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Is Spanish Oaks the priciest neighborhood in Austin area? | Every year since 2005, the Spanish Oaks neighborhood near Bee Cave has had a median home value of about $1.6 million, making it the priciest in the greater Austin metro area, brokers and developers with Spanish Oaks Realty said. In a recent review of the neighborhood's housing market, Spanish Oaks Realty found that while real estate site Trulia announced in November that Barton Creek was Austin's first official million-dollar neighborhood, it believes the title belongs to Spanish Oaks. Doug Land, broker associate for Sotheby's International Realty, said the designation is dependent on how Austin is defined. Spanish Oaks lies in the Bee Cave extraterritorial jurisdiction, making it Bee Cave's priciest neighborhood, but if if you consider the greater Austin metropolitan area as a whole, he said, Spanish Oaks would definitely compete with Barton Creek for the priciest. The 900-acre, 485-home development in western Travis County is just outside the Bee Cave city limits overlooking the Texas Hill Country. The property features a 24-hour manned security checkpoint, a community swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts, five miles of hike-and-bike trails and a catch-and-release fishing pond. The average lot size comes in at just over an acre with the minimum square footage in the neighborhood for single-family homes at 2,500 square feet and an average of about 5,000 square feet. The custom-built homes feature a variety of styles, from Texas Tuscan to Mediterranean to Hill Country Contemporary, and range from $900,000 to more than $4 million. Among the priciest homes availble is a 7,528-square-foot home on Laceback Terrace, built by Dick Clark and Associates. Listed at $5.975 million it features five bedrooms, 6 baths, two two-car garages, a pool, an outdoor kitchen, an attached guest house and a fireplace. Scott Michaels, a broker with Spanish Oaks Realty, said the 20-year-old neighborhood is about 85 percent built out with about 365 homes. The Hillside is the last section available for home buyers, featuring about 64 lots on about 83 acres of land overlooking the property's golf course, he said. Michaels said the construction of roads and utilities is expected to be complete and ready for purchase in November. He said home sites in the Hillside range in size from about .28 acres to 1.61 acres, and are priced from $600,000 to $1.75 million. RELATED: Bee Cave council approves Hillside at Spanish Oaks subdivision It's a great location and it's beautiful out here, Michaels said. Its definitely got a lot of things going for it. One of the major drivers for homeowners, he said, is the security. The privacy and security you really get from Spanish Oaks is another level that people don't expect, Michaels said. Its just that comfort knowing that they're (security guards) there. The Lake Travis school district is also a major driving force of homeowners in the Spanish Oaks neighborhood, he said. Sports is a big deal, Michaels said. The football team has been successful for several years, basketball is competitive, baseball is ranked in the top five in nation. It's a big motivator for people to move to this area both from an educational and athletic standpoint. Michaels said the attraction also has to do with the proximity to Austin and to Lake Travis. Bee Cave also brings a number of amenities as it has grown out. You feel like youre in the Hill Country but you have all the conveniences of shopping, restaurants and everything at the Galleria, Michaels said. Over the next several years, residents of Spanish Oaks will also welcome the amenities of the Village at Spanish Oaks, an 80-acre community that is expected to include retail, office and restaurant space, a plaza, an inn and residential spaces. RELATED: Village at Spanish Oaks to bring residential, retail, office, dining Land said that while Spanish Oaks is a popular neighborhood for homeowners, the Lake Travis area continues to be a popular place to live. Over the past few years, Land said, the Lake Travis area has averaged between 600 to 800 new homes each year, and about 1,700 homes were sold in the area in 2018. We still have land available for developers, Land said. We will continue to see more construction for years to come, and people like new. | https://www.statesman.com/news/20190314/is-spanish-oaks-priciest-neighborhood-in-austin-area |
Are Our Intelligence Agencies Getting The Wrong Advice? | Perhaps the greatest question as we look back on the state of data analytics today is how we got here. Part of the answer may lie in the fact that even our nations most prestigious scientific advisors have succumbed to the siren song of mining must have datasets without fully understanding what they look like inside and whether the insights they yield reflect reality. The National Academies recently completed a report for the US intelligence community exploring the use of emerging technology, including social media, for US intelligence needs, outlining a 10-year research agenda. The Academies response to questions about the social media components of that report remind us that even our most respected and austere scholarly institutions are not immune to the hype around big data, with dangerous implications to the future of our national security. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine was commissioned by the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to explore opportunities for research from the [Social and Behavioral Sciences] disciplines to support the work of intelligence analysts and enhance national security [and assist] in developing a 10-year agenda for SBS research with applications to intelligence analysis. The final report, titled A Decadal Survey of the Social and Behavioral Sciences: A Research Agenda for Advancing Intelligence Analysis, offers that the primary function of the intelligence analyst is to make sense of information about the world, but the way analysts do that work will look profoundly different a decade from now. Technological changes will bring both new advances in conducting analysis and new risks related to technologically based activities and communications around the world. Because these changes are virtually inevitable, the Intelligence Community will need to make sustained collaboration with researchers in the social and behavioral sciences (SBS) a key priority if it is to adapt to these changes in the most productive ways. While the reports overarching focus is on the evolving landscape of intelligence analysis in a world upended by technological change, there is an outsized focus on social media, especially Twitter. In fact, Twitter alone is mentioned 64 times and forms many of the reports case studies and examples. Yet, the report largely fails to acknowledge or consider the immense change Twitter has undergone as it has evolved over the past 13 years and the enormous implications its transition from a content to an attentional source has on the kinds of intelligence questions most commonly posed to it. When asked for comment, the National Academies had one of the reports committee members provide responses. With respect to why the report did not address Twitters existential change, the committee member offered only that discussion on how Twitter has changed, or indeed any social media's changes, is beyond the scope of the report. The problem with this response is that it reflects the enormous gap between the accuracy needs of academia, where there often is no right answer and errors have little consequence and those of the intelligence community in which an error can cost human lives and even lead to armed conflict. While to academia it may simply be beyond the scope of its work to discuss how social platforms are changing, to the intelligence community the report is intended for, those changes are existential to their work. Understanding the nature of an intelligence signal and how it is changing over time is the most basic and central step of an intelligence analysis and one that has received far too little attention within the community with respect to emerging social datasets. Indeed, most governmental social analyses still report absolute volume counts and raw trends without any understanding that their policy findings merely reflect Twitters changing baseline rather than anything to do with the policy question they are analyzing. Asked specifically about the issue of normalization, the committee member again responded that we simply did not have time or space to discuss all relevant issues. The issue of normalization is not some obscure arcane peripheral topic with no relevance to social analytics. In contrast, it sits at the very core of the entire analytics pipeline, determining whether the results we receive have any meaning at all to the questions we pose. Dismissing normalization as something easily discarded out of space concerns reflects a critical failure to understand just how existentially social media is changing and how directly those changes impact the kinds of questions asked of such data by the intelligence community. Across the intelligence community there is far too little understanding of the existential change social platforms are undergoing and just how much of an impact those changes are having on their analyses. Even as they recognize the changing nature of other signals, analysts still largely treat social media platforms as static and unchanging. Far from being beyond the scope, a discussion of just how much social platforms are changing and the direct impact of those changes on the analytic workflows of the intelligence community is effectively mandatory with respect to the committee's charter of outlining the future of analysis. Given the reports focus on charting the evolving landscape of intelligence analysis in a world upended by technological change, it would seem that absolutely central to the Academies report would be the theme of how these new insights compare with the ways in which intelligence collection and analysis has been conducted in the past, especially the ways in which the new insights gained differ from those before, the new ways in which those insights can be manipulated and impacted and both the strengths and dangers of these new datasets. Yet, here again the response was that such a conversation was negated by time and space constraints. Perhaps most telling were the committee members responses as to why Twitter was so prominently featured in the report. The member offered that Twitter was an outsized focus of the report because it is the most available platform for scientists to use and has been the most studied. This is precisely the response Ive heard again and again over the past week and a half: that it no longer matters whether the results we receive from Twitter are correct or complete, we have no choice but to study it since it is the shiny object that lavishes grants and publications upon its examiners and is what everyone else is using and is easy to download. Once again, this reflects the difference between academia and the intelligence community. Academia is prone to chasing short term fads in search of funding and publications. It searches for the easiest data it can find and work with, regardless of accuracy and typically exhibits flocking behavior in which grant and publication trends skew towards whatever dataset or question is currently in vogue, rather than setting out to answer societys most pressing questions using the best data available. In contrast, for the intelligence community, accessibility of a dataset is important, but the accuracy and depth of the insights offered by that data are far more important. Sometimes the two may be closely aligned but in cases where they are not, accuracy and reach are more important than free and famous. The committee member also offered that Twitter is a major environment in the chain by which information gets to people and thus is critical to study regardless of how existentially the platform is changing. She went further to offer that most people, including the IC, get their news now through on-line sources including social media. Yet, if the focus was on the most critical social media links in the informational ecosystem of what informs a public, then it would seem the report should have focused most heavily on Facebook, which accounts for almost four times as much news consumption as Twitter. Moreover, it appears news consumption through social platforms is slowing. The focus on Twitter also fails to acknowledge Twitters very Western-centric prominence in the informational ecosystem. It is extraordinary that the National Academies report makes not even a single mention of Whatsapp, given its enormous influence in spreading misinformation in many parts of the world, such as India. In fact, the Academies report focuses almost the entirety of its attention on the platforms most predominate in the West, reflecting its committee membership, rather than looking at the global perspective of information production and consumption in both traditional social media and other forms, that is of the greatest importance to the intelligence community. More to the point, within the intelligence community, Twitter in particular is still presented as one of the central tenants of social radar in which social platforms are used to observe ordinary citizens all across the world, cataloging the events and narratives they experience and believe in realtime. As Twitter increasingly becomes an echo chamber of elite retweeting and less and less a place for ordinary people to share their own perspectives, this primary intelligence use case is being decimated, yet the report spends little time on the ways in which social platforms are evolving to negate the core demands of intelligence analysis and how the intelligence community might adapt. Asked about the impact of social platforms increasing efforts to curtail surveillance and governmental use of their data and the ability of the platforms and adversaries working with the platforms to deliberately influence intelligence findings due to their centralized natures, again the response was that we were constrained by space. Ironically, despite offering that our charter was to look to the future about what needed to be considered, much of the Academies report was centered on the platform specifics of the present, especially Twitter, rather than the broader platform-independent issues that will define the future of data-driven intelligence using open sources. Partially these issues reflect the ODNIs desire to look beyond the traditional community most familiar with its unique analytic needs (though some committee members have been funded by the defense community), but in doing so it risks being led astray by the growing focus on marketing over mathematics. Putting this all together, in looking back over the reactions of the past week and a half to Twitters evolutionary arc over the past seven years, one could possibly dismiss them as the misinformed musings of the academic, commercial, governmental and NGO communities. Yet, as this hyperbole seeps into even the nations most prestigious scientific organizations in the advice they provide to the intelligence community in guiding our national security, it reminds us just how thoroughly the reality distortion field of Silicon Valley has upended our once-sacrosanct fixation on data and statistics. In the end, as even our most austere institutions buy into the hype and hyperbole of the big data era, it may simply be time to accept the end of statistics and join our colleagues by closing our eyes and leaping into our hyperbolic future in which data is merely a marketing term. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/03/14/are-our-intelligence-agencies-getting-the-wrong-advice/ |
Is the college admissions process rigged? | By Jessie Blaeser In addition to studying and taking advanced courses, students dedicate hours to extracurricular activities in order to entertain any hope of getting into a top college. According to admission boards across the country, competition is fierce, but the admissions system reliably identifies top students for acceptance. But with cheating scandals in mind, some question whether or not the admission process is really a rigged for rich people and those of privilege. In March of 2019, dozens of parents were indicted for participating in a massive cheating scandal in order to get their children into top colleges. CNNs Eric Levenson and Mark Morales report: Federal prosecutors said the scheme had two major pieces. In the first part, parents allegedly paid a college prep organization to take the test on behalf of students or correct their answers. Secondly, the organization allegedly bribed college coaches to help admit the students into college as recruited athletes, regardless of their actual ability, prosecutors said. 50 people, including parents, administrators, coaches, exam proctors, and celebrities Felicity Huffman of Desperate Housewives and Lori Loughlin of Full House, have been charged with committing these crimes between 2011 and 2019. Andrew Lelling, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, had this to say about the case: "This case is about the widening corruption of elite college admissions through the steady application of wealth combined with fraud," Lelling said. This case further demonstrates those with means can manipulate the college admissions process to work in their favor. With stories like these in mind, students are left to wonder if theyre working towards an obtainable goal, or if the system is against them. Despite the scandal, the actions of some do not reflect the majority. In other words, some corruption and abuse of power does not mean the entire system is corrupt. One person responded to the question on Quora, "Is the college admission process rigged?" saying that despite "occasional cases of cronyism and nepotism," neither are "prevalent." Another writer added: There are biases in academia, but rigged carries an implication of something fraudulent or deceitful. I think colleges are pretty open about their biases. Some feel that as bachelor degrees have become the expectation for many jobs, admission to college is now equally competitive. Forbes Ryan Craig points out the greater changes in Americas collegiate system: Over the past half century, American higher education has expanded from an elite audience to the mass market. Unfortunately, expansion in market size has not been accompanied by a concomitant expansion in product diversity. As a result, students are desperate for a way to stand out. If you want to get a top job, you now need a degree from a top university. Many feel this desperation for high status encourages the wealthy to buy their way into the system, rather than work for it. The largest college admission scam ever prosecuted by DOJ is a damning portrait of higher education that the industry has been trying to furiously (and unsuccessfully) shed for years: That it's a rigged system for the wealthiest among us. https://t.co/0zrblKO8fg Lauren S. Camera (@laurenonthehill) March 12, 2019 According to The Atlantic's Jeffrey Selingo, the college admissions process is evolving, but it still has the same goal: to provide an equal chance for admission to all students. He points out that although SAT scores and GPA used to be the top two indicators for college admissions, schools are looking to other factors in order to differentiate students with similar grades. Some colleges are dropping the SAT and ACT score requirements altogether, acknowledging that high scores are tied to wealth: More than 1,000 colleges nationwide have come to a similar conclusion about standardized tests, having dropped them as an admissions requirement. That number includes even some selective campuses such as George Washington, Wake Forest, and Wesleyan. There are good arguments supporting these schools decisions: for instance, that standardized test scores are highly correlated with family income. Theres no question that the college admissions process should constantly evolve in order to maintain fair standards. As long as universities continue to acknowledge existing biases and work to rectify them, students will benefit. 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/is-the-college-admissions-process-rigged.html |
Which of the new MLB rules changes will impact the Cleveland Indians the most? | CLEVELAND, Ohio Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association announced Thursday sweeping rules changes that will be implemented in the next two seasons. In February, manager Terry Francona did not seem too worried when asked about some of the rules that were on the table as proposals at the time. Were pretty good about making adjustments, Francona said. The leagues been really good about explaining stuff to us. Francona bristled, however, at the idea of certain changes that he thought might influence the competitive nature of the game. Below is a quick look at a few of the new rules as they would relate to the Indians. Vote in the poll and defend your choice in the comments. Three batter minimum for pitchers: The most controversial and potentially game-changing rule would limit a managers ability to remove a pitcher that is having a complete meltdown on the mound. Francona, who helped revolutionize the relief pitcher as a weapon model in the 2016 playoffs, said he starts to worry when rules target specific strategies. As a manager, man if youve got a guy coming in and he cant find the plate, thats my responsibility to get him out of there, Francona said. You start to invade the competitive part of the game. Single trade deadline: In recent years the Indians have become adept at making waiver trades after the July 31 deadline. They added Coco Crisp in 2016, Jay Bruce in 2017 and Josh Donaldson in 2018 to rosters that were preparing to enter postseason play. With the elimination of the August deadline, the Indians will be kept from shopping in the less competitive waiver trade market if they are in position for another postseason run. Active roster expansion: With superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor still recovering from a strained calf muscle, adding an extra roster spot would benefit the Indians by allowing them to keep an extra utility infielder as the team breaks camp. That way, Lindor could be eased into his workload, particularly with cold weather games in Minnesota and Cleveland on the early schedule. However, this rule would not apply until the 2020 season. And with any luck, Lindors calf will be completely healed by then. Shorter inning breaks: Last season, with April home games often played in bone-chilling temperatures, Trevor Bauer complained about the reduced time MLB gave pitchers to get loose between innings, speculating that injuries are more likely to take place if a pitcher is rushed into starting an inning on a cold day. Now its time to vote. Click here. | https://www.cleveland.com/tribe/2019/03/which-of-the-new-mlb-rules-changes-will-impact-the-cleveland-indians-the-most.html |
What's wrong with wearing a crop top on a plane? | Another day, another example of an airline feeling it is OK to tell women and girls how to dress. You might think there were more pressing things to be getting on with flying the planes, for instance but there is, apparently, always an opportunity to shame female passengers over their outfit choices. Emily OConnor had boarded a Birmingham-to-Tenerife flight this week when the Thomas Cook cabin crew asked her to cover up the crop top she was wearing or she would be removed from the plane. OConnor tweeted about the incident (10,000 retweets so far) and said shed been left shaken and upset. To add to her experience, the airline even announced the whole debacle over the loudspeaker. Because, sure, thats a perfectly proportionate course of action. When OConnor stood up and asked if anyone else cared that she was wearing what she later described as a top from Zaras summer range (others have called it a bralet), nobody did. She eventually borrowed a jacket. Emily O'Connor (@emroseoconnor) Flying from Bham to Tenerife, Thomas Cook told me that they were going to remove me from the flight if I didnt cover up as I was causing offence and was inappropriate. They had 4 flight staff around me to get my luggage to take me off the plane. pic.twitter.com/r28nvSYaoY In 2017, United Airlines perhaps the least respected airline in the world for reasons that include dragging passengers off its aircraft, leaving them bloodied made a 10-year-old girl change her clothes before a flight because she was wearing leggings. In 2016, JetBlue objected to a womans high-thigh socks and shorts, refusing to let her remain on board. The first thing to say is that these incidents smack of sexism and hypocrisy. As OConnor herself pointed out, there were men on her flight wearing vest tops. Airlines are keen to point out that their clothing policies (when they are not making them up on the hoof) apply to everyone, yet it never seems to be dads kicking off their flip-flops who get called out. In our continuing patriarchal society, it is still the case that dudes walk freely around the streets shirtless as soon as the temperature rises above 15C, but God forbid a womans nipple be allowed on Instagram. Its also the case that, though in the past air travel was imbued with a glamour that prompted passengers to dress up for the occasion, modern flying is all about comfort. A crop-top is an entirely normal item of clothing to wear, just like jogging bottoms and t-shirts and baggy jumpers. If anything, its people who board flights in high-heels or shirts and ties who dont grasp the sartorial spirit of flying. Thomas Cook has since apologised to OConnor, a spokesman saying: Its clear we could have handled the situation better. Well, yeah. Id also add that it is pretty rich for people whose uniform features silk scarves and waistcoats looking for all the world like barely relevant aristocrats to comment on anyone elses fashion choices. | https://www.theguardian.com/global/2019/mar/14/whats-wrong-with-wearing-a-crop-top-on-a-plane |
Could NASCAR race in Phoenix move ahead of the Daytona 500 on the schedule? | AVONDALE, Ariz. Yet more change is coming to NASCAR and ISM Raceway could be part of it, especially after a disappointing crowd for Sundays TicketGuardian 500. The NASCAR industry is in deep discussion about major revisions to the Cup Series marathon 36-race, February-to-November schedule once the sanctioning bodys existing five-year contracts with its host racetracks expires after 2020. One idea is to start before the Daytona 500, which would make the Avondale oval one of perhaps only three climatically-suitable venues. A date change also seems in order considering the tracks 42,000 new grandstand seats appeared about 10,000 short of fully occupied. I wish I could tell you (why), said Julie Giese, who succeeded Bryan Sperber as track president last November. I think well learn a lot after this event based on whos coming. Im a data-driven person and my marketing background will help. One of the things Id like to do with this event is create events within the event. November (NASCARs playoff semifinals) is very focused on the competition and weve seen a positive fan response for (ticket) renewals. Ryan Blaney (12) and Chase Elliott (9) lead the field to the green flag for the start of the TicketGuardian 500 at ISM Raceway. (Photo: Stacy Revere, Getty Images) Sunday was just the tracks second race weekend following a $178 million modernization. That investment by parent company International Speedway Corp. makes it virtually unthinkable that Phoenix would lose one of its dates if NASCAR reduces its number of events. Would I say it makes sense to come to a jewel like this twice a year? said NASCAR President Steve Phelps. I would say it does. If a decision was made to run before the Daytona 500, obviously weather plays a huge factor in that. Our options would be limited. NFL impact on NASCAR I think there will be some meaningful changes our fans will like, Phelps said during an exclusive interview with The Republic, adding April 1 is NASCARs target date to reveal its 2020 schedule. What it looks like in 2021 and beyond, everythings on the table. I do. The NFL is a big player and they drive (TV) ratings and our ratings are typically a little lower during that time. There are a lot of crossover fans between NASCAR and the NFL. Its something that we would entertain. Seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson said, Personally, I think its foolish for us to go up against the NFL. In my own heart, I also believe there is such a thing as oversaturation for any sport. I think the shorter season is helpful and would be welcomed by teams. NASCAR, Ford, Chevrolet and Toyota are working to introduce a Generation 7 body in 2021. We are hyper-focused on what the fans want and having a more relevant-looking car is what they are asking for, said Phelps. NEWSLETTERS Get the Sports newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Sports news, no matter the season. Stop by for the scores, stay for the stories. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-872-0001. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Cost reduction for teams is another key objective. PHOENIX RECAP: Kyle Busch blazes to sweep, earns 199th career win Apron aches Giese said no drivers have spoken with her about the rough pavement on the apron below the yellow line in the dogleg. Aggressive dive-bomb passing moves onto the apron have increased since the start/finish line was moved to the dogleg last year. Ryan Newman raised the issue in an interview with The Republic, saying it gives him a headache (that lasts) 24 hours. Thats the first Ive heard of it and certainly want to learn more, said Giese. It is so violent that you know, when you go down there, youre bending things, said Johnson. I try to make sure I have a really good reason to go down there if Im going to bend the side skirts and smash the suspension down into the blacktop. It needs to be for a worthy cause. | https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2019/03/11/schedule-beyond-2020-phoenix-daytona-nfl-impact/3133183002/?src=rss?src=rss?src=rss |
Why is Boeing 737 Max 8 Grounded Worldwide? | Forty-seven airlines around the world have at least one Boeing 737 Max 8 airplane in their fleet, and all 47, complying with directives from national aviation authorities, have grounded those planes after two crashes in five months. ADVERTISEMENT Lion Air Flight 610 went down in the Java Sea in October, just 12 minutes after takeoff. On Sunday, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 also crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport. There were no survivors on either flight, and a total of 346 people lost their lives. Per aviation publication The Air Current, the issues with the 737 Max 8 stem from competition with Airbus. In 2011, Boeing had plans to design a brand-new plane to replace the 737, but after American Airlines decided to add Airbus planes to its previously Boeing-only fleet, the company was under a lot of pressure to deliver a more fuel-efficient single-aisle plane quickly, particularly given its existing major investment in the development of larger planes like the 787 Dreamliner. So instead of designing a new plane, Boeing decided to swap out the engines on the 737 for more fuel efficient models. The new engines necessitated a chain reaction of engineering adjustments, but test flights revealed that the heavier engines altered the aerodynamics of the plane and nudged the nose higher, leading to an increased risk of stalling under certain conditions. The companys solution: the Manuevering Characteristics Augmentation System, an automated safety feature. As designed, an onboard sensor is automatically activates horizontal stabilizers when the plane is at an angle that makes a stall likely. The stabilizers point the nose of the plane down, reducing such a risk. A preliminary report on the Lion Air flight shows that a faulty sensor triggered the MCAS when the plane was not pitched too high, effectively causing the crash by forcibly pointing the nose of the plane down toward the ground. No such report is yet available for the Ethiopian Airlines crash, though the New York Times reports that the crashes happened under similar circumstances. Boeing is working on a software update for the 737 Max that includes changes to the MCAS. If its enough to satisfy aviation officials, the planes will return in the air, but no one know if it will be enough or when such a decision might happen. Until then, 737 Max 8 planes around the world will remain grounded. appeared first on Fatherly. | https://news.yahoo.com/why-boeing-737-max-8-174806793.html |
How Bad Will Spring Allergies Be This Year? | There are plenty of things to love about spring: Longer days, flowers in bloom, finally ditching your winter coat but allergies isnt one of them. Tree pollen, which is what predominately causes allergies in the spring months, typically starts mid to late March and ends in late May or early June, says Dr. Anastasiya Kleva, MD, at ENT & Allergy Associates. Thats the million dollar question everyone who gets even the slightest sniffle at the first sign of the season is asking. But unfortunately, there is no precise answer. To be honest, its like predicting the weather, Kleva says. There is no accurate way to tell what the season will look like. It all depends on when the winter ends, and how warm our spring season will be. Last year we had cold temperatures and snow almost into May, so we ended up with a short, but intense pollen season. Its like predicting how bad a snow storm will be. Our meteorologists can only tell us accurately what the next few days of weather will look like, so I cannot honestly guess what the pollen season has in store for us this year. Related stories When to Worry About Your Cough That Isn't Going Away 7 Surprising Ways Winter Affects Your Health & How to Deal With Them Half of People Who Think They Have Food Allergies Actually Don't However, Kleva is betting that spring allergy season is around the corner and will start earlier this year. Climate change also has an effect. Rising temperatures lead to increased growth of plants, an earlier start and longer duration of the spring allergy season, which translates to a more miserable time for allergy sufferers, Kleva says. While we cant say exactly how bad allergies will be, we can help you out with minimizing the symptoms. A little prep work goes a long way. Start taking your antihistamine, and more importantly your steroid nasal spray, early in the season, advises Kleva. Steroid nasal sprays are very helpful for allergies if started at least two weeks before the season really kicks in. If you are suffering from symptoms, be sure to keep your windows closed through the spring season. After youve been outdoors for a long period of time, change your clothes and shower, then rinse your nose with a neti pot after coming inside to reduce allergy symptoms. Use a daily antihistamine, and be take your steroid nasal spray daily not as needed. Allergy medication can help with allergies in those with mild to moderate symptoms, but the best therapy for those with very severe allergies are allergy shots, Kleva says. It is the only potentially curative and long term treatment out there. Sign up for SheKnows' Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. | https://news.yahoo.com/bad-spring-allergies-162947421.html |
Why Were Video Game Cheat Codes First Invented? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Mike Prinke, Freelance Video Game Programmer, on Quora: Cheat codes were invented as a debug feature for use by development and QA staff during testing. During normal play you have to spend potentially all game waiting to get your hands on the full array of weapons, items, abilities, or characters, and you may be limited in your capacity to use them by a variety of resources like ammo and health. Youre limited in your capacity to sustain hits from enemy attacks, and youre bound to complete content in sequential order, which can make it time-consuming to reach and practice later levels. Cheats give developers shortcuts for those things. A cheat code can give you all the items and equipment in the game, allowing you to test them at-will regardless of progression; thats great, because a weapon might be implemented way ahead of any opportunity to physically collect it. Infinite ammo or MP lets you endlessly test them in numerous use-cases without penalty. A cheat code can make you invincible, permitting you to sustain an infinite number of enemy attacks, thus allowing you to experiment and play with the AI without interruptions or restarts. A cheat code can skip you to whatever level you want to test, permitting you to do focused barrages of tests against potentially late-game content to discern bugs with those specific sections of the game. No clip cheats and invincibility let you skip to specific sections free of hassle. A cheat code can give you infinite ammo and resources that trivialize combat, or even let you insta-kill enemies, thus making skips of sections that dont need testing even quicker. Sometimes the thing youre testing is just watching monsters die and making sure death works correctly. These are just a few examples of what cheats can do to help speed testing and iteration along. Theres always a phase of testing that demands repeated playthroughs of the entire game from start to finish to ensure that its completable without any show-stopping bugs or crashes, but before that every individual element has to be verified as working correctly, and shortcuts like these are essential to making that process expedient. There is necessarily a need to create menus or toggles for them ingame, as QA often tests on standalone builds for the target platform rather than in a development environment where they might have an editor or where files can be edited. It just happened that theyre also fun for players to screw around with, so they also get left in as fun secrets to find or unlock. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/03/14/why-were-video-game-cheat-codes-first-invented/ |
How Should Employers Handle Drug Addiction at Work? | Youve probably heard the mind-blowing statistics: Every 13 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies of an opioid overdose. The total reached a record 72,000 deaths in 2017, the CDC reports, making prescription pain medications like Oxycontin, Vicodin, and the synthetic opioid fentanyl even bigger killers than diseases like diabetes. Addiction to pain pills is so widespread, across every U.S. age, race, and income group, that its nearly impossible to say how many Americans are quietly struggling with it. But the available research suggests that about two-thirds of opioid addicts have jobs. At least a few of them probably work for you. The cost of this crisisin lost productivity, mistakes at work, absenteeism, and plain human miseryhas become so high that many employers are now intent on fighting it. Check out the National Safety Councils online cost calculator.) The U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams last year started urging employers to join the battle, and the Chamber of Commerce Foundation has launched a campaign against opioid abuse, with information and case studies employers can use in their own efforts to tackle the problem. Yet most companies clearly have a long way to go. A nationwide survey last November of more than 2,000 HR managers and employees, by insurer The Hartford, showed that only 24% of human-resources pros and 18% of employees felt very confident they could spot the signs of opioid addiction, let alone do anything about it. In companies with no formal policies and procedures about this, individual managers have to wing it, and the results are often not great. Consider: In a poll of 737 bosses by rehab-center operator American Addiction Centers, 70% of managers reported feeling guilty about how they have handled their direct reports addiction issuesmore than half of them because they wish they had addressed the problem sooner, instead of just hoping it would go away. Experts in addiction and recovery say there are at least two ways that any employer could make a huge difference. First, although 90% of managers in the AAC survey said theyd approve time off for drug rehab (or have already done so for at least one employee), such a stigma attaches to addiction that most employees wont admit they need help, and they certainly wont request time off to go and get it. Employees are worried about losing their jobs so, even in companies with really good EAPs [employee assistance programs], they wont come forward, notes Michael Cartwright, AACs cofounder and chairman, who adds that only about 5% of people seeking treatment at his companys centers were sent by their employers. You need to create a culture of honest communication, where people arent afraid to speak up. It helps to start by making information about opioid addiction, and how to prevent it, readily available to everyone. Most people dont realize, for example, that its possible to get hooked on painkillers after taking themfor an injury, say, or after surgery for just four days, especially at high doses. People need to be educated about this, in the same way we as a society have done with smoking, says Cartwright. Employers are in an ideal position to help by simply spreading the facts about opioids, and making sure employees know the risks. A second way employers can help: Keeping close tabs on prescriptions through their medical-benefits plans, and letting employees and health care providers know that more than a three-day supply of opioid painkillers wont be approved without special scrutiny. The Surgeon Generals office reports that about 30% of large U.S. companies have already started doing this, but most employers are still unwitting enablers of opioid addiction, says Dave Chase, CEO of a Health Rosetta, a nonprofit aimed at making the U.S. health care system more cost-effectiveand, not incidentally, less awash in addictive drugs. Chase wrote an illuminating book called The Opioid Crisis Wake-Up Call that is packed with case studies of companies, including GM and IBM, that have successfully overhauled their medical plans. Benefits managers, take note: He suggests three litmus tests for whether your company is inadvertently adding fuel to the opioid addiction fire. The first warning sign, Chase says, is if payment for primary care in your system is based on volume, which encourages health care providers to write quick-fix prescriptions. Second, take a close look at whether its easier [for employees] to get an opioid prescription than access to physical therapy, which is usually a far more effective, and less hazardous, treatment for injuries. And third, Chase says, you should be getting regular reports on opioid prescriptions. Typically fewer than 10% of doctors are prescribing most of the opioids out there. You dont want them in your system. Weed them out. Its a start. Anne Fisher is a career expert and advice columnist who writes Work It Out, Fortunes guide to working and living in the 21st century. Each week, shell answer your most challenging career questions. Ask her on Twitter or email her at [email protected]. | http://fortune.com/2019/03/14/employee-drug-addiction-at-work/ |
Did Cooking Really Give Us The F-Word? | Enlarge this image toggle caption Scott Moisik Scott Moisik Processed foods get blamed for a lot of things. But this week, a group of linguists took it to a whole new level. To put it crudely, they argue that the invention of processed foods like yogurt and gruel, thousands of years ago, gave us the F-word. Lots of F-words. To be more precise, the researchers think that softer foods led to more frequent use of the sounds "f" and "v" in human languages. (Other experts on language are skeptical; more about that later.) According to the new theory, food influenced language through a complex chain of events. First came agriculture and early forms of food processing like fermentation, delivering meals that were easier to chew. No longer were humans relying so heavily on tough meats, roots and berries. And as a result, newly pampered humans ended up with a different kind of bite. Their teeth were no longer worn down so much, and they maintained more of the natural overbite that they were born with, with teeth of the top jaw overlapping the bottom teeth. This physical arrangement of teeth, in turn, made it easier for people to make "labiodental fricative" sounds like "f" and "v,"which require the top teeth to press against the bottom lip. "This change in bite paved the way for labiodentals in the spoken languages," says Damin Blasi, a linguist at the University of Zurich. He spoke during a teleconference with reporters organized by the journal Science, which published the new research. According to Blasi, humans with an overbite were more likely, purely by accident, to make "f" and "v" sounds. Then the normal processes of language evolution took over. These slips of the tongue sometimes caught on and became standard part of human languages. "That doesn't mean that labiodentals will emerge within all languages," says Steven Moran, another linguist at the University of Zurich involved in the research. "It does mean that the probability of producing labiodentals increases slightly over time." The scientists have been assembling evidence for their theory over the past five years. It wasn't easy. "The biggest obstacle was, simply put, that linguistic behavior does not fossilize," Blasi says. There are no audio recordings of conversations in the kitchens of ancient Mesopotamia. They did, however, find evidence to support each step in their hypothesized chain of events. There's evidence, for instance, that hunter-gatherers did lose their overbite. Computer simulations of the human jaw indicate that it takes more muscle effort to make the "f" and "w" sounds if you don't have that overbite, so it stands to reason that hunter-gathers wouldn't be inclined to make those sounds. The researchers examined the evolution of the Indo-European family of languages. Generations of linguists have attempted to reconstruct ancient versions of these languages, and indeed, "we found that, for these groups of languages, it is very likely that the labiodentals emerged not much before the Bronze age, in parallel to [the] development of new food processing techniques," Blasi says. The linguists also found that labiodental sounds are less common in the languages of contemporary hunter-gatherer communities in Greenland, southern Africa, and Australia. Where the sounds exist, they sometimes are found mainly in words borrowed from other languages. Putting it all together, the researchers are confident in their theory, and they think that this study of "f" and "v" sounds could shift the entire field of linguistics. According to Balthasar Bickel of the University of Zurich, another co-author of the study, language usually is considered a purely cultural phenomenon. "If you think about it, however, this is a bit strange," he says. "We produce it with our bodies. Mostly with our mouths but like in the case of sign language, also with our hands and other gestures." It stands to reason, he says, that biology influences language. Other linguists are intrigued, but less convinced. "I think the individual pieces seem reasonable," says Alan Yu, a linguist at the University of Chicago. But the entire story strikes him as speculative. "There are just a few too many gaps for me to to think that this is a genuine connection" between dietary changes and language, he says. The researchers didn't look at languages of hunter-gatherers of the Americas, he says, some of whom use labiodental sounds that didn't come from European languages. Salikoko Mufwene, also at the University of Chicago, expressed his own doubts. He wrote in an email to NPR that human language had been flourishing for thousands of years before the advent of farming and softer foods, "so it's surprising that people would have waited until so late before producing labio-dental fricatives." Anthropologist Shara Bailey at New York University, on the other hand, found the new study thought-provoking. "I like it!" she says. "It's making me think about something I hadn't thought about." Bailey's research focuses on the development of the human jaw. "I can actually have my students go and maybe test some of these hypotheses by looking at fossil hominids, or looking at hunter-gatherers. When you inspire other people to follow up and conduct their own experiments, I think that's a good thing!" | https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/03/14/703100483/did-cooking-really-give-us-the-f-word?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
Who are the Senate Republicans breaking with Trump on his border wall emergency? | CLOSE Vice President Mike Pence toured a Customs and Border Protection training facility in West Virginia Wednesday. He thanked border agents for protecting the country and called on Congress to approve President Trump's border emergency declaration. (March 13) AP WASHINGTON A growing number of Senate Republicans have made clear they will join Democrats in opposing President Donald Trump's decision to declare an emergency on the Southwest border, underscoring the likelihood of a rebuke of the president's policy in a vote Thursday afternoon. Senators will vote on a resolution to rescind the emergency Trump declared in February to free up more than $6 billion for his border wall. The resolution, which has already cleared the House, is expected to pass the Senate as well, but the White House was scrambling to limit the number of GOP defections. Hours before the vote, at least four additional Republicans said they would break with the president on the emergency, Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Rob Portman of Ohio and Jerry Moran of Kansas. President Trump is right that we have a crisis," Portman said on the Senate floor. "But I continue to hope the president uses the funds he has available to him without creating a bad precedent. Alexander had urged Trump for weeks to find a way to access unspent money without taking the controversial step of declaring a national emergency. "I support the president on border security," Alexander insisted. But, he said, the emergency "is inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution that I swore an oath to support." The latest announcements meant at least nine Republicans were expected to join Democrats in opposing Trump far more than the four needed to pass the resolution and send it to the president's desk. Trump has vowed to veto the resolution and his opponents likely do not have enough support to override that decision. It would mark the first time in his presidency Trump has wielded his veto power. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who has declared his opposition to approving President Trump's border emergency declaration, walks to a Republican luncheon in the Capitol in Washington, March 4, 2019. (Photo: Jim Lo Scalzo, epa-efe) But even though the president's veto power meant Thursday's vote in the Senate has little practical effect at the border, the political symbolism of Republicans breaking with Trump on his signature domestic issue is enormous. The rebuke puts on display a wedge within the GOP that Democrats are certain to try to exploit heading into the 2020 election. Romney, the Republican presidential nominee in 2012, has had a complicated relationship with Trump, whom he publicly criticized during the 2016 election. Trump endorsed Romney's race for Senate last year to fill the seat left open by the retirement of Orrin Hatch. ....If, at a later date, Congress wants to update the law, I will support those efforts, but todays issue is BORDER SECURITY and Crime!!! Dont vote with Pelosi! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019 "I agree that a physical barrier is urgently needed," Romney said. "I am seriously concerned that overreach by the executive branch is an invitation to further expansion and abuse by future presidents." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voiced objections to the emergency declaration this month. Paul said that approving the declaration would be tantamount to giving extra-Constitutional powers to the president something he said hes unwilling to do. The other four Republicans who have said they will vote to stop the declaration are Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mike Lee of Utah. "My concern is really about the institution of the Congress," Murkowski said recently. "The power of the purse rests with the Congress." White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, have scrambled behind the scenes to limit defections. A last-ditch effort by Lee to ease some GOP concerns about presidential emergencies collapsed after the White House rejected it. Lee's proposal would have terminated some presidential emergencies after 30 days unless Congress affirmatively voted to reauthorize them. My statement on todays emergency declaration vote pic.twitter.com/QbP7VCL81S Senator Mitt Romney (@SenatorRomney) March 14, 2019 Hours before the vote and after Republicans already walked away from the idea Trump appeared to revisit it, indicating he would support an unspecified limit on future emergencies. "If, at a later date, Congress wants to update the law, I will support those efforts," Trump posted on Twitter, "but todays issue is BORDER SECURITY and Crime!!!" 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How much water does the Sewerage & Water Board lose to leaks? | Leaks from underground pipes are a constant complaint in New Orleans. The answer is tough to pin down largely because of the kind of data the Sewerage & Water Board collects, according to results from an independent water loss audit the utility released this week. It found the amount of data on leaks, meter readings and billing inaccuracies that could be culled from the S&WB information system was limited, which could have inflated key water-loss benchmark estimates that the audit used. Based on the best estimates with the data on hand, New Orleans loses about 82 million gallons of water each day during the treatment and distribution process. Thats more than half of what it produced daily on average between 2008 and 2017, according to audit figures. Put another way, the water New Orleans estimates it loses daily could meet Slidells drinking water needs for nearly four weeks. A Sewerage & Water Board spokesperson agreed Thursday (March 14) with the audits findings, noting in an email the utility loses more than half of its water due to leaks, breaks and occasional overflows. Ghassan Korban, the utilitys executive director, added in a statement that the audit should help address future improvements to the water-distribution system. The rate of water loss due to our aging infrastructure is unacceptable," Korban said. "We must make it a priority to upgrade this fundamental service for the sake of the City and all our customers. These fixes will help us provide a vital service more efficiently and at a lower cost in the long run. Street repairs after underground fixes shifting to Sewerage & Water Board Street-paving duties will fall entirely to the S&WB once city contractors clear a backlog of 1,500 cuts later this year. Tony Hairston, vice president of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based consulting firm Raftelis, assisted in the audit. He told utility board members Wednesday (March 13) that better data collection should help guide the Sewerage & Water Board on how to most effectively cut down its water losses. It would also reduce how much money the utility spends to treat and pump lost or free water, which, according to data the audit used, averaged about 19 percent of the total cost to produce drinking water between 2008 and 2017. You can put a lot of money into the system, Hairston said at a board committee meeting Wednesday. But (the goal is) trying to figure out where are the places where you can drive this number down. Ron Spooner, the Sewerage & Water Boards chief engineer, said there are plans to install new flow meters to better track water before and after its treated. Those projects are being funded with federal hazard mitigation grants. The audits leak assessment underscores the huge task of bringing the Sewerage & Water Board into the modern era. Korban said earlier this year that only about 10 miles of underground water pipes out of a roughly 1,500-mile system have been replaced within the past 25 years. Of that total, nearly half are 100 years or older, he said, highlighting the degree to which the utility has put off replacing pipes for decades. Sewerage & Water Board leader faces long to-do list with scant resources Utility leaders looking for more funding and a switch to Entergy for primary power in the future. Still, large water leaks are not unheard of for municipal water utilities. Slidell, for instance, loses between 15 percent to 18 percent of the 3 million gallons a day it produces, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Mike Noto said. But the North Shore city differs from New Orleans in that it uses well water, whereas the Sewerage & Water Board draws its supply from the Mississippi River. Noto added in an interview Thursday that generally speaking, any water system losses surpassing 25 percent, including water given free for government or other public services, ought to be cause for concern. As for billing and metering data, the Sewerage & Water Board has fielded nearly 43,000 formal disputes over inaccurate or irregular bills from customers since late 2016, according to a running tally on the utilitys website. Sewerage & Water Board officials and an outside consultant have traced the issue largely to staff training and bills that are inaccurately estimated when a meter cannot be read. The audit also recommends tasking Sewerage & Water Board staff across several departments with refining the data, starting with compiling internal water loss audits more regularly. Yvette Downs, the utilitys chief financial officer, said she wants one performed at least once a year. Its the second time in recent years the Sewerage & Water Board has commissioned a water loss audit, crafted from the nonprofit American Water Works Associations methodology. Denver-based consultant Nora Freeman was the lead analyst for both audits. She was assisted in the most recent audit by Hairston and Peiffer Brandt, Raftelis president and CEO. | https://www.nola.com/politics/2019/03/how-much-water-does-the-sewerage-water-board-lose-to-leaks.html |
