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Has Kyrie Irving played last game with Boston Celtics? | So this is how it ends for Kyrie Irving, with one bad shot after another, with one rim rattling miss after the next. It was 14 errant shots in Game 2, another 14 in Game 3 and 15 in Game 4. Facing elimination in Game 5, Irving submitted a 6-21 stinker in a lopsided 116-91 defeat, etching his name in Celtics history as the first player since Sam Jones in 1966 to take at least 15 shots and shoot under 40% in four straight playoff games. Irvings season is over. His time in Boston could be too. Before we get into the will he or wont he, before we read the tea leaves and overanalyze the field, lets stipulate that Boston is better with Irving. The let-him-walk brigade has been out in force the last few games, and Irvings awful play fueled them. But the idea that the Celtics should simply let him walk is absurd. The notion that Boston is closer to a championship with Terry Rozier manning the point guard position is foolish, a scalding hot take with no substance behind it. Irving is 27, an annual All-NBA candidate and a proven clutch player. He was terrible against Milwaukee. That doesnt mean he should be branded with a scarlet letter. Boston wants Irving back, and they will have about seven weeks to figure out how to do it. In October, Irving told a group of season ticket holdersand a worldwide audience that watched the video of it onlinethat he intended to return. In February, caught in the middle of Kevin Durants free agent drama that was magnified by the Knicks decision to dump Kristaps Porzingis to clear double-max, Irving-friendly cap spaceIrving declared, colorfully, that he doesnt owe anyone anything. All season, Irving has appeared varying degrees of unhappy. There was Bostons sluggish start and early exit from the ranks of conference frontrunners. There was the divide between the young stars who pushed the Celtics to the 2018 conference finals and the veteran-heavy group effectively supplanting them. There was Irvings leadership, which varied from biting critiques of the teams young players to an all-is-well attitude as the season burned down around him. This is what Irving wanted, of coursea franchise of his own. Boston may not have been at the top of his list when he asked out of Cleveland in 2017. But the Celtics offered one of the NBAs best GMs, a rising, player-friendly coach and a roster loaded with talent. If Irving bolts for, say, New York, it will be amount to an admission that being The Man isnt all its cracked up to be, that he is happier just getting buckets while someone else carries the leadership mantle. Then again, he may stay. There are plenty of reasons to. The lure of playing in New York for Irving is real. Hes a north New Jersey product who grew up dreaming of playing at Madison Square Garden. But the Knicks won an NBA-worst 17 games last season. There is an overwhelming league-wide sentiment that Durant is headed there next summer, and decent odds (14%) of securing the No. 1 pick at the draft lottery next week. But until those things happen the Knicks are still a basketball wasteland, and even if they do there is no guarantee that a Durant/Irving pairing coupled with a high lottery pick offers Irving a better chance to win than he has now. He would have to take less guaranteed money to leave, too, and dont dismiss the weight of a five-year, max-level contract on Irvings decision. Irving played 67 games this season, dodging the knee problems that plagued him at the end of last year. But Irving has undergone multiple knee surgeries in recent years, and has spoken at length about the fear he felt last spring, when the metal in his knee caused an infection, when he spent months shoveling down antibiotics and needed a catheter inserted into a vein running to his heart. For a brief time, Irving felt his athletic mortality. Gary Dineen/NBAE via Getty Images Irving wasnt interested in engaging questions about his future on Wednesday. Im just trying to get back to Boston, Irving deadpanned. He praised the Bucks and acknowledged the obvious: This season had been a difficult one. A lot of lessons to take from this season, Irving said. From Day 1 of training camp all the way until now, it just felt like a rush. I tried to enjoy as many moments as I could. It really comes down to great team basketball. Who is playing better at a certain time of the year. The connectivity, being able to respond. They showed all year why they were who they were. They were very dominating in this series collectively as a group, they outplayed us as a group. Theres no time to be disappointed. You take your lessons, you take the ass whooping that they handed us and you move on. Its a basketball journey. You want to keep playing, but they put a halt to that I wont forget something like this, the taste of feeling defeat in this type of style. The Boston rebuild has been remarkable, but the Celtics enter this offseason as a team in flux. They could have as many as four first round picks in Junes draft, but little need for any of them. They have the pieces to yank Anthony Davis out of New Orleans, but if Irving walks emptying the war chest for a player in the final year of his deal makes little sense. There is still a lot of young talent on this roster but that roster figures to get very expensive in the years to come. This season ended the way it should, poorly, because thats how Boston has played much of the season. Our issues, Brad Stevens said, Have been well chronicled. The team that seemed to grow every year under Stevens could never find its footing. Thats probably the part that eats at me the most, Stevens said. Been a head coach for 12 years. We let go of the rope and cracked more than we probably should have. The team that doesnt crack usually wins. As far as any other year I have been a head coach, its certainly been the most trying. I did a bad job. Irving didnt tip his hand on Wednesday, and for the next few weeks his relationships with everyonefrom Stevens to team president Danny Ainge to a locker room he struggled to leadwill be put under the microscope. Irvings first two years in Boston were a failure. Now we wait to see if he wants five more. | https://www.si.com/nba/2019/05/09/kyrie-irving-boston-celtics-anthony-davis-brad-stevens-danny-ainge-free-agency |
Can Democrats Bend Their New Coalition Without Breaking It? | Read: President Trump still wants to repeal Obamacare But the Republican pollster Gene Ulm says that if Democrats veer left, they are taking a risk, particularly with well-educated suburban voters. Those voters are already cross-pressured between their personal reticence about Trump (Ulms phrase) and their satisfaction with the economy. Adding a historically ambitious liberal agenda to the scales, he argues, could tip those conflicted voters toward choosing Trump for a second term, especially if they conclude that the Democratic proposals will threaten the strong economy. These types of issues definitely will decide where the suburbs will go, where white college-educated people will go, he says. Trump and other Republicans, Ulm adds, face a mirror-image threat. While many voters may feel that some of the solutions emerging from the revivified Democratic left go too far, he says, they do see the policies responding to legitimate problems that Republicans sometimes appear to discount. Voters oppose the Green New Deal because of this crazy price tag and wacky stuff that its going to do, but it doesnt mean they are against the environment, Ulm says. They oppose Medicare for all, but that doesnt mean they are against people being able to have access to health care. They are against free college for everybody, but that doesnt mean college ought not to cost less. Voters, he adds, give Democrats some credit for good intentions here. And indeed, other ideas emerging from the Democrats 2020 field have drawn consistent support across racial lines in recent polls. A majority of college-educated and non-college-educated whites, as well as preponderant majorities of blacks and Latinos, backed extensive student-loan forgiveness in the Quinnipiac poll. Lopsided majorities of all four groups in the Kaiser survey supported allowing more adults to buy into Medicare, as Biden, former Representative Beto ORourke, and other 2020 candidates have proposed. Democrats are also on relatively more solid ground in proposing to rescind or restructure Trumps tax cut: In a March Pew Research Center poll, about three-fourths of African Americans, nearly two-thirds of Latinos, and a slight majority of college-educated whites said they oppose it (although only about one-third of blue-collar whites said the same). And in contrast to the mostly negative response to the 70 percent top income-tax rate, Warrens proposed wealth tax on the largest fortunes drew support from three-fifths of all adults in the Quinnipiac survey, including significant majorities of college-educated whites, Latinos, and African Americans, and a narrower majority of non-college-educated whites. Voters have repeatedly demonstrated that if they believe presidential candidates care about their lives, they are willing to overlook disagreements over important components of their agendaor even, as in Trumps case in 2016, serious doubts about their character and temperament. But in choosing between candidates offering incremental change (such as allowing more Americans to buy into Medicare and reducing student debt) or revolutionary transformation (such as a government takeover of the health-care system and free four-year public college), Democrats will still be placing an implicit bet about the coalition they hope to assemble against Trump. White voters in these new pollsincluding the well-educated ones moving away from Trumps insular definition of the GOPare flashing an unambiguous yellow warning light about Democrats most ambitious and expensive ideas to expand governments reach. If Democrats barrel through that signal in 2020, they will be wagering that they can beat Trump with a very different coalitionthat relies more on enhanced minority and youth turnoutthan the one they marshaled to recapture the House in November. | https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/05/democrats-progressive-agenda-and-2020-election/589066/?utm_source=feed |
Will Jussie Smollett Ever Return to Empire ? | When Fox renewed Empire for a sixth season, the network and production company behind the show quickly made it clear embattled star Jussie Smollett would not return...for now. "By mutual agreement, the studio has negotiated an extension to Jussie Smollett's option for season six, but at this time there are no plans for the character of Jamal to return to Empire," the network said in a statement. Note the key phrase of "at this time." The season five featured the casket mystery revealedit was Kingsley (A.Z. Kelsey) not Smollett's character Jamalleading many to question how the show will write out the character. Smollett was removed from the last two episodes of the season following his character's wedding. It was easily explained away as a honeymoon trip. | https://www.eonline.com/au/news/1039971/will-jussie-smollett-ever-return-to-empire |
Did Emilia Clarke Solve the Mystery of Game of Thrones' Coffee Cup? | Forget crazy theories about Bran Stark being the Night King, we're all in on the mystery of Game of Thrones' coffee cup. In a scene in the fourth episode of the final season, an errant coffee cup could be seen next to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) while she looked over to Jon Snow (Kit Harington). The cup has since been edited out of the show. "The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea," HBO said in a statement after the errant cup went viral. While appearing on Conan, Liam Cunningham, Davos Seaworth on the series, brought Conan O'Brien "the cup" (it wasn't really the cup). | https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1040015/did-emilia-clarke-solve-the-mystery-of-game-of-thrones-coffee-cup |
Will Young People of Color Shape the 2020 Election? | For the 2020 election, weve been focusing mostly on the candidates who want to challenge Trumpbut we also need to consider the voters, and the changes in the electorate since 2016. Especially significant: young people of color. Steve Phillips explainshes a civil-rights lawyer and the founder of Democracy in Color, an organization dedicated to race, politics, and the new American majority, and also the author of the best-seller Brown Is the New White: How a Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority. Ad Policy Also: climate change and living in the city, where the health effects of hydrocarbon production and global trade are felt most intensely. Ben Ehrenreich reports on local organizing in the city of Commerce, California, a transit point for the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Plus: Paris isnt the only place where a cathedral of Notre Dame is in ruins and awaiting rebuildingtheres another Notre Dame in Haiti, destroyed in the earthquake of 2010. Amy Wilentz has a modest proposal about a source for the money: reparationsfrom France. | https://www.thenation.com/article/election-2020-voting-people-of-color-podcast/ |
Is Bobby Bones running for president? | Fans voted country radio personality and American Idol mentor Bobby Bones into the winner's circle of Dancing with the Stars last November. Now he has his eye set on a different type of November election one for governor or possibly president. I do feel like at some point I will hopefully be the governor of Arkansas, maybe even the president, Bones told People magazine. I dont even like saying I want to be a politician because its such a grody word. I feel the only way Im going to win is if they see me as them cause thats the only reason Ive been able to do anything so far. Bones, born Bobby Estell, has perfected the art of overcoming the odds to succeed. Bones was born to a teen mother in Hot Springs, Ark., in 1980. His mother suffered from drug and alcohol addiction over the course of her life and his father was absent. Bones grew up in a trailer park where without a bedroom of his own, he slept on the couch and crammed his belongings underneath. In 1998, he became the first person in his family to graduate high school. His mother died in her 40s from drug and alcohol abuse but managed to get her GED before she passed away. At 39 years old, Bones is now a two-time New York Times best-selling author, singer, songwriter, musician, comedian, philanthropist, one of country musics most popular syndicated radio hosts, a reality show winner and part of the cast of American Idol. In 2017, Bones was inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame. His statement to People isnt the first time hes expressed an interest in politics. In January of 2017 he tweeted that he had spoken to his boss and that he was very serious about pursuing the Governorship of Arkansas. NEWSLETTERS Get the Eat Drink Nashville newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Eating and drinking, that's what Nashville does! (Well, and music.) Come here for the latest news and trends. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-342-8237. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Eat Drink Nashville Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters In November he told Fox News that he would love to be governor of Arkansas and that he wanted to help people who grew up like he did, give them a chance with education andhopefully, [become] president." During the same conversation, Bones said hes a registered independent. Read or Share this story: https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2019/05/09/bobby-bones-governor-arkansas-president/1151321001/ | https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/2019/05/09/bobby-bones-governor-arkansas-president/1151321001/ |
What's Behind A Rise In Conscience Complaints For Health Care Workers? | Enlarge this image toggle caption SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images When health care workers feel they have been forced to do something they disagree with on moral or religious grounds, they can file complaints with the federal department of Health and Human Services' Office for Civil Rights. Some high profile cases have involved nurses who objected to providing abortion services. For a decade, the agency got an average of one of these complaints of conscience violations each year. The complaints can include doctors, nurses, or other health care workers who feel a hospital or clinic that receives federal funds has discriminated against them because of their moral position. Groups of health care providers can also file complaints. Last year, the number of complaints jumped to 343. That increase was cited by the Office of Civil Rights as one reason for issuing a new rule designed to protect conscience rights, unveiled publicly last week. HHS estimates that implementing and enforcing the rule will cost taxpayers $312 million in its first year. HHS declined to offer any specifics on the 343 complaints, such as where they were from, or what might be behind the sudden increase over past years. The Office for Civil Rights handles three types of complaints: violations of HIPAA, the law the protects the privacy and security of health information; violations of civil rights related to discrimination based on race, sex, national origin, disability, and age; and violations of conscience rights. Office director Roger Severino has made clear that protecting religious freedom is his priority and that his office is "open for business," as he said to reporters announcing the new rule. In fact, he formed a new Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom in January 2018. "For too long, governments big and small have treated conscience claims with hostility instead of protection," Severino said in announcing the new division. "But change is coming and it begins here and now." That signaling from Severino may have helped generate the increase in complaints, says Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations. "Now that there's an actual office opened and it's well publicized that it's available, people are contacting them," he says. The Bristol, Tenn., based Christian Medical & Dental Associations represents about 19,000 health care workers. "We're happy to provide compassionate and quality care for anybody that walks in the door as long as we don't become morally complicit in something that violates our conscience," he says. As examples, he mentioned abortion, physician-assisted suicide, and gender transitioning. One reason given for the new rule is that it will help keep health workers from leaving the field. It cites data from a 2009 survey from the Christian Medical Association that found 82% of their members say they would "limit the scope of their practice if conscience rules were not in place." Stevens thinks complaints are increasing because the issues underlying conscience violations are growing. "I think there's a lot more antagonism towards people of faith," he says. He also thinks there are pent up concerns from before the Trump administration, when nurses and doctors with issues felt like the Office of Civil Rights wouldn't do anything with their complaints. "The big issue in the past has not been having laws. The big issue was having them enforced," he says. Former director of the Office for Civil Rights Jocelyn Samuels takes issue with that characterization. From 2014 to 2017, she was Severino's predecessor. "It is wholly inaccurate to say that we abdicated our responsibility to enforce these laws," she says. Samuels, who now directs the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, notes the average of one complaint a year filed under the provider conscience laws wasn't just in the Obama Administration there were only ten complaints in the decade from 2005 to 2015. "I think that the number of complaints that were filed during the Bush and Obama administrations is some indication about the relative scope of the problem of religious refusals," she says. And she points out that those complaints that the office did receive were "dwarfed by the number of complaints filed under another laws." "When I was the director of OCR we were receiving somewhere upwards of 20,000 complaints under HIPAA and, in addition, we were receiving several thousand civil rights complaints every year," Samuels says. She agrees that the office's publicity around the priority of enforcing provider conscience laws is likely behind the increase in complaints. But rather than welcome that outreach as David Stevens does, she worries that it may give health care workers the impression that they can deny any care that offends their religious or moral beliefs. "So, for example, an orthopedist cannot refuse to set the leg of an LGBTQ patient because the orthopedist disapproves of that person's sexual orientation or gender identity," she says. "The provider conscience laws are very narrowly drafted to authorize medical providers to refuse certain types of care under certain funding streams that HHS provides." She theorizes that the number of complaints is likely to keep going up because the office has telegraphed that they're expanding what conduct is covered under these laws. As NPR reported last week, the new rule offers protection to health care workers who have an "articulable connection to furthering a procedure," meaning, even doing tasks that are indirectly related to a procedure. The rule explains: "Scheduling an abortion or preparing a room and the instruments for an abortion are necessary parts of the process of providing an abortion, and it is reasonable to consider performing these actions as constituting 'assistance.'" "By expanding the scope of protected conduct you are almost by definition creating a situation in which there could be more allegations of violations," Samuels says. When asked about the nature of the 343 complaints and why the number may have jumped from previous years, a spokesperson from HHS declined to provide specifics saying that the 67 office "does not discuss the substance of open complaints or investigations." | https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/05/09/721532255/whats-behind-a-rise-in-conscience-complaints-for-health-care-workers?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
What Secrets Are Buried in the Backyard? | There's a lot more than hidden secrets in Oxygen's Buried in the Backyard. E! News can exclusively reveal the true-crime series returns for a second season on Monday, May 13 at 9 p.m. with "Guilt or Innocence." In the season two premiere, body parts of two missing teens are found in a backyard cornfield and Ohio detectives uncover dark family secrets to track the suspect. The series examines true-crime stories of victims found hidden in the place you'd least expect. Each episode follows the unraveling of a mystery surrounding a victim's identity and cause of death. Buried in the Backyard features first-hand accounts from the victim's loved ones and law enforcement involved with the case, as well as archival footage, to piece together the shocking tale. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1039974/what-secrets-are-buried-in-the-backyard-get-a-sneak-peek-at-season-2?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Why do the Blues play Gloria by Laura Branigan after wins? | When the Blues won Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinal with Pat Maroon's game-winning goal in double overtime, there was only one way for the team and its fans to celebrate. Blues fans immediately turned up the classic 1982 hit "Gloria" by Laura Branigan, and a local St. Louis radio station even played the jam for 24 hours. While it's customary these days to play "Gloria" after a Blues win, the tradition is still relatively new and surprisingly started during a football game. According to stlouisblues.com, teammates Alexander Steen, Joel Edmundson, Robert Bortuzzo, Jaden Schwartz and Robby Farri were watching the Eagles-Bears NFC Wild Card game at a bar in Philadelphia when they got the idea to change the team's celebration tune. The bar's DJ played "Gloria" during commercial breaks, and the guys realized how much fun everyone in the place was having listening to the song. "Everyone would get up and start singing and dancing. We just sat back and watched it happen," Edmundson said. "Right there we decided we should play the song after our wins. We won the next game, we got a shutout, so we kept on playing it." The Blues will play the Sharks in the Western Conference final for a chance to advance to the Stanly Cup final and hopefully keep playing "Gloria" on a loop. | https://www.si.com/nhl/2019/05/09/blues-gloria-song-laura-branigan-nhl-playoffs-tradition-explained |
How did lowly Phoenix Suns beat NBA's best Milwaukee Bucks twice? | Milwaukee is playing in the postseason like the team that finished with the NBAs best record at 60-22, which included the best home record in the league at 33-8. The Bucks are 8-1 in the playoffs after closing out Boston in five games Wednesday night at home. Clearly Milwaukee has the better team. The Bucks have one of the games best players and are looking more and more like the favorites to come out of the Eastern Conference to play in the NBA Finals. Antetokounmpo is playing even a greater level right now in averaging 27.4 points, 11.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game in the playoffs. Stay in the know. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. "Giannis is destroying it," said Suns center Deandre Ayton on Wednesday. "I dont know what somebody did to him, but yeah, hes doing a great job. Hes on a mission. Hes attacking the rim fearlessly. Unstoppable. Hes going his thing. Everything that he worked for or what weve seen the whole season, he hasnt stopped yet." Phoenix was on the complete opposite end. The Suns lost a franchise-record 17 consecutive games as the rolled to their fifth losing season in a row and fired Igor Kokoskov after just one season as their head coach. The Suns might just land the top pick in the NBA draft for a second straight year. However, Phoenix matches up well with Milwaukee, particularly with wings. Ayton has the athleticism to force Antetokounmpo into tough shots and score on the other end. The Suns can look at these two games and realize theyre capable of being a great team, but they also must realize theyre a long, long way from becoming that. Still, the two wins fuel optimism for the future. The first victory came in November when Jamal Crawford hit Phoenixs biggest shot of the season with 0.8 seconds left to stun Milwaukee, 116-114, at Fiserv Forum. That was Phoenixs only win in a 15-game stretch. Five months later, the Suns pulled off another upset, 114-105, in Phoenix as part of an impressive stretch that included wins over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers and at the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors. Now, in that first game, Milwaukee shot a woeful 10-of-44 from 3 with Brook Lopez going 0-for-12 to set an NBA record for most missed 3s. If the 7-footer shoots his regular-season (36.5%) or postseason percentage (27.9), the Bucks win. He must have made too many earlier. After an 0-for-12 night, Brook Lopez opens the game with a triple. #SplashMountain https://t.co/rmin4TRZIspic.twitter.com/evKToaAqJZ FOX Sports Wisconsin (@fswisconsin) November 25, 2018 Lopez had shot a combined 23-of-48 (47.9) from three in his previous six games that included an 8-of-13 effort in a win at Denver. The poor 3-point shooting offset a 35 and 10 performance from Antetokoumpo, who only missed two shots on 16 attempts. Then in the rematch, Phoenix came back from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to prevail. So much for that first win being a fluke. "This was the No. 1 team and we wanted this win," Deandre Ayton said after the game. "Straight up. We wanted this win. Everybody said it was luck (the last time in Milwaukee). Yeah. So there you go." Kelly Oubre Jr., who was in Washington back in November, went for 27 points and 13 boards while Devin Booker added 22 and seven assists. Milwaukee Bucks' Eric Bledsoe reacts to a basket during the second half of Game 5 of a second round NBA basketball playoff series against the Boston Celtics Wednesday, May 8, 2019, in Milwaukee. The Bucks won 116-91 to win the series. (AP Photo/Morry Gash) (Photo: Morry Gash, AP) Ayton posted a double-double of 19 and 12 and Josh Jackson added 16 off the bench. "Its kind of hard to think we lost to Phoenix twice," said Antetokoumpo, who had 21 points, 13 rebounds, six assists, three steals and game-high six turnovers. "But they played better than us, they came out there and set the tone. We had the lead and we lost the lead and they deserved to win." Once again, Milwaukee shot poorly from 3. The Bucks went 12-of-42 (28.6%). Lopez again was ice cold from 3 (2-of-9), but All-Star Khris Middleton made just 1-of-7 from distance. This was the final of a five-game road trip with the last four being out West against Sacramento, Los Angeles, Utah and Milwaukee. The Bucks beat the Kings in overtime, upended the Lakers and lost to the Jazz, but had a day in between that loss and their game against Phoenix. A little fatigue perhaps. Or something else. Get crucial breaking sports news alerts to your inbox. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Varies Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Sports Breaking News Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters "I dont think we take them as seriously as we should," Malcolm Brogdon said. "Its just a lack of focus." A lack of defense, too. Milwaukee led the NBA in defensive rating in the regular season at 104.9, field goal percentage defense at 43.4% and 11th in points allowed per game at 109.3. Its been more of same in the playoffs. Milwaukee ranks first in defensive rating (98.2), field-goal percentage defense (39.9%) and is third in 3-point shooting percentage defense (31.7%) and scoring defense (101.6 points allowed a game). The Bucks allowed 91 points in Wednesdays 25-point win to send the Celtics fishing, but the couldnt contain Phoenixs offense during the regular season. Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo brings the ball up court during the first half of Game 4 of a second round NBA basketball playoff series against the Boston Celtics in Boston, Monday, May 6, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) (Photo: Michael Dwyer, AP) The Suns averaged 115 points in the two wins and shot 50% from the field (45-of-90) in Milwaukee, 45.1% (41-of-91) at home. They scored 50 points in the paint in the rematch. It wasnt too long ago Milwaukee had the NBAs worst record at 15-67 under Larry Drew. Antetokoumpo was a rookie that season in 2013-14. That was also the last time Phoenix had a winning record at 48-34 and just missed out on the playoffs. They havent come close to that since, but Milwaukee has made the climb up the top of the league. Maybe the Suns can do the same someday. After all, theyve already proven they can beat the best. Ask Milwaukee. Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-787-1240. Follow him on Twitter at @DuaneRankin. Support local journalism. Start your online subscription. Suns talk about upsetting Bucks | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nba/suns/2019/05/09/how-did-lowly-phoenix-suns-beat-nbas-best-milwaukee-bucks-twice/1150133001/ |
How long does it take to recover from a calf strain injury? | 1 / 5 Back to Gallery Warriors fans may be wondering how long it will take for Kevin Durant to recover from a right calf strain he suffered in the third quarter of Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals. After initial concerns it was an Achilles injury, the Warriors confirmed the diagnosis was a calf strain. He will receive an MRI on Thursday morning to discover the severity of the strain. It depends on how bad the injury is. According to Alex Petruska, a doctor with Boston Sports Medicine, a calf strain injury occurs when the calf muscle tears from the top of the achilles tendon. There are three degrees of possible strains. Harvard Health gives the following timeline for recovery: A Grade 1 strain, considered a "pulled muscle" with minimal tearing, is the mildest and takes 7-10 days to recover from. A Grade 2 strain, an incomplete muscle tear, requires 3-6 weeks of recovery time. A Grade 3 strain, which is a complete tear of the muscle-tendon unit, can take several weeks to a few months to fully heal. MORE: Warriors beat Rockets 104-99, but lose Kevin Durant to injury in Game 5 Even with the least severe strain, it is doubtful that Durant will return for the series against the Rockets. Warriors coach Steve Kerr told NBC Sports Bay Area last night it was highly questionable Durant will play on Friday. | https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/How-long-will-it-take-Kevin-Durant-to-recover-13832260.php |
Can the health issues of Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz help all of us to better use our powers for good? | I grew up in Saskatchewan, on a farm. People there are great. Wellmost people. Almost everyone. Except this one guy. He lived around where we did and always seemed to have it in for anyone else who was successful. Hed drive past a farm where the residents were painting the granaries where they stored their wheat. This fella would go Must be nice to have so much money they can afford to paint their barn. In his book, anybody elses success was a bitter reminder that he had failed to achieve the same things. It was jealousy. Petty jealousy. When Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz took the stage at the introduction of Ken Holland as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager earlier this week, many people were taken aback. In many ways, Mr. Katz did not look like the Daryl Katz who we were used to seeing (when he would rarely show). It was impossible to miss. Now, I get it that the club Katz owns has been mismanaged in many ways the last Bakers Dozen worth of seasons. And that a lot of people who in good faith handed over their loyalty, their hard-earned money or both feel now cheated out of those things. I get that. And I dont blame you for being angry. At the organization. At him. But a lot of folks took the opportunity to take advantage of someone perceived to have become rich at their expense by then mocking them when they were down. Out came the unflattering memes and sharp-tongued barbs. One comment that rang in my ears was I guess thats what money does to you. Sounded a lot like the guy bitter over his neighbor painting his granaries. Media contributed to this. In Talk Radio, hosts are trained to whittle down topics to the most divisive angle that they can. The truly talented turn this into constructive debate. Others just measure their success by how vitriolic the response is. Hot Takes are too often fabricated arguments designed to draw in audience, ratings, and money. Social Media cant be absolved of blame either. Most people on Twitter or Instagram are good folks just trying to have some fun. But mixed among them are trolls, the dark ones also looking for a hot take. For them, its all about clicks and views and follows and likes. I dont blame the little guy as much as the guy on a major U.S. network with 195 thousand Twitter followers. His responsibility is far greater because his reach and influence is as such. After it was revealed that it is a life-threatening health issue that Mr. Katz was facing, there was a mass about-face. Humanity (and guilt) kicked in. A lot of the responses I saw seemed genuine. Most (but not all) took down their shots and bards immediately. Some actually said the words I was wrong. Im sorry. I was heartened to see how most people retreated. I sensed that a majority of them really meant it. But the point remains, and this stings a little: It seemed just fine for us to make fun of someones appearance before we knew he was sick. In retrospect, of courseit was not. And never should have been in the first place. Then why was it o.k. And his family. We should put ourselves in their place for a moment. Some complained well they (the Oilers) should have said something. Its his business, his life, his familys reality. Its not a publicly traded company. Its called privacy. And any one of us would insist upon it for ourselves. In the end, thoughI believe its about substance. Edmonton is filled with super-smart hockey analysts and (especially) hockey fans. It is one of the very few markets in the NHL where most average people can watch a game and give a pretty revealing critique of the game. An incredibly educated fan base. This would be rare in South Florida. It makes the Edmonton marketspecial. Theres a reason more people actually listen to Bob Stauffers radio show than they do the actual play-by-play of the games themselves (and they do, thats a fact). It is because of Oilers fans unbridled passion for their team, and especially their insatiable thirst to talk about it. If we would just use those powers for good: Focus on the substance. Better differentiate between dissecting a game plan or a turning point, between a player contract or concession stand prices rather than the dissection a human being. Find me on Twitter @KurtLeavins Recently, at The Cult STAPLES: Huge win for Bakersfield over San Diego in Game 3 McCURDY: First impressions are that Holland gets it STAPLES: Todd Nelson should be Head Coach candidate LEAVINS: The Top 9 Things on Ken Hollands list | https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/cult-of-hockey/can-the-health-issues-of-edmonton-oilers-owner-daryl-katz-help-all-of-us-to-better-use-our-powers-for-good |
When Was the Last Time American Children Were So Afraid? | When I put that question to Paula Fass, a historian at UC Berkeley and the author of The End of American Childhood: A History of Parenting From Life on the Frontier to the Managed Child, she brought up two eras as analogues. The first was the early stages of the Cold Warthe 1950s in particularwhen fears of nuclear bombs had schoolchildren across the country doing duck-and-cover drills underneath their desk. Surveys of children who grew up in this era indicate that 60 percent of them reported having had nightmares about atomic bombs. Fass herself lived through nuclear-prep drills, and while she said that they werent all that scary for herthey became rote, like reciting the Pledge of Allegianceshe recalled one night during the Cuban missile crisis, in 1962, as particularly anxiety-inducing for a high schooler: I remember going out that evening on a date, and as we parted ways on the New York subway, we said to each other, We may never see each other again. The second period when families felt a looming threat, Fass said, was the 1980s and 90s, when there was a pervasive fear of kidnapping among parents and kids alike. They received constant reminders of children who had disappearedtheir faces were on TV, billboards, mailed flyers, and milk cartons. Some of the missing were from small towns, and others were from big cities. It didnt seem that there were any protected places, Fass told me. Fass, who wrote a book about child abductions called Kidnapped in 1997, said she heard of police officers showing up at schools in a push to record kids fingerprints, not because they would be able to locate them that way, but because if they located their bodies, theyd be able to identify them. All this scared children: A 1987 poll found that their most common fear was being kidnapped. In the case of the Cold War, its hard to say, because while the United States never experienced a nuclear attack, there was a real sense that one might occur. (And some evidence indicates that ducking and covering might actually have been a wise tactic for these kids, at least compared with doing nothing at all.) The kidnapping panic, meanwhile, seems overblown in retrospect. In 1997, for instance, only about 100 of the 71 million children in America were abducted by strangers. This isnt to say that kidnappings and nuclear blasts wouldnt be devastatingjust that they are exceedingly unlikely. Shootings, too, seem to fall under this category of threat. Starting with Columbine, according to the Post, school shootings have claimed some 150 lives, including both children and adults. Thats 150 too many, but as a percentage of all the students and teachers who have been in a school in the past 20 years, its quite small. (The number of children estimated to have experienced gun violence at school during that periodroughly 230,000is also much too high, but still a tiny minority of the tens of millions of American children in school at any given time.) Lockdown drills are schools attempt to protect kids from an unpredictable threat. But, across the country, children are being trained to anticipate an outcome that is both terrifying and extremely unlikely to happen to them. | https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/05/lockdown-drill-fear/589090/?utm_source=feed |
Why is the Arizona Legislature so scared of Arizona voters? | Opinion: The Arizona Legislature is once again out to make it more difficult for voters to exercise their constitutional right to make laws at the ballot box. (Photo: EJ Montini) The GOP-dominated Arizona Legislature continues its years-long quest to make it as difficult as possible for you to make laws at the ballot box. Every year our leaders dream up new and creative ways to weaken our power to go around them, urged on by a business community that's been steaming ever since voters raised the minimum wage in 2016. This year, our leaders have come up with yet another set of requirements heaped upon people who circulate initiative and referendum petitions but curiously, not on the people who circulate our leaders nominating petitions. And just in case one of those initiatives makes the ballot, theres a plan in the works to grant the attorney general broad new authority to write the descriptions of ballot initiatives the ones that are distributed to every Arizona voter. Something I like to call the Mark Brnovich-APS Memorial Thumb on the Scale Act. Brnovich added a controversial phrase We got a preview of this new power last year when Brnovich swooped in to help Arizona Public Service defeat Prop. 127, the clean-energy proposal funded by a California billionaire Tom Steyers NextGen America super PAC. By law, the Secretary of States Office writes the title and 50-word summaries of ballot propositions for the publicity pamphlet and the AGs Office approves or rejects those summaries. But Brnovich went beyond that last year, altering election officials' description of Prop. 127 in order to mirror one of APSs talking points against the initiative. Specifically, the AG added language that utilities would need to meet the new clean-energy requirements irrespective of cost to consumers. 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 The AGs Office called it an attempt to provide necessary and appropriate information to the voting public. Or put another way, an attempt to persuade voters to kill Prop. 127. It belonged in a campaign pamphlet The Secretary of States Office called the change eyebrow raising given that there was nothing in the initiative that addressed the cost issue. "The Prop. 127 language is certainly eyebrow-raising because it cites information exogenous to the ballot measure itself, then-Elections Director Eric Spencer wrote in an email to the AGs Office. "But I'm sure you've calculated the legal and political risks of adding that." Of course, there were no real legal or political risks. There isnt really time to sue over such things, as the language typically comes out just days before the ballots are printed. The bigger political risk for an elected official in this state would be not to the bidding of APS, which spends millions getting its favored candidates elected and its targets defeated. It took about two seconds for a gleeful APS to incorporate the AGs irrespective of cost to consumers language in its no-on-127 campaign. Which is, of course, where it belonged in a campaign pamphlet, not in the state-issued publicity pamphlet. SB 1451 would do that for all initiatives Now comes Senate Bill 1451, which would codify what Brnovich did last year, giving the AG unilateral power to accept, reject or modify the draft language prepared by state elections officials. In other words, itll ensure that the Republican attorney general not the Democratic secretary of state will have the last word on what goes into the publicity pamphlet in 2020. The bill, which was approved Wednesday on a party-line vote of the House, also would impose various new restrictions on people who circulate petitions in initiative and referendum campaigns. None of the new restrictions would apply to people who circulate petitions for candidates campaigns. Republicans who support SB 1451 say its all about making it as difficult as possible for out-of-state interests to come in and buy their way onto Arizonas ballot. (As opposed to out-of-state interests who come in and buy candidates with big donations.) This last election we had a billionaire from out of state who got a measure put on the ballot," Rep. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said, referring to Steyers Prop. 127. "Out of state money. Paid circulators. That is not populist." Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/05/09/arizona-legislature-scheme-tank-ballot-initiatives/1154078001/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/05/09/arizona-legislature-scheme-tank-ballot-initiatives/1154078001/ |
Who is the man behind AEG/PromoWest? | CLOSE Here are the most notable acts taking the stage. Taylor Jade Powell, [email protected] Back in 2015, The Enquirer wanted to learn more about Scott Stienecker, the president of the company that had just bought Bunbury Music Festival, now in its eighth year. On May 9, Stienecker announced that his company was planning on building a new concert venue in Newport. So, we've updated and republished that 2015 profile. His passion for music and his motivation, however, has not changed. Name a band. Scott Stienecker has a story. Try alternative rockers Smashing Pumpkins. Or the hip hop group the Beastie Boys. They actually share a greatest hit backstage moment: Stienecker witnessed lead singer Billy Corgan, sporting black dress shoes, dunk a basketball a split second after a perfect pass from a member of the rap trio. With more than 40 years promoting concerts, Stienecker's collection of rock 'n' roll recollections is vast. Jaw-dropping. Probably not always rated PG. But always behind-the-velvet-ropes exclusive. And really, really interesting. Like the unexpected athleticism of a Goth god. But this name-a-band game means more than an impressive anecdote, more than a party trick. Buy Photo Scott Stienecker, president and CEO of independent concert promoter AEG/PromoWest Productions, is photographed in his Columbus office alongside images of The Rolling Stones' drummer Charlie Watts, center, and lead singer Mick Jagger. (Photo: Photo: The Enquirer/Carrie Cochran) It's all serious evidence of the expertise and experience Stienecker brings to his role as CEO and president of independent concert promoter AEG/PromoWest, a Columbus-based business. Starting in 2015, as the new majority owner and organizer of Bunbury Music Festival, Stienecker brought his moxie to Cincinnati. On Thursday, Stienecker announced that he was investing even more in the Cincinnati area. His company said it would build a $40 million indoor-outdoor concert venue in Newport after PromoWest's plans to build a concert venue at The Banks on the Cincinnati side of the Ohio River were rejected. Stienecker's company already runs the indoor-outdoor venue in Columbus, Express Live!, as well as Newport Music Hall, The Basement, A&R Music Bar. The buzz of Bunbury The announcement comes just weeks before Bunbury is set to return to the Ohio river May 31-June 2. As the majority owner since 2015, Bunbury has matured as Stienecker envisioned, emerging as a nationally known music festival in an increasingly crowded, competitive field. And that reputation reaps economic rewards for the city and a major increase in Cincinnati's cultural currency. "Economically, we have a huge amount of impact," said founder and former majority owner Bill Donabedian in 2015. "And I think socially, we're changing the game as far as how people see Cincinnati." NEWSLETTERS Get the Things To Do newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Everything entertainment from weekend plans to showbiz news. Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-876-4500. Delivery: Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Things To Do Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters He sees it like this: Every major city needs certain things a professional sports team, a symphony, a major university. Young professionals, he said, are starting to count a major music festival as one of those draws. Donabedian got that ball rolling, but something was missing. In the biz, that'd be called "leverage." That is, pull. The insider kind. The kind that says to big-name and on-the-cusp names that this festival draws the right demographic, the right sponsors and the right bands to play next to them. In a word, they needed Stienecker and AEG/PromoWest. That first year, the three-day passes sold out, to the tune of 8,500 tickets at $154 a pop. (Capacity each day of the festival at Sawyer Point and Yeatman's Cove is 20,000.) All of those tickets plus sponsorships and ancillary sales, a festival's true bread and butter add up to profits. It's about who you know And financial solvency equals survival. That can be harder to come by than a reunion of The Smiths. More: Bunbury 2019 lineup: It's rock, hip-hop, familiar faces and emerging acts More: Introducing the 2019 Bunbury lineup... Money-making behemoths such as Coachella and Bonnaroo are rare among the hundreds of annual United States music festivals. (But make no mistake, there is serious money to be made: In 2017, Coachella grossed a record $114 Million, according to Grammy.com.) Bad business has doomed dozens of similar smaller festivals. The 10,000 Lakes Festival in Minnesota made it seven years before ending during the Great Recession. All Points West Music & Arts Festival in New York City couldn't get past its sophomore showing in 2009, even with a megastars Jay Z and Radiohead attached. To build it, Stienecker started at the top, with the headliners landing "big dogs" is the key to a festival's success, he said and worked his industry clout. When he was creating his first Bunbury in 2015, Black Keys and Avett Brothers were his first two calls. "I just have a great rapport with those bands," he said in. "I've worked with them so many times. They are kind of doing it as a favor to me. "As soon as we landed those two, I knew we had a viable festival," he said in 2015. Stienecker had been looking for an entry to the festival business. And he had extra motivation for buying Bunbury: To keep another buyer from snatching acts away from his Columbus venues. Festival promoters pay big bucks for their acts, so they often ask for exclusivity, he said. That can come in the form of radius clauses in contracts, preventing bands from playing within a 150- to 200-mile radius of the fest for a certain length of time. For Stienecker, it meant that a competitor that bought Bunbury could have kept the dozens of acts playing the festival out of Columbus for a good chunk of the prime summer concert season. So, he had those connections to those big acts, but not the festival space to host them. I love rock 'n' roll Stienecker has had more years to work on relationships, and in a larger arena, both literally and figuratively. He staged his first show when he was younger than most of the fans at Bunbury. Not only that, he made a profit. In 1978, the 17-year-old St. Marys native threw a party with a band whose members painted their faces like KISS, he remembers. At five bucks a head, he went home that night with $1,080 in his pocket. Stienecker was more than an entrepreneur and a rocker. He was a jock, too he had gone to Bowling Green State University to play baseball. (He later transferred to Ohio State, but eventually dropped out.) Still, he pursued his love of live music, working for the student activities organization committee. The group often collaborated with Belkin Productions in Cleveland and would help with big shows of that era, the Foreigners and Michael Stanleys. "I was a stagehand, put up fliers, did all that," Stienecker told the Enquirer. "I got bit by the bug." He soon traded the ballpark for arenas, and spent a summer college internship in San Francisco under Bill Graham, the legendary concert promoter and artist manager. Graham booked '60s icons Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead at venues such as the Fillmore in San Francisco. He went on to manage or promote some of the biggest names in music, like the Rolling Stones. Though Stienecker never actually met the man, he knew he wanted to be like Graham, and fellow promoters Jules Belkin (whom he later partnered with for shows in Columbus) and Jerry Weintraub. Stienecker still spends his days with his idol, the late Graham. His image is high on the wall right behind his workspace, prominent among the wall-mounted electric guitars, Jack White autograph and massive The Who poster in his Columbus office. Long before he had an office, though, Stienecker worked on the streets, in his car. He put up fliers around San Francisco that summer for era-defining acts such as The Talking Heads, the Go-Go's and his all-time favorite show, The Clash. Stienecker was about 22 years old, hanging out with arguably one of the coolest acts on the planet in those days. And so he did it, founding his company in 1984. PromoWest is known for up-and-coming bands. You know, The Clashes of today. The acts in Bunbury's lineup for 2019 are linked by the same next-big-thing concerns. Sure, the headliners Fall Out Boy and The 1975 are road warriors with both critical and commercial success. But that's the formula, he said. In his reliable equation, he starts by plugging in the big-name draws. The rest of the lineup are acts on the rise. "We've always done that, that's what I've done for 37 years," he said back in 2015. "What's happening now, the cool alternative." Then, you find the next 'it' band In March 1992, Pearl Jam, now the elder of grunge and an arena tour standard, was one of those scrappy upstarts. Stienecker heard "Alive" on the radio months before the group's debut album rocketed to the top of the charts. Still calling it one of the best rock songs ever, Stienecker remembers calling up the group's booking agent as soon as he was near a phone. They played his venue, the Newport Music Hall on High Street in Columbus, for just $1,000 the price of what a pair of highly prized concert seats might cost today. Newport Music Hall showed Stienecker's tenacity early on. Formerly the Agora Ballroom, the venue was in danger of closing and becoming a very un-rock-and-roll Walgreens. Unable to let that happen, Stienecker approached the owner about keeping it a rock club. The owner told him to raise $25,000 by the end of the week and he could lease it. Stienecker didn't miss a beat. In a month and a half, he'd raised $180,000. He was 23. That set the course for his career. In 1983, he left California in his rear-view mirror. Back in Columbus, he rechristened the Agora as Newport Music Hall a year later. Though it turned a profit in the winter and spring, things at Newport Music Hall got lean when the college kids went home for the summer. But he had a solution for that problem, too: In 1987, he put the wheels in motion to open an amphitheater. It took some time, but his 18,000-seat Polaris Amphitheater opened in 1994. He only had it for three summers before he sold it. Maybe he was already ahead of his time: The arena is gone now. The industry changed so much in the intervening years that rock bands today can't fill 18,000 seats. Turns out, millennials don't listen to music in the same way as their Gen-X predecessors. For one thing, they aren't finding out about new bands by listening to the local rock station like all of their friends. Today, they have a heck of a lot more choices. And in the plugged-in, digital age, they have a lot more ways to listen to those choices. "These millennials listen to so much music that when a band starts to get really, really hot, they are off to 10 other bands," Stienecker said in 2015. "Now everybody is me, me, me, me, me. It's about what I am listening to." Cause and effect: Shows with smaller crowds of maybe 5,000 fans have become the trend. Stienecker, of course, was ready for it: In 2000, he opened Lifestyle Communities Pavilion, with space for 2,200 for indoor events and 5,200 for outdoor shows. (Adjacent to it are two smaller capacity venues, The Basement and A&R Music Bar.) PromoWest owns a similar indoor-outdoor operation in Pittsburgh, Stage AE, modeled after the pavilion. It also means that festivals, which bring together lots and lots of bands that draw that size crowd, are huge. Life on the road As the industry trends toward live music have changed, so has Stienecker's relationship with performances. Years and years of show after show left Stienecker burned out. He still remembers when it happened: It was 1995 after he'd been to 40 live shows at Polaris two seasons in a row. (And probably not long after he watched that dreamlike Billy Corgan/Beastie Boys matchup on the basketball court.) The scale of the shows and the stress and work of getting a new facility up and running took their toll. About four years ago, he was going maybe a dozen shows each year. Perhaps it's a sign of his own growth, of his transition from an enterprising young fan to a savvy businessman with decades of experience under his belt. Or perhaps, as with so much in life, passion fades but love remains. Stienecker still loves live music; of that, there is no doubt. For him, as for all music fans, there is still no substitute for the live show. Even as the industry changes in ways he could never have anticipated 40 years ago, fans want that experience. For there's nothing quite like the energy, the pure unadulterated feeling when a band takes the stage and thousands of fans scream for the band, their band. After a long day filled with more tedious tasks like setting up and solving problems backstage, Stienecker still gets "that buzz." That's the moment that makes it all worthwhile when can take a deep breath and know that his hard work has, again, paid off. Besides, Stienecker is right where he always pictured himself to be. "I drew a picture of myself when I was at Bowling Green, standing at the side of the stage with a great big smile on my face," he said four years ago. "The band on stage was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers because that was my guy back then. Years later, when he did a show at the Ohio Center with Tom Petty, that drawing became real life. "I made sure I went out, stood on the side of the stage and smiled when the crowd came out," he said back then. Maybe he'll do the same at the Ovation site along the Ohio River in Newport. Read or Share this story: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2019/05/09/bunbury-music-festival-and-more-who-owns-aeg-promowest-columbus-ohio/1152336001/ | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2019/05/09/bunbury-music-festival-and-more-who-owns-aeg-promowest-columbus-ohio/1152336001/ |
