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Is the Fix for the L-Train Apocalypse Too Good to Be True? | This is certainly a long-term fix, Mr. Byford said. If it were as some have suggested if we were having a Band Aid offered to us I for one would have rejected that. Under the revised plan, starting in late April, repair work would happen on nights and weekends, when one of the tunnels two tubes would close. But closing one tube would still be significantly disruptive for New Yorkers who rely on the L train. When you have only one tube in service, you may have three to four trains maximum an hour, Dr. Horodniceanu said. Youre going to have people who are going to wait on the platform for 20 minutes. The old plan, which would have closed the entire tunnel for 15 months to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy, prompted outrage in Williamsburg and other neighborhoods in Brooklyn along the L line. Some people moved away and others began to plot intricate plans to reach Manhattan. Elected officials held a news conference on Sunday to complain about how the new plan was foisted on them without many details. Brad Hoylman, a state senator who represents a slice of Manhattan along the L line, compared the process to marrying someone you had never met. I kind of feel like we were planning a wedding for the last three years, said Mr. Hoylman, a Democrat. We get to the altar and not only does the groom run off, but you look at the guy next to you, and youve never seen him before." At the same time, New Yorkers have asked why subway officials had not thought of the solution sooner. Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat in his third term, complained to reporters last week of a transportation industrial complex, made up of consultants and contractors, that benefit from the M.T.A. doing things the way they always have. | https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/07/nyregion/l-train-shutdown.html |
Where Did Colton Underwood Go To College? | Colton Underwood debuts Monday night as ABCs The Bachelor for their 2019 season and there will be no shortage of references to both his football-playing past and his virginity. Many fans of the series know that Underwood currently lives in Denver, Colorado, but thats not where he went to college and played collegiate football. The Bachelor star was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, and he grew up in Washington, Illinois. After going to high school in Washington, he headed to Illinois State University for college. According to Vidette Online, the Student Voice of Illinois State University, Underwood was a standout during his time playing with the Redbirds. Colton was there from 2010 through 2013 and played as a defensive end and linebacker. During his time playing for Illinois State University, Colton had 45 career games and he racked up 215 tackles. A profile on the ISU website makes it clear that their college community is excited to claim Underwood as one of their own and theyll definitely be watching his Bachelor season. According to the ISU profile, fans watched him wreak havoc on opposing offenses for four seasons as a standout football player. During his time with the Redbirds, ISU went to the playoffs in 2012 for the first time in six seasons. The teams head coach Brock Spack noted Underwoods high effort, relentless competitive spirit, and toughness as his key attributes as a player. Underwood also made an impact as a college football player by showcasing a solid work ethic and a great deal of leadership that kept everybody else on the team working hard and motivated. Spack had plenty of praise to share about Colton from his time at Illinois State University. Not only was he an excellent athlete, but really a poster child for what a student-athlete should be. He was a pillar for how we build our program and the success we had after he left was built on his standard. Coltons experience as an ISU Redbird has driven him post-college as well. He has told current student-athletes to Stand out, make an impact, and be different. According to the Bachelor stars LinkedIn page, he focused on business management and management information systems while attending ISU. He was named All-American in 2012 and 2013 and all of that success did propel him into a short-lived professional football-playing opportunity. It certainly appears that Colton Underwoods experience playing football at Illinois State University had a significant impact on his drive and goals for his life post-college. While the Bachelor star didnt go on to have a notable impact in the NFL, he clearly still loves football a great deal and fans can expect to see plenty of game references this season as he looks for his future wife. | https://www.inquisitr.com/5238068/colton-underwood-college-education/ |
Who Is Heather Martin Of ABCs The Bachelor 2019 Season With Colton Underwood? | Viewers will meet bachelorette Heather Martin during Monday nights Bachelor premiere. Colton Underwood has his work cut out for him as he will be introduced to 30 ladies who are all hoping to get his final rose, and Heather will be one of many hoping to make a big first impression. According to gossip king Reality Steve, Heather Martin is from Carlsbad, California. She has a degree in marketing that she earned in 2017 from Biola University and before filming she was an assistant program manager at a company named Aethercomm. Some Bachelor previews have teased that one of Coltons bachelorettes has never been kissed before, and apparently thats Heather. Martins ABC profile shares that interesting tidbit about her and theres little doubt that the network will play up how Martin could receive her first-ever kiss from the virgin Bachelor star. Heather was born in San Diego and grew up in the area. She seems to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie, as Martin loves skydiving, river-rafting, and bungee jumping. This Bachelor contestant doesnt like snakes, but she loves food and would be a food critic if she could. As for family, Heather has a cat named Kitty and two sisters named Shannon and Colie. It seems that the Bachelor contestant is the middle sister of the three and they appear to be pretty close. Coltons season has some interesting dynamics incorporated in that there are at least a couple of pairs of ladies who knew one another to some extent before filming. It seems that Heather is connected to fellow bachelorette Cassie Randolph, as they both graduated from Biola University in California and were there around the same time. However, it doesnt seem known whether Heather and Cassie knew one another very well. It looks like the private, evangelical Christian schools undergraduate enrollment is around 4,000 students, with another 2,000 graduate students. Given that, it seems likely that Randolph and Martin knew one another at least slightly or share some friends in common. Reality Steve also shared on Twitter last fall that Heather and her sister Colie briefly met Colton this past summer. Viewers will have to stay tuned to see how long Heather Martin lasts during Colton Underwoods season. However, spoilers suggest that she might be sticking around for a while. All of the action kicks off with the premiere on January 7 and it sounds like its going to be a wild ride. | https://www.inquisitr.com/5239333/who-heather-martin-abc-bachelor-2019-colton-underwood/ |
Who Is Hannah Brown Of ABCs The Bachelor 2019 Season With Colton Underwood? | Hannah Brown is one of the Bachelor contestants who will be vying for Colton Underwoods final rose this winter and early spoilers suggest that shell be getting in some quality time with Colton. The ABC profile for this Bachelor contestant details that she is 23-years-old and currently resides in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Hannah Brown was Miss Alabama 2018, and she isnt the only beauty pageant gal involved in Colton Underwoods season. Brown graduated from the University of Alabama, the same place her parents went, and she obtained a degree in communications. Hannah grew up in Tuscaloosa and remains a massive Crimson Tide fan. These days, the Bachelor contestant reportedly works as an interior designer and she said she loves country music. Hannah seems to appreciate a true gentleman who goes a little old school in pulling out her chair or holding open a door for her and it sounds like shell likely be rather charmed by Underwood. Gossip guru Reality Steve has noted that in addition to Brown, fellow contestant Caelynn Miller-Keyes has done beauty pageants and the two both competed in Miss USA 2018. In fact, Hannah and Caelynn apparently roomed together during that experience and were friends prior to filming the Bachelor. Hannahs Instagram page makes it clear that she places a significant emphasis on religion in her life. Brown has a brother named Patrick she seems to be quite close to and the family appears to love dogs as well. This Bachelor contender is a gorgeous gal who knows how to strut her stuff during a beauty pageant, but it looks like shes quite comfortable in jean shorts and a country hat riding a John Deere mower back at home too. Brown shared during her introduction for some of last years beauty pageant competitions that she loves to box and started boxing about three years ago. She said she was a little surprised to discover that shes pretty good at it and Hannah joked that now she feels like Muhammad Ali. Hannah also said that she has struggled with depression and anxiety and it took her some time to find her ultimate passion in life. These days, however, Brown is feeling great about who she is, imperfections and all, and it is easy to see why she might make a great early impression on Colton during his Bachelor journey. The Bachelor spoilers for the 2019 season hint that there is plenty of drama on the way and fans cannot wait to see how it all plays out. | https://www.inquisitr.com/5239325/who-hannah-brown-abc-bachelor-2019-colton-underwood/ |
Is the Lifetime Treatment the Best We Could Do for R. Kellys Alleged Victims? | Surviving R. Kelly, which aired in its entirety from Thursday to Saturday on Lifetime, is a genre piece. Not science fiction or fantasyit is difficult not to believe every painful word of this miniseriesbut a uniquely televisual genre: the unscripted expos. The story of R. Kelly and his alleged victims has been given the Lifetime treatment: shaky stock footage, melodramatic audio accompaniment, that suspense-heightening gimmick that transforms a provocative image into a haunting negative. Heavy-handed incidental music burbles and buzzes over every wrenching interview of dream hamptons docuseries, through the words of each self-possessed alleged survivor of abuse and exploitation. The musical and visual devices of reality television exist to massage the viewers sympathies. A brassy tension cue can introduce conflict; wood blocks imply comedy; strings introduce warmth and romance. The Bachelorette composer Brad Segal told Slate in 2014, Thats the fun thing[the music] can tell the viewer what to feel as they watch. Thats whats happening in Surviving R. Kelly: the musicand the interstitial footageare handing a version of the story to the viewer that codes Kelly as the bogeyman, and the women who once loved him as his prey. Then again, that may be all the viewer really needs to know; for many involved in this docuseries, who have battled for years to be fully heard, that may be all they want the viewer to know. But the mounting allegations against R. Kellywhich trace all the way back to 2000, when journalist Jim DeRogatis first wrote about the three-time Grammy winner in the Chicago Sun-Timesare more than a monster-in-the-dark story. The R&B star is accused of targeting underage teenage girls and pressuring them into sexual relationships, in complex logistical arrangements that usually involve enforced alienation from family, friends, and even from each other. DeRogatis termed the arrangement a cult in a piece for BuzzFeed News, due to the stringent control Kelly allegedly enforced on his sexual partners. The accusers who have spoken out about their time with Kelly, which ranges from women picked up in their teens to Kellys former wife, frame their experiences with him as coercive, degrading, and abusive. Taken as a whole, the series describes an epic filled with characters who have confusing, conflicting motivations. Theres Kelly himself, the traumatized musical genius, who continues to deny the allegations against him, but cant seem to stop confessing in his work; in July, he released a 19-minute song called I Admit, which scoffs at the term pedophile, but acknowledges that he has had relationships with young ladies. Theres the now-deceased star Aaliyah, who married Kelly in a quickly annulled ceremony when she was just 15who released Age Aint Nothing but a Number under his aegis. Theres his ex-wife Andrea Kelly, who had three children with the star, and enjoyed some privileges as his wife while being trapped in an allegedly abusive relationship. Theres Jerhonda Pace, who came to the singers trial for child pornography in 2007, as a 15-year-old staunch fan who believed in his innocence. Kelly singled her out, as he walked to and from court and invited her to come to his home; shortly thereafter, she, too, said that she fell victim to Kellys effective mixture of charm and punishment. Theres the silence from Kellys former collaborators in the music industry, even still; only John Legend, Chance the Rapper and Charlamagne tha God represent the music industry in the Lifetime docuseries. Collaborators Jay-Z and Lady Gaga reportedly declined hamptons asks to participate. Theres the embarrassed recollections of Kellys former employees, who were part of a fleet of handlers allegedly charged with enacting Kellys wishes for the women in his thrall. Theres the accusations themselves, detailing countless encounters of alleged sexual depravity against often-underage, mostly terrorized women. Theres the blurry outline of one unnamed womanthe one in the infamous sex tape leaked to DeRogatis that showed Kelly urinating on her when she was allegedly 14. She does not appear in the documentary, and her absence looms unnervingly large, like a ragged hole torn out of the narratives fabric. According to the docuseries, this woman is still loyal to Kelly. She and her immediate family have denied there was any wrongdoing between herself and the singer. The Lifetime treatment is not the right genre for this story, with its catastrophic destruction and sprawling cast. The sound cues of unscripted television, with their irresolute, seedy flourishes, should have no place here, against this scale of human frailty and psychological devastation. Surviving R. Kelly is telling a complex story, but its tabloid sheen obscures its own profundityand that salacious skin never lets up, through all six hours of the series. Horrifying as their content is, episodes even tend to repeat themselves, based on the assumption that the viewer cant be bothered to pay more careful attention to whats happening on-screen. Then again, after decades of inaction, perhaps the only rational assumption is that the viewer truly cant be bothered. Kelly released I Believe I Can Fly in 1996the same year that accuser Tiffany Hawkins brought a lawsuit against him. (Kelly and Hawkins settled out of court.) He released Ignition (Remix) in October 2002, a handful of months after he was indicted for child pornographyand in the midst of several allegations of sexual misconduct and the release of the urination tape. Kelly released Trapped in the Closetan outrageous, comic effort to re-cast his behavior as goofily funnyin 2005, while delaying his child-pornography trial. (He was eventually acquitted.) Lifetime itself released a controversial portrayal of Aaliyahs relationship with Kelly in the biopic Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B just a few years ago, in 2014, depicting their coupling as consensual and even romantic. And while #MeToo and #TimesUp have upended the careers of many alleged serial abusers, Kelly has so far staved off real consequences; even the harrowing details of DeRogatiss 2017 story didnt upend his life the way that exposs about Charlie Rose and Matt Lauer did theirs. (Both Lauer and Rose have denied accusations of sexual misconduct, but lost their jobs as network TV anchors anyway.) Perhaps Surviving R. Kelly is wearing this uncomfortable skin, because this is the only skin available to it. With that in mind, Surviving R. Kelly is a start. It will take more than interviews and stock footage to uncover how easy it is to write off the pain of young black women, or how complex and minute the mechanisms of the cycle of abuse can be. It will require much more understanding of our own feeble vocabulary of desire and consent before we can sift through tales of illicit seduction and sexual humiliation without positioning them, in turn, as titillations. Hampton and the participants hereand even Lifetime itselfhave done what they can. As the series goes on, it offers up more nuanced terrain, letting interviewees try to explain why a niece or daughter or friend keeps going back to Kellyor why, so many years ago, they did so themselves. Bit by bit, the stories of the participants become spellbinding, as each word adds to a vivid portrait. In a way, it is a symphony; each voice is an instrument. Get Vanity Fairs HWD Newsletter Sign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood. E-mail Address Subscribe | https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/01/surviving-r-kelly-lifetime-treatment |
Why doesnt Health Ministry talk about its stop smoking service? | JANUARY 8 The Ministry of Health (MOH) has taken the commendable step of banning smoking at all restaurants, including open-air establishments. However, like other policymaking in this country, the latest MOH policy suffers from short-sightedness as the ministry has failed to implement other things in tandem to achieve its overall objectives of protecting non-smokers from secondhand smoke and reducing the number of smokers. First, smokers have complained about the vague rule of being allowed to smoke three metres from the restaurant, as MOH has not specified how the distance is measured. Neither has the government placed any physical markers or ashtrays that clearly indicate where smoking is permitted. This will only cause people to smoke indiscriminately and litter on the road. Public policies must be crafted with as much detail as possible. Otherwise, it will lead to poor enforcement because both the public and enforcers will be clueless about how the rules work. Non-smokers should, of course, be protected from secondhand smoke in restaurants, but this should not be at the expense of smokers who have the right to use a legal product in public, away from people who do not smoke. The best way to protect the interests of both non-smokers and smokers is to create designated smoking areas in public. That way, smokers are clear about where they can light up and non-smokers do not have to worry about annoying smokers who puff away while they are walking around in public. A no-smoking sign is seen at a restaurant in George Town January 7, 2019. Picture by Sayuti Zainudin Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said her ministry would look at Japans model of designated smoking zones and hoped to come up with a standard operating procedure in six months. This is a laudable move, but the government really should have come up with this a long time ago so that designated smoking areas are already provided for when the smoking ban in restaurants came into effect. It is unreasonable to expect smokers to only smoke in private areas like their homes (though restaurants are also technically private spaces), since MOH would surely not want children to be exposed to secondhand smoke either. I would also argue that it should not be illegal for restaurants to provide smoking facilities, which is weirdly punishable with one years' jail under the Control of Tobacco Product Regulations 2004. Businesses must be allowed to cater to their smoking customers (while protecting the safety of non-smoking patrons), simply because cigarettes are a legal product. The government should not overly interfere with businesses, but should pursue behavioural change through a mixture of education and enforcement. The best solution, of course, is for smokers to just quit smoking. This is where MOHs anti-smoking campaign fails to light up. None of MOHs communications about the new smoking ban have talked about the governments stop smoking services. MOHs mQuit programme is not visible on the ministry websites homepage. Since enforcing the smoking ban in restaurants, MOH has not issued any statements or created infographics about its stop smoking service that was launched in 2016, on which the ministry has reportedly partnered with more than 88 private health facilities. It is also unclear how much the mQuit programme costs. The UKs National Health Service (NHS) provides free local stop smoking services. Its website also provides online support through an app, email, or text messages, as well as a helpline and online chats with an expert. The NHS even provides instant support on Facebook Messenger when cravings strike smokers who are trying to quit. These are some of the things MOH can consider doing, especially since most of us are on our smartphones all the time and Malaysia has a high internet penetration rate. It is not enough to simply ban smoking in restaurants with the threat of jail. Smokers must be given designated areas in public to light up at, unless the government intends to eliminate smoking completely and forego the revenue it gets from tobacco taxes (estimated at a minimum RM4.1 billion last year). But more importantly, MOH must provide (and publicise) services to help people quit smoking. * This is the personal opinion of the columnist. | https://www.malaymail.com/s/1710097/why-doesnt-health-ministry-talk-about-its-stop-smoking-service |
Could Greg Schiano Replace Brian Flores As Patriots Defensive Coordinator? | Brian Flores is a hot head-coaching candidate, and the New England Patriots dont have an obvious internal replacement for their de facto defensive coordinator if he opts to leave town. Heres one name to keep in mind: Greg Schiano. Ohio State head coach Ryan Day announced Monday that Schiano, the Buckeyes defensive coordinator for the last three seasons, would be leaving the program to pursue options in the NFL. And though there have been no recent reports linking him to a job with the Patriots, his relationship with head coach Bill Belichick would make him a natural fit. That relationship was forged when Schiano coached Belichicks eldest son, Steve, whos now the Patriots safeties coach, at Rutgers and continued when Schiano made the leap to the NFL, with New England hosting his Tampa Bay Buccaneers for joint practices in 2012. When Schiano landed, then quickly lost the head job at Tennessee last November, Belichick defended his friend, saying he has the utmost respect for Schiano and zero reservations about his character. Hes one of the very best coaches I think in our profession, Belichick said at the time. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Greg and the way he runs his program and the job that he does. I think the relationship that he has with his kids, with his players and how well prepared his players are to come into this league is exceptional. Hes done an awful lot. Hes helped me in a lot of different ways, and I have a lot of respect for him. Whats more, Schiano reportedly came close to becoming the Patriots defensive coordinator last season before deciding to remain at Ohio State. Flores wound up being promoted from within to replace the departed Matt Patricia, calling New Englands defensive plays this season despite not having the official DC title. Even if Flores who interviewed with the Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, Miami Dolphins and Green Bay Packers over the weekend remains with the Patriots, it would not be surprising to see Schiano land a job on Belichicks staff. Former Arkansas and Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema has been working for the Patriots this season under the title of consultant to the head coach. Flores still is in the mix for the Broncos, Browns and Dolphins jobs. The Packers reportedly plan to hire Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur, choosing him over Flores and Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels, among others. Thumbnail photo via Douglas Jones/USA TODAY Sports Images | https://nesn.com/2019/01/could-greg-schiano-replace-brian-flores-as-patriots-defensive-coordinator/ |
When can Tua Tagovailoa enter the NFL draft? | Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's sensational sophomore campaign has caught the eye of those outside the world of college football, with NFL fans asking when their team will have a chance to draft the standout quarterback. But professional teams will have to exercise a bit of patience before landing Tagovailoa. Monday night's matchup with Clemson will mark the end of Tagovailoa's sophomore season with the Crimson Tide. College players become eligible for the NFL draft after their junior years, or sophomore seasons in the case of a redshirt. So Alabama fans will have at least one more season with Tagovailoa, as he becomes eligible for the NFL draft after the 2019 season. With 2019 potentially being Tagovailoa's last year in Tuscaloosa, he could walk across the stage and shake NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's hand at the NFL draft in 2020. If he continues to dominate the college ranks, Tagovailoa will almost certainly be a first-round pick in the 2020 draft and perhaps a top-five selection. | https://www.si.com/college-football/2019/01/07/tua-tagovailoa-nfl-draft-when-eligible-year |