When will Law & Order spinoff premiere? | Alex Matt Roush: Recently, it was reported that the SVU spinoff has been indefinitely delayed. A backdoor pilot had been planned to air within an episode of SVU this season to launch a spinoff about a Hate Crimes unit, but thats no longer happening during the current season. I wouldnt count it out from happening eventually, and it may even be encouraging that they didnt rush it to air, giving more time for the development and casting process. Its a very topical but loaded subject, and Id like to see them get it right. (But with Dick Wolfs company looking to expand the CBS FBI franchise while maintaining so many other productions in New York and Chicago, they clearly have a full plate.) Speaking true Hawaiian is not common. Looking past the two white male leads who were built into the formula, Hawaii Five-O has tried from the start to honor and reflect Hawaiian culture, and the episode titles are part of that. I dig it. To submit questions to TV Critic Matt Roush, go to tvinsider.com. | https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/tv/when-will-law-order-spinoff-premiere-1617996/ |
Is President Trump Really Proposing To Cut Medicare By $845 Billion? | If you add up the proposed Medicare changes in President Trumps 2020 budget, it looks like he would cut the program by $845 billion over the next decade. Thats generated outrage from Democrats, but a closer look suggests that the reductions are much smaller, most would affect providers rather than beneficiaries, and many recycle old ideas that have little chance of ever being adopted. Make no mistake, the Trump budget is hardly senior-friendly. Hed freeze or reduce spending for many federal senior service programscontinuing a trend that has gone on for more than a decade. And his proposed cuts to Medicaid could hurt family caregivers of parents or younger relatives with disabilities. There is much less there than meets the eye. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget does a nice job walking through the math, and concludes that the net reduction in Medicare spending would be between $515 billion and $575 billion, not $845 billion. The White House projects that total Medicare spending over the next decade will top $10 trillion. While even $515 billion is a lot of money, very little would directly affect beneficiaries. CRFB figures about 85 percent of the cuts would come from hospitals, doctors, skilled nursing facilities, and other providers. Shifting accounts To start, Trump is moving about one-third of the money--$269 billioninto a different section of the budget. He would not reduce spending for these two programs, which fund certain hospitals and medical education, hed just shift them out the Medicare account to somewhere else. Of the rest, Trumps budget saves $360 billion mostly by recycling or building on ideas first suggested by President Obama. Among the proposals: Paying post-acute and long-term care providers based on the clinical needs of beneficiaries rather than the site the care is offered, and reducing payments to hospitals for the cost of patients who dont pay their bills. In some cases, hospital-owned medical practices would be paid lower, out-patient rates even when they are located on a hospital campus. None of these changes would increase costs to beneficiaries and some could, at least in theory, lower Medicare premiums. The potential downside: Some hospitals or nursing homes may stop providing services if they are no longer profitable. Little chance of becoming law About 11 percent of the cost savings would come from changes in the Medicare Part D drug benefit. Some beneficiaries would pay more out-of-pocket for prescription drugs and others less, depending on what medications they take and how much they cost. The administration also claims Medicare would save about $30 billion from broad changes to medical malpractice laws. In another change that could directly affect patients, the budget also would expand the requirement that they get prior authorization for Medicare fee-for-service treatment, an initiative the White House says would save about $6 billion. Keep in mind, however, that there is little chance any of these ideas will become law. Most have been around in one form or another for decades, and health care lobbyists always shoot them down. In the absence of broad-based Medicare reform, that is likely to happen again. Older adults and their caregivers ought to be more concerned with other ideas in Trumps 2020 budget. For example, he has once again proposed freezing or cutting federal senior services programs ranging from Meal on Wheels to falls prevention to the State Health Insurance Assistance (SHIP) program that helps seniors manage the increasingly complex world of Medicare. Medicaid block grants Last year, Trump proposed even deeper cuts. However, Congress rejected nearly all and even raised the budgets for some programs. With control of the House flipping from Republican to Democrat this year, it is highly unlikely any of these programs will get cut. However, it is not clear that many will be increased either, even though the population of older adults is growing rapidly. Trump is proposing major changes to Medicaid. Hed turn the program largely into a block grant, where the amount the federal government contributes to a state program is capped each year. Today, the feds pay on average about 60 percent of the cost of Medicaid, no matter how rapidly it increases. Finally, Trumps budget would impose a national work requirement on Medicaid enrollees, an idea that some states have adopted over the past year. While the states include exceptions for family caregivers, the rules vary widely and often are ambiguous, according to a 2018 study by the advocacy group Justice in Aging. Congress will approve few if any of Trumps budget initiatives, though he may try to implement some administratively. Cuts could be problematic for seniors and their families. But his Medicare reductions, at least, would be far less important to older adults than they seem at first glance. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/howardgleckman/2019/03/14/is-president-trump-really-proposing-to-cut-medicare-by-845-billion/ |
Will American Eagle's Growth Carry Over Into 2019? | American Eagle Outfitters reported somewhat mixed fourth quarter earnings recently. The retailers EPS of $0.43 surpassed the consensus estimate of $0.42 while revenue of $1.24 billion was below the consensus expectation of $1.27 billion. The retailers fourth quarter comparable sales rose 6%, marking 16 straight quarters of positive comp growth. The companys annual revenue increased by 6% year-over-year to cross $4 billion, and its annual diluted EPS surged by almost 30% to reach $1.47 in 2018. Higher digital sales, continuous growth of Aerie brand and improved operating profit helped the company to grow its bottom line by more than 28%. AEOs gross margin improved in 2018 on account of improved markdown rate and rent leverage, which was partially offset by higher delivery costs due to increased transaction count and increased incentive expense. For Q1 2019, the company expects comparable sales to increase in the low single digits and EPS to be approximately $0.19 to $0.21, which is similar to the mean consensus estimate of $0.21. We currently have a price estimate of $27 per share for AEO, which is ahead of the current market price. We have summarized our full year expectations for AEO, based on the companys guidance and our own estimates, on our interactive dashboard AEOs 2018 Financial Performance. You can modify any of our key drivers to gauge the impact changes would have on its valuation, and see all Trefis Consumer Discretionary Services company data here. Aerie Brand Continues To Outperform American Eagles lingerie and activewear brand, Aerie, has been major growth vehicle for company, going from strength to strength in driving its overall profitability. The brand delivered another impressive comp increase at 23% in Q4 2018 the brands 17th consecutive quarter of double-digit comp growth. The brand is expected to cross $1 billion in annual sales in the near term, as AEO continues to explore untapped capacity in new markets and grow its customer base. Aerie is also expected to achieve significant growth from both the digital channel and retail stores, as the company plans to increase its exclusive Aerie stores in fiscal 2019. Going forward, we expect the Aerie brand to post double-digit comparable sales growth in the foreseeable future and drive overall revenue growth for the company. Digital Channel, Jeans Sales Reach Record Highs Customer shopping patterns have been shifting from brick-and-mortar locations to digital channels, and customers are increasingly more likely to shop across multiple channels that work in tandem to meet their needs. AEOs digital sales were strong in Q4 2018, posting a positive high single digit increase in the quarter, its highest-volume quarter ever. Digital penetration rose to 31% of revenue in the fourth quarter and 28% for the full year, crossing $1.1 billion in digital annual sales. The companys stores sales also saw a fifth consecutive quarter of comparable sales growth in Q4 2018. However, we expect the growth in digital channel sales to outpace the retail store sales for the foreseeable future. AEO surpassed $1 billion in jeans sales on an annual basis, gaining nearly 200 basis points of market share. Across age demographics, AEO became the number one womens jeans brand and the number two overall, per management. The companys jeans business has strengthened dramatically over the past few years, and we expect it to continue to thrive, as AEO remains focused on innovation and introducing new trend-setting products. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/14/how-did-american-eagle-outfitters-perform-in-2018/ |
Whats next for Trumps national emergency after Senate vote? | Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram Heres what you need to know. In 1976, the National Emergency Act codified what had been a confusing constitutional question about the presidents ability to assume emergency powers, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Presidents have invoked the act 59 times since then, with 32 emergencies still in effect, counting Trumps most recent one on border security. But the act also gives Congress the power to override a presidents declaration of a national emergency, according to the center. In February, Trump declared a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border in order to divert military construction funds to construct a border wall after Congress refused to allocate all the money he had sought, CNBC reported. The U.S. House of Representatives voted 245-182 on Feb. 26 to override Trumps emergency declaration, USA Today reported. On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted 59-41 to overturn the declaration, CBS News reported. Twelve Republicans joined Democrats in rejecting it. SHARE COPY LINK With a vote of 245 ayes and 182 nays, The House passed a resolution to terminate President Trump's national emergency declaration to build a Mexico-U.S. border wall. The resolution now heads to the Senate for debate in mid-March. Not only does Trump have the power to veto the action, hes already vowed to do so. A big National Emergency vote today by The United States Senate on Border Security & the Wall (which is already under major construction), Trump wrote Thursday morning on Twitter. I am prepared to veto, if necessary. The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed! A big National Emergency vote today by The United States Senate on Border Security & the Wall (which is already under major construction). I am prepared to veto, if necessary. The Southern Border is a National Security and Humanitarian Nightmare, but it can be easily fixed! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019 Following the vote Thursday, Trump made a one-word post to Twitter: VETO! VETO! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 14, 2019 The House and Senate can override Trumps veto, but that requires a super-majority of two-thirds of each chamber to approve. Neither the House nor Senate reached that threshold. Trump has already predicted that his promised veto will not be overridden, CBS News reported. It would be the first veto of his presidential term. The fight would most likely next head to the courts. Sixteen states, led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, have already filed suit to block the national emergency declaration in court, CNN reported. The suit argues that Trump has misused his national emergency powers to thwart the will of Congress regarding funds for a border wall, according to the network. In 1952, President Harry Truman used his emergency powers to nationalize the steel industry to end a strike by steelworkers during the Korean War, NBC News reported. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Truman had exceeded his authority in a 6-3 vote. | https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article227776454.html |
How much has modern life dimmed the spirit of adventure? | Paul Schurkes thirst for adventure had its roots in his childhood, he said, in the soft white underbelly of Minneapolis, a long way from typical adventure resources. Schurke, 63, who owns Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge in Ely, Minn., with his wife, Susan, remembered the summer that the city dug a gigantic ditch through south Minneapolis that eventually became I-35W. This miles-long stretch of rocks and rubble became our playground, Schurke said. My friends and I pedaled up Nicollet near downtown and lowered our banana seat bikes into the storm sewer there. As luck would have it, it was all downhill from there to Minnehaha Creek, so wed go screaming through this tunnel in total darkness, with flashes of light as we passed under a drain. I shudder to think what wouldve happened if wed hit a brick or a piece of rebar. Those experiences are a treasured memory for me. It was an urban center of adventure that got my juices going, big time creativity, the sense of possibility, of discovery. I reflect on that all the time. It was truly pivotal for me. Many, if not most, of Schurkes peers had similar childhood experiences that shaped a generations sense of adventure. But its not simply nostalgia. Measurable features of the 1960s and 70s largely unscheduled childhoods with kid-led activities; life that was to a much greater degree hands-on, face-to-face, manual, analog; minimal student debt, and plentiful living-wage jobs made the ideal environment for fostering adventure. Whether lifelong or short-term, modest or grand, lots of people undertook adventures. The zeitgeist of the era was one of possibility. That world is gone. None of those conditions that made adventure widely possible exist anymore. We talked to some outdoors people about adventure, then and now. Schurkes generation, who had enjoyed great swaths of unscheduled, grownup-free time as children, grew into adults who were comfortable without structure. They were used to solving problems. They were used to being independent and assessing risk. Generally, they made it up as they went along. Childhoods like that produced, well, yes flesh wounds but also adventurers. In sharp contrast, todays children follow institutional schedules and rules almost from birth. Free time, the birthplace of ideas, is nearly nonexistent. Sports and outdoor activities are organized and led by adults. Its increasingly rare to have an outdoor childhood, said Katie Arnold, writer and editor at Outside magazine and author of a new memoir, Running Home. Two parents working means there are more scheduled activities that are supervised and seen as safe. Kids who arent outside much by themselves are less comfortable doing that as adults. Boston College research psychologist Peter Gray compared childhoods of 50 or 60 years ago with todays: Adventures that used to be normal for 6-year-olds are now not allowed even for many teenagers. Its clear that a protected, directed and pressured childhood is not the recipe for an adventurous adult. Arnold, mother of the only two elementary students in their school who commute by bike, recommended getting kids outdoors early: Going out in inclement weather teaches resilience, and confidence with making choices when the consequences are low. Its much harder to learn those things in your 20s. While dog sled trips at Wintergreen Lodge are thoroughly planned and far less risky than the adventures of his youth, Schurke has anecdotal evidence that the hands-on experiences they provide give clients the confidence to strike out on their own. Some of our guides came here as kids with their families, and now theyre leading adventurous lives, working summer and winter, and cutting loose in the spring and fall. One of those guides is Amy Freeman who, together with her husband, Dave, has made adventure and outdoor advocacy a full-time job. Freeman, 36, who was dosed with average St. Paul amounts of outdoor independence as a child, spoke to the role economics played in her life of adventure. She had worked summers during college (at Macalester) guiding kayak trips in Grand Marais, but in 2006, she had a masters degree in art therapy, six years of student loans, and a 9-to-5 job offer in Grand Marais. Dave and I had planned to kayak around Lake Superior in the fall of 2006, so I had to decide between the job and this adventure, Freeman recalled by e-mail. The job was the safe option, but something in me couldnt give up on kayaking around Lake Superior. It was a pivotal moment in my life that launched me into the adventurous life. Freeman found that guiding in the summer and winter and getting by with a Toyota Yaris, an off-grid yurt, and little nightlife allowed her to save money, pay off her school loans, and afford a life of adventure. Most of her peers, she said, jumped into the working world, sometimes settling for any job just to cover rent and loans. Many of my friends who remained in Chicago or the Twin Cities kept deferring their loans even though they were working at jobs that paid more than the guiding jobs I did, she said. So, even though student loan debt inhibited adventure for most, it led me to take guiding jobs I could start immediately. I have several friends who joined the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps because of that student loan forgiveness thing, which also pushed them into adventure, but I think we were the exception. By contrast, Schurke described the adventure-friendly economics he found on graduating from St. Johns University in 1977. We had $3,000 to our name, about $3,000 in student loans, and not a care in the world. Moved to Ely and bought a house for $1,800. We turned in aluminum cans or made Christmas wreaths making money took a back seat to adventure. We were very fortunate we came when we did, and sort of rode the wave as Ely became a center of outdoor adventure. But our kids have between $50,000 and $80,000 in student loans. They pretty much have to hit the street running full-bore to pay that off. The web effect Creation of the internet and advances in communication technology have profoundly affected every aspect of life, including our sense of adventure. Some positively, and some not so much. Freeman pointed out how GPS has made navigation easier and more accurate, and how social media has made it possible for people to share their adventures and inspire others. But, she admitted, technology makes our lives almost too easy: Why would anyone ever want to work hard, sweat, be uncomfortable, engage in somewhat risky behavior? Schurke noted a lot of interesting trends around digital media. While what he called electronic mall culture caused a dip in outdoor adventure in the 1990s, since then, adventure travel has skyrocketed. Were seeing a major shift away from consumerism toward experiences that feed the soul. Our adventurous tent camping trips (vs. lodge-based trips) are much more popular, which I find encouraging. Families and millennials seem keen on ditching the relentless digital distractions for hands-on adventures, he said. In fact, were increasingly putting a tongue-in-cheek twist into our marketing as being a digital detox center. And media, Schurke added, has made adventure travelers a savvy bunch they reject Disney-fication in favor of authentic experiences, which in turn provides market incentive to protect and maintain truly wild places. Media cuts both ways. Yes, it sensationalizes fears, but by allowing us to post short videos on how comfortable it can be to camp in minus-20 degree weather, it also relieves those fears. Arnolds kids, 8 and 10, dont have cellphones. While she grew up with such screen-based distractions as TV (she had a half-hour limit as a kid) and video games, todays pocket-size tech, she said, is much harder to limit and more addictive, insidious and ubiquitous. Technology is more and more an issue when it comes to wellness and physical activity, she said. Parental limits is what it comes down to. Despite major cultural and economic changes over the last 50 years, Schurke, Freeman and Arnold agreed, adventure is alive and well for those determined enough to make it happen. You dont have to be dirtbagging it Arnold talked about moms with full-time jobs finding time to run 100-mile trail races. As Freeman demonstrated, a 9-to-5 job is not the only way to manage them. And Schurke is confident that a 7-year-old who chisels a hole in the ice for water on one of Wintergreens trips is getting almost as hefty a dose of adventure as if she were screaming through a storm sewer on a banana-seated bike. Sarah Barker is a freelance writer from St. Paul. Write [email protected]. | http://www.startribune.com/how-much-has-modern-life-dimmed-the-spirit-of-adventure/507155902/ |
How did my MP vote on Brexit delay? | MPs have backed a delay to Article 50 on a third night of votes on Brexit in the House of Commons. The motion, put forward by the government, passed by 412 votes to 201. To find out how your MP voted use the look-up below. Enter a postcode, or the name or constituency of your MP Seat vacant Click here if you cannot see the look-up. Data from Commons Votes Services. The main motion was backed by MPs from across the political spectrum, but 187 Conservative MPs voted against the government. These included seven Cabinet ministers and the Chief Whip: Liz Truss Gavin Williamson Liam Fox Stephen Barclay Andrea Leadsom Chris Grayling Penny Mordaunt Julian Smith (Chief Whip) All three amendments to the government's motion that were voted on by MPs were defeated. An amendment on a second referendum brought by a cross-party group of remainer MPs was voted down by 334 votes to 85. Forty-one Labour MPs rebelled against their party whip which had ordered them to abstain. Twenty-four backed the motion, and 17 voted against. An amendment allowing MPs to take control of the commons process to hold a debate on a series of indicative votes, was defeated by just one vote, 314-312. Six Labour MPs voted against their colleague, Hilary Benn who put forward the amendment. MPs also rejected the Labour Party's amendment. This rejected the Prime Minister's deal and asked for parliamentary time to find a majority for a different approach to Brexit. It was defeated by 318 votes to 302. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47569013 |
What If The Music Dies? | Know your downside before falling asleep if the music dies. Expect the S&P 500 Index to drop from 17 times earnings to 15 times, 10% shrinkage. Each multiple shed counts up to 6% of valuation. At 15 times, historically, the market would rest still in pricey territory. Think of U.S. Steel, even Schlumberger and AT&T. Nobody cares. Amplitude of volatility for FANG paper is probably double the markets rate of change, daily. Look at Facebook. The 12-month price chart on Schlumberger replicates an expert ski trail snaking downward. As internet and e-commerce names populate the top 10 in the S&P 500, the market today is more volatile than in the 2000 tech bubble, even days of the Nifty Fifty, late 60s, early 70s. The deep recession of 1973-74 put away all pricey paper then selling at 40 times prospective earnings. No comebacks. Think of Xerox, Polaroid and Eastman Kodak, once deemed good for the next 10 years, but they washed out. Monthly indicators flicker yellow here and abroad. Nobody knows how to model China any longer while the European economic community is mired in its no-growth setting, politicians in a funk. A month ago they talked about raising interest rates, now stimulus hangs in the air. Our wishy-washy FRB similarly is repositioning itself, failing to find inflation under any rock. The biggest risk is the market itself. Yes, it can sell at 16 to 18 times earnings in a setting of low interest rates and minimal inflation. But, there has to be an earnings story as well. Its getting tortuous to develop a rising earning scenario for the world. Big chunks of the market already languish into desuetude. Materials stocks like U.S. Steel and Alcoa stand cut into halves. Nobody cares. No dividend succor there. Even AT&T with a 6.7% yield trades listlessly, approaching its 12-month low. Analyzable crude oil producers like EOG Resources and Occidental Petroleum which now yields 5% find no takers. Schlumberger tracks near a 5% yield but nobody cares after sliding down from the mid-seventies past spring. Heartland stocks like Deere, Honeywell, United Technologies, DowDuPont and Caterpillar rest mired in 12-month trading ranges, but a worldwide slowdown would crimp their operating profit margins and theres no yield support anywhere. Youre supposed to value GDP stocks on average earnings power over a full cycle - good year, average year and bad one, but the market can disregard such a judiciary approach to valuation. Now consider internet and e-commerce paper. Capitalizations range from $500 billion to $800 billion for the coterie of Amazon, Alphabet, Alibaba and Facebook. Throw in Microsoft and youre talking about some 20% of the S&P 500s valuation. Boeing may be a 9% position in the Dow Industrials but in the S&P 500 its just another $200 billion market capitalization thats questionable. Implied volatility for the technology sector is probably two times the markets so the market cannot go up without tech. If Amazons and Microsofts operating outlook sours, these stocks easily drop a snappy 20%, maybe 10%, overnight. You dont wanna be 100% invested the day they take Amazon, Alphabet and Microsoft out to be shot. Big cap financials like JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup trade 15% to 20% below highs set past September. Six months ago the consensus on rising interest margins for banks was nearly universal. But, it didnt happen. The yield curve for Treasuries is nearly flat from money market paper ranging up to 10-year Treasuries ticking around 2.6%. Im holding onto Citigroup because it sells near 10 times earnings. But, banks historically have sold at 60% of the markets multiplier so they may be too efficiently priced with no foreseeable earnings leverage story now attached. Absent top line domestic revenue growth with foreign markets sloughing off, theres no case for rising operating profit margins, anywhere. A dire profit margin cyclically is possible. The mini recession caused by the tech bubble took down margins from 8% to 5% between 2000 and 2002. During the financial meltdown of 2008-09 margins dropped sharply from near 10% to under 6%. Historically, operating profit margins range between 9% and 10% when GDP is normalized. Today, theres no upward margin leverage in the system, particularly if GDP shows no late foot. Wage expense and interest rates come into play as well, but their containment is already reflected in the good numbers. Wage expense as a percentage of GDP runs in the low sixties. It was high sixties decades ago. Then, Paul Volcker took on the Teamsters and UAW in 1982 when wages as a percentage of GDP hit 69%, but dropped to 65% a year later. The country became competitive, again, after the market sold at book value. Lemme go back to individual stock concentration in the S&P 500 because it has changed so much since 2001. General Electric, at 4.1% was the market leader, then, followed by Microsoft and Exxon Mobil at 2.8% positions. Pfizer, Citigroup and Walmart followed at 2% weights. Even American International Group with a market capitalization of $186 billion held seventh place. Cisco Systems weighed in at 1%, followed by Coca-Cola. So, technology, the internet and e-commerce hardly counted for much or didnt exist even then. Today, theyve crowded out traditional businesses like energy, healthcare, banking and insurance. General Electric then was easier to model than Amazon is currently. Actually, Amazon cant be modeled with any precision. Same goes for Alphabet, Facebook and Apple which was numero uno by yearend 2014, a market capitalization of $677 billion. General Electric had slipped to seventh place while Berkshire Hathaway with a market capitalization of $370 billion now took fifth place, just ahead of Wells Fargo. Google and Facebook were far down the list of top 25 market caps. Just five years ago the top 10 names in the S&P 500 were much easier to model than today. Exxon Mobil held onto its place, number three, for more than 15 years. Today the top 10 names are scarily concentrated in terms of market capitalization, earnings volatility and unpredictably in terms of growth rates and profit margin leverage. The closest I can come is to employ the metric of the operating cash flow multiplier. At least, it tells me about the wherewithal generated to grow the footprints of these franchises. Im impressed at least with their R&D spend which runs as high as 15% of revenues for Facebook and Alphabet. This is a huge allocation for any company historically speaking. Just let it be productive. Apple runs significantly lower in spending. Consider, Warren Buffett eschewed internet operators and e-commerce providers, tapping Apple for its great franchise, a couple of hundred billion in liquid assets and a moderate price-earnings ratio. But, Apples iPhone franchise is challengeable and launches meager new products coming out of research. Ive passed on Apple but wont sell out Facebook and Alphabet barring a fundamental change in outlook. Because Ive characterized the stock market as richly priced in a slowing worldwide setting, I cant justify more than a 50% invested position. The remaining 50% Ive earmarked for high-yield bonds, concentrating on BB-rated paper. The spread now between 10-year Treasuries in AAA debentures is unattractive, under 100 basis points. Ive chosen financial risk over maturity risk. My average duration is five years. If wrong about a possible mini recession developing into a serious downturn, spreads will then widen and I wont earn my coupon. Nobody promised me a rose garden. Ive put Facebook, Goldman Sachs and Alibaba in the inefficiently price category along with AT&T. Boeing remains my secular growth industrial with a big question mark, unanswerable for months to come. Sosnoff and / or his managed accounts own: AT&T, Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Alibaba, Microsoft, Boeing, Citigroup, Wells Fargo preferreds and Goldman Sachs. [email protected] | https://www.forbes.com/sites/martinsosnoff/2019/03/14/what-if-the-music-dies/ |
Is Cleveland-Cliffs Fairly Valued? | Cleveland-Cliffs (NYSE: CLF), one of the leading iron ore miners in the US, saw its stock price decrease by more than 15% in the last one month. However, what is startling is the fact that CLF had no unfavorable news during this period. The stock fell prey to disappointing economic data from China and decreasing demand from the countrys steel companies. The volatility in the market during the last one week increased due to major investment banks like UBS lowering their forecast on iron ore prices for 2019 and downgrading Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO). Though Cleveland-Cliffs has no exposure to the Chinese market, the stock seems to have taken a beating due to the overall iron ore market sentiment. CLF improved its profitability in 2018 and we have a positive outlook for the company for the near future. The iron ore market has recently faced bifurcation, in the form of high grade and lower grade categories, following a change in environmental policies in China. Being a high-grade iron ore miner, CLF is set to benefit from the existing high market premium for its products, and as Vale (a close competitor in the high-grade ore category) has cut its production and is still recovering from the recent dam disaster. We believe that this stock dip may have left the stock undervalued looking out over the next two years. In addition, here is more Materials data. Rising premium for high grade ore to benefit CLF In view of rising pollution and international pressure, China altered its environmental policy in 2018 when it announced that it will curtail the import of low-grade iron ore (with Fe content of less than 62%). Since then the prices of high-grade ores have seen a sharp increase over lower-grade ore. Historically iron ore would be priced on a Dry Metric Ton Unit basis, such that if a ton of 62% Fe would sell around $62, then a ton of 65% Fe would trade around $65, with a premium of $3. However, in October 2018, when 62% Fe ore was trading at $70 per ton, the price of ore with 65% Fe was as high as $92, which marked a premium of approximately $22 per ton. This was a result of higher demand for high-grade ores in China. After the dam disaster at its Corrego do Feijao mine in Brumadinho in January 2019, Vale the worlds largest iron ore miner has announced a shutdown of approximately 40 million tons of iron ore production, of which a large part is expected to be high-grade pellets. In anticipation of lower supply due to this event, the premium for high grade ores has increased further in the last one month. Currently, ores with 62% Fe content are trading at about $85.77 while the ones with 65% Fe content are priced at $98.60 per ton. We believe that as Vale is still recovering from the effects of the accident and with iron ore premium rising, this is the best opportunity for CLF to increase its market share in the US. Though Rio Tinto performed well in 2018, the rising premium is expected to benefit CLF the most. This is mainly because of the ore grades that these two miners sell. RIO primarily sells Direct Shipping Ore that ranges from 60%-62% of Fe content from its Western Australian Pilbara mines and other mines where the Fe content ranges from 56%-62%, with only one exception of Iron Ore Company of Canada which has a 65% grade. On the other hand, CLF sells only high-quality iron ore pellets with Fe content of 60% to 65%. As CLFs entire revenue is concentrated in the US following the closure of its loss-making APAC operations, it is much better positioned compared to Rio Tinto and ArcelorMittal, which are exposed to volatile emerging markets like China and mine a large portion of lower-grade ores. After a sharp rise in margins in 2018, we expect CLFs net income margin growth to be modest over the next two years, primarily benefiting from lower interest expense and cost savings from the closure of APAC operations, coupled with higher margin per ton due to rising premium. Additionally, CLF plans to increase the productive capacity of the Toledo HBI (hot-briquetted iron) plant from 1.6 million tons to 1.9 million tons, which is an indication of good demand for the product and a catalyst for future growth and value creation. CLF v/s RIO Expected Return on Stock We have a price estimate of $13 for CLFs share price, which is higher than its current market price. In the current situation, we expect the price to rise to $14 in 2020 if CLF is able to take advantage of rising iron ore prices and fill the gap created by Vale. Though RIOs share price has seen an upswing recently, the upside potential is limited with the recent downgrade and lower price realization with demand slowing down in China. Based on a current market price of $55, the stock could offer return/CAGR of about 13% in 2019 followed by 7% in 2020. However, entering into CLFs stock at this stage (share price of $10 per share on March 13, 2019) could offer investors a potential return/CAGR of a whopping 30% in 2019 and 17% in 2020. Thus, we believe that the recent drop in CLFs share price without any change in the companys fundamentals, may offer opportunity. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/14/is-cleveland-cliffs-fairly-valued/ |
Why are students walking out of class in San Francisco, Oakland, Peninsula and elsewhere Friday? | Students join the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a climate change protest near Parliament in London, Friday Feb. 15, 2019. The demonstration is one many nationwide to demand action against climate change. (Nick Ansell/PA via AP) less Students join the Youth Strike 4 Climate movement during a climate change protest near Parliament in London, Friday Feb. 15, 2019. 1 / 10 Back to Gallery Students around the world are walking out of class in protest Friday as part of a concerted effort to demand action on climate change. Local high school and middle school students from Oakland, San Francisco, Marin County and the Peninsula are planning to rally at 10 a.m. Friday in front of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office in downtown San Francisco. From there they will march past the office of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The students are then planning to rally at Union Square, where speakers will talk about the need for a Green New Deal. MORE: Bay Area students plan strike to demand climate change action Hundreds of similar strikes by youth are planned in an estimated 75 countries on March 15. Here's what we know about the Bay Area Youth Climate Strike protests: San Francisco: Participants meeting at 10 a.m. at Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office (the Facebook event lists the location of Pelosi's office as 450 Golden Gate Ave., but her office is located at 90 7th St.), then march to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office, followed by a rally at Union Square Participants meeting at 10 a.m. at Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office (the Facebook event lists the location of Pelosi's office as 450 Golden Gate Ave., but her office is located at 90 7th St.), then march to Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office, followed by a rally at Union Square Oakland: Youth Climate Strike support rally scheduled for 5 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza Youth Climate Strike support rally scheduled for 5 p.m. at Frank Ogawa Plaza Berkeley: Students walking out of class at 10 a.m., as well as gathering before class starts for those who can't afford to miss class Students walking out of class at 10 a.m., as well as gathering before class starts for those who can't afford to miss class Alameda: Students meeting at 9 a.m. at Alameda City Hall Students meeting at 9 a.m. at Alameda City Hall Los Altos: Los Altos High School students walking out at 10 a.m. and marching to El Camino Real and San Antonio Road Los Altos High School students walking out at 10 a.m. and marching to El Camino Real and San Antonio Road Palo Alto: Palo Alto High School students walking out at 2:50 p.m. and standing with signs at Embarcadero and El Camino Real Palo Alto High School students walking out at 2:50 p.m. and standing with signs at Embarcadero and El Camino Real Sonoma: Students gathering at Sonoma Plaza at 9 a.m. Students gathering at Sonoma Plaza at 9 a.m. Napa: Students gathering in downtown Napa at 3:30 p.m. Students gathering in downtown Napa at 3:30 p.m. Petaluma: Students of all ages meeting at Petaluma Regional Library at 8:30 a.m. to march toward the freeway; Cherry Valley Middle School students walking out at 11 a.m. Students of all ages meeting at Petaluma Regional Library at 8:30 a.m. to march toward the freeway; Cherry Valley Middle School students walking out at 11 a.m. Santa Rosa: Students walking out and gathering at Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa at 11 a.m. Students walking out and gathering at Courthouse Square in Santa Rosa at 11 a.m. Sebastopol: Students walking out and gathering at Sebastopol Downtown Square at 12:30 p.m. There are also events planned for Cupertino, Vallejo, and Rohnert Park, but no details were available. A directory of all Youth Climate Strike events can be found on the organization's website. Bay City News contributed to this report. Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at [email protected]. Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news. | https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/climate-change-strike-protest-school-walkout-sf-13689322.php |
Are Southwest and American parking Boeing 737 MAX 8 planes in Phoenix? | The Federal Aviation Administration ordered airlines to ground all Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 9 aircraft and at Sky Harbor, and you can spot both Southwest and American aircraft parked on the tarmac to comply with the order. Though FAA order prohibits passenger flights, airlines can still ferry the aircraft that is fly without passengers to other airports for storing, flight testing and maintenance. As airlines shuffle their Max 8s, it appears one of the final destinations is Phoenix. The Valley's weather makes it an ideal spot to park an aircraft indefinitely. Other parts of the country are still experiencing winter. American and Southwest also have maintenance facilities in Phoenix. American Airlines 737 MAX 8 aircraft in Phoenix American Airlines has 24 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet of 956 planes. The airline says the aircraft typically serve 85 flights daily, a small number compared with its 6,700 daily departures. American Airlines does not use the MAX 8 to serve Phoenix routes. However, the airline has ferried at least two aircraft to Sky Harbor to park. The flight tracking website FlightAware showed one of those empty flights arriving at the airport from Cancun Thursday morning. CLOSE A Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed in Ethiopia killing everyone on board. The crash of the Ethiopian Airlines plane marks the second deadliest accident involving a Boeing 737 in the past five months. USA TODAY Southwest also parks MAX 8 aircraft in Phoenix Southwest Airlines has 34 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in its fleet. The airline said it operated only 4 percent of its daily flights on MAX 8 aircraft and has had to cancel 39 flights out of 4,000 scheduled network wide on Thursday. The airline declined to say exactly how many of its fleet of 34 MAX 8s are currently being stored in Phoenix, but at least five could be spotted on the tarmac at Sky Harbor. A spokesperson confirmed that the airline was parking the aircraft in cities where it has maintenance bases. Besides Phoenix, Southwest has maintenance facilities in Baltimore/Washington, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, Oakland, Philadelphia, Sacramento, St. Louis, Salt Lake City and Tampa. You can connect with Melissa through email at [email protected]. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram. Support local journalism like this story by subscribing today. CLOSE President Trump announces the FAA and Dept. of Transportation will ground all Boeing 737 Max 8 and 9 aircraft following recent crashes of the model. USA TODAY Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/airlines/2019/03/14/southwest-american-parking-boeing-737-max-8-planes-phoenix-ethiopia-crash/3163684002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/travel/airlines/2019/03/14/southwest-american-parking-boeing-737-max-8-planes-phoenix-ethiopia-crash/3163684002/ |
Did Sen. Martha McSally get scammed by the acting defense secretary? | Opinion: She shirked her constitutional duty for something the secretary 'broadly said.' Sen. Martha McSally (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP) Sen. Martha McSally sold out military projects outside of Arizona by saying she struck a deal with the Trump administration to support the presidents emergency declaration on the border if Arizona projects were spared. In addition to selling out the military, McSally sold out her oath to answer such questions based on the constitutional merits, not on some cheap backroom bargain. Either you support it or you dont. Still, McSally made her deal, saying, I have spoken with the Acting Secretary of Defense, the President and Vice President to underscore that we must ensure military readiness while also funding border security. As a result, no Arizona military construction projects from Fiscal Year 2019 will be impacted." Because it didnt quite sound that way at a hearing Wednesday in which Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan appeared before Senate Armed Services Committee, of which McSally is a member. Sen. Angus King of Maine pointedly asked Shanahan if he had promised any senators that projects in their area will not be affected. McSally piped in, saying, We did have a conversation, and there are four projects in Arizona that were appropriated in (fiscal 2019) and you broadly said those (fiscal 2019) projects across all the country will not be affected by this, just to be clear. Shanahan answered, That is correct. This puzzled Sen. King, who wondered, How does that square with what he just told me? It doesnt, of course. Unless you look closely at McSallys statement. She indicated that Shanahan had broadly said projects like those in Arizona will be spared. Broadly said. Fulfilling an obligation For that she sold out the rest of the military and avoided facing the basic, constitutional issue of Trumps emergency declaration. 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 Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema announced that she would not to support Trumps emergency declaration. She did so by citing those basic constitutional questions. No. Yes. Sinema said in a statement, It is Congresss constitutional duty to appropriate funds for border security. Several weeks ago, Congress increased Homeland Security funding by $1.7 billion for this year. While there is more work for Congress to do, the emergency declaration undermines critical military assets across our country and unnecessarily puts at risk resources for Arizona service members and national security. I will continue working to find bipartisan solutions in the U.S. Senate to secure our border and strengthen our military. Not ducking the question You can agree with Sinema or disagree, but she didnt hedge her bets. She spoke of military assets across our country not just in Arizona. And she answered the constitutional question. Even if you think she is wrong she didnt sell out the military or her obligation as a U.S. Senator based on something the acting defense secretary broadly said. MORE BY MONTINI: Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/14/martha-mcsally-emergency-declaration-donald-trump-senate/3166840002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/03/14/martha-mcsally-emergency-declaration-donald-trump-senate/3166840002/ |
Why does the U.S. Womens Soccer team get paid less than the men? | A few days before players on the U.S. Womens Soccer team filed a gender discrimination class action lawsuit against U.S. Soccer, they took the field against England with the names of iconic women on the backs of their jerseys. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sojourner Truth, Malala Yousafzai, Doris Burke and others. Women who broke barriers, who inspired, who pushed back. Fitting, because these athletes are becoming more iconic themselves with every passing day. Not just for what they do on the field, not only for their world championships and gold medals, but for their willingness to fight for themselves and others. To battle for the rights of all women. To push against the status quo. The lawsuit, which was filed on International Womens Day last week, three months before the team opens its defense of their World Cup championship in France, includes the names of all 28 current players. But it also covers past players who represented the U.S. About a third of the present-day team has ties to the Bay Area and Northern California. This is just the latest in a protracted and increasingly ugly legal battle between the nations most successful soccer team and the federation that governs both the women and their male counterparts. An organization that governs them, the suit claims, unequally. As laid out in the lawsuit, the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) asks both men and women to play the same game, on the same size field, adhering to the same rules and protocols. Yet, the suit states, U.S. Soccer (a non-profit) admits to paying its female players less than the male players and has gone so far as to claim that market realities are such that the women do not deserve to be paid equally to the men. According to details laid out in the lawsuit, the women receive far less than men for games, for wins, for wins against internationally top-ranked teams and for making the countrys World Cup roster. The lawsuit states: The pay for advancement through the rounds of the World Cup was so skewed that, in 2014, the USSF provided the (mens national team) with performance bonuses totaling $5,375,000 for losing in the Round of 16, while, in 2015, the USSF provided the (womens national team) with only $1,725,000 for winning the entire tournament. The (women) earned more than three times less than the (men) while performing demonstrably better. The phrase performing demonstrably better is key to the womens argument. They are the worlds top-ranked team and will head to France with three stars on their jerseys, one for each World Cup championship. They are the team with well-known names on their roster. They are the team that plays more games annually because of their advancement through tournaments. They are the team that, in the 2015 Womens World Cup final, tallied the largest television audience in United States history for any soccer game (and have two of the top three all-time audiences). And they make money for the federation. According to the lawsuit, in Fiscal Year 2016 (April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016), U.S. Soccer budgeted for a combined net loss for the national teams of $429,929. But, the lawsuit states, thanks largely to the success of the female players on the WNT, the USSF revised its projections upward to include a $17.7 million profit. The net profit for the WNT outstripped net profit for the MNT because the female players on the WNT were more successful in competition than the male players on the MNT - while being paid substantially less. This battle dates back decades. Shortly after winning the 1999 World Cup, the U.S. women had to strike to get a better contract. In February of 2016, U.S. Soccer sued the players union over its existing contract. A month later, five well-known veterans - Rapinoe, Hope Solo, Alex Morgan, Carli Lloyd and Becky Sauerbrunn - filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But nothing happened, and the process became frustrating. During the intervening years, the players signed a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that made incremental improvements. (The men negotiate a separate CBA.) There was also a heated election for the U.S. Soccer presidency with gender equity given extensive lip service. One candidate, the former president of the federations marketing body, said, according to the lawsuit, that the womens team had been under-marketed and had been taken for granted by U.S. Soccer. Frustrated by the lack of progress, the players are changing tactics. The first to file a separate lawsuit against U.S. Soccer was former goalkeeper Solo, no longer on the team. She filed in San Francisco last August. A month ago, the others named in the EEOC complaint received the notice of the right to sue, and followed Solos lead. According to the lead attorney on the latest filing, Jeffrey Kessler, Solos suit will likely be consolidated into the more recent lawsuit, and moved to Southern California, a jurisdiction chosen because many of the players live there and U.S. Soccer holds training camps in Carson. That probably will be the next step in what is expected to be a long process. Since the lawsuit has been filed, a counter-argument has been raised. Because FIFA awards bonus money for World Cups and the pool for the men is vastly greater than for the women, the argument goes, this is a FIFA problem. Kessler rejects that notion. He says U.S. Soccer can award received money from FIFA as it sees fit. FIFA determines how much money to give to USSF, but USSF can give to anyone, Kessler said. Its just like any other stream of money. It is USSFs decision to discriminate. FIFAs total prize money for this summers Womens World Cup will total $30 million. The total prize money for last summers mens World Cup in France was $400 million. Last week, the Associated Press reported that FIFAs revenue in the most recent four-year period was $6.4 billion and the organizations cash reserves have soared to a record $2.74 billion. Theres enough money to do more than pay lip service to gender equity. U.S. Soccer, which disputes many of the details of the lawsuit, issued the following statement: U.S. Soccer has faithfully and consistently worked with the U.S. Womens National Team Players and staff to provide the team everything it needs to perform at the highest levels possible and compete to win world championships. The substantial and unwavering commitment by U.S. Soccer to those very ideals is evident in our proactive approach to drive the womens game forward, which includes the creation of two elite womens international tournaments to increase competition opportunities, adding technical and high-performance staff focused only on the USWNT, and enhancing our marketing campaigns. Our continued support and efforts toward enriching the womens game is every bit as certain today as it will be in the future. The U.S. mens players association stated that its organization, fully supports the efforts of the U.S. Women's National Team Players to achieve equal pay. Specifically, we are committed to the concept of a revenue-sharing model to address the U.S. Soccer Federation's market realities and find a way towards fair compensation. The lawsuit may take time to work its way through the courts. There will be discovery and depositions processes that could drill down on U.S. Soccers claims about market realities. Meanwhile, theres a World Cup to defend. The women will take the field, united in their purpose. Though it is unlikely to be an on-field distraction, the lawsuit will loom over the event, providing terrible optics and an embarrassing counterpoint to every feel-good advertisement and statement that U.S. Soccer and FIFA put forth about gender equity,mutual respect and female power. The women fighting this battle are iconic. And, some day, the little girls watching this summer may be stenciling those names on the back of their own jerseys. Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @annkillion | https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/annkillion/article/Why-does-the-U-S-Women-s-Soccer-team-get-paid-13689380.php |