Why do we love dirty rotten scammers so much? | Most people agree that Jean Valjean does not deserve the punishment he receives for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family in Les Misrables. As children, we cheer when Robin Hood steals from the rich to give to the poor. The 1988 comedy classic, remade as The Hustle starring Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson, has con artists tricking a wealthy heiress out of a chunk of her enormous fortune. The nature of the crime is more outwardly despicable than the other examples, but most of us find ourselves rooting for if were honest about it the bad guys. Stealing is wrong, it seems, except for when it feels right. There is something deeply satisfying about watching people, real or imagined, test the boundaries of power. We love famous thieves who target the wealthy; and, in prison dramas like The Shawshank Redemption and Cool Hand Luke, we find ourselves empathizing with convicts who might be murderers, cheaters and thieves mostly because theyre in conflict against figures of authority. According to Dr. Christina Gentile, a clinical psychologist, the reason has to do with our sense of justice. We can relate to the intentions of the crime, especially if we feel marginalized and less privileged than those they are targeting, she says. In the case of rooting for people stealing from the wealthy or crimes that target the extremely powerful, subconsciously, we might excuse these acts to a certain extent because we view them as victimless crimes. They already have wealth, success and power, so in our minds its okay to knock them down a few pegs. Our perception of these events changes drastically when the odds are reversed. We have no sympathy for a government stealing from its people and only a monster cheers when the New England Patriots win another Super Bowl. Its comedy when a young woman poses as a German heiress to embezzle money from people too wealthy to notice, but its tragedy when a huge corporations defrauds the middle class of their life savings. Earlier this year, two documentaries on the disastrous Fyre Festival were released. Audiences felt no sympathy for the Instagram influencers who paid $12,000 to be stranded on a tropical island and eat soggy sandwiches. On social media, tweets like this were common: Rich kids getting a taste of life as refugees fleeing from climate change-driven war and natural disaster is poetic justice. Quick to take a firm stand on inequality and justice, an overwhelming contingent of the internet decided that the attendees of Fyre Festival got what was coming to them. Conversely, support was thrown behind the locals and people employed by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule who were defrauded. Through one GoFundMe campaign, people were able to raise over $177,000 for a local caterer featured in Netflixs documentary, FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, who lost her life savings and was never paid by organizers. Complete strangers put up their own money to reinstate a sense of justice by righting what they perceived as wrongs. In psychology, theres this concept called the just world hypothesis that helps protect us from the uncomfortable idea that in reality we dont get what we deserve, Dr. Gentile explains. In a way, our attraction to stories about underdogs, scammers, thieves and otherwise reinforce our notion that the world is just. While most of us will never act on these impulses, Dr. Gentile says, we might feel vindicated or validated when someone else does. There is something cathartic about watching stories that indulge our repressed impulses of anti-authoritarianism. While most of us live within the boundaries of law and order, we never quite shed the desire to test those limits. We might not endorse the actions of a con artist or a thief, but movies like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and The Hustle play to our yearning for the freedom these characters seem to have. They represent a way of life beyond what is acceptable and a means to right what we perceive as social wrongs. For those among us who feel boxed in by the status quo and societal systems, living vicariously through those who choose not to can be liberating. Life might not be fair but that doesnt stop us from hoping it can be. In a world where everything feels like a headwind, our cultural obsession with con artists, fraudsters and underdogs is a way for us to find the balance and reinstate our personal sense of perverted justice. | https://nationalpost.com/entertainment/movies/why-do-we-love-dirty-rotten-scammers-so-much |
Can The Dyson Vacuum Cleaner Guy Build A Better Electric Car Than Tesla's Elon Musk? | (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Dyson) The world sales volume of electric cars is still barely a percentage point or two of the total annual sales of all cars, but just like a noisy clutch of protesters, they're getting all of the attention these days. Part of that signal flare of attention has to do with the rather noisy Elon Musk, head of the always-about-to-go-under-but-keeps-making-amazing-cars-anyway Tesla Motors. It's been a decade now since Musk and his first group of engineering acolytes re-skinned a Lotus into the first Tesla Roadster by the light of the moon and with a bit of duct tape, some 9-volt batteries and baling wire (some exaggeration may have crept in right there). But it's no exaggeration that Musk and his now almost $200 billion car company (one of three or four or five companies he's simultaneously running) is still the runaway market leader, the top designer and the overwhelming best seller of electric cars in the world today. Ten years later. The groundbreaking 2012 Tesla Model S should have been the wake-up call to every carmaker on Earth to get moving on EV design and product, but so far, it's been a trickle of ideas, an endless parade of sci-fi concept cars and very few actual production models from the industry at large, with the short-range Nissan Leaf and Chevy's non-descript Bolt being the main bannermen for Big Auto Inc. And that's after Musk essentially released his patents into the wild for free to help jump-start the industry. Still: We have the Leaf and Bolt to show for it. Meanwhile, Tesla has expanded its active lineup to four highly capable cars, with electric semi trucks and the outrageous Roaster 2.0 waiting in the wings. The guy who arguably makes the best vacuums you can buy (among other wind-centered things) thinks he can, and I wouldn't bet against him. However, it's not a sure thing by any measure. Bespectacled Brit vacuum czar and billionaire James Dyson is about as un-Elon as you can get. In 2017, Dyson fairly shocked the auto industry by saying he was going to put a tick over $3 billion into creating an electric car, and has recently released some patent applications that may (or may not) give some insight into what we might be able to expect from the future electrified Dyson people mover. Image: Patentscope Rather than try to read the tea leaves of a surely inaccurate line drawing of a car that may end up looking something like an XC90 or GL450 or a Subaru Forester or whatever, consider instead the attributes and peculiarities of Sir James Dyson himself, and what he's done so far that bodes well for his adventure into the EV space. Like Elon Musk, Dyson is an accomplished engineer If you're still pushing around a wheezing 30-year vacuum your mom gave you in college, it's past time to upgrade. Buy a Dyson vacuum cleaner. It works. I mean, it really works. Yes, it's expensive, the good stuff in life usually is. But a Dyson product is in Apple territory: Great design, looks good/different, consistently works better than the competition, often much better. It's got that feel, that look, that special something. And for the most part, it works quietly. You don't have to turn up your earpods nearly as much while cleaning. Because Sir James Dyson is particular. Picky. Precise. Dyson is privately held, so no one is telling him to dumb down the products to calm investor whining. Instead, Dyson and his robust team of engineers do what companies, private or public, should always be doing: Refining. Improving. Innovating. That's the consistent special sauce Dyson brings to their products, the je ne sais quoi that nudges customers to buy Dyson products one after another after they get their first taste. That bodes well for car design now and into the future. But unlike Elon, James Dyson isn't an impulsively tweeting, sleep-deprived taskmaster when it comes to work. Dyson, 71, has been around the block more than a few times. He built Dyson Ltd. the old-fashioned way, from the ground up, with a lot of hard work (Wikipedia says he made over 5,000 prototypes of his first vacuum before success) and little if any assistance from governments or anyone else besides his wife (a teacher) for that matter. He is the turtle to Elon's jackrabbit. But he'll have to move fast if he wants to make it in the car space in a timely manner. And it looks like he is. Dyson is obsessed with motors and batteries Dyson's battery-powered hand vacs work because, sure, he perfected that cyclonic separation voodoo years ago, but lately he's been pouring the coals to making two key technologies work better. The first is electric motors. Dyson vacuums have motors that spin at up to 125,000rpm, and they're running at length on batteries housed inside a small enclosure you're waving around like a lightsaber. That's impressive. Now, scale it all up. The tech, the know-how, the ways and means are already there. Dyson bought an old RAF base in Britain and converted into an R&D facility for the electric car project, and a large manufacturing facility for the cars is now under construction in Singapore. Dyson has said the cars should begin production in 2020, just seven short months from now. Tesla is notorious for sliding back production realities after rosy promises, and while building cars is not the same as building vacuum cleaners, something tells me that at some point in the next 19 months, it would not be a shock to hear that early production samples are rolling off the lines in Singapore. Perhaps the biggest obstacle for Dyson will be batteries. While the company continues to improve battery performance and operating times for its products and is a leading battery maker, Dyson is also clearly pursuing the holy grail of battery tech: The solid-state battery. Dyson has invested millions in the battery startup Sakti3, headed up by Ann Marie Sastry. Quite clearly, he is not alone in this quest. But if Dyson can get there first, it could be the tech catapult that launches the Dyson car venture over Tesla and everyone else for that matter. Patenting a workable, scalable solid-state battery technology and then selling it for billions upon billions to competitors changes the game not just for cars (and Dyson), but for batteries, which the world will increasingly run on as it weans off petroleum's teat. And a company full of engineers making ever-better battery-powered vacuums and other products could very well be the best possible incubator for this world-changing technology. Dyson has the money Dyson isn't exactly a stay-at-home professor cobbling together funky-looking vacuums in his garage. He was at one time, and that's to his credit, but his leisure time now includes globe-trotting aboard the 300-foot vintage yacht Nahlin and shuttling between properties both vast and modest in a Gulfstream G650. The man isn't poor, or in debt (ahem). With a net worth of between six and $12 billion depending on who and how you're counting, Dyson's got the numbers in the bank to fund R&D, fund factories, fund legal, fund robots and call on credit if need be. Dyson has the focus Everyone loves to follow Elon's antics - except perhaps Tesla's stockholders, who have had no shortage of chest-clutching moments as the company bounces between profit and (mostly) loss, and the founder/CEO bounces between episodes of lucidity and seeming lunacy. Great for headlines, not so great for morale, stock prices or production schedules. Elon is going to be Elon and I do not deny the man's genius, drive, ambitions or vision, which is wide and peers far into the future. Put me on the rocket to Mars, brother. I'm with ya. But Dyson's ambitions, clearly, are a bit more compact and boringly realistic. Product-oriented, engineering-driven, proven and profitable, Dyson brings the business edge to the business of an electric car startup. Sure, up until now he made vacuum cleaners, hand dryers, blow dryers, and sci-fi obelisks that heat, cool and clean the air in your flat. What he doesn't make quite yet are cars, and cars are hard, beset as they are with regulations, beauracracy, politics and brand loyalty. Mistakes will be made. Problems will crop up. Delays will happen. But a steady hand on the tiller and some key breaks in terms of tech and maybe some lucky timing could be the difference between Dyson's car riding in Tesla's long shadow or taking the lead in one of the most important technological races we are currently running. As we all know, the rabbit ultimately didn't win the race. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/billroberson/2019/05/29/can-the-dyson-vacuum-cleaner-guy-build-a-better-electric-car-than-teslas-elon-musk/ |
What will next shoe deal mean for UNLV athletics? | After months of speculation, UNLV will announce its next sports apparel contract sometime in the next week. Shoe deals can be highly influential in the world of college athletics, and with multiple companies jostling for position, the dollar amounts seem to keep going up. Also known informally as a shoe deal, an apparel contract gives a brand (such as Nike or Adidas) exclusive rights to outfit a sports program. The apparel company provides uniforms, sneakers, equipment and other accessories to the university, and in exchange the brand gets to plaster as many swooshes and stripes on the jersey as they want. In some cases, when an athletic program is viewed as having brand value, an apparel company will pay cash to the university in addition to the gear. UNLVs current contract is with Nike and is set to expire on May 31. Under the terms of that five-year deal, Nike provided apparel for all of the Rebels sports teams (up to a value of $1 million per year). No cash was included in the compensation. At the top end, tons of cash is being spent on acquiring and retaining premier college brands. Adidas is giving Louisville $10 million per year in cash (in addition to $6 million in apparel), Under Armour is paying UCLA $9 million in cash (plus $6.5 million in apparel), and Nike is laying out $9 million in cash to Texas (plus $4 million in apparel). Mountain West programs cant expect to rake in anywhere near that much money. Boise State is the conferences top earner by virtue of a 6-year deal with Nike that is worth $2 million per year, but the rest of the MWC doesnt have Boises powerful football brand. Last year, UNR jumped from Nike to Adidas for a deal worth a reported $6.3 million over seven years. Players have their preferred brands, but UNLV basketball coach T.J. Otzelberger said the university takes a more logical approach when negotiating apparel deals. Theyre excited about gear, Otzelberger said. You see every time theres a new pair of shoes, how excited they get. There are different companies that they enjoy more for one reason or another, because of the superstars they watch on TV. Much the way they align with college programs, shoe companies also sponsor AAU teams and organize grassroots tournaments during the summer. By doing that, they hope to build relationships with young players in hopes that some of them eventually develop into pro superstars while remaining loyal to the brand. Because of those relationships, every time an elite prospect is readying to make his college decision stories will emerge about how they are considering or excluding certain programs based on their shoe affiliations. According to those rumors, a player who came up with a Nike AAU team is unlikely to commit to an Under Armour college, etc. Otzelberger said he doesnt believe shoe deals hold that much sway over recruiting. I dont think its all that impactful, Otzelberger said. Certainly if you look at the marketplace in AAU basketball, Nike probably holds more of the market share, and on their EYBL circuit theres probably more of the elite players. But at the same time, Adidas and Under Armour still garner a percentage of that market share as well. So common sense would tell me that if theres more good players on Nike, then the fact that those kids grew up wearing Nike might make them excited to wear Nike [in college]. Nike and Under Armour appear to be the top suitors. UNLV has been a Nike school for decades and that relationship runs deep, but Under Armour has been throwing around cash in its recent deals something that Nike did not offer in its last contract with the Rebels. Whoever pays the most. If Nikes best offer is similar to the last contract which included no cash for UNLV it seems likely that Under Armour would be willing to beat it. The Rebels financial ledger is not so robust that they can afford to pass on a deal that puts a million dollars on the table. Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala. | https://lasvegassun.com/news/2019/may/29/what-will-next-shoe-deal-mean-for-unlv-athletics/ |
Should Manchester United Sell Romelu Lukaku This Summer? | It was not only a turbulent season for Manchester United, but also for Romelu Lukaku, who stands at a crossroads this summer in regards to his career. The 26 year old joined Manchester United from Everton in 2017 for 75 million, but has yet to truly take his performances to the next level and has, in fact, stagnated in the last 12 months. There are genuine questions regarding his fitness, weight and technical ability beginning to become normality when discussing the Belgium international, which makes his departure this summer a realistic option. Getty Lukaku was signed by United to become their number nine; a player that can stretch defences and score 20+ goals in the Premier League per-season. In his first campaign for the Red Devils, he managed 16 goals in the domestic competition, but a record of 12 last season suggests his decline in a United jersey. Rumours have already circulated suggesting that Lukaku is open to moving on from the North West of England this summer, opting for Inter Milan under new coach Antonio Conte. It was no secret that the Italian manager was in pursuit of Lukaku before he joined Man United, and so it makes sense that the Belgian is interested in moving on to a club that he knows is fully supportive of him. Lukaku might have been a managers favourite under Jose Mourinho, but it has been clear that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer prefers Marcus Rashford to lead the line at Old Trafford due to his greater mobility, speed and incorporation of others. The all-time top scorer for Belgium has had some important moments for Manchester United, but they have come few and far between, with consistency of his performances decreasing massively. Lukaku has always relied on his numbers to back him up which are usually respectable but when observing him over the course of the season, he fails to make a considerable impact when the team needs him. With Solskjaers philosophy of forward-thinking and fast-paced football, Lukakus lumbering style is more of a hinderance than anything else. While the club will look to try and bring in another centre forward to alleviate the pressure on Rashford, it is no real surprise as to why Lukaku is being shown the door with the two styles of play clashing. Getty Inter have, so far, shown the most amount of interest in the Belgian, but United are said to be holding out for a straight cash deal in the region of 50 million, rather than involving a player belonging to the Italian side to reduce the fee. With his style of play and Inters need of a stable centre forward that is hungry to prove himself again, this potential deal would satisfy all parties involved. Manchester United are going through a transitional period and difficult decisions simply have to be made without emotion behind them. Lukaku, among others, is a player that quite clearly does not suit Solskjaers brand of football and should be moved on for a sizeable return. It is time to rebuild the club starting with players being cut loose. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/liamcanning/2019/05/29/should-manchester-united-sell-romelu-lukaku-this-summer/ |
Who are the Taliban? | Getty Images This picture shows part of Afghanistan's capital city Kabul The Taliban is an extreme Islamic group, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. They say they are followers of Islam, but many people do not agree with this, as their beliefs are much more extreme than those of the majority of Muslims. They are fighting because they want their leaders to be in charge of Afghanistan again. The Taliban want to turn the country into what they believe would be the world's purest Islamic country. When the Taliban leaders were in control, they banned many things, including education for girls, make-up, kite-flying and films. But some Afghans still took part in these things in secret, risking extreme punishment if they were found out. The Taliban's strict laws and extreme punishments made them unpopular with other countries. While they were in control, they allowed a terrorist organisation called al-Qaeda to have training camps there. The group was overthrown in November 2001 by British and US forces, alongside Afghan fighters from a group called the Northern Alliance. The Taliban movement continues to be a fighting force in Afghanistan and a major threat to the country's government. They continue to carry out attacks across the country, including on military bases and schools. Many people believe that future peace in Afghanistan can only come if the government negotiates with the Taliban. In early 2019, the US and the Taliban began peace talks aimed at finding a solution to the 17-year conflict in Afghanistan. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/15214383 |
Are our power grids ready for an electric vehicle surge? | Open this photo in gallery A Tesla vehicle parks at a Tesla Supercharger station in Daly City, Calif., on May 20, 2019. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images By 2040, Ottawa wants every new vehicle sold to be able to drive without producing CO2 emissions. If that comes about, it means new car buyers in 21 years will have three options: plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) or hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles. If people choose PHEVs or BEVs, that will mean a lot more vehicles plugging in for charging. Worldwide, more than four million BEVs and PHEVs have been sold so far and thats been predicted to increase to 125 million by 2030. Thats also assuming that everyone has somewhere to plug them in. A dozen EVs using [240-volt] Level 2 charging is similar to customers running a dozen ovens at the same time just like Christmas dinner, said Tanya Fish, a BC Hydro spokeswoman in an e-mail statement. In British Columbia, for example, there are currently about 17,000 EVs on the road and BC Hydro is predicting there will be around 350,000 by 2030, Fish said. This is estimated to add an additional 1,050 gigawatt hours of electricity load per year and is something weve been planning for and will be able to supply, Fish said. To put that in perspective, BC Hydro sold nearly 58,000 gigawatt hours of power in 2017. For utilities, a surge of EV adoption could actually be a business opportunity, says Derek May, senior project manager of transportation at Pollution Probe, a national environmental non-profit. Weve spoken with utilities from coast to coast about this issue and theyre uniformly really excited, May says. its going to be a challenge, but its definitely a challenge utilities are ready for and would welcome youd better believe that if theres money on the table waiting for them to capture, theyll develop solutions to make sure charging can happen. Every province in Canada has a lot of generation capacity right now theres even excess generation capacity now that could be used for charging, May says. Thats why a few are downloading surplus power to other states, sometimes at a loss. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Open this photo in gallery The growth of electric and hybrid vehicles will increase the demand for electricity. EVs can be a boon here, especially as users typically charge in the evening and overnight, when theres lower demand. Depending on the province, the electricity could even be cleaner, because in peak periods during the day, provinces like Ontario will bring natural-gas plants online pretty quickly to the meet the electricity demand, he says. He adds that the existing grid should be able handle the extra load although the local transformer handling your street might not. Typically, five to 15 homes are served by one transformer. A Level 2 charger draws about the same power as a home. So, if every home had EVs and all were charging simultaneously, then we would need to assess the location and the area impact to see if upgrades are required to the local infrastructure, said Toronto Hydro spokeswoman Tori Gass in an e-mail. Another way utilities can adapt is to offer incentives to people who charge during off-peak hours or encourage the use of smart chargers, says Cara Clairman, president and chief executive officer of Plugn Drive, a Toronto-based pro-EV non-profit. Most EVs allow you to schedule when theyll charge after theyre plugged in, while smart chargers would allow the utility company keep track of when you charge and control how much power gets sent to your charger during peak hours. I participated in a pilot where they did this to my car, Clairman says. They take control the whole goal is: just be sure my car is charged by 7:30 a.m.. Story continues below advertisement Quite frankly, handling an EV boom shouldnt cripple utilities as long as they can plan for it, Clairman says. These are all problems that can be solved, Clairman says. Send it to [email protected]. Canadas a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province. Check out the new Globe Drive Build and Price Tool to see the latest discounts, rebates and rates on new cars, trucks and SUVs. Click here to get your price. Stay on top of all our Drive stories. We have a Drive newsletter covering car reviews, innovative new cars and the ups and downs of everyday driving. Sign up for the weekly Drive newsletter, delivered to your inbox for free. Follow us on Instagram,@globedrive. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/drive/mobility/article-are-our-power-grids-ready-for-an-electric-vehicle-surge/ |
What Are We Really Talking About When We Say 'Customer Empathy'? | Getty We hear a lot about customer empathy these days. Whether its in candidate interviews, design discussions or product management meetings, its become more critical than ever to prioritize the customer as a core part of company culture. Thats not surprising because as technological advances, frameworks and APIs continue to trivialize previous technical challenges to just a few lines of code, company leaders know that focusing on customer experience is their biggest strategic differentiator. The problem with customer empathy is that its a phrase people throw around rather flippantly without ever defining it. They dont tell you what it is or what they mean. They just know they want it. So lets start by first talking about the outcome of having customer empathy. For this, we will look to one of the best product leaders of our time: Steve Jobs. He collected decades of experience from seeing the world and building companies. He saw where industries would go and how technology would evolve. He identified customer needs and wants before they even existed. He drew on all of this to make products that created an emotional impact alongside a functional effect on a customers life. That emotional impact on a consumers life gets to the heart of customer empathy. The iPhone showed us the long-term evolution of our interaction with technology, not where it was or even where it would be soon. That world-changing product was essentially the sum of consumer needs. Jobs didnt just solve a functional problem by creating an easy-to-use smartphone; he also delivered an emotional delight by tying it to the familiar iPod experience and the growing need to use the internet on the go -- all via enjoyable touchscreen technology. And he was able to replicate these enjoyable experiences many times over because what delights people diminishes over time as those experiences become table stakes, like the multitouch screen. This constant delight appealed to how people felt, not just what they needed. We have to think about how a product makes people feel. Sometimes it can be something thats purely functional like Google Search. Changes to that wildly utilitarian product can have an emotional impact because people just want to find results. Changes to products with a deep emotional connection like Spotify have to account for those feelings. Both of them have to understand where the product is going, but it takes an understanding of people -- and empathy for them -- to know how to address what the customer needs and feels. And we need to be able to understand where to take the product into the future based on both of those. That journey isnt always an evolution of the sum of its existing parts. It can go in a radically new direction. Sometimes this can be incredibly jarring. You can look at massive product redesigns and see both a graveyard and a proliferation of brand new use cases. When Snap decided to redesign its app, it was a bet on the future of the apps usage. But the emotional outcry of influencers forced the company to take a step back and reconsider. When Twitter changed its timeline to one with an algorithmic feed, there was a backlash. When Digg went through a tremendous redesign, it caused trouble for the platform. It wasnt necessarily the functional changes of these products that defined the outcome. These products are all near and dear to the hearts of every user and customer. Sometimes companies can anticipate the reaction but know what is best for the customer. But sometimes they miscalculate. In the end, these were company-altering decisions that required having that emotional connection with the user, and they succeeded or failed based on it. Customer empathy is about being attuned to that emotional connection. It allows you to predict the emotional impact of any change, big or small. To establish that connection, you should intimately understand the audience. Your first goal is usually to get a feel for who the customer is when working on the product. You should have a sense of curiosity around your customers and an understanding of how they feel about the product and why. You should also make sure to understand the emotion behind their feedback to understand what their needs really are. Here are some traits you should aim to possess when building products with customer empathy in mind: Knowing and discovering the difference between what customers want to get done and how they want to feel. A deep appreciation for the customer experience. The desire to discover features that come together to drive that customer experience. The ability to predict an emotional response to change. An openness to rapidly iterate those features based on customer feedback. We want customers to be delighted by the products we make, and making customer empathy a core part of our process delivers that delight. By having empathy for your customers emotional needs in addition to addressing their functional needs, you can deliver a product experience thats memorable for them and genuinely differentiating for you. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/05/29/what-are-we-really-talking-about-when-we-say-customer-empathy/ |
Is Virat Kohli Better Than Sachin Tendulkar? | Getty Eight years ago India won its second Cricket World Cup. The first had come somewhat surprisingly in 1983 when a meagre total of 183 was defended against the mighty West Indies who had already won the first two World Cups (1975 and 1979). Indias second World Cup victory was less surprising as it was played at home and featured a stellar batting line up that included the aging legend that was Sachin Tendullkar and a young tyro by the name of Virat Kohli. For Tendulkar it was a last chance to win the coveted trophy. The Little Master was 37-years-old and his powers were waning at the end of a career that had seen him score 100 international hundreds (51 in tests and 49 in one day internationals). Kohli on the other hand was 22-years-old and just starting out, winning the World Cup before he had even made his test match debut. Eight years later Kohli is the Indian captain and already has 66 international hundreds to his name (25 in tests and 41 in one day internationals). Delhi-born Kohli has already eclipsed some of Tendulkars many records and has plenty of time to overhaul more. But Tendulkar has a very special place in Indian hearts and minds and to even suggest that another batsman is better is considered close to heretical. When Cricket Opinions compiled its list of the 15 greatest test batsmen of all time, Kohli didnt even rate a mention as an also-ran, let alone make it onto the list. Tendulkar was placed second. Top, of course, was Donald Bradman. The Australians achievements in test cricket are unlikely to ever be eclipsed: a batting average of 99.94 and 29 hundreds in just 52 matches. But cricket has changed enormously since Bradmans time. His career spanned the years 1928-48, when travel was infinitely more difficult, the number of opponents was limited and test cricket was the only form of international competition. In the list of highest test match averages Tendulkar and Kohli sit some way behind Bradman but curiously closely to each other with averages of 53.78 and 53.76 respectively. Tendulkars average was achieved over an incredible 200 test matches, while Kohli has so far played a mere 77 times for his country in this format (remember Bradman played in just 52 over a 20-year international career, albeit one interrupted by a world war). Unlike Bradman, however, both Indian batsmen have played their cricket during an era where shorter forms of the game have gained prominence. The Australian didn't have to score runs at a rate of a run-a-ball, nor potentially sacrifice his wicket during the frenetic closing overs of a one day international. Among players who have played a significant number of one day internationals, Kohli has comfortably the highest average, 59.57 over 227 games at a scoring rate of 92.96 compared to Tendulkars 44.83 in 463 matches at a rate of 86.23. Perhaps soon crickets record keepers will officially recognize all test match and one day hundreds to count equally. Tendulkars 100 international hundreds may eventually be overtaken, but not by many. And maybe even T20 will be included, although Kohli has yet to register an international century in this format and Tendulkar only played a single game. In Cricinfos combined records table Tendulkar is way out ahead in the number of runs scored with 34,357, more than 6,000 ahead of his nearest rival and 15,000 ahead of Kohli. But only players who have retired are above Kohli in the list and he could keep going for years. The greats of yesteryear Hobbs, Sutcliffe, Lara, Sobers, even Bradman played too little cricket to make it onto this list. Tendulkar was a sublimely talented, technically-correct batsman who never took his gifts for granted. Lauded from an impossibly tender age, Indias youngest debutant at 16 years and 205 days, he dealt with a lifetime of nationwide adoration with dignity and calm. The sort of adulation that led to claims such as "Cricket is my religion and Sachin is my God. That his career started so early undoubtedly gives him an edge in the career-long-records business. Kohli is a pricklier and more confrontational character, a sportsman of this century rather than the last, as Tendulkar was, despite his millennium-spanning career. In the short period since Tendulkars retirement, cricket has been revolutionized and yet another challenge has been placed upon the players: T20, the shortest and most frenetic form of the game. Kohli is one of only two players to average more than 50 in T20 internationals, and only two more average above 40. That they are both Indians too KL Rahul and Manish Pandey speaks volumes for this is, after all, a team game. But it is not just at international level where Kohli is expected to perform, for the sub-continent also hosts the highest profile domestic version of the brash new format, the Indian Premier League. Kohli is expected to excel there too, something Tendulkar only briefly experienced. But IPL victories are unlikely to decide which out of these cricketing giants is the bigger and better. It is a team game after all, even if it features many elements of individual competition. For now, lets just treasure his talents in the 2019 World Cup. You can make up your own mind about which of these two greats is the greater. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenbusfield/2019/05/29/is-virat-kohli-better-than-sachin-tendulkar/ |
Did Kyrie Irving take first step towards joining Brooklyn Nets? | CLEVELAND, Ohio When it comes to Kyrie Irvings decision this offseason, most predictions have centered on the New York Knicks. But the Brooklyn Nets appear to be having their say. NBA analyst Ric Bucher joined Colin Cowherds radio show on Tuesday where he revealed his intel tells him Irvings decision is down to the Nets and the Lakers. Between the two, Bucher sees the Nets as the favorite. Buchers reasoning centers on Irving recently buying a home in South Orange, N.J. That logic makes sense until you consider two things. First, the Nets now play in Brooklyn. So, Irving buying a home in New Jersey wouldnt necessarily put the team ahead of the Knicks. Second, Irving grew up in West Orange, N.J. and was a standout high school basketball player in the state. Still, of the three teams mentioned Knicks, Nets and Lakers the Nets had the best season and could pair Irving with DAngelo Russell, who received his first NBA All-Star selection this past season. There also reports the Nets will make a push for the New Orleans Pelicans Anthony Davis, giving Irving a potential fellow superstar to take some of the pressure off. | https://www.cleveland.com/sports/2019/05/did-kyrie-irving-take-first-step-towards-joining-brooklyn-nets.html |
Should more NBA prospects play overseas instead of college? | by Daniel Tran Five-star recruit R.J. Hampton surprised many experts by choosing to play in the National Basketball League in New Zealand instead of NCAA basketball. Hampton was being recruited by Kansas and Memphis before deciding to turn professional, and many feel if a players dream is to play in the NBA, they shouldnt be forced to do it for free in college and attend classes they dont want to. Still, college is the most popular way to get exposure for NBA teams. There is no doubt R.J. Hampton would've been a baller at the college level, but there is no point in wasting time on books if he doesn't have to. More players should look at playing overseas for a year, especially if the NCAA doesn't want to compensate its athletes. Everyone knows most top prospects don't want to be in classescollege is just a necessary one-year pit stop before being where they really want to be. Forcing those players into that situation isn't doing either party any favors. A spot that could've gone to someone who wants an education is wasted and that player throws away a year he could've been making a lot of money. Overseas should be a more widely considered option. RJ Hampton explains why he said no to college basketball. (via @GetUpESPN) pic.twitter.com/phbBAR68ai SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) May 28, 2019 Making money instead of being stuck in a classroom might seem ideal, but the reality doesnt quite live up to the expectation. Brandon Jennings was an elite NBA prospect when he graduated high school and decided to play with Lottomatica Virtus Roma in Italys top league Lega Serie A. While he did appreciate the experience, he ran into a lot of problems. Heres Jennings talking to Ray Glier of the New York Times: Ive gotten paid on time once this year. They treat me like Im a little kid. They dont see me as a man. If you get on a good team, you might not play a lot. Some nights youll play a lot; some nights you wont play at all. Thats just how it is... I dont see too many kids doing it. Its tough man, Ill tell you that. It can break you. If exposure is inconsistent, you'll have a tough time improving your draft stock. At least in college, there is a better shot for you to have more playing time. While it may not be ideal, college is still the best option for top prospects. Short sighted. Education is a positive = personal growth Steven Project (@thesportsprojec) May 28, 2019 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/05/should-more-nba-prospects-play-overseas-instead-of-college.html |
Who makes our Football League teams of the season for 2018-19? | Championship Goalkeeper: Dean Henderson (Sheffield United) The Manchester United loanee is on Gareth Southgates radar after a league-high 21 clean sheets. Another outstanding season away from his parent club after shining at Shrewsbury. Right-back: Max Aarons (Norwich City) The marauding teenager started the season on the periphery Aarons made his league debut in September but finished it as one of the first names on Daniel Farkes team sheet. Englands next big thing at right-back. Aston Villas John Terry plans future in management in the long run Read more Centre-back: Adam Webster (Bristol City) Rarely flustered, Webster oozes class, sweeping up and striding out with possession. Stayed fit after being bogged down by injuries at Portsmouth and Ipswich. Centre-back: Liam Cooper (Leeds United) When he joined Chesterfield in League Two in 2013, Cooper thought his career was heading only in one direction but he has been at the heart of revival under Marcelo Bielsa. Eligible for Scotland, a defensive Braveheart. Left-back: Jamal Lewis (Norwich City) The 21-year-old, who competed for England in athletics in his teens, hit the ground running after missing the start of the season. Like Aarons, also poached from Lutons academy, he has been a breath of fresh air. Centre-midfield: Kalvin Phillips (Leeds United) An Armley boy, Phillips is one of their own. A huge presence under Marcelo Bielsa, he has hoovered up in the anchorman role. When he plays well, the level of the team increases clearly, the Argentinian says. Centre-midfield: John McGinn (Aston Villa) Wembley winner capped a magnificent campaign. A relentless force, he has hassled and harried countless opposition into the ground. His 25-yard volley against Sheffield Wednesday in September was mesmerising. Attacking midfield: Harry Wilson (Derby County) Relished the responsibility handed to him by Frank Lampard, scoring 18 goals; five were piercing free-kicks, including a peach at Old Trafford. The Liverpool winger is going as a fan to the Champions League final. Right wing: Jarrod Bowen (Hull City) An outstanding 22 goals from the flanktells only half the story. The former Hereford scholar is a rare breed: a workhorse of a winger. Bowen plugs away when others have given up brilliant at the basics and capable of the divine. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jarrod Bowen scored 22 goals from the wing for Hull. Photograph: Greig Cowie/BPI/Rex/Shutterstock Striker: Teemu Pukki (Norwich City) Picked up on a free, Pukki an unselfish, persistent and clever forward represents the signing of the season. The Finn scored 29 goals to take the golden boot ahead of Billy Sharp, Che Adams and Neal Maupay, all of whom also shone. Left wing: Sad Benrahma (Brentford) Could not have wished for a better debut season. After scoring his first league goal in December, went on to hit double figures in goals and assists, despite starting 63% of league matches. Manager: Chris Wilder (Sheffield United) Guided his boyhood club back to the big time. Will fly the flag for workaholic English coaches in top flight, having won promotion from the ninth, fifth, fourth, third and second tiers. Ive missed a couple out but I dont fancy going back, he jokes. League One Goalkeeper: Adam Davies (Barnsley) A class act, made his Wales debut in March. Kept joint-league high of 19 clean sheets. Aaron Ramsdale also made a huge impact, on loan at AFC Wimbledon. Right-back: Jack Stacey (Luton Town) Has flourished since leaving Reading two years ago, winning back-to-back promotions. Loves to attack; contributed eight assists and four goals. Centre-back: Ethan Pinnock (Barnsley) At the heart of the divisions meanest defence, the former Dulwich Hamlet player, rejected by Millwall, has matured into a fine centre-half. Centre-back: Matt Clarke (Portsmouth) That the 22-year-old picked up 13 end-of-season awards says it all. A classy defender, Clarke was ever present in a team that went close. Brighton-bound. Left-back: James Justin (Luton Town) The latest academy success story, the 21-year-old was influential in a free-scoring side. Joined hometown club aged seven and lives with his parents. Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Justin, centre, celebrates after scoring for Luton against Scunthorpe. Photograph: Nigel Keene/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock Centre-midfield: Herbie Kane (Doncaster Rovers) Made a splash on loan from Liverpool. Played rugby from the age of four and used his strength to outmuscle opposition. Idolised Steven Gerrard. Centre-midfield: Aiden McGeady (Sunderland) Often the difference between a good or a bad team performance, McGeady provided a touch of class. Technically gifted, the 33-year-old led promotion tilt. Centre-midfield: Tom Bayliss (Coventry City) Injury ended his season but his stock continues to rise. Tall and slight, Bayliss, 20, was a late developer but with 50-plus appearances is making up for lost time. Right wing: Jamal Lowe (Portsmouth) A primary school teacher until two years ago, he plays with a child-like enthusiasm. Had a fine campaign, scoring 17 goals, including a beauty at Wembley. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Portsmouths Jamal Lowe, in action against Sunderland. Photograph: Malcolm Bryce/ProSports/Rex/Shutterstock Striker: Lyle Taylor (Charlton Athletic) I wear nine on my back and try and score goals, said Taylor, a free transfer after leaving AFC Wimbledon. Twenty-five goals later, he was a big hit. Left wing: Ronan Curtis (Portsmouth) Fizzled out following a freak finger injury but enjoyed a spectacular campaign after signing from Derry City. Chris Colemans godson, made Republic of Ireland debut in November. Manager: Lee Bowyer (Charlton Athletic) Made a thankless task look relatively easy, winning promotion despite not spending a penny on players and losing Karlan Grant in January, as well as repairing the fracture between fans and club. Wally Downes deserves acclaim for keeping AFC Wimbledon afloat. League Two Goalkeeper: Joe Day (Newport County) Pulled off plenty of stunning saves, including in the FA Cup. Raced to hospital following Middlesbrough victory after his wife, Lizzie, went into labour with twins. Facebook Twitter Pinterest James Norwood of Tranmere looks resigned as his shot goes wide of the Newport goalkeeper Joe Day in the League Two play-off final . Photograph: Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Getty Images Right-back: George Edmundson (Oldham Athletic) Backed up fine loan at AFC Fylde by holding down a regular berth. Impressed amid chaos behind the scenes. Set to depart. Centre-back: Jason Shackell (Lincoln City) Dropped to the fourth tier after years across the Premier League and Championship. Ever present, the 35-year-old won a fourth promotion. Bury financial crisis deepens amid pressure over 4.2m loan Read more Centre-back: Krystian Pearce (Mansfield) Nicknamed The Chief since his Birmingham days, the captain was at the the soul of the divisions best defence. Did not miss a minute of league action. Left-back: Dean Lewington (MK Dons) Captain, leader, legend. The 35-year-old, who broke the 700-game barrier, may not be the quickest but proved reliable en route to a League One return. Centre-midfield: Danny Mayor (Bury) The No 10 fuelled Burys promotion campaign, causing havoc drifting in off either flank. Scored a beauty against Grimsby. Central midfield: Hiram Boateng (Exeter City) The former Crystal Palace youngster impressed, epitomised by preposterous skill before a fine finish against Port Vale. Has joined MK Dons. Attacking midfield: Sammie Szmodics (Colchester) Sixteen years after joining, the playmaker had his best season, hitting double figures in goals and assists. Difficult to envisage him in League Two next year. The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email. Right-wing: Tyler Walker (Mansfield) Son of the former England defender Des, the Nottingham Forest loanee did everything but help Mansfield over the line. Missed crucial spot-kick in play-off. Striker: James Norwood (Tranmere Rovers) A serial goalscorer (55 in 99 games), he was the most prolific striker outside the Premier League, level with Sergio Agero on 32 goals. Left-wing: Nicky Maynard (Bury) After joining on a short-term deal in September, the former Bristol City and Crewe striker struck 21 times, averaging a goal every 140 minutes. Manager: Micky Mellon (Tranmere Rovers) Capped another remarkable season by completing back-to-back play-off final victories. | https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/29/football-league-teams-of-the-season-2018-19-championship-league-one-two |