Do Emergency Powers Allow Trump To Order A Border Wall? | President Trump has talked about declaring a national emergency. He says he might invoke emergency powers to order the construction of a wall at the U.S.- Mexico border. STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Let's examine the power of a phrase. The phrase is national emergency. President Trump has talked about one. He says he might invoke emergency powers to order construction of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. The fact is that the total number of people believed to cross each year is far down from historic highs. That is true despite an increase recently, but here's how the president described the border situation over the weekend. (SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: And we have an absolute crisis and of criminals and gang members coming through. It is national security. It's a national emergency. Here to help answer that question is NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Scott, good morning. SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve. HORSLEY: The president does have some power under the National Emergencies Act to shift money from, say, one account, the Defense Department, to another. This is designed to give him flexibility to deal with an urgent situation. It's not designed to cut Congress out of the budgeting process. INSKEEP: OK. HORSLEY: He is allowed to do that, but he is expected to inform Congress. And if he were to try to use his emergency powers in this situation, it would almost certainly invite a legal challenge. INSKEEP: Oh, OK. So there is some question there as to whether he has that kind of authority, but he can at least start the process. HORSLEY: Lots of questions would come up. Which is a surge of asylum-seekers in family groups coming from Central America, most of whom turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents. INSKEEP: Oh, then this is an interesting point that you're making here, Scott. There are multiple problems, multiple complications at the border. And this wall doesn't necessarily address the one that has made news recently, you're saying. HORSLEY: That's right. INSKEEP: So this is all a backdrop, in a sense, to a discussion over these negotiations to reopen the government. The president has said he will not sign routine spending bills that would open parts of the government that have been closed for a number of weeks now unless he gets some kind of funding for this border wall. There were talks over the weekend. HORSLEY: No, not really. And in fact, the president said on Sunday before those talks even began that he didn't really expect them to. This was more political theater than actual negotiation. One thing we did see, though, was the White House put into writing its budget ask. That's something the Democrats had been seeking. They want $5.7 billion for Trump's wall, which the president now says can be made from steel - not concrete. INSKEEP: OK. HORSLEY: That would be enough to build 234 miles of barrier. That works out to about $24 million a mile. In addition, the administration is asking for hundreds of millions of additional dollars to build more detention beds, to hire more Border Patrol agents and immigration judges, to install new drug detection technology at the ports of entry and to deal with what it says is a humanitarian crisis at the border. INSKEEP: You know, it's really interesting, Scott Horsley. It sounds like some of the items on that list are things that a lot of Democrats would sign onto, like more immigration judges just to give one example. It's the wall - the symbolism of the wall that is the sticking point here. HORSLEY: The symbolism and the $5.7 billion. HORSLEY: You know, it is mounting day by day. There's some talk now that tax refund checks could be delayed if this stretches on much longer. We are starting to hear anecdotal reports of sickouts by TSA agents. And that's causing longer lines at airports. This Friday is supposed to be payday for the federal workers. So if it's not solved by then, that would be the first time those 800,000 federal employees would actually miss a paycheck. INSKEEP: Wow. People who are working, as well as furloughed, not being paid. HORSLEY: Right. INSKEEP: Scott, thanks for the update. HORSLEY: You're welcome. INSKEEP: That's NPR White House correspondent Scott Horsley. Copyright 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. | https://www.npr.org/2019/01/07/682844649/do-emergency-powers-allow-trump-to-order-a-border-wall?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=morningedition |
Are The Oscars Next For Rami Malek? | The Golden Globes were last night and as an avid film lover and hostess of Oscar parties (yes, I really host watch parties), I know that the Golden Globes are a pretty good pre-cursor to the Oscars. Based on my observations over the years, I've noticed that the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and the Oscars tend to share nominations and winners. Brie Larson, for example, won Best Actress for Room at all three award shows. Casey Affleck won Best Actor at the Golden Globes and the Oscars. So last night, Rami Malek won Best Actor for his incredible portrayal as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, which was absolutely amazing! We all know he was outstanding in that movie and really became Freddie Mercury. Rami Malek is, of course! And it's not like filming the movie was easy- their director was fired at one point during filming. Sometimes it's about more than just the performance on screen; it's also about the challenges you have to overcome when the cameras aren't rolling. | https://wncx.radio.com/blogs/alanna-crummie/rami-malek-wins-best-actor |
Is 3G iPhone announcement on September 18th? | The hotly anticipated 3G version of the Apple iPhone could be announced as early as this week, an analyst has predicted. (In fact, our colleagues at MacFormat have just received another mysterious invite from Apple for September 18th) Rumours are suggesting that a 3G Apple iPhone (with 16GB of memory like the iPod touch) is currently in development. According to EE Times, Will Strauss - a wireless specalist from the Forward Concepts research group - believes that an announcement from Apple could be imminent. 3G iPhone coming soon Strauss goes on to speculate that Apple will announce a 3G-enabled version of its iPhone at the same time it announces the European operators for the handset. This is likely to happen at the Apple Expo in Paris at the end of the month, if not before. O2 is heavily tipped to be Apple's operator of choice in the UK. A previous leak has suggested that Apple could go for the high-speed HSDPA 3G protocol rather than UMTS. A T-Mobile advert mistakenly revealed in Germany suggests that a 16GB, 3G-equipped Euro iPhone is a reality and could be ready to buy come mid-November. Critics in Europe have pounced on the Apple iPhone to slam its lack of 3G capabilities. The current EDGE technology in the US model offers sluggish mobile internet connectivity when the iPhone isn't connected to a Wi-Fi network. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has already stated that EDGE is "good enough, but you wish it was a little faster." | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/mobile-computing/tablets/computing/apple/is-3g-iphone-announcement-on-september-18th-154666 |
Is Colton Underwoods Girlfriend Pregnant? | Colton Underwood has been very active on social media since returning home after filming The Bachelor. Over the past several weeks, he has been posting photos covering the other person in the pictures with a blown up pregnant girl emoji, leading some fans to believe that Underwoods season pick is pregnant. The truth of the matter, however, is that Underwood went into the season as a virgin, choosing to save himself for the right person. For that reason, it is not believed that Underwoods girlfriend is pregnant. Additionally, if Underwoods girlfriend was pregnant, one would think that ABC would want to do a huge reveal of some sort, teasing the announcement for the end of the season. Moreover, Underwood probably wouldnt be so forthcoming with the news, especially because it would confirm that hes in love. Warning: Bachelor spoilers ahead. If youve read Bachelor spoilers, you probably know that Underwood ends up choosing Cassie Randolph, a speech pathologist to-be from California. According to Reality Steve, Underwood and Randolph are not engaged. However, the two are supposedly still together. I apologize for reporting that they are engaged. They are not. But he definitely chose Cassie, and they are definitely seeing each other, and have been seeing each other since the end of filming, Reality Steve said in a recent podcast. With all of Underwoods strange Instagram posts with the pregnant woman emoji, some people are wondering if Randolph is pregnant. That its not even Cassie in the photos some people seem to think that its actually Underwoods Bachelor brother, Blake Horstmann. The two became great friends after filming The Bachelor. You can check out a couple of Underwoods posts below. Fans have been very curious about Underwoods posts, but it seems like hes just having fun with being secretive until the finale of The Bachelor. In a recent interview with E! News, Underwood was asked if he was in love. I always said from the beginning Im waiting for the right heart and somebody I can share the rest of my life with to share that moment with, and I think thats what The Bachelor is all about, trying to find that. Obviously, if I answered that question, I would be spoiling the rest of the season and I wouldnt want to do that for you. I will say, this season wasnt the easiest for me. There were ups and downs and at times it got really challenging, it got really hard and it really pushed me. It allowed me to grow and I think this is going to be an unbelievable season, he told the outlet. The Bachelor premieres on Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. | https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/01/colton-underwood-pregnant-virgin-girlfriend-fiance/ |
Is Unity Among Bishops the Most Important Good? | COMMENTARY: A question to ponder as the U.S. bishops conclude their retreat in advance of the February summit at the Vatican. That challenge was at the heart of the letter that Pope Francis who asked the bishops to make a joint retreat as a necessary response to sexual abuse crisis sent to the bishops for their meditation at the beginning of the retreat. The letter was a profound biblical meditation on how the Lord Jesus instructed the apostles to regard each other and their service to the Church. Lyrical and often moving, the papal letter brought to mind exactly how difficult it is for a bishop to be all that he is supposed to be and to do all that he is supposed to do. In 2003, St. John Paul II published his apostolic exhortation on the life and ministry of bishops, Pastores Gregis. While widely praised for its comprehensive treatment of the apostolic office in the Church, the most common criticism was that it was impossible to find any man who could be and do everything that it was essential to be and to do. The same applies more than 15 years later. In a wide-ranging eight-page letter, Pope Francis touched on many topics, one of which was the division occasioned by the sexual abuse scandals: Gods faithful people and the Churchs mission continue to suffer greatly as a result of abuses of power and conscience and sexual abuse, and the poor way that they were handled, as well as the pain of seeing an episcopate lacking in unity and concentrated more on pointing fingers than on seeking paths of reconciliation. That unity among bishops is better than division, reconciliation better than recrimination, is beyond dispute. But the question the U.S. bishops must have been wrestling with these last days is the kind of unity, and the kind of reconciliation required. The revelations about former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick have exposed that there is a kind of unity or at least apparent unity that facilitates corruption. It is not true that everybody knew about Archbishop McCarrick, but there were many who did. Perhaps out of fear of repercussions, perhaps out of concern for the reputation of the Church. But another reason perhaps is because bishops and their senior officials put a very high value on unity, which is why they rarely criticize each other in public or correct each other in private. The same phenomenon applies in presbyterates and in parishes; the unity of the diocese or the parish is often considered to be the greatest good to be preserved, with difficult matters that might give rise to divisions therefore not addressed. Two recent examples illustrate that sometimes division is necessary. A year ago, when the Holy Father made his visit to Chile, the Chilean bishops stood together with him in relation to Bishop Barros, whose transfer to the Diocese of Osorno had provoked widespread protests in Chile. That expression of unity turned out to make matters worse. A turning point toward justice and healing came when Cardinal Sean OMalley of Boston, the head of the Papal Commission for the Protection of Minors, publicly criticized the remarks of Pope Francis. It was an unprecedented public division, with a key cardinalatial collaborator of a pope rebuking him in public. But it was needed. A more consequential example was highlighted later in the year with the canonization of St. Oscar Romero, the martyred archbishop of San Salvador. Archbishop Romero did not enjoy the support of his brother bishops; indeed, all but one of them refused even to attend his funeral, despite the fact that he was killed at the altar during Holy Mass. After the canonization last October, the celebrations in El Salvador included a public request for forgiveness from todays bishops for the lack of support that St. Oscar received then from their predecessors. The question of unity is easy to judge in hindsight. In El Salvador, the unity of the bishops in 1980 should have been in solidarity with the saintly archbishop. But at the time, it was Archbishop Romero who was considered to be divisive, acting without the support of his brothers. That criticism remained for decades after his death in some quarters of the Church in Latin America. For example, if Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, were to demand that his predecessor, Archbishop John Meyers, publicly explain why he agreed to settlements with victims of Archbishop McCarrick but did not take any public steps against him, it would certainly cause division in the archdiocese and among the U.S. bishops, to say nothing of the division it would cause between Cardinal Tobin and Archbishop Meyers. There is no easy answer to that. Not in the eight pages of Pope Francis now, nor in the lengthy exhortation of St. John Paul II back in 2003. Unity among bishops is vital. That was certainly on the minds of the American prelates in Chicago this past week. How they answer that question will be evident in the months ahead. Father Raymond J. de Souza is the editor in chief of Convivium magazine. | http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/is-unity-among-bishops-the-most-important-good?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register |
Should South Dakota State Officials Be Allowed to Hire Relatives? | Because newly-sworn-in South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem hired her daughter to work for her administration, some lawmakers in Pierre are looking to block state officials from hiring relatives. Republican State Senator Stace Nelson is the bill's main sponsor. He says after then Governor-Elect Noem announced her daughter was being brought on as a policy analyst, he heard from several "outraged state residents." Nelson's argument is that the hiring of state employees should be based solely on merit, not on - what he calls - "political family power." He says nepotism isn't something that should be brought into state government. Under the bill being proposed by Nelson, all state officials and employees would be banned from serving in a supervisory capacity over relatives including parents, spouses, children, and siblings. A spokeswoman for Governor Noem didn't immediately comment. The 2019 legislative session starts Tuesday, January 8. Source: KSFY TV | http://ksoo.com/should-south-dakota-state-officials-be-allowed-to-hire-relatives/ |
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What was Gabbay doing in Abu Dhabi? | Labor party chairman Avi Gabbay secretly visited Abu Dhabi in early December 2018 and met with senior government officials in the United Arab Emirates, Channel 10 News reported on Monday. According to the report, Gabbay arrived in Abu Dhabi on December 2 on a commercial flight via Amman and was accompanied by former journalist Henrique Cymerman, who is running in the primaries for the Labor party's Knesset list. Gabbay and Cymermans visit to Abu Dhabi was organized through a third party that is close to senior UAE officials. Gabbay reportedly met with three senior officials in the UAE government. The topics discussed by Gabbay in his talks in Abu Dhabi included the Israeli-Palestinian Arab conflict, US President Donald Trump's peace plan, and the Arab peace initiative. Other issues discussed in Abu Dhabi were the Iranian threat and the political situation in Israel. During his stay in Abu Dhabi, Gabbay was provided with security by the local security services. Gabbay returned to Israel on December 4 and immediately afterwards briefed Mossad Director Yossi Cohen on his talks with senior officials in the United Arab Emirates. It was also reported that Gabbays secret trip to the UAE was part of a series of political meetings he held in the past year with senior figures in the Arab world, only some of which have been made public. The Labor chairman's office said in response, "We will not respond to the report. Gabbay is very much engaged in the diplomatic issue and has a detailed plan for renewing the negotiations on the basis of a series of confidence-building measures, both with the Palestinians and with other Arab countries." | http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/257314 |
Is It Morning in Lane County? | In a room mostly filled with public officials, Lane County governments makeup shifted with the swearing-in of commissioners Joe Berney and Heather Buch. Although Buch and Berney represent a change in the board, re-elected commissioner Jay Bozievich said in his State of the County address that the county has been making big strides since the first time he was sworn in in 2011 and made a 20 percent budget cut. Buch said in her inaugural speech that she hopes that more women will get active in politics, a statement that brought out applause from the audience. Diversity and inclusivity brings depth to our community and should be reflected among our elected offices. Many times, women need to be asked several times before they run for office. I had to be asked before Im standing here today, she said. To all the fantastic women of Lane County, I ask you to consider running for office. Berneys inaugural speech aligned himself to governing in an inclusive manner even if it results in suffering the wrath from the powerful few, he said. His speech brought out a positive response from the crowd including loud shouts of yes from Springfield Councilor Sheri Moore. Berneys speech focused on his dedication to improving the lives of working families in the county. Oregons wages are lower than the national average. Lane Countys wages are lower than the state average, he said. I will work to move money in ways that actually reach pockets of Lane County residents. When I make mistakes, I will err on the side of hard-working families, seniors and those on the margins who suffer silently and without influence. On the side of sustaining our environment so it can sustain us and be enjoyed by future generations. He added: I will err on the side of health and wellbeing for the many over yet greater wealth for the few. After he said that, applause exploded in support of Berneys statements. I ran to keep more of our money circulating right here, not on Wall Street or out of state contractors, he said. For building up our people and our local business. For a county commitment to clean energy. For robust, diversified economic growth. For more hosing thats more affordable for more of us. Bozievich told a story of a county that has vastly improved since the Great Recession of 2008. Today, the county has been recognized for being a top-rated healthiest employer, he said. The countys financial staff relied on input from auditors and bond rating agencies to use one-time revenue to pay off its debt. Now the county has the highest Moodys bond rating in the countys history. Bozievich said the county was once in threat of a financial collapse. Yet, with goals and priorities developed by community members and outside experts, he said the county is on track to meet encounter challenges and serve its residents. He added that the county and the city of Eugene hired outside experts, who then interviewed stakeholders, to provide input on how the county can eradicate homelessness in the area through establishing affordable housing. That way, he said, there wont be a need for Egan Warming Center. The county has to address another problem: its ailing courthouse. The courthouses problems were presented in a highly polished video that featured Judge Debra Vogts testimony on the state of the courthouse. According to the video, some of the problems of the courthouse include frequent maintenance issues, a building that isnt accessible for people with special needs and a lack of space for judicial procedures. Raw sewage is one of those recurring maintenance problems, which saturates the courthouses office spaces and even seeps into the evidence room sometimes. To have a five-minute private session with ones lawyer also requires shutting down the court for 45 minutes, Vogt added in the video. Boziviech said that the county contacted national experts, who then talked with community members, to determine how to develop a courthouse that has maximum efficiency. Tomorrow will be the first Board of Commissioners meeting that will have Berney and Buch in their official roles. | https://eugeneweekly.com/2019/01/07/is-it-morning-in-lane-county/ |
Will Tiger Woods Win A Major In 2019? | By Lewis Blain. The return of the Tiger in 2018 was not only fruitful for the man himself after he picked up his first victory since 2013, but also for the world of golf. Walking up the 18th at East Lake, in his iconic Sunday red, a stampede of raucous golf fans were going berserk at what they were witnessing. There were rows, and rows, and rows of fans quite rightly too all eager to get the slightest glimpse of Woods astonishing feat. In reality, it had been coming. He began 2018 with a trio of top-12 finishes including a tie-for-second at the Valspar Championship. He was then T6th at The 147th Open Championship after leading late Sunday afternoon, and runner-up to the superb Brooks Koepka at Bellerive in the USPGA Championship. He only missed the cut twice in 19 tournaments, one of which was in the US Open at the controversial Shinnecock Hills it wasnt to everybodys liking. He made a top-20 finish in just over 50% of his events all just 13 months after he was allowed to start chipping and putting again, following his spinal fusion surgery. It breeds further cause for increased optimism that Woods can go one step further and win his first major since the 2008 US Open. Related: Tiger Woods Net Worth Rises To $800m One factor in his favour is that he has played AND won on three of the four major venues on the calendar this year. His first ever major victory came at Augusta National in 1997 at the age of 21, breaking multiple records. Not only becoming the youngest ever winner of the Masters (at the time) but also breaking the records for winning margin (12 strokes) and winning score (18-under-par). Woods also went on to win the Masters back-to-back in 2001 and 2002 before beating Chris DiMarco in a sudden death play-off in 2005 to record a fourth green jacket. Bethpage Black is the host of this years USPGA Championship, where it will host a Major for the third time. Its another venue the 43-year-old has won at too. In the 2002 US Open, a particularly tough scoring tournament, Woods finished as the only player with a score under par to win. He was then T6th at the 2009 US Open, four back of Lucas Glover. | https://www.golf-monthly.co.uk/features/the-game/will-tiger-woods-win-major-2019-171343 |
What does 2019 hold for Kim Jong-un and North Korea? | Kim Jong-un goes into 2019 with diplomatic momentum to build on after last years historic meeting with the US president, Donald Trump. As Kim attempts to negotiate a fresh summit, the Guardians Tania Branigan looks at his leadership so far and Emma Graham-Harrison describes a rare trip to Pyongyang and the humanitarian conditions for ordinary North Koreans. Plus: Catherine Shoard, at the start of the annual film awards season, argues prizes are not necessarily a mark of quality Donald Trump has revealed that negotiations are underway to secure a location for a new summit with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, after the historic meeting between the two men in Singapore last year. It came after Kim warned in a New Years speech that Pyongyang may change its approach to nuclear talks if Washington persisted with sanctions. The Guardians leader writer Tania Branigan has been reporting on North Korea for many years but says that very little is known about Kim Jong-un as he faces what could be a critical year in his leadership. One false move or a misunderstanding in the nuclear talks could prove disastrous. The Guardian and Observers Emma Graham-Harrison visited Pyongyang on an organised press trip in 2018 and describes a city in which wary citizens were watched everywhere they went in scenes reminiscent of George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four. Also today: the Guardians film editor Catherine Shoard argues that as we enter Hollywoods award season, a lack of artistic quality will be no barrier to winning the big prizes. | https://www.theguardian.com/world/audio/2019/jan/08/what-does-2019-hold-for-kim-jong-un-and-north-korea-podcast |
