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Did these 6 artists have us fooled about their pasts? | "You're born with, you know, the wrong name, the wrong parents," said Dylan in 2004, according to Classic Rock. "I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself." Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Wyoming in 1941, it purportedly wasn't just his name that Bob Dylan changed. According to Rolling Stone, he went through a period during the mid-60s where much of what he said had the faint whiff of fabrication about it. On a plane trip from Nebraska to Colorado he told the New York Times journalist Robert Shelton that he'd kicked a "$25 a day habit" and turned tricks when he first moved to the Big Apple two months before he switched to the Greenwich Village. And in earlier interviews he liked to claim he worked for six years on-and-off as a clean-up boy for a travelling carnival. In a 1984 Rolling Stone interview, Dylan said, "I never got hooked on any drug." Regarding working as a prostitute, Rolling Stone believe the story is "complete fiction", and other experts have cast doubt on Dylan's ability to get his own backstory correct, even in his 2004 autobiography Chronicles: Volume One. "I enjoy Chronicles as a work of literature, but it has as much basis in reality as [Dylan's 2003 film] Masked And Anonymous, and why shouldn't it?" Dylan biographer Clinton Helyin said in 2011 (via Rolling Stone). "He's not the first guy to write a biography that's a pack of lies." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/1c0de7d6-5032-4f40-ba27-0fab891a17b1 |
Why did these 8 musicians decline a British honour? | Asian Dub Foundation formed in 1993 as an outgrowth of a community arts projects being run by Aniruddha Das and John Pandit, both of whom became part of the group as Dr Das and Pandit G. When Pandit was awarded an MBE it was for "services to the music industry" and not for work with Community Music Ltd or Asian Dub Foundation's campaigning arm, ADFED, so he refused to accept the honour, telling NME in 2002: "I personally don't think it's appropriate. I've never supported the honours system. If you want to acknowledge projects like CM, the work that these organisations do, then fund them. There's no point in giving an individual (an accolade). To bring people into the establishment won't actually help the organisations." A Member of the British Empire - it's not really me," adding that he refused the award because of "exploitation and colonialism" of the British empire and because "the existing honours system is archaic and shrouded in secrecy". He also joked that he'd told his dad he was "holding out for a knighthood". | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/e477656b-eed1-470c-ad56-3e06fa50901a |
What makes a winning World Cup song? | This method is not foolproof, however. Dizzee Rascal and James Corden made No.1 in 2010 with the andante-paced Shout at just 98 BPM. The schlarger-y but catchy This Time (We'll Get It Right) by the England World Cup squad of 1982 made it all the way to No.2 at a languid 83 bpm, while 1986's We've Got The Whole World At Our Feet - at the optimum 125 BPM - only made it to No.66 in the charts. That's almost entirely on account of its lacklustre delivery though. It's also worth noting that songs that are more carnivalesque, a word not readily associated with the English game, will often be faster. Dario G's Carnaval De Paris clocks in at a frenetic 135 bpm and is a proper banger. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/16ca6df7-8549-421e-96b2-0a7e3bb1e925 |
Which underrated artists paved the way for these bigger stars? | Say the word skiffle among the people who know a thing or two about the early days of British rock 'n' roll, and one name will immediately come shooting back: Lonnie Donegan. He was the undoubted star of British music's first DIY moment, one that was directly responsible for the 1960s beat group explosion. However, in the discovery and popularisation of old American folk and blues tunes, Lonnie had one important guiding light: Ken Colyer. Ken was a New Orleans jazz buff and trumpeter who felt the genre had become too sophisticated. Seizing a chance to hitch to New Orleans while in America with the merchant navy, he came across 'spasm' bands, who knocked out primal blues on homemade instruments. Having been arrested and deported - supposedly for playing with black musicians, a criminal offence at the time - he formed a jazz band with Chris Barber and Lonnie Donegan, and introduced a version of the music of those bands into their set as a break for the dancers. Lonnie was an admirer of the songs of Lead Belly, and reworked them in that urgent, primal style. Ken's brother Bill even named the genre, having noted the name of Dan Burley & His Skiffle Boys, which came from descriptions of come-one, come-all parties in Mississippi, where revellers would gather around a piano to sing gospel, work and blues songs for their own entertainment. It was the puritan zeal of the Colyer brothers that helped pave the way for Lonnie's success, starting with the international hit Rock Island Line. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/a439d9f7-df50-424b-9037-7f3606a50f2b |
Is music about to have its first AI No.1? | A year ago, Taryn Southern was getting a little annoyed with how hard it was to get background music for her YouTube videos. She either had to write the songs herself - and writing a new song every week is tough work - or pay to license other people's, something that quickly became "very, very expensive". But then she read a New York Times article about the rise of AI music and thought somewhere in it might be an answer. Companies including Google and IBM had created artificially intelligent computer systems that could analyse existing songs and then spit out their own, the article said. Start-ups like London's Jukedeck and New York's Amper Music had also created systems which people could use to create whole tracks in just a few clicks, simply by picking the mood, style and tempo they wanted. Those start-ups were targeting people just like Taryn, the article added - YouTubers, computer-game developers and hard-up film directors. Anyone, basically, who needed cheap background music. Taryn was soon trying out the software for herself and quickly realised one thing: some of the music they spat out wasn't only good enough for background music. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/0c3dc8f7-4853-4379-b0d5-62175d33d557 |
Who are the designers behind some of music's most striking album covers? | Storm Thorgerson created epochal imagery from every era of music since the 1960s. He was part of Hipgnosis, who designed Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon artwork, and he subsequently worked on countless other covers for the band, as well as with 10cc, Peter Gabriel, Muse, Led Zeppelin, Biffy Clyro, ELO and Wings. After he died in 2013, Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason said he would be remembered for his "great ideas and high, sometimes infuriatingly high, standards... Two days before he passed away, and by then completely exhausted, he was still demanding approval for artwork and haranguing his loyal assistants." Like us on Facebook, on Instagram at bbcmusic, or follow us on Twitter @bbcmusic | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/65c2f244-e2e9-408f-a2e7-5e070de3d287 |
Are these the most psychedelic pieces of classical music? | In a series of revolutionary pieces, Debussy created a new feel for classical musical that seemed to free it from the strictures of its (mostly Germanic) past. His breakthrough work was 1894's Prlude l'aprs-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun), which coupled Asiatic moods with the materials of Western romantic music (minor chords, suspensions, romantic harmonic language) to create something that sounded free-flowing, kaleidoscope, and more akin, as Alex Ross says in his book The Rest is Noise, "to Indian ragas than to Wagner or Strauss". In 1889, Debussy had attended the Exposition Universelle in Paris and heard Indonesian gamelan music for the first time. It had a profound effect on him and he sought ways to incorporate its otherworldly percussive sound into his own compositions, just like The Beatles introduced Indian music to theirs in the mid-60s. To do so, Debussy made use of the pentatonic scale (the five notes that are common to all the worlds musical systems - found, most easily, by playing just the black notes on a keyboard) and he also, as Howard Goodall explains in The Story of Music, "allowed his chords to hang over each other, overlapping and ricocheting from one to the next, rather in the way the different tones of bell-ringing overlap one another." The results, best exemplified by two short piano pieces - 1903's Pagodes (Pagodas) and Voiles (Sails) from 1909 - were stunning, and more than a little psychedelic in feel. "Debussy's awestruck introduction to Javanese tonality was identical to the rapture experienced by Roger McGuinn, David Crosby, George Harrison and many others when they first heard the music of Ravi Shankar," writes Rob Chapman in Psychedelia and Other Colours. "Javanese music 'made our tonic and dominant seem like ghosts', claimed Debussy. In his piano writing he began using the sustain pedal in the same way musicians later utilised the fuzz pedal, blurring melody lines in order to create what Mervyn Cooke called 'a resonant wash of sound'." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/412ec9f8-6521-4e6b-ae8c-4ae424373843 |
Has pop music lost its fun? | Repetition in pop is a key part of its appeal, as essential in Little Richard's Tutti Frutti as it is in Big Shaq's Man's Not Hot. That said, a sterling 2017 report by Daniel Morris on repetition in pop lyrics suggests that hit songs are getting closer and closer to a one-word lyric sheet. The Lempel-Ziv algorithm is a lossless way to compress data, by taking out repetitions, and Morris used it as a tool to examine 15,000 songs from the Billboard Hot 100 from 1958 to 2014, reducing their lyrics down to their smallest size without losing any data, and comparing their relative sizes. He found two very interesting things. The first was that in every year of study, the songs that reached the Top 10 were more repetitive than their competition. The second is that pop has become more repetitive over time, as Morris points out: "2014 is the most repetitive year on record. An average song from this year compresses 22% more efficiently than one from 1960." Of course, none of this means that pop songs are any less fun. They may be slower and sadder than before, but if pop songs are now simpler and louder and more repetitive than they used to be, that might make up for it. In fact, a 2011 report called Music and Emotions in the Brain: Familiarity Matters, compiled by a team led by Carlos Silva Pereira suggests that the human brain enjoys knowing what is coming next in music. Having conducted fMRI scans on people listening to songs, the report concludes that, "Familiarity seems to be a crucial factor in making the listeners emotionally engaged with music." So the quicker a song can become familiar, the more chance there is that listeners scooting by on streaming services will stop and play it again. Which would imply that if anything, modern pop music is more fun than ever before. Like us on Facebook, on Instagram at bbcmusic, or follow us on Twitter @bbcmusic | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/fb84bf19-29c9-4ed3-b6b6-953e8a083334 |
Who are the random people on these famous album covers? | The Little Deuce Coupe - or the 1932 Ford Coupe - that graced The Beach Boys' 1963 album of the same name was taken from an issue of Hot Rod magazine. But the image used by Brian Wilson and his band was slightly different: it only featured the torso of the car's owner, Clarence 'Chili' Catallo, whose head had been cropped out. Clarence's son, Curt, told the New York Times that his father had purchased the clapped-out vehicle from a gas station in 1956 when he was a teenager in Detroit, and spent much of his time, money and effort on lovingly restoring it (with some help from some gifted car shop owners called Mike and Larry Alexander). Clarence later moved to Long Beach in California for college and got a job working at a garage owned by George Barris, who had contacts at Capitol Records. And when the label were tasked with finding a Deuce for the Beach Boys' latest record, they knew just who to ask. The car was sold in 1965, but Curt persuaded his dad that it belonged with them. "As a kid I can remember sitting at Beach Boys' concerts and hearing Little Deuce Coupe," he recalled. "I'd think, 'That's my dad's car they're singing about. We should get it back.'" Clarence paid $40,000 to repurchase the car in 1998 and, after his death, Curt got in touch with Mike and Larry, who helped him make it look exactly the same as it had on the artwork. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/b255669a-4a64-4d05-b850-fdf57d4aab7d |
Was September 1991 the best month ever for albums? | To go by the title of Dave Markeys essential documentary, 1991 was dubbed The Year Punk Broke. In America, alternative rock had been building up a head of steam throughout the 80s, thanks to bands like Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and Pixies. Nirvana's Nevermind was the point it erupted noisily into the mainstream, powered by Kurt Cobains transfixing underdog snarl and sly pop hooks. The colossal riffs and vicious sarcasm of Smells Like Teen Spirit and Lithium instantly cut through pops superficial facade, galvanising a new generation of righteous noisemakers and annihilating the last remaining 80s hair metal bands in one fell swoop. Kurt Cobain instantly regretted the swirling Butch Vig production that turbocharged his songs so effectively; tragically, he was unable to withstand the fame and scrutiny that Nevermind brought. But the album still stands proud as one of those rare, epochal records that revolutionised music overnight. Confirming that their fates were intertwined from the start, September 1991 also saw the release of Courtney Loves first album with Hole, Pretty On the Inside. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/b33c43da-5fe9-4595-9172-b4083c74e891 |
What's it like to sing one song for seven hours straight? | My larynx was getting really high. I was literally having to force it down. "Mental. I really strongly recommend that nobody ever does it. It's crazy. In a recital, I'd usually sing, like, 20, 25 pieces. And I counted I sang that 182 times." "One of the pianists said you should treat it like playing a really long cricket innings, batting for a draw, then you've got the overs to break it up. So I was counting in sixes. And 182. It's nuts!" "I was just so in my head for so much of it, trying to get my technique straight and survive. There was a bit about two-and-a-half hours in, when I was on the floor and half the notes weren't coming out. My larynx [voice box] was getting really high. It was under my throat. I was literally having to force it down. I was choking myself to force it downwards. "You're supposed to sing with a relaxed larynx that sits low in your throat the whole time. And mine kept coming up. There was nothing I could do about it because I couldn't take five minutes off." "Oh, no, I loved it! It's Schubert - the piece is brilliant, a seminal work. I didn't get bored. There's more than enough in it to keep my imagination ticking over 180 times. It's not going to leave my head for two weeks, which is going to get annoying, but" | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/d337febf-a5eb-44bf-8acc-67c5e62827bc |
What songs have royals chosen for their first dance? | It's the moment in a wedding that fills many brides and grooms with more fear than making a speech. The lights dim, the DJ or band plays the opening notes of a song cherished by the couple, and everyone present watches intently as the newlyweds take to the floor for their first dance. We've no doubt that some weddings have almost been cancelled as the bride and groom argue over what tune best sums up their feelings for each other, and isn't too tricky to dance to. Let's see what was picked at some recent royal weddings, and make some wild guesses at what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might go for on their big day in May. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/2887f4f5-8e39-440c-89b9-317d97b52caa |
What happened to the female stars of Britpop? | Elastica formed in mid-1992, when Justine Frischmann and Justin Welch decided they needed a group to reflect the interests of people like them. They made one album of sharp post-punk with lyrics confidently tackling erectile disfunction, scenesters and making out in cars, and it sold faster than any debut album since Definitely Maybe (a record it held for over 10 years). There followed a messy period, with band members leaving and arriving and a scrappy second album The Menace in 2000, after which the band split up. Guitarist Donna Matthews continues to make music under her own name, and works as a Christian missionary to the homeless. Bass player Annie Holland still lives in Brighton, and keeps in touch with Justin, who has continued to work as a drummer, both as a teacher and with various bands - including a stint helping Suede in 2013 and with the reformed Lush in 2015. Earlier this year, the three of them appeared in a Facebook photo while remastering the band's debut album at Abbey Road. After a short stint presenting BBC TV shows about architecture in 2003, and The South Bank Show in 2004, Justine moved to Colorado in 2005 to study art, and now works as an artist in San Francisco, working with the George Lawson Gallery. In 2012 some of her work was shortlisted for the UK's Marmite Prize for painting. She has stated she has no desire to make music any more, although when discussing the offer of a reunion show for her old friend M.I.A. 's Meltdown festival in London, Justine told the Sunday Times: I was actually surprised I was even tempted. Ive never felt tempted before. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/6d58ee98-f1a2-4c84-afbb-9158c2dcbedc |
Are these the next viral singers to achieve mainstream success? | Trying to predict who will and won't become an international pop star is an impossible task. You have to take into account indefinable variables such as charisma, charm and personality, and hope that music fans can see what you're seeing. This is where social media and sites like YouTube and musical.ly have become invaluable for talent spotters over the last few years. Away from the fevered expectations of Saturday night talent shows, YouTube allowed talents such as Justin Bieber and 5 Seconds of Summer to broadcast their songs - usually covers of established hits - on their own terms, building a following by word of mouth and proving to record companies that they have what it takes to make it on the global stage. So, as seasoned YouTuber Charlie Puth prepares to be one of the first guests on the new BBC One music show Sounds Like Friday Night (7:30pm on Friday 27 October), here's a look at some of the most popular singing vloggers of 2017 - all hoping to be real life household names in 2018 and beyond. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/407eca50-3792-4f27-96c8-da4362f40ba6 |
Are these the most controversial pieces at this year's Proms? | This year, the Proms are commemorating 100 years since the Russian Revolution, a theme that makes itself felt in works as varied as Shostakovich's Ten Poems on Texts by Revolutionary Poets (PCM 5) and Prokofiev's Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution (Prom 68). But these aren't the only musical earthquakes on offer in this year's programme. Below are seven other pieces that for a variety of reasons were highly controversial when they were first played, and we haven't even mentioned Stravinsky's Rite of Spring (Prom 28), the premiere of which caused a riot. We discussed the debate in a different article, Eight mysteries buried in the music of this year's Proms. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/9b63bfc6-724f-44f5-addc-db16d20001f1 |
What rare and priceless instruments do the stars of the Proms play? | [WATCH] Prom 62: Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Chineke! under Kevin John Edusei perform Dvok's Rondo in G minor (excerpt) Last year's BBC Young Musician winner first played his current cello, a 1610 Amati, during the final of the competition. He performed with it again at his Royal Festival Hall debut in September, on loan from north London instrument dealer Florian Leonhard. Then, an anonymous benefactor bought it for what is believed to be a six-figure sum so he or she could ensure the teenage cellist could use it for life. The makers of this instrument, Antonius and Hieronymous Amati, were part of the oldest significant luthier dynasty in the world, stretching back to the middle of the 16th centuty. They essentially invented the modern shape and set-up of the stringed instrument as we know it, and Stradivari learned his trade in their Cremona workshop. The Nottingham cellist said of the instrument: "I am thrilled that I can continue to develop my relationship with this cello, making the sound more completely my own over time. This rare instrument will grow with me and respond to what I need to express and I could not be more happy and excited." At more than 400 years old, his cello is the oldest instrument played by a soloist at this year's Proms. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/ab4167a2-e90f-48c1-8168-80aeb1692dc7 |
Are these the 8 luckiest moments in music? | By the time The Beatles put out their debut single, Love Me Do, they had been turned down by every potential record company in London, and even this release very nearly didn't happen. It's a long and convoluted story, but essentially the band's lucky break came as a result of music publishers Ardmore and Beechwood hearing demos of two Lennon/McCartney songs Brian Epstein (the band's manager) was having transferred to acetate, and putting pressure on George Martin, then head of Parlophone Records, to put them out. George reluctantly agreed to see the band, didn't think much of their music, but was taken by their personalities, and told them to go away and learn a different song, How Do You Do It?, to record instead. The band did as instructed, but as the whole idea was to record and release John and Paul's songs, the team persevered with the best of an unpromising selection, the bluesy Love Me Do, which was, oddly enough, not one of the two songs Ardmore and Beechwood had originally heard. Even when they got into the studio, things didn't go well. Their test recording with drummer Pete Best wasn't considered good enough, which prompted the band to sack Best and hire Ringo Starr instead. The first proper recording session with Ringo was also considered to be below par (although that's the version on the single), so the song was recorded again with session drummer Andy White and Ringo on tambourine, which appears on their debut album Please Please Me. Liking the song just enough to put out, George Martin assumed he'd completed his obligations to its publishers and that that would be that, but through a combination of a strong Liverpool fanbase and some hard graft by promoters and pluggers, it began to rise up the chart, eventually reaching No.17. was pencilled in as a follow-up, but the band (with Martin's help) put together the barnstorming Please Please Me instead, and after that, they were away. Like us on Facebook, on Instagram at bbcmusic, or follow us on Twitter @bbcmusic | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/44fe0d32-ac0d-4022-aa06-4c5690c81c5b |
Will NFL investigate Steelers for overt lying on injury report? | Violations of the rules regarding injury reporting usually happen when a team conceals a players health issue. Rarely does anyone get in trouble for reporting a fake injury, or for exaggerating a mild one. The Steelers land in that unusual category, if Mondays Antonio Brown bombshell is accurate (and theres no reason to think it isnt). So apart from the question of what the Steelers will do about Brown, its important to ask what the NFL will do about the Steelers. Scroll to continue with content Ad As one league source has observed, overt lying on the injury report is a much bigger problem than Browns antics, because shenanigans with the injury report speak to competitive issues, about which the league office should be very concerned. Its unknown whether the league office actually is concerned or will take action; the NFL has not responded to an inquiry from PFT regarding the situation. Whatever happens and however it plays out, the Keith Butler/Tyler Eifert coverup suddenly pales in comparison to what apparently was a deliberate decision to hide the dysfunction by brushing off Browns absence from practice and from Sundays game as the product of an injury, when in fact there was no injury or at a minimum no injury that would keep Brown from playing. The motive for hiding the truth is obvious. The Steelers didnt want yet another distraction or disruption as they faced a must-win game. And if word had emerged that Brown had: (1) thrown a football at Ben Roethlisberger; (2) stormed out of practice; and (3) not shown up for practice on Thursday or Friday, it would have been a HUGE distraction and disruption from preparations for Week 17. Story continues The huge distraction and disruption has now arrived, but the Steelers have nothing else to currently do. Coach Mike Tomlin will still have to address the situation, since his end-of-season press conference will happen on Wednesday. Unless he decides to not show up. | https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-investigate-steelers-overt-lying-163147362.html?src=rss |
Are these music's most outlandish stage props? | Successive generations of stars have learned that just playing the hits isn't enough - you need to visually dazzle punters as well. But when every act can call on state-of-the-art laser displays and giant confetti cannons, a more unique approach is called for. Hence the custom-built, show-stopping, super-sized stage prop. Of course, extravagant stage props come with the risk of malfunction - in 1974, prog rockers Yes accidentally trapped their drummer Alan White inside a giant seashell (a mishap that was recreated in This Is Spinal Tap) and Fleetwood Mac once spent a large proportion of their tour budget on a 70ft inflatable penguin that refused to inflate. But that hasn't impeded the stage prop arms race; whether its Coldplay's light-up Xylobands or Lordes arty glass box of dancers at Glastonbury 2017, music's best set designers continue to innovate. Here are some of their finest creations. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/65bd7d82-567c-42a7-a4f1-23a837493fe1 |
Are these the 10 most revolutionary women in music? | Correctly or not, Kassia - born around 805 - is often called "the first female composer of the Occident" (the Western world) and her place in Byzantine folkore was sealed even before we knew of her music. She was from a wealthy family and dissed Emperor Theophilos at a "bride show" after he used the story of Eve from the Book of Genesis to suggest that women were responsible for much evil. "And through a woman [came forth] the better [things]," she replied, annoyed. The Emperor decided to marry Theodora, who became empress, and Kassia adopted the monastic life. About 50 of her magical hymns survive, although authorship of some has been debated, as well as hundreds of her non-liturgical verses, including this zinging epigram: "I hate the rich man moaning as if he were poor." In his book The Story of Music, Howard Goodall credits Kassia with "mixing the parallel organum style with the drone style", adding that her music "gracefully refutes the assumption that the development of early music is exclusively the handiwork of men". | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/6f9d5d38-4e7b-4b82-8bb6-5e35a3c49dbe |
What happened to the Eurovision contestants who scored nul points? | "It's a strange thing," said Jahn Teigen when interviewed in 1980 by Arena, above. "I got no points and since then I had a lot of success." In a stunning display of 70s brand management, Norway's 1978 contestant managed to spin his abject failure with the inoffensively naff song Mil etter Mil (Mile by Mile) into a triumph. His loyal countrymen kept the song at the top of the Norwegian charts for four months, and Tiegen capitalised on the sympathy, calling his subsequent album This Year's Loser. Teigen then returned to Eurovision in 1982 and 1983, reaching 12th and 9th place respectively. A former member of Popol Vuh (not the Werner Herzog-collaborating krautrock legends from Germany, but a Norwegian band named after the same ancient Mayan mythical text), Teigen is also a comedian, specialising in spoof songs (including a parody version of Mil etter Mil in Russian) and has starred as an executioner in the 1992 London run of Norwegian rock-opera musical Which Witch, noted to be "the most heavily panned London stage musical in a generation" by the Telegraph. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/d0cafc39-d886-4e28-9369-668b8ff79219 |
Is David Bowie the ultimate crossover composer? | [Watch the Prom in full at the bottom of this article] By 1976, David Bowie's early years of success and excess were taking their toll. He decamped to Berlin to sober up and after a run of albums - including Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, Young Americans and Station to Station - that straddled the styles of folk, glam, rock and soul embarked on his so-called Berlin Trilogy that would see him embrace European electronica and become as much of a classical composer as a pop musician. When we think of the Berlin albums - Low, "Heroes" (both 1977) and Lodger (1979) - we think of ex-Roxy Music innovator Brian Eno as leading Bowie into these experimental and erudite territories. But Bowie had always been intrigued by classical music in its many guises. An early introduction to Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and Holst's Planets taught him that "classical music wasn't boring", as he said when he was interviewed in 2003 by Vanity Fair about his favourite albums, which also included Strauss's Four Last Songs. The chaotic bass tuba riff in The Rite of Spring was, for a young David Jones, as effective as any in pop: he even devised his own dance to it. His 1967 self-titled debut album was dominated by orchestral instruments. He and a friend taught themselves basic classical theory from a book over a couple of weeks and presented their scores to the London Philharmonic. The result sounds like a Cockney Scott Walker with a marching band. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/a4d1028e-bc49-4657-b3cc-227db2c14c52 |
What happened to the one-hit wonders of the noughties? | The wheels of pop are well-oiled, and for every artist that manages to score Top 10 hit after Top 10 hit there are thousands that become best-known for sending just one killer tune storming up the charts. There's no shame in that - plenty of acts have built long touring careers off the back of a single smash - and as we look back at these eight era-defining songs from the 2000s let's be clear that we're being loose with our definition of 'one-hit wonder'. Some, like Duffy, followed a platinum-selling No.1 (Mercy) with a song that charted well, but sold far less (Warwick Avenue) and in the case of Gnarls Barkley, both members have had plenty of success independent from each other. Still, bet these songs will forever remind you of the noughties... | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/62308e54-dd47-4972-aec4-7e6ad55cb50f |
What do pop star autographs reveal about their personality? | "Adele has the most graphologically mature handwriting of this group. It's quite spiky for a woman, and the spikes indicate an observant, analytical and critical mind. Her downward strokes suggest someone who is motivated to provide for their need for security, home, money. The strokes also trail off, suggestive of someone who can let the odd pointed comment slip out. Few curves show she can be very business-minded. "She uses quite thin strokes with sharp pressure; this is someone who keeps their energies specifically for what they need to do and not much else. Curvy connections demonstrate that she's good at charming people. "Signing with a small 'a' is the kind of thing someone would do if they had felt second class. This is a great motivator, or they want to lower their status in order not to overwhelm her audience. Otherwise her writing shows huge confidence in her abilities. There's no shyness in her handwriting - it's very natural and traditional, no faking. The baseline curves and staggers a little, suggesting she can get bored easily, or get tired. She bucks herself up, but soldiers on to the end. Some of her signatures have a full stop at the end. That indicates that she likes to finish with a final, 'And that's all you're getting. There you are. That's me. Next.' It also indicates that she is someone who likes to have the last word." [WATCH] Highlights of Adele's set at Glastonbury, 2016 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/af71e93d-58f7-4a42-b65c-2fce6c223ed0 |
What does a psychologist think of Kanye West's Twitter feed? | "There are a few of these [Kanye also apologised to Bruno Mars on the same day]. Narcissists take offence easily and many of their spats involve anger, leaving them in the position of having to say sorry. And what's interesting here is that it's like he's lining up the apologies to get them out of the way, because this is clearly a recurring feature in his life, questioning whether his apologies are heartfelt. "With Beck [and, previously, Taylor Swift], he was angry at Beyonc not winning an award, and that's complicated. He could be saying: 'I'm not saying I should have won, I'm saying someone else should have won it, but definitely not you.' He's imposing his opinion on everyone else, because he doesn't like opinions that are different from his own. Or what he equally might be saying is: 'Beyonc should have won it, but actually, as you know, I'm more talented than Beyonc.' It's a stepping stone towards achieving his desired effect, which is getting himself up there. To do that, he needs to bring people down and elevate himself. He's going through the first stage here." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/4a57bdc5-cbb8-4d68-a58a-f4d1e9626d05 |
Are these the worst singers who made it big? | Her job was to turn up at recitals, open her mouth and emote, putting her all into every syllable like proper singers do, and she received a rapturous response every time she did so. The only difference in this case is that Florence Foster Jenkins had a piercingly shrill tone, poor breath control and a sense of pitch that was not so much wayward as downright ungovernable. But, and this is key, she was hugely loved, not least by her husband St Clair Bayfield, who fought hard to shield his wife from her harshest critics. Not that there were that many. Nol Coward and David Bowie were fans, and she had such a wealth of personal charm that she even managed to fill Carnegie Hall. Her audience most certainly did not go there for the usual reasons people attend classical concerts, but nor did they come to mock. As Meryl Streep said to the the Sunday Times, while promoting the movie Florence Foster Jenkins in which she took the lead role: "It wasn't just that she was bad, but that she was bad with heart." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/13167a96-2ca5-4f73-8e52-30b094e6853a |
Should The Beatles have been awarded MBEs? | If you've got to wait to be an old man or an old woman get an MBE, I think it doesn't really add much incentive to young people to get on in the world" Then a man who was far more upbeat: "I think The Beatles have probably done as much for popular music in this country as people like Rodgers and Hammerstein and Gershwin did in their days, the only difference being that The Beatles have done it in a matter of two or three years, whereas it took most other people a lifetime. If you've got to wait to be an old man or an old woman get an MBE, I think it doesn't really add much incentive to young people to get on in the world and generally improve the world they live in." Macklin then asked whether in fact the award should go to people in more obvious lines of public service, like exploring, science, or hospital work. "I think the award is given generally to people who are of public service of any field whatsoever," he said. "It just happens that in popular music the opportunity is there for younger people. The Beatles have taken the opportunity and done very well." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/ab4b44b7-b748-47cc-92cf-585300dcc142 |
Are these the most indie bands ever? | The band who were inspired by punk rock's DIY attitude to make and release their own EP, rather than waiting for record labels to catch up with what they were doing. Buzzcocks led by example, as co-founder Pete Shelley explains in this clip. Mark also points out that they "weren't actually indie for long but kick-started a new generation of independent thinkers and dreamers with the Spiral Scratch EP". The impact of the EP was twofold: It showed that fast and furious music didn't necessarily need to be laboured over in expensive studios in order to get its point across, and it looked and sounded like the kind of thing that people could make without having to pass a special test of musicianship, or packaging. It was both cheap and cheerful, and all the more powerful for it. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/6cd1a7fe-ad45-4c35-a804-c6767015e034 |
Are these the most unexpected collaborations in recent music history? | Here's Iggy Azalea performing at 1Xtra Live in 2013, long before she hooked up with Britney Spears for Pretty Girls. Something about the idea of that collaboration didn't feel quite right and the track iself was a misfire. It failed to make the Top 20 in the US, leading to a not-very-pretty public argument between the two stars. Iggy believed Britney's label hadn't promoted the song properly, later backtracking slightly by saying: "Genuine friends have genuine opinions. It's possible and healthy to have a differing thought without it being b****y or shade." Refering to some cancelled Iggy tour dates, Britney responded by tweeting, "Cant wait to get back to Vegas. So thankful I have shows for the rest of the year to look forward to." | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/a448253f-ce97-4e12-8b39-d40e12238003 |
Is it okay to eat in an Uber or Lyft? | Most people argue that proper etiquette is to ask the owner or driver of a car whether or not it is okay to eat, and obviously, this rule transfers to riding in an Uber or Lyft. Others feel that it's acceptable to eat food anywhere, so long as they don't make a mess. If you're paying for the ride, whether or not you eat shouldn't matter. The same goes for Ubers and Lyfts. Your food stinks up the car for the rest of the day, affecting drivers' business and ratings. Eating in a ride-share vehicle is not a "ask for forgiveness" type of situation -- you just shouldn't do it. Uber even says so on its own blog. Business Insider's Rachel Gillett interviewed Uber and Lyft drivers to find out what they believe passengers should change. According to a driver for both ride-share programs: 'I wish passengers would stop eating food in my car without asking. In order to drive for Uber or Lyft, you have to have a new car. Therefore, your nachos in my new car causes undue stress.' There's a reason you're self-conscious about how loud your chewing is in a quiet car; it's a sign you shouldn't be chewing at all! Ride-share programs are a form of new-age public transportation. Meaning, if you need to eat while riding, nothing should stop you. As long as you are treating the vehicle with respect, there's nothing wrong with taking a snack break in an Uber or Lyft. Everyone has had that day where there is simply no other time to eat except for when you're in the car; sometimes you don't have a choice. I've reached that point in my snacking career where I can accurately identify what kind of Doritos my Lyft driver was eating before he picked me up. -- Devahkiin (@TheRealHotdish) December 31, 2018 The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/style/index.ssf/2019/01/is_it_okay_to_eat_in_an_uber_o.html |