Are Elon Musk and SpaceX about to ruin Seattles view of the night sky? | Already, the first 60 of SpaceXs planned 12,000 internet-delivery satellites have appeared as a decidedly unnatural string of lights in the night sky. Scientists worry the companys plan to ring Earth with orbiting Starlink devices will wreck our view of the cosmos. It changes how the night sky looks, astronomer Ronald Drimmel from the Turin Astrophysical Observatory in Italy said in a new report by Forbes. Starlink would ruin the sky for everyone on the planet. SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The company, founded in 2002 and owned by its CEO Elon Musk, says Starlink will connect end users with low-latency, high-bandwidth broadband services by providing continual coverage around the world using a network of thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit. The priority, according to SpaceX, is reaching those who are not yet connected to provide reliable and affordable broadband internet services. Dutch astronomer Cees Bassa tweeted Saturday that the visibility of the Starlink satellites will depend on a viewers latitude. At 52 degrees latitude, for example around Seattle, the orbiting machines each bearing a reflective solar panel will be visible all night during summer, according to Bassa. For locations at lower latitudes, the situation is only slightly better, Bassa continued in another tweet. At 34 degrees latitude, say Los Angeles, up to 10 #Starlink satellites will be visible during twilight. At those latitudes the satellites will be invisible for only 4 hours in typical a summers night. Advertising The string of lights seen after the initial Starlink launch May 23 will soon no longer be visible, once the satellites drift away from each other during orbit, according to a report Monday in Gizmodo. SpaceX is best known for its rocket program that Musk claims will ultimately deliver humans to Mars, and which was used to launch a Tesla Roadster into orbit. But astronomers told Forbes they worry the firms Starlink satellites will interfere with gathering of imagery. On Sunday, Musk addressed that concern, tweeting that SpaceX would make sure Starlink has no material effect on discoveries in astronomy. Musk, responding to a tweet asking if later batches of launched Starlink satellites could reflect less light downward, also tweeted Sunday that he had sent a note to the Starlink team the previous week, asking about reducing the reflectivity. He claimed in another tweet that the satellites wont be seen by anyone unless looking very carefully. Potentially helping billions of economically disadvantaged people is the greater good, Musk continued. But thousands of internet-beaming satellites also pose a risk to other satellites in orbit, according to a report earlier this month in Scientific American. Although they promise to revolutionize global telecommunications, these efforts are not free of peril: As the number of satellites inexorably grows, so, too, does the risk of creating dangerous debris that could threaten the continued safe use of Earth orbit, the magazine reported, noting that the planet is currently spinning amid 2,000 active satellites. Advertising A worst-case scenario would be the Kessler syndrome, a positive feedback loop in which debris-generating collisions create more and more collisions, which in turn create more and more debris, rendering parts of Earth orbit essentially unusable. SpaceX in April modified its agreement with the Federal Communications Commission, saying it would lower by half the planned altitudes of more than 1,500 of its satellites, but that would mean they stay in orbit longer, according to the magazine. Visit The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com | https://www.seattletimes.com/business/are-elon-musk-and-spacex-about-to-ruin-seattles-view-of-the-night-sky/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_business |
Did President Trump Help Popularize The Phrase 'Tweet Storm'? | Getty The phrase tweet storm seems to be everywhere these days. Defined by Merriam-Webster as a series of many, often impassioned tweets posted in quick succession on the social media site Twitter the ubiquitous phrase does not seem to have a ready correlate for rapid-fire posting on other platforms like Facebook or Instagram. The timeline below shows the percentage of airtime on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News from June 2009 to present that mentioned the phrase (tweet storm or tweet storms or tweet stormed or tweet storming or tweetstorm), using data from the Internet Archives Television News Archive processed by the GDELT Project. Kalev Leetaru Immediately clear is how recent the phrase appears to be, beginning in earnest in late 2015 and surging into popular use in late 2016. Though its use appears to be slowing as of late 2018. Coincidentally, this timeline appears to closely match the rise of Donald Trump on his path towards the presidency. President Trump has become synonymous with Twitter diplomacy, elevating the use of social media as an integral part of the presidency. It is also notable that there appears to be a strong difference among the stations in usage of the term. MSNBC mentioned the phrase 3.9 times more than Fox News and CNN mentioned it 3 times more. The timeline below shows the percentage of mentions of the phrase across the three stations combined that also mentioned Trump within 15 seconds before or after. Kalev Leetaru On average 70-80% of mentions of the phrase over the last three years have referenced Donald Trump, showing how closely the phrase has become associated with him. The timeline below shows US search interest in the phrase tweet storm since January 2004 using Google Trends. This closely mirrors the terms rise on television news and also its gradually decreasing popularly over the past half-year. Google Trends also confirms that the most commonly searched phrases with respect to tweet storms all relate to President Trump. Kalev Leetaru Putting this all together, while the phrase tweet storm has been used to refer to any celebrity sending a rapid-fire barrage of impassioned tweets about a topic, it seems the phrase was born out of then-candidate Donald Trumps heavy use of the platform to rise to the presidency. As with many of todays household terms like fake news and filter bubbles it seems the electoral events of the past several years have forever changed how we see the Web itself. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/05/29/did-president-trump-help-popularize-the-phrase-tweet-storm/ |
What's Wrong With The GMAT Exam? | Courtesy of John A. Byrne It's the test many prospective MBA students love to hate. It's the Graduate Management Admissions Test. Every year, slightly more than 250,000 of the tests are taken all over the world. Many business schools over index the scores in admission decisions, partly because U.S. News & World Report includes a school's average GMAT score in its ranking of the best MBA programs in the U.S. I recently had the pleasure of interviewing someone who knows more about the test than anyone other than someone who helps to create questions for it: Dan Edmonds. A master GMAT tutor at Noodle Pros, he has taken the test four times. After initially getting what he calls his "shame" score, a 780, he aced it the next three times in a row, scoring a perfect 800 each time. As a result, he was banned from taking the test again. He has three problems with the test: The inconsistency of a test taker's score from one test to the next. He has seen cases where a person has taken the test multiple times, with variances from test to test as high as 100 points. It's actual relevance. Business schools say the test gives them confidence that an admitted student can successfully complete the core curriculum. Truth is, a student probably doesn't need much more than a 600 score to provide that confidence. And there is evidence that high test scores do not correlate with a successful career in business. Racial and gender bias. Edmonds believes the test is "grotesquely biased" against minorities and women and this goes beyond the typical socio-economic issues. If you're black, Hispanic or female, you are more likely to score lower than white males. It's just a fact and a troubling one to Edmonds. Like many, he believes business schools standardized test scores should not loom as large as they do in admission decisions. His conclusion: "The bottom line is that it is all advertising for these guys," says Edmonds. "They use the GMAT score to advertise how selective they are." You can find my profile and interview with Edmonds here. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2019/05/29/whats-wrong-with-the-gmat-exam/ |
What Are The Trends Driving Our $30 Price Estimate For Halliburton? | We are reducing our price estimate for Halliburton (NYSE:HAL), the second-largest oilfield services provider, from about $40 per share to around $30 per share. While oil prices have posted some gains this year, the company could face weaker long-term revenue growth in its bread-and-butter North American market, where investors have been calling for oil and gas companies (Halliburtons customers) to slash investment and boost returns. While pricing in North America is improving, margins are unlikely to return to levels seen pre-2014. This could be an issue for Halliburton, as it derived about 60% of revenue from North America in 2018, with a bulk of it coming from unconventionals. Below, we take a look at the near-term outlook for the company. In addition, you can see more of our data for Energy Companies here. North American Market Could See Weaker Growth As Tight Oil Investments Slow Down There are multiple trends playing out in the N.A. market. While demand took a YoY hit in Q1, due to off-take capacity issues in the Permian Basin, the largest shale field, things could pick up. For instance, Halliburton has indicated that pricing was likely to improve in the near-term, after 4 years of headwinds. However, longer-term growth could be weaker, as upstream players have been facing investor pressure to cut back on their spending, after years of strong investments in shale while working within their cash flows in order to boost shareholder returns. Trefis Higher Activity In Asia Could Drive Middle East/Asia Segment Revenues from the Middle East/ Asia segment could also trend higher to about $5 billion, driven by the Asia Pacific region. The broader international operations also stand to benefit from capacity tightness, which could bode well for pricing. This segment accounted for 19% of the companys 2018 revenues. Latin America Could Benefit From Stronger Activity In Mexico And Argentina We expect Halliburtons Latin American business to rebound with revenues growing to about $2.5 billion by 2020, after about 3 years of weakness. Growth is likely to be driven by stronger demand from Mexico and Argentina. This segment accounts for about 9% of Halliburtons total revenue. Rising Rig Count In Europe/ Africa/ CIS Activity in Europe and Africa has been on the rise, with the average rig count in these regions up by about 20% year-over-year over the first 4 months of the year. We project that Halliburtons revenues from this region will grow to about $3.3 billion by 2020. This segment accounted for about 12% of 2018 revenue. Estimating Halliburtons EPS And Price Estimate | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/05/29/what-are-the-trends-driving-our-30-price-estimate-for-halliburton/ |
Is The NBA's Video Replay System Being Used Properly? | ASSOCIATED PRESS With under 20 seconds remaining in the third overtime of a now-famous four-overtime second-round thriller between the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers, an interesting scenario unfolded. The Nuggets were in possession, up two points, with a three-second differential between the shot clock and game clock. Denvers Jamal Murray brought the ball up the floor, then stopped just past halfcourt to run the clock down. Portlands CJ McCollum was clearly instructed not to foul Murray, but to aggressively crowd him to try and force a turnover. With every fan in the building on their feet, the initial broadcast camera angle barely even caught what initially appeared to be McCollum knocking the ball away from Murray and out-of-bounds: Like virtually every other similar bang-bang call during an NBA game, the official nearby awarded the ball back to Denver. If you watch closely at the end of the clip above, you can even see that play very nearly proceeded with no stoppage until McCollum and a few other Portland players asked for a video review, which referees eventually granted. Most know what happened next: Based on a lengthy review that showed the ball barely grazing Murrays fingertips on the way out of bounds, the call was reversed and the ball was given back to the Blazers who then proceeded to tie it and eventually win in the fourth overtime. That wasnt the only such high-profile call weve seen in this postseason, either. In Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Toronto Raptors and Milwaukee Bucks, the Bucks lost a chance to cut into a three-point deficit late when a similar out-of-bounds call eventually went against Malcolm Brogdon near the sidelines. The issue isnt even confined to the NBA itself. Hell, the NCAA title game between Texas Tech and Virginia included a remarkably long video review that many believe swung the game in the Cavaliers favor. During an interview posted Tuesday, former veteran NBA official and current ESPN/ABC rules analyst Steve Javie commented on these unique circumstances now facing the leagues officials (comments were removed from Tuesdays piece for use here). Ill talk with old referees like Joey Crawford or Mark Wunderlich, guys who are in management with the NBA officiating group, Javie said. Because we would look at it as caused the ball to go out of bounds instead of who is the last to touch it? This issue, and a few other minor ones like it, are the last vestiges of the old world of NBA officiating. That world was rife with subjectivity referees using their judgement for areas like these and several others rather than relying on a single, standardized set of yes-or-no calls. Over recent years, that kind of subjectivity has been virtually eliminated. And while the league has been largely successful in this effort, a few hangers-on remain and the scenario above is one of them. In many cases, out-of-bounds calls are still made, as Javie alluded to, with reference to who caused the ball to go out, not necessarily who last contacted the ball itself. But with instant replay also now an available tool, the NBA is stuck between something of a rock and a hard place. During the final two minutes of games or overtime, the detailed letter of the law must be observed even though theres a real chance its not truly being observed for the other 46 minutes. And with these high-profile examples sticking in the minds of certain NBA decision-makers, its become a small issue in certain league circles. For some, especially the grassroots traditionalists in the league, theres been real talk about whether the spirit of this particular rule is in the right place. In every pickup gym in the world, these folks would argue, these calls are made based on who is actually responsible for the ball going out. Well, thats not quite as simple as it sounds. Again, the leagues goal is less subjectivity and more objectivity; this is the only fair, reasonable way to expect a group of 65 people to call one of the fastest and most complex team sports in the world. Thats right, introduce more subjectivity. Suddenly, officials are being asked dozens of times per game to apply their own criteria to who caused the ball to go out. Those would quickly become the most high-profile calls, and wed have a Wild West of officiating where no individual officials standard was quite the same. If anything, the changes here have to come from the other side of the equation: Focusing on how to improve the other 46 minutes for calls like these. And as it happens, the league is already working toward this. As ESPNs Zach Lowe recently reported, theres strong consideration being given among the leagues GMs to introducing a fourth replay official who would sit at the scorers table during all games and help expedite several replay-related call types. Theoretically, these kinds of calls could be included. Exactly how this ends up happening is still up in the air, with a number of details still to be worked through. This will all be considered, along with how these areas trickle into other common call types. However it shakes out, these playoffs have offered a few interesting examples of the challenges the NBA has faced while attempting to introduce more fairness and transparency into its games. Creating objective scenarios for their officials is the name of the game, but doing that without getting too far away from the roots of the sport and without lengthening games to a crazy degree is the real balance theyve had to strike. Well see if this serves as a good talking point for this and several related areas. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/bendowsett/2019/05/29/is-the-nbas-video-replay-system-being-used-properly/ |
Can A New Product Freshen SailPoint's Growth Rate? | 2017 Bloomberg Finance LP There's a decent-sized business for services that protect companies against employees and others whose ties to the company are severed from inadvertently getting access to its computer systems and data. The business -- called Identity Governance -- helps companies manage the specific access to a company's systems by employees, contractors, suppliers, and others. And it's expected to grow at a 15.2% compound annual rate from $3.8 billion in 2018 to $7.7 billion in 2023, according to MarketsandMarkets. One of the players in this market is Austin-based SailPoint which went public in November 2017 and has since enjoyed a 41% increase in its share price -- yielding a stock market capitalization of $1.6 billion. Today SailPoint is launching a new product which looks to me as though it could boost the productivity of its customers. But based on my May 24 interview with cofounder and CEO Mark McClain, investors will need to wait for a more concrete estimate of how much the product will add to the company's top line. (I have no financial interest in the securities mentioned in this post). SailPoint's financial performance has been mixed. Between 2015 and 2018, its revenues grew at a 27% average annual rate to $249 million in 2018 -- when it eked out a 1% net profit margin after losing money in the previous three years. Sadly for investors, SailPoint's stock peaked out last September at $34.60 a share and has since lost 47% of its value. A big chunk of that decline happened on May 9 after SailPoint supplied disappointing guidance to investors in its first quarter 2019 report. The report was not all bad though. After all, according to the MotleyFool, its revenue grew 24% to $60.6 million. which was ahead of Wall Street expectations. The bad news was that investors were expecting SailPoint to predict $65.3 million in revenue for the quarter ending June 2019 -- whereas its guidance was far lower -- in the range of $59.7 million and $61.2 million. SailPoint also lowered its forecast for all of 2019 by about 6%. Whereas it had previously predicted revenues between $293 million and $299 million, on May 9 it said it expected revenues for the year in the range of $277 million to $281.5 million. At the midpoint of the new forecast revenue range for 2019, SailPoint is predicting 12% growth for the year -- about half its four year average revenue growth rate -- and slower than the industry's 15.2% growth. So it does not come as a surprise that SailPoint shares lost 28% of their value the morning it shared these results with investors. During SailPoint's May 9 investor conference call, McClain stated that the company's "sales pipeline has not matured at the rate we initially expected." He said that SailPoint's investigation of the shortfall revealed that its "go-to-market teams" focused more on mid-market than enterprise customers. And to solve the problem, SailPoint will change its mid-market "messaging and targeting" while "sharpening it focus on where the large enterprise market is going." In the conference call, CFO Cam McMartin stated that SailPoint is "taking action to address the sales shortfall" -- which includes "making investments in [its] product portfolio." Today it's announcing a result of such investments -- SailPoint Predictive Identity -- which uses big data and machine learning to "autonomously anticipate user access needs, spot and respond to risky behavior, achieve continuous compliance and adapt security policies, according to Paul Trulove, SailPoint Chief Product Officer. SailPoint Predictive Identity should take all but the most difficult identity governance problems out of the hands of people. As McClain explained, When it comes to identity governance -- companies experience a lot of churn. For example, an employee in a company's tax group would be expected to have a low level of activity for much of the year but hit the database hard before tax season. SailPoint Predictive Identify will deal with more routine things and leave the tough exceptions to people. SailPoint believes Predictive Identify will provide economic benefits to its customers. "While we are still trying to quantify the benefits, we expect Predictive Identity to boost efficiency and lower the cost of changing a user's status or identity, raising the security bar for who should have access and who can do what; and running compliance processes," he said. Silicon Valley Bank, a SailPoint customer since March 2017, is using Predictive Identity. According to Shawn Lawson, Head of IT Engineering & Operations at Silicon Valley Bank, We picked SailPoint over Dell, RSA, Oracle, and Okta for many reasons -- including our shared vision of an ever-changing IT environment and focus on innovation. We initially used SailPoint's IdentityIQ platform to govern access to all users, applications and data. We have been early adopters for SailPoints platform innovations -- such as the Accelerator Pack which allows us to onboard and quickly oversee access to additional applications. SailPoint is optimistic about customer adoption of Predictive Identity but is not yet ready to estimate how much revenue it will generate. "We promised this in our IPO and see considerable pent up demand. Companies are anxious to test it and see if it helps. We anticipate a high level of interest. We will start talking about the revenue impact in 2020 or much later this year," concluded McClain. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2019/05/29/sailpoint-launches-ai-based-product-is-faster-growth-in-its-future/ |
What's The Difference Between A Chatbot And A Virtual Agent? | Thats a strategy with an expiration date. The fact of the matter is that chatbots are no longer distinctive. They just don't provide an edge. Thats why virtual agents are becoming more popular. The Difference Between A Chatbot And A Virtual Agent If youre a bit confused about the difference between these terms, youre not alone. Some people use these terms interchangeably. Unfortunately, that obscures some critical differences between them. In this article, here are the definitions we'll use: A chatbot is a text-based interactive tool designed to fulfill a single use case. For example, some chatbots are designed solely to engage website visitors and transition them to a sales or marketing group. These chatbots tend to be simple in terms of the user experience and the underlying technology. They're helpful, but dont expect any miracles from them. In contrast, a virtual agent has significantly greater capacity. Rather than relying upon a simple script, a virtual agent can do much more. It's connected to multiple systems. For example, a virtual agent can accept and evaluate password change requests and verify if users are making valid requests. It's not a replacement for a help desk department, but virtual agents can handle boring, repetitive requests so help desk staff can focus on complex tasks. First of all, you can use both tools to improve productivity. By all means, keep using simple chatbots on your website for simple internal tasks. For example, translation chatbots can translate text between multiple languages. Thats a good solution to give you a rough and ready translation between English and Spanish. Instant Translator, a chatbot built for Facebook, offers exactly this kind of translation capability. Chatbots are helpful for simple, low-risk tasks where you can imagine most of the outcomes. Virtual agents, on the other hand, are best used for internal company use. For example, take the example of identity management. Just think back to the last time you set up a new employee on your companys systems. You might have called IT, waited on hold, filled in a form and then provided an email approval. No! You can fulfill your cybersecurity requirements without going through all these manual steps by installing an identity management virtual agent. How To Find Out If Virtual Agents Are A Good Fit For Your Company Chatbots are common in engaging prospects and customers. These tend to be simple tools running on simple scripts. If a customer goes off script, many chatbots become frustrating. They'll keep responding with a variation of I didnt understand that response. Please choose one of the following options. That problem sometimes occurs with virtual agents, but it's less common. Use this list of discussion topics to find out if virtual agents are a good fit: 1. If your company has a strong track record implementing innovative technology, then that background will enable exploring virtual agents. Unfortunately, many more companies have a mixed record when it comes to IT. They've had failures leading technology implementations. In that case, focus your virtual agent exploration on a specific use case, such as identity management. By focusing your virtual agent implementation, you're less likely to have problems. 2. Virtual agents are exciting, but they can't do everything. In the case of meeting internal IT performance and service objectives, virtual agents can help in some cases. For instance, you may have a service level set that all employee access requests are reviewed and responded to within 24 hours. If repetitive requests make up the majority of your identity management and password requests, virtual agents are a good solution. 3. As an IT leader, you're responsible for supporting your employees and helping them thrive. If they're buried under an avalanche of support tickets, they'll have limited time and resources to support innovation and learn new skills. Simply put, you're competing against other employers for each technical employee. Offering interesting work with plenty of variety is one way to set your organization apart. Offload basic IT management tasks to virtual agents, and your IT employee morale will improve. 4. Youre probably intrigued by what virtual agents can do for your company. Your next step is to explore bringing this technology to your company. Sit down with your IT team to review the most common IT service requests next. If you find that password resets and access changes make up more than 20% of your IT tickets, then incorporating a virtual agent into your organization is probably a good idea. Keeping your staff members busy answering the same kind of IT request hundreds of times per month is a surefire way to burn them out. Virtual agents are one of the best ways to achieve all green IT metrics, so take action now to explore if this new technology is right for your firm. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/05/29/whats-the-difference-between-a-chatbot-and-a-virtual-agent/ |
Who Can The Memphis Grizzlies Build Around Post-Mike Conley? | Getty The Grizzlies only made marginal improvements in J.B. Bickerstaffs first full year at the helm, missing the playoffs for their second consecutive season with a record of 33-49, and at the end of the year, ownership decided to fire J.B.B. and demote GM, Chris Wallace. Former franchise cornerstone Marc Gasol was traded away at the deadline, and Mike Conley strongly implied during his exit interview that he would like to see a similar fate this summer, as hes no longer interested in being part of a rebuilding team. The grit-and-grind era in Memphis may have officially died, but not all hope is lost, as Jaren Jackson Jr. was quite impressive his rookie year and the Grizzlies landed the No. 2 overall selection (expected to be Ja Morant) in the upcoming draft. Finding a new home for Conley should be the No. 1 priority for Memphis this summer, and it shouldnt be too tough to move him as he still has two years left on his deal and is coming off a career-year in which he produced averages of 21.1 points, 6.4 assists, 2.2 triples and 1.3 steals per game. Conley does have an early termination option on his contract for the 2020-21 season, but considering that will be the year where hes set to earn $34.5 million, hed have to land in a pretty rough situation to not want to pick that up. I dont suspect that ETO will impact the number of offers Memphis receives this summer. What the Grizzlies bring back in the Conley trade will dictate the rest of their summer plans, but I think the best thing to do for the franchise would be to go through a full rebuild. That would mean letting Jonas Valanciunas and Justin Holiday walk away as free agents, and handing over the keys to Jackson Jr. and Morant on Day 1. There are some complications to the rebuilding scenario, though, as the Grizzlies currently owe their 2020 first-round pick to Boston, which is top-6 protected. However, if that pick doesnt convey to Boston in 2020, it would then become an unprotected first-round selection in 2021 and conceding that pick in the midst of a rebuild would be fairly devastating for Memphis. There is a remedy here. If Kyrie Irving decides to leave Boston during free agency, the Grizzlies could reach out with an offer of Conley and request their pick back in that deal. The Celtics could build a package around Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and the Grizzlies own 2020 pick, but they may need to find a third team willing to take on Gordon Haywards contract in order to make the numbers work. There are a lot of ifs involved in this scenario, but the Grizzlies getting their pick back would assuredly relieve a lot of anxiety amongst the Memphis front office staff. While Jonas Valanciunas headlined the Marc Gasol trade, Delon Wright arguably made a larger impact with the Grizzlies, churning out averages of 12.2 points, 5.4 boards, 5.3 dimes, 1.6 steals and 0.6 swats through 26 games in Memphis. Based on a formula Forbes uses, created by Southern Utah University economist, David Berri, in which we multiply a players wins estimate average by the average cost of a win to ascertain an expected salary for a player Wrights on-court production would have netted him an annual salary of around $15 million this past season (he was paid $2.5 million). For a more in-depth explanation on how these values are derived, check out Brett Knights recent column detailing the most overpaid and underpaid players around the league. Wright will be a restricted free agent this summer, meaning the Grizzlies will be able to match any offer he receives on the open market, and Id recommend they retain him. Hes a solid fit in Memphis culture and the Grizzlies could finally give him the opportunity to shine after spending the first three years of his career buried on the bench in Toronto. Its important to have these sorts of veterans on rebuilding teams, and the Grizzlies will have the cap space to keep him; its an easy call to me. Unfortunately, the Grizzlies will need to shell out another $25.1 million to Chandler Parsons next season, but the good news is hell be in the final year of his contract. There arent going to be any teams willing to give up any assets to take on Chandler and his horrific deal, but at least hell provide the club with plenty of cap relief once he comes off the books in 2020. An easy decision for the Grizzlies will be declining to pick up their $12.9 million option on Avery Bradley. Despite pulling in $12 million this past season, Bradley only performed like a minimum-level player with averages of 9.9 points, 2.4 assists and 2.8 rebounds per game on .408 shooting from the field. Bradley is 28 years old with a lengthy injury history, so hes not a great fit on a rebuilding team. If the Grizzlies decide to retain Wright and go with Morant No. 2 overall on draft day, their core will be structured around Jackson Jr., Morant, Wright and Kyle Anderson for at least the next three years, and thats a solid core to work with. Andersons stat lines dont often jump off the page, but he impacts winning (5.6 Wins Produced), and is on a team-friendly deal that will pay him around $28.4 million over the next three years. Jackson Jr. just became the first rookie in NBA history to average at least 19.0 points, 1.9 blocks, 1.0 triple and 1.0 steal on a per-36-minutes scale, and while his year was cut short by a quad injury, I suspect all those missed games had more to do with where the Grizzlies were at in the standings over the second half of the year. Morant might be one of the most impressive 63 dunkers to enter the game since Russell Westbrook, and he made putting people on posters a hobby during his time at Murray State. He also led the nation in assists this past year and he should be ready to immediately step in as an impact player (and Mike Conleys replacement) as soon as he lands in Memphis. The Grizzlies are still a few moves away from returning to being a perennial playoff contender, but they have some exciting young players to build around, and once Parsons comes off the books they wont have any bad contracts on the roster. It's a fresh start for a new front office, but the future sure does look awfully bright in Memphis. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaredjohnson/2019/05/29/who-can-the-memphis-grizzlies-build-around-post-mike-conley/ |
Can Business Become The Solution To Global Health Problems? | Mark Kostich by Danielle Kost Every public health crisiswhether its the availability of highly addictive opioids or junk food marketing to childrenprompts consumers to question how far companies will go for profit. Its not an unwarranted concern. After all, cigarette makers once used cartoon-like characters like Joe Camel to appeal to young would-be smokers. But corporate distrust runs so deep for some consumers that constructive dialogue is virtually impossible; consider vaccination skeptics who criticize Big Pharmas influence, despite considerable research that upholds vaccines safety and efficacy. Companies have long used corporate social responsibility initiatives and philanthropy to improve their standing with consumers. Now there is a new crop of companies that are making health and wellness a business imperative, not just because it is the right thing to do, but because it is good business for the long term. Two Harvard University faculty membersAmy C. Edmondson, the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, and Dr. Howard K. Koh, the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy Schoolexplored this shift in a recent essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association. We asked them to discuss their reasons in an Q&A exchange via email. Danielle Kost: You argue that sustainability and well-being efforts can provide competitive advantage. Amy C. Edmondson and Dr. Howard K. Koh: Market forces continually drive a search for competitive advantage. According to the annual Nielsen survey, about two-thirds of approximately 30,000 respondents worldwide say they are willing to pay more for sustainable goods. Almost 60 percent report that a products health and wellness benefits motivate purchasing decisions. And over 40 percent say that they factor a companys social value into purchasing decisions. Millennials are especially socially conscious, actively searching for products that are thoughtfully resourced and leave a smaller environmental footprint. Investors are paying attention, too, with impact investing hitting $60 billion in 2015. Attention to the negative impacts of work on health is also on the rise. Some surveys find that works impact is more negative than positive when it comes to stress levels, sleeping habits, eating habits, and weight. Advancing employee health has long included efforts to promote physical exercise and healthy eating, but recently has expanded to encompass an emphasis on workforce diversity, flexible working hours, maternal and paternal leave, and professional development. Such efforts have the potential to improve employee engagement, loyalty, and productivity. Kost: While your essay cites many business benefits of advancing a well-being agenda, some executives might consider such an approach an obstacle to meeting profit targets. Edmondson and Koh: Typically, companies have focused on short-term financial outcomes, particularly profit, as the majorand sometimes onlymeasure of success. But recent forces are pushing CEOs to adopt long-term and broader considerations, which requires consideration of various outcomes related to sustainability. For example, a growing number of companies around the world voluntarily report environmental, social, and governance (ESG) measures. The Global Reporting Initiative captures ESG information from over 80 percent of the worlds largest corporations. Every company wants to be known as a good global citizen, and ESG reporting helps by demonstrating transparency and accountability. Several prominent business groups are taking notice of this trend. The Fortune Change the World list identifies companies with more than $1 billion in revenue that create positive social impact through their core business strategies. The CECP (formerly the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy), co-founded by Paul Newman and representing more than 200 of the worlds largest companies, has recently launched investor forums dedicated to the culture of health, often featuring prominent CEOs like Paul Polman of Unilever and Alex Gorsky of Johnson & Johnson. In 2015, Harvard Business Review started factoring ESG performance into its annual recognition of best performing CEOs in the world. Edmondson and Koh: First and foremost, CEOs and other C-suite leaders must make an explicit commitment to health and well-being. Vocalizing commitment, setting targets and goals, allocating the appropriate resources, and monitoring progress in a transparent fashion are vital. Engaging the entire organization, starting with a needs assessment, serves a crucial function in empowering managers and employees to act. Employees will watch to see if leaders commitment is genuine and whether they are leading by example. Allocating time, even if limited, on all meeting agendas can remind everyone that health and well-being are a priority that is integral to business operations. Simultaneously, leadership can set up an internal infrastructure to help operationalize goals, strategies, operational plans, and metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of a culture of health effort. Coordination of the effort at the top can include chief human resources executives, chief medical officers, chief sustainability officers, chief financial officers, and government relations. Communication must be transparent and explicitly focus on building long-term value over and above short-term profits. Effective senior executives today should aspire to build better systems for the future to ensure the enterprises sustainability over the long term. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2019/05/29/can-business-become-the-solution-to-global-health-problems/ |
Could Blockchain Be The Cure For Marketers' Headaches? | Getty The pace at which companies are procuring data has exploded in recent years. Chief marketing officers (CMOs) and their teams have access to a seemingly endless and burgeoning supply of information about their marketplace, their competitors and their customers. This data, however, particularly information about consumers, is a double-edged sword. It can, when used responsibly, offer a unique lens through which advertisers can successfully deliver the right message to the right person, reducing the volume of poorly targeted, potentially annoying advertising. The key to minimizing clutter in the marketplace are advertisers who have good data about their potential customers, enabling a more strategic approach. But managing, securing and ensuring the proper use of this personal information has become a major concern for consumers, advertisers and governments the world over. For marketers, the idea of successfully securing customer data to effectively reach consumers and reduce the cacophony of the marketplace due to the veritable tsunami of advertising fraud is gold. A result of bots and some dishonest players that artificially inflate or blatantly misrepresent their audience reach, advertising fraud cost was estimated at $6.5 billion in 2017, according to a report by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) (download required). Blockchain As A Solution The blockchain may hold potential solutions to both the challenge of consumer privacy and the pernicious threat of ad fraud. In brief, blockchain is a distributed, noncentralized database that securely records transactions between users. The technology originally gained renown in the financial industry as the cornerstone of bitcoin and other digital currencies. The real power of the blockchain, however, is that any type of exchange can be stored in this way. Its not about storing files, but about transactions. We can see the blockchain as a big public book, which everyone can read and where everyone can publish, but which is not erasable or changeable. The Ability Of Blockchain To Combat Ad Fraud The power of the blockchain to combat fraud in the digital advertising channel could potentially save advertisers billions of dollars. According to the previously mentioned ANA report, ad fraud loss amounted to 22% of desktop video spend and 9% of display spend. As marketing budgets continue to shrink, its our job as CMOs to identify where we can address wasted spend, and I believe this is one of those situations. In a traditional digital ad campaign, an advertiser would pay a publisher on a cost-per-click (CPC) basis or on a viewership cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis. In the past, an advertiser would have to rely on data provided by the platform to assess the performance of a campaign. There was no way to determine if an actual consumer clicked on or viewed an ad. But if each display or click was recorded in the blockchain, the reliability of that data would then be guaranteed, and the advertiser assured of paying for actual campaigns. This provides advertisers with access to a transparent and auditable ledger of ad performance. Giving Consumers Anonymity And Marketer Insights Blockchain has the ability to square the circle of consumers competing desires for privacy and personalization. The system gives individuals full control of their personal information and the ability to unlock it in specific ways. Consumers might choose to let an advertiser glimpse relevant information, without having to transfer it, to reduce the hassle of unwanted advertising or the fear of their data being compromised. This would, in turn, give marketers the ability to reach their target market without taking on the burden of maintaining a secure database of consumer information that might be vulnerable to hacking. This approach would deliver two major benefits. First, the consumer would see more relevant, better-targeted messages from brands that would best meet their needs. Second, marketers, in turn, would be able to either save or redirect advertising budget to boost their bottom line or expand their market. A more efficient marketplace gives marketers the ability to put more money back into the pockets of consumers through incentives or savings. We are still a ways away from realizing the full potential of the blockchain. Unfortunately, the system as it currently exists lacks the speed to process the number of interactions that even the smallest brand would need to analyze. Additionally, consumers would have to buy into a new system of identity-sharing. Figuring out the blockchain isnt an insurmountable challenge, but it isnt going to happen overnight. Brands shouldnt stand still waiting, however. The technology will advance quickly and advertisers need to be prepared. Those marketers who are committed to a person-centric approach, those already seeking to put together the perfect consumer journey, will be best positioned to capitalize when the technology matures. Key is a commitment to transparency and a sincere desire to earn consumers trust. This trust will make it more likely that a brands customers will opt in to an identity management system to better interact with the brand. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/05/29/could-blockchain-be-the-cure-for-marketers-headaches/ |
Why is Nicola Sturgeon making indyref2 plans? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Ms Sturgeon met members of a youth cafe in Edinburgh on Wednesday morning as she promoted the Referendums (Scotland) Bill Nicola Sturgeon has no intention of going ahead with an independence referendum that has not been authorised by Westminster. It may be very frustrating to her that the UK government need to give their consent to another vote, but she does accept that it is the reality. The first minister also knows that it is extremely unlikely that any incoming prime minister would give their approval for another indyref. We may not know who the next Tory leader is going to be - but you can be sure that any candidate who wants to secure the votes of Conservative members in Scotland will need to firmly rule out allowing a second referendum anytime soon. She says that the UK government is currently in such chaos it is not possible to predict what their future policy on anything might be. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Independence supporters have held regular marches in Scottish towns and cities calling for a second referendum And she warns that denying Scottish voters the right to make a choice about whether they want to live in an independent country is not only undemocratic but also politically unsustainable And that is the argument you will keep hearing from the SNP. That to deny a vote exposes what they describe as the "democratic deficit" facing Scotland. They hope to stir frustration and anger amongst voters, even those who don't currently support independence, that they should not be told what they can and cannot do by a prime minister in London. Amongst those who do passionately support independence there is impatience to get on with it. Huge marches demanding another referendum are a reasonably frequent occurrence in Scottish towns and cities and Nicola Sturgeon needs to give some hope to her most enthusiastic foot soldiers that another vote is coming. Or at least that she is doing everything she can to hasten the day that they will get to have their say. The risk is that while she may be able to gradually build the case that Westminster should not be allowed to block another independence vote, she may not be able to do so quickly enough to satisfy many of her grassroots. And she may not be able to do so before the next Scottish Parliament elections in 2021. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-48449035 |
Does she have to take the high road when she meets the other woman? | Dear Carolyn DEAR CAROLYN: My 25-year marriage ended about five years ago, due mostly to his (not first) affair. He is now married to The Other Woman. He and I remain stiffly cordial because we have two now-grown daughters. Sooner or later, I am going to have to meet this woman. There will be a wedding or a graduation or something, and I am already dreading it. I dont picture doing anything too dramatic, but I do picture looking at her proffered hand and saying, Oh, no thank you. And then I picture my ex-in-laws shaking their heads at me. To me, a handshake is a sign of respect, and I do not respect either of them. Already Full of Dread Dear Already Full of Dread: This is so hard, Im sorry. Weddings and graduations are chances to share a sense of connection across generations, and to have them corrupted must feel like a slap in the face. Dreading them now, though, before you even know theyre happening, is a good way to let your possible future ruin your certain present so I think youve found a good way to address both of these concerns by facing this in advance. Coming up with a script you can live with will allow you (mostly) to put the whole issue away until you have to face it for real. To that end, a key point: The lying cheater who broke up two families is as much your ex-husband as it is his new wife. More so: Your ex is the one who made vows to you, and therefore betrayed you far more profoundly than the other woman did. And he did so more than once. Yet you have found a way to be stiffly cordial to your ex. So I urge you to resist the temptation to cast the Other Woman as the arch-villain who is beneath even your stiff cordiality. Dont make her the convenient repository of all the rage at your ex that youre holding back in the name of peace with your childrens father. Instead, recognize that your grievance with her is minor compared with the one you have with your ex. Accordingly, as is ruthlessly fair, give her the same stiff cordiality you give your ex. Hello, you say, as you proffer a hand so much better to be in control. For inspiration, try Bette Davis movies. Then: If youll excuse me, I have reasons to be elsewhere. You have good reasons, by the way, in a larger sense with elsewhere being where you no longer have to wonder whether your philandering spouse is lying to you again. As painful as the process has been, you live in honesty now. I hope there is at least some consolation in that. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/does-she-have-to-take-the-high-road-when-she-meets-the-other-woman/ |
Whats on the ballot in Arlington city election runoff? | Whats new in downtown Arlington More bars and restaurants have arrived in downtown Arlington, including the only tiki bar in DFW. The 4 Kahunas owner said he is offering a little South Seas escapism from the stresses of the day. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK More bars and restaurants have arrived in downtown Arlington, including the only tiki bar in DFW. The 4 Kahunas owner said he is offering a little South Seas escapism from the stresses of the day. Most voters in Tarrant County are done with local elections for now, but in central Arlington, residents can still vote on an important City Council race. In District 5, retired physician Ignacio Nunez and financial adviser Andy Prior are facing off to take an open seat. Nunez, a veteran of the citys Planning and Zoning Commission, led the first round of voting May 4 but fell short of the majority needed to win the seat outright. Voters can read where each stands on important issues such as transportation, term limits and economic development in the Star-Telegram voter guide. Its an interesting time for central Arlington, with the Urban Union development bringing in small businesses that are drawing pedestrian traffic. And a new term-limits provision has prompted major turnover among City Council members. So, voters in the district should take the time to study the candidates and vote. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to Star-Telegram content across all your devices. SAVE NOW Early voting runs through June 4. Find a location here. Election Day is June 8. | https://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/editorials/article230918538.html |
What does TSA do with spare change left at checkpoints? | The most unusual TSA checkpoint finds Transportation Security Administration officers have kept a lot of dangerous and often times wacky items off of commercial aircraft this year. Here is their list of the top 10 most unusual finds. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK Transportation Security Administration officers have kept a lot of dangerous and often times wacky items off of commercial aircraft this year. Here is their list of the top 10 most unusual finds. Keep the change. Travelers working their way through airport security left behind almost $1 million in spare change at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints, ABC News reports. During the 2018 fiscal year, TSA agents collected $960,105.49 in spare change and other forgotten currency at checkpoints, according to USA Today. TSA always seeks to make sure that all traveler property, including loose change, finds its way back to the proper owner, the TSA said in an annual report, according to ABC News. However, when loose change does not, it will be directed to critical aviation security programs. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to Miami Herald content across all your devices. SAVE NOW The money goes into a special fund and pays for airport security signs, maintaining checkpoints and expanding the agencys PreCheck system, according to CNNs news wire. The inadvertent budget boost thanks to forgetful travelers has increased in recent years. ABC News reports the TSA collected $869,837 of spare change in 2017, and $867,812 in 2016. Agents found the most money last year at New Yorks JFK Airport: $72,392.74, according to the New York Daily News. Los Angeles International Airport came in second last year with $71,748.83 left behind at checkpoints, USA Today reported. Travelers through Miami International Airport left behind $50,504.49, making MIA a distant third for the year, according to ABC News. NBC News reported last week that the Department of Homeland Security plans to ask the TSA to help fund border security, and that could include the spare change collected from checkpoints. SHARE COPY LINK Keep these travel tips in mind when preparing for your first flight. | https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article230935618.html |