Are these the 20 best British games? | As part of a Brit flavoured week of content we wanted a celebration of iconic UK games. After a host of rows within the team we decided to make it the problem of veteran game journalist Adam Hartley. We know lots of you will not agree with the list - so we're dying to hear your angry arguments about whythe likes of Cannon Fodder, Micro Machines or LEGO Star Wars should have made the grade. What follows is a list of what some would suggest are the top 20 Britsoft games of all time, the result of (often heated) conversations with developers, veteran gaming journalists and the true hardcore fraternity in the office. So many of the devs, publishing execs and games writers we quizzed about their favorite Britsoft titles responded with the same basic question: "where the hell to begin?" "This is actually quite a tricky one to answer, as I've got many favourite games of all time, just as I have favourite albums of all time," explained Stewart Gilray, CEO of Just Add Water. "Games are almost a 'soundtrack to my life' - so going back to the 80s, it was Brian Bloodaxe on the ZX Spectrum, in the early 90s it was Eliminator, by John M Philips on the Atari ST. Then in the mid 00's it was Grand Theft Auto IV on the PS3. So it's not an easy answer to give." Jamie Sefton, ex-editor of PC Zone and now Managing Director at Game Republic echoed the same sentiment, telling us that it was "so difficult to choose so many great British games are worthy of the top 20. "I was obsessed with the brilliant open-world Elite on the BBC Micro in the 1980s, and fell in love with Rare's GoldenEye and Banjo Kazooie in the 1990s. However, I still play Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto III now a satirical, funny, violent, addictive masterpiece." And with that, we begin our journey through what may very well be the top 20 British games of all time. Elite Elite - Braben and Bell's literal game-changer Elite first appeared on the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron back in 1984, justifying the purchase of these costly brown boxes for a generation of lucky young boys. "Elite was a truly brilliant game by David Braben and Ian Bell which showed that games could take place in a sandbox world," recalls TIGA CEO Dr Richard Wilson. "A deep slice of space exploration that remains an undoubted classic." "David Braben and Ian Bell took the themes of the 1974 classic Star Trader, where you trade stuff as you voyage between planets, stars and galaxies, and turned it into probably the most influential British videogame of all time," adds Automata founder Mel Croucher. "The use of 3D wire-frame graphics for the spaceship was the first rung on the ladder to all today's eye-melting, ultra-realistic graphics. For that alone, Britain can claim to have invented modern videogaming, but there's more. Elite saw the first dedicated launch event, which took place at Thorpe Park and was organised chaos on a grand scale!" Elite was also one of the first games to feature a special edition package, with a fan novella called The Dark Wheel. The game sold over half a million copies, which might not sound like a great deal now, but was completely unheard of back then. "Yet despite all these achievements, Elite tops our list of great British video games simply because it generated a planet named Arse," laughs Croucher! Mark Baldwin, Community Manager at New Star Games and a Britsoft veteran of 16 years standing adds: "It's really only since I became a community manager that I realised what a massive impact certain British brands have had and still have on people and how culturally important they are to us. "Elite was a game that just blew you away with the possibilities, nothing else had come close to allowing so much freedom in a game," adds Baldwin. "You really could play it how you liked and it was a game without a defined story or ending and that's what made it stand out at the time and it's what so many games aspire to these days. "Not many games give you the same sense of wonder that Elite gave you and I just hope that the new kickstarter project lives up to the huge expectations. I think games like Minecraft follow this great rule of creating a universe that is fun to be in and then let the player entertain themselves, you don't need to get all hung up on crafting a brilliant story, just create something where the player can get lost in their own stories and that's why I love Elite." It is the fact that Elite actually broke a lot of modern day games design rules that still amazes Phil Gaskell, Creative Director of Ripstone. "The game begins incredibly hard, forcing you to manually dock into space stations by matching their rotation. Slog away shifting minerals and luxury items (or be a naughty boy and trade in slaves and narcotics) and you soon afford enough credits to buy a docking computer. Suddenly life is so much easier! Modern games wouldn't have allowed this early difficulty spike yet it didn't affect the popularity of the game one iota!" Grand Theft Auto GTA - a gaming goliath Controversy ahoy! GTA extended sandbox gameplay massively in a compelling way. Everybody that plays games has their favourite GTA title and moment. If you don't, then you are nothing more than a casual gamer. Fact. "GTA is an amazing series and it just keeps getting better," says TIGA's Richard Wilson. "People used to dream of this kind of stuff but GTA III made it reality. It's gritty, but it's also tongue-in-cheek and it's about as good a commentary on American life as any other form of media." "I purchased my first ever 3D card for my PC (a Voodoo 3DFX card) just to play this game in its fully rendered top down glory," adds Phil Gaskell, Creative Director of Ripstone. "More than 15 years later and I'm still giddy at the thought of GTA V coming out. It's one of those games that clearly has a lot of love and attention spent on it. Dan and Sam Houser's direction and passion for the game is always evident, as is their wicked sense of humour. "Top Brits Ricky Gervais, Phil Collins, and even Shaun Ryder have all lent their voices to the game. So it's powerfully motivating to know that it was made in Britain, continues to break all sales records on launch, and still drives US lawyer Jack Thompson crazy!" | https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/gaming/are-these-the-20-best-british-games-1167179 |
Why was Anthony Scaramucci at the Golden Globes? | Perhaps the unlikeliest face to turn up on the Golden Globes red carpet on Sunday night was Anthony Scaramucci. The Former White House Director of Communications turned up to the Hollywood event with his wife, Deirdre Ball, and posed for photographers before heading into the show. Though the 55-year-old did, technically, have a short-lived career that put him on TV, his presence at the star-studded award show left quite a few people scratching their heads and wondering how, exactly, he got invited in the first place. Scroll down for video Surprise! Anthony Scaramucci, 55, attended the Golden Globes with his wife Deirdre Ball Oh! The former White House Director of Communications was invited by a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, who met him at another event Way to celebrate: He was also celebrating his birthday, which he and his wife talked up quite a bit on social media Scaramucci got all dolled up for the occasion, getting a pedicure earlier in the day and dressing up in a tuxedo. In a video he shared on Twitter, he talked quite a bit about how it was also his birthday that day, admitting, 'I'm 55, I got myself a spray tan before the Golden Globes.' His wife Deirdre, with whom he has reconciled since she filed for divorce in 2017, wore a ruffled black gown to accompany him. According to his publicist Howard Bragman, Scaramucci was actually invited, though not because he is looking to pursue any Hollywood aspirations. According to The Washington Post, Scaramucci gave a speech in Los Angeles a few weeks ago and a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association who was in the audience invited him. Mingling: Henry Winkler stopped to take a photo with the couple on the red carpet If you say so... Scaramucci said his wife was getting 'the stank eye from some of these people because of the beautiful dress' 'He had no real purpose there,' Bragman said.. 'He said he hadnt really watched any of the movies. He was like "Ive watched Frozen like 48 times with my kids."' They mingled with stars on the red carpet, snapping photos with Henry Winkler and author Doris Kearns Goodwin. Before the show started, they socialized in the lounge, where Scaramucci uploaded another video. 'My wife's gettin' the stank eye from some of these people because of the beautiful dress,' he said, before abruptly switching topics. 'I want to thank all my liberal friends. I'd like to thank the Academy for not taking all of their Trump hatred out on me personally,' he went on. Primping: He got a spray tan for the event, and earlier in the day his wife shared a photo of him getting a pedicure So fast: Scaramucci spent just ten days in his role at the White House Later, when talking about the Golden Globes, his wife joked about her husband's fondness for large breasts. 'The Mooch likes globes. I don't have globes...' she said. 'You have globes, you just have them behind you,' he replied. Oh, my butt,' she answered, laughing. Later, the pair attended several after-parties, including one hosted by HBO. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6566435/Why-Anthony-Scaramucci-Golden-Globes.html |
Is Karl Stefanovic heading into the jungle for I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here? | While it's likely his Channel Nine contract prohibits him from working for another network, Channel 10 dropped several cheeky hints this week that the former Today host could be making a surprise appearance in the jungle. In a video shared to the show's Instagram account on Monday, a series of unidentified celebrity campers teased who they could be - and several of the clues appeared to be sly references to Karl, 44. On Monday, Channel 10 dropped several clues hinting the sacked Today host could appear on I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! One mystery male contestant said, 'You've woken up with me on many occasions,' a clear nod to the Today show's tagline, 'I wake up with Today'. Another man said, 'I was recently in newspapers celebrating quite a large moment in my life, which seemed to be a reference to Karl's wedding to Jasmine Yarbrough. And in the most telling clue, a male voice said: 'I was last in the news just before Christmas with a lot of speculation over which direction I might be going.' Karl, of course, was sacked from Today 'just before Christmas', on December 19. Hint, hint! In a video shared to Instagram on Monday, a series of unidentified celebrity campers teased who they could be - and several of the clues appeared to be sly references to Karl. Pictured: Karl with Jasmine Yarbrough on their wedding day in Mexico on December 8 While fans would no doubt love to watch Karl roughing it in the South African jungle, it seems Channel 10 may just be having a little fun at Karl's expense. The 2011 Gold Logie winner remains under contract with the Nine Network and is scheduled to resume filming season two of This Time Next Year in February. It comes after a Channel 10 spokesperson mocked Karl last month following his axing from the Today show. Dumped: Karl is being replaced on the Today show by Deborah Knight (left), who will co-anchor the program with Georgie Gardner (right) from January 14 The representative said 10 News First had no interest in hiring the veteran journalist, but suggested he audition for one of the network's reality TV shows instead. 'Obviously Karl is no longer available for The Bachelor, but if he wants to go to the jungle, put on his dancing shoes or strap on a MasterChef apron, he knows where to find us,' they said. Karl is being replaced on the Today show by Deborah Knight, who will co-anchor the program with Georgie Gardner from January 14. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6566763/Is-Karl-Stefanovic-heading-jungle-Im-Celebrity-Here.html |
Is the wall worth a government shutdown? | President Trump said on Monday he will address American citizens from the White House Tuesday night on what he called the crisis at the Mexican border. His aides said later this week he would travel to the border in his campaign to convince Americans that the nation needs a wall. That wall, and the $5.6 billion the president is seeking from the House of Representatives to fund part of it, is the sticking point in talks with the new Democratic House majority that caused a government shutdown coming up on three weeks ago. Though there have been talks, there has been little progress between congressional Democrats and the president. The partial government shutdown is the second longest in U.S. history. It affects about 800,000 employees of the federal government, many of whom will not get paid this week. Nancy Pelosi, the San Francisco congresswoman who is again speaker of the House, says bluntly that as far as she and her team are concerned, Trump is not going to get a wall out of negotiations with the Democrats. The president has said he could wait months or even years to get his wall funded. Email your thoughts to [email protected]. Please include your full name and city or community of residence. Provide a daytime phone number (it will not be published). | https://www.ocregister.com/2019/01/07/is-the-wall-worth-a-government-shutdown/ |
Are Our Vanderpump Friends Truly Learning and Growing? | Its my birthday. One day youre young with your whole life ahead of you, then you close your eyes and its already time for the Yulin Dog Festival and Stassis (fucking) birthday. Our youth! Since Katies ultimatum led to James Kennedys firing on the last episode, he has shockingly remained fired (for now). Still, hes not going to miss the dog event, obviously. (Its Lisa Vanderpumps annual event to spread awareness of and support legislation against the Yulin Dog Festival, a festival in southern China during which dog meat is eaten.) Why would he! They were offering free professional photos of you looking hot making a kiss face next to your dog. I wouldnt miss that even if Id just been fired. Scheana did not miss the dog event, either, though she had to skip out early for a happy hour date with the pretty human SURver doll Adam. You seem taller today. Or maybe Im just, like, extra short, she said to him, alluringly, as they walked into the dog event. Ooh lala. I dont know how Adam could resist the montage of horrifying come-ons Scheana lobbed at him while he put together her day bed in a later scene, come-ons that were expertly strung together by Vanderpump Rules brilliantly cruel editors. (Can you only sleep on it in the daytime? Adam asked of the daybed with a smile, laughing to himself at his clever joke. We can try it out , purred Scheana. Oh yeah? said Adam, visibly uncomfortable. Im gonna take a shower youre welcome to join me, said Scheana. Oh yeah? said Adam, visibly uncomfortable. [Scheana massaging Adams shoulders.] [Adam uncomfortable.] Speaking of James, (earlier) Lisa had a discussion with his mom (a friend of Lisas), who begged her, in a way that was genuinely heartbreaking, to give James his DJ night back. Lisa stood her ground, but agreed to look out for him, stopping by his apartment in a later scene to tell him that she wont give up on him. I do hope James sorts himself out. Hmm. Lala and Brittany got butt facials. Lala was like, Brittany, Sandoval said that he thinks Jax will maybe go back to cheating on you after the shock of his father dying wears off. Everyone watching was like, Yeah, he definitely will. Brittany was like, Heee saayyd whuut? Then later, while getting ready for Stassi and Arianas birthday party, Brittany told Jax what Sandoval said, and she didnt have any makeup on yet and she looked so beautiful, with her lovely freckles on full display: Photo: Bravo I love your freckles, Brittany! Blah, blah, Jax confronted Sandoval about it at the party but its fine, they did a shot together, who cares. Now: the party. Its Stassis fucking birthday, and she and Ariana are co-headlining. My, I love to watch my friends grow on Vanderpump Rules. Truly! The party is winter themed and all of the girls (and Sandoval) decided to look extremely insane for the occasion. Icy makeup crazy contacts all manner of cape. Sandoval had a silver headpiece that, of course, was custom-made for the event. Very little drama occurred at the birthday, save for the drama surrounding Jamess girlfriend, who is dying for a more substantial identifier, Raquel. Shes here to be on the show, hello. There was some sort of anger regarding Jamess firing, but it blew over relatively quickly. It seems our friends really are growing. Stassi did manage to get in one birthday meltdown, however, though this one felt a bit more invasive than they have in the past. Please leave her alone; she is not in her right mind. She was mad at Beau because she wanted to go to bed, he was still at the party, and he wouldnt pick up his phone. But the fight will lead us, next week, to that dick-punch my heart line, so at least it was not for naught. Okay. C U then! | https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/vanderpump-rules-recap-season-7-episode-5.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-part |
Will shakeup in race to lead Californias GOP push party closer to Trump? | A big tent candidates withdrawal from the race to be chairman of the California Republican Party is widely seen as a lift for rivals who would try to rebuild the state GOP in the image of President Trump. It might not work out that way, exactly. But David Hadleys decision to quit his campaign to lead the struggling state party does shake up the contest, in which Trump supporters Travis Allen and Steve Frank are the only other declared candidates so far. Hadley, the California GOP vice chairman and former Assembly member from Torrance, announced late Sunday that he no longer thinks he can win while still running a campaign to unify the delegates and walk forward together after the convention. The vote for a successor to retiring chairman Jim Brulte of Fontana is scheduled to be taken Feb. 24 among delegates to the state Republican convention in Sacramento. Hadley said he plans to continue to express his view to delegates. To be blunt, I have seen zero sign to date that the other chair candidates understand the magnitude of our challenges or the steps needed to rebuild the GOPs fortunes in California, Hadley wrote. Perhaps my emails will have more impact on delegates when they are not part of a campaign for party office. Hadley did not return a phone call seeking further comment. Since declaring in 2016 that he wouldnt vote for either Trump or Democrat Hillary Clinton, Hadley was seen by many as a voice of Republicans who believe the party must change its message to appeal to Latinos and other growing minority groups, particularly in California. The question now might be how many moderates are left among party activists. Observers said one possibility is that Hadleys departure raises the chances of Republican delegates choosing a pro-Trump chairman: Allen, who represented the Huntington Beach area for six years in the Assembly before running for governor and finishing fourth in the June 2018 primary, or Frank, a political newsletter publisher from Simi Valley who wants the party to tout what he views as the Trump administrations economic successes. Another possibility, observers said, is that Hadleys withdrawal opens the door for another candidate or other candidates to enter the chair race. Political consultant Joe Justin tweeted praise Monday for Jessica Patterson, a Simi Valley resident who is CEO of California Trailblazers, which recruits and trains Republican candidates for state legislative offices. Patterson did not respond immediately to an email seeking comment. The Feb. 24 vote, observers said, could hinge less on policy ideas than on chair candidates talents for organizing. Some in the party think the California GOP did so badly in 2018 partly because Democrats were quicker to take advantage of election rules. That included Democrats better use of newly legal tactics such as harvesting of mail-in ballots. But whoever becomes state GOP chair will have to confront the reality that the party has been on the decline in California for many years. Last year, Republican Party registration slipped to No. 3 statewide, with 24 percent of the electorate, trailing both the Democrats, at 43.5 percent, and No Party Preference, at 27.5 percent. In November, when Republican candidates were shut out of statewide offices, it was the third consecutive election to produce that result. Also, Democrats gained two-thirds super-majorities in both houses of the Legislature. No GOP presidential candidate has carried California since George H.W. Bush in 1988. Trump received only 31.6 percent of the vote in the state in 2016. | https://www.whittierdailynews.com/2019/01/07/will-shakeup-in-race-to-lead-californias-gop-push-party-closer-to-trump/ |
Whats in store for the rupee in the new year? | The rupee performed the worst among Asian currencies in eight years and was down 8.46% in 2018. Analysts say fundamentals will aid the rupee this year. According to analysts at Standard Chartered Bank, the rupee will have enough support over the next 6-12 months. Attractive real yields (net of inflation), growth momentum and robust FX reserves of $394 billion and dollar stabilization are likely to be positive for the rupee, while lower global growth and trade will eventually impact the US economy and asset markets, causing the US Federal Reserve to slow the pace of rate hikes, the analysts said. The dollar is expected to stabilize as interest rate differentials between the US and the rest of the world peak. The rupee performed the worst among Asian currencies in eight years and was down 8.46% in 2018. In 2011, it was down 15.8%. The US Federal Reserves interest rate hikes and a robust US economy strengthened the Dollar Index in 2018, leading to a breakdown in emerging market currencies, including the rupee, which reached a record low of 74.48 against the greenback on 11 October. Between 2011 and 2018, the rupee depreciated 36% and has been weakening every year, except in 2017. It appreciated nearly 6.34% in 2017, the biggest yearly jump since 2007. Bond yields and rupee move in opposite directions. The sharp fall in the rupee, combined with high crude prices, led to concerns about high inflation and fiscal and current account deficits. However, a plunge in crude prices helped it gain some lost ground. The rupees decline was largely in line with the trend across emerging market (EM) currencies. Most of them depreciated between 2011 and 2018. The rupiah fell around 38%, the yen 26.64%, the ringgit 25.48% and the peso 16.7%. The baht (down 7.64%) and the Taiwanese dollar (down 4.43%) weakened the least. The yuan, which is closely managed, is excluded from comparison. Over the eight years, the Dollar Index, which measures the dollar against a basket of trade weighted currencies, has gained 22.4%. The US-China trade spat and Brexit developments might hamper the outlook for Asian forex as well as global forex pace and risk sentiment, said Sajal Gupta, head, forex and rates, Edelweiss Securities. The rupee is not likely to be insulated and will follow EM forex in this regard. Fed policy, crude price movement, policy stance by the Reserve Bank of India, the governments borrowing programme, inflation trajectory and the results of the Lok Sabha polls will be important indicators for the rupee and bond markets. | https://www.livemint.com/Money/JvuWzRV46psdCeReyKRodI/Whats-in-store-for-the-rupee-in-the-new-year.html |
Is P.J. Fleck about to lose his offensive coordinator to West Virginia? | Gophers offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca could be on the move. The 247Sports.afilliate Eer Sports, reported Monday that new West Virginia coach Neal Brown is in the process of adding Ciarrocca to his coaching staff. But the Star Tribune reported a source close to the situation said that no decision has been made regarding Ciarrocca. Ciarrocca has served as the Gophers offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach since P.J. Fleck was hired in 2017. Ciarrocca has worked with Fleck since 2010, when they were at Rutgers. Ciarrocca was offensive coordinator at the time and Fleck was the receivers coach. Fleck hired Ciarrocca to be on his coaching staff when he got the Western Michigan job in 2013. The Gophers averaged 28.9 points per game this season en route to a 7-6 finish that included a 34-10 victory over Georgia Tech in the Quick Lane Bowl. The Gophers went 3-1 in their final four games of the season, scoring 41 points in a victory over Purdue and 37 in a win over Wisconsin in Madison. The Gophers used two freshmen quarterback this season. Zack Annexstad started the first seven games of the season before suffering an injury. Tanner Morgan, a redshirt, started the final six games. While it is uncertain if Ciarrocca will depart, Yahoo Sports reported that Gophers defensive line coach Marcus West is set to become defensive coordinator, assistant head coach and defensive line coach at Charlotte. | http://www.1500espn.com/news/2019/01/p-j-fleck-lose-offensive-coordinator-west-virginia/ |
