenous peoples as partners and stewards of this land." The Indian Act does not recognise hereditary indigenous chiefs, although they do often serve on elected councils, and the two groups work together on community-wide projects. "We are hereditary chiefs," Chief Na'Moks told local media recently in British Columbia, and, referring to the route through which the pipeline would pass, he said "we have control of this land." "What's called the hereditary system is the historic legal and political and economic system of the Wet'suwet'ens, which was in place for thousands and thousands of years before Europeans came to what became Canada," says Val Napoleon at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. The decision A federal Supreme Court ruling in 1997 gave indigenous people title over their own traditional lands which had not been ceded to the government. This gave hope to First Nation communities across Canada which had been campaigning to protect their lands from developers. Tensions have remained in some areas over precisely which indigenous representatives have these rights in Canada. It's a complex issue as indigenous leadership structures vary across the country. But the forthcoming ruling by the Supreme Court of British Columbia will have important implications for the future of the Coastal GasLink pipeline through Wet'suwet'en territory. Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-47034740 |
What's killing the world's great chefs? | Chef-to-the-stars Justin Bull seemed to have everything to live for, just like the other celebrity chefs he followed whose deaths police said had "no suspicious circumstances". Like Jeremy Strode, like Darren Simpson, like Anthony Bourdain. The body of 46-year-old Bull was found inside his smart cafe Huxton's in the seaside Sydney suburb of Bronte, which had enjoyed rave reviews. Bull had worked as a personal chef to film star Russell Crowe, billionaire James Packer and had cooked for the NSW Blues State of Origin side last year under Brad Fittler. Advertisement As news of his untimely death spread, tributes rolled in from heartbroken, grieving and dumbfounded friends. TV host David Campbell mourned his "best friend I thought we would be talking about our kids over coffee when we were really old I love you brother". A saddened Seven Network reporter Jessica Ridley wrote on Twitter about how Bull "had only recently been open about his battle with depression and was seeking help". Nine Honey's Shelly Horton posted on Instagram about Bull's huge smile, "outrageous stories and of course his incredible food". Photos of Bull in the posts of all three grieving friends show Bull's massive smile. Bull's death follows that of three high profile Australian chefs in 2017. In January of that year, Nitai Gordon, a junior chef at Bennelong restaurant, took his own life, seemingly out of the blue. This saddens me beyond belief. Justin Bull had only recently been open about his battle with depression and was seeking help. We were heading to Huxtons tonight for dinner. https://t.co/9GecnmHRsd Jessica Ridley (@jessicaridleytv) February 8, 2019 So incredibly sad and shocked to hear Juzzy Bull is no longer with us. His heart was as big as his smile. Darren and I loved his outrageous stories and of course his incredible food. Sending love to his wife Justine and son Felix. I hope his mind can res https://t.co/1kZNM53zpR pic.twitter.com/rPmPAKB8jS Shelly Horton (@ShellyHorton1) February 8, 2019 Fellow Bennelong chef Mal Meiers told news.com.au at the time Gordon was hardworking, smart, cheeky and he'd had a good rapport with him. "No one really saw it coming," Meiers said. "It was a big sideswipe." Five months later, in June 2017, celebrity chef Darren Simpson died after a long battle with alcohol addiction-related illness. Cheeky, driven, enthusiastic, Irish-born chef Darren Simpson died after a long battle with alcoholism in 2017. Photo / Supplied The father of two was a larrikin character another cheeky chef with drive and enthusiasm who regularly appeared on cooking shows including Ready, Steady, Cook. He suffered a heart attack shortly after leaving a rehabilitation facility and died, aged 39. A month after that, Jeremy Strode, the well known co-proprietor with his wife Jane Strode of Bistrode in Sydney, took his life. The 53-year-old, who had started as a dishwasher at 14 and worked for some of the world's greatest chefs, had continually won chef's hats in the Good Food Guide. ambassador. ambassador. He left behind two children. Then last year, the world woke up to the news that perhaps the planet's most famous TV chef, or at least the one with the most rock and roll sensibility, Anthony Bourdain had died. Bourdain was found dead on June 8, 2018, in an apparent suicide in his French hotel room while working on his CNN TV series, Parts Unknown. The late chef and internationally acclaimed author, Anthony Bourdain. Photo / Getty Images The chef and author had been on a stratospheric trajectory since the 2000 release of his international smash hit book, Kitchen Confidential. Anthony Bourdain was by no means the only internationally well-known chef to take his own life Homaro "Omar" Cantu, chef and media personality who practised molecular gastronomy, was famous for his scientific inventiveness. In 2008, he won on Iron Chef America when he used a laser to caramelise edible packaging material and liquid nitrogen to create beet. Part scientist, part chef, Homaro Cantu died in 2015 Photo / Getty Images He was a TV regular, appearing on shows including Good Morning America, Hell's Kitchen and the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and known for generosity and a positive attitude. He was found dead inside a bistro brewery, Crooked Fork, he was renovating, in April, 2015, the 38-year-old leaving behind a wife and two daughters. The next year it was Frenchman Benot Violier, who had studied in Paris with the great Joel Robuchon, before moving to Switzerland. The three Michelin star chef was famed for excelling in haute cuisine. Three Michelin star chef Benoit Violier died from a gunshot wound. Photo / Supplied In 2016, he was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Just a month earlier, the French government had named his restaurant, Le Restaurant de l'Htel de Ville the best in the world. Max Meier told news.com.au in 2017 that, in Australia at least, brutal shifts, intense pressure and isolation drove chefs to the brink. The international culture of kitchens for chefs everywhere is one of military-style macho, "get on with it" discipline. Long hours are spent in a sparsely populated kitchen where you press on, being tired or ill is no excuse, and are then spat out into the world to unwind alone over a drink when everyone else is in bed asleep. Former Hilton Adelaide chef Simon Bryant told news.com.au: "The pressure can trigger others behaviours. "People when they've done a day's work and it's been long day and they've done service, which can be like a battlefield, they don't have the tools to deal with it in a healthy way. "It's very common for chefs to go to a bar after. "Most chefs pride themselves on their resilience, [they're] really proud of how they handle pressure and thrive on it. That can be a great thing, but it can tip over and make you anxious. "A chef will say, come on, throw another 20 hours at me, but there needs to be a point where you know you've had enough. "Most kitchens are the United Nations everyone's accepted, but they're tough. The girls are tough, too. You've got to find balance. "We've lost amazing chefs and incredible people in the last few years." WHERE TO GET HELP: If you are worried about your or someone else's mental health, the best place to get help is your GP or local mental health provider. However, if you or someone else is in danger or endangering others, call police immediately on 111. Free call or text 1737 (available 24/7) KIDSLINE: 0800 543 754 (available 24/7) WHATSUP: 0800 942 8787 (1pm to 11pm) DEPRESSION HELPLINE: 0800 111 757 | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12202445 |
Can Jody Wilson-Raybould continue to serve in Trudeaus cabinet? | The prime minister still has confidence in Veterans Affairs Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a senior government source says, despite an explosive series of stories over the past few days appearing to indicate that the relationship has totally blown apart. Justin Trudeau has not spoken personally to Wilson-Raybould since reports emerged of her falling-out with the Prime Ministers Office over how to handle the legal troubles of corporate giant SNC-Lavalin, the source said, but Trudeau intends to talk to her before the next cabinet meeting on Feb. 19. Jody Wilson-Raybould and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are seen at the swearing-in of cabinet in 2015. Wilson-Rayboulds silence in the past week has fuelled rumours of a deep rift with Trudeau over the SNC-Lavalin affair, and reports that she was dissatisfied by her treatment in last months cabinet shuffle. ( Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO ) The PMO is assuming for now that the confidence is returned, because Wilson-Raybould has not resigned, the source said. If anonymous reports of undue influence on her were true, in fact, the former attorney general would have had a duty to tell the prime minister four months ago and resign if he had failed to step in. The answer to that is clearly no, because it didnt happen, the source said. As it happens, Trudeau will be in Wilson-Rayboulds home city of Vancouver on Sunday for a Chinese New Year event, and hes due to be accompanied by other B.C. members of the Liberal caucus. It wasnt clear late on Saturday whether Wilson-Raybould would be among them. Article Continued Below The dispute reportedly revolved around SNC-Lavalins eligibility for whats known as a deferred prosecution agreement essentially a plea deal in its ongoing charges of fraud and corruption. The Globe and Mail reported on Thursday that Wilson-Rayboulds refusal to go along with such an agreement put her on a collision course with the PMO. Wilson-Rayboulds silence has only fuelled suggestions that she or allies acting on her behalf are behind the stories of her dissatisfaction with how she was treated in the cabinet shuffle. There is, in fact, a law for that or more correctly, a legal principle known as the Shawcross doctrine. Its all laid out in a blog post by respected University of Ottawa law professor Craig Forcese, which was much circulated on Saturday, dissecting Wilson-Rayboulds obligations in this affair, particularly whether she truly was facing inappropriate political pressure. If a clear Shawcross line was crossed, the expectation would then be that the (attorney general) would resign. That did not happen, Forcese writes. Legalities aside, there are simple questions of optics and practical politics at this point, several days after the story broke. These stories have served to reinforce, if not confirm, the perception that Wilson-Rayboulds move to Veterans Affairs is a demotion. Her DEMOTION makes sense now, UGLY POLITICAL SENSE, Wilson-Rayboulds own father, Bill Wilson, posted on his Facebook page late last week. Successive ministers, Conservative and Liberal, have had a difficult time persuading veterans that their issues are important to the government and not just an afterthought. The prime minister and Wilson-Raybould have a lot to talk about when they do have that conversation. It wont be just about what happened or didnt happen in the lead-up to the cabinet shuffle, but also about whats happened since Thursday and where this goes in future. I guess well see. Susan Delacourt is the Stars Ottawa bureau chief and a columnist covering national politics. Reach her via email: [email protected] or follow her on Twitter: @susandelacourt Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/politics/political-opinion/2019/02/09/can-jody-wilson-raybould-continue-to-serve-in-trudeaus-cabinet.html |
What effect has Brexit had on the UK economy? | Image copyright PA Image caption Economic growth has not been disastrous, but nor has it been sparkling There may still be more than a month to go until Brexit is scheduled to happen, but there has already been some fallout from the decision to leave. Most recently, the prolonged uncertainty - what the governor of the Bank of England refers to as the "Brexit fog" - appears to be leaving some potentially worrying scars on prosperity. What is clear, however, is that two-and-a-half years after the referendum, the most dire predictions about what could have happened to financial wellbeing have failed to transpire. Rewind to May 2016. The then chancellor, George Osborne, warned of what he said would happen over the immediate period of two years following a vote to leave the EU. He said: "A vote to leave would represent an immediate and profound shock to our economy. That shock would push our economy into a recession and lead to an increase in unemployment of around 500,000, "GDP would be 3.6% smaller, average real wages would be lower, inflation higher, sterling weaker, house prices would be hit and public borrowing would rise compared with a vote to remain." He was assuming Article 50, the process by which the UK leaves, would be triggered immediately after the vote; in the event, it was nine months later. But the warning stands. Well, the economy hasn't contracted, and the level of unemployment is actually the lowest on record. But that's not to say that the economy's path hasn't deviated from what had earlier been expected. Of course, there are other issues that will have influenced our economy's path - but the anticipation of the UK leaving the EU is far from insignificant. Let's start with prosperity. The economy has grown at an average of about 1.5% per year since the referendum - not sparkling, but not disastrous either. Average real wages are rising again. But most forecasters had hoped for more. The governor of the Bank of England said last May that households were 900 worse off compared with what it had expected pre-referendum. Since then, the gulf between those predictions and reality has widened, because of the prolonged uncertainty over the Brexit outcome. Retail spending slowed sharply towards the end of last year, while surveys suggest new orders have stagnated, such that activity in manufacturing has been driven largely by companies speeding up production to avert the risk of disruption after 29 March. The Bank of England found that business investment has slowed sharply, and reckons it will fall by even more this year. Companies are unwilling to flash the cash until they are confident about what lies ahead. That's not just down to a lack of clarity over Brexit, but a result, too, of weaker demand from elsewhere, as the likes of China and Europe slow down. As a result, the Bank now calculates the total level of GDP is about 1.2% lower than it had expected three years ago. Lower business investment tends to hamper how efficient we can be - that is productivity - and so could have a lingering impact on our economic health. And the reluctance to spend on buildings and equipment might help explain why employment is at a record high - one of the brightest spots in our economy. After the crisis, firms hung on to workers rather than invest in major projects, as it was the cheaper and more flexible option. They may be doing the same again. And while incomes in real terms, once the cost of living is accounted for, are on the rise, they remain lower on average than ahead of the financial crisis. Pay rises have been sluggish, but higher-than-expected inflation has also played a part, in particular in 2017. Prices that year rose by close to 3%, almost twice as much as expected pre-referendum. A higher cost of living means budgets don't stretch as far. That rise in inflation largely reflected a drop in the exchange rate in the aftermath of the referendum - which meant that sterling is worth about 10% less than it was previously. That led to a corresponding rise in the cost of many imports. A weaker pound may mean it's more expensive for UK holidaymakers to venture abroad - but on the upside, it makes the UK a more attractive destination. A record 39.2 million overseas visitors came to the UK in 2017, spending 24.5bn. In theory, too, a weaker pound makes UK exports more attractive. Sales to overseas customers were stronger than anticipated pre-referendum - but they rose by less than would have been expected. And surveys over the last couple of months have suggested export orders have dried up, perhaps as customers fear a no-deal scenario could spell delay and extra charges on delivery. The government has hinted at hopes of a "deal dividend" - businesses and consumers going ahead with the spending that they may have been holding back. It'll take a while to fathom if that has happened - and then it'll be time to start looking at the impact of Brexit itself. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47168866 |
Will A.I. Put Lawyers Out Of Business? | Codified instructions proscribing dos and dontsifs and thens. The legal system, on the other hand, is not as straightforward as coding. Just consider the complicated state of justice today, whether it be problems stemming from backlogged courts, overburdened public defenders, and swathes of defendants disproportionately accused of crimes. Very much so. Law firms are already using AI to more efficiently perform due diligence, conduct research and bill hours. But some expect the impact of AI to be much more transformational. Its predicted AI will eliminate most paralegal and legal research positions within the next decade. My coauthor Michael Ashley and I spoke to experts about AIs impact on the legal system for our upcoming book, Own the A.I. Revolution: Unlock Your Artificial Intelligence Strategy to Disrupt Your Competition. It may even be considered legal malpractice not to use AI one day, says Tom Girardi, renowned civil litigator and the real-life inspiration for the lawyer in the movie, Erin Brockovich. It would be analogous to a lawyer in the late twentieth century still doing everything by hand when this person could use a computer. There are many reasons to believe AI could benefit the legal industry in ways as meaningful as the personal computer. Currently, the legal system relies on armies of paralegals and researchers to discover, index, and process information. For law firms at present, this reliance can be expensive, driving up the rates they charge. And in understaffed public defender offices, investigators can only spend a few minutes interviewing each of their clients, greatly diminishing the service they can provide. However, for just a fraction of the time and expense, AI could be used to conduct time-consuming research, reducing the burdens on courts and legal services and accelerating the judicial process. There are also situations where using AI might be preferable to interacting with a human, such as for client interviews. For instance, its been demonstrated people are more likely to be honest with a machine than with a person, since a machine isnt capable of judgment. Of course, AI cant replace all means of collecting information. There are instances in which depositions would be more conducive to fact-gathering. Still, when preparing for a cross-examination of an expert witness, AI could be effectively deployed to determine every case in which a particular witness testified, what his/her opinions were, and how juries reacted, much faster and more thoroughly than any human investigator ever could. Not according to Girardi. He believes those firms willing to adopt AI will possess a strategic advantage. Its a lawyers job to solve a problem as quickly and inexpensively as possible, Girardi explains. AI will be a godsend because itll give lawyers the information they need to resolve conflicts faster. Yes, AI-wielding lawyers wouldnt be able to technically bill as many hours since the AI would work much faster than they ever could; however, according to Girardi, these attorneys enhanced effectiveness would likely garner repeat business and lead to more clients. If a lawyer can use AI to win a case and do it for less than someone without AI, who do you think the client will choose to work with next time? says Girardi. Accordingly, the promise for law firms using AI is that they will still be able to generate the same amount or even more revenue while expanding their client rosters. Conversely, firms too slow to adapt to AI and automation will suffer a competitive disadvantage. While conventional wisdom still suggests job security for lawyers and judges is more secure than other professions, there have been calls to relieve our backlogged court system by outsourcing minor cases to AI. To this end, some courts are even considering using AI to determine eligibility for bail by detecting behavioral patterns indicating flight risk a decision flesh-and-blood judges traditionally made in the past. Courtrooms are likely to transform in other meaningful ways due to technological advances. Girardi believes courts might one day welcome AI technology to aid with jury selection. If a civil dispute concerns a matter of factDid the doctor cut off the wrong leg?today, its largely settled out of court, says Girardi. Did a doctor make a bad judgment call?the case can go to trial, which is why the philosophical makeup of a jury is so important. AI could be valuable in a trial setting because it could predict such philosophical makeups. Adept at rapidly collecting important information, it could gather data about potential jurors, including their accident history, if they have served before, the verdicts of those trials, and a jurors political and charitable affiliations. AI could also be used to analyze facial reactions and body language indicating how a potential juror feels about an issue. Before a potential juror even answers a question, the movement of his or her eyes, a change in skin coloration, or a shift in body positioning could nonverbally communicate an emotional response demonstrating a positive or negative bias. Such data could be used for optimal jury selection, facilitating greater fairness. In spite of such developments inside the courtroom, its nonetheless hard to imagine how trial lawyers might be replaced by artificial intelligence. For now, a humans unique ability to create empathy with jurors and judges alike makes them indispensable to legal deliberations. After all, we know humans are fallible creatures, prone to prejudices and biases. Song Richardson, Dean of the University of California-Irvine School of Law, worries about just this possibility. Its certainly not to become a cog in the wheel of an assembly line system of justice. The fact that we have backlogs resulting in a failure to give people the individualized attention they deserve tells us theres something fundamentally wrong with our justice system. Expediting the mass processing of people using AI isnt the answer. Its the opposite of justice. Richardson believes AI can benefit the legal profession, yet she cautions us to be careful how we implement it. Even the best AI needs to be taught, which means it can only be as objective as the people who teach it. People often view AI and algorithms as being objective without considering the origins of the data being used in the machine-learning process, says Richardson, who specializes in the dangers of unconscious bias. Biased data is going to lead to biased AI. When training people for the legal profession, we need to help future lawyers and judges understand how AI works and its implications in our field. In spite of these concerns, Richardson still believes the net impact of new technology will be positive. Lawyers and judges are only as good as the information they receive, and AI has the potential to significantly increase the quality of information. Still, no matter how sophisticated the technology becomes, she and Girardi both agree it will never be a substitute for the judgment and decision-making only humans can provide. AI isnt going to replace the need for critical thinking. We still need to prepare students to think like lawyers, and I dont think thats ever going to change, says Richardson. Though no consensus exists yet as to how AI will ultimately shape the legal profession, we do know AI is poised to transform nearly every facet of our lives, and the new technologies its powering will create a host of unprecedented legal issues, including ownership, liability, privacy and policing. The very fact these are complicated issues soon to be exacerbated by unprecedented technology reveals the need for more lawyers, but not just any kind of lawyers. We need those capable of making sense of our rapidly evolving society. What worries me is that we wont have lawyers who understand algorithms and AI well enough to even know what questions to ask, nor judges who feel comfortable enough with these new technologies to rule on cases involving them, says Richardson. In light of such valid concerns, it is becoming increasingly clear our law schools must prepare tomorrows lawyers to use the new technology. But even this isnt enough. We also need todays practicing counsel and judges to grasp AI and all it promises to better serve and protect our fellow humans. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cognitiveworld/2019/02/09/will-a-i-put-lawyers-out-of-business/ |
Has the AA turned a corner, or is it on a road to nowhere? | The AA has always considered itself the most staunch of organisations. Take one of its earliest episodes, three months after its foundation in 1905, when a member called Herbert Johnson was accused of exceeding the 20mph speed limit. One of the associations scouts, William Jones, swore an oath that the motorist must be innocent as hed followed him on a bicycle at a speed of no more than 15 or 16mph but, irritatingly for patrolman Jones, the court didnt believe him. Johnson was convicted and Jones was arrested and charged with perjury. The AA then staked all of its funds and risked bankruptcy trying to get its employee acquitted, which, thankfully for Jones, it did. It is not quite clear if any of the AAs current crop would be prepared to do a stretch for a member now, and certainly patrols providing questionable testimony is not mentioned on the current list of members benefits. Still, more than a century later, the tale does seem to have relevance, at least as a strained metaphor about how the actions of some speedsters can cause the AA financial discomfort. The company was floated on the stock market in 2014 and overloaded with billions of debt by the private-equity boy racers (finger salute out of the drivers window to CVC and Permira). They re-engineered what should have been a simple runabout into something resembling a Reliant Robin towing a Winnebago with the AA now valued by the stock market at 525m as it drags along 2.7bn of debt. Sales from what the company calls 'roadside' essentially its recovery service account for 84% of revenues Astonishingly, a bunch of City fund managers bought the sales patter, only to watch the price of their shiny new vehicle slump as soon as it had edged off the forecourt. They have been regretting this impetuosity ever since: star fund manager Neil Woodfords chunky stake has contributed to his fund continuing to have a shocker, and the AAs debt will be raised again this week as it updates the City on current trading ahead of full results in April. Full-year profits are expected to be about 74m on revenues of 960m, and the City wont have much patience if there is any indication of a slippage to those numbers. The shares, which floated at 250p, now change hands for around 86p, yet there are plenty who reckon it could get worse from here, as they are among the most shorted on the London stock exchange. Blackrock has a negative position of 4.6%, while others betting that the shares will fall further include AQR Capital, Merian Global and Engadine Partners. Successive bosses have been tried to jump-start the business: Chris Jansen was ousted just eight months after the float and replaced by Bob Mackenzie. Mackenzie was dismissed after assaulting a colleague on an awayday. Current chief executive Simon Breakwell was brought in to turn the company around in 2017 and by and large the City seems to think he is a steady driver. The company has ruled out a capital-raising to pay down debt, which leaves either selling off assets or growing the business. Yet growth also seems to be some way down the road. Sales from what the company calls roadside essentially its recovery service account for 84% of revenues. But this core part of the business is in reverse. The company expects roadside to shrink this year and stay flat next before moving forward in 2021. It is also going to take time to show significant revenues from the firms new technology products, which predict impending problems rather than waiting for cars to break downand sending out a rescue party. Which sounds like something that the AAs chastened investors could have done with too. | https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/feb/10/can-aa-turn-corner-road-to-nowhere |
When is the right time to panic about health-care reforms? | Dont sweat health-care changes, says Raes former health deputy, Feb. 7 I see that Michael Decter is reverting to the typical government response of dont panic over proposed transformational changes to Ontarios health-care system. Just relax and be happy. I have spent more than 40 years working with government and have had many experiences of too early, too early, too late. It never seems to be the right time to be heard or to panic. It may already be too late, given the legislative majority held by the Conservatives. The problem is not with a system that needs transformation. I do not want to be treated by any system transformed or otherwise. I would rather be treated by competent professionals who have the time and the inclination to deal with me as a person. Alex Hukowich, Cobourg | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/02/09/when-is-the-right-time-to-panic-about-health-care-reforms.html |
Can Corbyn hold an increasingly divided Labour together? | With less than two months to go until Brexit, Jeremy Corbyn and his shadow cabinet gathered in the House of Commons at 10am on 5 February for their weekly meeting. Apart from a brief mention by the party leader of his unfruitful talks a few days earlier with Theresa May in Downing Street, there was no discussion of Labours approach to Britains impending departure from the EU. We didnt really talk about Brexit, said one member of the partys top team who was present. The decision not to debate the partys approach to the biggest crisis to have engulfed British and European politics in decades may have come as a relief to some shadow cabinet members. Emily Thornberry, the shadow foreign secretary, is said to have been reluctant to say much about Brexit in the last few meetings for fear that her views might leak to the press and fuel an impression of internal division. It is not a great situation where the shadow cabinet cannot discuss the national crisis facing us all because they are all so divided, said another source who was there. Those at Labours top table, and the rest of the party, did not have to wait long, however, before details of the latest strategy that had been hatched inside Corbyns tight inner circle did emerge. The next day the leaders aides briefed selected newspapers that Corbyn had written to the prime minister spelling out the conditions under which the official opposition would be prepared to back her Brexit deal. These included many of the same demands he had put to her the previous week including a permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union. Labour must stop the Tory Brexit dream Read more But there were significant changes and shifts of emphasis that made it look, to some, like Corbyn was warming to the idea of a Brexit compromise. The partys oft-repeated insistence that any deal must deliver the exact same benefits of the EU single market was gone. And there was no mention of Labours commitment to keeping a second referendum on the table, the policy most dear to many activists and that the mass membership had succeeded in forcing Corbyn to accept after a gargantuan struggle at Labours annual conference in Liverpool last September. News of the letter was welcomed by some Labour MPs in Leave seats and also some former Remainers who now believe the best way forward is an acceptable version of a soft Brexit. But in other sections of the party there was uproar. The former leadership contender Owen Smith said he was so incensed at the suggestion that Labour might be preparing to row in behind a modified Conservative Brexit deal that he was thinking of leaving the party. The frontbencher Clive Lewis, from the left, responded the next day by saying he would never vote for Brexit and wanted the leadership to stick to its commitment on a peoples vote. And leftwing activists, many of whom had joined Labour because Corbyn had promised them a say over policy, were outraged too. Michael Chessum, a former member of Momentums steering committee, who now campaigns for a second referendum, said that if Labour MPs backed Brexit because of deals with the Tories, it would be shameful, and he suggested that local members should deselect them. Disagreeing about stopping Brexit altogether is one thing, he tweeted. Voting through, or allowing through, a Tory deal is quite another. Its just inexcusable, and MPs who do so will, quite rightly, be held accountable by members. For much of the past week the leadership has been engulfed in a series of internal controversies, and not only on Brexit. This weekend, it performed a sudden U-turn in yet another row over antisemitism, in which Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who is eight months pregnant, was threatened with deselection by Corbyn-backing members of her local party in Liverpool. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Luciana Berger, a Corbyn critic, was facing a no-confidence vote from her local party until it was suddenly withdrawn. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA A no-confidence motion in Berger was withdrawn following pressure from an evidently panicked leaders office. Labours general secretary Jennie Formby also bowed to pressure and agreed to publish details of hundreds of antisemitism complaints against party members and progress to date in dealing with them, having batted away MPs calls to do so last Monday in a move that caused widespread dismay. As it firefights rows on many fronts there is a stubbornness about Corbyns leadership on issues such as antisemitism and Venezuela, and a deliberate vagueness on Brexit, that irks many Labour MPs and increasingly members of the party. But, according to very senior figures, there is also no doubt that there is concern at the highest level about rising levels of discontent and talk of breakaways. As reported by the Observer last weekend, a group of at least six Labour MPs, all persistent critics of Corbyn, are planning to resign the whip and form a new breakaway party within weeks. Moves are also being considered by a far bigger group of mainstream MPs to do the same, after Brexit. Supporters of the Labour leader have piled on to social media to say good riddance to the splitters. But the discontent is no longer confined to what Corbyn loyalists like to dismiss as a Blairite rump of MPs. Unrest and disillusion have spread to sections of the pro-EU left of the party, and the activist base. Party membership has fallen rapidly. Labour is dropping in the polls. Two surveys have put the party seven points behind the Tories in the past week and Corbyns personal ratings have nosedived, particularly over his handling of Brexit, to record lows. At a time when discontent with politicians is arguably greater than ever, debate at Westminster now focuses not only on whether the Tories can survive Brexit as a coherent fighting force, but whether Labour can hold itself together too. As one shadow cabinet member put it: Things are already tense. I think some of our MPs will split off pretty soon. But if we are seen to allow a Tory Brexit there is no telling what will happen. All hell will break loose. After Corbyn sent his five-point letter to May on Wednesday, and Labour Remainers reacted with fury, the leadership and the small circle who had been involved in drafting it were quick in their attempts to pour cold water on the flames. The Brexit spokesman Keir Starmer made clear that the letter had been signed off by him, in consultation with the leaders office, and was really just a restatement of the partys existing position. Starmer and the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, went public to insist that a second referendum was still on the table and the fact that it was not mentioned meant nothing. In fact nothing had changed. The commitment to the exact same benefits of the single market was also implicit in the five points. But, while some Labour MPs were supportive of the initiative, including Lucy Powell and Stephen Kinnock (hardly full-throated Corbyn backers), doubts remained in the minds of many others who are committed to fighting Mays Brexit tooth and nail. Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, told the Observer it was time for clarity from the leadership because the country was heading for a catastrophe which had to be avoided. It really is decision time for Jeremy Corbyn now on whether he actually backs a peoples vote or whether he really wants to facilitate Brexit. No ifs, no buts, no tables. We have to be clear. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jeremy Corbyn poses for a selfie after a speech at the Labour local government conference in Coventry. Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA Writing today on guardian.co.uk, Alena Ivanova, a Momentum and Labour activist, says there is a danger that the leaderships so-called constructive ambiguity on Brexit, and reluctance to involve the wider party in policy, could drive many Corbyn supporters away. While the Corbyn letter might have been designed to split the Tories, it could also split and fracture the Corbyn support base. It may have the inadvertent effect of disillusioning Labour supporters further who might interpret this as an offer to co-deliver what was always a Tory-driven project, she writes. Labour should stand firm on its commitment to vote down Mays deal. All MPs should be effectively whipped to do so. It is the only principled thing to do it offers a chance to defeat the government, to get the general election we need now, not in 2022, and to then go back to the public, honestly stating that Labour never wanted or participated in the Tory Brexit dream, and that it has a different, positive, socialist vision for our relationship with the EU. Then, we let the voters decide. A strongly pro-Remain member of the shadow cabinet said there were two interpretations of what Corbyn was up to. The charitable view is that he is doing this so when May cannot accept his demands he can then move to support a second referendum, saying it is the option left and he has tried everything. But the second view is that Corbyn wants to get Brexit over the line because that is what be believes, which in my view would be disastrous. On Saturday, in a speech in Coventry, Corbyn adopted a familiar formula on Brexit that left few people any the wiser as to where Labour will end up or where he really stands. He said his plan as outlined in the letter to May and involving a permanent customs union of the kind the prime minister refuses to accept could win the support of parliament and bring the country together. If the Tories could not support Labours demand he said unequivocally, and decisively there should be a general election, even though Labour recently lost a confidence vote that could have delivered one. Its main route to an election has already been cut away. Corbyn then gave a typically cautious nod to the idea of a second referendum, saying that without an election we will keep all options on the table as agreed in our conference motion including the option of a public vote. After a week in which Labour MPs and members from all wings of the party demanded clearer leadership, and talk of a breakaway group grew ever louder, it was hardly the kind of address to reassure the doubters. This is more kicking the can down the road, said one disillusioned MP. The longer this goes on and the closer Brexit comes the worse it gets. We should be clearly demanding another referendum by now because that is our policy. But it is clear he cannot bring himself to do so. If the leader cannot implement his partys policy there is no hope for us. | https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/10/what-is-going-on-in-jeremy-corbyns-labour |