Is Bol Bol worth the draft risk for Miami Heat at No. 13? | Spoelstra: This season without question would be the growth of our young players Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra talks to the media during the season-ending press conference at the AmericanAirlines Arena on Friday April 12, 2019 in Miami. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra talks to the media during the season-ending press conference at the AmericanAirlines Arena on Friday April 12, 2019 in Miami. There are so many aspects of Bol Bols game to admire, but there are also red flags. Thats what makes the 7-foot-2 center out of Oregon a high-risk, high-reward prospect in the June 20 NBA Draft. Bol, 19, is projected by at least one mock draft to be taken by the Heat with the No. 13 pick, and hes projected by most others to be selected in the Heats range. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to Miami Herald content across all your devices. SAVE NOW Bol, the son of former NBA center Manute Bol, certainly has unique skills for a player of his size. Hes quick for a 7-footer, can play on the perimeter because of his handle and impressive three-point shot, has the potential to be an elite rim protector and has even drawn comparisons to the player labeled as The Unicorn Kristaps Porzingis. Bol averaged 21 points on 56.1 percent shooting from the field and 52 percent shooting on threes to go with 9.6 rebounds and 2.7 blocks in just nine games as a freshman at Oregon before sustaining a season-ending left foot injury in December. Thats where the red flags enter the equation, as durability is already a concern. Theres even some wondering whether Bol will be forced to sit out part or all of his rookie season because of the foot injury that, according to The Oregonian, had him using a scooter and walking boot until late March. Bol measured at 7-2.5 and 208 pounds with a 7-7 wingspan at the Combine earlier this month. That frame is also worth noting, with the 6-4 Dwyane Wade listed at 220 pounds and the 6-4 Dion Waiters listed at 215 pounds this past season. While some believe Bol has the talent of a lottery pick, most mock drafts have him being selected outside of the lottery because of those red flags. In fact, the only mock draft surveyed by the Miami Herald that has Bol as a lottery pick is ESPN. ESPNs latest mock draft has Bol going to the Heat at No. 13. Bol brings much-needed three-point shooting and rim protection. Hes a top-five talent in this draft, finding himself this low due to a season-ending foot injury, which is certainly a concern, ESPN wrote. Miami has a clogged salary sheet and very little star power to show for it, making this an important draft. A rebuild might be around the corner, considering this aging roster and the limited options for improvement in the short-term. With that in mind, positional fit might not be as important as sheer talent and upside, which could cause the team to look at a younger prospect like Bol, who wasnt able to show the full extent of their abilities during the season. Bol might not be an ideal fit with this teams culture, considering the questions about his approach to the game, but there is little doubt that his talent looked worthy of a much higher selection than the late lottery before he broke his foot in December. The Athletics mock draft has the Thunder selecting Bol at No. 21, and Sports Illustrateds mock draft projects Bol to go to the Nets at No. 17. BOTTOM LINE Based on the latest mock drafts, Bol is expected to still be on the board when its the Heats turn to pick at No. 13. Bol possibly possesses the most upside of any prospect whos projected to be selected in the Heats range. He can shoot threes, make plays off the dribble and has the length and anticipation to be an above-average defender around the rim. The problem is Bols durability is already a concern. Thats the big question. And for the Heat, the other question is whether it should spend a second consecutive first-round pick on a big man. With Bam Adebayo, Kelly Olynyk and Hassan Whiteside already vying for minutes at center, drafting a wing would seem to make more sense for the Heat. But with the uncertainty surrounding the future of Miamis roster, one could argue drafting the player with the most upside makes more sense than drafting for positional need. If the Heat takes Bol, it will be because it believes his All-Star potential offers tremendous value at the 13th pick. I dont think hes going to miss his entire rookie season; but with a foot injury, Im sure you want to take things slow, ESPN NBA Draft analyst Mike Schmitz said of Bol. Im sure its a long-term play with him. Hes one of those risk-reward guys. He can really shoot the ball, so skilled on the perimeter. He can get a defensive rebound and create some offense. My question is his durability with his thin frame and can he make it through an 82-game season. Sports Pass for $30 per year Get unlimited access to all Miami Herald sports stories and videos for $30 Subscribe now #READLOCAL | https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/nba/miami-heat/article230933873.html |
Who's in charge at DOL? | With help from Doug Palmer and Tim Noah Editor's Note: This edition of Morning Shift is published weekdays at 10 a.m. POLITICO Pro Employment & Immigration 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 The White House is keeping Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta on a very tight leash. A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants DHS to reverse its new policy of denying citizenship to workers in the legal marijuana industry. Several Democratic presidential candidates are calling for a teacher pay bump. GOOD MORNING! Its Wednesday, May 29, and this is Morning Shift, your daily tipsheet on labor and immigration news. Send tips, exclusives, and suggestions to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter at @RebeccaARainey, @tedhesson, @IanKullgren, and @TimothyNoah1. : President Donald Trumps acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, has seized power over the Labor Departments rulemaking process out of frustration with the pace of deregulation under Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta, Bloomberg Laws Ben Penn reports. Upon arriving at the West Wing in January, Mulvaney instituted a formalized system for settling regulatory policy and timeline disputes between White House assistants and Acostas top aides. White House officials have recently tightened their grip on the department. Secretary Alexander Acostas chief of staff Nick Geale will be leaving the office by the end of this week at the instruction of White House officials, after an investigation raised questions about his professional conduct. But Axios Jonathan Swan, who broke the Geale news, reported that a source close to the president questioned whether Geale was the problem and that Acosta could be next on the Trump cabinet chopping block. It's not clear to me that Nick is the only problem, the source told Swan at the time. You take your cues from the top." LAWMAKERS URGE ENDING MARIJUANA WORKER POLICY: Representatives Joe Neguse (D-Col.), Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.) will send a letter today urging Attorney General Barr and DHS Acting Secretary McAleenan to retract guidelines issued in April that allow denial of legal citizenship based on work in the marijuana industry -- even if the candidate for naturalization worked in one of the 33 states where the drug is legal for medical or recreational use. The policy guidance stated that applicants involved in certain marijuana related activities" indicating industry workers may not be able to meet the "good moral character" benchmark for citizenship "even if such activity is not unlawful under applicable state or foreign laws." The Associated Press reported last month that two people said they were denied U.S. citizenship because of their work in the industry. More on the April guidance from POLITICOs Lauren Gardner here. In the Workplace GOOGLES FISSURED WORKPLACE: Google has about 121,000 temp and contract employees worldwide, compared to 102,000 full-time employees, The New York Times Daisuke Wakabayashi reports. The temp and contract workers make less money, have different benefits plans, and have no paid vacation time in the United States, according to more than a dozen current and former Google temp and contract workers, he writes. Google did announce in April that it will require its contractors to provide health benefits, a $15 minimum wage, and paid parental leave; this after more than 900 of its employees signed a letter protesting the companys treatment of contract workers. But the company is not alone in its practice of outsourcing work to non-employees; contingent labor accounts for 40 to 50 percent of the workers at most technology firms, Wakabayashi notes. Such outsourcing is a phenomenon that David Weil, former administrator of the Obama Labor Departments Wage and Hour division, described in an influential 2014 book as the fissured workplace, and its a much bigger deal than the much-discussed gig economy (which, if defined as the percentage of workers employed solely as independent contractors, is not growing). The fissured workplace describes the full spectrum of arms-length arrangements by which businesses over the past half-century have avoided paying payroll taxes, providing benefits and a host of legal liabilities entailed in formal employment. Some companies depend on temp agencies or other contracting companies; others avoid expanding payroll through franchising. At Google, Wakabayashi reports, contractors handle a range of jobs, from content moderation to software testing, and former and current workers described Google as the employer in all but name. Weil argued in a 2017 essay that contracting out work not only means lower wage growth and reduced access to benefits, but also diminished opportunities for on-the-job training, protections from social safety nets like unemployment insurance and workers compensation, access to valuable social networks, and other pathways to upward advancement. Taken together, the fissured workplace contributes to growing earnings inequality. Read Weils 2017 essay here and more from the Times here. 2020 Watch SANDERS PRESSES ECONOMIC DEMOCRACY: Democratic 2020 presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders says his campaign is working on proposals to require large businesses to regularly contribute a portion of their stocks to a fund controlled by employees and to require corporations to give workers a share of the seats on their boards of directors, Jeff Stein reports for the Washington Post. We can move to an economy where workers feel that theyre not just a cog in the machine one where they have power over their jobs and can make decisions, Sanders told Stein. Democracy isnt just the opportunity to vote. What democracy really means is having control over your life. Robert Hockett, who teaches law and finance at Cornell University told Stein that the proposals are a sign of a virtuous competition between 2020 Democratic candidates in reexamining the fundamental relationship between capital and labor. More here. TEACHER PAY ATOP MANY 2020 DEMS AGENDAS: Joe Biden on Tuesday joined in with many of his 2020 competitors in calling for teacher pay raises, unveiling a wide-ranging K-12 and early education plan, targeted to increasing educator pay and leveling the playing field between rich and poor school districts, POLITICOs Nicole Gaudiano reports. Biden is rolling out his plan in Houston during a town hall meeting thats part of an elaborate teachers union endorsement process led by the American Federation of Teachers, she reports. His rollout follows broad education proposals unveiled by other top candidates, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who also called for tripling Title I funding for low-income schools and for setting a minimum starting salary for teachers of $60,000. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) proposed spending $315 billion over 10 years to boost teacher pay, while former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro has called for giving teachers a tax credit of up to $10,000. A recent report by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute found that teachers were paid 21.4 percent less than similarly educated and experienced professionals in 2018. More from Gaudiano here. In the States NEW MAINE LAW REQUIRES PAID SICK LEAVE: Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday signed into law a paid sick leave bill that would require companies with 10 or more employees in the state to offer one hour of earned paid time off, up to 40 hours, for every 40 hours worked, according to WMTW. Currently 10 states and Washington D.C. require employers to offer paid sick leave, according to the National Council of State Legislatures. Some lawmakers estimate the legislation will cover 85 percent of Maine workers, according to WMTW. The law will go into effect in 2021. The Maine Chamber of Commerce opposes the legislation, arguing that the proposal will increase employers bottom lines and create another deterrent for employers to locate or expand their businesses in Maine. More from WMTW here. At the Border EXCLUSIVE DEM SENATORS QUESTION TSA BORDER REASSIGNMENTS: Nearly a dozen Senate Democrats signed onto a letter from Senator Catherine Cortez Masto Tuesday pressing Acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan over the agencys plans to reassign hundreds of TSA staff to help deal with the influx of migrants at the southern border. TSA officials have acknowledged that moving agents to work on our southern border carries risk to our national security, the letter says. Taking TSA agents away from their mission depletes resources from a critical national security agency that must focus on staying ahead of the dynamic threat to aviation. DHS has, so far, has reassigned more than 700 CBP agents and requested more than 400 volunteers from TSA's ranks, according to POLITICOs Stephanie Beasley. Last week, McAleenan defended the reassignments, telling House lawmakers that We're not going to put the traveling public at risk. We're not going to reduce our security posture in any way." The senators who signed the letter, including presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Elizabeth Warren, request that McAleenan clarify how many agents will be sent to the border, and whether reassigned agents will receive any family welfare training. Read the letter here. Related read: A Summer From Hell Is Coming to U.S. Airports, from Bloomberg MINORS ACCOUNT FOR HIGHEST NUMBER OF BORDER CROSSINGS: Nearly 169,000 youths have surrendered at the southern border in the first seven months of this fiscal year, and more than half are ages 12 and under, Maria Sacchetti reports for The Washington Post. Minors now account for nearly 37 percent of all crossings far above previous eras, when most underage migrants were teenagers and accounted for 10 percent to 20 percent of all crossings. Border Patrol arrested nearly 99,000 migrants at the southwest border in April, marking a 10-year high, POLITICOs Ted Hesson reported earlier this month. More than half of those arrested were family members -- instead of the single males of a decade ago -- creating unfamiliar new problems for an administration that has made fighting illegal immigration one of its highest priorities. In response to the influx, the White House earlier this month urged Congress to provide an additional $4.5 billion in funding this year for border operations, but congressional negotiators last week declined to include it in a disaster aid bill. More from the Post here. Related read: A private group says it's started building its own border wall using millions donated in GoFundMe campaign, from CNN ACOSTA PRESSES CASE FOR USMCA IN MICHIGAN TODAY: Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta will visit a Stanley Black and Decker division in Dexter, Mich., this afternoon to push for congressional approval of USMCA. Thats according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, whose vice president, Kip Eideberg, will also attend the event. What We're Reading With His Job Gone, an Autoworker Wonders, What Am I as a Man?, from The New York Times Gov. Polis signs immigration and dozens of other bills into law, from The Colorado Springs Gazette Savior of G.M. Lordstown Plant, Hailed by Trump, Is a Corporate Cipher, from The New York Times Border Patrol to hire staff to help with migrant processing, from The Associated Press THATS ALL FOR MORNING SHIFT! Follow us on Twitter Tim Noah @timothynoah1 Rebecca Rainey @rebeccaarainey Ted Hesson @tedhesson Ian Kullgren @iankullgren | https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-shift/2019/05/29/whos-in-charge-at-dol-441473 |
Can vacations cure burnout? | by Jessie Blaeser According to the World Health Organization, burnout is now a diagnosable medical condition. Burnout may be the cause if someone experiences feelings of exhaustion and reduced professional efficacy in a workplace setting. Stress levels are on the rise, and employees often count the days until their next long weekend. Despite the anticipation of a much-needed vacation, experts say time away from work is not the powerful antidote many believe it to be. Burnout is now a legitimate medical diagnosis, included in the World Health Organizations International Classification of Diseases. CNNs Ryan Prior reports: According to the handbook, doctors can diagnose someone with burnout if they meet the following symptoms: 1. feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion 2. increased mental distance from one's job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job 3. reduced professional efficacy Burnout has existed both as a concept and a topic of research for decades. The conditions new legitimacy proves that a quick trip to the beach is not enough to solve employee stress. Instead, employees should be met with empathy from their employers, who should take extra care to ensure that their workers feel heard, understood and appreciated. According to CNBCs Sheryl Kraft, burnout accounts for an annual $125 billion to $190 billion in health-care spending. The causes for burnout, Kraft reports, include: Unfair treatment at work, unreasonable deadlines, unmanageable workload and lack of support from managers. Add to that the stress that comes with 24/7 access to work, through emails and texts, and expectations to respond at off-hours. Every one of these circumstances will still be waiting for employees as soon as they return from vacation. Getaways don't fix the problemthey only provide momentary respite. Besides, who among us hasnt returned from a vacation thinking, I need a vacation after my vacation. Traveling itself is exhausting. my depression coming back after a nice vacation pic.twitter.com/yP6D3OSW7K jamie lannister: private school girl (@summerhtshello) May 27, 2019 But for some, a vacation is really all it takes. Once you've stepped away from the everyday stressors of the workplace, it's easier to see your job in a different light. Perhaps time away provides you with the space necessary to find new solutions to particularly stressful projects or scenarios. The best ideas come to you when youre relaxed. A vacation can be exactly what you need to reduce feelings of burnout. @jeff_lamarche Take a vacation if you can. Nothing cures burnout like a good trip somewhere. Steve Streza (@SteveStreza) July 25, 2010 According to The Ladders, there is a whole section of tourism specifically focused on helping people relieve burnout known as wellness tourism. According to the Global Wellness Institute, international and domestic wellness tourism accounted for $563 billion in 2015, up 14% from 2013, and is expected to grow to $808 billion by 2020. Whether its an evening spent in a mud bath or an afternoon in a kayak, vacations can certainly get the most stressed amongst us out of our own heads. If stress and burnout levels continue to increase, theres no question that Americans will keep looking to vacations for relief, knowing time away will always be a huge help. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, wed love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/tylt/2019/05/can-vacations-cure-burnout.html |
Is Addressing Culture The Key To Workplace Sexual Harassment? | In October 2017, the conversation surrounding sexual harassment changed forever. The expose on Harvey Weinsteins reign of abuse was published in the New York Times, and within days, social media feeds around the world were populated with one simple hashtag. #metoo. Photo by Amin Salehi on Unsplash The womenand on occasion menin our lives came forward with their own stories and experiences of harassment, abuse and rape, viscerally making clear someone you love, studied with or work alongside has been a victim of sexual violence at some point in their lives. Against the backdrop of the media moguls endemic predation of female actressesoften during the early (and most vulnerable) stages of their careerthe nature and weight of the discussion of sexual misconduct have moved into the workplace and changed expectations of how we address it too. While not every organisation will be able to settle out of court to the tune of $44 millionHarvey Weinsteins repeated pleas of not guilty necessitating financial justice for the 87 women who have come forwardresponding to, supporting and successfully managing claims is now essential business practise. Just this week, official complaints and lawsuits have been filed against McDonald's, where 20 women have joined together and escalated their concerns, having found inadequate recourse for the perpetrators within their places of work. While #metoo highlighted the plight of high-profile women with significant resources, the Times Up fund they established in the wake of the movement now supports cases like these. The $22 million raised supports low-income women in industries from farming to retail, allowing them access to funds to take legal action against incalcitrant employers. The legal route isnt the only course of action, as the women (and male allies) at Google demonstrated in late 2018. Over 20,000 female employees protested the tech giants dubious practises in response to sexual harassment. Fumbling accusations against senior execs and offering payouts to the tune of $90 million for those at the centre of several scandals, the Walk Out for Real Change came with five demands. Unexpectedly, the mass action also came with retaliation, which the women of Google are now addressing through sit-ins in lieu of adequate HR processes and a breakdown in trust. Googles sexual harassment challenges may be open fodder, but Ubers moment of reckoningrevealed in an open letter by a former-engineer working at the company back in 2017laid bare the hyper-masculine environment and lack of accountability on account of the perpetrators, HR and leadership of the organisation. Susan Fowlers reflection, additional sexual harassment lawsuits and the exposure Travis Kalanicks visits to escort services on corporate trips contributed to the tech disruptor having to publicly redress the toxic work culture exposed, culminating in the controversial CEO being asked to leave the business in 2018. The move towards adequate, robust and supportive working practises for supporting those flagging sexual harassment in the workplace is a work in progress for many organisations. For others, however, addressing the blame culture and lack of belief in womens stories doesnt necessarily have to stop at the front door. Bumbleand its corporate activism on the issueis case in point. Given their mission is to end misogyny and empower women around the world, and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd founding the feminist dating app in response to the sexual harassment she endured whilst working at Tinder, its also unsurprising. Regardless, the New York Times advertisement ran during the blaze of the Kavanaugh hearings still shocked. Bumbles full-page ad in support of Christine Blasey Fords sexual assault testimony, encouraging readers to Believe Woman made big waves, as so few organisations (up until that point) had made such a strong, socially motivated and politically aligned statement in public. The commitment to address the culture surrounding sexual violence filters through to Bumbles product too. In addition to outing women in charge of swiping right on potential dates, theyre developing AI functionality to detect unsolicited nudes. With 57% of women feeling harassed on dating apps, the launch in June 2019 is simply the next step in leveraging their corporate conscience. Also looking to influence behaviour are Trojan, a U.S. condom brand, which for the past four years have partnered with Advocates for Youth on the Consent. Ask For It campaign. Instigating conversation in real life as opposed to advertising, the brand has opened up discussion around healthy sexual practises and relationships at over 100 college campuses across America. Offering out 100,000 free condoms too, the message surrounding respectful sexual behaviours is clear at a time in life when sexual freedoms are more likely to be explored. With 29% of all sexual assault in the states occurring at the hands of a partner or husband, addressing expectations and establishing boundaries in early adulthood is essential. Soo too is challenging the wider culture around damaging masculine behaviours. Though Gillette received flack for their commentary on toxic masculinity, having previously commodified womens bodies through their advertising, the shift in perspective was made clear. #metoo was addressed alongside mansplaining, and men encouraged to consider their behaviour towards women. Further pushing the conversation to include trans men shaving, Gillette has recognised the need for a new narrative around men in society and backed it up with action. Dedicating $1 million to the Best a Man Can Be fund, over three years, the business will fund organisations invested in helping men achieve their personal best. Through organisational culture or cultural action, theres plenty of potential. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencoulman/2019/05/29/is-addressing-culture-the-key-to-workplace-sexual-harassment/ |
Is Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld The Next King Of Late Night TV? | Fox News Channel's Greg Gutfeld Fox News Channel Fox News dominates the prime-time cable news ratings, but now the network has a hit in late night. Fox's Greg Gutfeld, whose The Greg Gutfeld Show airs Saturday nights at 10 p.m., finished May with a total audience of 1.8 million viewersdrawing bigger ratings than late night's biggest broadcast stars, including ABC's Jimmy Kimmel, NBC's Seth Meyers and CBS' James Corden. The May ratings performance makes Gutfeld's show the third most-watched show in all of late-night television, ahead of Jimmy Kimmel Live (1.7 million), CBS's Late, Late Show (1.2 million) and ABC's Nightline (1.1 million). Our show's success is based on three key ingredients: intelligence, wit, and honesty," Gutfeld told me Wednesday. "That last part is key. Viewers become fans when you buck the shared assumptions of the media about the world and level with your audience in real terms. I think that's been the key variable in the success of Fox News Channel and The Greg Gutfeld Show too. Also, I am incredibly handsome. Gutfeld, whose show launched in 2015, saw ratings climb 7% compared to the same period last year, while the big names in broadcast experienced declines: CBS' Late Show host Stephen Colbert was off 1%, NBC's Jimmy Fallon dropped 8% and ABC's Kimmel was down a full 12%. Gutfeld's ratings performance in May comes in a year of strong growth for the show, which has built an audience larger than many more established and high profile cable news and politics shows, including HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher (1.5 million viewers), HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (1.3 million viewers), TBS' Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (692,000 viewers) and Comedy Central's The Daily Show (646,000). Among the late-night cable competition, only TBS' Conan grew compared to the same period last month, climbing 3% compared to shows like The Daily Show and Full Frontal that both saw double-digit declines (14% and 18%, respectively). | https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2019/05/29/is-fox-news-channels-greg-gutfeld-the-next-king-of-late-night-tv/ |
Has The Fed-Engineered Recession Arrived? If So, What's Next? | Getty In late October I wrote a piece titled The Upcoming Fed Engineered Recession in which I detailed my view that Chairman Powell and his FOMC voting members colleagues were overstressing the U.S. economy with their combination of rate hikes and balance sheet deleveraging. As any good strategies does, I did not pin myself to a timeline. However, I do believe that given the six to nine months lag for monetary policy to take full effect, my thesis remains correct. Since late January, our early economic indicators, which include advance trade orders, inventory buildup, small business hiring, among others, have all deteriorated and are now flashing bright red warning signs. While the Fed has stopped its rate hike program late last year, it continues to deleverage its balance sheet at a quick pace, thereby drawing liquidity from the market (in March the Fed announced it would cease the deleveraging operations this September). Moreover, 15 months into the trade war with China, the U.S. economy is beginning to feel the impact of this policy, at a time when the overall global economy is slowing sharply. Lastly, the benefits to the overall economy of the 2017 tax cut appear to be minimal, as there has been little if any material repatriation of foreign capital to the United States, and U.S. corporations have not increased capital expenditures from previous years in a meaningful manner. There are three likely scenarios for investors to contemplate. 1. The Fed does nothing, and the U.S. economy slows to below 2% GDP growth but averts a recession. This is a "safe" and very plausible scenario, as the Fed continues to call low inflation "transitory" and "temporary." This would likely mean that stocks remain in a trading range and will be more influenced by outside political and geopolitical factors than anything else. 2. The Fed views the rise in oil prices and impact of tariffs as inflationary and decides to raise rates one more time. This is the least likely scenario, but it should not be ignored or viewed as impossible. Another rate hike, given the current global macro environment, would almost certainly cause a significant selloff in stocks, followed by a prolonged period of flat performance. 3. The most likely scenario is that the Fed stays the course through the summer and announces a shift in policy in September or October. This may come in the form of ceasing its balance sheet deleveraging, or in form of a single % rate cut (futures markets are pricing this scenario as the most likely). Should this occur, markets will likely react negatively in the short-term, as investors are likely to view this as the Fed admitting that the U.S. economy is in trouble. However, the selloff in stocks will likely be short lived, setting up for a solid rally in 2020. At the same time I published the predecessor piece to this commentary, I indicated that I expect the S&P 500 to end 2018 around 2,700 and 2019 between 2,800 and 2,850. I overshot the 2018 year-end target, but believe I have a good shot at being spot on for this year. A two-year pause in equity returns, while unusual, is not unprecedented and has historically led to strong returns in the years following the pause. Putting aside predictions about what the Fed may or may not do, historically, when growth has slowed, "growth style" investments have outperformed. While counterintuitive, when growth is abundant, "value style" investments outperform as there is little incentive for investors to pay a growth premium. Conversely, when growth becomes scarce, premiums are well worth it. Investors are smart to focus on high-quality companies with strong balance sheets that are gaining market share from competitors, increasing their margins and when possible, are returning free-cash-flow to investors via rising dividends or share buybacks. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/advisor/2019/05/29/has-the-fed-engineered-recession-arrived-if-so-whats-next/ |
What's behind the Spice Girls' sound problems? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Spice Girls' reunion tour kicked off in Dublin on Saturday If you believe everything you read, the sound at the Spice Girls' recent comeback shows has been zig-ah-zig-awful. Some fans who attended the opening night in Dublin complained about muffled vocals and being unable to hear the band speaking between songs. Mel B acknowledged the issues in an Instagram video, saying she hoped "the vocals and the sound will be much, much better" for the second show in Cardiff. But it's not just the Spice Girls who have suffered from sound issues this week. The Strokes were beset by problems when they played their first UK show in four years at the All Points East festival in London on Saturday, with one fan comparing the gig to "underwater karaoke". The audience was filmed chanting "turn it up" during their set, while another festival-goer complained: "If you want to replicate the experience of going to @allpointseastuk put your laptop volume on 50% and stand two rooms away". Over the last few years, outdoor shows by Eminem, The Killers, Blur and Paul Simon have all been criticised for low volume and poor audibility. We asked some of the industry's leading sound experts. Stage design Image copyright PA Image caption The show is designed with catwalks and satellite stages Sound quality may not have been the top priority for the Spice Girls, says Robb Allan, a veteran sound engineer who mixes concerts for bands like Massive Attack and Radiohead. "With a huge pop band, quite often the most important thing is the set, it's the lights, it's the video, it's the choreography," he says. "So even though we design speaker systems by computer - if we can't put our speakers in the right place because of video screens, or because of walkways, or the stage, it makes it harder." Allan points out that the Spice Girls have a particular problem because they spend a large proportion of the show on walkways in the middle of the crowd - putting them in front of the speakers. It feeds back. That's just basic physics. "So that's the challenge in a show like that - the girls are in front of the speakers, they're dancing, they're not giving all of their attention to the singing. "But it's an old roadie clich: At the end of the day, nobody goes home humming the lights." The venues Dublin's Croke Park and Cardiff's Principality Stadium, which were the first two stops on the Spice Girls' tour, "are notoriously horrible for sound", says stage designer Willie Williams, who is best known for his work with U2. "They're not ideal on many levels, never mind sonically." The problems with playing music in sports stadiums are well known, agrees Scott Willsallen, an Emmy Award-winning sound designer who has worked on multiple Olympic and Commonwealth Games ceremonies. "In an auditorium that's built for amplified sound, most of the surfaces are pretty soft and fluffy, so any sound that's fired at them is absorbed; whereas a stadium is meant to reflect those sounds to make it more exciting for the crowd. "The reverberation that helps make a sporting event really exciting makes a mess of the intelligibility of a concert." There are ways around it, says Willsallen, who has even gone to the expense of hanging drapes around stadiums to absorb echoes and reverberations. "It's an exercise that can be done - but in that touring world, where it's such a quick turnaround between venues, I imagine that's a tricky bit of economics." Crowd noise Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Shhhhhhhhh "Some of the complaints were from people who couldn't hear what the bands were saying between songs," says Robb Allan. "But imagine how much noise 80,000 people make between songs. "The Spice Girls concert is a reunion, the audience are remembering what it was like to be 18 or whatever, and they're so excited that they talk at the top of their voices. "And amid all of that racket, in a big old echoey football stadium, the sound engineer's got to take one microphone and amplify it in a way that's louder than those 80,000 people." Furthermore, many outdoor gigs have volume limits imposed by the local council, which means you can't just turn up the speakers to combat the ambient noise. "Oftentimes, that noise limit is lower than the noise that can be generated by 50,000 people in a stadium. So there is a hard stop to this," says Allan. The weather Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The Strokes' show was compared to "underwater karaoke" by some fans Some fans who complained about the Spice Girls and the Strokes noted that their support acts sounded fine. But consider this: as night falls, cool air settles on the surface-level air that's been warmed all day by the sun. Sound tends to "bend" towards the colder air, travelling right over the audience's heads and into the atmosphere. Outdoor shows are notoriously susceptible to the elements, acknowledges Scott Willsallen. "Stadiums have their own little micro-climate. Wind, temperature changes, humidity changes - all of them have an effect. It's a minimal effect but still, over a long distance of 100 or 150 metres it can really have an impact on the objective experience for those audience members in the most distant seats." However, Allan says modern speaker systems - which are distributed across the stadium, rather than being placed at one end of the pitch - have largely eradicated that problem. "The speaker design is miles from where it was when I started doing this 30 years ago," he says. "Now we can point the audio into every little corner of the stadium, and predict it with great accuracy. We can change the way the speakers respond to humidity and the temperature. It's all computer-controlled and incredibly sophisticated. So issues are rare." Heightened expectations Image copyright PA Image caption Fans have become used to higher-quality audio since the Spice Girls' first tour "It's a very unforgiving time because everyone listens to music on earbuds," Willie Williams tells BBC Radio 5 Live. "So they know what this music should sound like. And if you don't get that, it's very disappointing. "I feel very sorry for [the fans]. It's a horrible situation to be in." A feedback loop of negative publicity Allan points out that just 12 people complained about sound issues in Croke Park out of an audience of about 80,000 people. "The whole thing is just a made-up story. It's not real," he says. "Nobody left, nobody asked for their money back. It's really lazy journalism just to repeat a couple of angry tweets from the back of the stadium and make it front page news. "That wasn't the experience for most of the people in that concert." Allan says the "person at the centre of it is a very good friend of mine" who "was distraught, and has no platform to answer the criticisms". He adds: "I spent the weekend consoling the guy." Willsallen notes that once sound issues are noticed, its easy for the story to become self-perpetuating. "People start to expect it to be bad, so they're primed for a bad experience - and they're looking for errors, looking for problems," he says. However, he believes there is a positive side to the criticism. "Ten or 15 years ago, the only real way you'd hear about this stuff would be from audience members complaining to the customer service team, or the people selling chips and pies and beer. "So whilst, as an audio person, I cringe at the thought of people being able to shout about how bad the sound was, at the same time the criticism helps us understand where the problem is and make it better. "I'm certain that the next shows are only going to improve because people will be asking the right questions to figure out what the root of the problem is and solve that." Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email [email protected]. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48446798 |
Do the elite have an inflated sense of their own skills? | In Season 4 of NBC's "Parks and Recreation," Paul Rudd plays a wealthy businessman named Bobby Newport who runs for city council because he's looking for something "easy" to do. He is asked during a debate how he'd fix the town. His answer: "I have no idea." Still, the audience goes wild, much to the frustration of his rival, Leslie Knope. It's funny because it's relatable. Sooner or later, we all encounter a Bobby Newport. This is one of the questions that inspired a study published recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Part of the answer involves what researchers call "overconfidence." In several experiments, they found that people who came from a higher social class were more likely to have an inflated sense of their skills even when tests proved that they were average. This unmerited overconfidence, they found, was interpreted by strangers as competence. The findings highlight yet another way that family wealth and parents' education two of a number of factors used to assess social class in the study affect a person's experience as they move through the world. "With this research, we now have reason to think that coming from a higher social class confers yet another advantage," said Jessica Kennedy, a professor of management at Vanderbilt University, who was not involved in the study. Defining the terms Studying social class is tricky. First there's the matter of definitions. "Most people would say they are middle-class," said Peter Belmi, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business and a lead author of the study. Even researchers who specialize in social class struggle to agree on the weight to give income, family wealth, professional prestige and other factors. Previous work has found that many people can correctly gauge a stranger's family income bracket and mother's education level within 60 seconds. But what exactly they are responding to is not well understood, said Rebecca Carey, who studies social class and identity at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. The University of Virginia's study consisted of four experiments. Class was defined multiple ways each time. The first experiment involved about 150,000 small-business owners in Mexico applying for a loan. In addition to providing their income and education level, they were asked to select a rung on a ladder, representing their place relative to others in Mexico. As part of the loan process, they took a memory test. (The real-life task was designed to try to predict whether a person would default on a loan.) For the purposes of the study, participants were also asked to estimate how well they thought they did compared with others. Higher-class people generally performed better than others but not to the degree they assumed they did, researchers found. Coming off as competent The disparity between upper-class people's estimated performance and actual performance was more dramatic in a later study involving 230 University of Virginia students. This time, social class was measured by students' assessment of how they saw themselves relative to others in the United States, their parents' income and their parents' education. Researchers found that students of higher social classes failed to outperform their peers in a trivia exercise. But once again, most were certain that they had. In an attempt to understand the implications of overconfidence, the researchers constructed a mock job interview. The students were asked the same question and videotaped. A group of strangers then watched the videos and rated the candidates. The selection committee generally opted for the people who'd overestimated their trivia abilities. Overconfidence was misinterpreted as competence. Carey was unconvinced by how much the faux-job interview experiment demonstrated about real life. She also had some concerns about the findings from the first of the four experiments, which she believed relied too heavily on the participants' own sense of social class standing. "But what they do very consistently show is that social class is tied to overconfidence," she said. Other studies have also shown that people who are overconfident are perceived as more competent. Carey suggested that it could be that "in a lower-class context, the cost is higher if you are wrong when you make a mistake." And not all class groups value "faking it until you make it," Belmi said. "I grew up in the Philippines with the idea that if you have nothing to say, just shut up and listen." Researchers said they hoped that the takeaway was not to strive to be overconfident. Wars, stock market crashes and many other crises can be blamed on overconfidence, they said. Kennedy said she had been encouraged to find that if you reveal the facts about a person, the elevated status that comes with overconfidence often fades away. "We may also need to punish overconfident behavior more than we do," she said. | http://www.startribune.com/do-the-elite-have-an-inflated-sense-of-their-own-skills/510566442/ |
Why is Lenexa offering tax incentives for luxury apartments? | Kansas City has historically been generous in awarding property tax breaks to big developers. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK Kansas City has historically been generous in awarding property tax breaks to big developers. Last week, officials in Lenexa broke ground on a new luxury apartment and office complex called the Lofts at City Center. The $14 million project is part of a massive development near 87th Street and Renner Road. The 67 apartments, to be finished next year, will be pricey roughly $2,200 a month for a two-bedroom unit. For that kind of money, builders say, you get 21st-century cool: a fitness center, a courtyard, high speed WiFi. But cool costs money, and the Lofts will use all the tools of modern development. Builders will get tax increment financing in the first five years of the deal, all of the higher taxes from the site will go back to the project, much of it to pay for parking. Developers can use something called industrial revenue bonds to exempt building materials from sales taxes. If this sounds familiar, it should. Its a smaller version of the Cordish Companys apartment projects in Kansas Citys downtown. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to The Kansas City Star content across all your devices. SAVE NOW Weve been critical of public incentives for luxury apartments and luxury hotels. When thousands of residents are struggling to pay the rent, its ludicrous to pour millions of dollars of incentives into high-end projects without some concrete benefit for the middle class. That concern now extends to the suburbs. Lenexas decision to offer incentives for a luxury apartment complex should concern residents and everyone who lives in Johnson County. The lack of affordable housing isnt just a crisis in Kansas City. By one estimate, one in four Johnson County residents is burdened by excessive housing costs that is, rents or mortgages that exceed 30 percent of income. High housing costs are huge hurdles for young teachers, retail clerks, blue-collar workers and others. In Lenexa, one in 10 homeowners and one-third of all renters face excessive housing costs, according to a 2016 housing needs assessment. Yet many in Johnson County act as if the lack of affordable housing is a mere hiccup. Because the issue in not in the public discourse, there is less recognition that any action is needed to keep housing affordable, the Lenexa housing study found. Others questioned whether it was necessary for Lenexa to be able to offer a range of housing options that would accommodate service industry workers and those with low incomes because options for those populations are available elsewhere in the region, the study reported. The idea that Lenexa, or any community, could solve its affordable housing problem by hoping that lower-income workers will move somewhere else is offensive and ill-considered. Vibrant communities include families of all incomes, with varied backgrounds, ages and life experiences. Residents are awakening to this reality. Development incentives were the key issue in the 2017 mayors race in Overland Park. Other cities will have to face the housing challenge, whether they want to or not. To its credit, Lenexas new 2040 visioning statement includes a promise to explore ways to make housing more affordable. That commitment includes discussions with developers to understand where the difficulty lies with financing, so the city can learn how to encourage more attainable housing. Heres one way: Use incentives and subsidies to encourage affordable housing developments, not just to pay for luxury apartments. Lenexa, and every Johnson County community, should consider that approach. | https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/editorials/article230898809.html |
Is the Syrian regime about to retake Idlib? | Heavy regime bombardment of a jihadist bastion in northwest Syria has led to a mounting civilian death toll (AFP Photo/Anas AL-dyab) Beirut (AFP) - Syria's regime has increased its deadly bombardment of Idlib in recent weeks, but analysts say that is unlikely to signal an all-out offensive on the jihadist bastion. Eight years into Syria's civil war, the government has notched up a series of victories against rebels and jihadists, and controls around 60 percent of the country. Two regions largely remain beyond its control: a Kurdish-held swathe of the northeast and a northwestern region controlled by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The jihadist bastion is supposed to be protected from any massive onslaught by a buffer zone deal signed in September by regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey, which shares a border with Idlib. But deadly bombardment by the regime and its Russian ally has spiked in recent weeks, and pro-government fighters have seized several towns on its southern flank. The increased air strikes and rocket fire since late April have killed more than 270 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says. At least 13 were killed on Wednesday alone, the Britain-based monitor said. The spike in violence has also displaced some 270,000 people from their homes, knocked 19 hospitals out of service and damaged several more, the United Nations says. But analysts are sceptical that the regime's bombing is the start of an all-out battle for the enclave. "I strongly doubt this offensive will aim to retake the entire Idlib region," said Aron Lund, from US think tank The Century Foundation. "Retaking the whole area would be a massive undertaking that Turkey would be sure to resist, not least because it would send hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming toward the Turkish border." Under the buffer zone deal signed in September, jihadists were supposed to withdraw from the planned demilitarised zone. Turkish troops were to deploy to observation points around it, and traffic would be restored to two commercial arteries running through the province. Turkish forces have since deployed as monitors, but the jihadists never pulled back from the planned buffer and the roads were not re-opened. Yet analysts say the deal, born of the so-called Astana negotiations track between Russia, fellow regime ally Iran, and Turkey, is not dead yet. "Russia doesn't want to cut the last thread of the Astana process or its relationship with the Turks," said Nawar Oliver, an analyst from the Turkey-based Omran Centre for Strategic Studies. "There's still hope." The Observatory said Turkish troops were rotated at one of the monitoring points near Idlib as recently as Tuesday. Fellow analyst Sam Heller said the regime was instead seeking gains against HTS and allied rebels on the region's peripheries. "Rather than a total offensive, Damascus and Moscow instead seem to be aiming for a few specific areas along the edge of the larger Idlib area," the International Crisis Group analyst said. Capturing areas like the western flank of the bastion "will put more distance between rebels and government-held areas they've shelled", including the key Russian airbase of Hmeimim, he said. Damascus and Moscow have repeatedly accused "terrorist groups" -- a catch-all term for jihadists and more moderate rebels -- of using Idlib to launch attacks against Hmeimim. But the regime might also be also piling pressure on Turkey to further implement the terms of the September deal, including the opening of the two key highways, Heller said. They include a section of the M5, a road that before the war crossed the entire country, connecting the Turkish frontier in the north with the Jordanian border in the south. In recent years, the regime has retaken control of the majority of that artery, to the south of Idlib. President Bashar al-Assad's regime has repeatedly said that eventually all of Idlib will return to regime control. Syria's UN envoy Bashar Jaafari on Tuesday said Damascus "will spare no effort" to free the residents of Idlib from jihadist control. | https://news.yahoo.com/syrian-regime-retake-idlib-113508490.html |
What If Online Education Simply Doesn't Work? | ASSOCIATED PRESS Online college classes and programs have been growing steadily. Now, a third of all college students take at least some online classes and 2.2 million (13%) study exclusively online. Thats probably a heartening development for online education evangelists who have promised that online teaching and learning will increase access, decrease costs and boost quality. It has expanded access. But it has not decreased costs. In fact, many online programs cost more than their on-campus, in-person counterparts. And serious, troubling concerns mount about quality. So much so that its worth asking whether online learning works at all. Theres already emerging consensus, for example, that online programs, sometimes referred to as distance education programs, routinely fail students in need of remediation or those without high self-motivation or advanced learning skills. Starting with a baseline of what we know about distance education, Clare McCann, the deputy director for higher education policy at New America think tank told me, is that it does not work all that well particularly for disadvantaged populations, those unprepared for college, first-time students and those struggling to balance learning and life. At community colleges, where those populations are heavily represented, nearly 60% of the school leaders responsible for online courses told a recent survey that their students performed worse in online classes than in on-the-ground ones. Less than 5% of program leaders at community colleges said students did better in online programs. Since at least 35% of all American college students go to two year, community colleges, its a serious indictment that online classes and programs are failing there. Its an even more serious indictment that this is not new information; its been more than five years since a series of studies showed, online instruction at community colleges isnt working. But the warning signs are not limited to students who need help or are in community colleges. Its also pretty incriminating that online programs are the bread and butter of for-profit colleges. Right now, 66% of all students in for-profit, four-year colleges are studying exclusively online. As of 2016, nearly one in every four fully online students (24%) was going to a for-profit school. And since for-profit colleges as a whole routinely and reliably produce scandalously bad learning outcomes, its worth considering whether those unacceptable outcomes are correlated to their business models, their heavy use of online programs, or both. Then theres the research that questions the quality of online education overall. Earlier this year two professors at George Mason University issued a report finding that, Students in online education, and in particular underprepared and disadvantaged students, underperform and on average, experience poor outcomes , and that online education, does not produce a positive return on investment. That mirrors research from 2015 and 2018 by a professor at Stanford University and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) which provide[s] little support for optimistic prognostications about online education and goes on to find little, and most cases no, return on investment to learning online. At for-profit colleges, where most students study online, its pretty clear the answer is no. This paper from the NBER puts it pretty succinctly, there are large, statistically significant benefits from obtaining certificates/degrees from public and not-for-profit but not from for-profit institutions. A different NBER paper from 2018 says, We find that earnings and employment outcomes are particularly poor for students attending for-profit colleges that offer the majority of their courses online... Further, that George Mason paper cited a few of the many surveys of hiring managers across many fields that point to a hiring penalty for online degrees. In most cases, someone with an online degree is less likely to be hired and even less likely to be hired for upper-level, more senior positions. Regardless of the actual quality of the learning in fully online programs, the paper found, students who earn these degrees will have limited labor market opportunities as long as these strong views persist among employers. In other words, whether they are or not, the business world and job market think online degrees and programs are inferior . Its possible they are wrong about this, its also possible theyre right. Its not entirely theoretical either. Last year, the largest school district in Australia, larger than the Los Angeles school district, proposed moving job applicants with online degrees to the back of the application line. None of that proves conclusively that online education does not work. There is plenty of evidence, for example, that online resources can supplement traditional, in-class teaching in whats known as blended classrooms. But thats just about it. Theres shockingly little research supporting the idea that fully online education produces quality outcomes overall , or for even a significant subset of students. Reasonable people disagree, of course. Which means that maybe all we can be really sure about is that were not really sure about the quality of online education. Maybe it works, maybe it doesnt. Maybe it works for some and not others. But since thats the case, maybe its a good time to ask why were allowing so many college students to study and earn degrees online if were not absolutely certain. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2019/05/29/what-if-online-education-simply-doesnt-work/ |