What happened next for the dancers in the Top of the Pop troupes? | Imagine that you're a harassed TV producer working on one of the BBC's most popular weekly shows, in an era before the glitzy music video had become ubiquitous. There's a new hot smash hit in the charts, and you have to play it, or there'll be anarchy in the studio. But disaster! The band in question are touring abroad, and there's no way they can make it to BBC Television Centre to record. The answer is, of course: make your own impromptu music videos with a talented troupe of high-energy dancers. For 19 years, different Top of the Pops troupes danced out the dreams of young pop fans from R&B through punk to disco and all stops in between: first the Go-Jos (1964-1968), then Pan's People (1968-1976), Ruby Flipper (1976), Legs & Co. (1976-1981) and finally Zoo (1981-1983). As well as first loves for many young viewers, they were icons, high-kicking their way into the heart of pop culture. And even after they hung up their lam leotards, some of them went on to have lives scarcely less incredible than their lives during TOTP. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/0496d882-6c83-45c2-a2c9-02f384b6c3a6 |
What makes Handel's Water Music so great? | As its name suggests, the Water Music was indeed written to be performed on the water, commissioned by King George I to accompany a grand royal jaunt up the River Thames in the summer of 1717. Eager to please his royal master (see below), the 32-year-old Handel composed a lavish, three-part suite for 50 musicians (a huge group for the period), packing it with raucous horns and woodwind instruments so that the sound would carry across the water. At 8pm on July 17, everyone crammed into boats, and set off to travel the three-and-a-bit miles from The Palace of Whitehall up to Chelsea. The king and a gaggle of aristocrats watched from the royal barge while "a City Company's Barge was employ'd for the Musick", according to a report in the Daily Courant. The composer himself conducted. Although there were "so great a Number of Boats, that the whole River in a manner was coverd", no one seems to have capsized, and George was so thrilled with Handel's piece that he asked for it to be played over and over again, including on the way back downriver. The performance is said to have finished long after midnight - pretty exhausting for the musicians. | https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/1ba1e404-2b3e-48cc-a3e1-d12269b8346b |
Why Are NFL GMs Being Let Off the Hook? | Within 24 hours of the 2018 regular season ending, eight teams had vacancies at the head coach position. One. Every situation is different, but the fact that blame was unequally assigned to coaches over personnel executives for failed seasons raised eyebrows around the league. In Arizona, Steve Wilks was one-and-done after a season with a rookie quarterback and a flawed roster, while GM Steve Keim will hire his third head coach. Vance Joseph was dismissed after two seasons with Trevor Siemian, Brock Osweiler, Paxton Lynch and Case Keenum as his quarterbackseach brought in by John Elway. In Tampa Bay, Jason Licht will search for a replacement for Dirk Koetter, who was let go because he couldnt win enough games with Jameis Winston, the quarterback that Licht picked No. 1 overall in 2015. With one-quarter of the league looking for new head coaches, youll hear a lot of discussion in the coming days about whether there are enough candidates to fill these openings. Over the past decade, an average of seven head coaches have been hired and fired each year, thinning the pipeline. Teams may, as a result, cast wider nets this year, making harder pushes to lure top college candidates or (hopefully) being spurred to adjust their criteria of what matters in a head coach, valuing a persons leadership abilities over a specific amount of play-calling experience. Both Keim and Licht will be working with their third head coach, and Elway his fourth. Over the past five years (not including this one) there have been 34 head coaching changes compared to 20 GM changes, by unofficial count. (We should note here that in Dallas and Cincinnati the club owners also serve as de-facto GMs, and in New England, Bill Belichick is both the head coach and GM). GMs are usually in a position to build a closer relationship with the owner, who ultimately makes the firing and hiring decisions; in failed arranged marriages between a coach and a GM, its more often the GM thats given a chance to hire his own head coach, rather than vice versa. And coaching mistakes like poor clock management or bad play calls are more glaring and painful in the here and now than a flawed team-building approach, which may take years to reveal itself. But for less-experienced coaches or those who have been waiting a long time for an opportunityincluding many minority candidates who have faced hurdles to advancement starting at the lowest rungs of the coaching ladderthat demand may be prohibitive to getting hired. Thats particularly true when so many head coach openings (including all eight openings this year) are attached to a sitting GM. Beyond Oakland, two other teams will have a change in their top personnel executive, with Eric DeCosta taking over in Baltimore for the retiring Ozzie Newsome after this season, and Dolphins GM Chris Grier taking over all football operations with Mike Tannenbaum being re-assigned. But the story of this years hiring cycle is yet another game of coaches musical chairs. Meanwhile, most of their partners in team-building never have to rise from their seats. Email us at talkback@themmqb.com. | https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/02/head-coach-firings-general-managers-john-elway-vance-joseph-jason-licht-dirk-koetter |
Are Minnesotans letting the neighborly obligation to shovel melt away? | For years, Sandy Daly didnt hesitate to rat out shoveling scofflaws. Until she retired last year, Daly spent three decades as an occupational therapist for Minneapolis Public Schools, making home visits to her preschool clients. Nothing made her madder than a sidewalk blocked by snow. Im that bug in the citys ear. I never called within the first 24 hours [of a snowfall] Im talking when its still slippery days later, said Daly, who had many clients with physical disabilities. I had a landlord tell me he lets nature take its course. Im sorry, thats not OK. Its your obligation as a neighbor to take care of your property and make sure its safe. These days, it seems that not everyone would agree. Judging by the number of sidewalks remaining snow-covered in the past few winters, more Twin Cities homeowners are slipping when it comes to shoveling. Its as if the unwritten contract to keep sidewalks passable is as outdated as wool gloves in the era of Thinsulate. Increasingly, shoveling is seen as an inconvenience, if not a burden. The time it takes to clear walks following a substantial dump throws a wrench into a busy familys schedule, already disrupted by snow-slowed commutes. And snowbirds and travelers struggle to manage their civic duty from afar. We have a small city lot and finding a service that will reliably take it on has been impossible. They say its not worth their while, said Todd Hanks, a retired business owner who winters in Nevada. The neighbors kids dont want to do it. A couple of guys who said they would didnt show, he said. I feel that sense of responsibility. I couldnt live with it if someone cracked their skull on my property, but were kind of stuck. We need someone to start an Uber Snow. A Lyft my shovel. In Minneapolis, city leaders are considering taking over the job of clearing the almost 2,000 miles of residential sidewalks. In the meantime, the city has announced plans to get tougher with property owners who are slow with their snow. Public works inspectors pledge to promptly seek out uncleared sidewalks rather than just waiting to follow up on complaints from neighbors. In the past, the city sent out warning letters before issuing citations or fines. This winter, the city has said that inspectors will move more quickly on anonymous tips about slackers. But some prompt shovelers are taking matters into their own gloved hands. A lot of renters dont understand the expectation, said Erin Neihoff, who lives near the University of Minnesota. She has spoken to student renters on her block who run off to class without clearing their walks. I tell them, we have a neighbor who walks with a cane and cant get to the bus stop, she said. They seem receptive but theyll say, I dont have a shovel. If no one gets on it, I call so the landlord gets notified. Indirect reminders But here in Minnesota, most of us are not as direct as Neihoff. Calling the city on your neighbor for not shoveling is about as Minnesota passive-aggressive as it gets, quipped Joel Gryniewski. Hes well positioned to take that dig; his novelty company Old Tom Foolery produces a popular T-shirt that reads: Keep Minnesota Passive-Aggressive. (Or not. Whatever you think is best. ) Gryniewski is not judging those who drop a dime on those who fail to shovel, admitting that he would do it, too. As a nonconfrontational Minnesotan, I can tell you that sounds terrifying, he said. Let the city deal with it and bask in the anonymity. Greta Grosch knows all about our passive-aggressive tendencies. She wrote six of the Church Basement Ladies musicals and has stomped the stage in a plaid housedress and buckled galoshes to perform as one of the church ladies for 15 years. In Minnesota, we are rule followers. We like to think we have high standards and we know best. We make someone else feel shame for not doing it the right way, which is, of course, our way, she said. We do it all with a smile, which is what makes it passive-aggressive. Grosch suggests a few classic moves to nudge a neighbor who doesnt measure up after a measurable snowfall. So you dont have to talk to them, you can put the city shoveling rules in their mailbox or under their windshield. You could leave a shovel at their door. Or you can dramatically sigh and walk out in the street to get around their snowy sidewalk, maybe trip a little, she suggested. Try to do this when theyre walking to the car or checking the mail so they see you. But in the end, when neighbors dont shovel, Grosch thinks a good Minnesotan might just do it for them. Well do it because we worry about other neighbors falling, she said. And then we can sigh and give them side eye the rest of the year over our sacrifice. Prejudice and pride Its difficult for people with mobility issues to be amused by the shoveling debate. I wish people were more conscientious and did more than the bare minimum, said Sadie Ruge. Born with spina bifida, she uses a wheelchair. Those of us who cant walk through snow are either homebound or late to where we need to go. It often limits us to going places in the winter; we might not take the chance that the situation will be difficult, she said. Ruge said she has called the city of St. Paul to report uncleared walkways in her neighborhood and for a reason. If people dont say something about a problem, it likely goes unnoticed and unresolved, she said. Unshoveled sidewalks can also be bad news for neighborhoods. When a block has homes in need of shoveling, it can signal a lack of pride. Theres no question that first impressions are incredibly important in real estate. You want a buyer to have a positive experience and it starts at the front door and the front sidewalk, said Cotty Lowry, a real estate agent with Keller Williams and past president of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. Buyers look at the fabric of the block, the architecture and also the general maintenance. I suppose looking at a neighbor whos neglected shoveling could influence how they felt, he said. Despite her on-the-job tumbles, Sandy Daly promptly shovels her own property on Nicollet Island in Minneapolis, saying having a clean walk fills her with a sense of accomplishment. In my neighborhood, everyone is good about paying it forward or paying it back, she said. When I had knee replacement surgery last year, help just showed up. Daly opposes the city proposal to take over shoveling sidewalks, which could cost as much as $20 million. This is our community and our neighbors. We have to take care of each other, she said. We have better things to spend our money on than this. | http://www.startribune.com/are-minnesotans-letting-the-neighborly-obligation-to-shovel-melt-away/503802182/ |
Why is Wizards assistant coach Kristi Toliver being paid just $10,000 to do a six-figure job? | Its been hard for women to break into the coaching ranks of the NBA, but theyve been making slow and steady progress. Kristi Toliver is proof of that. The Washington Wizards hired Toliver as an assistant coach in October, and shes received rave reviews from Wizards players and head coach Scott Brooks. But while NBA assistant coaches typically make upward of $100,000, Howard Megdal of the New York Times reported that Toliver is paid a fraction of that. Toliver is being paid just $10,000 to work as an NBA assistant coach, 1/10 of the typical assistant coachs salary. Its because shes a WNBA player who takes the floor for the Washington Mystics. Toliver has played in the WNBA for nearly a decade, and joined the Mystics in 2017. According to Megdal, the WNBAs collective bargaining agreement puts a cap on what every team can pay their players for offseason work. And because the Wizards and the Mystics are both owned by Ted Leonsis Monumental Sports & Entertainment, the NBA and WNBA decided that Toliver would have to be paid from the pool of $50,000 each team gets to pay players for offseason work. Most of that money has already been allocated to Elena Delle Donne, who does promotional work for the Mystics during the offseason. Tolivers getting whats left. Washington Wizards assistant coach Kristi Toliver is paid significantly less than other NBA assistant coaches, thanks to the WNBAs collective bargaining agreement. (AP Photo/Nick Wass) Story continues Its easy to see the thought process behind the decision, since the Wizards and Mystics are owned by the same guy. But that doesnt mean the decision makes sense. Toliver isnt doing promotional work for the Mystics, like Elena Delle Donne. Shes doing work in her chosen field thats completely unrelated to the Mystics. Toliver was brought in by the Wizards because of her talent and experience, not because of any relationship to the greater Leonsis sports empire. She was brought in as a professional, and she deserves to be paid like one. The Wizards agreed. They fought the leagues decision with Toliver, arguing that she should be paid more than the $10,000 the Mystics could allocate for her. The league ruled against them, but Toliver decided to take the job anyway, though it wasnt an easy decision. She could have done what many of her colleagues do and make big money playing overseas. Taking the position with the Wizards meant that she would get a chance to rest her body, but shed have to forgo the big paycheck and get paid like an intern to do a job that everyone else is paid six figures to do. In the end, she chose to fulfill her long-held dream of coaching in the NBA, a decision made much harder by the NBA and WNBAs ruling. Things are changing in the WNBA. The cap for offseason pay was part of a previous collective bargaining agreement, which WNBA players opted out of last year. A player like Toliver, a well-respected competitor who has been immensely successful in her career, speaking out about this publicly could lead to a change when a new CBA is negotiated. Megdal said in the Times that its expected that the league will be open to changes in the new CBA that allow for WNBA players to receive more than they currently do for NBA work. If thats true, thats good news for Toliver and for the many women who will undoubtedly follow in her footsteps. More from Yahoo Sports: Roger beats Serena in exhibition match Fired Bengals coach gives questionable endorsement Paylor: This was the most unfair firing of the NFL season Thamel: With Holgorsen gone, 5 candidates for WVU job | https://sports.yahoo.com/wizards-assistant-coach-kristi-toliver-paid-just-10000-six-figure-job-184136654.html?src=rss |
Is Apple in any real trouble in 2019? | Apple stock finished 2018 down 8.5%. It was the second-worst performer of the F.A.A.N.G. names. The biggest story was iPhone sales whiffing in the fourth quarter of 2018: 46.9 million units sold versus an expected 48.4 million. In the same report, Apple announced it would no longer share unit sales in its earnings reports. It was not the brightest year in recent memory for the tech giant. On the other hand, this is Apple were talking about. The companys biggest flag-wavers dismiss with a laugh any notion of legitimate macro concerns for Apple moving forward. Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at an Apple event to announce new products on Oct. 30, 2018, at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. (AP/Bebeto Matthews) More Dan Roberts: Yes, there are legitimate concerns about Apple Apple bulls cant keep repeating the same basic The king stay the king argument (see: HBOs The Wire) forever. That was the thinking many have applied to Facebook, and it expired in 2018. Not forever, and not for much longer if it keeps disappointing consumers. Here were the events (and non-events) in 2018 that add up to a strong bear case against Apple for 2019: In February, Apple began shipping the HomePod, its underwhelming late entry into the smart speaker market. Apple hasnt launched a completely new device since 2015, when it launched the first generation Apple Watch. Its future growth certainly wont be driven by wearables. (And dont say AirPod wireless headphones count on the level of its other iconic devices.) Instead, Apple bulls now focus on services. But this was once a company known for its splashy, sexy hardware launches. Its the iconic maker of the iMac, iPod, iPad and iPhone. The world is waiting for the next big Apple device and incremental updates (and price hikes) to the iPhone and iPad wont cut it. Apple is locked in an ugly legal battle with Qualcomm. Apple faces major headwinds in China amid President Donald Trumps trade war. Twenty percent of its revenue comes from China, which makes it more vulnerable to tariff trouble than its big tech peers. A slew of Apple component suppliers slashed forecasts in the fall amid disappointing iPhone sales: Lumentum, Qorvo, Japan Display, and AMS all slashed sales forecasts, a parade of bad indicators for Apple. Amid softening iPhone demand, bank after bank after bank downgraded Apple stock. Apple made matters worse in November by announcing it will no longer break out quarterly unit sales data for its devices, a move that Yahoo Finances Brian Sozzi correctly roasted. D.A. Davidson analyst Tom Forte called the decision a red flag on Yahoo Finances Midday Movers live show: Generally speaking, when a company isnt going to give you a data point, thats a bad data point. Look, of course Apple isnt going anywhere in 2019. Many of us are used to using Apple devices across the board (me included) and fear of weaning ourselves off the Apple ecosystem. But many consumers and investors now think its time to do just that. So, Apple is likely to face additional dark clouds in the next 12 months, unless it has a hardware trick up its sleeve. F.A.A.N.G. stocks (FB, AAPL, AMZN, NFLX, GOOGL) in 2018. More Brian Sozzi: Calm down, Apple will be just fine Never forget that Apple was the first trillion-dollar company on planet Earth. That shouldnt be taken lightly even as Apple finds its market cap hovering at $760 billion after 2018. Sure, Wall Street loves itself a great tech growth story. The argument could be made that Apple is now the complete opposite. But to fathom that Apple is barreling toward a dystopian future where Samsung steals all iPhone users and employees in Cupertino, Calif. forget how to innovate is foolish. Apple remains a beast of an entity. Apples stock will probably return to being a beast long before not. Heres a tidy list. Warren Buffett is the second-largest individual shareholder in Apple. Apple has about $250 billion in cash, and growing. The company has said its goal is to return all of its cash to shareholders via buybacks and dividends. Expect a juicy dividend hike in 2019. Apple has an insanely strong management team and board. Tim Cook was handpicked by CEO predecessor Steve Jobs. Former CEO of Burberry Angela Ahrendts jumped ship to lead Apples retail store network. Disney CEO Bob Iger sits on Apples board, as does former Vice President Al Gore. The installed base of iPhones is by some estimates currently 1.5 billion. Thats a huge captive audience to sell services (cloud, apps, etc.) to. Apple is investing billions of dollars to open a new Austin, Tex. headquarters and data centers across the country. Apple is building an army of the best minds in America. Apple has a strong, unmatched presence in schools globally. So the company is bringing people into its ecosystem early. Daniel Roberts is a senior writer at Yahoo Finance. Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance. Follow @readDanwrite and @BrianSozzi. | https://news.yahoo.com/apple-real-trouble-2019-191347377.html |
How Much Does Apple Stand To Lose As Netflix Stops In-App Subscriptions? | Last week, Netflix indicated that it would be stopping in-app subscriptions on Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) devices, as it looks to bypass the commission that Apple charges on subscriptions made via iOS apps. Apple typically takes a 30% commission from subscriptions initiated on its platform over the first year, with the number dropping to 15% from the second year onward. Going forward, Netflix will require new subscribers on iOS to sign up via its website, rather than within the Netflix App, thereby allowing it to bypass Apples iTunes-based billing system. In this note, we try to size up the potential impact of Netflixs move on Apples subscription business, which counts as one of the iPhone makers fastest growing services segments. We have created an interactive dashboard analysis on Breaking Down Apples Services Revenue. You can modify the various drivers to arrive at your own estimates for services revenue. Netflix Likely The Biggest Subscription Based App On iOS Apple had a total of about 330 million paid subscriptions on its platform as of the last quarter, and we estimate that the company made a total of over $2 billion in subscription revenues over 2018 from third-party apps. While Apple will continue to garner a cut from existing Netflix subscribers who signed up on an iOS device, it will have to forgo revenues from new sign-ups and this could be meaningful, as Netflix is likely one of the biggest contributors to Apples third-party subscription revenue. The companys subscriber base is likely approaching 150 million globally and it counts as one of the most popular apps on the AppStore. That said, we dont believe there is a meaningful risk that other digital subscription providers will follow suit and discourage app based sign-ups as the in-app subscription model allows developers (particularly smaller players with less visibility) to offer convenient payment process and a more streamlined experience. If we assume that Netflix adds a total of 21 million users globally in 2019, with 20% of the subscriptions coming from iOS, it could imply that about 4 million users sign up on iOS devices next year. Although iOS accounted for just about 13% of the global smartphone market last quarter, iOS users could be more likely to sign up for Netflix, considering higher purchasing power and spending on apps and services. Assuming an average monthly subscription fee of $11 per user, revenues from new subscribers on iOS for the year would come in at about $550 million. Apples share of revenues on these users would have come in at about $160 million for the year, assuming a 30% take rate. The potential loss of incremental revenue could increase to $200 million in 2020 and $250 million by 2021, as the loss of recurring revenue (15% cut for users who signed up in the previous year) is factored in. While this would barely have an impact on Apples revenues, which stood at about $265 billion last year, its likely that these commissions are almost pure profit for Apple, meaning that the impact on the companys bottom line could be slightly more pronounced. See our full calculations in the table below. See How its Powering New Collaboration and What-Ifs | https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/01/02/how-much-does-apple-stand-to-lose-as-netflix-stops-in-app-subscriptions/ |
Can Growth Endeavors Aid Wolverine's (WWW) Revival in 2019? | Shares of Wolverine World Wide, Inc. WWW have not only declined but also underperformed the industry in the past six months. This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company has lost 7.8% in the said time frame compared with the industrys decline of 5.1%. This can be attributable to the companys sluggish sales trend for the past few quarters. Notably, Wolverine has been witnessing dismal sales trends over the last five quarters, mainly due to change in quarterly calendars, negative impacts of store closures and portfolio changes made in early 2017. Some of these factors also led to a drop in revenues during the third quarter of 2018. The top line declined 3.9% to $558.6 million in the quarter, owing to decline in all three segments. Moreover, sales at the companys Boston Group and Heritage Group have declined in all the three quarters of 2018. Further, the company is exposed to significant currency headwinds. Additionally, stiff competition is a concern. Efforts to Revive the Stock Wolverine boasts a wide portfolio of owned and licensed brands of casual as well as athletic footwear and apparel. We note that two of the companys biggest brands, namely Merrell and Wolverine, have been gaining traction lately. Further, the company plans to strengthen its brand portfolio through innovation and expansion of its brands to newer geographies and platforms. Moreover, the company is riding well on its strong international presence. Going ahead, the company plans to add strategic resources to strengthen its regional teams, especially in the emerging regions of Asia-Pacific such as China. These efforts are likely to help achieve high-single-digit growth in revenues from its international business in 2018. Apart from these, Wolverine has been progressing well with its Way Forward transformation initiative, a strategic platform aimed at driving growth and profitability amid a competitive market scenario. In fact, a significant portion of gross margin growth during the first, second and third quarters of 2018 was driven by this initiative. We note that during the first quarter, the company stepped into the next phase of the Way Forward initiative Global Growth Agenda. The agenda encompasses three key strategies, namely Powerful Product Creation Engine, Digital-Direct Offense and International Expansion. Incremental investments toward such growth initiatives are expected to be $40-$45 million for 2018. Out of this, approximately 45% will be directed toward the creation of powerful product development. Moreover, the company focuses on its fast growing e-commerce space. Efforts in this respect include enhancing social presence, better digital advertisement manoeuvres, and better implementation and management of consumer database. Further, the company has allocated approximately $15 million of incremental investments from the Global Growth Agenda toward digital advancements. In fact, Wolverine is witnessing solid e-commerce growth, with 25% improvement in this business in the third quarter. All said, we expect these above-mentioned strategies to offset the challenges faced by the company and get it back on track in the near future. 3 Retail Stocks to Bank On Boot Barn Holdings, Inc. BOOT has long-term earnings growth rate of 23% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. | https://news.yahoo.com/growth-endeavors-aid-wolverines-revival-194907256.html |
What are the new gun laws in 2019? | A wave of gun control activism surged across the U.S. in 2018 and yet it led to little action from the federal government. So as 2019 arrives, it's state governments that are taking aim at the problem with new gun laws. The new year has brought new restrictions and regulations in several states, with some going into effect on New Year's Day and others scheduled to take force midway through 2019. Many of the laws enact versions of policies that were in the 100-plus gun control proposals that have failed in Congress over the past few years. California The most sweeping new gun laws are in California, where a gunman in November killed 12 people and himself in a Thousand Oaks country-western bar. It was the second-deadliest mass shooting of 2018, behind the Parkland school shooting in Florida, which left 17 people dead and led to several changes in that state's gun laws. As of January 1, the Golden State has raised the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21 (with exceptions for members of law enforcement, the military, or those who have a hunting license). Anyone convicted of certain domestic violence charges after January 1 will face a lifetime ban on gun ownership, as would anyone committed to a mental institution twice in one year. Californians who want to carry a concealed weapon now must undergo at least eight hours of safety training. And starting July 1, ammunition dealers will have to check with the Justice Department before a sale to make sure the customer is not banned from gun purchases. Illinois A new law called the Firearms Restraining Order Act creates a system to take guns away from people who are deemed dangerous to others or themselves. Relatives or police can request an emergency order of protection against someone who has shown threatening or suicidal behavior, which could include social media posts. The order could lead to that person's guns being seized immediately for two weeks, or up to six months in more extreme cases. The state also amended several of its gun laws. The waiting period for purchasing rifles has jumped from 24 hours to 72 hours. Schools, employers and places of worships are allowed to file orders of protection against individuals. Hospitals are required to report involuntary psychiatric admissions, which could lead to some gun owners losing their concealed carry licenses. Oregon The state has expanded its firearm ban for domestic abusers and stalkers to close a so-called "boyfriend loophole." Under previous law, abusers were banned from buying and owning guns only if they were married to their victim. The new law bans all convicted stalkers, abusers and people under restraining orders from buying or owning guns, regardless of whether they are married or live with children. Washington state The age for buying semi-automatic rifles has been raised from 18 to 21, after voters passed an initiative in November. Starting in July, the state will also have new requirements for safe gun storage and new background checks from law enforcement for purchases. Gun owners could also face criminal charges if one of their weapons gets into the hands of children or someone banned from carrying a firearm, and is used for threats or violence. Federal ban on bump stocks On the federal level, there is at least one major change coming in 2019: A ban on bump stocks, the devices that let semi-automatic rifles fire faster rounds. The gunman responsible for the 2017 rampage in Las Vegas, which is the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, used bump stocks to fire more than 1,100 rounds into a country music festival crowd in only 10 minutes. Congress' attempts to ban bump stocks after the massacre went nowhere. But the Trump administration announced in October 2018 that it was amending the legal definition of machine guns to encompass bump stocks, effectively making the devices illegal. The ban is expected to take effect in March. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-are-the-new-gun-laws-in-2019/ |
Does defence still have what it takes to get to the top? | Open this photo in gallery Cornerback Richard Sherman (25) and San Francisco 49ers outside linebacker Elijah Lee (47) tackle Los Angeles Rams running back C.J. Anderson (35) during the first half of a game at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 30, 2018 in Los Angeles, Calif. Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images From Pittsburghs Steel Curtain in the 1970s to Chicagos Monsters of the Midway in the 80s to Seattles Legion of Boom more recently, dominant defences have often been the story of the NFL postseason. High-powered offences might generate the highlights, the fantasy points and victories in the regular season. But more often than not the top defences have managed to hold those dynamic offences in check when the weather turns colder and the games get more important in the postseason. Story continues below advertisement I have no idea, said San Francisco cornerback Richard Sherman, a key member of Seattles 2013 championship defence. I dont think the league really wants that or cares to have that thing again. They care more about offensive football, so thats what theyll get. To have a special defensive group to play that well for so long would be very difficult to do because of the style of defence and the rules. ... I think its going to be harder and harder to make the Hall of Fame from defence. Playing defence in the NFL perhaps has never been harder, with the intimidating hits on receivers and quarterbacks now outlawed, even the most minor downfield contact resulting in penalties, and quarterbacks more accurate and efficient than ever while running the new spread offences. This year featured the highest passer rating (92.9), most yards a play (5.6) and second-most points a game (46.7) in NFL history. It seems as if playing great defence is almost impossible. You cant use it as an excuse because they still let us hit, okay? said Dallas defensive co-ordinator Rod Marinelli, an assistant on the 2002 Tampa Bay team that won a Super Bowl behind its defence. Ive always believed in the speed of the defence. And thats the hitting. Theyve got holes. Weve got to hit the holes. Weve got to hit them. And weve got to make it a physical game. Weve got be smart, helmet to helmet, got to be smart on the quarterback, some of those things. And you try to teach it, keep our speed and playing fast. Some of the things down the field, push-offs and all that stuff, its tough. The story of this NFL season has been the offences, with the highlight being a 54-51 win for the Los Angeles Rams over the Kansas City Chiefs back in November. Thats been part of a season that had first-year starter Patrick Mahomes throwing for 50 touchdown passes and more than 5,000 yards for Kansas City, Drew Brees setting more records at the age of 39 in New Orleans, Tom Brady maintaining his winning ways in his 40s for New England and Sean McVays offence tormenting opposing teams all year long for the Rams. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement But those teams that feature four of the five most efficient offences in the league, according to Football Outsiders, and defences that have been far less consistent will get the opening weekend of the postseason off. That will provide a bit of a throwback look on wild-card weekend with many of the leagues top defences taking centre stage in hopes that they can get on a run such as the one the Denver Broncos had three years ago to win a Super Bowl. I think its still definitely possible, said Broncos linebacker Todd Davis, a member of that title-winning team. I dont feel like it has to be 51-54. It really doesnt. I feel like you can really stop teams if you play close defence, you play tight on receivers, play great in man coverage and you can really stop people. Many of the teams playing this weekend have shown that ability this season, led by the NFLs top-ranked scoring defence in Chicago. An already-strong unit only got better with the acquisition of elite pass rusher Khalil Mack before the season. With Mack and Akiem Hicks wreaking havoc up front and Eddie Jackson and Kyle Fuller providing big plays from the secondary, the Bears appear to have the defence best equipped for a long postseason run, starting with Sundays home game against defending champion Philadelphia. Dominant, thats it, Hicks said. We are aggressive. We like to hit. All the stuff that I was [saying] before the season started, were everything that we said we were. And hopefully we can get to another level for these playoffs. Story continues below advertisement The Bears arent alone. Six of those 10 most efficient defences are playing this weekend: Baltimore, Houston, the Chargers, Dallas and Indianapolis. Ball-control offence and dominant defence have been a tried-and-true formula for teams such as Baltimore and Seattle, which have combined for three Super Bowl championships and five appearances in the title game this century with that recipe. The Seahawks still have that capability despite the absence of most of the stalwarts from the Legion of Boom such as Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril. But Bobby Wagner remains at middle linebacker, Frank Clark has been an elite pass rusher, and coach Pete Carrolls scheme is still effective after all these years. You either believe in something or you dont, Carroll said. I think just staying the course and knowing were on to something. Believing in the history. We know what were capable of doing. Weve shown it over a lot of years. Youre always adapting, but its staying what youre true to. I think thats what is happening. We look like a team that we have seen before, and thats powerful. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/football/article-does-defence-still-have-what-it-takes-to-get-to-the-top/ |