Why Are So Many Universal Life Insurance Policies Failing? | Commentary Traditional, nonguaranteed universal life insurance (often described in the insurance industry as current assumption UL) has been subjected to rather brutal criticism over the past few years. It most recently came into the news in a September Wall Street Journal article that blamed the product for the financial hardship being experienced late in life by many policy owners who purchased this coverage in the 1980s and 1990s. Current assumption UL is a flexible premium permanent life insurance product that contains both an insurance component and an investment component. Like other permanent life insurance products, premiums are deposited in the policys cash account, which is reduced by policy charges and increased by a crediting methodology set forth under the terms of the policy. Here is what differentiates a current assumption UL policy from other types of nonguaranteed permanent life insurance. In current assumption UL, the growth of the policys cash value is based on a flat crediting rate that is established by the insurance carrier and adjusted from time to time. In comparison, whole lifes policy cash value growth is based on a flat dividend rate that is established by the insurance carrier and adjusted from time to time. Indexed universal lifes policy cash value growth is based on the performance of an equity index that is collared by a cap and a floor. The cash value growth in a variable universal life policy is based on the actual investment returns of specific equity investments. Projections of current assumption UL policy performance are based on the forecasting of two variables: annual policy charges and the insurance companys crediting rate. Many life insurance policies provide that the carrier may increase policy charges under specified circumstances (generally defined broadly by reference to the companys expectations regarding future mortality, expense and persistency experience). However, this discretion is very rarely exercised and annual policy charges rarely deviate from schedule set forth at the time a policy is issued. In contrast, the crediting rate, which is tied to the interest rate that the insurance carrier is able to earn on its portfolio of fixed income investments, changes regularly. As interest rates change up or down, crediting rates on current assumption UL policies tend to follow suit. For those whose current assumption UL policies have been dramatically underperforming, the primary source of the problem is that nobody has been monitoring the crediting rate changes and adjusting their annual premiums accordingly. Understanding Policy Illustrations When a current assumption UL policy is issued, an illustration is run to project how the policy will perform under the assumption that scheduled policy charges are not changed, and that the then-current crediting rate remains constant. Its an imperfect system, but without the benefit of a crystal ball that can accurately predict future interest rate changes, its at least a good place to start. Its also important to recognize that the amount of death benefit paid to the beneficiary under most permanent life insurance products is a level death benefit that doesnt vary based on the cash value of the policy. What that means is that as the policy builds cash value, the amount of pure life insurance protection that needs to be purchased to produce the policys death benefit gets smaller. This reduces policy charges (which, after the first few years, are based largely on the difference between the policys death benefit and the policys cash value) and accelerates the buildup of policy cash value. As a general rule, current assumption UL illustrations are intentionally designed to calculate the minimum annual premium necessary in order to keep the policy in force indefinitely (typically age 100, although policies are sometimes run to age 121). This approach to policy design is a big part of what differentiates universal life insurance from the primary alternative in the permanent life insurance arena: whole life. Whereas whole life policies operate somewhat like a sinking fund, with noticeably higher premiums that result in greater cash value but also reduce the policys economic yield, universal life policies are typically structured to be cost-efficient and maximize the rate of return that is ultimately realized on each dollar of premium. The theory behind minimally funding current assumption UL policies is that every additional dollar that doesnt have to be used to pay premiums is a dollar (plus any future earnings on that dollar) that the insureds beneficiaries will receive in addition to the insurance policys death benefit. This approach may seem risky given the uncertainty surrounding future crediting rate changes. However, it actually works quite well as long as policyholders and their insurance advisors actively monitor policy performance and adjust premium levels whenever there is a change in crediting rates. Crediting Rate Impact To illustrate this point: A 50-year-old man in preferred health can purchase a $1 million current assumption UL policy for an annual premium of $8,808 per year, based on the insurance carriers current crediting rate of 3.9 percent. If the crediting rate were to stay level at 3.9 percent, with no changes in scheduled policy charges, the policys cash value would gradually rise up to a peak value of just under $79,000 at age 70, and then gradually diminish a little bit each year until falling to only $9 of cash value at age 100. Everything works out exactly as illustrated as long as the crediting rate stays at 3.9 percent. If the crediting rate falls, absent an adjustment of the premium, the cash value will build more slowly, peak sooner than age 70, and drop to zero before the insured reaches age 100 (at which point, the policy will lapse). If the crediting rate rises, then (again, absent an adjustment of premium) the cash value will build more rapidly, peak later than age 70, and (depending upon the magnitude of the rate increase) its possible that the cash value may never peak at all and could continue to gradually rise. Having excess cash value may seem like a great result (and certainly better than watching the policy run out of money and lapse). However, continuing to pay the same level premium into a policy thats outperforming expectations is less economically efficient and will ultimately result in fewer total dollars passing to beneficiaries because those extra premium dollars will not increase the policys death benefit. Managing Policies Efficiently And Effectively The real lesson here is that current assumption UL policies require constant monitoring, and periodic adjustment, in order to enable them to perform as intended to provide a death benefit as cost-efficiently as possible in order to maximize ones return on premium dollars. Modifying the premium (up or down, as applicable) whenever the crediting rate changes will keep policies operating at peak efficiency while avoiding nightmare scenarios where policies are allowed to become so dramatically underfunded that policy owners can no longer afford to get them back on track when they recognize theres a problem many years later. Policy owners who purchased their coverage in the 1980s and 1990s were never promised that policy returns in the high single digits and above would continue indefinitely. To the extent that some policy owners believed that they were promised such returns, it should reflect poorly not on the underlying insurance product. Instead, it should reflect on the insurance advisor who failed to properly explain the product and then subsequently failed to help ensure that the policy was adequately maintained. This also highlights the importance of conducting a thorough suitability analysis to ensure that policyholders will still have the financial ability to maintain their policies in adverse crediting rate environments. A consumer should never purchase a minimally funded current assumption UL policy that already requires the maximum premium theyre able to afford. Maybe, depending upon the degree of underfunding and how much additional cash the policy owner is willing and able to commit to reviving the policy. Its also possible that it may not make economic sense to revive the policy, even if the policy owner can afford to do so. For someone in this situation, the best approach is to have an experienced, independent insurance professional review the policy to determine what options are available. Paying additional premiums is one possible solution, but it may also make sense to consider alternatives such as reducing the death benefit, exchanging the policy for a different product or selling the policy in a life settlement. Jordan Smith, JD, LLM, is the vice president of advanced design at Schechter, a boutique financial services firm in Birmingham, Mich. Jordan may be contacted at [email protected] [email protected] | https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/why-are-so-many-universal-life-insurance-policies-failing |
Can Trump emergency turn border wall into military construction project? | WASHINGTON The Trump administration is weighing using a national emergency declaration to circumvent Congress and the budget stalemate and force construction of the presidents long-promised southern border wall. "We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency," President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday amid stalled negotiations. He said during a press conference Friday that he would prefer to win the money he's demanding via Congress, but could "absolutely" call an emergency "and build it very quickly." Such a move would be a dramatic escalation of the current showdown, which has forced a partial government shutdown thats now in its third week. The administration has spent months trying to figure out how the president might be able to move forward with the wall the central promise of his 2016 campaign if Congress refuses to give him the money. As early as last March, Trump was publicly floating the idea of using the military for the task. "Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!" he tweeted then. But it's Congress not the president that controls the country's purse strings and must appropriate money he wants to spend. Fear no longer. Be the first to hear about breaking news, as it happens. You'll get alerts delivered directly to your inbox each time something noteworthy happens in the Military community. Thanks for signing up. By giving us your email, you are opting in to our Newsletter: Enter the emergency declaration, an option the White House counsel's office is currently reviewing. Among the laws Trump could turn to is Section 2808 of the Title 10 U.S. Code pertaining to military construction. According to the statute, if the president declares an emergency "that requires use of the armed forces," the Defense Secretary "may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize the Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces." Pentagon budget officials are currently analyzing the 2019 construction budget to determine how many unobligated dollars would be available to use for the wall in the event Trump settles on a declaration. Under the provision, only those construction budget funds that are not already obligated to other construction projects could be used for the wall. There are more than 100 such provisions giving the president access to special powers in emergencies. And Congress has typically afforded the president broad authority to determine what constitutes an emergency and what does not, said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "Absolutely it's an abuse of power for the president to declare a national emergency when none exists and to use it to try to get around the democratic process," she said. "But we are in a situation where our legal system for emergency powers almost invites that kind of abuse." Such a move is sure to spark a flood of legal challenges questioning the president's authority as well as whether the situation at the border really constitutes an emergency. Trump has been trying to press that case in recent days, insisting the situation qualifies as a security and humanitarian "crisis." He'll also run into other questions. "The problem for the Trump administration is that border security is fundamentally a law enforcement issue that does not require the use of the military," said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, via email. "So I think they would be on shaking legal ground trying to use emergency authorities this way, and it is almost certain that they would end up in court." Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be inappropriate for Trump to use Section 2808. "We are not at war with Mexico, and the proposed border wall has no core (Defense Department) function. Indeed, the Pentagon's most recent National Defense Strategy doesn't mention the southern border as a national defense priority," Reed said. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, speaking on CNN, said that even if Trump could declare an emergency, it would be a "huge mistake." "There clearly is no national emergency. But they asked me, 'Can he do it?' Yeah he can. It would be wrong, it would be horrible policy and I'm totally and completely against it. But from a legal standpoint he can do it," Smith said. He and others agreed that any declaration would surely be challenged in court. It's unclear. Back when Trump dispatched active-duty troops to the southern border ahead of the midterm elections in what critics panned as a politically-motivated abuse of power, he described the situation as a "national emergency," but never signed an official proclamation. But Trump is now under growing pressure to find a way to end the shutdown without appearing as though he's caved on the wall. Trump "needs to use every tool available to him as the commander-in-chief of our armed services to go and enforce our laws by putting the military on our southern border, by having them build the wall if they need to," his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski urged on Fox News. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president remains "prepared to do what it takes to protect our borders, to protect the people of this country." "We're looking and exploring every option available that the president has," she said. | https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/01/08/can-trump-emergency-turn-border-wall-into-military-construction-project/ |
Should Graham Mertz Start At Quarterback For The Wisconsin Badgers In 2019? | Graham Mertz should be given every opportunity possible to start for the Wisconsin Badgers at quarterback next season. This past season was a disaster of epic proportions when my Badgers finished 8-5. That will never be acceptable as long as Im alive and supporting the program. Anybody who is being totally honest about the situation will admit the inconsistent quarterback play was a major contributor to losing five games. Yes, I recognize Hornibrook struggled with head injuries, and theres only so much you can do about that. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alex Hornibrook (@alexhornibrook) on Mar 13, 2017 at 5:27pm PDT However, that doesnt excuse the bad play by the redshirt junior and sophomore backup Jack Coan. It was so bad at times, and Badger fans expect better. Thats where freshman recruit and early enrollee Graham Mertz enters the picture. He just lit it up at the All-American Bowl this past weekend. (RELATED: Wisconsin Commit Graham Mertz Sets Touchdown Record In All-American Bowl) The young man absolutely dominated on his way to throwing a record five touchdowns. Blue Valley Norths Graham Mertz had himself a DAY at the All-American Bowl Game record 5 TD passes on just 7 completions Awarded MVP trophy before game even ends Team wins 48-17 Pretty good for a kid from Kansas#CatchItKansas pic.twitter.com/6SDCeTmYkk CatchItKansas (@CatchItKansas) January 5, 2019 Listen and listen carefully because I want to be crystal clear here. Mertz should absolutely be given the opportunity to start week one in 2019. I dont care if Hornibrook is healthy or not. Weve seen all we need to see out of him. His floor and ceiling are pretty established. Mertz has the physical skills to go out there and kill it. Great quarterback play is what separates Wisconsin from teams in that next level. The young gunslinger from Kansas can fix that. It would also turn out that a lot of Wisconsin fans agree with me because Mertz was at the top of a recent poll, which asked who should start next year. David Hookstead (@dhookstead) January 7, 2019 Let Mertz go out there all spring and summer, and let him just sling the ball all over the place. Hes the future and the future should start the moment he puts on the pads for the first time in practice. Get it done, Chryst. Give the state what we desperately want. Follow David Hookstead on Twitter | https://dailycaller.com/2019/01/07/graham-mertz-alex-hornibrook-wisconsin-badgers-quarterback/ |
What awaits the financial sector in 2019? | BANKS BRACE FOR MORE BAD NEWS Commissioner Kenneth Hayne will on February 1 hand down his final recommendations from the financial services royal commission. No one knows what he will recommend but after seven rounds of hearings, thousands of submissions, 134 witnesses, and a scathing interim report the big banks are prepared for the worst. A proposal to break up the big banks could add to the hasty departures, forced refunds, and trimmed executive bonuses seen so far. Westpac, NAB and ANZ will all be at risk of a second strike on executive pay and a board spill, while the fallout of previous misconduct will continue into 2019 with class actions progressing against CBA, AMP and others. POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY Bill Shortens Labor Opposition has a comfortable lead heading into 2019, with business leaders already considering the implications of a change in Federal government. Investors are wary of Labors plan to rein in negative gearing tax breaks and dividend imputation for shares amid a weak market, but a promise to address the gender pay gap and restore penalty rates appears a simple sell. Prime Minister Scott Morrison, meanwhile, says he will deliver an early Budget to allow for a May election, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg already forecasting a surplus of $4.1 billion in mid-2020 the first since John Howard was PM. HOUSING MARKET KEEPS SLIDING A burst housing bubble remains the greatest risk to the nations $1.3 trillion economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, with an already-stagnant property market told to prepare for a hard landing. House prices and auction activity have fallen gradually since late 2017, with Reserve Bank Assistant Governor Christopher Kent blaming unnecessary credit tightening for further threatening activity. Even a surprising jump in housing finance approvals in October was waved away as a dead cat bounce, with the downturn likely to continue into the new year. ECONOMY AND INTEREST RATES Gradually sliding unemployment, and slow climbing inflation, means interest rates are at greater risk of lifting than falling in 2019. The Reserve Bank has already cautioned that cutting rates from an already-historic low of 1.5 per cent will only further fuel a housing debt binge. Some analysts argue a cut could jump-start a stagnant property market, but more say subdued third-quarter growth has pushed back any rate hike to late 2020. Unemployment is expected to continue sliding to 4.75 per cent by 2020, though concerns remain over rates of underemployment and youth unemployment. The benchmark ASX/200 was in August up 5 per cent at a decade high of 6352.24, but reversed gains over a dismal fourth quarter to sit 6.9 per cent down for the year the bourses worst performance since 2011. Analysts forecast market growth to resume in 2019, though the benchmark will have to navigate a slowing global economy, the pressure on the big banks, and likely US-China trade tensions if it is to come out ahead. INTERNATIONAL PRESSURES Even the smallest fluctuation in Sino-US relations has made waves in the global market, with equities and commodities often at the whim of a single President Trump tweet. Late-year tensions between Washington and Beijing fuelled concerns that a new tariff deal on $US200 billion of Chinese imports will not be reached by the March 1 deadline, though a temporary truce in December proved a sugar hit for global stocks. Volatility has resumed as detail proves evasive, while the arrest of the chief financial officer of Chinese smartphone maker Huawei for extradition to the US has not helped either. Expect further fireworks as 2019 gets under way. AAP | https://thewest.com.au/business/economy/what-awaits-the-financial-sector-in-2019-ng-b881066864z |
Why is the Alabama Crimson Tide's mascot an elephant? | Alabama mascot Big Al before the Tennessee game at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, Ala. on Saturday October 21, 2017. (Mickey Welsh / Montgomery Advertiser) (Photo: .) Well, the story goes all the way back to the 1930 National Championship team. Here's the story from Alabama's official website, rolltide.com: On October 8, 1930, sports writer Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal wrote a story of the Alabama-Mississippi game he had witnessed in Tuscaloosa four days earlier. Strupper wrote, "That Alabama team of 1930 is a typical Wade machine, powerful, big, tough, fast, aggressive, well-schooled in fundamentals, and the best blocking team for this early in the season that I have ever seen. When those big brutes hit you I mean you go down and stay down, often for an additional two minutes." LIVE: No. 1 Alabama, No. 4 Oklahoma square off in Orange Bowl for national title bid The team went on to be named National Champions, according to rolltide.com. The 1930 team posted an overall 10-0 record. It shut out eight opponents and allowed only 13 points all season while scoring 217. The "Red Elephants" rolled over Washington State 24-0 in the Rose Bowl and were declared National Champions. Read more Alabama football news: | https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/sports/2018/09/01/why-alabama-football-crimson-tides-mascot-elephant/1178433002/ |
Is Americas future capitalist or socialist? | As 2018 drew to a close, Steve Pearlstein, the Washington Posts Pulitzer Prize-winning business columnist, published a book that wouldve been bizarre only a few years before. and it begins by laying bare the ideological crisis facing the economic system and, just as importantly, the economic philosophy that many Americans take for granted: A decade ago, 80 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that a free market economy is the best system. Today, it is 60 percent, lower than in China. One recent poll found that only 42 percent of millennials supported capitalism. In another, a majority of millennials said they would rather live in a socialist country than a capitalist one. In 2016, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders ran on a platform that many thought wouldve ruined his political chances. He ran as a democratic socialist, disavowing Americas longtime capitalist consensus and proudly wrapping himself in a label pundits considered political poison. And it worked. In American politics, and particularly in the Democratic Party, the primacy of capitalism is, for the first time in ages, an open question. Sanders is expected to run again in 2020, and to run with the support of a grassroots movement that thrills to his break with capitalist convention. I invited Pearlstein to discuss his book, and the broader capitalism vs. socialism divide, with Bhaskar Sunkara, editor of the journal Jacobin, and author of the forthcoming book, The Socialist Manifesto. Their debate follows, lightly edited for style and length, with Sunkara kicking off the conversation. Yours was better, dont worry. But it strikes me as fascinating that capitalism and socialism are back in the popular discussion. You come down firmly on the capitalist side, but see the need for major changes. In your view, old-school liberal models (heavily regulatory, skeptical of consolidation, buttressed by powerful unions that made expansive wage and benefit demands) encouraged stagnation and made American companies less competitive internationally. But the neoliberal correction that came mantras that emphasized that government could do no good, that businesses were bound by no other purpose than maximizing investor returns, and that any market outcome was just was a radical overcorrection. Its helped fuel a backlash that is threatening the foundations of the system itself. Im a socialist, so Im bound to disagree with some of your proposed solutions to the problem: employee profit-sharing, renewed but not stifling regulatory oversight, getting corporate money out of politics. I obviously dont think this goes far enough. However, Im interested in starting this conversation with our different views about the crisis of the 1970s and what drove the shift to supply-side economics. Unlike some liberals, I dont deny that there was actually a crisis in the 1970s: corporations couldnt keep up with militant union demands, the after-effect of the OPEC oil shock, and increased international competition. Profitability sagged. But from your book, I noticed that you have a much bigger role for ideology than I do. In my account, without a broader ideological agenda, capital knew that it had to restructure to restore profitability. It saw regulations and strong unions as impediments to this goal. Neoliberal ideology seems to just follow these developments but not play a very important role in and of itself. I also question whether there was actually a different mentality that pervaded capitalism during the postwar boom years. A CEO like Charles Wilson could say what was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa, but he was responding to the same exact market pressures as CEOs today. The only difference is that he was constrained by unions and a liberal political coalition. Social democracy was always predicated on economic expansion. Expansion gave succor to both the working class and capital. When growth slowed and the demands of workers made deeper inroads into firm profits, business owners rebelled against the class compromise. And they were in the structural position to force their own solutions, even in countries like Sweden where there were experiments with wage-earner funds and other left-solutions to the crisis. It seems to me that the goal isnt to defeat neoliberal ideology, but rather to try to recreate the working-class political movements that help make shared prosperity possible. And that means heightening polarization between working people and corporate interests from the left and trying to build the kind of political movements that might be able to resolve the next crisis of the 1970s in a more radical direction. Steve Pearlstein Actually, we dont disagree much about the genesis of the turn toward more market-friendly policies in the 1980s. I do think there were a set of ideas (as distinct from a well-honed ideology) were part of that transformation, but the driving force was the pressing need to restore the competitiveness of the US economy, that was seriously challenged from Japan and Europe at that time. Ideas are important at such moments because those participating in the policy and political debates need a rationale to convince the country that disruptive change is necessary. That process often involves shedding old ideas that were useful and we thought were true in favor of other ideas that are useful and true. In the political marketplace, ideas matter in terms of the outcome, even if they were not the driving force. Thats different than saying that ideology or some ideological movement played a starring role. So in the book, I lay out several of those ideas and why they are have been pushed so far that they are no longer useful or valid. The first is that greed is good and necessary for the workings of a market system, which now has been codified in the notion that businesses must be run to maximize return to shareholders. The second is that market incomes are an objective measure of each persons economic contribution marginal utility, in the language of economics. The third idea is that we dont need to worry about the level of income inequality because all that really matters, at least in terms of morality and fairness, is equality of opportunity. And the fourth idea is that there is an absolute tradeoff between economic equality and economic efficiency that if we want more equal slices, then we will have to accept the reality that the pie (and thus each slice) will be smaller. These ideas now form the core of what might be called market fundamentalism, and explain why so many of your generation feel that capitalism has lost its moral legitimacy. One theme running through the book is the importance of social norms. Social norms are very powerful in shaping how individuals and businesses behave. And while you apparently resist this idea, norms have changed a lot since the 1950s and 60s. In those days, businesses were indeed run with a broader purpose in mind, and executives who violated those norms were shunned not just by workers or customers or citizens in the local community, but by other executives and financiers. White-shoe law firms and investment banks just didnt do hostile takeovers. Executives didnt pay themselves enormous salaries. Very profitable companies shared those profits with all of their workers. Companies were loyal to their workers and expected loyalty in return. And that was true, by the way, at unionized and non-unionized companies. There was a historical basis for these norms. We had just come out of wartime experience of shared sacrifice in which men of all types served with each other on the battlefield, and women of all types had worked side by side in factories and offices, and many essential goods were rationed equally to each household. This shared experience was based on norms of equality, cooperation, trust. The idea that the only reason executives and businesses behaved in that way was because they were forced to by unions and a liberal political coalition is just wrong, although it is surely true that unions and liberal-minded voters and special interests had a hand in helping to shape those norms. And then norms changed. Well, just look at the #MeToo movement, a wonderful example of a changing social norm. What used to be accepted and tolerated no longer is. This has been a bottom-up process that nobody anticipated and nobody controls. In terms of the power structure, which you like to focus on, very little changed other than public opinion. The language with which you talk about these things, Bhaskar framing things in terms of movements and ideologies and well-defined classes and interests inevitably causes you to see things through a distorting lens. My goal is not to defeat any ideology, neoliberal or otherwise. Nor do I think it necessary to recreate a working-class political movement, which