How Should Marketing Campaigns Impact Marketing Strategy? | Getty As marketing strategy shows more signs of the influence of campaigns, the tools and platforms that execute campaigns are impacting strategy. This chicken and egg scenario presents predictable upsides and downsides. Short-term tactical considerations can overwhelm long-term strategic behavior. But campaign data can upend assumptions and hunches that have found their way into an organizations strategy. I recently asked Mlissa Sanchot, COO of ad tech firm MakeMeReach, a few questions about how marketing strategy can best coexist with marketing campaigns. Mlissa Sanchot: We definitely should be. Marketing strategy needs to fit the way people behave online today. They are on multiple networks, on multiple devices, so marketing in turn needs to be fully cross-channel to create a meaningful advertising journey for customers. Its essential to think of digital marketing holistically across networks rather than in silos. And we have the tools to do this. Marketers have powerful data and AI resources at their disposal that give them greater insights on their performance than ever before and should leverage these tools to intelligently optimize their budget and strategy. Sanchot: We believe that good administration goes a long way. Organizations need to define who is in charge of which tasks at any given moment, as well as the level of rights each person has within the tools they are using, and whether or not any given step needs approval. For example, a community manager could have custom access to manage and create new campaigns, but only for an engagement objective, as well as to add new audiences and to use organic posts. It may take some time and effort to delineate each role, but once its done, each step is well-defined, communication becomes much easier, and each team member can stay focused on their goals. On top of that, the people in charge of granular optimization and automation are working within a defined framework and wont be afraid of crossing any lines. Sanchot: Its definitely a bit of both. The marketing strategy is the starting point, but it will evolve over time according to different factors. Performance and marketing opportunities (marketers will make different strategy decisions depending on the competitive context) will definitely influence marketing decisions. And a good platform will provide performance insights in a way that helps optimize strategy over time. When you outline your initial strategy, you define how you will market on each network. Having a global vision of performance means you could find that certain creative resonates better with certain audiences, so brand messaging may evolve thanks to what you discover. Your strategy will also evolve automatically thanks to the work of AI tools. Sanchot: Absolutely. AI gives us the ability to see opportunities and risks we werent previously able to assess. There are two kinds of AI: blackbox AI and AI that acts as an assistant. We believe the latter has a more meaningful impact. AI is useful in gathering, analyzing, and making sense of data, but human marketers are better at making the final decision. AI empowers them to make decisions that are better informed. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultalbot/2019/05/29/how-should-marketing-campaigns-impact-marketing-strategy/ |
Who should play Voodoo Fest 2019? Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus? | The annual Voodoo Music + Arts Experience takes place Oct. 25-27 in City Park. But until June 4, the musical lineup will remain a mystery. Over the years, Voodoo has served up a constellation of stars from Eminem to Neil Young, from Drake to Lizzo, from Janelle Mone to Velvet Revolver, from Florence and the Machine to Lil Wayne (my favorite Lil Wayne concert ever). The Halloween-time fest is a pop music feast. Voodoo Fest 2018: Marilyn Manson was evil of course, but also adorable The shock rocker charmed the New Orleans audience. The song is more of a crossover than the GNO Bridge. It has so defied categorization that, according to Rolling Stone magazine, Billboard banned it from the country chart in March because it does not embrace enough elements of todays country music to chart in its current version. Though, Rolling Stone triumphantly reports, lots of country stations are playing it anyway ( I first heard it during trivia night at Jockeys Pub on Gentilly Boulevard, so you know it belongs here). My other (more personal) dream is that Of Monsters and Men will add a date to their summer tour that currently ends on Sept. 28. Dear Nanna, Raggi and the rest: Tell you what, if you can make it down to New Orleans for Voodoo Fest, Ill drive yall down to an old swampy pirate hideout where all the reptiles get real plump and personable by late October. Afterward, we can have a couple of Andygators (a high-octane local beer). All expenses paid. Voodoo Fest tickets go on sale June 6, starting at $75 per day or $140 for three days. Fans wave their arms as Post Malone plays at the Voodoo Festival in New Orleans on Sunday, October 29, 2017. (Photo by Chris Granger, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune) Doug MacCash has the best job in the world, covering art, music and culture in New Orleans. Contact him via email at [email protected] or [email protected]. Follow him on Instagram at dougmaccash, on Twitter at Doug MacCash and on Facebook at Douglas James MacCash. As always, please add your point of view to the comment stream. | https://www.nola.com/entertainment/2019/05/who-should-play-voodoo-fest-2019-lil-nas-x-and-billy-ray-cyrus.html |
Will Onex return WestJet to its former glory? | With his $3.5-billion takeover offer for Calgary-based WestJet Airlines Ltd., Onex Corp. founder Gerald Schwartz of Toronto is buying a gem. All thats required to make this deal a success is to cancel WestJets dubious expansion strategy. Long one of the worlds few consistently best-run major airlines, WestJet has evolved in recent years into a complex, unwieldy enterprise. The expansion strategy isnt working. WestJets profits have dropped in each of the last three years, and in 2018 they were down 75 per cent from their 2015 peak. The airlines stock lost an alarming 44 per cent of its value during that time. No established discounter has succeeded at what WestJet is attempting to do transforming itself into a full-service global airline. WestJet was, of course, modeled on discounter Southwest Airlines Co. of Dallas. Forty-one years after its launch, Southwest remains a strictly domestic U.S. airline, whose financial performance has improved while WestJets has weakened. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW WestJet is early in its transformation process the massive capital expenditures required have been planned but not yet made. Which means a course correction neednt be drastic. And while Onex is paying a 67 per cent premium to the value of WestJet stock prior to the takeover, its paying a 9 per cent discount to WestJets peak stock price only four years ago. Restoring WestJet to that peak value requires mostly that WestJetters re-embrace the airlines original business model. Heres what needs to happen at WestJet for Schwartz to succeed with this investment: Restore low costs WestJet has been spending too much money to buy each new revenue dollar. WestJet revenues are up just 20.5 per cent over the past five years. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW During that time, the airlines fuel consumption has increased by 25 per cent, its workforce by 34 per cent, its aircraft fleet by 45 per cent, and its number of destinations served, directly and through alliances with other carriers, by 60 per cent. Growth in operating expenses has thus outpaced revenue growth 31.4 per cent to 20.5 per cent. Result: A plunge in WestJets operating profit margin, to last years abysmal 3.3 per cent from the 2015 peak of 14.1 per cent. Meanwhile, Air Canadas 2018 operating profit margin was 6.5 per cent. Air Canada is outperforming WestJet despite being a more diversified and complicated business, and set to become more so with its intention, also announced this week, to buy tour operator Transat A.T. Inc. for roughly $520 million. Rein in planned capital expenditures WestJet has visions of becoming a high-cost, high-fare international carrier serving major world centres, initially in Europe and later on other continents. The costs of building such a network are astronomical, in aircraft purchases and leases, landing fees, gateway rentals, marketing campaigns and so on. On long-haul aircraft alone, WestJet has committed to buying as many as 20 Boeing 787 Dreamliners, at a staggering cost of as much as $6.5 billion (U.S.). And the WestJet brand, not associated with premium-priced travel, would be competing with an Air Canada that is entrenched in that market, as well as the likes of Virgin Atlantic and Emirates. Worse still, scaling that mountain would distract WestJet from attending to its core domestic market. WestJet has already suffered a defection of domestic travelers to Air Canada and other carriers. It has alienated travelers with inattention to needed changes in its domestic route network, confusing alterations to its fare structure and rewards programs, and bungled new-product launches. Those arent capital crimes, nor are they unique to WestJet. But theyve come at a time when Air Canada has been raising its game. And they have demoralized WestJetters both employees and customers unaccustomed to incompetence from WestJet. The argument against proceeding with the potential folly of globalizing WestJet is compelling. Better to apply a more modest capital expenditure budget (capex) to recapturing domestic customers lost to other carriers. WestJet could boost annual revenues by 20 per cent, to $5.6 billion, just by taking a five per cent bite out of Air Canadas business. Streamline the aircraft fleet WestJet now uses four aircraft types. Recall that WestJet flew just one aircraft type, the Boeing 737, for most of its history. On page 16 of its latest annual report, Southwest explains why it has stuck with the 737 exclusively. Southwests use of a single aircraft type allows for simplified scheduling, maintenance, flight operations and training activities. Boeing 787 Dreamliners, with a sticker price of $282 million (U.S.) per beast, are tough to justify for a WestJet that remains for now a domestic carrier, and whose global ambitions need a serious rethink. Restore harmonious labour relations WestJet executives still help out with baggage handling and cleaning aircraft cabins, to their credit. But there is otherwise a dialogue of the deaf between management and front-line workers, an especially crushing blow to long-term WestJetters who remember a WestJet that was a genuine family workplace. Those portions of the WestJet workforce that have not already unionized in 2017 and 2018 threaten to do so, as extra unpaid work is loaded onto employees, and commonality of interest among employees is ruptured as WestJet has balkanized into several discrete businesses. Both WestJet and Southwest suffered lost revenues in 2018 from threatened work stoppages, as customers cancelled bookings for fear of being stranded by a strike. Less high-profile damage is inflicted by a disgruntled workforce no longer providing the friendly passenger experience that was a WestJet hallmark. Clarify the WestJet brand For WestJetters and their customers, WestJet long had a razor-sharp brand identity. It was a passenger-friendly discounter. Now it isnt clear what the WestJet brand means. Today, WestJet operates its core discount airline, two regional carriers (WestJet Link and Encore), an ultra-low-cost carrier, or ULCC (Swoop), and a charter business. WestJet now offers business-class products, has grandiose plans as an inter-continental carrier, and has confusing multi-tier rewards programs. A second new strategy for WestJet would commit it to proving the worlds best air-travel experience in its core domestic business. And to leverage that new strength in a more robust charter business serving Western Hemisphere and European sunspots. For now, senior WestJet management is in denial that todays WestJet resembles the impersonal Air Canada to which WestJet was created as an alternative. That has to change for Onex to succeed with its investment. WestJet also believes it has Onexs buy-in to its flawed expansion strategy. In a television interview this week, WestJet CEO Ed Sims expressed his delight with Onex, a like-minded partner who sees the value that we have always seen in the strategic direction we are taking. Thats difficult to credit, unless Schwartz has been wearing sunglasses while studying WestJets income statements. My Star colleague Jennifer Wells has hinted at a new WestJet that takes on some of the attributes of the late, beloved Wardair Canada Ltd., in its heyday the Four Seasons of the skies. Thats an excellent starting point in rethinking a current WestJet expansion strategy in place long enough to prove that it isnt working and isnt likely to. Having the advantage of competing with an unfocussed rival in Air Canada, WestJet has not chosen wisely in emulating AC. Then again, with its new domestic-market premium economy products, WestJet is experimenting with a semi-Wardair passenger experience. Schwartz might heap praise on that initiative as the way to proceed. He might also suggest an alternative to the airlines current slogan, Love where youre going. Actually, we love Calgary and Quebec City no matter who flies us there. How about this: Love who youre flying. David Olive is a business columnist based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @TheGrtRecession Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/business/opinion/2019/05/16/will-onex-return-westjet-to-its-former-glory.html |
Who Would Buy Tesla And Why? | ASSOCIATED PRESS As I write this, the market value of Tesla has dropped by about half since its last peak in mid-December. Its been pretty steadily downhill for the past six months. Of late there has been increasing speculation about someone stepping in to buy Tesla including Kara Swishers sidekick on the Pivot podcast Scott Galloway. Over the past couple of years, Ive stated on several occasions and still believe that any acquisition of Tesla is going to be difficult with the biggest reason being CEO Elon Musk. Even at its dramatically reduced price which now hovers below $190 per share, Tesla is hugely overvalued relative to its core business. At a roughly $33 billion market capitalization, it would likely cost somewhere between $40 and $50 billion to buy the company outright. The acquirer would also be taking on huge liabilities including more than $11 billion in debt and $16 billion of purchase obligations for Panasonic cells. Tesla has one functional car assembly plant and the shell of another going up in China. It also has a factory in Nevada where it assembles motors and battery packs from lithium ion cells produced on site by Panasonic. Unfortunately for Tesla, it only owns the building and pack and motor assembly equipment. The most valuable asset at the Gigafactory, the cell production equipment belongs to Panasonic. An acquisition of the automaker would not include the cell production. In order to get Panasonic to invest somewhere over $1.5 billion, Tesla had to commit to buying all the cells produced there. The Fremont assembly plant is also among the most inefficient in the industry and has terrible quality issues. So its unlikely any established player will want to add it to its portfolio, especially in an era when many companies are closing underutilized plants. Tesla has some interesting intellectual property around battery management and power electronics. It also has what may be a promising processor design for its claimed self-driving system. However, thats probably about the extent of the IP that other companies might be interested in. The other aspect of Tesla that has value is the brand which has developed a hardcore fanbase over the past decade. A company could generate enormous goodwill by preserving the brand and its mission to electrify transportation. Tesla has done more than any other company to demonstrate the appeal and viability of electric vehicles. Unfortunately, every day that goes by without addressing the quality and customer service problems erodes that brand value. However, there is one enormous deal-killer for Tesla, Musk. If Musk goes away, what happens to the value of the brand. Many, if not most huge acquisitions and mergers ultimately fail to deliver on their promise in part because of problems merging divergent corporate cultures. Many of Teslas operational issues as a company are the direct result of the Musk culture of micromanagement and lack of organization and planning. I cant imagine the CEO of any automaker big enough to consider an acquisition would even consider bringing Musk into their organization. However, Musk owns about 22% of the shares in the company and his board of directors has repeatedly shown themselves to be his lap dogs. It seems unfathomable that Musk would voluntarily sell his stake in the company and walk away. Companies like Apple or Alphabet that have the financial resources to make a deal, would be unlikely to assume Musk as part of any purchase. He would simply be too disruptive to the existing organization, much as H. Ross Perot was to GM after they acquired EDS in the 1980s. Apples Tim Cook has shown a willingness to get rid of executives like Scott Forstall that werent seen as team players. While Alphabet founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin were early backers of Tesla, looking at where Elon is today would likely give them pause about any deal. The only way forward seems like a fire sale rather than an outright acquisition. Musk personally has hundreds of millions of dollars in personal debt backed by his Tesla shares. If the stock price continues to decline, he may eventually face a margin call that causes him to lose up to half of his stake. That could trigger a downward spiral for the stock. That could eventually push the acquisition price down enough to convince someone to make an offer. However, that would require assuming all that debt and purchase obligations which any rational CEO would want to avoid. The other more likely scenario is that Tesla simply runs out of cash and has to file for bankruptcy. In the resulting reorganization, existing equity would be wiped out, leaving Musk out in the cold. In this case, there is the opportunity to cherry pick the assets of value. Ive long thought VW might be interested in the brand and maybe some of the IP as another way to recover from the dieselgate debacle. Prior to the current trade war, Chinas Geely would have been another good candidate. Geely has been an excellent steward of Volvo Cars. However, in the current environment, letting any Chinese company buy the best pieces of a failed American automaker seems improbable. This could even be a problem for VW. The Detroit three seem unlikely to invest what would probably be several billion dollars for pieces of Tesla. In this case, Apple, Alphabet and potentially even Amazon could be candidates. Amazon could push a blending of Tesla assets with its stake in electric truck startup Rivian. It could even follow Teslas online sales model and sell vehicles made under contract by someone like Magna through its site. Amazon is also a lot more capable at logistics than Tesla has been so far. Apple or Alphabet might leverage Teslas built under contract for future robotaxi services that utilize their respective automated driving systems. There are a lot of ways this could eventually play out, however, none are likely to involve a direct acquisition of the company as long as Elon Musk is part of the deal. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/samabuelsamid/2019/05/29/who-would-buy-tesla-and-why/ |
Is A Like-Less World A Better One? | An employee walks past branded posters displayed at the Instagram Inc. office in New York, U.S., on Monday, June 4, 2018. Once, Instagram was a simple photo-sharing app, a way for iPhone shutterbugs to show off their latest cool pics. Now, its visual 2018 Bloomberg Finance LP Recently, major social media companies have made moves to hide many of their platforms core engagement features. In March, it was revealed that a new Twitter prototype twttr might hide engagement mechanisms (likes and retweets) behind a single tap. In April, Instagram announced it would be experimentally hiding likes from posts in Canada, and now in May, YouTube is attempting to standardize subscriber counts by rounding them, hiding live subscriber counts. Although not all of these moves may not have the express intent to improve mental health on social media platforms (YouTube argues the recent move is not a response to cancel culture but an attempt to create more consistency across devices), they alter incentives for behavior, something that will change the social media environment. Both psychologists and social media companies agree that the engagement features of social media are in some ways deleterious to mental health. Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, has been the most vocal, saying that likes and retweets encourage users to be outrageous and that he wouldn't create them if he were to make Twitter again. A 2016 psychological study found that the brain circuits that activate when teenagers receive chocolate or money also activate when teenagers receive a large number of likes on their photos or posts. Just as positive social media engagement increases pleasure, negative engagement decreases it. Comparing yourself to others, in particular, has been a problem on social media, and Instagrams head, Adam Mosseri, framed the companys Canadian trial as a way to make the platform less pressurized and competitive. The hazardous effects of social media on ones personal mental health is well-documented and known, but hiding engagement mechanisms doesnt do anything to change that. Although YouTube live subscriber counts, Instagram hearts, or Twitter likes may be less publicly visible, in all of these reforms, users would still have access to the specific counts of likes, retweets, and subscribers for the content or material they post themselves. Still being able to see engagement (or lack of engagement) might continue to affect personal mental health adversely. Hiding engagement mechanisms also doesnt lessen our impulse to compare ourselves with others. Wed be just as likely to see a beach body on our feed as before. Its not personal health but community health that social media companies are attempting to improve. In the same 2016 study, psychologists affirmed the influence that a posts previous number of likes had when teenagers were deciding whether or not to like the post- bandwagoning. Bandwagoning weaponizes social media engagement and ruins conversation. In feuds, users will often discount their personal knowledge or skepticism about a topic to like the popular opinion because they see that others who have made similar content have benefited from it. Creators or users will make content that appeals to popular opinion, even if untrue, to capitalize on engagement. It is at this intersection where fake news and subscriber wars are so damaging because they are unchecked by mob mentality. However, hiding (at least temporarily) what other people think may force users to think for themselves when deciding to like or retweet a post to subscribe to a channel. Although the target of these new engagement reforms is clear, the same is not true for their effectiveness. There has been a backlash against these new moves as potentially being counterproductive, as some users argue that in their effort to tackle mob mentality they limit the expression of collective opinion. Twitter users were concerned that hiding likes and retweets would make all voices on the platform equal, even those that are hateful or seek to harass, Many pointed to how the change would undermine the ratio, where disliked posts will get more comments than likes or retweets, as a way to express collective opinion. YouTubes rounding of subscriber numbers would negatively affect channels like Social Blade with videos that track live subscriber counts and have launched subscriber wars like Pewdiepie vs. T-Series, a controversial rising trend on the platform. There are also, non-community-related effects of hiding engagement statistics. Engagement statistics are often seen as a measure of success, whether that be personal like celebrating reaching subscriber milestones or public like bringing in potential sponsors or media coverage. A recent Wired article explained that both subscriber count and growth are important to companies seeking to partner with YouTubers, and if live statistics are no longer available to third parties, companies will have to look at likes, views, and comments to make sponsorship decisions. Even in media reporting, being able to access statistics on the growth of a channel or the popularity of a post is important in understanding its influence. Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube seem set to change this. Actions in 2019 have shown that social media companies want to change the way their users interact, and theyre willing to alter core components of their interface to do it. Although social media use has been proven to have a number of mental health effects for the individual user. Engagement statistics reforms by YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter suggest that these companies are more concerned with the general community health of their platforms and that bandwagoning is a critical part of this. These moves are drastic and poised to change many more aspects of social media than mob mentality; however, they are efforts in the right direction a social media landscape based more on content than the number of people who happen to like it. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonsands/2019/05/29/is-a-like-less-world-a-better-one/ |
What Does A Typical Career Path Look Like For A Venture Capitalist? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Neil Sequeira, Co-Founder & Managing Director at defy.vc, on Quora: There truly is no typical career path in venture capital anymore. VC was once a cottage industry that sprung up from executives at leading companies like Fairchild Semiconductor. Then for a number of years, many of the best VCs like John Doerr, Jim Breyer, and Peter Wagner usually attended Stanford or Harvard for undergraduate and eventually did graduate work with a stint at a technology company like Intel, Hewlett Packard, and/or Silicon Graphics before being mentored in a leading firm. When I graduated business school in 2000, there were some firms that hired associates who could progress through the ranks and eventually make Partner. That is far less common today. Today, most new investors (vs. Analysts or Associates) have deeper operating experience sometimes mixed with venture capital. Some examples of this include Jess Lee who became a partner at Sequoia Capital after being trained in computer science at Stanford before becoming a product manager at Google and ultimately the co-founder and CEO of Polyvore for almost 9 years. Another recent example is Sarah Tavel, who became a General Partner at Benchmark after sourcing Pinterest while an Analyst at Bessemer Venture Partners, then became a product manager at the company before returning to venture capital. Finally, my firm recently hired Brian Rothenberg who received his degrees from USC and NYU before he started a company and eventually sold it to TaskRabbit before joining Eventbrite 7 years ago, serving as CMO and VP of Growth. My partner Trae and I have been in the venture capital business for almost 19 years and we knew our team needed someone who was a true operator because they have a much more recent understanding of what entrepreneurs go through every day. Brian was that perfect fit. Clearly there is no distinct career path in venture capital, but generally speaking, a mix of a strong (hopefully technical) education, operating experience at a leading company, or a true entrepreneurial journey is your best bet. I leave you with this: generally considered one of the best venture investors of all time, Michael Moritz was a writer at Time Magazine before starting at Sequoia Capital and eventually investing in Yahoo, Google, and PayPal. 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 and Facebook. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/29/what-does-a-typical-career-path-look-like-for-a-venture-capitalist/ |
What Legal Functions Will Eventually Become Automated? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Jonathan OConnell, Counsel at Atrium, on Quora: The legal industry has many inefficiencies that can be improved by technology. By no means will technology replace attorneys or paralegals, but instead it will enable these practitioners to focus on more strategic and value-added work for their clients. At Atrium we are building proprietary technology to increase attorney efficiency and provide our legal team and clients with a better experience. Thanks to our technology, our attorneys are able to focus on high impact advisory work. We also see every level of the legal team as up-leveled. In other words, routine or administrative work that an attorney may traditionally handle can now be completed by a paralegal under the supervision of an attorney. Likewise, work that paralegals may traditionally do, like reviewing documents, can be done by practice assistants. Technology makes many of these repetitive processes extremely efficient. For example, reviewing certain documents is about 10x faster with Atriums technology compared to the status quo way of working. Additionally, we leverage operational support to help define repeatable processes so that we can scale our legal services with ease. This ensures that each legal team member is able to spend more time and attention to providing great service to our clients rather than managing administrative or tasks or performing non-legal work. Efficiency gains made possible by technology and improved operations has resulted in NPS and client satisfaction scores far exceed legal industry benchmarks. Legal industry average NPS in 2018 was 25 per Clios Legal Trends Report; Atriums NPS is well over 60 and rising quickly. Read more about our vision and methodology for technology and legal in a recent roundtable discussion with Law Practice Today. All content presented herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing should be construed as legal advice. Transmission and receipt of this information is not intended to create and does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship with Atrium LLP. There is no expectation of attorney-client privilege or confidentiality of anything you may communicate to us in this forum. Do not act upon any information presented without seeking professional counsel. 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 and Facebook. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/29/what-legal-functions-will-eventually-become-automated/ |
What Do People Misunderstand About Blockchain Technology? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Jerry Cuomo, IBM Fellow and Vice President Blockchain Technologies, on Quora: The good news is that every year that goes by, we see fewer and fewer misconceptions. Of course there are still some basic misconceptions that started out at the inception of blockchain with the general confusion that "blockchain equals Bitcoin" and that for an application to be a true blockchain, it has to be a public, anonymous network driving the value around cryptocurrency. And while I think the broader population who is interested in blockchain know that Bitcoin is only one of one thousand applications for blockchain, I still think that is a tier one misconception. And then theres the notion that a network has to be a completely public, permission-less network to be a blockchain in all variations. Theres a very big difference between galvanizing blockchain into public or private, and in general confusing talks around "permissioned" networks, so I think there is a misconception that permission equals private. Permissioned simply means permissioned. In fact, some of the most vibrant public networks out there are permissioned, like the Sovrin Network, Stellar Network, and Hedera are all permissioned networks. Another big misconception I see a lot is that The Linux Foundations Hyperledger Project equals IBM. We are proud to be one of the founding members of the Hyperledger Project, but I would say that the other 190 or so members would be offended if we excluded them from the list. Its certainly more than just IBM and I can't stress that enough. Another misconception is that the Hyperledger community is diametrically opposed to the Ethereum community. I think the beautiful part of these open communities is the innovation that occurs around them! Whereas the Ethereum community is focused on specifications and interoperability, the Hyperledger community is focused on code and open source specifications, and both communities are already collaborating across projects like the Token Taxonomy Initiative. So the big misconception here is that you either have to be on the Hyperledger side of the fence or on the EEA side of the fence its really all about open innovation. A final misconception that I can think of is that blockchains are not ready for enterprise because theyre lacking a number of key elements such as privacy, security and performance. I think some of the best innovations are actually coming from the world of enterprise permissioned blockchains and Hyperledger Fabric are right at the center when it comes to debunking this misconception. Were seeing applications showing performance exceeding a thousand transactions per second and we're seeing clever work being down out there from many places and institutions that are helping debunk this more and more. For example, the University of Waterloo recently showed a way where Hyperledger Fabric nodes or peers can be re-ordered or re-assembled to streamline processing such that we can reach up to 20,000 transactions per second. It's impressive stuff! 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 and Facebook. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/05/29/what-do-people-misunderstand-about-blockchain-technology/ |
Could Paulie Malignaggi Vs. Artem Lobov Bare Knuckle Fight June 22 Be The Biggest Fight This Summer? | Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Things are starting to heat up in the Sunshine State just in time for summer as Paulie Malignaggi and Artem Lobov will have an opportunity to settle their differences on June 22 with nothing protecting their hands when they go to toe to toe in the first-ever sanctioned bare-knuckle fight to take place in the state of Florida. The event will air live on pay-per-view from the Florida State Fairgrounds Entertainment Hall in Tampa. Malignaggi, the former boxing world champion and former UFC veteran Lobov truly don't like each other. The war of words began immediately after this fight was announced and spilled over into their press conference in New York City last week. THE SHOW MUST GO ON Contrary to what had been circulating in some media outlets after the press conference to announce the fight, the fight will, in fact, be bare-knuckle and is enthusiastically endorsed and approved by the Florida State Athletic Commission. Acting Communications Director Patrick Fargason said, The Florida State Boxing Commission is thrilled to issue a license to the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship for their upcoming pay-per-view event in Tampa on June 22. The Commission is always looking for ways to bring new business to the state which will have a positive impact on Floridas economy. Accordingly, the Commission is always looking to expand its reach to welcome more promoters to the state of Florida. Malignaggi and Lobov will wear the following glove that protects the wrist and upper part of the hand, but clearly has the knuckles exposed, allowing it to be an authentic bare-knuckle contest. The glove will mitigate the risk involved with breaking the hand itself but will not obstruct the bare knuckles. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship Malignaggi vs. Lobov will see the much-discussed rivalry between Malignaggi and MMA star Conor McGregor come to a head when Malignaggi squares off against one of McGregor's teammates and friends in Lobov. Prior to Lobov's BKFC debut in which he defeated Jason Knight in April, Malignaggi and Lobov exchanged words and nearly came to blows at a media day in New York. With the June 22 fight date set and buzz continuing to grow, they will soon settle the conflict in the ring. THE ODDS According to the bare-knuckle odds at MyBookie.ag , Paulie Malignaggi has now become the betting favorite to win at -125 while Artem Lobov has dropped to -105 to win this fight. It doesn't much closer than this. Lobov was a small favorite heading into the press conference and it seems that the experts see Malignaggi having the edge for this historic fight with the fight just three weeks away. "I'm very excited to make my BKFC debut and for this fight to take place in Florida. Bringing BKFC to another state is only going to help this sport grow faster and attract more attention to bare-knuckle fighting," said Malignaggi. "It's no secret, Artem and I have some bad blood between us. I don't like him and I'm looking forward to sinking my fists into his face. June 22 can't come soon enough. Fans are going to really enjoy this one as the biggest BKFC card yet, and it'll set the stage for even bigger and better events as more fighters realize that they can make a good living and have a great career in this discipline of combat sports." "I'm really looking forward to this fight," said Lobov. "Paulie has been doing a lot of talking. He hasn't been able to keep his mouth shut, but on June 22 I'm going to silence him. He's an old boxer who's coming off of the couch. He's only doing this because he didn't manage his money better, so now he has to take a fight against me, 'The Russian Hammer.' I expect to maul Paulie in there. He doesn't know what he's in for. I'm going to introduce him to some things that he's never seen before and this is going to be a real fight." BAD BLOOD BKFC6 | June 22nd | LIVE from Tampa, FL Former boxing world champion Paulie Malignaggi will take on former UFC star Artem Lobov to settle the score in a true test of Boxing vs. MMA only on Pay Per View! Tickets available now: https://t.co/1SmsWhc9du Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) May 25, 2019 "If I had it my way, I'd knock him out in the last round. I want to pummel him from start to finish. -@PaulMalignaggi BKFC6 | JUNE 22 | Tampa, FL pic.twitter.com/xuQxwoOmWs Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) May 24, 2019 PAY-PER-VIEW The televised portion of the night of fights will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT and will also see former UFC Veteran Chris Leben in his second BKFC attraction, as he takes on longtime Bellator standout Brennan Ward. Plus, the finals of the BKFC Lightweight Tournament will pit Reggie Barnett against Johnny Bedford in a showdown for the BKFC Lightweight Championship. Former two-division, three-time boxing champion Randall Bailey will be a special attraction on the undercard. The event will be broadcast across the United States and Canada, exclusively on pay-per-view through MultiVision Media, Inc., on all major television distribution outlets for $39.99. It will also be available worldwide via stream to all in-home and out-of-home connected devices at FITE-TV and www.bareknuckle.tv. Tickets for "BKFC 6" are already on sale through eventbrite Florida will become the latest state to host a BKFC event after previous contests have been held in Wyoming and Mississippi, plus an event that took place in Cancun, Mexico. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/peterkahn/2019/05/29/could-paulie-malignaggi-vs-artem-lobov-bare-knuckle-fight-june-22-be-the-biggest-fight-this-summer/ |
What Just Happened in Europe? | 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. The European Parliament elections are the second-largest democratic exercise in the world, after Indias: 400 million voters across 28 different countries, with over 150 political parties competing for 751 total seats. Ad Policy The results of these elections, then, cant be read like a simple horse race. In some countries, such as Spainwhere the European Parliament elections coincided with local onesthe vote reflected preferences over municipal questions like housing and transportation. In others, such as the United Kingdom, it was framed as a referendum on national questions like Brexit. For this reason, European Parliament elections have long been considered second-order: reactive to local issues, rather than proactive for European ones. Historically low rates of voter turnout cemented this view. But last weeks elections bucked the trend. Political parties across the spectrum campaigned on the basis of their vision for Europeon issues like climate, migration, and Christianityand voters turned out to ratify it. Overall, participation soared. Even in countries like the UK, many voters reported that their first priority was a partys policy programnot its Brexit position. Taken together, then, the results of the European Parliament elections can tell us a lot about the direction of European politicsand as the most ambitious experiment in transnational democracy, the direction of global governance, as well. Three trends, in particular, point the way. Green Most accounts of the election depict a Green wave crashing over Europe. Current Issue View our current issue In the months leading up to the vote, Greta Thunberg and the Fridays for Future movement brought millions of people into the streets to demand climate action. And Europes Green parties, once a niche of the aging eco-friendly, have been the primary beneficiaries. They want environment to be at the heart of our lives, at the heart of the political game, said Yannick Jadot of the French Greens. And that message has spread across Europe. The group will send 69 MEPs to Brussels this summer, an increase of 17 per cent from 2014. Climate politics, then, are Europes new normal. There is no political party that can afford to ignore the climate question or to sell voters on the quality of their response. Even Marine Le Pen is pitching her far-right National Rally party as the solution to Europes climate crisis. We consider environmentalism the natural child of patriotism, because its the natural child of rootedness, she said at a campaign event. Because if youre a nomad, youre not an environmentalist. But widespread recognition of the climate crisis also presents the danger of its cooptation. In the United States, we have become accustomed to a very polarized debate on climate: Democrats recognize climate change; Republicans reject it. Le Pens comments, instead, suggest that climate politics can be adapted to suit a wide variety of political projectsfrom the eco-socialist to the eco-nationalist. MORE FROM David Adler Meet Europes Left Nationalists January 10, 2019 Author page In other words, there is a battle in Europe over who will claim climate as their own political province, and the Greens are winning it. They must now prove themselves as worthy representatives of the climate movement and worthy guardians of its political capital. Bas Eickhout, the lead candidate for the European Greens, has offered support for a green new deal with large investment in our green industry. But the group is yet to put meat on the bones of this proposalraising fears that their vision of an ecological transition will only tweak and tax, rather than transform, the European economy. Green New Deal policies center jobs + justice in frontline, working communities as we transition our economy and infrastructure, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on Monday. Not all climate policies are the same. Just because the elections are over, then, does not mean that we can rest. The task now is to demand that the European Greens make good on their new mandate. We must be vigilant that any policy that they advocate from their position in European Parliament expands, rather than narrows, the climate coalition, bringing along workers and communities in the North as in the South, East as in the West. The stakes are high: A failure to deliver such a transformative Green New Deal could alienate large swaths of the electorate from the broader climate movementjust as the failure to oppose austerity spelled doom for Europes social democrats. Or worse: It might push them to embrace a climate politics that they feel represents them better. Le Pens xenophobic brand of environmentalism, then, may be the next green wave over Europe. Brown Throughout the course of this election year, the specter of populism haunted Europe. Profile after breathless profile opened with an image of Steve Bannon gathering the forces of the far right in a medieval Italian monastery, training a new generation of gladiators to crush the political establishment and capture the European Parliament. Alas, no such coup materialized. The far-right League, led by Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, managed to capture a stunning 34.3 percent of the vote; the National Rally Party, led by Marine Le Pen, managed to capture another 23.3 per cent, edging out President Emmanuel Macrons centrist En Marche. But in countries like Germany, the Alternative fr Deutschland managed just 11: better than 2014, but worse than the national elections in 2017. So, a populist surge was averted, and many commentators sneered at the coverage that predicted a march of the populists. The center, they concluded, was holding. But these takes set the bar for optimism far too low. For neo-fascist parties like the AfD simply to sustain their vote share should be read as a system failure. Our ambition should not be to stave of a surge of the far right ; it should be to ensure their purge from the political scene. The ugly truth is that, even if the far right has lost its battle to capture the European Parliament, it has won the war to set its agenda. Political parties from the center left to the center right, taking Hillary Clintons infamous advice, now advocate the same anti-migrant policies as their populist challengers. For four years we fought to get a European Border and Coast Guard. EU countries were blocking, but we managed to get it done: 10000 extra border officers, bragged Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats. As Viktor Orbn recently noted, when asked about Hungarys harsh anti-migrant policies, The positions which were once condemned, despised, looked down upon and treated with contempt are becoming jointly held positions. This is the most terrifying and most underreported conclusion from the European Parliament elections: Fortress Europe got its mandate. With the EU successfully clamping down on mass migration to Europe by formally declaring the migrant crisis over, the refugee question has moved out of sight, out of mind: Almost no political party campaigned on the basis of a pro-migration platform. Surge aside, the far right has had its day. The short answer is no. All across Europe, left parties were steamrolled out of office. At the municipal level, where the election mattered most, progressive movements like Barcelona En Com and Ms Madrid were ousted from their mayoralties. At the national level, parties like Jean-Luc Mlenchons France Unbowed and Germanys Left Party saw their vote share shrivel into the low single digits. And the pan-European efforts of European Springthe transnational party led by the Democracy in Europe Movement, for which I serve as policy coordinatorfailed to win a single seat. One clear takeaway is not to overstate the generational tilt toward the left. In the United States, we tend to assume that young voters are attracted to outsiders because of their own sense of disenfranchisement in a post-2008 economy. But millennials, just like their parents, are liable to side with those who promise to safeguard their limited gains, rather than risk it all with a system-wide attack. Another important takeaway is not to assume the compatibility of liberal social policy and redistributive economic policy. One of the hidden benefits of Americas two-party duopoly is that supporters of each of these policies must find a way to coexist inside the Democratic Party. Not so in Europe. The multiparty system allows young, urban, and educated voters to support a cosmopolitan politics without supporting a class-based one. But the fault is also ours to own. Across Europe, the left remains deeply, tragically fragmented. In France, just to take one example, three different parties ran for the European Parliament on programs that were, for all electoral purposes, indistinguishable: the Socialists, the Communists, and Benoit Hamons Generations (which competed under the umbrella of European Spring). There will always be a tension between unity and coherence, and rightly so. We are afraid of big tents because we know full well whom they might let inside. The European left will need to find a new balance between them: to search for creative solutions that bring together movements with enough shared values, and enough shared policies to allow it to speak with one clear loud voice. Without it, we risk losing out on all the energy bubbling up from Europes activist youthand languishing on the sidelines for a generation. | https://www.thenation.com/article/european-parliament-elections-left-green/ |
Is the WNBA Poised for a Breakthrough? | This week we speak to Lyndsey DArcangelo of the Athletic WNBA and the Athletic Buffalo about the start of the WNBA season. We talk about the sports rising popularity, the ongoing labor fight, as well as give predictions on how this upcoming season will shake out. Ad Policy We also have Choice Words about the sketchy partnership between LeBron James and Walmart as well as a Just Stand Up Award for Allyson Felix and a Just Sit Down for Mark Emmert and the NCAA. All this and more on this weeks show! Lyndsey DArcangelo Twitter: @darcangel21 Zirin LeBron Jamess Partnership With Walmart Sparks Criticism | https://www.thenation.com/article/is-the-wnba-poised-for-a-breakthrough/ |
Is Ontario open for health care business? | The government of Ontario is spending over $60 billion on health care this year. You would expect a fiscally responsible government that brands itself as Open for Business would want to see potential economic return for that expenditure. In particular, you might think the government would exploit areas where Ontario has a competitive advantage for innovation and commercial benefit. Ontario has a competitive edge in developing two fields that are achieving the trifecta of improving health, reducing health care costs and achieving commercial opportunity. Surprisingly, the government is reducing its commitment to these potential opportunities rather than supporting made in Ontario cures and economic growth. The first area is regenerative medicine. Ontario scientists Jim Till and Ernest McCulloch invented this topic of scientific study when they discovered blood forming stem cells in the early 1960s. Subsequent focus on cell and organ regeneration in this province has resulted in the Toronto General Hospital doubling the availability of lung transplants for Ontarians by regenerating organs that were previously inappropriate for use. Our expertise in regenerative medicine has also resulted in substantial investment in Ontario for instance the $225 million creation of BlueRock Therapeutics at University Health Network and MaRS in 2017. The other area of notable expertise in the province relates to the health care applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Ontarios universities and industry are recognized for innovation in AI and improving health care is an important application of this rapidly evolving field. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Artificial intelligence enhances the power of prediction. Predicting who will respond to standard therapies and who will need enhanced treatments is one of the most important challenges in health care today. To develop better prediction through AI, data availability is an essential asset and Ontario is a superb custodian of accessible health care data through organizations like the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Science and Cancer Care Ontario. Our health expertise in AI is already paying dividends for patients and for job creation in Ontario. Researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital have reduced the planning time for radiation treatment of cancer from tens of hours to minutes using AI approaches. This innovation is not only improving treatment and cost effectiveness of cancer care in Ontario today, it is also creating Ontario jobs through licensing deals with international medical suppliers. Given this evidence that regenerative medicine and artificial intelligence are effective in improving care, reducing costs and bringing new jobs to the province, it is difficult to understand the governments decision to stop funding the Ontario Institute for Regenerative Medicine (OIRM), the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and to reduce its contribution to the Vector Institute at the University of Toronto. OIRM has encouraged early stage clinical trials that test the impact of stem cells on difficult health challenges, such as how to improve heart pumping after heart attack. OIRM is crucially important in funding new stem cell treatments in Ontario and it is hard to imagine alternate funding for these early stage clinical tests without OIRM. CIFAR will lose $4 million in annual funding and Vector will lose $20 million of a three-year provincial $30 million commitment. Both of these organizations are credited with building the artificial intelligence workforce in Ontario. As the world recognizes the importance of AI in finance, marketing and business services as well as health care, the competition for AI talent is fierce. Reducing Ontarios commitment to training and recruiting new entrants to our AI workforce is simply wrong-headed. These budget cuts total $19 million annually or a minute fraction of the current Ontario health budget. There are alternative major potential savings in health care, such as reduction in unnecessary services that the Canadian Institute of Health Information states are provided to patients, or allowing for substitution of bio-similar drugs for brand-named biologics as B.C. announced this week. Reducing unnecessary care or switching drugs is difficult for the government. It is hard work explaining to voters why services must change. It is much easier to reduce investment in developing new treatments even if these treatments offer jobs and investment as well as better care. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW This is a sad example of short-sighted planning that exemplifies the approach that this government is taking to changing health care delivery in Ontario. Bob Bell worked in Ontario health care for more than 40 years as a GP, surgeon, hospital CEO and Deputy Minister of Health. Follow him on Twitter: @drbobbell Read more about: | https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/2019/05/29/is-ontario-open-for-health-care-business.html |