What Type of Entity Should I Use in the Film Industry? | To navigate the shoals of the business side of the film industry, you must have a basic understanding of the different types of legal entities. Every transactionfrom the humblest to the noblestinvolves a choice from the smorgasbord of entities, so it is important to know the basic business, legal, and tax distinctions between them. Sole Proprietorship A sole proprietorship is a legal nothing; it is merely an individual operating under a fictitious business name. These are often referred to as DBAs because the person is doing business as so-and-so. The good news is that they are cheap and easy to create. The bad news is that because a sole proprietorship is not treated as a separate entity, it gives you no protection from liabilities. They are perfect entities to use if you are acting alone (they can only be owned by one individual) and if you would be responsible for all the liabilities anyway. The best example would be a consulting or other similar service business. Any lenders to the business would undoubtedly require your personal guarantee anyway, and you would be directly liable for any damage you caused, even if you operated through a corporation. General Partnership A general partnership is deemed to be formed whenever two or more persons combine in a business enterprise to share profits and losses. It does not require any type of filing, and it is not possible to disclaim partnership status by contract (notwithstanding that almost every contract purports to do so). The broad definition of general partnership includes within it the ubiquitous joint venture and co-productionthe names many lawyers give to a film transaction when they do not know what else to call it. Since these arrangements will be characterized as partnerships anyway, it makes sense to structure and draft the transactions as partnerships to start with, to make sure that all the relevant issues are dealt with properly (i.e., money in, money out, and control). In a general partnership, each partner can contractually bind the partnership vis--vis third parties, and the partnership is liable for acts taken by any of the partners in furtherance of the partnerships business. Worse yet, each of the partners is personally liable for all the debts of the partnership. For these reasons, it is not common to intentionally form an entity as a general partnership, although it is quite common to inadvertently do so by structuring a transaction as a joint venture or co-production. For tax purposes, general partnerships are treated as transparent; the income and loss of the partnership is passed through to the partners, who then deduct the losses (to the extent permissible) and pay taxes on the income. Limited Partnership Limited partnerships are like general partnerships, with the following exceptions: To create a limited partnership, a filing must be made with the Secretary of State in the state where the partnership is formed. A limited partnership has two classes of partners: the general partners and the limited partners. The general partners have the right to manage and control the affairs of the partnership, and are liable for all the debts of the partnership. The limited partners do not have the right to manage or control the affairs of the partnership (although they typically have the right to vote on specific important matters), but they are not liable for any of the debts of the partnership. In all other respects, limited partnerships are the same as general partnerships. For example, they are transparent for tax purposes; the income and loss of a limited partnership is passed through to its partners. Because the general partners are liable for the debts of a limited partnership, it is common to use an entity that has limited liability (such as a corporation or limited liability company) as the sole general partner of a limited partnership. This structure combines limited liability with the flexibility and tax transparency of a partnership. Until the advent of limited liability companies (discussed below), limited partnerships were the entity of choice for most film financing transactions. C Corporation A C corporation is just a good old-fashioned regular corporation. It is referred to as a C corporation to distinguish it from an S corporation, which is discussed below. The C and S refer to the Subchapter of the Internal Revenue Code that governs the respective corporations. Whenever a new client mentions owning a corporation, I always ask whether it is a C or an S corporation, as the answer has tremendous implications on almost any discussion that follows. A C corporation is formed by filing articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State in the state where the corporation is formed. Ownership of a C corporation is evidenced by shares, and the owners are called shareholders. Unlike a partnership (both general and limited), none of the shareholders of a C corporation has any liability for the debts of the C corporation. For this reason, many lawyers to this day continue to blindly form C corporations, without thinking through the negative tax implications (discussed below), and without considering alternatives. The shareholders of a C corporation elect a board of directors, who exercise ultimate control. The directors, in turn, appoint officers, such as the president, but the directors retain the ultimate power to replace the officers. Normal shares that are entitled to the residual profits of a C corporation are referred to as common shares. Shares that are entitled to some type of distribution preference over the common shares are referred to as preferred shares. For example, upon liquidation, preferred shares might be entitled to a preferential distribution equal to the initial amount paid to the corporation for the shares, but in return, the preferred shares might only receive a limited dividend during the life of the C corporation, similar to interest on a loan. Since it is all a matter of contract (evidenced by the articles of incorporation), it is also possible to have preferred shares participate in the profits like common stock, in which case the shares are called participating preferred shares. In general, a C corporation is the only entity that can go public. However, if you have grandiose dreams of ultimately going public, you do not need to use a C corporation until that magic day arrives; you can and should use something else until then, and you can simply convert it to a C corporation when you go public. Far and away, the single most important detriment of a C corporation is that it is not transparent for tax purposes, which results in double taxation; the C corporation is taxed on income it earns, and the shareholders are taxed again when that income is distributed to them. In addition, any losses are locked up in the C corporation and may not be deducted by the shareholders. However, corporations are subject to a very low rate of tax (21%, reducing to as low as 10.5% for foreign income), so they can be attractive if the business will run at a profit and reinvest earnings. If the income of the C corporation can be bailed out to the shareholders in the form of deductible compensation, the double tax detriment disappears. The primary example is when all the income earned by the C corporation is attributable to loaning out the services of its sole shareholder, and these C corporations are referred to as loan-out corporations. It is quite common for talent (i.e., directors, writers, and actors) to use loan-out corporations to obtain various tax benefits, such as the ability to deduct numerous expenses that would not be deductible if the talent were an employee of the film company. As an example, assume that an actor renders services to his wholly-owned loan-out corporation, and the corporation loans out his services to a film company for $10 million. The loan-out corporation then pays the actor $7 million as deductible compensation, and pays another $3 million of deductible expenses (which would have been non-deductible if the actor was an employee of the film company, including payments to the actor's agent, lawyer, and business manager). In this manner, the loan-out corporation has no taxable income, and the actor has only $7 million of taxable income. It also makes sense for a foreign corporation to use a U.S. C corporation to conduct any business activities in the U.S., including through a partnership or limited liability company with a third party. This approach will limit the tax damage (and audits and tax returns) to the U.S. C corporation, as opposed to requiring the foreign corporation to itself file tax returns, which would expose it to direct audit. S Corporation Except for their unique tax aspects and restrictions, S corporations are identical to C corporations in every way: They are formed under the same corporate law by filing articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State, and they are owned by shareholders who elect directors, etc. The big difference is that the shareholders must affirmatively elect to become an S corporation, in which case the corporation is treated as transparent for tax purposes, and the income and loss of the S corporation is passed through to its shareholders. Thus, S corporations combine advantages of both corporations and partnerships; the shareholders are not liable for the corporate debts, and an S corporation is not subject to double taxation, as a C corporation is. (However, some states impose a small tax on an S corporations net income; e.g., California imposes a 1.5% tax.) There are, however, numerous disadvantages with an S corporation, the most important of which are the following: An S corporation cannot have more than 100 shareholders (with members of the same family counted as one shareholder). Thus, an S corporation cannot be publicly traded. With minor exceptions, all the shareholders must be individuals who are U.S. citizens or residents. This precludes ownership by any type of entity, such as a partnership, C corporation, or limited liability company. An S corporation can have only common shares. It cannot have preferred shares or any other type of preferential equity ownership. This restriction precludes every type of standard equity financing, as an S corporation cannot provide the equity financiers with any kind of preference on distributions. All in all, it is like playing tennis in a straitjacket, and any foot-fault may result in the disastrous consequence of inadvertently becoming a C corporation, with its attendant double taxation. In general, therefore, it is best to steer far afield from S corporations. Limited Liability Company The owners limited liability companies (LLCs) are not liable for the debts of the entity, as with a corporation, and LLCs are taxed on a transparent basis, identical to partnerships. They thus combine the advantages of both corporations and partnerships, without the restrictions of S corporations. An LLC is formed by filing articles of organization with the Secretary of State in the state where the LLC is formed. The LLC is either governed directly by its members, or its operating agreement may provide that the members elect managers (who may or may not be members), who in turn run the LLC. As with partnerships, LLCs have complete flexibility; whatever the mind of man can imagine can be written into the operating agreement (such as special allocations of income or control). As mentioned above, an LLC is transparent for tax purposes. If it has two or more members, an LLC is characterized as a partnership for tax purposes. If it is owned by a single member, it is disregarded as a separate entity and is treated as part of the owner. This gets tricky: for state law purposes, a single-member LLC is treated as a separate entity, providing limited liability to its owner, while for tax purposes it is completely disregarded and treated as part of the owner. This is an extraordinary result that was not possible prior to the introduction of LLCs. One negative consequence of LLCs is that, since they are pass-through entities for tax purposes, individual owners are not subject to the same low rate of tax that applies to corporations. In addition, some states charge a premium for using them. For example, in California LLCs are not only required to pay the same $800 annual minimum tax that corporations and limited partnerships are, but they are also required to pay an additional relatively small tax based on their gross income that caps out at about $12,000 of tax at about $5 million of gross income. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/schuylermoore/2019/03/14/what-type-of-entity-should-i-use-in-the-film-industry/ |
Is America Becoming Trumps Banana Republic? | Yes, Conway responded. It would make it a banana republic. But Conway he went on to offer an important caveat to the remarks he made at Georgetown. If it were not for the inherent checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution, Conway said, we would have a banana republic. But that also makes him an inherently weak President, because the office requires you to have the power to persuade. Ultimately, you become a powerful President only if you are able to persuade others to go along with you. His narcissism means he has to retreat to the people who worship him. He cannot reach out and persuade, like every other President tries to do. His narcissism causes him to be a weak President, and the checks and balances mean he is a weak President. And thats why we dont have a banana republic. You have to look at everything through the prism of his narcissism, Conway told me. This is all about him exercising his authority and power to be at the center of attention, and, for whatever reason, hes decided hes going to get the most juice out of exercising this decree on this day in this way. Thats the way he makes himself important and special; theres an arbitrariness to it. Isnt that pretty much the definition of a banana republic, I asked. A few minutes after Trumps announcement, I began a previously arranged conversation with one of the Presidents most acerbic Republican critics, George Conway , who is also, as much of America now knows, the husband of Trumps White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway. George Conway, a successful conservative lawyer, who turned down a top job in Trumps Justice Department, has, in the past year, become an unlikely social-media celebrity, and his frequent tweets skewering the President his wife serves has made their home life a staple of late-night-television jokes. Conway recently made a rare public appearance, at a Georgetown University conference devoted to threats to the rule of law under Trump, where he warned that the country risked becoming a banana republic. I wanted to know more about what Conway meant, but, in the meantime, Trumps decision to ground the planes had caught the attention of both of us. On the merits, no one seemed to disagree with the move. And yet the announcement in the Oval Office, followed by a lengthy rant about there being no collusion with Russia and about the border wall that the President says he is building, even though he isnt, seemed so Trumpy. Interrupting a previously scheduled Briefing on Drug Trafficking on the Southern Border, President Trump called reporters into the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon and personally announced the grounding of every Boeing 737 Max in America. The move surprised White House advisers, two of whom told the Washington Post that Trump had earlier agreed to allow the Federal Aviation Administration, which has the legal authority to ground the planes, to make the announcement. Nobody seemed to know. But one thing was apparent: Trumpa self-styled aviation expert, who cites his ownership of a Boeing 757 and his brief time running the Trump Shuttle airline, which went bust, in 1992, as the basis of his expertisehad once again inserted himself where he loves to be, right in the middle of a big story. The Trump show is endlessly distracting in a way that would be familiar to any connoisseur of the Latin-American strongman. The Wednesday-afternoon Oval Office appearance alone had enough fodder for countless talk-show segments: Trump grounds the airplanes! Trump lies about building the wall! Trump lies about being vindicated in the special-counsel probe even when a federal judge says, in court, that he hasnt been! And, indeed, after our conversation, Conway spent much of Wednesday evening on Twitter complaining about the long stream of untruths that had come from the President in recent days, from the ridiculously pointless (refusing to admit his flub of the Apple C.E.O.s name) to the acutely relevant (NO COLLUSION!). Have we ever seen this degree of brazen, pathological mendacity in American public life? Conway asked his Twitter followers. News outlets, including Fox News and The Hill, wrote stories about Conways Twitter storm, which included a call for a serious inquiry into the Presidents mental health. Philippe Reines, a former spokesman for Hillary Clinton, tweeted an offer for Conway to take up residence in his guest bedroom. In many ways, it was all just another day on the Trump-era Washington merry-go-round: Trump says crazy stuff; people get mad about it. Up on Capitol Hill this week, however, two key votes demonstrated Conways point about the weakness of Donald Trump and the incredible shrinking Presidency his massive ego might well be bringing about. Although he acts like an all-powerful strongman, Trump could very well make himself the first President in decades to leave the office with less power than it had when he entered. On Wednesday, even as the Boeing 737s were being ordered to land, the Republican-controlled Senate was voting to rebuke Trump on a major foreign-policy issue, invoking the rarely used War Powers Act to demand that the Administration halt its military support for Saudi Arabias ongoing war in Yemen, with seven Republicans having joined Democrats in supporting the move. The House is now poised to follow suit, which would force Trump to issue a veto, the first of his Presidency. Trump doesnt seem to have tried to stop the loss, though it marked the first time in many, many years both houses of Congress have asserted their prerogative to insure that the President consults with the legislative branch before making war. Also on Wednesday afternoon, Trump seemed to go out of his way to sabotage his chances for a deal on a second major vote, a measure rejecting his emergency declaration about the Southern border. Last month, Congress refused to go along with his demands for billions of dollars in border-wall funding, and Trump issued the declaration as a way to get his money anyway. But even many reliable Republican congressional allies of the President found his argument impossible to justify, given the explicit power the Constitution grants Congress to make spending decisions. On Wednesday morning, reports emerged that G.O.P. officials were promoting a compromise deal, put forward by Utah Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, that might save the President from defeat. Lees idea was to try to convince his colleagues to approve Trumps emergency declaration but also pass a bill that would stop such declarations by Presidents in the future. At lunchtime Wednesday, Trump called Lee and said, in essence, Forget about it. We tried to cut a deal, Lee told The Hill. The President didnt appear interested. Lee said that he would be voting against Trumps emergency, and, by Thursday morning, when Lamar Alexander, from Tennessee, became the seventh Republican Senator to announce that he would vote against Trump, White House officials started forecasting even more defections. Soon, Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican Presidential nominee, who is now a freshman senator from Utah, was announced as an anti-Trump vote, and so was the Ohio Republican Rob Portman. Jailbreak looming? Carl Hulse, a veteran Hill watcher with Times, tweeted.. By 3 P.M. on Thursday, a dozen Republicans had joined the Democrats, for a 5941 vote against Trump, signifying what is perhaps the most significant Republican turn against the President since he came into office. (The result was hardly an unqualified defeat for the President, however, who managed to get the North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis to flip-flop at the last minute on his previously announced opposition, despite having sanctimoniously lectured fellow-Republicans about intellectual honesty.) Trumps rejoinder was a reminder that the math is still on his side. VETO! he tweeted. He can reject the measure and rest confident that Democrats remain far from the two-thirds vote necessary to override him. Still, the votes showed that Trump is not yet a tyrant, an autocrat, or a king. The courts may eventually overrule Trump on the constitutionality of his declaration. In fact, its quite likely that they will. In the meantime, the midterm elections gave Democrats control of the House and the ability to force Republicans to publicly oppose the President on measuressuch as those presented this week on the Presidents powers to make war and spend government fundsthat a Republican-majority Senate would have never even brought to the floor. If the Constitutions system of checks and balances requires a President who is, above all else, a persuader, then Trump is failing. His banana republic will have to wait. The Senate now has at least Twelve Angry Republicans, as our tweeting President might call them. That they were prodded to take a stand against Trump at all was a political disaster of the Presidents own making. Republicans, including the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who eventually went along with the Presidents emergency declaration, privately begged Trump not to go through with it. It was an ego play, a Trumpian gesture from the start. This is exactly the point George Conway made when he texted me about the emergency vote, on Thursday. Trumps declaration was just like everything else about his Presidency, Conway wrote: No strategy, no logic, just fleeting, narcissistic whim. Then came a postscript, and I imagined Conway smiling broadly as he typed it, somewhere on the streets of New York. Ironically, he wrote, was texting you as I was walking by Trump Tower. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-trumps-washington/is-america-becoming-trumps-banana-republic |
Is the retail industry enjoying a renaissance? | By all accounts, the retail sector in most of the world is struggling. Rising competition from online shopping has hit bricks-and-mortar retailers hard. Environmental concerns have led customers to question traditional packaging and farming practices. And the growing preference of many consumers, particularly younger ones, to favour experiences over stuff has eaten into overall demand. We see the bad news everywhere: Sears, Nine West shoes and Davids Bridal all filed for bankruptcy in 2018. In the UK, House of Fraser and HMV were each sold for a song. The insolvencies are striking up and down the value chain, from designer BCBG Max Azria to discount shop Poundworld. With these failures came job losses and further pressure on malls and high streets as shoppers had fewer reasons to visit. Yet with adversity comes opportunity. Whenever a sector is under pressure, it gives those with creative solutions a chance to shine. Amazon emerged stronger from the 2001 dotcom bust, and decades earlier the big three US carmakers ultimately improved their offerings when their dominance was challenged by better-made Japanese imports. There is some hope that we may be seeing that kind of resurgence today. So many of the strongest candidates for this years Boldness in Business awards were retailers that one of the judges was moved to observe that we might be seeing a retail renaissance. The winners impressed us with how they have responded to everything from supply chain challenges to environmental degradation. Two of our winners emerged from the groceries sector, which has been hit especially hard by changing shopping habits, concerns about waste and squeezed margins. Amazons entry into the sector, as well as the spread of discount chains such as Lidl and Aldi, have put pressure on supermarket groups to cut costs and improve convenience. Retailers can prosper when they offer shoppers a real reason to buy there Ocado, the UK online grocer and winner of the technology category, has been around for 19 years. But it has come into its own in the past two years, winning contracts to set up robotic warehouses and e-delivery services for competitors, including Wm Morrison in the UK, Casino in France, Sobeys in Canada and Kroger in the US. Under the deals, Ocado will roll out the robotic technology it developed for its own business to improve the online services of other retailers. In other words, it has created a bright spot in the general retail gloom by helping less technologically advanced companies adapt to the shift to online shopping that is damaging so many of its competitors. The other winner from the grocery sector, Iceland Foods, took the corporate responsibility/environment prize for its efforts to fight plastic waste and the environmental degradation associated with the use of palm oil. Based in the UK, Iceland focuses on value and frozen food. It has long sought to woo customers concerned about health and the environment during the 1980s it was the first big UK supermarket to remove artificial colourings and non-essential preservatives from food and to ban genetically modified food. For this years awards, it caught the judges eye for its #TooCoolForPlastic campaign to replace all plastic in its own-brand packaging within five years. It has stopped offering single-use bags, removed plastic from 85 per cent of packaging, including egg cartons, and trialled reverse vending machines that give customers a 10p voucher for each empty plastic bottle they put in. Fast Retailing is leading the way in automation Icelands campaign against palm oil, which saw it remove the ingredient from its own-brand foods in 2018, received a big boost when advertising regulators banned its Christmas advert for being too political. The video, which features an animated orang-utan and highlights the problem of deforestation, has received millions of views on YouTube and social media. Icelands next effort will be to promote sustainable fishing by selling by-catch species of fish that are caught unintentionally and usually thrown back into the sea as they are considered uncommercial. The campaigns have helped this relatively small player stand out like-for-like sales rose 2 per cent in the last reporting period and Iceland was named the UKs top supermarket for customer service for the second year in a row, scoring highly for emotional connection and ethics. The results suggest retailers can prosper in competitive markets when they offer shoppers a real reason to buy there. The final retailer to win in this years competition, Fast Retailing, took the prize in the Drivers of change category. Owner of the Uniqlo, Theory, J Brand and Comptoir des Cotonniers brands, Fast Retailing is the worlds third-largest seller of casual fashion, behind Zara, owned by Inditex of Spain, and H&M of Sweden. Unlike those fast-fashion chains, which restock daily and have been criticised for encouraging waste, Fast Retailing offers fewer but more classic pieces ones that are designed to last several seasons but are affordable because of the companys efforts to keep costs down. One of the first Japanese retail groups to go global, Fast Retailing is now leading the way in automation. It has set a target for annual revenue of 3tn ($27bn) by 2022, up from the 2.3tn projected for 2019. Ocado, Iceland and Fast Retailing are all well positioned to appeal to millennial customers, who do proportionally more online shopping and place greater emphasis on wanting corporate values that reflect their own. These companies serve as a reminder that when change hits hard, well-run, well-positioned businesses are the ones that benefit. | https://www.ft.com/content/86acdcd8-20a7-11e9-a46f-08f9738d6b2b |
Where are wildflower super blooms happening in California? | Carpets of colorful wildflowers are beginning to blossom across California as hopes grow for a spring full of super blooms. From San Diego County to the Central Coast, flower-watchers have been eagerly anticipating this seasons bloom, which is predicted to be particularly good, thanks to the winters above-average rainfall. Already, pastel portraits are decorating Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Lake Elsinore, where visitors have flocked to capture their perfect pictures among the blossoms. Wildflowers have also started to appear at the Carrizo Plain National Monument in eastern San Luis Obispo County, although recent cold weather has delayed the mid-state bloom a bit, according to the Wild Flower Hotline, which provides weekly updates throughout the spring for spots across Southern California. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee The hotline is run by the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants. Goldfields and hillside daisies have brought shades of yellow to the Central Coast, and a smattering of baby blue eyes can also be found at the popular viewing fields along Shell Creek Road off Highway 58. But the best is still yet to come, said David Chipping, president of Friends of the Carrizo Plain, a nonprofit that supports conservation efforts in the area. Its still early in the season for the best display, he said. All we know is, its looking good, Chipping said. Statewide wildflower blooms The best displays are currently occurring in the warmer Southern California locations. Heres a look at some of the prime spots: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park: Wildflowers have already been putting on a show at the park east of San Diego. Sand verbena, Arizona lupine, desert dandelion, browneyes and desert sunflower are all visible in the park, according to the Wild Flower Hotline. Walker Canyon: Located near Lake Elsinore just south of Los Angeles, the canyons rolling hills are filled with wildflowers, especially California poppies. Visitors have been flocking to the area to take photos in the orange fields, according to the Los Angeles Times. Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve: Located a bit farther north near Lancaster, Antelope Valley needs a bit more sun before its bloom really gets underway. But forget-me-nots, fiddleneck, phlox and fringe pod have all begun to make an appearance, according to the Wild Flower Hotline. For more information on the states super blooms, visit the Theodore Payne Foundations website at theodorepayne.org/learn/wildflower-hotline or call the Carrizo Plain National Monument Visitor Center from Thursday to Sunday at 805-475-2035. On Twitter and Instragram, follow the hashtag #TracktheBloom for the latest wildflower bloom updates and photos. | https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article227590854.html |
Is Commissioner Rob Manfred Setting The Stage For A Labor War? | Whats really important about todays rule changes in Major League Baseball is whether this agreement with the Players Association will lay the foundation for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement after the 2021 season. Everything announced today for both the 2019 and 2020 seasons is pointless unless the two sides find the common ground needed to avoid the sports first work stoppage since 1994 and ninth overall when former Commissioner Bud Selig played hardball to the degree the World Series was killed and spring training 1995 featured replacement players. After 232 days and 948 canceled games, the sport seemingly learned its lesson and labor peace ensued, but not without a few issues performance-enhancing drugs for one and ill-timed expansion for another. Generally, both sides dealt in the interest of the greater financial good. That would be a $10.3 billion pie, which is now being threatened for the most part because present Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to speed up the pace of play in the only sport without a clock. The most significant change for this summer will be the single July 31 trade deadline and elimination of the August 31 waiver deadline. How this plays out remains to be seen. Under the current format a team on the fence regarding the postseason would sometimes wait until late August before making a trade. With only one deadline it can be surmised more teams would be aggressive early in terms of adding talent. Teams on the bubble could flood the market while the contenders emulate a shark feeding frenzy. Same as always, but only one feeding a summer. Two years ago, the Detroit Tigers were on the bubble, but in August decided they were out of it and swung a waiver trade with Houston that sent Justin Verlander to the Astros and culminated in an eventual World Series title. There will be no such trades this summer. I dont know how this will play out. It might take two or three seasons before teams get used to the new format, but I suspect it will be like it always has been: Aggressive teams like the Red Sox, Yankees, Cubs, Cardinals and Dodgers will cut-throat compete, while the traditional penny-pinchers such as Oakland, Pittsburgh and Kansas City will meekly announce their intentions to tank in late July, but they will tank. The next immediately significant change would be to the All-Star Game format. Major League Baseball killed the All-Star Game with interleague play and the booming popularity of the Home Run Derby. The game itself was not compelling. This is a Hail Mary attempt at reviving the All-Star Game, as is a $1 million bonus for the Derby winner. The new format, per MLB.com, is to conduct the voting in two rounds, with the primary round voted on by the fans. The format will be finalized in April so it is premature to speculate on what will happen until all the bugs are out. But, there will be bugs, as there always is. The one thing I would hate to see is if it replicates the NBA All-Star playground format which completely erases the Eastern and Western Conferences. Major League Baseball has already taken steps for the leagues to fade away with interleague play, the elimination of the league offices and umpires working both leagues. Most everything else for this year and next pertains to pace-of-play. In 2000, the average length of a game was 2:58. According to Sports Business Daily, it is now 3:05. Speaking on behalf of fans everywhere, Manfred said those six minutes are making the game unbearable to watch. Manfred is trying to speed up the pace from a leisurely stroll through the park to an Olympic sprint. He didn't say what the fans will do in those six minutes. Traditionalists regard baseball as a sport where fathers and sons can bond and talk strategy between innings. With announcers such as Ernie Harwell and Vin Scully, baseball was the soundtrack of summer. It is meant to be savored, not gulped. Manfred wants to shave seconds by reducing mound visits from six to five; by waving the batter to first on an intentional walk; and, for 2020, having relief pitchers having to face at least three batters, which would eventually kill the concept of the lefty specialist. Theres also the matter of a pitch clock, which wont be implemented this summer, but possibly in 2020. In exchange for rolling over on the pace-of-play issues, the Players Association will be compensated next year with a roster increase from 25 to 26, and 28 in September when teams used to have as many as 40 players. Those are good, and overdue, changes. For the players, it means extra jobs, but I can also see teams calling up a veteran from Triple-A instead of a young prospect, which would delay his service time. Thats a win for management because it delays the arbitration and free-agent years. Regarding the length of games, Manfred is trying to make it an objective issue, when in reality it is a subjective issue to fans. Everybody's views are different. If a game is well-played, then fans will be riveted and not care how long the game lasts. Ive watched numerous games go 20 innings or more and was disappointed when they ended. Not a chance if you had a good time, but if you didnt, then you couldnt leave soon enough. The problem is the lack of quality pitching. Clayton Kershaw against Madison Bumgarner is scintillating. However, when you have dozens of pitchers who cant find the strike zone with a GPS system, then games are sloppy and boring. All this stuff about too many walks, defensive shifts, and pitching changes are meaningless. The bottom line is there are too many players who dont belong in the major leagues playing on teams going nowhere. If the desire is a high performance and quality pitching, the true answer is contraction, but nobody wants to do that, not with all but a handful of teams playing in new, billion-dollar stadiums. Fenway Park, Wrigley Field and Dodger Stadium are classics. Everything else, save Oakland and Tampa Bay are new. Outside of sloppy play, the $10.3 billion in revenue is the real reason games are too long. That comes from increased television and cable revenue, which is made possible by increased commercials. During last years World Series, we saw two pictures in a box during action breaks, such as the pitching changes Manfred wants to reduce. Expect more of that subject to Major League Baseball working with its broadcast partners. Inning breaks for local games will go from 2:05 to 2:00 in local games, and from 2:25 to 2:00 in national games. Shaving five seconds after every half inning doesnt sound like much, but thats the first place to start. And, the game isn't better for it. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndelcos/2019/03/14/is-commissioner-rob-manfred-setting-the-stage-for-a-labor-war/ |
Was Netflix Justified In Cancelling 'One Day At A Time'? | Netflix has officially announced that the multi-cam sitcom One Day at a Time will no longer live at the streaming giant. The news comes shortly after showrunner and co-executive producer Gloria Caldern Kellett tweeted that the show was in jeopardy of getting renewed back in February. She shared on the platform, Met with Netflix about One Day at a Time S4. They made clear that they love the show, love how it serves underrepresented audiences, love its heart & humor, butwe need more viewers. Theyll decide soon. Now, Netflix has made a firm decision and its not a go despite receiving critically-acclaimed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes snagging a perfect 100% score for both the second and third season, to be precise. The social media hashtag #SaveODAAT quickly skyrocketed to Twitters list of top trending topics, and fans were in an uproar over the shocking news. Many Twitter users expressed their adoration for the hilarious, but still sentimental sitcom, as they felt like the Alvarez family was part of their very own family. Shortly after, the hashtag #Latinx started trending, having been used approximately 35,000 times by Thursday evening. Netflixs Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos released an official statement Thursday: Its been a great honor to work with the legendary Norman Lear on One Day at a Time. Ive personally spoken with Norman, and co-creators Gloria Caldern Kellett and Mike Royce, to express my gratitude to them, all the writers, the dedicated crew and the cast including the brilliant Justina Machado and dazzling Rita Moreno for creating a series with such humor, heart and humanity. This was a very difficult decision and were thankful to all the fans whove supported the series, our partners at Sony, and all the critics who embraced it. While its disappointing that more viewers didnt discover One Day at a Time, I believe the series will stand the test of time. Apparently, One Day at a Time didnt garner the needed viewership it needed to sustain its spot on Netflix's slate of originals. The streaming giant also shared that diverse voice and perspectives is a priority for them, so in an effort to create shows that reflect their members, they have green lit three other series focused on US Latinx narratives, including Mr. Iglesias, Gentefied and the upcoming Selena series. Some factors come into play as to why the reboot of Norman Lears sitcom didnt perform as well as they hoped. In a recent interview with co-showrunner Gloria Caldern Kellett, she revealed that she didnt know what the ratings were for ODAAT. You know, they were talking about how much they love making it, but they are a business. We dont know what the numbers are, she candidly admitted. Though most streamers like Amazon and Hulu dont release viewership information, it is interesting that showrunners and executive producers aren't informed with this data. That is just beyond my pay grade, Caldern Kellett said when asked if showrunners are set up to fail because they arent aware of number and expectations beforehand. During the interview with Caldern Kellett, she really tried to emphasize that she did what she could to keep the show up and running, but that she had speculation that Netflix wasn't pushing the show as much as they were with other originals. She had discussed it with her best friend and other Latinx writer/showrunner, Tanya Saracho, who heads Vida on Starz. Admitting they talk everyday via video messages, the ODAAT showrunner told her that Starz campaigned more for the first season of Vida, as oppose to Netflixs approach with any of the three seasons of One Day at a Time. Between placement of shows on the Netflix app to a lack of marketing, she wasn't unaware of the treatment. When speaking about her friendship with Saracho, she revealed: We just tell each other everything. This is what Im doing This is how much they [media companies] are spending [on their shows]. Like she didnt know she was being marketed well until I told her. Like sister, Youre on buses. This is a big deal! Theyre rolling you out like a white [people] show. Shes like, Ok, good good! And we [One Day at a Time] dont get that. In the moment of the interview, you could tell it affected Caldern Kellett, but she was far too graceful and grateful of her position as a Latinx writer to admit otherwise. She took to Twitter to address the cancellation, sharing her genuine thoughts about her journey in a full thread: You got to LA, You did the work, You worked hard for a long time, You finally got a show, It was a critical darling and it STILL got canceled. A THREAD. Here we are. I cant believe it but it happened. The show I love just got canceled. This happens. This is part of the gig. This is where the REAL test occurs. Where your resilience is tested. Luckily, youve had years of hustle. Years of fighting. So, you got this. Be Heartbroken. Feel that. Send your love emails. Call the people you are so grateful to have worked with. Cry. Go for a walk. Look at pictures of those times with the amazing @OneDayAtATime family. YOU DID THAT. THAT HAPPENED. And it changed your life. So be grateful. You are breathing rarified air. Feel your feelings and thenkeep fighting. So, yeah, that was more a self-pep talk. But I wanted to share it with you. Luckily, I believe in miracles. So, maybe well find a home somewhere else. I hope we do cause @mikeroyce & I have a lot more for these wonderful characters to do. The showrunner along with fans and even celebrities, including Lin-Manual Miranda, are using Twitter in attempt to save the show. Miranda is utilizing his platform to advocate for the show, sharing directly Twitter: Hey @nbc ...I hear you like comedies with built-in fan bases that do even better on YOUR network than at their previous homes...#saveODAAT From the looks of it, One Day at a Time could well be renewed for a fourth season if a network decides to give it a second chance the way NBC picked up Brooklyn Nine-Nine after Fox's cancellation of the comedy. Producers/co-showrunners Gloria Caldern Kellett and Mike Royce are currently shopping the series to other networks. Regardless of its fate, One Day at a Time was one of the most resonating and personal TV shows for the Latinx community, breaking down limitations and misconceptions about the community with each thought-provoking episode. In a time of disarray and political mayhem, the community far and wide looked to this series to simultaneously laugh and cry, but most importantly, to feel like we were not silenced and isolated, like Latinos are frequently meant to feel in America. The lack of Latinx American narratives prove that the series survival is not only vital, but necessary for continuous impactful change in the television industry. It will demonstrate the industrys lack of understanding for our stories while attempting to silence our stories, which the Latinx community already struggles with everyday. The show was so groundbreaking that if its gone forever, it will have went down in history as one of the most pioneering shows in TV for the Latinx community, as well as mainstream audiences. Reached out to Gloria Caldern Kellett's team for additional comment, but have yet to receive a response. Follow me on Twitter @champagnelali. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurenalvarez/2019/03/14/did-netflix-ever-really-care-about-one-day-at-a-time/ |
Is the world's next great Indian restaurant in Malaysia? | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (CNN) Once you let the meaning of the word simmer in your mind for a while, you'll realize Indian restaurant Nadodi could have no better name. A word that translates to "nomad" in a couple of South Indian languages, it harks to the journey the people of that region took to faraway lands, such as Malaysia , where this eatery is located. It's also laden with history; forced migrations of laborers by British overlords, opportunities sought by intrepid traders or movements of civil servants seeking new pastures. Related content Indian food: The best dishes in each region It's still happening today. In place of the white dhotis and bare backs of estate workers, you now see the checkered shirts and starched khakis or business suits of the modern-day nomads who make good as professionals in foreign countries. Nadodi is also a story of how food itself travels -- how generations of migrants and travelers bring their culture and cuisine to alien lands, contributing to the melting pots of the nations they become part of. And, it's the story of the founders of Nadodi themselves -- South Indian nomads who, as children, were away from their ancestral lands, growing up in places like Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi; and who, as adults, found their travels eventually landing them in Kuala Lumpur. Kartik Kumar, the restaurant's brand director, recalls how he and chef de cuisine Sricharan Venkatesh and mixologist/operations manager Akshar Chalwadi initially wanted to call the restaurant "Cinnamon." "But when we arrived in KL, and started to eat street food and dishes in restaurants, we realized the names [of the dishes] were very familiar -- we had eaten them in the southern part of India, in Kerala, Tamil Nadu - even in Sri Lanka," he says. "All these things inspired us to think about how this happened and how this food arrived all the way in KL." And so, in 2017, Nadodi was born. Nadodi is a fine dining restaurant that focuses on South India cuisine. In this dish, Hokkaido scallops are served with Baduga spices inspired by the region's Nilgiri tribes. Courtesy of Nadodi The Gaggan connection Nestled in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, in the shadows of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers, Nadodi is possibly the only restaurant in the world that could claim to be the spiritual successor to Bangkok's iconic Gaggan , which will be shutting its doors for good next year. But the trio that forms the heart and soul of Nadodi would be the first to shy away from that comparison -- despite the fact that two of the three used to work at the restaurant under the tutelage of chef Gaggan Anand. (Kartik used to be the operations manager while Sricharan cut his teeth in Gaggan's kitchen.) Related content Asia's 50 best restaurants in 2018 However, Kartik and Sricharan both credit Anand, whose restaurant is frequently listed as the best in Asia and among the best in the world, for changing the way they think about food. "We have a lot of love and respect for Chef Gaggan. When I joined Gaggan, everything changed for me," Kartik says, citing the Bangkok restaurateur's use of fresh produce, experimental gastronomy techniques and plating as inspirational to his own growth. Nadodi operations manager Akshar Chalwadi There are so many Indian restaurants out there doing Indian fine dining, but none exclusively focused only on South Indian food. The influence is clear in Nadodi's approach to dining: they source their crockery from an artisan in Kuala Lumpur and their produce is supplied by hand-picked farms around the city; the restaurant's latest discovery is a farmer who raises milk-fed goats, which they plan to use in future dishes. It's an approach that has already won them numerous accolades, including Tourism Malaysia's coveted "Most Innovative Restaurant" gong. A meal to remember The former drummer, now top chef, tells CNN's Saima Mohsin how his childhood in Kolkata influences his cooking. But the Gaggan influence comes through most clearly in the food itself. On the day of this interview, Sricharan's menu starts with "Red Kari" a riff on a traditional Sri Lankan beetroot curry, minus the curry. Instead, what appears on the plate is a vision of loveliness -- a sweet beetroot sorbet, pickled beets, roasted peanuts, dehydrated beetroot powder and a curry-flavored foam base. That's followed by Baduga Scallops. The Badugas are a tribe in the Nilgiri district of the Southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, who've probably not had many culinary interactions with Hokkaido. But Sricharan's skilful combination of the Baduga spice mixed with the sweet and tender scallops, served on a bed of seashells and dry ice, is sheer poetry. Related content Malaysia's top 40 foods It's the same with the rest of the meal -- the lamb chops are fine Iberico flavored with habaneros, mint... and South Indian mango pickles. Nadodi's take on fish head curry -- one of the most popular South Indian curries -- is a foam made of curry aerated with nitrogen on a base of steamed red snapper. It's closer to chawanmushi than the typical fiery, rustic bowls of steaming hot fish head curry you'd expect in South India. Akshar's drinks are no different -- the base is gin or vodka, but the rest of the drinks are pure South Indian and more reminiscent of the region's soups than of any traditional cocktails. His gin cocktail is seasoned with Vadouvan spices -- a Puducherry spice mix hugely popular in France -- and moringa leaves, while his vodka cocktail is simply called Rasam, after the classic South Indian tamarind soup that gives it its flavor. But while an experience at Gaggan is the culinary equivalent of a rock concert -- all about Gaggan's ebullience and force of personality -- eating at Nadodi is closer to attending a symphony orchestra -- sheer class, from the gorgeous photographs adorning the walls to the wait staff's attention and service. Elevating South Indian cuisine Yet, Kartik and Sricharan both insist that what makes Nadodi truly different from Gaggan -- or any other Indian restaurant -- is its focus on modern, progressive South Indian cuisine. "Our flavors and profile are South Indian. Our presentations are South Indian. There's no comparison [with Gaggan]," Kartik insists. "Nagodi is a different concept, which does only South Indian food. I'm not doing the chicken tikka or the naan over here. I'm giving you rasam, I'm giving you crab curry... this is true to the place we belong to and that's what Nagodi will stick to." Elevating South Indian food is a particular mission for Kartik, Sricharan and Akshar. Related content Meet the American woman hunting for Asia's best durians "There are so many Indian restaurants out there doing Indian fine dining, but none exclusively focused only on South Indian food," says Akshar. "Even in India, it's usually just dosa [rice flour crepes] or vadai [fritters]." Kartik feels the perception of South Indian food needs to change. "With European food, they have taken a lot of pride. I personally believe with our cuisine and culture, we are too hungry to feed ourselves. We never cook for others," he says. "But you tell me: fermentation, our forefathers were doing it. That's how we got idli [steamed rice flour cakes] and dosa. It's dehydration. Those are preservatives. "So we have been taught preservatives, fermentation and dehydration long ago. But we will excel and take the pride of our techniques and present it to the world." The southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram boasts a beautiful Hindu temple as well as access to some of the best beaches in the state of Kerala. Related content 25 top things to do and eat in Malaysia "KL is still evolving and is a small market when it comes to fine dining," admits Kartik. "Few people appreciate fine dining. The support from the consumers over here in KL, that needs to be brought up. "And probably an initiative needs to be taken by Tourism Malaysia to support restaurants trying to make KL a destination for fine dining. In terms of (food) varieties, Malaysia has plenty. But It has to be packaged and presented well." But one thing's for certain -- if Kuala Lumpur does indeed become a fine-dining hotspot in the future, the restaurant built by nomads will certainly be standing proud among the city's best. | https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/indian-restaurant-nadodi-kuala-lumpur-malaysia/index.html |
Will McKinley Wright have the CU Buffs partying like its 2012 all over again? | Down year for the league. Washington holding on to the No. 1 seed like it was a wet bar of soap. Tad Boyles Colorado Buffaloes needing to win four games in four days in order to punch a ticket to the NCAA mens basketball tournament. If youre thinking its starting to feel a little like March 2012 all over again after the Buffs powered past Oregon State, 73-58, early Thursday night at the Pac-12 conference tourney, well, get in line. We knew we had to dial in and guard, CU guard McKinley Wright, who led the Buffs with 17 points and drained eight huge free throws, told the Pac-12 Network after helping CU (21-11) reach the tourney semifinals for the first time since 2014. You guard, you crash the boards, you drain your foul shots and you take care of the ball, and eight times out of 10, you survive. Oregon State shot just 34 percent from the floor, missed 15 of 18 3-point attempts, got outboarded 38-29 and watched the Buffs connect on 23 of 27 from the charity stripe including five of six over the games final 90 seconds. Advancing in March may be a science, but it aint the rocket kind. The Buffs on Friday night will face the top-seeded Huskies (25-7), who scare almost nobody right now save for the members of UWs Tyee booster club. Over the final 24 seconds of a 78-75 quarterfinal win over vs. No. 8 seed USC, Washington whiffed on four of its last five free throw tries, all but handing the men of Troy a window in which to make things interesting. Fridays semi promises to be interesting, too, assuming Wright looks more like the kid whos been straight money in Vegas this week (17.5 points, 6.0 boards, 3.5 assists per game over his first two Pac-12 tourney appearances) and less like the one during CUs previous two meetings with Huskies (averaging 3.0 points, 2.0 boards, and 3.5 assists), both Washington wins. Wright and the Buffs weathered a pair of 10-0 Beavers runs in the second half to advance, thanks to defense, poise, and muscle outrebounding Oregon State 18-8 through the games first 16 minutes while building up a 32-12 cushion. It was largely the same formula that carried Boyles bunch to four victories in four days during the 2012 Pac-12 tournament, a run capped by an automatic berth in the Big Dance and CUs first ticket to Bracketville in nine years. As of Thursday night, the Buffs had danced halfway to dj vu. | https://www.denverpost.com/2019/03/14/mckinley-wright-colorado-buffaloes-washington-huskies-pac-12-tournament/ |
Who Won Top Chef Season 16? | Here we are at the end of another season of Top Chef, hungry as ever. While we've only got leftover pizza in the fridge, the chefs of Top Chef had us drooling over corn bread and raw beef as they competed for the season 16 crown. Sara Bradley, Kelsey Barnard Clark and Eric Adjepong first had to fight to even compete in the finale, as only two could make it through to cook the final meal, by presenting the first of their planned four course meal. Unfortunately, Eric's jerk tartare didn't taste enough like beef, and he served some burnt chips, so he had to pack his knives and go. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1023868/who-won-top-chef-season-16 |