How safe are teen apps? | Beyond WhatsApp and Facebook, there are many other platforms used by children and teens that may be open to abuse Since 14-year-old Molly Russell killed herself in 2017, the apps and services our teenagers and children use and their safety have become a key concern for parents. Last week, the digital minister, Margot James, stated that the tragic death of Molly Russell is the latest consequence of a social media world that behaves as if it is above the law. James went on to announce plans to introduce a legally binding code and duty of care towards young users for social media companies. Britains children are not just using the likes of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Pinterest and Snapchat on a daily basis. There is a wealth of apps targeted at teens and children that have their own ecosystems and controversies. In essence, a multi-person Skype or FaceTime video conversation. The screen the app can be used on smartphones or laptops and desktops is split into up to eight different tiles. Its the preteen equivalent of a conference call, with participants talking over one another a way for the days gossip to continue beyond the school gates. You can connect on calls not only with friends, but friends of friends (with an on-screen warning about stranger danger). Different levels of security can be set on the account that limit the type of people who you can chat to, but some may choose to chat to anyone. That would worry me, says Dr Victoria Nash, deputy director of the Oxford Internet Institute, who has researched child safety online. It combines live streaming video with stranger danger. There is discouragement of dubious behaviour, though; users are asked to enter their phone number when registering, theoretically making them trackable. Controversies The phone number tie doesnt stop criminals: two Mancunian children aged 11 and 12 were reportedly confronted by men who exposed themselves to other users in one chat in 2017. Anti-child sexual exploitation agencies in Rochdale have also investigated the app after preteen users were alleged to have been targeted by adult men using the app. Kik has been around for the best part of a decade, but the text messaging app still remains popular among teenagers and children, partly because it allows anonymous sign-ups that dont require tethering an account to a phone number. Which is an immediate red flag. Kiks anonymity makes it particularly problematic. Users can create accounts and groom children (or send explicit messages and images) without fear of being traced. On Kik, people cant be traced if theyre on it for nefarious reasons; thats concerning, definitely, says Nash. An investigation by the UKs National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) found that it was the seventh most recorded method used by child groomers last year (the first six were Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, text messages, WhatsApp and face-to-face conversation). And even if its not grownup users trying to communicate with children, there are still risks. The lack of an easily accessible digital trail makes it a boon for cyberbullies. Controversies Last September, it was reported that British police forces had investigated more than 1,100 child sexual abuse cases involving the app in the last five years. TikTok a Chinese app with hundreds of millions of users is a successor to the defunct video sharing app Vine. Originally called musical.ly, the app allows children to lip-sync to their favourite songs and is a hotbed for memes: short, sharable, community-driven posts that mimic a theme. A significant proportion of TikToks users are children and teenagers, which is a draw to predators. Theres something weird about the performative nature of TikTok, explains Kyle McGregor, assistant professor at the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, New York University Langone Health, who has studied the impact of social media on children. How do we make sure there arent risque, provocative, potentially illegal things being shown on this platform? Its something that concerns Nash too. I worry about age-inappropriate content, which might be song lyrics, for example, or sexualised content. Young children mouthing along to adult songs doesnt sit well with me. TikTok has introduced a Digital Wellbeing feature that is meant to limit young users access to inappropriate content but its effectiveness is moot. Controversies The app has battled negative headlines in recent months after journalists discovered that older users were soliciting nude images from underage users and that it was being used to host neo-Nazi propaganda. In a world where personal data is treasured like a prize, Nash also worries about the app being owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. I have concerns about how far they would comply with GDPR, even though theyre bound by it, she says. Twitch was formerly called Justin.tv and has become the home for video game streaming. Users can watch streamers play games while on camera, interacting with fellow fans in text comment sections that run alongside the video. The main concern around Twitch is common to most platforms: that users your children meet on Twitch may have bad intentions and aim to take the interaction offline. Theres also a text-based chat app popular with gamers called Discord, which features chatrooms, often containing hundreds of participants. Peer pressure via text chat on video streaming services is one of the things we need to be aware of, particularly with online grooming, says Nash. Its encouraging people to commit acts they might not necessarily think of as sexual. People who do this deliberately are clever and manipulative people. Controversies Some of Twitchs biggest controversies arent around security flaws but stem from the opinions it hosts. Critics have said that the text chat that accompanies video streams is a hotbed of racism, with casual slurs tossed around potentially warping young users beliefs. Children can be exposed to inappropriate content thats posted or broadcast in real time, explains an NSPCC spokesperson. An eBay-like app for selling unwanted goods. Load up the app and youre presented with a grid of perfectly presented pictures showing off colour-coordinated clothes you can buy with a minimum of friction. More than 10 million users most teenagers and in their early 20s log on to the app to buy and sell. Relatively so, unless you think capitalism is dangerous. You may regard it as teaching children important business skills marketing, negotiation, pricing and so on. Controversies Platforms selling items are often used to market contraband, and Depop is no different. In 2016, Depop users were offering ritalin and dextroamphetamine as well as unlicensed smart drugs such as modafinil for sale through the app, despite Depops no-tolerance rule on restricted sales. The issue persists; last year, an investigation found laughing gas, imported cigarettes, vodka and cannabis on sale. Coming soon Squad is similar to Houseparty, but differs in one key aspect: you can share your screen with the other participants on your call. That feature helps replicate the way teens interact in real life: digital gossip and drama bleeds into the offline world. Squads screen sharing is a great idea, but the ability to share anything is a worry. Released this spring, Byte is the ballyhooed brainchild of Dom Hofmann, the co-founder of Vine. Vine 1.0 gave the world Jake and Logan Paul, so savvy teenagers may see it as a springboard to superstardom. But the risk with that is that children embarrass themselves on camera, to a potentially massive audience. As with all these apps, using them is fraught with danger. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email [email protected]. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/feb/10/how-safe-are-teen-apps |
Will Frank Gehrys Wimbledon concert hall outshine 300m City rival? | Weeks after the Centre for Music was announced at the Barbican, another world-class venue is being discussed in London You wait decades for a city to get a world-class concert hall and two come along at once. Last month plans were revealed for the Centre for Music in the City of London by the New York architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro. But there is now another project to build a 1,250-seat venue in the suburb better known for its tennis Wimbledon to be designed by the celebrated Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry. The plan is driven by Anthony Wilkinson, founder and director of the Wimbledon international music festival, an annual event of nearly 200 concerts held mostly in local churches. He felt that the area could do better, while also addressing the capitals notorious shortage of acoustically outstanding large concert halls. The Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall are both flawed. After rehearsing for half an hour in the Royal Festival Hall, the conductor Simon Rattle once said, you lose the will to live. Gehry, who was shortlisted in the competition to design the 288m Barbican project, and Wilkinson are keen to stress that the two new concert halls are complementary, not rivals. One doesnt have to negate the other, Gehry told the Observer. There could be a win-win for both. With 2,000 seats the Centre for Music is significantly larger. The Wimbledon hall, Gehry said, was small enough that it could attract creative stuff to happen that probably couldnt be afforded at the Barbican. Wilkinson has recruited the dancer Darcey Bussell, who lives locally, and the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen to act as patrons of the project. The internationally renowned acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota is to work on the design. The Philharmonia Orchestra, Classical Opera, the London Mozart Players, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra have all expressed interest in performing there. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Darcey Bussell, who lives locally, is a patron of the Wimbledon project. Photograph: David M Benett/Getty Images As well as the main hall it is to have a 300-seat flexible space. The complex is to be multi-genre, serving very good quality pop groups as well as classical music. It is to be available to local groups as well as international ensembles. Wilkinson said the building should hum throughout the day. I want it to be in the centre of the community. The project draws on a longstanding desire to build a replacement for an auditorium that was part of Wimbledons old town hall, demolished to make way for the Centre Court shopping centre in 1987. The local council promised to build one at the time, but it has yet to happen. The intended site is the Hartfield Road car park in the town centre, which belongs to the London borough of Merton. It is adjacent to another shopping complex, containing a Morrisons supermarket and an Odeon cinema, which a big property company is hoping to redevelop. Wilkinson is in discussion with the company on working in partnership on the two sites. Wilkinson, a former film-maker who lived in Los Angeles for seven years, said he has always admired Gehry his architecture has a sense of humour and a soul to it. After visiting Gehrys building for the New World Symphony in Miami he wrote to the architect about the Wimbledon project. Gehry phoned him back. Ive always wanted to do a concert hall in London, Wilkinson recalled him saying, lets talk about it. In an interview, Gehry, whose musical projects include the Disney hall in Los Angeles and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, said he liked the idea of being in a commercial centre. It could be very productive on both sides. It could make the concert hall unique. It would be part of the downtown, part of the community. He has produced outline designs showing how the concert hall could be combined with the larger redevelopment of the Morrisons and the Odeon. What the project now needs to progress is fundraising its construction cost is put at 60m-65m and a commitment from the council that its car park can be used in this way. Merton acknowledged that there has been a long-held ambition by the community for a new performance concert hall in Wimbledon. It said it was working with the Wimbledon Concert Hall Group to determine if there is a credible, sustainable and viable business case for a multipurpose cultural venue in Wimbledon. Wilkinson would like a clearer signal that it supports the project so the fundraising can go ahead. Whatever conditions they give us we dont really care. Ive got people queueing up to say they will donate, but they ask whats the councils position? Its hard to realise pledges without a site and Merton is reluctant to commit the site without pledges. The councils caution with public assets is understandable but the hall would be a major coup for the borough. It is to be hoped the council uses some imagination to get the project to the next stage. | https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/feb/10/two-world-class-concert-halls-london-centre-for-music-barbican-wimbledon |
How did Netflix get away with not paying income tax in 2018? | Netflix has made a lot of news this past week, and its not because of the Ted Bundy documentary or all those fools doing the Bird Box challenge. No, its something that is even more galling, particularly to those who oppose corporate greed and income inequality: the company paid virtually no US taxes in 2018. We shouldn't declare Trump's $1tn tax cut a failure just yet | Gene Marks Read more According to a blogpost from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the company posted its largest ever profit in 2018 $845m but paid no federal (or state) income tax. After a year of speculation and spin, the public is getting its first hard look at how corporate tax law changes under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act affected the tax-paying habits of corporations, senior fellow Mathew Gardner wrote. The law sharply reduced the federal corporate rate, expanded some tax breaks and curtailed others. The new tax law took effect at the beginning of 2018, which means that companies are just now closing the books on their first full year under the new rules. This story kind of validates a post I wrote last week about how the beneficial effects of the 2017 tax reform really wont kick in until this year, when companies and people start doing their 2018 returns. We can debate these issues and whether these companies will use their savings to reinvest or hire more people. But for now what Id like to explain is how. The company hasnt disclosed a lot of details so I can only make a few educated hunches. Its publicly available information has certainly given us some clues. In fact, when you look at Netflixs reported deferred tax assets which represent the future tax savings that will someday be realized the answer starts to clarify. The explanation has to do with just two words: tax credits. Remember, a tax credit is not a deduction. You apply a credit directly against the tax you owe. If you dont use the credit it can carry forward to future years. Which is why even though when Netflix actually paid $131m in foreign taxes during 2018 which would be about 15.5% of its income (the US corporate tax rate is now 21 %) it didnt have to do the same in this country. US tax law going well back before the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has allowed for companies (and individuals) to claim a tax credit on certain foreign earnings to avoid double taxation. I dont know, and that would make an interesting story. But the bottom line is that Netflix still paid taxes, just not in the US. | https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/10/netflix-income-tax-2018-didnt-pay |
Are All Instances of Blackface Alike? | We lived in Demarest Hall, an unusual dormitory with hallways dedicated to academic and artistic themes, which was very artsy, bohemian, nerdy, and politically committed in flavor. Needless to say, the political commitments were left and lefter. Demarest of this period is perfectly summoned in Junot Diazs novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and it was such a community in itself that to live there was essentially to attend Demarest rather than Rutgers. As such, Halloween for me and my friend was mainly at the dorm, and nobody batted an eye at his being in blackface. We even won the dorms costume contest that year. Yet I wouldnt be surprised if today that friend of mine is worried that a photo from that night may turn up and get him denied a promotion. That same year, two female friends, one white and one black, switched races for the night. The black one wore whiteface and the white one wore blackface. Not with an Afro wig or big red lips, but thoroughly blacked up. I believe she wore a head scarf, which could be seen as a black garment under the circumstances. Their idea was to ridicule the very idea of racial categories. They went about with an ironic air, the black one chirping Im white! and the white one chirping Im black! Yet the black woman was what we would today term a highly woke individual. And no one chided the white one for, say, failing to attend to the fact that blackness is not just a matter of skin tone but of grappling with the coded hostilities baked into a fundamentally racist society. She was read as making a little joke, a wise one, evenand remember, this was a dorm full of people voting for Mondale, renowned (and often ridiculed) for being gay-friendly in a way alien to most of the campus beyond at the time, very comfortably interracial, replete with international students and all manner of the different, and professionally intolerant of the repressive, bigoted world of Reagans America beyond our dorm doors. Read: America cant seem to kick its racist costume habit This was 35 years ago, in the age of Cheers, Atari, and New Coke. After all, in some ways our societys ethical assumptions have beneficially progressed beyond this era. For example, occasionally in that dorm, as in all dorms, incidents would occur that we would now call, and treat as, date rape. That term didnt exist, nor was it a topic of discussion. In that, Demarest of 1984 was backwards compared to now. Im not sure, especially since sensibilities on imitative blackface were different as recently as 10 years ago. On an episode of 30 Rocka sitcom with a sensibility directly channeling the Demarest sensibilitythe Jenna Maroney character dresses as a black football player and her costume includes brown makeup. There was no outcry over this, since the moment was perceived as an expression of Jennas cluelessness, presumably let pass by the sensible writer characters on the show . | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/mark-herring-and-grey-zones-blackface/582355/?utm_source=feed |
Whats the point of a newspaper front page in 2019, anyway? | We set out to capture New Orleans disinterest in Super Bowl LIII in a compelling way. We wound up sparking a national debate about the role of a newspaper front page in 2019. What Super Bowl? Shortly after pics of the front page started making the rounds on Twitter, national media outlets began taking note. SB Nation, USA Today, Sports Illustrated, and The Washington Post raved. Poynter Institute, the journalism think tank, raged. Readers probably found such a front page cute and, certainly, The Times-Picayune got some national publicity out of its little stunt, they wrote. Instead of a juvenile prank, how about doing what subscribers pay you to do and put actual news on the front page of the newspaper? This tension between what local journalism has been traditionally, and what it should be if it is to remain relevant has defined our industry for the better part of the last decade. Judging from Mondays brouhaha, it wont let up anytime soon. Theres no identity crisis in our newsroom. In my note to our print team Monday morning that linked to an online roundup of Super Bowl papers, I described ours as a very bold front page in a sea of traditional front pages. Our sports, life & culture, social (media) and video teams brought Super Sunday to our audience in real time yesterday, and our newspaper is driving engagement and traffic back to the site this morning. All parts of the content operation working in sync. Proud of the team! The world is changing so fast that journalism cant keep up. Since 2012, this news organization has chosen to embrace the changes rather than resist them. Part of that process involves fundamentally rethinking the newspapers place in the digital information ecosystem. Our mindset: Were going to keep experimenting. Were going to keep taking chances. Were going to err outside the box, not inside. We operate from a belief that print is no longer king, but still has power. On Sunday, we had two reporters in Atlanta and at least a half-dozen reporters, photographers, video and social media producers covering the days events in New Orleans on multiple digital platforms. With next days paper, our goal was to encapsulate an extraordinary day in a uniquely New Orleans way, mindful that most people had already seen what happened online. We dont define what subscribers pay you to do strictly as putting actual news on the front page of the newspaper. The front page is not one thing everyday; it is different things on different days. Some days it showcases hard news; other days sports or features. Some days it has multiple headlines; some days it splashes one big story. Some days it speaks to the city. Some days it speaks for the city. It did the latter on Feb. 4, 2019. And while journalists debated whether we had served our readers well, our readers responded: Yeah, you rite. Mark Lorando is editor of NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and vice president of content for NOLA Media Group. This column first appeared in Sunday Thoughts, a weekly note from the newsroom. To subscribe, go to http://subscription.nola.com/. | https://www.nola.com/opinions/2019/02/whats-the-point-of-a-newspaper-front-page-in-2019-anyway.html |
What Now for Aphria After Its Board Tells Green Growth to Take a Hike? | If Aphria (NYSE: APHA) selected a theme song for the last few days, it would probably be Ray Charles' classic "Hit the Road, Jack." The Canadian marijuana producer's board of directors firmly rejected the hostile takeover bid by Green Growth Brands (NASDAQOTH: GGBXF). Aphria's shares enjoyed a nice run after Green Growth first announced its intent to acquire Aphria in December. But Aphria stock fell after the news of its board's recommendation against the offer. Business people doing a thumbs-down. More Image source: Getty Images. No way, no how Aphria's board listed several reasons behind its decision to rebuff Green Growth Brands' proposed acquisition. First and foremost, the price wasn't anywhere close to what it needed to be. Actually, Aphria shareholders would have to sell their stock at a significant discount to the current share price. Any board that would have been in favor of that deal would have probably been told to take a hike themselves. There was also a serious consequence of Green Growth buying Aphria. Green Growth is a U.S.-based cannabis producer. Aphria can't maintain its listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and conduct operations in the U.S. as long as marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. An acquisition of Aphria by Green Growth would have caused Aphria to be delisted from both exchanges. Green Growth Brands, by the way, trades on the smaller and less prestigious Canadian Securities Exchange in Canada and over the counter in the U.S. Even if the issues of the ridiculously low offer and delisting threat didn't exist, it was abundantly clear that Aphria's board simply didn't like Green Growth Brands. Aphria Chairman Irwin Simon said that Green Growth is "an illiquid company with limited operating history, minimal assets, and no track record in the cannabis industry." In addition, Aphria's board expressed its belief that the company's outlook is bright without accepting a substandard offer like the one Green Growth proposed. The board cited Aphria's strong revenue growth, its expansion efforts that will boost annual production capacity to 255,000 kilograms, and its global operations as positive indications of the company's ability to succeed. Now what It's technically possible that Aphria shareholders could tender their shares to Green Growth Brands in support of the hostile takeover attempt. It's also technically possible that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run as Donald Trump's vice presidential running mate in 2020. Don't hold your breath for either scenario. There are a couple of loose ends for Aphria's board of directors that aren't directly related to the Green Growth bid. One is for the special committee consisting of independent board members to complete its review of allegations that Aphria significantly overpaid for its acquisition of LATAM Holdings. These allegations were the primary reason why Aphria stock fell so low that Green Growth saw a window of opportunity. The board is also looking for a new CEO. Vic Neufeld announced in January that he and co-founder Cole Cacciavillani are stepping down from their executive positions at Aphria. Both Neufeld and Cacciavillani, however, will retain their positions on the company's board of directors. | https://news.yahoo.com/now-aphria-board-tells-green-140000014.html |
Is Intercept Pharmaceuticals a Buy? | Intercept Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ICPT) enjoyed a great year in 2018. The biotech's share price soared nearly 73% last year, as Intercept's revenue increased significantly. Intercept has also gotten off to a pretty good start in 2019, with its stock up 16%. However, many investors tend to wonder whether a stock can keep going up after a big run like Intercept has had. It's easy to see in retrospect that the biotech stock was a smart pick to buy months ago. Gloved hand holding beaker with $100 bill in it on top of more cash More Image source: Getty Images. You can pretty much sum up the reason to consider buying Intercept in one word: Ocaliva. It's the company's lead product. And it's what drove Intercept's revenue to grow to nearly $47 million in the third quarter. Intercept won FDA approval for Ocaliva in combination with ursodeoxycholic acid in treating primary biliary cholangitis (PBC) in 2016. PBC is a rare chronic liver disease in which bile ducts in the liver become inflamed and damaged. It can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure. PBC affects nearly 1 in 1,000 women over age 40 and affects men to a lesser extent. That might not seem like a big potential market for Intercept at first glance. However, in the U.S. alone there are probably at least 75,000 PBC patients. With Ocaliva priced at close to $70,000 per year, this represents a potential addressable market of more than $5 billion annually in the United States. The drug has also won regulatory approvals for PBC in Canada, Europe, and Australia, creating an even bigger international market opportunity. But an even more promising indication for Ocaliva could be on the way. Intercept expects to report results in the first quarter of 2019 from its phase 3 Regenerate study of Ocaliva in treating non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) fibrosis. If these results are positive, the company plans to file for approval on the basis of the Regenerate study data. Some industry observers think NASH could become a $35 billion market. Like PBC, it's a rare chronic liver disease and has quickly risen to become one of the leading causes of liver transplants. There are no drugs currently approved for NASH, and Intercept could become the first company to launch a treatment for the disease. The scenario for Intercept looks pretty good. However, there are two potentially significant hurdles for the biotech. First, Ocaliva has some potential safety issues. The drug's label comes with a black-box warning about the possibility of liver failure and even death if incorrect doses of Ocaliva are taken. In addition, a significant number of patients taking Ocaliva experience severe itching, which lessens the drug's appeal. These safety concerns make the second hurdle that Intercept faces more daunting. Other companies are developing NASH and PBC drugs, too. French drugmaker Genfit (NASDAQOTH: GNFTF) expects to report interim results from a phase 3 study of elafibranor in treating NASH later in 2019. The company could be set to file for regulatory approval in the NASH indication by late 2020 or early 2021. Elafibranor could potentially be viewed as more effective and safer than Ocaliva based on earlier clinical results. Genfit is also evaluating elafibranor in treating PBC, with positive phase 2 results announced in December 2018. | https://news.yahoo.com/intercept-pharmaceuticals-buy-141900367.html |
Is Celgene a Buy? | Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) has a new spring in its step. The biotech stock performed dismally beginning in late 2017 after a major pipeline setback followed by a botched regulatory filing. So far this year, though, Celgene is a big winner. The difference stems from Bristol-Myers Squibb's (NYSE: BMY) announcement in early January that it plans to acquire Celgene. Red ribbon forming a question mark on top of U.S. cash More Image source: Getty Images. A virtual no-brainer Bristol-Myers Squibb offered to acquire Celgene in a deal that valued the biotech at $102.43 per share. Considering that that represents a premium of nearly 17% over Celgene's current share price, buying Celgene stock appears to be a virtual no-brainer if the BMS acquisition is finalized. Actually, the deal is even more attractive for investors who buy Celgene now. Each Celgene shareholder will also receive one Contingent Value Right (CVR) for each share they own. This CVR entitles holders to get another one-time payment of $9 in cash if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves ozanimod and liso-cel by Dec. 31, 2020 and bb2121 by March 31, 2021. Pretty good. Ozanimod appears likely to win FDA approval easily based on its efficacy and safety profile. Celgene expects to file for approval of liso-cel in the second half of 2019. The biotech thinks it will secure FDA approval of bb2121 in the second half of 2020. There's one potential negative that investors should know about, though. Bristol-Myers Squibb's offer would give each Celgene shareholder $50 in cash and one share of BMS stock. BMS' share price was $52.43 when the big pharma company first announced its potential acquisition of Celgene. The share price is a little lower now. Unless BMS stock bounces back before the closing of the transaction, the overall gain for Celgene shareholders from the acquisition will be reduced. Also keep in mind that it's possible that Bristol-Myers Squibb won't acquire Celgene. There are four potential scenarios that could scuttle the deal. One is that regulators decide to put the brakes on Bristol-Myers Squibb's acquisition of Celgene. This is probably the least likely outcome, however. Another possibility is that another company steps in to buy Celgene at a higher price. This doesn't seem very likely, either. Even if it did happen, it would be good news for Celgene shareholders. It's also possible that Celgene shareholders vote against the BMS acquisition. There's a pretty good argument to be made that Celgene is worth more than what BMS has offered. Just a little over a year ago, Celgene was scooping up its own stock at prices higher than the price level that BMS has proposed. The biotech's prospects haven't materially changed since then, which could lead shareholders to conclude that Celgene would be better off over the long run either going it alone or holding out for a better deal. Finally, there's a chance that Bristol-Myers Squibb shareholders will nix the acquisition of Celgene. Some investors weren't happy with the decision to buy Celgene. BMS also now has an activist investor, Starboard Value, that might not be in favor of the acquisition. | https://news.yahoo.com/celgene-buy-140000384.html |
Did Bucks owner break NBA tampering rules with Anthony Davis comments? | Scroll to continue with content Ad Well, Antetokounmpo's own boss may have actually crossed the tampering line. Here's what Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry told Sporting News' Mitch Lawrence on Thursday about a report suggesting Milwaukee was one of four clubs Davis would sign a long-term contract with: I saw that report, and I think it's great. It's a little bit of what we want. We want players to come and play in Milwaukee. And part of it is, when you're winning and you're setting a standard for excellence, people see that. People want to win. Lasry is speaking in somewhat general terms here. But he had more to add: It doesn't make a difference if you're in Milwaukee, New York or LA. The whole goal is winning. So we hope it would be players like Anthony Davis and others who want to come to Milwaukee. "Players like Anthony Davis and others" sure sounds a lot like "Anthony Davis." And here's the kicker: Lasry pretty much admitted the Bucks will try to trade for Davis this summer when asked about the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers reportedly pursuing him, too. Yes, well, that's what makes it harder for us to do a (deal). We'll see if we can figure it out. That the Bucks and several other teams will pursue a trade for Davis this offseason is no secret. But clubs still can't publicly discuss these pursuits: The NBA's anti-tampering rules state "no player, coach or management person may entice or induce a player under contract with another team to play for his team." Story continues There's room for interpretation in that rule, but Lasry appears to violate it by no-so-subtly implying he'd like Davis to play in Milwaukee. Besides, Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson was fined $50,000 last February for arguably more innocuous comments about Antetokounmpo, ironically enough. Celtics fans may hope the NBA takes action here; Boston theoretically is in the drivers' seat on a Davis trade with the deadline in the rearview mirror, but one rival Eastern Conference general manager told Lawrence that Davis would be a "perfect fit" for the Bucks. Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device. | https://sports.yahoo.com/did-bucks-owner-break-nba-183400595.html?src=rss |
How did Apples AirPods go from mockery to millennial status symbol? | Of all the widely ridiculed tech products, Apples AirPods have experienced an extraordinary turnaround. Back in 2016, they were roundly mocked by the tech industry. It seemed like a recipe for disaster streets would be littered with these lost headphones, which would clutter up city pavements like discarded gloves and babies socks. If only there were an invention that could keep those AirPods tethered together, like a string, wrote Ashley Esqueda from the tech website CNET on Twitter. The beauty of the headphone cable is just like the beauty of a tampon string: it is there to help you keep track of a very important item, wrote Julia Carrie Wong in the Guardian. But fast-forward to 2019 and, somehow, the 159-a-pair little pods have transformed into a bona fide status symbol. Diana Ross has a pair, Kristen Stewart wears them and a woman in Virginia has even started a cottage industry by turning them into earrings for people (which does solve the problem of inevitably losing them). And so, the butt of the joke is not the AirPods themselves but the wealth and status of the people who wear them. Such as the former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who wore his upside down. As one viral tweet joked, the worlds Top 10 richest people are: 1. AirPod users; 2. The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos; and 3. Bill Gates. One meme, of a man being knighted by a queen, featured the caption: AirPod users welcoming new members who received them for Christmas. All this has now become known as AirPod flexing with the implication that showing off the headphones is gauche social signalling. The thing is, AirPods arent even the most expensive wireless headphones out there, says Katy Leeson, the managing director of the social media marketing agency Social Chain. That said, the jokes about them cant have hurt Apple if anything, the people mocking the product have led to a sales bump. People who consume memes millennials and so on are really hard to reach through traditional advertising, one digital marketing executive said. This online chatter creates a desirability all of its own. And, with rumours of AirPods 2 on the way, it seems like the little earbuds are here to stay. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2019/feb/10/how-did-apples-airpods-go-from-mockery-to-millennial-status-symbol |
Was a $100,000 Porsche a lemon? | A 2015 Porsche Cayenne. (Photo: Porsche) The Michigan appeals court says a Kent County woman will get a second chance to make her case with a jury. Jane Meyering bought a new Porsche Cayenne in 2015, but she sued after having problems with the heating-and-cooling system. The appeals court says an Ingham County judge wrongly disregarded Meyerings trial testimony and ruled in favor of Porsche North America. The court says the jury should have settled the dispute. In Michigan, a car manufacturer can be forced to buy back or replace a new vehicle if its not fixed after repeated attempts. Meyering says cold air turned the windows frosty in winter. At other times, the blower motor didnt work properly. A Lansing-area dealer replaced corroded components but said it couldnt confirm any problems during a fourth visit. Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2019/02/10/lemon-law-appeal-porsche-cayenne/39035609/ | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/foreign/2019/02/10/lemon-law-appeal-porsche-cayenne/39035609/ |
Will Activision Dispel "Fortnite" Fears When It Reports Earnings? | After more than five years of impressive gains, game publisher Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI) took it on the chin last year, losing more than a quarter of its value. While the late-year correction was partially to blame, the biggest factor impacting the stock was fear that free-to-play champion Fortnite: Battle Royale was siphoning off players from Activision's games, thereby reducing revenue and player engagement. Activision will have the opportunity to make its case once again when the company reports its fourth-quarter financial results after the market close on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Let's recap the third-quarter results and look at a few recent developments to see if they provide any insight into what investors can expect when the company reports earnings. A gamer in a darkened auditorium raising his hands in the air in victory. More Image source: Getty Images. Three quarters of slowing engagement For the third quarter, Activision reported revenue of $1.5 billion, down 7% year over year, and net bookings of $1.66 billion, which fell 13%, topping management's forecast and in line with analysts' consensus estimates. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.52, also exceeding expectations. Digital sales declined 4% year over year, to $1.28 billion, while digital net bookings fell 2% to $1.44 billion. Net bookings include the net amount of products and services sold digitally or sold physically in stores during the period, and includes licensing fees, merchandise, in-game advertising, strategy guides, and publisher incentives. While Activision management boasted about the "deep engagement" of its users, a troubling trend has been developing recently. The number of monthly active users (MAUs) has shown steady declines in each of the past three quarters, which could be a sign that Fortnite is indeed siphoning off Activision's users. MAUs topped out at 385 million in Q4 '17, declining to 345 million last quarter. Recent events Activision executives have been playing musical chairs over the past month following two high-profile C-suite departures. Early last month, Activision announced it was terminating finance chief Spencer Neumann, presumably after learning he had been in discussions with Netflix to take a similar role at the streaming giant. Shortly thereafter, the company also lost the services of Blizzard Entertainment segment chief financial officer (CFO) Amrita Ahuja, who accepted the CFO role at Square. In the wake of these moves, Activision appointed "three longtime company veterans" to lead its three operating units. Rob Kostich, who led the company's iconic Call of Duty franchise, was promoted to president of Activision. Humam Sakhnini, who acted as CFO and chief strategy officer for King Digital, was tapped to head that unit. Dennis Durkin, who has served as chief corporate officer and CFO of the company, will now lead Activision's Emerging Businesses unit. Expectations for the quarter For the fourth quarter, Activision forecast revenue of $2.24 billion and net bookings of $3.05 billion, up 15% year over year, The company is expecting adjusted earnings per share of $1.27. While we don't want to be lured into Wall Street's short-term mindset, analysts' consensus estimates are calling for bookings of $3.04 billion, up 15% year over year, and earnings per share of $1.29, up 37% compared to the prior-year quarter. | https://news.yahoo.com/activision-dispel-fortnite-fears-reports-163100664.html |
Why are insects in decline, and can we do anything about it? | Many scientists think the current worldwide annihilation of wildlife is the beginning of a huge loss of species on Earth. It has happened five times in the last 4bn years, as a result of meteorite impacts, long ice ages and huge volcanic eruptions. But this one is the result not of natural causes, but of humanitys actions. Extremely. By some measures, the biodiversity crisis is even deeper than that of climate change. Since the dawn of civilisation, humanity has caused the loss of 83% of all wild mammals. In the last 50 years alone, the populations of all mammals, birds, reptiles and fish have fallen by an average of 60%. The new global review says its even worse for bugs, with the proportion of insect species declining being double that for vertebrates. The insect decline is at least a century old, but seems to have accelerated in recent decades. Yes. There are more than a million species of insect, compared with just 5,400 mammals, and they are the cornerstone of all terrestrial ecosystems. Without them, you get what scientists call a bottom-up trophic cascade, in which the knock-on effects of the insect collapse surge up through the food chain, wiping out higher animals. And without healthy ecosystems, there is no clean air and water. The lack of bugs on car windscreens after a drive in the country, compared with a few decades ago, is real. But hard scientific data requires careful and long-term research, and relatively little has been done. Insects are small and often hard to identify, and they are certainly much less charismatic than elephants or eagles. Worse, just when we need more information, researchers say entomology courses are being cut. Ultimately the size of the human population and how much land it uses for the food, energy and other goods it consumes determine how much wildlife is lost. Protecting wild spaces is important, as is reducing the impact of industrial, chemical-based farming. Fighting climate change is also vital, particularly for the many insect species in the tropics. So demanding political action, eating fewer intensively farmed meat and dairy products, and flying less could all help. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/10/why-are-insects-in-decline-and-can-we-do-anything-about-it |