What did Eric Trumps outing with NC golfers cost taxpayers? | NC Republican Women For Trump event Thursday evening's "North Carolina Republican Women for Trump" Reception and Forum at Trump National Golf Club featured special guests Lara Trump, Lynne Patton, Katrina Pierson and Omarosa Manigault. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK Thursday evening's "North Carolina Republican Women for Trump" Reception and Forum at Trump National Golf Club featured special guests Lara Trump, Lynne Patton, Katrina Pierson and Omarosa Manigault. More than two dozen members from Trump National Charlotte golf club in Iredell County played the links in Scotland this month with presidential son Eric Trump. Now a watchdog group wants to know how much U.S. taxpayers paid to cover Trumps security. A weekend story in the Scotsman said the younger Trump and his guests from Trump National played rounds at Trump Turnberry and Trump International in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Eric Trump is an executive vice president of the Trump Organization. According to the story, the trip was part of an ultimate links tour that also saw a Trump-owned course in western Ireland. It said photos included a shot featuring 31 white men dressed in golfing attire from the N.C. club. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to The Charlotte Observer content across all your devices. SAVE NOW The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has filed a Freedom of Information request with the Secret Service to find out how much the trip cost taxpayers. They should be protected by Secret Service but this is a business thing not a personal thing, CREW spokesman Jordan Libowitz told the Observer Wednesday. So people should know how much the government is spending in relation to these business trips since the Trump Organization does not reimburse them for it. Last year, Politico reported that CREW found the Secret Service had spent $250,000 on two 2017 business trips for Eric and his brother, Donald Trump Jr. One was a trip both took to open a Trump-branded golf club in Dubai. The other was Eric Trumps trip to a potential Trump resort in the Dominican Republic. On the Dubai trip, Politico said, documents showed the Secret Service costs included $125,000 for airfare, $75,000 for hotel rooms and $15,000 for expenses such as cellphones and car service. Trump National Charlotte sits on the shores of Lake Norman in Mooresville. Trump acquired what had been named The Point Lake and Golf Club in 2012. Officials at Trump National could not be reached. | https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article230951048.html |
Why do B.C. teachers make less than those in Alberta and Ontario? | When Kirsten Williamson moved from Ontario to B.C. last August to become a teacher, she was excited to spend the fall exploring the province and discovering what it means to live on the West Coast. But due to below-average salaries and teacher shortages in the province, the reality was quite different. Its just startling and unfortunate that youre asking teachers to come out from Ontario or from other places, but [youre saying], We promise you jobs, but we cant really promise you a living wage, she explained. Williamson is just one of thousands of teachers and students affected by these issues. This school year, some B.C. students are experiencing the smallest class sizes of their academic careers: the result of a 2016 Supreme Court decision that restored collective agreement language around class sizes and support for students with special needs. Although good for student learning, this change created a need for 3,700 additional teachers and highlighted a dramatic wage gap. According to Statistics Canada, starting salaries for teachers in B.C. are the second lowest of any province in the country (only Quebec is lower), making it difficult to attract new teachers. B.C. teachers are paid thousands of dollars less on average than teachers in other large provinces. For instance, teachers in B.C. get paid about $15,000 less each year than teachers in Alberta and about $10,000 less than Ontario teachers. This figure is taken from B.C. Teachers Federation (BCTF) data, which examined collective agreements across the country. This means that even with jobs to offer, B.C. has trouble competing with other markets to attract and keep teachers. Further complicating the hiring process, B.C. has some of the highest costs of living and housing in Canada. All these factors contribute to teacher shortages in many parts of the province, including municipalities like Vancouver and Kamloops. The shortages have far-reaching impacts that include specialist teachers (such as those with special needs training) filling in within regular classrooms, students with special needs being asked to stay at home, and even the use of non-certified or unlicensed teachers (with permission from the Teachers Regulation Branch in B.C.) in some areas. While she doesnt regret her decision to move, Williamson said the transition has been more difficult than she expected. I didnt think it would be as challenging. I dont think I realized how expensive it would be either. Brittany Wiessler, on the other hand, isnt so sure. I love teaching, I love education, she said. We dont do it for the pay, but you have to be able to live. Weissler also moved to B.C. from Ontario in search of a job and a fresh start. Although she knew the wage gap existed, the reality of making ends meet in B.C. came as a shock to her. I cant afford a car. I cant afford to move out of my sisters house, she explained. I wouldnt have been able to afford gas even if I couldve bought a car. She continued, I got into teaching to see people actually making a difference in somebodys life. I love this, but at what cost? Founded in 1917, the BCTF has a long legacy of representing and advocating for teachers. All public school teachers in B.C. are members of the BCTF and their local teachers association. In April 2019, BCTF president Glen Hansman spoke up when the pay for the Members of the B.C. Legislative Assembly increased by 2.7 per cent, indexed to inflation, while other public sector workers (such as teachers) saw their wage increases held to a contractual two per cent annually. I dont begrudge people from getting a wage increase, but when the bosses are getting an increase that isnt being offered to the workers, thats a real problem, Hansman told the Vancouver Sun. Bargaining to address regional teacher shortages, increase salaries and improve recruiting prospects for rural areas of B.C. that have struggled to hire teachers are some of the priorities of incoming BCTF President Teri Mooring, who was elected in March and will succeed Hansman on July 1. As students wrap up the year and head into summer, the current teachers contract expires on June 30. With preliminary bargaining underway since late January, it could be another precedent-setting opportunity to improve learning conditions for B.C. students by recognizing their teachers on a level consistent with Canadas other larger provinces. This story was provided by B.C. Teachers Federation for commercial purposes. | https://vancouversun.com/sponsored/news-sponsored/why-do-b-c-teachers-make-less-than-those-in-alberta-and-ontario |
Why did Ariana Grande cancel two shows in Florida? | Young fans express support for Ariana Grande Fans of the American singer Ariana Grande who were caught up in the deadly attack at Manchester Arena drew strength from and voiced moral support for their pop idol in the immediate aftermath. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK Fans of the American singer Ariana Grande who were caught up in the deadly attack at Manchester Arena drew strength from and voiced moral support for their pop idol in the immediate aftermath. The pop singer was forced to cancel two Florida dates on her Sweetener tour, Live Nation Florida announced Tuesday. On an Instagram Story, Grande told her fans in Tampa and Orlando how sorry she was to disappoint them. I woke up incredibly sick today, she wrote soon after the concert promoters tweet, adding that her doctor recommended she postpone the two shows. Im so incredibly devastated. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to Miami Herald content across all your devices. SAVE NOW The 25-year-old was set to play Amalie Arena in Tampa on Tuesday night and the Amway Center Wednesday night. On Wednesday afternoon, Grande gave fans a little more intel on Instagram: Update: we discovered that I had an unfortunate allergic reaction to tomatoes and my throat pretty much closed. With the post, she added a picture of her adorable dog sitting on a stairwell, which appears to be at a hospital. I will make this up to you, I promise, the Boca Raton native added. Please forgive me. I love you and I will be back and better than ever as soon as possible. (1) Ariana Grandes Sweetener World Tour dates tonight in Tampa (Amalie Arena) and tomorrow, May 29 in Orlando (Amway Center) have been postponed due to illness. The new show dates will be 11/24 in Tampa & 11/25 in Orlando. Ariana is sorry to disappoint her fans and will look fwd pic.twitter.com/InrCos4KN6 Live Nation Florida (@LiveNationFL) May 28, 2019 The pop star managed to see the humor in the situation: Nothing more unfair than an Italian woman developing an allergy to tomatoes in her mid 20s. The rescheduled shows will take place on Nov. 24 in Tampa and Nov. 25 in Orlando. Refunds are also available at the point of purchase, according to Live Nation. The No Tears Left to Cry singer is still set for two Miami back-to-back concerts at AmericanAirlines Arena on Friday and Saturday nights. | https://www.miamiherald.com/entertainment/celebrities/article230959258.html |
How damaging is the row over Huawei for US-China trade? | Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Rising US-China tensions have dashed hopes of an imminent trade deal The US is ramping up a conflict with China, putting their economies and their diplomatic relationship at risk. It has moved to restrict Huawei's ability to trade with US firms, shortly after reigniting the trade war with tariff hikes. The latest blows to the Chinese telecoms giant mark a grave escalation in the US-China power struggle. As the trade war broadens into a "technology cold war", the prospect of a deal looks increasingly distant. "The US action against Huawei is a watershed moment and a very significant escalation of tensions," says Michael Hirson, Asia director at the Eurasia Group. "A trade deal is not doomed but looks very unlikely, especially in the near term." The crackdown on Huawei has become a central part of relations between Washington and Beijing, which has primarily played out as a trade war over the past year. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Huawei's Song Liuping says more than three billion customers could be affected While the US has justified its actions against Huawei based on the alleged risk it poses to national security, US President Donald Trump has also linked it to the trade row. Only recently, Mr Trump said Huawei could be part of a trade deal between the world's two largest economies. Such comments risk reinforcing a view that the action against Huawei is about more than just security risks. Some see it as an attempt by the US to contain a powerful Chinese firm, and by extension China's growing importance in the world. "The prospect of a US action hobbling one of China's most prominent tech companies, and key to its global ambitions in 5G, is already evoking a surge of nationalist sentiment in China," says Mr Hirson. The US has added Huawei to a list of companies that US firms cannot trade with unless they have a licence. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Huawei has become a central part of the US-China trade dispute over recent months At the same time, Mr Trump signed an executive order which effectively bars US firms from using foreign telecoms firms believed to pose national security risks. "Of the two moves that Trump made - the executive order and adding Huawei to the entity list - the latter is far more impactful," says Mr Hirson. Huawei is the world's second biggest smartphone maker and a key player in the development of next-generation 5G technology. Its chief legal officer Song Liuping has said that more than three billion consumers could be hit by the US decision to add Huawei to the entity list. The US moves are already sending ripples across the technology sector. Google barred Huawei from some updates to the Android operating system. New designs of Huawei smartphones are set to lose access to some Google apps. "If Huawei phones are undercut by the lack of Android operating system, it would hurt consumers by limiting competition in the cellphone market and causing prices to rise," says Yan Liang, associate professor of economics at Willamette University. Analysts say the clampdown on Huawei could also hurt the development of 5G. "Huawei also holds a dozen of patents in the 5G development. Limiting Huawei will push back 5G technology and make it more costly to implement," adds Prof Liang. Washington's restrictions on Huawei will also hurt US firms. Huawei's Mr Song said more than 1,200 US firms would be "directly" hit. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Google is one of several firms that has stepped backed from Huawei after the US put restrictions on the Chinese company The company's founder Ren Zhengfei recently told Bloomberg that Huawei would use more of its own chips if there were further US restrictions, and would reduce its purchases from the US. Half of the chips Huawei uses are from US companies, and half they produce themselves, he said. Indeed, some analysts say the US government also risks hurting itself. "You punish Huawei but you also punish yourself: You lose market share, lose all of your business sales to Huawei," says Huiyao Wang, the president of the Centre for China and Globalization in Beijing. "And also you probably force Huawei to develop on its own - that's not a wise move for the US." Analysts say politics is also shaping Mr Trump's approach towards China ahead of US elections next year. There is a growing consensus in Washington that China has played unfairly in global trade for years. Being tough on China has therefore become an easy way of scoring political points in the run-up to the 2020 vote. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The US holds presidential elections in 2020 This could mean a trade deal will not happen for some time. "Political considerations are front and centre in the White House and certainly impacting the course of these negotiations," says Stephen Olson, research fellow at the Hinrich Foundation. "It's possible that the political calculation - correct or incorrect - is that pursuing and extending the trade war is playing well with his political base. That would not bode well for the future." Mr Trump will have to balance playing hardball with the risk that his China policy may contribute to an economic slowdown, along with losses in the stock market. Even though a recent escalation in the US-China dispute has dashed hopes for an imminent resolution, analysts say a trade deal is not yet doomed. Critically, China has shown a willingness to negotiate and analysts expect this to continue as it tries to retain the moral high ground. China went to Washington for trade talks even as the Trump administration raised tariffs on $200bn (158bn) of Chinese goods and threatened duties on additional products. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Trump and Mr Xi are due to attend the G20 meeting in June "Admittedly things look pretty dire right now," says Mr Olson. "But one scenario that would be entirely plausible is that you have a little bit of a cooling off period between these countries and after a certain period of time some phone calls get exchanged, some meetings take place and we start putting things back together again." Mr Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet at the G20 summit in Japan next month. The meeting represents a "critical window to de-escalate tensions," says Eurasia Group's Mr Hirson. "If the G20 passes without at least a truce, it is more likely than not that Trump will follow through with a threat to impose additional tariffs on China. Then we're looking at a long, hot summer of escalation by both sides." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48361473 |
Will they call Beto another 'boss from hell'? | A presidential candidate trying to project a friendly and kind demeanor, we learn, is the boss from hell. The candidate berates staff and has a bad temper, a penchant for humiliating staff in front of others and questionable management. The mainstream media thought so a few months back as it pummeled Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., for days and weeks, repeating the same stories told by anonymous sources. I, however, was referring to Beto ORourke. Lets take a look at the double standard on steroids. When challenged for going after Klobuchar for behavior for which a male boss would escape criticism, the press said its coverage had nothing to do with gender. Fine. Now is the chance to prove that the endless parade of boss from hell stories had nothing to do with gender. The Daily Beast reports on the documentary about Beto ORourkes 2016 Senate race: In the doc, Beto comes off as charismatic yet controlling its most revealing moments being ones where he is seen dressing down his clearly overworked staff for their perceived lack of preparedness. The person on the receiving end of most of the scoldings is Cynthia Cano, his road manager. At several tense points in the film, Cano is criticized by Beto in front of her campaign colleagues for not leaving enough time in his schedule for media interviews, having him be late to campaign events, and not adequately prepping him for those events ... Just prior to his concession speech, in the backstage area of the venue, filmmaker David Modiglianis cameras caught Beto and his top staffers (as well as his teary-eyed wife, Amy) in an intimate huddle, where the Senate candidate apologized to them for being a giant asshole. Well, lets see how many weeks of coverage this draws. (Will they call ORourkes mother?) I raise this not because I think mean bosses should be exempt from criticism or because managing staff isnt part of being a chief executive (although I found the coverage of Klobuchar to be overwrought) but because the media now must walk the walk and treat ORourke in a similar fashion unless the media takes to heart the criticism of Klobuchar and apologizes for coverage that holds women to an entirely different standard than men. It should escape no ones notice that after the media flogged Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., for not being likable enough but exempted the grouchy, irascible Sen. Bernie get-those-kids-off-my-lawn Sanders, I-Vt., from similar scrutiny, she is on the upswing and his poll numbers are falling. Not only does there seem to be a double standard for subjective evaluations, but also the medias evaluation of highly gender-driven characteristics doesnt seem to predict voter reaction very well. (Meaning its sexist and wrong.) It has not gone unnoticed that ORourkes entry into the race was greeted with wall-to-wall fawning coverage that no female candidate has received or that a trip to his barber didnt cost him days of rotten coverage. (Compare this with the tongue-lashing Sen. Kamala D. Harris, D-Calif., got for a shopping trip meant to highlight local small businesses.) I shudder to think what would have happened had Klobuchar or Harris livestreamed a beauty parlor visit. You can argue that these small personal quirks are irrelevant or you can argue that they give us vital information into candidates psyches. What you cannot do is change the yardstick depending on the gender of the candidate. And all this should underscore an uncomfortable truth that despite the increase in the number of female journalists, most reporters are male, most bylines are men, and editors are overwhelmingly white and male. We shouldnt be surprised when theres a divergence in the way women and men are covered. Perhaps less defensiveness when called out for gender disparity in coverage and more soul-searching would be in order. | http://www.startribune.com/will-they-call-beto-another-boss-from-hell/510587012/ |
When will it cool down in Charlotte, NC after record heat? | How to stay safe in really hot weather As summer temperatures rise, so does the chance of heat-related illnesses for you, your kids and pets. Here's how to enjoy the hot weather safely. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK As summer temperatures rise, so does the chance of heat-related illnesses for you, your kids and pets. Here's how to enjoy the hot weather safely. Its not just you. It was exceptionally hot this week. Temperatures have hovered just below record highs, well above the normal 82 degrees Charlotte usually sees this time of year. The heat wave, which is coming to a close, was rare but not unheard of, said Joshua Palmer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Services Greenville-Spartanburg Office. In fact, Charlotte felt record-breaking heat for two consecutive days this time almost 80 years ago. The record high temperatures for May 28 and 29 were set back-to-back in 1941, reaching 97 and 98 degrees, respectively. Palmer said it isnt necessarily an indication of how the rest of the summer will look, though. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to The Charlotte Observer content across all your devices. SAVE NOW Another heat wave is not out of the question, but its not a guarantee, either, Palmer said. This week might be the hottest of the summer. He said with so many factors at play, its hard to predict what the weather in the coming months will be like. But what the weather service can predict is an end to this particular heat spell. Thursday is slated to be another 95-degree day, but after that, things should relatively cool down to the upper 80s. Until then, meteorologists advise staying indoors, limiting physical activity, and staying hydrated. But for Charlottes homeless and low-income residents, thats more challenging. The Urban Ministry Center, which merged with the Mens Shelter of Charlotte at the beginning of this month, holds a lottery every morning for people seeking an opening in one of shelters 410 beds or 20 mats available for overnight stays. Randall Hitt, chief engagement officer for the Urban Ministry Center and Mens Shelter of Charlotte, said in recent weeks around 20 to 30 people have entered the lottery. But on Wednesday, that jumped to 65, although Hitt said its not clear if the weather caused the increase. Though the shelter has had to turn people seeking overnight shelter away during the heat wave, there is a day center open to all at 945 N. College St., with access to laundry machines, showers and an air conditioned building to escape the heat. The hot weather also may make it more challenging for some residents to pay their power bills after running air conditioning more often. Crisis Assistance Ministry works to provide assistance to people facing financial crises year-round, but will have extra funding from Mecklenburg County to assist residents in paying their rent and utility bills until June 30. Liana Humphrey, chief marketing and communications officer for Crisis Assistance Ministry, said that the organization is used to increased need during the summer, especially in covering rising utility bills. But with this extra funding from the county, now is a great time to come in for help, Humphrey said. For more information on getting assistance, visit http://crisisassistance.org/gethelp. | https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article230949443.html |
How will the Warriors defend Raptors Kawhi Leonard in NBA Finals? | TORONTO Kawhi Leonards humanity came under scrutiny in late September, when he cackled at Raptors media day. Many took to Twitter questioning whether Leonard was, in fact, a robot. As one blogger put it, Leonards laugh was reminiscent of Arnold Schwarzeneggers T-800 trying to smile in Terminator 2. Its not just Leonards chuckle, but rather his entire demeanor that has some wondering whether he is more cyborg than person. He speaks in a monotone and, eight years into a career likely destined for the Hall of Fame, has revealed little about his background or personal life. That Leonard plays with a machine-like power only reinforces the robot myth. A year after a mysterious quad injury cast his future in doubt, Leonard, 27, is rivaling LeBron James, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant for the best-player-in-the-world title. To lift the Raptors to their first Finals, Leonard scored 561 points the sixth-highest total for a player through the playoffs first three rounds. His two-way dominance was a driving force behind the four-game winning streak that dug Toronto out of a 2-0 series hole in the Eastern Conference finals and got it by Milwaukee in six. I think the challenge with Kawhi is it doesnt look the same as other superstars, Warriors forward Draymond Green said. Like, when Steph (Curry) dominates a game, Kevin (Durant) dominates a game, Damian Lillard dominates a game, LeBron (James) dominates a game, it does not look the same as when Kawhi is dominating a game. So, it can fool you to just say, We can just guard him this way, or, We can do this, or, We dont have to put too much focus into him. It doesnt look the same; its not as pretty. But, boy, is it effective. Because they know they cant stop a player of Leonards caliber, the Warriors are focused on containing him. Limiting his options at least forces him to think and, hopefully, give the defense more time to react. Although not especially fast, Leonard is adept at bulldozing by opponents for forays to the rim. His 6-foot-7, 230-pound frame is near-impossible to slow down once in full stride. To make life difficult on Leonard, the Warriors must try to preempt his actions. This requires not just one reliable on-ball defender, but rather a cohesive, engaged unit. The Warriors have thrived against prolific scorers in these playoffs with calculated trapping. But to throw Leonard out of rhythm, Golden State must switch up the timing and direction of its blitzes. Perhaps never has Warriors head coach Steve Kerr struck a better balance in that regard than during Golden States recent sweep of Portland in the Western Conference finals. Instead of unleashing a barrage of the same blitzes on Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, the Warriors repeatedly shifted where the pressure came from and when. We did a great job of mixing it up, even though at the end of the day it still was a blitz, Golden State center Andrew Bogut said. We were changing when we were doing it, how long we were doing it. Sometimes, wed blitz until a pass out. Sometimes, we blitzed until (Lillard) took one back step and then we left. With Durant ruled out of Game 1 with a strained right calf, Green, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson and even Kevon Looney will take turns as Leonards primary defender Thursday. More important than any one players ability to stick with Leonard, however, will be the other four Warriors defenders reactions. The key is to keep Leonard guessing. If Leonard questions what hes about to see on the other side of a ball-screen, he begins to lose his machine-like power. The cyborg, suddenly, starts to look human. You want to make it as difficult as possible on him, and all the other guys who are helping and rotating, Curry said. Try to take away the 3s and rebound the basketball, and make him defend on the other end as well. Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected]. Twitter: @Con_Chron | https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/How-will-the-Warriors-defend-Raptors-Kawhi-13905292.php |
Can Pelicans' New Regime Get Anthony Davis To Buy In? | ASSOCIATED PRESS A lot has changed in New Orleans since Anthony Davis first requested a trade from the organization in January. New Orleans kicked off its offseason by firing Dell Demps from his position as general manager. David Griffin was then brought on as vice president of basketball operations, with Trajan Langdon filling the post left by Demps. The Pelicans then struck gold, beating the lottery odds and winning the No. 1 pick in the draft, a.k.a. Zion Williamson. Now, Davis' future is the next priority. A handful of suitors would line up to acquire Davis in a trade, but Griffin has said that he is hopeful he can convince the center to stay put. He put that plan into action Wednesday, as Davis and the executive met to discuss Griffin's vision for the Pelicans' future, according to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Wojnarowski added that Davis' agent, Rich Paul, was present and that Griffin has yet to talk about potential trades. The dialogue is expected to continue. The question now is if the Pelicans have transformed enough to appeal to Davis. Davis can become a free agent after this coming season and is eligible to sign a five-year, $235.5 million supermax extension on July 1. Such a scenario seemed out of the question just a few weeks ago, but Griffin is hoping Williamson and a new front office make for a strong sales pitch. If not, a number of teams will be bidding for the 26-year-old Davis, a three-time All-NBA selection. Wojnarowski mentioned the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks and Boston Celtics as potential trade partners; Davis would likely pass on signing with a team that is not in a position to contend right away. He could do that in each of those cities should each franchise have the offseasons they hope to. In the meantime, Griffin will continue to press the star he inherited. Whether or not Davis ever plays for the VP's Pelicans, remains to be seen, though. Either way, all eyes will be on the duo once the NBA offseason officially begins. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/garyphillips/2019/05/29/can-pelicans-new-regime-get-anthony-davis-to-buy-in/ |
Can I buy a future-proof laptop to last 10 years? | Ed wants to buy a Windows laptop that will last as long as possible, and is willing to pay up to 2,000 I want to buy a Windows laptop that is as future-proof as possible. I have been looking at ones with at least a Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports and a 13-14in high-resolution screen. I am really struggling to identify the one I should get. I realise the specs are perhaps overkill for my mixture of office productivity programs and media use. However, I intend to keep this laptop for seven to 10 years, and I want it to cope with updates and new software in the future. My budget is about 1,500-2,000. Ed Its not easy to buy a future-proof laptop because the industry is moving in the opposite direction. The trend is towards ultra-thin laptops where the processor, memory and storage chips are all soldered in and cannot be upgraded. Further, sealed cases are making it increasingly difficult to replace failing keyboards, cracked screens and glued-in batteries. Unless laptops are still under warranty, it may be simpler to replace them than to repair them. If you want to buy a laptop for long-term use, check iFixits website for a teardown and a repairability score. At the moment, Microsofts Surface Laptop is the worst product, with a score of zero. This beats the dozen or so Apple MacBooks that all score 1 out of 10. On the good side, there are products that score 10, such as the HP EliteBook 840 G3 and the Dell Latitude E5270. The HP EliteBook 1050 is among the laptops that score 9. iFixit doesnt do many teardowns and, shockingly, hasnt done a Lenovo ThinkPad so you should try other sources such as Laptopmain, Notebookcheck and AnandTech. Also, search the web for a laptops service manual to see how easy it is to repair and upgrade. The harder it is, the less future-proof it is. In general, its safer to buy laptops designed for business users rather than consumers. Many IT departments expect to be able to replace batteries and install memory and SSD themselves. Business laptops are also built to higher standards, and should be more durable in the long run. Anticipating changes Facebook Twitter Pinterest Predicting the rise of the USB-C port and Thunderbolt 3 would have been an impossible task a decade ago. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs/The Guardian As the old saying has it, prediction is difficult, especially about the future. A decade ago, you might have opted for fast FireWire ports, but you wouldnt have foreseen the importance of M.2 slots for SSDs, the change from USB Type-A to Type-C ports, or Thunderbolts adoption. And if you had, it wouldnt have mattered, because there is nothing you could have done about them. In reality, you only have three things to worry about: memory, storage and battery life. Now, the first option is to buy as much as you will ever need. This means you will pay the highest possible price especially if youre buying a MacBook Pro and you will almost certainly buy more than you need. The alternative is to buy a well-made laptop that you can upgrade in five years or so. Barring disasters, memory chips and SSDs will be cheaper, and your system will benefit accordingly. To do this, your laptop must have one or preferably two memory slots, one or two M.2 slots, and possibly a drive bay that will accept an SSD or a traditional hard drive. (For space-saving reasons, drive bays are on the way out.) You should also be able to change the battery, because the one supplied is unlikely to last a decade. Possible options There are three classes of laptop to consider. First are the business machines aimed mainly at large enterprises. The leading brands are Lenovo ThinkPads (originally, an IBM brand), Dell Latitude laptops and HP EliteBooks. Second, you could choose a mobile workstation, as these usually offer more configuration options. The models to consider include the ThinkPad P1, Dells Precision range and HPs ZBook 14u G5. Third, there are gaming laptops, such as the Gigabyte Aero 14 and the Razer Blade Stealth, which is now available with a 13.3in screen. Dell, HP and Lenovo also sell gaming laptops. If you really need the power for business reasons, the ThinkPad P1 and HPs ZBook 14u G5 are excellent choices, and I recently recommended the P1 in a different answer. But you dont. If you needed powerful graphics for playing games, gaming laptops offer high specs at fairly reasonable prices. But you dont. However, a configurable business laptop would be a good solution, in that you could buy one with a lower specification and upgrade it later. My favourite machine for this purpose is the ThinkPad T480, which Ive also recommended before. Its far from being the only option. Newer models are available including a brand new T490 and you could apply the same approach to other laptops you have been considering. Configuring a T480 The basic version of the ThinkPad T480 usually costs 949.99 (currently 835.99) with a Core i5-8250U processor, 8GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. A couple of upgrades would make this a good buy for your purposes while still leaving some expansion options. You would obviously want to upgrade the base-level 1366 x 768-pixel display to an IPS screen. The options are 1920 x 1080 Full HD with and without touch, or a 2560 x 1440-pixel screen. You could opt for the 1920 x 1080 touch screen (58.80 extra) because you wont get all the benefits of having 2560 x 1440 pixels (150 extra) on a 14in screen. However, the WQHD screen looks much better and should be more future-proof. You could expand the 8GB of memory to 16GB (115.20) or 32GB (346.80), but 8GB should be fine for your purposes. If you really need more later, you can buy another 8GB memory module and plug it into the second, spare memory slot. There are lots of options for upgrading the 500GB hard drive, and you could also add an Optane accelerator or a 128GB SSD. The most economical option is to replace the HDD with a 256GB M.2 SSD (76.80), though you could go up to 512GB (211.20) or more if you need the space. The T480 comes with two 24Wh batteries as standard. If you need more battery life, you can swap the rear battery for a 48Wh version or a massive 17-hour 72Wh battery (6 extra). Finally, theres the processor. The standard Core i5-8250U (Passmark benchmark score 7679) would be enough for your purposes, but an upgrade to the Core i7-8550U (Passmark 8292) might add to the longevity for the extra 103.20. The jump to an i7-8650U (Passmark 8820) isnt really worth the extra 283.20. Core i7 chips are often throttled in laptops to prevent overheating, so you may not see the sort of performance gain you would expect in a desktop. If you just upgraded the screen and disk drive, the T480 would cost you 1,085.59 (current sale price, 955.32). This should easily last you five years, and could well last seven or more years. But if it only lasted five years, youve only spent about half your budget, so you could sell it and buy another 1,000 laptop with whatever new technologies have been introduced. In fact, you could guarantee your T480 for five years by upgrading the three-year warranty for 90.99. Better still, go for the five-year on-site warranty for 160.99. Note: there is a newer, slightly smaller version of this machine, the T480S. It has better processor cooling and four PCI Express lanes instead of two, so it can handle faster SSDs. However, I still prefer the T480 for its extra battery life, hot-swappable battery, drive bay space, full-sized Ethernet port and the fact that you can upgrade both memory slots. (The T480S has an empty slot but the base memory is soldered in.) This years T490 is also slimmer and lighter, and offers faster processors: you get a Core i5-8265U (Passmark 8084) as standard or you can upgrade to a Core i7-8565U (Passmark 9051) for only 96. But the T490, like the T480S, has soldered RAM, and it loses the drive bay and the hot-swappable battery option. Technically, its a better laptop, but it is less configurable and has fewer upgrade options. Chips ahoy Facebook Twitter Pinterest Intels 9th generation Core processor chips are finally rolling out, but only at the very high end for the time being. Photograph: Intel Corporation Last month, Intel announced its ninth generation of Core processors, but due to long-running production issues for which the company has apologised it is concentrating on manufacturing high-end versions, which are more profitable. Core i7-9xxx chips are starting to appear in desktops and some gaming laptops, but most machines will still be shipping with eighth generation processors such as the Core i7-8550U. The 8th generation chips were a useful advance on the seventh generation versions, so its worth having a Core i7-8xxx etc rather than an i7-7xxx. From the benchmarks, the ninth gen chips dont offer enough extra performance to worry about, unless youre buying a desktop with an 8-core i9-9900K or i7-9700K. Email it to [email protected] This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information. | https://www.theguardian.com/technology/askjack/2019/may/30/can-i-buy-a-future-proof-laptop-to-last-10-years |
What's keeping Harriet Tubman off the $20? | The 360 is a feature designed to show you diverse perspectives on the days top stories. Speed read What's happening: Harriet Tubman, the famed abolitionist who freed slaves using the Underground Railroad, was scheduled to replace Andrew Jackson as the face of the $20 bill in 2020. However, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said during a congressional hearing last week that the redesign had been delayed until at least 2028. The decision to make Tubman the first African-American to appear on U.S. paper currency came out of a 10-month public comment process by Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in 2016. The 2020 date was chosen to mark the 100th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote in America. Mnuchin explained the delay by saying the treasury was focused preventing counterfeiting, rather than changing the imagery on its bills. Why there's debate: The decision to replace the image of a slave-owning former president with that of black woman who freed slaves received strong praise from many when it was initially announced. Trump called the choice "pure political correctness" and suggested she should be on the $2 bill instead. Mnuchin's limited responses to inquiries from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., about the delay during last weeks hearing have led some to question whether there are other motives behind the decision. One of Tubman's living descendents said the delay "smacks of racism." Pressley argued that it was part of a longstanding trend of overlooking the role of women and people of color in American history. "People other than white men built this county," she said. Others have suggested it is consistent with of a revisionist history among some conservatives who downplay the horrors of slavery. Others see less malicious reasons for the delay, such as Trump's known fondness for Jackson as a leader or Trumps pattern of undoing decisions made by Obama. What's next: A bill that would force the Treasury to put Tubman on the $20 bill by the end of 2020 was introduced in both houses of Congress earlier this year. If it isn't passed, it will be up to Mnuchin, or whoever comes after him, to decide if and when the change will be made. In the meantime, some activists are taking the matter into their own hands by stamping Tubman's face over current versions of the bill. Perspectives Racism prevents proper acknowledgment of Tubman's heroism "Trump rose to power by denigrating, discounting and humiliating women, especially women of color. Its just one more way Trump is telegraphing to the racists and sexists in his base that 'we' are never giving up this country. 'We' will never give and inch to 'those people.'" Laura Washington, Chicago Sun-Times The move is part of a larger campaign to undo Obama's accomplishments "The Tubman-for-Jackson swap was an Obama administration initiative, and Trump has pretty much made it his mission to be against anything that came before his presidency." Elliot Hannon, Slate A sympathetic view of slave-holding states is common among conservatives "A reexamination of national iconography has led to the removal of many Confederate monuments and the erasure of names of numerous segregationists from schools, roads and parks. But Trump and some of his associates endorse a different orientation to the past, at times ready to defend figures whose promotion of explicit racial hierarchy places them out of step with contemporary values." Isaac Stanley-Becker, Washington Post "The story that Trump and his followers tell themselves is that white supremacy built this nation for the better." Dick Polman, WHYY History undervalues the contributions of black women "This is part and parcel of the history of this country and the way in which African American women have been, and continue to be, treated and unacknowledged. Tubman Museum director Andy Ambrose, quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Trump is a fan of Andrew Jackson "Mr. Trump has frequently described Jackson, whose portrait hangs in the Oval Office, as a populist hero who reminds him of himself." Alan Rappeport, New York Times It's poetic that one more obstacle stands between Tubman and proper recognition | https://news.yahoo.com/whats-keeping-harriet-tubman-off-the-20-201952646.html |
Is Our Obsession with Health Data Making Us Crazy? | When Bri Cawsey started wearing a Fitbit, she thought it was simply a really cool tool for charting her runs. Slowly but surely, however, the British Columbia-based strength and conditioning coach began tracking everythingcalories, macronutrients, fertilityand noticed the habit spiraling out of control. It became a little bit of an obsessive habit, especially around the food, Cawsey remembers. Eventually, she says, it got so bad that, if she didnt research a meals calorie and nutrient breakdown in advance, shed feel anxious and upset at restaurants. In 2014, after realizing that her once-healthy habit had turned hazardous, Wilson broke up with her Fitbit, detailing the decision in a post on her fitness blog. Shes been tracker-free ever since, save for a brief stint while training to qualify for the Boston Marathon, and recommends her clients stay that way, too. It was this great sense of peace, she says of ditching the data. I wasnt as critical with myself. In a culture where wellness junkies use apps, websites and wearables to monitor every morsel that passes their lips, every step they take, every beat of their hearts, their sleep cycles, and their fitness progress, we have health insights weve never had before. But Dr. George Zgourides, a Texas-based psychologist, family medicine doctor and author of the 2002 book Stop Worrying About Your Health, says these boundless data can contribute to a culture of health anxiety. Increasingly, hes noticing that people are excessively concerned about health issues to the point that it might be interfering with mental health, work and relationships. The Brief Newsletter Sign up to receive the top stories you need to know right now. View Sample Sign Up Now And while once these worriers might have stoked their fears only with Dr. Google, as Zgourides calls it, theyre now equipped with an army of apps and devices that can spit out personalized data on command. Now that you can count every calorie and every step youre taking, people that might have some tendency toward an obsession with or a focus on numbers, this feeds the behavior in a way that is not always helpful, Zgourides says. In 2015, for example, researchers at Duke University in North Carolina found that activity-tracking can decrease enjoyment of whatever pastime someone is trying to quantify, and even lead people to do less of it when the trackers are off. A 2017 study published in the journal Eating Behaviors also found associations between the use of calorie-counting and/or fitness-tracking devices and eating disorder symptoms among college students. And a 2016 survey of female Fitbit users found that almost 60% felt like their days were controlled by their devices, and 30% said the gadget was an enemy that made them feel guilty. Even as these trackers grow more and more sophisticated, the pushback against themfor reasons ranging from mental health to consumer privacyis mounting. Companies are even capitalizing by offering products that provide an alternative to data overload. Take Shapa, a scale made by a startup of the same name. Shapa doesnt spit out your weight when you step on it. Instead, it aggregates three weeks of weigh-in data, and uses a color-coded system to tell users if theyre gaining pounds, holding steady or losing weight. The idea, says co-founder and behavioral scientist Dan Ariely, is to shift the focus away from incremental weight changes, and toward more meaningful patterns. My weight can go up and down depending on when I went to the bathroom and how much salt Ive had and when I peed last and how much Im dehydrated, Ariely says. Giving people information about things going up and down within that range is just confusing and demotivating, and its not helping [them] understand the relationship between cause and effect. Shapas approach is meant to help people see the connection between their recent behavior and their weight, without getting bogged down in the specific numbers. Its designed to counteract other products in the wellness-tracking world, Ariely says, which tend to dump data on people without context or actionable advice. A lot of the quantified self is basically designed for computer algorithms, not for people, he says. Food-diary app YouAte is doing something similar for dieting. Like many nutrition apps, it allows users to log their meals and snacks, but instead of tabulating calorie counts, it asks individuals to categorize their food choices as on-path or off-path and note how those choices made them feel, ideally fostering mindfulbut not obsessiveeating. Theres also YouFood, a food-diary app that helps users track their choices through photos, so they can get a general sense of their nutrition habits rather than meticulously counting calories and macronutrients. Thats a smart strategy, says Jessica Setnick, a Texas-based registered dietitian and eating-disorder specialist. Under almost no circumstances would I recommend calorie counting, she says. Ultimately, the goal is to not need to count calories at all, but to be able to follow internal cues for guidance. Setnick says eating disorders existed long before Fitbits and diet apps, but allows that these gadgets can exacerbate underlying issues. The tools can become weapons, she says, and nutrition-information overload can be debilitating. We have the most nutrition information of anywhere in the world, and yet it hasnt necessarily made us Americans healthier at all, she says. The best information is really Michael Pollan-esque: Eat mostly plants, not too much, and enjoy your food. Its very, very basic information that people need. Cawsey, the former Fitbit addict, agrees. She says listening to internal cues, rather than health and fitness apps, has made her far happier, and healthier. If you are one of those people who is attached to all your apps and gadgets, maybe try to take a break and notice how you feel without it and trust yourself to eat without your Fitbit or MyFitnessPal telling you what to eat, she suggests. Spending that time to just let it all go and just trust yourself, listen to yourself, was really healing. Write to Jamie Ducharme at [email protected]. | http://time.com/5066561/health-data-tracking-obsession/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+time%2Ftopstories+%28TIME%3A+Top+Stories%29 |