Can 'Zombie Lights' Save Smartphone Addicts? | With smartphones now embedded in global culture, recognizing their potential for distraction and resulting injury is an ongoing public health concern. Looking down with our eyes on our phones while walking is not optimal by any means. Our peripheral vision is one failsafe that helps alert us to avoid collisions or prevent falls. To illustrate the potential for danger, a 2012 study noted that persons who texted while walking were 60% more likely to veer off their path compared to those who did not text. In Tel Aviv, according to the AP, ongoing concern for injuries from distracted walking associated with smartphones has prompted the government to launch a pilot program to improve safety. Specialized LED lights embedded in the pavement--zombie traffic lights-- were installed in a single crosswalk in central Tel Aviv to alert distracted pedestrians looking down at their smartphones and tell them when its safe to walk or time to stop. The strip lights along with short poles, embedded at each end in the crosswalk, turn red when pedestrians should stop and turn green signifying its safe to walk. The AP reports that Tomer Dror, head of traffic management in Tel Aviv-Yafo, believes that the so-called zombie traffic lights will reduce accidental collisions between vehicles and distracted pedestrians in crosswalks. We cannot force them to take their eyes out of the smartphone and into the road. We need to find ways to put the road into their eyes he told AP. The pilot program currently involves only one crosswalk in Tel Aviv, but may be employed more broadly based on the response from the community and its effect on injury prevention. The Netherlands, Australia and Singapore already have such lighted systems in crosswalks . It appears that the response to "zombie lights" by people in Tel Aviv has been encouraging, but the broader issue is that instead of modifying a behavior that is potentially destructive or deadly, technology is being used to mitigate risk. While its important to always remind people to look up and keep their heads out of their smartphones when crossing the street, modifying behaviors that become entrenched in our society can be difficult. As much as we want to warn people about the dangers of texting while walking using smartphones, its challenging to police this activity. Issuing fines may be one deterrent, and has already been employed in multiple cities in the U.S. Large populated cities such as Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago have elevated numbers of pedestrian deaths relative to overall traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Pedestrian deaths had been declining in the late 90s into the early 2000s until 2009, when they started to increase again. While there is no hard data to back up the exact reason, its postulated that this spike is due to distracted pedestrians using cellphones. Having a guardrail in place such as zombie lights is a step in the right direction which may help save lives and reduce injuries. Of course, the best solution is to put your phone away while crossing the street. Whatever it is, it can wait. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2019/03/14/can-zombie-lights-save-smartphone-addicts/ |
Did Ford just tease an electric Mustang as Tesla debuts Model Y? | Ford Motor teased a possible electric Mustang-inspired crossover late Thursday at the same time Tesla was about to begin an event to announce its own new electric vehicle. Ford tweeted "Hold your horses" with a simple image of the famous sports car's pony logo outlined in blue against a black backdrop. The tweet was posted at 8:02 p.m. on the West Coast two minutes after Tesla was scheduled to begin its big event revealing the Model Y electric SUV. An electric Mustang-inspired crossover, which has been expected for some time, would mark Ford's attempt to establish itself as a serious player in the market for high-end electric cars, a space that is currently cornered by Tesla. A spokesman for the automaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday night. Hold your horses pic.twitter.com/EYNqZLv3ER Ford Motor Company (@Ford) March 15, 2019 The 2019 Ford Mustang Shelby. (Photo: Ford Motor Company.) Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey. Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/03/14/ford-mustang-electric-ford-teases-new-car-same-time-tesla-event/3170965002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2019/03/14/ford-mustang-electric-ford-teases-new-car-same-time-tesla-event/3170965002/ |
How does Tyler White fit into the Astros' plans in 2019? | Tyler White will not be an everyday designated hitter for the Astros this season. Manager A.J. Hinch put that notion to rest on Thursday. Hinch wants to use the DH for more flexibility in lineup machinations and a resting opportunity for position players. White will have to flourish even more than he had in the second half of 2018 if he is to take that spot for himself. "There is no everyday DH at this point," Hinch said. "He can get a lot of everyday at-bats, but the way that I see the roster right now is I'll use the DH and move it around a little bit. "The second half of last season, he became a big force for us. He's really trying to fit on this team at a variety of positions." White has played first base and some third, as "the backup to the backup," Hinch said. Flexibility in various ways was a focus for White entering spring training. A hefty hitter, he last listed at 5-11 and 225 pounds and appeared in camp looking slimmer. "I did a lot more flexibility stuff with my hips," he said of his offseason workouts. "That could help every aspect of my game. I've never been a big flexibility guy." White clarified that most players, in his opinion, have below average flexibility. "It's something I'll continue to work on throughout the season, to be as mobile and to be able to do as many things as possible, no matter what my role is," he said. He is proud of the defense he has played so far, even if he might be two spots behind Alex Bregman on the other side of the diamond. "Just making the plays, looking comfortable, being able to play some third," he said. "We've got a pretty good third baseman, so I probably won't play too much third, but it's good to have in my pocket." He has fared worse at the plate, but White said that historically his spring training statistics have been the opposite of what his production wound up being in the regular season. He is not concerned about any correlation. White had four hits in his first four games this spring, but fell into an 0-for-16 trench. "All these guys are working on something specific in their swing," Hinch said. "He hasn't seen a ton of results. "Some of that is him trying to make sure he stays through the middle and doesn't get so hooky to left field." White reasoned that his struggles are a natural part of adjusting to high velocity fastballs again. "My swings have been OK," White said. "Really it's just been a timing issue, which is normal in spring training. "It's something you've got to time up and keep everything set, like you're taking BP, and take that same swing out there. It'll come along." He broke the spell Wednesday. He drove a far fly ball off the Nationals' Stephen Strasburg and doubled later. "He was really relieved," Hinch said. "He was more relieved than I was." "I don't get too worried in spring training if I'm not striking out every time," White said. "I haven't struck out much (five times). Just putting the ball in play. Last game against Strasburg, I had a good swing, just missed one to center. Then I got the hit in the end there. It felt good to get a hit, finally another one." On Thursday, White attacked the first pitch he saw from the Marlins' Sergio Romo and obliterated it for his first homer of the spring. White is selfless, happy to have a sense of security that he will make the opening day roster. "If the main role is coming of the bench, that's really good," he said. "If the main role is DH-ing, it's always good to be able to move around as a first baseman." It is exactly what he worked on. "It's good to be as flexible as possible." | https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/How-does-Tyler-White-fit-into-the-Astros-plans-13690284.php |
Did Frank Howard Try to Trip Zion Williamson During Duke-Syracuse? | Syracuse guard Frank Howard appeared to try to intentionally trip Duke forward Zion Williamson during the two team's ACC tournament quarterfinal matchup on Thursday. WIth just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half, Williamson made a shot and began to head back down the court. As he began to turn, Howard stuck out his right foot in what ESPN's Jay Williams said looked to be an attempt to trip Duke's young star. Potential of a really dirty play. pic.twitter.com/OEX9esSQAU ProCity Hoops (@ProCityHoops) March 15, 2019 Williams criticized Howard during ESPN's halftime show. "There is no place in the game for stuff like this,'' Williams said. "I said the same thing when the Grayson Allen stuff happened a couple years ago. The same thing just happened there with Frank Howard. Theres no place in the game for that. Its uncalled for. Thats a play where I feel like players need to be ejected." Howard denied that he was trying to trip Williamson after the game. "If you're saying I'm trying to trip him, I don't get it," Howard told reporters. "He's a hell of an athlete. I have a lot of respect for him. I'm not going to wait for four years to get to this stage and start tripping people." Thursday night marked Williamson's first game back in action since suffering a knee sprain against North Carolina on Feb. 20. Duke dropped three of six games during Williamson's absence. | https://www.si.com/college-basketball/2019/03/14/frank-howard-accused-trying-trip-zion-williamson-duke-syracuse |
Can Kamala Harris win over the undecided voters 'waiting for Biden'? | The California senators time in the national spotlight has arguably been the shortest of any of her competitors Kamala Harris takes her time. Weaving between guests at an early morning meet up of the Dorchester county Democratic party, the US senator pauses for chats, selfies and handshakes with whoever waits to meet her. The line is long. No one here can remember the last time a candidate for president of the United States visited this part of rural South Carolina, sandwiched between the states more populous urban centres, and home to only 10,000 Democratic voters in the last primary season. But, with an increasingly cluttered field of candidates lining up to try to take the Democratic presidential nomination ahead of the next US election in 2020, every ballot in this early voting state will be keenly fought for. As the 54-year-old junior senator from California finally takes to the stage in front of around 200 people many senior citizens in an auditorium two thirds full, theres a sense that many in the crowd are unfamiliar and waiting to be convinced. The full list of Democrats vying to take on Trump Read more She is introduced by state senator John Matthews, a local Democratic power broker who has represented this region for 35 years. In a haphazard speech he begins by admitting he has lost his notes, then erroneously describes Harris as the first African American elected to the US Senate (she is the countrys second black female senator). He invites Harris to the lectern by describing her as the next president of the United States, but minutes earlier had told the Guardian he had not yet endorsed her campaign as he weighed up another candidate he did not want to name. It perhaps underscores this campaigns biggest early dilemma: Harriss time in the national spotlight has arguably been the shortest of any of her declared competitors. She was elected to federal office only two years ago after serving six years as Californias attorney general and eight as the district attorney of San Francisco before that. Nonetheless, after a closely watched campaign launch in January, early polls have routinely placed her among the partys top four candidates. Facebook Twitter Pinterest State senator John Matthews, who described Harris as the next president, has not yet endorsed her campaign. Photograph: Oliver Laughland Most people here would put her in the top two or top three, Matthews says before the speech. But the question I get most of all, is they [my constituents] want a candidate who they think can go all the way, and were not too sure about that. Harris rolls through her stump speech, without notes or teleprompter, pledging a tax cut for the middle class, action on climate change and investment in a green economy, implementation of universal background checks on gun purchases and a bid to address racial inequities in the criminal justice system. Read more She doesnt address Donald Trump by name but describes the next election as an inflection moment in American history. It is requiring us to look in the mirror and ask a question. That question being: who are we? she says. Part of the answer that we all know is we are better than this. The talking points are similar to many of the Democratic frontrunners in an early primary season where appealing to the progressive base has become the dominant approach. The delivery is perhaps a little rough around the edges she almost forgets to ask the crowd for their support at the end. But the speech is heartfelt and personal, and that resonates here. Shes honest. Shes for the people. And shes strong. And thats what we need, said Priscilla Hall, 68, who says she knew little about Harris before the speech and is still yet to decide who she will back. I came from a household where we had positive ladies in our family. I know all we have to do is give them an opportunity and they can make a big difference in this country. I believe she can show people that even though shes a female, an African American female, she is right for the job, says pastor Jack Lewis Jr, 71, who has already decided to vote for her. This was the third trip Harris has made to South Carolina since launching her campaign, making it her most visited of the first four primary states in next years election. There is now established thought in Democratic circles that winning South Carolina, with its diverse voting constituency, provides the real gateway to the partys nomination rather than the starting states of New Hampshire and Iowa with their overwhelmingly white electorate. Senior campaign aides say Harris will give equal time to all four early states throughout the race. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Priscilla Hall, 68, is still yet to decide who she will back. Photograph: Oliver Laughland Recent public polls place the senator third here at 13%, behind the more familiar names of Joe Biden, who has yet to declare a bid, and Bernie Sanders, who ran against Hillary Clinton in 2016 but failed to win the state. She placed fourth in a recent poll among caucus goers in Iowa. The campaign expects her numbers to rise as the first Democratic TV debates get under way in June this year and is also understood not to have conducted any internal polling since launch. The early numbers are still undoubtedly impressive as Harris bids to become the first African American female presidential nominee of either major party. She raised $1.5m from 38,000 small donors within 24 hours of declaring, and like many other candidates has not accepted corporate Pac donations. But aides will not divulge further details on how much money has been taken in since, with one senior staffer suggesting they hoped for a surge after June. There is, however, no escaping that the former prosecutor has little legislative record to showcase. Instead, she has faced criticism on her record as a law enforcement officer in California and in particular her mixed positions on the death penalty, which strike a chord here in South Carolina where two thirds of African Americans oppose capital punishment as opposed to a third of white people. Kamala Harris kicks off 2020 campaign with hometown Oakland rally Read more Harris says she always been an opponent of the death penalty. As a prosecutor in San Francisco she declined to pursue it in a 2004 case against a gang member convicted of murdering a city police officer. But later, as the states attorney general, she declined to take a position on the matter in two state referendums that could have abolished the practice. In 2014 she defended capital punishment in a federal case against the state. Some in the crowd at Dorchester county seem wary of this and Harris is asked directly about her record during a Q&A after the speech. I am and always have been opposed to the death penalty, and that has not changed, she responds. It is a position that distinguishes her from the establishment voices of an older generation. Hillary Clinton was a reluctant supporter of capital punishment in 2016 and, perhaps crucially, so too is Joe Biden. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kamala Harris, meets with supporters in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 8 March. Photograph: Jason Lee/AP But it remains unclear how Harriss stance would materialise into policy. As president Harris she would have the power to commute the death sentences of the 62 federal inmates currently on death row, including that of 24-year-old Dylann Roof who in 2015 murdered nine black churchgoers in a racist hate crime just 50 miles down the road in Charleston. Her campaign decline to answer whether she would use this power, and would not provide specific comment on whether a justice department under a Harris administration would pursue death penalty sentencing in domestic terror and hate crime cases such as the Charleston church massacre. She opposes the death penalty, particularly given the racial disparities in its use, said the press secretary Ian Sams in an emailed statement. As president, she would restore an independent DOJ and look for an attorney general committed to addressing the glaring disparities in our justice system. Shortly before this article was due to be published Harris clarified she would impose a moratorium on federal executions. As the event wraps up, Harris once again takes her time, posing for more photos and chatting to attendees as a group of aides loiter in the background checking the time. Many people who watched on were still undecided. But there was little doubt that what they had just seen was a sincere, credible candidate that deserved serious consideration. She was down to earth. It was plain talk for plain people and it wasnt difficult to understand, says 69-year-old Pat Morris. Id consider voting for her but right now Im waiting for Joe Biden to decide if hes going to run. | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/mar/14/kamala-harris-2020-democrats-south-carolina |
Is cycling in Jakarta possible or far too dangerous to contemplate? | Illustrator Sheila Rooswitha Putri gives her insider tips for cycling in the citys terrifying traffic. Sheila Rooswitha Putri is an award-winning comic artist whose urban sketches are inspired by scenes of daily life in Jakarta. She was one of 12 authors selected to participate in Market Focus Indonesia at The London Book Fair 2019. More of her work can be found on Instagram and Facebook or you can get in touch via [email protected] If youre an illustrator or graphic artist with an idea for The Illustrated City series, email us at [email protected] Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to join the discussion, catch up on our best stories or sign up for our weekly newsletter | https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/mar/15/is-cycling-in-jakarta-possible-or-far-too-dangerous-to-contemplate-sheila-rooswitha-putri-urban-cartoon |
Will McConnell buck the voters? | Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has built a career on weakening our democracy. Nothing seems to bring out the passion in the famously stoic McConnell more than opposing pro-democracy reforms. Well, now he has the challenge of a lifetime. The House of Representatives has just passed HR1, the For the People Act, the most sweeping pro-democracy and anti-corruption measure of the past 50 years. McConnell has denounced HR1 and pledged that he will block it from coming to the floor of the Senate. Those would be reasonable fears. But McConnell should be worried also about the impact of preventing a vote on HR1. Voters are desperate for far-reaching campaign finance and ethics reforms divided only on whether the system should be fundamentally changed or completely rebuilt. Voters are not likely to treat his obstructionism kindly. They are likely to be especially outraged because HR1 so effectively addresses what so many people are so outraged about and the shameful anti-democratic practices that so tarnish our nation. Among other measures, HR1 would: Replace the current campaign finance system that empowers the super rich and big corporations with one that relies on small donors and public matching funds. End secret spending in elections. Eliminate partisan gerrymandering. Establish automatic voter registration. Restore voting rights to felons who have served their time. Make Election Day a national holiday. McConnell calls these democracy-expanding measures a power grab. Of course, hes right to be worried, for it is a reallocation of power away from a narrow grouping of super rich oligarchs and to the people. That redistribution of power is called democracy. McConnell is not alone in attacking HR1. The Koch Brothers main organization, Americans for Prosperity, says the free speech regulations in HR1 would make it more difficult than ever for people to make their voices heard and hold their elected leaders accountable. They also are right to be worried. Those supposed free speech regulations are disclosure requirements that would end political dark money a move that would absolutely reduce the undue political influence of super rich and corporate donors who are able to hide their efforts to buy elections. Big Business in general is upset. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the trade association for large corporations, leads a large grouping of trade associations in denouncing HR1 for pushing certain voices, representing large segments of the electorate and our economy, out of the political process altogether. Actually, HR1 is amplifying the voices of the electorate. Although the point seems to evade the trade associations, Big Business is not part of the electorate. That said, HR1 doesnt limit corporations ability to spend on elections that will require a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United though it does end their ability to finance electioneering secretly. McConnell and the power elite are right to be frightened. HR1 would upset the normal way of doing business in Washington. It would break Corporate Americas stranglehold over our government and curtail the shameful vote-suppressing activity increasing across the nation. But they are clinging to a backward-looking strategy that is doomed to fail. In a nation marked by the most severe wealth and income inequality of the past 100 years, amid intense outrage across the political spectrum against a rigged system that works for corporations and the super rich at the expense of the rest of us, the American people will not tolerate McConnells obstructionism. Democracy reform is coming to the United States, whether McConnell and his corporate allies like it or not. Robert Weissman is president of Public Citizen, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. He wrote this for InsideSources.com. | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/mar/15/will-mcconnell-buck-the-voters/ |
Will the U.S. Finally End the Death Penalty? | Historically, moratoriums on executions within particular jurisdictions are often followed by abolition, as the community comes to realize that it can survive without the death penalty. California, of course, has already gone more than a decade without executions, but it seemed possible that executions would resume given the success of a recent California initiative to accelerate executions and the establishment of a new execution protocol. Newsoms decision to scrap that protocol and to dismantle the execution chamber represents a more definitive move against the death penalty than the informal moratorium. Newsoms decision brings into focus the extraordinary pathologies of the American death penaltyits arbitrariness, discrimination, extravagant costs, and proneness to error. Removing more than a quarter of the countrys death row from the risk of imminent execution may cause other political leaders, including legislatures and executive officials, to reexamine their policies. Californias suspension of the death penalty also provides momentum for judicial intervention: As the footprint of the American death penalty continues to decline (at present, there are only a few dozen executions a year in response to more than 15,000 homicides), it becomes less plausible to believe that the death penalty serves any social goals, particularly deterrence. From a constitutional perspective, when the death penalty cannot be tied to any social good, its imposition by definition becomes unnecessary and excessive. In his announcement, Newsom highlighted more than just pragmatic reasons for jettisoning the death penalty. Like the California Supreme Court in 1972, Newsom pointed to the barbarity of the practice, insisting that it denies human dignity and is inconsistent with a civilized society. That sort of categorical rejection of the practiceand the emphasis on human dignityhas been marginalized in American discourse in recent decades even as it stands as the most prominent argument for abolition outside of the U.S. In this respect, Newsoms actions might renew domestic interest in the claim that no civilized nation should take the lives of its own people. Bold leadership on a topic as contentious as the death penalty always risks popular backlash. The California Supreme Courts headline-grabbing rejection of the death penalty back in the 1970s was met with almost immediate reinstatement of capital punishment. And the U.S. Supreme Courts landmark invalidation of the death penalty in 1972 provoked 35 states and the federal government to pass new capital statutes over the next four years, leading the Court to backtrack and reinstate the death penalty in 1976. Past isnt always prologue, though; theres reason to be optimistic today. When the California and U.S. Supreme Courts struck down the death penalty almost 50 years ago, capital punishment had been largely unregulated. The backlash in the early 1970s depended largely on the view that new energy and attention to the death penalty could rescue it from its manifest and manifold problems. | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/03/gavin-newsoms-death-penalty-moratorium-may-stick/584977/?utm_source=feed |
Are Industry Conferences Worth Attending Or Exhibiting? | Customer-facing networking, speaking and exhibiting are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities an entrepreneur can get out of a trade show or industry conference. I personally attend anywhere from four to five conferences a year. Not only are they an honor to speak and exhibit at, but they also provide great benefits to a business and brand. You could take it from me -- Ive formed long-lasting relationships at conferences that stand to this day. The business value can be quantified to additional guest posting opportunities for my personal brand and even receiving new clients for my agency by exhibiting. The question really comes down to a matter of cash. Coming Up With The Cash The No. 1 reason were repeatedly told that businesses fail is a matter of cash flow. Unfortunately, exhibiting at an industry conference is quite expensive. Just some of the costs to consider include: Display construction Storage fees for your display Transportation costs Staying at a hotel Creating a visual presentation Brochures or any marketing material Most businesses also invest in PR and social media campaigns to create awareness around their conference attendance. Of course, speakers dont have to worry about many of these costs, but you must be invited to speak at a conference. That means, for the rest of businesses, you will have to dish out some cash to exhibit your brand at a conference. While conferences yield tremendous results, covering the costs of exhibitor fees can be hard. That's why it's important to plan a conference at least four months in advance, not only for logistics but also costs. You can consider renting a pre-fabricated display or a simple booth to cut costs. Bring along sales staff to engage people face to face and leverage online marketing materials, such as social media, to market the event for free. Benefits Of Attending A Conference There are real and tangible benefits to attending an industry conference. With the right audience, conferences present the perfect opportunity to test your MVP and gather feedback on new products and designs. Conferences can also serve as the perfect opportunity to network with other thought leaders and promote your sales pitch to attendees. The greatest benefits of attending a conference include: Greater brand reach and familiarity Networking opportunities Increased leads Usability testing Educational opportunities In addition, being asked to speak or being recognized at an industry conference serves as valuable marketing collateral further down the line. Understanding Your Audience If youve committed to attending or exhibiting at least one conference this year, then you need to find the best one for your business. The best conferences are the ones your competitors are likely attending, as well as the best thought leaders in your industry. Do a little research. There are always articles being written to promote industry events. In the digital marketing field, a lot of publications are directly responsible for sponsoring or hosting conferences in the first place. Go to social media and see who is talking about the conference and read over the conference website to get a better idea of the attendee list. Determine whether the conference is business to business (B2B) or (B2C), as well as whether or not there will be VCs or angel investors in the audience. Sometimes you can attend a conference with a great audience but the theme of the conference and the exhibits don't necessarily match your business. There are even cases where you may disagree with the sponsorships or pay-to-play model of the conference. It's important to look at the conference as a whole before making a decision to attend, starting with the attendees. Be Prepared If you decide to attend a conference, be sure to do your research beforehand. For trade shows and exhibitions, the earlier you plan (four to nine months ahead) the better. You need a marketing strategy and message that will resonate with attendees and help you stand out. We like to create content and PR around any exhibit we do, as well as any speaking opportunities. We've even boosted this on social media channels like Facebook and Twitter to some great success and fanfare. Research the convention floor and where and when you will be exhibiting. Remember, while there are thousands of attendees, the actual number of people who visit your booth will be limited by those who attend for one day and at certain times of the day. I like to advertise a speaking engagement or exhibition at least a month before the event just to start a conversation and connect with people online. Generally, the more prepared you are, the higher your potential return on investment (ROI). Determining Your ROI And Results Finally, you can judge the success of any investment by your return. Determining your cost will be pretty easy. Simply tally up the cost it took for transport, building your exhibit and all the marketing materials you brought with you. The tricky part will be assigning a value to leads you acquire at a trade show. You know your product better than anyone, so you will be able to assign a value based on what attendees from your contact list are most likely to buy from your company and which are least likely. Unfortunately, many of the benefits derived from a conference may be hard to report so it will have to stand to the eye test. But if your experience is anything like mine, youll realize the benefits of attending a conference. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2019/03/15/are-industry-conferences-worth-attending-or-exhibiting/ |
Who is TJ Garvey and why is his name on Bay Area sidewalks? | A stamp from concrete contractor T.J. Garvey, who laid out sidewalks in Berkeley and Oakland in the 1930s. This stamp is outside of Sack's Coffee House on College Ave. in Berkeley. Click ahead to see the funniest concrete typos around San Francisco's streets. less A stamp from concrete contractor T.J. Garvey, who laid out sidewalks in Berkeley and Oakland in the 1930s. This stamp is outside of Sack's Coffee House on College Ave. in Berkeley. 1 / 15 Back to Gallery Usually if you're looking at the ground in the Bay Area, you're just trying to avoid stepping on something unpleasant. But perhaps you've also noticed, at random intervals, the neat stamps of a man's name: T.J. Garvey. Eagle-eyed pedestrians in Berkeley and Oakland will have seen Garvey's name; it looks old-fashioned and lovely, accenting a large block of concrete sidewalk every so often. After years of walking over his name, I decided to finally investigate who Mr. Garvey was. Through census records and city directories, a portrait of Thomas Joseph Garvey emerges. His father John was born in Kansas, his mother Lizzie was from Ireland. On Aug. 11, 1898, the young Garvey family was joined by little blue-eyed, brown-haired Thomas. In 1917, Garvey's World War I draft card indicated he was a shipfitter at Union Iron Works, a huge ship-building company in Oakland. As a shipfitter, he would have helped rivet or weld together ship parts. That skill would suit him well in his next job. In the 1933 Polk's Oakland City Directory, Garvey listed his services as a concrete contractor. Eighty-six years later, evidence of his success can be seen all over Oakland and Berkeley, particularly around the Rockridge and Elmwood areas. According to the directory, he lived nearby at 5686 Ocean View Drive, a block away from present-day Rockridge BART. With each sidewalk job, Garvey would put his unique stamp on the drying concrete. His name "TJ GARVEY" and sometimes, often in fading numbers, the date of his work can be still be found. Stamps from the 1930s until the late 1950s bear his name. He's not the only one whose name or company graces Bay Area sidewalks. If you're looking, you can find all kinds of stamps, some dating from the early 1900s. Oakland Underfoot keeps an inventory of sidewalk stamps, from old to modern-day. Now Playing: As for Garvey, he continued to live and work in the Bay Area until his death in 1960. His wife, Fern, is buried beside him at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Hayward. | https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/oakland-berkeley-sidewalk-stamps-names-13686300.php |
Why managers and coaches watch spring training games from outside the dugout? | If youve ever watched a spring training baseball game you probably noticed it. The manager and his coaches are typically sitting outside the dugout, closer to home plate, sitting in chairs, usually behind a protective netting. For Texas Rangers manager Chris Woodward and his coaches, its all about the view. Although some managers and coaches may have other reasons for being sans dugout such as privacy to discuss personnel and space limitations with expanded rosters often filling the small spring training dugouts, the main reason is clearly the viewing angle. Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to the Star-Telegram Its a better view of the game, Woodward said. I feel like Im seeing more of the game. And I can evaluate better when Im watching our guys. I can see our short stop moving. I see the pitcher. I prefer to be out there because of that. Sitting about 20 feet closer to home plate gives the manager and coaches a better angle on the mound and home plate. Instead of having to follow each pitch with their eyes on a swivel, they can take it all in almost in the same view, the pitchers delivery and the hitters reaction to the pitch. You get a better perspective of seeing the pitch, seeing how the ball comes out of the pitchers hand, he said. If Im over there [in the dugout], I cant see anything. Youre late to react to everything. Obviously, Im watching the pitcher and Im watching their hitter to see how he responds. You cant go from there to there but if Im [in the typical spring training viewing spot] I see it all in the peripheral. Not all teams adhere to this long-held tradition. San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy and his coaches now remain in the dugout after first base coach Jose Alguacil was hit by a foul ball during a spring game against the Royals at Surprise Stadium in March 2017. When the Rangers played the Giants earlier this week at Scottsdale Stadium, Woodward and his coaches remained in the dugout because the Giants remained in the dugout. But even then, I stand as close as I can, Woodward said. | https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/mlb/texas-rangers/article227819754.html |
Is DFW ready for a deadly tornado like the ones in Oklahoma? | A major tornado touches down in the heart of Arlington. Its like nothing that has struck Tarrant County before. Its barreling toward the University of Texas at Arlington, Six Flags over Texas, the ballparks and a total of 39,700 structures, including more than 37,000 homes and apartments. In this worst-case scenario, an EF-5 tornado like the one that struck El Reno, Okla., in 2013 would have 94,500 people and buildings worth more than $4 billion in its path. Maybe. Yet storm experts say a major tornado, maybe not as bad as this one, will eventually come our way. The idea is were not going to be able to dodge it forever, said Scott Rae, a former research associate and IT manager with the North Texas Council of Governments who has put together various what if scenarios with the National Weather Service. An EF-5 is a rare creature. El Reno was the last one to strike in the United States. The National Weather Service categorizes tornadoes by a number rating, from zero to five, after assessing the twister's inflicted damage according to the Enhanced Fujita Scale. https://t.co/xpt97BCnnk pic.twitter.com/uBFMt0jaNI AccuWeather (@accuweather) March 10, 2019 Theres never been an EF-5 touching down in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in the modern era of weather records dating back to 1950 yet some storm experts think its inevitable. Folks, wake up! DFW is within the highest risk area for violent class tornadoes in the entire world! said Martin Lisius, a storm chaser, filmmaker and executive director of the Texas Severe Storms Association in an email. Its just a matter of time and it wont just happen once. Its part of our normal climate and will be here for a long time. While people think of Oklahoma as the primary spot for these storms, Texas A&M State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said they can also happen in DFW. Certainly Dallas-Fort Worth is eligible to receive one at some point as well as North Central Texas in general, Nielsen-Gammon said. Its also important to remember that it doesnt take an EF-5 to be a killer storm. The deadly March 4 tornado that struck Lee County, Alabama, and killed at least 23, was an EF-4. Tarrant County has never had an EF-4 but Parker, Hood, Johnson and Ellis have all had one. In fact, Tarrant has had only four EF-3 tornadoes. Dallas County has had two, including the Dec. 26, 2015, tornado that struck Sunnyvale, Garland and Rowlett, killing 10 people. The monster April 10, 1979, tornado that struck Wichita Falls was also an EF-4 and killed 42 with 25 of those deaths vehicle-related. As devastating as some of the DFW tornadoes have been, they have been on the ground for a relatively short time. The March 28, 2000, Fort Worth tornado that hit the Montgomery Ward Building (now Montgomery Plaza) then slammed into the Bank One Building (which was later reborn as The Tower) was only on the ground for half of a mile. The El Reno Tornado stayed on the ground for 29 miles and the 1979 Wichita Falls tornado stayed on the ground for 46 miles. Jennifer Dunn, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth, has been spending the last few months driving around North Texas conducting SkyWarn classes to get ready for the spring storm season. She doesnt agree with the notion that DFW is overdue for a major tornado but said everyone should pay attention as severe storm season ramps up. The private weather company, Accuweather, has said four states, including Texas, could face a higher risk for tornadoes this year. Dunn said it is impossible to predict tornadoes on a long-range basis, and Nielsen-Gammon said theres data that suggest tornadoes are suppressed during an El Nio spring, Nielsen-Gammon said. There is currently a weak El Nio in place and the current forecast predicts theres an 80 percent chance it continues through spring. A storm survey team has found evidence of 2 brief tornadoes yesterday morning. One was on the east side of Mineral Wells and the other was west of the town of Peaster (in NW Parker county). Both appear to show low end EF-1 damage (86-90 mph). #dfwwx #txwx pic.twitter.com/skkFasmkmz NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) March 14, 2019 Already, there have been two severe storm outbreaks this month with three brief tornadoes. The spring storm season runs from mid-March to early June, Dunn said. Where do I take shelter Maribel Martinez-Mejia, Fort Worths emergency management coordinator, said the public needs to be aware of whats going on and what the weather warnings mean. When Fort Worth sounded its storms sirens before dawn Wednesday, many thought it meant a tornado was coming. But Martinez-Mejia, who is also chair of the North Texas Regional Emergency Managers working group, said they can be sounded for other types of severe weather such as damaging winds or hail. Theyre not tornado sirens, Martinez-Mejia said. People need to understand that. And people need to have multiple ways to receive storm information for when a tornado does strike. You never know when its going to hit during the day, during the night or on weekends, Martinez-Mejia said. You need to know where youre going to go, where that interior room is located at home or in your place of business. You just to have as many layers between you and the outside as possible. | https://www.star-telegram.com/news/weather/article227476899.html |
Why does garlic feature in every savoury dish? | You dont have to use garlic in everything there are other ways to add flavour Im a lifelong vegetarian who turned vegan recently, and want to know why just about every savoury recipe contains garlic. It overpowers everything else. Ann, Yate, Gloucestershire You are not alone, Ann. Simon Rimmer, chef-patron of one of the UKs longest-standing vegetarian restaurants, Greens, in Didsbury, south Manchester (29 years in business and counting), is also not the biggest garlic fan. Dont get me wrong, he says, I like it when its meant to be there, but menus never list garlic as a major ingredient, which is insensitive, considering the impact it can have on a dish. Feast columnist Anna Jones couldnt agree more: Theres an overuse of garlic in cooking in general, and in vegetarian cooking especially, she says. I like to keep some meals more gently flavoured, so leave it out altogether. Paprika! Rimmer says with a touch more enthusiasm than is strictly necessary. Its just the best bloody ingredient going for adding depth and body. And Marmite! It lends an incredibly rich, umami note to roast veg, or use it like a seasoning. Rimmer, who besides restaurateuring presents Channel 4s flagship food show Sunday Brunch, also recommends fresh and dried herbs and spices, rather than relying on garlic as a default; dried oregano, in particular, is one of his regular go-tos. Its all about finding the right balance, Rimmer says. To that end, he also suggests adding acidity A splash of lemon juice or grated zest is a great finishing touch, as is balsamic or sherry vinegar. They can make a world of difference and/or a touch of background sweetness in the form of palm sugar, maple syrup or, for non-vegans, honey. As Jones says, As we move into spring, I find I naturally use garlic less and less. The lighter cooking and more subtle flavours of peas, jerseys and asparagus just dont need it. Ultimately, using garlic in everything is lazy cooking, and not much different from drowning your dinner in a favourite brand of chilli sauce or mayo. Think about the nuances of flavour in a dish, Jones says. Sometimes, garlic is not at all whats missing, or needed. The overuse of garlic is a symptom of a more widespread problem, in that we now demand a big punch of flavour from almost everything we eat. While garlic is an easy way to add that, Jones says, seasoning, spice and citrus can all do it, too. They just require a second or two more thought, is all. And if you must use garlic, how you prepare it plays a pivotal role in its impact on a dish. Sliced very thinly what Jones calls Goodfellas garlic (after the famous scene in Martin Scorseses film in which a mobster cuts his garlic super-fine with a razor blade) its much less pervasive than if finely chopped or pushed through a press. That said, Jones prefers to roast cloves whole and squeeze out the soft flesh: That totally changes garlics character, she says, giving it a sweet, mellow note. In food, as in life, thats preferable to harsh and domineering any day. Email [email protected] | https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/mar/15/garlic-overused-savoury-dish-alternatives-kitchen-aide |
Should I just keep my cash under the bed? | Composite: Stocksy/Getty Images/Guardian Design Team What with the collapse of numerous banks more than a decade ago, unfair hidden charges, past mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) and personal pensions, and historically low interest rates, you could be forgiven for thinking that the safest place to stash your cash is under your mattress. But nothing could be further from the truth. Thanks to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which protects savings, insurance and investments as well home finance you can rest assured that if your dealings with a financial institution go horribly wrong, youll get your money back. Since it launched in 2001, the FSCS has helped more than 4.5 million people by paying more than 26bn in compensation, says FSCS public relations manager Suzette Browne. Theres a lower level of awareness that the FSCS covers insurance, investments and mortgage advice, she says, but most people know that up to 85,000 of cash in accounts with an authorised bank, building society or credit union is protected, if they were to go bust, by the FSCS. A savings account is also a safe home for your money because, unlike investments linked to the stock market, your savings dont go up and down in value. However, because of inflation, the value can fall in real terms. The downside of keeping your money safe and easily accessible is the low interest rates paid on most savings accounts, but at least its better than the zero percent paid by a mattress. However, according to data from Moneyfacts, the value of savings deposited in cash has fallen by up to 4% in real terms over the past two years. By contrast, money invested in an individual savings account (Isa) tracking the FTSE All-Share index has seen a real return of 9% over the same period. As a general rule, if you will need to get at your cash within five years, you are better off sticking with a savings account. But if youre in it for the long haul, then a product linked to the stock market such as stocks and shares Isas (which includes Lifetime Isas for people aged 18 to 39) and personal pensions makes sense. Investing in an Isa makes particular sense because income from and gains made on investments held in an Isa are tax free, and you can currently invest up to a maximum of 20,000 each tax year. You can share the 20,000 limit over different types of Isa so, for example, you can put 5,000 in a cash Isa and 15,000 into a stocks and shares Isa. With a Lifetime Isa, the most you can invest is 4,000 each year (which counts as part of your overall 20,000 Isa limit) but on the plus side, the government will add a 25% bonus to your savings. On the downside, you can get access to your cash only if you want it for a deposit on a property costing a maximum of 450,000, or when you are 60 (or diagnosed with a terminal illness). If you cant wait until then to get access to your cash, a pension would be a better home for your long-term savings, because you can withdraw funds from age 55. Paying into a pension also has an added bonus in the form of tax relief on pension contributions. Another big plus in choosing a pension is that, according to FSCS chief executive Mark Neale, pensions are a safe, reliable investment to provide income for retirement. You and your money: how Brits look after their finances Read more Research carried out for the FSCS found that of those surveyed who have a pension, fewer than one in 20 were aware that the FSCS protects 100% of a pension directly managed under a life insurance contract, which includes personal pensions and stakeholder pensions. Most pension products are fully protected by the FSCS, so it is concerning that so few know about this, Neale says. Other investments including investment Isas also benefit from FSCS protection. Compensation for investment Isas has a limit of 50,000 per person per firm, although this is due to go up to 85,000 from April 2019, matching the compensation limits for cash Isas now. What many people may not realise is that the FSCS can also step in if you are set to lose money as a result of a firm selling insurance or annuities going bust or with general insurance and mortgage advice and arrangement giving misleading advice that causes you to lose money. However, as with debt management companies, along with firms selling cash accounts, pensions and investments, the FSCS can only help if a firm is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) or the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) you can check at register.fca.org.uk. Three rules of investing There are three things you should remember when youre looking to invest or save your money: 1) Check your provider and/or fund is FSCS protected. 3) Know your FSCS limits just in case the company fails at fscs.org.uk/what-we-cover For more information about how FSCS protects your money, visit www.fscs.org.uk | https://www.theguardian.com/finance-matters/2019/mar/04/should-i-just-keep-my-cash-under-the-bed |
Does Internal Communications Belong To HR Or Corporate Communications? | Communicating effectively internally is a responsibility for every organization, regardless of size. Brilliant external branding with sophisticated messaging and well-executed reach can easily become a fragile exoskeleton if internal audiences are operating in silos with little understanding and knowledge of or appreciation for what is going on holistically. There has long been a debate among senior managers around where internal communications should live: in the marketing communications department or the human resources department. In my organization, internal communications is a key component of corporate communications. In other places, Ive seen the function reside in human resources and do just fine. There is no right or wrong approach, but I have some observations on each. Employee Communications Versus Internal Communications I believe there is a difference in employee communications and internal communications. I see employee communications as transmitting extremely important information about benefits, employment policy, hiring, recruiting, career planning, etc. Clearly, those data points are human resources functions and communicating them should originate in the human resources (HR) department, with execution by the HR team or supported by internal communications as part of the marketing and communications team. In my experience, internal communications serve a broader role that extends external branding, including the organizations mission, to an internal audience that encompasses not only employees but management and board members. In that sense, Ive grown to see internal communications as its own discipline. It demands a precise skill-set, ranging careful and empathetic listening, clear and concise writing, oral and visual communications expertise, intellectual and emotional agility, and an almost journalistic sense of objectivity that enables telling a story straightforwardly with none-to-limited personal opinion. With what may be a biased position, I believe internal communications should live with other structured communications disciplines, as it does for my own team. Our internal communications staff members work closely with the HR department but also with every other department. This effort provides them with an all-inclusive prism through which to view the entire organization, helping them to help others understand and appreciate what everybody else is doing and why. This also works well in my current organization because of a strong relationship the chief human resources officer and I have built together and between our teams. Effective Information Gathering Is Key The cross-organization information-gathering function could work from an HR home -- and it does in some workplaces. In other organizations, communicators work more effectively and comfortably with other communicators from creative and delivery perspectives. Meeting the challenge of communicating with internal audiences is especially acute because it is naturally easy to push internal messages way down on the to-do list. That is why I suggest it is important to incorporate a deeply empathetic internal communications information-gathering system. Internal content, perhaps more than any other form of communications, must be focused enough to impact every individual in the organization, yet broad enough to have overall, mission-strategic significance. So, regardless of where internal communications lives, it is an essential discipline that takes care, patience, determination and, I respectfully submit, a full-time focus. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/03/15/does-internal-communications-belong-to-hr-or-corporate-communications/ |
How Significant Is Norway's Fossil Fuel Divestment Announcement? | In stark contrast to Venezuela, Norway is probably the poster child for responsible management of oil wealth. Norway has a long history as an oil and gas producer, and the country used its oil wealth to build the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. Last week this fund -- the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) -- made headlines by announcing it would divest certain fossil fuel investments. It's certainly symbolically important, given the size of the fund and the fact that the fund itself is a product of Norway's oil and gas history. But a little context is in order. Although this news was widely reported as "Norway divests fossil fuels", as fellow Forbes contributor Jim Collins pointed out "stocks of major integrated energy companies -- Exxon, Total, Petrobras, Royal Dutch Shell, etc. -- will continue to be included in the GPFG fund." Notably, the fund will keep fossil fuel investments that have renewable energy divisions. At the end of 2018, the GPFG had a total of $633 billion invested in equities. Of that, the fund listed holdings of 341 companies classified as "Oil and Gas" with a total value of just over $37 billion. According to a GPFG press release, a total of 114 oil and natural gas exploration and production companies will be divested "gradually over time." Companies targeted for divestment include major U.S. producers like EOG Resources, Anadarko Petroleum, Apache, Cabot Oil and Gas, Devon Energy, Diamondback Energy, and Occidental Petroleum. Thus, putting things in context, the fund will retain most of its oil and gas investments. The largest holding they will divest appears to be EOG Resources. At year-end the fund held a total of $488 million in EOG shares, which was just under 1% of the overall market capitalization of the company. According to the S&P Global Market Intelligence database, publicly traded energy companies are worth about $5.0 trillion globally. That's 135 times larger than the oil and gas holdings in the GPFG fund (most of which aren't being divested). Among those classified just as oil and gas exploration companies, there are 787 companies with a global value of $832 billion. The largest category by value is integrated oil and gas companies, which is dominated by the supermajors like ExxonMobil and Shell. Globally, there are 51 companies in that category with a value of $2.3 trillion. Most of the U.S. oil and gas companies targeted for divestment sold off following the announcement. That impact was clearly psychological, but there may be a more significant impact for companies in which the fund holds a larger ownership share. There are five oil and gas holdings in which the fund owns at least 3% of the company, but none of those companies are U.S. oil and gas companies. Among those targeted for divestment, the largest ownership share of a U.S. company is the fund's 2.6% ownership share of Delek US Holdings. But in the grand scheme, even such a significant divestment is a tiny drop in the bucket compared to the scope of the world's oil and gas sector. If the world keeps buying fossil fuels, companies are going to make money selling them, and investors are going to make money owning them. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/rrapier/2019/03/15/how-significant-is-norways-fossil-fuel-divestment-announcement/ |