Was Brad Pitt at Jennifer Aniston's 50th birthday party? | Team Aniston has very strong feelings about the actress' ex-husband attending her 50th birthday party. (Photo: Getty Images) Jennifer Aniston's star-studded 50th birthday party brought out all of Hollywood's stars, from Reese Witherspoon to Robert Downey Jr., but fans were interested in only one attendee in particular: Brad Pitt. What appeared to be the back of Pitt's head was spotted walking into the Sunset Tower Hotel in Los Angeles, the site of his ex-wife's party, held Saturday in Los Angeles. Although it's unclear whether that head actually belonged to Pitt, that didn't stop fans (or E! or People, for that matter) from getting a little excited about the possibility of a reunion of what was once Hollywood's favorite couple. "Its like a FRIENDs episode!! Shes with Ross, then not, then back again!!" wrote one fan on Twitter. Other folks weren't too pleased about Pitt showing up to Aniston's birthday. "The fact that most commenters are hoping that Jen takes back a man who cheated during their marriage & LEFT her for someone else is seriously disturbing," commented another person. The fact that most commenters are hoping that Jen takes back a man who cheated during their marriage & LEFT her for someone else is seriously disturbing. F all of ya'll What the... (@Dliteful_Dreams) February 10, 2019 Aniston's former castmates and friends, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow also came out to help the birthday girl ring in her 50th. (Cox's ex, David Arquette, was also allegedly spotted.) Demi Moore, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom were also photographed outside the hotel while Gwyneth Paltrow (who, like Aniston, counts Pitt as an ex) and Ellen DeGeneres were also reportedly seen. Pitt and Aniston were married from 2000 to 2005. That same year, Pitt began a relationship with his "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" co-star Angelina Jolie. After dating for almost a decade, Pitt and Jolie married in 2014, only to file for divorce two years later. Their split still isn't finalized. Another of Aniston's exes, John Mayer, was reportedly spotted, too. But ex-husband, Justin Theroux, from whom she separated last year, was not. Leave Aniston alone: The star doesn't want or need the public's pity Theroux breaks silence: Aniston's ex calls split 'the most gentle separation' Pitt/Jolie custody battle: Exes take custody fight over their six kids to a 'private' trial Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/02/10/brad-pitt-jennifer-anistons-50th-birthday-party/2830131002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2019/02/10/brad-pitt-jennifer-anistons-50th-birthday-party/2830131002/ |
Could Canopy Growth Could Become Larger Than Constellation Brands? | Thinking big isn't a bad thing. And Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC) CEO Bruce Linton is definitely thinking big. Linton recently stated at the Cantech Investment Conference that his goal is to make Canopy's business "quite a lot larger and more successful" than its partner, Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ). The alcoholic-beverage maker, which invested $4 billion in Canopy Growth in late 2018, made more than $8 billion in revenue over the past 12 months. Canopy Growth made a little over 1% of that total during the period. But Linton thinks "it's not completely unrealistic" that Canopy Growth will one day be bigger than Constellation. Young man with a drawing of a rocket with a dollar sign on his back More Image source: Getty Images. What it would take For Canopy Growth, it's not quite as simple as increasing its annual revenue to more than $8 billion to become larger than Constellation Brands. Remember that Constellation should grow, too. Over the past five years, the Corona beer maker has increased its revenue by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12%. However, Constellation's growth will probably slow down somewhat in the future. The company's wine and spirits business weighed on overall performance in the third quarter and could continue to do so. Still, though, Constellation expects to increase sales over the next several years by mid- to high single digits annually. If we use a CAGR of 8% and project it out five years, the company's revenue would be close to $11.75 billion. If we went out 10 years using that same growth rate, Constellation's revenue would total more than $17 billion. And 15 years from now, the company would make more than $25 billion annually. Constellation itself thinks the global cannabis market will reach a little over $230 billion over the next 15 years. For Canopy Growth to be larger than Constellation by that point, the marijuana producer would need to capture nearly 11% of the global market. Now that we've established what it would take to achieve Linton's goal, let's examine how realistic it is to expect that Canopy Growth can pull off the task. Reaching the goal just might be more doable than you think. Constellation did its own number-crunching before it ponied up $4 billion to increase its stake in Canopy Growth. The alcoholic-beverage company thinks Canopy will grab between 30% and 40% of the Canadian marijuana market. That seems quite possible, considering Canopy's production capacity and solid supply agreements with all of Canada's provinces. However, Canada's addressable marijuana market is projected to be around $11 billion within the next 15 years. The big challenge for Canopy Growth in becoming larger than Constellation Brands is to succeed in the rest of the world. Constellation estimates that Canopy can pull in a market share between 5% and 15%. Unfortunately, hitting the midpoint of that range won't be enough for Canopy to grow larger than Constellation unless the global marijuana market expands more quickly than expected. But Canopy doesn't have to beat the midpoint of Constellation's projected market share range by very much to be on track to top its partner's annual revenue. It won't be easy, but there's a decent chance that Linton's view that Canopy could be larger and more successful than Constellation in the future just might be on target. | https://news.yahoo.com/could-canopy-growth-could-become-190000855.html |
Could OrganiGram Holdings Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock? | Global marijuana markets are booming. Marijuana stocks are hot. And one of the hottest right now is OrganiGram Holdings (NASDAQOTH: OGRMF). Its shares have soared around 45% so far in 2019. Let's look at what it would take. Smiling young man with money falling down on him More Image source: Getty Images. Crunching the numbers The achievability of a goal depends on how far away the goal is. For example, even first-graders can slam dunk a basketball when the goal is only 4 feet high. Similarly, you could probably make $1 million pretty easily by buying OrganiGram if you had just a little under $1 million lying around to invest in the stock. Another important factor in making a goal happen is the amount of time you have. If you could live as long as Methuselah, your chances of becoming a millionaire with OrganiGram would probably be reasonably good. I'm going to assume you're not already a near-millionaire and that you won't live for 969 years. Instead, let's say you have $10,000 to invest in a stock and an investing horizon of 15 years. That gives us solid parameters to use in determining whether OrganiGram could realistically be a millionaire-maker stock. To turn a $10,000 initial investment into $1 million requires a 100-fold return. OrganiGram's market cap currently stands at around $660 million, so that means the company would need to grow to a market cap of roughly $66 billion over the next 15 years. The marijuana producer would deliver a compound annual growth rate of nearly 36% during that period. Let's use a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 5, which is close to the midpoint between the average P/S ratio for the tobacco industry and the multiple for the alcoholic beverage industry -- both of which are similar in some respects to the cannabis industry. This P/S ratio means that to reach a market cap of $66 billion, OrganiGram would need to rack up annual sales of $13.2 billion within the next 15 years. Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics project that total worldwide legal marijuana sales in 2019 will be around $18 billion. The two research companies think the total will soar to $32 billion by 2022. You might have heard marijuana executives mention that the current global marijuana market is $150 billion. This figure stems from a United Nations report and includes both legal and illegal sales of cannabis. But with increasingly more countries legalizing medical marijuana and a few also allowing legal recreational marijuana, the total addressable market for OrganiGram and its peers is almost sure to expand rapidly. And the UN number doesn't include new markets for cannabis-infused beverages and other products. Constellation Brands did its own number-crunching before investing $4 billion in Canopy Growth. The big alcoholic-beverage maker estimated that the addressable retail cannabis market could top $230 billion within the next 15 years. If Constellation's projections are right, OrganiGram would need to capture a little under 6% of the global marijuana market. The company probably couldn't deliver on that goal anytime soon, though. OrganiGram has less than 5% of the total production capacity projected for the 10 biggest marijuana producers. | https://news.yahoo.com/could-organigram-holdings-millionaire-maker-190000000.html |
Will snow days mean a shorter summer vacation for Portland-area students? | Snow days: Theyre all fun and games until you realize they mean more school in June. That may be a reality for Portland-area students who find themselves playing in the white stuff if the snow persists past this weekend, as forecast. For most districts in the three-county metro area, more than one or two snow days -- or in many cases, even just one -- means a shortened summer vacation. Most districts have contingency plans that include potentially extending classes into the latter half of June. If Portland Public schools calls even one snow day, for example, students wont get out on Friday, June 7, as planned. Theyll have to come back on Monday, June 10, according to the districts calendar. State law requires districts students to get a minimum amount of classroom time throughout the year. Kindergartners up to eighth-graders are required to have 900 instructional hours in a year, Hillsboro School District spokeswoman Elizabeth Graser said. High School seniors are mandated to spend at least 966 hours in class, while freshmen, sophomores and juniors must log 990. School districts across the region cancelled their weekend activities in anticipation of the forecast, which called for a minimum 3 inches to blanket lower elevations through Sunday. While that didnt materialize, the National Weather service says the Portland could still see notable accumulation through the week. Forecasts by the weather service call for up to an inch of snow overnight Sunday plus more snowfall on Wednesday and Thursday after a spate of rain Monday and Tuesday. String of snow days throws off Portland schools' rhythm The unusually cold winter that took Portland by surprise and closed school for nine days has teachers and students fighting to get back into a routine. But so far, theres no indication area districts will have to wrangle with anything like the nine full days lost over the course of two months in 2016 and 2017 when that winters snowfall shuttered schools for nearly two weeks . Beaverton School District spokeswoman Maureen Wheeler said district officials will assess conditions Sunday and consult the forecast for the week ahead before deciding whether to adjust school schedules. In Beaverton, officials set aside two instructional days students can miss in the event of inclement weather. After two snow days, Wheeler said, officials will tack on one additional instructional day in June for every day lost next week. Hillsboro has June 17 and 18 set aside as makeup days should snow shutter schools come Monday and Tuesday. Graser, the district spokeswoman, said officials will decide in March, once the threat of inclement weather is typically over, whether the classroom calendar will bleed into summer vacation or whether the district could find other ways to make up lost time, such as canceling teacher workdays or adding minutes to the school day. Tigard-Tualatin School District students get one free snow day. After that, the academic calendar extends until at least June 13 and potentially longer should weather shutter schools for additional days. North Clackamas schools have five emergency make-up days set aside June 13 and 14 and June 17-19. Similarly, the David Douglas School District has the week of June 17-21 set aside for make-up days in the event of inclement weather closures. | https://www.oregonlive.com/education/2019/02/will-this-weekends-snowstorm-mean-a-shorter-summer-vacation-for-portland-area-students.html |
When HubSpot Reports Earnings, Will Its Soaring Gains Continue? | Last year was an impressive one for inbound marketing and sales specialist HubSpot (NYSE: HUBS). Even as the broader market as represented by the S&P 500 struggled and ended the year down 6%, HubSpot gained more than 40%. The company's consistent ability to exceed its guidance and analysts' consensus estimates, followed by the subsequent increase of its forecast, were cheered by investors, sending the stock to new heights. Another year provides the company with another opportunity to wow shareholders when HubSpot reports the financial results of its fourth quarter after the market close on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Let's look at the company's third-quarter results and a couple of recent developments to see if they provide any insight into what investors can expect when HubSpot reports earnings. Man at computer working on business document. More Image source: Getty Images. Another beat and raise For the third quarter, HubSpot reported revenue of $131.8 million, up 35% year over year, and sailing past the high end of its guidance and analysts' consensus estimates. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.17 were more than triple expectations of $0.05. Both segments of the business contributed to the better-than-expected results. Subscription revenue topped $125 million, up 35% year over year, while professional services and other revenue jumped to more than $6 million, up 39% versus the prior-year quarter. HubSpot's spending discipline resulted in operating margins that continued to expand. On a GAAP basis, operating margin of negative 11.4% improved from negative 12.4% year over year. Adjusted operating margin of 4.4% climbed more than eightfold from 0.5% in the prior-year quarter. The company's customer base grew to 52,505, up 40% year over year, while the total average subscription revenue per customer declined to $9,959, down 4%. This was the result of significant growth in HubSpot's recently relaunched lower-priced starter products, which are designed to attract new customers. As they tend to stay on for the longer term, most customers eventually increase their spending. Recent developments There have been a couple of recent announcements that will be of interest to HubSpot investors. Late last year, the company announced that it had been recognized as a Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for CRM Lead Management. In order to qualify for this achievement, a company must have at least 50 published reviews with an average overall rating of 4.2 stars or higher. At the time of the announcement, HubSpot boasted 1,251 verified peer reviews, with an overall rating of 4.4 stars. HubSpot also announced that it was expanding its existing collaboration with Amazon Web Services. HubSpot already provides a number of benefits to mutual customers, like access to HubSpot for Startups and preferred pricing on its Growth Suite software, as well as a host of other perks. The companies will now provide additional benefits to those members, as well as those using HubSpot Connect. AWS will co-invest in building out an ecosystem for HubSpot partners, while providing tailored content for developers. While neither of these announcements will have a direct impact on the financial results, it is an indication of the ongoing work that HubSpot is doing to build close relationships with its customers. | https://news.yahoo.com/hubspot-reports-earnings-soaring-gains-200000486.html |
Are Kiwi jobs safe in a robotic age? | Robots are here and if you're not working with one already, chances are you will be soon and it'll make jobs more interesting and productive. Currently New Zealand is in a middle 27th place with 49 robots per 10,000 employees according to the International Federation of Robotics. However, other advanced nations have many more - South Korea leads the pack worldwide with 631 robots per 10,000 workers - and it's clear that we have to follow suit and automate to remain competitive in the world. Auckland company Anglo Engineering's production manager Garry Bourne said that after initial hesitation from employees, the results have been very positive for the company. While selling robots to the employees took some effort, the reduction in the amount of fatigue-inducing manual labour they bring has been welcomed by workers. "For instance, hand grinding for a couple of hours with heavy machines is hard work and can give people repetitive strain injuries," Bourne said. With robots that can work at night and in the dark when needed at a constant rate, Anglo Engineering has been able to boost productivity considerably. And, the products are better. Advertisement "Humans can't compete with robots when it comes to quality, and not having to grind the welds for the cosmetic reasons speeds up production and lowers material waste," Bourne said. One robot does the work of three experienced welders, Bourne said. At $70,000 each in annual wages, the cost of three human employees is about the same as that of a single robot. Conversely, if Anglo Engineering had decided not to use robots, expanding to accommodate growth would have been difficult. "The alternative we looked at was adding an afternoon shift, which meant buying more welding gear, health and safety equipment, adding parking spaces and other overheads related to staff," Bourne said. With robots, Anglo Engineering is positioned to take on both more complex work, or larger volumes of more mundane jobs. A welding robot in action. Photo/File. Bourne added that robots enable New Zealand's small and medium-sized businesses to compete with much larger organisations and to grow faster when needed. Most definitely," he concluded. As the IFR numbers show, New Zealand has some way to go before we hit the robot-worker densities of other developed nations. Sectors that will see increased robotic automation include primary industries such as dairy and agri/horticulture as well as forestry. These are experiencing labour shortages and the work itself is dirty and dangerous for humans who struggle to match the productivity and consistent quality of robots. Probably not: as with the IT revolution, jobs that can be done by machines won't be done by humans in the future. Those jobs however are repetitive and mundane, and generally not well-paid. Robotic automation is likely to replace such jobs with more satisfying and worker-friendly positions that require better skills. Management consultants Deloitte's 2017 study of the impact of automation in Britain pointed to some 800,000 low-skilled jobs being lost. That however contrasts with 3.5 million new jobs being created through automation, positions that paid better as well. Despite the fears of the machines taking over, everything points to robots using advanced technology such as networked sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning that leverages cloud computing and will instead help create viable companies that provide the jobs of the future. - In association with MYOB. Midday Wednesday, the Herald will run a live panel in which experts will discuss how this technology is changing small businesses in New Zealand. Tune in to participate in the live chat. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12202604 |
What is Ariana Grande doing instead of attending the Grammys? | CLOSE Ariana Grande released a new album and confirmed she will not be performing at the 2019 Grammy Awards amid a dispute with producer Ken Ehrlich. USA TODAY Ariana Grande was saying "thank u, next" to all that Grammys drama ahead of Sunday's awards show just as she earned her first Grammy for best pop vocal album (for "sweetener"). She took the time to thank her label, fans and appreciate the moment despite the controversy around her Grammys performance that didn't pan out. "i know im not there tonight (trust, i tried and still truly wished it had worked out tbh) and i know i said i try not to put too much weight into these things ... this is wild and beautiful. thank you so much," she wrote. i know im not there tonight (trust, i tried and still truly wished it had worked out tbh) and i know i said i try not to put too much weight into these things .... but fuck ....... this is wild and beautiful. thank you so much. Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) February 10, 2019 The singer also retweeted a tweet from the Grammys account announcing her pop vocal album win, and shared the post on Instagram. Earlier, fresh off her latest album release, Grande took to Instagram Sunday to talk about anything but the award show she chose not to attend. She hinted on Friday about her plans, quote-tweeting Bette Midler. im having a thing.... its pretty lowkey," she wrote. Sunday, Grande shared several Instagram posts basking in the success of her album and celebrating pal Doug Middlebrook's birthday. She also shared an old newspaper article that featured a story about her alongside an image of her as a child. The article was about her being hit by a hockey puck when she was 5. "started from the bottom now we here," she quipped. She followed up with two posts featuring her younger self. One of the images features her botched Japanese tattoo, making light of the flub that made headlines last month. Ariana Grande was saying "thank u, next" to everything Grammys ahead of Sunday's awards show on social media, even after winning her first Grammy for best pop vocal album (for "sweetener.") (Photo: ANGELA WEISS, AFP/Getty Images) On Twitter, she was busy promoting "thank u, next" and responding to fans (and her mom), as well as sharing the same childhood photos. "if im honest ..... this is still exactly what i look like without lashes and my pony ..... anyone who knows me knows me knows ..... like .... im twenty five," she wrote. "i was five here. the only difference now is that hand now says bbq grill finger." if im honest ..... this is still exactly what i look like without lashes and my pony ..... anyone who knows me knows me knows ..... like .... im twenty five. i was five here. the only difference now is that hand now says bbq grill finger. pic.twitter.com/rkAbXla1YF Ariana Grande (@ArianaGrande) February 10, 2019 Grande called out Grammys producer Ken Ehrlich on Twitter Friday for saying she "felt it was too late for her to pull something together." She wrote: "ive kept my mouth shut but now youre lying about me. i can pull together a performance over night and you know that, Ken. it was when my creativity & self expression was stifled by you, that i decided not to attend. i hope the show is exactly what you want it to be and more." Contributing: Julia Thompson Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/02/10/grammys-2019-whats-ariana-grande-doing-thank-u-next-win/2832255002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2019/02/10/grammys-2019-whats-ariana-grande-doing-thank-u-next-win/2832255002/ |
Does The U.S. Oil Rig Count Still Matter? | Released each Friday to end the work week, the U.S. oil-directed rig count is something the entire energy business looks forward to. As such, we all thank Baker Hughes for these numbers that tell us a good bit about the current thinking of our oil and gas industry. Despite numerous changes in the business, particularly since the shale oil and natural gas revolution took flight in 2008, there is still a very clear connection between oil prices and the rig count, with rises for the former pushing higher numbers for the latter Measured from -1.0 to +1.0, the Correlation Coefficient determines the relationship between two variables. For oil prices and oil rig count, the graphic below shows a strong +0.82 connection, with both variables moving in the same direction up or down. As oil prices go up, more rigs hit the fields. But, it can take months of rising oil prices before producers are sure enough that prices will hold before they bring additional rigs into service. And in reverse, there is a lag of course since falling prices will not immediately drag the rig count lower. As for the rig count suggesting the direction of U.S. crude oil production, our booming shale industry has simply advanced beyond it. Although more oil rigs could obviously help grow production, fewer rigs does not necessarily indicate falling output. Beyond just the number of rigs, increased efficiencies and lower costs for producers explain why U.S. crude production has soared to record highs of nearly 12 million b/d now. The powerful combination of faster and better horizontal drilling and fracking has helped output explode, even when the rig count falls. Again, the oil price collapse from 2014-2017 in particular forced the shale industry to improve operations as much as possible, or face the prospect of going out of business. This really means that the U.S. oil industry today is stronger than it ever has been. "A lean, mean crude producing machine." The innovations in the industry continue to surpass anything opponents claimed was possible: "Best Practices Extend Lateral Lengths." All of this greatly complicates things for oil forecasters, who now have to look at everything from frac sand use to hiring statistics to try and decipher which direction the industry is heading. In fact, some look at 10 or more metrics besides just the oil rig count in making their reports and predictions | https://www.forbes.com/sites/judeclemente/2019/02/10/does-the-u-s-oil-rig-count-still-matter/ |
Will David Dahl Finally Burst Forth This Year For The Rockies? | A conditional phrase hovers above David Dahl, a verbal black cloud he would like to see vanish. His immense ability, the ease with which he plays and what the Colorado Rockies outfielder has shown in his brief time in the majors is apparent. Quite simply, he is a potential five-tool player. But when Dahls tantalizing future is discussed, a qualifier is invariably mentioned: If he can stay healthy. If so, abundant playing time awaits Dahl this season. Outfielders Carlos Gonzalez and Gerardo Parra are gone, free agents who remain unsigned. Ian Desmond is moving from first base to the outfield where he is expected to play center and left fields. Charlie Blackmon will likely shift from center field to a corner spot for the most part. Dahl, who turns 25 on April 1, is expected to mostly play right field. He can play all three outfield positions, but when it comes to the corners, he said hes way better in right field and finds left field tougher. The left-handed hitting Dahl is versatile enough to move around the lineup. Indeed, he batted in all eight spots last year, including 12 times hitting second where he could be an ideal replacement against right-handed pitchers for the departed DJ LeMahieu. Its a game of inches and dollars. Get the latest sports news and analysis of valuations, signings and hirings, once a week in your inbox, from the Forbes SportsMoney Playbook newsletter. Sign up here . Dahl should qualify for arbitration as a Super 2 player after this season. So hell be arbitration eligible four times before he can become a free agent after the 2023 season and is under the Rockies control for five seasons. The 10th overall pick in the 2012 draft, Dahl signed for $2.6 million. His big-league resume consists of 140 games and 508 plate appearances spread over two seasons separated by a year of virtual inactivity. Dahl made his major league debut on July 25, 2016, and hit safely in his first 17 career games, tying the major league record for the longest hitting streak to start a career. In those 17 games, Dahl hit .358 (17-for-67) with a .991 OPS, three homers and 10 RBI. Thats when my swing felt the most locked in that its been, Dahl said. But I still think I have more than that. My average is pretty good. My power is pretty good, but I still think theres more in there. Dahl finished that 2016 season with a slash line of .315/.359/.500 and seven homers, 24 RBI and 42 runs scored in 63 games. That was Walt Weiss final season as Rockies manager. He is an astute evaluator, a harsh judge and entirely forthright, not given to overly praising a player because it makes for good public relations. I see a lot of confidence, Weiss said of Dahl during the 2016 season. Typically when young players show up, theyre not sure. They dont have a track record in the major leagues to fall back on, to draw confidence from. David showed up here a very confident player, very composed. He always looks like hes in control of his game, control of his at-bats. Dahl finished strong last year, hitting .287 with a .985 OPS, nine homers and 27 RBI in the final month of the season. That surge enabled Dahl to finish 2018 at .274/.325/.534 with 16 homers and 48 RBI in 77 games. After pretty much a lost 2017 season, Dahl began 2018 at Triple-A Albuquerque before the Rockies recalled him April 22. On May 30, he fouled a ball off his right foot and broke it. The Rockies reinstated Dahl from the 10-day disabled list on July 27 and optioned him to Albuquerque. He was recalled Aug. 5 and spent the balance of the season with the Rockies. Last year, I was playing with my swing and my approach a lot, Dahl said. I was trying to find my swing almost all year. It would feel good sometimes, feel OK the next (day). Unfortunately, Dahl is well-versed at finding his playing groove after returning from an injury. He missed virtually all of the 2013 season at low Class A Asheville with a severely torn hamstring followed by back soreness. In 2015 at Double-A New Britain, Dahl, chasing a short fly ball, collided with a teammate and suffered a lacerated spleen that resulted in removal of the organ. Dahl was able to return in just under six weeks but played just 73 games for New Britain. In 2017, Dahl was limited to 19 games, all in the minors, after suffering a stress reaction in his rib cage in spring training and didnt play after July 31. Because he suffered repeated setbacks once he started to swing, the Rockies were cautious with Dahl last winter, making for a much different offseason than this one. I wasnt allowed to hit until a week or two before spring training, Dahl said. So swing-wise, I did not feel great, and it took me a while to get it back. This year, I feel a lot better. Im able to not have any restrictions. All of which could bode well for Dahl and the Rockies. Indeed, after a bit of a wait, this could finally be Dahls time. Id like to think that, he said. I just got to take care of my body. Hopefully, just avoid those fluke injuries. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacketkin/2019/02/10/will-david-dahl-finally-burst-forth-this-year-for-the-rockies/ |
Why are homeless people still dying in the UK? | After a spike in deaths among homeless people in the affluent city of Oxford, Robert Booth went to investigate. In a growing community of rough sleepers, there is little support for people with mental health problems and addiction. Plus: Nosheen Iqbal on the white fragility preventing a frank national discussion about racism Oxford is one of Britains most affluent cities, world famous for its prestigious university and its medieval architecture. But it also has a growing population of homeless people, who have been hit by a spate of deaths this winter. Anushka Asthana went to meet Monica Gregory, a formerly homeless woman who volunteers to support rough sleepers in the city. She hears from the Guardians social affairs correspondent, Robert Booth, on whats behind the spike in deaths. Plus: the Observers Nosheen Iqbal on the sociologist Robin DiAngelo, author of White Fragility, and why you need to listen to her arguments especially if you think you dont. | https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2019/feb/11/death-on-the-streets-homelessness-in-britain-today-in-focus-podcast |
What did the juries hear in the Scott Kuggeleijn case? | New Zealand Cricket is under growing pressure for not publicly taking a stand on sexual consent in relation to one of its players. Fast bowler Scott Kuggeleijn was found not guilty of rape in a retrial in 2017, which came after the first trial in 2016 resulted in a hung jury. But it is his conduct which was highlighted in those trials, and New Zealand Cricket's decision not to publicly address it, which has angered some fans and frustrated sexual violence prevention advocates. Their protests have intensified as Kuggeleijn has made more regular appearances for the Black Caps this summer. At matches in Wellington and Auckland last week, supporters held signs which promoted sexual consent and targeted New Zealand Cricket for what they saw as inaction. Advertisement When Kuggeleijn was first selected for the national side in March 2017, NZ Cricket chief executive David White said the organisation had to respect the court process and that it would be "manifestly unfair" to all parties to re-litigate the case. The court was "the most appropriate forum for judging matters as serious as this", he said. NZC has not addressed the issue again since, except to say that it stood by its handling of the matter and that it has introduced comprehensive sexual consent training for all players. It has been approached for comment. Sexual violence groups say that a not guilty verdict does not mean there is nothing for Kuggeleijn or NZ Cricket to account for. What the jury heard during the case was also important, they said. WHAT THE JURY HEARD Kuggeleijn was charged with sexual violation by way of rape in relation to an alleged incident at a Hamilton East flat on May 17, 2015. The complainant was a 21 year-old student at Waikato University, who has permanent name suppression. At the time, he played for Northern Knights, a top tier team in New Zealand's domestic cricket league. In the first trial, a jury of eight men and four women heard that the complainant went back to her flat with Kuggeleijn after running into to him at a party and then later at a nightclub. After initially kissing and fondling in her bed, she said that she told him "no" to sex. They then went to sleep. The woman woke at 7am the next day and the two began kissing. "I started to say no to him. I was a lot more firm ... this time," she said. The woman said Kuggeleijn pinned her arms down and had sex with her against her will. Immediately afterwards she got dressed and left the room before bursting into her flatmate's room distraught. Kuggeleijn texted her on the Monday apologising for being persistent, she said. Kuggeleijn's lawyer, Philip Morgan QC, said Kuggeleijn had stopped his sexual activity when the complainant told him to on two occasions. But after they woke in the morning, he tried again and this time he did not hear a "no", Morgan said. He said Kuggeleijn denied the woman's claim that he had pinned her arms above her head. When he took the stand, Kuggeleijn said he was led to believe the woman was interested in him because she grabbed his crotch at the party. He said that she had been "flirty" and "touchy feely" and was dressed provocatively with her "breasts out". He had told a friend that she was the type of girl who "loved penis". "I hadn't known her for very long and there's not many women who you haven't known for very long who grab your groin like that," he said. After 11 hours of deliberation, the jury said it could not reach a verdict. THE RETRIAL The second trial began on February 20, 2017, before a jury of six men and six women. At the trial, the complainant said she had said "no" to sex "dozens of times". On the morning of the alleged assault, she said she repeatedly had to try and hold up her underwear as Kuggeleijn pressured her for sex. However, at one point, she said, she couldn't hold them up any longer and he got them down, eventually holding her arms above her head and began having sex with her. In the stand, Kuggeleijn said he thought the complainant had been enjoying the intercourse because she was "breathing heavily" and acted the same as when he was touching her. Allegations that he used force were "not true", he said. When asked about the complainant's evidence that she said "no" "dozens of times", he said it was "a lie". "I tried [having sex] twice, like she might have said 'no, no' a few times but it wasn't dozens of times." He and his lawyer reiterated their defences from the first trial that the woman had been "provocatively dressed" and "looking for male attention". Attention was also drawn to the amount of alcohol she had been drinking and her reliability as a witness. After deliberating for 40 minutes, the jury found Kuggeleijn not guilty. A month later, Kuggeleijn was called up to the national side. NOT GUILTY IN COURT While Kuggeleijn was found guilty in court, academics and sexual violence groups have raised concerns about what the trial revealed about his character - and about how NZ Cricket has handled the matter. University of Auckland professor Nicola Gavey, who has specialised in sexual violence issues, wrote in a blog post that the evidence presented in court about the behaviour leading to Kuggeleijn's arrest made it difficult for people who in sexual violence prevention to "sweep the whole thing under the rug". She was particularly concerned with NZ Cricket's "wall of silence". "A not guilty verdict does not mean there is nothing to account for. No one is asking for 'relitigation'. But doing nothing is not a neutral position. When Kuggeleijn appears on the field and the commentators talk up his glory with bat and ball, it's as if his actions off the field have been forgiven and forgotten by the cricketing fraternity." Gavey said she was not arguing that Kuggeleijn should never represent his country or that he could not rise above his past. "But when a man represents New Zealand in a high-profile sport like cricket or rugby he is automatically elevated to a position of unique status and potential influence in New Zealand society. And for that reason, the position carries a reasonable burden of expectation for decent behaviour. And an expectation of public accountability when he falls short." Kathryn McPhillips, the executive director of HELP Auckland, said it was not Kuggeleijn's selection for the team in itself that was problematic. "It's problematic because there's a vacuum on the other side," she said. "There's nothing being done to remedy what happened. "When we select people for international teams we reinforce that they're heroes. "And really, our heroes need to have good behaviour to be in that place. Because the human psyche doesn't divide it up to say 'Yes he's a hero for that and not for that'. "There is a responsibility if you are placed in that hero position to live up to that. When you don't live up to that, doing something to offset that or to change the impressions - there is a place for that." McPhillips said NZ Cricket should have front footed the issue when Kuggeleijn was first selected. "It could have come out with some comment from him, that was understanding where he went wrong and what he's going to do differently and how important it is to seek consent." It could also have run its own campaign on consent, or publicly supported the NZ Police campaign called "Don't Guess the Yes". "That's hero behaviour," she said. "Brushing it under the carpet and not talking about it - that's not consistent with being put up on that pedestal." | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12202845 |