Would letting Maurizio Sarri leave really be sensible for Chelsea? | You hope Maurizio Sarri enjoyed his first trophy in professional football but this, surely, was not how he imagined it as he whiled away the hours on the ForEx desk of his bank in Florence. Perhaps he had dreamt of one of the great citadels of European football, of Wembley or San Siro, of the Camp Nou or the Luzhniki, but instead he got the Olympic Stadium in Baku, a place so ill-conceived that not only is the stadium inaccessible to most of Europe but the pitch seemed inaccessible from most of the stands, laid out like a Subbuteo cloth laid upon a snooker table as though somebody had seen the London Stadium and thought: Well do that, but more so. I think its goodbye: Hazard ready to leave Chelsea after Europa League win Read more Even if there had been tens of thousands of fans packed into stands tight to the pitch, theyre unlikely to have been singing Sarris name or at least not in a positive way. Perhaps the Fuck Sarriball chant will return in the future as ironic reappropriation but it seems more likely that this was Sarris last game in charge of the club. Nothing, of course, is ever entirely clear at Chelsea, existing as it does in a permanent fug of intrigue, thriving on its eternal transition from one ill-defined approach to the next, but it may be that the apparent interest from Juventus in Sarri gives everybody a way out. Sarri, like Rafa Bentez, found there is nothing more likely to win the Europa League for Chelsea than a manager openly mocked by half the fanbase. On the surface, the dissatisfaction seems bewildering. Chelsea this season have, after all, won one cup competition, reached the final of another and come third in the league as the top two broke records. Revolutions have been built on far less. If that sort of return is somehow not enough, then Herbert Chapman, Bill Shankly, Don Revie, Brian Clough (twice) and Alex Ferguson would all have been sacked long before building league-winning sides. Nothing, perhaps, is so damaging to the long-term prospects of clubs than impatience and the demands for success now. Its not coincidence that the Champions League final will be contested by clubs whose managers have been in place since 2014 and 2015 respectively; as of Wednesday night (or Thursday morning, Baku time), neither has won as much in English football as Sarri. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Eden Hazard and Maurizio Sarri could both be gone from Chelsea by the start of next season. Photograph: Yuri Kadobnov/AFP/Getty Images But thats not to say that patience is always appropriate. There have been occasions when silverware has served as a veneer for deep-rooted problems, when the quality of football hasnt live up to results. And there have certainly been times for Chelsea this season when the football has not been good. There have been bizarre collapses, as at Everton, Bournemouth and Manchester City, and even as home wins were racked up in the mid-to-latter part of the season, the football was often ponderously slow. Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal: Europa League final player ratings | Paul Doyle Read more Yet that should not be unexpected. Sarri is an idiosyncratic coach; his methods take time to absorb. He was never going to reproduce the flair and verve of his Napoli side overnight, particularly given a squad broadly unsuited to that style that has consistently been prone to bouts of truculence. Just as with Louis van Gaal at Manchester United, the attempt to impose an alien system led to a lack of pace as players tried to adjust. And as with Van Gaal at United, there perhaps comes a point after which directors decide there never will be a moment at which everything clicks. Whether that point should come after only a year is doubtful. Chelsea have spoken of a change of approach, of looking to build a more long-term strategy, but the fact remains that if Sarri is still at the club at the end of November, he would be the first Chelsea manager to survive so long into a season after failing to win the league since Claudio Ranieri. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Maurizio Sarri celebrates Chelseas Europa League triumph with a cigarette. Photograph: Darko Bandi/AP It would be ludicrous to expect Sarri to have a team full functioning in his image after just a year, akin to sacking Michelangelo a year into painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because it wasnt done yet. But then, if it had turned out Michelangelo couldnt do hands, dismissing him would be justified. There is a school of thought that Sarris football cannot function to the very highest level in the Premier League and, if that is what the board have decided, the Juventus offer could be a convenient way of offloading him without appearing impatient. And if this is farewell, then at least Sarri has gone out with one of the most impressive halves of football his Chelsea have produced, one that he enabled with the first-half tweak, dropping his full-backs deeper, that neutered the attacking threat posed by Arsenals wing-backs. Once stability had been imposed, Eden Hazard seized the opportunity with two goals and an assist. Yet he will be gone before the start of next season. The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email. And that, really, says everything about the modern Chelsea. Of the two people most responsible for this success, the 16th major trophy in 16 years under Roman Abramovich, one will almost certainly be in Madrid next season and the other may be in Turin. Footballs glory can be extremely fleeting. | https://www.theguardian.com/football/2019/may/30/maurizio-sarri-leave-chelsea-eden-hazard-europa-league |
Is Putins Fascination With Genetics Just Eugenics in Disguise? | MOSCOWRussian President Vladimir Putins domestic propaganda campaign has been telling people to hunker down, that they need to find ways to wall off the country from the West. They need to protect their internet by cutting it off from the global web, the Kremlin suggests, otherwise Russias enemies might exploit social media to undermine the state. (The irony of such proclamations will not be lost on American readers.) And now Putin is talking about a really ominous sounding threatto the very DNA of the Russian people. Heres How Putins Russia Is Rebuilding the Iron Curtain The new buzzword among Russian authorities is biodefense, which at its most benign may mean taking a lead in the highly lucrative development of genetic editing techniques to cure diseases, grow better crops, and the like. But at its most sinister it takes on the coloration of eugenics, the discredited science of the 19th and early 20th centuries that promised to create superior humans based on racial and ethnic stereotypes. The emerging notion that genetic security is part of national security is still unclear to most Russian citizens, but already it receives lavish funding. In late April, Russian authorities approved a budget of 220 billion rubles ($3.3 billion) in order to develop new genetic technologies over the next eight years. The document published on the governments website says that the main purpose of the program is to decrease critical dependence of Russian science on foreign genetic and biological databases and on foreign specialized software and other technologies. But some see in the program the possibility to define Russian identity based on genetics. I have never heard Putin or anybody else in the Kremlin mention the word race, Svetlana Gannushkina, a senior human rights defender helping migrants told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. But once Putin said to me: I agree we need migrants, but preferably well-educated Slavs of a fertile age. Others go much further. There is even a group suggesting the Constitution of the Russian Federation be edited to help build a new ideology around the nations genes. A member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Taliya Khabriyeva, suggested that a new ideology should embrace values genetically typical of Russians, constitutionally defined. Khabriyevas idea provoked a wide discussion in academic circles. Sulashkins Center, a Moscow-based think tank working on the New Constitution project, doubted that the identity of Russian civilization could be called genetic. Vedomosti, a respected Russian business newspaper, meanwhile reported that Maria Vorontsova, who is believed to be the eldest daughter of President Putin, is one of the new state programs key managers. According to another report by the Russian magazine New Times, Russias first daughter Vorontsova will oversee policies for gene editing in medicine in Russia, a potentially lucrative field but also full of ethical landmines. The state program aims to prevent and treat human diseases, although some Russian scientists still question whether gene editing is safe for people. What is clear as daylight, one of the participants in the program said privately, is that gene editing is a gold mine, a very profitable business. There is a huge hype about genetic editing in Russia, mostly among billionaires, pro-Kremlin political analyst Yuriy Krupnov told The Daily Beast earlier this month. One procedure costs around $1 million abroad, so it sounds like a good business, but even if Russia develops its own technology, biological big data would require much bigger investments. And speaking of big data, Russian policy makers now fret publicly about Russians handing over genetic data to foreign companies, such as commercial genealogy sites, to check out their ancestors. There is a concern that Western secret services develop biological weapons, focusing on studying our DNA tests, says Krupnov. The Kremlin has been worried about DNA studies of the Russian population for several years. Putin wants to control Russian genes, genetic studies, just as much as he wants to control cyberspace, a former member of the Russian parliament, Dmitry Gudkov, told The Daily Beast. In 2017, President Putin spoke about foreigners evil plans for Russia at a routine meeting of Council for Civil Society and Human Rights: They collect biological material all over our country, of various ethnic groups, people living in different geographical points of Russian Federation, they do it purposefully and professionally. | https://news.yahoo.com/putin-fascination-genetics-just-eugenics-091516457.html |
Why Is Employee Activism On The Rise? | The rise is purpose marketing is self-evident. Nike championing racial equality, Gillette speaking to toxic masculinity and Greggs standing for veganism, we barely go a month these days without a big-name brand using their platform to advocate for a social issue. Photo by Heather Mount on Unsplash Alongside the woke campaigns and conscientious product development, an awakening is happening inside these organisations too. Employees, shareholders and industry collectives are coming together, to make their desires for social and environmental change heard. Whilst employees organising is nothing newtrade unions have played an active role in protecting the rights of workers for centuriesand whistleblowing still utilised in calling out circumspect professional practise, of late, the focus and nature of such employee activism is shifting. A shift in generational values, to start. Millennialsand Gen Z not far behind themcare far more for the big picture than they do personal interest. The expectation now is that the businesses they buy from and work for think of society and environment alongside profit, and make a meaningful contribution to people, communities, society and the economy. Inherently shifting the nature of recruitment and consumer demand, the values held by millennials are also creeping into the C-Suite and board room, as this generation come into positions of power. With a leadership style leading towards collaboration over competition, and transparency over power playing, the remit of business is changing, as is our collective measurement of what success looks like. Often at odds with hierarchical models of leadership, and the exclusive focus on capital weve lived and breathed since the 1980s, what were seeing is those tensions play out on a mass scale, as younger employees organise themselves. Excepting this time, it's from within the organisation. Using the power of their talent and the availability of tech platforms and social media to use their voice, employee activists of this generation differ from employee action of yore in two fundamental ways. One, theyre speaking out for social change instead (and often at the potential expense) of their personal position, and two, theyre whistleblowing collectively. Often gaining little traction through addressing the issues internallythrough HR or flagging directly to the organisations leadershipthe resultant breakdown in trust is forcing these younger generations to find alternative means through which to make their voices heard. Loudly, and creatively too. In May 2019, Amazons employees got savvy and used their shares to submit a proposal to the tech monoliths board. Concerned about the lack of action on climate change (and the potential use of the companys facial recognition software in further marginalising people of colour and immigrants, over 5000 employees also signed a petition to draw attention to their expectations. Whilst the board both recommended against approving the proposals and went on to overlook them, this wont be the last example of employee shareholders using their governance enshrined rights to raise awareness or encourage action on pressing social and environmental causes. Where shareholder activism isnt an option, employees are finding more disruptive ways to make their issues known. Whether its Apple CEO Tim Cooks stance on LGBTQ+ equality or the women of Google walking out in response to the organisations gross mishandling of sexual harassment in the workplace, employees are now organising campaigns internally, though to varying effect. Though 20,000 Google women walked globally for the five demands at the core of their protest, the organisers have since experienced retaliation, and are now staging sit-ins to highlight the failure of the HR department to adequately address complaints. Nike on the other hand, upon being made aware of a survey undertaken to gauge the extent of sexual misconduct of senior executives, promptly removed those accused from the organisation, showing commitment to their wider efforts to address gender equality. How an organisation responds to employee activism depends on the ability of the leadership to take accountability, and the culture fostered within the organisation. Whilst Nike has shown commitment to womens issues through their advertising and HR practises, this has yet to filter down into business contracts, with female athletes in particular. Recently called out by Olympian Alysia Montao for maternity discrimination against female athletes, how they respond will be all important. Whats evident is that employees are no longer just organising within the organisation, as more female athletes followed suit, and highlighted punitive contractual arrangements across the sports industry when it came to motherhood. The precedent set by Times Upa collective of women from across the entertainment industry raising funds to support lesser resources women in other lines of work to take legal action in the face of workplace sexual harassmenthas been a powerful one. This new kind of industry organising, around uncomfortable social issues that have a high personal cost, is only going to grow in potential and power, as younger generations use their fair-minded, collaborative and noisy ways of working to hold businesses and their leaders to account. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurencoulman/2019/05/30/why-is-employee-activism-on-the-rise/ |
Can The Real Satoshi Nakamoto (Or Craig Wright) Please Stand Up? | Getty Satoshi is supposedly the person (or persons) who developed and released bitcoin in 2009, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created the first blockchain database on which bitcoin was deployed. Little is known about Nakamoto beyond his "name" and assumed origin of location. He (or she, I suppose) never disclosed any personal information - not even letting a possible clue slip about his true identity, when discussing technical matters through commentaries hes given throughout the years. According to his profile on P2P Foundation, an organization with the aim of studying the impact of peer-to-peer technology, Nakamoto claims to be a 37-year-old man (this was back in 2012, so hed be a bit older now), from Japan. However, there are many who argue this profile is fake: Nakamoto is known for having perfect English, and even more convincing, there is no record of anything written in Japanese in the bitcoin software he developed. He created a finite supply of bitcoin, divided it up among the blockchain community, released his white paper, and then disappeared. The debate over which individual or group of individuals is actually behind the creation of blockchain has been going on for years. Different people have come forward claiming to be the famous Nakamoto, while others believe his identity will never be revealed. There are those who staunchly believe that Nakamoto is dead, and that the mystery will never be solved. The one million bitcoins that Nakamoto still holds have not been traded or moved in years, leading many to assume he died. And while the debate over his identity has been an interesting story to watch unfold over the years, recently the conversation has taken a more drastic turn. Craig Wright. Before we delve into Craig Wright and his claim to the Iron Throne of cryptocurrency, let's take a quick look at some other contenders for the crown over the years. Early developers, including Craig Wright and David Kleiman, are frequently labeled the creators of bitcoin. Because back in 2008, little was known about cryptocurrencies, many believe that those who worked on bitcoin and the upkeep of the bitcoin blockchain in the early years are responsible for its creation British citizens. Nakamoto has shown that he has perfect English, leading many to believe he is actually a native English speaker. Enthusiasts go even further, arguing the use of British English in his original code adds fuel to the Hes a Brit! fire. Satoshi Nakamoto himself. There is a Japanese American man living in California by the name Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto, but he was born just Satoshi Nakamoto. He was trained as a physicist, but has claimed that he is no longer involved [with bitcoin]. If the shoe fits... The list above represents just a small taste of the various claims and possibilities behind the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. However, one man seems to have the strongest claim to the title, and hes making headlines in the media because of it. Craig Wright is an Australian academic, computer engineering expert, and entrepreneur. In 2015, both Wired and Gizmodo came out with stories that Wright might be the creator of bitcoin. Rather than deny the claims, Wright admitted that he was involved in the creation of the worlds first cryptocurrencies. Because there was still skepticism, Wright went on to publish screenshots of his terminal and Satoshis public key on a very early block, in order to persuade the disbelievers. Still the naysayers wouldnt accept it, some even going so far as to suggest certain documents Wright released were forged. At this point, there is still no definitive proof either to back up or refute Wights claims. Recently, Craig Wright took things to the next level. He has filed registrations with the U.S. Copyright Office to support his claims of authorship over the original bitcoin code and Satoshi white paper. (You can take a look at the registrations here and here.) Filing for the registration does not automatically imply that Wright owns the code or the official patent. As Cointelegraph reported, the registrations, don't provide any real evidence of bitcoin authorship, since as numerous commentators have pointed out it's highly unlikely that the Copyright Office required proof that Wright is Satoshi Nakamoto prior to registering the claim. Wright claims that he is not happy with the status of the crypto market, which prompted his filing of the patent. As it stands today, bitcoin does not fulfill the original purpose of the cryptocurrency. In a statement to Coindesk, Wright said that BTC is not bitcoin. bitcoin is set in stone and does not change... BTC is passing off as bitcoin. It is an air drop copy that has been designed to slowly alter the protocol allowing the system to be anonymized to such an extent that criminal activity can happen. The goal is to create a system that allows people to commit crimes, extort money, have automated ransomware and worse. These registrations could have serious implications for the future of cryptocurrency and bitcoins price. Some believe that if Wright is recognized by the U.S. government as the true author of the bitcoin white paper, then the bitcoin SVs price could dramatically rise or fall. The attempt to associate bitcoin to a single person or company works against the bitcoin idea," says Alex Frenkel, General Manager of Kin Ecosystem. "The power of bitcoin is in the masses holding it, and if it is associated with a single source, it can be blocked." "The move in BTC over the past few days has nothing to do with Craig Wright's copyright of Satoshi's Whitepaper," thinks Ramon Ferraz, CEO of banking startup 2gether. "Anyone can file for copyright, this doesnt necessarily mean they are the authors of the paper. Secondly, concerning his manifesto, it is more likely that Bitcoin SV disappears than Bitcoin. Lastly, there are more illegal trades made in USD than in all of crypto combined." Bitcoin is relatively stable at the moment, and more use cases for blockchain in enterprise industries are popping up. While itll be interesting to see what plays out with Wrights copyright registrations, the crypto industry needs to keep its focus on bringing crypto to the masses, and less about specific arguments. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/yoavvilner/2019/05/30/can-the-real-satoshi-nakamoto-or-craig-wright-please-stand-up/ |
Who is Courtney Banghart, new UNC womens basketball coach? | New UNC coach Courtney Banghart climbs onto the basket after the 2019 Ivy League championship with Princeton North Carolina has hired Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart as its new womens basketball coach on April 30, 2019. Banghart has won seven Ivy League championships as head coach and was Naismith Coach of the Year in 2015. Up Next SHARE COPY LINK North Carolina has hired Princeton head coach Courtney Banghart as its new womens basketball coach on April 30, 2019. Banghart has won seven Ivy League championships as head coach and was Naismith Coach of the Year in 2015. As North Carolina searched for a new womens basketball coach to replace Hall of Famer Sylvia Hatchell, one name kept popping up. Courtney Banghart. The 40-year-old Princeton coach had made a name for herself in the Ivy League and across the country after turning a program which had never made it to an NCAA tournament into one that was almost always there. Meanwhile, North Carolina went three seasons without an NCAA tournament appearance from 2016 to 2018. This years team went 18-15 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament under Hall of Fame coach Sylvia Hatchell before plunging into turmoil. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to The News & Observer content across all your devices. SAVE NOW But with wins over then-No. 1 Notre Dame and then-No. 7 N.C. State in the regular season, Banghart said she saw talent. This is not a place that is broken by any stretch, she said. This is a place thats had some stress. Thats had some disruption. Im here to help through that. Hatchell, who spent 33 seasons at UNC and won a national title in 1994, resigned on April 18 amid an internal investigation and allegations of player mistreatment and racially insensitive comments. North Carolina has not made the full results of that investigation public. When asked in a teleconference Tuesday was there a concerted effort to have a coach without previous ties to UNC or Hatchell, North Carolina athletic director Bubba Cunningham said we were looking for the absolute best coach we could find and Courtney rose to the top. Her development of players, her winning on the court, her classroom commitment to the whole student experience made her the best choice to build on the great Carolina basketball tradition that coach Hatchell has built over the past 30 years, Cunningham said. Banghart played college basketball at Dartmouth from 1996 to 2000. She was a two-time first-team All-Ivy selection and her 273 career 3-pointers was an Ivy League record. After college, she immediately went into coaching, where she rose quickly. She spent three years as the athletic director and womens basketball coach at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va., before becoming an assistant coach at her alma mater in 2003. After four years there as an assistant, she got a call from then-Princeton athletic director Gary Walters asking if she wanted to be considered for the job. Banghart was hired at Princeton in 2007. Before that, the Tigers had never made it to an NCAA tournament. During her first two years at Princeton, her teams missed the NCAA tournament but continued to improve. In her third season there, her team finished 26-3 and 14-0 in the Ivy League, earning its first-ever trip to the NCAA tournament. Banghart was 245-103 in 12 seasons at Princeton, and made it to the NCAA tournament in eight of the last 10 years (and the Womens NIT in the other two). Shes going from one very competitive league to another. Very different, apples to oranges, but I think Courtney is intrinsically very competitive, Harvard coach Cathy Delaney-Smith said. So I think thats going to matter. Bangharts teams were 1-8 in the NCAA tournament. Her lone tournament win came during the 2014-15 season. Her team finished 31-1 and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament. Banghart, who won the Naismith national coach of the year award that season, said she was content at Princeton and would have only left if the school was the right fit. North Carolina was that. She said she has aspirations to win a national championship. Im a winner, Banghart said. Ive been able to amass the right people and Ive been able to lead them further than they could go alone. Thats what will happen at Carolina. North Carolina womens basketball team has struggled in recent years. From 2001 to 2015, the Tar Heels made it to the NCAA tournament in all but one year. Over the past four years, they made it only once. Banghart met with her new players as a group for 45 minutes on Wednesday. One of the biggest challenges she will likely face is convincing those currently in the program to stay. One player, Destinee Walker, has transferred to Notre Dame, and several others placed their names in the NCAA transfer portal after the season ended. Banghart said she will talk all of her players individually in the next few days. On the court, Banghart said her team is going to be gritty defensively, and will share the ball on offense. But she said theyll also have fun doing it. This is an extracurricular activity until Im told otherwise, Banghart said. So its an additive experience and Im going to treat it like that. | https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article230032829.html |
Are Startups Missing A Trick By Neglecting The Public Sector? | PublicDomainPictures Despite being a venture capitalist who makes a living out of deploying capital into fast-growing tech companies, I always tell the entrepreneurs I work with that the best funding they can get is through sales. Sales provide cash flow, verification, ability to navigate product life cycles and instill confidence. Entrepreneurs mustnt lose sight of this and should explore all possible channels in their quest to generate the sales they need to build sustainable growth. In this respect, the public sector may offer one of the biggest opportunities of all. Just like businesses, governments are navigating the daunting task of digitalizing their services for a rapidly changing world. And yet few businesses could claim their task is as big or complex as that facing the public sector, with its diverse and critical services that reach millions, or even billions, of people. From the digital updates that are desperately needed now, to customer-centric platforms to ease pressure on stretched resources, not to mention the solutions that we dont even know we need yet, the scope of the challenge is mind-boggling. Governments are tackling huge, complex problems around issues such as compliance, tax-evasion, migration, terrorism, cybersecurity, aging population, health - the list goes on. Technology has a pivotal role to play in solving all of them. The perfect challenge for startups This vast opportunity space and the deep need for innovation and future-proof solutions means public sector digitalization is the ideal environment for entrepreneurs and the most cutting-edge startups. Wide scope for disruption, the ability to make a difference to millions of lives, and a huge potential market - predicted to be worth 20bn in the UK by 2025 should be just what every entrepreneur dreams of. "The start-up environment of having to think on your feet, find creative solutions and adapt quickly to changing circumstances means that were suited to addressing the challenges that the Government faces, commented Virraj Jatania, founder and CEO of Pockit, which has been working with policymakers to address the issue of financial inclusion. Start-ups are in their very nature ambitious, and this ambition includes providing answers to the big questions politicians are trying to solve. By working with the public sector, we can help policymakers address this issue whilst realizing the potential of how our business can have a positive impact on customers lives." Governments particularly here in Europe know that they need the fresh thinking and creativity of startups if they are to really modernize how they operate. Hence the UK Governments ambitious target of spending 33% of public sector procurement with SMEs by 2022. Whats more, working with startups is a fantastic way for governments to support their homegrown tech ecosystem and drive economic growth, in a way that could potentially be far more influential than tax incentives, grants, and capital investment however valuable those may be. The fact of the matter is that the public sector still suffers from huge reputational issues that mean most startups dont even consider it as a potential client. A recent survey by GovTech venture firm, PUBLIC, found that 92 percent of SMEs still prefer to work with the private sector than with the government. Long-winded, opaque tender processes, mountains of bureaucracy and onerous contracts mean that it doesnt make financial sense for most young businesses to go down the public route when they have much more straightforward revenue streams to pursue elsewhere. Government contracts are also perceived to involve a large amount of customization and working with numerous contractors. It isnt unusual for VCs to run a mile when they hear that has business has a public project on the books, due to the risk and cost involved. These perceptions and attitudes need to change drastically if both sides are to enjoy the benefits that these innovative partnerships could deliver. Slow but steady change is afoot Thankfully, despite all the negative stereotypes, change is afoot in the public sector, which is gradually making GovTech a more attractive prospect to startups. For example, the UK government launched a 20m GovTech fund in 2017, along with a GovTech Catalyst team, responsible for nurturing and cultivating the UK GovTech market. Part of the fund goes towards supporting a series of competitions, inviting startups to pitch solutions to government challenges; 17 of which have already been successful. Support is coming from the private sector too, most notably from PUBLIC, a venture firm that helps tech startups transform the public sector. It acts as a much-needed bridge between startups and the public sector machine, providing the insights, network, and capital that founders need to help transform public services. PUBLIC has also just teamed up with the coworking space provider, Huckletree, to launch the UKs first GovTech accelerator in Westminster called Public Hall. Startups are transforming every aspect of our economy, and all signs point to government and GovTech being the next major market for small agile businesses, commented Co-founder & CEO of PUBLIC, Daniel Korski. Governments should embrace this trend: startups will bring a wave of cheaper, faster and more user-centered services that will be to the benefit of citizens and service providers alike. Progress is being made, but few would argue that more needs to be done to open up the public sector to startup innovation. And we mustnt forget that startups and investors themselves have a role to play, by starting to take government seriously as a customer and helping public sector organizations to see what the ecosystem can offer. There are a few ways they can help oil the wheels: Carefully define who the buyer is: Public sector organizations are extremely siloed with limited flow of information between different departments and functional teams. So, first and foremost, spend time identifying the right person or people you should be talking to. Public sector organizations are extremely siloed with limited flow of information between different departments and functional teams. So, first and foremost, spend time identifying the right person or people you should be talking to. Call dont email: In a world that is inundated with bureaucracy and process, old-fashioned phone calls are your fastest route in. Use calls to narrow down your search and get inside information from the buyer about what they need and how the procurement process works. In a world that is inundated with bureaucracy and process, old-fashioned phone calls are your fastest route in. Use calls to narrow down your search and get inside information from the buyer about what they need and how the procurement process works. Address the problem rather than the product: Youre not likely to be talking to technical people, so be practical about benefits rather than getting bogged down in the technical details of how your product works. Youre not likely to be talking to technical people, so be practical about benefits rather than getting bogged down in the technical details of how your product works. Engage outside the procurement process: Unfortunately, procurement is a fact of life in the public sector, however rigid questions often dont allow you to present what you offer in the best way. Ensure you go beyond this by networking within the organization and demonstrating your solution in other ways. Unfortunately, procurement is a fact of life in the public sector, however rigid questions often dont allow you to present what you offer in the best way. Ensure you go beyond this by networking within the organization and demonstrating your solution in other ways. Partner with other startups: Working with one large organization is easier than managing many small ones, so try to build consortiums with other startups where possible, to offer complementary services together. Working with government and the public sector takes patience and a long-term strategy you cant expect quick turnarounds or fast results. But there is no doubt that those who make inroads now will have big opportunities ahead of them, tackling some of the biggest problems facing society. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kjartanrist/2019/05/30/are-startups-missing-a-trick-by-neglecting-the-public-sector/ |
Has Trumps contempt for John McCain reached a new, farcical level? | In the wake of John McCains passing last summer, Donald Trump made no real effort to hide his contempt for the late senator, taking cheap and unnecessary shots at the Arizonan for months. Over the last couple of months, this has intensified in unexpected ways. In March, for example, Trump lashed out at McCain for his grades at the Naval Academy, his opposition to a far-right health care gambit, and his willingness to turn the Steele dossier over to the FBI (which, incidentally, the president lied about). A couple of days later, Trump kept the offensive going during a White House visit with a foreign leader. Congressional Republicans begged the president to stop. Instead, as regular readers know, Trump did the opposite, slamming the late senator on veterans issues and complaining about McCains funeral. Its against this backdrop that the Wall Street Journal published a striking new report last night. The White House wanted the U.S. Navy to move out of sight the warship USS John S. McCain ahead of President Trumps visit to Japan, according to an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. [] In a May 15 email to U.S. Navy and Air Force officials, a U.S. Indo-Pacific Command official outlined plans for the presidents arrival that he said had resulted from conversations between the White House Military Office and the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy. In addition to instructions for the proper landing areas for helicopters and preparation for the USS Wasp where the president was scheduled to speak the official issued a third directive: USS John McCain needs to be out of sight. Please confirm #3 will be satisfied, the official wrote. It quickly became obvious that moving the warship wasnt a realistic option giving its ongoing repairs, so according to the WSJs account, accommodations were made: ahead of Trumps trip, a tarp was placed over the ships name. Whats more, sailors on board were directed to remove any coverings from the ship that bore its name. The article added, After the tarp was taken down, a barge was moved closer to the ship, obscuring its name. Sailors on the ship, who typically wear caps bearing its name, were given the day off during Mr. Trumps visit, people familiar with the matter said. The Washington Post published a related report this morning, confirming that the White House made this specific request. Its important to emphasize that Defense Department officials pushed back against some of the WSJ reports details in interviews with NBC News. Whats more, the president himself wrote on Twitter, I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Of course, just because Trump denies something doesnt mean its false. Whats more, whether the president was directly informed of the White Houses directive is a separate question than whether the directive was sent. But lets consider a charitable scenario. Lets say White House officials pressed the military to move the USS McCain out of sight ahead of Trumps trip, but the president himself was not aware of the request and played no part in the instructions. By this reasoning, Trumps own staff believes hes such a delicate snowflake that they went to considerable lengths to ensure their boss wouldnt even see the name John McCain. | http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/has-trumps-contempt-john-mccain-reached-new-farcical-level |
What happens when Social Security goes broke? | CLOSE If you're planning on relying solely on your social security check for retirement, you may want to reconsider. Here's why. USA TODAY Americans are worried about Social Security. Whether it's Transamerica's annual retirement survey (44% of workers fear a reduction in or elimination of Social Security benefits), Gallup (67% of workers worry a "great deal" or "fair amount" about the Social Security system as of March 2019), or any of a variety of other surveys, the trend is clear. Americans fear that Social Security won't be around (or at least won't be as generous) in the future. As the ratio of workers to retirees narrows from between 3.2 and 3.4 between 1974 and 2008 down to a projected 2.2 in 2035 the program will certainly be put under additional strain, and it is currently slated to run out of reserves in about 16 years. Social Security's Board of Trustees issues an annual report which reveals its exact prediction as to when Social Security will run out of money and what happens next. The deficits start shortly According to the trustees' report, the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (or OASDI) funds will start paying out more than they're taking in next year. And by 2035, the combined funds of OASDI will be depleted. (Technically speaking, OASI and DI are two separate programs OASI is slated to deplete its reserves in 2034, with DI hanging on until 2052. But I digress.) So, in short, Congress has about 16 years left to fix Social Security before it goes broke. Here's what happens if those efforts fail NEWSLETTERS Get the newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-872-0001. Delivery: Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters If Social Security continues in its current arc and the trustees' predictions are accurate, when the combined OASDI funds run out of money in 2035, Social Security will have to immediately reduce the benefits it pays out. OASDI will still be receiving money from payroll taxes, so the Social Security Administration will be able to pay out 80% of previously promised benefits. Again, that differs between OASI and DI OASI would be able to pay 77% of promised benefits when funds are depleted in 2034, and DI could pay 91% of benefits when its reserves empty in 2052. That's certainly quite a bit better than "Social Security folds up shop and stops all benefits" (which was never a serious risk though a persistent myth), but it's still not great. Consider that Social Security represents at least half of income for 48% of married retirees and 69% of unmarried retirees. That's a hefty cut to their retirement livelihood at a time when it can be difficult to make up the deficit. (And given how expensive healthcare is in retirement, it's not as if they necessarily have a lot of wiggle room.) If you're still working, know that Social Security isn't going to go belly-up and suddenly stop paying out benefits. To ensure 75 years of solvency going forward, the trustees recommend either immediately increasing taxes or reducing benefits (or both). To solve the issue using only additional tax revenue, they recommend increasing the payroll tax to 15.1% (from today's 12.4%). Their benefit cut solution is to either reduce Social Security payouts by 17% for everyone (including current retirees) or by 20% to all new beneficiaries starting in 2019. Or, again, some combination of the above. As you can imagine, neither of these solutions is terribly politically palatable. Nonetheless, there are plenty of historical precedents the 1983 bill that stabilized Social Security increased both funding and the retirement age. (Increasing the retirement age functions as a benefit cut for future retirees, even if it isn't explained that way.) Of course, waiting longer makes it worse. The trustees predict that waiting until 2035 when the combined funds net run dry would necessitate a 3.65 percentage point increase in the payroll tax (to 16.05%) or a permanent 23% benefit reduction. Evading trouble: 5 ways to avoid regret with Social Security, retirement planning Staying on top: You should be checking your social security statements. One way to ease the pain An intriguing third option albeit with some risk attached involves investing a portion of Social Security funds in the stock market. Currently, Social Security's roughly $2.9 trillion fund surplus is invested in U.S. Treasuries. While those are certainly safe securities, they don't offer a lot of opportunity for growth. Boston College's Center for Retirement Research released a report back in 2017 that makes a compelling case for the Social Security funds taking on some investment risk in exchange for significantly better potential returns. The authors analyzed stock market returns and concluded that the Social Security funds would be in better shape today had they been invested in stocks starting in either 1997 or 1984 despite the 2001 and 2008 stock market slumps. Their simulations also predict that "investing a portion (a maximum of 40%) of Social Security trust fund assets in equities would reduce the need for greater payroll tax contributions or benefit reductions." (To be precise, 97% of their simulations found the trust fund strengthened, assuming stock investment began as of the study's publication in 2017.) Now, I'd prefer that investing in stocks eliminate the need for tax increases or benefit losses, but a reduction in the painful changes the program will have to undergo would certainly be a welcome step forward. If you're retired, I sincerely doubt you'll face a benefit cut. It's far more likely that the pain will fall on nonretired generations because most people understand how terrible it would be to force a massive benefit cut on current retirees. If you're still working, know that Social Security isn't going to go belly-up and suddenly stop paying out benefits even in the worst-case scenario. But you can't necessarily depend on it as much as your parents' generation did so now's the time to turbocharge your savings and build up your retirement income base. (And consider calling your Congressperson, if you have a strong opinion as to how the government should fix Social Security.) The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. Offer from the Motley Fool: The $16,728 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example, one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,728 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. 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Who are the 1 in 4 American women who choose abortion? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Luu D. Ireland, University of Massachusetts Medical School (THE CONVERSATION) The abortion debate is at the center of U.S. political dialogue. Voices from both sides flood social media feeds, newspapers, radio and television programs. In the last year, attacks on reproductive rights sharply increased. In 2019, Georgia, Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky and Mississippi successfully passed so-called heartbeat bans to prohibit abortion as early as 6 to 8 weeks. Alabama is the first state to pass a complete abortion ban without exceptions for rape or incest. Due to ongoing legal challenges, these bans have yet to go into effect. One important groups voice is often absent in this heated debate: the women who choose abortion. While 1 in 4 women will undergo abortion in her lifetime, stigma keeps their stories untold. As an obstetrician/gynecologist who provides full spectrum reproductive health care, I hear these stories daily. Unintended pregnancy In 2011, nearly half of pregnancies in the U.S. were unintended. This reflects a 6% drop in unintended pregnancies since 2008, largely due toTitle X family planning programs and easier access to birth control. Unintended pregnancy remains most common among poor women, women of color and women without a high school education. Women living in poverty have a rate of unintended pregnancy five times higher than those with middle or high incomes. Black women are twice as likely to have an unintended pregnancy as white women. Barriers to contraception play a major role. Among women with unintended pregnancies, 54% were using no birth control. Another 41% were inconsistently using birth control at the time of conception. Forty-two percent of women with unintended pregnancy choose to end their pregnancies. The women who choose abortion Abortion is a routine part of reproductive health care. Approximately 25% of women in the U.S. will undergo an abortion before the age of 45. The Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy institute in New York City, has been tracking these data for the last 50 years. American women have abortions with similar frequency to women living in other developed nations. The bulk of abortion patients are in their 20s. Women of all races and ethnicities choose abortion. In 2014, 39% of abortion patients were white, 28% were black and 25% were Latinx. Similarly, women of all religious affiliations choose to end their pregnancies at similar frequencies. Most of these women understand what it means to parent a child. More than half of abortion patients in 2014 were already mothers. Poor women account for the majority of abortion patients. Fifty-three percent of women pay out-of-pocket for their abortion. The rest use private or state-funded insurance plans. Women choose abortion for multiple reasons. The most common reason cited is that pregnancy would interfere with education, work or ability to care for dependents. Financial stress also plays a major role in womens decision-making. Seventy-three percent of women reported that they could not afford a baby at the time. Nearly half cited relationship difficulties or wanting to avoid single motherhood. More than a third of women felt their families were complete. Twelve percent chose abortion due to their own health problems. For example, one of my patients and her husband were thrilled to find out she was pregnant for the first time. Then she received the diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer. She had to choose between lifesaving chemotherapy and radiation or her pregnancy. Safety of abortion Nine in 10 women who receive abortions undergo abortion in the first trimester. Only 1.3% of abortions happen with pregnancies past 20 weeks of gestation. When performed legally by skilled practitioners, abortion is a safe medical procedure with a low complication rate. The risk of major complications such as hospitalization, infection, blood transfusion or surgery in first-trimester procedures is less than 0.5%. The risk of dying in childbirth is 14 times higher than the risk of dying from safe abortion. Studies show that abortion is not linked to long-term health complications, including breast cancer, infertility, miscarriage or psychiatric disorders. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the nations leading professional organization of obstetricians and gynecologists, has reaffirmed the safety of abortion. Conversely, the negative impacts from abortion restrictions are well-documented. Women unable to obtain abortions are more likely live in poverty or depend on cash assistance, and less likely to work full-time. Since 2011, politicians have enacted over 400 pieces of legislation restricting this medical procedure. Access to safe and legal abortion is an essential part of health care. Most Americans agree. Sixty-four percent of Americans, regardless of pro-choice or pro-life status, would like to see the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision upheld. Another 79% want abortion to remain legal. As a physician, the health and livelihood of my patients depend on it. This is an updated version of an article originally published on July 27, 2018. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/who-are-the-1-in-4-american-women-who-choose-abortion-118016. | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Who-are-the-1-in-4-American-women-who-choose-13906305.php |
How Successful Are the Marriages of People With Divorced Parents? | Researchers have been aware of the connection between a parents divorce and a childs divorce for nearly a century, says Nicholas Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah. Further, as Wolfinger found after he started studying the subject in the 1990s, people with divorced parents are disproportionately likely to marry other people with divorced parentsand couples in which both partners are children of divorce are more likely to get divorced than couples in which just one person is. Wolfinger says that researchers have some ideas about why divorce would be heritable. One theory is that many children of divorce dont learn important lessons about commitment. All couples fight, Wolfinger explains. If your parents stay together, they fight and then you realize these things arent fatal to a marriage. If youre from a divorced family, you dont learn that message, and [after fights] it seems like things are untenable. And so you bounce. One other (albeit minor) factor is genetics. By way of explanation, Wolfinger talked through a hypothetical generation-spanning chain of assholery: Some people are jerks, and there is some component of being a jerk that appears to be purely genetic. So: Youre a jerk, you get married, you have a kid, you don't stay marriedbecause youre a dickyour kid inherits some of the genetic propensity to be a jerk. And so they get divorced. Though most studies have focused on divorce, some research has suggested that unmarried co-parents are more likely to break up if their parents also did. After a failed marriage or cohabitating relationship, fathers are likely to be less present in their kids lives than mothers areaccording to census data, legal custody is granted to women in 83 percent of cases. Linda Nielsen, a professor at Wake Forest University who studies father-daughter relationships, has found that the reduced presence of a father tends to harm girls educational prospects and physical healthas well as their marriages, which are more likely to end in divorce. Nielsen says that fathers can help daughters build confidence in themselves, and that this confidence serves them well when selecting their partners. Girls who grow up hungry for a better and deeper relationship with their fathers, she says, often try to satiate that hunger very quickly, with the first guys that come along. Very little research has been done on these issues as they pertain to lesbian daughters or same-sex parents, but other studies have found that sons are prone to conflict-heavy relationships in their teens when raised by a single mother (and children, of course, can have a hard time without a present mother as well). Despite these challenges, the likelihood that children of divorce will go on to get a divorce themselves has diminished greatly over time. According to Wolfinger, in the early 1970s, married people with divorced parents were about twice as likely as married people from intact families to get a divorce; now, the former group is only about 1.2 times as likely to get a divorce as the latter group. | https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/05/divorced-parents-marriage/590425/?utm_source=feed |
How Much Does Sonja Morgan Remember From Her Wild The Real Housewives of New York City Night in Miami? | On the Wednesday, May 29 episode of The Real Housewives of New York City, Sonja Morgan was, well, lit. The episode, which was the first part of RHONY's Miami trip, featured Sonja living up to the tipsy girl name. She unpacked with the help of Tej (not Raj), tried to pee in the bathtub and got combative with pretty much everyone before falling from the table. Let's see Sonja said she remembers calling friend Barbara Kavovit a space cadet because that's a common occurrence. "That would be stupid. I don't remember that," Sonja said on the RHONY after show. "That's beyond drunk." "I don't remember that either," Dorinda said. | https://www.eonline.com/au/news/1045486/how-much-does-sonja-morgan-remember-from-her-wild-the-real-housewives-of-new-york-city-night-in-miami |