Can Anyone Succeed As Trumps Chief of Staff? | Its no wonder Mick Mulvaney, Donald Trumps new White House chief of staff, wanted acting in his job title. James A. Baker III, Ronald Reagans quintessential gatekeeper, tells every incoming chief the same thing when asked for his advice: Congratulations, youve got the worst f---ing job in government. The position is so relentless and punishing that Dick Cheney blames his stint as Gerald Fords 34-year-old lieutenant for triggering his first heart attack. For chiefs, those were the best of times. These are the worst, serving a president who makes their lives miserable, and the assignment virtually impossible. Dont ask Reince Priebus or John Kelly, who both failed in the position. In a recent exit interview with the Los Angeles Times, Kelly said he should be judged by all the terrible things he prevented the president from doing. As a metric for a White House chiefs performance, thats unprecedented. But then, so is Trump. Story Continued Below While it will be incredibly tricky, it is still possible for Mulvaney to improve on the performances of his predecessors, and to be an asset to Trump and the country. Mulvaney was chosen in part for his presumed political savvy; the former South Carolina congressman was thought to be a possible help in Trumps expected reelection bid. But the 2020 campaign should be Mulvaneys last priority. What the president desperately needs now is someone who can help him governwhich is in both Trumps and the countrys best interest and, after all, is the reason we elect presidents. To help Trump do that, his new chief should stick to basics. First, Mulvaney should keep a low profile. Kellys credibility never recovered from his creepy, get-off-my-lawn performance in the White House briefing room in the fall of 2017, when he smeared Representative Frederica Wilson with a false story, then refused to apologize. While Mulvaney is more polished on camera, he has so far sounded more like a Trump sycophant than a person who can tell the president hard truths, the most important duty for any chief. This is what having a president who is nontraditional looks like, Mulvaney recently told Chris Wallace on Fox News, right after the president ordered a precipitous troop withdrawal from Syria and shut down the government, sending Wall Street stocks into a dizzying plunge. Actually, this is not what a nontraditional president looks like. This is what a dysfunctional White House looks like. Its Mulvaneys job to help the president fix the machinery of government, even if Trump doesnt know it is broken. Second, Mulvaney must understand the scope of his job. Kelly famously declared that while he would bring order and discipline to the White House, it was not his job to manage the president. Mulvaney has echoed that view, saying that he will be chief of staff (not of the president), and will not try to rein in Trump. That betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the job, a crucial part of which is to protect the president from himself. Its the chiefs responsibility to keep him from acting on impulse; from making half-baked decisions; from demonizing people who disagree with him. Granted, Trump is who he isgiven his personality and character, it may not be possible to manage how he operates as president. But its the chiefs job to try. Third, Mulvaney must act as the presidents honest broker of information. That means not only calling out Trumps lies, as Kelly often failed to do, but also enforcing a well-informed decision-making process. Even more than the national security adviser, the chief must see that only the toughest decisions get into the Oval Office, ensuring that accurate information is teed up on every sidewhether the president heeds it or not. Trump is someone for whom discipline, focus and process are anathema. And yet in the wake of his impulsive, seat-of-the-pants decisions to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan, which triggered Defense Secretary James Mattis extraordinary resignation, a well-informed, fully vetted decision-making process is more critical than evernot only for the president himself, but for the country. Sooner or later, a crisisforeign, domestic, economicwill come. Ten years ago, staring into the abyss of an imminent worldwide depression, President George W. Bush mulled whether to do something contrary to every political bone in his body: give an almost trillion-dollar bailout to the banks that had caused the crisis in the first place. It was the only way, chief of staff Joshua Bolten and his advisers told him, to prevent world economic collapse. Bush listened, and swallowed that bitter pill, averting total disaster. Not without a strong chief of staff. Fourth, Trumps new chief must help him learn the difference between campaigningwhich is dividing and demonizingand governing, which requires building coalitions. Kelly often reinforced Trumps worst, partisan instinctsfrom trashing Wilson to encouraging the administrations zero tolerance border policy. Even when this White House gets something right, it has displayed a genius for squandering the moment. The First Step Act, a genuine breakthrough in criminal justice reform, which passed the House and Senate in December, was a rare opportunity to turn the page from confrontation to bipartisan cooperation. But Trump buried the achievement in an avalanche of petulance and pique over his stymied border wall. At times like that, it will be Mulvaneys job to walk into the Oval Office, close the door and tell the president to cut it out. (Good luck with that.) Finally, with investigators and prosecutors closing in on Trumps malfeasance, Mulvaney must be careful to avoid the fate of Richard Nixons chief H.R. Haldeman, who traded his West Wing office for a prison cell after his conviction for conspiracy and obstruction of justice in the Watergate scandal. A more encouraging model for Mulvaney might be Howard Baker, Reagans penultimate chief of staff. At the height of the Iran-Contra scandal, with the threat of impeachment looming, Reagan stubbornly insisted, against all evidence, that he had not traded arms to Iran for hostages. Baker and his deputy, Ken Duberstein, who would later succeed Baker as chief, sat the president down and persuaded him, nonetheless, to deliver an apology on national television. Reagans popularity immediately rebounded; he finished his second term with an approval rating of 68 percent. Mulvaney will have to play the role of wartime consigliere for a White House under siege. When special counsel Robert Muellers hammer finally comes down, Trumps chief must be prepared to present the president with a range of unpleasant optionspossibly including his resignation for the good of the country. In return for his efforts, Mulvaney will almost certainly be fired. But there are worse fates, including complicity in some of this presidents shameful episodes (praising neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, attacking the free press) and misguided policies (separating migrant families, cozying up to Vladimir Putin). Just about everyone who serves this president ends up tarnished. For all of these reasons, Trumps incoming chief of staff should take James Bakers admonition to the bank. If I had Mulvaneys title, I would keep the acting part. Chris Whipple is a filmmaker and author of The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency. | https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/01/02/trump-new-chief-of-staff-mick-mulvaney-223615 |
Who replaces Dillon Mitchell as Oregons go-to receiver in 2019? | EUGENE Justin Herberts best and most common target is leaving for the NFL so Oregons signal caller will have to aim elsewhere in 2019. Dillon Mitchells early departure leaves a major void atop the Ducks receiver corps. He had 75 catches for a program-record 1,184 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, all team-highs. The Ducks have eight receivers returning and four signees set to join the group as they attempt to replace Mitchells production next season. It will be a tall task, but hardly impossible with Herbert at quarterback, as Mitchells jump in production shows how easily being a reliable target can lead to big results. However, all of Oregons receivers had major issues with drops and theres no easy way to improve that other than constant individual work. Dillon Mitchell enters 2019 NFL Draft Oregons leading returning receiver is Jaylon Redd, who had 48 catches for 433 yards and five touchdowns. Redd didnt play the same role as Mitchell, but his production should increase. Hell also be a candidate to take over as Oregons primary kickoff returner. Tight end Jacob Breeland had 24 catches for 377 yards and two touchdowns. However, the return of Cam McCormick should eat into his playing time and thus, his contributions, while McCormick could be a more significant factor in the passing game. Running back CJ Verdell had 27 receptions for 315 yards and two scores. He was one of only two players with 1,000 rushing yards and 300 receiving yards this season and the other, Utah States Darwin Thompson, is entering the NFL Draft. Verdell will be called upon in the receiving game but perhaps even more on the ground and with durability a question after he dealt with an array of injuries, theres only so many reps he can take. The next true wide out in terms of production is Johnny Johnson III, who had 17 catches for 215 yards and four touchdowns. Johnson only had more than one catch in two Pac-12 games and only topped 20 yards once in Pac-12 play. More targets is not the obvious answer for Johnson, who like all of his peers had issues with drops. Brenden Schooler will be Oregons lone senior receiver in 2019 and is coming off a year in which he had 21 receptions for 203 yards and a touchdown. Schooler was a consistent contributor in the middle of the season, with 14 catches for 142 yards and a score over a four-game span, but ended the season with one four-yard catch during the last three games, including nothing in the last two. That leaves freshmen Bryan Addison, Isaiah Crocker, J.J. Tucker, Demetri Burch and Daewood Davis, with the latter two already having redshirted, vying for roles to contribute along with incoming signees Josh Delgado, Mycah Pittman, JR Waters and Lance Wilhoite. Mario Cristobal spoke highly of Addison late in the season and during bowl practices so he could push for a meaningful role. Burch and Davis took some reps with the second-team offense during the regular season while Crocker and Tucker were with the scout team while redshirting. But Oregon needed to upgrade its receiver corps and did in a big way with Delgado, Pittman, Waters and Wilhoite. How quickly any of them will contribute is anyones guess, but it would be foolish to expect any true freshmen to single-handedly be as big a factor as Mitchell, who had 63 catches on 107 targets in Pac-12 play. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/01/who-replaces-dillon-mitchell-as-oregons-go-to-receiver-in-2019.html |
Who Is Mitt Romney Kidding? | Thats a fair reading of Romneys op-ed. It is not that all of the presidents policies have been misguided, he wrote. He was right to align U.S. corporate taxes with those of global competitors, to strip out excessive regulations, to crack down on Chinas unfair trade practices, to reform criminal justice and to appoint conservative judges. These are policies mainstream Republicans have promoted for years. But policies and appointments are only a part of a presidency. Whats most striking about the op-ed is what it doesnt mention. There are no complaints about Trumps draconian approach to immigration, perhaps because Romney himself helped pave the way for his hardline policies. During the 2012 primaries, he outflanked the rest of the field from the right by calling for policies that would pressure immigrants to self-deport as an alternative to mass deportations. The years have not tempered his views: Im also more of a hawk on immigration than even the president, Romney told a Utah crowd in March. Romneys op-ed reveals a selective memory at play. His version of events begins with his own decision not to endorse Trump in 2016. But during the 2012 campaign, Romney appeared alongside Trump to accept his endorsement, a decision that helped pave the way for Trumps subsequent rise to power: It validated his racist campaign to pressure President Obama into releasing his birth certificate, and signaled that he had power and influence within the Republican Party. Romneys pointed non-endorsement in 2016 was too late to wash away the imprimatur of legitimacy. The narrative also, conveniently for Romney, focuses on what happened in the last month of 2018. The Trump presidency made a deep descent in December, his op-ed began, as he lamented the departures of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, and other figures whom establishment Republicans saw as stabilizing figures within the administration. Criticizing Trumps actions prior to the midterm elections would have been slightly awkward for Romney: He welcomed the presidents endorsement in his own Senate campaign. Some observers rushed to praise Romney for his perceived declaration of independence. For better or worse, Mitt Romney has joined the resistance, The Weeks Joel Mathis wrote on Wednesday. Rick Wilson, a prominent #NeverTrump conservative consultant, was euphoric. Yes, weve seen a handful of truth-tellers in the Senate, he wrote in The Daily Beast, but they rarely hit so keenly as todays Romney nuke strike. If complaining that Trump has not risen to the mantle of his office is a nuclear detonation, even the most conservative of Democrats should be sent to the Hague. | https://newrepublic.com/article/152839/mitt-romney-antitrump-washington-post-oped |
Is it time for the Arizona Coyotes to ride rookie goaltender Adin Hill? | Coyotes goaltender Adin Hill is 7-3-0 since he was called up from the AHL. (Photo: Icon Sportswire, Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Its safe to say that Adin Hill didnt envision he'd be a starting goaltender in the NHL at the conclusion of Coyotes training camp in September. Hill, regarded as the top goaltending prospect in the Coyotes organization, has been thrust into duty as one of the most trusted netminders on a club that seems to be plagued more and more by injuries as the season drones on. With No. 1 goaltender Antti Raanta sidelined for what could end up being a season-ending injury, the Coyotes goaltending situation has turned into a tandem between Hill and regular backup Darcy Kuemper. The Coyotes also added Calvin Pickard off waivers from Philadelphia and assigned him to their AHL affiliate in Tucson for purposes of conditioning, which suggests Pickard could see some NHL game action once he shakes off the cobwebs with the Roadrunners. Im fine with it, Hill said of the current goaltending situation. Its what Ive done in the AHL the past few years with the rotating back and forth Darcys a great guy and its healthy competition. Still, the Coyotes goaltending situation has been in flux since Raanta went down with an injury on Nov. 27. Rangers center Mika Zibanejad lines up a shot against Coyotes goalie Adin Hill during overtime of a game Dec. 14 at Madison Square Garden. (Photo: Catalina Fragoso / USA TODAY Sports) Since then, the Coyotes have posted an 8-9 record and have allowed an average of 2.94 goals per game. Their 50 goals allowed since Nov. 27 are tied for eighth most in the NHL over that span. Prior to Raantas injury, the Coyotes had allowed just 62 goals in 22 games (2.82 per game), which was tied for the fourth fewest in the NHL over that span. Although the Coyotes individual goals-against average didnt increase by much, they are clearly trending against league trajectory. Of course, not all of that can be pinned on the goalie. The Coyotes defensive unit has suffered with Jason Demers out indefinitely with a knee injury and effective two-way forwards Michael Grabner and Brad Richardson also missing some games as of late. Over the course of the entire season, the Coyotes have still been an above-average team in terms of goal prevention, but theyll need excellent goaltending and air-tight defense down the stretch in order to get themselves back in the race for a playoff spot. Their best chance at achieving the first part of that could lie with Hill, who has been the best-performing of the Coyotes current goaltenders since his recall from Tucson. Coyotes head coach Rick Tocchet pointed out Hills presence in games where his club has shown the most resiliency. From last year to this year, obviously hes gotten better, Tocchet said of Hill. His style of play is a lot quieter. Last year, he was a little busy, scrambly. I think hes tempered that and still needs to temper some of that, but hes come in for some pressure situations and has done a nice job for us. The one thing I like is even in the games where theyve scored three or four goals on him, hes stayed strong and let us get back in the game. If you look at the games weve been in, hes been there. The Rangers game, the Anaheim game. Even though they scored 3-4 goals on him, he stayed strong and let us come back. Thats the sign of a mentally strong goalie. Although the rookie certainly hasnt been perfect this season, Hill has performed admirably with a 7-3-0 record to go along with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage. Simple math will tell you hes been in net for seven of the Coyotes eight wins and been involved with just three of their nine losses since Raanta went down with injury. The 22-year-old Hill said hes felt more and more comfortable with each start between the pipes at the NHL level. When you first come up here youre a little nervous off the ice but I feel like Im finding my game and I feel good, Hill said. Im just working one day at a time in practice and trying to get better every day. The guys here have been super welcoming. Tocchet said hes seen Hill continue to adjust to his new NHL setting on and off the ice. I think he watches himself a little bit because hes a young goalie and stuff, Tocchet said. But I think hes outgoing in the sense where hes talking out on the ice. I think sometimes as a young goalie youre afraid to say those things, but Ive heard him out there and thats a step in the right direction. With Kuemper struggling since his own return from injury (5-11-2, 2.90 GAA) and Pickard still an unknown commodity with the Coyotes, Hill might represent Arizonas best option in goal. The more you play, I feel like thats the more comfortable you get in the league, Hill said. Getting in a rhythm is nice but Im just going to take what I get. Its nice to play as many games as you want because you want to be in the net every game, right?If I get one start in the next month or 10, Im going to take it and do the best I can with them. MORE COYOTES Richard Morin covers the Coyotes and Diamondbacks for azcentral sports. He can be reached at rmorin@arizonarepublic.com and by phone at 480-316-2493. Follow him on Twitter @ramorin_azc. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nhl/coyotes/2019/01/02/time-arizona-coyotes-ride-rookie-goaltender-adin-hill-net/2465694002/ |
What's Driving Camping World Holdings 12% Higher Today? | Shares of Camping World Holdings (NYSE: CWH), a leading outdoor and camping retailer with products that include recreational vehicles, camping gear, and services such as RV maintenance and repair, are up 12% as of 3:22 p.m. EST after the company announced a management shakeup. So what After all was said and done, 2018 turned out to be a rough year for shareholders, who witnessed the stock shed much of its value. CWH Chart More CWH data by YCharts. Camping World decided to start the new year with a realignment and new assignments for the executive leadership team with the hope that it would foster a positive turnaround in performance and operations. Roger Nuttall resigned as president of the company's dealership group in late December 2018, and that position's responsibilities were divided between CEO Marcus Lemonis, and four tenured divisional RV presidents to make the decision-making process more efficient. Thomas Wolfe was also appointed to president of Good Sam, the company's comprehensive portfolio of recurring products and services, and Melvin Flanigan to chief financial officer. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marcus Lemonis had this to say in a press release: Our 2019 focus will be to better serve our customers, associates and shareholders while continuing to expand our RV market share with opportunistic RV acquisitions and completing the rollout of RV dealerships into newly opened retail locations. Recreational vehicle parked in the woods. More Image source: Getty Images. Now what The hope is that these executive moves will enable the team to better focus on improving inventory management, reducing costs and expenses, and increasing margins and cash flow. Management also reiterated it will close underperforming locations, as it had already closed four unprofitable RV dealership locations and eight retail stores. While today's 12% pop might be a breath of fresh air for investors who have endured a rough past 12 months holding the stock, remember that it merely offsets the initial plunge when news came out that Roger Nuttall had resigned from his position. Executive management might have a new look, but it has many problems to turn around before long-term investors buy back in. More From The Motley Fool Daniel Miller has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Camping World Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | https://news.yahoo.com/apos-driving-camping-world-holdings-212500199.html |
Who is performing at the Super Bowl halftime show 2019? | Super Bowl LIII will take place on Sunday, Feb. 3 and Maroon 5 will headline the performance during 2019's halftime show. The pop band will perform at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga. Rapper Travis Scott will reportedly join the group onstage. The NFL has not yet confirmed either performer for the show. Other acts could join Scott and Maroon 5 on stage. Justin Timberlake performed at Super Bowl LII last year in Minneapolis, Minn. with the University of Minnesota marching band. Lady Gaga headlined Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas. Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars were the stars of the Super Bowl 50 show in Santa Clara, Calif. This post will be updated when more information becomes available about the halftime show. | https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/super-bowl-2019-halftime-show-performers-maroon-five-travis-scott |
How Predictable Is Donald Trump? | Donald Trump will begin the third year of his Presidency amid a level of chaos that appears unprecedented, even for him. After hasty announcements (and partial walk-backs) of troop withdrawals, with markets jittery and cabinet members departing, and with the government shut down over his request for border-wall funding, the President is reported to be especially isolated and volatile. To discuss these questions, I spoke by phone with Michael Kranish, an investigative reporter at the Washington Post, and the co-author (with Marc Fisher) of Trump Revealed, which was published in August of 2016 and features hours of interviews with Trump. An edited and condensed version of our conversation follows. We are entering 2019 with this narrative that we are now seeing Trump unleashed. If you understand Trumps life before he became President, its all of a piece. People who know him and have known him for many years arent surprised by the way he has acted. I am reminded that he wrote, before he became President, that his aim as a kid was to be the toughest kid in the neighborhood . . . mouthing off to everybody while backing down to no one. So that has been his personality from the beginning. He was a catcher in Little League and liked to taunt people from that position. In many ways, Twitter is being a catcher all over again. He has crouched into the same position that he was as a Little League ballplayer in Queens. So, I do see a continuum with Trump. Well, the issues and the job are different, of course. But when you look at earlier decades of his lifehis business life and even his childhoodthe personality that he has displayed as President is in many ways what he displayed earlier. He said that it was hard to have many friends, and he often relied on family and often fired people. Many of the things we see today are what he has done throughout his life. One of the observations I made in writing about him was where he got his animus toward government. And where that came from, to a degree, was when he and his father were sued, in 1973, by the federal government for alleged racial bias at their housing projects. He thought that was unfair at the time, and he told us when we were writing the biography that he still thought that was unfair. He found when he was a developer in New York that he had to work with government in certain ways. So, he says, he developed various techniques that meant using influence to get things done. You see how he has carried some of that technique over to today. One thing you hear from people who dislike the President is that he is getting worse, by which, I think, they mean that he is angrier or losing his grip in some way. I think that this is comforting for some people because it makes them think that the Presidency is on the verge of falling apart, and he might resign or something. Well, certainly, during the campaign he would use Twitter just as he does now. You can certainly see in some of the tweets that there is a frenetic early-morning nature to them. Sometimes they are filled with anger. Clearly, he is very angry about the Mueller investigation. I did a story about nine months into the Trump Presidency where I interviewed one of Trumps very closest friends, Tom Barrack. And the headline on the story was Hes better than this. Barrack was concernedstunned, he told meat some of the things Trump has done. So, yes, a lot of the way he has acted has been surprising and sometimes disappointing to his friends and supporters. Trump said his friend, the boxer Mike Tyson, had told him that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. Trump believes that when you are hit, you hit back a hundred times harder. That is one lesson taught to him by his former attorney Roy Cohn. Now what we are seeing is that Trump has been hit harder than he had expected. Republicans lost the House. We will have the report by Robert Mueller. Starting with the Democratic takeover of the House this week, he is going to have a new set of circumstances where he is going to have to invoke his deal-making abilities that he talked about during the campaign to a much higher degree. He is capable of doing this on occasion. He did sign the judicial reform bill. Thats perhaps an example of, if he puts his mind to it, what could happen. The question is whether he spends the next two years trying to make deals and get things accomplished, or does he use this as two years to run against the Democrats and set himself up for relection. The way you phrased that implies that there are options open to him and he can decide which he wants, rather than that his character is pretty firmly set as one thingthat, perhaps, we know what he is going to be and there is no alternative to that. Well, heres the thing: as he was developing his political ideology, he changed his party registration seven times. So, the idea that he is so set in his ways that he will only do one predictable thing is not really borne out by his history prior to becoming President. He was a Democrat, he was a Republican, he was Reform Party, he was an Independent. His ideology is that he wanted to win. So now he is faced with a new set of circumstances, and what I am asking hereI dont know what will happenis whether he will revert to form and try to find some way to come up with a winning piece of legislation. He has, in the past, changed his points of view. He was pro-abortion rights and was anti-abortion rights. The list goes on and on. Its very unusual to see someone elected President who doesnt come from a pretty strong political-ideological place. Maybe what I am saying is not that he is too ideological to change, and not that he wouldnt like to make deals. But rather that there are aspects of his character the way that he talks about immigrants and minority groups and women, or the way that he angrily tweets and personally insults peoplethat are pretty set. And, because they are set, that makes bipartisan compromise impossible, because of the heightened polarized atmosphere with him as the leader of the country. Thats what we are going to find out in the next two years. He has Democrats controlling the House, so its a very different circumstance. That is not a question I can answer. I can just say that, in the past, when the political landscape has changed, he has basically walked away from one party and into the arms of the other. I am not suggesting he is suddenly going to be liberal. But if there is a changed set of circumstances, there is a question about whether he might try to make deals. So far, he has punched back at Democrats, and you usually dont insult the people you are trying to compromise with. There was some sense, early on, that Trump might be the type of guy who would listen to the last person who whispered in his ear. It seems like that is not really true, and that he has some stable, long-standing beliefs, like on trade, and is hard to deter. Early on in his career, in the mid-eighties, he basically said the world is laughing at us and started complaining about trade deals. He has been consistent on that. He is still saying the same thing. Early on, he was surrounded by people he viewed as more moderate, and they were able to dissuade him from initiating a trade war with China. And he is deeply influenced by certain advisers. He is now surrounded by people who are more conservative and in favor of a trade war and so forth. When he was surrounded by more moderate figures, I know that there were some things that he was dissuaded from, but it still seems like, fundamentally, his Presidency has been pretty unleashed. I am not surprised that he has a point of view that can be, on the one hand, subject to the last person he talked to, and, on the other hand, so set in stone that he might not listen to advice even from highly respected business leaders and so forth. In his business career, he would often use his leverage to get his way when things seemed to be totally turned against him. He is often in this position, including when he filed six corporate bankruptcies, where he seemed at a point of no return. People know he wrote a book called The Art of the Deal. They may not remember his next book was called The Art of the Comeback because he had gone down so far. Its like The Godfather and The Godfather Part II. You have to look at them together rather than at just one of them. I am not as familiar with Godfather and Godfather II, so I will leave that comparison to you. But in this instance, he had not previously worked in government. His experience was in business, where he could use his leverage and power to convince banks to take a haircut or lessen the amount that he owed them. On the one hand, as President, he has great leverage. On the other hand, he has lost some leverage, and Republicans no longer control the House. I was surprised he didnt try to use his initial leverage to get an infrastructure deal. That is something that all the aides I knew talked about, that could be done right out of the box, and would be visible all across the country. Why that didnt happen is still a mystery to a number of people very supportive of that. | https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/how-predictable-is-donald-trump |
Was the 9 Percent Drop in the S&P 500 Really Just a 'Glitch' Like President Trump Says? | That was some glitch! President Trump called the more than nine percent drop in the S&P 500 index last month a glitch and suggested that stock prices would recover if trade deals -- most notably with China -- are completed. That, of course, is a big if. With the worst December since 1931 behind it, the S&P 500 and Dow Industrials indexes both overcame very weak starts to the day, to post gains of 0.13 percent and 0.08 percent respectively. The Nasdaq Composite index was up 0.46 percent today The Entrepreneur Index was up 0.26 percent, with strength in energy, technology and clothing stocks offset by losses in manufacturing stocks and real estate investment trusts. Bed Bath & Beyond had the biggest gain on the Entrepreneur Index today, rising 5.83 percent. The specialty retailer had a horrible 2018, with the stock dropping nearly 50 percent. It appears to be riding a high from reportedly strong holiday season sales across the retail sector. BBBY Quotes by TradingView Wynn Resorts stock had the second biggest gain on the day, rising 5.55 percent. The casino operator was once again buoyed by Macau gamblers. December gross gambling revenues reported today for the former Portuguese colony, where Wynn operates three casinos, were up a heady 16.6 percent. That blew away estimates that anticipated a slowdown due to slower growth in China. Analysts, however, expect that comparisons could get more difficult this year, particularly with a smoking ban in casinos going into effect this month. Oil and gas producer Hess Corp. rose 4.3 percent as the oil market showed signs of finding a bottom. The price of West Texas crude was up 2.51 percent today as recent production cuts by OPEC members began taking effect. Oil prices have fallen 40 percent since early October, but are up nearly 10 percent since dropping below $43/barrel the day before Christmas. Kinder Morgan was also up sharply, rising 2.73 percent. The manager of oil and gas pipelines is much less dependent on energy prices than producers like Hess Corp, but the stock still fell more than 20 percent over the last three months. Low oil prices may eventually lead to lower production (and pipeline transportation) in the U.S., but the country is currently pumping record volumes and is expected to maintain high levels in 2019. Clothing makers got the year off to a good start. L Brands (2.49 percent) and Ralph Lauren Corp. (1.91 percent) were up nicely and Under Armour Inc. gained 0.79 percent. Technology stocks were mixed with Facebook (3.5 percent) posting the biggest gain and Akamai Technologies (-3.39. the biggest decline. Adobe Systems Inc. (-0.74 percent) and salesforce.com (-1.04 percent) both fell on the day. Tesla shares were down sharply as production numbers for the fourth quarter came in slightly lower than expected. The stock fell 6.81 percent -- the biggest decline on the Entrepreneur Index today. The pioneer in electric cars also announced price cuts on all its models to help offset the cut in federal income tax credits for buyers of electric vehicles this year. Ford, on the other hand, was up 3.27 percent today though it remained below $8 per share. The stock fell 37 percent last year and currently has a price-earnings ratio of just 5.5 times and a dividend yield of over seven percent. The REIT stocks were hammered despite interest rates falling on the day. Residential focused companies like Equity Residential (-3.41 percent) and Apartment Investment and Management Co. (-3.49 percent) fell furthest. Storage REIT Extra Space Storage was also down 3.36 percent. The Entrepreneur Index collects the top 60 publicly traded companies founded and run by entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurial spirit is a valuable asset for any business, and this index recognizes its importance, no matter how much a company has grown. These inspirational businesses can be tracked in real time on Entrepreneur.com. | https://finance.yahoo.com/news/9-percent-drop-p-500-222000037.html |
Did Notre Dame deserve a College Football Playoff spot? | Notre Dame was blown out of the College Football Playoffs, and some people are fuming that the committee wasted a valuable playoff spot on a school that didn't deserve it. The team finished undefeated while sporting the ninth-ranked defense in the country and many felt the Fighting Irish deserved to be in the hunt. Others feel the lack of a conference title and weak schedule should've had Notre Dame on the outside looking in, with a more deserving team taking the spot -- and history is on their side. PERSPECTIVES Say what you will about Notre Dame, but the team finished undefeated while playing the top universities in the country. The Fighting Irish's wins against Michigan, Stanford and Syracuse -- all top-15 teams at the time of their respective games -- are proof that Notre Dame belonged in the playoff. People are crying over the lack of a conference championship like it is the end all, be all of determining eligibility. Notre Dame was one of the four top schools in the country. They just had a bad day against Clemson. There is no arguing that. But they deserved that spot. Look no further than the scoreboard. The Fighting Irish managed to play fewer games and still gain a berth in the College Football Playoff. Every other qualified team had one more monumental test just to be considered for the honor, while Notre Dame sat at home enjoying Friday and Saturday like every other schmuck in the country. Just because Notre Dame is Notre Dame, it gets special consideration. Brand equity shouldn't be a requisite for qualification. The Fighting Irish should've been left out of the bracket. The blowout loss against Clemson is further evidence that the Fighting Irish were never serious contenders for a national title. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2019/01/did_notre_dame_deserve_a_colle.html |
Did Manny Machado give a hint about where he's going to sign? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com Happy New Year, Phillies fans. We have officially made it to the Instagram-watch portion of free agency. fwiw, Manny Machado has started following YES Network, the Yankees' station, on instagram. could be a sign. or could be nothing. Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) January 1, 2019 Well, would you look at that. Machado followed YES Network on Instagram. But wait, people found out and he reversed his course. Fwiw (maybe not much), Manny Machado has now unfollowed Yes Network on instagram. Machado has bad taste in Instagram accounts. Manny, I looked over the YES Network's account, and it's fine, they do a nice job posting about all things Yankees, but you should consider getting your news from another source. Story continues The NBC Sports Philadelphia Instagram is chock-full of awesome photos, funny memes and great highlights. So, if you're reading this, here's the link to follow us. As for what it means for free agency, either it's now assured he's going to be a Yankee, or it means absolutely nothing. That's for you to decide. Either way, we should have our answer soon. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Phillies | https://sports.yahoo.com/did-manny-machado-hint-where-160111627.html?src=rss |
Will Funko Sink or Swim in 2019? | Funko (NASDAQ: FNKO) took investors on a wild roller coaster ride in 2018. The pop culture collectible maker went public at $12 in late 2017, plunged to $7 on the first trading day, then rallied into the low $30s last September. However, the subsequent market sell-off erased most of those gains, and Funko now trades just slightly above its IPO price. Let's take a closer look at this beaten-down growth stock to see if it can rally again this year. A banner featuring Funko's Pop! Monsters. More Image source: Funko. Funko generates most of its revenue from its Pop! vinyl figurines, which feature a wide variety of characters from comics, video games, TV shows, and movies. The Pop! lineup also includes plush dolls, keychains, T-shirts, and various accessories. Sales of Funko's Pop! branded products accounted for 76% of its top line during the first nine months of fiscal 2018, compared to 70% a year earlier. The rest of its revenue came from other action figures, figurines, and pop culture products. During the third quarter, Funko stated that over half of its products were "evergreen", meaning that they aren't tied to a current movie, video game, or TV show. Those products, which include classic characters like Mickey Mouse and Batman, are less likely to burn out than newer franchises. It currently has over 1,000 licensed properties in its portfolio. Many of Funko's products appeal to adults instead of kids, so it was well-insulated against the slowdown in the traditional toy market that slammed Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) and Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) last year. None of Funko's individual retailers account for over 10% of its year-to-date sales, which insulates it from big bankruptcies like that of Toys R' Us. Funko's revenue rose 24% annually to $177 million last quarter, which beat estimates but represented the company's slowest quarterly growth rate since its IPO. However, Funko's growth still looks much rosier than Mattel and Hasbro's negative sales growth in recent quarters. Funko's growth was supported by robust demand for its Pop Vinyl figures, which posted more than 25% annual sales growth for seven straight quarters; 24% sales growth in its total figures; and 26% sales growth in its apparel, bags, accessories, and other products, which were boosted by its takeover of fashion accessories maker Loungefly. During last quarter's conference call, Funko CEO Brian Mariotti attributed most of the company's sales growth to "increased shelf space and stronger sell-through at existing retailers" instead of sales at new retailers. Funko expects its sales to rise 25%-26% for the full year, which represents an acceleration from its 21% sales growth in 2017. For comparison, analysts expect both Mattel and Hasbro's revenues to decline about 9% this year. | https://news.yahoo.com/funko-sink-swim-2019-012100553.html |