How Could Changing Consumer Trends Affect Fast Fashion Leaders H&M and Zara? | In recent months weve seen evidence that the seemingly unstoppable growth of fast fashion maybe slowing, or at least changing. Its more than just conjecture that many of the malls stalwart brands have suffered at the hands of fast fashion giants H&M and Zara, whose ability to significantly reduce time to market as well as undercut pricing of the once iconic brands, have added to the woes of many of fashions specialty retailers. Now, in an unprecedented move, H&M the worlds second largest clothing manufacturer behind Inditexs Zara, announced the closure of 160 stores. The fashion giant was hit hard in mid-2018, after accumulating more than $4 billion in unsold inventory, forcing significant discounting to clear out the goods. The effect of this resulted in unexpected reductions in profits for the 6th straight quarter. Now, on the heels of this news, Martino Pessina H&M's president of North American operations, insisted that H&M US has already begun scaling back on the heavy discounting in its North American locations. Its unclear how a company that has hooked customers on fast and cheap can simply flip the switch, without repercussions. Additionally, in the last several years H&M has seen their rival Zara, the worlds largest fashion retailer, taking share with more fashionable offerings. Meanwhile number-three player, Uniqlo of Japan, is making significant strides with its core of timeless basics, along with plans for massive Asian growth. But H&M isnt the only fast fashion player that is feeling some pain. In the past week, fast-fashion retailer Charlotte Russe filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. They are initially planning on only closing about 20% of its stores but could end up liquidating if they cant find an investor to keep the business going. New, Faster Niche Players Another annoyance for the two fast giants is the emergence of a whole new breed of online-centric players beginning to beat both H&M and Zara at their own game. These upstarts include brands like ASOS, Boohoo and Misguided in the UK, who are building followings by cutting down supply chains to bring out offerings in as little as a week. Another major disruptor, Fashion Nova is supercharging its digital-first brand utilizing a social strategy, powered by Instagram. They have managed to build more than 14 million social media followers; and in 2017 Fashion Nova became one of the most Googled brands in the world. The company has been able to introduce anywhere between 600 and 900 new pieces per week. Fast Fashion Backlash At the same time there is growing evidence of pushback by both millennials and gen Zs as awareness is growing of the massive ecological damage that this throw-away fashion mindset is having on the planet. More and more environmental and consumer groups are impacting attitudes, raising awareness and altering purchasing patterns. Its no secret that fast fashion has been responsible for a catastrophic level of environmental pollution. The trifecta of overt use of raw materials, water pollution and greenhouse gas emotions are only a part of the story. Not only is this circular buy, wear and toss behavior impacting landfills, and becoming a major carbon contributor, that may not be the worst of it. Fast fashion has played a very dark role in contributing to black-market trafficking of forced labor, as evidenced in the New York Times documentary, Invisible Hands, by journalist Shraysi Tandon. Additionally, hundreds of lobbying groups are raising awareness and influencing consumer demand for drastic industry change. This has led to growing evidence that both millennials and gen Zs are pushing for a new level of transparency around the ecological footprint and entire life cycle all products. And according to a recent Nielsen pole, 73% of Millennials have demonstrated a willingness to pay more for products that are sustainable. Investing In a More Personal Style Not surprisingly, the other influencer that is causing fashion fixation fatigue is the internet, itself. As more and more of the star social media influencers are identified as just normal folks they are impacting the nature and trajectory of whats cool. Trending appears to be evolving from a top-down fashion evolution, dictated by manufacturers and fashion periodicals, to a bottom-up percolation, driven by social media and personal fashion expression. The effect has both given permission and encouragement to throngs of consumers to cultivate their own, unique personal styles. Other cultural influencers like Marie Kondo are teaching us to love our stuff and begin to look at what we have with new eyes. Combine that with a strong movement away from conspicuous consumption to seeking out and enjoying experiences, and you have the makings of a change wave. Contrary to the forces behind fast fashion, we are seeing evidence of movement by consumers of all ages and demographics toward investing in fewer, but higher quality basics, that can be mixed, matched and re-worn; even with the addition of some great vintage accessories. There is indeed reason to believe that significant changes are underway; away from whats trending and toward whats stylish. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/sanfordstein/2019/02/10/how-could-changing-consumer-trends-affect-fast-fashion-leaders-hm-and-zara/ |
Is young people's mental health getting worse? | Image copyright Newscast Online Poor mental health among children and young people has been described as an epidemic and an "escalating crisis". The number of children seeking help from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (Camhs) in England, has more than doubled over the past two years. But establishing how much of this represents an actual rise in young people experiencing problems, and how much is down to better awareness of symptoms and diagnosis, is difficult. Staying with England for now, our best shot is to look at a representative sample of the whole population, not just those who have come in contact with mental health services. An NHS survey of young people in England, selected from GP records, did just this. It found a small but genuine rise in diagnosable emotional disorders like depression and anxiety, especially among girls. This was based on full psychiatric assessments of roughly 10,000 young people - meaning it could pick up existing problems even if someone had never sought help. Researchers found the proportion of under-16s experiencing any mental disorder had risen from 11.4% to 13.6% between 1999 and 2017. That total includes things like anxiety and depression as well as behavioural disorders and hyperactivity. "It was smaller than we thought," says Prof Tamsin Ford, a child psychiatrist and researcher who developed the survey. "It's not huge, not the epidemic you see reported." Older teenagers were included in the survey for the first time in 2017 and it suggested that young women aged 17-19 were two-thirds more likely than younger girls, and twice as likely as their male peers, to experience poor mental health. There is a big gap between the rise in the number of children found to have diagnosable mental disorders over almost two decades, and the rise in referrals to Camhs in just two years. And that suggests a good proportion of the rise is down to more people seeking help, not entirely to more people being unwell. That doesn't mean all those people will get help, though. There has also been a rise in the number of young people saying themselves that they have a mental disorder, according to national surveys conducted each year around Britain. Self-reported conditions among young people increased six-fold in England, doubled in Scotland and went up by more than half in Wales between 1999 and 2014. Self-reporting Again, that's despite the fact that researchers couldn't find an equivalent rise in the numbers showing signs of psychological distress when given a formal psychiatric assessment. This is likely to be because children - and their parents - are better able to recognise difficulties, leading to a "narrowing of the gap between problems that exist and problems that are reported," according to Prof Ford's research. It's also possible some children are identifying distressing emotions as disorders even though they don't have a diagnosable condition. And methods of diagnosis of mental illness are not perfect either since they are trying to draw a clear line [between having a condition and not] in something that is anything but clear: where ordinary feelings of anxiety become an anxiety disorder, or where feeling low due to circumstances crosses over into clinical depression. Hospital admissions It's not just that young people are more likely to say they have difficulties with their mental health, though. In England, there has also been an almost doubling of hospital admissions for self-harm among girls since 1997 (although there's been no corresponding rise among boys). An NHS Digital spokesman said the disparity between the sexes meant the rise was unlikely to be just down to improvements in recording. But even when it comes to symptoms this severe, hospital records aren't necessarily a perfect measure of more people harming themselves. A better understanding by professionals has led to more cases being recorded as self-harm, Prof Ford says, whereas previously people may have been treated for their wounds without the self-inflicted nature being picked up. This may also be down to a reduction in stigma - most self-harm is concealed and so more people presenting at hospital doesn't necessarily mean more self-harm is actually taking place. A "surprising number of people" harm themselves quite severely yet never go to hospital, she explains. Although the evidence for whether children and young people's mental health is getting worse is contradictory, according to Lorraine Khan at the Centre for Mental Health, there are "some tentative signs of a decline in young women's wellbeing", backed up by the latest NHS figures, which need investigation. Get in touch Read more from Reality Check Follow us on Twitter | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47133338 |
Do Democrats want government involved in health care or not? | Liberal Democrats are pushing for third-trimester abortions, stating it is a womans right to choose what happens to her body and her baby and they do not want government involvement. But now with the 2020 elections looming, Democrat candidates are touting Medicare for all. But Medicare for all will surely involve the government in all aspects of health care, abortions included. They cant have it both ways. Liberals campaigning are not explaining this to their voter base because they believe their base is too dumb to figure it out. They know their base will vote for them no matter that key campaign issues are at odds with each other. | https://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/letters/do-democrats-want-government-involved-in-health-care-or-not-1594417/ |
Can 'Big Brother' technology clean up palm oil's image? | LONDON (Reuters) - Some of the worlds major palm oil users, including Nestle, Unilever, and Mondelez, are trying out new satellite technology to track deforestation, as pressure grows on them to source the ingredient responsibly. A worker collects palm oil fruits at a plantation in Bahau, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia January 30, 2019. REUTERS/Lai Seng Sin They say the monitoring systems allow them to target people felling trees in producing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, where forests are shrinking, more efficiently than policing supply chains on the ground. They say youre Big Brother, said Benjamin Ware, global head of responsible sourcing at Nestle. Its not Big Brother - its todays reality...there is nothing secret anymore. Interviews with leading brands, commodity traders and plantation owners show the systems have limitations and opinions on them vary, reflecting tension within the industry over how to tackle an issue with no easy answer. Some say the technology is not enough to stop deforestation - that monitoring is not preventing. Others worry boycotting unsustainably made palm oil just drives bad practices elsewhere. Dividing the supply chain into the good versus the bad fundamentally does not solve deforestation, said John Hartmann, global sustainability lead for agricultural supply chains at commodities trader Cargill, which sells palm oil to firms like Nestle and Unilever. Palm oil buyers have toyed with satellite imagery for years, but have now ramped up their use as they rush to meet a pledge of zero net deforestation by 2020, set by global umbrella body the Consumer Goods Forum. The oil is in nearly half of all packaged goods from chocolate to soap, and is also used as a cooking oil and in biofuel. As sustainability becomes more of a buzzword, multinational brands are trying to keep shoppers from switching to independent start-up brands, which often tout green credentials. Theres more awareness, said consumer analyst Robert Waldschmit from Liberum. People want a sustainably-sourced product. BIG BROTHER Palm oil contributes less to deforestation than beef or soy, which are responsible for much of the destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. But it has garnered attention because it thrives in biodiverse regions, threatening endangered species and exacerbating global warming. The big players, including consumer brands, commodity traders like Cargill and Wilmar International and plantation operators and processors, have supply chains that span millions of smallholder farmers as well as many middlemen. They are trying to take it into their own hands on how its monitored...Because they havent gotten their supply chains under control at this time, said Phil Aikman, campaign director at environmental pressure group Mighty Earth. Nestle, target of a 2010 video by Greenpeace International depicting a stick of KitKat bar as an orangutan finger, was briefly suspended by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) last year for not sharing time-bound plans for how it would boost purchases of certified palm oil. The RSPO, which is backed by the World Wildlife Fund and other NGOs, sets varying levels of sustainability criteria that members must meet to certify their oil; the most stringent level involves ensuring it is separated from the rest and can be traced to a single certified source. RSPO-certified oil comes with extra costs, which buyers are not always willing to swallow. Of the 11.9 million tonnes of RSPO-certified oil produced in 2017, only 52 percent was sold as such, the group said. But the RSPO has itself faced criticism that it allows some deforestation as well as development on valuable peat lands: in November, it responded by tightening its rules. Nestle says a quarter of its palm oil is RSPO-certified and all of it will be by 2023, but 100 percent will be responsibly sourced by 2020, partly with the help of satellites. From next month, it plans to publish data online from an Airbus-developed satellite system called Starling, to put responsibility on the mill that extracts oil from palm fruit. Nestle says that once a Starling deforestation alert is verified, it will ban the offending supplier after 60 days of engagement unless it cleans up its act, although the firm has not yet suspended any since rolling out this new model last month. The challenge is figuring out how do we act on that information, who are the right people in the organizations to interact with to address deforestation, Emily Kunen, Nestles global responsible sourcing leader for palm oil and seafood, told Reuters at a plantation under Starlings watch in Bahau, some 125 km south of Malaysias capital Kuala Lumpur. Unlike cocoa or coffee, palm oil is often not marked as sustainably or responsibly sourced even though Nielsen data suggests sales of products with environmental claims often fetch higher prices and grow faster than their peers. The image of palm oil is very bad, said Nestles Ware. Italys Ferrero Group, which only buys RSPO-certified palm oil that has been separated from the rest, has tried Starling, but the Nutella maker said it is still assessing results of its pilot to decide whether to keep using it. One of the questions we would like to look at is whether theres an early warning system, said Giulia Di Tommaso, Ferreros chief communications and sustainability officer. Are you able to address it before deforestation happens, or does it only allow you to understand when the damage is already done? Unilever says it is on track for all of its core volume purchases, the bulk of its usage, to be certified by the end of 2019 and is also using satellite technology. Along with others, including its suppliers Cargill and Wilmar, it is piloting a satellite tracking tool called Global Forest Watch (GFW) Pro, which will launch this summer. Wilmar, which was among RSPO members recently named and shamed by Greenpeace, said from January it started immediately suspending purchases from mills with links to GFW Pro-identified deforestation. In the past, we have tried to engage, engage, engage, said Ginny Ng, global conservation lead at Wilmar, which handles 35 percent of global palm oil supply. Some suppliers are taking advantage of that. So now were going to suspend first, and then we will chat. GFW Pro will be free, to encourage everyone to use it, but producers say low benchmark palm prices and the difficulty in securing a premium price make it difficult to offset the costs of taking action based on data from such platforms. Benchmark palm oil futures are just 19 percent off a three-year low they hit in November, at $563 per tonne. RSPO-certified oil can cost from $2 to $40 more per tonne depending on the level of sustainability, according to Carl Bek-Nielsen, chief executive director of United Plantations and RSPO co-chair. Palm oil is still cheaper than alternatives but several supermarkets have cut back or stopped using it, including SPAR in Austria and Coop in Italy, citing health and environmental concerns. Italys Barilla is also challenging Ferreros Nutella with a chocolate spread without the oil. European Union lawmakers are set to phase out palm oil in transport fuels from 2030, angering producing countries, which see the export as key to economic growth and poverty reduction and have threatened retaliation. But world demand is poised to continue expanding fast tmsnrt.rs/2HTZwLf as incomes climb in developing nations. Some in the industry say dirty palm oil expelled from big players supply chains is finding other buyers in booming markets in Asia and Africa, where price often trumps sustainability. Slideshow (7 Images) If oil is produced, it finds a way to market, said Jonathan Horrell, director of sustainability at Cadbury chocolate maker Mondelez International. Mondelez buys RSPO credits to cover its palm oil volumes rather than sourcing only physically certified oil, while also piloting GFW Pro. It says engaging with producers to improve their practices is more effective than cutting dirty oil out. I dont think exclusion from supply chains is the way forward. | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-palmoil-technology-insight/can-big-brother-technology-clean-up-palm-oils-image-idUSKCN1Q00DD |
Is school starting "too early" making teenagers "too tired"? | Hearing the alarm go off in the morning and knowing you have to get up for school often isn't our favourite part of the day. Many schools start at 09:00 and some even earlier, but today MPs are debating whether secondary schools should instead start at 10:00. It's all because of an online petition signed by more 179,000 people, which claims "teenagers are too tired due to having to wake up very early to get to school". The petition argues: "The government should require secondary schools to start later, which will lead to increased productivity at school." The French government has already considered doing something similar in some schools in Paris, by pushing the school start time forward from 08:00 to 09:00. Any petition that manages to get more than 100,000 signatures is put before the UK Parliament to be debated. But because education is devolved to the Northern Irish and Welsh assemblies, and the Scottish Parliament, the debate will be focused on schools in England. Oops you can't see this activity! To enjoy Newsround at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. In response to the petition the Department for Education says it's up to each individual school to decide when they start and finish, as well as their timetable and duration of their school day. It added: "The Department has not made an assessment of these decisions taken by individual schools. We trust head teachers to decide how best to structure their school day to support their pupils' education." So it looks like the petition might not really make much of a difference. Getty Images Back in 2015 UK scientists said that starting school at 10:00 could have huge benefits for teenagers. Some schools have tried out starting later before. In 2014, students in the sixth form of Hampton Court School in Surrey began lessons at 13:30 and finished at 19:00 in a trial to see if it improved concentration. Let us know in the comments below. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47173999 |
Is Facebook About To 'Break' Instagram, And What Does That Mean For Influencers? | Ever since its sale to Facebook in 2012, Instagram has pulled off the trick of appearing detached from the aging brand, continual scandals and reputational taint of its parent. The young and cool are on Instagram, and whilst most also have Facebook accounts, theyll often tell you they no longer post or share on the platform. Even recent issues that have hit Instagram a lack of transparency around paid-for posts, the hosting of dangerous imagery, the Fyre Festival have more to do with the behavior of users than the activities of the platform itself. Theres an argument that Facebook should not have been allowed to buy Instagram in the first place it has damaged the market and neutralized a natural competitor. As one tech writer explained at the time of the deal: Instagram has what Facebook craves passionate community. People like Facebook. People use Facebook. People love Instagram - Facebook lacks soul. Instagram is all soul and emotion. Despite Instagrams distancing trick from Facebook, they are very much part of the same money-making machine. Instagram ads are placed using Facebooks systems. They share data. Advertisers (and data exploitation schemes) run content across both. But following the departure of founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, Instagram has lost its buffer. Even as stock analysts herald its potential to become the primary driver of Facebooks ad revenue, if the glossy filter wears too thin, if Facebook gets too close, the brand will be at risk. And other platforms like Snapchat will be waiting in the wings. Meet The Influencers What could bring all this to a head is the quiet revolution in marketing thats not so quiet anymore. The influencer industry will reach $10 billion in value next year and is written into the plans of every major brand around the world. Whilst these numbers are dwarfed by the value of more traditional online ad-placement, growth across the influencer industry shows no signs of slowing. It is the business model that looks set to change the rules of advertising. And Instagram is the shining star right at its center. Facebook needs to control the agenda for influencer marketing, or it risks undermining its own dominance in the coming years. This revolution isnt being driven by a few dozen A-list celebrities with millions of followers, or even by macro-influencers with a few hundred thousand each. It is being driven by the hundreds of thousands of micro-influencers, each with a few tens of thousands of followers. The micro-influencer is trusted within their niche. They are expected to use, and not just endorse, products. And what they say matters. Their following represents a targeted demographic. With more advanced tools becoming available to identify, validate and manage the right person for the right campaign, the elusive ROI from influencer marketing will become measurable. And that will be a game changer for the marketing industry. No company in the world stands to gain or lose as much from the influencer marketing phenomenon as Facebook. It leads the way in tools and techniques to drive the industry. It has more users, more data, more experience. And, ultimately, it has Instagram. By any measure, 2018 should have been the year Facebook erased from its timeline: fake news; Cambridge Analytica with links to Russia and election tampering; congressional hearings; the founders of WhatsApp and Instagram heading for the exit; data breaches and data leaks; slowing growth, as the company started exhausting addressable planet. But then Facebooks results for the final quarter were released, revenue and earnings were up ahead of consensus, and management, shareholders and analysts relaxed everything was going to be just fine. Yes, 2018 may have been a slow-motion train wreck, but the train was back on track. Facebook is done apologizing, explained Bloomberg. For a moment during the earnings call, I closed my eyes and swore it was the glory days of 2015. Dig a little deeper, though, and beneath the veneer, there was an acknowledgment of the value Instagram brings to the company and the need to bring it closer to the core. Instagram is the ultimate social media marketing powerhouse. And, despite revenue growth at around 70% into double-digit billions of dollars, despite spawning the influencer marketing phenomenon, despite one billion daily active users and four billion daily likes, it is only just getting started. When Instagram was purchased for $1 billion back in 2012, an article on the BBC News website neatly reflected the skeptical response to newly-listed Facebooks first major acquisition: I understand Instagram has 13 employees - so at $77m per head that makes it the most expensive business deal in history that I can think of. Barely seven years later, Instagram is valued at around $100 billion and could be the prime driver of Facebooks ad revenue growth in the coming years. Its not looking so expensive anymore. Simply by being on Instagram, brands can make a positive impression on potential shoppers, claims Facebook. People surveyed say they perceive brands on Instagram as popular (78%), creative (77%), entertaining (76%) and relevant (74%). In total, 87% [of people surveyed] said they took action after seeing product information on Instagram, such as following a brand, visiting their website or making a purchase. Too Close For Comfort Instagram revenue fits the traditional Facebook model of placing ads in users feeds based on targeted data metrics as to who and where they are, and what they do and dont do, like and dont like. But Instagram has also been the primary driver behind influencer marketing, where a brand uses a well-followed individual to promote their product or service, rather than placing a blatant ad themselves. The immediate question is how a follower can separate genuine views from paid promotions. But, that apart, the influencer can use their own creative discretion (to an extent) and this makes for more powerful content. Whether you contend that Instagram has democratized or demonized the marketing industry, it has certainly disrupted and now it threatens Amazon-like disintermediation. There has been a four-fold increase in the number of influencer posts on Instagram since 2016, and, according to Wired, the price of a post from a top-level influencer has increased ten to twenty times over the same period, and now costs upwards of $100,000. Weve seen the [influencer] industry go from a rising marketing tactic to an essential part of most marketing budgets, explains AdWeek. Influencer Marketing: An Industry On Fyre Whilst influencer marketing started with Paris Hilton, the cult of the Kardashians and equivalent celebrities promoting to millions of followers, it soon cultivated the insta-celebrity, people famous simply for their feeds and numbers of followers. This has now morphed into the micro-influencer. Instead of millions of followers, an influencer will have tens of thousands - but in specific niches: fitness, beauty, fashion, parenting, cooking, yoga. And which has become a major issue for Instagram even more controversial subjects like eating disorders and self-harm. This week, following reports that content had been implicated in teen suicides in the U.K., Instagram pledged to remove all such material as clamors for regulation started to ring around the industry. There have been broader, continual allegations of misuse and abuse across influencers. Micro-influencing becomes something of a free-for-all, unregulated, unstructured, rife with bots and fake profiles, with machined likes and follows, with questionable claims that would not pass advertising standards on more traditional platforms. Unilevers marketing chief made headlines last year when he called into question the use of social media influencers with inflated fraudulent followings. And there has now been a belated response from regulators to the clear circumvention of advertising rules by leading influencers who skirted around requirements to badge promotional posts through gifting arrangements. This week in the U.K., the BBCs Panorama airs an investigation into influencer marketing. The Million Pound Selfie Sell-Off questions the ethics and impact of an unregulated industry that some claim is akin to the wild west. Diet pills and drinks, unhealthy lifestyle choices, gambling, self-harm. There is clearly an expectation of some level of self-regulation across the industry - thats unrealistic. Where the primary concern is consumer transparency, thats one thing. But where the products can be harmful thats quite another. The Federal Trade Commission in the U.S. and the Competition and Markets Authority and Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K. have started to bear their teeth on influencer marketing, mandating a prominent and transparent level of disclosure and removing loopholes around coincidental gifts from brands that have been promoted in the past. This has split the industry. The issue is that tagging a post as an ad means less of an affinity with followers but not doing so risks a loss of credibility. Nothing better illustrates the perils of influencer marketing than the 2017 Fyre Festival, a Bahaman rival to Coachella that was basically like Instagram coming to life, according to one of those involved. Several hundred influencers promoted the event, and many took up freebie accommodation and VIP ticketing offers whilst neglecting to mention these incentives, making the social media storm seem organic. Ten supermodels, including Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski, took to a yacht and a beach to make a now-infamous promo video. Everything was tailored to blast virally across social media. The footage of disaster relief tents and limp cheese sandwiches in polystyrene boxes highlighted on the two documentaries now streaming on Netflix and Hulu might be funny, but millions of dollars of tickets were sold for an event that didnt exist. The organizer, Billy McFarland, was jailed for six years and some of the influencers are being sued. Looking To The Future With hundreds of thousands of influencers, tools are required to identify the right one for a campaign or product, to validate the authenticity and quality of their following, to assess their reach by sector, demographic, location. Cue Facebook, if theres one thing they do well it is using targeted data to make us click, like and buy. When the company launched its Brand Collabs Manager last year, AdWeek suggested that the worlds largest social network just sent a clear signal that the future of advertising on its platform is influencer marketing. AI will also come into play as the sector expands, better managing campaigns to get results, identifying the right influencers to work with, understanding reach and ROI. Disclosure time: my partner is a micro-influencer with 30,000 followers - until recently she focused on fitness but is now shifting to mummy-blogging with our baby due in April. As I write, Im surrounded by packages from the brands that have sent cots and prams, clothes and accessories. I've now seen how the industry operates as a spider-web, agencies are linked and place one product after another, the brands have people on point, slots to be filled, firm ideas of who they want to find and how they want collaboration to come across. Theres a schedule of posts in a spreadsheet. Each one will carry the now obligatory #ad tag. Influencer marketing has professionalized even at the micro levels. The influencer deciding exactly what and how to post dominates, but this is slowly being balanced with content plans as brands hire in-house or agency teams to manage their influencer programs. Specific influencers can now be told exactly what to post and when. For stories, the brands might send out people to film the influencer who then posts under their own account. Influencers would certainly benefit from demonstrating some level of discretion: If an influencer accepts every opportunity that comes his way, no matter how much it contradicts with the previous weeks partnership and goes against their usual aesthetic, audiences will be able to spot their inauthenticity a mile off. Trust will be tarnished. Take away influencers trusted followers, and you take away their influencing superpowers. For those with larger followings, this becomes the work of the agent or rep, but for the micro influencers, they need to demonstrate a level of commercial maturity that wont be obvious to the freelancer. And this is critical because right now the micro influencers are seen as the most trusted, as the most authentic. The company has created material value by leaving the platform (superficially) alone, albeit with occasional touches on the tiller, such as with stories and ad sales. But left to its own devices, it would like to do more, much more. And so the first challenge for Facebook is how to manage Instagram as an increasingly critical contributor to its core performance without breaking it. The second and harder challenge is how to monetize influencer marketing as it disintermediates structured ad platforms. The opportunity is exceptional but it wont be easy. So, for Facebook, it needs to manage Instagram without being seen to be doing so, and it needs to manage influencer marketing without suffocating or breaking it, or, worse, driving it to different platforms. Users will follow the content, ultimately. The rise of the influencer and the disintermediation of traditional advertising is pushing regulators and brands to rethink their approaches. And Facebook is right in the middle of this. In an ideal world, it needs to control the agenda, to professionalize influencer marketing and to play matchmaker at scale as this surpasses other revenue streams. But it needs to affect this trick without damaging the appeal of the platforms to the influencers and followers themselves. For their part, influencers can expect the free-for-all 'wild west' to slowly come to an end - between regulators pushing for greater transparency and consumer protection on one hand, and Facebook pushing more scientific data metrics and accountability on the other. Measuring the quantity and quality of engagement will become much more sophisticated and analytical. And then we will see the emergence of AI to design campaigns with near certain results. In the short term, influencers will be encouraged to demonstrate discretion in what to promote and how to promote it, clarity with followers, much more diligence in confirming the authenticity of those followers, and a more competitive environment where Facebook (and others) will be able to report on the relative merits of one influencer versus another. In the end, the challenge for Facebook is that it needs to draw Instagram closer to the core without damaging the essence of its brand, it needs to lever some control over influencer marketing without killing the buzz, and it needs to stave off the polarizing pressure on its business model from regulators without ramping up the pressure from investors. There is some talk that Facebook could come under regulatory pressure (or mandate) to separate a Baby Bell tale for the data age. Time will tell. But in the meantime, the social media giant has its work cut out and can ill afford any missteps. It is the world of viral information and disinformation after all. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/02/11/is-facebook-about-to-break-instagram-and-what-does-that-mean-for-influencers/ |
What is love and is it all in the mind? | We crave romantic love like nothing else, well make unimaginable sacrifices for it and it can take us from a state of ecstasy to deepest despair. The American anthropologist Helen Fisher describes the obsessive attachment we experience in love as someone camping out in your head. In a groundbreaking experiment, Fisher and colleagues at Stony Brook University in New York state put 37 people who were madly in love into an MRI scanner. Their work showed that romantic love causes a surge of activity in brain areas that are rich in dopamine, the brains feelgood chemical. These included the caudate nucleus, part of the reward system, and an ancient brain area called the ventral tegmental area, or VTA. [The VTA] is part of the reptilian core of the brain, associated with wanting, motivation, focus and craving, Fisher said in a 2014 talk on the subject. Similar brain areas light up during the rush of euphoria after taking cocaine. Facebook Twitter Pinterest MRI scans of the brains of those in love found surges of activity of dopamine. Photograph: Daisy-Daisy/Alamy During the early stages of love, the emotional excitement (or some might say stress) raises the bodys cortisol levels, causing a racing heart, butterflies in our stomach and inconveniently sweaty palms. Other chemicals in play are oxytocin, which deepens feelings of attachment, and vasopressin, which has been linked to trust, empathy and sexual monogamy. Actually in a case of science imitating poetry, the heart has been found to influence the way we experience emotion. Our brain and heart are known to be in close communication. When faced with a threat or when we spot the object of our affection in a crowded room, our heart races. But recently, scientists have turned the tables and shown that feedback from our heart to our brain also influences what we are feeling. Facebook Twitter Pinterest What the heart is doing can influence how strongly our brain processes emotion. Photograph: Borja Suarez/Reuters One study, led by Prof Sarah Garfinkel of the University of Sussex, showed that cardiovascular arousal the bit of the hearts cycle when it is working hardest can intensify feelings of fear and anxiety. In this study, people were asked to identify scary or neutral images while their heartbeats were tracked. Garfinkel found they reacted quicker to the scary images when their heart was contracting and pumping blood, compared with when it was relaxing. Her work suggests that electrical signals from blood vessels around the heart feed back into brain areas involved in emotional processing, influencing how strongly we think were feeling something. Finally, in what must be a contender for one of the most romantic (or mushy) scientific insights to date, couples have been shown to have a tendency to synchronise heartbeats and breathing. Love is merely a madness, Shakespeare wrote. But it is only recently that scientists have offered an explanation for why being in love might inspire unusual behaviour. Donatella Marazziti, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Pisa, approached this question after carrying out research showing that people with obsessive compulsive disorder have, on average, lower levels of the brain chemical serotonin in their blood. She wondered whether a similar imbalance could underlie romantic infatuation. She recruited people with OCD, healthy controls and 20 people who had embarked on a romantic relationship within the previous six months (it was also specified that they should not have had sexual intercourse and that at least four hours a day were spent thinking of the partner). Both the OCD group and the volunteers who were in love had significantly lower levels of serotonin, and the authors concluded that being in love literally induces a state which is not normal. When the in love group were followed up six months later, most of their serotonin levels had returned to normal. A separate study found that people in love have much lower activity in their frontal cortex an area of the brain crucial to reason and judgment when they thought of their loved one. Scientists have speculated an evolutionary reason for this which could be termed the beer goggles theory: the suspension of reason makes coupling, and hence procreation, far more likely. Sexual orientation has several components, including behaviour, identity, attraction and arousal. Many scientific studies have been based on who people say they are attracted to, and surveys typically find that same-sex attraction accounts for fewer than 5% of the population, and this figure has remained relatively stable over time. But peoples behaviour and the labels they use to describe their sexual identity appear to be influenced to a greater degree by social and cultural factors. For instance, in the UK there has been a sharp rise in the proportion of women reporting having had a sexual experience with another woman, from 1.8% in 1991 to 7.9% in 2013, according to the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, which is carried out each decade. As with any scientific investigation, the way questions are framed also makes a difference to the answer. So studies that ask people to pick between two or three categories would miss any more subtle gradations. As Kinsey wrote in 1948: The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we learn this concerning human sexual behaviour, the sooner we shall reach a sound understanding of the realities of sex. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Women are considerably more likely than men to rate themselves on a continuum of sexuality, Photograph: Sam Edwards/Getty Images/Caiaimage There is growing support for the idea of a continuum, in particular for women who are considerably more likely than men to rate themselves as intermediate categories such as mostly heterosexual (10% v 4%), when given those options. Its worth noting that a 2011 study found no differences between brain systems regulating romantic love in homosexuals and heterosexuals. It has been known for decades that sexual orientation is partly heritable in men, based on studies of identical and fraternal twins. In the 1990s, a specific region of the X chromosome was linked to male homosexuality and more recent two specific genes have been found to be more common in gay men. However, the genetic factors that have been identified so far only play a small part in determining sexuality not all men who have these genes are gay. Research on the genetic basis of female sexuality lags behind, which some have attributed to it being more difficult to study. Others might conclude that there has simply been less effort to understand this topic. There are other biological factors at play as well. One of the most robust findings in sexual-orientation research is the fraternal-birth-order effect: gay men tend to have a greater number of older brothers compared with straight men. This is a biological influence rather than a social one and is a big effect, increasing the odds of a man being gay by roughly a third. In women, there is evidence that pre-natal hormone exposure can make a difference to sexual orientation. Pheromones are chemical signals that are used to communicate and alter the behaviour of others. The first pheromone discovered, in the 1950s, was a substance called bombykol that female silkworms emit to attract males. Ever since then, the search has been on not least by perfume manufacturers to find a human equivalent. There have been some tentative claims. Facebook Twitter Pinterest A pheromone present in male pigs, androstenone, has also been found in the human armpit. Photograph: Joe Pepler/Rex Features For instance, a known pig pheromone, androstenone, has been found in the human armpit. When female pigs on heat get a whiff of the substance, which is found in boars saliva, they adopt the mating stance. However, there is not yet any convincing evidence for real-life Lynx effect chemicals in men and women. The strongest contender to date for a human pheromone is a chemical secreted from glands in the nipples of breastfeeding mothers. When wafted under any sleeping babys nose, the child responds with sucking and rooting behaviour. Cheating is widely disapproved of, but is not that uncommon. According to the University of Chicagos General Social Survey, men are on average more likely than women to be unfaithful 20% of men and 13% of women reported that theyve had sex with someone else while married. However, the figures shifted across age ranges, with women in the youngest age range (18-29) being marginally more likely (11% v 10%) to have cheated, with the widest gender gap in the 80+ range where 24% of men and just 6% of women said they had been unfaithful. Recently scientists have shown that some people may be genetically predisposed to being unfaithful. One study of nearly 7,400 Finnish twins and their siblings found a significant link between the vasopressin gene and infidelity in women. Another study, by scientists at the Kinsey Institute, in Indiana, showed that certain variants of the gene for the dopamine receptor were more likely to be unfaithful and also more likely to be repeatedly unfaithful. Further reading Why We Love: the Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love: Helen Fisher Splendors and Miseries of the Brain: Semir Zeki Romeo and Juliet: William Shakespeare The Bible 1 Corinthians | https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/feb/11/what-is-love-and-is-it-all-in-the-mind |