Who Will Trust Facebook Bank? | This week saw global service outages taking Facebook off the grid on Wednesday, the longest outage in 15 years. The ignominy of having to announce this on Twitter must have had Facebook executives wincing. The outage comes a week after mainstream media revealed that Facebook is working on a secret project to develop a Facebook Coin. Facebook quietly secured an e-money license from the Central Bank of Ireland two years ago permitting e-money issuing and payment services provision including credit transfer, payment transactions, and money remittance. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan, fired a shot over the bow of the banking sector in his 2015 letter to shareholders warning that Silicon Valley is coming to challenge the banking and payments space. His own position on cryptocurrency has toed and froed, calling Bitcoin a fraud at one stage and creating ambiguity around where large financial institutions stand on cryptocurrencies. With the launch of the JPM Coin last month, an institutional cryptocurrency that can be redeemed for a dollar and can be used for cross border debt products, I think we have eliminated the ambiguity. It is patently clear that financial institutions and Silicon Valley big tech are adopting cryptocurrencies and digital assets and are planning big plays we have come through the stage of denial, I suggest we skip anger and move right to bargaining. The Facebook Coin, a play out of the WeChat playbook, is reported to be a cryptocurrency known as a stablecoin. Stablecoins are designed to minimize the volatility of cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoins big daily price swings, by pegging to fiat currencies like the US Dollar or being backed by other assets or commodities such as gold. How this will ultimately sit with policy makers and regulators is another question. After the Cambridge Analytica scandal which found Facebook complicit in allowing the firm to harvest millions of user profiles for political purposes without their consent, politicians around the world are demanding Facebook be regulated. Consumer trust in Facebook was shattered following the scandal. A Ponemon Institute survey found a 66% decline consumer trust in advance of Zuckerbergs senate testimony where it was clear that most senators did not understand what Facebook does. So, following a significant data breach, a titanic loss of consumer trust, calls by numerous politicians for regulation, and a massive service outage, Facebook wants to become a bank issuing its own cryptocurrency. A year is a long time in social media. Banking and financial services are built on consumer trust and Facebook is overdrawn in the trust account. Bankers, politicians, policy makers, and regulators spider senses are tingling. Whilst the last decade has been a decennium horribilis for the banking sector, from the Lehman Brothers sub-prime mortgage driven bankruptcy to the Wells Fargo account fraud scandal, consumer trust and confidence in banks has also been eroded. This is starting to recover thanks to FinTech and new digital financial products and services but has some way to go. Cryptocurrencies had their annus horribilis pulling back by 80 percent in 2018, beating the dot-com bubbles epic 78 percent crash. In addition, crypto exchange hacking scandals have seen tens of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies disappear, fundamentally questioning the resilience of the custodial infrastructure being used. The crypto crash happened shortly following the SECs Howie Test which took the heat out of the ICO market in the US ruling that all tokens were securities and putting an abrupt end to the de rigeur utility token sale. Ironically, in my super mutant community of digital infrastructure / financial instrument / and financial policy and regulation geeks (all in single life forms), Facebook was one of the fictional use cases we used to explain utility tokens to policy makers and regulators. It went something like this: If Mark Zuckerberg had of charged you $10 for a utility token Facebook Coin when you signed up to a Facebook years ago, to develop a user profile product that is sold to advertisers and third party data providers, which allowed you to buy your own profile product with the coin and populate it with data you chose, you would now be participating in a share of the revenue or the $485 billion market capitalization generated by Facebook, and we would likely have 2.7 billion happier and wealthier Facebook network users on the planet, even after the Cambridge Analytica scandal and outages. In this fictitious use case, the utility token consumer participates in the economic value of the network with a product that is purchased by the token and is using their personal data to earn the network revenue and create the value. While this is an exaggerated and fun example that we used last year while Facebook was facing its moment of truth, it demonstrates the power of a utility token product and the power of the network (without mentioning blockchain or cryptocurrency). Many highly educated and experienced specialists across technology and financial services did not understand the utility token, or cryptocurrency for that matter, one of the bad omens for the crypto sector, and in particular, for the utility token in the U.S. market. Many European regulators have not been that quick to rule on the utility token and are keeping an open mind, though it appears this train has now long left the platform. In any event, the Facebook Coin is reported to be a stablecoin, and is not a utility token, and stablecoins in the various guises show great promise for useful applications. Clearly, many US senators do not understand Facebook, cryptocurrencies, or digital for that matter. Zuckerbergs Senate testimony reached its apex when he blurted out Senator, we sell ads. The hyperbolic narrative around community building and Facebooks altruistic mission was revealed to all for evaluation. Many consumers do not understand how Facebook works, how cryptocurrencies work, or how banks work for that matter, but they put trust into the boards and executives of companies, policy, law makers, and regulators, that products do what they say on the label without the need for a university degree in technology, law or math to use the product for fear of being gamed, cheated and or exploited in a calculated and systematic fashion. When you put your key in the ignition of your car, you expect the engine to start, and the vehicle to enable you get safely from point A to B. You do not need to know how the engine works to do this, nor the range or probability of quantitative risks of something going wrong with the cars engine during the journey. You trust the car will work and do the job most of the time. A year is a long time in social media. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2019/03/15/who-will-trust-facebook-bank/ |
What percentage of Minnesotans spend their entire life here? | Maureen Nelson lives in West St. Paul, just nine miles away from the family home where she grew up in Maplewood. Nelson, 62, has lived her entire life in Minnesota, save a brief stint in Arizona after high school. The same is true for much of her family: Her parents grew up and settled down in the Twin Cities. Her husband is from Minnesota, and their grown daughter lives in an east metro suburb. Nelsons noticed that folks born here tend to be tied here. So Nelson submitted a question to Curious Minnesota, the Star Tribunes new community-driven reporting project, which invites readers into the newsroom to let us know what questions they have on who we are and where we live. She asked: What percentage of Minnesotans are born, raised and live their entire life in a 50-mile radius, and how does that compare to other states? To start, theres a caveat: Theres no way to nail down a firm answer to this, with no data specific enough to know if people have lived their entire lives in a single area. But there is some information that points us in the right direction. A 2008 Pew Research Center survey, found that nearly four-in-ten Americans have never left their hometown; the same was true for nearly half of Midwesterners. However, that data is now a little old. Minnesota does have a relatively high number of Minnesota-born residents living in the state, according to analysis of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimates. Around 68 percent of people currently living in Minnesota were born here, marking the 12th highest of any state. The percentages vary, ranging from a high of 87 percent in Morrison County to a low of 33 percent in Houston County, right on the border of La Crosse, Wis. Nationally, an estimated 58 percent of people were born in the state theyre living in. In Louisiana, around 78 percent of the population is native-born, which is highest in the country. Nevada has the lowest nationally, with only 26 percent. Mike Maciag, a data editor for Governing magazine, recently crunched the same census data focusing on adults (those 25 years and older), mapping out every county in the U.S. Maciag said the data shows more residents are moving to the South and West. It also showed an urban-rural divide. Cities tend to be home to more transplants, he said, because their large foreign-born populations and the draw of jobs. While the census data doesnt address whether someone moved away and then came back, Minnesota State Demographer Susan Brower said the data suggests Minnesota is a pretty sticky state for its natives. People who are born here tend to stay here, or if they move away, like a lot of young adults move away, they tend to come back, she said. Jack DeWaard, a University of Minnesota sociology professor, said Minnesotas strong economic performance may have something to do with it. Like other major life decisions, he said people often move based on their checkbook. If its more beneficial to move or its more beneficial to stay economically, than thats what people are going to do, he said. Then theres the influence of family and friends. DeWaard said people tend to move to places where they know people. Connections to family and friends really matter when people are making decisions to migrate, he said. Brower said push and pull factors play an important role in determining if people decide to move and where they decide to move to. You tend to stay put unless something is pushing you away or theres a strong force pulling you, she said. Minnesotas high ranking on a variety of measures, like quality of life, education and health care, means there may not be a lot pushing people away, Brower said. Brower did, however, highlight one factor thats not helping the cause: Minnesotas weather. For some thats a barrier, she said. Its a no-deal once they see what we have here in terms of winter. Austen Macalus is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune. --- If you'd like to submit a Curious Minnesota question, fill out the form below: | http://www.startribune.com/what-percentage-of-minnesotans-spend-their-entire-life-here/506762921/ |
Which Jonas Brother Had The Most Successful Solo Career? | Just one week after reuniting and releasing their comeback single Sucker, the Jonas Brothers have already managed to hit a new career high with their first chart-topper...and thats saying a lot, considering they accomplished incredible things as a trio in their first stint together, but they also have plenty to show for their solo careers. Its fun to argue whose songs have stuck around the longest or which singles may have been better or worse, but the numbers arent subjective. Heres a look at each of the Jonas Brothers solo careers by the numbers. Nick Jonas Billboard 200 appearances: 3 Hot 100 appearances: 8 When he first ventured out on his own after leaving the Jonas Brothers, Nick decided to front a group that was essentially just a vehicle for his own success called Nick Jonas & the Administration. That band produced just one self-titled album, and while it did debut at No. 3, the record didnt stick around for long...and neither did lead single Who I Am, which did manage to rise to No. 73 on the Hot 100. After that attempt at solo glory, Nick began writing and recording music under his own name, after which things went much better. He sent a pair of albums into the top 10 on the Billboard 200, including the No. 2-peaking Last Year Was Complicated. On the singles front, his previous full-length Nick Jonas performed better, as it produced the top 10 hit Jealous and the No. 13-peaking Chains. Close, the lead single from Last Year Was Complicated, rose to No. 14, also becoming a true hit. As Nick Jonas, the singer-songwriter has also landed a handful of additional appearances on the Hot 100, and hes seen three of his singles go at least platinum, with Jealous earning three such certifications. Joe Jonas Billboard 200 appearances: 3 Hot 100 appearances: 3 When Joe Jonas first ventured out on his own, expectations were high...but sadly, his output didnt meet them. His one solo album under his own name, 2011s Fastlife, only rose as high as No. 15, and its one Hot 100-charting single See No More barely landed on the chart, peaking at No. 92. Four years later, Joe reappeared musically, this time fronting a band called DNCE. The quartet hit it big immediately with their first single Cake By the Ocean, which lifted to No. 9, though they wouldnt be able to snag another smash like that. Follow-up Toothbrush went to No. 44, and subsequent singles failed to place on the Hot 100 entirely. The group did launch an EP (Swaay) and a self-titled full-length, which charted at Nos. 39 and 17, respectively, though things have been fairly quiet for a little while now, and its unclear what the future looks like for Jonas second band. Even if DNCE never releases another song, they can be proud of their quadruple-platinum plaque for Cake, their platinum certification for Toothbrush and the gold award they collected for their full-length LP. It is worth noting that while he was still in the Jonas Brothers, Joe did reach the top 40 on the Hot 100 twice, once under his name and once as a member of the cast of the film Camp Rock, though for the purposes of this article, only the music he released after the band went their separate ways was considered. Kevin Jonas Billboard 200 appearances: 0 Hot 100 appearances: 0 Kevin was the only brother who didnt investigate a solo musical career after the Jo Bros split, so while he doesnt have the chart numbers to show what hes been up to, he has proven himself as a successful entrepreneur, investor and reality TV star. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2019/03/15/which-jonas-brother-had-the-most-successful-solo-career/ |
What Does It Mean To Be A People Leader? | Many leaders are considered such by the way they lead a business. When asked what their job is, leaders will typically respond with something along the lines of I lead the financial department, I lead my companys sales strategy or I lead the product division. Leadership can mean many different things to different people, but it often directly ties back to how a persons contributions impact a businesss bottom line: My efforts saved us X amount of money, My strategy resulted in X amount of new clients, I closed a huge sale that brought in X dollars. In my experience, this mindset is pretty typical in the world of startups. In the early stages of a new business, startup founders are solely focused on building and proving the value of a prototype, product or service. Every effort revolves around doing so, because this is what determines if a startup is viable and will be able to grow and succeed. While all of this is important, startup founders in this phase tend to be less concerned with leading people. They are very often serial entrepreneurs who havent been with an established company long enough to witness how seasoned leaders do just that. Traditional Leadership Versus People Leadership The traditional idea of leadership focuses on the outcomes and results a leader is able to achieve their contributions, level of authority and how much respect they garner from their peers. On the other hand, people leaders focus on the team. Similar to servant leaders or Level 5 leaders, people leaders spend time building relationships with colleagues, coaching employees to reach their full potential and aligning teammates toward a common goal. People leaders tend to be more influential in motivating employees to do their best work and feel engaged at work. The Real Cost Of Poor Leadership The value of people leaders cant be overemphasized. According to Gallup, "bad managers cost businesses billions of dollars each year," further illustrating the finding that people dont quit their job, they quit their boss. Many companies promote top performers to management roles based on who contributes directly to business function success. But great employees dont always make great managers. However, there is good news: Almost anyone can be a good manager if given the right tools and guidance. Embracing People Leadership A people leader is not a defined role within an organization. Its not necessarily someone who embodies specific traits or carries with them a long list of accomplishments. Nearly anyone can become a people leader by implementing the following practices. 1. Maintain a team-first mentality. People leaders put their team before themselves because they know an aligned team that feels supported is the most powerful team. When the team succeeds, the credit goes to the team, and if it fails, the leader takes responsibility. 2. Set high standards of excellence, but outline how your teammates can get there and give them the tools and support to do so. 3. Communicate, communicate, communicate. Keep lines of communication open by frequently checking in with teammates on a one-on-one basis. Use this time to discuss the direction of the company and the team, as well as individual accomplishments, goals, professional development and career growth. 4. Be transparent in your communication. Make sure your team has the information they need to be successful in their roles. Additionally, being honest about what you dont know fosters trust. 5. Follow through on commitments. This one is straightforward: Do what you say youre going to do. Its essential that your team can depend on you. Whatever you do, dont cancel one-on-one meetings without rescheduling. 6. Provide feedback in real time. Feedback is often given to employees months after its relevant or useful, especially with the traditional annual performance review cycle. The quicker an issue is brought up, the quicker it can be resolved. Encourage your team to provide upward feedback to you, as well. 7. Give public recognition. Dont underestimate the impact of positive recognition. If a teammate did a great job on a project, recognize them in the moment. Highlighting accomplishments more broadly reinforces positive behaviors and keeps employees motivated. 8. Remove barriers. Look for roadblocks impacting your team and prioritize collaborative problem-solving. If there are simple things you can do to help your teammates achieve their goals, everyone wins. 9. Have tough conversations. Management isnt always easy, and sometimes you have to engage in difficult conversations with employees. Dont shy away from this; instead, view it as a learning opportunity for both parties. 10. Inspire and motivate. Ask what inspires each of your team members and hone in on these motivations to unlock their greatest potential. This is a highly undervalued and extremely effective practice. All of these practices positively impact a businesss bottom line, but maybe not in ways that are as initially obvious as those stemming from traditional leaders. After all, its much more difficult to tie metrics to behavior. But being a true people leader can have incredibly positive effects, including more engaged employees, who drive up productivity, reduce attrition and generate creativity, innovation and excellence in your organization. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2019/03/15/what-does-it-mean-to-be-a-people-leader/ |
What's being done to combat Bradford's 'Wild West' driving? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Both West Yorkshire Police and Bradford Council have taken steps to combat poor driving in the city Driving in and around Bradford has been described by some as "horrible, dangerous and like the Wild West". As part of the BBC's We are Bradford project we spoke to people about the standard of driving in order find out more about an issue which has prompted the city's police and council to take action. In 2017 figures showed Bradford was the only district in West Yorkshire to see a rise in the number of people killed or seriously injured on its roads with the number rising from 178 the previous year to 192. The figures also showed the district was the only one to see a rise in the number of crashes owing to excessive speed and drinking. The city also featured heavily in a recent list of crash for cash hotspots, with five postcode areas - BD9, BD8, BD3, BD7 and BD5 - featuring in the top 25 worst affected areas, only Birmingham featured more often. Stacy, 41, from Pudsey - a few miles to the east of Bradford - said on Twitter "it's like the rules don't apply". She went on to say: "It's like it's every man for themselves, you have to be twice as alert. "Coming down Leeds Road into Bradford people will just pull out in front of you without any regard, just assuming that you are going to stop for them. "You see people on their phones - that tends to be the younger drivers - you see a lot of cars with a lot of people in - more than there should be - you see children with no seatbelts on. It just seems to be a way of life." Skip Twitter post by @allenz1908 Crash for cash criminal gangs operating, car stereo thieves around every corner having to dodge uninsured Audi A3s and VW golfs on badly designed non existent ring roads. Avoid its awful. Allen Shaw (@allenz1908) March 6, 2019 Report Image caption Perwaiz Rajput said he would "pray" before leaving his house that he will come home safely Perwaiz Rajput, who has been a driving instructor in the city for almost 20 years, said he had noticed standards dropping. "It's gone from being safe and OK to a very dangerous situation in many areas of Bradford," he said. "People do not care how they drive or what they do, especially at peak times and around busy junctions. "I get out the house and I pray that I'm going to get back alive." 'Drivers need re-educating' Shad Miah, a 37-year-old restaurant manager, drops off and collects his children from school each day before driving to work in Wakefield. He said roads such as Manningham Lane, Midland Road and Leeds Road were bad for speeding drivers at times and inconsiderate drivers around schools often left the roads gridlocked. "I sometimes walk to the school because I do not have time to deal with the traffic," he said. "Midland Road can be like a race track. We've asked for speed bumps or speed cameras but we were told there had not been enough deaths. That sounded disgusting to me. "We've got some young drivers on the road that either need re-educating or they need to have their cars taken away." Image copyright West Yorkshire Police Image caption West Yorkshire Police's Operation Steerside tackles dangerous and nuisance drivers The issue has not gone unnoticed by those in authority. West Yorkshire Police's Operation Steerside has a team of 11 officers dedicated to tackling nuisance driving and the "fatal four" offences; drink/drug driving, not wearing a seatbelt, speeding and using a phone at the wheel. Supt Daniel Greenwood said while Bradford has a "bad reputation" for poor driving standards, provisional figures for 2018 suggest the number of people killed or seriously injured is in decline. "Whether it's real or perceived it's impacting on people's behaviour, they're saying 'I won't drive in Bradford' or 'I'm afraid I'm going to die [on the roads] and that's not helpful," he said. "My message to people is really simple, when you press that accelerator a little bit harder, when you go over the speed limit, you have no idea what's round the corner, or going to step out from behind that bus and split seconds can and do change lives for the worse." 'Racing cars' Bradford Council has also taken steps to clampdown on poor driving in the city. On 7 March, councillors sanctioned powers to impose fines on drivers caught making noise, including playing loud music, revving their engines, shouting, swearing or making sexual suggestions. The move came after more than two-thirds of people said they felt "unsafe" on the city's streets due to poor driving. Councillor David Warburton said: "Anti social behaviour of revving loud engines, playing loud music and groups congregating and some times racing cars on inappropriate streets at inappropriate times is clearly wrong. "We want to do everything we can, alongside the police, to combat that and make sure the public are safe at all times." This article was created as part of We Are Bradford - a BBC project with the people of the city to tell the stories which matter to them. You can submit suggestions using the tool below. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-47526816 |
What's it like growing up mixed race in the UK? | To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. Almost Never's Tillie: 'It was like I was bad for having big hair.' More and more people in the UK are mixed race, including famous celebrities like Meghan Markle and Zayn Malik. In fact, between the years 2001 and 2011 - the last times survey of the UK, called the census, took place - the number almost doubled. The next time the census will happen is in 2021 and it's expected there'll be a big increase again. Have a read and a watch of these young people talking about there experiences and leave us your comments below. Being mixed race can mean different things to different people. Usually your parents and/or your grandparents are of different races or ethnicities. Sometimes the terms biracial, dual heritage and mixed heritage are used instead. It can mean you get to enjoy the best bits of the different countries and cultures that your relatives have roots in, but it can also mean that you might stand out and look different from some of your family members and friends . Newsround joined up with the BBC's news show for young people in Africa, What's New?, to speak to kids with African heritage and to find out what it's like growing up mixed race. TILLIE a.k.a. Chloe from CBBC's Almost Never Tillie enjoys her mixed race identity - her dad's from Ghana and her mum's from England - but had struggles when she was growing up. At school she was once excluded from P.E. for having big hair and some of her friends didn't believe she was mixed race. It's made me tougher and stronger, and want to embrace where I'm from even more. Tillie But Tillie overcame her struggles and now she embraces her identity, and her heritage, more than ever. Elouan and Amandine To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. Growing up mixed race: 'People can't pronounce my name.' Brother and sister Elouan and Amandine have family from Wales, France and Cameroon. It means they speak different languages, enjoy different types of food at home and when it comes to football, they have a big advantage when it comes to picking which team to support! His friend said he doesn't like brown people. It made me feel quite sad and upset. Elouan But Elouan also feels like he stands out and is feels different to other people. Their mum is also mixed race and felt she stood out when she grew up in Africa but for different reasons. Karim To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. Growing up mixed race: "I can feel misunderstood." Karim lives with his brothers and parents in London. His father's family is from Morocco and his mum is from Spain. I can speak Spanish, English, a bit of Arabic and French. Karim Having family from different places means he can speak many languages and gets to enjoy lots of different types of food. But it can also mean looking different to his cousins and sometimes feeling misunderstood by people. Manifa and Naima To enjoy the CBBC Newsround website at its best you will need to have JavaScript turned on. Growing up mixed race: 'Someone called me grey!' Manifa and Naima's dad is from Nigeria and their mum is from England. They'd pass me around as they were excited that there was a mixed race baby with them. Manifa When they were very little they lived in South Africa and being mixed race there was a different experience to what it's like now living in the UK. A big part of their life is having hair that's different from most of their friends' hair. Some people used to touch and play with it and though it used to irritate Manifa at first, now she doesn't mind as much. and Newsround. Produced by Nora Fakim and Sameena Misbahuddin. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47473987 |
Why is Arizona's Alzheimer's rate so high, and what can we do to lower it? | Opinion: No one knows what causes Alzheimers, but culture has a big influence on brain health. The Alzheimers death rate in Arizona is almost 20 percent higher than the U.S. average. (Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic) In the spring of 1997, my husband Peter and I moved to Carefree from Princeton, N.J. Our mission statement: more time together outdoors. We are not the only ones attracted to this sunny climate, especially in spring. Long ago, we learned that March meant spring training, when baseball fans from all over the country descend upon the Valley of the Sun to shake off the winter doldrums and watch their favorite Cactus League teams prepare for a new season. Someday, I hope Arizona will also be a mecca for spring brain training. Arizona's brain health is not so hot Imagine Arizona as the go-to place to celebrate Brain Awareness Week (March 11-18). Imagine our beautiful landscape, from desert in the south to mountains in the north, as the backdrop for a state-of-the-art wellness program, such as a brain camp to take charge of your neuroplasticity (the brains capacity to change and grow) or a workshop to get to know your default network (the brain center affected by Alzheimers and autism). That will take some doing, because Arizonas scorecard in the brain health game is disappointing, based on data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The age-adjusted Alzheimers death rate in Arizona is almost 20 percent higher than the U.S. average and the United States has one of the highest Alzheimers rates in the world. We need to better understand the disparities from state to state and to seek out potential ways forward from some of them, including our friends who host Grapefruit League spring training. Florida has an Alzheimers rate about 30 percent lower than the U.S. average. CLOSE Alzheimer's disease affects one in three seniors, according to the Alzheimer's Association. But that doesn't account for all those impacted by the disease. Cronkite News Over the past three years, my brain training work has also taken me to southern Florida. I have had the opportunity to see first-hand how the lifestyle there for people over 65 differs from what I have observed here in Arizona. Clearly, Florida is just as sports-happy as Arizona. But opportunities to engage in the arts to do, not just to watch and pursue skill-based lifelong learning are much more plentiful there. No one knows what causes Alzheimers, but culture has a big influence on brain health. Indeed, the part of the brain that is first affected by Alzheimers, the temporal lobe, is the music, language and culture center of the brain. When we moved here 22 years ago, if we headed south on Scottsdale Road from Carefree, the first commercial development on the west side of the road was a breakfast eatery at Thunderbird Road! There was no Loop 101. 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 Since then, we have seen significant population growth and commercial development in the north Valley, but there is no performing arts center or senior center north of the 101 in the east Valley. Brain-boosting culture requires old-fashioned gathering places, not golf courses or internet chat rooms. Either use your brain or lose it Over the past 20 years, Alzheimers rates have plummeted among some groups in the United States and in some western countries, for example Germany. There is good news about the brain: Use it or lose it works! But we need to understand our brain assets better to help keep them growing. Someday, personal brain trainers will be as common as personal trainers for physical fitness. We could make the Alzheimers rate crash in Arizona too, and that is a challenge worth accepting. We can boost jobs and the economy in the state even as we help people embrace the new and improved American Dream: life, liberty, and the pursuit of neuroplasticity. Phyllis Strupp is the founder of Brain Wealth and the author of Better with Age: The Ultimate Guide to Brain Training. Reach her at [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2019/03/15/arizona-alzheimers-rate-too-high-how-can-we-lower-it/3169391002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2019/03/15/arizona-alzheimers-rate-too-high-how-can-we-lower-it/3169391002/ |
How do I expand my network? | Dear Sam: I have not done a good job of growing my professional network and I know that its important for maximum career effectiveness. Meeting new people is difficult for me, but I know that I must. Will Dear Will: Driving career advancement through strategic professional connections and genuine relationships is a critical part of any sound career progression plan. With more than 70% of jobs unadvertised on the open market, who you know is key to tapping into opportunities that will otherwise go unknown. First, you are not alone. Many people struggle with feeling awkward and unnatural in these social situations. The key to feeling more of a sense of belonging and therefore being able to represent your true self is following these four Ps: Prepare, Plan, Pitch, and Perfect! 1. Do not venture into a networking situation with the mindset of this being something you have to do; instead, turn this into a positive experience by thinking about it as an opportunity to develop your brand and further your career. Source networking opportunities through professional associations, affinity groups, organized meetups, and by simply asking targeted contacts to have coffee! 2. Plan Developing a networking plan is key to the success and sustainability of your efforts. Research indicates that people who create a written plan are 95% more likely to achieve their goals. Build your action plan based on the specific needs of your networking efforts. Once you have defined your action plan, block time on your calendar every weekday to not only secure networking opportunities but to participate in them too. Strive to spend 15-20 minutes daily working on the execution of your action plan with a goal of attending one networking functioncould be one-to-one or grouponce every two weeks. 3. Pitch As meeting new people is a challenge for you, group networking could prove more difficult; instead, focus on one-on-one conversations. Develop an elevator speech you can confidently deliver when meeting someone for the first time. Once your comfort with group events increases, this same approach also will work as it is not uncommon for attendees to have a couple of minutes to introduce themselves. Remember to pay attention not only to your verbal messaging but also to your nonverbal cues and body language. Its amazing, when we are nervous, how quickly we forget the importance of a smile, eye contact, and approachable body language. Practice your pitch with a trusted confidant who wont be shy critiquing both the verbal and nonverbal cues. 4. Perfect We all know that practice makes perfect and networking is no different. By following your action plan of attending a networking event biweekly, you will be getting some practice and becoming more comfortable. Perform post-event analysis, recognizing what went right and areas for improvement. Learn through osmosis at these events, observing those who seem at home in such an environment and watching their nonverbal cues and listening to their verbal language. Networking isnt just about signing up for an event and showing up; its about creating an action plan to facilitate proactive outreach, to engage in genuine discussions in order to build authentic relationships, and to give your network as much, if not more, than you get out of it. All the best as you learn to love networking! There are several areas on a resume to which candidates do not pay enough attention. Here are five of the most common mistakes. Samantha Nolan is an Advanced Personal Branding Strategist and Career Expert, founder and CEO of Nolan Branding. Reach Samantha at [email protected]. For information on Nolan Brandings services, visit www.nolanbranding.com or call 888-9-MY-BRAND or 614-570-3442. | https://www.cleveland.com/business/2019/03/how-do-i-expand-my-network.html |
Who Is Resecurity, The Firm That Named The Iranian Group Allegedly Behind The Citrix Hack? | Last week, it emerged that Citrix had been hacked, potentially exposing large amounts of customer data. The company had been notified by the FBI on March 6 that international cyber criminals had likely gained access to the internal Citrix network. As more information began to filter through, another, little known company entered the fray: Resecurity. And the cybersecurity firm had some bold claims: Resecurity said the attacks were perpetrated by an Iranian-linked group it calls IRIDIUM, which it claimed has hit more than 200 government agencies, oil and gas firms and technology companies. The firm said it first reached out to Citrix on December 28 2018 to share an early warning notification about a targeted attack and data breach. This was later confirmed by Ctirix, which told tech site The Register that a blog by Stan Black, Citrix CSIO referred to the same incident" described by Resecurity: "We have no further comment at this time, but as promised, we will provide updates when we have what we believe is credible and actionable information." Resecurity also accused IRIDIUM of perpetrating a recent cyber-attack on the Australian parliament, despite the fact that the government itself had blamed China. Indeed, some people have questioned the validity of Resecuritys claims, including the Risky Business cybersecurity podcast. Many in the community were suspicious about the way Resecurity seemingly appeared out of nowhere with bold claims about a major hack. Others criticised a lack of detail, which the firm since added to its blog. Its true the company was suddenly into the limelight. I got in contact with Resecurity to try to understand more about its origins and findings. Charles Yoo, the firms CEO describes how the company was originally founded in 2016, with a focus on threat intelligence, network reconnaissance and risk management. At this point Resecurity focused on investment in research and development around tools and platforms that could help enterprises and law enforcement to identify cybersecurity threats, monitor threat actors and collect pre-emptive intelligence. The firm didnt officially launch until 2018 which explains why people hadnt heard much about them before. According to Yoo, clients include Fortune 500 companies, law enforcement, and government agencies across domestic and international geography. We feel that there is room for new players in this space, says Yoo, who says his firm is competing with well-established companies specializing in cyber threat intelligence such as Symantec, RSA, FireEye, CrowdStrike, AlienVault, Looking Glass, Digital Shadows, and Flashpoint whom we have a lot of respect for pioneering the space. And in fact, says Yoo, the company prefers to have a low profile and focus on high-quality intelligence acquisition for our customers. When asked about the questions surrounding Resecurity, he says: We respect everyones opinion, however we have no additional comments at this time. During 2018, the company participated in several industry events including Amazon re:Invent (USA, Silver Sponsor), GovWare 2018 (Singapore, Gold Sponsor), Internet SecurityConference (ISC) 2018 (China, Gold Sponsor). It will participate in the upcoming 31st Annual FIRST Conference 2019 in Edinburgh as a Diamond Sponsor. Resecurity was confident in its claims that IRIDIUM had perpetrated the Citrix hack as well as other high-profile cyber-attacks. Yoo says the name IRIDIUM was assigned by Resecurity internally. It is an extremely interesting group of threat actors focused on high-value targets such as financial institutions, critical infrastructure - primarily oil and gas - and government resources based in Five Eyes countries and the Middle East. The most active period of their visibility and malicious activity was during winter 2018, when we alerted several large enterprises regarding malicious activity directed by the group, says Yoo. Interestingly, some of their members have been identified as the result of Dark Web monitoring, says Yoo. Members had been caught when they attempted to monetize some of their past victims through the underground marketplaces, which is typical for financially motivated cybercriminals, Yoo adds. Due to specifics of their targets, further analysis of their key members, timeline of the incidents, monitored network intelligence and other previously undisclosed targets, we have a high confidence that a nation-state has direct association with them, or recruited them for conducting cyberespionage activity based on their tasks. He points out that in all observed cases of the groups activity, the end victim has been attacked through password spraying with further attempt to escalate privileges and conduct network intrusion through sign-on (SSO), VPN or other available channels, leading to massive data exfiltration. Password spraying Malicious cyber actors are increasingly using a style of brute force attack known as password spraying against organizations in the United States and abroad, says Yoo. In a traditional brute-force attack, a malicious actor attempts to gain unauthorized access to a single account by guessing the password. This can quickly result in a targeted account becoming locked-out, because commonly used account-lockout policies allow three to five bad attempts during a set period of time. During a password-spray attack - also known as the low-and-slow method - the malicious actor attempts a single password against many accounts before moving on to attempt a second password, and so on. This technique allows the actor to remain undetected by avoiding rapid or frequent account lockouts, Yoo says. Password spray campaigns typically target SSO and cloud-based applications utilizing federated authentication protocols, says Yoo. An actor may target this specific protocol because federated authentication can help mask malicious traffic. Additionally, by targeting SSO applications, malicious actors hope to maximize access to intellectual property during a successful compromise. While some have said attribution to Iran is unlikely many say China and Russia provide a much bigger threat with far vaster cyber offensive capabilities there is some evidence that Iran is a player it its own right. In February 2018, the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York indicted nine Iranian nationals associated with the Mabna Institute, for computer intrusion offenses. The techniques and activity described, while characteristic of Mabna actors, are not limited solely to use by this group, says Yoo. He points out that some of the uncovered targets identified during IRIDIUM activity investigation had significant overlap with their past victims compromised in 2014-2017 period: before the indictment had been released". This isnt the last well see of Resecurity. Yoo told me the firm is working on several intelligence reports at the moment related to internet of things security, botnet activity, and emerging cybersecurity threats analysis in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Resecuritys claims are bold, but the firm is a new company in an already crowded cybersecurity market. And one thing is certain: If you didnt know who Resecurity were a week ago, you definitely do now. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/03/15/who-is-resecurity-the-firm-that-named-the-iranian-group-allegedly-behind-the-citrix-hack/ |
Is The Founder Of HOTELette The Next Generation of Boutique Hoteliers? | When Allison Crawford visited Los Angeles for Design Week in 2016, she stayed in her first short-term rental. Her less then ideal experience made her ask herself why there wasnt a chic vacation rental brand with multiple locations that you could trust. Crawford tells me, Since Airbnb is now bigger than the worlds top five hotel brands put together, we wanted to be the first to bridge the gap between short term rentals and boutique hotels. In the summer of 2017, I opened the first HOTELette in Nashville and launched HOTELette Austin shortly after in the Fall of 2017. In Fall of 2018, HOTELette Dallas opened and in November of 2018, we launched the HOTELette Shop. When I inquire what her professional background is and how she got into the hospitality business she explains, After graduating from Southern Methodist University with an Advertising degree, I sold radio advertising in Austin. My next job was selling copiers on Wall Street, which taught me the value of being relentless. I moved back to Dallas to take on a Director or Marketing position at an automotive company. I always had my side hustle of flipping houses and renovating properties. In 2015, I dove headfirst into my design firm, Allison Crawford Design, which helped me build a stronger foundation for HOTELette. Crawford had originally planned on naming her brand Casita Collection, but had a last minute change of heart while driving where the name HOTELette popped into her mind and she immediately had her attorney file a trademark for the name (which took a year to establish). Multiple locations have always been part of my vision. I want people to have a vacation rental brand they trust and seek out wherever they go. Im always scouting for new locations and plan to open another HOTELette in 2020. Austin, Marfa, and other top travel destinations are on the shortlist, states Crawford. Ironically, running multiple locations has presented its own set of challenges. Crawford continues, The laws surrounding short-term rentals vary immensely and are constantly changing. The local legislature often determines where we can open our properties, and sometimes if we can keep our doors open. That said, managing short-term rentals across multiple markets has its own set of challenges. Initially, we outsourced property management, but quickly recognized that we needed a closer, more personal connection to our guests. We brought management for all properties in-house at the end of 2018. HOTELette is self-financed through traditional bank mortgages. This has allowed us to maintain complete control over the brand, as well as demonstrate its profitability from day one. Call us old school in retaining total ownership at the expense of a more robust marketing budget, increased salary pool and other luxuries that go hand-in-hand with outside funding. This practice allows us to experiment freely with our systems, create something authentic and grow in a sustainable, intentional way. When youre self-funded, you have to be scrappy. Focus on the essentials and be conservative. To me, this means scrapping the emphasis on an expensive office or lavish holiday parties, and emphasizing creative marketing tactics. In the future, to continue expanding at our current rate, we are entertaining outside investors who are passionate about our company culture and vision. Were looking for someone who recognizes not only the profitability but importance of being hyper-local and supportive of a wide range of female creatives, explains Crawford. On whether she thinks her model is where boutique hospitality is headed Crawford responds, The short term rental market begs for a boutique aspect. Weve already seen that consumers are increasingly interested in renting homes (versus hotels), because of the private, gathering opportunities homes offer. With the growth of services like Airbnb, millennials are being conditioned to seek home shares over hotels, indicating a greater future demand for boutique short term rentals. As millennials prioritize travel over paying student loans or starting families, even more money will be allocated for luxury travel. Although I have not stayed at any of Crawfords properties yet, I am drawn to her design aesthetic, which is similar to my personal style. Crawford tells me, My aesthetic is something I call Modern Vintage, a vibe that leaves our core demographic (females aged 25-54) sharing the HOTELette experience on Instagram. This design-centricity wasnt just an aesthetic choice, however. The girlfriend getaway market brings in over $200 million yearly. And, research on travel indicates the vitality of social media to hospitality. 87% of millennialsthe largest generation to dateuse social media for travel inspiration and planning, and 97% of them will post on social media while traveling. Not only are millennials discovering hospitality brands online, theyre prioritizing and spending more on brands that are hyper-local and instagrammable. To play into this, were leveraging lifestyle influencers and continuing to be hyper-local with tightly curated city guides. For those who want to bring a little HOTELette design inspiration home, you can visit Crawfords online store. The HOTELette Shop is a collection of home goods and decor that my team and I have sourced over our years of travel. As a designer, part of my vision for HOTELette was the opportunity we had to share furniture, art and home goods with my guests in hopes of inspiring them and their respective homes. Now, our guests and admirers are able to purchase quintessential HOTELette goodies like blankets, barware, art and pillows, states Crawford. Crawford continues, As a female creative entrepreneur, its important to me that every piece in our store tells a story and gives greater, international exposure to fellow female creatives. It is my intention to weave supporting fellow female entrepreneurs into every aspect of HOTELette: from the women who staff my team, to the women whove created the art on our walls, to the women whove crafted the amazing homegoods and decor in our shop, explains Crawford. This year, Crawford is launching a signature HOTELette Eau de Toilette and home fragrance and continuing to collaborate with fellow female entrepreneurs on the HOTELette Shop. We continue to be on the forefront of hospitality and travel trends while providing an award winning design experience. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/meggentaylor/2019/03/15/is-the-founder-of-hotelette-the-next-generation-of-boutique-hoteliers/ |
Does Kareem Hunts suspension make a Duke Johnson trade less likely? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com The NFL on Friday morning officially suspended Browns running back Kareem Hunt for eight games. Hunt will not appeal. So Cleveland will be without him for half of the 2019 season. And now that they're actually playoff contenders, maybe this means running back Duke Johnson won't be as available as we thought. Scroll to continue with content Ad My guess is it will now be a little harder for the Eagles to trade for Johnson if that's what they want to do. Johnson would make a lot of sense for the Eagles as a trade target this offseason. He is just 25 and has a base salary of just $1.8 million in 2019. He became unhappy with his role last season and that was before the addition of Hunt. Johnson would be a perfect replacement for Darren Sproles as a pass-catching running back in the Eagles' rotation. And trading for a running back wouldn't affect the compensatory pick formula. It seems like that is really important to the Eagles these days. On Thursday, Cleveland.com reported the Browns were shopping Johnson and at least three teams were interested. But that report also said the length of Hunt's suspension would impact their decision. Story continues Sure, we all knew Hunt was going to be suspended. And Hunt's decision to not even appeal makes it seem like this length was expected. But in that Cleveland.com story, it said there was a thought the suspension might not be as long because Hunt missed five games last season after the Chiefs cut him. We don't know if that did affect the length of the suspension, but eight games is significant and without Hunt, the Browns are left with just Nick Chubb and Johnson. In previous years, that wouldn't matter, but the Browns have added a ton of talent and are expected to compete for a playoff spot in 2019. The Eagles haven't added a running back yet this offseason, but there's still time in free agency and the draft in April. Right now, they have Corey Clement, Wendell Smallwood and Josh Adams returning from last year's roster. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Eagles | https://sports.yahoo.com/does-kareem-hunt-suspension-duke-145517372.html?src=rss |
Which Singer Heated Up the 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards Red Carpet? | The 2019 iHeartRadio Music Awards have come and gone, but the memories live on. On Thursday, some of music's finest showed up in Los Angeles to attend this year's award show at the Microsoft Theater. It was a celebration unlike any other hosted by T-Pain, who won the inaugural season of The Masked Singer, and featured killer performances by Halseywith Yungblud and Travis Barker as well as Kacey Musgraves and Ariana Grande. While we loved all of the performances and freaked out when Taylor Swift took the stage to accept the Tour of the Year Award, it's the fashion from the night that we are still talking about most. There were a lot of stars who looked good on the carpet this year, but 10 stars stood out to us and therefore they've earned themselves a little shout out. The "New Year's Day" singer looked spectacular in a shimmery romper and butterfly heels. | https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1023954/which-singer-heated-up-the-2019-iheartradio-music-awards-red-carpet?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Should sugar be regulated like a drug? | by Jessie Blaeser According to some experts, sugar might be as addictive as cocaine. While daydreams of soda or late-night dessert might get us through the day, some say the danger of Americas dependence on sugary foods is too big of a risk. This camp believes its high-time to regulate sugar, if not ban it outright. Others are of the mind that everyone has the right to put what they want into their bodies, and if that includes sugar, so be it. Theres a reason people tend to reward themselves with sugar; when you eat it, dopamine is released in the brain, making you feel good. Although this sounds logical for birthday cakes and special occasions, sugars infiltration into the average Americans diet makes it all the more dangerous. Healthline points out: Research shows that sugar can be even more addicting than cocaine, says Cassie Bjork, R.D., L.D., founder of Healthy Simple Life. Sugar activates the opiate receptors in our brain and affects the reward center, which leads to compulsive behavior, despite the negative consequences like weight gain, headaches, hormone imbalances, and more. With addiction comes the full package: cravings, binging, withdrawal, and more. The World Health Organization recommends limiting "free sugar," or added sugar, to less than 5 percent of your daily calories, yet for Americans, added sugar accounts for 14 percent of the average daily caloric intake. Without a huge shift in habits, Americans could be facing a chronic health crisis. Regulation would help curb this collective addiction. Everyone has the right to make their own dietary decisions. Ingredients (including added sugars) are readily available on food packaging, and calorie counts are displayed on menus at chain restaurants. There is plenty of information out there for everyone to make informed decisions about their diet, including tips on how to cut down on sugar intake specifically. Theres no question that sugar should be consumed in moderation, but government-mandated regulation is not the answer. America is facing an obesity epidemic. The highest population of obese and overweight people live in the U.S., and the public's addiction to sugar is one of the main culprits. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine: Obesity is a complex problem with multiple causes. But among the likely suspects, sugar is high on the list. As sugar consumption has increased, so too has our national waistline. According to blogger, nutritionist, and self-proclaimed former fast-food junkie, Megan Gilmore, sugar should be regulated just like other addictive substances. Gilmore suggests starting with sugary sodas. She writes on her blog, Detoxinista: I realize that government regulation is a tricky subject, as it could start a domino effect of other regulations, but what I like about this particular idea is that it is NOT proposing a ban on sodas, or even on refined sugar, for that matter. Its only making us reevaluate our concept of portion-control when it comes to this addictive substance. Beyond violating the basic freedom to choose your own diet, regulating sugar just sounds like the government and/or health organizations have turned into your parents telling you not to drink soda before bed. Sugar is fun. Sometimes, you just need that extra boost. Whether or not you overdo it is up to you. 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.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/03/should-sugar-be-regulated-like-a-drug.html |