would be hard because, in America, we never really had one in the first place. Our goal should be: Use all the tools available in a democratic society to convince a broad swath of the public frontline workers, middle managers, professionals, executives, academics, journalists that certain types of business behavior are no longer socially acceptable. Unacceptable because they offend our moral sensibilities. Unacceptable because they are economically counterproductive. And unacceptable because they erode the trust and cooperation that are necessary for a successful capitalism, and a successful democracy. Change the social norms in that way and the rules and laws naturally follow. Thats a goal that is more likely to be achieved, and more likely to be effective, than trying to change things by grabbing power and shoving a different set of rules and norms down everyones throats. Bhaskar Sunkara I think were looking far differently at not only how to change whats rotten in the United States today, but also how weve won improvements in the past. You say that our country has never really had a working-class political movement, but we do have a long history of labor turmoil not just on the shopfloor, but wider movements for the eight-hour-day and the mass unionization drives of the 1930s and efforts to expand social protections. It was the power of trade unions and the political culture that emerged out of them that helped ensure that the prosperity of the postwar period was more widely shared. What I have in mind for the future is quite simple: people banding together to defend their common interests through politics. Were just a couple years removed from 13 million Americans voting for a self-described democratic socialist, someone who said that people deserve more than theyre getting and millionaires and billionaires were to blame. Today, most Americans support Medicare-for-all, jobs programs, and other social-democratic policies. As they try to get these things, theyre going to run up against the power of those who benefit from the status quo. Thats not the resistance of social norms, its the resistance of segments of capital its class struggle in the most classical sense. Norms will follow those organizing efforts and conditions on the ground, and help consolidate gains, but I think youre overstating their importance. There are powerful segments of business that existentially oppose things like Medicare-for-all and increased unionization, not as individual traits but to preserve their livelihoods. I dont think the same can be said for #MeToo and other important struggles against sexism. Concretely, I think that means broad-based left electoral campaigns, combined with new trade union organizing efforts in strategically positioned sectors the years wave of teacher strikes, new efforts to rally nurses and those in supply and logistics, for example, and social movements for things like criminal justice, health care, and affordable housing. The words of A. Philip Randolph still seem apt to me: At the banquet table of nature there are no reserved seats. You get what you can take, and you keep what you can hold. If you cant take anything, you wont get anything; and if you cant hold anything, you wont keep anything. Every past advance from the end of slavery to the creation of even our rudimentary welfare state has come through struggle. The world and politics have changed, but I see no reason why the future will be any different. If the left doesnt speak to anger and try to grab power (and by that I mean win a majority) for our agenda, itll only benefit the xenophobes and scaremongers of the right. But I think you are kidding yourself that the forces protecting the status quo are just millionaires and billionaires, and that all the rest of us are victims of the oppressive economic system they have imposed on us, or hoodwinked us into embracing. Thats not to say the special interests, including business interests, dont have disproportionate political and economic power. Of course they do. But there are all sorts of other special interests that I think you would recognize as mostly middle class in nature that have also shaped our system like the ability to buy cheap goods from abroad or subsidies for homeownership. Ours is still a largely middle-class country, with standards of living that are equal to or exceed that of most other countries in the world. And these middle-class Americans wouldnt favor Medicare-for-all, particularly if you explained to them what it would really mean, or 90 percent marginal tax rates on the super-rich, or guaranteed jobs or free public higher education. There is probably a bit more inner socialism the typical American can discover, but not as much as you imagine. Many are as distrustful of government as they are of Wall Street or large corporations. How about lets start with fixing the capitalism we have or as Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales cleverly put it, saving capitalism from the capitalists. As I outlined in the book, I would start by getting money out of politics corporate money but also union money. And ending the stranglehold Wall Street has put on the real economy be demanding companies be run to maximize shareholder value. And more vigorous antitrust enforcement to deal with old-fashioned consolidation and the natural winner-take-all tendencies of the new economy. We need to bring back a serious inheritance tax, a serious and reformed corporate tax and a top marginal income tax of 40 percent. And while we are at it, why not create a new set of financial institutions banks, insurance companies, mutual funds and pension funds that are owned by their customers rather than by shareholders. Even a capitalist can understand the logic of an annual dividend for every American as his or her share of the nations natural and institutional bounty, particularly if it is combined with an obligation for three years of national service (my version of universal basic income). How about ending school segregation by class the way we did with segregation by race, through enlarged school districts, magnet schools, and creative use of school choice. Im all for making it possible once again to organize a union without getting fired or spending the next decade in court, which unfortunately is the current reality. But there may be other, better ways to reinvigorate the union movement and give a bit more power to workers in a post-industrial economy. My guess is that many American workers dont want the kind of union you pine for the ones that undermined the competitive viability of their companies, the ones that rejected all pay for performance schemes and saddled companies with rigid work rules. Maybe in a more professional, service, and tech-oriented economy, people would prefer unions that focused on providing services to their members (pensions, health insurance, legal advice) or providing mechanisms for them to have a greater voice in how their companies are run. You are right that the teacher strikes have been as inspiring as they have been effective, but so has the #MeToo movement, which changed corporate behavior without unions or strikes but through public exposure and moral suasion. The problem with your preferred model of permanent class struggle is that it ignores the importance of social capital the trust in each other and in our common institutions in much the same way that our current version of American capitalism does, with its ruthlessness, its inequality, and its celebration of greed and indifference. Economic and political systems work best when there is a sense of shared purpose, shared sacrifice, and shared success, when people feel as if we are all in it together. But permanent class struggle, I fear, would discourage cooperation and erode trust within firms, within communities, within countries. Bhaskar Sunkara Your reply gets a fundamental difference between us: You seem to think that the state is neutral and simply responds to the demands of different special interests. So in the past, when labor was strong, labor made unreasonable demands on the state and now today big corporations do the same. But even if you took away corporate lobbying and got money out of politics through publicly funded elections and elected figures like Bernie Sanders to high office, the state would still have a built-in bias. It relies on revenue to fund itself, and that revenue comes almost entirely from the activities of private capitalists. As long as capitalists have the power to withhold investment, a minority of people will hold tremendous sway and our democracy will be undermined. No, workers and capitalists are dependent on each other. Workers need their firms to be profitable, and that recognition has always tempered demands. But its an asymmetrical dependency: Workers need their jobs more than capitalists needs any individual worker. Political democracy, won over the wishes of elites, has created avenues to improve the lot of working people through legislation and unions (whose power rests most fundamentally in the ability of people to go on strike and withhold their labor), and thats evened the odds a bit, but that inequality hasnt gone away. Along the same lines, your definition of middle class seems mythical to me. If youre making these definitions based on just income level youre missing the important difference in status and relationships to between that of a well-paid unionized worker and a small business owner that might be earning the same. And if you dont get that difference, you dont get why the former has to organize collectively to make gains. And finally, of course, I want to encourage cooperation and trust. I just want to do so through resurrecting a new identity based on a central unifying commonality of people: The vast majority of us have to work for a living. And we do so at the direction of other people. And we know that their interests arent the same as ours. This will be an identity filled with community, rituals, solidarity, and belonging, just like any other. We live in a society marked by hierarchy and inequality not as an unintended aftereffect, but built in its core. Previous systems, from feudalism to slavery, built along these lines seemed natural and everlasting at the time. Ill join you part of the way in your quest to humanize capitalism, but I have no doubt that overcoming it is necessary. Steve Pearlstein Yes, we live in a society marked by hierarchy and inequality and, yes, thats intrinsic to capitalism. And, yes, power economic power, political power matters in terms of how the good things in life are distributed. Market fundamentalists who still insist its all about voluntary transactions within the context of a perfectly competitive and efficiency marketplace that neutrally and objectively sets economic outcomes are either kidding themselves or are trying to kid us. But lets be clear: This somewhat unsavory economic system called capitalism has lifted billions out of subsistence poverty since the industrial revolution and given us longer, healthier, happier lives to a degree not matched by any other system people have tried. And although some people have more power, money, security, and happiness than others, and some people get to boss other people around, the fault line is not between workers and capital. Its between high-skilled workers and low, coastal metropolitan workers and rural ones, between white workers and nonwhite, men and women workers, religious workers and non-religious. Lets get real: The favorite politician of the oppressed, left-behind workers who you idealize is Donald Trump, while denizens of Wall Street titans and Hollywood moguls and tech billionaires back liberal candidates and causes. One fundamental flaw of your analysis is that, as Karl Marx before you, you see economics as a zero-sum game, We know that their interests are not the same as ours, you write. In fact, we dont know that. Rather, we know of capitalist systems in which when companies do well, the owners of capital and the workers both do well and that the cooperative nature of their relationship generates a bigger pie to divide. The other fundamental flaw is that you ignore the power that each of us has in a capitalist system as workers and consumers. Most of us are not without choices. We choose who we work for and what products we buy and what norms will govern economic behavior. This economic power is not less real than our political power as voters, and can be exercised individually and collectively. And within this capitalist system, rich and powerful people who overplay their hands get their comeuppance all the time, losing their jobs, their fortunes and their reputations. Sometimes they even lose elections. Bhaskar, the question isnt whether there is inequality of wealth and power. The question is whether those lucky or talented enough to have wealth and power use it in socially beneficial ways. | https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2019/1/7/18167691/what-is-socialism-capitalism-sanders-warren |
How many new homes really need to be built in the Oadby and Wigston area? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Council bosses are using out-of-date projections to determine how many houses need to be built in part of Leicestershire, it has been claimed. Concerns have been raised that Oadby and Wigston Borough Council is basing its Local Plan a long-term strategy for accommodating new homes on Office of National Statistics numbers that have now been superseded. Conservative Harborough MP Neil OBrien and local campaigners say that as a result, the council is over estimating the number of homes it says needs building over the 2011-2031 period of the local plan and therefore planning to take a greater share of housing than it really needs The council says 148 new homes a year need to built up to 2031 having used 2017 projections to calculate a figure which will mean nearly 3,000 properties being constructed over a 20 year period. However Mr OBrien says population figures from May last year show the number of people living in Oadby and Wigston borough by 2026 will grow by 600 just a quarter of the previously assumed growth of 2,400 people. Mr OBrien and campaigners fighting plans to build 310 home at Stoughton Grange, near the Cow and Plough pub in Oadby, want the council to reboot the plan and revise the number of new homes downwards. He has warned not using the latest figures will leave the councils plan open to a challenge in court. Council bosses however insist they are using accurate and robust data. Mr OBrien said: Given the clearly dated nature of the evidence used in the local plan, it is important that the process is rebooted using the new information that is available. Lower population growth should lead to the council commissioning an updated housing needs assessment and a re- appraisal of the sites currently allocated across Oadby and Wigston for development. This a hugely important issue, and these flaws leave the plan vulnerable at some stage to legal challenge. It is imperative this is looked at closely by Oadby and Wigston Council, to ensure plans are based on data that is accurate. Spokesman for Oadby Residents Against Stoughton Grange Geoff Payne said: The Local Plan overstates the number of homes required. Clearly building Stoughton Grange in a green wedge is unnecessary. If the plan remains unchanged then there will be an avalanche of additional planning requests. The community needs to understand what is taking place and how they will be affected. Public pressure and the potential loss of power are the only thing that will cause council members to change policy. The council responds A spokesman for the council said: We wish to highlight the council is not taking a larger share of housing development than it needs to, and the plan has been constructed using the most robust and up to date information available. A Government planning inspector is currently assessing the councils draft local plan and he has not asked for it to be updated. The council says its approach is consistent with Government requirements and that used by other Leicestershire councils. The council has pointed out the projections are only the starting point for assessing housing need. The spokesman added: Under the trigger policies set out within the plan, and those set at national level, the Local Plan will be reviewed (at the latest), five years from the date at which it is adopted." | https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/how-many-new-homes-really-2401520 |
Whats Behind The LA Kings Improved Play? | Theyre ranked 31st in the 31-team NHL, still way, way out of playoff contention. But now, theyre in the midst of a four-game winning streak going into todays game against the Vegas Golden Knights (1:00 PM, Staples Center) and theyve earned points in five out of their last six games and in six out of their last eight. In fact, theyve earned a 6-3-2 record in December, good for 14 out of a possible 22 points, a .636 points percentage. To be sure, the Kings have turned things around and are moving in a positive direction for the first time this season. Improved special teams play has been one factor. A lot of our games have been close, said interim head coach Willie Desjardins. Special teams couldve made the difference in a lot of games, if they went the other way. Both of the special teams are playing better right now. Its great to see the power play going, added Desjardins. That makes a difference for us, for sure. I think weve been playing quite a bit of good hockey. The game in Calgary [a 4-3 loss on November 30] wasnt good and the game in Columbus [a 4-1 loss on December 13] wasnt good. The Calgary game, we played the night before. The Columbus game, we just didnt play good. Outside of that, weve had a lot of games where we were right there, but we didnt capitalize on special teams. I think thats the difference. But then, its the little things. Were going to the net a little bit better, our transition game is a little bit better. Saying that, there are still areas where we can get better at. I think its more just getting everybody on the same page. I think were finally starting to get that way. Veteran winger Dustin Brown pointed to individuals making a difference. I still think its an individual thing, he said. I think weve had a lot of players whove been playing a lot better for us, so our team has been a lot better. Hockey is a funny game, he added. Ive been on teams where weve won a lot of games that we werent deserving of winning and vice versa. Im not saying that we deserved to win any of the games that we lost, but as of late, weve been playing a lot better and the results speak for themselves over the last little bit here. A big part of it has been getting contributions every night without [center Anze] Kopitar getting a point or a goal or [defenseman Drew] Doughty dominating a game. Weve had games that weve won where Kopi hasnt had an impact and I look at that as a positive. Indeed, improved play of the supporting cast has been a major reason for the turnaround. We have to count on everyone to win hockey games, not just a few guys, to play well, said Doughty. I think, this winning streak that were on, everyone on our team has played well. Weve had contributions from all four lines and all three defensive pairings. We also have a lot of young guys in the lineup, said Desjardins. Theyre just learning the league a bit better now. Theyre finding their way. [Rookie defenseman Sean] Walker hasnt played [at the NHL level] that much, I think we have three defensemen who totaled less than 80 NHL games between them. Thats not a lot of NHL games and when youre that [early] in your NHL career, you can learn quicker, so maybe thats whats happening with [forwards Matt] Luff, [Austin] Wagner and [Michael] Amadio. We have a lot of veteran guys out of our lineup, but I think our young guys have played really well for us lately, Doughty noted. All of that has been the biggest difference. A case in point is second-year NHLer Alex Iafallo, who has been outstanding in recent weeks despite having his four-game scoring streak ended on December 27 in a 2-1 win over the Arizona Coyotes. Hes finding a little more consistency in his game, compared to last year, when he had spurts of some really good hockey, said Brown. But for a guy in just his first year in the league, he learned a lot. Thats probably the biggest thing for him. Hes got open eyes and open ears. He absorbs a lot and thats all paying off for him now. I hope he can keep it going. I just have to keep playing, finding the [open] areas and working hard, said Iafallo. Just trying to get more quality chances is what Ive been doing. Im just trying to stay hot, keep getting good shots to the net and using my teammates. Its easy when everybodys rolling together and playing well. It makes it easy for everybody because were all on the same page. That gives us momentum on every shift. Going a little deeper into the reasons the Kings have turned things around is that theyve fixed the fundamental problems in their play that plagued them from the start of the season. Weve talked a lot about it in the video room and [elsewhere] off the ice, Iafallo noted. Things are just kind of coming together. It starts in the defensive zone, cleaning things up there. As we clean up the defensive zone, were able to push pucks outbreakouts are easy. That makes everything easier on us. Puck support [good spacing that enables short passes while moving up ice on breakouts] is a huge key to our success. Breaking out of their zone is a part of the Kings play that is usually overlooked. But it is so critical to their game that when they cant break out of their zone cleanly, they turn the puck over frequently and with regularity. At that point, everything goes down the drain very, very quickly. At times, some teams, their defense [is more aggressive in the Kings zone] and they use their sticks more, said Iafallo. We have to find ways to chip the puck out and get it to our centers. The shorter passes on breakout help us do that. It goes a long way. That pushes the defense back and gives us the chances we need to score. Its huge. Its not just the young players saying that, either. Ive been saying that for ten years, said Brown. When were a good hockey team its because were passing well. If you make three bad passes in a row, each costs you a secondyoure three seconds slow. But if you make three good passes, its the other way around. You hit guys in stride, going in the right direction, youre three seconds faster and you get scoring chances. Spacing, timing [which enable short passes, leading to faster, quicker and clean breakouts], thats been a lot better, added Brown. Our wall play has helped that, too. Thats been significantly better over the last few games. That hasnt been great all year. Thats a big part of it. Wall play and passing are so critical. Another good sign for the Kings is that theyve begun to find ways to win even when they arent at their best. That was the case on December 27 in their 2-1 win over the Coyotes. In that game, the Kings came out strong in the first period. But they faltered pretty badly in the second period, when they spent almost the entire period in their own zone due to sloppy, turnover-laden play. We turned the puck over a lot in the second period and we didnt get the puck deep [in the attacking zone] at all, said Brown. We played a lot of that period in the defensive zone. The difference is that weve been really good in our defensive zone of late. The mental breakdowns in the defensive zone that you saw earlier in the year, weve cleaned that up a lot. We found a way to win, added Brown. Thats something a team needs to learn how to do. Youre not going to win every game, or there are games you shouldnt win. Good teams find ways to win those. Were in a better rhythm together, as a team. Add up all the reasons for the improved play, and now, although it is still highly unlikely that theyll qualify for the playoffs (see below), the idea that they might earn an invite to the post-season party is no longer totally inconceivablethere is a minuscule bit of hope. Since the 2010-11 season, Western Conference teams have made the playoffs earning less than 94 points in an 82-game regular season just once (91 in 2013-14) and only four times since 2006-07. As such, assuming that it would take 94 points to make the playoffs in the Western Conference this season, the Kings (15-20-3, 33 points), who have 44 games remaining, would need 61 more points to reach the 94-point mark and in order to do that, they would need to play at a .721 (points percentage) pace the rest of the way. In short, the Kings would have to earn a minimum 24-7-13 record in their remaining games to reach the 94-point mark. Maintaining a .721 pace is highly unlikely, to say the least. But stranger things have happened. Teams ahead of the Kings could falter badly, leaving the door open for them, should they continue their improved play. Although it is extremely faint, a glimmer of hope remains. Were building confidence, both individually and as a team, said Doughty. Confidence is the biggest thing in hockey. If youre rolling, individually, if youre feeling it, youre playing well, then, all of a sudden, your team comes together. Youre all playing with confidence, believing in each other and things just start clicking the right way. Maybe we got sick of [playing poorly, losing], finally, after [38] games, added Doughty. I dont know what the answer is. But we need to keep it going. Of course, keeping it going means that the Kings will move lower in the order for the 2019 NHL Draft, putting a big crimp in their ability to bring in new, young talent with the speed and skill that theyre short on throughout their system. But thats not something the players and coaches should be concerned about. As such, there is indeed a faint glimmer of hope for them. That said, winning enough to earn a .721 points percentage is pretty much a pipe dream. Nevertheless, if the Kings can continue to play well but still fall short, at least theyll be fun to watch on most nights, unlike the massive train wreck they were for the first nine or ten weeks of the season. LEAD PHOTO: Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Brown, shown here during practice on December 27, 2018, at the Toyota Sports Center in El Segundo, California. Photo: Gann Matsuda/FrozenRoyalty.net. Frozen Royalty by Gann Matsuda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. You may copy, distribute and/or transmit any story or audio content published on this site under the terms of this license, but only if proper attribution is indicated. The full name of the author and a link back to the original article on this site are required. Photographs, graphic images, and other content not specified are subject to additional restrictions. Additional information is available at: Frozen Royalty Licensing and Copyright Information. Frozen Royaltys Comment Policies | https://frozenroyalty.net/2018/12/29/improved-play/ |