Are insects facing extinction? | Getty Images Insects can be so tiny we might not always think about them, but they play a really important role on our planet. Many birds and reptiles rely on them for food and they also help with pollination. But the number of them is going down. Getty Images Researchers say "a considerable proportion" of some species, which include dragonflies, have already been lost. New research has been looking at historical reports of insect declines from across the globe. They've also been looking at the reasons why it's happening. The most affected species include moths, butterflies, dragonflies, wasps, bees, ants and dung beetles. Some insect species are increasing though. Getty Images Butterflies and moths are amongst the worst affected insects. The research, published in the Biological Conservation journal, found that 40% of the world's insect species could become extinct over the new few decades. That means they wouldn't exist any more. The researchers say there are a number of reasons for the drop, including loss of habitats because of intensive agriculture and climate change. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47195749 |
Did The U.S. Just Lose Its War With Huawei? | "There are two things I dont believe in," Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, referring to Germany's standoff with the United States over Huawei's inclusion in her country's 5G rollout. "First, to discuss these very sensitive security questions publicly, and, second, to exclude a company simply because its from a certain country." Europe now seems likely to settle on 'careful and considered' inclusion of Huawei instead of any blanket bans. Chancellor Merkel stressed this week that a joined-up EU response would be "desirable", and Italy and the U.K. are also backing away from Washington's prohibition on Huawei's 5G technology. If they fold, it is likely the broader European Union will follow suit. There comes a tipping point in any battle, and with this one, we may be just about there. Even as the head of the U.S. European Command told the Armed Services Committee "were concerned about [Germany's] telecommunications backbone being compromised... If [Huawei] is inside of their defense communications, then were not going to communicate with them," the industry was delivering a very different message. "Weve not seen any evidence of backdoors into the network, said Vodafones most senior lawyer in the U.K. If the Americans have evidence, please put it out on the table. What Vodafone and other industry leaders have to say carries serious weight. Governments will be swayed by the network operators, and so the telecoms industry will likely decide Huawei's fate. They control investments and 5G rollout schedules. They also have the technical expertise and talk glowingly about the Chinese manufacturer's innovation. The company filed more patents than anyone else last year: An all-time record by anyone, the WIPO director general told reporters. The turning point Last month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona has proven the turning point in the long-raging battle between the United States and Huawei. Ahead of the event, it looked very much like the world's leading telecoms equipment manufacturer was on the backfoot. The U.S. campaign ahead of MWC had been relentless. Vice President Mike Pence traveled across the Atlantic to call "on all our security partners to be vigilant and to reject any enterprise that would compromise the integrity of our communications technology or national security systems," and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to make it clear that if [Huawei] equipment is co-located where we have important American systems, it makes it more difficult for us to partner alongside them. Every Huawei interview and press briefing for month after month was a defense of their security record, an insistence that they don't spy for Beijing. But then Huawei pulled off a well-orchestrated PR masterstroke at MWC. And everything changed. Huaweis rotating chairman, Guo Ping, used a keynote speech at the event and media follow-ups to turn defense into attack. The Snowden leaks, he said, shone a light on how the NSAs leaders were seeking to collect it all - every electronic communication sent, or phone call made, by everyone in the world, every day. The more Huawei gear is installed in the worlds networks, the harder it becomes for NSA to collect it all. Huawei hampers U.S. efforts to spy on whomever it wants. Guo was playing to the worlds gallery. In an instance Huawei provided a plausible reason to take U.S. warnings at less than face value. In reality, there was already a softening of the international stance but this hastened it. MWC is home turf for Huawei. They basically sponsor the event. Their logo is everywhere. The industry likes their technology and believes it can mitigate the risk. And, ultimately, their trump card is that the risk remains theoretical. There has not been any tangible evidence presented of data collection for Beijing. Multiple fronts But even as the PR battle swings in their favor and the commercial impact looks less damaging than was thought earlier this year, there remain company court battles to be fought in the U.S. and charges against their CFO. Huawei has pled not guilty to its U.S. indictment and launched its own litigation against the government. These battles will take months or even years to resolve, and in the interim, the real war for the world's 5G networks will be won or lost. At MWC, Huawei announced 5G agreements with ten operators, including Switzerland's Sunrise, Iceland's Nova, Saudi Arabia's STC and Turkey's Turkcell - whose CEO said of Washington's campaign against Huawei: "This is an insult to our industry. We do know how to run tests and protect our networks, we always have." The real issue, though, relates to potential splits in the Five Eyes. For Washington to cut defense communications with Germany is one thing, but the U.K. is its closest intelligence-sharing partner. And the U.K. does not currently look on track for a prohibition of Huawei technology in its 5G networks. "Its a hugely complex strategic challenge which will span the next few decades, probably our whole professional lives," Jeremy Fleming, the head of U.K. intelligence agency GCHQ said recently. "How we deal with it will be crucial for prosperity and security way beyond 5G contracts. "Trust needs to be based on facts, facts must be verifiable, and verification must be based on common standards," said Ken Hu, Huawei's deputy-chairman as he opened a 'Cyber Security Transparency Center' in Brussels this month. 5G underway Germany launched its 5G spectrum auction this week. Deutsche Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica Deutschland and 1&1 Drillisch will participate in a three-week process that could raise as much as 5 billion for the federal government. Huawei isn't involved in the auction but would be a material supplier to the networks once deployments get underway. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2019/03/20/did-the-u-s-just-lose-its-war-with-huawei/ |
When will the UFC move on from Dana White? | The UFC president was an key asset during the the organizations darkest days, but hes become its biggest liability in recent times After 18 years at the helm of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Dana White has no intentions of parting ways anytime soon. The UFC president revealed on Monday that he has signed a new seven-year contract with parent company Endeavor to stay on as president of the leading MMA organization. He shared the news during an an interview posted on the promotions YouTube channel. Read more Ari Emanuel and I just signed a new seven-year deal, too, White told Megan Olivi. So were here for seven years, ESPN is here for seven years. And the incredible things that were gonna work on, I just cant even tell you how pumped I am for all of this stuff. Whites new contract appears to coincide with the UFC extending its distribution deal with ESPN, which now expires in 2025 instead of 2023. UFC pay-per-views will also be exclusively featured on the ESPN+ platform, which means that only subscribers to the streaming service will be able to purchase UFC PPVs in the United States. While the financial figures from the extended contract were not revealed, White explained that he couldnt be more excited to work with ESPN for the next seven years. The UFCs head honcho has been with the promotion since 2001, when Whites longtime friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased the MMA organization from Semaphore Entertainment Group. He was immediately positioned as the face of the UFC and has been synonymous with UFC branding ever since. While White had the opportunity to exit the UFC when the Fertitta brothers sold the UFC to WME-IMG (since renamed Endeavor) in 2016 for more than $4bn, he chose to stay on as president and help Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel during the transition period. I have the vision for where the sport is gonna go and what were gonna do and the different types of fights, White said with regards to his relationship with Emanuel and the UFCs latest ownership. And what Ari does, Ari is the guy that can pick up the phone and get anybody on the phone. And Ari can raise money like this. While White proved to have a pivotal influence on the UFC and its fanbase during its surge in popularity in 2005, he has been less influential in modern times. When the UFC was struggling to cement itself as a legitimate sport and attraction for American sports fans, Dana Whites brash personality and unpolished, aggressive approach was the perfect complement to the violent combat sport. The hot-tempered White embodied the UFC and rose to become one of its most popular celebrities the personification of the fight business. However, he has grown to be a controversial and problematic figure for many involved in the sport. Over the past few years, White has been involved in a public disputes with notable fighters, including UFC champions such as Tyron Woodley. He has also insulted reporters and defended the inclusion of convicted domestic abuser Greg Hardy on UFC fight cards. Now 49 years old, White continues to rule over the UFC with an iron fist. He defended the UFCs current pay scale amidst complaints from struggling fighters by saying, If youre not that big pay-per-view star, shut up and fight. The UFC president has also been accused of bully tactics by former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson, who claimed that White threatened to eliminate the entire flyweight division if Johnson did not defend his title against TJ Dillashaw in 2017, as well as by former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub, who feuded with White on social media in 2018. Another concern surrounding Whites continued tenure with the UFC is his ongoing relationship with incumbent US president Donald Trump. White is a vocal supporter of the current administration and even praised Trumps business savvy during a speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016. His defense of Trumps actions over the past two years can be viewed as an extension of the UFCs continued support of the president. Since the 2016 RNC, White has visited Trump in the White House along with interim champion Colby Covington a welterweight fighter who sports Make American Great Again hats and allowed the UFC to produce a propaganda documentary that presents Trump as a magnanimous business mogul. As the president of an organization with a significant percentage of Latin Americans and Muslim fighters (segments that Trump has repeatedly insulted), Whites continuous support for Trump sends a powerful message about the UFCs stance on minority rights. While Dana White has proven himself as an indispensable asset during the UFCs darkest days, he has become its biggest liability in recent times. His controversial comments and unfiltered approach, once endearing to the sports hardcore fanbase, are now arguably a barrier to the UFCs legitimacy as a mainstream entity. Given that White will continue to operate as the face of the UFC for the foreseeable future, it is unlikely that any of the promotions glaring problems will be addressed anytime soon. | https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/mar/20/when-will-the-ufc-move-on-from-dana-white |
Can a State Abolish the Insanity Defense? | Lets start with the immigration crime case. Kansas v. Garcia is a test of statutory language in the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986, the last truly comprehensive immigration reform statute. Among its other effects, IRCA is why, when employees begin a new job, they must file a federal I-9 form attesting that they are American citizensand attaching documents like a birth certificate or passport to prove that the attestation is true. The three defendants in Garcia are undocumented immigrants. They used other peoples Social Security numbers on I-9s when they found work in Kansas, as well as on Kansas state documents required to file taxes or rent housing. Kansas authorities prosecuted all three under state identity theft statutes prohibiting use of the documents or identifying numbers of another person to commit fraud or obtain any benefit. At trial, the defendants pointed to the section of IRCA that imposed the I-9 requirement. That section says that the I-9 form, and any information contained in or appended to such form, can only be used to enforce specified federal crimes. That meant, they argued, that federal law pre-empts state laws seeking to punish any use of the information provided by a worker, even if false. The states response was that the language only covers use of the information on an I-9 form itself; it cant, Kansas said, be read to immunize a worker who uses the same information on a separate form to pay state taxes, gain a drivers license, or do other business with the state. Federal pre-emption is a dense subject. Congress has certain enumerated powers under the Constitution. When passing laws under those powers, it may take specific areas out of state jurisdiction altogether. It does this by saying this law pre-empts state law (explicit pre-emption), or by passing a statutory scheme that either directly conflicts with a state statute or that is so comprehensive that it occupies the field (implied pre-emption). The Kansas Supreme Court concluded that IRCA explicitly forbids states penalizing the use of the same information. That reading isnt nonsensical; one purpose of IRCA was to make it easier for aliens to comply with the law without fearing prosecution. In its appeal to the Supreme Court, however, Kansas points to language in the same section of IRCA that says that the statute preempts all state laws punishing employers for any errors on their workers I-9 forms. That language, Kansas argues, omits state or local laws punishing the employees themselves. The U.S. government has filed an amicus brief asking the Court not to find explicit preemption in the statutes language. That reading, it argues, makes no sense: On respondents logic, Kansas could prosecute a U.S. citizen who presents a stolen drivers license for identity theft even if he also appended that stolen license to his I-9, but a state prosecution of an unauthorized alien in the same position would be expressly preempted. It asks the Court to go further and hold that the IRCA section doesnt implicitly pre-empt state laws either, and to avoid any broad constitutional ruling on federal immigration power and state law. | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/4-supreme-court-cases-show-legal-limits-prosecution/585217/?utm_source=feed |
Could Thailand's populists win again despite army obstacles? | BANGKOK (Reuters) - Nearly five years after Thailands 2014 military coup, the populist movement that the army has overthrown twice in a decade is contesting an election on Sunday that its leaders say is rigged against it. FILE PHOTO: Supporters of Pheu Thai Party attend an election campaign in Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, Februray 18, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Yet, the Pheu Thai party linked to ousted ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is hoping it can beat the system, just as the former telecommunication tycoons loyalists have won every general election since 2001. This time, Pheu Thai has shifted strategy by dividing its forces to capture new votes and to seek a democratic front with other parties to overcome junta-written electoral rules that give a huge advantage to the party seeking to retain junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha as prime minister. Sundays election has 81 parties competing, but the race has shaped up as one between Pheu Thai and democracy front allies versus the pro-army Palang Pracharat party that nominated Prayuth as prime minister. Polls indicate that Pheu Thai will again be the top vote-winner, and it hopes with its allies to make up the largest bloc in the 500-seat House of Representatives. But that may not matter, because the new constitution written by the junta allows parliaments upper house, the 250-seat Senate, to vote with the lower house to choose the prime minister - and the Senate is entirely appointment by the junta. That means pro-junta parties need to win only 126 lower house seats on Sunday to choose the next government, while Pheu Thai and allies, who cant count on any support in the Senate, need 376 - three-quarters of the total up for grabs. Despite the disadvantages, Sudarat Keyuraphan, Pheu Thais main prime ministerial candidate, said a democratic front could keep the military from controlling the next government. I still believe in the heart of the people and we have seen election upsets in many places around the world, Sudarat told Reuters in an interview. Now, they have created a new structure that enables them to hold on to power in a semi-democratic structure, she said of the military. So we have to tell people about this and to put an end to this once and for all. GET RID OF THAKSIN However, the complex rules governing the election make it all but impossible for pro-Thaksin parties to form a government on their own as they have in previous elections. Since he burst onto the political scene in 2001, Thaksin has dominated Thai politics, inspiring devotion among his mostly rural supporters for his pro-poor policies and revulsion from mostly middle-class and establishment opponents who decry him as a corrupt demagogue. The rivalry has brought intermittent violent protests over almost 15 years. Twice, the military has stepped in, the first time in 2006 to oust Thaksin after he won a second term and again in 2014 to topple a government that had been led by his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Thaksin now lives in self-imposed exile to escape a 2008 corruption sentence. He is officially banned from politics but has been hosting a weekly podcast since January discussing global affairs and politics. His son, Panthongtae Shinawatra, 38, has made cameo appearances at Pheu Thai rallies, bringing loud cheers in party strongholds in the north and northeast. Worry that a pro-Thaksin party might yet again win the election was one reason why the post-coup constitution made changes giving the junta a strong say in who will be prime minister, said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the faculty of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University. The establishment have had a strong determination to get rid of Thaksin once and for all, Titipol told Reuters. PRO-DEMOCRACY FRONT While the rewritten electoral rules give junta leader Prayuths party an advantage in choosing the next government, they are by no means a guarantee. In recent weeks, talk of a democracy front has gained ground, with speculation different parties in the House of Representatives might muster the 376 votes needed to choose the prime minister. That strategy took a hit when Thai Raksa Chart, a key pro-Thaksin ally of Pheu Thai, was disqualified from the election this month. The constitutional court ruled that the party had broken the electoral law by nominating the sister of King Maha Vajiralongkorn, as its prime ministerial candidate, crossing the traditional boundary between monarchy and politics. Still, Pheu Thai has other allies - including Pheu Chart party and Pheu Tham - while politicians from the dissolved Thai Raksa Chart campaign for the democratic front. Other parties like the youth-oriented Future Forward Party, while not seen as pro-Thaksin, could join forces to keep the military out of politics. The leader of another main party, the Democrats, has also said he wont support keeping junta leader Prayuth as prime minister, though it is unclear if the staunchly anti-Thaksin Democrats would join any front with Thaksin loyalists. FILE PHOTO: Sudarat Keyuraphan (C), Pheu Thai Party's Prime Minister candidate, greets her supporters during an election campaign in Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, February 18, 2019. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha Even if they unite, its unclear whether anti-junta parties can muster enough votes, but Pheu Thais Sudarat said Prayuths declaration as a prime ministerial candidate has had a galvanizing effect. For 10 years the military has been acting as a referee, she said. But now they have reveal themselves and have become a player so this could lead to a new end game ... now it is up to the people. | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-thailand-election-pheuthai/could-thailands-populists-win-again-despite-army-obstacles-idUSKCN1R1144?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29 |
Can Clear Become The PXG Of The Golf Ball Business? | Several years ago, I wrote about the high-priced golf balls from ClearSports and the companys quirky membership-only model. That membership model has been discarded, one of several changes instituted by Clears new president, Ed Brown. The former president and CEO of Patron Spirits International, Brown built Patron into the worlds biggest ultra-premium tequila brand, expanding sales from 118,000 cases in 2001 to more than 2 million annually. Brown is now hoping to find the same magic with another small, high-end brand in Clear, which until now hadnt been found in any pro shop or golf retailer while charging members about $90 a dozen for its golf balls. In addition to scrapping the membership approach, Brown is looking to expand distribution significantly, cutting the price to $68 a dozen, and selling product direct to consumers via the Clear website and by targeting the pro shops of the top 500 clubs in the U.S. At just under $6 per ball, Clear is still a premium brand. Brown notes that PXG has demonstrated that theres another level of golf equipment from an expenditure standpoint. The question is whether that extends to golf balls. Guys are willing to spend lots of money on drivers or putters, but they keep those for a while, says Brown. With golf balls, you can see a guy pull up in a Rolls Royce at a country club and the next minute you see him fishing balls out of a lake or playing with practice ball. So, thats a challenge. Youre trying to get somebody to spend a lot of money on a golf ball that might only be there for one shot. Brown, though, isnt one to back down from a challenge. He retired from Patron at the end of 2018 after helping sell the brand to Bacardi Limited, the largest privately held spirits company in the world, for $5.1 billion. I just look at it as whether its golf, alcohol, clothing, its just a consumer brand. If you truly make a great product and you present it in the proper way, then you just take one day at a time, says Brown. Im not a big guy on worrying about how many sales Im getting this month. With that stuff, Ill be very patient on how I do this. Brown said hes friendly with Bob Parsons, the billionaire founder of GoDaddy who created PXG, but didnt seek his advice as he moved into the golf business and shifted his focus from tequila to urethane. Parsons toyed with the idea of making golf balls at one point for about six to eight months before concentrating solely on making clubs. The reason our clubs are successful is because they have a huge performance advantage, says Parsons. It wasnt just they put a price on it and we were going to sell it. For golf balls and Im not in that market -- but thats a tough market. Brown insists when golfers try Clears golf balls the softer 3-piece Red and firmer 4-piece Black theyll see and feel the performance benefits. Costs run higher than the competition because of an involved manufacturing process that includes a proprietary core technology, a premium urethane cover and stringent quality control measures. Its about proving that you are the best, but also getting it out to the masses and marketing it the way that I hope I can, says Brown, who has changed Clears logo and enhanced the packaging. He toyed with changing the name, but opted against it. Im a big guy on simple tag lines, like `Clearly the Best or `Clearly Perfect. So, I said I cant change the name. Branding was a big part of Patrons success. Another is that Brown made it beneficial for his distributors to push his tequila. Its an approach he hopes to emulate with Clear. I knew my distributors would sell Patron before any other brand because it was more profitable for them and they were after one thing the bottom line, Brown says. So, Im going to make Clear more profitable for a pro shop that what a Titleist, TaylorMade or Callaway could be. Under the membership model, the Clear balls were popular with former professional athletes and celebrities. Brown says he wants to target other types of influencers going forward, particularly partnering with some PGA TOUR and LPGA players. The first pro to play Clears golf balls is Skip Kendall on the Champions Tour. Brown knows that challenging the established brands will be an uphill climb, particularly because they have the big marketing budgets (and revenues) that he enjoyed at Patron. I think theres room out there for an alternative, as long as its a good product, says Brown. If someone can play the ball and feel and see the difference, then you have a chance. The way I look at this, you dont have to get a huge piece of their business. Parsons says he wishes Brown all the success in the world, but acknowledges that it might be challenging without the scale that the big-name golf ball brands have. I can remember when I first met Bob, I said I could understand GoDaddy, but golf clubs, and at this price? says Brown. He goes, You might think Im crazy but Ill be making money in a year. And he did. "You have a couple of those years that are hard work," he adds. "But if it hits, it will be good. RELATED CONTENT: PXG Lowers Pricing for New Line of Muscle Car-Inspired Woods Why TaylorMade's $250 Million Spider Putter Line Changed its Look Callaway's New $530 Epic Flash Driver Used AI to Design Club Face Sorenstam's Golf Apparel Line Keeps Delivering, Just Like She Did on the Course | https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikmatuszewski/2019/03/18/can-clear-become-the-pxg-of-the-golf-ball-business/?src=rss |
Could gamer be esport's Ryan Giggs? | Video He's Welsh, 17-years old and about to make his debut for Manchester United. It's not Ryan Giggs but rather Josh Jones, who has won the chance to represent the famous football club at the ePremier League Grand Final. Josh, from Mynydd Llandegai, Bangor, spends up to four hours every night playing video game FIFA 19. That dedication paid off when he knocked out competition from 2,000 other gamers at Old Trafford for the "honour" of playing for the Red Devils. All 20 Premier League sides will be represented at the two-day event in London this week. He said: "It's a great feeling being able to represent the club that I have supported all my life." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-47624370/manchester-united-bangor-teenager-s-dream-esport-debut |
Was Mike Trout's record setting contract worth his extra value over Machado, Harper, Arenado? | Mike Trout is sign the largest contract in the history of any sport - $430 million for a 12-year contract with the Angels. It technically picks up his final two years with a 10-year extension of $360MM. His total and AAV ($36MM per year) shatters this year's formerly record-breaking contracts of Bryce Harper's $330MM ($25.38MM AAV over 13 years), Nolan Arenado's $260MM ($32.5MM AAV over 8 years), and Manny Machado's $300MM ($30MM AAV over 10 years). The answer is yes, by far. Mike Trout is one of the best position players throughout history for when they were his age of 27. Looking at WAR, Trout's 64.3 is the most ever at this age. Putting into perspective, below is a visual of the "speed to WAR" - the number of plate appearances it took each player to add 1 WAR of value: So, Trout was paid above and beyond any player - and looking deeper the extra money was the best ROI (dollars spent vs. playing value in return) for the recent mega-contracts. Comparing Trout to the recent contracts of Machado, Harper, Arenado, and also Miguel Cabrera (who signed in 2014 with the next-largest contract for a position player), the image below shows the indexes for each player on their ROI, value, and contract AAV. Trout produces the most value on the field (54% above the average of the five players), his AAV is also the most (16% above average), and his ROI is the best (32% above the average): Trout had the best ROI, 32% above the average of the five players. Machado was next with 2% above average, Arenado 2% below, Harper 18% below, and Cabrera 22% below ROI was determined by looking at the cost and value. Cost was determined by the AAV of their contracts. Value was determined by looking at both offensive and defensive WAR, factoring in playing time (for example Trout is not penalized moving forward by having a mere 135 PA season in 2011). Background and scouting report: Trout was drafted in 2009 as the 25th pick out of High School in Millwood, NJ. His career WAR (64.3) was more than ALL 20 other position players in the first round combined! (43) That draft also had Stephen Strassburg, Nolan Arenado, Paul Goldschmidt, Jason Kipnis, Kyle Seager, A.J. Pollock, Brandon Belt, Dallas Keuchel, Mike Leake, and James Paxton. People have pointed out that 21 teams took other players over Trout, but Goldschmidt has an impressive 40.1 WAR and was selected only in the 8th round, Matt Carpenter (25.9 WAR) in the 13th round, and J.D. Martinez (20.4 WAR) in the 20th round, and even Stephen Piscotty (7.3 WAR) all the way in the 45th round! MLB Scouting report: "Trout is a toolsy high school center fielder who was gaining momentum as the weather in the Northeast warmed up. He looks more like a football safety -- his position in high school -- than a center fielder, but has the tools to play there with plus speed. He just started switch-hitting to enhance his offensive value, and with some changes to his approach at the plate should hit for some power down the line. There is some rawness with the bat, but he has the kind of upside many teams look for in a high school position player, and was moving into first-round conversations as a result." Contract comparison The chart below shows Trout has the highest AAV ($36MM), Arenado has the next ($32.5MM), fewest seasons in the Majors prior to contract (6), and quickest opt-out (after 3 years). Trout also has the highest overall dollars ($360MM) and years (10). Cabrera had the most MLB seasons prior to contract extension (11), and was the oldest at the time (30 yrs): Offense and defense comparison Looking at all five players - Arenado, Machado, Cabrera, and Harper - Trout ranks best for career PA, career WAR, best pre-contract year, highest WAR for a season, fewest plate appearances (71) to achieve 1 WAR. To be consistent, all of Cabrera's numbers were through the year prior to his contract extension, meaning what the world knew at the time of the signing. Splits Below is a comparison of splits for the five players, both home/away and vs lefty/righty: Trout leads with career OPS (.990), career OPS on the road (.992), and career OPS vs RHP (1.006). Arenado leads with OPS at home (1.105) and career OPS vs LHP (1.199) - and the biggest home/away difference (.333 OPS difference). Machado has the lowest overall OPS (.822). Harper has lowest at home (.932) and vs LHP (.857 - recall he bats lefty). To conclude, Trout's contract had the best ROI - his extra offense and defense more than offsets the extra contract cost. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/arikaplan/2019/03/20/was-mike-trouts-record-setting-contract-worth-his-extra-value-over-machado-harper-arenado/ |
Who is on Colorados death row? | Three men await execution at the Colorado State Penitentiary while the states political figures debate the future of the death penalty in Colorado. Nathan Dunlap Dunlap, 44, was sentenced to death after he was convicted in 1993 of eight counts of first-degree murder for shootings at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant in Aurora. Dunlap was 19 when he gunned down employees, who were closing the business for the night. His victims: Ben Grant, 17; Sylvia Crowell, 19; Colleen OConnor, 17; and Margaret Kohlbert, 50, died in the shootings. Bobby Stephens survived his gunshot wounds. His status: Gov. John Hickenlooper granted temporary reprieve to Dunlap in 2013, meaning the execution most likely would not happen during Hickenloopers tenure. Hickenlooper completed his last term in January, and new Gov. Jared Polis has shown no intention of lifting the reprieve. Robert K. Ray Ray, 33, was the mastermind behind the 2005 execution of two people who were going to testify against him in another murder trial in Arapahoe County. Ray had shot and killed Gregory Vann, 20, during a 2004 party at Lowry Park, and he ordered the shooting of a couple who were witnesses in that case. His victims: Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe, both 22. They were engaged. His status: His case is in the appeals process, which is mandated by Colorado law. Sir Mario Owens Owens, 34, was sentenced to death in the same case as Ray. He first was convicted of murder in 2007 in the death of Vann. The next year, he was convicted in the killings of Marshall-Fields and Wolfe, both 22, as they were driving on an Aurora street. His victims: Javad Marshall-Fields and Vivian Wolfe. His status: His appeals are pending. | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/20/colorado-death-row-inmates/ |
Have we seen Michigan basketball's ceiling, or is there more to come? | CLOSE The No. 2-seeded Michigan Wolverines open the 2019 NCAA tournament against No. 15 seed Montana. Here's a quick look at the Grizzlies. Ryan Ford, Detroit Free Press DES MOINES, Iowa The frustrating, and often rewarding, part about the puzzle that is college basketball centers around time. There are moments when everything moves ahead of schedule, players outpace expectation and teams surge into an air no one quite thought possible at the exact right time. That's the fairy tale stuff. Because mostly, time is just frustrating. Michigan coach John Beilein gives instructions to his team against Indiana on Jan. 25, 2019 in Bloomington, Ind. (Photo: Andy Lyons, Getty Images) John Beilein has lived both to the fullest during his years at Michigan. Last season was the fairy tale stuff. That, too. Some things clicked into place, perhaps, ahead of schedule and meshed perfectly with everything else that was maturing right on schedule. The result: Final Four banners and two national title game appearances. Michigan enters NCAA tournament play Thursday in Des Moines as a No. 2 seed in the West. The Wolverines have 28 wins, they've rated as one of the top teams in America all year and, on paper, they have the goods to make a run. More: Michigan basketball has bad habits to break. This is No. 1 More: Here is Michigan basketball's path to another Final Four run But with three gut-wrenching losses to Michigan State in the last three weeks, all featuring similar moments of frustration, the question lingering over U-M's head right now once again centers on whether or not the time is now. "We don't have film sessions after the last game," Beilein said earlier this month in Ann Arbor when asked about whether or not his group's running out of time to fix the thorns in their collective side. "So (whenever that comes), they won't have to listen to it anymore." Michigan will be a double-digit favorite over No. 15 seed Montana on Thursday. But for everyone entering this tournament, the next trip onto the floor brings about the possibility of one last dance in 2018-19. Michigan's Isaiah Livers is congratulated why his teammates after a dunk during the first half against Minnesota in the semifinals of the Big Ten Conference tournament, Saturday, March 16, 2019, in Chicago. (Photo: Nam Y. Huh, AP) Which means, for Michigan, opportunities to fix recurring issues that have gotten in the way, at times, over the past six weeks are running short. Beilein has often brought up the fact his team, sitting at 28-6, doesn't have a four-year player on it. Last year's Final Four group featured two veteran seniors in Duncan Robinson, a fifth-year former Division III transfer. And Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman, one of the calmest four-year players Beilein's ever coached and a player who was capable of pushing his team through tough spots. This team isn't short on experience, mind you. Charles Matthews is in his third year of on-court play. He's started in a national title game. Zavier Simpson is in the same boat. Isaiah Livers, Jordan Poole and Jon Teske all played valuable minutes, too. But all of them had veterans nearby who served as Beilein's sanity reset buttons. He doesn't have that right now, or at least not enough. Not yet anyway. His bench features an 18-year-old rail-thin center in Colin Castleton, who may be outstanding down the road, but is still not quite there yet. David DeJulius could be Michigan's point guard of the future. Right now, he's a freshman. Eli Brooks has been a career back-up, more or less, but he's still just a sophomore. The team's leading scorer is Ignas Brazdeikis, one of the most talented players in the Big Ten. But still a first-year college basketball player who, while explosive, doesn't always have all the answers. Michigan center Jon Teske dunks during the first half against Maryland, March 3, 2019 in College Park, Md. (Photo: Tommy Gilligan, USA TODAY Sports) "Their minds have to think quicker. (And) if they're not capable of thinking quicker (right now), no matter how many drills you do, they're just not going to do it. There's going to be a time (when it clicks)," Beilein says. "There's been so many times where we've seen guys and people say 'they have no chance.' There's a time it slows down and they get it. It's not coaching or technique or film study. "It just takes time for some players more than others." If that time becomes right now, as in over the next few weeks, for the likes of Poole, Livers and Teske then Michigan's in business. All three of those players have had moments of brilliance this season. They've also had moments where things went far south of the original plan. This team looked amazing in November when it thrashed North Carolina. It looked downright shaky in a road loss at Penn State. And just plain frustrated in three setbacks against MSU. "It's about whether we bounce back (from the latest loss) or not. I believe we're a strong team," Livers says. "I believe we'll bounce back." Teske is more certain. "We're right there," he says. "We can play with anybody in the country. ... If we take care of the ball, we'll be fine." [ Get ready for March Madness with our free Best of the Big Ten newsletter! Subscribe here. ] They say all the right things. They work hard, too. Beilein's said as much all year. He also knows there's a difference between talking about doing the right thing in big moments and having the ability to make snap decisions like they're a reflex when the lights are on. If Michigan's ceiling was the way it handled the likes of UNC and Purdue back in November, then that's good enough to go a long way in this tournament. The bigger question, as always, centers on timing. Contact Nick Baumgardner at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @nickbaumgardner. Read more on the Michigan Wolverines and sign up for our Wolverines newsletter. | https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/university-michigan/wolverines/2019/03/20/michigan-basketball-ncaa-tournament/3217474002/ |