Is sport a means for peace? | Spend five minutes watching children argue over their favourite football player and its difficult to see sport as a unifying force or a means for peace. But continue to watch these children as they leave their bickering behind and start to play for themselves, and the story is very different. In seconds theyve picked teams, agreed makeshift goals, and got the game underway. And everyone plays; from the new kid looking to make friends to the show-boater who gets brought down a peg or two by his peers. Without a referee, they adjudicate on fouls, award goals, and sort out restarts. They share responsibility for managing the game and develop attitudes of respect, tolerance and fair play. These are overarching values that transcend age, gender and/or ethnicity. Theyre cornerstones of decency that shape the kind of people we become and the way we treat others and resolve disagreements in later life. Of course, there are flashpoints and disagreements can flair up quickly, but by and large theyre remedied quickly. Playing the game is more important than settling scores. And its not just in parks and playgrounds where sport makes its mark. The FIFA World Cup attracts entries from 211 countries, culminating in the 32-team finals that are contested every four years in the worlds finest stadiums. Countries in conflict go up against each other. Players of every colour, creed, religion and belief take part. The rules apply to everyone, equally and the world watches. Similarly, The Olympic Games brings together 206 competing nations, and has become a truly global event. Sport at every level creates a platform for shared experience and endeavour. It proves that teammates from different backgrounds can work together towards a common goal. It gives competitors and supporters an identity beyond their religious and/or political beliefs. By bringing people together, sport fosters communication, understanding and interaction. It promotes dialogue, breaks down barriers, and focuses attention on shared pleasures rather than contentious disputes. In the Nigerian Civil War (19671970) a two-day truce was called so both sides could watch Pele and his touring Santos team play. Sport didnt end the war, but it brought about a ceasefire. But many have hijacked sport and the shared platform it creates. Adolf Hitler tried to use the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin as a propaganda vehicle for Aryan supremacy. Jesse Owens proved otherwise by winning four gold medals. In 1969, three World Cup qualifying matches between El Salvador and Honduras stoked an already charged atmosphere between these quarrelling neighbours, culminating in the outbreak of war days after the final match. Sporting events also create targets and terrorists murdered 11 Israelis and one policeman at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. Two people died and dozens were injured by a bomb at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. In 2009, gunman attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team as they made their way to a match against Pakistan, resulting in eight fatalities and again proving the unwelcome attention sport attracts. Cancel sporting spectacles and lives would be saved. Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium. Totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. | https://www.reuters.com/article/idUKWAOA44R5OH01193C |
Can the Bulls catch the Cavs and enter the 14 percent club for Zion Williamson? | originally appeared on nbcsportschicago.com When the Bulls went on their hottest stretch of the season, one that began Feb. 13 in a win over the Grizzlies and ended with that ridiculous quadruple-overtime victory in Atlanta, it assumed that their chances at top Lottery odds had vanished. At that time, March 1, the Bulls were 18-45. Here's how the bottom of the NBA standings looked: Scroll to continue with content Ad Phoenix Suns: 12-51 New York Knicks: 13-49 (1.5 GB) Cleveland Cavaliers: 15-47 (3.5 GB) Chicago Bulls: 18-45 (6 GB) Atlanta Hawks: 21-42 (9 GB) There was actually more concern that the Bulls may stay hot and catch the Atlanta Hawks, thus pushing the Bulls farther down the Lottery standings. But since March 2, two things have happened that have once again potentially changed the Bulls' fortunes: The Bulls have stopped winning and the Cavaliers have continued playing really well. First, the Bulls have lost five of their last six games. Perhaps that marathon in Atlanta really took the life out of them, but then again the Hawks are 3-3 since that game so it clearly hasn't affected them much. The Bulls offense has regressed some playing twice without Zach LaVine ranking 19th in the NBA in this recent two-week stretch. The defense has been its usual self, which is to say they rank 28th in efficiency since the four-overtime game. Story continues The Cavs, meanwhile, look rejuvenated. A combination of Kevin Love returning from injury and rookie Collin Sexton turning a corner in Year 1 has given Cleveland new life. They're also getting nice contributions from Cedi Osman and Jordan Clarkson. The result has been an improved roster and more competitive play. While the Bulls were getting hot the Cavaliers were, too. In fact, since Feb. 11 they've actually played .500 basketball (6-6), and their six wins in that stretch were as many as they had from Dec. 8 to Feb. 9. So here's how the Lottery standings look now: New York Knicks: 13-55 Phoenix Suns: 16-53 (2.5 GB) Cleveland Cavaliers: 17-51 (4 GB) Chicago Bulls: 19-50 (5.5 GB) Atlanta Hawks: 24-45 (11.5 GB) It's clear the Bulls will finish at worst with the fourth best Lottery odds (12.5 percent chance at the top pick). And for those holding out hope that the Bulls might join the Knicks and Suns at 14 percent, well, there's actually a chance. Per our friends at Tankathon, the Cavaliers have the sixth most difficult schedule remaining in the NBA. That includes two games against Milwaukee, one against Boston, and one against Golden State as part of a brutal five-game West road trip. They also play two games against the Spurs, who will be fighting for playoff positioning until the final week of the season. That's the bad news. The good news is the Cavs have been competitive against good teams. In the past two weeks they've gone down to the wire in Brooklyn and Philadelphia and they spanked the Raptors by 25 at home. That's not to say they'll continue this stretch, but it gives hope that they can string together a few wins against tough teams and then beat up on their easier foes that include Dallas, Phoenix and a Charlotte team at the end of the season that could be resting their key players in Game 82. The Bulls don't have it as difficult, which could mean more wins. Per Tankathon, they have the 16th most difficult schedule remaining. Their toughest games are against Toronto (twice), Philadelphia (twice), Portland and Utah. Perhaps the biggest threat to the 14-percent chances are the two games remaining the Bulls have against the tanking Knicks. Their game in Phoenix comes at the end of a three-game trip, and the Suns have played well of late. For what it's worth, Basketball Reference projects the Bulls to finish 4-9 for a 23-59 record, and the Cavaliers to finish 3-11 for a 20-62 record. That seems about right, given that the Cavaliers could "rest" players down the stretch while Jim Boylen and the Bulls seem to want to go full-speed ahead to finish the regular season strong. Our best guess is the Bulls finish behind Cleveland in the Lottery standings, but the combination of the Bulls' lackluster play and Cleveland performing well of late has certainly made it a conversation. | https://sports.yahoo.com/bulls-catch-cavs-enter-14-173906734.html?src=rss |
Did missing truck part lead to freak accident that killed college student? | Margaret Maurer (Photo: Tulane University) JACKSON, Miss. A missing part on an 18-wheeler probably led to the death of a college student at a Mississippi rest stop, a Mississippi Department of Transportation official told The New Orleans Advocate. On March 5, Tulane University student Margaret Maurer was at a rest stop with friends in Gautier. Police said a tractor-trailer was traveling westbound on Interstate 10 when two of its wheels came off. The wheels then crossed the eastbound lanes, entering the rest stop. Maurer and two friends were about to get back into their vehicle when the tires hit her and two cars. The absence of a locking ring, a $3 part, was cited as a probable cause of the incident, said Willie Huff, director of the transportation department's office of enforcement. Huff said the metal ring a 3-inch locking washer was missing when inspectors unpacked the outer hub of the wheel assembly. It is one of two rings that are meant to lock in place the large lug nuts holding the wheels in place. Only one ring was found, Huff told The Advocate. The findings are still preliminary, Huff said. March 7: 'Gifted' college student killed by flying tires in freak roadside accident in Mississippi It is not mentioned in a brief report by the Mississippi Department of Transportation on the inspection that was done after the incident. That report, provided to The Advocate by the Gautier (Mississippi) Police Department after a public-records request, found "out of adjustment" brakes where the wheels came off, but blamed the problem on a common failure of newer air-brake systems. Inspectors also found a leaking seal, a violation that prompted state officials to order the trailer taken out of service for repairs. Huff said the leak may have been caused by damage from the loss of the wheels. Neither of those issues would have caused the wheels to come off. Huff said that the missing ring wouldnt have broken off. He thinks it is more likely it was not installed. This Mississippi Department of Transportation photo shows the axle of the 18-wheeler involved in March 5, 2019, accident that killed a Tulane University student. (Photo: MDOT) The truck is owned by Dana Transport Inc. of Avenel, New Jersey. It also is listed under a related company, Suttles Truck Leasing of Demopolis, Alabama. Both companies are in good standing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, with "satisfactory" ratings and a better-than-average record on crashes and vehicle safety. Huff said the missing ring would not have been detected in the kind of unannounced roadside inspections that are logged into the federal database. David Dorrity, a South Carolina trucking safety expert who frequently testifies in court cases, told The Advocate there are three main reasons that wheels can fly off big-rigs: A wheel seal failure in which grease is lost and the metal overheats An installation error A sheared axle. Dorrity said wheel separations usually occur on the left side of a truck, where the wheels turn against the clockwise torque of the nuts. This Mississippi Department of Transportation photo shows parts after the wheel assembly was unpacked. A locking ring was missing. (Photo: MDOT) Maurer of Minnesota was a senior at Tulane University in New Orleans, where she studied ecology and evolutionary biology, USA TODAY reported. University president Mike Fitts described Maurer as an "extraordinarily gifted student and a leader among her peers" in a written statement. "She was planning to graduate in May to pursue a career in scientific illustration a field that combined her skill as a scientist, her incredible artistic talent and her love of nature," he said. Speaking with Minnesota's KSTP-TV, Maurer's mother said the "freak accident" happened as her daughter and her friends took a restroom break during a spring-break road trip. "It's absolutely a random freaky thing," Tracy Maurer told the station. "It's not right. There's so much that's wrong about this. It's just random. I really want to be angry at somebody, but I can't be." Follow Harold Gater on Twitter: @haroldgater Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/15/flying-tires-missing-part-18-wheeler-tulane-student-death-mississippi/3173765002/ | https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/15/flying-tires-missing-part-18-wheeler-tulane-student-death-mississippi/3173765002/ |
Did missing $3 part let truck wheels roll off, kill student? | NEW ORLEANS (AP) A Mississippi transportation official tells a New Orleans newspaper that the absence of a $3 part may have let tires roll off of a tractor trailer, killing a Tulane University student from Minnesota. Office of Enforcement director Willie Huff tells The New Orleans Advocate that a locking washer designed to secure truck wheels was missing from the trailer. Two wheels joined together rolled into a rest stop, killing Margaret Maurer of Forest Lake, Minnesota. Huff says the conclusion blaming the missing metal ring is still preliminary. Dana Transport Inc. of Avenel, New Jersey, owns the truck. Vice president Gene Patten says he can't comment. He did say, "There's always more to the story." Patten referred The Associated Press to an attorney who did not immediately return a call for comment. ___ Information from: The New Orleans Advocate, http://www.neworleansadvocate.com | https://www.sfchronicle.com/news/education/article/Did-missing-3-part-let-truck-wheels-roll-off-13691732.php |
Could Elon Musks high-speed tunnel in Las Vegas answer nations infrastructure problem? | LAS VEGAS The Boring Company founder Elon Musk and his vision to create high-speed transit tunnels to help solve the nations high infrastructure cost for a fraction of the price might finally come to fruition out in the desert. The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority voted earlier this week to move forward with contract negotiations with Musks Boring Co. to construct a tunnel transportation system connecting the roughly two-mile-long convention center. What if we could create something that the rest of the industry -- in China, in Denver, in Atlanta -- said 'God I wish we had, I wish we wouldve,' Chuck Bowling, who serves on the LVCVA board of directors as well as the president of Mandalay Bay, said during a committee meeting Tuesday on whether to continue talks with The Boring Company. While a majority of the board members were excited about the prospect of being a testing ground for innovation, the idea was not without skepticism including from Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn G. Goodman. The Boring Company does not have any documented successes nor a track record of achievement. It is exploratory at this time, and we are considering handing over the reins of our most important industry, said Goodman, who also serves on the LVCVA board of directors. I would like to have further briefing on this entire project to the inclusive board of the LVCVA. TESLA MODEL Y DEBUTS IN CALIFORNIA WITH $39,000 BASE PRICE Despite having several other proposals/projects in the works in Los Angeles, Chicago as well as Washington D.C. and Maryland, Boring Co. has yet to build more than a two-mile test tunnel in Hawthorne, Calif. Russell Holly, managing editor of Mobile Nations, notes that the Tesla founder has a huge track record of overpromising, but said if the Boring Company is able to follow through in Las Vegas, it could be a huge deal for the company and lead to a lot of other contracts. Tesla is raising prices on all of its cars and the fabled $35,000 model is basically not going to happen, Holly said, in reference to the automotive company announcing it was raising the price on most of its vehicles by 3 percent. So, there's a lot of, you know, overpromising when it comes to Tesla. I don't see any reason to consider that the Boring Company is going to be any different, especially since it's unproven. So, it's hard to say seriously. SEC CHAIR CLAYTON ON ELON MUSK SAGA: 280 CHARACTERS ON TWITTER JUST ARENT ENOUGH AT TIMES What sets Musk apart from other companies is not the tunnel itself, but the extremely low cost at which he claims to be able to build it another concern mentioned during Tuesdays LVCVA committee hearing. The Boring Co.s $35 million to $55 million proposal for the Las Vegas Convention Center would feature Tesla vehicles operating though express tunnels that connect the convention centers main halls with the capability to transport roughly 11,000 passengers per hour. The whole purpose of our company is not to say we invented tunneling, that would be ludicrous it is to say that we can do it faster, and we can do it much less expensive and were willing to put our money where our mouth is by doing all firm-based price and performance-based contracts, Steve Davis, Boring Co. president, said at Tuesdays committee meeting. To put it in perspective, the San Francisco Central Subway cost $920 million per mile while the Seattle U-Link came in at $600 million per mile on the cheaper end, according to data compiled by writer and transportation researcher Alon Levy for CityLab last January. The 2015 subway extension in New York City for Manhattans East Side cost $2.5 billion per mile, while the addition to the No. 7 line cost $1.5 billion, the New York Times pointed out. If Las Vegas does become The Boring Companys first success story, it could help solve the nations infrastructure problem and close the roughly trillion-dollar gap between what we currently spend on infrastructure nationwide and what we need to spend, Michele Nellenbach, director of strategic initiatives at the Bipartisan Policy Center, told Fox News. ELON MUSKS SPACEX PLANS MAY GO UP IN SMOKE AS PENTAGON INVESTIGATION OF POT SMOKING NEARS END We are certainly not without need, and we need some innovative solutions that will hopefully bring down some of the costs -- which to me, was one of the intriguing things about what Musk has proposed is that if the boring technology works as he's predicting, it will it could really bring down the cost of doing some of this underground, she said. President Donald Trumps 2020 budget plan calls for at least $1 trillion in infrastructure spending. As for Las Vegas, chief executive officer of the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, Tina Quigley, said the low-cost of what Musk is proposing is definitely intriguing as the city is running out of space. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP We have a geometry problem in some corridors where we just can't fit in more personal private vehicles without eventually having significant congestion, Quigley said, adding there's no way to uncouple technology and transit and transportation moving forward. They are interlinked and, well, they should be because there's a lot of opportunity to get more with less they need to have the space or something. If all goes according to plan, LVCVA president Steve Hill expects the tunnel to be completed in time for the 2021 Consumer Electronics Show and believes it could later be expanded to connect the Vegas strip. | https://www.foxnews.com/us/elon-musks-high-speed-tunnel-in-las-vegas-could-answer-nations-infrastructure-problem |
Are startups a better career path than conventional jobs? | The world of work has changed. Long gone are jobs-for-life and all the security that came with them. At a glance, the allure of the start-up has to be its flexibility. If youre hungry for variety, hours to suit your lifestyle and the thrill of an environment that must consistently adapt and innovate to survive, then it sounds like a no-brainer. If you want to feel the impact of your work in the marketplace, consider the effects of innovating for a company that has the resources to support it at scale. The ripple effects could be life - and world - changing. Another advantage of larger corporate environments - with a dedicated operations team - is that you wont have to wear so many hats to keep the business afloat allowing you to focus and hone your area of interest - learning from mentors inside the business, embracing tried and tested methods and, often, benefitting from training schemes. But for those with an eye on the C-suite, moving up the ranks in the corporate world could take time or become a source of frustration in some cases, the role youre shooting for may never open up. You might be forced to expand in other ways to satisfy your ambition, making it a winding path to your ultimate career goal. Theres no doubt that start-ups present an empowering place to be for people at all stages in their working life. As part of a small team - the members of which are likely to have differing but complementary skillsets - not only could you find yourself leading the charge in your strong suit, but your every move whether good or bad will have instant, visible results and offer feedback that you can use to make changes quickly. Knowing that the entire company is relying on the work you do is not for everyone. For those willing to run with that baton at a pace, the real-world lessons can develop creative thinking, agility and business skills that might otherwise have taken years to progress. How you want to learn and grow, as an individual, is a big factor in the decision-making here. Ultimately, whether its labeled start-up or corporation, you work for a company. And your experience will be dictated by the culture, vision and structure of the organization. What you ultimately decide will be governed by where you best see yourself fitting in with the established big hitters or the new movers and shakers. | https://www.reuters.com/article/idUKWAOAEYOZ2HFB193F |
What is 8chan, and why did the New Zealand shooter use it to announce himself to the world? | The suspected shooter in the terror attack at Christchurchs Al Noor Mosque livestreamed his rampage on Facebook, but gave earlier warning of it via 8chan, a message board known as one of the Internets darkest corners. Well lads, its time to stop shitposting and time to make a real life effort post by the time you read this I should be going live, the 8chan post reads. As the Washington Posts Drew Harwell remarked on Twitter: The New Zealand massacre was livestreamed on Facebook, announced on 8chan, reposted on YouTube, commentated about on Reddit, and mirrored around the world before the tech companies could even react. The New Zealand massacre was livestreamed on Facebook, announced on 8chan, reposted on YouTube, commentated about on Reddit, and mirrored around the world before the tech companies could even react. Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) March 15, 2019 We know the main suspect is a 28-year-old Australian white nationalist who hated immigrants, and sought revenge against Muslims. Threads Based on labyrinthine and anonymous comment threads, 8chan was founded by Fredrick Brennan, a user of similar site 4chan, in the fall of 2013. It is now owned by American Jim Watkins, who is said to be based in the Philippines. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, where users who post hate speech are often banned, 4chan and to an even more extreme degree 8chan are very light on moderation. 8chan was spawned by #GamerGate, a long-running episode in which forums were frequently used to dox and harass female video game enthusiasts who were pushing back against sexism in their industry. When sites like 4chan and Reddit belatedly clamped down on such hate-filled forums, Brennan began 8chan as a free speech friendly 4chan alternative, the Washington Post reported in 2015. The site soon became the second biggest imageboard outlet. These site types were originally used to discuss things like Japanese anime, but are now home to video game experts, Internet culture obsessives and the so-called alt-right. As 8chan grew more and more bilious, Brennan eventually partnered with computer expert Watkins after the site kept getting removed from funding sites such as Patreon for violating terms of use. Imageboards are a haven for (terrible things) and thats exactly what makes them such wonderful places. I wouldnt change a thing, Brennan said at the time. It (8chan) became the new digital home for some of the most offensive people on the internet, people who really believe in white supremacy and the inferiority of women, Ethan Chiel wrote for Splinter News in 2016. 8chan was delisted from Googles search results the previous year because users were posting child porn. Manifesto At about 1:30 p.m. New Zealand time on Friday, the anonymous user told 8chans /pol/ Politically Incorrect message board of his impending attack. Approving responses to the post included Nazi images and memes. The user linked to a Facebook page and 74-page manifesto of a person using the Brenton Tarrant name on Twitter. The Twitter account was suspended not long after the shooting, as was the brenton.tarrant.9 Facebook page. The manifesto said the shooter was motivated by white genocide, a term white supremacists use to describe immigration and the growth of minority populations. Its time to stop shitposting and time to make a real life effort he said. Shitposting sees posters deliberately send out online content that is sarcastic and trolling in nature, safe in the knowledge that news consumers who arent aware that the joke is on them will be upset after taking their in-jokes literally. On the investigative site Bellingcat, Robert Evans pointed out that the manifesto, called The Great Replacement, contains views that do actually seem to match the shooters held beliefs. His actions, too, indicate extreme white supremacist views. One of his weapons, for example, was emblazoned with the number 14 this is presumed to refer to the 14 words penned by one infamous neo-Nazi: We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children. In the shootings aftermath, six of the seven top message rooms on 8chan were dominated by the attack, ABC Australia reports. One user posted that finally one of their own had done something. Genuine But the shooter referred to various right-wing figures in his post and not all references appear to have been genuine praise. Evans says the manifesto is a trap itself, laid for journalists searching for the meaning behind this horrific crime. There is truth in there, and valuable clues to the shooters radicalization, but it is buried beneath a great deal of, for lack of a better word, shitposting. For example, in one apparently ironic reference, the shooter talks of far-right figure Candace Owens, saying it was she who first radicalized him as her stunning insights pushed him towards violence. The ultimate goal is to derail productive discussion and distract readers, Evans writes. The Great Replacement is a clear and brutally obvious example of this technique. It is misdirection, he says, used to split left and right and maybe even lead them to violence. Joan Donovan, Director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedys Shorenstein Center, agreed. She posted to Twitter: Journalists must not annotate the NZ murders manifesto. The coded language is not worth your time. Moreover, his social media celebrity call-outs dont mean you need to ask those influencers to speak on this. Those references were strategically placed to create coverage. Journalists must not annotate the NZ murders manifesto. The coded language is not worth your time. Moreover, his social media celebrity call outs dont mean you need to ask those influencers to speak on this. Those references were strategically placed to create coverage. Joan Donovan, PhD (@BostonJoan) March 15, 2019 Violence is being used to cause attention to these ideas. Dont share or decode the manifesto. As for 8chans users, many welcomed the attack as they continued to post their own in-jokes, make references to obscure pop culture, and praise neo-Nazis. Nice shootin Tex one remarked. Another hailed the shooter as the next Breivik a reference to Norwegian white supremacist Anders Breivik, who murdered dozens in a 2011 rampage. | https://nationalpost.com/news/world/what-is-8chan-and-why-did-the-new-zealand-shooter-use-it-to-announce-himself-to-the-world |
What does Christchurch attack tell us about rightwing extremism? | The motivations and actions of far-right terrorists are not dissimilar to those of others The terrorist attack in New Zealand has focused attention once more on the acute threat posed by rightwing extremists. Waves of terrorism follow a pattern: a long, unnoticed buildup followed by a massive and spectacular strike that often inflicts significant damage and casualties but focuses minds and eventually resources. Counterterrorism agencies, driven by public outrage and concerned officials, struggle for a time to gain the upper hand until, with better funding and understanding, they begin to win the battle to keep us safe. The cycle can take many years, even decades. Rightwing terrorism was building through the 2000s. The spectacular event came when the Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Norway in 2011. Since then there has been a steady drumbeat of violence: the killing of 11 Jewish worshippers in Pittsburgh, the murder of the British MP Jo Cox, attacks on mosques in London and Quebec, and, barely reported, many more incidents motivated by hatred. Although in Europe Islamist militant violence has been more common and more lethal, signs of the threat posed by rightwing violence have long existed. In the UK in 2017 there were five terrorist attacks attributed to rightwing extremists. In the US, violent rightwing activity was linked to at least 50 deaths in 2018. Research by the Anti-Defamation League showed that over the last decade, 73.3% of all extremist-related fatalities in the US could be linked to domestic right-wing extremists, while 23.4% were attributable to Islamist extremists. Many specialists fear the answer is no, simply because the resources and attention focused on rightwing violence are insufficient. Last year, the former head of the Metropolitan polices counterterrorism unit said the UK had not woken up to the threat posed by the far right. In the US, experts at the Soufan Centre, founded by the former FBI special agent Ali Soufan, described a long-running US double standard with concerns over crime and terrorism that are inspired by the narrative of Bin Ladenism versus crime and terrorism inspired by right-wing ideology. Though there are substantial differences, rightwing and Islamist extremism, and extremists, share a great deal. The basic mechanics of the process of radicalisation by peers, through the internet or otherwise are very similar. As is the way both forms of violent activism are on the fringe of a much broader movement, much of which has bled into the mainstream in different parts of the world. There are no lone wolves, at least not in the sense of a solitary actor without links, whether virtual or real, to others. In a manifesto published online by the suspect in the Christchurch attack, for instance, he said he was not a direct member of any group or organisation but had interacted with, or donated to, many. Another shared element is the belief that resistance to tyranny is not just acceptable but an obligation. Islamist militant thinkers say rulers or regimes should be overthrown if they stand in the way of the rule of the enlightened and faithful. Rightwing extremists also see the government as the oppressor of their imagined community, defined by race and sometimes faith, the authority of which should be rejected and sometimes fought. Both Islamists and rightwing extremists believe their communities are facing an existential threat, placing an obligation on the individual to fight back. For the Islamists, the belief that a belligerent west has been set on the humiliation and exploitation of the worlds Muslims for the best part of 1,000 years is axiomatic. Demography looms large for far-right nationalists. Protesters in the US have paraded beneath swastikas, shouting: Jews will not replace us. The New Zealand suspects manifesto is titled The great replacement, a theory predicting the end of the European white race as it is displaced by immigrants from other races. It starts with the phrase its the birthrates repeated three times and predicts the European people spiralling into decay and eventual death if nothing is done. The atrocity, the manifesto says, was a partisan action against an occupying force. Finally, there is the shared dependence on warped visions of history. Islamist militants invoke the battles of the earliest Muslim generations, the crusades and then the decline of great Islamic empires that for much of the past 1,300 years were infinitely richer, more powerful and more sophisticated than their western counterparts. The Christchurch suspect invokes the battle of Tours, a defeat of a Muslim raiding army in 732, and the Siege of Vienna in 1683. According to the manifesto, the aim was to take revenge on the invaders for the hundreds of thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders in European lands throughout history the enslavement of millions of Europeans taken from their lands by the Islamic slavers and the thousands of European lives lost to terror attacks throughout European lands. The bloodiest period for terrorism in Europe was in fact the 1970s and 1980s. According to the news and analysis website Quartz, one of the worst recent years was 2015, when the the number of casualties in a series of Islamist militant attacks was well above the average of the past 45 years. However, it still remains well below the levels of the 1970s and 1980s. | https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/15/what-does-christchurch-attack-tell-us-about-rightwing-extremism |
Can 'Fantastic Beasts' Can Survive 'Crimes Of Grindelwald'? | Come what may, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald really was the X-Men: Apocalypse of the franchise. Like the 2016 Bryan Singer sequel, the second David Yates-directed installment in the allegedly five-part prequel saga introduced new and interesting characters and then sidelined them for folks we either already knew or didn't know or care about. Like a number of pretenders to the Harry Potter throne, it emphasized plot, worldbuilding and continuity tie-ins to the prior movie over making sure that audiences actually enjoyed the time they spent with the likes of Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne), Jacob Kowalski (Dan Fogler), Tina Goldstein (Katherine Waterston), Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol) and a younger Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). Unlike the Harry Potter films, which emphasized characters and chemistry over plot and action, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was all about table-setting and continuity. The film spent much of its 135-minute running time setting up the threat allegedly posed by Grindelwald (Johnny Depp, giving a full-bodied villainous turn again showing that he never really phones it in) and establishing a climactic character reveal/plot twist that landed with an epic thud. As the film arrives on VOD/DVD/etc. this week, I wanted to take a moment to discuss what should or shouldn't happen next. Yes, the third film has been delayed, and WB has slotted Denis Villeneuve's Dune on the weekend (November 20, 2020) where we all expected Fantastic Beasts 3 to land. Now the question becomes what becomes of the next movie and the whole franchise. Not unlike Batman v Superman once upon a time, Fantastic Beasts 2 earned otherwise decent box office results ($653m worldwide) but marked a much-needed course correction. The fear is that Fantastic Beasts 3 will act like Divergent Series: Allegiant and send the series to a premature grave. If folks showed up in November of 2016 because they were curious and interested in the next chapter of the J.K. Rowling wizarding world, they, in turn, didn't show up quite as much for the sequel. That in itself is not a dealbreaker, as the first chapter of the saga (and the first "new" J.K. Rowling movie in five years) was always going to rope in the die-hard fans and the casually curious. That the film earned decent reviews and legged it like a champ ($232 million from a $74.4m debut weekend) was itself promising, to say nothing of the $819m global cume on a $180m budget. While the hope was that Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them was the Batman Begins of the franchise, it turned out to be the Amazing Spider-Man of the saga. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald opened with $62 million domestic, which frankly was enough of a hold from the first film to inspire some cautious optimism. But it crashed like a rock, playing almost identically to X-Men: Apocalypse (which earned $155m domestic) and ending its domestic run with $159.555m, or just over the $159.3m cume of Blumhouse's $10m-budgeted Halloween. Like Amazing Spider-Man 2, it held up halfway decently overseas ($494m, or -15% from FB1's $585m overseas cume) but fell harder (-32%) in North America. That in itself isn't a death sentence, as Fate of the Furious and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom took similar drops from their overperforming predecessors. But that the film got lousy reviews, was received comparatively poorly by fans and must carry on not for one more movie but for three more movies complicates things. Like the 2016 DC Films flicks (Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad), Warner Bros. is in a weird position of having to course-correct after one of the biggest grossers of their respective year. The film did gross $653 million worldwide on a $200m budget, and if they can maintain that number for at least the next two films then this is all mere trivia. But the fear, a rational one I would argue, is that general audiences will look at the saga and see not one more movie but three more movies and decide to jump ship on the threequel. That's the difference between Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy, George Lucas' Star Wars prequels and the likes of Fantastic Beasts and Divergent. Having sat through 40% of a series instead of 66% means that sunk-cost-fallacy may not apply. Stopping now is not an option, both for the franchise's lasting value in the post-theatrical afterlife (an unfinished five-part saga doesn't really work as a binge) and for WB's relationship with J.K. Rowling. They could produce all five films and hope that the bottom doesn't fall out before the fourth one. I would advise crafting a mostly stand-alone Fantastic Beasts adventure that focuses almost exclusively on character and leaves the mythology for Fantastic Beasts 4. It gives Rowling, Yates and the producers (David Heyman, Steve Kloves and Lionel Wigram) a chance to craft a movie during which audiences can "fall for" these new characters yet again. Grand mythology is useless if folks don't want to hang out with these wizards. Harry Potter fans became fans not because of the grand plots but because they loved the characters, full stop. In a skewed way, this would be like the third episode of the original five-part series premiere of Gargoyles. Fans of that mid-1990s Disney afternoon toon will recall that the third episode was 99% just Goliath (Keith David) meeting and palling around with Elisa Maza (Salli Richardson), sans much in the way of plot or even action. They got back to business in the fourth episode, but that glorified intermission made sure that audiences were onboard with what would be the show's defining relationship. A glorified intermission movie, where our heroes recover from their Crimes of Grindelwald defeats by licking their wounds and bonding with each other would allow us to see these folks doing something other than running around Europe trying to piece together the century's least exciting plot twist. Also of note, it would allow for a fail-safe should the third movie flop. As tempting as it is to say "Hey, Crimes of Grindelwald stunk so you better wrap it up in a trilogy," we don't yet know if the series has suffered a mortal wound. Maybe I'm wrong and the fans will show up again and keep those grosses over $550 million global. If that's the case, then maybe we do get five movies. But if the third stand-alone movie bombs or shows additional signs of viewership indifference, then you can just use the fourth movie to dive back into the mythology and wrap the whole thing up in four movies. Plan B should be a way that allows this saga to end in four films instead of five. Sure, you might argue that represents a defeat, but it's better than crawling to the finish line with no fans left by the end of the saga. That WB has delayed the production date for the third movie means they know that they may be looking at a Divergent-level drop (from $288 million worldwide for Divergent 2 to $117m worldwide for Divergent 3) for the threequel and a serious problem with three more movies left to go. Since the key flaw of Crmes of Grindelwald is that it didn't bother to endear us to any of the returning characters (instead highlighting a new villain, a resurrected baddie from the last movie, and a new supporting character who was killed off at the end anyway) and tripled-down on continuity, the solution is to go the opposite route for Fantastic Beast 3. It'll allow us to hopefully enjoy these characters, it'll give us a break from the worldbuilding and it'll allow WB to, if necessary, merely be on the hook for one more movie worth of mythology and plot threads. We'll see what transpires in the Wizarding World of J.K. Rowling. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald may have been a fatal wound to this chapter of the Harry Potter saga, but hope springs eternal especially when there's magic involved. So whether they cap it at three movies, drag it out to five moves, or go with my modest proposal that caps it at four (with only one more movie worth of plot), it's going to be an interesting progression. And to think, I'm old enough to remember when the J.K. Rowling franchise and the LEGO franchise were Warner Bros.' sturdy and stable IP while the DC Films universe was causing the non-stop headaches. If WB can indeed "save" the DC Films franshise, then there is perhaps enough magic in the water tower to salvage the Fantastic Beasts saga as well. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/03/15/box-office-fantastic-beasts-crimes-of-grindelwald-jk-rowling-harry-potter-johnny-depp-movies/ |
Are There Too Many Cooks In A Franchise System? What About Going Corporate? | If youre an entrepreneur, youll inevitably get asked, how are you going to expand your business? Early on, the only way in which I could expand was through the franchising model. Expanding into new cities using a corporately-owned approach was simply too expensive, and banks were not willing to provide us with a loan. I and many other entrepreneurs chose to franchise as its the best way to share the risk and capital that is required to scale a brand nationally and internationally. Prospective franchise owners pay a franchise fee and ongoing royalties to licence the brand and use the proven business model and support services from the franchisor. The franchisor, in return, has the peace of mind knowing that when a franchisee has made the investment to open up a new franchise, they have a committed business partner that will fight through the ups and downs and remain loyal to the operation. Franchisees have more financial skin in the game than a general manager or employee might have. Our franchise system has always been mixed, with 95% locations franchise owned and 5% corporately owned. Recently, we announced to our franchise network that we would be opening up additional corporate locations. The feedback from our franchisees varied. Some celebrated the decision and some cast doubts. Many franchise systems have a higher percentage of corporately owned locations than we presently have, and it's not uncommon to hear one CEO of a national franchise brand state their franchise system wants to increase their corporate units to 50% overall, while another CEO state in their strategic plan they want to reduce their corporate units to 1%. There is no right answer, here. It really depends on the strength of the franchise system, the companys balance sheet and the type of business model theyre using. I will always be a huge believer in the franchise model and we will continue awarding franchises to qualifying owners, but I also admire brands such as Starbucks or Chipotle that use a corporate store expansion approach. More and more frequently entrepreneurs that have grown through both corporate and franchise units have found that corporate expansion has its advantages. Here is why: Increased Profitability. With a franchise model, the Franchisor doesnt receive any profits earned by the franchise owner, only royalty fees they charge the franchisee. Being able to participate in both the top and bottom line revenue has a lot of appeal for the Franchisor, strengthening their financial position. Be mindful that, when building a strategic corporate growth plan, newly incurred management expenses to manage the corporate locations arent greater than the newfound profits - otherwise the returns are negligible. The Roles Of The Zee and Zor Has Evolved. When we started franchising our business model, the way we acquired customers was vastly different than today. We started franchising in a world when few customers were searching for junk removal online and most people found our service through our guerilla marketing efforts and good old fashioned relationship building by knocking on the doors of realtors, property managers and homeowners. Franchisees were required to focus 80% of their time on customer acquisition and 20% on operations. As time passed, we discovered some of our franchisees were spending little to no time on advertising and promoting their businesses. We slowly began to take control of almost all of the advertising tactics on behalf of the franchise owners. JUSTJUNK and many other franchisors are no longer largely dependant on their franchisees to generate business locally. The world of local and search engine marketing has evolved and in 2019 those changes have lead to the franchisee in some systems playing less of a role in new customer acquisition than they once had. One Voice When there are too many cooks in the kitchen, execution and productivity slows. Take a simple decision, like defining an annual advertising budget. When multiple parties are involved in decision making, especially when debating large budgetary items, the speed in which decisions can be made is bound by the length of the debate and delays in correspondences between all parties involved. Under corporate ownership, these discussions can be streamlined. Having full control over a decision and the ability to execute is one of the biggest driving forces behind franchise systems expanding through a corporately owned model. Many startup franchisors cant consider opening corporately owned locations as most lack the infrastructure or capital. Over time as their franchise system grows, branching out into corporately owned locations can be a great way to fast forward the growth of the brand and diversify their expansion model. With our Director Of Corporate Franchises hired and working to launch our newest corporate location, his fresh perspective is bringing improvements to our start-up steps, operating procedures and advertising strategies which our company is leveraging to benefit all franchise owners. The best of both worlds. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikethorne/2019/03/15/are-there-too-many-cooks-in-a-franchise-system-what-about-going-corporate/ |
Could Crypto And Blockchain Shake Up The Music Streaming Monopolies? | My old music business friends always say, Where there is a hit there is a writ, and streaming music is definitely a hit. Spotify and Apple are the kings, with the internet behemoths Google and Amazon chasing up behind and others coming along in their wake. The $19bn industry is about 20% of Googles sales and is for all intents and purposes a monopoly with the Universal Music Group alone having 31% of the pie. Downstream Spotify does $5bln in sales and is therefore by textbook definitions another monopoly. Its 5x sales valuation is in line with unlisted Universal but there is always going to be friction between the two fat layers on intermediation in the music business. Those juicy layers between the artist and your ear are content publishing (as opposed to music publishing which is a segment of this activity) and distribution. This being the music business the drive of the intermediators is to keep as big a slice of the pie to themselves as possible. So its no surprise that Amazon and Spotify are fighting in the U.S. court a rear guard action to stop the artists getting a thicker cut of the revenue from their work. Even if they lose, many artists dont have call on any of that revenue anyway because they have already been parted from their IP rights or have their income diluted away by the magic of third party rights administration. If Hollywood accounting is hard on the income of the artist, its harshest form is in the music business. You can also be assured that whatever is going into the business of the music industry the artists will be the first to be left out of the spoils. The billionaires at Amazon and Spotify feel hard done by that hundreds of thousands of artists might get a sniff at some more money. A 44% rise in streaming income to the artists whose work is all of their product, is making Amazon and Spotify feel hard done by. The world is not enough for these gatekeepers. Well Ive a secret, I have 12 albums on Spotify and iTunes and they pay me every month. Believe it or not I am a secret popstar. I may be the least successful popstar of all time but I do nonetheless have accurate stats. I make 0.25c on a stream from what is near enough a direct relationship with Spotify. If I was an artist with a standard record company deal Id see almost nothing of that, if any at all. But independent as I am, to make a U.S. minimum wage living off $11 an hour from Spotify, I would need to have over 650,000 streams a month. 1,000,000 streams a month will get me out of poverty and around m streams a month will put me on par with the average Spotify programmer. Unless I wanted to leave my studio and busk, I would be the poorest superstar in history. Music business revenue is a fascinating thing. Of course the answer is, you cant easily discover independent music because the big boys are white listed for discovery and the rest arent. But then it's interesting to note the artists who are under the tutelage of record companies end up with only 15% of the pie in a digital work of zero cost of goods. So between your ear and the artists pocket, 85% of the money is siphoned off by the gatekeepers whose main role appears to be freezing everyone else out of the channel. But the madness doesnt end there. Spotify is upset with Apple because Apple controls the Appstore and the distribution of all apps, music or otherwise, to its mobile platforms. In effect, it is the retailer of Spotify to the Apple audience. Apple slices a fat slab of cash off the top of all Spotify subscriptions that are bought via the Apple App. It also chokes off all sorts of spammy behavior you would get on a desktop web product and upholds all sorts of uncomfortable standards. Apple Music, Spotifys direct competitor, is therefore at a big potential advantage. Spotify has therefore banged in a complaint in the EU, claiming the Apple 30% cut of their subscription is unfair. Now you can see their point but they go on to say Apple doesnt share this cut with the music industry. I take it they want to imply that the artists are getting hard done by and not suggesting the fat cat music executives and vulture capitalists that fund them are getting shortchanged. Hurting artists would be just awful of Apple, if it was not for one thing. Apple pays me, the worlds least successful pop star about 100% more per stream than what Spotify pays me and so does Amazon. All in all its not pretty, that Spotify pays artists half what Apple and Amazon does but then slams Apple for hurting artists. The internet was meant to break the corporate stranglehold that throttles artists but instead it has tightened it. The music business, be it the new digital distributor/retailers, or the old school publishers and content owners, have locked music down again and are bleeding the artist dry. The promise of the dotcom revolution to allow bands to go directly to fans has proven worse than a mirage, it has left artists worse off than they were before the WWW eviscerated music sales. What has formed is a set of titanic monopolies, and what monopolies do is maintain their monopolies. The music industry is doing a great job of that. So it is interesting that the internet is still trying to break the ever-tightening stranglehold and its the crypto upstarts that are taking up the childrens crusade. The two that stand out, and there will be more, are Choon and Feedbands. Choon pays artists in worthless Choon coins pumped out by its own crypto token system, while Feedbands is planning to pay listeners and artists in Bitcoin to participate in their community. Choon is a failed to launch ICO but its site is live and as the worlds least successful popstar Ive tracks on there and Ive got a wallet of Choon tokens waiting to be, eh, counted up every now and then. Feedbands is an older, change the music business attempt, which funds vinyl releases. Their idea now is to pay everyone in Bitcoin, the artists for their content, and the listeners for referring new listeners. As the least successful popstar of all time these new crypto ideas are tempting, but the harsh facts are, people dont want to pay for music and they want to be passive and have it pushed to them. A subscription music service is just like a streaming internet radio service but one where you can decide exactly what you listen to, if you can be bothered to decide. Most do not. Instead they listen to curated playlists which in effect are like niche radio stations. People are way more likely to say Alexa play me Christmas songs than make their own list. So, for the mass market any music product that relies on the users leaning in to interact rather than sitting back to chill out to a suggested playlist thats pushed to them, is doomed to be small fry. On the flip side, crypto might just be the disrupter that the monopolists fear, because blockchain is the technology to turn the music biz upside down. Imagine artists watching their royalties in real time on the blockchain. Hollywood accounting would just fail with such immutability. Blockchain promises to be the great disinter-mediator and that is what music needs. The internet was going to do that, but it did the opposite; maybe the internet plus blockchain can do it. There is the strange force in crypto that seemingly reverses the flow of money from its established route up the economic and political hierarchy downwards to the masses. This might be just what new technology does and it is perhaps just a phenomenon of the first wave of the Bitcoin revolution. However, I have a strange feeling that this financial dynamic can be an embedded attribute of blockchain. People pay to have their attention distracted. Middlemen skim the revenue of this trade, be it through advertising or by intermediation, and I am sure blockchain can pass this monetization or short circuit the gatekeepers, rewarding the artist with more of the revenue stream. So just when the music business has scrambled back from years of online disruption to lock up their industry once again, blockchain and cryptocurrency could turn their world upside down once more. More likely at least for many years to come my 0.26c a stream from Spotify, 0.68c from Amazon and 0.61c a stream from Apple Music will be the crummy deal artists will have to rely on. At least the next wave of the music revolution that never was is trying to spark into life and the blockchain is its best hope. Clem Chambers is the CEO of leading private investors Web site ADVFN.com and author of Be Rich, The Game in Wall Street and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide, out now in paperback and on the Kindle. In November 2018, Clem won Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street UK Institutional Press Awards. The awards recognise outstanding performance in institutional financial services reporting in the UK. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/investor/2019/03/15/could-crypto-and-blockchain-shake-up-the-music-streaming-monopolies/ |