Did The Bachelor Premiere's Live Show Experiment Work? | The Bachelor tried something new to ring in its 23rd season, and let's just say it was a choice. Instead of just airing the premiere episode as they usually doall the way through, over the course of two short hoursChris Harrison presided over a massive Bachelor premiere party taking place live in multiple locations in multiple states, including Utah, Texas, a house in Michigan, a studio in Los Angeles, and a hot tub outside in a parking lot. Bachelor alum such as Ashley Iaconetti, Jared Haibon, Kaitlyn Bristowe, JoJo Fletcher, Blake Horstmann, Jason Tartick, Krystal Nielson, and Chris Randone all co-hosted from those various locations, including the hot tub, and while there were moments that were entertaining, the whole thing felt odd. Colton Underwood didn't even appear in the show until an hour in, which is also when the women finally began exiting those limos, which is really what we come to Bachelor premieres to see. Instead of watching the actual show, it felt like we were enjoying a budget New Year's Eve celebration, peppered with bits of the premiere on occasion. | https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1002907/did-the-bachelor-premiere-s-live-show-experiment-work |
Can Trump declare a national emergency in order to build his wall? | The Trump administration is weighing using a national emergency declaration to circumvent Congress and the budget stalemate and force construction of the president's long-promised southern border wall. "We're looking at a national emergency because we have a national emergency," President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday amid stalled negotiations. He said during a press conference Friday that he would prefer to win the money he's demanding via Congress, but could "absolutely" call an emergency "and build it very quickly." Such a move would be a dramatic escalation of the current showdown, which has forced a partial government shutdown that's now in its third week. The administration has spent months trying to figure out how the president might be able to move forward with the wall the central promise of his 2016 campaign if Congress refuses to give him the money. As early as last March, Trump was publicly floating the idea of using the military for the task. "Building a great Border Wall, with drugs (poison) and enemy combatants pouring into our Country, is all about National Defense. Build WALL through M!" he tweeted then. But it's Congress not the president that controls the country's purse strings and must appropriate money he wants to spend. Enter the emergency declaration, an option the White House counsel's office is currently reviewing. Among the laws Trump could turn to is Section 2808 of the Title 10 U.S. Code pertaining to military construction. According to the statute, if the president declares an emergency "that requires use of the armed forces," the Defense Secretary "may undertake military construction projects, and may authorize the Secretaries of the military departments to undertake military construction projects, not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces." Pentagon budget officials are currently analyzing the 2019 construction budget to determine how many unobligated dollars would be available to use for the wall in the event Trump settles on a declaration. Under the provision, only those construction budget funds that are not already obligated to other construction projects could be used for the wall. There are more than 100 such provisions giving the president access to special powers in emergencies. And Congress has typically afforded the president broad authority to determine what constitutes an emergency and what does not, said Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice. "Absolutely it's an abuse of power for the president to declare a national emergency when none exists and to use it to try to get around the democratic process," she said. "But we are in a situation where our legal system for emergency powers almost invites that kind of abuse." Such a move is sure to spark a flood of legal challenges questioning the president's authority as well as whether the situation at the border really constitutes an emergency. Trump has been trying to press that case in recent days, insisting the situation qualifies as a security and humanitarian "crisis." He'll also run into other questions. "The problem for the Trump administration is that border security is fundamentally a law enforcement issue that does not require the use of the military," said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, via email. "So I think they would be on shaking legal ground trying to use emergency authorities this way, and it is almost certain that they would end up in court." Sen. Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said it would be inappropriate for Trump to use Section 2808. "We are not at war with Mexico, and the proposed border wall has no core (Defense Department) function. Indeed, the Pentagon's most recent National Defense Strategy doesn't mention the southern border as a national defense priority," Reed said. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith, speaking on CNN, said that even if Trump could declare an emergency, it would be a "huge mistake." "There clearly is no national emergency. But they asked me, 'Can he do it?' Yeah he can. It would be wrong, it would be horrible policy and I'm totally and completely against it. But from a legal standpoint he can do it," Smith said. He and others agreed that any declaration would surely be challenged in court. It's unclear. Back when Trump dispatched active-duty troops to the southern border ahead of the midterm elections in what critics panned as a politically-motivated abuse of power, he described the situation as a "national emergency," but never signed an official proclamation. But Trump is now under growing pressure to find a way to end the shutdown without appearing as though he's caved on the wall. Trump "needs to use every tool available to him as the commander-in-chief of our armed services to go and enforce our laws by putting the military on our southern border, by having them build the wall if they need to," his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski urged on Fox News. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said the president remains "prepared to do what it takes to protect our borders, to protect the people of this country." "We're looking and exploring every option available that the president has," she said. Associated Press National Security Writer Robert Burns contributed to this report. | https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation-world/ct-trump-national-emergency-wall-20190107-story.html |
Whats in store for stock markets in 2019? | Investors entered 2018 in exuberant form but it turned out to be a lousy year for global stocks. The market mood today is very different to 12 months ago. Then, the head of the worlds biggest hedge fund, Bridgewaters Ray Dalio, predicted investors would feel pretty stupid if they were holding cash. Dalios take stocks were the place to be due to an ideal Goldilocks environment (not too hot and not too cold, with above-average growth and below-average inflation) was shared by a record number of fund managers. The mood was one of mood of rational exuberance, as Goldman Sachs and Barclays called it. Within weeks, however, global stocks had peaked, and a plethora of concerns trade wars, rising US interest rates, disappointing economic data in Europe and Asia, elevated valuations in the over-owned technology sector continued to dog markets as the year progressed. Sentiment surveys show the mood among investors today is much more muted, but strategists are cautiously optimistic; the average prediction is for the S&P 500 to gain about 10 per cent in 2019, according to Bloomberg data. Only one major investment banking firm Socit Gnrale predicts stocks will decline this year. Strategists price targets should be taken with a grain of salt, however, given that cautious optimism tends to be their default position. Since 1999, they have never once predicted a down year, with the average forecast being a 9 per cent gain. As a result, their forecasts badly miss the mark both in bear markets (stocks halved between 2000 and 2002 and fell by 37 per cent in 2008 alone) and in strong bull market years (think 2013, when the S&P 500 soared 32 per cent). Cautious outlook Nevertheless, it would be untrue to say strategists are nonchalant about the risks that have roiled markets in 2018. Theres no shortage of cautious commentary out there. The position of Barclays 2019 returns are unlikely to be as bad as 2018 is hardly a ringing endorsement for risk assets. The best years of the decade-long economic recovery and market rally are behind us, it says. Tightening monetary conditions mean risks are skewed to the downside and investors should prepare for more subdued returns and persistently higher volatility. Thats echoed by Goldman Sachs: stocks should enjoy single-digit gains but risk-adjusted returns are likely to be less than half the long-term average. Goldman recommends investors get defensive by lowering their equity allocations (cash will represent a competitive asset class to stocks for the first time in many years) and shifting into high-quality companies. The growing allure of cash is also noted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Cash yields couldnt hold a candle to stocks for most of the last decade but thats no longer the case, with cash yields now higher than dividend yields for 60 per cent of the S&P 500. Excessively bearish positioning and sentiment means stocks may move higher over the next few months but the bull market is winding down and stocks will likely top out in 2019, says Merrill. Global earnings growth will decline sharply this year; volatility, as measured by the Vix index, is likely to double over the next three years; and the confluence of idiosyncratic shocks and wildcards that shook markets in 2018 trade wars, US monetary tightening, widening deficits and geopolitical concerns means there are very real risks for investors. The most prescient bear on Wall Street in 2018 was Morgan Stanleys Michael Wilson, who warned we were witnessing a rolling bear market characterised by initial weakness in emerging markets that gradually rolled through different sectors over time. Wilson remains cautious, saying tightening financial conditions and decelerating growth will result in another range-bound year driven by disappointing earnings and a Fed that pauses. Socit Gnrale is more bearish again, as evidenced by its choice of a waving grizzly bear to adorn the cover of its 2019 outlook. Citing restrictive monetary policy, political gridlock and continued trade tensions, it expects a US recession in the first half of 2020 and predicts the S&P 500 will fall about 10 per cent in 2019. If so, it will have fallen 20 per cent official bear market territory from its high point in 2018. Cheaper valuations Others are more sanguine. The S&P 500 slipped in 2018 even as earnings surged, resulting in a sharp fall in stock valuations. Historically, years marked by sharp valuation contractions have been followed by average gains of 16 per cent, according to UBS. Valuations are also cited by Credit Suisse. More bullish than any other major firm, it expects earnings multiples to expand in 2019, driving strong equity gains in the process. Deutsche Bank, too, is relatively cheery: valuations are near five-year lows, suggesting a sharp slowing in growth and a high probability of recession is priced in. Thats echoed by JPMorgan: much risk is already priced in so expect the equity pain trade to be on the upside. Excessively bearish sentiment is also cited by Citigroup, whose sentiment metric indicates a near 90 per cent probability that the S&P 500 is higher in a years time. However, Citi remains cautious towards technology stocks. Being long on technology stocks was the most crowded trade for most of 2018; consequently, fund managers may need to take down their tech exposure on every rally given overweight positioning when the stocks were on a tear to the upside. Europe and emerging markets were the regions fund managers most wanted to overweight a year ago, but they ended up being 2018s big losers. European indices have chronically underperformed the US since 2010 but Barclays cautions 2019 is unlikely to see the valuation gap between them bridged. Firstly, economic and earnings momentum remains stronger in the US. Secondly, unexpectedly weak US economic data will not drive investors into Europe; rather, Europe tends to catch a cold when the US sneezes, says Barclays, suffering comparable or bigger sell-offs following US slowdowns. As a result, it expects single-digit returns in both Europe and the US this year. Socit Gnrale is similarly underwhelmed by the case for Europe. Yes, Europe is cheaper than the US, but its only slightly cheaper than average as opposed to trading at bargain levels. Like Barclays, it views earnings as key. The only year in the last decade when European earnings didnt disappoint was 2017. A big rebound is unlikely unless that changes, says Soc Gen. As for emerging markets, these fell into a bear market in 2018 and are increasingly favoured by value investors attracted by their significant valuation discount. After badly lagging for most of 2018, the region has outperformed the US since October and bulls expect this to continue if the US dollar weakens in 2019. Of course, its not a given that the dollar has peaked. Additionally, economic concerns in China and trade tensions remain. As a result, some remain sceptical; Bank of America strategist David Woo, for example, says he wouldnt touch emerging markets with a 10-foot pole due to concerns about market volatility. Of course, no one has a crystal ball. The real merit in perusing strategists prognostications is not to divine the future but to assess institutional investors current expectations and beliefs. Right now, its clear bullish expectations have been reined in but the consensus is the current global growth scare will not morph into something much more sinister. That means there should be upside ahead if global trade tensions ease and macro data improves, but things have the potential to get messier if a pronounced global slowdown becomes evident in 2019. | https://www.irishtimes.com/business/personal-finance/what-s-in-store-for-stock-markets-in-2019-1.3738548?localLinksEnabled=false |
Is Rep. Ocasio-Cortez afraid of making enemies? | Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has already made history as the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Now she's making waves on Capitol Hilland within the Democratic party itself. Shortly after the election, she rallied a group of climate change activists who were holding a sit-in outside Democratic party leader Nancy Pelosi's office. Then, hours after being sworn in on Thursday, she was one of only three Democrats in the House to vote "no" on a resolution setting out new House rules, which had been carefully negotiated by the entire Democratic caucus. In an interview for 60 Minutes, Anderson Cooper asked Ocasio-Cortez if she is afraid of making enemies in Congress. "I genuinely do not think of politics in the world in terms of enemies or allies, or, like, permanent enemies or permanent allies," she said in the video above. What are we trying to accomplish, and who has aligned interests in getting that one thing done?" Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) Ocasio-Cortez canvassing in her home district before November's election Ocasio-Cortez told Cooper she holds no animosity toward House Democrats who endorsed her opponent, ten-term incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, in last year's primary election. She also hopes the House Democrats whose opponents she supported in the primaries won't hold a grudge against her, either. "I've moved on because I think one of the biggest problems we have in D.C. is that everyone's egos are too big," she said. Shortly after the election, Ocasio-Cortez rallied a group of climate change activists who were holding a sit-in outside Democratic party leader Nancy Pelosi's office When it comes to making concessions on Capitol Hill, Ocasio-Cortez told Cooper she's willing to compromise. But she thinks the Democrats have gone too far in their give-and-take with Republicans. "My personal opinion, and I know that my district and my community feel this way as well, is that we as a party have compromised too much, and we've lost too much of who we're supposed to be and who we are," Ocasio-Cortez said. She cited as examples compromising on climate change and ceding judicial appointments to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. In looking ahead to her Congressional future, Ocasio-Cortez told Cooper the worst-possible situation is that she's not elected to another term. "Let's say I'm only in Congress for two years," she said. "If we can radically change the conversation, then we can potentially accomplish more in two years than many people are able to shape the conversation in ten." To watch Anderson Cooper's 60 Minutes interview with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, click here. To watch more from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, click here. The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and Sarah Shafer Prediger. It was edited by Sarah Shafer Prediger. | https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-rep-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-afraid-of-making-enemies-60-minutes/ |
Is Meghan Markle returning to Suits? | Meghan Markle may reprise her role as Rachel Zane in Suits for one final brief appearance. The producers have agreed to pay a multimillion-dollar donation to the charity of her choice, if she agrees. Meghans baby bump could be written into the script as her character Rachel got married in her final appearance last April. According to Bazaar.com, the Duchess of Sussex wont be coming back to Suits. The show has not made a multi-million dollar charity donation offer to Meghan to return for a cameo. There are no plans for her to return to the show, a source said. On behalf of the entire #Suits family, we are sending love and congratulations to The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, on their pregnancy.https://t.co/NdpAiiPBkO pic.twitter.com/J5rtC3U7s3 Suits (@Suits_USA) October 15, 2018 Meghans last episode of Suits aired last April, less than a month before her royal wedding to Prince Harry. Her final bow aptly included her character Rachel Zanes own nuptials to her onscreen love interest, Mike Ross. | https://www.samaa.tv/culture/2019/01/is-meghan-markle-returning-to-suits/ |
How long will lower gas prices last? | JACKSON, Tenn. According to AAA, since October, gas prices in Tennessee have dropped 71 cents. Thats a good thing, because gas was pretty high there at one time, Ronald Cooper, a driver, said. And that means big savings for drivers. Tennessee motorists are saving on average $11 every time they fill up, and thats on average if you have a 15-gallon tank, AAA Public Affairs Director Stephanie Milani said. Experts say one reason were seeing lower prices is lower demand. Were seeing those supply-and-demand principles are working on those gasoline prices, to put some downward pressure on them, Milani said. Drivers have some big hopes for 2019. Maybe a little lower than what it is right now, for the summer months, for when everyones traveling, and that will really help the economy a lot, Cooper said. Officials say to fill up on these low prices while you can, because as early as February we could see them rise again. Thatll happen once refineries are done with their seasonal maintenance. They will begin to produce the summer blended gasoline, which is cleaner burning fuel but is also more expensive to produce, Milani said. Officials say this increase is typical, but they expect prices to stay lower than 2018. | https://www.wbbjtv.com/2019/01/07/how-long-will-lower-gas-prices-last/ |
Will the Japanese yen be a safe haven for investors in 2019? | Last weeks flash crash that saw the value of the Japanese yen surge on the foreign exchange markets may have been a particularly violent move, but demand for Japans currency might not be just a flash-in-the-pan occurrence. Investors may well conclude that, compared to other economies, Japans prospects are good in 2019, resulting in steady demand for the yen. The underlying drivers of the flash crash as opposed to volatility exacerbators in the form of Japan-holiday liquidity-thinned market conditions and a probable overhang of yen-funded carry trades that had to be liquidated as the drama unfolded illustrate that Japans currency retains a safe-haven allure when investors become risk-averse. With markets already somewhat less optimistic about US economic prospects, market appetite for risk was further dented on January 2 when Apple announced that its expected fourth-quarter revenues would be materially below forecasters expectations, with a slowdown in sales in China a key factor. In a letter to investors, Apple chief executive Tim Cook wrote that while the firm had anticipated some challenges in key emerging markets, we did not foresee the magnitude of the economic deceleration, particularly in Greater China. The consequent coalescence of investor concerns about the worlds two largest economies was the trigger for a bout of risk aversion on the currency markets, with the yen the primary beneficiary, even if specific market conditions produced the subsequent flash crash. In essence, therefore, for investors who continue to have concerns about the outlook for the Chinese and US economies, or perhaps even about just one, the Japanese yen may continue to appear attractive. Dont blame China for all that ails todays markets Last Friday saw a surge in US non-farm payrolls, with 312,000 jobs added in December, far above the median estimate of an increase of 184,000 that had been expected by economists polled by Bloomberg. US equity prices and the US dollar rose on the strong payroll data but the greenback gave back gains later in the session when Federal Reserve chief Jerome Powell said the US central bank would be patient as we watch to see how the economy evolves. We are always prepared to shift the stance of policy and to shift it significantly, Powell said. If the Fed is moving some way towards the market, where expectations for further US central bank rate hikes in 2019 have already been reined back, then investors might see fewer reasons to find the greenback attractive. The yen might benefit by default. Certainly, despite the robust US jobs data, it was noticeable that although the greenback did make some headway versus Japans currency on Friday, at the close in New York, the US dollar/Japanese yen exchange rate had not regained the level from which it fell so precipitately in the flash crash. China and Japan plan trade and investment talks in Beijing in spring Additionally, if the Chinese economy performs better than currently expected, Japan may also benefit and, again, yen strength might be a by-product of such an outcome. Japans companies have made huge investments in China and China is an absolutely key export destination for Japan. As for Japans economy itself, while its undeniable that the generation of inflation in the Japanese economy continues to prove stubbornly illusory, despite the Bank of Japans titanic monetary policy efforts, theres an argument that circumstances in 2019-20 may fuel a feel-good factor that would benefit both domestic economic activity and encourage demand for the yen. Emperor Akihito will stand down on April 30, to be succeeded by Crown Prince Naruhito, in the first imperial abdication in some two centuries. An imperial succession as a consequence of abdication rather than mortality arguably lends itself to a period of national celebration in Japan rather than mourning, with potentially positive implications for the Japanese economy. Emotions run high as Akihito delivers final New Year address Also, from September 20 to November 2, 12 cities in Japan will host the Rugby Union World Cup, with expectations for some 400,000 visitors from overseas, all of whom, of course, will need to acquire yen. And while that tournament should itself help engender a feel-good factor in Japan, its impact will surely be dwarfed in 2020 when the culmination of a multi-year infrastructure investment sees Japan host the summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. Plus, even if Japans policymakers are uncomfortable with yen appreciation, their options are limited. The Trump administration would be unlikely to look favourably on Japans Ministry of Finance seeking to directly arrest yen appreciation. Japans currency may have benefited from last weeks market flash crash but yen strength should be more than a flash in the pan. Neal Kimberley is a commentator on macroeconomics and financial markets | https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/hong-kong/article/2181105/will-japanese-yen-be-safe-haven-investors-2019 |