Should Fantasia Barrino play Aretha Franklin instead of Jennifer Hudson? | by Keydra Manns Jennifer Hudson is set to play Aretha Franklin in a music biopic, but the Queen of Soul also showed interest in Fantasia Barrino. Hudson and Barrino both came from humble beginnings on American Idol. Hudson accepted the role and reportedly spoke with Franklin on the phone for hours as preparation. But Barrino is no stranger to the Queens music. She sang a tribute to Franklin and took the house down. In a past interview with Wendy Williams, Ms. Franklin said she believed Jennifer Hudson or Fantasia could play her in a biopic. Fantasia sang a tribute to Ms. Franklin and the Queen of Soul seemed pleased with the performance. Franklin is known for throwing off her wig at concerts and Fantasia is known for throwing off her shoes. So Fantasia may, in fact, be the best woman for the job. Jennifer Hudson is almost a guarantee, since shes playing Aretha in the biopic. But yes, I definitely want Fantasia. https://t.co/sF2ejULJQO AD III (@cscprince) August 17, 2018 Entertainment Weekly confirmed Hudson would play Franklin. The two singers had been working together on the role before Ms. Franklin passed. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/03/should-fantasia-barrino-play-aretha-franklin-instead-of-jennifer-hudson.html |
How Do We Prevent Another Lordstown Scenario? | For years, the General Motors (GM) plant in Lordstown, OH offered high paying jobs, good benefits and a pension planquite literally a ticket to the middle class. But after continued decline in demand for the plants signature sedans, GM recently shuttered the facility and thousands of employees found themselves facing a tough new reality. Some have taken training courses and relocated to newer plants that produce more popular SUVs and trucks. Others took early retirement deals that provided at least some fixed income. But many are finding themselves unequipped for jobs that would provide them the standard of living to which they have become accustomed. This isnt the first time weve heard a story like Lordstown, and as a new report from the Southern Region Education Board (SREB) tells us, it wont be the last. Companies are increasingly automating and restructuring to protect their business position and low-skilled jobs go away as a result. The ripple effects of this projected unemployment can be catastrophic on communities. Low-skilled, unemployed, adult workers are more likely to live in poverty. They will need more in public assistance but contribute less in taxes, further depressing the local economy. Particularly tragic is the barrier that this kind of poverty inevitably places on kids and their ability to receive a quality education. The SREB analysis points to how we approach training and education. States will need to embrace policies that establish consistent learning expectations for adult education and align courses to the jobs that companies want to fill. They will also need to ensure that teachers providing this training are properly equipped to do so and that they use both quantitative and qualitative performance measures for students. SREB President Stephen Pruitt says, If a company believes a machine can do a job, then a machine will very likely be doing that job soon. But technological advancement also creates new positions, ones that will require more than a high school education, but less than a college degree. These are the middle-skill jobs, and workers who step up their education and training will snag them at the same time the low-skilled jobs go away. Those who do not, will simply be out of contention. The National Skills Coalition notes that in 2015, middle-skill jobs accounted for a whopping 53 percent of the U.S. labor market. Sadly, only 43 percent of the countrys workers were even trained to the middle-skill level. Pruitt contends that, the question for state leaders isnt whether there will be sufficient jobs in the future, but whether there will be enough skilled workers to fill them. Business leaders can help here, by aligning their efforts to a renewed look at adult education. There is also a prevalent view that these jobs of the future will be more heavily dependent on skills like team work and time management. Workers either arent getting those skills from their traditional education experience or dont realize that they might be getting them in their current job. About 90 percent of corporate respondents in a 2018 Bloomberg Next survey said new recruits have the hard skills, such as computer literacy and written communication, to do their jobs successfully. But nearly half of the respondents also said that new hires lack the soft skills they need to perform at a high level. Some companies are listening. McDonalds and non-profit Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) are pioneering a new approach to help employees translate skills gained on the job to educational opportunities (high school and college) and career advancement. The initiative provides advising services to map out plans for career changes, education scholarships to fill skill gaps, and the chance to interact with mentors and experts in professional fields like healthcare, technology, and arts and entertainment. CAEL President, Marie Cini explains, As a young worker, it can be hard to look beyond the day-to-day and think about the future, but services like this can be a huge help for youth that may not know what careers are available to them and need help mapping out how to grow their skills, education and interests to be set up for success. Of course, there is no single solution for preventing the Lordstown scenario. And there is no blame. Many workers likely walked out of high school in that town and right into the plant. It was a great job. The company made a sound decision to adjust production and provide the product that consumers wanted. Thats what businesses do. But for communities to become more resilient, we all employees, educators, state leaders, and businesses must consider how we are training and preparing the workforce of the future. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimcowen/2019/03/20/how-do-we-prevent-another-lordstown-gm-scenario/ |
What connects Ariana Grande and the Sound of Music? | Getty Images Ariana Grande has agreed to pay 90 per cent of the money she makes from her song 7 Rings to the family of the songwriters from The Sound of Music. 7 Rings is a modern take on the song My Favourite Things from the 1965 musical. It was written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and they own the copyright. Since its release in January, 7 Rings has been streamed over a billion times and it's hit the number one spot in the UK singles charts. In the past, music acts have got in trouble after not paying or crediting the owners of songs. Here are some of the most famous examples. George Harrison and The Chiffons Getty Images George Harrison (left) and The Chiffons (right) After The Beatles split up in 1970, each of the band members went off to pursue successful solo careers. George Harrison became the first one to hit the number one spot in the US charts after launching his solo career with the single, My Sweet Lord. The only problem with the song was that a girl group called The Chiffons claimed it had ripped off their 1962 track, He's So Fine. The court case rumbled on into the 1980s, and Harrison eventually had to pay just over 400,000 to the writers of He's So Fine. Owning a song's copyright gives the owner the right by law to control how a piece of work is used, produce copies of it and charge others to use it for a set number of years. Vanilla Ice and Queen Getty Images Vanilla Ice (left) and Freddie Mercury from Queen (right) In 1989, rapper Vanilla Ice released a song called Ice Ice Baby. It had a really familiar sound to it and that's because Vanilla Ice had used part of the baseline from Queen's 1981 hit, Under Pressure. The problem was that Vanilla Ice hadn't asked for permission to use the song and Queen weren't very happy about it. They took him to court and they eventually settled the issue by getting millions of pounds. The Verve and The Rolling Stones Getty Images The Verve (left) and The Rolling Stones (right) If you're a football fan, you will have heard of The Verve's biggest hit, Bittersweet Symphony. It's used on the title sequence of lots of England games and it's been used in loads of adverts. However, whenever it's used, it's not The Verve who are getting the money for it - it's The Rolling Stones instead. The Verve originally agreed with The Rolling Stones' management to use a part of the 1965 song, The Last Time, in return for 50 per cent of all the money made on the track. When it was released, The Rolling Stones management decided that The Verve had used too much of the 1965 song on the track and took the band to court. The credit for the song changed to The Rolling Stones, and they even ended up owning 100 per cent of all the money made on the track. Ed Sheeran and Marvin Gaye Getty Images Ed Sheeran (left) and Marvin Gaye (right) Ed Sheeran is currently waiting for a court to decide whether his 2014 track, Thinking Out Loud, has copied parts of Marvin Gaye's 1973 hit, Let's Get It On. If he loses the case, he could be forced to pay just over 75 million to Marvin Gaye's family. Sheeran called on the case to be dropped last year after saying that the similarities were because of the common beats in each song. However, his request was turned down by a judge and the case is set to be decided by a jury in September. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47639876 |
How Important Is Merchandise Freight For Norfolk Southern? | Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) generates its revenues from its coal, merchandise, and intermodal freight. Merchandise is the largest segment for Norfolk Southern, and it accounts for roughly 60% of the total revenues. The segment includes freight from automotive, agriculture, chemicals, metals, and other construction related shipments. The contribution of merchandise freight to the companys overall sales will likely see modest declines in the coming years, with the intermodal segment expected to grow at a faster pace. In this note we discuss the importance of the merchandise segment for Norfolk Southern. You can adjust various drivers to see the divisions impact on the companys earnings. Also, heres more Industrials Data. Merchandise Revenues Have Seen Steady Growth Merchandise freight revenues have increased in recent years from $6.2 billion in 2016 to over $6.7 billion in 2018. The growth was led by higher volume and average revenue per carload. 2018, in particular, benefited from higher crude oil prices, which resulted in higher fuel surcharge revenue for Norfolk Southern. Looking forward, we expect a mid-single-digit growth for all of the sub-segments. Total construction starts climbed 7% and 3% in 2017 and 2018, respectively. While the growth is expected to be slow in 2019, amid rising interest rates and higher material costs, the economy is expected to see expansion, which should bode well for the construction sector. As such, metals and construction related commodities, along with forest products, should drive the near term volume growth. It will be interesting to see the trends in automotive freight revenues. Total number of vehicles sold in the U.S. at 17.33 million last year marked the fourth highest figure. However, the same is expected to slow down in the coming years, and it could impact the overall shipments for the railroad companies. Looking at agriculture freight, the overall volume growth could be slow in the near term, given the trends in the U.S. wheat and soybean export, amid the foreign tariffs. Merchandises Contribution To Norfolk Southerns EPS We use adjusted net income margin of around 24%, similar to that of Norfolk Southern overall, to arrive at $6.17 contribution to the companys total earnings. To understand the contribution to Norfolk Southerns stock price, we use around a 17x forward price to earnings multiple, and arrive at a $107 figure, which accounts for roughly 60% of our stock price estimate for Norfolk Southern. Our forward price to earnings multiple for Norfolk Southern is more or less around the same mark for that of the overall sector. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/20/how-important-is-merchandise-freight-for-norfolk-southern/ |
Will Brands' In-House Agencies Solve Their Marketing Challenges? | Everybody loves brands. Advertising agencies, media companies, consulting firms, digital platforms, tech providers, and even consumers (sometimes) fawn over these folks. But amidst this sea of friends, brands are increasingly taking marketing matters into their own hands as they create their own in-house agencies, the focus of last weeks first ever In-House Agency Conference presented by the Association of National Advertisers. Instead of asking why this trend is occurring, given the business environment for brands, youd probably have to ask why it wouldnt. Historic changes in the media business have dramatically scattered and shattered the audiences for traditional media platforms. The seismic shift in the way consumers buy products has forced a complete rethinking of retail environments (thanks Amazon). Smart voice-enabled devices (thanks again, Amazon) demand skillsets in areas such as sonic branding that few incumbent marketing partners have mastered. And the tumultuous ride of digital advertising has left many marketers questioning even long-term agency relationships and seeking to more directly control new data sources on their businesses. The numbers amplify the anecdotal evidence of brand in-house agency moves. As the ANA noted in its recent marketer survey, 78% of respondents have established an in-house agency versus only 42% in 2008. Those who made the move reported that 58% of their marketing work was now handled in-house. And two-thirds of marketers said their in-house agency workload increased a lot in the last year (a lot is a new data-driven metric). According to the ANA survey, when asked directly their view of why make this in-house move marketers top answer was cost savings. In just one example, Inner Circle, JP Morgan Chases in-house agency has saved the company $20m in marketing costs since it was established in 2015. The focus on the bottom line isnt a shock. But as Bill Duggan, ANAs Group EVP noted, he expects that the predominance of focusing on cost savings will recede over time as other business performance demands come to the fore. And brand presenters at the conference whove already made this move made much the same case. For brands considering an in-house agency, and for the rest of the media and advertising world impacted by such moves, the ANA conference illuminated several key lessons to be drawn from those who have been paved the road to date. In fact, theyre pretty good lessons for anyone in media. Be an agency of choice, not an agency of obligation (Mike Boyd, SVP Marketing, Nationwide) A consistent theme from marketers throughout this two-day conference was that your in-house agency has to be a real business. You will only succeed if you implement the types of business processes and key performance indicators (KPIs) you would expect from your outside agency or in any other part of your core business. As Kerri Martin, who runs Cloroxs in-house agency points out, this means that you dont have drive by requests for work and no work demands on post-it notes. Youve got to institute a system of intake briefs and statements of work to ensure that clients actually get what they paid for. Martin points out that trust between the in-house agency and its company clients must be earned and not demanded or assumed. Yes, you have to be agile just like in the real-world. But that doesnt mean just getting things done faster because its in-house it still has to meet the clients needs. And the mix of creativity and business rigor is key. As Leland Maschmeyer, Chief Creative Officer for the Chobani in-house agency noted, the destiny of creativity is written in spreadsheets. Switch from being an order taker to a strategic order maker (Kerri Martin, Clorox) Martin and Boyd in their presentations made much the same point that in-house agencies cant exist to simply do what they are told they have to forge their own unique point of view to share with their clients. Boyd implores in-house agency aspirants to have a consultative mindset- and not just because consultants get paid a lot more than agencies on an hourly basis. To Boyd, the most useful thing a valued outside adviser can deliver to his client is his opinion, and if its smart and well-informed about the clients business, thats worth paying for. Stay Strange (Leland Maschmeyer, Chobani) Maschmeyer didnt make up this great quote, apparently originated by the hip-hop group Strangerz of Connecticut, but its perfect. His admonition is to avoid corporate groupthink and instead emphasize difference and uniqueness in thinking from the in-house agency. If you arent providing this to your clients, they will have to seek it elsewhere. Remember your (outside) agency can still be your friend OK, I just made up this quote, but I think its worth remembering. Its far from a consensus view, as Darren Moran of The Wonderful Company, a self-proclaimed in-house addict joked, he likes not needing to play well with others. But as was so evident in a panel moderated by Marla Kaplowitz, President and CEO of the 4As, outside agencies well recognize all of the trends driving moves to bring work in-house, and will usually bend over backwards to continue to seek ways to provide value to their clients, even if the roles and responsibilities shift. When someone wants your business that badly, there is likely a deal to be made. Youve gotta name it! (Cloroxs Martin) Martin hands down won Best Title at the ANA conference, as Chief Electrofier at the Electro Creative Workshop inside Clorox. Martin implored in-house aspirants to have fun and be creative in naming your agency, evident not only in Cloroxs legacy-based name (Clorox was once the Electro-Alkaline Company). Disneys entrant is Yellow Shoes (Mickey wears yellow shoes); Verizon is 140 (the companys historic home is at 140 West Street in Manhattan); and Cisco uses The Hatch. Hey, you still gotta have some fun in this business! | https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardhomonoff/2019/03/20/will-brands-in-house-agencies-solve-their-marketing-challenges/ |
What's next after UK seeks 3-month delay to Brexit? | LONDON (AP) With just nine days to go until Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May has asked the European Union to postpone Britain's departure from the European Union until June 30. The decision is in the hands of the 27 remaining EU nations, whose leaders must agree unanimously to an extension. Here's a look at what could happen next: SUMMIT SHOWDOWN May has asked the EU to let her argue for an extension at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. The 27 others will then discuss it, but there may not be an immediate decision. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says EU leaders "will probably have to meet again next week" to make a final ruling. The bloc is reluctant to agree to a three-month extension, saying that would require Britain to participate in May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament. The U.K. won't be represented in the parliament after it quits the EU, and its seats already have been given to other countries to fill in the May election. Juncker has said the U.K. should leave by May 23 or participate in the elections and face a longer delay until the end of the year or beyond. PARLIAMENTARY POKER A thousand days after Britain voted to leave the EU, Brexit is stalled because Britain's Parliament is split down the middle between supporters and opponents of Brexit. Both sides are critical of May's plan for an extension: Brexiteers say it will betray voters' decision in 2016 to leave the EU; pro-Europeans say it will only prolong Britain's Brexit crisis. Pro-Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers are also unimpressed by May's divorce deal, and Parliament has rejected it twice by hefty margins. Yet May says she plans to try again. She hopes to persuade reluctant pro-Brexit lawmakers that backing her deal is their best hope of delivering Brexit. CLIFF-EDGE DEPARTURE If the EU refuses an extension, Britain will leave the EU on March 29 with no deal. That could cause upheaval for businesses and residents in both Britain and the EU, with the sudden imposition of tariffs, customs checks and other barriers to trade and travel. If the EU agrees and Parliament approves her Brexit deal, May plans to use the delay to pass the legislation necessary for Britain's orderly departure. If her deal is rejected, Britain will face the prospect of leaving without an agreement once the extension ends. Britain's Parliament has voted to rule out a 'no-deal' Brexit but it remains the legal default position. The only ways to stop it are for Parliament to ratify a deal, or to cancel Brexit. May has spent almost three years trying to shepherd Britain out of the EU, and said Wednesday that "as prime minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than June 30" a hint she could resign rather than oversee any more delays. Many on both sides of Britain's Brexit divide would be happy to see her go, but her replacement by a new Conservative leader would not solve the country's political crisis. Opposition politicians think the only way forward is an early election that could rearrange Parliament and break the political deadlock. May has ruled that out, but could come to see it as her only option. And anti-Brexit campaigners haven't abandoned the idea of a new referendum on remaining in the EU. There's currently no majority for that in Parliament, but the political calculus could change if the paralysis drags on. ___ Follow AP's full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/world/article/What-s-next-after-UK-seeks-3-month-delay-to-13702911.php |
Whats next after UK seeks 3-month delay to Brexit? | LONDON - With just nine days to go until Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May has asked the European Union to postpone Britains departure from the European Union until June 30. The decision is in the hands of the 27 remaining EU nations, whose leaders must agree unanimously to an extension. Heres a look at what could happen next: European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker waves before the start of a meeting at the Europa building in Brussels, Wednesday, March 20, 2019. European Union officials received a letter from British Prime Minister Theresa May requesting a Brexit extension and they hope to have more clarity about her intentions by Thursday. ( Virginia Mayo / AP Photo ) SUMMIT SHOWDOWN May has asked the EU to let her argue for an extension at a summit in Brussels on Thursday. The 27 others will then discuss it, but there may not be an immediate decision. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker says EU leaders will probably have to meet again next week to make a final ruling. The bloc is reluctant to agree to a three-month extension, saying that would require Britain to participate in May 23-26 elections for the European Parliament. The U.K. wont be represented in the parliament after it quits the EU, and its seats already have been given to other countries to fill in the May election. Article Continued Below Juncker has said the U.K. should leave by May 23 or participate in the elections and face a longer delay until the end of the year or beyond. PARLIAMENTARY POKER A thousand days after Britain voted to leave the EU, Brexit is stalled because Britains Parliament is split down the middle between supporters and opponents of Brexit. Both sides are critical of Mays plan for an extension: Brexiteers say it will betray voters decision in 2016 to leave the EU; pro-Europeans say it will only prolong Britains Brexit crisis. Pro-Brexit and pro-EU lawmakers are also unimpressed by Mays divorce deal, and Parliament has rejected it twice by hefty margins. Yet May says she plans to try again. She hopes to persuade reluctant pro-Brexit lawmakers that backing her deal is their best hope of delivering Brexit. CLIFF-EDGE DEPARTURE If the EU refuses an extension, Britain will leave the EU on March 29 with no deal. That could cause upheaval for businesses and residents in both Britain and the EU, with the sudden imposition of tariffs, customs checks and other barriers to trade and travel. If the EU agrees and Parliament approves her Brexit deal, May plans to use the delay to pass the legislation necessary for Britains orderly departure. If her deal is rejected, Britain will face the prospect of leaving without an agreement once the extension ends. Article Continued Below Britains Parliament has voted to rule out a no-deal Brexit but it remains the legal default position. The only ways to stop it are for Parliament to ratify a deal, or to cancel Brexit. May has spent almost three years trying to shepherd Britain out of the EU, and said Wednesday that as prime minister, I am not prepared to delay Brexit any further than June 30 a hint she could resign rather than oversee any more delays. Many on both sides of Britains Brexit divide would be happy to see her go, but her replacement by a new Conservative leader would not solve the countrys political crisis. Opposition politicians think the only way forward is an early election that could rearrange Parliament and break the political deadlock. May has ruled that out, but could come to see it as her only option. And anti-Brexit campaigners havent abandoned the idea of a new referendum on remaining in the EU. Theres currently no majority for that in Parliament, but the political calculus could change if the paralysis drags on. ___ Follow APs full coverage of Brexit at: https://www.apnews.com/Brexit | https://www.thestar.com/news/world/europe/2019/03/20/whats-next-after-uk-seeks-3-month-delay-to-brexit.html |
Will the 3 Bs (Beto, Biden and Bernie) leave Elizabeth Warren on the sidelines in 2020? | Its been less than three months since Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., became the first Democratic presidential hopeful to enter the race, but it may as well have been three years. Look at how the political landscape has shifted since Warrens surprise New Years Eve announcement. As the field grows, each candidate is competing for two precious commodities: campaign dollars and news oxygen. Both are in short supply. Both are more valuable indicators of the health of a campaign than polls. In the past, Warren could count on raising both in spades. Now, shes losing in the battle for resources and attention, having been overshadowed by the three Bs of Biden, Bernie and Beto. DEMOCRATS BEHOLDEN TO THEIR RABID BASE CAN'T WIN THE WHITE HOUSE SO WANT TO CHANGE THE RULES INSTEAD Consider that during Warrens first day as a candidate, she raised $300,000 or roughly 20 times less than the eye-popping $6 million hauls from Beto ORourke and Bernie Sanders. First quarter fundraising numbers wont be public until mid-April, but Warren has already come up with a convenient excuse for her subpar total by swearing off big-dollar fundraisers. On cutting through noisy news cycles, Warren has adopted a spaghetti approach: throw it against the wall and see what sticks. Packing the Supreme Court. Abolishing ICE. You name an extreme concept, chances are high Warren counts herself as a supporter. Already this week, Warren has called for eliminating the Electoral College and implementing reparations, and its only Wednesday. These ideas would shred the Constitution and break the budget. But incredibly neither of those reasons are the main political impediments for Warren. No longer are extreme proposals separating issues like they might have been four years ago during the election cycle that Warren should have run in as a candidate but didn't. These days, Warren has plenty of company and co-signers, and is not the trend-setting trailblazer. As Warrens campaign flounders, some have pointed to John McCain in 2008 as a path for her political redemption. The Arizona Republican began that election cycle as the frontrunner was written off halfway through and ended it as his partys nominee. There are key distinctions weakening the McCain and Warren comparisons. For one, McCain could always count on a deep reservoir of goodwill in New Hampshire and its first in the nation primary status. Affectionately known as the states third senator, McCain staked his fortune on the Granite State, and it worked. Warren does not have that luxury, even though she represents neighboring Massachusetts, which shares a media market with vote-rich southern New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary four years ago with a monstrous 22-point margin and is again poised to be a powerhouse in the state. The Vermont socialist was atop a recent Starting Five Power Ranking from New Hampshire Journal, while Warren failed to crack the list. Unlike McCain, Warren has not hunkered down and made New Hampshire a singular focus. She made her recent headlines about abolishing the electoral college in Mississippi, which is neither an early-voting nor competitive battleground. One bright spot for Warren is the upcoming debates assuming that she is able to meet the qualifying requirements. Having gone to college on a debate scholarship, Warren can be formidable dissecting her political opponents when the lights are shining brightest. Interestingly enough, one of the candidates she has shown the most disdain for is the one big name still waiting in the wings: Joe Biden. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Biden and Warren have clashed before, most notably in 2005 over bankruptcy legislation backed by the former as a senator and opposed by the latter as a witness before his committee. In a Democratic field thus far marked with politeness and warmness toward each other, the bitterness between Biden and Warren stands out. She could be the ideal vehicle to highlight the many policy areas where Bidens more moderate record diverges from todays left-wing purity tests. Had Elizabeth Warren entered the presidential race in 2016, she very well could be president. Now it seems as though her moment has come and gone. But its always a mistake to write her totally off. Either way, she still has a chance to leave her mark on the field. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM COLIN REED | https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/will-the-3-bs-beto-biden-and-bernie-leave-elizabeth-warren-on-the-sidelines-in-2020 |
Is Mike Trout underpaid? | by Daniel Tran Weeks after Bryce Harper and Manny Machado got big money in free agency, Mike Trout put them to shame. The Los Angeles Angels outfielder is finalizing a 12-year, $430 million contract extension that begins in 2021. It is the largest contract ever in North American sports, but given Trouts accomplishments before hitting his physical prime, many think the All-Star outfielder is underpaid. Others think he got plenty of money for a player who has yet to win a World Series title. Mike Trout has never finished lower than fourth in the MVP voting, been on All-Star roster since his first full year, and has six Silver Sluggers to his nameall before the age of 28. He is just hitting his prime! Trout might not only be the greatest player now, but he may be the greatest player ever. $430 million is a bargain. According to MLB Daily Dish, Trout currently has about 20 more wins above replacement than the next best player since hes been in the league. He also has more WAR than both Manny Machado and Bryce Harper combined in the last three years, and they got over $300 million each. He has proven hes not the problem but the key for any team that desires to compete. $430 million is a lot of money. It's over $100 million more than what Bryce Harper got in his extension. Trout may be better than Harper, but he's not $100 million better. No one is. Yes, Trout won two MVP awards, but he's only been to the playoffs once since he joined the league. You can't give one player nearly half a billion dollars without at least one championship. While he has performed at G.O.A.T. level and is probably worth the money, he definitely isnt underpaid. No player is worth that much money Cam Kinion (@CameronKinion) March 19, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/03/is-mike-trout-underpaid.html |
Could the Twitter Primary Cost Democrats the Oval Office? | In my lifetime, Ive never seen more presidential candidates advocate breaking more American constitutional, economic, and policy norms than Ive seen from the Democratic field so far in 2019. When you assemble their proposals, its breathtaking. Elizabeth Warren is for it, and Beto ORourke says theres a lot of wisdom in her proposal. Warren, Beto, Kamala Harris, and Kirsten Gillibrand are open to the idea. Harris and Warren are thinking about it. Virtually every significant Democratic presidential candidate is an enthusiastic yes. This is the emerging Democratic consensus. This is only a partial list of Democratic power moves to the left, including calls to fundamentally transform longstanding constitutional structures and institutions. Certainly the Democratic mainstream has become more liberal, and its left-most cohorts are white, female, college-educated, and young. In other words, I just described many of the key demographics of American Twitter the platform that exercises a wildly disproportionate influence on politicians, journalists, and political activists. The dominant feedback loop in the early primary isnt just from the motivated base (which would be entirely normal), but a motivated base amplified by a specific social-media platform. Yes, radical Democratic pronouncements will earn them a wave of negative media attention on Fox News and in conservative media, but not a single Democratic candidate is trying to win that demographic. Indeed, a wave of Fox News hate is good for the brand. But if a Democratic candidate breaks in even small ways from the emerging online orthodoxy, watch them trend on Twitter. Watch them get viciously dragged in real time in front of every single leading progressive politician, activist, and journalist in the United States. It takes a brave person to withstand the attack, especially when there is precious little short-term advantage in confronting the online Left. This immediate, public, toxic, and often vicious or scornful feedback amplifies existing primary-season pressures to move leftward just as the same kind of immediate toxic reaction can cow conservatives who oppose Trump. These attacks arent just read by campaign staffers. They also provide fodder for journalists, and they can quickly create narratives that dog candidates for days or weeks. Im not arguing that primary-season purity tests are anything new. Republicans have been through those wars, and now the GOP purity test is centered around loyalty to Trump. But these days Twitter which has developed into a hysterical platform prone to mobbing and shaming amplifies and intensifies preexisting primary pressures. Now, a strategy to prevent poor optics on Twitter will push Democratic candidates further and further to the left, as they express openness to ideas theyd never otherwise entertain, all to avoid the backlash. As Ive argued before, Twitter is so influential in part because thats where the people who care the most spend their time. The people who care the most about anything from politics to sports to pop culture set the tone. And in American politics, the people who care the most tend not to be moderate, either in temperament or ideology. By the time progressive Twitter has done its work on the Democratic field, the American people may no longer have the ability to choose true American norms in 2020. They may well encounter a choice between an extremist personality with a relatively center-right or populist agenda and a more normal personality who seeks to enact extremist policies. But Democrats indeed, both parties need to remember that while Twitter has disproportionate influence on activists and elites, theres little evidence that its outrages and controversies penetrate the wider world. An incident from this past week speaks volumes. If youd only watched Twitter, youd think that Betos presidential announcement was a bust. The Bernie Brigades which punch well above their weight online gang-tackled Beto on social media. He wasnt taking on Ted Cruz, he was taking on the heroes of the progressive movement, and the honeymoon was most definitely over. | https://news.yahoo.com/could-twitter-primary-cost-democrats-190451533.html |
Will Nerlens Noel Chase Money Or Wins? | Nerlens Noel has had quite the roller coaster of an NBA career. After dominating the college basketball scene at Kentucky, Noel was drafted sixth overall in the 2013 NBA Draft. Even coming off a season-ending ACL injury at the end of his lone year at Kentucky, Noel's upside trumped the injury concern. Noel spent his first two and a half seasons with the rebuilding Philadelphia 76ers before being traded at the 2016-17 NBA Trade Deadline to the Dallas Mavericks. Philadephia felt as if Noel did not fit their system and with Joel Embiid finally healthy enough to play for the first time in his career, were willing to move him prior to his rookie contract ending. Dallas felt that Noel could be their franchise center, as they too were in rebuilding mode, and did not have a problem negotiating a new contract with Noel after his rookie deal ended. After playing in 22 games for the Mavericks in the 2016-17 season, the Mavericks had seen enough potential to offer Noel a lucrative NBA contract. In the summer before the 2017-18 season, the Dallas Mavericks offered Noel, a restricted free agent at the time, a four-year, $70 million contract. To the surprise of many people around the league, Noel turned down this massive deal and signed a one-year, $4.1 million qualifying offer with Dallas instead. By doing this Noel was betting on himself, thinking he could prove he is worth more what he had just turned down. Signing this qualifying offer would make him an unrestricted free agent the following summer, allowing him to field offers from all 30 NBA teams. Noel was hoping to have a breakout year, resulting in the flexibility to allow him to sign an even larger deal with a team of his choosing. In the 2017-18 season, he started only 6 games and had conflict with the Dallas coaching staff and front office. He could not find a role on this rebuilding Dallas team and was having the same issues he was having in Philadelphia, struggling to earn playing time. As expected, after a rough season in Dallas, Nerlens hit the free agent market with no intentions of returning to the Mavericks. Upon being recruited by Russell Westbrook and newly re-signed Paul George, Nerlens Noel signed a two-year, $3.75 million minimum deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the summer of 2018. This deal would have a player option in the second year giving Noel an early opt-out to once again test the free agent market the following summer if he chose. In his 71 games with the Oklahoma City Thunder thus far, he has been a fan favorite and an excellent piece off the bench defensively. Noel has played in 66 games, averaging 5.0 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.3 blocks, and 0.9 steals in 14.2 minutes per game. Although this is a career low in minutes per game, Noel has had no problems off the court and seems to enjoy his role and teammates. This is the first time Noel has been on a team with a winning record and is a contender rather than a rebuilding lottery team. In the past, Noel has been criticized for his lack of effort on these losing teams, and many think it is due to having no motivation to play for a losing team. This season, Noel has had no lack of effort and gives it his all every time he steps on the court. On top of being on a winning team all season for the first time in his career, Noel will also get his first NBA Playoff minutes in a few short weeks. Although the majority of the Thunder's current roster is signed beyond this season, Noel is one of the few players who may not be on the roster next season. Noel could hit a free agent market that is set to have plenty of available money for free agents, even beyond the top names. Noel has certainly proven that on the right team, he can be a major impact and can earn a deal larger than the league-minimum contract he is playing under currently. The big question for Noel will be choosing between more money and sticking around at least one more season in Oklahoma City on a team where he has found a defined role and has the chance to make an NBA Championship run in the playoffs. We will find out this summer when Noel makes his decision to either opt into or out of his player option for next season. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholascrain/2019/03/20/will-nerlens-noel-chase-money-or-wins/ |