What Is The Single Most Important Skill A Programmer Needs? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Tikhon Jelvis, programmer, on Quora: A programmer needs, above all, tastean intuitive capability and desire to do things cleanly, aligning to the needs and context of a project and not to absolute rules or universal principles. Yes, this is a vague quality. It's hard to pin down exactly, just like it's hard to pin down why consistently successful programmers are consistently successful. Youve probably worked with somebody like that beforesomebody who makes things work despite constraints, who avoids pitfalls others would fall into and who, when problems do arise, fixes them faster and more decisively than youd expect. They know which corners you cant cut, which ones you can and even which ones you should. I hope youre lucky enough to work with people like this. I have been and its fascinating. You watch them, but you cant really tell how they do it, just that they do. People call this experienceand experience is the only sure way to develop tastebut this is misleading. Ive seen people with years and years of experience in different companies and contexts who never get there, and people with seemingly sparse backgrounds who do. If you ask one of these effective programmer for advice, they'll give you a satisfactory answer, an answer you would do well to heed. But then, when you watch them carefully, theyll go against their own advice soon enough, and be correct in that too. This is not hypocrisy or contradiction in terms, it isnt a matter of do what I say, not what I do, it isnt even a reason not to follow their adviceits an example of the adaptability that taste provides. Adaptability is key. Programming, at heart, is a field dominated by uncertainty. To succeed consistently, you have to keep your options open, ready to react to inevitable changes in circumstances. Taste is knowing how to do this effectively, within the context and goals of a project and despite limited time, resources and information. From a high level, the technical side of a project is not that different from the business side of a project, and both are dominated by the same key concerns. The difficulty, of course, is that until youve developed solid taste on your own, you can overdo or underdo anything. You can even be too adaptable or, at least, you can put too much effort into being adaptable. You need to understand enough of the situation to thread the needlewhich may or may not always be the middle path. And that, perhaps, is exactly what taste amounts to: taking everything to the right extent. This doesnt mean always choosing the moderate option or treating everything as a balanced tradeoff that requires compromisesometimes a compromise is worse than either extremebut it does mean making all these decisions carefully, with a thorough understanding of both the business and technical context and a strong intuitive idea of what actions will lead to what outcomes. This is no easy task. But then, nobody ever said programming had to be easy! This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/03/15/what-is-the-single-most-important-skill-a-programmer-needs/ |
What Can Leaders Learn From Theresa May's Brexit Management? | Whether you agree with her handling of Brexit or not, one thing you can't ignore is Theresa Mays resilience, one of several qualities that have come to define the Prime Minister's leadership. May kept a relatively low profile compared to David Cameron or Boris Johnson despite once famously referring to her colleagues as the nasty party and her penchant for leopard print kitten heels. It was this enigmatic quality that allowed her to shift from Home Secretary to snatch the premiership of the U.K. in 2016. It has also made the last three years something of a revelation. She has been seen to work as hard as the Prime Minister as she did back at the Home Office. We have also witnessed a range of new behaviors quite out of character from holding hands with President Trump at the White House to entering the platform at a recent party conference dancing to Abbas Dancing Queen. But it is, of course, the delivery of Brexit that has thrust her into the limelight - her handling of the crisis offering lessons business leaders can learn from. Authenticity Back in 2016, May campaigned to remain in the EU. On becoming Prime Minister, she accepted the result of the vote and pledged to deliver the U.K.s departure. From Mays relentless drive to achieve the deal Ive been clear Brexit means Brexit - matched to her famous red lines, it is difficult to remember that she had ever been anything other than a Leaver. Its not uncommon to be in a similar position in a corporate. Strategic decisions are taken at group level that change the direction of a company against which a leader might well have fought. But the more senior the leader, the more important it is to be seen to be on board and to persuade reluctant colleagues to do the same. Teamwork Mays government stated that Parliament will vote on the final Brexit deal. MPs had a chance to turn that intention into a meaningful vote, during the European Withdrawal Acts year-long passage through Parliament, Mays problems immediately became a whole lot harder. The Conservative Party, like any other political party, represents a range of political opinions out of which a compromise must be achieved. But, following the general election of 2017, May lost her majority. It meant that forming alliances both within her party and across Parliament was important than ever to deliver a majority in a meaningful vote. May utterly failed to reach out across Parliament. A tiny group of advisors and May appeared to work with the EU to negotiate a deal finished to an extraordinary level of detail. Only at that point was the deal shown to the Cabinet - famously on a very hot day in Chequers, the Prime Ministers country retreat, which led to squabbles and ministerial resignations - let alone to MPs both in her party and without, all key stakeholders to getting her deal through Parliament. It is like a CEO recognising that their business model was under threat, hiring one of the Big Five global consultancies to refashion the company, announcing it to colleagues, customers and partners before promptly enacting the transformation. If youve worked in a company where that happened, you know what happens next. Little if no buy-in, demotivated teams and departure of the talent. Resilience Mays dogged determination to get her deal through has been both revered as perseverance over adversity she even addressed Parliament this week barely able to talk - and reviled as being beyond all reason. Business leaders who gave up as soon as the going got tough would have as short careers as the ones who defied logic. Listening Whether May has done so is difficult to gauge. Shes got all the classic signs of introversion lack of small talk, not a regular networker in Parliaments bars and keeping information to herself but a rare example of one making it to the top. The only other introvert leader who comes to mind is Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. Her premiership should be studied by all ambitious introverts to see how too often they come across within our majority-extrovert culture. Keeping cool Certainly, the introversion has enabled her language and intonation to appear calm and polite despite the coarsening of political discourse over the last three years. Only last autumn, it was reported that an anonymous but senior Conservative MP told her to bring her own noose to a meeting. Her stoicism has no doubt gone some way to slow the rising panic felt by many if the U.K. were to leave without a deal. It is at the moment of most stress that too many leaders use emotion to win an argument and, in the process, reveal the very depth of the crisis they were hoping to avoid. The vision thing It will take a least a generation to determine whether May was a visionary or blind-sided. But then leadership, whether in politics or business, is a lonely role in which the destination and verdict of history are often out of our control. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwelsheurope/2019/03/15/what-can-leaders-learn-from-theresa-mays-brexit-management/ |
Who Is Resecurity, The Mysterious Firm That Named The Group Allegedly Behind The Citrix Hack? | Last week, it emerged that Citrix had been hacked, potentially exposing large amounts of customer data. The company had been notified by the FBI on March 6 that international cyber criminals had likely gained access to the internal Citrix network. As more information began to filter through, another, little known company entered the fray: Resecurity. And the cybersecurity firm had some bold claims: Resecurity said the attacks were perpetrated by an Iranian-linked group it calls IRIDIUM, which it claimed has hit more than 200 government agencies, oil and gas firms and technology companies. The firm said it first reached out to Citrix on December 28 2018 to share an early warning notification about a targeted attack and data breach. This was later confirmed by Ctirix, which told tech site The Register that a blog by Stan Black, Citrix CSIO referred to the same incident" described by Resecurity: "We have no further comment at this time, but as promised, we will provide updates when we have what we believe is credible and actionable information." Resecurity also accused IRIDIUM of perpetrating a recent cyber-attack on the Australian parliament, despite the fact that the government itself had blamed China. Indeed, some people have questioned the validity of Resecuritys claims, including the Risky Business cybersecurity podcast. Many in the community were suspicious about the way Resecurity seemingly appeared out of nowhere with bold claims about a major hack. Others criticised a lack of detail, which the firm since added to its blog. Its true the company was suddenly thrust into the limelight. I got in contact with Resecurity to try to understand more about its origins and findings. Charles Yoo, the firms CEO describes how the company was originally founded in 2016, with a focus on threat intelligence, network reconnaissance and risk management. At this point Resecurity focused on investment in research and development around tools and platforms that could help enterprises and law enforcement to identify cybersecurity threats, monitor threat actors and collect pre-emptive intelligence. The firm didnt officially launch until 2018 which explains why people hadnt heard much about them before. According to Yoo, clients include Fortune 500 companies, law enforcement, and government agencies across domestic and international geography. We feel that there is room for new players in this space, says Yoo, who says his firm is competing with well-established companies specializing in cyber threat intelligence such as Symantec, RSA, FireEye, CrowdStrike, AlienVault, Looking Glass, Digital Shadows, and Flashpoint whom we have a lot of respect for pioneering the space. And in fact, says Yoo, the company prefers to have a low profile and focus on high-quality intelligence acquisition for our customers. When asked about the questions surrounding Resecurity, he says: We respect everyones opinion, however we have no additional comments at this time. During 2018, the company participated in several industry events including Amazon re:Invent (USA, Silver Sponsor), GovWare 2018 (Singapore, Gold Sponsor), Internet SecurityConference (ISC) 2018 (China, Gold Sponsor). It will participate in the upcoming 31st Annual FIRST Conference 2019 in Edinburgh as a Diamond Sponsor. Resecurity was confident in its claims that IRIDIUM had perpetrated the Citrix hack as well as other high-profile cyber-attacks. Yoo says the name IRIDIUM was assigned by Resecurity internally. It is an extremely interesting group of threat actors focused on high-value targets such as financial institutions, critical infrastructure - primarily oil and gas - and government resources based in Five Eyes countries and the Middle East. The most active period of their visibility and malicious activity was during winter 2018, when we alerted several large enterprises regarding malicious activity directed by the group, says Yoo. Interestingly, some of their members have been identified as the result of Dark Web monitoring, says Yoo. Members had been caught when they attempted to monetize some of their past victims through the underground marketplaces, which is typical for financially motivated cybercriminals, Yoo adds. Due to specifics of their targets, further analysis of their key members, timeline of the incidents, monitored network intelligence and other previously undisclosed targets, we have a high confidence that a nation-state has direct association with them, or recruited them for conducting cyberespionage activity based on their tasks. He points out that in all observed cases of the groups activity, the end victim has been attacked through password spraying with further attempt to escalate privileges and conduct network intrusion through sign-on (SSO), VPN or other available channels, leading to massive data exfiltration. Password spraying Malicious cyber actors are increasingly using a style of brute force attack known as password spraying against organizations in the United States and abroad, says Yoo. In a traditional brute-force attack, a malicious actor attempts to gain unauthorized access to a single account by guessing the password. This can quickly result in a targeted account becoming locked-out, because commonly used account-lockout policies allow three to five bad attempts during a set period of time. During a password-spray attack - also known as the low-and-slow method - the malicious actor attempts a single password against many accounts before moving on to attempt a second password, and so on. This technique allows the actor to remain undetected by avoiding rapid or frequent account lockouts, Yoo says. Password spray campaigns typically target SSO and cloud-based applications utilizing federated authentication protocols, says Yoo. An actor may target this specific protocol because federated authentication can help mask malicious traffic. Additionally, by targeting SSO applications, malicious actors hope to maximize access to intellectual property during a successful compromise. While some have said attribution to Iran is unlikely many say China and Russia provide a much bigger threat with far vaster cyber offensive capabilities there is some evidence that Iran is a player it its own right. In February 2018, the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York indicted nine Iranian nationals associated with the Mabna Institute, for computer intrusion offenses. The techniques and activity described, while characteristic of Mabna actors, are not limited solely to use by this group, says Yoo. He points out that some of the uncovered targets identified during IRIDIUM activity investigation had significant overlap with their past victims compromised in 2014-2017 period: before the indictment had been released". This isnt the last well see of Resecurity. Yoo told me the firm is working on several intelligence reports at the moment related to internet of things security, botnet activity, and emerging cybersecurity threats analysis in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Resecuritys claims are bold, but the firm is a new company in an already crowded cybersecurity market. And one thing is certain: If you didnt know who Resecurity were a week ago, you definitely do now. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/03/15/who-is-resecurity-the-mysterious-firm-that-named-the-group-allegedly-behind-the-citrix-hack/ |
How does hip hop music make cheese taste better? | Swiss scientists have discovered that playing music during the cheese-making process might have an impact on how it will taste and it's nacho what you'd expect. Nine wheels of Emmental cheese, weighing 10 kg each, were placed in separate wooden crates last September. They were played different types of music from classical, rock and techno to hip hop. Scientists disa-brie-d with using loud speakers, instead using mini transmitters to conduct the energy of the music into the cheese. A panel of people then decided what impact it had on flavour and smell. The whole process was carried out twice. Ricotta work then. It wasn't Brie-once or Mozart-ella that did the trick. The hip hop sample topped the list of all cheese exposed to music in terms smell and taste. Now the researchers have got plans to do more tests on how hip hop music works on cheese. How grate! | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47590741 |
What to expect from Apple's WWDC 2019? | Apple has announced that its next Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held June 3-7, 2019, at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jos, California, USA. This 30th edition of the event will once again bring together developers and creatives from around the globe. Apple claims to have 1.4 billion active devices worldwide currently running its operating systems (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS). Like each year, the firm's developers' conference will offer those attending insight into the changes and progress in store for the firm's various platforms, allowing developers to anticipate projects and, above all, meet Apple engineers first hand. Just over two months before the event, rumors are relatively thin on the ground. That said, a dark mode is almost certainly coming to iOS, protecting eyes in darker viewing conditions and saving battery power. It would be a logical step given that a similar mode was launched in macOS (Mojave) in 2018. Developers interested in heading to WWDC 2019 have until March 20 to register on the event website. The opportunity to buy tickets will be allocated by random selection with attendance priced at $1,599. The opening keynote will be live-streamed online by Apple. WWDC runs June 3-7, 2019, San Jos. Website: developer.apple.com/wwdc | https://news.yahoo.com/expect-apples-wwdc-2019-140921295.html |
Will Volkswagen AG Continue The Positive Growth In 2019? | Volkswagen AG (OTCMKTS: VWAGY) declared its annual results for the fiscal year 2018 on March 12, 2019 early morning. The company posted revenues of 235 billion ($268 billion), up by around 2.5% year on year and earnings were reported at 23.6 ($27), up by around 2% year on year. We can say that the company is succeeding in delivering better results post the emission scandal which contributed a negative 3.2 billion ($3.6 billion) for the year. We have a price estimate of $19 per share for the company, which is in line with the market price. View our interactive dashboard Our Outlook For Volkswagen in FY 2019 and modify the key assumptions/expectations to arrive at a price estimate of your own. In addition, here is more Consumer Discretionary data. The global economy has recorded weaker growth in fiscal year 2018 due to geopolitical tensions, turbulence in financial markets, and protectionist tendencies. The weaker growth has affected passenger and commercial vehicles sales as well. Volkswagen delivered 10.8 million vehicles in 2018 which is 0.9% higher than previous year. The company also launched more than 70 new models particularly numerous new SUVs such as the Volkswagen Touareg and T-Roc, the KODA Karoq, the SEAT Arona, and the Audi Q8. The company continues to face headwinds due to changeover to the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure emission standards and exchange rate effects for the segment of passenger cars. The company expects WLTP emission standards to continue to challenge the company in 2019, though on a smaller scale. The company reported a nearly 6% increase in sales volume for Volkswagen passenger cars. Meanwhile Audi (including Lamborghini and Ducati brands) reported a decrease of 4.1% year on year. Skoda recorded better sales revenue and volume due to cost optimization and improved price positioning, but the margins were pulled down by exchange rate and product mix. Volkswagen further posted losses in Bentley for the first nine months, largely due to delays in the start-up of new continental GT and associated costs. Also, the companys commercial vehicles profits declined by 8% for the year even when revenue and volume where higher year on year, outlining the challenges by WLTP and the unfavorable exchange rate. Porsche brand continued its good year by recording an increase in operating profits, total revenues due to better product mix, and higher sales volume. Additionally, Volkswagens financial services profit climbed by 4.5% to approximately $2.8 billion in fiscal year 2018, exhibiting a higher business growth potential in this division. Volkswagen had a good year overall despite various headwinds, like global slowdown, WLTP, emission scandal, and reported positive growth in revenue and earnings for the year. For the Fiscal Year 2019 we can say that the company is on the right track and is expected to perform better. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/03/15/will-volkswagen-ag-continue-the-positive-growth-in-2019/ |
Why Is It So Hard for Our President to Condemn White Supremacy and Islamophobia? | 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. Donald Trump had a chance to boldly condemn white supremacy and Islamophobia on Friday morning. Instead, after issuing a muffled statement of sympathy for the victims of murderous attacks on mosques in New Zealand, the president of the United States went back to complaining, in great and extended detail, that special counsel Robert Mueller should never have been appointed and there should be no Mueller Report. Ad Policy On one of the darkest days in history for Muslims worldwide, the presidents initial response to the New Zealand killings failed to mention Muslims, Islam, Islamophobia, white supremacy, racism, bigotry or violent hatred that targets people based on their religion. Trump will, hopefully, come around to more explicitly and effectively condemning the latest acts of mass violence directed at places of worship by white supremacists. But his every action reminds us that we have a president whose priorities are so warped that he cannot bring himself to lead in the moment when leadership is most needed. Even the presidents supporters, who make excuses for what they tell us are his lapses, and who so ardently reject any suggestion that he encourages or tolerates bigotry, have to recognize that Trump is failing miserably as a leader. The United States is a powerful, influential country. But the measures of American leadership on the global stage are fluid. They depend on the quality of the individuals who occupy positions of public trust and authority. Yet, whenever the moment demands more, Trump offers less. After the killing of at least 49 people in mass shootings at two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch, it was immediately clear that this was what New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern identified it as: a terrorist attack committed by people who I would describe as having extremist views that have absolutely no place in New Zealand and in fact have no place in the world. By Friday morning in the United States, Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League was telling NPR that the Christchurch attack clearly was motivated by white supremacy. Weve got a big problem on our hands and we need to recognize that social media allows white supremacy, much like other forms of hate, to travel across borders, and weve got to recognize it for the global terror threat that it really is, warned Greenblatt, who noted that the killer in Christchurch had referenced white supremacists and white nationalists who had engaged in mass murder in the United States and other countries. Current Issue View our current issue The right response to a big problem is to identify it, and bluntly call it out, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel did when she reacted with grief and horror to the fact that, once again, citizens who were attacked and murdered out of racist hatred. And as Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan did when he condemned those those who collectively and deliberately choose to demonize Muslims, and warned that I blame these increasing terror attacks on the current Islamophobia. There is no point in mincing words about the threat posed by white supremacy and Islamophobia. Indeed, mincing words sends precisely the wrong signal. Yet President Trumps response on Friday morning, delivered long after details of the killers white supremacist and Islamophobic sentiments were broadcast around the world, was a muted tweet that read: My warmest sympathy and best wishes goes out to the people of New Zealand after the horrible massacre in the Mosques. 49 innocent people have so senselessly died, with so many more seriously injured. The U.S. stands by New Zealand for anything we can do. God bless all! Warm sympathy is all fine and good. But, according to news reports, the Australian-born suspect in the mass shooting wrote a 74-page manifesto that described the American president as a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose. Trump, who invited an international outcry with his suggestion that there were very fine people among white supremacists and white nationalists who mounted violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, should have recognized the need to respond in a dramatically better way this time. This was an opportunity for the president to lead. Instead, he went off on another tangent, griping about the Mueller inquiry in an extended Twitter rant that concluded with an all-caps declaration that THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN TO A PRESIDENT AGAIN! The language of Never Again! should have been employed on Friday morning. But not with regard to a legitimate investigation into political and presidential wrongdoing. It should have been employed to condemn racist hatred and violence that has targeted churches, synagogues, and mosques. But Trump could not get there. Instead, he literally repeating his attacks on the woman who won 2.9 million more votes than he did in the 2016 presidential election. Yes, Trump found time on Friday morning to attack Crooked Hillary, but no time to attack white supremacy or Islamophobia. My heart breaks for New Zealand & the global Muslim community. We must continue to fight the perpetuation and normalization of Islamophobia and racism in all its forms, wrote Clinton. White supremacist terrorists must be condemned by leaders everywhere. Their murderous hatred must be stopped. That is how a president of the United States is supposed to respond in a moment of horror that demands clarityand leadership. | https://www.thenation.com/article/new-zealand-mosque-shooting-trump-islamophobia-white-supremacy/ |
How much do California speeding tickets cost? | Thats the finding of a study from car insurance website GoCompare, which looked at the penalty in all 50 states for a first-time offense driving 13 mph above the speed limit. But, as is often the case, the reality is more complicated. At $35, California is the sixth best state in the nation to get busted with a lead foot, GoCompare found. Taking the top five are Oklahoma and Alabama (tied at $20), New Mexico ($30), Delaware ($33) and Idaho ($33.50). Sign Up and Save Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee However, that $35 ticket in California is just the beginning. Add in all additional surcharges and penalty assessments and and that $35 ticket could look a lot more like a $237 ticket depending on where you get pulled over, according legal help website DrivingLaws.org. As for Nevada, which GoCompare listed as having the worst speeding ticket in the country, fines can rise up to $1,000. Speeding is a misdemeanor in Nevada, which does carry a fine of up to $1,000 but in reality the fine varies by jurisdiction and usually costs a few hundred dollars, according to Nevada traffic attorneys. Of course, speeding can extract a much heavier price. Traffic collisions as a result of speeding killed 1,056 people in California in 2016, according to a study sponsored by the California Office of Traffic Safety. Nearly a third of all motor vehicle fatalities in the state were speeding related. Nationwide, speeding killed more than 9,700 people in 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Thats more than a quarter of all traffic fatalities for the year. | https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/california/article227461789.html |
Who Is Resecurity, The Mysterious Firm That Blamed Iran For The Citrix Hack? | Last week, it emerged that Citrix had been hacked, potentially exposing large amounts of customer data. The company had been notified by the FBI on March 6 that international cyber criminals had likely gained access to the internal Citrix network. As more information began to filter through, another, little known company entered the fray: Resecurity. And the cybersecurity firm had some bold claims: Resecurity said the attacks were perpetrated by an Iranian-linked group it calls IRIDIUM, which it claimed has hit more than 200 government agencies, oil and gas firms and technology companies. The firm said it first reached out to Citrix on December 28 2018 to share an early warning notification about a targeted attack and data breach. This was later confirmed by Ctirix, which told tech site The Register that a blog by Stan Black, Citrix CSIO referred to the same incident" described by Resecurity: "We have no further comment at this time, but as promised, we will provide updates when we have what we believe is credible and actionable information." Resecurity also accused IRIDIUM of perpetrating a recent cyber-attack on the Australian parliament, despite the fact that the government itself had blamed China. Indeed, some people have questioned the validity of Resecuritys claims, including the Risky Business cybersecurity podcast. Many in the community were suspicious about the way Resecurity seemingly appeared out of nowhere with bold claims about a major hack. Others criticised a lack of detail, which the firm since added to its blog. Its true the company was suddenly thrust into the limelight. I got in contact with Resecurity to try to understand more about its origins and findings. Charles Yoo, the firms CEO describes how the company was originally founded in 2016, with a focus on threat intelligence, network reconnaissance and risk management. At this point Resecurity focused on investment in research and development around tools and platforms that could help enterprises and law enforcement to identify cybersecurity threats, monitor threat actors and collect pre-emptive intelligence. The firm didnt officially launch until 2018 which explains why people hadnt heard much about them before. According to Yoo, clients include Fortune 500 companies, law enforcement, and government agencies across domestic and international geography. We feel that there is room for new players in this space, says Yoo, who says his firm is competing with well-established companies specializing in cyber threat intelligence such as Symantec, RSA, FireEye, CrowdStrike, AlienVault, Looking Glass, Digital Shadows, and Flashpoint whom we have a lot of respect for pioneering the space. And in fact, says Yoo, the company prefers to have a low profile and focus on high-quality intelligence acquisition for our customers. When asked about the questions surrounding Resecurity, he says: We respect everyones opinion, however we have no additional comments at this time. During 2018, the company participated in several industry events including Amazon re:Invent (USA, Silver Sponsor), GovWare 2018 (Singapore, Gold Sponsor), Internet SecurityConference (ISC) 2018 (China, Gold Sponsor). It will participate in the upcoming 31st Annual FIRST Conference 2019 in Edinburgh as a Diamond Sponsor. Resecurity was confident in its claims that IRIDIUM had perpetrated the Citrix hack as well as other high-profile cyber-attacks. Yoo says the name IRIDIUM was assigned by Resecurity internally. It is an extremely interesting group of threat actors focused on high-value targets such as financial institutions, critical infrastructure - primarily oil and gas - and government resources based in Five Eyes countries and the Middle East. The most active period of their visibility and malicious activity was during winter 2018, when we alerted several large enterprises regarding malicious activity directed by the group, says Yoo. Interestingly, some of their members have been identified as the result of Dark Web monitoring, says Yoo. Members had been caught when they attempted to monetize some of their past victims through the underground marketplaces, which is typical for financially motivated cybercriminals, Yoo adds. Due to specifics of their targets, further analysis of their key members, timeline of the incidents, monitored network intelligence and other previously undisclosed targets, we have a high confidence that a nation-state has direct association with them, or recruited them for conducting cyberespionage activity based on their tasks. He points out that in all observed cases of the groups activity, the end victim has been attacked through password spraying with further attempt to escalate privileges and conduct network intrusion through sign-on (SSO), VPN or other available channels, leading to massive data exfiltration. Password spraying Malicious cyber actors are increasingly using a style of brute force attack known as password spraying against organizations in the United States and abroad, says Yoo. In a traditional brute-force attack, a malicious actor attempts to gain unauthorized access to a single account by guessing the password. This can quickly result in a targeted account becoming locked-out, because commonly used account-lockout policies allow three to five bad attempts during a set period of time. During a password-spray attack - also known as the low-and-slow method - the malicious actor attempts a single password against many accounts before moving on to attempt a second password, and so on. This technique allows the actor to remain undetected by avoiding rapid or frequent account lockouts, Yoo says. Password spray campaigns typically target SSO and cloud-based applications utilizing federated authentication protocols, says Yoo. An actor may target this specific protocol because federated authentication can help mask malicious traffic. Additionally, by targeting SSO applications, malicious actors hope to maximize access to intellectual property during a successful compromise. While some have said attribution to Iran is unlikely many say China and Russia provide a much bigger threat with far vaster cyber offensive capabilities there is some evidence that Iran is a player it its own right. In February 2018, the Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York indicted nine Iranian nationals associated with the Mabna Institute, for computer intrusion offenses. The techniques and activity described, while characteristic of Mabna actors, are not limited solely to use by this group, says Yoo. He points out that some of the uncovered targets identified during IRIDIUM activity investigation had significant overlap with their past victims compromised in 2014-2017 period: before the indictment had been released". This isnt the last well see of Resecurity. Yoo told me the firm is working on several intelligence reports at the moment related to internet of things security, botnet activity, and emerging cybersecurity threats analysis in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East. Resecuritys claims are bold, but the firm is a new company in an already crowded cybersecurity market. And one thing is certain: If you didnt know who Resecurity were a week ago, you definitely do now. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2019/03/15/who-is-resecurity-the-mysterious-firm-that-blamed-iran-for-the-citrix-hack/ |
Is Tesla's Model Y Its Latest Vaporware? | Tesla announced the Model Y on Thursday evening and investors are clearly not impressed since the stock closed down over $14 or 5% to $275 on Friday. The shares are now down over $44 or 14% since Elon Musk announced the $35,000 Model 3 version and that the company would be closing almost all of its stores (which it has now halfway reversed). The stock did stage a mini-rally over the past six trading sessions but has fallen back to its recent low, so it looks like the short-term move up was a dead cat bounce. Over the decades technology companies have announced new products or features that would be available in the future. At times the these are called vaporware due to not being fully formed with first shipment dates months, if sometimes years, in the future. This may be part of Teslas overall grand strategy or another Hail Mary move. While one reason to declare new or upgraded offerings is to give customers a roadmap and comfort about buying current solutions, another is to get customers to not buy a competing product and wait for what is shown on a PowerPoint slide or on a stage. While I fully expect the Model Y to be made, and in volume, presenting it now is a way to create uncertainty with consumers about buying a competitors vehicle. As Alan Ohnsman from Forbes wrote, there will be multiple competitive vehicles to the Y in 2020 and the Federal tax credit for Tesla will be exhausted. Buyers of other electric cars will be able to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit, putting even more pressure on Tesla. Teslas Semi and second generation Roadster announcements are similar in that they were unveiled on November 16, 2017, with production planned for 2020, at least two years before anyone can buy the truck or car. By announcing multiple years early, the company is able to take in hundreds of millions of dollars in deposits and get what is essentially zero percent loans. It was interesting to notice in the 36-minute video of the Model Y announcement that Musk didnt get around to bringing out the car until the 29th minute. And only spent 4 minutes talking about it. Craig Irwin at Roth Capital Partners also speculates that the timing of the announcement is to help distract from disappointing Model 3 demand. There have been multiple reports of weak U.S. demand for not just the 3 but for the S and X due to the halving of the Federal tax rebate to $3,750. By generating some buzz and incremental deposits for the balance sheet, it may help to overcome what could be a poor earnings (in reality loss) announcement in about six weeks. As seems to be the norm with Tesla, dont be surprised if volume production doesnt hit until 2021 . While 75% of the Ys bill of material is common with the 3s, when you go to Teslas website there seems to be a caveat at the bottom of the ordering page that says, Production is expected to begin late next year. This is in contrast to the slide shown at the announcement last night that says Fall 2020. Technically fall doesnt end until December 20, 2020, but I suspect most people think of Fall as October and no later than November. Toni Sacconaghi at Bernstein wrote, Last night's unveiling essentially reaffirmed Tesla's target of "volume" production by the end of 2020. This timeline appears similar to the original timeline for the Model 3 ramp, which was ultimately delayed by 9-12 months. That said, Model Y could enjoy a smoother ramp due to its shared platform. Spring of 2021 starts on March 20 and goes until June 21. I would expect the Standard version to ship later in this timeframe vs. earlier. This would put the $39,000 configuration at least two years away and possibly farther as Sacconaghi observes. Could cannibalize Model 3 demand Tesla has historically announced vehicles a few years before they were available. While this previously didnt cannibalize sales since it wasnt selling current models around the same price point, the Model Y could create a lull between Model 3 early adaptors and Tesla fans demand being satisfied and the Model Y entering full production in 2021. Morgan Stanleys Adam Jonas believes the Y is likely to hurt the Model 3 since the Y has a third row of seats. Note that in the announcement video 6 people got out of the Y when it came on stage, but it looked like two of the passengers were quite short. I expect the last row to be quite cramped for a large portion of the adult population. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2019/03/15/is-teslas-model-y-its-latest-vaporware/ |
Should Boeing Have Replaced The 737 Instead Of Re-engining It? | This Lufthansa Airlines Boeing 737-100, seen here on February 26, 1968, was later sold to China. Corbis via Getty Images As the press and public have dug into the horrific crashes of two Boeing 737 MAX airplanes, one thing that has come to wider awareness are the compromises Boeing made in fitting a larger engine onto an aircraft design that dates back to the 1960s. It may be determined that the plane makers handling of those compromises contributed to the deaths of over 300 people. It doesnt necessarily mean an all- new plane would have been a safer solution. When the 737-100 debuted in 1968, it was designed to be low to the ground to ease boarding by ladder. As Boeing has stretched the plane over the years to fit more passengers, and the bypass fans on jet engines have gotten bigger to drive more air, Boeing has had to come up with creative solutions on successive models to make the engines fit under the wings. On the 737 MAX, which debuted in 2017, the engines were placed higher up on the wings and further forward. Boeing discovered that their greater size and position gave the planes nose a tendency to tilt upward in certain high-speed maneuvers, running the risk that it could lose lift. To counter that Boeing added a flight control program called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, or MCAS, which automatically pushes the nose down when the plane is being flown by hand and the angle at which its flying is close to allowing an aerodynamic stall. Its suspected that a faulty angle of attack sensor led the MCAS to engage on Lion Air Flight 610, which plunged into the sea off Indonesia shortly after takeoff on Oct. 29, killing all 186 on board. The similarities between that accident and Sundays crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that killed 157 have led regulators around the world to ground the 737 MAX while investigators work to determine the cause. At the beginning of this decade, Boeing was considering replacing the 737 with an all-new airplane. Dont assume a new plane would have been safer. If youd done a new, clean sheet of paper design you might have introduced more risk into the system, says R. John Hansman, an aeronautics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While new aircraft are rigorously tested and inspected to gain certification, problems often arise after they enter into service, both mechanical and in pilots understanding of them. An Airbus A320 famously crashed during a demonstration flight at an airshow in France in 1988, in part, says Hansman, because the captain misunderstood the flight control logic. The lithium-ion battery fires that led to a three-month grounding of the Boeing 787 in 2013 emerged out of an attempt to transition to a radically new electric architecture. It wasnt clear they could find a solution in a reasonable amount of time, says Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with Teal Group. By comparison, the MCAS problem looks simpler, although the consequences have been infinitely more serious. Boeing is working on a software patch and enhancements to the angle of attack sensor inputs that, combined with training changes, are expected to solve the problem, experts say, assuming the two crash investigations don't uncover other issues. The 737 is the bestselling airliner of all-time, with over 10,000 produced consequently the basic design and many of the systems onboard are well-proven. The repositioning of the engine on the new version is not an overreach, says Hansman. The stability augmentation should work and once they get the software patch it will work fine I think. Attempting to replace the 737 with a new plane would have been a great business risk as well. In 2010 Airbus had launched a program to re-engine the rival A320, and with demand for narrow-bodies high, Boeing fretted it would lose market share in the seven to 10 years that it would have taken to bring a clean sheet design to market. A game theory modeling analysis conducted by James K.D. Morrison, a graduate student of Hansmans, backs up Boeings thinking. Even though you would get more performance with a new design, youd end up losing, because for that 10 years your competitor would be selling airplanes, says Hansman. From a business standpoint I dont think Boeing had much option. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2019/03/15/should-boeing-have-replaced-the-737-instead-of-re-engining-it/ |
Are races getting safer for horses? | Image copyright Reuters The deaths of three horses at the Cheltenham Festival have raised concerns over safety in racing. The Cheltenham Festival is one of the UK's biggest sporting events. The National Hunt race meeting attracts tens of thousands of spectators, and millions of pounds in bets. But concerns have been raised about the safety of horses. Seven died at last year's festival and another three, Ballyward, Sir Erec and Invitation Only, fell during this year's meeting and had to be put down. Cheltenham Racecourse says it's reviewing safety, but the animal rights group PETA has called for racing to be banned. According to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA), the number of horse deaths per 1,000 race starts fell from 2.8 in 1994 to to 2.2 in 2018. The lowest rate was 1.8 in 2017. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Cheltenham Festival: How authorities are aiming to improve horse welfare Altogether, the BHA figures show that, from 1994 to 2018, 4,905 horses died on British racecourses. "Despite the fact that the overall trend is one of decline, we never stand still when it comes to safety and we always look at the data from the previous year to determine whether any further improvements can be made," a BHA spokesman said. Unsurprisingly, jump racing - where horses have to clear fences or hurdles - is more dangerous than flat racing. But the BHA says the fatality rate in jump races fell from 4.9 per 1,000 starts in the five years to 2004, to 3.9 in the five years to 2018. The RSPCA's racing consultant, David Muir, has been at Cheltenham this week to monitor care and safety standards and has worked with World Horse Welfare and the BHA for 22 years to improve conditions: "You have to look at the modern racehorse and what it can do and marry that to what we need it to do," he says. "You can never sit still when it comes to making improvements. "We need to keep re-examining fences to reduce the stiffness, and make sure the ground where the horses take off is level with the ground where they land." Mr Muir divides the injuries horses can suffer during races into "avoidable" and "unavoidable" ones. Those caused by bad course design, such as poor fencing, are avoidable, he says. Unavoidable injuries, Mr Muir adds, include a horse breaking a leg or suffering heart problems while running. But he adds that the danger of these can be reduced by better monitoring of horses' welfare, including improving the detection of existing health problems. "As with all elite sports and all activities involving horses," says the BHA, "there is an element of risk." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47552637 |
What next for the Liberal Democrats? | Image copyright PA Image caption Sir Vince has said he wants to spend more time with his family and pursuing other interests Sir Vince Cable has announced he will step down as leader of the Liberal Democrats in May, saying it has been a "privilege" to lead the party at a "crucial time". Sir Vince's 22-month tenure has seen the party languish in the opinion polls and struggle to capitalise on its anti-Brexit stance. But with the UK's departure from the EU "postponed, and very possibly stopped", as Sir Vince put it, retirement beckons for the party's 75-year-old leader. While he spends his time writing novels, having dancing lessons and seeing more of his family, the Lib Dems are beginning to think about what lies ahead. After a period in coalition government with the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats suffered badly in the 2015 general election, losing 49 of their 57 MPs. They now sit alongside the Independent Group (Tig) as the joint-third largest grouping in the House of Commons, with 11 MPs. But while the breakaway group of ex-Conservative and Labour MPs has the benefit of being a new entity attracting considerable attention, the Liberal Democrats have struggled to make headway in the opinion polls and both the Lib Dems and Tig have dismissed talk of any kind of merger. The Lib Dems claim their membership has more than doubled since 2014, to about 99,000, but they're attempting to broaden their appeal with a registered supporters' scheme. The party has also struggled to reach double figures in opinion polls even at a time when the two main parties have suffered with splits and controversies. Image copyright Graham Eva Image caption Jo Swinson was a minister in the coalition and has been deputy leader since 2017 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Layla Moran had been a prominent supporter of the People's Vote campaign Although a leadership contest will not officially begin until after the English local elections in May, possible contenders are already emerging. Leading candidates include the current deputy leader Jo Swinson, relative newcomer Layla Moran and former environment secretary Ed Davey. One senior party figure said "a good contest" was important to allow a candidate to emerge who could "move the party forward, lead and inspire people to join". Sir Vince acknowledged the Lib Dems had been punished for their time in coalition with the Conservatives, and party members will consider how closely any potential new leader would be associated with that period. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Gina Miller has ruled herself out of the contest At their spring conference in York this weekend, party members will vote on changes to rules which would allow registered supporters to have a say in a future leadership contest. This would mean far more people would be eligible to vote, in a similar way to Labour's last leadership contest which saw 180,000 registered supporters participate. The overhaul could also allow non-MPs to stand for the party leadership, although the anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, who had been seen as a possible candidate, has ruled herself out. "We will survive" - the short answer Sir Vince Cable gave when asked in September if the party needed to change fundamentally to remain in existence. But to regain a place in the mainstream of British politics, the Lib Dems must do more than survive, they must flourish. There is clear untapped potential to win support from people opposed to Brexit and turned off by the two main parties and their internal struggles. One test will be May's local elections, and if a general election comes sooner than scheduled in 2022, the party will have for the first time a clear verdict from voters on Vince Cable's time in charge. Whoever leads the party next will be starting from a relatively low base and renewing the party's appeal will be at once an opportunity and a daunting task. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47587677 |
Could Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman Face Jail Time For College Cheating Scandal? | Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, along with over 40 other wealthy parents, face potential prison time after allegedly participating in a massive college cheating scheme to have their children admitted to elite universities. It is clear that the charges are not to be taken lightly, given that a federal judge set bail for Huffman and Loughlin at $250,000 and $1 million, respectively. Additionally, Loughlin has already been hit with professional repercussions as a result of the charges against her, with recent reports claiming that she has since been dropped by both the Hallmark Channel and Netflixs Fuller House. According to the charges, Huffman paid $15,000 in order for her eldest daughter to obtain a better score on the SATs, and Loughlin paid $500,000 in bribes to ensure that her two daughters would be labeled as crew recruits in order to gain admission to USC. These actions fall under mail fraud, one of the most common felonies and typically punishable by up to five years of prison time an individual and/or a fine of up to $250,000. While stringent punishment is always a possibility in federal cases, if Huffman and Loughlin continue to cooperate with authorities and show contrition for their alleged crimes, then in all likelihood the pair will walk away with a hefty fine and perhaps probation. The issues of wealth and privilege in this country have also taken center stage in the scandal, and the Justice Department certainly wants to send a message that deep pockets do not mean a person is above the law. According to Andrew Lelling, U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts of the charges, the parents involved in the conspiracy were able to give their children every legitimate advantage but chose to corrupt and illegally manipulate the system for their benefit. He then added: There will not be a separate admissions system for the wealthy. And there will not be a separate criminal justice system either. Loughlin and Huffman wont be let off with a simple slap on the wrist, but given that this was a nonviolent crime and that the pair do not have criminal histories, odds are that neither of them will see in the inside of a prison cell. And considering the staggering amount of evidence against the conspiring parents -- in the form of documents, emails and wiretapped calls Loughlin and Huffman would be wise to come clean in order to try avoiding a heftier sentence. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/legalentertainment/2019/03/15/could-lori-loughlin-felicity-huffman-face-jail-time-for-college-cheating-scandal/ |