Whats Going On With AOC? | Subscribe to our free newsletters. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sure does know how to attract attention. I guess thats no surprise: shes photogenic, shes young, shes the leader of the #Resistance, and she defends herself pretty well on camera without constantly resorting to tedious talking points. Shes made for our era. But sometimes she screws up. Today Chris Cillizzajoined by the medias entire universe of professional fact checkersdinged her for a past mistake that she defended last night on 60 Minutes: I think that theres a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right. @AOC https://t.co/jKoBUDAa9v Chris Cillizza (@CillizzaCNN) January 7, 2019 Progressive Twitter went nuts, saying that Cillizza took the quote out of context. Cillizza replied that his tweet was limited by a character count, and then AOC chimed in: . @CillizzaCNN looks like your character count argument to avoid including my full quote is straight up wrong. Here you go: Anderson Cooper: One of the criticisms of you is that that your math is fuzzy. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: If people want to really blow up one figure here or one word there, I would argue that theyre missing the forest for the trees. I think that theres a lot of people more concerned about being precisely, factually, and semantically correct than about being morally right. Anderson Cooper: But being factually correct is important Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Its absolutely important. And whenever I make a mistake. I say, Okay, this was clumsy. and then I restate what my point was. But its its not the same thing as as the president lying about immigrants. Its not the same thing, at all. Im puzzled. AOC had said that a recent study documented $21 trillion in accounting errors at the Pentagon. Use this for health care instead, she said, and it would practically pay for Medicare For All. Now, for the record, this is not even close to correct. Thats $21 trillion unaccounted for, not $21 trillion that wasnt used. It comes from a recent article in The Nation, which in turn was based on an estimate last year from Mark Skidmore of Michigan State University, who in turn based his estimate on an extrapolation from recent Pentagon audits along with other government sources. He says there have been $21 trillion in unsupported journal voucher adjustments for the years 1998-2015, whichand this is important!includes adjustments both up and down. The net value of the adjustments is not given, and Skidmore makes no allegation that any of this money literally went down a black hole. Its certainly possible that some of it might have disappeared, or been the product of fraud, but the vast bulk is almost certainly due to incompetent accounting systems that produced a ton of positive and negative errors that mostly canceled each other out. In other words, this is not in the ballpark but not quite right. Its just wrong. It would be a great idea to fix the Pentagons accounting systems, but doing so would produce only a tiny fraction of what Medicare For all would cost. After all, thats the missing part of the quote everyone is complaining about. As near as I can tell, she didnt, really. Heres how she responded to the Post last month: To clarify, this is to say that we only demand fiscal details [with health and education], rarely elsewhere, Ocasio-Cortez said in a follow-up tweet. The point, I think, was more about how we care so little about the how do you pay for it when we are talking about war and military spending, her spokesman wrote in an email. Its only when we are talking about investing in the physical and economic well-being of our citizenry that we become concerned with the price tags. I suppose this counts as restating her point, but it doesnt count as admitting an error and owning up to it. Nor does it help her cause to complain that shes being fact-checked too much and other people should be fact checked instead. Nor to suggest that shes being picked on because shes a woman of color. Nor that fact checkers dont check enough of her true statements. Finally, this afternoon, AOC tweeted, I think the check is a very fair one to masked, and that the coverage illuminated the issue far more than my tweet did. But shes still referring to her tweet as confusing, not wrong. Thats too bad. Personally, I really, really like AOC. Shes the kind of photogenic spokesman that progressives need, plus she knows how to drive conservatives crazy. Nor do I even mind occasional fuzziness in an effort to communicate broad pointssomething she does well. Still, her inexperience excuses only so much. If she gets a reputation for spouting nonsense without bothering to understand itand she seems to be heading in that directionher star is going to dim. I think shed be well advised to slow down and study up just a little bit. A Pentagon spokesperson drolly notes that DoD hasnt received $21 trillion in (nominal) appropriated funding across the entirety of American history. | https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/whats-going-on-with-aoc/ |
Who was the Jackson area boys athlete of the week for Jan. 1-5? | CLOSE Haywood held on late to beat North Side by 8. Joseph Spears, Jackson Sun Logo (Photo: USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee) Refresh this link if the poll results don't appear. Mobile users, you might have to click here for the poll. The second half of the prep basketball season has started, and here are five performances up for boys basketball athlete of the week. MORE: Top performers from Thursday, Friday of Week 7 MORE: Top 10 Jackson area prep basketball games in Week 8 MORE: Haywood wears shirts in memory of teammate's brother Reach Michael Odom at [email protected] or 731-425-9754. Follow him on Twitter @JSWriterMichael. | https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/sports/high-school/2019/01/07/jackson-area-boys-basketball-athlete-week/2510309002/?from=new-cookie |
Will RBI's Loan Restructuring Scheme Have a Significant Impact on MSME Growth? | As of January 2019, RBI has permitted a one-time restructuring of existing loans to MSMEs January 7, 2019 3 min read You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. In a relief to Indias crucial micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has introduced a one-time loan restructuring scheme for the borrowers with the total fund and non-fund based exposure of up to INR 25 crore. RBI stressed that the scheme is applicable only for enterprises that are default but standard. In an official statement, the apex bank confirmed, RBI has decided to permit a one-time restructuring of existing loans to MSMEs that are in default but standard as on January 1, 2019, without an asset classification downgrade. It further mentioned that the restructuring has to be implemented by March 31, 2020. Watchers Take Restructuring without an asset classification downgrade will save the lenders from higher provisioning burden. Hailing the move, Sandip Somany, President, FICCI said, This will provide a much-needed boost to the small and medium enterprises that had been reeling under financial pressures on account of reasons beyond their control. Touted as a New Year gift by the Reserve Bank to MSMEs, a comparatively vulnerable group or organization on account of the payment mechanisms and the tight liquidity situation in the financial markets, the measure is expected to bring a relief to organizations that were hit by the implementation of demonetization and goods and services tax (GST). In addition to the interest subsidy on loans announced by the government for easier and affordable access to credit, RBIs step should help in reviving growth of MSMEs. The relief comes at the right juncture and will provide the much-needed momentum to push the growth levers as MSMEs make a significant contribution to domestic output, exports as well as job creation, added Somany. Lenders Job The RBI has further mandated a provision of 5 per cent of the outstanding amount in addition to the previously held amount to cover potential losses, in respect of accounts restructured under the scheme. Each bank or non-banking financial company (NBFC) should formulate a policy for this scheme with board approval which shall, inter alia, include a framework for viability assessment of the stressed accounts and regular monitoring of the restructured accounts, the statement said. While the loan recast decision has come as a blessing for the MSMEs, lenders job intensity has increased. Seeking benefits for the lenders, Somany added, The RBI scheme should provide an incentive to the lenders to look at the restructuring of the loans extended to MSMEs in a more pragmatic manner and we hope that it will also expedite decision making in this regard. While introducing the scheme, the central bank has clarified that the borrower needs to be GST-registered on the date of implementation of restructuring to avail the measure. After agriculture, the MSME sector is the second largest job creator in the country with over 12 crore employees. | https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/325860 |
What Will Abortion Rights Look Like Under Ohio's New Governor? | Ohio senators failed to override Gov. John Kasich's veto on a six-week abortion ban, but the measure stands a better chance of passing this year. (Progress Ohio/Flickr) COLUMBUS, Ohio With John Kasich on his way out as governor and Mike DeWine heading in, supporters of reproductive rights are gearing up for a new battle in Ohio. During his last month in office, Kasich vetoed a six-week abortion ban known as the heartbeat bill. But he signed one of the most restrictive abortion laws in the nation, banning a common method used as early as 12 weeks into a pregnancy. Gabriel Mann with NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio said there were 16 abortion clinics in Ohio when Kasich came into office, and now that number has been cut in half. Looking at his record and past statements, Mann expects DeWine to be as extreme - or more so - on abortion. "He said he would sign a six-week abortion ban, completely disregarding the unconstitutional nature of the bill, Mann said. He's made false allegations against Planned Parenthood and other providers. He's used the office of attorney general to investigate Planned Parenthood." A last-minute attempt to override Kasich's veto of the six-week ban fell one vote short in the Senate. Republican state Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said the bill has a better chance of passing and gaining DeWine's approval during the next General Assembly, scheduled to convene today. Republicans hold supermajorities in both the State House and Senate. But Mann said public support for legal access to abortions is high. A poll from NBC News and the Wall Street Journal in 2018 found more than 70 percent of American voters believe Roe v. Wade should not be overturned - the highest level of support for the 1973 Supreme Court decision since the poll began in 2005. Mann said his organization isn't waiting around to see what happens in the General Assembly, and is engaging supporters now. "We're trying to help those citizens speak out and let their elected officials understand that they don't want these rights blocked, he said. Once a woman's made a decision to have an abortion, she deserves access to safe, legal care that she can afford in her own community." Governor-elect DeWine will assume office on January 14. Reporting by Ohio News Connection in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation. Eric Tegethoff, Public News Service - OH | https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2019-01-07/reproductive-health/what-will-abortion-rights-look-like-under-ohios-new-governor/a65125-1 |
Was the Media Silent About the Islamic Party of Ontario? | A popular trope among fringe news outlets is the typically false claim that the news media engage in conspiracies to ignore certain political issues. But in the case of a 2 January 2019 Big League Politics article headlined Media Silent as Islamic Party of Ontario Files to Become Official Political Party in Canada, its likely that the news medias silence is actually a case of nothing much to report. Big League Politics reported that the Islamic Party of Ontario is a pro-Sharia Muslim party that has a goal of making Islam the dominant legal system of Canada. [Founder Jawed] Anwar reserved the party name with Elections Ontario in October 2018. This is accurate enough, according to the Islamic Party of Ontarios Principles and Policy page and public records. But Big League Politics didnt report that Anwar appears to be the partys only member and that he has an otherwise low profile which has only been bolstered by recent media attention. That status, coupled with the fact that Islamic Party of Ontario isnt even a registered political organization in the Canadian province, suggests that the threat it allegedly poses is greatly exaggerated. In an email responding to questions we sent him, Anwar told us that he meets with a board monthly and he is the elected leader. The group has an anti-LGBT position, according to a blog post Anwar sent us which reads, It is now that LGBT people and only LGBT people have the right to express their non-biological gender not the straight people. We, who are born with biological gender with the ID of male and female, have no right now to express our God-given gender. This is liberal fascism. According to public records, Anwar has only reserved the partys name with Elections Ontario, which the agency approved on 9 October 2018. That means the Islamic Party of Ontario is as near to becoming an official political organization in Ontario as the UFO Party, the Fundamentalists United party, and the Roman Empire. Anyone can reserve a name for a potential organization, just as anyone can form a political party. That doesnt automatically confer clout or power on that organization, columnist and author Michael Coren told us by phone. Its not an issue or a threat in any way, he said. But that hasnt stopped such figures as the notorious right wing commentator Faith Goldy from attempting to drum up fear by tweeting about the subject in ominous tones to her 116,000 followers: Coming soon, believe it or not Islamic Party of Ontario Stated primary goal: Establish Islam as the natural religion of Ontario. Iwarnedthiswascoming https://t.co/jW3Loz6ccw Faith J Goldy (@FaithGoldy) January 1, 2019 The Islamic Party of Ontario perhaps first gained infamy when Toronto Sun writer Tarek Fatah alleged in a 1 January 2019 column that Anwar had called him an open enemy of Islam. An allegation such as the one labelled against me is the equivalent of declaring me an apostate, which makes it a duty of other Muslims to kill me and thus secure a place in Paradise for themselves, Fatah wrote. Terrible as that might have been, Coren told us that Canadas Muslim population is very small (only 3.2 percent of the total population) and tends to be one of the most moderate. Before Fatahs column was published, Anwar had 60 Twitter followers. He now has a grand total of 186, along with 72 likes on Facebook. Coren said most of Anwars new followers not Muslims but by and large conservative people. Writing for the Canadian political publication iPolitics, Coren observed: It all seems rather curious and odd, especially since Anwar has publicly and aggressively supported Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Its also significant that Anwar and his party seem to be largely anonymous within the Muslim community, and when Muslim leaders have been informed about the new organization, they condemn it, not support it Its one thing to expose and condemn the very real threat of genuine Islamist violence, but another to insist that support for such violence is ubiquitous, and to imply that the vast majority of Muslims support it. This is horribly unfair, downright racist, and plays into the hands of the authentic zealots who want to divide society and convince Muslims theyre not welcome in the West. There is nothing new about such politics, and it stinks of the approaches taken by historical despots against various ethnic and religious scapegoats. Coren compared the hubbub over Anwars non-party to a sketch by the British comedy troupe Monty Python called Election Night Special, in which the actors frantically track results in a contest between the Sensible Party and the Silly Party. By the way, in Monty Pythons political parody sketch, the Silly Party and the Very Silly Party split the silly vote, Coren wrote. Someone should alert right-wing commentators; it could be a story. | https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/01/07/media-silent-islamic-party-of-ontario/ |
Can screen size payments really save the film industry? | Paying for it by the inch. That's not a new premium subscription tier they're introducing in Grindr, but how the boss of Dreamworks thinks we'll soon pay for our media depending on how large a display we're watching it on. Instead of paying to watch a film when it comes out in the traditional launch week excitement window, Jeffrey Katzenberg thinks we'll pay to experience films at a higher resolution, blowing $15 to watch it on a cinema screen, $4 to watch it on the living room TV or $1.99 to watch it while trying to find a way to comfortably hold a telephone in front of your eyes for two hours. Katzenberg told people at the Milken Global Conference that he thinks media consumption options will become this complicated within a decade, with our phones, tablets and TVs somehow upgrading themselves with the ability to inform the legal media servers how big our screens are and therefore how much we should be charged for watching that year's Spider-Man reboot. Of course, the good citizens of the internet - hard drives and cloud lockers groaning under the weight of terabytes of hoarded and stolen digital media - beg to differ. For your consideration The cynics were out with their finest one-liners over at Salon, where reader Daniel H offered: "I like how these guys ignore the fact that they're the ones that are going to get 'disrupted', with fellow eyebrow-raiser ContessaKitty coming out with the simple action plan of: "How about make better movies." Some less wise-arse commentary came from Cloudydayz, who bemoaned the possible death of the cinema industry. It's all about access to cheap snacks, apparently, with Mr Dayz predicting: "It's just not worth spending $50 for two people to show up, get a popcorn, a soda, and a candy when you can spend $5 to purchase on your own big screen, and have all the food and snacks that you want from your local supermarket or corner store. Greed, like everything else, is putting this American tradition out of business for the middle class." Sneak your own food in, Cloudy. Nothing beats the thrill of sneaking a warm sausage roll out of your trousers in the back row. Resolutionist discrimination The most common sense, voice of the people comment regarding the issue of paying for stuff that doesn't come in a box was made by The Verge reader JRock3x8, who typed out this manifesto for the digital world: "Give me one price for your movie that I can watch on any device and at any quality that I choose. Other than bandwidth cost (which will become irrelevant over time), there is no good reason for you to price discriminate based on how I am enjoying your product." This sentiment was agreed with by many, so he got a little orange thing by his name. Well done. In response, Jiahadye came out with an interesting idea, suggesting there ought to be one of those algorithms everyone talks about nowadays to judge quality and set a price, saying: "Figure out a way to charge based on production quality instead of video quality and I'm in." To which reader Dsp4 responded with: "I'd love to see a pricing scheme based on Metacritic score. I say we start at $2 for 1/10 and ramp up to $25 for the tens." Don't give them ideas. Although, given how poor most modern films are, we'd all save loads of money that way. Gotta rip 'em all On Techspot, reader CaptainCranky is keeping it old school with an HD full of ripped and hoarded things he's unlikely to ever watch. He comments: "This is why I think streaming sucks, everybody needs a DVD drive, a huge a** hard drive, (or several), and an account at Blockbuster. As soon as you convince yourselves that these things aren't necessary, you can live your digital life through a tablet, or your toy smart phone, and streaming is the only way entertainment is meant to be enjoyed, you're going to be listening to jacka**es like this one, time upon time again, ad infinitum, ad nauseum." The inference being that streaming equals a loss of control of your film and TV library, with users today giving someone else the ability to stop them rewatching Babylon 5 when the media bosses decide they've seen it too many times and at too high a resolution. In reply, user Vitaly T seems more resigned to letting someone else have their finger on the plug, saying: "Dude, you live in the past. Everyone agrees today that investing in a media is a waste of money when the media format has been changing so many times and with such short intervals." The last comment in the thread belonged to SaintnSinner, who snapped: "Everyone is sick of the garbage they keep pumping out for the brain dead masses." One size fits all On The Register, reader HollyHopDrive wanted to talk about the economics of it all. He pointed out: "A movie from Google Play can cost 6.99 for SD and 9.99 for HD. What I don't get is its the same film - the actors did no more work, they had to film it in the highest resolution anyway. In fact, surely then going on to make a SD version costs money!" The concept was expanded on by reader Squander Two, who sagely explained in response that: "A lot of industries have this problem: small cars cost about the same as large cars to manufacture; children's clothes cost about the same as adult clothes to manufacture; but these products have to be priced differently because of what customers are willing to pay. Katzenberg has identified (correctly, I think) an area in which customers will be willing to pay different prices for the same movie. Seems like a sensible move." The thread then derailed into asking why, exactly, some people watch big-budget Hollywood blockbusters on telephone displays. Reader Crisp expressed amazement that this sort of low-brow (and squint-eyed) consumer exists, saying: "Fortunately for the market, it's full of people not in their right mind that would quite happily sit and watch a feature film on a 2 inch screen. I've seen them do it on the train." A rubbish film's not any better in HD. | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/television/can-screen-size-payments-really-save-the-film-industry-1246839 |
Is Under Armour the next big player in fitness and wearables? | Under Armour has something up its sleeves Under Armour today continued its push beyond nice workout digs and into the world of fitness tech with the acquisition of health and fitness companies Endomondo and MyFitnessPal. Endomondo is a fitness-tracking platform and social network, while MyFitnessPal is focused on helping users achieve their fitness goals. The former was bought for $85 million (about 56m, AU$109m), the latter for $475 million (about 313m, AU$612m), reports TechCrunch. Under Armour began its movement into the health tech space when it acquired the MapMyFitness app network in 2013. The company also partnered with HTC in early 2015 for its multiplatform UA Record tool, and they'll reveal an HTC and Under Armour fitness tracker wearable at MWC 2015 in March. With the new purchases, Under Armour now claims it has the biggest digital health and fitness community in the world, with 120 million registered users total. Under Armour seems to be setting itself up as a major player in the digital health and fitness world, with wearables, apps and a platform where all these gadgets and services are synced and connected. Keep in mind this is a company that until a couple of years ago primarily made socks. It's unclear how far they'll go with this, but the Under Armour brand does carry some weight and the purchase of Endomondo and, in particular, the popular MyFitnessPal prove the company is in it to win. For now both newly acquired companies will continue to operate out of their current headquarters. | https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/wearables/is-under-armour-the-next-big-player-in-fitness-and-wearables-1283561 |
What is the best credit card to pay for utilities in Malaysia? | Many credit cards in Malaysia offer cashback for utility bill payments. Image courtesy of RinggitPlus KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 As we enter the dawn of a new year, its a good time to review your credit cards and see if they are still beneficial for you. For the most part, youd want credit cards which offer benefits for your daily and monthly spending, such as groceries, insurance, and even utilities. Thats right you can be rewarded for paying for your utility bills with credit cards! Many credit cards in Malaysia offer cashback for utility bill payments, either via online services or over-the-counter. Heres a list to help you out. Public Bank Quantum Visa/Mastercard Cashback rate: 5 per cent on Online & Dining (Mastercard), Entertainment & Department Store Shopping (Visa), capped at RM30/card/month Annual fee: RM0/free for life Minimum income requirement: RM36,000/year or RM3,0000/month The Public Bank Quantum credit cards are fast becoming one of the must-haves in every Malaysians wallet. With low income requirements and zero annual fees, these cards have very generous benefits. The cashback mechanism is unique, in that both the Visa and Mastercard offer 5 per cent cashback on different categories. Since they come as a pair, you get cashback benefits across four categories: Online & Dining (Mastercard), and Entertainment & Department Store (Visa). Each card has a cashback cap of RM30, which may sound little, but theres one final ace up these cards sleeve. Unlike many, many other cards in the market today, there is no minimum spending required to be eligible for the cashback. Now, to get cashback to pay for your utility bills, youll need to use the Quantum Mastercard and pay your bills online all major telcos (Celcom, Digi, Maxis, U Mobile), Astro, TNB, TM/Unifi, Time, JPJ, PTPTN, and even some insurance providers offer online payment, so youll have no issues getting 5 per cent cashback every month. Note that the RM30 cap means youll only get cashback up to RM600 in spending on the card. UOB YOLO Visa Cashback rate: 8 per cent with minimum 16 swipes/month, 5 per cent with 8-15 swipes/month, capped at RM50/month Annual fee: RM7.50/month, waived with minimum 1 swipe/month Minimum income requirement: RM36,000/year or RM3,000/month This card will need a bit of work to get cashback, but it is actually one of the most rewarding cards around, thanks to the combination of high cashback rate with low income requirements. Unlike most cashback credit cards which put tiers on the amount you spend with the card, the UOB YOLO Visa credit card imposes a minimum swipes policy, with no minimum amount per swipe. On top of that, the monthly fee (instead of annual fee) is waived when you swipe it at least once a month essentially making this a zero annual fee card. Youll need to use the card at least 16 times in a month to unlock the 8 per cent cashback, which is an impressive rate given the lack of minimum spend requirement. What many cardholders do is to split their utility bill payments so that they hit that 16x swipes. And, since UOB has a monthly cashback allocation on a first-come-first-served basis, smart cardholders pay their bills with their YOLO cards at the start of the calendar month. With that 8 per cent cashback rate, you only need to spend RM625 to hit the RM50 cap a fantastic rate considering the low barrier of entry for this card. One last thing to note: This is one of the only cashback credit cards that count JomPAY transactions as online transactions (making them eligible for cashback). Public Bank and Maybank, for example, do not recognise JomPAY for cashback eligibility. Hong Leong Wise Visa Cashback rate: 10 per cent on all retail spend, capped at RM100/month. Minimum spend: RM2,000/month Annual fee: RM250/year Minimum income requirement: RM24,000/year or RM2,000/month If you are the family breadwinner or spend above RM2,000 a month, the Hong Leong Wise Visa is a fantastic card to earn cashback. With a high cashback rate and high monthly cap, you can earn up to RM1,200 in cashback per year! The Hong Leong Wise card offers cashback for three categories: Two user-selected categories (from nine categories including groceries, petrol, dining, utilities, travel, and more) and one bonus category (mobile phone bills). Spend a minimum of RM2,000 cumulatively across the three categories in a single month, and these expenditures will be eligible for 10 per cent cashback. Not to forget, charges made using supplementary cards also count towards the RM2,000 minimum spend, so that will help you hit that amount. Finally, do note that in order to be eligible for the cashback, the cumulative RM2,000 spend must be on the three selected categories only. The RM2,000 minimum spend requirement means this card wont be for suited for everyone, but for those who do spend that amount in their monthly expenses, this card has the best cashback