Do Women Of Color Philanthropists Give Differently From Their White Counterparts? | The intersection of race, gender and giving started a few years back, when philanthropists started to focus on channeling more money to women and girls of color. Inside Philanthropy last year reported that women and girls of color receive only 2% of philanthropic pie, even though they make up 19% of the U.S. population. Initiatives such as Grantmakers for Girls of Color begin to address the gap. As women of color philanthropists begin to rise, they hold tremendous power to close the funding gap even further. In order to support women of color philanthropists effectively, it is important to understand if their giving patterns, journeys and experiences are different from their white counterparts. Research published yesterday by the Womens Philanthropy Institute (WPI), Women Give 2019: Gender and Giving Across Communities of Color, explored these differences. The quantitative part of the study found that giving patterns are very similar across ethnicities and races, but the qualitative part in-depth case studies with six women of color philanthropists articulated the subtle differences between them and their white counterparts. First, race and gender consistently guided their philanthropic work . All six philanthropists talked about how their identities have influenced their giving.First and foremost, I see myself as Chinese I started digging deeper into the kind of needs in the Asian community, noted one philanthropist in the study, but at the same time, my philanthropic giving was more focused on gender because.... I felt it vividly as a woman, and so that really drove my desire to enact change by way of giving, as well as volunteering. Second, they set up giving circles specific to their communities, but also intentionally reach out to other 'intersectional' giving circles. The report noted that one respondent and member of an Asian womens giving circle highlighted her giving circles support of some of the newer local African American giving circles: Theyre all our friends because weve been able to leverage some of our knowledge and share it so that they dont have to go through some of the challenges weve had. Third, the lack of prominent role models from their backgrounds meant that most women of color philanthropists interviewed did not think about philanthropy until later in life. One interviewee said, I have to say that I really didnt understand how I could be a philanthropist until later on. I mean, even as a young person, I saw the philanthropists as the Rockefellers and the Carnegies, you know, the people that funded the library in our town, those kinds of things. Women in communities of color do indeed take different pathways to their philanthropy, though the differences are subtle. They bring a more inclusive and equitable approach within the formal philanthropic sector , and they advocate for other philanthropists to do the same. The Women Give 2019 report is funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It demonstrates the unique perspectives women of color bring to philanthropy and underscore the importance of understanding and engaging donors from diverse backgrounds. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bonniechiu/2019/03/20/do-women-of-color-philanthropists-give-differently-from-their-white-counterparts/ |
How Dirty Are Airplanes? | Whether it's peak flu season or not, you might still wonder how clean the airplane really is. When most commercial planes hold between 150 and 350 passengers and schedules are usually tight, some parts of the plane are going to be dirtier than others. While by no means do you need to cancel your flight, it pays to know which parts of the plane to avoid. As you might assume, the bathroom isn't the only place to exercise caution. Yes, flying in first class can help you avoid some of these dirty areas. But by knowing which areas to watch out for, you can begin practicing good airport hygiene. The Bathroom Isn't The Dirtiest Place Perhaps to the surprise of many, the airplane bathroom isn't the dirtiest place on the plane. While you should still be careful touching the flush button, door handle and other high-traffic spots in the bathroom, airlines are intentional about cleaning it regularly. A 2015 study shows a couple of places to actually be dirtier than the bathroom. A microbiologist collected samples from four flights to calculate the total number of bacteria per square inch. Though the airplane bathroom flush button had 265 bacteria colony forming units (CFU) per square inch, there are two places on the plane the study confirmed to have more bacteria than the flush button. Airplane seatback trays are the dirtiest place on the airplane. The same study shows that trays have 2,155 CFU per square inch. That's 8x higher than the toilet flush button. In-between flights, the airline staff do a quick cleanup of the cabin. But this cleanup primarily looks for removing trash and a possible wipe down of the seats. They don't have the time to sanitize each tray in between boardings. For a clean tray, plan on bringing your own disinfecting wipes or a cloth to cover the tray while it's unstowed. Overhead Air Vents Overhead air vents had a 285 CFU per square inch rating in the microbiologist study. Since each passenger prefers a different rate of airflow, there is constant contact. You might even adjust the flow several times during the flight. You don't know the last time the nozzle has been wiped down or who sat in your seat before you. While the air vent can be dirty where your hand touches the nozzle, it's not a bad idea to have some fresh air blowing as it can help keep some of the germs away in the otherwise stifling cabin. Seat Belt Buckles You won't be able to avoid touching the belt buckle even though it can be cleaner than the airplane bathroom flush button. It's still a good idea to wipe your hands down with sanitizer after buckling. Aisle Seat Headrests One place you might overlook is aisle seat headrests. Think about how many people walking up and down the aisle place their hands to each headrest to maintain their balance. This isn't just a nuisance if you're sitting in the aisle seat and appreciate your personal space. Regardless of where you sit, you're essentially touching the same place as many others before you. Of course, you should also be wary of resting your head on the window seat side wall or even wearing shorts on the plane as your uncovered skin can pick up germs. Walking barefoot anywhere in the cabin can also be problematic. Airplane Blankets A general rule of thumb is to only accept airline provided blankets in a sealed plastic bag. If a blanket isn't in plastic, it's most likely been used and you probably shouldn't use it. Once again, you don't know who used the blanket before you. Although airport blankets can be comfy, you might enjoy bringing your own blanket for added relaxation. This can also be the case if you prefer traveling with a weighted blanket. Coffee, Tea And Tap Water It's not just your co-passengers that bring germs onto the plane. The in-flight beverages can be unhealthy too. This is because flight attendants might use tap water to brew coffee and tea. Plus, if there isn't enough bottled water to go around, flight attendants might use tap water for the rest of the flight. While airplane tap water is sanitary enough for human consumption and you most likely won't get a mysterious parasite, you'll probably get more bacteria and germs than you wish to ingest. This is mostly because the tap water passes through multiple channels and holding tanks that aren't constantly cleaned. Quick Cleanups Between Flights In-between flights, the airline staff will quickly pick up any debris in the aisles, seat pockets and overhead bins. They will also wipe down any fluids or stains in the common areas. Interior Cabin Deep Cleaning Airlines don't exactly publish how often they deep clean the interior cabin. But you can anticipate it's every one month to three months. These cleanings usually happen overnight or during scheduled maintenance. For overnight cleanings, the staff will wipe down the trays, seats, air vents and other hard surfaces within the cabin. While you don't know when the airline will do this, your best chance of flying on a clean plane is by getting an early morning flight. Aircraft Disinsection Depending on your travel route, certain countries also require airlines to use aerosol disinsection to limit the spread of insect-spread disease. This can be the case when these diseases are present: Zika Malaria Yellow Fever Disinsection might not eliminate viral or bacterial diseases like the common cold or flu, but it can prevent the spread of more serious illnesses. Summary You should treat an airplane like any public place. Practicing good hygiene habits can limit your exposure to germs. The additional privacy and personal service you get from flying in first class or business class can be helpful too. Other posts: New Google Flights and Hotel Search Tools ANA new premium economy Barclays American Airlines credit cards news | https://www.forbes.com/sites/geoffwhitmore/2019/03/20/how-dirty-are-airplanes/ |
Where is the champion for pharmacare? | With the possible exception of a few drug company executives, Canadians overwhelmingly support universal pharmacare and they have for years. But like a reluctant swimmer who inches closer and closer to the water but never jumps in, the federal government keeps inching toward implementing a national pharmacare program but just cant seem to take that final plunge and actually do it. Canadian finance minister Bill Morneau speaks during an armchair discussion hosted by the Toronto Region Board of Trade, The Empire Club and Canadian Club of Toronto, in Toronto, on Wednesday. ( Cole Burston / THE CANADIAN PRESS ) The latest tiny step forward came this week when Finance Minister Bill Morneau released his latest federal budget in which he announced some foundational measures on the path to national pharmacare. The moves include setting up a national drug agency to allow bulk buying of drugs by the provinces and pledging to spend $500 million a year, starting in 2022, to lower the high cost of drugs for rare diseases. Unfortunately, though, the federal government wasted a glorious opportunity in the budget to launch a true universal pharmacare program. Article Continued Below Instead it has opted for a go-slow approach to resolving a major health policy issue and continue Canadas sorry status of being the only country in the world with universal health care but without a national drug coverage. Importantly, the big reason theres been so little movement on pharmacare is that no one in the Trudeau governments cabinet has stepped up to champion it. Its a tough job to gain full federal-provincial co-operation on what will be a program that may cost up to $22 billion a year. And its especially hard when both Ontario and Quebec, the two biggest provinces, arent too keen on the idea under their current governments. Its even more difficult when you have to deal with opposition from rich drug companies and skepticism by some Canadians who already pay for private drug insurance. Clearly its not Bill Morneau, who favours a go-slow approach that seems to be going nowhere, especially given that the Liberals may be out of power after the Oct. 21 election. And its not Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, who in the 19 months that she has held the post has shown she doesnt feel empowered to take on such a role on an issue that will cause huge, albeit positive, upheaval in the health-care system. Article Continued Below One possibility was Jane Philpott, who was health minister in the early days of the Trudeau government, but resigned from cabinet last month. The only other big champion of pharmacare in Trudeaus inner circles was Gerald Butts, who quit last month as Trudeaus principal secretary in the fallout from the SNC-Lavalin affair. Today, political leaders can learn much from the past about what it takes to be a champion of health care in Canada. In 1957, National Health Minister Paul Martin Sr. was the driving force behind the passage of the Hospital Insurance Act, the forerunner of todays medicare that set standards for hospital care and provincially run hospital insurance. Just as today, the Liberal government of Louis St. Laurent faced a hostile political landscape with opposition from the Ontario and Quebec governments and a lukewarm reception by the middle class. Martin is now considered one of the fathers of medicare in Canada. In 1966, Health Minister Allan MacEachen was the cabinet champion who fought through lengthy cabinet and House of Commons debate to win passage of the Medical Care Act that established national medicare. In 1984, Health Minister Monique Begin was alone for a long time in the Liberal cabinet of Pierre Trudeau in championing the Canada Health Act, which strengthened the medicare system. Canadians may see some more steps in the right direction in late May or early June when former Ontario Liberal health minister Eric Hoskins releases an in-depth report by a National Advisory Council on pharmacare, which the was appointed last year by Ottawa to lead. But Hoskins is not a cabinet minister and his councils report will be impossible to implement without a champion in cabinet. Thats because bold plans like pharmacare require the use of political capital, and only a strong champion with serious cabinet clout can make things happen. If so, the time for action is now. Bob Hepburn is a politics columnist and based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @BobHepburn | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2019/03/20/where-is-the-champion-for-pharmacare.html |
Does it make sense to delay childrens vaccines? | When Elyse Imamuras son was an infant, she and her husband, Robert, chose to spread out his vaccinations at a more gradual pace than the official schedule recommended. I was thinking, OK, were going to do this, says Imamura, 39, of Torrance, Calif. But were going to do it slower so your body gets acclimated and doesnt face six different things all of a sudden. Seven years later, Imamura says her son, Amaru, is a very healthy, active boy who loves to play sports. But delaying vaccines is risky. Many pediatricians will tell you a more gradual approach to vaccinations is better than no vaccinations at all, but they offer some hard advice to parents who are considering it. Every day you are eligible to get a vaccine that you dont get one, the chance of an invasive disease remains, says Dr. Charles Golden, executive medical director of the Primary Care Network at Childrens Hospital of Orange County. Recent outbreaks of measles, mumps and whooping cough have once again reignited a war of words over vaccinations. Advertising The squabble is often painted as two-sided: in one camp, the medical establishment, backed by science, strongly promoting the vaccination of children against 14 childhood diseases by age 2. In the other, a small but vocal minority the so-called anti-vaxxers shunning the shots, believing the risks of vaccines outweigh the dangers of the diseases. The notion that there are two opposing sides obscures a large middle ground occupied by up to one-quarter of parents, who believe in vaccinating their children but, like the Imamuras, choose to do so more gradually. They worry about the health impact of so many shots in so short a period, and in some cases they forgo certain vaccines entirely. Alternative vaccine schedules have been around for years, promoted by a few doctors and touted by celebrities such as Jenny McCarthy. Donald Trump endorsed the idea during a 2015 Republican presidential debate. The book that started the delay trend The concept gained a large following more than a decade ago, when Robert W. Sears, an Orange County, Calif., pediatrician, published The Vaccine Book, in which he included two alternative schedules. Both delay vaccines, and one of them also allows parents to skip shots for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), chickenpox, hepatitis A and polio. Sears book became the vaccination bible for thousands of parents, who visited their pediatricians with it in tow. But his ideas have been widely rejected by the medical establishment and he was punished by the Medical Board of California last year after it accused him of improperly exempting a 2-year-old from all future vaccinations. He declined to be interviewed for this column. Advertising Imamura, who describes herself as definitely not an anti-vaxxer, says she and her husband followed Sears to a T. They limited the number of vaccines for their son to no more than two per appointment, compared with up to six in the official schedule. And they skipped the shot for chickenpox. She concedes, however: If thered been outbreaks like now, it would have affected my thinking about delaying vaccines. Scientific evidence does not support doctors theories The ideas promoted by Sears and others have contributed to parents worries that front-loading shots could overwhelm their babies immune systems or expose them to toxic levels of chemicals such as mercury, aluminum and formaldehyde. But scientific evidence does not support that. Infectious-disease doctors and public health officials say everyday life presents far greater challenges to childrens immune systems. Touching another human being, crawling around the house, they are exposed to so many things all the time on a daily basis, so these vaccines dont add much to that, says Dr. Pia Pannaraj, a pediatric infectious-diseases specialist at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The same is true of some of the metals and chemicals contained in vaccines, which vaccination skeptics blame for autism despite numerous studies finding no link the most recent published earlier this month. In the first six months of life, babies get far more aluminum from breast milk and infant formula than from vaccines, public health experts say. When you look at babies that have received aluminum-containing vaccines, you cant even tell the level has gone up, says Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and director of the hospitals Vaccine Education Center. The same is true of formaldehyde and mercury, he adds. (Offit co-invented Mercks RotaTeq vaccine for rotavirus, and CHOP sold the royalty rights to it for $182 million in 2008. CHOP declined to comment on what Offits share was.) Advice, special conditions, side effects Parents who are concerned about mercury, aluminum or other vaccine ingredients should avoid information shared on social media, which can be misleading. Instead, check out the Vaccine Education Center on CHOPs website at www.chop.edu by clicking on the Departments tab. Advertising The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also provides a detailed breakdown of the ingredients in every vaccine at www.cdc.gov/vaccines. If your child has a condition you fear might be incompatible with vaccinations, discuss it with your pediatrician. The CDC gives very specific guidelines on who should not receive vaccines, including kids who have immune-system deficiencies or are getting chemotherapy or taking certain medications. If your children are not among them, vaccinate them. That will help prevent outbreaks, protecting those who, for medical reasons, have not received the shots. When parents resist, Pannaraj says, she emphasizes that the potential harm from infections is far more severe than the risks of the vaccines. She notes, for example, that the risk of getting encephalitis from the measles is about 1,000 times greater than from the vaccine. Still, side effects do occur. Most are mild, but severe cases though rare are not unheard of. To learn about the potential side effects of vaccines, look on the CDC website or discuss it with your pediatrician. Emily Lawrence Mendoza, 35, says that after her second child, Elsie, got her first measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot at 12 months of age, she spiked a fever and developed a full body rash that looked like a mild version of the disease. It took three visits to urgent care before a doctor acknowledged that Elsie, now almost 5, could have had a mild reaction to the vaccine. After that, Mendoza, of Orange, Calif., decided to adopt a more gradual vaccination schedule for her third child. Yet Mendoza says Elsies adverse reaction made her realize the importance of vaccinations: What if shed been exposed to a full-blown case of the measles? | https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/health/does-it-make-sense-to-delay-childrens-vaccines/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Why Has The European Union Just Slapped Google With A Billion Dollar Fine? | Tech giant Google has just been slapped with a 1.49 billion ($1.69 billion) fine for breaching the European Union's (E.U.) antitrust rules. The European Commission found Google guilty of abusing its market dominance because it imposed restrictive clauses in contracts with third-party websites, these ensured that Google's rivals couldn't place their search adverts on these websites. In practice, what Google did was use its AdSense for Search platform to provide search adverts for publishers' websites. It should have been acting as an impartial third-party intermediary between the advertisers and the publishers looking to profit from their web space, however, Google didn't allow online search engine competitors, such as Microsoft and Verizon-owned Yahoo!, to sell advertising space in Google's own search engine results pages. As Google dominated this market in the European Economic Area over the period concerned, it restricted the access of its competitors to a large chunk of their target market. The European Commission found evidence to support it doing this since 2006, when it was found to be including exclusivity clauses in its contracts. Google, whose parent company is Alphabet, tweaked its contracts to make them slightly less anti-competitive in March 2009, when the exclusivity clauses were replaced with 'Premium Placement' clauses, which ensured that publishers reserved the most profitable space on their search pages for Google ads, stopping its competitors from putting their search ads on the most seen part of the search results pages. In March 2009, it also inserted clauses that ensured publishers had to seek written approval from Google before making changes to how any rival ads were displayed. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/annatobin/2019/03/20/why-has-the-european-union-just-slapped-google-with-a-billion-dollar-fine/ |
How do reality TV shows care for their stars? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption L-R: Mike Thalassitis, Sarah Goodhart, Jonny Mitchell Today's reality TV gives its stars so much instant influence that you don't even have to wait until the next morning to be an overnight success. Millions of social media followers and lucrative brand deals await the stars of shows like Love Island and The Only Way is Essex. But the death of 2017 contestant Mike Thalassitis has sparked debate over whether there is enough support for the people who go from ordinary to celebrity in a matter of hours. A number of reality stars have spoken out in the wake of his death, including TOWIE's Mario Falcone, who said "Love Island have got to open their eyes" and former contestant Zara Holland, who added the show left her anxious and depressed two years on. ITV, which broadcasts Love Island, has promised to provide more support in the wake of Thalassitis's death. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mike Thalassitis was found dead in a park in north London on Saturday In a statement, the broadcaster said it would "extend support processes to offer therapy to all Islanders and not only those that reach out to us. "We will be delivering bespoke training to all future Islanders to include social media and financial management." Former contestant Olivia Attwood, who dated Thalassitis on the show, has defended Love Island, suggesting there were several factors in his death and not just the pressures of fame. "People are angry and they want someone to blame," she told The Sun. "Mike was in turmoil and a lot of his problems weren't to do with Love Island at all." But Jonny Mitchell, who appeared on the show alongside Thalassitis, is one contestant who says the lack of aftercare is a problem. Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live breakfast, he said: "I'm not here to discredit the show but one of my friends has died so I'm here to tell the absolute truth. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jonny Mitchell says he did not receive enough after care when he left Love Island "As far as aftercare goes.. when I came off the show I was trolled ridiculous amounts, as a lot of people were, but I had a particularly bad time of it. "The only time I ever had a call off that show offering any kind of counselling or help was yesterday [the day after Thalassitis's death]. "Obviously after Mike died and they've said 'If you need to talk to anyone' and to be honest I found it almost quite laughable. This is too little too late.'" 'A thorough process' However, a contestant on last year's Love Island, Adam Collard, praised the team behind the show, saying they "really have your best interests at heart". The 23-year-old says that before appearing, he had a psychiatric assessment and spoke to a doctor, describing it as a "thorough process". Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Adam Collard says he was looked after by Love Island "I know they obviously want to make good TV but the main priority is always looking after you," he tells BBC News. "When I left the villa the chaperone I lived with the week before I went in came to see me and we became good friends. "Even when I broke up with my girlfriend, who I met on the show, I think I got a text or phone call from every single one of [the Love Island] team, including the runners and producers." The former personal trainer from Newcastle received a lot of hate on social media whilst appearing on the ITV2 show, as his late entry caused friction between existing couples, and he also faced accusations of gaslighting. However, Collard says he was made aware by producers in advance of how he was going to be portrayed. At the point he entered the villa, the other islanders were coupled up, and Collard was told it would essentially be his job to shake up the existing romances. "I knew from day one that everyone was going to have their back up with me," he explains. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Adam says having his now ex-girlfriend Zara McDermott around during personal appearances helped him "They [the producers] sat me down and said 'how are you with pressure, because you are not going to look the best in the situation you're going into, but if you can handle it, it will be a very good storyline for you'". When he left the villa, he was then informed of the public reaction to him by the press team, so he would be "prepared" for every possible situation. When it came to life outside the villa, Adam followed a route similar to Thalassitis, doing several personal appearances (PAs) at night clubs across the UK, on what is a well-trodden path for attractive male reality contestants. "PAs are very heavy, but at the same time I was asked on multiple occasions [by my management] how much I could do per week. "Everything was presented as a job offer and nothing was forced on me really." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sarah Goodhart appeared in series 14 of Geordie Shore Love Island isn't the only reality show to have faced scrutiny for the treatment of cast members. Sarah Goodhart, 24, was on series 14 of Geordie Shore and says she had prepared herself for a life of fame but instead was plunged into debt and depression after being dropped from the MTV show. She told Radio 1 Newsbeat that she felt "trapped" on the show and her requests for help were overlooked. "I just felt very neglected. I didn't feel like I could talk to anyone about it because the schedule was so tight there was no time. "I brought up a few times that I needed to speak to someone because I was losing my head a little bit but I was very rarely granted that chance." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Sophie Kasaei is represented by Joanna Leeson Joanna Leeson, whose all-female talent agency represents Geordie Shore's Sophie Kasaei and Love Island's Kady McDermott, says she prioritises her clients' mental health and financial situations to make sure they don't feel stressed or overwhelmed. Leeson says she has always been happy with the way Kasaei has been treated by Geordie Shore, and says when things get a bit hectic it's something they "are able to identify" to ensure "there's not too much pressure on the client". "We check in with the girls daily and as an agency we have regular contact with the TV production companies - when Sophie is filming Geordie Shore we speak to them a handful of times a day," Leeson says. "If we are ever concerned about our girls we reach out to check if everything's OK." In light of Love Island's promise to help its contestants with financial advice, Joanna says this is something her agency already does. "When we take on every girl, we sit down and go through everything they need to know - to live, to pay their bills and we make sure as agents that we actively go out and achieve our targets to make sure they don't have any financial stress." Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Contestants like Sam Bird and Jack Fincham did PAs after the show ended Collard says that, while he felt he had a "realistic understanding" of the pressures involved, the sudden fame still takes its toll. "[The tours] are a lot of pressure and it's quite a lonely time too," he says. "You're jumping from city to city and 3,000 people are watching you and then you're back to your hotel room by yourself." Collard adds that having that lifestyle can be difficult, but "doesn't think anyone's to blame" for the burnout reality stars can feel. He adds that "there is a stereotype with young men especially, who feel like they can't speak to anyone". "The girls [from Love Island] are very supportive of one another, they comment on each other's pictures on Instagram and big each other up - it's quite nice. "But you rarely see the boys do that, it's like you've almost got too much pride to speak out because you think 'oh well I shouldn't be feeling like this, I've got all this fame and money, why should I feel down?'" Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47637721 |
Will Muellers investigation live up to fans expectations? | J. Scott Applewhite / AP Her family wanted a puppy, so Alicia Barnett dreamed they would find one that was smart, steady and a bit mysterious. She hoped their new addition could share a personality and a name with the man who has become her rather unlikely idol. And so, the Barnetts' new chocolate Lab was christened Mueller an homage to the stoic special prosecutor appointed to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether members of the Trump campaign played any part. For devoted Democrats like Barnett, Robert Mueller has become a sort of folk hero since his appointment in May 2017. To them, he represents calm in the face of a storm, quiet in a city of bombast, a symbol of hope that a presidency they view as dishonorable might soon face some type of consequences. "He gives me reassurance that all is not lost," says Barnett, who lives with her family and Mueller the puppy in Kansas City, Kansas. "I admire his mystique. I admire that I haven't heard his voice. He is someone who can sift through all this mess and come up with a rationale that makes sense to everyone." The special counsel a 74-year-old registered Republican, Marine and former director the FBI has even inspired his own genre of arts and crafts. One can buy Mueller paintings, prayer candles, valentines and ornaments. A necklace, earrings, keychains. A stuffed toy of Mueller in a Superman outfit, cross-stitch patterns, baby onesies even an illustration of his haircut to hang on the wall. "Stare at Special Counsel Mueller's crisp coiffure for three minutes and you will notice a sense of calm come over you," that artist, Oakland, California-based Wayne Shellabarger, wrote in his online listing for a $10 print. "That's a haircut you can set your watch to." Mueller has become a boogeyman for many of President Donald Trump's most ardent supporters, as the leader of the investigation the president derides as a "witch hunt." But his fans often speak of him in soaring analogies. Barnett imagines him as a duck's legs: kicking heroically to keep things afloat but under the water, out of view. Karen Adler, a Placerville, California, crafter who sells a coffee mug with Mueller dressed as a saint and wearing a crown of laurels "for victory," describes him as "Paul Bunyan-esque," a man of superhuman labor. Shellabarger thinks of him "almost like Bigfoot," a mystical creature rarely seen in public. Mueller has remained completely silent as the ceaseless speculation about his investigation turned him into one of the most famous men in America. He hasn't given a single interview, and his office does not leak. When Kim Six posted her cross-stitch tribute to Mueller on her Facebook page, some people told her to keep politics out of crafting. The framed stitching featured the letters "M.A.G.A." down the side, a reference to Trump's "Make American Great Again" slogan but with these words substituted: "Mueller Ain't Going Away." Her critics assumed she was far-left, but she considers herself a centrist, having voted in the past for moderate Republicans. Her husband is a "card-carrying Trump fan," says the resident of California's Bay Area. They agree to disagree, and she thinks Americans should be able to do the same. To her, Mueller represents a middle ground where facts exist, as opposed to the ideological rants that consume political discourse. "Let's get all the facts on the table," she says, "and let this impartial person come in and tell us what the truth is not spin, just truth." She's imagined findings so thorough Congress and voters would be forced to act accordingly. But as the investigation has continued on, with 34 people charged and five sentenced to prison, she's noticed Americans retreating to their corners and rearranging the facts to fit their political position. She's losing faith that Mueller's probe, whenever it does come to an end, will change anything at all. "How naive I was," she says. "I have this fear, no matter what happens, either side is going to spin it the way they want to. So I don't know anymore if he's the coming savior we had hoped for." Carmen Martinez feels doubt, too. She and her business partner in New York City have sold 500 Christmas ornaments and earrings with Mueller's face. They tend to get a rush of orders after major Mueller news: indictments, sentencings. Martinez saw him as the one person who could lead the country out of chaos with truth, and believed his report would push everyone to turn away from Trumpism. But Martinez, a Peruvian immigrant, was shocked last year by the administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico border. Others remain hopeful: "I feel like we're in the middle of a book, like a saga," says Janice Harris, a textile artist in Detroit. "And we're just waiting for the climax." She was never a particularly political person before Trump's election much of her work featured kittens or dancers. But she was inspired to immortalize Mueller on handmade makeup bags. She had custom fabric printed with Mueller's face, stitched it into her pouches and sold around 50. Wayne Shellabarger has sold two prints of his Mueller haircut illustration. One happy customer wrote that using the print as a meditation aide allowed her to stop taking anti-anxiety medication. "The world has gone completely insane and topsy-turvy," Shellabarger says. "Mueller's hair is one little shining piece of sanity in a sea of madness, so precise and sober and straightforward and without deceit, absolutely by the book, the opposite of everything that's going on in the world." He hung one of the haircut prints in his own living room in Oakland, California close to the television, so when he watches the news and his heart starts to pound, he can glance up at it. There is such a thing as fact, it reminds him. "And that gives me hope," Shellabarger says, "that since he's in charge, the world can be normal again." | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/mar/20/will-muellers-investigation-live-up-to-fans-expect/ |
When is the NC 9th District special primary election? | After almost two years, the 9th District congressional race feels like a marathon, but its going to finish in a sprint, with just weeks before a primary to pick the next Republican candidate. The field of candidates is set, less than a month after the N.C. State Board of Elections ordered a new election because of alleged absentee ballot fraud committed by the campaign of Republican Mark Harris. The winner will face Democratic nominee Dan McCready on the ballot in the general election, since he doesnt have a primary opponent, as well as candidates from the Green and Libertarian parties. After the primary, there will be just a few more months before the general election and then the winner will have to file for reelection in 2020 soon after that. There are 13 candidates in the 9th District: 10 Republicans, and one each from the Democratic, Green and Libertarian parties. Only the Republican candidates will face a primary election, while the other candidates wont appear on a ballot until the general election. The primary is set for May 14. If theres no runoff election, the general election would be held Sept. 10. If there is a runoff, that would be held Sept. 10, and the general election would be held Nov. 5. If no candidate in the primary gets 30 percent of the vote, then there would be a runoff between the top two vote-getters. Until the General Assembly changed it two years ago, candidates had to clear 40 percent to win a primary election outright. In 2012, the last time there was an open seat in the 9th District, no Republican candidate cleared the old 40 percent threshold. That meant Robert Pittenger, who racked up 33 percent of the vote, had to face No. 2 vote-getter Jim Pendergraph in a July runoff. Pittenger won that contest with 53 percent of the vote, and went on to win the seat in November. People registered as Republicans and unaffiliated voters can cast a ballot in the primary election. The municipal elections in Charlotte in which voters will choose their City Council members and mayor are scheduled for the same dates as the 9th District election. The municipal primary will be held Sept. 10, which would coincide with either the 9th District runoff or general election, and the municipal general election is set for Nov. 5, which would coincide with the 9th District general if there were a runoff. The 9th District takes up a chunk of southeast Charlotte, meaning Charlotte voters who live in the district could have twice as many reasons to go to the polls. Its hard to predict, because of the unusual combination of a congressional election on an odd year. Special elections and Charlottes municipal elections dont tend to draw huge numbers of voters (Turnout in the low- to mid-teens is common in Charlottes municipal elections, for example, though turnout hit 21 percent in 2017). The 2012 Republican runoff election between Pittenger and Pendergraph drew about 36,000 votes, while the 2014 special primary election to fill former congressman Mel Watts seat in the 12th District drew about 34,000 votes. In addition to Democrat Dan McCready, Libertarian Jeff Scott and Green Party member Allen Smith, there are 10 Republicans in the race. They include former Mecklenburg County commissioner and Marine Corps veteran Matthew Ridenhour, Union County commissioner and gun shop owner Stony Rushing, Fayetteville medical device sales manager Stevie Rivenbark, Raleigh attorney Chris Anglin, Mecklenburg state Sen. Dan Bishop, former state legislator Fern Shubert, Katie Day, Albert Lee Wiley Jr. of Salter Path, in the Outer Banks, Gary Dunn, a perennial candidate from Matthews who ran for Charlotte mayor in 2017 and Leigh Brown, a Realtor from Harrisburg. | https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/election/article228085954.html |