Are Community-Based Shared Scooters The Next Decentralization Success Story? | The subtle power of decentralized transportation is on the verge of flooding the globe. Lets step back for a minute. Much has been written about the effect of social media on human loneliness. We have difficulties finding the connectedness that we yearn for even as we use digital technologies to cast wider nets for meaningful relationships, in a tragically Sisyphean manner. And yet we continue to push that boulder up the hill. Digital platforms do play an important role in community building. They provide channels that were not available before, and solid friendships have formed between people with a lot of geography between them. There is some degree of a sense of belonging in many online communities, but that sense is easily shattered by negative feedback and cyberbullying. What digital communities do undoubtedly well is share social information. But community is much more than just the sharing of information. Community is, in the incarnation best suited to this discussion, a sharing of values and well-being. That requires real-world interaction and for all of its members to have direct, unfettered access to one another. This is important: for a community to function in a manner that empowers everyone equally, there cant be any gatekeeping. This is, of course, diametrically opposed to the prevailing model, where online platforms are centralized with some authority (usually the business owners) dictating what can and cant be done by its members. The authority can exclude members at whim, or restrict them in specific ways. A decentralized model, which I argue is the far more natural, humanistic one, allows each member to embrace or reject other community members based on their own criteria, and in degrees that they choose. Decisions are made by each member for each case, and not by an authority outside of that relationship. Returning to the original topic: decentralized transport. Specifically lets look at the shared electric scooter sector that has been taking the world by storm, and how decentralization will play a role. Bird, Lime, Spin and others have dominated the early shared scooter landscape. There are familiar advantages that come with centralized organizations taking the lead and establishing a foothold in the markets with new technology: focused vision, reduced costs, system-wide decision making, and so forth. The disadvantages are just as familiar, although perhaps less talked about: delays due to remoteness, bureaucracy, lack of employee empowerment and therefore lack of initiative, etc. Decentralizing the shared scooter business presents us with a vast new space for opportunities. Like so many models, centralization and decentralization fall on a spectrum. Although its safe to say that complete decentralization isnt yet available, some powerful facets of decentralization, which represent the first steps, are. Now lets bring the tangent about the value of community into these thoughts and allow them to dovetail. Rather than leaving it to a micro mobility giant like Lime to deploy hundreds or thousands of scooters in your city, with the giant setting the price and terms of service, consider a decentralized version of this: shared scooters that are owned by your neighbours or fellow residents. They may only own one, or they might own a fleet of dozens. Your neighbours deploy the scooters. Your neighbours service them, charge them and redistribute them. Your neighbours hire other neighbours to help them manage the fleet. Your fellow residents are far better suited to choose where the scooters should be deployed in your city. Perhaps most importantly, a local business cares a lot more about your community then a distant corporate giant looking to blanket the world with its product. Electric scooters have come down in price significantly in the past year, which translates into small capital outlays for anyone who wants to own a shared scooter (or more than one) in their community, creating revenue for themselves. Individuals within the community are empowered with the choice to be a customer, an owner, or both. No central organization decides what markets to open--this is up to city residents. All that is required is an app and a network with which decentralized transport assets and customers may discover and transact with one another. The former is under rapid development and the latter already exists. Decentralization comes with a number of advantages, but the most important one for the purposes of this article is empowerment. You decide if you want to own a scooter. You decide where to deploy it. You decide how to address your communitys needs, and thats perfectly sensible as youre on the ground and you know what you and your neighbours need. The revenue that Lime or Bird would generate goes into their treasury. The revenue you or your neighbours generate from your own scooter fleet goes back into your local economy. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnfrazer1/2019/01/02/are-community-based-shared-scooters-the-next-decentralization-success-story/ |
Is a High-Protein Diet Right for Me? | First it was the eccentric health nut in your circle who swore by the paleo diet. Then, your social media friends started to convert to diets rich in eggs, nuts, meat and cheese. Suddenly, news headlines declared bacon and burgers were way healthier than pizza and pasta, and even your dad began the Dukan plan, a diet that wraps burrito fillings in lettuce "tortillas." No question, high-protein diets are hot. That depends. Here's exactly what you need to know to determine whether a high-protein diet is right for you. [See: High-Protein Breakfast Ideas.] The U.S. government recommends 10 to 35 percent of your daily calories come from protein. Another way to think about it is that most people should eat about 1 gram of protein per kilogram of body weight, expains Jessica Crandall, a registered dietitian in Denver and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "What we're looking at is usually 20 to 30 grams per meal at breakfast, lunch and dinner to support muscle mass and activity," she says. Broken down further, that means a container of nonfat Greek yogurt with breakfast, a half-cup of chickpeas on a salad at lunch and grilled chicken breast at dinner will do the trick. Any diet that demands a protein intake above the government's recommendations -- like the paleo diet, Dukan diet and Optavia (the newly branded line of products from the team behind Medifast) -- is considered a high-protein diet by U.S. News. (While Atkins and the ketogenic diet are often thought of as high-protein plans, technically they are low-carb diet and high-fat diets, respectively, although both could easily include higher-than-recommended levels of protein.) On a paleo plan, that may mean eating broiled salmon at breakfast, six shrimp at lunch, almonds and a pork chop for a snack (yes -- a snack! ), two more pork chops for dinner and more almonds for dessert. All in all, it adds up to more than 200 grams of protein a day. While that may be appropriate for some people, for most, it's overkill. It's possible to see health benefits from following a high-protein diet, especially if it means you're cutting out processed junk foods and sweets and focusing on lean meats, fruits and vegetables instead, Crandall finds. Plus, adds Jim White, a registered dietitian and fitness instructor with studios in Virginia, more and more research suggests that the government's recommended daily intake may be too low. "Increased intake in conjunction with exercise can boost metabolic rate as well as feelings of satiety, thus aiding in weight loss," he says. Some populations, too, can benefit from high-protein diets more than others, since how much any one person needs depends on factors like their muscle mass, gender, age and activity level, Crandall explains. Here are some of the people who may benefit from consuming more protein than the recommended allowance: -- Older Adults Adults over 50 have reason to add a handful of nuts to their salads, or wash their morning oatmeal down with a glass of protein-rich cow's milk. (News flash: Many alternative milks like almond milk are surprisingly low in protein.) One study of 50- to 75-year old adults found that those who ate double what federal guidelines recommend for daily protein intake helped protect against the muscle loss -- and accompanying health problems like falls and fractures -- that often comes with age. -- People Trying to Lose Weight Some research supports high-protein diets for weight loss. One small 2016 study in the journal Nutrients, for instance, found that women who followed a paleo diet lost over two-and-a-half times more weight in a month than those who stuck to a standard diet emphasizing fruits, veggies, whole grains and some low-fat dairy. In many cases, though, the weight loss associated with a high-protein diet may result from a calorie deficit, not the protein. Optavia, which U.S. News experts rank No. 2 for fast weight-loss, for example, typically doesn't provide more than 1,000 calories a day, so followers are bound to lose weight -- at least temporarily. Still, no matter how you do it, weight loss in itself can improve some health markers. "People can have metabolic improvements in cholesterol and blood sugars (on high-protein diets)," Crandall says. "The reason for that is that they're losing weight." | https://news.yahoo.com/high-protein-diet-120000979.html |
Would Thunder head coach Billy Donovan trade Westbrook for Westwood? | When the season ended in March, you couldnt really do anything basketball-wise, Donovan said. There was a lot of time. I feel like in the NBA, its 12 months a year youre thinking about your team and youre thinking about basketball. I dont think that the notion that guys that leave college to go to the NBA is all because they dont want to recruit. I dont think it has anything to do with that. I think youll probably find most basketball coaches in college would love to be able to do basketball more than theyve been able to do. | https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-ucla-donovan-hernandez-20190102-story.html |
Did RuPaul's Drag Race Star Trinity "the Tuck" Taylor Sashay Away With New Lips on Botched ? | On Wednesday's all-new episode, the RuPaul's Drag Race veteran (AKA Ryan Taylor) sat down with Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif to discuss his lumpy lips. According to the famed drag queen, he began doing "illegal injections" early in his career in order to keep up with his peers. After getting "injections pretty much everywhere," Trinity began winning countless pageants. Sadly, his lip injections resulted in long term consequences. "I started noticing a shift in my lips two years after I got them done," Trinity explained in a confessional. "That's when I started to notice the unevenness, the lumping and I was like, Oh god! What did I do?'" Although there was a solution to Trinity's problem, there was a chance that the silicone fillers could return even after extensive surgery. | https://www.eonline.com/uk/news/1000422/did-rupaul-s-drag-race-star-trinity-the-tuck-taylor-sashay-away-with-new-lips-on-botched?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Did RuPaul's Drag Race Star Trinity the Tuck Taylor Sashay Away With New Lips on Botched? | On Wednesday's all-new episode, the RuPaul's Drag Race veteran (AKA Ryan Taylor) sat down with Dr. Terry Dubrow and Dr. Paul Nassif to discuss his lumpy lips. According to the famed drag queen, he began doing "illegal injections" early in his career in order to keep up with his peers. After getting "injections pretty much everywhere," Trinity began winning countless pageants. Sadly, his lip injections resulted in long term consequences. "I started noticing a shift in my lips two years after I got them done," Trinity explained in a confessional. "That's when I started to notice the unevenness, the lumping and I was like, Oh god! What did I do?'" Although there was a solution to Trinity's problem, there was a chance that the silicone fillers could return even after extensive surgery. | https://www.eonline.com/news/1000367/did-rupaul-s-drag-race-star-trinity-the-tuck-taylor-sashay-away-with-new-lips-on-botched?cmpid=rss-000000-rssfeed-365-topstories&utm_source=eonline&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=rss_topstories |
Which Company Has The Best Code Quality Between Google, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by John L. Miller, PhD, Software Engineer/Architect, on Quora: I have worked at Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle (among others). Code quality is a funny thing. In my opinion, its situational. For example, writing production-quality code for a research project would be a HUGE waste of time. Too much focus on resilience, maintainability, extensibility. You pay for those features. For one project I worked on: research quality prototype: 2 person-months. Production-quality version: 117 person-months. The prototype had some extra features not seen in the production version. You write to the quality you need, and which fits your business objective and the codes lifetime. Doing otherwise is squandering valuable resources, and potentially painting yourself into a corner. Amazon focuses on agility and speed of delivery. For their less mature products, this equates to lower code quality in absolute terms, but also MUCH shorter time from initiation to delivery. For them its a winning strategy. Google focuses on uniformity and quality. Theyve invested heavily in tools and its really paid off, making it easier to have a single gargantuan consistent code base for the web services. Best tools Ive ever used. Sensible standards. For me, theyre the pinnacle of code quality and engineering. but, as a side effect, it can be difficult to innovate on the main code trees. Everything (in my experience) winds up feeling like a maintenance project rather than an adventure. Microsoft focuses on enterprise-level performance and maintainability. Which is to say, correctness and robustness of the code is important, as is the ability for the same piece of code to be alive and maintained and augmented over the course of a decade or longer. All three companies have good code quality for their goals. In absolute, academic terms I would say Amazon code is the most raw, Google code is the best quality and uniformity, and Microsoft code is a close second to Google. And of course there are exceptions to trends at everyone one of these companies. Your mileage may vary. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/01/02/which-company-has-the-best-code-quality-between-google-apple-microsoft-and-amazon/ |
What Surprising Technology Has NASA Developed? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by C Stuart Hardwick, Award-Winning Scifi Author, on Quora: NASA did not give us Tang, Velcro, or the Fisher Space Pen, but they do a tremendous amount that most people never see. The grooves in newer highways used to control drainage and reduce noise were developed by NASA to prevent hydroplaning on runways. The main reason we no longer hear about crashes due to wind shear is the onboard predictive doppler radar developed by NASA to solve the problem. (The other is fixed-site doppler operated near large airports by NOAA and used in conjunction with ATC). The aerodynamic fairings that save long haul truckers 20% on fuel were developed by NASA. The supercritical airfoils developed by NASA improve the efficiency of modern airliners flying at high subsonic speeds. Aircraft winglets, which cut drag, improve lift, and permit larger aircraft on smaller runways, were developed by NASA. Computational Fluid Dynamicsas a practicewas founded and funded by NASA because they needed it for the shuttle. Most modern aircraft would be much more primitive and costly without it. The noise reducing chevrons on modern turbofan jet engines were developed by NASA. NASA found part of the cause of of the runaway engines involved in the Toyota Camry recall. NASA also developed the aircraft lightning protection standards in place today and small aircraft wing design changes that could cut fatalities in those craft by 30% if universally adopted. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/01/02/what-surprising-technology-has-nasa-developed/ |
Is Warren Buffett Right to Be Holding UPS? | According to Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE: BRK-A) latest quarterly SEC filing, Warren Buffet's investment vehicle is holding nearly 60 thousand shares in United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS). While it's one of his smaller holdings, the investment guru is known for only taking positions in companies he's willing to hold for the long term because he believes in their core value. That said, let's take a look at the investment case for UPS and see whether it's a Buffet-like stock or not. Why UPS is a Buffett stock Given Buffett's preference for long-term investments with sustainable cash flow streams, UPS appears to immediately fit the bill. Alongside FedEx (NYSE: FDX) and Deutsche Post's DHL, UPS is one of the dominant forces in express and courier service. Throw in the long-term growth opportunity from burgeoning e-commerce demand and UPS looks well set to generate a steady flow of earnings and cash flow for years to come. A man carrying a large parcel More Not all e-commerce packages are easy to deliver. Image source: Getty Images. Moreover, a quick comparison of some its operational metrics with FedEx's shows that UPS tends to have a higher operating margin, earns higher returns on invested capital, and also generates more free cash flow from its assets than its key rival does. Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple. The case against UPS While a cursory look suggests UPS is a perfect fit, a closer look at the details of its performance in recent years suggests otherwise. In a nutshell, the company has faced three stumbling blocks that have forced the company to change its approach to business. Consequently, it's become harder to judge UPS's long-term cash flow. E-commerce growth has been positive for volume growth, but it's created margin challenges. The pressure of delivering a good service during peak demand days in the holiday season has led to profit shortfalls and the need to expand network capacity. UPS has been forced to increase its capital spending in order to modernize and expand its network in order to service e-commerce growth. The three bullet points above are all somewhat related and systemic in nature -- FedEx has also had similar issues. UPS e-commerce growth E-commerce shipment growth is good news from a revenue growth perspective. However, as you can see below, UPS and FedEx have seen margin pressure in recent years due to a combination of the difficulties of dealing with peak demand days and the fact that many large e-commerce deliveries -- mattresses and trampolines, for example -- can be bulky and/or inefficiently packed. | https://news.yahoo.com/warren-buffett-holding-ups-031800992.html |
Could Tesla price cuts mean demand is slowing? | FILE- In this July 6, 2018, file photo, a prospective customer confer with sales associate as a Model 3 sits on display in a Tesla showroom in the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. On Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2019, the federal credit for Tesla buyers dropped from $7,500 to $3,750. It will gradually be phased out this year. less FILE- In this July 6, 2018, file photo, a prospective customer confer with sales associate as a Model 3 sits on display in a Tesla showroom in the Cherry Creek Mall in Denver. 1 / 3 Back to Gallery DETROIT (AP) Tesla made about 9,300 more vehicles than it delivered last year, raising concerns among industry analysts that inventory is growing as demand for the company's electric cars may be starting to wane. If demand falls, they say, the company will enter a new phase of its business. Like other automakers, Tesla will have to either cut production or reduce prices to raise sales. A drop in demand could also curtail the company's earnings and jeopardize CEO Elon Musk's promise to post sustained quarterly profits. On Wednesday, Tesla did cut prices, knocking $2,000 of each of its three models. The company said the cuts will help customers deal with the loss of a $7,500 federal tax credit, which was reduced to $3,750 this month for Tesla buyers and will gradually go to zero by the end of 2018. "They have for a long time had more demand than supply," Gartner analyst Michael Ramsey said. "It's becoming apparent that that dynamic is changing." Tesla reported that it produced 254,530 cars and SUVs last year and delivered 245,240. The company's deliveries for the full year matched Wall Street estimates, but its figures for the fourth quarter didn't reach expectations. Tesla said it delivered 90,700 vehicles from October through December. Analysts polled by data provider FactSet expected 92,000. Jeff Schuster, a senior vice president at the forecasting firm LMC Automotive, said demand for Tesla's lower-priced Model 3 has been artificially high for the past six months as the company overcame production problems at its Fremont, California, factory. "You've had these inflated months because of delayed deliveries," Schuster said. "We're probably getting to that point where we're getting to equilibrium and consumers aren't necessarily waiting for vehicles." Last year, Tesla reported that about 420,000 buyers had put down $1,000 deposits to join the Model 3 waiting list. LMC predicts that Tesla U.S. sales will rise in 2019 because it's the first full year on the market for the Model 3. It anticipates sales to then fall by about 10,000 in 2020. Losing the tax credit will hit those who have been holding out for the $35,000 version of the Model 3, Schuster said. At present, Tesla is selling only versions that cost more than $45,000. Under federal law, buyers get the full tax credit until a manufacturer reaches 200,000 in sales since the start of 2010. Tesla hit 200,000 in July but the full credit continued for vehicles delivered by Dec. 31. It was cut in half on Jan. 1 and will go away by the end of the year. "You've had your early adopters, those early followers have already come in" to buy, Schuster said. "Now you're trying to appeal to the mainstream market. I think that will have an impact on overall demand." At the same time, inventory appears to be swelling. The company parked hundreds of cars at lots and Tesla stores all over the country at the end of last year, which could indicate excess stock. Tesla wouldn't give inventory numbers but said it has lower stocks than its two biggest competitors, BMW and Mercedes. The Associated Press found one lot on the north side of Chicago where Tesla was storing dozens of vehicles in late December, and Mark Spiegel, a hedge fund manager who bets against Tesla stock, said other lots were full across the country. Tesla said it sometimes stores vehicles on lots as they're being shipped to company dealerships across the nation. The lot in Chicago has fewer cars on it today, the company said. "Our inventory levels remain the smallest in the automotive industry," the company said Wednesday. Tesla also says Model 3 sales should grow worldwide as it expands distribution and begins to offer leases. Deliveries in Europe and China will start in February, and a right-hand-drive version is coming later in the year, the company said. In addition, inventory dropped in the fourth quarter as Tesla "delivered a few thousand vehicles more than produced." Tesla said it had about 3,000 vehicles in transit to customers at year's end. But even with that number, Schuster said production still exceeded deliveries, which doesn't fit Tesla's business model of building cars when they are ordered by customers. Still, even at 9,300, Tesla's inventory is smaller than other automakers that have to stock dealerships, Schuster said. | https://www.sfgate.com/business/technology/article/Could-Tesla-price-cuts-mean-demand-is-slowing-13504965.php |
Did California sanctuary law protect alleged cop killer? | Californias sanctuary state law does not appear to have helped the immigrant accused of killing a San Joaquin Valley police officer last week, despite a sheriffs claim that immigrant-friendly policies protected the suspected shooter. Paulo Virgen Mendoza, also known as Gustavo Perez Arriaga, has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal shooting of Newman Police Cpl. Ronil Singh. Virgen is an immigrant living in the country illegally. This is a criminal illegal alien with prior criminal activity that should have been reported to ICE, Stanislaus County Sheriff Adam Christianson said last week. Law enforcement was prohibited because of sanctuary laws and that led to the encounter with (Cpl.) Singh the outcome could have been different if law enforcement wasnt restricted. California has several laws that limit local law enforcement cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. $20 for 365 Days of Unlimited Digital Access Last chance to take advantage of our best offer of the year! Act now! Christianson has pointed to two SB 54 and the Trust Act as relevant in the case, but its not clear how they might have applied to Virgen. SB 54, Californias so-called sanctuary state law, prohibits police from targeting people based solely on their immigration status and limits what they can tell federal immigration authorities about people in their custody. It builds on the Trust Act of 2013, which prevents police from detaining people at ICEs request if they would otherwise be released. Both laws contain exemptions for people charged with or suspected of serious or violent crimes. Virgen had at least two prior arrests in the Madera area in 2011 and 2014 on suspicion of driving under the influence. Under a federal policy known as Secure Communities, local law enforcement would have shared Virgens fingerprints with the federal government. The federal government could have used the information to determine his immigration status, said UC Davis School of Law Dean Kevin Johnson, an immigration law expert. SHARE COPY LINK Paulo Virgen Mendoza, who is accused of killing Newman Police Cpl. Ronil Singh during a traffic stop last week, makes his first appearance in Stanislaus County Superior Court on Wednesday. Had ICE issued a a formal request that police keep Virgen in custody to give federal authorities time to arrest him, local officials may have been prohibited from complying in 2014 under the Trust Act. But theres no evidence ICE issued a detainer for Virgen then. I do not see how sanctuary laws can be blamed for this tragedy, Johnson said in an email. Johnson said ICE likely didnt try to arrest Virgen in 2014 because the crimes he was charged with werent serious enough. ICE placed a hold on Virgen following the shooting last week. An ICE spokeswoman said initial reviews show this is ICEs first encounter with him. SB 54 expanded the prohibitions on police cooperation with federal immigration authorities, including by limiting when local law enforcement can tell federal authorities when a person will be released from jail. But the policy didnt take effect until 2018 and so wouldnt have applied during Virgens previous arrests. Christianson didnt answer questions about what parts of the laws prevented law enforcement from turning Virgen over to ICE previously, as he had asserted. In an email, he simply pointed to the 2013 Trust Act as one of Californias sanctuary policies limiting police cooperation with ICE. President Donald Trump and ICE have joined Christianson in calling for tougher immigration laws in light of the shooting. There is right now a full scale manhunt going on in California for an illegal immigrant accused of shooting and killing a police officer during a traffic stop, Trump tweeted while police searched for Virgen last week. Time to get tough on Border Security. Build the Wall! In a statement, ICE criticized Californias sanctuary laws for restricting law enforcement cooperation and allowing public safety threats back into the community to reoffend. Jon Rodney, spokesman for the California Immigrant Policy Center, said the criticisms of Californias sanctuary policies are inappropriate. Its important that the awful acts that one person is accused of not be used to demonize whole communities, he said. The president along with ICE and the sheriff are using this terrible tragedy to scapegoat immigrants. | https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article223850690.html |
Is Roe v. Wade at stake as 116th Congress convenes? | When Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was first nominated, an alarm was sounded that grew louder and louder over the four months leading up to the midterm elections. The warnings came from abortion rights groups, who saw the longstanding Supreme Court ruling that ensures a womans right to an abortion at risk of being overturned, or, what some saw as worse, quietly gutted. Theres no way to sugarcoat it, Dawn Laguens, the former executive vice president of Planned Parenthood who stepped down in November, said when Kavanaugh was nominated by the president in July. The constitutional right to access safe, legal abortion in this country is on the line. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images, FILE And what abortion rights groups saw as a threat, anti-abortion groups saw as an opportunity -- the best judicial climate in years. Indeed, this administration is not only shifting the Supreme Court, but the lower courts as well, said former Rep. Marilyn Musgrave, R-Colorado, who currently works with the Susan B. Anthony List, a nationwide anti-abortion group that focuses on elections and policy, as the vice president of government affairs. As Congress reconvenes for the 116th session, half-a-year after Kavanaughs nomination and two months after the 2018 midterms, the nation has seen political shake-ups across branches of government that are likely to bring changes to abortion legislation and, potentially, the look of Roe v. Wade. Jose Luis Magana/AFP/Getty Images, FILE "That is a very serious concern not just for Planned Parenthood, but for anyone in this country who cares about safe, legal access to abortion," Dana Singiser, vice president for public policy and government affairs for the nationwide abortion rights organization, said in an interview with ABC News in December. At the Supreme Court level, the next few years are expected to bring cases that will present the opportunity to overturn or gut abortion law, as its currently known, said Elizabeth Nash, who tracks legislation for the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion advocacy group. It is a very real threat that the court will be revisiting abortion rights in the next few years and that because of the makeup of the court, abortion rights are in jeopardy, Nash said, referring to the addition of Trumps nominees, Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Legal experts say the effects of the new justices on the court remain to be seen. Whether the confirmation of Kavanaugh to replace [Justice Anthony] Kennedy was the final nail in the coffin is something well only actually be able to answer once the Supreme Court decides the matter, said Stephen Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law who follows abortion legislation. That answer could come from any one of the 15 cases related to reproductive health currently working through the U.S. Courts of Appeals. The five cases closest to reaching the Supreme Court, according to Nash, are in Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas. The court cases often begin in state legislatures in conservative states, said Nash, where restrictive abortion laws have frequently been approved as direct challenges to the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling on Roe v. Wade. Ohio State Rep. Christina Hagan, a Republican and sponsor of a bill in her own state that would ban abortions after six weeks, said in a separate interview there is indeed a consensus among conservative state lawmakers to take advantage of the moment. We are better seated than weve ever been to present our case for life to the courts, and every state legislature in the nation recognizes that, Hagan said. The Washington Post/Getty Images But its not about the number of restrictive abortion bills out of state legislatures intended to pose a challenge to Roe v. Wade, according to Vladeck, and he doesnt predict a huge influx of such legislation, either. To me, its not the volume. Its the substance, Vladeck said. Once the courts have upheld a law in one state that prohibits abortions after you can detect a fetal heartbeat, other states will follow, he said. Hagan, the mother to 9-week-old twin boys and a three-year-old girl, had her children with her on the floor of the Ohio House of Representatives when her bill, also known as the Heartbeat Bill, passed in the state legislature in November. Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich vetoed the bill in December and said it was contrary to the Supreme Courts decision on Roe v. Wade. Hagan said that was exactly the point. Newly-elected Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican, has said he would sign it if its revived. Hagan, who is term-limited but whose co-sponsor on the bill continues to serve in the Ohio Statehouse, predicted it would be. I believe that the legislation we have developed in Ohio is going to be the arrow that goes into the heart of Roe v. Wade, she said. According to a preliminary analysis by Guttmacher Institute, there were 13 states that adopted 26 new restrictions on abortion and family planning in 2018. The way I envision it is the conservative states are kind of jockeying for position of who can pass the most extreme abortion ban first, Nash said. J. David Ake/AP, FILE Yet the institute also found 2018 was the first year in which more legislation was adopted to protect abortion rights than to dismantle them, with 80 new measures enacted across 29 states and Washington. Additionally, some state policy trackers point to the six state legislatures that flipped to Democratic control in the midterms and said these states are gearing up to protect against abortion restrictions in the same way conservative states are looking to enact them. In the states where we saw dramatic shifts in power, we see a lot of opportunity for states to not just protect but expand in legislative sessions, said Singiser of Planned Parenthood. Still, the robust position Republicans hold in state legislatures across the country is one reason Singiser, like Nash, predicts dramatic change. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, Singiser said, there are 20 states she predicted would quickly ban abortion or make it functionally inaccessible. For example, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Dakota and South Dakota all have laws to ban abortions that would immediately go into effect were the case overturned. Still, beyond the courts and state legislatures, Singiser highlighted the new majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the Democrats will hold 235 seats to the Republicans 199, as a victory for abortion rights. Oversight and investigation arms interested in holding the Trump-Pence administration accountable, now hold subpoena power, Singiser said. One such move already came from Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, who is set to become the chairman on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In July, Cummings set his sights on a proposed rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that would affect womens access to contraceptive care. A record-breaking 102 women were also elected, Singiser pointed out. Particularly women, and women of color, made it clear they do not want elected officials controlling healthcare -- particularly reproductive healthcare, Singiser said. Alex Wong/Getty Images. FILE The Pro-Choice Caucus in the House, co-chaired by Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee and Diana DeGette, also called attention to the new makeup of their chamber. "In our historic new Democratic majority, with a record number of women and members of color, we are ready to hit the ground running to protect every womans constitutional right to reproductive health care," Lee and DeGette said in a statement. The new majority also puts Democrats in a position to block Republican efforts to deny Planned Parenthood federal funding, a longstanding threat when the GOP led the chamber. In a separate interview, former Rep. Musgrave, too, viewed the change of control in the House as a significant shift for abortion legislation and said Washington will be a different world in the new year. This is a new day and quite frankly, the abortion lobby spent tens of millions of dollars flipping the House and theyre going to want a return on their money, Musgrave said. Theyre going to expect Democrats to go after the pro-life legislation. But the Senate, which confirms judges to the federal courts, bolstered its Republican majority -- and saw a net gain of two anti-abortion senators, according to Musgrave -- putting more weight behind the presidents campaign promise to confirm more pro-life judges to the court. The good news is, we feel like the president and the pro-life Senate will stand for life, but yet we know we have to be very vigilant, Musgrave said. State houses around the country largely begin their new sessions in January and the U.S. House and the Senate open the 116th Congress Thursday. The Supreme Court began its new term in October and usually runs into the summer months. | https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/roe-wade-stake-116th-congress-convenes/story?id=60033788 |
What Is a Low-Carb Diet? | First things first: There's no one low-carb diet -- but many, many different approaches. Even with the Atkins diet, there are variations -- including the advice on how many carbs to eat daily. Generally speaking, low-carb diets often call for consuming no more than 20 carbs a day -- taking things like traditional pasta and breads off the plate, where one sandwich's worth of bread or a single serving of noodles could easily surpass that carb threshold. For example, with the Atkins 20, the original Atkins diet, you start out eating no more 20 carbs daily, while with the Atkins 40, you begin the diet eating 40 carbs or less per day; in both cases, carb consumption increases in later phases of the diet. Another diet, the paleo diet -- which is often thought of for sheer protein consumption -- is, when looking across the macronutrient spectrum, low-carb as well. Then there's the extremely carb-restricted ketogenic, or keto, diet. It's been prescribed for decades to treat medical conditions like epilepsy and is used to manage Type 2 diabetes (along with other low-carb diets), and has more recently become popular for weight loss, raising concerns among some health experts. The diet involves getting only about 5 to 10 percent of a person's calories from carbs, while the lion's share -- around 70 to 80 percent -- comes from fat, and the balance from protein. Dietary experts frequently say that a diet where a person gets around or under 30 percent -- or even in some cases 40 percent -- of their calories from carbs may be considered low-carb. But the total amount varies significantly by the approach taken, the individual and how much a person eats in regards to all macronutrients and calories consumed. [See: The 14 Best Diets to Prevent and Manage Diabetes.] Research shows that low-carb diets can be effective for weight loss. A 2016 position paper from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics lists low-carb diets among weight-loss interventions for adults who are overweight or obese. "I utilize and recommend low-carbohydrate diets in my practice all the time," says Robin Foroutan, an integrative dietitian nutritionist based in New York City and a spokesperson at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "But the No. 1 important thing that we really stress is that the diet still has to be anti-inflammatory -- and the way that you make your diet anti-inflammatory is to eat a lot of vegetables, utilize a lot of herbs and spices, choose very high-quality proteins, and cook those -- the animal proteins -- very low and slow, not high heat cooking." Cooking meats -- from beef to fish -- at high heat can create chemicals in meat that "have been found to be mutagenic -- that is, they cause changes in DNA that may increase the risk of cancer," the National Cancer Institute notes. As for sustaining weight loss, moderating carb consumption may help as well. The academy's position paper notes that a low-carb diet is commonly defined as consuming not more than 20 grams of carbs daily, and then: "Once a desired weight is achieved, carbohydrate intake can increase to 50 grams per day." But longer term, as with many diets undertaken to lose weight, it can be difficult to stick with a structured approach, like a low-carb diet, experts say. "To me that's more of a compliance issue," says Eric Rimm, a professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, of people gaining weight back over time after losing it on a low-carb diet. What's more, Rimm says that while a low-carb diet can be an effective way to shed pounds, many who take a low-carb approach on their own, rather than following a plan prescribed to them, don't do it in a healthy way over the long term. Having a wide variety of high-quality foods, flavorful meals is critical. For better -- and worse, too -- a cottage industry has sprung up to provide oodles of low-carb options from low-carb bread to low-carb pasta (and ways to make substitutes, like spiralizing zucchini, and turning other veggies into noodles), low-carb beer to low-carb ice cream and even low-carb fast food. In other cases, adherents take liberties with meat -- piling on animal fat and protein, while dialing down the carbs. Many of the substitutions miss the mark and can make losing weight much harder (if not impossible), while putting a person's health in peril. | https://news.yahoo.com/low-carb-diet-120000357.html |