Who are the best prep football teams in the Charlotte area? | Myers Park linebacker Roe Chitwood (43) celebrates after intercepting a Butler pass in the second round of the N.C. 4AA high school football playoffs in Matthews on Friday When you reach the state semifinals and return your star quarterback, your star wide receiver and a major college recruit on defense, expectations are going to be high. But Myers Park has much more than just that. In the offseason, top 100 national recruit Porter Rooks transferred from Providence Day, joining Muhsin Muhammad III to form the states top receiving duo. Throwing the ball to them is one of the nations top quarterbacks, junior Drake Maye. This group has massive potential, and several months before the high school season starts, this (potentially) scoreboard-cracking team feels right at No. 1 in the annual Way Too Early Sweet 16 prep football poll. Unlimited Digital Access: Only $0.99 For Your First Month Get full access to The Charlotte Observer content across all your devices. SAVE NOW No. 1 Myers Park (4A, 13-2 last season) Myers Park is 36-6 in the past three seasons. This years offense will be powered by three major college recruits Maye (3,201 yards passing, 36 touchdowns last year) and senior receivers Muhammad (58 catches, 1,003 yards, eight TDs) and Rooks (58 catches, 11 TDs). Senior safety Cameron Roseman-Sinclair (North Carolina commit) headlines a Mustangs defense that allowed just 10 points per contest a year ago. No. 2 Mallard Creek (4A, 10-1) When a one-loss season is a major disappointment, you know just how good your program has become. The Mavericks, who have averaged 13 wins per season over the last decade, have plenty of motivation going into 2019 after Hough ended their season in the second round of the N.C. 4AA playoffs. All-state senior LB Trent Simpson, DE Quentin Williams and DB Jaidyn Davis will lead a unit that allowed just nine points per game last season. Butler transfer Quasean Holmes, an all-Southwestern 4A running back/receiver, will spice up the offense. No. 3 Charlotte Catholic (3A, 15-1) Catholic is 73-5 in the past five years with three state titles. With 11 starters back from a 15-1 state champ, the Cougars have the weapons to three-peat. Senior RB Lamagea McDowell (1,267 yards, 17 TDs), junior RB Paul Neel (727 yards, 11 TDs) will run behind a strong offensive line led by 6-foot-4, 340-pound tackle Malik McDowell (UNC commit). On defense, linebackers Liam Barbee (123 tackles), Billy Brewer, Ty Foley and Jacob Schachte will anchor the team. No. 4 Richmond Senior (4A, 11-2) The Raiders were dominant last season before a humbling 37-14 third-round playoff loss to Myers Park at home. With that memory as motivation, the Raiders return 13 starters and 32 lettermen. Junior QB Caleb Hood (1,956 yards passing, 21 TDs last year), senior RB Jaheim Covington (1,174 yards rushing) lead an offense that averaged 37 points. Richmond will reload on offense and defense but has the experience and talent to be a serious 4AA state contender. No. 5 Weddington (3A, 15-1) Weddington coach Andy Capone won a state title in his first season. He returns 13 starters, led by All-American RB Will Shipley (1,417 yards rushing, 19 TDs), a strong defense featuring linebackers Alec Mock and Trey Alsbrooks and major special teams players in kicker/punter, Ian Williams (19 field goals, 41 yards per punt). Weddington has all the pieces to battle Charlotte Catholic for a Southern Carolina Conference title and repeat as 3AA state champs. No. 6 Butler (4A, 9-3) Butler has averaged 11 wins in coach Brian Hales eight-year tenure. This season, the Bulldogs return three all-conference linemen in Anthony Carter (6-foot-5, 305 pounds), Leo Arredondo (6-1, 270), and Tre Richburg (6-2, 285). RB Jamal Worthy (915 yards rushing, 15 TDs last year) runs behind them. Butler also returns an experienced defensive unit. You bet. No. 7 Vance (4A, 14-2) The 4AA state finalist lost head coach Aaron Brand to South Carolinas Irmo High School, but returns five major college recruits on defense, led by all-state defensive player of the year Power Echols (15-plus, major Division I offers, 160 tackles, nine sacks last year), senior LB Stefon Thompson (118 tackles, 10 sacks), senior DB Stephen Sings (12.5 sacks), and senior DBs Jaylen Gullate (51 tackles, three interceptions) and Marqui Lowery (46 tackles, two interceptions). Junior RB Joseph Morris (1,341 yards) is back on offense. No. 8 Charlotte Christian (Ind., 11-0) The NCISAA 3A state champions return 11 starters, and after going 31-3 the past three seasons, the Knights are a little young. Playmakers like multipurpose star J.B. Awolowo, WR Logan Jones and RB Henry Rutledge return with an experienced offensive line. The defensive line is also strong with Hudson Jones, Grayson Cadd and Philip Slaughter back. No. 9 Shelby (2A, 13-3) Shelby has averaged 14 win per season over the past six years with five state championships. First-year coach and longtime assistant Mike Wilbanks has a loaded team, led by QB Isaiah Bess (4,012 yards passing, 40 TDs), RB Donye Fuller (1,012 yards rushing, 15 TDs), WRs Diavonni Daley (54 catches, 12 TDs) and Jahari Mitchell (62 catches, nine TDs) The Shelby defense led by junior LB Jack Hollifield (137 tackles), senior LB Nick Stites (145 tackles) and senior DB Dashaun Christopher also will be stout. No. 10 Rock Hill South Pointe (4A, 10-2) - Former South Pointe and South Carolina Gamecocks standout DeVonte Holloman is the new coach. South Pointe is 56-5 the last five years with four S.C. AAAA state championships. This year, South Pointe has plenty of talent with senior QB Tahleek Steele (2,470 yards passing, 33 TDslast year) back to lead the offense, while senior in Rontarious Aldridge (50 tackles), Omega Blake (four interceptions) and Troy Frazier (61 tackles) headline an experienced defensive group. No. 11 Northwest Cabarrus (3A, 13-1) - After winning 12 games in four years, Northwest Cabarrus lost just one last season. This year, 15 starters return, including the South Piedmont Player of the Year, RB Tyrese Blake (2,500 yards rushing, 36 TDs), and QB Nick Wilds-Lawing (1,715 yards passing). Northwest, which has a veteran offensive line, also has key players back on defense, including senior DE Karsen Perkins (13 sacks). No. 12 Hough (4A, 11-3) Hough has a lot to replace, but it returns junior RB Evan Pryor (912 yards rushing, 10 TDs last year) and senior WR Antonio Barber on offense. Senior middle linebacker Storm Monroe (94 tackles) returns to lead the defense. Hough has averaged 10 wins annually over the past six years. Expect that to continue in 2019. No. 13 Kings Mountain (3A, 12-3) Kings Mountain returns 15 starters from a 3A state semifinalist. The offense will have a new quarterback but returns all-state junior WR Kobe Paysour (79 catches, 1,750 yards and 27 TDs) and senior RB Ricaylan Mack (1,081 yards, 11 TDs). With strong lines on both sides of the ball including seniors, D.J. Bagwell and Xavier Brown on offense, and Zach Crawford and Day Day Wilson (LB) on defense the Mountaineers have all the pieces to be a legit contender. No. 14 Belmont South Point (3A, 9-4) South Point has averaged 11 wins per season in the past eight years. This year, 12 starters return, led by a veteran offensive line with seniors Collin Owenby and Peyton Chaney and fullback Naseem Jones (1589 yards rushing, 24 TDs) running behind them. Senior WR Ray Rose (UNC commit, 27 catches, seven touchdowns last year) is also back. Defensively, LB Omar Hunt (71 tackles) and DB Devon King (69 tackles) return. No. 15 Gastonia Hunter Huss (3A, 13-1) The Huskies were perfect for the first 13 games of the season, including a Big South conference title, before losing to Charlotte Catholic in the third round of the N.C. 3A playoffs. This year, senior QB Zo Wallace (2,425 yards passing), junior RB Malik Corry (1,167 yards rushing) and junior WR/DB/ATH Dontavious Nash return. No. 16 Statesville (3A, 9-4) The Greyhounds have won at least nine games in four of the past five seasons. This year, Statesville returns 15 starters headlined by junior QB Nabayne Moore (1,971 yards passing, 19 TDs) and junior RB Chavion Smith (908 yards rushing, 17 TDs) with 6-4, 305-pound Appalachian State recruit Seth Williams paving the way. | https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/high-school/preps-blog/article230959393.html |
How Bad Can Brexit Get? | 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. You can identify the high point of Theresa Mays prime-ministerial tenure at just a few minutes before 10 pm on June 8, 2017. It was Election Day, and her Conservative Party was expected to trounce Labour. She had called the election holding a 21-percentage-point lead against a hopelessly riven Labour Party led by the left-winger Jeremy Corbyn. A resounding victory would give her room to maneuver as she negotiated Brexit with the European Union. She had run an awful campaign, but the dead weight of received wisdom still favored her without reservation or equivocation. With the polls scheduled to close at 10 pm, the pundits ran their mouths assuming no risk to reputation. As exit poll looms, I repeat my prediction: Conservatives to win by 90-100 seat majority, TV personality Piers Morgan tweeted at 9:53. At 9:57, Steve Hawkes, the deputy political editor of The Sun, wrote, Rumour Tories could be looking at 400 seats. Ad Policy At 10:01 pm, the first exit poll revealed that May had lost her majority and would have only 317 seats. Since that nightwhen she lost control, authority, and the plotthe nation has been waiting for the other shoe to drop as she stumbled from crisis to crisis. Some were self-inflicted, while others were imposed by her party in a relentless display of artless ineptitude. Her days were numbered; we just werent sure what the number would be. On Friday, May 24, she put us all out of her misery, announcing that she would resign as head of the Conservative Party on June 7. The two main things to understand about Mays departure can be gleaned from that night. The first is that it was ultimately precipitated by Labours left turn and the hubris of the political and media class that underestimated it. May had inherited a slender working majority from David Cameron that would have been sufficient to get her EU deal through. The only reason she gambled it by calling a snap election is that she believed it really wasnt a gamble. The assumption that Corbyns Labour would go down to historic defeat was so entrenched that it was not even understood as an assumption. It was simply a fact waiting to happen. Not only did Labours realignment prove to be more popular than anyoneincluding Labourhad guessed; it reconnected the Labour leadership with its base, making the party more electorally viable. Though that synergy has since been strained by Brexit, Labour currently enjoys a 10-point lead over the Conservatives. It is in no small part the prospect of a Corbyn government, with its redistributive agenda, that has kept the Tories clinging to office. In December, a third of Mays own party tried to get rid of her. When they failed and Labour tried to push her out a month later, the Conservative Party backed her. The last thing the Tories wanted was a general election in which Labour might win. This is still true, and as fractious and fratricidal as the forthcoming leadership contest will be, one can expect Conservatives to close ranks once it is over. Tories remain fearful of the bearded Marxist waiting in the wings. December 13, 2018 Author page The second thing to understand is that May remained in place for so long because the Tories could not come up with a better idea. She spent the last two years trying to unite her party. She failed, apparently unaware that there is a stubborn, radical core among them who could never accept even the smallest compromise. (Think the Tea Party and Obamacare.) Her Brexit deal, agreed with the European Union, was rejected by Parliament three times. The trouble is that Parliament rejected all the alternatives too. The Tories regarded May as the leader best positioned to fail at the task before allowing someone to carry on with clean hands so that they can claim betrayal. She was ousted after one concession too many upset the delicate balance of interests that had kept her in situ. But we should be under no illusions that whatever comes next will be better, more coherent, or more consensual. Recent European Parliament elections delivered the highest vote to the hard-right Brexit Partynewly formed by former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage to usher in the most extreme Brexit possibleand dropped the Conservatives to fifth place behind the Greens, who had their best result in decades. The Brexit Party favors leaving the EU without a deal, which could cause untold damage to the economy. Tories will be desperate to prevent any further hemorrhaging of their base, which will likely mean that whoever takes over from May will have to be even more right-wing. But just as Labours lurch to the left exposed a fundamental rift between its membership and its parliamentary representatives, so does the Conservatives forthcoming shift to the right. The parliamentarians, who overwhelmingly preferred to remain in the EU, get to short-list the top two candidates, who are then put to the members. Many Tory MPs are wary of Boris Johnson, the buffoonish, roly-poly blowhard who was foreign secretary before resigning over Mays proposed deal. They know him as an opportunistic, gaffe-prone self-promoter. If he makes the top two, as current polling suggests, the members would back him; if the MPs dont short-list him, then the partys decline could continue. But whoever takes over will inherit this shattered party without a parliamentary majority and with the task of either keeping the party together and ruining the country or risking a Corbyn government. May is going, but the Brexit crisis that made her premiership both possible and untenable not only remains but has intensified. One of the most common refrains throughout her premiership was How bad can this get? Now that shes leaving, were about to find out. | https://www.thenation.com/article/brexit-theresa-may-gary-younge/ |
When Will Technology Beat Willpower? | Getty With the development of wearable biometric technology like step trackers and heart monitors, individuals can now - albeit clunkily in most cases - analyze every aspect of their body composition, hydration levels and athletic performance with a glance or a push notification from an Apple Watch. Couple this with groundbreaking work in genetics and nutrition and we should be perfectly functioning individuals. The truth is far from this. Individuals have never had more help and data at our fingers, but people are still getting bigger and lazier thanks to companies like Uber and Postmates. We do. Our psychology or willpower to be exact. While science and behavioural economics are improving all the time, willpower seems to be diminishing thanks to over-notification and placement of easy food and drink stops. Limitless Performance Founder, Jas Mathur, believes the future of fitness is as much about willpower training as it is technology; "While we will be introducing AI, and VR in our interaction with clients, technology isn't the be all and end all. The need to work with them when technology isn't present is even more important in some ways. You can't fake biology. We use biometrics as one of the non-negotiable components of our 'Healthy Living' initiatives. It gives us some of the most important perspectives on our clients' specific needs, so we offer customized solutions. When it comes to fitness, there is no substitution for hard work, and there's no device or gadget that will give you better results than you setting your mind to becoming the absolute best version of yourself and committing to that." Motion Nutrition, recently selected as 'Smartest Nootropic' in Men's Health, is an example of a growing area of science that is helping people regain focus and calm when they need it most. Using naturally-occurring, and human-made elements, the focus of the field that Dr Corneliu E. Giurgea categorized is interesting everyone from executives to athletes offering cognitive benefits to the human brain. The difference is the direct effect, and the contribution to willpower technologies like nootropics offer according to Motion Nutrition CEO, Joe Welstead; "Nootropics help people stay focused despite the bombardment of distractions that surround them enabling individuals to focus more intensely and acutely and be more be efficient with the task at hand so fewer nudges should be needed." Willpower still isn't well understood but technology is - currently - no replacement for willpower. How long this stays the case is up for debate as science and developers compete to create the easy win. A desirable but perhaps not the perfect solution. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/paularmstrongtech/2019/05/30/when-will-technology-beat-willpower/ |
What is the Equality Act and what will happen if it becomes a law? | ASSOCIATED PRESS A pressing topic in employment discrimination law over the last few years has been whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) makes it unlawful for employers to discriminate against individuals because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Title VII generally prevents employers from making employment decisions based on an employees or applicants race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The issue of whether sex should include ones sexual orientation or gender identity--or instead whether these characteristics are distinct from the meaning of sex under Title VII--has percolated among various federal courts around the country. And now Congress, through the House of Representatives, has weighed in as well with a proposed bill. Getty In May 2019, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5, or the Equality Act, which amends Title VII, among other laws, to explicitly add discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity as outlawed forms of discrimination . Title VII generally protects employees and applicants from unlawful discrimination in the workplace. Currently, Title VII prohibits employers from making employment decisions based on an individuals race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Equality Act would replace the word sex with the phrase sex (including sexual orientation and gender identity). The bill defines gender identity as the gender-related identity, appearance, mannerisms, or other gender-related characteristics of an individual, regardless of the individuals designated sex at birth and defines sexual orientation as homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality. The Equality Acts amendments are not in effect now; since it passed the House, the Senate can now decide whether to take it up and the President will ultimately have to sign it into law. (Schoolhouse Rock anyone?). Even though the bill is not law, its passage is a clear statement from the legislative branch about how the House of Representatives views the federal governments role in prohibiting discrimination against the LGBT community. Yet in the past decade, there have been various, and often conflicting, messages from each branch of the federal government. Federal courts at every level have interpreted Title VIIs meaning of sex discrimination differently, as discussed below. The executive branchs position differs depending on which agency you ask. In Macy v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, EEOC Appeal No. 0120120821 (Apr. 20, 2012), the EEOC wrote that Title VIIs prohibition on sex discrimination proscribes gender discrimination and not just discrimination on the basis of biological sex. An EEOC webpage also states that sexual orientation and trasgender status is protected under Title VIIs prohibition on sex discrimination. In contrast, the Department of Justice (an executive branch department) supported an employers motion to dismiss an employees Title VII claim because discrimination because of sexual orientation is not discrimination based on sex under Title VII. Brief for the United States as Amicus Curiae, p. 6, Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., Case 15-3775, (2d Cir. 2017) (emphasis added). Getty Arguments in favor of reading Title VIIs prohibition on sex discrimination to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, often point to past Supreme Court opinions. In Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989), the Court held that discriminating against a female employee because she did not conform to traditional female stereotypes was a form of sex discrimination prohibited by Title VII. The Court reasoned that employment decisions that punished an employee for not conforming to traditional cultural stereotypes constituted an employment decision made on the basis of sex. The Court then expanded the scope of its logical framework in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 U.S. 75 (1998). It found unlawful sex discrimination under Title VII where a male employee was severely sexually harassed for his perceived femininity by other male employees and male superiors. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the courts opinion, which said that same sex harassment based on an a male employees non-conformity to male stereotypes was unlawful under Title VII. Price Waterhouse and Oncale thus set the table for using sex-stereotyping as a basis for Title VII claims of unlawful sex discrimination. A transgender woman, Rachel Tudor, who was a professor in Oklahoma relied on this legal theory, which resulted in an award of $1.16 million in damages after she was denied tenure by the school. A federal jury found that the University had unlawfully discriminated against Tudor based on her sex by punishing her non-conformance to gender stereotypes. Discrepancies still remain among judicial interpretations of the meaning of sex under Title VII. To address this, the Supreme Court will hear three Title VII cases this term. In R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, after six years of employment at Harris Funeral Homes, Aimee Stephens, a transgender woman, began to adhere to the dress code for female employees, instead of the dress code for male employees. Employment records from when Stephens was hired identify Stephens as male, but Stephens identifies and presents as a woman. The funeral home fired Stephens for violating the dress code and because the funeral home owner believed that allowing Stephens to wear womens clothes would violate Gods commands. ASSOCIATED PRESS The Court will hear the other two Title VII cases together because they both address employment discrimination based on an employees sexual orientation. In Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that the employer did discriminate based on sex in violation of Title VII when they fired an employee based on his sexual orientation. In Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found that the employees sexual orientation was not a characteristic that Title VII protects, and dismissed the employees claim of Title VII employment discrimination. The Court seeks to resolve this split in judicial interpretation of Title VII and will likely issue a decision later this year. In the meantime, depending on the state you work in, there may be applicable state, county, and/or local laws that explicitly prohibit discrimination based on an employees gender identity and/or sexual orientation, and these laws will remain in effect regardless of the Supreme Courts decision. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ericbachman/2019/05/30/what-is-the-equality-act-and-what-will-happen-if-it-becomes-a-law/ |
What's The Upside For Ericsson From The Blacklisting Of Huawei? | 2019 Bloomberg Finance LP The United States has imposed export restrictions on the sale of U.S. components and software to Huawei, the largest telecom equipment company, making it difficult for the company to build its products. The U.S. has also been persuading its allies to stop using Huawei equipment, amid concerns that it promotes spying by the Chinese government. Huawei is seen as a leader of sorts in the 5G market, outspending its rivals on R&D ($15+ billion in 2018 vs. $4 billion for Ericsson) and holding the largest number of 5G related patents. With the companys current headwinds, there could be an opportunity for Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Nokia to close the gap. In this interactive analysis, we look at the potential upside to Ericsson stock if it is able to gain at Huaweis expense. You can modify our forecasts to arrive at your own estimates. Network Equipment: Assuming 10% Higher 2021 Revenues In our base case, we expect Ericssons networking revenues to grow to about $18 billion in FY21 from around $16 billion in FY19, driven by higher 5G related spending. However, under a scenario that Huawei equipment faces a lower uptake due to the U.S. sanctions, we estimate that Ericssons sales could be higher by about 10% by FY21. We have kept the upside revenues conservative, as replacing Huaweis equipment altogether will be difficult given the companys technology lead. Moreover, Ericsson has also been banking on China to drive 5G growth and it is possible that the Chinese government could limit the access of global players to its market if Huawei faces a broader ban. Trefis Digital Services & Managed Services: Assuming No Meaningful Upside We assume that Ericssons other two business divisions: Digital services and Managed services will not benefit meaningfully from Huaweis woes. Ericsson has been focusing on turning around the Digital services business while carrying out contract rationalization in the Managed services space. Estimating Ericssons Valuation Ericssons margins could trend higher in our upside case, due to potentially higher pricing power. We are valuing Ericsson at about 14x projected 2021 revenues. Under our upside scenario, we assume that Ericssons stock price could be about 25% higher versus the base case. Explore example interactive dashboards and create your own | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/05/30/whats-the-upside-for-ericsson-from-the-blacklisting-of-huawei/ |
What is the minimum wage? | Image copyright Getty Images The UK could have one of the highest minimum wages in the world if ambitions set out by both the government and the Labour Party become reality, according to a report by think tank the Resolution foundation. The UK national minimum wage sets out the least a worker can be paid per hour by law. As of April 2019, it stood at 8.21 an hour for people aged 25 and older - the government refers to this main rate as the National Living Wage. There are four minimum wages below this amount for younger workers and apprentices: 21-24 years old: 7.70 18-20 years old: 6.15 Under 18: 4.35 Apprentice: 3.90 The rates are decided each year by government, following the recommendations of independent advisory group the Low Pay Commission. It makes it recommendations based on the state of the economy - how many people are in work, what's happening to everyone's earnings and how much they are having to pay for essentials such as food and housing. It estimated that in 2018 there were 1.6 million jobs paying people the National Living Wage. Employers not paying the minimum wage can be investigated and fined by the UK tax authority, Revenue & Customs (HMRC). There are some exceptions to the law though. People with disabilities or those in long-term unemploymentwho take part in a government work programme are paid fixed amounts at different stages of the programme, which amount to less than the minimum wage. Work done by prisoners is paid at a minimum of 4 a week, while students on work placements of less than a year as a required part of their studies are not entitled to be paid anything. The law to introduce the minimum wage was passed in 1998 by the Labour government and it came into force the next year. It started at 3.60 for those 22 and older, and 3.00 for 18-21 year olds. Before the minimum wage was introduced, the lowest paid people consistently saw the slowest growth in their wages. The introduction of the minimum wage reversed this trend, according to the Low Pay Commission, which was set up alongside the introduction of the minimum wage to advise government. Since 1999, the wages of the lowest paid have grown faster than for other workers - apart from during the period just after the financial crisis, when the government decided on a smaller than usual annual increase to the minimum wage. The latest figures, set out in a report by the Resolution Foundation, suggest the proportion of employees in low pay has fallen for the first time in 40 years. This shift happened after the National Living Wage, a higher minimum wage for over-25s, was introduced in April 2016. Low pay is defined as two-thirds of the median - that is, the wage that would be in the middle if you listed everyone's earnings from lowest to highest. In 2018, 17% of employees were in low pay, compared with 21% in 2015, according to the Resolution Foundation. The Low Pay Commission estimates that nearly a third of all workers have benefited directly or indirectly from the minimum wage. That third of workers is more than just those on the minimum wage. There is a "spill over" effect, where some people in the middle also get bumped up along with the lowest paid. There was a widespread concern ahead of the introduction of the minimum wage was that it would cost jobs, as employers compensated for their higher wage bill by hiring fewer people, according to the Low Pay Commission. But this didn't turn out to be the case. There's no evidence of an overall loss of jobs linked to the minimum wage, and only weak evidence of negative impacts on some groups of workers. None of the 30 studies commissioned by the Low Pay Commission since 2000 found effects on employment for low paid workers overall. It said that this was "consistent with international evidence suggesting that carefully set minimum wages do not have noticeable employment effects". Instead, employers have managed increased wage bills by accepting a loss of profits, passing on costs to customers or cutting other non-staff costs. It's possible that there is a tipping point after which a minimum wage increase could affect job numbers or hours, and the Low Pay Commission has said it will continue to monitor this. The Living Wage Foundation charity says the "real living wage" is 10.55 an hour in London and 9 in the rest of the UK. It's calculation is based on an estimation of how much people need to live, including housing costs, travel and childcare. This shouldn't be confused with the government's "National Living Wage" for 25-year-olds and over, which is currently 8.21 an hour. Read more from Reality Check Send us your questions Follow us on Twitter | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48445674 |
What happened at Nazareth House orphanages? | Image copyright Getty Images The extent of the appalling abuse suffered by children in the care of nuns at the Nazareth House orphanages has been laid bare in a new report. Over five decades, children were subjected to physical beatings and punishments on an almost daily basis. In homes in Glasgow, Aberdeen, Ayrshire and Midlothian, they were humiliated, insulted and denigrated by adults charged with their care. And in some cases, children endured "particularly depraved" sexual abuse by adults they should have been able to trust. The details have emerged in a report by the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry, after it heard the evidence of more than 70 witnesses. Here is a summary of some of the testimonies of former residents of the children's homes. They lied that my parents were dead Image caption Yvonne Radzevicius was given a different name while in the care of the Scottish nuns Yvonne Radzevicius was one of more than 70 former residents of the Nazareth Houses whose evidence was heard by the child abuse inquiry. The 76-year-old said she was lied to by nuns at the institution in Cardonald, Glasgow, who told her that her parents had died and she had no family. Decades later she discovered that her mother and father were alive and that she had five brothers and sisters. At the age of 10, she was sent to a Nazareth House facility in Australia where she was physically, emotionally and sexually abused. 'I feel like my life was stolen from me' Image caption Paula Chambers was at Nazareth House in Glasgow in the 1980s Paula Chamberstold the inquiry she was sent to a shrine in France to cure her of a "mental illness" by a nun who called her evil. The 45-year-old spent time at Nazareth House in Cardonald in the 1980s. She said one nun told her she was in the institution because she was a "bad child" and her mother could not cope with her. "I was evil, she said to me on a few occasions," she added. A nun told me the devil was inside me Helen Holland said she was eight years old when a priest and a nun began to sexually abuse her at Nazareth House in Kilmarnock. She told the inquiry she suffered years of physical and emotional cruelty at the children's home in the 1960s and 1970s. The nun repeatedly told her "the devil was inside her". She held Ms Holland down while the priest raped her. Ms Holland was sexually abused over four years and raped by several men. 'There was nothing in my power I could do to stop it' Image caption The man told the inquiry how the abuse started when he was seven One man told the inquiry he was sexually abused by priests, care assistants and older boys over two years at Nazareth House in Lasswade, Midlothian. The abuse began in the 1970s when he was seven. The man, who cannot be named, said when he tried to report the abuse he was beaten or told to "stop telling lies". "If the devil had come and said 'I'm taking you away from this place', I would have gone with him just to get out of there," he said. 'I was foaming at the mouth' Image copyright Bill Harrison/Geograph Image caption The witness claimed physical and mental abuse was part of the daily routine at Nazareth House in Aberdeen Another woman told the inquiry that she and her two sisters were beaten until they bled on their first day at Nazareth House in Aberdeen. She was 10-years-old when she arrived at the city orphanage in 1967, while her youngest sister was just a toddler. Giving evidence, she said the nuns put on a show of "niceness" but became violent as soon as the sisters' social worker left the building. In another incident, she described having her head smashed against a radiator until she was "foaming at the mouth". 'Your family doesn't want you' Christopher Booth said he was 11-years-old when he was sent to Australia from Scotland, after a Nazareth House nun told him he was "garbage". Now 77, Mr Booth told the inquiry the nun said: "Your family doesn't want you, your country doesn't want you." He spent seven months enduring a "brutal" regime at the Aberdeen orphanage before being forced to emigrate in 1952. The child was then sexually abused by priests at a care home in Tasmania. Lady Smith, the chair of the child abuse inquiry, said she would take the findings of her latest report into account when she compiles her final recommendations. The independent inquiry, taking place in Edinburgh, continues. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-48460746 |
What is the world's best biscuit? | Getty Images We all have a favourite kind of biscuit - whether it's chocolatey, fruity or maybe even cheesy! But a new survey to mark National Biscuit Day (no, honestly, it's actually a thing) found that the nation's top types of buttery, sugary snack were: Digestives Jaffa Cakes Chocolate Fingers Chocolate Digestives Now, we don't know about you but this has just made us want biscuits now! It has also sparked the debate as to whether the Jaffa Cake should even be included in the survey - as many people think it is a cake rather than a biscuit! So many questions... (like where is custard cream, just saying?) Choose your favourite from the options below. If your fave isn't there, let us know what biscuit you would munch on in the comments section below! If you can't see the interactive activity above, click here. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/48460961 |
Was Robert Mueller's Statement an Impeachment Referral? | Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller resigned during a press conference Wednesday morning, during which he made what some Democrats are calling an impeachment referral against President Donald Trump. Mueller reiterated that the Justice Department could not confidently say that President Trump did not commit a crime. If we had had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so, he said. However, Mueller told reporters that the Department could not bring charges against Trump because a sitting president cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. The former Special Counsel suggested that its both reasonable to believe the president committed a crime and that impeachment proceedings could be an appropriate course of action, but that power does not sit in the hands of the Justice Department. Instead, he said, the Constitution requires a process other than the criminal justice system to formally accuse a sitting president of wrongdoing. Some Democrats saw his remarks as an impeachment referral to Congress, as progressive Democrats in the House and several 2020 presidential contenders supported taking action. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders both expressed support for impeachment proceedings. Booker said Congress has a legal and moral obligation to do so. South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg called Muellers statement as close to an impeachment referral as it gets. California Sen. Kamala Harris tweeted, Its our constitutional obligation. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrandwho previously took the side of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who opposes rushing to impeachmentchanged her tune and said its time to begin the proceedings. Pelosi remained firm in her stance that Congress should not move toward impeachment without having all the facts. Despite the House Speakers beliefs, more than 40 lawmakers now support the calls for an impeachment inquiry. Were beyond talking about this in terms of political implications, Massachusetts Rep. Jim McGovern and chairman of the Rules Committee told WGBH radio. We have to do whats right. Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said the president egregiously obstructed justice, and would support an impeachment inquiry. Other Democrats urged Congress to continue investigating the presidents criminal activity, independently. In the event that Congress moves forward with impeachment proceedings, Mueller said he would prefer not to testify. The report is my testimony, said Mueller. Rep. Rashida Tlaib is unapologetic about her expletive-filled call for Trumps impeachment Trump tweets that Democrats want to impeach him for being too successful | http://fortune.com/2019/05/30/robert-mueller-statement-impeachment-referral/ |
Is Obamacare causing a surge in part-time work? | In the political close-combat before the Affordable Care Act took effect in January, a major criticism of the health insurance program was that it would spur employers to cut workers' hours, and perhaps even act as a "job-killer." The concern was that companies would shift people out of full-time jobs into part-time positions to avoid a financial penalty for failing to offer coverage to any employee who works at least 30 hours a week. Such fears appear to have been unwarranted. Data out this week from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the percentage of Americans in full-time jobs rose last year, while the share of part-time workers fell. Nearly 73 percent of working-age men and 61 percent of women worked in full-time, year-round jobs in 2013, higher than the estimated 71 percent and 59 percent who did so the previous year. If companies had been cutting workers' hours or hiring more part-timers, experts note, the share of people in part-time jobs should have increased over the last year. It hasn't. "There's little evidence to date that health reform has caused a shift to part-time work," writes Paul Van de Water, a health care expert with the liberal-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in an analysis of the latest Census numbers. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, BLS The share of U.S. employees in part-time jobs who would rather work full-time didn't decline only last year -- it has been falling throughout the recovery that followed the Great Recession. In 2009, the year the recovery officially began, 6.3 percent of workers reported being in involuntary part-time employment. By this year, that figure has fallen to just over 5 percent, economists Dean Baker and Helene Jorgensen of the Center for Economic and Policy Research note in a recent study. What Obamacare does seem to have done, by contrast, is liberate more people to work part-time if they choose. Mostly younger parents with children, according to CEPR, which supported Obamcare ahead of its passage in 2010. "This is consistent with a story where many workers who previously needed to work full-time to get health care insurance at their job are taking the option of buying insurance on the exchanges and working part-time jobs in order to have more time to be with young children," Baker and Jorgensen write. Obamacare's limited impact on the labor market is borne out by other research. Although the main headline out of a February study by the Congressional Budget Office was that the program would stifle job-creation, the agency found that "there is no compelling evidence that part-time work has increased as a result of the ACA." Indeed, CBO did not try to measure whether employers were less likely to hire because of the new health law, as was widely reported at the time. Rather, it focused on whether people would stop working or shift to part-time employment now that they could get health coverage without holding down a job. And that appears to be the best option for at least some Americans, the latest federal data suggest. It is early days for Obamacare, and it remains to be seen what impact it will have on the labor market over the long-term. The White House in February postponed the so-called employer mandate -- the portion of the ACA that requires companies with 50 to 99 full-time workers to offer health insurance or pay a $2,000 penalty -- until 2016 (Businesses with at least 100 employees must comply by January of next year.) Small businesses, which account for most new jobs, could reduce their hiring as the mandate gets set to take effect. But for now, it is clear, most employers aren't responding to the program by shifting their workforce to part-time employees. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-obamacare-causing-a-surge-in-part-time-work/ |
How does coffee impact digestion? | Q: I have found that my body reacts in a very predictable manner to my morning cup of coffee. Usually within five to 10 minutes I have to go to the bathroom. A: You are not the first person to notice this effect. We used to think the caffeine was responsible, but scientists have shown that both regular and decaf coffee stimulate colon activity (Gut, April 1, 1990). Caffeinated coffee does seem to have a stronger effect, however (European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, February 1998). Recently, scientists tested coffee in rats and found that both decaf and high-test increase the power of intestinal muscle contractions. The coffee treatments also changed the composition of the rats gut microbes, though no one is quite certain what that means for digestive health. The investigators reported their research at the conference Digestive Disease Week. Q: I have been on metformin for about three weeks for prediabetes and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). I started with 500 mg, and I am supposed to ramp up to taking it three times a day, half an hour before each meal. I dont know if I can manage that. Right now I am experiencing stomach upset, nausea and diarrhea. It is hard to take. The doctor says this effect will go away. A: Diarrhea and nausea are very common side effects when people start taking metformin. Many people do find that the initial digestive distress diminishes with time. Certain others discover that the side effects continue, and they cant tolerate the drug. Advertising Metformin works by decreasing insulin resistance. That may be why it can help PCOS. This hormonal condition is associated with too much insulin, insulin resistance and chronic inflammation. You can learn more about the pros and cons of metformin, along with other options for controlling blood sugar, in our Guide to Managing Diabetes. Anyone who would like a copy, please send $3 in check or money order with a long (No. 10), stamped (70 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Graedons Peoples Pharmacy, No. DM-11, P.O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027. It also can be downloaded for $2 from our website: peoplespharmacy.com. Q: As a doctor, I prescribe generic ketamine for my hard-to-treat depressed patients. A compounding pharmacy makes it into an affordable nasal spray. My patients have called it a game changer. A: Ketamine (Ketalar) has been available since 1970 as an injectable anesthetic. Some doctors have prescribed it off-label for people with chronic pain or challenging depression. The generic form is relatively inexpensive. The Food and Drug Administration approved a chemical cousin of ketamine, esketamine (Spravato), which is now available. A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry (May 21, 2019) found that esketamine nasal spray worked better than placebo nasal spray to alleviate treatment-resistant depression. The brand name, Spravato, has a drawback. It is expected to cost over $4,000 a month. | https://www.seattletimes.com/life/wellness/how-does-coffee-impact-digestion/?utm_source=RSS&utm_medium=Referral&utm_campaign=RSS_all |
Can 'The Art of Racing in the Rain' movie be as good as the book? | Getty The overdue film adaptation of The Art of Racing in the Rain is coming to theaters August 9, and with it comes the apprehension of a beloved book getting marred by the movies. The dog as narrator might be why it took me a decade to finally read it. Enzo the golden retriever is endearing pretty quickly and the reader forgets the obvious emotional ploy of the narrative device: Enzo, named after Ferrari founder Enzo Ferrari, is sitting in a puddle of his own urine awaiting the return of his human, Denny Swift, so that Denny must finally say his unthinkable but inevitable goodbye. It tugs at the heartstrings from the onset, even if the character names are fraught with authorial contrivance. Then author-screenwriter Garth Stein takes us back to the beginning of Enzo the puppy riding around race tracks as Denny chases his dream of being a professional racer. By day, Denny works at a body shop, by night he and Enzo rewatch races of the rain master Ayrton Senna, a three-time Formula One world champion considered by many to be the best racecar driver of all time. Enzo, who believes he has a human soul thanks in part to his TV watching, becomes a sort of savant at racing and a shrewd commentator on human preoccupations. Soon Denny meets and marries Eve, they have child, Zoe, and the novel moves in dog years from the sweet nostalgia of youth into the compromises of adulthood, where Dennys checkered dreams hit the skids as some serious adulting takes over the plot. Racing doesnt drive the narrative as much as it serves as a metaphor for lifes chicanes. This is where the bulk of the novel picks up. The trailer makes it seem as if this is where it trails off. I wont play the spoiler here, even though youve had 11 years to read it, and having books in the house is almost as good as having a dog in the house. What follows is tragedy, loss, betrayal, forgiveness and redemption. In short, a traditional narrative arc. Even though there are some overdone themes, the book works because of the narrative device I initially doubted: seeing the foibles of humanity one level removed provides a trusting intimacy, where Enzo lacks the intuition and judgments of the reader. Enzo knows all about love and loyalty, especially when his humans dont. Not sure Kevin Costner can do the same thing but lets hope screenwriter Mark Bomback (Planet of the Apes guy) and director Simon Curtis (My Week with Marilyn, among others) can extend that suspension of disbelief in the movie. One of the producers is actor-turned-racer McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey), who bought the film rights after the books release. Denny, played by the guy with the half-crooked smile (Milo Ventimiglia), is almost inhuman in his goodness, self-sacrifice and self-restraint. Eve, played by the Mean Girls gal who got big in Mamma Mia (Amanda Seyfried), casts as large a shadow over Dennys life as Enzo. Oddly, on the IMDb site there is no character listed as Annika, who becomes the black flag in Dennys life. Without her, the movie would be a huge departure from the novel. There are a lot of gorgeous cars and racing scenes in the trailer that should cater to race fans, but the book casts a much wider net about the complexities of love and loss, of getting older and getting on. Its much more date night than the Fast and Furious franchise. Even though you know whats coming, the book--and I expect the movie--will elicit much more complex and wet emotions than the heart-pumping adrenaline rush of racing. Keep the pup close to help clear the tears. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertduffer/2019/05/30/can-the-art-of-racing-in-the-rain-movie-be-as-good-as-the-book/ |
Why Are So Many People Dying on Mount Everest? | Its been a particularly deadly year on Mount Everest, with 11 people dying while attempting the climb since the start of the climbing season. Climbing Mt. Everest, which stretches to over 29,000 feet, is dangerous under the best of conditions and preparation. But overcrowding at the top of the mountain and more inexperienced climbers made things particularly dangerous this yearand exacerbated the factors that can lead to fatalities. Most of the deaths are likely from severe altitude sickness, Jeffrey Gertsch, an associate clinical professor of neuroscience at the University of California San Diego whos studied extreme altitude, told The Daily Beast. If not directly, then indirectly, he said. The mildest form of altitude sickness, called acute mountain sickness, can set in far below the peak of Mount Everest, causing symptoms like dizziness, nausea and fatigue in up to three-quarters of people, depending on how high and how quickly they climb. It typically passes if climbers pause and let themselves adjust to the low oxygen and low pressure conditions. As people climb higher, and the air thins further, more severe illnesses set in. High altitudes and low oxygen make the membranes around the brain and around the lungs leaky, allowing fluids to get into where theyre not supposed to go, Gertsch said. All these places in your body are made up of compartments. Theyre not supposed to leak, he said. Fluid entering the lungs is called a high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and makes it harder to get oxygen in an already oxygen-low environment. It makes everything worse, he said. Fluid leaking into the braincalled a high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE)is even more dangerous, Gertsch said. People with HACE usually start to become confused, and have poor balance and coordination. Most people cant even walk in a straight line, he said. While pulmonary edemas have a wider window and you usually dont die, the cerebral edema death rate is high. When youre up in a place like that, you cant really get help. The effort it takes to get up to the top of Mount Everest, where the environmental conditions can cause HACE and HAPE, also puts people more at risk for the conditions, Gertsch said. The thing about these forms of altitude illnesses are that theyre opportunistic, he said. They start to gain steam when theres any other weakness. If you have a cold, if you are fatigued, if you are dehydratedits going to come on even faster and hit harder. Some peopleparticularly less experienced climbers, who may not recognize the signs of a potentially deadly illnesswill push through anything to get to the top of the mountain, Gertsch said. Theyll do anything, even when it starts to defy logic, to tag the summit. Then they realize, wow, I dont have what it takes to get back down. Lots of people who look to be clearly in need of help, a lot of people wont helpbecause theyre too focused on the summit, or dont have enough energy left, because they didnt belong there anyway. At 29,000 feet, every climber will have some disruption in their membranes and some fluid leakage, Gertsch said. Thats why its so important to move quickly. You get up, tag the summit, and get down. Youre just surviving, while youre up there. The long lines to reach the summit and crowding at the top then, force climbers to spend more time in the environment that can cause these potentially deadly conditions. As a climber, Im offended, and as a physician, Im horrified, Gertsch said. Its just a cattle call in a really dangerous place. Read more at The Daily Beast. Send it to The Daily Beast here Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. | https://news.yahoo.com/why-many-people-dying-mount-133038870.html |
Did Mueller Just Hand Democrats What They Need to Impeach Trump? | Hunter DeRensis Politics, United States There was nothing new in Mueller's statement, but Democrats are treating it as though there was. This morning former Special Counsel Robert Mueller took to a podium at the Department of Justice (DOJ), his first public statement since being selected to investigate allegations of collusion between President Donald Trump and the Russian government. Mueller did not do Trump any favors, but he also did not administer a knockout blow. His statement that his investigation was unable to exonerate Trump is already prompting a number of Democrats to ramp up their calls for an impeachment inquirysomething that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is continuing to resist. She stated on Wednesday, The Congress holds sacred its constitutional responsibility to investigate and hold the president accountable for his abuse of power. The Congress will continue to investigate and legislate to protect our elections and secure our democracy. The American people must have the truth. House Judiciary chair Jerry Nadler went further, indicating that he believes that the "special counsel has clearly demonstrated that President Trump is lying." Muellers first point of emphasis was that he is no longer the special counsel. I am speaking out today because our investigation is complete. The Attorney General has made the report on our investigation largely public. We are formally closing the special counsels office, and as well Im resigning from the Department of Justice to return to private life, he said. Read full article | https://news.yahoo.com/did-mueller-just-hand-democrats-144100859.html |
Is the NBA more popular than NHL in Canada? | Well, Im going to go out on limb here and say this will be the first time in Canadian television history that the NBA Finals will outdraw the Stanley Cup final. Even if ex-Leafs like Carl Gunnarsson are scoring overtime winners, the limb Im on about the NBAs popularity correct that, the Raptors popularity -- is probably rather secure. There might be an anomaly, of course. I dont have data of the last half century of Canadian sports ratings but I do have Sportsnets ratings for both sports this spring. Holy cow, Game 6 of the NBA Eastern Conference Final the Raptors win over Milwaukee that catapulted the locals to the Finals against Golden State drew big numbers. Eyeballs of all kinds tuned in on that Saturday night, an average of 3.1 million viewers. Audience levels peaked on Sportsnet at 5.3 million viewers at 11:10 p.m. Eastern, just as the Raptors clinched the franchises first ticket to the NBA Finals. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW Not only that, but Sportsnets coverage of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals (Game 1, 3 and 6) had a series average audience of 2.1 million viewers and reached a total of 8.4 million Canadians, a 77 per cent increase over the Raptors previous conference final appearance in 2016. Over in the Stanley Cup conference finals, the numbers were not nearly as good. The Boston-Carolina series drew an average of 1.3 million viewers while San Jose-St. Louis drew 1.1 million. Really, the presence of a Canadian team means everything. Last year, WinnipegVegas drew 2.5 million while in 2017 Ottawa-Pittsburgh drew 2.7 million. The NBA has the distinct advantage of having the Raptors, a bunch of loveable lugs. Hockey has nothing to worry about; it is part of our fabric. But as much as the local fan base might be rooting against the Bruins, pulling for Tyler Bozak and the Blues, or lamenting what might have been for the Maple Leafs, theres nothing like a good local story. And the NBA Finals this year are local. Email me at [email protected] and Ill answer it in Fridays Mailbag. ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW | https://www.thestar.com/sports/breakaway_blog/2019/05/30/is-the-nba-more-popular-than-nhl-in-canada-.html |
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