Is 'Once Upon A Time In Hollywood' The Final Film In Tarantino's Trilogy? | Quentin Tarantino still seems intent on directing only ten films in his life, the reasoning being that its all downhill from there; you either retire a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become Steven Spielberg. That means that were likely not going to see many of the projects that Tarantino has previously expressed interest in, such as Kill Bill 3, or the Vega Brothers film that would supposedly unite Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. But Tarantino has often mentioned his proposed revisionist history trilogy, a trio of films connected not through story, but by the fantasy of revenge. Both Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained rewrote terrible tales from history, making the oppressed become the glorious, bloodthirsty victor, and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood might just be the film to complete said trilogy. After all, it seems incredibly crude, even by Tarantino standards, to accurately retell the horrific story of Sharon Tate, especially when many of her relatives are still alive (not that hed be the only one to do so). The gruesome murder is often viewed as the beginning of the end to the hippie counterculture, as the summer of love evaporated into disillusionment. Yet the trailer and character posters for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood are suspiciously sunny, illuminated by the glow of seventies nostalgia. We all know that something very nasty is bound to happen to these characters. The teaser trailer, however, gives little away; the focus is on the dynamic between Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. What little we see of Robbie is framed positively, with brief shots of her happily dancing. Theres also a chilling glimpse of Damon Herriman as Charles Manson, whos apparently so perfectly cast that hes playing the role again for David Fincher in the second season of Mindhunter. But Tarantino is usually quite skilled at touching the boundaries of taste without outright crossing them (though thats certainly open to debate). Hes also a fan of strong female characters wreaking violent revenge against their abusers; Margot Robbies depiction of Tate might just come armed with a katana. Historically accurate or not, the promise of Tarantino returning to the seventies, potentially to the glorious heights of Pulp Fiction, is ridiculously exciting. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2019/03/20/is-once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-the-final-film-in-tarantinos-trilogy/ |
When Trump tweets, how should the media respond? | If you cover every blip and blast Mr. Trump sends out into the Twittersphere, some say, you are allowing the president to dictate the news cycle and distracting attention from real events by hyping phony controversies. Recommended: To make Russia great again, Putin is building roads and bridges If you ignore his tweets, however, some say youre normalizing behavior that is at best unpresidential, and at worst alarming. This morning, Mr. Trump lashed out at George Conway, the husband of presidential adviser Kellyanne Conway, calling him a stone cold LOSER & husband from hell. (Mr. Conway, a sharp critic of the president, had in recent days questioned Mr. Trumps mental health.) Mr. Conway fired back: You. Are. Nuts. The bizarre exchange came on the heels of a weekend tweetstorm, in which the president took aim at everything from a Saturday Night Live rerun to certain Fox News anchors. Most notably, Mr. Trump attacked the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, accusing him of having conspired with Democrats against him. Last night, Mr. McCains widow posted a hateful message she said she received from a Trump supporter as a result. It all proved too much for even some allies. Trump has had lots of oh-my-God-did-you-see-what-he-just-tweeted days, writes CNNs Chris Cillizza. But, he contends, Twitter is where the truest form of Trump comes out. Its his Twitter feed not official White House statements or signing ceremonies where we find out what is on Trumps mind. Regardless of how you view it, its what the president of the United States is choosing to say to the world. Let us know what youre thinking at [email protected]. Read this story at csmonitor.com Become a part of the Monitor community | https://news.yahoo.com/trump-tweets-media-respond-193744680.html |
Can Woodstock 50 'Recreate The Magic' Of The Original Festival? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Kevin Mazur/Getty Images Kevin Mazur/Getty Images It's been 50 years since Woodstock Music & Arts Festival. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of three days of peace, love and music, Woodstock 50 will take place this Aug. 1618, 2019 in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Festival co-founder Michael Lang has announced the official lineup for the anniversary festival with Jay-Z, Dead & Company and The Killers as headliners. Rounding out the list of performers are Miley Cyrus, Imagine Dragons, The Black Keys and Chance The Rapper as well as acts like Santana who performed at the seminal fest five decades ago. "They're trying to recreate the magic and some of the cultural dominance that the original Woodstock did," NPR Music's Stephen Thompson says, noting that organizers are not only working in the shadow of the behemoth that was the original event, but also in the shadow of "the debacle that is Woodstock 99" which was notorious for violence, destruction and sexual assault cases. In the years since the original Woodstock, the festival's symbolism of peace and love has been romanticized in pop culture. As Thompson notes, no matter who's on the bill, carrying on the legacy of the original Woodstock is incredibly hard. "They're trying, I think, to feed a lot of mouths at once," Thompson says of the variety in this year's lineup compared to the gathering of 400,000 people back in 1969. "In order to attract 400,000 in this market place, you have to please a lot of people at once." "In the announcement of this new Woodstock lineup, there was conversation about the parallels between the political situation in 1969 and the political situation in the present," Thompson notes. "So, I'm sure there's going to be an attempt to sort of tie the two together and bring out some of the activism." Even though summer festival season is more crowded than ever, Thompson thinks Woodstock 50 will stand out because of its historical name recognition and reverberations to be a "siren song to anyone who feels some kind of attachment" to the word 'Woodstock' and it's music history. Listen to the entire conversation at the audio link. | https://www.npr.org/2019/03/20/705215379/can-woodstock-50-recreate-the-magic-of-the-original-festival?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=allthingsconsidered |
How can Evansville transfer Dru Smith help Mizzou next year? | Throughout Missouris practices this past season, Cuonzo Martin posed a challenge to his young basketball team that it constantly failed to achieve: stop Dru Smith. Smith, an Evansville transfer, spent the year running Martins scout team as he sat out under NCAA transfer rules and made a big impression on the Tigers staff and players. But he couldnt take the court as MU finished the season 15-17 after losing Jontay Porter to injury. Its been tough, Smith told The Star. It was tough to sit and watch at the same time its been good for me. Its given me time to work on my game. Time to watch and soak everything in. As a sophomore at Evansville, the 6-foot-3 guard averaged 13.7 points, 3.5 rebounds, 4.6 assists and two steals per game and was chosen to the Missouri Valley Conference all-improved team. He elected to transfer after his coach, Marty Simmons, was fired and has two years of eligibility remaining. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Kansas City Star Smith chose Missouri partly because of his relationship with assistant coach Chris Hollender, who played for Simmons at Evansville and bonded with him over their coachs firing. Simmons used Smith at both guard spots and occasionally on the wing, where he shot 48.2 percent from three, which led the conference. Martin said he plans to use a lot of four-guard lineups next year when Smith gets eligible, partly because of the personnel he brings back and because of Smiths diverse game. He said Smiths defense in practice has impressed him throughout the season. Asked in February if he sees Smith as more of a point guard or a wing, Martin declined to label him. Hes a ball player, he said. Despite his reserved personality, Smiths name found its way into every Missouri fans mouth when he was denied an NCAA waiver to play immediately in the fall. Mark Smith, an Illinois transfer who has no relation to Dru Smith, was approved to play immediately, which raised questions about the Evansville transfers situation. Evansville released a statement saying Missouri asked the department to comply with the transfer and say Smith was pushed off the team. Evansville said Smith left off his own volition. Smith said he was surprised at the publicity his waiver denial got because he never expected it to go through when it was filed. I was just happy (Mark Smiths) passed through, Dru Smith said. Honestly, I didnt expect mine to go through when we filed for it but we just kind of figured to try it. I was just glad that one of us to get out there. Sophomore center Jeremiah Tilmon praised Smith for his impact in practice and added that hes done a great job of teaching Missouris freshmen about the nuances of college basketball, such as how to anticipate plays. Hes the best facilitator Ive ever played with, Tilmon said. He can shoot the ball, hes got handles and hes smart. I like his IQ. I havent seen anything he cant do. He brings a lot to the table. Smith will join a loaded backcourt next year that returns Mark Smith, Torrence Watson, Xavier Pinson, and Javon Pickett, while adding signee Mario McKinney. Expectations will be high for Dru Smith given the praise, and right now he sees himself helping as a veteran presence in what will still be a young backcourt. Im hoping to bring a little bit of leadership, he said. And get us over the hump in those close games. Until next season, hell have to live with being Missouris toughest assignment in practice. | https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-missouri/article228182144.html |
Why is Sen. Kyrsten Sinema silent on Donald Trumps continuing attacks on John McCain? | Opinion: Sen. McSally's silence is sad but understandable. She has an election coming up and is afraid of Trump. Sen. Sinema just won a six-year term. She's got no excuse. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Photo: David Wallace/The Republic) I can understand why Sen. Martha McSally doesnt come to the defense of the late Sen. John McCain when he is attacked by President Donald Trump. Shes afraid. She has an election coming up in 2020, and shes afraid that if she speaks honestly about Trump, hell turn on her. I get that. Its not exactly the kind of grit wed hope for in a U.S. senator, but we can understand it. If McSally appears to turn on Trump or even to disagree with him about his obsessive insults of McCain shed have to answer to the presidents supporters in Arizona, including Arizona Republican Party chief Kelli Ward, a Trump sycophant. On Wednesday, McSally issued an amorphous defense of McCain, without mentioning Trump by name. She tweeted: John McCain is an American hero and I am thankful for his life of service and legacy to our country and Arizona. Everyone should give him and his family the respect, admiration, and peace they deserve. Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) March 20, 2019 It's not much. But it's better than nothing. Shes scared. Sad, but understandable. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, on the other hand, is a mystery. MONTINI: Sinema explains why she ignores Trump's McCain insults And a disappointment. Sinema is a Democrat. She just won a six-year term. She has absolutely nothing to fear from the president or his supporters. Sinema wants to work with both sides She represents the state served by McCain for decades. She knows he deserves better than what he gets from Trump. She knows his family deserves better. But shes been quiet. From the beginning of her campaign and extending back to her time in the Arizona Legislature Sinema has prided herself on being able to get along with people on both sides of the aisle and get things done with people on both sides of the aisle. Fine. But this is about standing up to a bully This is different. This isnt about getting along with people. This is about standing up to a bully. This is about defending a person no longer in a position to defend himself. Its about standing for something. Its possible that speaking out about Trumps crude insults will alienate some of the people across the aisle with whom Sinema would like to work. The time to take a stand Thats how it is in politics. And in life. NEWSLETTERS Get the Opinions Newsletter newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Our best and latest in commentary in daily digest form. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Opinions Newsletter Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Going to Washington with the idea of getting things done for the people of Arizona is a good an honorable goal. But such a thing doesnt only involve passing laws or protecting citizens through public policy. Sometimes, getting things done involves nothing more than saying something. Standing up to someone. Standing for something. Reach Montini at [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/20/krysten-sinema-martha-mcsally-donald-trump/3224156002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/20/krysten-sinema-martha-mcsally-donald-trump/3224156002/ |
Will state scrap $231M child welfare computer system? | Buy Photo Problems persist for the Michigan Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System (Photo: Jonathan Oosting | The Detroit News) Lansing Michigans Department of Health and Human Services is considering whether to scrap or salvage a problem-plagued child welfare computer system that has cost the state $231 million since 2011, officials said Wednesday. The state is expected to decide the fate of the Michigan Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System by June 27, when it reports back to a federal judge who last week called the state's ongoing child welfare issues depressing. The computer system, first rolled out in 2014, continues to generate an unmanageable backlog of defects, incidents and data fixes that are likely to persist indefinitely, an outside expert said in a recent report for Judge Nancy Edmunds. The flaws negatively affect outcomes for children and families. But the state is not necessarily wedded to the system and is very, very critically looking at how to improve the situation, Farah Hanley, deputy director of financial operations for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, told a Senate committee. The department is exploring "what a better alternative would be if there is one out there," Hanley said Wednesday. Lawmakers grilled state health officials over the system known as MiSACWIS as they consider additional funding requests for the department next fiscal year. The troubled computer system amounts to $230 million in taxpayer funding thrown out the window, said Sen. Pete MacGregor, R-Rockford, who chairs the budget subcommittee. Its just a huge frustration. Michigans child welfare program has operated under some form of a court order since 2006, and Edmunds is now monitoring steps toward a revised agreement approved in February 2016 under former Gov. Rick Snyders administration. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer inherited the case after taking office in January. New Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon appeared in federal court last week to outline his plans to improve child welfare outcomes across the state. Consultant Kurt Heisler, in his report to the federal judge, recommended the state purchase or develop a new computer system that does not rely, in any significant way on the current one. MiSACWIS has cost $231 million to build, upgrade, maintain and operate this decade. State officials have met multiple times in the past week and are working on plans to address ongoing issues with the computer system, Health and Human Services official Steve Schreier told lawmakers. There were problems from the start, he said, including a flawed data migration operation and poor training, which meant users around the state didnt understand how to use it. Sen. John Bizon, R-Battle Creek, questioned why vendors paid to design the system have not been held responsible for its flaws. Most of the time when you buy a car and it doesnt run, you take it back to the dealer and youre going to ask for your money back, Bizon said. It seems like this is such a different model where we pay for the car and then we pay for the upgrades to the car and then we pay for the upgrades to the upgrades, and I dont see the liability. The computer system was designed by Unisys Corp. of Pennsylvania, but the state has since contracted with Conduent Inc. of Maryland to provide ongoing support. There have been some challenges in changing vendors and in changing the mindset of how we support the system as a whole, Schreier said. We can do better. [email protected] Read or Share this story: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/20/michigan-misacwis-231-million-system/3226302002/ | https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/20/michigan-misacwis-231-million-system/3226302002/ |
Should it be illegal to make fun of Devin Nunes on Twitter? | by Cait Bladt Congressman Devin Nunes has decided to pick a battle with some of the biggest names in social mediaTwitter and... an account called Devin Nunes cow. Nune sued the social media behemoth, as well as several parody accounts and one Republican strategist, for $250 million in damages, alleging that his reputation has been hurt by sick burns about his parents being disappointed in him. He also claims the site is banning conservative voices, a conspiracy theory that has been debunked. Nunes sued Twitter; an account called @DevinNunesMom which is no longer active; @Devincow, which is still very active and seems to love the attention; and Liz Mair, a Republican strategist. Per the New York Times: The complaint, which was filed in Henrico County Circuit Court in Virginia on Tuesday, seeks $250 million in damages. In making his case, Mr. Nunes, a loyal ally of President Trump and the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, repeated several common Republican complaints that Twitter has repeatedly denied: that it censors Republicans, shadow bans their accounts and actively helps their opponents. Legal experts, however, say there is little legal standing for the suit. According to Vanity Fair, just because someone hurts Devin Nunes feelings, it doesnt mean it violates any laws. As it stands, the suit seems destined for failure. Twitter has repeatedly denied censoring conservative voices. Even if the company were shadow-banning certain accounts, said Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, that wouldnt be grounds for a lawsuit. Its not illegal, the conservative former judge said Tuesday. They are not the government. As for the critical accounts, Nunes is a public figure. The right to mock him, however mercilessly, is protected under the First Amendment. The case is not really well thought through, Jim Bickerton, an expert in libel law, told The Washington Post, noting that the jokes made by the parody accountsone posing as the congressmans disappointed mother, the other as his long-suffering coware most obviously hyperbole and thus likely fair game. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.nola.com/tylt/2019/03/should-it-be-illegal-to-make-fun-of-devin-nunes-on-twitter.html |
Will There Be Justice for the Bloody Sunday Victims? | Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nations journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and well send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. On Sunday, January 30, 1972, during a civil rights march in Derry, Northern Ireland, British paratroopers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators and 22-year-old James Wray was hit in the back trying to escape the melee. As he lay on the ground, unable to move, the paratroopers closed in, still firing. Residents called out to Wray to pretend he was dead. Then they saw his jacket jump as another bullet entered his back. He lay motionless. He was dead. Ad Policy For almost half a century, the British government avoided calls to bring criminal charges against paratroopers who shot and killed 14 unarmed Catholics on what became known as Bloody Sunday. Then last week, the government announced that one of paratroopers, identified only as Soldier F, would be charged with two murders, one of them Wray, and the attempted murders of four others. The other paratroopers who fired shots that day will not be prosecuted for lack of evidence sufficient to provide a reasonable chance of conviction. To put it mildly, the relatives of the other 12 killed are disappointed. The relatives of 17-year-old Michael Kelly, are shocked because Soldier F admitted shooting him and the bullet that lodged in his spine was shown to have been fired from Soldier Fs rifle, but he is not being prosecuted for that crime. The relatives are ready to mount court challenges, but they will have to overcome a string of adroit legal maneuversmodifications of position is one political term that comes to mindthat the British government has employed over the years to make the inconvenient truth fade away, and put prosecutions out of reach. There has been no lack of evidence. A public inquiry, convened a month after the killings largely exonerated the soldiers, but was shown to be a whitewash. In 1974, a coroners report concluded that the paratroopers had run amok, prompting relatives to press for another investigation. A quarter of a century later, Lord Saville oversaw the longestat 12 yearsand the most expensiveat 200 million poundspublic inquiry in British history. Two thousand witnesses gave statements, including paratroopers who were identified only by letters. Saville concluded that none of the victims was armed, that the soldiers had lost control and fired without warning. Saville also found that some of the soldiers had lied. One of those was Solider F, now accused of murder. Current Issue View our current issue The Saville report prompted then prime minister David Cameron, to issue an apology on behalf of the government and to describe the killings as unjustified and unjustifiable. This, in turn, prompted a criminal investigation by the Northern Ireland police, which ended in last weeks murder charges. Some relatives felt their efforts to find the truth had been at least partly vindicated. One of them was the wife of Barney McGuigan, aged 41, the oldest person killed on the march and father of six children, who, according to the Saville report, had been shot by Soldier F. Bridie McGuigan did not want to pursue prosecutions. What is the point? she asked. What is the point of him going to jail. No, it wouldnt and we, as a family, do not want Soldier Fs family to go through what we went through. Last week, as the government prosecutor announced that none of the evidence in Saville could be used in criminal proceedings against Soldier F, or any of the other paratroopers, any residual goodwill built up over the years of official inquiries seemed in danger of being swept away. Potentially corroborating evidence in McGuigans case is also now unavailable. Soldier G, Soldier Fs comrade in arms, has died. McGuigan was shot in the back of the head, and his face blown away as the bullet splintered into 40 pieces, leaving no possibility of tracing it back to a soldiers high-powered assault rifle. The defense ministry has either sold or destroyed the rifles used on that day. Bridie McGuigan has since died, but the lawyer for her estate, Des Doherty, told me he is carefully reflecting on the prosecutors decision and nothing is ruled out with regard to future legal actions. If the relatives of the victims are successful in bringing other prosecutions, it would be a remarkable victory for justice against a government that evidently hoped the problem would go away by paying off the relatives two years after the event. In 1974, the government awarded the victims families payments in a spirit of goodwill and conciliation. Relatives of four teenagers who were killed received pounds sterling 250 each. James Wray was given pounds one thousand, five hundred. Bridie McGuigan, mother of six, received a check for pounds sterling 3,750. | https://www.thenation.com/article/bloody-sunday-northern-ireland-victims/ |
Why Are Venezuelans Starving? | Listen 9:44 9:44 People are starving in Venezuela. There isn't enough food. What little food that is available is becoming increasingly expensive due to hyperinflation. The result is a humanitarian crisis. But it wasn't always that way. In the past two decades, Venezuela's leaders have turned a country that was one rich in agriculture into an economy focused almost entirely on the production of oil. And when the price of oil tanked, so did Venezuelans' ability to access food. Today on The Indicator, how this came to be. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One. | https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/03/20/705267066/why-are-venezuelans-starving?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
Does 'Captain Marvel' Bring Us Closer To A Ms. Marvel Movie? | Last year, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige made waves when he suggested he had plans to adapt Ms. Marvel for the big screen. In an interview with the BBC, Feige said, Ms. Marvel, which is another character in the comic books, the Muslim hero who is inspired by Captain Marvel, is definitely, sort of, in the works. We have plans for that once we've introduced Captain Marvel to the world. While Feiges phrasing implies that these plans are still distant, this suggestion was enough to get the fan community very excited. Even big name Hollywood hitters such as Riz Ahmed and Mindy Kaling have since voiced their support for the project and their desire to hop on board. In the comics, Ms. Marvel, also known as Kamala Khan, is a Muslim teenager living in New Jersey who dreams of fighting alongside Marvels pantheon of heroes. And sure enough, when Terrigen Mist activates her superhuman polymorph abilities, she suits up and joins the fight. Kamala Khan, created by writers Sana Amanat and G. Willow Wilson, is a relatively new character, making her debut in the comics only six years ago. However, upon her arrival, the Marvel fan base met her with rabid enthusiasm. Early sales of Ms. Marvel comics quickly topped the charts, and the zeal did not stop there as Marvel sold over half a million copies by 2018. In just a few years, Kamala Khan earned her place as a comic titan alongside Iron Man. So it makes sense that the folks at Marvel Studios would be interested in bringing her to film. Now, the release of Captain Marvel may have brought us one step closer. During an ABC press event in Singapore, a reporter asked star Brie Larson which character shed be eager to fight alongside in a potential Captain Marvel sequel. Larson immediately replied, I mean my dream would be that Ms. Marvel gets to come into play in the sequel. Thats the goal. And her words were met with cheering and a nod of approval from co-star Samuel L. Jackson. Now with this much enthusiasm from the film's star, many fans hoped that there would be some nod to Ms. Marvel in Captain Marvel itself. But this was not the case, and Kevin Feige was quick to explain why. I think shes a contemporary story. I dont think she was a little kid in 1990. Im not sure she was born in 1995. Feige doesnt deny that he has plans for the character, but says that if and when Marvel Studios brings her into play, shell need to be a teenager in Marvels present day. And as Captain Marvel takes place in the 90s, it wouldnt make much sense for her to make an appearance. Regardless, all this talk suggests that the ball is definitely moving forward on Kamala Khans entrance into the Avengers world. And perhaps her appearance is needed now more than ever. Just as Captain Marvel flies forward to empower women and Black Panther stands tall as a celebration of African American culture, Ms. Marvel too can emerge as a powerful symbol for the Muslim community. The Muslim experience is an increasingly difficult one in times of unprecedented violence and rampant discrimination. So, for a young Muslim to look up at the big screen and see a superhero just like her saving the day wouldnt just be amazing. Itd be something to marvel at. For more thoughts on superheroes and the entertainment industry, see the rest of my articles, follow me on Twitter, and subscribe on YouTube. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/anharkarim/2019/03/20/does-captain-marvel-bring-us-closer-to-a-ms-marvel-movie/ |
Should Ezekiel Elliott hold out for a new deal? | With all the talk of all the Cowboys players who soon will be getting new deals, the one guy who gets mentioned the least is running back Ezekiel Elliott. Given the wear and tear inherent to position that he plays, its hard not to wonder whether the Cowboys would like to chew up all five years of his rookie contract and possibly tag him once before moving on. Thats what they did with DeMarco Murray four years ago, letting him walk despite setting a franchise single-season record with 1,845 rushing yards. They had only four years with Murray; Elliott, as a first-round pick, has five years under contract before becoming eligible for free agency or the franchise tag. The reported arthritic condition in the knee of Rams running back Todd Gurley could prompt teams to think twice about giving huge second contracts with major guarantees to tailbacks, especially when (in the Cowboys case) they can easily squat on Elliott for three more years before letting someone else overpay him. Which brings me back (eventually) to the point of all this. With three years in, Elliott is eligible for a new contract. Stay away. Incur the fines. Hold out. Wait to get paid. Given the clear and obvious urgency with which owner Jerry Jones is pursuing one more Super Bowl win, taking a hard line could be the quickest way for Elliott to get paid. And he should do whatever he has to do to get paid. He plays the most demanding and risky position in the game, and he deserves much more than the $3.85 million hes due to earn this year. If doing what he has to do includes doing nothing, he should strongly consider that option. | https://sports.yahoo.com/ezekiel-elliott-hold-deal-030000445.html?src=rss |
Why do so many Egyptian statues have broken noses? | Written by Julia Wolkoff This article was published in partnership with Artsy, the global platform for discovering and collecting art. Bleiberg, who oversees the museum's extensive holdings of Egyptian, Classical and ancient Near Eastern art, was surprised the first few times he heard this question. He had taken for granted that the sculptures were damaged; his training in Egyptology encouraged visualizing how a statue would look if it were still intact. It might seem inevitable that after thousands of years, an ancient artifact would show wear and tear. But this simple observation led Bleiberg to uncover a widespread pattern of deliberate destruction, which pointed to a complex set of reasons why most works of Egyptian art came to be defaced in the first place. The bust of an Egyptian official dating from the 4th century BC. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Bleiberg's research is now the basis of the poignant exhibition " Striking Power: Iconoclasm in Ancient Egypt ." A selection of objects from the Brooklyn Museum's collection will travel to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation later this month under the co-direction of the latter's associate curator, Stephanie Weissberg. Pairing damaged statues and reliefs dating from the 25th century BC to the 1st century AD with intact counterparts, the show testifies to ancient Egyptian artifacts' political and religious functions -- and the entrenched culture of iconoclasm that led to their mutilation. In our own era of reckoning with national monuments and other public displays of art, "Striking Power" adds a germane dimension to our understanding of one of the world's oldest and longest-lasting civilizations, whose visual culture, for the most part, remained unchanged over millennia. This stylistic continuity reflects -- and directly contributed to -- the empire's long stretches of stability. But invasions by outside forces, power struggles between dynastic rulers and other periods of upheaval left their scars. "The consistency of the patterns where damage is found in sculpture suggests that it's purposeful," Bleiberg said, citing myriad political, religious, personal and criminal motivations for acts of vandalism. Discerning the difference between accidental damage and deliberate vandalism came down to recognizing such patterns. A protruding nose on a three-dimensional statue is easily broken, he conceded, but the plot thickens when flat reliefs also sport smashed noses. Flat reliefs often feature damaged noses too, supporting the idea that the vandalism was targeted. Credit: Brooklyn Museum The ancient Egyptians, it's important to note, ascribed important powers to images of the human form. They believed that the essence of a deity could inhabit an image of that deity, or, in the case of mere mortals, part of that deceased human being's soul could inhabit a statue inscribed for that particular person. These campaigns of vandalism were therefore intended to "deactivate an image's strength," as Bleiberg put it. Tombs and temples were the repositories for most sculptures and reliefs that had a ritual purpose. "All of them have to do with the economy of offerings to the supernatural," Bleiberg said. In a tomb, they served to "feed" the deceased person in the next world with gifts of food from this one. In temples, representations of gods are shown receiving offerings from representations of kings, or other elites able to commission a statue. "Egyptian state religion," Bleiberg explained, was seen as "an arrangement where kings on Earth provide for the deity, and in return, the deity takes care of Egypt." Statues and reliefs were "a meeting point between the supernatural and this world," he said, only inhabited, or "revivified," when the ritual is performed. And acts of iconoclasm could disrupt that power. Relaed video: Egypt's new one-billion dollar museum "The damaged part of the body is no longer able to do its job," Bleiberg explained. Without a nose, the statue-spirit ceases to breathe, so that the vandal is effectively "killing" it. To hammer the ears off a statue of a god would make it unable to hear a prayer. In statues intended to show human beings making offerings to gods, the left arm -- most commonly used to make offerings -- is cut off so the statue's function can't be performed (the right hand is often found axed in statues receiving offerings). "In the Pharaonic period, there was a clear understanding of what sculpture was supposed to do," Bleiberg said. Even if a petty tomb robber was mostly interested in stealing the precious objects, he was also concerned that the deceased person might take revenge if his rendered likeness wasn't mutilated. The prevalent practice of damaging images of the human form -- and the anxiety surrounding the desecration -- dates to the beginnings of Egyptian history. Intentionally damaged mummies from the prehistoric period, for example, speak to a "very basic cultural belief that damaging the image damages the person represented," Bleiberg said. Likewise, how-to hieroglyphics provided instructions for warriors about to enter battle: Make a wax effigy of the enemy, then destroy it. Series of texts describe the anxiety of your own image becoming damaged, and pharaohs regularly issued decrees with terrible punishments for anyone who would dare threaten their likeness. A statue from around 1353-1336 BC, showing part of a Queen's face. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Indeed, "iconoclasm on a grand scale...was primarily political in motive," Bleiberg writes in the exhibition catalog for "Striking Power." Defacing statues aided ambitious rulers (and would-be rulers) with rewriting history to their advantage. Over the centuries, this erasure often occurred along gendered lines: The legacies of two powerful Egyptian queens whose authority and mystique fuel the cultural imagination -- Hatshepsut and Nefertiti -- were largely erased from visual culture. "Hatshepsut's reign presented a problem for the legitimacy of Thutmose III's successor, and Thutmose solved this problem by virtually eliminating all imagistic and inscribed memory of Hatshepsut," Bleiberg writes. Nefertiti's husband Akhenaten brought a rare stylistic shift to Egyptian art in the Amarna period (ca. 1353-36 BC) during his religious revolution. The successive rebellions wrought by his son Tutankhamun and his ilk included restoring the longtime worship of the god Amun; "the destruction of Akhenaten's monuments was therefore thorough and effective," Bleiberg writes. Yet Nefertiti and her daughters also suffered; these acts of iconoclasm have obscured many details of her reign. Ancient Egyptians took measures to safeguard their sculptures. Statues were placed in niches in tombs or temples to protect them on three sides. They would be secured behind a wall, their eyes lined up with two holes, before which a priest would make his offering. "They did what they could," Bleiberg said. "It really didn't work that well." A statue of the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut wearing a "khat" headdress. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Speaking to the futility of such measures, Bleiberg appraised the skill evidenced by the iconoclasts. "They were not vandals," he clarified. "They were not recklessly and randomly striking out works of art." In fact, the targeted precision of their chisels suggests that they were skilled laborers, trained and hired for this exact purpose. "Often in the Pharaonic period," Bleiberg said, "it's really only the name of the person who is targeted, in the inscription. This means that the person doing the damage could read!" The understanding of these statues changed over time as cultural mores shifted. In the early Christian period in Egypt, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, the indigenous gods inhabiting the sculptures were feared as pagan demons; to dismantle paganism, its ritual tools -- especially statues making offerings -- were attacked. After the Muslim invasion in the 7th century, scholars surmise, Egyptians had lost any fear of these ancient ritual objects. During this time, stone statues were regularly trimmed into rectangles and used as building blocks in construction projects. "Ancient temples were somewhat seen as quarries," Bleiberg said, noting that "when you walk around medieval Cairo, you can see a much more ancient Egyptian object built into a wall." Statue of pharaoh Senwosret III, who ruled in the 2nd century BC Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Such a practice seems especially outrageous to modern viewers, considering our appreciation of Egyptian artifacts as masterful works of fine art, but Bleiberg is quick to point out that "ancient Egyptians didn't have a word for 'art.' They would have referred to these objects as 'equipment.'" When we talk about these artifacts as works of art, he said, we de-contextualize them. Still, these ideas about the power of images are not peculiar to the ancient world, he observed, referring to our own age of questioning cultural patrimony and public monuments. "Imagery in public space is a reflection of who has the power to tell the story of what happened and what should be remembered," Bleiberg said. "We are witnessing the empowerment of many groups of people with different opinions of what the proper narrative is." Perhaps we can learn from the pharaohs; how we choose to rewrite our national stories might just take a few acts of iconoclasm. | https://www.cnn.com/style/article/egyptian-statues-broken-noses-artsy/index.html |
Which Texas school districts are the best at feeding students in need? | A handful of Dallas-area school districts are among the best in Texas in providing students the food they need beyond school lunches. Irving, Dallas, Garland, Crowley and Arlington were among those honored Wednesday by the education advocacy group Children At Risk in its ranking of districts that do the best to provide low-income students with the nutrition they need. Irving ISD ranked sixth overall among the state's districts, rising from 22nd during the nonprofit's last rankings in 2017. Olga Rosenberger, Irving's director of Food and Nutrition Services, said her team knew they could do better in helping the district's students. Nearly three out of four children in the Irving school district are from low-income families. The district was struggling with rising costs from traditional "breakfast in the classroom" programs but also wanted to reach more students. That meant getting creative. | https://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/2019/03/20/texas-school-districts-best-feeding-students-need |
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