Where do all of Quebec's forlorn Christmas trees go? | O Christmas tree, how lovely are thy branches. But how sad you look stuck out on the curb come January. There are few things more forlorn than discarded balsam firs littering the snowbanks of the city post-New Years Day. They signal the end of a happy holiday season, the death of a short but productive arboreal life and, for some, an environmental waste. The good news is that in Montreal they find a second useful existence, albeit one that involves incineration. Compared to sending them to the garbage dump, where they rot and create planet-warming methane gas, their end is at least somewhat beneficial. Every year, firms contracted by the city collect roughly 25,000 trees. The 350 tonnes of holiday refuse are trucked to locations in Laval and Chteauguay, where theyre converted into wood chips that are then sold to firms often pulp and paper mills that burn and use them as energy sources instead of oil. Montreal pays $43 a tonne, or $15,000, every year for the trees to be picked up. We are doing it for the environment even if we have to pay for the service, it allows the city to divert them from garbage dumps, so its a small price to turn a biomass into a product that can be of use, city spokesman Philippe Sabourin said. Other municipalities turn them into mulch to be spread on gardens as a soil conditioner or as a weed suppressant. Others use it to cover hiking paths. Quebec is a major player in the Christmas tree market, accounting for 1.3 million of the nearly two million trees exported from Canada in 2016, according to Statistics Canada. (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were the next highest sellers.) International sales of Canadas trees raked in $43 million in 2016, with 93 per cent of those sales going to the U.S. Some trees make it as far as France, the Philippines and Australia. Local sellers and many in the United States suffered from a lack of trees this season. Early snowfalls meant producers had trouble getting them to market, said Jimmy Downey, president of the Quebec Association of Christmas Tree Growers, most of whom are located in the Eastern Townships. While production has dropped in other provinces, it has been growing by nearly 20 per cent a year in Quebec, with estimates that growers here produced 1.9 million trees for export in 2018, Downey said. Local sales are not tracked, and thus are hard to estimate. There were a few years, from 2004 to 2014, where it was very difficult for us we were selling trees below the cost of production, because we had a surplus, he said. But lately we are finally at a point where we are evening out. Balsam firs, which are native to Quebec, remain the most popular product, but Fraser firs, which feature more compact bodies and needles that dont drop off as easily, are becoming more popular and boosting sales. Most Quebec municipalities have programs to pick up trees and turn them into compost or into wood pellets to be burned as a heating source, Downey said. Not all regions do. In the United Kingdom, the governments waste agency Wrap estimated 160,000 tonnes of the nations Christmas trees ended up in landfills in 2014. In addition to the environmental cost, there are financial ones: local government estimated it costs $4 in fees and landfill taxes for each tree dumped. Artificial trees have also been making a dent in the sales of natural trees. Statistics Canada found $61 million in artificial trees were imported into the country in 2016, mainly from China. A concerted effort to promote natural trees through the Keep It Real publicity campaign, funded by 10 cents off the sale of every tree in Canada, has borne fruit. Downey said figures show the sales of artificial trees dropped by one per cent this year after a long period of growth. The argument regarding which are more ecologically friendly comes down to a function of time. A comparative life-cycle assessment of artificial versus natural Christmas trees was conducted by the Montreal-based Ellipsos consulting firm, which specializes in sustainable development. If kept for only six years, which is the North American average, artificial trees have three times more impact on climate change and resource depletion than natural trees, whose main environmental harm is caused by consumers driving an average of five kilometres from home every year to pick them up. If artificial trees are kept for 20 years, the environmental impacts even out, Ellipsos found. There were nearly 1,900 tree farms in Canada in 2016, down from 2,381 in 2011. Growers say their trees represent an annual crop that sequesters carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and emits oxygen and serves as a habitat for birds and insects. Once theyve outlived their holiday-time usefulness, the important thing is to keep them out of landfills. In the U.S., they are often spread in parks and community gardens as mulch, or dumped whole onto coastlines to deter coastal erosion. In Kentucky, trees were sunk to the bottom of lakes to serve as a habitat for fish, the New York Times reported. In Montreal, residents can call the city information phone line at 311 to find out when Christmas tree pickup takes place in their borough, or look online at bit.ly/2F0zpPD. Residents are asked to take off all decorations and any plastic wrap. Trees should be put out the night before pickup, or the same day before 7 a.m. They cant go out with recycling bins, but if you miss the pickup dates, they can be brought to eco-centres to be recycled. rbruemmer@postmedia.com | https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/where-do-all-of-quebecs-forlorn-christmas-trees-go |
Who Killed The Weekly Standard ? | The Weekly Standard was killed last month, an act that had both a clear culprit and a muddy forensic trail. For twenty-three years, it was the most influential, and often the most interesting, publication of the American right, championing a less dreary and more adventurous conservatism, one that insisted that Washington was the center of human events. But, during the past five years, the magazine had lost about a third of its print subscribers and some three million dollars per year. In the second week of December, the C.E.O. of the Standards parent company, Clarity Media Group, told the staff that it would close the magazine and transfer subscribers to a new conservative publication that was already in the works, a weekly supplement to the Washington Examiner. That Friday, the staff threw an Irish wake at the home of Andrew Ferguson, perhaps the magazines most eloquent writer. Bill Kristol, the Standards founder, reminded them that his father, the pioneering neoconservative intellectual Irving Kristol, had titled a book Two Cheers for Capitalism. Maybe, Kristol said, it should be edited down to one cheer. In the press, the magazines demise was a media story, confined to the inside pages and told in a tone of half-sympathetic reminiscence. But the death of the major intellectual journal of conservatism, at a time of profound transition for the right, is about more than the strategic calculations of a media holding company in Denver. The decisive turn in conservatism during the half decade when the Standard shed subscribers and, eventually, its owners faith, was toward Trumpism, an evolution that the Standard opposed so vociferously that for a long time it has been hard to separate Bill Kristols public persona from the anti-Trump cause. (As the 2016 Republican Convention neared, Kristol had frantically tried to recruit a challenger to Trump, a somewhat quixotic effort in which he was turned down by James Mattis, Mitt Romney, and eventually a National Review columnist named David French.) The division over the President among conservative lites has been especially sharp of late, as Mattis and Nikki Haley, favorites among Washington conservatives, left the administration, and Romney published an op-ed attacking the President two days before assuming his Senate seat. The Standards sources, friends, and sensibility were on one side of this divide. Many of its subscribers, fatally, were on the other. Many journalists spend their careers at the mercy of one billionaire or another. The Standards first owner was Rupert Murdoch, whose media portfolio was broad enough that the magazines editors trusted him to have reasonable expectations. (At the original pitch meeting, Murdoch turned to one of his executives and said, Lets make sure we dont lose too much money, John Podhoretz, one of the magazines founders, said on his podcast.) In 2009, Murdoch sold the Standard to Philip Anschutz, a Republican billionaire who made his fortune in oil and railroads. Anschutz and the neoconservative Standard were not a perfect ideological fit, but to its editors he exuded a cowboy graciousness, and when the Standard staged events with Republican grandees he would come. He liked that we were influentialthat was the word he would use, one of the Standards senior editors told me. A magazine like the Standard depends upon social currency of at least two kinds. One is inside Washington, a prestige that guarantees both its influence in Republican administrations and congressional offices and its access to important sources. The Standard never really lost this currency, despite its rift with the President. The final issues cover story was a friendly interview with Haley, who seems as likely as anyone to lead the Republican Party after Trump. But, for the magazine to thrive, it required a broader brand, too. For years, to name-check the Standard was to project a certain image: that you were conservative without being brutish or anti-modern, that you had some ecumenicism and intellectual style. That kind of currency filtered back to Colorado, where some of Anschutzs executives at Clarity Media moved in Republican donor circles. Whenever Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan or Cory Gardner would go through Colorado and have an event, they would say, Oh, you guys own the Standard! Its great, and they liked being part of that, the senior Standard editor told me. The aura it cast was not unlike the one supplied by The Economistname-drop it in a mundane setting and it suggested that you had access to a broader and more imaginative world. In the Trump years, the Standards reputation in Washington held. The broader brand did not. When I interviewed him last January, Kristol told me that hed been accosted for too persistently opposing Trump on the Standards annual cruise. There were intermittent tensions with the owners. Ryan McKibben, a Clarity Media executive, tried to get The Standard to hire highly partisan shock-jock screamers, David Brooks, a Standard alumnus, wrote in the Times last month. He tried to tilt it more in the direction of a Republican direct mail fund-raising letter. By Memorial Day, 2016, when Kristols efforts to find a challenger to Trump became public, the conflict with Denver had deepened. McKibben spoke with Kristol. He was surprisingly upset, a source familiar with the conversation said. He said this wasnt what Phil Anschutz wanted from the magazine. Soon after the election, Kristol gave the job of editor-in-chief to Stephen Hayes, one of the Standards most prominent writers, in part to try to ease the tensions, but his own partisan apostasy had come to define the Standard. Kristol told me last year that on the magazines cruise in 2017 hed been accosted by some of his own subscribers, who told him that the magazines anti-Trump stance was too rigid and that the Standard had lost its way. People dont like being at odds with the group theyve been part of, one way or the otherthe crowd at the dinner party, or at the country club. Its psychologically more difficult to sustain than one would have thought, Kristol said last week. You believe what your peer group believes. The Washington crowd, the George Conways, are on his side, but the country club is on Trumps. Last spring, Hayes, with Anschutzs permission, started searching for a buyer for the magazine; in the summer, Clarity Media executives asked him to stop. When they pulled the plug, in December, they required all the staffers to sign non-disclosure and non-disparagement agreements or else risk their severance pay. If you know very little you think its about Trump, one Standard staffer told me. And if you know almost everything then you think it has almost nothing to do with Trump. But if you know absolutely everything there is to know you realize it really is about Trump after all. | https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/who-killed-the-weekly-standard |
Can Nuclear Power Plants Resist Attacks Of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP)? | Yes. Specifically, the small modular nuclear reactor company, NuScale, out of Oregon, has made their reactor resistant to electromagnetic pulses (EMP) and most other reactor designs should follow. EMPs are one of those things that many people think is fake, or over-blown, or a conspiracy theorists dream. But they are real. EMPs can be either natural, from things like extreme solar geomagnetic disturbances, or man-made like a large thermonuclear detonation or a cyberattack. If they are coordinated with physical attacks then things can get real dicey real fast. As the U.S. Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack points out, the physical and social fabric of the United States is sustained by a system of systems - a complex and dynamic network of interlocking and interdependent infrastructures whose harmonious functioning enables the myriad actions, transactions, and information flow that undergird the orderly conduct of civil society. According to the Commission, EMP effects represent arguably the largest-scale common-cause failure events that could affect our electric power grid and undermine our society, leaving it vulnerable on many fronts. High-voltage control cables and large transformers that control the grid are particularly vulnerable. Transformers weigh 400 tons, take two years to build, and cost $7 million apiece. We are already way behind in having backup transformers ready, so if many go out at once, we have a big problem powering our country. The phenomenon of a large electromagnetic pulse is not new. The first human-caused EMP occurred in 1962 when the 1.4 megaton Starfish Prime thermonuclear weapon detonated 400 km above the Pacific Ocean. One hundred times bigger than what we dropped on Hiroshima, Starfish Prime resulted in an EMP which caused electrical damage nearly 900 miles away in Hawaii. It knocked out about 300 streetlights, set off numerous burglar alarms, and damaged a telephone company microwave link that shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian islands. And that was from 900 miles away. On the natural side, in 1989, an unexpected geomagnetic storm triggered an event on the Hydro-Qubec power system that resulted in its complete collapse within 92 seconds, leaving six million customers without power. The storm resulted from the Sun ejecting a trillion-cubic-mile plume of superheated plasma, or ionized gas. It took two days for this cloud to smash into the Earths magnetosphere overwhelming its normal ability to throw off charged cosmic particles, triggering hundreds of incidents across the globe and causing undulating, multicolored auroras to spread as far south as Texas and Cuba. Such storms occur every 60 years or so, and in 1989, we weren't anywhere near as electrified and electronically interconnected as we are today, or as we will be in 30 years. This is the most likely EMP to occur. A new 2018 study by the U.S. Air Force Electromagnetic Defense Task Force addresses direct EMP threats to the United States and its allies. While some issues have existed for decades, the window of opportunity to mitigate some of these threats is closing. Meanwhile, many existing threats have gained prominence because of the almost universal integration of vulnerable silica-based technologies into all aspects of modern technology and society. In 2008, the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack made a compelling case for protecting critical infrastructures against EMP and solar geomagnetic disturbances. To avert long term outages, the U.S. must assure the availability of survivable power sources with long-term, readily accessible and continuous fuel supplies to blackstart the grid, sustain emergency life-support services, and reconstitute local, state, and national infrastructures. Long term outages are defined as the interruption of electricity for months to years over large geographic regions. Protection of electric power plants, and upgrading our infrastructure, will be essential in preventing long term outages and in restarting portions of the grid that have failed in the face of wide-area threats. It would be good at this point to understand some of the technical steps to an EMP. The first pulse occurs when gamma rays emanating from the burst interact with the Earths atmosphere and eject electrons that stream down the Earths magnetic field to generate an incredibly fast electromagnetic pulse within about a billionth of a second after the burst. That pulse peaks around 50,000 V/m on the Earths surface. This first pulse is of the most concern because of its high amplitude and wide bandwidth, allowing it to inject significant energy into conductors as short as twelve inches. Fortunately, this pulse only lasts a millionth of a second, but still time to wreak havoc. Another pulse occurs just after this, resulting from a second set of gammas produced by energetic neutrons. The peak fields are much lower, about 100 V/m and last less than a second. The final pulse is a wave similar in nature to naturally-occurring geomagnetic storms associated with coronal mass ejections from the Suns surface. These are low frequency, low amplitude pulses that lasts from minutes to hours. Although this may appear to be less intense, these can cause direct damage to equipment connected to long electrical lines, and can damage transformers, uninterruptible power supplies and generators. Fortunately, the same protection devices we have developed to withstand natural solar events will work with this third pulse. So new protection strategies need to focus on the first two short pulses. Nuclear power plants have a special place in any strategy because of perceived threats of meltdowns of the core and of nuclear fuel pools, as well as from public concern over all things nuclear. But in addition, nuclear plants could be the most likely power generators to restart quickest after a pulse and would be the baseload power that could keep critical parts of society operating. At present, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no regulatory framework to address the EMP risk to nuclear power stations, although NRC is currently working to create new fuel storage standards and most nuclear plants are EMP-hardening their back-up generators. So while there are differing opinions as to the direct threat of an EMP to a nuclear power plant, it is generally agreed that the threat should not be ignored. So NuScale didnt ignore it, and set about to actively deter EMP effects in the design of their new small modular nuclear reactor (SMR). NuScales SMR is already the most resilient, reliable and flexible of any energy source in history, with Black-Start Capability, Island Mode and First Responder Power, without needing external grid connections, capable of withstanding earthquakes, category 5 hurricanes and F5 tornados, planes crashing into it, floods, and cyberattacks. Now it has added EMP threats and geomagnetic disturbances. Fortunately, NuScale is the first SMR company to file a license and design certification application with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is the first one to have the NRC complete their Phase 1 review in record time. So the first unit should roll out in only a few years. NuScale evaluated support systems of their SMR as either likely vulnerable or inherently resilient to an EMP. The evaluation involved a qualitative vulnerability assessment of above and below ground subsystems, including communications, controls, switches, transformers and machinery within the SMR with special attention to the nuclear plants ability to safely shut down and the potential to provide continuous power during and after exposure to an EMP pulse. Several design features allow the SMR to withstand an EMP attack. There are no safety-related electrical loads, including pumps and electric motor-operated safety valves. Because natural convective core heat removal is used, electrically-operated pumps are not needed to circulate coolant. This means that, if necessary, the reactor can shut down and cool itself for indefinite periods without the need for human intervention, adding water, or external electrical power. So the inherent safety of the reactor is impervious to an EMP and cant melt-down due to an event. But just being safe isnt good enough. It would be great to be able to start up right away or, better yet, keep operating right through the event, so that power is available to mitigate, recover and respond to the worst of attack. The SMR can go into Island Mode operation, not requiring a connection to the grid to provide electrical power, and allowing for a rapid recovery to full power following the event. The reactor modules can keep safely running and go into stand-by mode such that they can be rapidly put back into service. Also, safety-related systems are electrically-isolated from the main plant electrical system, and all sensor cables penetrate the reactor containment vessel at a single location (containment vessel top plate), thereby reducing the EMP pathway. In addition, the reactor building provides effective electric shielding of EMPs by being several-foot thick concrete walls laced with steel rebar, effectively making it into a Faraday Cage, which is an enclosure or structure that can block an electromagnetic field. Electrical conducting lines are underground, which significantly attenuates the first burst effects. NuScale uses redundant fiber optic cable for communication links, which are immune to EMP effects. The NuScale plants feature multiple reactors, multiple turbine generators, an Auxiliary AC Power Source (AAPS), two 2MW backup diesel generators for blackstarting the plant, multiple main power transformers (MPTs) and unit auxiliary transformers (UATs), and redundant backup battery banks. Such redundancy is essential for addressing these complex threats. The design also provides good grounding practices, lightning protection systems, surge arrestors for connections to the switchyard, delta-wye transformers, and circumferentially-bonded stainless-steel piping. So new nuclear plants are able to be designed, and old ones upgraded, to withstand EMPs better than most energy systems. Their inherent isolation from the rest of the world is similar to why they can so effectively withstand cyberattacks. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/01/03/can-nuclear-power-plants-resist-attacks-of-electromagnetic-pulse-emp/ |
Why Arent Democrats Standing Up for Low-Wage Government Workers? | House Democrats had big plans for opening the 116th Congress, with showy votes on cracking down on government corruption and protecting pre-existing conditions. But such plans rarely survive contact with reality. The partys takeover of the House on Thursday coincides with Day 13 of a partial government shutdown of nine cabinet-level departments, a crisis that takes precedence over every other legislative priority. Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive House speaker, has outlined a two-bill package to fund the government, which will get a vote on Thursday. Its not likely to end the impasse, but it does signal an intention to make good on promises to the 800,000 or so federal workers who havent received a paycheck since the shutdown. Section 2 of the second bill states that employees furloughed as a result of the lapse in appropriations shall be compensated at their standard rate of compensation for the time that theyve missed. But only federal employees would be covered by this back-pay clause. That excludes everyone who toils for a federal contractor, particularly the low-wage workers who clean, secure, and staff federal buildingsaround 2,000 of them, according to the Service Employees International Union. When the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo closed on Wednesday, contract workers who provide concessions and take tickets also got sent home, adding to the ranks. Contractors are the most vulnerable people in the federal workforce, the ones who can least afford a disruption in their pay. And yet, in the aftermath of government shutdowns, they are the only employees who dont get compensated after the fact. In 2013, when the government closed for 16 days, federal workers received back pay, but low-wage contractors did not, causing serious financial depression for struggling families in Washington. When the politicians closed the government, they didnt think about the impact it would have on our families, Pablo Lazaro, a cook at a Smithsonian museum, said at the time. | https://newrepublic.com/article/152841/arent-democrats-standing-low-wage-government-workers |
Will Tarrant Republicans remove Muslim from party post? | The countdown is on for the Tarrant County Republican Party to weigh in on whether a vice chairman of the party should be removed from his post because hes Muslim. This effort by a group of Republicans has drawn national attention as many wait to see what the Tarrant GOP will do about Shahid Shafi, a surgeon and Southlake City Council member. Its just outrageous that we are doing this, said Darl Easton, the GOP party chairman who appointed Shafi to the post six months ago. Its disgusting. A vote on the issue is scheduled for Jan. 10. $20 for 365 Days of Unlimited Digital Access Last chance to take advantage of our best offer of the year! Act now! But the question now is whether that vote will actually occur. Talk has bubbled on social media and among Republicans about compromises, a secret versus public vote and even potentially delaying the vote indefinitely. At issue is Eastons appointment last summer. He remembers one person speaking against the proposal before Republicans at an organizational meeting approved his slate of nominees, including Shafi. Before long, Dorrie OBrien a precinct chairwoman from Grand Prairie asked for the appointment to be reconsidered. She and others say this is not about religion but whether Shafi is loyal to Islam and Islamic law or connected to Islamic terror groups. We dont think hes suitable as a practicing Muslim to be vice chair because hed be the representative for ALL Republicans in Tarrant County, and not ALL Republicans in Tarrant County think Islam is safe or acceptable in the U.S., in Tarrant County, and in the TCGOP, OBrien recently posted on Facebook. Internal GOP emails about the issue delivered anonymously to the Star-Telegram, which has been covering this effort since August, show that the effort to remove Shafi has expanded. Others now targeted include Easton; a precinct chair and area leader, Kelly Canon; and a precinct chair who is married to a Muslim, Lisa Grimaldi Abdulkareem. Some top Texas Republicans including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Land Commissioner George P. Bush and House Speaker Joe Straus have condemned efforts to remove Shafi, as have Tarrant County Republicans including County Judge Glen Whitley, Sheriff Bill Waybourn and District Clerk Tom Wilder. OBrien recently posted on Facebook that a compromise she proposed regarding Shafi has fallen through. She said she believes her side has enough votes to recall Shafis appointment as vice chairman. Some fear the vote could prompt a civil war in the party. That not only would destroy a unified effort to re-elect President Donald Trump but would also likely hurt the Tarrant County Lincoln Day fundraiser, OBriens post read. In her post, she said her proposal calls for former Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Steve Hollern to resign as the partys chairman of the Education and Training Committee and for Shafi to resign his post as vice chairman of the party. Then Shafi would be appointed chairman of the committee. She posted that the compromise was rejected and that Easton hadnt countered with another offer. Not only did he start this situation with his ill-advised appointment over some really good advice not to, but he continues to bungle and mishandle it after numerous opportunities to bring it to a close, OBrien wrote. His ego, pride, hubris, whatever, is blinding him to the reality of how close to the edge of disaster his decisions have led the TCGOP. Easton said the compromise as originally presented was rejected, but he wouldnt say a compromise has been totally ruled out. With a week to go before the scheduled vote, Easton said anything could happen. We are very optimistic that we have more votes than they do, he said. But its who shows up. Jan. 10 vote on removal The agenda for the Jan. 10 meeting notes that the first part of the meeting will be to continue the Nov. 10 behind-closed-doors discussion about whether to remove Shafi. Easton said he isnt sure what will happen. Among the possibilities: Those private discussions could continue. A proposal could be made for an immediate public vote on the issue. A proposal could be made to indefinitely postpone consideration of the proposal to remove Shafi. Members could approve a proposed rules change that would eliminate the two vice chairmen positions and replace them with just one vice chairman. And that person would be elected by the executive committee, which is made up of precinct chairmen. A vote on the proposal could occur. Sharia Shafi, an immigrant from Pakistan, has said he became a U.S. citizen in 2009 and soon joined the Republican Party. He said hes not associated with the Muslim Brotherhood, nor the Council on American-Islamic Relations, nor any terrorist organization. He also said he supports Second Amendment rights and American Laws for American Courts. And he said hes never promoted Shariah. Shariah is a set of core principles derived from the teachings of the Quran, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. If somebody is wondering if one can be a Muslim and a ... good American, I am a living example of that, Shafi last month told the Star-Telegram. Sharia Law I have no interest in living under Sharia Law. Shafi said he has been overwhelmed with support since OBrien and others began talking about removing him from his post. It has reaffirmed my faith in the party and reaffirmed my faith in the country, he said. Im very proud to be an American and very proud to be a Republican. Hollern recently sent a letter to precinct chairmen urging them to keep Shafi in his position as a vice chairman. The current efforts by a misguided few to remove Dr. Shafi from Party leadership runs contrary to all principles Republicans have stood for, he wrote. And it is detrimental to the image of the Republican Party. He said the effort by a few folks with retrograde paranoia who hope to remove Shafi from the party post because he is Muslim is wrong. Dont be mistaken, I am as concerned as anyone about radical Islam and jihadi terrorists as Im sure Dr. Shafi is, Hollern wrote. But Dr. Shafi is not one of them. Please join me in sustaining Dr. Shafis appointment at our January 10th EC meeting and redeeming the TCGOP in the eyes of the general public. After all, Dr. Shafi has been endorsed by Sen. Ted Cruz and many of the county elected officials. The TCGOP Executive Committee should not be out of step. | https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article223820565.html |
Is It Time to Buy BlackBerry's Resurgence? | BlackBerry's (NYSE: BB) transformation into a provider of software and services is now complete. The company's reliance on its legacy smartphone business has been pulling it down, but that won't be the case going forward, as the company's third-quarter results show. The company didn't get any revenue from selling devices last quarter, while the related service access business generated just $9 million, which isn't even 4% of the total top line. BlackBerry got the majority of its revenue by selling enterprise software and services, technology solutions, and licensing. The good part: These segments are enjoying robust growth momentum that won't be dying out anytime soon. A drawing of a cybersecurity shield, with random numbers and letters behind it and ripples appearing to pulse out of it. More Image source: Getty Images. Stepping on the gas BlackBerry now gets nearly 43% of its revenue from the enterprise software and services business. Bears might argue that this segment isn't in the best shape, as revenue in the latest quarter dropped 7.5% year over year. But there's more here than meets the eye. BlackBerry's implementation of the ASC 606 accounting change in the first quarter of the current fiscal year means it's facing unfavorable year-over-year comparisons. That's because, under ASC 606, BlackBerry isn't recognizing revenue from enterprise software sales on an up-front basis. Instead, the company's perpetual licenses are now recognized on a subscription basis over a period of four years. However, there's enough evidence that the enterprise business is on a growth path. BlackBerry recorded 7% sequential growth in this segment last quarter, following a double-digit sequential increase during the second quarter of fiscal 2019. But the more important thing to note is that this business carries tremendous potential, thanks to the solid contract wins BlackBerry has scored. For instance, BlackBerry is now selling enterprise software to eight U.S. government agencies, compared with six in the previous quarter. What's more, the number of users on BlackBerry AtHoc -- the company's crisis communication software-as-a-service platform, authorized by the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program -- increased 20% in the latest quarter to 1.2 million users. Gaining traction in the U.S. government cybersecurity space will be a long-term driver for BlackBerry, as the federal government has been gradually ramping up its cybersecurity spending. But government contracts are just one of the things driving the company's software growth. BlackBerry has set out to build a platform that encompasses the privacy and security needs of an organization under one umbrella -- BlackBerry Spark. More importantly, the company is looking to push the envelope by adding more solutions to its portfolio. That's why it has spent $1.4 billion on cybersecurity provider Cylance, which will bring artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to its cybersecurity offerings. Such moves will help BlackBerry offer more to its existing clients, while opening up an opportunity to sell its existing solutions to the newly acquired Cylance clients. Cylance is going to open up a massive opportunity for BlackBerry to boost sales and enjoy higher margins, because the former has over a hundred Fortune 500 clients, which are a part of its 3,500-strong enterprise client base. Meanwhile, BlackBerry's technology solutions business is getting a nice shot in the arm from automotive design wins, as customers are lapping up the QNX software platform to power various aspects of connected cars. | https://news.yahoo.com/time-buy-blackberry-apos-resurgence-110000474.html |
Should children as young as 12 be sent to juvenile detention? | (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Natalia Orendain, University of California, Los Angeles (THE CONVERSATION) Children under 12 will no longer be treated as criminals in the state of California when they break the law, based on a new law that went into effect on Jan. 1. Before the law was passed, California had no minimum age for sending children to juvenile court and thats still true of most states. That means that in many places, children as young as six, for example, can be arrested and detained. In Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Colorado and other states, the minimum age is 10. Many California state legislators believe that setting a higher standard, 12 years old, will protect younger children from the dangers that come with juvenile detention. And, given that Californias juvenile justice system houses the largest number of youth in the United States and even the world, their stance may influence how other states set their standards for criminal responsibility. I am a doctoral student studying neuroscience at UCLA. In my lab, we are examining how time spent confined in juvenile facilities affects brain development and behavior. To do so, we study a range of experiences kids encounter when confined, from the good increased daily structure to the terrible assault by other youth and staff. Our study is just beginning, but previous research has shown that the majority of youth experience abuse while confined and show structural brain changes similar to individuals who have experienced lifetime trauma exposure. Juvenile facilities function as prisons for youth. The key difference between adult prisons and juvenile facilities is that the latter advocate for rehabilitation. Thats because young people, usually until their mid- to late 20s, have brains that are still developing and so have the capacity for change what scientists often refer to as plasticity. Every year, over 1.3 million youth in the U.S. are arrested and 60 percent face confinement for offenses neither violent or sexual in nature, such as probation violation, status offense, drug offense or property crime. Rehabilitative efforts can include behavior management, writing classes, religious services and even training on how to manage finances. Despite these efforts, the experience of being detained appears to have overwhelmingly negative consequences for young people. Research shows that the more youth are involved with the juvenile justice system from arrest to detainment to transfer to an adult court the higher their chances are of early death, specifically a violent one. Going to juvenile detention also increases risk for poorer life outcomes in terms of educational attainment, relationships and gainful employment. At this point, these relationships are only correlational, but have been demonstrated across many large studies. The physical environment inside juvenile detention facilities has an industrial feel, with limited natural light. They are surrounded by chain-linked fences topped with barbed wire. Once inside, youth are rarely in contact with their support systems, whether that be family, friends or other individuals. While some youth may have been removed from abusive situations at home, the high-threat environment of secure juvenile facilities is far from a rehabilitation-oriented setting. Maltreatment has been documented in youth detention facilities in most states. According to one survey, about 42 percent of youth in detention are afraid of being physically attacked, 45 percent report unneeded use of force by staff and 30 percent state that staff use isolation as discipline. Isolation, particularly during development, comes with a range of negative physiological and psychological reactions and is associated with the development of mood disorders, like depression and anxiety, and psychosis. Under such stressful conditions, even young brains would have a difficult time learning or growing. To make matters worse, most youth in the juvenile justice system have experienced early life trauma like abuse and neglect, which can compound the negative effects of these already detrimental experiences. No magic number The clinicians and academics who wrote a policy brief on the California bill cite developmental research, court decisions on youth sentencing and international standards on juvenile justice as the reasons to adopt the age of 12 as the minimum age at which children can be sent to juvenile detention. However, there is no strong evidence that setting 12 as the lowest age for sending children to detention will provide major benefits. Among these sources cited by the clinicians and academics, the only specific reference to the age of 12 is from international standards set forth by the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. In 2007, the committee announced 12 as the absolute minimum age of criminal responsibility, but at the same time strongly advocated for higher ages, like 14 or 16. At the time, research investigating brain development in youth was still emerging. Now, more than 10 years later, we know that experiences during all of adolescence tremendously impact brain development and behavior into adulthood. While a systemic overhaul would be needed to address the current conditions of juvenile confinement, existing diversion programs are an avenue to affect youth of all ages. One such program is the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative, founded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation more than 25 years ago. The initiative monitors the treatment of youth in secure detention facilities and diverts youth or limits time spent confined. The initiative is implemented in over 300 counties nationwide. Instead of placing young people in detention facilities, these initiatives promote confining them in their homes, in shelters and reporting centers. This approach has been shown to lower the number of times the youth commit crimes again a large feat given that 70 to 80 percent of youth involved in the juvenile justice system traditionally face rearrest within three years of their release. Rather than focusing on a specific age for juvenile detention, I believe a greater impact would come from ensuring that confinement is truly rehabilitative and developmentally appropriate for all youth. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: http://theconversation.com/should-children-as-young-as-12-be-sent-to-juvenile-detention-107848. | https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Should-children-as-young-as-12-be-sent-to-13505334.php |