Has online shopping saved us any money? | The rise of online shopping has defined an entire epoch of American retail, yet we know little about what boost, if any, it has given to consumers and to the economy as a whole. Because of how federal data have been collected, it's easier to answer questions about the price of butter or industrial spraying equipment than questions about what we buy over the Internet. A team of economists from Stanford University and Visa hopes to fill in the gaps. The Stanford team negotiated with Visa for secure access to about 400 billion anonymous debit and credit transactions between 2007 and 2017, a stockpile that represents US$21.2 trillion ($30.9t) in economic activity. To put that in perspective, consider the entire economic output of the United States in 2017 was about US$19.5t. Researchers compared online transactions to their bricks-and-mortar equivalents and found the typical household gained about US$1,150 in terms of convenience and expanded choice by shopping online in 2017, when the Internet accounted for about 8 per cent of all consumer spending. Their analysis was laid out in a recent working paper circulated by the National Bureau of Economic Research. Advertisement Stanford economist Peter Klenow said the team was surprised by the size of the online economy. "If it continues to grow like this, then it should be on our radar," he said, because it could distort major indicators such as inflation and economic growth. The rise of online shopping has also exacerbated income inequality, the researchers found. Higher-income households enjoy about three times the gains of lower-income ones, relative to their spending. Households with annual incomes above US$50,000 do about 9.7 per cent of their spending online. For lower-income households, the figure is around 3.4 per cent. MIT Sloan economist Catherine Tucker, who recently proposed a framework for evaluating the gains from digital commerce, in the Journal of Economic Literature, said the Stanford team's measurements were a valuable complement to government statistics. Tucker has worked with Stanford's Liran Einav, an author on the paper, but was not involved in this project. Einav said Visa's data was "one of the few options" for measuring online activity across sectors and creating broad, economywide measures. The economists estimated how much customers valued time and convenience by measuring how far someone was willing to drive before they would break down and shop at the same merchant online. When the company offers online and offline options and the bricks-and-mortar option is a mile away, a customer will choose online about 12 per cent of the time. The customer will take the online option more than half of the time. Yet, contrary to expectations, Americans in remote locations did not rely more on online shopping. Instead, the researchers found people in more densely populated areas were more likely to do their shopping online, though that may also be tied to education levels and access to Internet connections and banking services. There's no formal definition of e-commerce. In this case, researchers chose to include online purchases of travel and hotels, but excluded recurring payments and bills. The challenge of measuring the impact of timesaving search engines or mapping apps has been widely discussed. Less attention has been paid to what Klenow called the "unmeasured GDP growth" created by providing online access to goods. "It's a significant component of growth that's occurring but isn't emphasised in the standard measurement," Klenow said. In a separate 2018 working paper, Klenow used prices from Adobe Analytics to show online inflation lagging overall inflation by about 1.3 percentage points each year. If online commerce isn't properly weighted, official measurements of price growth, and thus of real economic growth, could be off. Poor measurement of the online economy isn't merely an academic issue. It may make the economy appear smaller or faster-growing than it is. That misperception could lead policymakers to take unnecessary action, such as cooling an economy that isn't overheating or stimulating one that's already hot. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12213361&ref=rss |
How much has Arizona wet its appetite for precipitation? | Pedestrians cross University Drive in the rain on Feb. 21, 2019, at ASU's Tempe campus. (Photo: Mark Henle/The Republic) The National Weather Service on Friday offered updated numbers showing just how wet it's been in Arizona since October. So far, the period from Oct. 1, 2018 though March 14 marks the sixth-wettest year on record for the Phoenix area, the Phoenix office of the National Weather Service said in a tweet. The period marks the halfway point of what is referred to as the annual "water year,'' according to the Weather Service. "It's one of our wetter years," said meteorologist Larry Hopper of NWS Phoenix. That's thanks in part to a record-breaking winter storm that battered Arizona in February. Phoenix also saw an unusually-rainy October, when the remnants of Hurricane Rosa moved into the state. #Phoenix Water Year To Date Update. Now, almost half way through the 2019 water year beginning Oct. 1st, including the latest 0.30" that fell at Sky Harbor earlier this week, this is now the 6th wettest water year to date for the #Phoenix area in the period of record. #AZWXpic.twitter.com/FOySjj98v9 NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) March 15, 2019 The last time Phoenix saw more rain up to this point during the same period was in 1993. Hopper said both that year and this year were El Nio years when Pacific Ocean warming creates more frequent winter storms that form off the West Coast, and move through Southern California and into Arizona. Hopper added El Nio is not a guarantee of above-normal precipitation, but in the recent past, El Nio years did coincide with above-normal amounts in the state. El Nio conditions happen about every 3 to 7 years. Hopper said even if Phoenix were to not receive another drop of rain this year, this would be the 38th wettest water year on record. (Records have been kept since 1896.) The Phoenix area typically has two rainy seasons, during winter and during the summer monsoon season. The winter season is more vital for replenishing the state's watershed, which is fueled in large part by that eventually melts, filling reservoirs, and underground aquifers. What a difference 268 days makes in these two pictures from Lost Dutchman State Park NE of #Phoenix taken by staff from our office! They measured 15.42" of precipitation since June 19, 2018 compared to only 1.51" the previous 268 days (from Sept 23, 2017 to June 18, 2018)! #azwxpic.twitter.com/ddBaZY0vKH NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) March 16, 2019 The National Weather Service in Flagstaff also tweeted some stats Friday, comparing this year's precipitation totals to last year. "We went from one of the driest periods on record last year, to a top 10 wet period this year," the agency said. Flagstaff has received 17.19 inches of precipitation compared to just 4.44 inches the same time last year. The tweet also showed that areas like Payson, Show Low, and Prescott saw significant increases year to year. The precipitation figure does not equate to the total inches of snow that has fallen, but is based on a ratio of how much precipitation is in that snowfall. Flagstaff, for example, has seen far much more snow than 17 inches. "It's pretty incredible to look at the past two years (Oct 1st-March 14th) and see how different things have been," NWS Fagstaff said. NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you 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 AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Hopper says parts of Arizona could see more significant rainfall late next week. It's pretty incredible to look at the past two years (Oct 1st-March 14th) and see how different things have been. We went from one of the driest periods on record last year, to a top 10 wet period this year. #azwxpic.twitter.com/sHuWKEOHLB NWS Flagstaff (@NWSFlagstaff) March 15, 2019 The precipitation over the past several months has helped relieved persistent drought conditions in most of the state, according to the latest information posted by the Arizona Department of Water Resources on its website. The agency said February's rain and snow left 38 percent of Arizona with some level of drought, compared to 84 percent the month before. The percentage of Arizona in severe drought dropped from 18 percent in January to 5 percent, officials said. Over the long-term, however, the agency said that "it will take several consecutive years of above-average precipitation to overcome the deficits of the long-term drought'' to refill groundwater tables and many basins statewide. Reach the reporter at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @WestfallAustin. Subscribe to azcentral today. Subscribe to azcentral.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-weather/2019/03/15/how-much-has-arizona-wet-its-appetite-precipitation/3183116002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix-weather/2019/03/15/how-much-has-arizona-wet-its-appetite-precipitation/3183116002/ |
Who will UNLV hire as its next basketball coach? | UNLV Rebels head coach Marvin Menzies speaks after his team's loss to San Diego State in the Mountain West men's basketball tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas on Thursday, March 14, 2019. Menzies was fired on Friday. (Chase Stevens/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @csstevensphoto These coaches could be considered for the UNLV mens basketball job: Nathan Davis, Bucknell Made the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons. Won Patriot League Coach of the Year in back-to-back seasons. Fred Hoiberg Went 115-56 in five seasons at Iowa State before taking over the Chicago Bulls, who fired him in December. Is the leading candidate at Nebraska. Frank Martin The South Carolina coach long has been enamored with UNLV and Las Vegas. He participates in Coaches vs. Cancer events in Las Vegas every year. Thad Matta Took Ohio State to two Final Fours and five Big Ten Conference championships in 13 years. Tim Miles Job is on the line at Nebraska. Coached in the Mountain West at Colorado State, leading the Rams to the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Wes Miller, UNC Greensboro Led Greensboro last season to its first NCAA Tournament since 2001, and at 28-6 this season is a bubble team. Mike Rhoades, Virginia Commonwealth Named Atlantic 10 Conference Coach of the Year and is 25-7. Shaka Smart Questions about his job status at Texas have been raised, but a story in the Austin American-Statesman said he will return for a fifth season. If he doesnt, Smart is owed a $12.9 million buyout. He took Virginia Commonwealth to five NCAA Tournaments, including the 2011 Final Four. Craig Smith, Utah State Mountain West Coach of the Year after taking a team picked ninth to a share of the regular-season conference championship. Mike Young, Wofford Three-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year who is taking the program to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time since 2010. More Rebels: Follow at reviewj ournal.com/Rebels and @RJ_ Sports on Twitter. Contact Mark Anderson at [email protected]. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter. | https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/unlv/unlv-basketball/whos-next-at-unlv-1619489/ |
What will happen to Neverland ranch after documentary allegations? | It was touted as a children's paradise, named after a fictional island where Peter Pan lives. But instead Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch was allegedly the site of countless instances of child sex abuse, according to claims made by the singer's former staff and in the documentary Leaving Neverland. The sprawling estate was Jackson's home for 15 years before the singer fled the property over allegations of child molestation, vowing never to return to his dream home, reports news.com.au. After Jackson left Neverland, it fell into disrepair and has now been for sale since 2015 with no prospective buyers despite the price being repeatedly slashed. Advertisement 'COWBOY COUNTRY' In 1977, real estate developer William Bone began building Sycamore Valley Ranch, a sprawling Tudor-style home in "cowboy country", otherwise known as California's Santa Ynez Valley, Architectural Digest reported. Bronze statues line the drive leading to the front of the main house at Neverland. Photo / AP On the 1093-hectare property Mr Bone constructed a 3900sq m main house, as well as outbuildings and extensive gardens complete with a 1.6-hectare lake featuring a stone bridge and waterfall. A decade after Mr Bone purchased the property he sold it to Jackson for a reported $AU27.62 million ($28.54m) Jackson swiftly renamed the ranch Neverland, a tribute to beloved children's tale Peter Pan and a character Jackson would only become more obsessed with in the years that followed. At the height of his fame following the release of his seventh album Bad, Jackson found it hard to go out in public without being mobbed by adoring fans, making the secluded Neverland both a necessary purchase and welcome respite for the singer. Lisa Marie Presley and then husband Michael Jackson go to greet children at his Neverland ranch in 1995. Photo / Getty Images Besides renaming the property, Jackson also set about turning Neverland into a children's paradise. He built tennis and basketball courts, a zoo and a private amusement park featuring a ferris wheel, bumper cars, games arcade and rollercoaster. The singer also added statues of children around the property and built a train station with two steam locomotives modelled after the famous attraction at Disneyland. With Neverland's transformation complete, Jackson invited his first guests to the ranch; James Safechuck and his family. In Leaving Neverland, Mr Safechuck recounts in harrowing detail the locations around the ranch where he alleges he was abused by Jackson. Michael Jackson and James Safechuck. Photo / Supplied "There was a castle in the theme park and upstairs there was a bedroom. You could see if somebody was coming. It had just a small bed. Up there, we would have sex," he recalled. Mr Safechuck, now 40, claimed Jackson would also molest him in an "Indian fort with teepees", a games room with a secret bedroom upstairs, a room in a movie theatre and a secluded guesthouse filled with memorabilia. Safechuck alleges some of the sexual relations took place in these Indian teepees at Neverland. Photo / Leaving Neverland In addition, Jackson allegedly continued the abuse in his main bedroom overnight while Mr Safechuck's mother Stephanie slept away from the main house in a guest property. "The routine was, we would get a blanket and lay it down on the floor inside of the closet next to his main bed so we could close the doors and have several doors people had to get through," he explained. "There was just a hall that leads to his room, there were bells so you could have a moment of hearing them trip and at least it alarmed him to when people are coming." Jackson would host a steady stream of boys and their families at Neverland, with his behaviour arousing the suspicion of those who worked for him. One of the amusement park attractions at his Neverland ranch. Photo / Getty Images Former Neverland ranch managers Mariano and Faye Quindoy, who managed the property from 1988 to 1990 before leaving due to a pay dispute, claimed they had "reason to believe" abuse was happening there. Details of the married couple's 1993 interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, released after Jackson's 2009 death, reveal Mr Quindoy alleged he "saw the singer fondle young boys on at least two occasions". More fairground attractions at the Ranch. Photo / Getty Images FBI agents travelled to the Philippines to interview Jackson's former employees as part of an investigation into sex abuse allegations made by Jordan Chandler. "He and his wife said they had 'reason to believe' the 13-year-old's allegations against Jackson," the file notes read, according to The Daily Beast. Jackson was never prosecuted over Jordan's allegations and later settled a civil suit for a rumoured $20 million with the Chandler family. James Safechuck pictured swimming in one of Neverland's pools as shown in the Leaving Neverland documentary. Photo / Leaving Neverland Meanwhile, Adrian McManus, who worked as Jackson's maid from 1990 to 1994, told 60 Minutes last month she felt uneasy cleaning up after the pop star at Neverland. Ms McManus, whose eyewitness account was disputed by other staff during Jackson's 2005 child sex abuse trial, claimed she would often find little boys' underwear either "on the floor with Michael's, or they were in the jacuzzi", as well as "a lot of vaseline" around Neverland. 'IT'S NOT A HOME ANYMORE' Jackson's fantasy world came crashing down in November 2003 when it was raided by law enforcement as part of a fresh inquiry into sex abuse allegations levelled at the singer. During the raid on the ranch a large amount of adult heterosexual pornography was found along with books containing erotica, however no child pornography was found. A room with a double sided mirror looking onto Neverland's cinema. Photo / Leaving Neverland While Jackson was later acquitted of all child molestation charges, he claimed the raid had ruined Neverland for him. "I won't live there ever again," he told US current affairs show 60 Minutes in December 2003. "I'll visit Neverland. It's a house now, it's not a home anymore." The singer made good on his promise, living overseas in Bahrain as a guest of the Gulf nation's crown prince and briefly in Ireland. He later returned to the US to live as a recluse in much smaller properties in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, where he died of an accidental overdose in 2009. But bad memories weren't the only thing that kept Jackson away from Neverland, with the singer struggling to maintain the property that reportedly fell into disrepair because of spiralling debts. One of the rooms at Neverland Ranch. Photo / Leaving Neverland In 2008, Jackson narrowly avoided a foreclosure auction of Neverland when investment company Colony Capital LLC bought the multimillion-dollar outstanding loan he had on the property. Court documents revealed the singer was spending a staggering $AU42 million more than he was earning, the Los Angeles Times reported. NEVERLAND NO MORE Neverland's future became even more uncertain when Jackson died, with reports claiming the singer had agreed to a series of London concerts in order to earn enough money to buy Neverland back. The property had a train station modelled after Disneyland. Photo / Getty Images Following his funeral, Jackson's family was rumoured to be divided on plans to lay his body to rest in a state-sanctioned cemetery at Neverland that his fans could visit in a "Graceland-type arrangement", E News reported at the time. Ultimately, plans to turn Neverland into a place of pilgrimage never materialised, with the ranch instead put up for sale in 2015 by Colony Capital for $AU141 million ($145.9m) Interestingly, the property wasn't advertised as a Jackson shrine, with realtors instead referring to the home's original name Sycamore Valley Ranch. It was discounted to $AU95 million ($98.3m) in 2017 and last month the price was slashed again, coinciding with the release of Leaving Neverland. The property is now listed for 70 per cent of its original asking price at $AU43 million ($44.5m) But given the skeletons in Neverland's closet, it seems unlikely a buyer will be willing to shell out millions on the property anytime soon. | https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=12213350&ref=rss |
Could the 737 Max problems compel Southwest to change business strategies? | As transportation officials investigate what went wrong on two Boeing 737 Max 8 airliners that crashed, a key question is coming up that could greatly affect passenger safety as well as the business model that has been the secret of success for Southwest Airlines. My concern is this is essentially a different airplane than all the earlier versions of the 737, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Oregon, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said to Jefferson Public Radio in Oregon. I want to know how it was that this plane got certified without requiring pilot retraining. This is more than an esoteric question. The answer could have a significant impact on key decisions for airline executives in terms of training, which models to stock their fleets with and which routes will ultimately prove profitable. The key question here is whether the most popular airplane in the world, the 737, has evolved to the point that pilots need different training and certification depending on which model they fly. We dont yet know why the Federal Aviation Administration didnt require such certification to begin with. And it should be said that in the end, that might be the right call. What we do know is that some pilots have complained to federal regulators about inadequate training on the new model. An investigation by DMN reporters Cary Aspinwall, Ariana Georgi and Dom DiFurio found five complaints in a federal database where pilots can voluntarily report problems. One captain called the flight manual "inadequate and almost criminally insufficient." | https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2019/03/15/could-737-max-compel-southwest-change-business-strategies |
What's the extra ingredient that has helped the Bucks to the best record in the NBA? | Nov 24, 2018; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Milwaukee Bucks guard Malcolm Brogdon (13) celebrates with forward Khris Middleton (22) after scoring a 3-point basket late in the fourth quarter during the game against the San Antonio Spurs at the Fiserv Forum. Sure, an MVP-level player is important, as is a roster deep with talent and a system that fits it all the pieces together just so. Consistently throughout this season, the Milwaukee Bucks the team responsible for the above accomplishments heading into Friday's 9:30 p.m. clash with the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center have pointed to something else as the secret sauce to their success. They're having fun. While other teams around the league, including the Lakers, have publicly dealt with dissonance in the locker room, bemoaned a lack of togetherness or sniped at each other in the media, the Bucks (47-14) have done their own thing. BUCKS: Team page | Results | Remaining schedule | Statistics NBA: Live scoreboard, box scores, standings, statistics In the locker room, the Bucks have played with babies, debated the correct pronunciation of Nutella and interrupted each other's interviews to talk about fashion. When they challenge each other, it's over who can throw down the most dunks over the course of the season a contest between Khris Middleton and Eric Bledsoe that's ongoing or a good-natured three-point shooting game with Tony Snell keeping the mood light with trash talk like yelling, "three-piece McNuggets!" after connecting on three in a row. On the road, sizable chunks of players go out for meals together and enjoy each other's company. We dont try to overthink things. We just try to have fun, just smile," Giannis Antetokounmpo said after a win in early February. It definitely can be an X-factor. ... All the other teams, they can have issues and troubles. Weve got to keep doing what were doing, playing together and playing hard. I know good things are going to happen, not just now but in April, May and June. The drama-free nature of the Bucks' ascent to the top of the NBA is certainly one of the reasons Milwaukee doesn't get talked about as much as some of the league's other teams. Where there's no drama, there's less to talk about. The Bucks have simply played their style, dominated teams to the tune of the league's best net rating (plus-9.2) and largest point differential (plus-9.5) and done so while collectively having fun with each player fulfilling his role mostly without complaint. NEWSLETTERS Get the Packers Update newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Daily updates on the Packers during the season Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-844-900-7103. Delivery: Daily Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Packers Update Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters Four of Milwaukee's five starters as well as newly added forward Nikola Mirotic, can be free agents this summer, but it hasn't become a topic of conversation. It's not because players haven't been asked, but because no one in the locker room has said anything to rock the boat. The same can be said about playing time, which because of the team's depth has been limited or inconsistent for certain players. Outside of Thon Maker, who was traded at the deadline, no one else has voiced frustration with playing time. Pat Connaughton and D.J. Wilson have channeled their feelings toward stepping up when called upon. Even when Maker and his representative sought a trade, he intentionally didn't make it an issue in the locker room and none of his teammates blamed him for being competitive. Of course, everyone getting along is easier when the team is winning. Players tend to complain less on teams experiencing success. But the Bucks also believe their chemistry was a factor in manufacturing that success. It's a chicken-or-egg situation when it comes to which came first, but there's no doubt the collection of personalities in the locker room was brought together intentionally. Weve been lucky," Khris Middleton said. "I think Jon Horst and Bud (coach Mike Budenholzer), theyve done a great job of just getting high-character guys in here. We speak about all the time that we dont really have (expletives) on this team. If we have an (expletive), me, Giannis, Bled, Malcolm (Brogdon), whoever, were able to kind of get him under control and let him know how we do things here. ... We know what this team, what this organization is about. All the B.S., we have a problem with somebody we go to them and say it. We dont like to air out our business in the media and whatnot, we like to handle it within our locker room. We figure it out ourselves. When the Bucks and Lakers square off on Friday, it will represent a collision of two teams in very different situations. The Lakers (30-31) are three games out of the playoff picture in the West, something unexpected for a team with LeBron James as its central star. A mostly young core with a hodgepodge of veterans has spent the season dealing with all the attention, distractions and trade rumors that arrived in Los Angeles along with James this summer. The Bucks, on the other hand, are loose, together and secure in their situation atop the league. While the game will be televised nationally on ESPN and played in front of who knows how many celebrities, the Bucks will remain the same free-wheeling, fun bunch. That said, they still know when to get serious and recognize the challenge facing them. The Lakers may be on a roller-coaster ride right now, but the Bucks aren't overlooking the test they represent. They have too much history with James for that. Those other young guys are playing well (Brandon) Ingram, (Kyle) Kuzma," Middleton said. "The medias a circus around there, but we cant go in there and think just because theyve got that going on theyre going to give up without a fight. Theyre still going to play hard, theyve still got LeBron thats going to try to take over at times. | https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/nba/bucks/2019/02/28/unity-having-fun-key-bucks-having-best-record-nba/3009048002/ |
What is 2019 Andrew McCutchen's ceiling for Phillies? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com Andrew McCutchen had a hilarious series of Instagram stories earlier this week in which he looked straight into the camera and explained how unsettling the first few plate appearances of spring training are for a hitter. The pitchers are always ahead of the hitters this time of year because the hitters haven't yet found their timing. There's no perfect substitute for live game reps. Scroll to continue with content Ad McCutchen, aside from the surprisingly entertaining production quality of his social media accounts, will be a fascinating Phillie to watch this season. Barring something unforeseen, it probably won't be the MVP version, but it might not be the 2018 version either. Last season, McCutchen hit .255/.368/.424 with 30 doubles, 20 homers and 65 RBI. In 2017, he hit .279/.363/.486 with 30 doubles, 28 homers and 88 RBI. The OBPs were similar and the Phillies should feel comfortable that even if McCutchen again hovers in the .250s, he'll be able to battle for the team lead in on-base percentage. The big difference between the two seasons was the power output. Interestingly, though, there wasn't much of a difference in McCutchen's batted ball profile between 2017 and 2018. This past season, despite the worse numbers, he had the highest hard-hit rate of his career. He had his highest line-drive rate since 2015. And it's not as if he was super unlucky - McCutchen's .304 batting average on balls in play in 2018 was just a point lower than the previous year. Story continues The big difference was that McCutchen, like most players, didn't do much hitting in San Francisco, where he played 64 games. In 276 plate appearances at AT&T Park (now Oracle Park), McCutchen hit .249 and slugged just .400 with five home runs. Included in that was an early-season home game when McCutchen went 6-for-7 with a walk-off three-run homer in the 14th inning. Remove that one game and McCutchen hit .229 with a .367 slugging percentage in San Fran, a similar output to Scott Kingery's 2018. It's a beautiful ballpark out there, but McCutchen had to have been happy to bid it farewell. It's also worth noting that left-center field is very deep at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, McCutchen's previous home venue. McCutchen last season hit 10 flyballs/line drives in San Francisco that were caught despite traveling at least 350 feet. Five of those traveled at least 370 feet. And five of those 10 deep flyouts/lineouts would have landed in the seats if hit to the same spot at Citizens Bank Park. If McCutchen plays a full season, as he's done eight of the last nine years, his home run total should be closer to the mid-to-upper-20s. If he has some additional batted ball luck, you could be looking at a .280/.370/.480 type of season, which is pretty much exactly what he did in 2017, his final year with the Pirates. Bryce Harper or not, it will be interesting to see where Gabe Kapler bats McCutchen. You can really put him in any spot 1 through 5 and it would make sense. He gets on base enough and still has strong enough baserunning instincts to bat 1 or 2. He can still be enough of a run producer to bat third, fourth or fifth. McCutchen is the de facto replacement for Carlos Santana since his arrival pushed Rhys Hoskins back to first base. His ceiling is a lot higher than Santana's and he's just tougher to defend. Santana pulled the ball more frequently last season than every left-handed hitter in the majors except Justin Smoak and Matt Carpenter. As a result, Santana was shifted against more than practically anyone in baseball and suffered so many deep 4-3 groundouts. McCutchen also pulls the ball a lot - you'll see plenty of hard grounders directly at the third baseman or shortstop - but he's not as easy to defend. That is a theme of this new-look Phillies lineup - with McCutchen, Jean Segura and J.T. Realmuto there will be fewer strikeouts, fewer extremes in hit location and more pressure placed on the opposing defense. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Phillies | https://sports.yahoo.com/2019-andrew-mccutchens-ceiling-phillies-162901214.html?src=rss |
Who are the people Wilson-Raybould named in her testimony on the SNC-Lavalin affair? | Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould kicked off nearly four hours of damning testimony at the House of Commons justice committee by revealing that 11 people were involved in a consistent and sustained effort to politically interfere in the decision to prosecute SNC-Lavalin on corruption charges. Some of the names, like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau, are easily recognizable, but others are advisers that stay behind the scenes and avoid the glare of TV camera lights at all costs. Of the 11 people, nine are directly named in Wilson-Rayboulds testimony. 1. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau At a one-on-one meeting with Trudeau, Wilson-Raybould says he asked her to find a solution for SNC-Lavalin. Trudeau stressed to Wilson-Raybould that there was an election coming up in Quebec and I am an MP in Quebec. The former attorney general said she looked Trudeau in the eye and asked: are you politically interfering with my role. Trudeau said he wasnt. 2. Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick At the Sept. 17 meeting, Wilson-Raybould said she was surprised to hear Wernick mention the Quebec election and the potential for SNC-Lavalin to move its headquarters to England if the prosecution proceeded. On Dec. 19, after months of pressure from PMO officials, Wernick called Wilson-Raybould and told her that Trudeau is gonna find a way to get it done one way or another. She testified that it reminded her of the Saturday Night Massacre, where former U.S. President Richard Nixon fired his attorney general for not following orders to sack a special prosecutor. 3. Finance Minister Bill Morneau During a conversation in the House of Commons on Sept. 19, Morneau stressed to Wilson-Raybould the need to save jobs. Wilson-Raybould told the finance minister that engagements from his office were inappropriate and had to stop. They did not stop, she testified. 4. Ben Chin, chief of staff to Morneau One of the first communications to Wilson-Rayboulds office about the decision to prosecute SNC-Lavalin came from Morneaus chief of staff Ben Chin, a former anchor for The National on CBC. Chin raised the spectre of SNC-Lavalin leaving Montreal if they went to trial on corruption charges and noted that the Quebec election was looming, so we cant have that happen, Wilson-Raybould says he told her. 5. Justin To, deputy chief of staff to Morneau The day after Wilson-Raybould told Morneau that the calls from his office were inappropriate, Chin and deputy chief of staff Justin To called Wilson-Rayboulds chief of staff to talk about the SNC-Lavalin decision. 6. Gerald Butts, principal secretary to Trudeau On Dec. 18, Wilson-Rayboulds chief of staff Jessica Prince reported back to her boss about a conversation with Trudeaus principal secretary Gerald Butts and chief of staff Katie Telford. Prince told the PMO staffers that they were inappropriately interfering with the decision. There is no solution here that doesnt involve some interference, Prince said Butts told her. 7. Katie Telford, chief of staff to Trudeau At the same Dec. 18 meeting, Prince said Telford told her that we dont want to debate legalities anymore and that they could provide cover for an unpopular decision by arranging for op-ed articles saying that what she is doing is proper. 8. Mathieu Bouchard, senior adviser in the PMO Prince met with PMO adviser Mathieu Bouchard and reported back to Wilson-Raybould that Bouchard had told her that if SNC-Lavalin were to announce that it is moving its headquarters out of Canada six months before the election that is bad. Prince said Bouchard told her that we can have the best policy in the world, but we need to be re-elected. 9. Elder Marques, senior adviser in the PMO On Nov. 22, Wilson-Raybould was summoned to a meeting with Bouchard and PMO adviser Elder Marques that lasted an hour and a half and that irritated her. Bouchard did most of the speaking at that meeting. Marques was also involved in a Sept. 16 phone call with Prince and Bouchard where the PMO advisers urged her to seek outside advice on the SNC-Lavalin decision and raised the Quebec election. Email: [email protected] | Twitter: stuartxthomson | https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/who-are-the-people-wilson-raybould-named-in-her-testimony-on-the-snc-lavalin-affair |
Will Phillies' 'Stupid Money' Ever Turn Into Smart Money? | It is called ''stupid money'' for a reason. Perhaps the Philadelphia Phillies were stupid to make a 13-year, $330-million offer to Bryce Harper, and the 26-year-old free-agent outfielder would have been beyond stupid to turn it down. Harper agreed to the Phillies proposal that made him the recipient of the largest free-agent contract in baseball history. As if the money isnt enough, the contract calls for a no-trade clause. There isnt an opt-out clause. With this agreement, both Harper and Manny Machado the top two free agents in the market have teams, although we are already more than a week into spring training. However, before we can safely say theres nothing behind this dry offseason, according to spotrac.com, there are still over 60 players who remain unsigned, including Gio Gonzalez, Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel. In addition to the Phillies, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Chicago White Sox and Harpers old team, the Washington Nationals, expressed interest. That and the $260-million contract Nolan Arenado signed with Colorado this week only supports what Kris Bryant told The Chicago Tribune: ''Everybody has money. Were not stupid.'' Harpers agent, Scott Boras, told The New York Post: "We had average values of $45 million offered on shorter-term deals. The goal was to get the longest contract possible. Bryce wanted one city for the rest of his career. That is what I was instructed to do. It is very difficult in this time to get the length of contract that takes a player to age 37, 38, 39.'' Harper, a six-time All-Star, hit .249 with 34 homers and 100 RBI last season, and already has 184 homers and 521 RBI in his short career. Although Harpers lifetime .279 batting average is below what a megastar should hit, his .388 career on-base percentage is Hall of Fame worthy. The Nationals didnt seem interested after Harper spurned their ten-year, $300-million contract offer, and on Feb. 22, Nationals owner Mark Lerner told NBC Philadelphia: ''We've moved on. We had to. There was no way we could wait around. ... We've filled out our roster.'' It appeared Harper moved on from the Phillies when the Dodgers and Giants were late to the table. Harper, who indicated a preference for the West Coast he lives in Las Vegas might have parlayed his geographical interests into an extra $35 million. Although the Phillies could use another starter and reliever dont forget, Keuchel and Kimbrel are also free agents they have been one of the more aggressive teams during what has been a passive winter. Philadelphia traded for catcher J.T. Realmuto and shortstop Jean Segura, and signed outfielder Andrew McCutchen and reliever David Robertson. While signing Harper doesnt guarantee the Phillies anything, much less winning the World Series, they are in better position than they were last season. According to William Hill Sports Book, the Phillies opened at 18/1 after last years World Series. They moved to 14/1 heading into spring training, and later to 10/1 after the news of Harper. Philadelphia won 80 games last year, and the over/under on victories for this season has been set at 87.5 after the Harper news. The ''stupid money'' is being spent. Time will tell if it was a smart call. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johndelcos/2019/02/28/will-phillies-stupid-money-every-turn-into-smart-money/ |
Wheres the evidence midterms werent hacked? | With help from Eric Geller, Jordyn Hermani and Martin Matishak Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Cybersecurity is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Cybersecurity subscribers hold exclusive early access to the newsletter each morning at 6 a.m. To learn more about POLITICO Pro's comprehensive policy intelligence coverage, policy tools and services, click here. QUICK FIX Story Continued Below Sen. Ron Wyden wants to know how Trump administration officials can say there is no evidence of hackers affecting midterm election results, since they cant force states to submit to forensic examinations of their voting machines. Industries holding trillions in debt are at high risk of cyberattack, according to a report out today. Moodys is still contemplating the credit ramifications of cyber risk. Ticket scalper bots are growing both more sophisticated and widespread, new research found. In particular, bots comprise nearly all secondary market traffic. HAPPY THURSDAY and welcome to Morning Cybersecurity! Well, that took a turn. Send your thoughts, feedback and especially tips to [email protected], and be sure to follow @POLITICOPro and @MorningCybersec. Full team info below. Driving the Day FIRST IN MC: NO EVIDENCE FOR NO EVIDENCE CLAIM Trump administration officials often say theres no evidence that hackers infiltrated election equipment to change votes, but Sen. Wyden today challenged the claim in a letter to DHS. Wyden recently requested that DHS conduct forensic examinations of voting machines in states without a paper ballot backup, and the head of the departments Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, answered that it couldnt mandate such searches. If the Trump Administration has not forensically analyzed voting machines across the U.S. it will have to be considered the height of irresponsibility and duplicity to suggest no evidence of foreign hacking exists, Wyden wrote in his letter to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. On what basis can the Administration make its claims regarding lack of evidence of foreign interference if it has not looked for it? Wyden also asked DHS a series of questions about how it assessed the likelihood of no election machine hacking and how many voting machines used in 2018 had known vulnerabilities. Krebs recently told POLITICO that states have proven willing to cooperate when DHS says, Theres something we need to share with you; we need to go look at this. RISKY BUSINESSES The banking, securities, financial system infrastructure and hospital sectors are at high risk from cyber threats, a significant problem given that they collectively hold nearly $12 trillion in rated debt, according to a report out today from the credit rating service Moodys. Nine of the other 31 sectors that the firm evaluated were found to be at medium-to-high risk, including electric utilities, health insurance, telecommunications and media. Moodys described cyber risk as a rising tide due to increasing supply chain complexity and attacker sophistication. Our approach to quantifying the credit implications of cyber risk exposure is still evolving at the issuer level, the company said. Thursdays report is the first Moodys publication to examine cyber risk across various sectors since November 2015, a practically prehistoric time in the evolution of cybersecurity. Since then, Moodys said, cyber incidents have yielded several key lessons: Attacks can spread rapidly and affect unexpected entities, as was the case with NotPetya; the duration of an event is important; high-profile leaks of nation-state cyber weapons have unexpectedly empowered criminal hackers and activists; and current regulations are inadequate because they mostly focus on the exposure of confidential personal data. Research out today from Distil Networks shows the presence of sophisticated scalper bots has jumped on ticket websites from 19 percent in 2017 to 31 percent in 2018. The advanced bots, which display more human-like characteristics that make them difficult to detect, are on the rise at the same time moderately sophisticated bots are on the decline because theyre easier to notice. This issue seems to be largely North American, with more than 67 percent of bad bot activity coming from the U.S. and another 18 percent from Canada. Many of these bots scrape ticket information and mass-purchase tickets to sell them for a higher price, while some companies employ bots to provide tickets as incentives for consumers or employees. Overall, nearly 40 percent of the traffic at the 180 websites Distil examined was malicious. The worst bot activity was on secondary market sites, Distil Networks concluded, with bot traffic comprising 99 percent of activity of sites studied. While there isnt a one-size-fits-all solution for the problem, Distil Networks recommends investing in CAPTCHA technology, keeping an eye on traffic spikes from routine sources and blocking known proxy services. POLITICO PLAYBOOK: Wake Up. Read Playbook. Eat Lunch. Read Playbook PM. Repeat. Be in the Know. Sign up today here. Election Security VEHEMENT VOTING VIEWS Georgia lawmakers on Wednesday moved forward with a bill authorizing the state to deploy ballot-marking devices to replace the states paperless voting machines, as an activist group blasted the states chief election official for misleading comments about paper ballots. The watchdog group Common Cause criticized Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for a memo his office released Monday showing that the estimated cost of adopting paper ballots would be as high as $225 million over 10 years, or $75 million more than with BMDs. That estimate was based on a highly inflated estimate of the cost of each paper ballot, according to Common Cause. In addition, it included the cost of buying e-poll books, which Georgia is doing either way. Common Causes top Georgia staffer said the group had grave concerns that the Secretary of State has not been honest with the public about the true cost of BMDs. At practically the same time, the Georgia House of Representatives passed a bill to prepare for the implementation of BMDs and sent it to the state Senate. Raffenspergers office, which cheered the bills progress, did not respond to a request for comment on Common Causes criticism. RECENTLY ON PRO CYBERSECURITY Voters believe the eventual report from special counsel Robert Mueller should be made public. The CBC reported that the International Civil Aviation Organization may have botched its response to historic cyberattack, though the group denied it. A senior Republican appropriator argued against more federal money for election security. An Illinois man who helped launch millions of DDoS attacks pleaded guilty in federal court. Californias secretary of state set a deadline for counties to deploy secure, modern voting machines. A suspected Chinese hacker group has updated some of its tools. Hackers increasingly launch phishing attacks through websites encrypted with SSL certificates. REPORT WATCH The U.S. is the leading contributor of malicious URLs at 63 percent, Webroot concluded in a threat report released today. The company found 40 percent of malicious URLs on good domains, meaning legitimate sites are often being compromised. One in 10 spearphishing emails are blackmail or sextortion attacks, according to research out today from Barracuda Networks. More than half use the phrase Security Alert to get targets attention, and a similar number focus on employees in the education industry, the company found. The most prominent malware threats in 2018 were LokiBot, Pony and TrickBot, Gigamon revealed in a report out today. LokiBot and TrickBot were still top threats in the second half of 2018 but Emotet overtook them, the company concluded. TWEET OF THE DAY Ding ding ding! QUICK BYTES President Donald Trumps former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said Trump had knowledge in advance that WikiLeaks would dump Democratic emails. POLITICO George Washington Universitys National Security Archive obtained the operations order for Cyber Commands support to the militarys battle against ISIL. Microsoft is collaborating with state-run Telecom Egypt to extend its cloud network in the country. Nationwide lobbying push for contractor monitoring software alarms state CIOs. StateScoop A researcher used the Vault 7 leak to build a hacking tool. CyberScoop Those Israeli spies are the gift that keep giving. The Associated Press "The Feds Favorite iPhone Hacking Tool Is Selling On eBay For $100And Its Leaking Data." Forbes A Dow Jones watchlist of millions of people leaked. TechCrunch Some Pennsylvania counties are doing enhanced election audits. WKBN Thats all for today. Stay in touch with the whole team: Mike Farrell ([email protected], @mikebfarrell); Eric Geller ([email protected], @ericgeller); Martin Matishak ([email protected], @martinmatishak) and Tim Starks ([email protected], @timstarks). | https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-cybersecurity/2019/02/28/wheres-the-evidence-midterms-werent-hacked-526960 |
Could Dirk Nowitzki return for a record 22nd NBA season? | Dirk Nowitzki hasnt confirmed that this will be his final season in the NBA, but the Dallas Mavericks forward is 40 years old and fans and teams (and even Mavs owner Mark Cuban) have been essentially acting like it is. But age is just a number, baby. Nowitzki made his first home start of the season in the Mavs 110-101 win over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday night, finishing with 11 points, five rebounds, and three assists. It was Nowitzkis third straight start (and third of the season overall), and he told the Dallas Morning News that hes feeling better than he has all season and is encouraged by his progress recovering from an inflamed tendon. Scroll to continue with content Ad I feel like I have a little more pep in my step, he said. My legs and my wind are a lot better than [earlier in the season]. I just feel better overall. I feel like I can actually contribute, whereas earlier I was struggling just to get up and down. With his recent starts and burst of productivity, Nowitzki was of course asked about his future and whether he plans to retire, or if hell play a record 22nd season in the NBA. I dont know, he said. I havent really thought about it. I would love to be there for the young guys one more year, but I think it depends on how the body feels. Ive had issues obviously this year. I had some knee swelling here the last few weeks, actually before the All-Star break, so its not all great. But like I said I am feeling better. I am feeling stronger. Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki isnt sure if hell retire this summer or decide to play one more season in the NBA. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Story continues Nowitzki knows his body is slowing down, and at age 40 hes not going to bounce back like he used to. But its hard to say goodbye to the game you love, the game youve played for 21 seasons. Especially when the future includes playing with two of the most talented and dynamic young players in the game, Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis. Via the Dallas Morning News: I think Im going to make that decision later on, but I think the futures bright. I think Luka and KP, if they stay healthy, stay together, they should be a great combo. They should play great off each other. Both have an incredible skill set for their size, incredible playmaking ability for their size. They should jell well, but we have to see how it goes next year. Nowitzki is definitely enamored with the thought of playing with Doncic and Porzingis next season. Even though he knows if he comes back, hell be spending less time starting and more time coming off the bench. Nowitzki admitted that coming off the bench instead of getting consistent starts hasnt been the easiest thing for him. Off the bench for me is a new role. Its a little harder. I have a lot of respect for guys doing it their entire career because you might run up and down six, seven trips without touching the ball and youve still got to be able to play well and give the team a lift. Nowitzki has been firm on taking his time to make this extremely important life decision. Hes not ready to decide right now, and with 21 games left in the season he obviously wants to see how his body reacts. Itll likely be awhile until we know what Dirk decides to do, but until then we can enjoy watching one of the games most loved and respected stars play the game he was born to play. Shaq to LeBrons trade-target teammates: I never cried about it Cops seize Dak Prescotts dog after it bites neighbor | https://sports.yahoo.com/dirk-nowitzki-return-record-22nd-season-nba-175201688.html?src=rss |
Could 'climate delayer' become the political epithet of our times? | Already we argue over whether to call them climate deniers, skeptics or doubters. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might have hit on a more devastating attack Its a fantastic time for verbal abuse in American politics. Donald Trump loves a schoolyard nickname, insulting everyone from Crazy Bernie Sanders to Little Marco Rubio. In turn, the presidents opponents, and sometimes his allies, have called him a moron, a motherfucker and mocked his tiny hands. But is there a way of using name-calling, not just to insult, but to introduce a new political idea. It seemed like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was doing that this week when she used the term climate delayer to call out those dragging their feet on climate change. Ocasio-Cortez used the term to describe Senator Dianne Feinstein, who was filmed telling a bunch of children that when it comes to the looming apocalypse, she knows better than they do, because she has spent a long time in the Senate not fixing the problem. While they called for immediate action on the Green New Deal, she argued that change wasnt going to come anytime soon. After all, when it comes to averting a global catastrophe on an unprecedented scale, endangering hundreds of millions and fundamentally altering the human experience, you dont want to rush into things. Play Video 3:18 Dianne Feinstein rebuffs young climate activists' calls for Green New Deal video The clip went viral. In the ensuing days, Ocasio-Cortez warned on Instagram and Twitter of the threat of climate delayers: people who appear to accept that something needs to be done about climate change, but dont seem to grasp its urgency. These people, she pointed out, arent much better than people who deny climate change exists. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) Climate delayers arent much better than climate deniers. With either one if they get their way, were toast. https://t.co/Do0WJRfG56 The term isnt entirely new. Global warming delayer appeared on sites like ThinkProgress more than a decade ago; it appeared in the Guardian at least as far back as 2011. And out of context, it sounds like a badge of honor. But thats getting into the weeds: we should celebrate the phrases emergencein mainstream political debate. Trumps political success has proven that a label can be as effective a thousand nuanced arguments. Sure, Delayin Feinstein might not have quite the same ring as Lyin Ted, but its getting there. And given the scale of the issue, we badly need an arsenal of labels for people standing in the way of climate progress. : How Ocasio-Cortez beat everyone at Twitter in nine tweets Read more Labels for people who reject the scientific evidence of climate change have a tortured history. A debate has raged as to whether climate denier or climate skeptic should be used to describe such people, the latter term aiming to soothe the egos of officials who just arent quite sure they can believe basically every scientist. Scientists who consider themselves genuine skeptics in the sense of seeking scientific inquiry, critical investigation and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims didnt like the term skeptics for people who rejected expertise; they wanted to call them deniers, according to the Associated Press, purveyors of one of journalisms leading style guides. But those deniers, understandably, didnt like the languages resemblance to Holocaust denial. So in 2015, the AP put forward another option, climate doubters, advising writers to ditch deniers and skeptics entirely. The Guardians own style guide takes a different view: The OED defines a sceptic as a seeker of the truth; an inquirer who has not yet arrived at definite conclusions. Most so-called climate change sceptics, in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence, deny that climate change is happening, or is caused by human activity, so denier is a more accurate term. On top of all that, there are climate contrarians, who make it their business to fight the scientific consensus often with substantial financial support from fossil fuels industry organizations and conservative thinktanks, as summarized in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Global warming should be called global heating, says key scientist Read more And yet none of these labels have managed to target a fundamental obstacle to climate change action: powerful people who profess to understand climate change, yet are curiously immobile on the issue. Perhaps the popularization of delayer will finally put the pressure on. When it comes to politically productive name-calling, its a lot snappier to dismiss someone as a climate delayer than to chastise them as a person who apparently believes the science but is unwilling to acknowledge the urgency of the situation. Its worth noting in all this that the very phrase climate change is mired in labelling warfare. As anyone who has seen the movie Vice knows, the Republican pollster Frank Luntz encouraged the George W Bush administration to use the phrase climate change rather than global warming. Yale researchers recount a secret memo in which he pointed out that a focus group participant felt climate change sounds like youre going from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale, whereas global warming has catastrophic connotations. Perhaps if wed all stuck with global warming or even tried global heating concern would have grown faster. Luntz knows messaging: he turned the estate tax into the death tax and health reform into a government takeover of healthcare. Fortunately in Ocasio-Cortez, it seems the left has a messaging expert of its own. And whether denier or delayer, she points out, if they get their way, were toast. | https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/mar/01/could-climate-delayer-become-the-political-epithet-of-our-times |
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