Should Japan be forced to stop whaling? | In early 2019, Japan announced it would withdraw from the moratorium on commercial whaling set by the International Whaling Commission in 1986. Whaling is a long-standing tradition in countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland, and proponents of Japan's decision point out the country will now limit hunting to its own waters. Meanwhile, some countries and environmental groups mourn Japan's decision, maintaining that whale species still need protection. PERSPECTIVES The international ban on commercial whaling hasn't stopped Japan from hunting whales. The country participates in hunting season annually, claiming that the whales are used for scientific research. By now openly defying the international ban on commercial whaling, Japan will at least limit its hunting to its own waters. According to The Guardian's Justin McCurry and Matthew Weaver: [The Japanese government's chief spokesman, Yoshihide Suga] told reporters the country's fleet would confine its hunts to Japanese territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, adding that its controversial annual expeditions to the Southern Ocean-a major source of diplomatic friction between Tokyo and Canberra-would end. Plus, many people see the ban on commercial whaling as an implementation of Western values on an international level: Japan argues that the moratorium was supposed to be a temporary measure and has accused a 'dysfunctional' [International Whaling Commission] of abandoning its original purpose-managing the sustainable use of global whale stocks. Japan's decision comes as a disappointment to much of the international community. According to the New York Times' Daniel Victor, Australia's government is "extremely disappointed" with Japan's announcement. Victor reports: Australia maintains a sanctuary for whales, dolphins and porpoises that includes parts of the Antarctic, and it has clashed with Japan over its annual hunts there. 'Australia remains resolutely opposed to all forms of commercial and so-called "scientific" whaling,' the ministers said. 'We will continue to work within the commission to uphold the global moratorium on commercial whaling.' The U.K. environment secretary, Michael Gove, shares the sentiment: Extremely disappointed to hear that Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission to resume commercial whaling. The UK is strongly opposed to commercial whaling and will continue to fight for the protection and welfare of these majestic mammals. -- Michael Gove (@michaelgove) December 26, 2018 Victor continues by pointing out that, for Japan, commercial whaling is more than an economic stimulus, it's a long-standing tradition. 'In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes,' Mr. Suga said in a statement. 'Engagement in whaling has been supporting local communities, and thereby developed the life and culture of using whales.' Although demand for whale meat has declined sharply in Japan, the country maintains publicly that the tradition lives on. The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports that according to the Japanese government: ...whaling is an ancient part of Japanese culture, that fishermen have caught whales for centuries, and that Japan will never allow foreigners to tell its people what they can and cannot eat. One Japanese official once said to me: 'Japanese people never eat rabbits, but we don't tell British people that they shouldn't.' But given the Japanese population's declining interest in whale meat, many are wondering why the country is pushing so hard to maintain a tradition that is no longer lucrative. The BBC's Wingfield-Hayes discovered that it might not be-at least not for long. During a private conversation with a high-ranking member of the Japanese government, Wingfield-Hayes explained why he believed resuming commercial whaling was illogical, the official replied: 'I agree with you,' he said. 'Antarctic whaling is not part of Japanese culture. It is terrible for our international image and there is no commercial demand for the meat. I think in another 10 years there will be no deep sea whaling in Japan.' 'There are some important political reasons why it is difficult to stop now.' he said. He would say no more. But [Greenpeace worker, Junko Sakuma] thinks the answer lies in the fact that Japan's whaling is government-run, a large bureaucracy with research budgets, annual plans, promotions and pensions. According to Sakuma, the pride of some government officials is more important to Japan than the survival of various whale species. The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.oregonlive.com/tylt/2019/01/should_japan_be_forced_to_stop.html |
Is Competency The Hot New Education Thing For 2019? | Tom Vander Ark thinks that competency is the up and coming next big thing in education. He just said so a few weeks ago here at Forbes, but he's been saying so for several years now. Vander Ark has been at the education reform biz longer than most, but his career also includes the launch of K-Mart's competitor to Sam's Club, point man for the Gates small schools initiative, and an attempt to launch some charter schools in NYC that left a bad taste in many mouths. He's not always right. When we talk about competency (as in competency based education), we need to keep a couple of things in mind. First of all, it's not remotely new. For most of its history, it has been called "mastery" or "learning for mastery," and it crops up as far back as almost a century ago, when programs like the Winnetka Plan started playing with the idea that instead of focusing on the hours spent in a program, we could focus on whether or not the students had mastered a particular piece of skill or content. Mastery Learning began to catch fire again in the sixties. Most of us who went to teacher school in the seventies learned about it and were encouraged to make it a factor in our work, though nobody had yet solved one of the central problems with mastery learning. The premise was that every student could learn the material as long as she was given enough time--but there were still only 180 days in the school year. In the classroom, mastery learning often took the form of giving students multiple, even unlimited, attempts to show mastery of the material. On the ground this looked like, "Students, you can keep taking the unit test until you pass it." Students sometimes took advantage of the reduced sense of urgency, and parents were not always supportive--as one parent asked me, "Why should my kid try when he gets a dozen shots and everybody passes?" While mastery learning became central in very few classrooms, by the eighties, many teachers had incorporated elements of mastery learning into their practice. In the nineties, mastery learning made a comeback with the rise of Outcome Based Education. In OBE, each lesson would culminate in student demonstration of some particular outcome--new terminology for showing mastery (immortalized in a million million lesson plans as "The Student Will Be Able To" aka "TSWBAT"). We would have authentic assessments, where the students would demonstrate mastery in some "real" way; multiple choice tests and their ilk would be banished. Each student would have a portfolio that would show the complex web of her mastered skills, not just some simple letter grade. And finally, the motto, drilled into teachers at countless professional development sessions, was that "all can learn all." But OBE died a quick death. Part of the opposition came from conservative parents who resisted the "values" outcomes that required students to demonstrate mastery of the skill of being a good person. The other fatal attack on OBE came from the rising tide of accountability hawks, spurred to action by A Nation At Risk and demanding the kind of cold, hard numbers and measures that led us to No Child Left Behind, Common Core, and accountability based on a multiple-choice standardized tests. Competency is a new branding of a century-long thread in education. Now mastery can be marked with digital badges, the progression of skills maintained, measured and recorded by computers, the badges earned and issued in and out of school. If it's going to finally become the big thing in education, it will have to solve some of its old central problems. Vander Ark's evidence competency is really going to finally bust through this time is essentially a list of tech companies that are working on various parts of the problems. Some companies are working out how to issue a digital badge for a variety of mastered skills that will be assessed... somehow. Financiers like XQ and New Schools Venture Fund are throwing money at groups that want to work on these problems. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/petergreene/2019/01/03/is-competency-the-hot-new-education-thing-for-2019/ |
Is The Global Economy Half The Apple It Used To Be? | For the first firm to crack the trillion-dollar valuation ceiling, Apples performance is usually a bellwether of broader market confidence and conspicuous consumption among fawning technophiles. It should worry more than Apple investors that the usually reticent firm when it comes to company performance has warned the world of economic deceleration in Greater China, a region that encompasses mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, roughly comprising 20% of Apples revenues. More importantly to Apples performance, China on the supply chain side of the equation is an Achilles heel to the firm, like much of the consumer electronics industry, which relies on China not only for consumption, but also for supply. The backdrop of an increasingly damaging Sino-American trade war, along with a perceived global economic slowdown does not bode well for 2019. Tim Cook's warning should be heeded not only by Apple's investors. U.S. markets are still rattled by the worst December since the Great Depression and the worst financial year since the Great Deleveraging of 2008. European countries, meanwhile, are facing a mix of domestic social pressures, along with the EU-wide uncertainly stemming from the impending impact of Brexit in March of this year, which is looking increasingly likely to follow the so-called hard path. Frances economy, home to more than 2 months of social upheaval at the hands of the gilets jaunes, who are now calling for Emmanuel Macron to step down, is teetering on the verge of recession. The dreaded r-word, recession, is beginning to echo on both sides of the Atlantic as economic uncertainty, rising political risk and global trade and investment absurdity have become the norm. Indeed, the whole world is beginning to look more like an emerging market, or a place where politics matters at least as much as economics to the rise and fall of markets. It would seem the rate of iPhone product introductions in the last round may have overwhelmed consumers, along with the exorbitant price point, for which consumers would prefer a slightly longer shelf life than 1-year before newer models are revealed testing the limits of conspicuous consumption. The U.S. market slowdown in the fourth quarter of 2018 was certainly dragged down by tech stocks, which can largely be viewed as the modern-day equivalents of industrials and the trading firms of yesteryear. By all measures something feels different about the headline economic risks in 2019 and Apples early warning call hints at it. The global economy is facing unprecedented pressures on all sides all at once and there is very little room for maneuver, especially as central bankers have exhausted most of the policy arrows in their quiver with quantitative easing in an up until now successful attempt to keep recession at bay. In the meantime, the world, investors and business leaders have become accustomed to comparatively cheap capital, as well as to hoarding cash, for which Apple has more than $130 billion in an echo to the cash is king mantra that followed the 2008 financial crisis. With fewer policy options left and certainly none that are politically expedient in the face of emboldened (at times torch-wielding) and heavily populistic voters around the world, the likelihood of protracted economic turmoil is high. Meanwhile, given that globalization and the attendant international collaboration are in retreat, the likelihood of a consensus-based approach to calm the disquiet is low. While Tim Cooks letter to shareholders warning of missing the revenue mark hints at the trade war between the U.S. and China as unhelpful, the more acrimonious the trade war becomes the more likely Apple will face more than economic deceleration in China. Indeed, as the detention of Huaweis CFO, Meng Wanzhou, at the behest of U.S. authorities works its way through the Canadian extradition and legal system, along with the growing Western ban on Huaweis products and services on national security grounds, Apple may find itself on the receiving end of a politically motivated Chinese riposte or similar bans. Notably, Huawei has overtaken Apple as the world's second largest smartphone producer and is considered a crown jewel of Chinese enterprise. While this would amount to a Pyrrhic move on the part of the Chinese, as it would damage many native industries and supply chain partners, the Chinese political system is proven to endure often irrational economic pain at home to drive a political point abroad. U.S. trade policy appears to be on similar footing. The bluster emanating from Washington, D.C. on trade and economic relations around the world is liable to produce such a damaging game of economic chicken. For this, Apples boss, Tim Cook, has been a vocal opponent to U.S. trade ructions with China. The fact that a Chinese slowdown has already taken a bite out of one of the worlds mightiest firms should send pause around the world and hopefully temper proponents of trade wars on both sides of the Pacific. Apple and the global economy would breathe a sigh of relief. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/dantedisparte/2019/01/03/is-the-global-economy-half-the-apple-it-used-to-be/ |
Are Phoenix employees really trying to thwart an initiative to stop light rail? | Opinion: Councilman Sal DiCiccio accuses city staff of 'slow-rolling' the initiative, but that's not exactly true. A light rail train pulls into the light rail staton on 19th Avenue and Dunlap Avenue in Phoenix, on Thursday, December 6, 2018. (Photo: David Wallace/The Republic) Backers of an initiative to stop light-rail expansion figured there would be forces that seek to thwart their effort which is precisely what some train supporters did Wednesday in suing over the validity of the signature-gathering process. Those forces, however, do not include Phoenix city staff a narrative that is sinister and, more importantly, unfounded. The narrative comes from an expected place, Councilman Sal DiCiccio, who days after Christmas griped that the Phoenix city clerks office was slow-rolling the initiative after the petitions were turned in the implication being staffers are sympathetic, or are in cahoots, with train supporters looking to derail a public vote. He pointed to conversations that initiative leader Susan Gudino had in late November with the clerk's office, including assurances that the petitions would be processed as quickly as a week. Initiative leader gets a suspicious call The week dragged into several, after which the clerk's office produced a letter that stated only phase one (of two) in the process had been completed. When Gudino inquired further, she got a call back not from the clerk's office, she learned from DiCiccio and his office, but from a staffer of former Mayor Greg Stanton, a light-rail supporter. Gudino described the caller as "very by the book" and rather unhelpful. "It's all very unusual," DiCiccio said. "The initiative is getting extra scrutiny. It seems to be undergoing a very different process than other initiatives." Except that it isn't. Train foes expect efforts to derail initiative DiCiccio's narrative is certainly compelling. Appealing, too especially for foes of expensive, heavily subsidized projects, in general. And foes of light rail, in particular. Gathering more than 20,500 signatures of voters to qualify the initiative for the ballot is no small order. And backers, many of them small-business owners and residents in south-central Phoenix, expect to be greatly outspent and outshouted in the campaign if and when the measure qualifies for the ballot. They're likely right. The lawsuit over petition signatures, filed by a general contractors group, portends a protracted, possibly expensive, fight. And light rail has advocates that include a majority of the elected council members. No evidence of shenanigans by city staff But to say nonpartisan city staff is attempting to "thwart the will of our citizens in favor of special interests" exaggerates to the point of maligning. Phoenix statute mirrors Arizona law, which calls for a two-step verification process the first to vet requirements of circulators, such as getting each sheet of signatures properly marked, notarized and the like. The city clerk's office did so within the required period of 20 business days. The second step, to verify that the signatures are legible, belonging to valid voters and matching signatories on file, must be completed within 15 business days following that. For the light rail initiative, that is Jan. 18. What room there is to stall is for the city council to take. It has roughly five weeks to set an election date after the signatures are certified but only a couple of options for this year by law either in May or in August. As for the phone call initiative leader Gudino got from a staffer associated with former Mayor Stanton, that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. A Seth Scott did indeed return Gudino's call, Deputy City Clerk Ben Lane said. But that Seth Scott is of the city clerk's office, not the Seth Scott who served as Stanton's chief of staff. DiCiccio is right about this on light rail Critics of DiCiccio don't even bother to shrug at his latest accusations. After he helped to defeat a proposed water-rate increase late last year, the councilman mocked city management for bringing forward nothing but a host of blunders even though his no vote puts at risk the water departments bond rating. His missive prompted interim mayor Thelda Williams and two council members to issue a rebuke that his attacks on city staff represent scorched-earth tactics and bullying (that) have become a cancer at City Hall. Regardless, DiCiccio is right about one lament: Phoenix voters deserve better. Should the Building a Better Phoenix initiative make it on the ballot, it would be in a special election, which will draw a fraction of the turnout for a regular election. The fate of light rail demands and deserves greater voter participation. Reach Kwok at akwok@aczentral.com. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/abekwok/2019/01/03/phoenix-light-rail-initiative-stalling-sal-diciccio/2470540002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/abekwok/2019/01/03/phoenix-light-rail-initiative-stalling-sal-diciccio/2470540002/ |
Will NVIDIA Sink or Swim in 2019? | Shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) have plunged more than 50% over the past three months, as the end of the cryptocurrency boom flooded the market with cheap graphics cards and disrupted the company's core gaming business. Concerns about softer demand for artificial intelligence chips from data center customers and a broader sell-off in semiconductor stocks exacerbated the pain. NVIDIA's sell-off forced analysts to hastily cut their price targets. Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh recently trimmed his price target from $245 to $230, noting that while crypto prices were stabilizing, they weren't rising quickly enough to generate fresh interest in new GPUs. A gold bull and a black bear racing, with gold and black bars behind them. More Image source: Getty Images. RBC analyst Mitch Steves also cut his price target from $230 to $200, stating that the secondary market was "reducing the average selling price" for GPUs and "could impact" NVIDIA's fourth quarter. Yet both Rakesh and Steves stayed bullish on NVIDIA with "buy" and "outperform" ratings on the stock, respectively. Investors should always take analysts' ratings and price targets with a grain of salt. Let's take a closer look at NVIDIA and see if its stock will sink or swim in 2019. Last November, NVIDIA reported its first quarterly revenue miss in three years. Its revenue rose 21% annually to $3.18 billion, but missed expectations by $60 million. This also marked its slowest growth rate in over two years. For the fourth quarter, it expects its revenue to decline about 7% year over year, whereas the analyst consensus had called for 17% growth. NVIDIA attributed the miss to the end of the cryptocurrency mining boom, which caused mid-range Pascal GPUs to clog up the retail and secondary markets. Tougher competition from AMD's newer GPUs also throttled NVIDIA's ability to sell pricier GPUs. That was great news for gamers, who were finally able to upgrade their gaming PCs with cheaper GPUs. But it torpedoed NVIDIA's core gaming revenue, which rose just 13% year over year and fell 2% sequentially last quarter. This sequential drop coincided with slower growth in NVIDIA's data center revenue, which rose 58% annually and 4% sequentially during the quarter. That represented a significant slowdown from the unit's 83% year-over-year growth in the second quarter, and was seemingly caused by softer interest in its widely-hyped machine learning and AI applications. Those challenges caused the company's non-GAAP gross margin to fall 250 basis points sequentially to 61%. | https://news.yahoo.com/nvidia-sink-swim-2019-124000345.html |
Is Yamana Gold a Buy? | Yamana Gold (NYSE: AUY) was hugely outperforming rival Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) until mid-2018 before it started losing ground rapidly, so much so that both stocks are now among the worst performing mid-cap gold mining stocks for 2018 with similar 25% drops in value each. Investors in Yamana, though, would've been deeper in the red had the stock not gained nearly 11% in December. While rising gold prices can largely be credited for the recent recovery in Yamana shares, there's a fair chance rewards could outweigh risks in 2019 and beyond and drive the stock higher. Here's why. Why Yamana Gold's production rose but profits didn't in 2018 2018 was a significant year for Yamana as it successfully brought its seventh mine, Cerro Moro in Argentina, on line. Thanks largely to a first full quarter of production from Cerro Moro in Q3, Yamana's total gold production from existing mines (excluding Gualcamayo that it recently sold off) jumped 10% to 670,426 ounces during the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2018. Even better, Yamana's byproduct all-in-sustaining cost (AISC) per ounce produced dropped to $712 per ounce of gold from $758 per ounce during the period. Yamana also recently upgraded its fiscal 2018 gold production guidance by 20,000 ounces to 920,000. Comparatively, rivals like Kinross Gold (NYSE: KGC) are struggling with declining production and rising costs. Gold bars stacked against each other. More Image source: Getty Images. That incremental production failed to show up on Yamana's bottom line, though, for a couple of reasons. First, Yamana had a lower quantity of consolidated gold to sell this year in the absence of contribution from its subsidiary, Brio Gold, which it spun off in 2017. Second, impairment charges on the sale of Brio Gold and Gualcamayo and other one-time items wiped out nearly $309 million, or $0.33 per share, from Yamana's profits during the nine-month period, resulting in a steep loss of $229.1 million. That's one big reason why investors haven't been happy with Yamana and sent the stock tumbling. Some investors are also worried about the humongous total debt worth $1.78 billion that Yamana carried as of Sept. 30, 2018. The bulk of the debt, however, is long term, and the nearest maturing fixed-rate debt, worth $84 million, isn't due for payment before 2020. By then, Yamana's gold equivalent ounce production is expected to have grown at a compound annual rate of 8.8% to hit 1.15 million ounces in fiscal 2020, bringing down its costs as well. Moreover, with major expansion projects behind it, Yamana should have more cash flows in hand to service debt or even pay dividends in 2019 and beyond. Just so you know, Yamana continues to generate strong operating cash flows. AUY Cash from Operations (TTM) Chart More | https://news.yahoo.com/yamana-gold-buy-140000176.html |
Did a Team MVP Snub Set Off Antonio Brown? And How Should the Steelers Handle Him? | Its always been the little things that gnaw at Antonio Brown. It might be the ball not going his way. It might be something or someone rubbing him the wrong way. It might just be the wrong day. Or it could be something as arbitrary as not being named team MVP. Last week, Steelers players voted JuJu Smith-Schuster as the 2018 recipient of that award. This was in the aftermath of the Steelers Week 16 loss to the Saints, their fourth in five games and a defeat that took their playoff fate out of their own hands. Brown loaded the team on his back in that game, ringing up 14 catches for 185 yards and two scores, many of them spectacular and in critical situations, in the 31-28 loss in New Orleans. Sure he was. Or, at least, thats what those in the organization believethat he took the MVP snub personally, and that he carried that saltiness into work last Wednesday. It was there from the moment he walked in the building, and it boiled over in the much-discussed confrontation with Ben Roethlisberger at the morning walkthrough. He was just frustrated, said one source. The MVP voteits those things that set him off. He was unreal in New Orleans, we still lost, and the vote comes out and its JuJu. So he shows up for work, hes not voted MVP, hes in a bad way, and that carried over into the walkthrough. Eight days later, the talk on Brown is starting to shift from what happened to how the team might manage the cap ramifications of trading him, all while Brown seems to be putting a social-media heel turn into motion. Its actually not that complicated. In this weeks Game Plan, were going to give you a player to watchand some you may not be thinking ofin each of the four wild-card round games, get you ready for college footballs national title game with a couple prospects to keep an eye on, and answer your questions on the coaching searches, one offensive coordinators candidacy in the race for those jobs, and the offensive rookie of the year debate. But were starting with the Brown story, and where the relationship between one of the NFLs flagship franchises and perhaps the greatest receiver in its history went sour. That starts with the background on who the Steelers have always been, and who Brown is. Pittsburghs model for its coachesone Tomlin fits into, as Chuck Noll and Bill Cowher did before himcalls for, first and foremost, a battleship commander, the type who can manage big personalities and big problems. Thats always allowed the Steelers to cast a wide net in talent acquisition, which routinely has added up to wildly gifted rosters. Building that way, of course, comes with risk. Then you have Brown, who brings with him some of the standard diva receiver characteristics. Hes tough, and competitive, and as one staffer said, Hands down, hes the hardest worker on the team. I couldnt even tell you who number two is, thats how easy it is to say that. The flip side of that is, he wants that work to equal results, and getting results means getting the ball. And when he doesnt, it can be a problem. There are examples, those there explain, in every game, where Brown will run a flawless route, be impossibly open, and Roethlisberger will just miss him. That eats at Brown. His work ethic and his me-against-the-world attitude is what makes him great, one coach says, but it also creates some issues. And to put one element together with the other, for certain players, theres whats been referred to internally in the Steelers building as necessary tolerance. LeVeon Bell was afforded it. Martavis Bryant got it. Roethlisberger has it too. As does Brown. Brown has explained to those close to him that he didnt feel some of his teammates were as invested in 2018 as he was, and it was showing up in their work, and he was fed up with it. The standard, as he saw it, was slipping. And his side of the story holds that his handling of last weekfrom the Wednesday outburst to the Saturday no-showwas a manifestation of how he felt about the state of the team. Of course, that reaction put Tomlinas good at managing conflict as any coach in the NFLin a thorny spot. In taking the former path, Tomlin, and the Steelers, finally drew a line in the sand with Brown. It was, essentially, showing him the point where his problems outweighed his production, and that there was a point where football could be taken away. Maybe the Steelers hoped itd be a wake-up call. Instead, Brown added another chapter to his recent list of erratic behavior. Earlier this year, he reportedly called a Steeler beat reporter a racist and threatened an ESPN writer in response to the story that made the claim. This time around he didnt like how ex-Steeler Ryan Clark critiqued his behavior on ESPN and called him an Uncle Tom on Instagram. So if Pittsburgh was going to have Brown back after this latest blow-up, theres that background to deal with, and also the matter of how Browns current teammates would welcome him back after he abandoned them during what was, in effect, a playoff week. Yes, the Steelers would have to carry $21.12 million in dead money if they moved Brown. But hes already on the books for $22.165 million, and the money left on his deal (three non-guaranteed years, $38.925 million) is reasonable enough to be attractive to another team. At this point, it would probably be hard to get proper value for a player who is clearly carrying baggage (and will be 31 next season). But if the Steelers are motivated to find a buyer, theyll find one. Or its at least not crazy to think thered be enough interest to drum up a market. And if you consider all of the above, maybe its not that crazy that were here after all. Maybe this was always the way it was going to end. On to the weekend WEEKEND WATCH LIST A player in the spotlight in each wild-card game: Colts WR TY Hilton: The Texans have issues in two spots that will be addressed in the offseason. One issue, the offensive line, I believe theyll be able to manage on Saturday. The other, the problem at cornerback, is another story. The Texans have been able to mitigate their corner deficiencies somewhat with their pass rush, but Indys improved offensive line is equipped to deal with that, which should put the Colts in a good position to attack the Houston secondary. And going to Hilton, who had 13 catches for 314 yards in two games against the Texans this year, will be one way to do it. Seahawks S Tedric Thompson: Amari Cooper has cooled off down the stretch (last three weeks: 13 catches for 83 yards, no TDs, no gains of more than 11 yards), and the Cowboys have had to adjust. The last two weeks, thats manifested in big plays for Michael Gallup, Blake Jarwin, Cole Beasley and Allen Hurns. This approach should highlight the importance of the centerfielder in Seattles Dthe promising Thompson, whos returning after missing the last two weeks. Maybe. But it was Smiths work on Chargers G Mike Schofield that caused all kinds of problems for the Los Angeles offense two weeks agogetting consistent inside pressure to take Philip Rivers out of his comfort zone. Smith finished with 1.5 sacks, four hits on Rivers, and a whole lot of havoc caused. And thats not the only line-of-scrimmage matchup Im going to give you to nerd out on this weekend Eagles RT Lane Johnson: Phillys 2017 first-team All-Pro had a very up-and-down 2018. And just as hes getting right, his biggest test of the year comes on a playoff stagehis assignment for much of Sunday afternoon will be to stop Bears banshee Khalil Mack from getting to Nick Foles. Phillys invested a ton in its O-line. This will be one of those days it has to pay off. TWO FOR SATURDAY Or in this case, Monday. Alabama RB Josh Jacobs (vs. Clemson, CFP Championship, ESPN, 8 p.m. ET): Hes been overshadowed by star senior Damien Harris and super-talented sophomore Najee Harris, but to those in the program, and those evaluating its players, Jacobs is a real one. He set the tone in the Tides semifinal win over his home state Oklahoma Sooners, with 158 scrimmage yards on 19 touches. And one coach I talked to this week compared his style to that of Frank Gore. Theres also a benefit to the rotation hes been a part ofhes logged just 241 carries and 47 catches at Bama, so theres a lot of tread left on his tires. Hes a tough runner who doesnt have notoriety for various reasons, one AFC college scouting director said. Wasnt highly recruited, played mainly special teams early in his career, backed up Damien, there was Najee Harriss fanfare coming into Alabama. But you turn on the tape and hes hard not to notice. He should join Damien Harris in going somewhere in the first three rounds of the draft in April, and he could have a shot at being the first back taken. Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence (vs. Alabama, CFP Championship, ESPN, 8 p.m. ET): Among the insane numbers for a true freshman: 65.5% completion rate, 27-4 TD/INT differential, 8.4 yards per attempt, 155.2 passer rating. Yes, Lawrence is throwing to future NFL receivers like true sophomore Tee Higgins and true freshman Justyn Ross. But theres no denying his talent, which comes up in discussions with scouts who havent even begun to look at him in depth. Young, big, athletic, big arm, said one AFC exec. I havent studied him at all, but that jumps off the tape. Of course, all of this should come with a warning labelweve said these things about freshmen quarterbacks in the past, and in some cases you wind up with a Christian Hackenberg. But Lawrences ability, at this early stage, looks like its on another level. And given the way Clemson has recruited around him, its fair to forecast that the trajectory hes on will remain steady. MAIL TIME! Didnt see any improvement for Dolphins while he was there. I think a big part of this, Chief, is how he would mesh with the people in the building. And I think the fit is there from that perspective. The other piece, of course, is how hed work with the quarterback. Thats where I think you can take this one over the topRyan Tannehill and Jay Cutler posted career-high passer ratings under Gase, Peyton Manning tells anyone wholl listen how good Gase (who was his offensive coordinator in Denver) is, and he was even integral to making Tebowmania work, from a scheme standpoint, in Denver in 2011. As for the Miami question, Id say his biggest issue there was probably the way things worked structurally in the building. But the results were hardly a disaster. Gase went to the playoffs in his first season in Miami. His second year was marred by Tannehills ACL tear, his offensive line coachs escapades and a hurricane. And his third year was about cleaning up the roster to fix what prevented the team from the weathering the storm of 17. No. No. And theres enough good there to see why teams would think hed be worth taking a second swing at it. I said this on Colin Cowherds show, and I wanted to make sure people knowColin asked me to predict the futures of Bell and Josh McDaniels. So I made educated guesses and put Bell in Tampa and McDaniels in Green Bay. Since those things got attention, I should probably explain. On Bell, Im going on what I heard pre-trade deadline. The market for Bell wasnt strong, and Tampa was a team connected to him. Based on what the Bucs have offensively (Mike Evans, O.J. Howard, Chris Godwin, Donovan Smith, Ali Marpet, Ryan Jensen), and how second-round pick Ronald Jones failed to deliver on his draft standing, Bell makes sense in Tampa, pending the Bucs coach hire. On McDaniels, its simple. Ive heard him connected to the Packers for a while, and Green Bay needs a coach who can challenge Aaron Rodgers, push him, and give him new information. With a lot of candidates, the Packers would be projecting how a coach would handle that. With McDaniels, they wouldnt be. Hes faced that situation every day, coaching Tom Brady. Gase, by the way, did too, in coaching Manning in Denver. Sorry, James. This ones not that hard for me, and its not Saquon. I love him, by the way. Transcendent talent. But Mayfield is without question the offensive rookie of the year. The sort of change hes effected on the fly in Cleveland is rare, and his numbers arent too shabby eitherhe rang up an NFL rookie-record 27 touchdown passes. Add that to the degree of difficulty assimilating to pro football at quarterback, and this was a slam-dunk. The same boom-or-bust dynamic we saw at Penn State. He had six 100-yard games in 2018 and seven games where he failed to hit 50 yards rushing. Similarly, in his final college season, he had five 100-yard rushing games, and six in which he was held under 75 yard rushing. Some of that isnt on him, of course. Some of it is. I applaud them for looking at Iowa State coach Matt Campbell. I cant even begin to explain how many positive things Ive heard regarding him over the last four months. Lots of NFL peopleand specifically guys in the scouting community, whove been through Amesbelieve hes eventually going to be a huge success in pro football. Assuming that ship has sailed, I like Gases fit there, and also wouldnt mind a motivated Mike McCarthy. I think both those guys, and ex-Texas Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, have a pretty legit shot at the job. Itll be an interesting one to keep tabs on, because this could be owner Christopher Johnsons one and only opportunity to hire a coach, and I know hes not taking the responsibility lightly. Cant be AFCN... too much animosity. Leaning towards Colts for proximity. Stew, this is pretty harsh. Things ended about as badly as possible for Jackson in Cleveland, but I think a lot of the positives hes brought to the table when he was hired in 2016 are still there. Things got so sideways with the Browns over the last three years that it would have been tough for any coach to make it work. And to be clear, Jackson absolutely has to shoulder some of the responsibility for that. Anyway, I happen to think Vance Joseph is the likeliest candidate to land the Bengals job, given how the Brown family prizes familiarity (Joseph was Cincys DBs coach in 2014 and 15). And it can be a good job, for the right person. The Bengals are a mom-and-pop operation, in both a good way and a bad way. In a bad way, because they lack some of the infrastructure and resources (example: a small scouting staff) that are standard across the league. In a good way, because its a healthy building to work in, where your bosses will be patient and understanding, and have a ton of experience in pro football. Also, a big plus to working therethe presence of well-respected personnel chief Duke Tobin. Product of K.C. Im not surprised, Nathan. People respect Andy Reids word, and Reid has been aggressive in recommending Bieniemy, the Chiefs offensive coordinator, to other clubs. And remember, Doug Pederson and Matt Nagy werent play-callers either. What Bieniemy does have is experience playing in the league, and leadership qualities that have been abundantly apparent to those whove been around him. I dont know. But Id bet he interviews well, and thatll position him to get one. Email us at talkback@themmqb.com. | https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/01/03/antonio-brown-steelers-juju-smith-schuster-trade-possibility |
What kind of welcome will Kawhi Leonard get in San Antonio when Raptors visit tonight? | This is going to be interesting, I think. As much as we and thats us beat grunts as much as you Irregulars are eager to see just how weird it is to see DeMar in another uniform tonight, the other side of the story is fascinating. Whats it going to be like for Kawhi Leonard, and to a lesser extent simply because of circumstances, Danny Green. Im not sure theres ever been a situation like this with the Spurs in the 24 years or so that Ive been coming here and covering the team. Leonard is really the first star of the team to leave under rather hostile circumstances that really pitted player against the organization. All the rest have either retired as Spurs or moved on for different reasons than an open conflict with the team. I fully expect a less than glittering response to him, my interpretation of his departure was that he was seen as the villain in it; that might be wrong but I dont think so. Article Continued Below Itll be too bad if its hostile, at any substantial level. Have your say I watched a whole bunch of what Leonard did for the organization over the years, the two NBA Finals against Miami were epic, even if he did miss a free throw or two one year. No, he wasnt Timmy or Tony or Manu but, man, the Spurs dont win without him and, sadly, I bet a lot of fans will let that slide by and remember only last year. Too bad. As DeMar pointed out yesterday. At the end of the day, he won a championship here, was Finals MVP, some things that go on forever. You can't ever take that away from him. For me, any organization would be appreciative of a player bringing them a championship. Of course, they never want to see their star player leave, but things happen. For me, you can't take that away from the things that happened here. Fans are going to be fans and they can and will do whatever they want. I go for the totality of a players career and all the good that Leonard did here far out-weighs whatever went on last season. And, frankly, no one knows for sure what happened. Article Continued Below I would suggest there are three sides to that tale of a woeful season: Kawhis side. The Spurs side. The absolute truth side, which will be somewhere in the middle and the most realistic. This whole week has been weird, though. I always thought, naively I guess, that this week would be more about Kawhi than DeMar and that Februarys return game in Toronto would be more about DeMar than Kawhi. Hasnt turned out that way it really was nice to see DeMar yesterday and chat with him and catch up privately on a few matters and now I see it from a truly Toronto perspective, that it is about him. Today I think is going to be about Kawhi. He is not going to be as open and forthright as DeMar was, its not in his nature and I dont hold that against him in the least. Its the way he, private and a bit stoic and not given to showing his emotions openly and thats not going to change. But I would hope that the fans tonight give him the respect hes due for what he did. He played and won and fit in and was instrumental in some glorious franchise triumphs. Perhaps his most fatal flaw is that he wasnt Timmy or Tony or Manu; he was Kawhi. And thats not a bad thing to be. Maybe the people here will understand that and show respect tonight rather than vitriol. Last word to Patty Mills: I hope they react just as well and the same as with any other ex-teammate that comes back. Hes been a great teammate and a great friend to me and he deserves that, so hoping it will be a warm welcome back to San Antonio where hes won a championship and grew up here. It goes with saying that the kind of people that the community of San Antonio are and the class and how family oriented the city is. Thats what I hope and what I expect and I hope it goes that way. So do I. - Totally got the days of the week messed up this week. I forgot today was Thursday and its going to be busy, which means were gonna hold back Nothing But Net until tomorrow. I need to not do too much. We can still start compiling the mail today, though, so drop me a line at askdoug@thestar.ca and well eventually get around to it. Thats horrible. Times two. I wasnt a really, really big wrestling buff back in the day but I did know my way around the personalities of the squared circle and, let me tell you, Id howl at Okerlund and Bobby The Brain Heenan. They were classic. That was a greatly under-rated show and while I did know this, the fact hes the brother of Albert Brooks was nice to be reminded of yesterday. Sad day with those two leaving us too early. - | https://www.thestar.com/sports/doug_smiths_sports_blog/2019/01/03/wondering-what-kind-of-welcome-leonard-will-get-tonight.html |
Are University Presidents Paid Too Little or Too Much? | Higher education recently has been confronted with falling enrollments, increasing financial uncertainty (as evidenced by recent credit downgrades by Moody's and Fitch) and falling public support. When those type of results occur in private markets, CEOs often lose their jobs or face pay cuts. It has risen --substantially. In 2008, only nine private university presidents made one million dollars annually. Eight years later, 61 did. A look at university president compensation reveals a number of oddities. For example, compare the 2016 compensation of the president of Harvard with that of a school located 2.2 miles away, Simmons University. Harvard is vastly larger, with huge endowment resources not available to Simmons. Moreover, Harvard is arguably the most famous and prestigious American university, while Simmons has a much more modest reputation. In the 2018 Forbes Best College rankings, Harvard ranks first; Simmons ranks 381. However, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education's annual survey of private college presidential pay, the Simmons president's salary of $1,657,000 in 2016 (last year available) exceeded that of Harvard's president by more than 50 percent. Indeed, the correlation between university reputation and presidential compensation seems almost nil. Of 10 elite private schools comprising the Ivy League plus M.I.T. and Stanford, only two (Columbia and Penn) made the top 25 list in terms of presidential pay (Harvard came in 48th). Nido Qubein, president of High Point University, came in sixth in the presidential pay sweepstakes, making over $2.3 million. High Point has a so-so reputation (474 on the Forbes list). According to the Department of Education's College Scorecard, the average High Point student makes $39,000 annually after attending, a rather modest amount. Its six year graduation rate of 65%, while not bad, is fairly typical, indicating more than one of three attendees do not get degrees. To be sure, President Qubein appears to be highly competent, and High Point has expanded enormously in his long tenure as president. Trustees of High Point have argued high pay for Qubein is necessary because otherwise he might jump to a high paying corporate job. The big problem with determining presidential compensation is that there is rarely a well defined, easy to measure "bottom line," unlike with private corporations, whose profits and stock prices provide excellent performance measures. We easily measure the success of football coaches --and pay them accordingly, with failure often followed by firings. University presidents are rarely fired for poor performance ---however measured. The near randomness of presidential salaries reminds me of insights of the late lawyer-economist Henry Manne. Manne thought of universities of having "profits" (regardless of their formal non-profit status) distributed to the academic equivalent of stockholders, namely powerful people in the university community who determine the allocation of resources. In some universities, the president amasses large "ownership" --equivalent to share ownership in corporations--leading to big "dividends" conferred by the governing board. Often the president's clout and thus implicit "ownership" is much less. A second insight comes from the literature on "regulatory capture." The group being regulated, say an electric company, gains influence over the regulator (the public utility commission). Similarly, some university presidents are masters in turning themselves into bosses of subservient governing boards rather than their employee. University presidents have tough jobs: they need to be prodigious fund-raisers, inspire high levels of research and teaching performance, understand intricate finances, be shrewd diplomats who can navigate alternative viewpoints. They deserve pretty good pay. But they also mostly work for non-profit organizations given generous tax privileges because they serve the broader public good. Soaring pay for presidents of obscure schools does not help the already tattered image of America's universities. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardvedder/2019/01/03/are-university-presidents-paid-too-little-or-too-much-how-would-one-know/ |
What could Chang'e 4 discover on far side of the moon? | When we look up at the full moon, we only ever see one face: the man in the moon is always gazing back at us. Scientists believe that the far side, eternally hidden from view, may hold the key to fundamental mysteries about the moons formation and its earliest history. Chinas Change 4 mission could reveal new clues to the cataclysmic collision that created the moon and uncover the origins of the water that is unexpectedly abundant in lunar soil. The moons far side is sometimes known as the dark side, although it is not darker than the near side in any literal sense. It undergoes the same phases of illumination by the Sun as the side facing Earth. But because the moon spins on its axis at exactly the same rate as it orbits Earth, one side remains permanently out of view. | Mary Dejevsky Read more It was only in 1959, when the first images of the far side were beamed back by the Soviet Unions Luna 3, that intriguing differences were revealed. The far side is pockmarked by more craters and appears almost devoid of the seas of solidified lava, known as maria, that form the shadowy shape of a face that we see from Earth. Scientists believe that as asteroids pummelled the lunar surface during the solar systems early history, giant lava flows on the moons near side filled impact craters, obscuring them from view. On the far side, fewer lava flows occurred, leaving intact a pristine record of ancient impacts. The oldest, largest and deepest of these is the Aitken Basin, where Change 4 is now poised for exploration. Testing the composition of the soil could help narrow down theories about how the moon formed and the beginnings of the solar system. The mission will also conduct the first astronomy observations from the moons far side, which is seen as a uniquely attractive site for monitoring radio waves coming from deep space. Astronomers operating Earth-bound radio telescopes have to constantly grapple with electromagnetic interference from human activity: shortwave broadcasting, maritime communication, telephone and television signals. The far side of the moon is shielded from such signals, making it far easier to pick up faint fingerprints left by the Big Bang. These traces left across the cosmos could help tell us how the universe inflated at unimaginable speed in the first trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Play Video 1:20 'Dark side' of the moon: China's Chang'e 4 probe makes historic landing video explainer Change 4 could also help pave the way for Chinas human spaceflight ambitions. One theory for the abundance of water in lunar soil is that it is produced by reactions between the solar wind (a flow of charged particles including hydrogen) and minerals in the soil (containing oxygen). People are trying to reproduce this process in the lab, but its really difficult to do correctly, said Martin Wieser, a researcher at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics and the principal investigator on an instrument onboard Change designed to measure how the solar wind interacts with the lunar surface. The only way, really, is to go to the lunar surface and look at it there. Change 4 is in the ideal place to study this process. Understanding how water is produced and distributed in the lunar soil could be crucial for establishing a more permanent human lunar outpost. The amount in the soil is not large an area of 10 sq metres might contain only enough water to fill a glass but harvesting it could eventually be cheaper than bringing water from Earth. The craft is also carrying a mini-greenhouse, which will test how well plants, specifically potatoes and small flowering Arabidopsis plants, related to cabbage, grow on the moon. | https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/jan/03/what-could-change-4-discover-on-far-side-of-the-moon |
Is It Netflixs Turn in the Barrel? | Read: How Netflix reverse-engineered Hollywood In December, The NewYork Times revealed that Netflix was trading data with Facebook for years. The companys response again verged on self-righteous. A spokesman for Netflix said Wednesday that it had used the access only to enable customers to recommend TV shows and movies to their friends, the Times reported. Beyond these recommendations, we never accessed anyones personal messages and would never do that, he said. In both cases, Netflix responded like most tech companies used to, assuming that theyd be given the benefit of the doubt that their intentions were good. For Amazon, Google, and Facebook, this assumption gave way over the last couple of years. These are massive corporations that restructure industries and consumer expectations, and wield power to maintain their dominance. As Netflix continues to grow, it will not be able to maintain the illusion that it is some startup. When Netflix was a small auxiliary source of funding for high-quality content, that was great! Now that Netflix is spending many billions of dollars a year for programming and helping squeeze the life out of the cable industry (which funded plenty of great shows), the roles have shifted. Even assuming that people continue to love Netflixs service, when the disruptor becomes the dominant player the questions that need to be asked about the company will shift. Of course, Netflix doesnt have all Facebook, Google, or Amazons problems. But theyll almost certainly introduce new ones that dont apply to the other big tech firms that have come under scrutiny. For example, its easy to make friends in the media when youre spraying many billions of dollars around to content creators. Selling shows to Netflix is the new favored media play, whether you seek the holy grail or a Hail Mary toss. But many of those billions are funded by debt, because Netflixs business does not currently generate enough cash to cover the amount it is spending on content (and marketing) to grow its subscriber base. Netflixs fundamental business model seems unsustainable, Aswath Damodaran, a New York University finance professor, told The New York Times in October. I dont see how it is going to work out. But assuming that the numbers all work out somehow, and Netflix becomes the TV of the internet, it seems impossible that the company wont face increasing criticism over time. After all, before critics bashed the internet, they hated TV even more. | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/01/is-it-netflixs-turn-in-the-barrel/579313/?utm_source=feed |
Are John McCain's gurus the miracle workers Daniel Valenzuela needs to be Phoenix's mayor? | Opinion: The Democrat clearly wants to reinvent himself to appeal to Republicans. But he might need more than that to defeat Kate Gallego. Former Phoenix council members Kate Gallego and Daniel Valenzuela. (Photo: City of Phoenix) It's hard to believe in miracles when it comes to politics. But you cant blame Daniel Valenzuela for trying to pull one off by hiring the late Republican Sen. John McCain's campaign gurus. Valenzuela is attempting to reinvent himself after finishing 19 points behind Kate Gallego in the Phoenix mayoral race. And, apparently, the progressive Democrat believes three McCain campaign alums will produce the miracle he needs to defeat former fellow council member Gallego in the March 12 runoff. Finishing a distant second is embarrassing for the Glendale firefighter with the backing of public-safety union bosses and the business elite. He needs to convince powerful and well-heeled folks that he still is a viable candidate. The question is whether turning to McCains strategists might do the trick. We have two and a half months to prove to voters that Daniel Valenzuela is the right leader to be the next mayor of Phoenix, Ryan ODaniel, Valenzuelas new campaign leader, said in a statement Wednesday. ODaniel has his job cut out for him. He has two months to do the job that the candidate himself wasnt able to do in the past year. And get this, the McCain affiliation didnt appear to serve ODaniel that well with his Republican mayoral candidate Moses Sanchez. ODaniel was a top strategist for Sanchez, who came in third in the four-way August mayoral race. Gallego got 45 percent of the vote, Valenzuela received 26 percent, Sanchez received 19 percent and Nicholas Sarwark got 10 percent. Sanchez tweeted Wednesday that ODaniel is a great person. Trustworthy, honest, humble. Literally #GameChanger. There is no reason to doubt Sanchez's assertion other than the fact that he lost. But lets assume ODaniel is the game changer that Valenzuela needs. Mathematically speaking, yes, if we assume most who voted for Sanchez are Republicans. Gallego and Valenzuela are both Democrats with similar progressive voting record on the City Council. They both need to convince Phoenicians to vote again and both need to broaden their appeal to conservatives. Valenzuela already made his case CLOSE Phoenix mayoral candidate Daniel Valenzuela on why he will give up his job as a firefighter if he is elected. Carly Henry, The Republic | azcentral.com To accomplish that objective, Valenzuela also hired two other McCain alums: Michelle Kauk as communications director and Crystal Bradley as the new finance director. Valenzuela might also be counting on lower voter turnout in the March election when fewer residents are expected go to the polls. I see this campaign for the runoff as a new election, said Valenzuela in the statement announcing his new campaign team. Yes, Valenzuela gets another chance at explaining why hes the best person to lead the city of 1.6 million residents. Unfortunately for him, Phoenicians already got a pretty good idea of his experience, his qualifications and his struggle to communicate his vision. Elvia Daz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/elviadiaz/2019/01/03/john-mccain-staff-save-daniel-valenzuela-phoenix-mayor/2469901002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/elviadiaz/2019/01/03/john-mccain-staff-save-daniel-valenzuela-phoenix-mayor/2469901002/ |
Why Is Trump Spouting Russian Propaganda? | It was only one moment in a 90-minute stream of madness. President Trump convened a Cabinet meeting, at which he invited all its members to praise him for his stance on the border wall and the government shutdown. Theres always a lively competition to see which member of the cabinet can grovel most abjectly. Newcomer Matthew Whitaker may be only the acting attorney general, but despiteor perhaps because ofthat tentative status, he delivered one of the strongest entries, saluting the president for sacrificing his Christmas and New Years holiday for the public good, and contrasting that to members of Congress who had left Washington during the Trump-created crisis. But that was not the crazy part. The crazy part came during the presidents monologue defending his decision to withdraw all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria and 7,000 from Afghanistan, about half the force in that country. Russia used to be the Soviet Union, he said. Afghanistan made it Russia, because they went bankrupt fighting in Afghanistan. Russia The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. The problem is, it was a tough fight. And literally they went bankrupt; they went into being called Russia again, as opposed to the Soviet Union. You know, a lot of these places youre reading about now are no longer part of Russia, because of Afghanistan. Lets go to the replay: The reason Russia was in Afghanistan was because terrorists were going into Russia. They were right to be there. To appreciate the shock value of Trumps words, its necessary to dust off some Cold War history. Those of us who grew up in the last phases of the Cold War used to know it all by heart, but I admit I had to do a little Googling to refresh my faded memories. | https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/01/trump-just-endorsed-ussrs-invasion-afghanistan/579361/?utm_source=feed |
Where do the Kurds fit into Syria's war? | BEIRUT (Reuters) - The future of Kurdish-led areas of northern and eastern Syria has been thrown into doubt by President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw U.S. troops who have helped to secure the region. FILE PHOTO: Kurdish-led militiamen ride atop military vehicles as they celebrate victory over Islamic State in Raqqa, Syria, October 17, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro/File Photo Amounting to about one quarter of Syria, the area is the largest chunk of territory still outside the control of President Bashar al-Assad, who is backed by Russia and Iran. Trump said on Wednesday the United States would withdraw slowly over a period of time and would protect the U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters as Washington withdraws troops, but without giving a timetable. Syrian Kurdish leaders fear Turkey will use the withdrawal as an opportunity to launch an assault. As a result, they are in contact with Moscow and Damascus in the hope of agreeing arrangements to protect the region from Turkey while also aiming to safeguard their political gains. The main Syrian Kurdish faction, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), began to establish a foothold in the north early in the war as government forces withdrew to put down the anti-Assad uprising elsewhere. An affiliated militia, the Peoples Protection Units (YPG), secured the region. Early in the conflict, their control was concentrated in three predominantly Kurdish regions home to roughly 2 million Kurds. Kurdish-led governing bodies were set up. The area of YPG influence expanded as the YPG allied with the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State (IS), becoming the spearhead of a multi-ethnic militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). SDF influence widened to Manbij and Raqqa as IS was defeated in both. It has also reached deep into Deir al-Zor, where the SDF is still fighting IS. Kurdish leaders say their aim is regional autonomy within a decentralized Syria, not independence. The PYD is heavily influenced by the ideas of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, a founding member of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a 34-year insurgency in Turkey for Kurdish political and cultural rights. Ocalan has been in jail since 1999 in Turkey. He is convicted of treason. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. Turkey says the PKK is indistinguishable from the PYD and YPG. Turkey has a Kurdish minority equal to 15 to 20 percent of its population, mostly living in eastern and southeastern areas bordering Syria. Wary of separatistism, Turkey views the PYDs Syrian foothold as a national security threat. Syrias main Kurdish groups do not hide Ocalans influence: they organized elections towards establishing a political system based on his ideas. Turkey has already mounted two cross-border offensives in northern Syria as part of its efforts to counter the YPG. Syrias Baathist state systematically persecuted the Kurds before the war. Yet the YPG and Damascus have broadly stayed out of each others way during the conflict, despite occasional clashes. They also have been seen to cooperate against shared foes, notably in and around Aleppo. [IDnL8N1Q213V] The YPG has allowed the Syrian state to keep a foothold in its areas. The YPG commander told Reuters in 2017 it would have no problem with the Assad government if Kurdish rights are guaranteed in Syria. But Damascus opposes Kurdish autonomy demands: the Syrian foreign minister last month said nobody in Syria accepts talk about independent entities or federalism. Talks between the sides last year made no progress. The Kurdish-led authorities are launching a new initiative aiming to put pressure on the government to reach a political settlement within the framework of a decentralized Syria, leading Kurdish politician Ilham Ahmed said last week. Analysts say the Kurds negotiating position has been weakened by Trumps announcement. The territory held by Damascus and the Kurdish-led authorities accounts for most of Syria. A political settlement - if one could be reached, perhaps with Russian help - could go a long way to stitching the map back together. But it would not mark the end of the war. Anti-Assad insurgents, though defeated across much of Syria by the government and its allies, still have a foothold in the northwest stretching from Idlib through Afrin to Jarablus. Turkey has troops on the ground in this area. The rebels include Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army groups and jihadists. Enmity runs deep between the YPG and these groups. For the YPG, one priority is recovering Afrin from the rebels who seized it in a Turkey-backed offensive last year. Assad also wants Turkey out as he vows to recover every inch of Syria. (GRAPHIC: Syria control map - tmsnrt.rs/2RgCxxb) | https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-kurds-explainer/where-do-the-kurds-fit-into-syrias-war-idUSKCN1OX16L?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29 |
Can Kulicke and Soffa (KLIC) Keep the Earnings Surprise Streak Alive? | If you are looking for a stock that has a solid history of beating earnings estimates and is in a good position to maintain the trend in its next quarterly report, you should consider Kulicke and Soffa (KLIC). This company, which is in the Zacks Electronics - Manufacturing Machinery industry, shows potential for another earnings beat. When looking at the last two reports, this semiconductor equipment maker has recorded a strong streak of surpassing earnings estimates. The company has topped estimates by 33.60%, on average, in the last two quarters. For the most recent quarter, Kulicke and Soffa was expected to post earnings of $0.34 per share, but it reported $0.45 per share instead, representing a surprise of 32.35%. For the previous quarter, the consensus estimate was $0.66 per share, while it actually produced $0.89 per share, a surprise of 34.85%. Price and EPS Surprise For Kulicke and Soffa, estimates have been trending higher, thanks in part to this earnings surprise history. And when you look at the stock's positive Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction), it's a great indicator of a future earnings beat, especially when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Kulicke and Soffa has an Earnings ESP of +6.78% at the moment, suggesting that analysts have grown bullish on its near-term earnings potential. When you combine this positive Earnings ESP with the stock's Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), it shows that another beat is possibly around the corner. The company's next earnings report is expected to be released on January 30, 2019. Investors should note, however, that a negative Earnings ESP reading is not indicative of an earnings miss, but a negative value does reduce the predictive power of this metric. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, though this is not the only reason why their shares gain. Additionally, some stocks may remain stable even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Kulicke and Soffa Industries, Inc. (KLIC) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | https://news.yahoo.com/kulicke-soffa-klic-keep-earnings-151003190.html |
Can Baxter (BAX) Keep the Earnings Surprise Streak Alive? | If you are looking for a stock that has a solid history of beating earnings estimates and is in a good position to maintain the trend in its next quarterly report, you should consider Baxter International (BAX). This company, which is in the Zacks Medical - Products industry, shows potential for another earnings beat. This drug and medical device maker has an established record of topping earnings estimates, especially when looking at the previous two reports. The company boasts an average surprise for the past two quarters of 8.28%. For the last reported quarter, Baxter came out with earnings of $0.80 per share versus the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.74 per share, representing a surprise of 8.11%. For the previous quarter, the company was expected to post earnings of $0.71 per share and it actually produced earnings of $0.77 per share, delivering a surprise of 8.45%. Price and EPS Surprise Thanks in part to this history, there has been a favorable change in earnings estimates for Baxter lately. In fact, the Zacks Earnings ESP (Expected Surprise Prediction) for the stock is positive, which is a great indicator of an earnings beat, particularly when combined with its solid Zacks Rank. Our research shows that stocks with the combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better produce a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time. In other words, if you have 10 stocks with this combination, the number of stocks that beat the consensus estimate could be as high as seven. The Zacks Earnings ESP compares the Most Accurate Estimate to the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the quarter; the Most Accurate Estimate is a version of the Zacks Consensus whose definition is related to change. The idea here is that analysts revising their estimates right before an earnings release have the latest information, which could potentially be more accurate than what they and others contributing to the consensus had predicted earlier. Baxter currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.77%, which suggests that analysts have recently become bullish on the company's earnings prospects. This positive Earnings ESP when combined with the stock's Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) indicates that another beat is possibly around the corner. We expect the company's next earnings report to be released on January 31, 2019. When the Earnings ESP comes up negative, investors should note that this will reduce the predictive power of the metric. But, a negative value is not indicative of a stock's earnings miss. Many companies end up beating the consensus EPS estimate, but that may not be the sole basis for their stocks moving higher. On the other hand, some stocks may hold their ground even if they end up missing the consensus estimate. Because of this, it's really important to check a company's Earnings ESP ahead of its quarterly release to increase the odds of success. Make sure to utilize our Earnings ESP Filter to uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they've reported. Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Baxter International Inc. (BAX) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. | https://news.yahoo.com/baxter-bax-keep-earnings-surprise-151003690.html |
Who Will Be The Next American Soccer Player To Command A Massive Transfer Fee? | After years of speculation, its finally happened Christian Pulisic made a big-money move. On Wednesday, the young, American star finalized a deal to move from Borussia Dortmund in Germany to Chelsea of the English Premier League, one of the biggest clubs on the planet, at the end of the season for a cool $71.3 million, the largest fee ever paid for an American. The fee Chelsea paid for Pulisic's services didn't just break the record for largest amount ever paid for an American player, it shattered it. Before Tuesday, the most expensive American players was John Brooks, who moved from Hertha Berlin to Wolfsburg for $22.4 million in 2017. After that, the next nine highest fees combined ($82.3 million) barely eclipse the sum paid for Pulisic. Suffice to say, this is new territory for American soccer. While Pulisic is clearly an exception among American soccer players both in terms of skill and transfer fee his massive fee does offer a glimpse of what the future could hold for American players at the club level and the fees they command. Transfer prices have undergone enormous inflation in recent years, so any American player signed in the future will likely garner a more exorbitant fee that a player of a similar skill set would have garnered even four or five years ago. On top of that, there are more talented, young American stars strewn across the world than ever before who could be transferred for mega-bucks in the not-so-distant future. It's unlikely that any American player will touch Pulisic's record fee for many years. (There's a strong argument to be made that Chelsea vastly overpaid for his services.) But the days of $10 million being a big fee for an American player are clearly over. While it will take a special player to touch the fee Pulisic brought in, fees that fall between his $71.3 million and Brooks' $22.4 million should become much more common as the current crop of young American stars matures over the next half-decade or so. With that in mind, let's look at a couple American players who could draw massive transfer fees in the next five or so years and jump behind Pulisic on the list of most expensive American players. Tim Weah Like Pulisic, Weah has been touted as the next big thing in American soccer for many of his teenage years, and, like Pulisic, Weah will likely help a club collect an enormous transfer fee one day. The 18-year-old attacker and son of soccer legend/Liberian president George Weah already plays for one of the biggest clubs in Europe, Paris Saint-Germain, and is on the cusp of a loan move to another major club, Scottish giants Celtic, where he could see his stock rise significantly with more playing time. His famous name alone should garner a few extra bucks in any future fee because of the marketability. And at a club the size of PSG, if he ever does become a legitimate star (a big if), his future fee could even eclipse Pulisic's. Weston McKennie Along with Pulisic, McKennie is the American playing at the highest level of club competition. The 20-year-old midfielder made a name for himself outside of American soccer circles this fall thanks to his performances for Schalke 04. After making 25 appearances in all competitions for Schalke during the 2017-18 season, McKennie has taken on a more important role this season, making 13 Bundesliga appearances (eight starts) so far, as well as four appearances in the UEFA Champions League. He even scored a match-winner against Lokomotiv Moscow that helped Schalke advance to the knockout stage of the Champions League. As long as he continues to develop and grow as an influential player in his squad, a big-money move will be waiting on him if/when he decides to leave Schalke. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/cybrown/2019/01/03/who-will-be-the-next-american-soccer-player-to-command-a-massive-transfer-fee/ |
Are NFL teams holding Colts fiasco against Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels? | originally appeared on nbcsportsboston.com As the regular season drew to a close, conventional wisdom held that Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels would be near the top of the list for teams seeking a new head coach. Scroll to continue with content Ad But with one-quarter of the league's jobs open, McDaniels has reportedly been contacted by just two teams -- the Packers and Bengals so far. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam is also said to be "high" on McDaniels after having interviewed him twice in the past. By rule, McDaniels can interview this week with the Patriots on their bye. He cannot meet with teams after this week until the Patriots are eliminated or during the bye week prior to the Super Bowl if the Patriots make it that far. Pro Football Talk poobah Mike Florio joined me on Tuesday's Quick Slants to discuss the NFL coaching landscape and, if his perspective is a guide, maybe last season's "I'm in, I'm out . . . " routine with the Colts has cost McDaniels. I don't know how he's gonna land a staff." MORE PATRIOTS Story continues Florio was alluding to assistant coaches Matt Eberflus, Mike Phair and Dave DeGuglielmo, who were all committed to coach for the Colts under McDaniels. When McDaniels pulled out of the Indy job two days after the Super Bowl and a day before he was to be announced in Indy, the Colts decided they would honor all three contracts. DeGuglielmo (who was the Patriots' offensive line coach in 2014 and '15), Eberflus and Phair all stayed. Florio raises a legitimate point. Prospective head coaches can't just show up for an interview and shrug when asked who their offensive and defensive coordinators will be. They need to have done advance work to both find out who will be good lieutenants, both philosophically and in terms of personality. Those would-be assistants are putting faith in the candidate. McDaniels is going to have to quell concerns among prospective assistants that that won't happen again. Another reason for the slow response could be the presumption McDaniels is in line for the Patriots head coaching position and is going to bide his time at a hefty financial rate until Bill Belichick steps aside. The only issues there are that McDaniels has not been assured he's the next head coach of the Patriots and Belichick really isn't showing signs he's about to shove off. Of all the opportunities out there, the Bengals is by far the least appetizing. They are a notoriously cheap franchise that lags behind most of the league in facilities, scouting and player amenities. They also aren't talented. Green Bay has an aging, future Hall of Fame quarterback in place who's coming off a dysfunctional run with former head coach Mike McCarthy. Buyer beware is good advice for anyone considering that job. That also could be the advice right now on McDaniels. Click here to download the new MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Celtics easily on your device. NBC SPORTS BOSTON SCHEDULE | https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-teams-holding-colts-fiasco-192001506.html?src=rss |
Is There Any Hope for J.C. Penney? | The stock of J.C. Penney (NYSE: JCP) recently closed under $1 per share for the first time in its history, highlighting its parallels with Sears Holdings (NASDAQOTH: SHLDQ) all too closely. Yet where the bankrupt retailer Sears just got a stay of execution as Chairman Eddie Lampert submitted a last-minute bid to buy it, J.C. Penney apparently doesn't have a deep-pocketed savior waiting on the sidelines. It increasingly looks like J.C. Penney could go under, and there may be no recourse to resurrect the 117-year-old retailing icon. Woman picking up an order from a J.C. Penney employee More Image source: J.C. Penney. The Christmas season was the retailer's last chance to show it can remain a viable business. Mastercard's SpendingPulse report found strong consumer confidence during the holidays, with U.S. retail sales between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 hitting over $850 billion, a 5.1% jump over the same period in the previous year, the largest increase in the last six years. Department store online sales were 10% higher than last year. Yet investors don't see those gains applying to J.C. Penney as the SpendingPulse report also indicated that sales at physical locations of department stores fell 1.3% for the two-month holiday period, suggesting that even with store closures and employee layoffs, retailers were still having a rough time. After a poorly received third-quarter earnings report in November that showed a 5.4% decline in comparable-store sales, comps guidance that was lower for the year, and deep discounts to clear out inventory, Penney's future looks bleak. Quick action is needed, and the retailer is running out of time. The ever-present threat of Amazon Penney needs to come up with a strategy that reconnects with consumers who are no longer attracted to its mid-tier retail position, while countering Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), which continues to consume the world. Although the e-commerce giant didn't provide specifics -- it rarely does -- it called the holiday season a record-breaking one that saw more items sold worldwide than ever before. It noted that just in the U.S., over 1 billion items were shipped via its Prime member loyalty program, which now has over 100 million members globally. With Amazon sucking all the oxygen out of the room, there's little wonder that retailers in general are having a hard time catching their breath, let alone financially troubled ones like J.C. Penney. Becoming a penny stock Although trading under $1 per share is a warning sign, Penney isn't in immediate danger of being delisted. The stock only closed below $1 on one day -- Dec. 27 -- and the NYSE wouldn't begin the delisting process until the stock closed below $1 for 30 consecutive trading days. That doesn't mean investors shouldn't worry. The troubled department store needs to begin showing signs it is reversing course and can attract customers once again. It needs to generate more cash because it carries a heavy debt load exceeding $4 billion while having little money in the bank. It will continue to be cash-flow-positive by the end of the year, and that's no small thing, but having closed below $1 per share for the first time indicates that Wall Street really doesn't hold much long-term hope. A slim chance is better than none | https://news.yahoo.com/hope-j-c-penney-161300793.html |
Can Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally make real history? | Opinion: Arizona's first female senators, Kyrsten Sinema and Martha McSally, could make real history, the sort of history that would matter. U.S. Senate Candidates Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema (Photo: The Republic) Arizona made history on Thursday as its two new U.S. senators were sworn into office. They are the 12th and 13th senators to represent the state, both of them women. Both are smart, savvy politicians. Both claim to want to do right by the state. Now well see if they really mean it. Outgoing Sen. Jon Kyl, in his departing press conference on Wednesday, lamented the sorry state of those who claim to represent us in Washington, D.C. "The chasm between Democrats and Republicans is wider than ever," Kyl said. "There's an estrangement that exists between the two 'teams' now. Yes, there are always differences. We've had two political parties and there are going to be differences. But today there seems to be an estrangement, an inability to work with each other and almost an unwillingness to even try that wasn't that evident when I left five years ago." The next year will be a high-wire act for McSally. Everything she does will be with an eye toward getting elected in 2020. Everything. Certainly, she can continue to lead the chorus of amens every time President Donald Trump opens his mouth or his Twitter account and delight her hard-right followers. But to get elected, she has to move to the center toward Sinema, in fact. Tomorrow at noon, Ill take the Oath of Office as a United States Senator, McSally tweeted on Wednesday. I look forward to advocating for our great state and all Arizonans. Well be watching, Sen. McSally, to see if you really mean that. Still, it seems to me that Sinemas got the tougher hill to climb in 2019. Arizonas only elected senator won because she long ago moved from her partys fringe to that increasingly rarified earth called middle ground. In her victory speech in November, Sinema addressed the poisonous political environment that has turned Americans into enemy combatants. Our challenge today is to heal the rent in our countrys fabric, to come together as a people and as a nation, to set aside our minor differences and unite around our love of country and its fundamental freedoms guaranteed by our great constitution, she said. Of course, that was before Gov. Doug Ducey appointed McSally to be the other part of Team Arizona in the Senate. Galling doesnt even begin to cover it, Im sure. I dont imagine Sinema relishes the idea of holding hands and skipping into the future with someone who not even three months ago called her a traitor to her country. I dont imagine shes much interested in doing anything that might boost McSallys election chances. Sinema is pals, after all, with Republican-turned-Democrat Grant Woods, who is contemplating a 2020 run for the seat now held by McSally. "The chasm between Democrats and Republicans is wider than ever," Kyl lamented on Wednday. Arizonas first female senators, one a Republican, one a Democrat, have a chance to make history now -- not by virtue of their gender but by virtue of their ability, should they possess it, to lead the way and bridge that gaping chasm. Arizona is watching, senators ... and hoping ... Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/01/03/can-kyrsten-sinema-and-martha-mcsally-make-real-history/2472827002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2019/01/03/can-kyrsten-sinema-and-martha-mcsally-make-real-history/2472827002/ |
Does Arizonas proposed teacher-ethics code have a racist origin? | State Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley. Phoenix New Times pointed out that Republican Rep. Mark Finchems proposed code of ethics for Arizona teachers was copied almost verbatim from a project sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center. And that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls Horowitz a driving force of the anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, and anti-black movements. If the accusation fits... This is not left-wing inflammatory rhetoric. It is not difficult to figure out where Horwitz is coming from. For example he tweeted: Black Africans enslaved black Africans. America freed them sacrificing 350k mainly white Union lives. American blacks are richer, more privileged, freer than blacks anywhere in the world, including all black run countries: https://t.co/qLburbJFoi David Horowitz (@horowitz39) August 16, 2018 And: Meanwhile, the country's only serious race war - against whites - continues. https://t.co/7K0ohS5gDp David Horowitz (@horowitz39) November 7, 2017 Of former President Barack Obama he said, Im actually sure hes a Muslim, he certainly isnt a Christian. Hes a pretend Christian in the same way hes a pretend American. It really is disgraceful. Hes inviting the terrorists to behead more Americans when he should be attacking them with our military. His whole agenda in office has been to defeat America, he lost the war in Iraq deliberately, he created a vacuum which ISIS has filled. In his own words He also wrote: Unfortunately, as a nation we have become so trapped in the melodrama of black victimization and white oppression that we are in danger of losing all sense of proportion. If blacks are oppressed in America, why isn't there a black exodus? It goes on, but you get the idea. MORE BY MONTINI: Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/01/03/david-horowitz-arizona-legislature-redfored-teachers/2473879002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/ej-montini/2019/01/03/david-horowitz-arizona-legislature-redfored-teachers/2473879002/ |
Who replaces Jalen Jelks, Justin Hollins as Oregons edge rushers in 2019? | EUGENE Oregon has a lot to replace on defense this offseason, starting first and foremost with identifying its new lead edge rushers. Jalen Jelks and Justin Hollins were Oregons leading defensive lineman and linebacker in terms of pass rush, with 3.5 and 6.5 sacks and 7.5 and 14.5 tackles for loss, respectively. The leader in sacks among returning Oregon players is Gus Cumberlander, a situational pass rusher who had two sacks in non-conference play and two more against Arizona State. Defensive ends Drayton Carlberg and Austin Faoliu and linebackers Troy Dye and LaMar Winston Jr. were the only other returning players with more than one sack this season and Dye has to announce his plans for 2019. I think Im going to have to step up and play a huge role," said Winston Jr., who had 40 tackles with 4.5 for loss including two sacks with a forced fumble and fumble recovery this season. I think Gus Cumberlander is going to have to step up and play a huge role. I think the young guys coming in are going to have to step up, DJ Johnson. We got a lot of guys who really didnt even participate as much as they couldve this year but theyre going to have a whole offseason of development. Johnson, who redshirted this season after transferring from Miami, will be a factor. At 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, Johnson will likely play on the line, as he did during the Redbox Bowl, but could be upright like Jelks was on occasion this season. Andrew Faoliu and Popo Aumavae also return at end and will have a chance to see more significant reps during spring practice. On paper, Adrian Jackson was behind Hollins as an outside linebacker. He had 11 of his 13 tackles in the second half of the season when Jelks and Kaulana Apelu were dealing with injuries and recorded just one tackle for loss. The Ducks also adds some bona fide pass rushers via its recruiting class, headlined by Kayvon Thibodeaux. There is no question Thibodeaux will get a chance to contribute immediately give Oregons lack of proven edge players and his physical attributes, but relying on a true freshman to provide instant results would be foolish, particularly when the Ducks open the season with Auburn. Defensive line signee Isaac Townsend and incoming linebacker Gemon Eaford were also capable rushers at the high school level. Junior college transfer Dru Mathis might be more of an interior linebacker and the same goes for signee Mase Funa. | https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2019/01/who-replaces-jalen-jelks-justin-hollins-as-oregons-edge-rushers-in-2019.html |
What's Next For Apple (AAPL) After It Slashed Its Q1 Sales Forecast? | Shares of Apple AAPL plummeted over 9% Thursday morning after the firm lowered its quarterly sales guidance for the first time in more than a decade Wednesday. Apples announcement during the vital holiday shopping period is hardly a good sign for investors already worried about slowing iPhone sales. So, lets see whats next for Apple. Holiday Quarter Guidance Apple CEO Tim Cook in a letter to investors late Wednesday afternoon revised the firms fiscal first quarter 2019ended on December 29revenue guidance to roughly $84 billion. This marked an approximately 6%, or $5 billion downturn from the low-end of Apples previous quarterly outlook that called for revenues between $89 billion and $93 billion. The move marked the first time in over 15 years that Apple lowered its quarterly guidance. The iPhone giants chief executive pointed to a difference in iPhone launch timing, as well as a strong U.S. dollar and supply constraints, due to a massive number of new products, as some of the reasons for its lowered guidance. Yet, Cook said slower sales in emerging markets, such as Greater China, as well as fewer iPhone upgrades, were the two main reasons for Apples newly dimmed quarterly sales outlook. Shares of Apple opened down 8.7% at $144.29 on Thursday, which marked their lowest level since April 2017. Meanwhile, Apple suppliers Micron MU, Lumentum Holdings LITE, and others saw their stock prices fall. Other tech giants, including Facebook FB, Alphabet GOOGL, and Microsoft MSFT also dipped in morning trading. Chinese Worries Cook said that the slowing Chinese economy and the impact of the continuous trade war between the worlds two largest economies led to poor sales. While we anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China, Cook wrote. In fact, most of our revenue shortfall to our guidance, and over 100 percent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline, occurred in Greater China across iPhone, Mac and iPad. Apples CEO tried to put a positive long-term spin on the companys prospects in China. Still, it is tough for investors to hear since the region accounted for roughly 18% of overall revenues in each of the last two quarters. The announcement also highlights how Apples high prices have held the company back in markets where a plethora of much cheaper smartphones are available. Overall iPhone Sales Lower than expected iPhone revenue, mostly in Greater China, accounts for for all of our revenue shortfall to our guidance and for much more than our entire year-over-year revenue decline, according to Cook. On top of that, iPhone upgrades were weaker than Apple anticipated in developed markets. The company pointed to macroeconomic challenges in some markets, along with strong U.S. dollar-related price increases, and some customers taking advantage of lower iPhone battery replacement costs as the main factors for fewer upgrades. | https://news.yahoo.com/whats-next-apple-aapl-slashed-183606894.html |
Will 2019 Fulfill The Promises Of 3-D Printing? | If 2018 was a big year of promises for 3-D printing (and it was), perhaps 2019 will be the year we start to see those promises fulfilled. The technology, developing since the 1980s, is now leaning toward manufacturing applications. These days, youre more likely to hear those in the industry discussing facets of additive manufacturing, of which 3-D printing is one part of a larger process. Design and pre-processing precede the 3-D printing of a part, which must then be post-processed and finished. This end-to-end workflow comprises additive manufacturing, though the terms are used relatively interchangeably in casual conversation. These conversations are changing, though, as the technology matures. The Promise: On-site 3-D printing. The Reality: In development. Digital manufacturing solutions including additive manufacturing foresee workflows where a design created in one location can be zapped over for manufacturing in one or more different locations. Useful for remote operations (e.g., mining in the Australian outback, onboard ships, in-the-field with deployed troops, oilfield) and particularly for spare and replacement parts as well as maintenance and repair, 3-D printing enables agility in getting the parts needed where they need to be -- by producing them there. Digital inventory is developing as a strong concept, and one we can expect to hear much more about in 2019. R&D is ongoing, with field tests increasingly examining the technology to validate processes and materials for use. Meeting or exceeding existing standards at a lower cost, and in a shorter time frame, is a tall order. The Promise: Standardized best practices. The Reality: In progress. Because 3-D printing is still a nascent technology, it has a long way to go to catch up to conventional manufacturing processes. With seven ASTM-recognized 3-D printing processes to date (and several others arising recently with claims for new categories), regulation is a big need. Each process needs to be thoroughly vetted and understood to establish best practices. Reliability and repeatability are necessities for production processes, and industrial 3-D printing has, in most cases, a ways to go yet. Standards organizations like ASTM International are working with industry partners to further develop procedural, materials and safety standards. Investments into such efforts showcase industry willingness and readiness to close these gaps, and 2019 should see more headway made in standards development. The Promise: Complexity is free. The Reality: Nothing is free. 3-D printing enables more geometric freedom of design than do conventional manufacturing processes. Lattice structures, generative design, complex internal structures, part consolidation, lightweighting, mass customization: the benefits of building up rather than removing material abound. So much so that youll often hear sales pitches that with additive manufacturing, complexity is free. Yes, more is possible, but that 'more' comes with several asterisks. Design for additive manufacturing (DfAM) is an area requiring significant upskilling and training before full advantage of the capabilities of this equipment can be leveraged. There are also ripples from design overhauls that may create new complexities in the supply chain by removing now-superfluous parts and workflows. On the 3-D printer itself, all parameters must be calculated and calibrated precisely as certain design elements -- like high aspect ratios, thin walls and overhangs -- may pose in-build problems. Failed prints add to costs and time, and until these can be minimized to acceptable levels, especially for longer builds (which can last for weeks), complexity is certainly not free. The Promise: Serial manufacturing. The Reality: Its already there (and it will never be there). Volume manufacturing via 3-D printing is already a reality -- and has been for a number of years. Most hearing aids on the market today are made with 3-D printing technologies; adoption in this application was famously quick, with more than 90% of the US hearing aid industry moving to 3-D printing in just 500 days. Orthodontic aligners are another major use case. Shoes and insoles are also on the market today, both mass manufactured and mass customized. Consumer products are also hitting shelves with 3-D printed components, including frames for eyewear and handles on razor blades. But. Most volume production is the domain of conventional technologies: injection molding, milling, casting. Additive manufacturing still has a long road ahead in meeting necessary milestones. Speed, price and quality all need to see improvements for 3-D printing to compete with traditional processes. For now, this relegates most applications to those that require the specific qualities 3-D printing delivers. In many cases, of course, traditional technologies will maintain their dominance. 3-D printing is a new set of tools, but thats just expanding the available toolbox. 3-D printing is a complex technology suite, and the promises are many. These four barely scratch the surface of some of the issues the industry faces today -- and also provide a glimpse at some of the progress already being made. Theres a lot we hope to see this year, and trade press is awash with predictions and expectations as 3-D printing continues to mature and evolve. The industry is young, and the road to mainstream manufacturing remains a long one; advances made in 2018 are paving a strong foundation for major strides forward in the year ahead. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahgoehrke/2019/01/03/will-2019-fulfill-the-promises-of-3-d-printing/ |
Are Home Health Aids The New Turing Test For AI? | For decades, the common answer that question has been to pass the Turing test. This test, named after famed mathematician Alan Turing, says that if a machine can carry on a conversation with a human via a textual interface such that the human can not tell the difference between a human and machine, then the machine is intelligent. But theres a problem: we were able to create chatbots that could pass the Turing test a long time ago. We know that the intelligence they display is narrow and limited. Today AI is making great strides in any number of applications, chiefly through data-based approaches labeled machine learning. These approaches are successful and productive and display aspects of intelligence. We have come to realize that we can create many kinds of intelligence and that intelligent does not necessarily mean human. Today, AI is no one thing, but a variety of machine intelligences. Still, researchers remain interested in the larger problem of human-like intelligence, or Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) which also seems to be the source of much of the cultural fascination and anxiety surrounding AI. In a series of provocative blog posts , my MIT colleague Rodney Brooks proposes new ways of thinking about AGI that go way beyond the Turing test. Brooks has long been a leader in robotics, and as a founder of iRobot and inventor of the Roomba vacuum cleaner, rightly claims to have made millions of robots that actually operate in the world (maybe more than anyone). He is also a member of the Research Advisory Board for a Task Force that I co-chair (along with economist David Actor) at MIT on the Work of the Future, which is seeking new approaches to AI, work and the social sciences. Brooks proposes a new goal for AGI not the simple, textual Turing test, but rather the home health aid or elder care worker, what he calls ECW. By this he does not mean a friendly companion robot, but rather something that offers cognitive and "physical assistance that will enable someone to live with dignity and independence as they age in place in their own home. Think about what this entails, and the test an AI would have to pass. To begin with, an ECW requires an intelligence that is physically embodied (a theme long running through Brookss work). The disembodied software agent of the Turing test is no longer adequate. Moreover, this robot must do tasks that are currently beyond the reach of robotics, but simple for humans with relatively little training, like safely assisting a human being to emerge from a bathtub. The ECW robot will need to negotiate a physical environment, the home, which could be changing in subtle ways on a daily basis. It will also need to negotiate a social environment, beginning with its relationship to the person under its care (who Brooks refers to as Rodney). "ECW will need to use all sorts of context and something akin to reasoning, Brooks writes, "in order to make sense of what Rodney is trying to convey. The ECW will need to correlate the observed behaviors and conversation with medical records and other data, and possibly alert humans or other machines to unusual changes. The social environment ECW will need to negotiate involves the persons children, other human caregivers, or others who enter the home. ECW will need a model of family and social dynamics. Much of what he describes as the requirements for ECW intelligence are well beyond the reach of todays AI systems, cognitively, physically, and especially socially. Brooks is not trying to naysay, but rather to point out a newly rich set of problems for AGI researchers to attack, problems whose solutions could make a positive impact on the world. (Whether a fully automated home health aid is the right solution to eldercare is another question altogether). Brooks is also clear that the choice of ECW is but one of a host of possible models for AGI in another posting he also uses a Services Logistics Planner (a more software oriented solution) as an example. While we could think of other tasks, the two Brooks chooses are indeed highly relevant for making an impact on the future of work in todays economy. Beyond his selection of these two tasks, however, Brookss point is that he is redefining the quest for intelligence around the idea of work . Work is a rich, multidimensional human activity, embedding cognition and skills within webs of social and economic relationships. Its also something that humanists and social scientists know a great deal about, knowledge that is rarely built into robotic or AI systems. Work as a model for AI is a provocative idea, perhaps the ultimate goal, of an Artificial General Intelligence for the twenty-first century. In this era of anxiety about AI technologies changing the nature of work, Brooks proposes us that everything we know about work should also change the nature of AI. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidmindell/2019/01/03/are-home-health-aids-the-new-turing-test-for-ai/ |
Is Using Algorithms In Human Resources A No-Brainer--Or Something More Sinister? | Laszlo Bock is one of those figures who tend to divide academics, or at least those of us open to criticism: during his decade-long tenure as the head of people management at Google, Bock ended the companys practice of requiring candidates to score high marks throughout their training process, concluding after rigorous analysis that there was no link between those scores and how good they were at their job, an attack on a key variable in the educational process the academic world has yet to respond to conclusively. After leaving Google and writing a best seller on the subject, Work Rules!, Bock cofounded a company called Humu with two other former Google colleagues to create algorithms aimed at improving employee satisfaction. This involves feeding data garnered from internal surveys and the work environment, then identifying critical aspects that could help improve the workforces experience and, respecting the employees' confidentiality, sending them small messages that act as nudges or reminders, with recommendations to try to improve their satisfaction or their team members. In light of data revealing, for example, frustration about a departments decision-making processes, managers might be given suggestions on how better to involve their teams, thus improving transparency and contributing to a better work environment. Humus messages, generated by machine-learning algorithms from the information extracted from the employees, are sent from the address of one of the founders of Humu, Wayne Crosby, and are an attempt to remind workers of actions that, without being either compulsory or coercive, could improve satisfaction or chances of achieving personal goals or could create a better work environment. Bock and his colleagues say their nudges are not about getting people to do things they dont want to do, but instead are simply recommendations to implement small changes that for whatever reason havent previously been suggested. That said, intention is one thing, and consequences are another. The response to this type of advice will depend, very possibly, on the type of business culture within a company. Whether messages are seen as suggestions for improvement, as coercive or as an attempt to reduce labor disputes may not depend so much on Humus intentions as the related work environment or context. At a time when corporate culture and internal activism seem to be increasingly central concerns, a tool like Humu could be seen as a way to look after employees and align their objectives with those of the company with a level of granularity and attention that is practically impossible for human managers; equally, it could be interpreted as a way to defuse protest at a companys practices. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2019/01/03/is-using-algorithms-in-human-resources-a-no-brainer-or-something-more-sinister/ |
What's new in king cakes for Mardi Gras 2019? | Bittersweet Confections chocolate king cake Bittersweet Confections, 725 Magazine St., New Orleans, is adding a satsuma bourbon pecan king cake to its lineup. Our braided brioche is filled with cinnamon butter, glazed with a satsuma icing and garnished with bourbon soaked pecans, the baker said. It's most popular cake is the chocolate one (pictured here). Breads on Oak, 8640 Oak St., New Orleans, teamed up with Louisiana Pepper Exchange on Tchoupitoulas Street for a VooDoo King Cake, which has a hint of ghost and cayenne peppers infused with the house-made vegan cream cheese. Also new will be a praline pecan king cake and a rum and coconut cream king cake with a citrus glaze. At this shop, the king cakes are vegan and made with organic ingredients, including the plant-based Mardi-Gras coloring made from natural fruits and vegetables. Bywater Bakery, 3623 Dauphine St., New Orleans, is adding savory king cakes for 2019, including crawfish, spinach and artichoke and one filled with boudin. The bakery also will introduce new sweet cakes to its eight standard flavors. These will be available on a rotating basis, so check with the bakery if there is a specific one you want to try. The flavors will be pineapple, passion fruit, butterscotch ripple, and lemon cream. | https://www.nola.com/expo/life-and-culture/g66l-2019/01/ea5728c24a2973/whats-new-in-king-cakes-for-ma.html |
What next for Syria's Kurds? | Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of the country's north and northeast, some of seized from the Islamic State group at the cost of heavy losses with backing from the US-led coalition (AFP Photo/Delil SOULEIMAN) Beirut (AFP) - Syria's Kurds have established an autonomous region during seven years of civil war, but the abrupt decision by their US ally to withdraw has thrown their political future into doubt. Kurdish-led forces control a large swathe of the country's north and northeast, some of it seized from the Islamic State group at the cost of heavy losses with backing from the US-led coalition. A US withdrawal could leave them exposed on two fronts, both to an attack by neighbouring Turkey and its Syrian proxies, and to a return of Damascus government institutions. Syria's Kurdish minority have largely stayed out of the civil war, instead forging autonomy in a large swathe of the north and northeast, including along the Turkish border. The fight against IS has allowed the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to expand that territory to include the Euphrates Valley city of Raqa, as well as key oil and gas fields in the eastern province of Deir Ezzor. On December 19, President Donald Trump took many even among his own supporters by surprise with the announcement of a full US troop withdrawal from Syria. On Thursday US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the withdrawal would indeed go ahead but would not give a precise timeline, so as not to tip off US adversaries. "The importance of ensuring that the Turks don't slaughter the Kurds, the protection of religious minorities there in Syria. All of those things are still part of the American mission set," Pompeo told Newsmax, a US news and opinion site popular with conservatives. Trump's troop withdrawal announcement prompted the Kurds to seek a new alliance with the Damascus regime to protect them from a long-threatened attack by neighbouring Turkey. Ankara views the Kurdish fighters of the SDF as "terrorists", in cahoots with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been fighting Turkish troops since 1984. Although unlikely without prior agreements between regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey, analysts foresee a possible carving up of the northeast between the different sides. Today, the regime holds almost two-thirds of Syria after victories against jihadists and other rebels, and has pledged to eventually return the northeast to government control. Last week, Damascus deployed troops in the northern countryside to stem off any Turkish-led attack on the flashpoint SDF-held city of Manbij. On Wednesday, the army said 400 Kurdish fighters had retreated from areas around the Arab-majority city. But an Arab contingent of the SDF remains in control, and US forces are also present as they have not yet withdrawn. On Monday, pro-government newspaper Al-Watan cited an Arab diplomat in Moscow as saying the northern city would revert to "full state supervision". The source also said Turkey, Russia and fellow regime ally Iran would discuss "a return of state institutions" to areas further east, beyond the Euphrates River, at a meeting expected at the start of the year. Balanche said the regime would eventually resume full control of the main northeastern cities of Hasakeh and Qamishli. It would also retake the Arab-majority city of Raqa, as well as the oil fields of Deir Ezzor. "The Syrian army will... rapidly seize the Omar oil fields -- two-thirds of Syrian production," Balanche said. Turkey has led two previous incursions across the border, the most recent of which saw its Syrian proxies seize the northwestern enclave of Afrin from Kurdish forces last year. But analyst Heiko Wimmen said Ankara would first have to seek consent from Moscow before any third offensive, especially to use its air force. "If it does happen however, Turkey will try to control the border strip," said Wimmen, of the Brussels-based think tank, the International Crisis Group. "What they are aiming for is a buffer zone along the border," he added. Balanche predicted Turkish troops and their allies would eventually push 20 to 40 kilometres (12 to 24 miles) into Syria. After decades of marginalisation, since the civil war erupted in 2011 Syria's Kurds have set up their own institutions in areas they control. Following the pulling out of government forces from Kurdish-majority areas in 2012, the Kurds set up their own administrations and implemented longstanding demands such as Kurdish-medium education. | https://news.yahoo.com/next-syrias-kurds-001749560.html |
What if the crisis is coming from inside China? | Winter is coming. That was the New Years message chief executive Robin Li delivered to the 42,000 employees of his search-engine company, Baidu, in a melodramatic letter to staff Wednesday. With the song of ice and fire" looming in 2019, Chinas economic rebalancing, he wrote, is as forceful and real as winter for any enterprise. He wasnt talking about the game of thrones between Beijing and Washington. Nor, primarily, was Apple CEO Tim Cook when he sent markets reeling the same day by slashing 2019 sales projections for iPhones, tablets and computers, a drop he attributed to a loss of Chinese consumer confidence. Over 100 per cent of our year-over-year worldwide revenue decline occurred in Greater China, he wrote, where the magnitude of the economic deceleration had taken the California company by surprise. At first, these corporate dramas might look like effects of international tensions. After all, 2019 began with China at odds with much of the world. U.S. President Donald Trump continued to hammer away at his very personal trade war. Canada was trapped in a de facto hostage crisis with Beijing over its response to a U.S. extradition warrant against a Chinese executive. If that werent enough, Taiwan received a direct order to reunite with communist China Wednesday from President Xi Jinping, who added ominously: We make no promise to give up the use of military force. Story continues below advertisement Those clashes have played no small part in the current worldwide collapse in market capitalization and economic growth. But it would be overly optimistic to think that international disputes were the cause of the global slowdown; it would be a simple matter of resolving them and, with the possible exception of Taiwan, the current clashes with China are temporary phenomena, unlikely to last beyond one aberrant presidential term. As both CEOs hinted in their warning letters, the problem with China is not being triggered from outside; theres a lot of evidence that the larger problem is coming from within China. When we hear that China is pulling the world economy on a downward trajectory, we tend to think of its exports. For the past two decades, thats all China was to the world: During the decade of globalization, from 1998 to 2008, the world economy ticked along to the value of the yuan, the trillions of dollars in Chinas trade surplus and the shiploads of running shoes and touchscreens pouring out of Guangzhou and Shenzhen. The past five years were supposed to change all that. China had found itself caught in a middle-income trap too prosperous to remain a low-cost export manufacturer, but lacking the consumer-centred economy it needed to become a self-sustaining middle-class country. Mr. Xi exhorted the country to turn inward, to become a higher-wage consumer economy fuelled by domestic real-estate and stock markets. In 2015, Premier Li Keqiang announced his Made in China 2025 policy, aimed at giving domestic production a 70-per-cent share of all goods within a decade. Long before Mr. Trump began to threaten the transpacific goods trade, it was apparent that this national rebalancing was getting wobbly. Chinese consumers except for the prosperous few in the top 1 per cent just werent spending. Sales of key commodities such as instant noodles and beer (except expensive brands) have actually declined over the past couple of years, and domestic consumption has remained stuck at little more than a third of the economy, a share that actually dropped in 2017. (By way of comparison, Canadas domestic consumption sits at 60 per cent.) Home sales in many cities went flat as overbuilding drove prices down, infuriating buyers. And consumers have stubbornly been saving and investing rather than spending in large part, presumably, because they sensibly want to hedge against the uncertain future under Mr. Xi, but also because Chinas social safety net and health-insurance systems remain very flimsy. Yet their household-debt levels have also soared as middle-class incomes have not kept pace with prices. In the past couple of months, these trends have become more acute. In December, Chinas manufacturing sector saw its first decline in almost two years, and analysts attributed it as much to weakening domestic demand as to a Trump-hit export sector. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Chinas leaders have responded the only ways they know how: by exhorting regions and cities to pump up consumer demand, by removing barriers to home ownership, by dumping stimulus funds into the economy and by making aggressive gestures across the Pacific and the Taiwan Strait. The larger threat to the world economy is not global tensions but the force of a billion people frustrated with a regime that hasnt given them the lives they expected. We shouldnt be dragged into an international conflict merely to mask that reality. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-what-if-the-crisis-is-coming-from-inside-china/ |
Is Elizabeth Warren the populist Democrats need to out-Trump Trump? | Elizabeth Warren had no sooner announced this week that she had formed a presidential exploratory committee, the first step toward launching her candidacy for the 2020 Democratic nomination, than some pundits began wondering whether she reminds voters too much of Hillary Clinton to win. That might seem ridiculous, considering that each woman has represented opposite wings of her party in recent years. Ms. Warren, the Massachusetts senator, is a no-holds-barred progressive whose strident critique of capitalism and free trade puts her on the far-left of the U.S. political spectrum. Ms. Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee, lost the last election in part because she was seen as too much of an establishment apologist for globalization and too hawkish on foreign policy. Yet, beyond their policy differences, Ms. Warren, 69, and Ms. Clinton, 71, do share certain characteristics that lead many voters to consider them alike. They suffer from perceptions, sexist to be sure, that they are cold and aloof women who have developed a likeability deficit. Story continues below advertisement In November, Ms. Warren won a second Senate term by beating her Republican opponent by 24 percentage points. Yet her margin of victory was considered underwhelming given her states strong Democratic orientation and an overall swing to Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections. Given those factors, Ms. Warren should have won by 39 points, a FiveThirtyEight analysis concluded. But the former Harvard law professor strikes a divisive pose even on her home turf. In aiming to get voters to warm up to her, Ms. Warren conducted a Q&A on Instagram from her Boston kitchen on Dec. 31, during which she declared: Hold on a second Im gonna get me a beer. Her attempt at relatability came off as cringeworthy and contrived. After her release of DNA test results confirming her native-American ancestry, which sparked criticism she had taken President Donald Trumps bait, the beer incident raised more questions about her political judgment. As unfair as it seemed, Ms. Clinton discovered that she could not compete in the likeability sweepstakes against Barack Obama (who beat her in the 2008 Democratic race) or Bernie Sanders, whom she bested in the 2016 primaries even though he captured the hearts of Democratic activists. Ms. Warren will have to accept that she cannot beat Mr. Sanders, former vice-president Joe Biden or Texas congressman Beto ORourke all of whom have acknowledged they are considering running for the nomination if the question comes down to with whom voters would most like to share a beer. She must instead persuade Democrats that she is the best candidate to win back working-class Americans who voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. Indeed, it is not enough for Ms. Warren to rely on her appeal among progressive Democrats, especially if Mr. Sanders decides to run again. A devastating New York Times piece this week on the alleged climate of sexism that prevailed inside the 2016 Sanders campaign was a gift to Ms. Warren as she attempts to establish an early advantage over the Vermont senator. Still, Ms. Warren needs to give Democrats a reason to get excited about her candidacy all on its own. She and Mr. Sanders are on the same page on many issues. Both favour a single-payer U.S. health-care system that would eliminate private insurance, and major campaign-finance reform. Both Ms. Warren and Mr. Sanders also suffer from weak appeal among African-American voters, a critical constituency that any Democratic nominee needs to mobilize to beat Mr. Trump. And with two African-American senators Kamala Harris of California and Corey Booker of New Jersey expected to run for the nomination, Ms. Warren may struggle to get traction among minority Democrats. Story continues below advertisement Story continues below advertisement Despite her disadvantages, Ms. Warren should not be underestimated. If Democrats decide they need a candidate who can take on Mr. Trump in industrial states without turning off female voters as he does, she may just be their woman. Like Mr. Trump, Ms. Warren is critical of trade deals that she says have lifted the boats of the wealthy while leaving millions of working Americans to drown. But unlike Mr. Trump, who has slashed regulations and cut taxes for the wealthy, Ms. Warren is no friend of big business. She would break up the big banks and corporations and raise taxes on the rich. The central conceit of her campaign that 21st-century capitalism is rigged against the working class provides her with a message tailor-made for Rust Belt states that voted for Mr. Trump in 2016. And Democrats likely cant win in 2020 without taking back states such as Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. | https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-is-elizabeth-warren-the-populist-democrats-need-to-out-trump-trump/ |
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