rate around. Just note that the annual fee is quite high at RM250 (RM300 for Platinum). Public Bank Visa Signature Cashback rate: 6 per cent on Online, Dining & Groceries, capped at RM38/month Annual fee: free for first year, RM388 after BUT waived when you swipe 12 times/year Minimum income requirement: RM80,000/year or RM6,667/month All things considered, the Public Bank Visa Signature credit card isnt as good as the Quantum credit cards especially when you consider the high income requirement, but it is a more holistic card and less complicated. For starters, the cashback categories are limited to three (online, groceries, and dining), but you dont have to confuse yourself with the which card gives what cashback mental question you face each time you want to use the card. The cashback rate is slightly higher at 6 per cent, but the RM38 monthly cap is lower than the RM60 combined cashback you can theoretically get with the Quantum. That said, the Public Bank Visa Signature has other perks, such as free 2x access to any Plaza Premium Lounge in Malaysia, and automatic travel insurance coverage up to RM500,000 when you use the card to pay for your flight ticket. Finally, like the Public Bank Quantum, this card also has no minimum spend requirement not a tiered cashback system, which is why it makes it into our list. Maybank 2 Gold/Platinum Cashback rate: 5 per cent on weekends on all retail spend with American Express card, capped at RM50/month Annual fee: RM0/free for life Minimum income requirement: RM30,000/year or RM2,500/month A perennial favourite, and for good reason. The Maybank 2 Gold/Platinum cards are easily among the best cashback credit cards in Malaysia for several years now. The secret sauce is with the American Express card in this two-card combo. On weekends, using the Amex card gives 5 per cent cashback on all retail spend. Using the Maybank2u payment portal, you can pay for a wide variety of bills with the Amex card including electricity, internet, and mobile phone bills. So even if a particular company does not accept Amex cards over the counter or on their online payment platform, you may be able to use it via M2U. Contrary to popular belief, you can use the Amex card in many places these days. Many department stores accept Amex, and petrol stations with new kiosk card machines readily accept Amex in addition to Visa and Mastercard. Even online services such as Grab and Fave accept Amex. Cashback is capped at RM50 per month, with no minimum spending requirement. You also get 5x TreatsPoints every day when using the Amex card. Combine these with the fact that it is free for life, this card as we mentioned in our review is a must-own. Standard Chartered JustONE Platinum Mastercard Cashback rate: Tiered, up to 15 per cent based on spending amount. Capped at RM85/month. Annual fee: RM250, waived upon minimum spend of RM20,000/year Minimum income requirement: RM36,000/year or RM3,000/year Another credit card with high cashback rates, the Standard Chartered JustONE Platinum Mastercard is a useful card but only for the right users. Its cashback cap is generous at RM85 a month, but the tiered cashback rate means the card is actually designed for a specific set of customers. Cardholders get cashback for three categories: Insurance, Telco, & Utility bill payments (auto-debit only), petrol, and online purchases. This is one of the few credit cards that explicitly offer cashback for insurance payments (via auto debit) other cards require you to pay online every month and make use of online cashback eligibility. Unlike the Hong Leong Wise card, transactions not in these three categories still count towards the minimum spend amount to unlock the higher cashback tiers. It may sound counter-intuitive, but the RM85 cashback cap means youll only earn cashback for as much as RM566 across the three categories so youll need to pad that minimum spend figure with other spending. Honorable Mention: Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Signature Cashback rate: 1 per cent capped at RM100/month (May and August only), 2 per cent capped at RM50/month (all other months) Annual fee: RM0/free for life Minimum income requirement: RM48,000/year or RM4,000/month Even if it is truly outstanding for two months in a year, the Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Signature is a great card to own. Heres why. For starters, this card should be your primary credit card for the months of May and August, where it grants an incredible 10 per cent cashback capped at RM100 for ALL retail spend. Thats right, with some exceptions (such as payment via JomPAY), youre guaranteed 10 per cent cashback on whatever you charge on the card, good for up to RM1,000 in spending. Some detractors will say, thats only for two months in a year! ! Dont let that deter you. For other months, this card is a great secondary or back-up cashback credit card if you max out the benefits of your main one (like the others in this list). That way, youll still get 2 per cent cashback off all retail spend (capped at RM50), with no minimum spending required. The Maybank FC Barcelona Visa Signature is also free for life, so the cost to own this as a secondary card is minimal. Start saving while paying bills today There is a common misconception that cashback credit cards arent as good as advertised. Because there are monthly caps, some will say that the actual cashback amount youd get wont be worth the hassle. For the most part, we agree. But, as we always say, not all credit cards are created equal. The cards mentioned in this list can save you hundreds of Ringgit a year just by using them to pay for your bills. This 2019, try it out for yourself! * This was brought to you by RinggitPlus.com. | https://www.malaymail.com/s/1710237/what-is-the-best-credit-card-to-pay-for-utilities-in-malaysia |
Is 15-win Clemson the best college football team ever? | Clemson stated a convincing case with a 44-16 victory over Alabama in a one-sided battle of 14-0 teams in the College Football Playoff championship game at Levis Stadium. Of course, this is an argument with no definitive answer. But the Tigers became the first major-college team to complete a season 15-0 in 121 years, since Penn did it in 1897. The Quakers 15th victory (and 12th shutout) was a 4-0 conquest of Cornell. We will assume this Clemson team is better than Cornell or Gettysburg, Franklin & Marshall, Wesleyan or anyone else on Penns schedule, for that matter. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney nominated his team. For our seniors to go out 15-0, to be the best ever there was talk about that all season and we were never in that conversation, Dabo Swinney said. Tonight, theres no doubt. Were not supposed to be the first 15-0 team, but we are. No doubt, according to Clemsons star defensive end, Clelin Ferrell: Were the best team ever. Alabama has been college footballs undisputed heavyweight champion for a decade. Coach Nick Saban won three BCS national titles and two CFP crowns in Tuscaloosa. He owns all the championship initials. The Crimson Tide arrived at Levis Stadium as the more experienced team, with a quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa, whose legendary relief effort in this game a year ago carried his team past the Tigers to the national title. Clemsons quarterback was a freshman, Trevor Lawrence, who was in high school at Cartersville, Georgia at this time last year. Tagovailoa threw two interceptions one of them a pick-six. Lawrence never blinked, throwing three touchdowns. Clemson converted 10 of 15 third downs, committed just one penalty and cashed in five of six red-zone chances. Five different Clemson players made plays of at least 25 yards. In every way, Clemson dominated one of the great teams and elite programs in the sports history. The Tigers finished the season having outscored their opponents 664 points to 197, for an average score of 44.2 to 12.0, a margin of more than 32 points per game. In their final three games the ACC championship and two playoff games they outscored their opponents 116-29. Impressive stuff. So we researched the competition facing the Tigers for the crown as best-ever. We went no farther back than the 1950s, and eliminated any team with a defeat, reasoning that the greatest team of all-time should probably not have lost a game: Here are 10 of the very best ever: 2013 Florida State (14-0): Led by Jameis Winston, the Seminoles averaged 51.6 points and won by a margin of 39.5. But they barely squeezed past Auburn 34-31 in the BCS championship game. 2009 Alabama (14-0): Sabans first national title and only unbeaten team beat six Top-25 teams and topped No. 2 Texas 37-21 for the BCS national title. But the defense-minded Tide played four games decided by 10 points or fewer and was held under 30 points five times. 2005 Texas (13-0): The Longhorns averaged 50.2 points and quarterback Vince Young orchestrated one of the great bowl victories ever, a 41-38 win over USC in the Rose. Texas also barely escaped Ohio State, 25-22. 2004 USC (13-0): Beat No 2 Oklahoma 55-19 in the BCS championship game, but had five games decided by 11 points or fewer, including a 23-17 win over Aaron Rodgers and No. 7 Cal. 2001 Miami (12-0): Hurricanes topped Nebraska 37-14 in the BCS national championship game and had 15 NFL first-round draft picks on their roster. They were 5-0 vs. Top-25 teams, including 59-0 over No. 15 Syracuse and 65-7 over No. 11 Washington. Certainly in the discussion. 1995 Nebraska (12-0): The Cornhuskers get a lot of love in this conversation. They averaged 53.2 points with a 38.7-point margin of victory. Beat four 10-win teams, all by at least 23 points, and destroyed unbeaten Florida 62-24 in the Fiesta Bowl. 1988 Notre Dame (13-0): Theres got to be a Fighting Irish team on the list, and this one beat four Top-10 opponents, including No. 1 Miami (infamous Catholics vs. Convicts showdown), No. 2 USC and No. 3 West Virginia. 1971 Nebraska (13-0): Another contender, the Huskers beat their first 10 foes by at least 24 points, then topped No. 2 Oklahoma 35-31 in The Game of the Century. Had six first-team All-Americans, including Johnny Rodgers, and beat No. 2 Alabama 38-6 in the Orange Bowl. 1962 Texas (11-0): Led by linebacker Tommy Nobis, the Longhorns allowed just 6.5 points per game and crushed Heisman Trophy winner Roger Staubach and Navy 28-6 in the Cotton Bowl to clinch their first national championship. 1956 Oklahoma (10-0): Bud Wilkinsons Sooners pushed their win streak to 40 games, outscoring their opponents 466-51 with six shutouts. But they faced just one Top-25 team, did not play in a bowl game because of the Big Sevens no-repeat rule and won five fewer games than this years champion. | https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/07/is-15-win-clemson-the-best-college-football-team-ever/ |
What does the merger say for Bandhan Bank and Gruh Fin on technical chart? | on Monday agreed to acquire housing finance firm through a Under the cooperation agreement, shareholders of will get 568 shares of for every 1,000 shares held. The opening deals on Tuesday indicated negative sentiment for as the stock was trading over 10 per cent lower after a gap down opening. Even, saw a gap down start with the shares falling up to 6 per cent. However, the stock recovered later and was trading above the opening levels of Rs 482. Bandhan Bank: The stock has formed 'Inverse Head and Shoulder' pattern on the daily chart with a clear breakout at Rs 515. The stock traded well above its 100-day moving average (DMA) on 17th and 18th December 2018, before correcting towards 50-DMA, which is at the current level of Rs 490, as per the daily chart. The weekly chart shows strong support around Rs 400 - Rs 410 on a bigger time frame. The overall trend remains positive and upward till daily chart holds support around Rs 400-Rs 425. A rally again towards Rs 550 may trigger a further upside to Rs 610 and Rs 640, as per the technical chart. Gruh Finance: The stock has strong support of Rs 240 levels on daily and weekly time frame. Today, the trading over 10 per cent lower may alter sentiments as volumes are significantly larger than average trades. A breakdown below Rs 240 may lead to Rs 202, its 200-WMA (weekly moving average), chart suggests. The stock was trading well above its 200-DMA till yesterday; however, slipping to the lower side after a gap down affected the support of 50 and 100 moving averages as per the daily chart. | https://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/what-does-the-merger-say-for-bandhan-bank-and-gruh-fin-on-technical-chart-119010800388_1.html |
What exactly will end the shutdown? | This will sound like the opening to a joke, but its not. A furloughed federal scientist, a journalist, a college professor and a businessman who retired young sat around a table. The topic of the government shutdown came up. Normally at my dinner group, politics remain politely off limits. Weve been gathering since early in the Clinton administration. Then, the talk was mostly about our young children. Now, except for one couple who still has a high school senior, were all empty nesters. So we talk about real matters. Wives happened to wander into another room after dinner while their husbands were still at the table. The professor, someone knowledgeable and fluent in politics and world affairs, asked me what is going to end the shutdown. The question was half rhetorical, half expecting that I had some inside information. The scientist, who works at a large research-oriented agency, was philosophical about being furloughed, able to grin at the absurdity of it. Hes not wealthy but neither does he live paycheck-to-paycheck. The retired businessman can barely imagine how something as significant as the federal government can be operated so carelessly. So, yes, this situation is something of concern to the citizens. Not just the ones turned away at the museums but also to thoughtful people who arent directly affected. Everyone at the table had different political views but everyone agreed on a few points of the ostensible cause of the current shutdown: No one thinks the U.S. should have open borders allowing everyone who wants to to enter the country to just waltz in. No one thinks we should seal the borders or stop granting people asylum. Immigration can be good. We all realize the border already has large sections of wall, some of which is in fact physical and some virtual, depending on the location. We would all like to hear cogent immigration and border policy statements from congressional leaders and the White House. At least then they could argue about concrete ideas. Solid policy the very word sounds dry and boring as long as its constitutional, leads behavior and gives legitimacy to actions. We all agreed that an agreement ought to make no one completely satisfied and no one totally dissatisfied. Nobody was yelling or swearing, everyone conceded at least one point to the other side and no one got grumpy. Its easy to just blame them. They are in fact the reason for the shutdown. But blaming them is a cheap sentiment and doesnt get to the why. I once read an article about flight attendants which quoted one as saying the long columns of seated passengers looked like a bunch of birds with their mouths open, all wanting a worm and ready to squawk if they didnt get it. Whatever it is, the pols seem locked in a zero-sum, stick-it-the-other-side stance. And through no fault of their own, several hundred thousand federal employees and perhaps an equal number of contractor employees spent the holiday season in unpaid uncertainty, now entering the new year in the same way. | https://federalnewsnetwork.com/tom-temin-commentary/2018/12/what-exactly-will-end-the-shutdown/ |
Could Swindon prove plastic for fantastic? | A plastics reprocessing company has partnered with Swindon Borough Council to develop what is claims is the countrys first advanced plastics recycling facility. Recycling Technologies uses a chemical recycling technique to process plastic waste into a crude oil equivalent called Plaxx this can then be used to make new plastic products. The company will be working with Swindon Borough Council-owned Public Power Solutions to assess the feasibility of developing the new recycling facility it has already designed a blueprint for a facility where all plastics could be recycled using state-of-the-art mechanical and feedstock recycling. The proposal is the result of a research project, Project Lodestar, which forms part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundations New Plastics Economy initiative. The results of Project Lodestar have already led to the development of the worlds first demonstration advanced plastics recycling facility in Scotland. Adrian Griffiths, CEO and Founder of Recycling Technologies, said: There is an urgent need for more plastic recycling capacity in the UK to not only stem the flow of plastics into landfill and our environment but to also create jobs and boost economic prosperity across the region. | https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/01/08/could-swindon-prove-plastic-for-fantastic/ |
What does the pay freeze mean for feds living in new locality pay areas? | Because of the pay freeze, federal employees living in the six new locality pay areas will likely have to wait at least another year before seeing any increase in their paychecks. While the Office of Personnel Management lists those new locality pay areas in its 2019 pay tables, the rates are frozen at 2018 levels. That means those six locality pay areas are set at 15.37 percent, the same as the Rest of United States pay rate, for 2019. The regulations in the final rule that established the new pay areas still go into effect on January 5, 2019. However, even though federal employees living in Birmingham, Alabama; Burlington, Vermont; Corpus Christi, Texas; Omaha, Nebraska; San Antonio, Texas; and Virginia Beach/Norfolk, Virginia will all technically be living in locality pay areas come Jan. 1, 2019, they will be paid the same as federal employees living outside locality pay areas for the next year. Some employees, especially those in Burlington and Norfolk, have been waiting years for OPM to make locality pay in their areas official. Advertisement But this is still a step forward for those federal employees living in these areas. It sets them up for locality pay increases sometime in the future that will bring them closer in line with the private sector salaries for comparable jobs in their areas. The increases would presumably take effect the next year in which federal employees are not subject to a pay freeze. The designation will impact roughly 71,700 General Schedule employees. The final rule will have the biggest impact for Virginia Beach/Norfolk, where 30,400 employees will be affected, OPM said earlier in December. Locality pay increases are based on comparison from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which uses the National Compensation Survey to measure non-federal compensation in a particular labor market and compare it to federal pay for GS employees who perform similar work in the same region. For example, the bureau can compare average salary information for an engineer at a private company or state government in Indianapolis with the average salary of a federal engineer working in the same city. The discrepancy, or pay gap, between the two helps determine a locality pay adjustment for a specific area during a given year. The discrepancies for Birmingham, Burlington, San Antonio and Norfolk all ranged between 40.32 percent and 60.46 percent, according to the Federal Salary Council. Like the 13 locations established as new locality pay areas in January 2016, these four additional locations all had estimated pay disparities that significantly exceeded those estimated for the Rest of U.S. locality pay area over an extended period, the Federal Salary Councils July recommendation to the Presidents Pay Agent said. Omaha and Corpus Christi also have pay discrepancies that fall within this range, averaging 46.69 percent and 48.67 percent respectively over the past three years. The Federal Salary Council said it included Omaha and Corpus Christi this year specifically because those were both more than 10 percent higher than the pay discrepancy for the Rest of the U.S. area, a bar that none of the other candidate areas cleared. The 1990 Federal Employee Pay Comparability Act technically authorizes the full amount necessary to reduce the pay gap between federal and non-federal salaries in 47 broad locality pay areas to within 5 percent. But previous administrations, and the current one, have not followed the schedule of locality pay adjustments as FEPCA authorizes. | https://federalnewsnetwork.com/pay/2018/12/what-does-the-pay-freeze-mean-for-feds-living-in-the-new-locality-pay-areas/ |
Whats wrong with contraception? | LAW OF THE WEEK The proponents of HB5043 on Reproductive Health solemnly proclaims that Contraception would bring the abortion nightmare to an end and, therefore, the state should promote birth control. This Reproductive Health Bill proposes that from early on, adolescents should be taught how to make effective use of the different methods of contraception. Purportedly, this in turn would solve the difficult problem of unwanted pregnancies. Even the existing Philippine Family Planning Program advocated that Contraception prevents abortion. The other main thrust of the contraception program is the cry of overpopulation. They say that the unwanted, undesired additional child will compete at the table where the food is already scarce. It is here when this argument of the contraceptive propaganda merges with that of abortion, making both campaigns twin sisters. The protagonists of this program say that the result would be a decrease in food supply and depletion of resources that will, in turn, result into economic stagnation or even more, into economic regression. Then progress and prosperity, in this modern era, would be to limit population growth. Hence the Contraception Program follows as a must. The biologist Francis P. Felice has shown that all the people in the world could be put into the state of Texas (678, 623sq.km . ), forming one giant city with a population density less than that of many existing cities, and leaving the rest of the world empty. Each man, woman, and child could be given more than 1,500 square feet (139.4 sq.meters) of land space in such a city. A family composed of five members (a father, a mother, and three children) would therefore have a space of 697 sq.meters! Dr. Jacqueline Kasun, an economics professor, wrote: But perhaps the main reason why people find it easy to believe in overpopulation is that most of mankind now live, as in ages past, under crowded conditions. Human beings crowd together not because of lack of space on the planet but because of the need to work together, to buy and sell, to give and receive services from one another, to exchange goods and services. Our cities and towns have always thronged with people and traffichorses, donkeys, and camels in ages past, motor vehicles today. (Jaqueline Kasun, The War Against Population: The Economics and Ideology of Population Control ( San Francisco : Ignatius Press, 1988), p. 37. Economic regression can never be blamed on population growth. It is obvious that the crises in the social and political fields are the causes of this regression and not population growth. Proponents of the Reproductive Health Bill say that Contraception Programs contribute to the governments efforts in balancing our resources with the growing population. So balance would be our key to progress. Using our intelligence, which is gift from God, we can increase our resources to cope up with the demands of the population rather than limit population in order to balance with our resources. I remember Mahatma Gandhi when he said: The world has more than enough for mans needs, but not enough for mans greed. The Catholic Hierarchy of the Philippines affirmed: It is possible to succeed in cutting down the size of families of our people, and yet in the end remain with the population problem still unsolved. And all because the problem was not attacked at the rootsNo program then that merely plays with numbers to solve the population problem can succeed unless there takes place a change of heart, a change from the covetous to the generous. This change must be affected in all, in the leaders as well as in the citizens of the community. | https://negroschronicle.com/whats-wrong-with-contraception/ |
Can the new Impossible Burger lure meat lovers? | The new Impossible Burger might make some vegetarians uncomfortable. Impossible Foods, which launched its much-hyped meatless burger two years ago, announced a new version on Monday at CES in Las Vegas. The startup is trying even harder to make its fake beef patties look, taste and feel like the real thing. Depending on how it's cooked, the latest Impossible Burger can be juicy and red in the middle more so than the last version. The texture, which purposefully isn't uniform, contains small chunks just like real beef. And judging by the sliders and burgers we tested at lunch, it tastes a bit more like a real hamburger than its predecessor. "They're really made for meat lovers, not so much for vegetarians," said chef Mary Sue Milliken, who serves Impossible Burger at her Border Grill in Las Vegas. A veggie burger isn't exactly the kind of cutting-edge technology you expect to find at the world's largest consumer technology conference. But it fits with a new theme the show is testing out this year called "resilience." It includes companies using technology to address the impact of climate change on the environment, cities and individuals' health. Eating less meat has long been promoted as a way to help the environment. Cattle generate large amounts of carbon dioxide, even more than other livestock. "The mission of the company really is to eliminate the need for animals in the food system," said David Lipman, Impossible Foods' chief science officer. "We're not going to get there by telling people to eat beans and peas and stuff like that. We have to come up with a plant-based meat that people will actually choose instead of beef." Founded in 2011, the startup now supplies meatless products to more than 5,000 locations in the United States, including restaurants like Fatburger and White Castle. It expanded into Hong Kong last year, its first overseas market. The next step is making the product inexpensive enough that everyone, not just Whole Foods shoppers, can afford to buy the product, which costs about as much as premium beef. The company says the price will drop as production scales up. Cracking beef's 'molecular code' A considerable amount of technology goes into creating the small brown patties, which are produced at a factory in Oakland, California. The new recipe is gluten-free, thanks to a switch from wheat to soy protein, and has less salt and fat. The company's food scientists and chefs spent the past year making sure their meatless burgers had a better "chew" closer to real beef. The biggest difference Impossible fans might notice is where the product ends up when it launches in February. The changes to the recipe and texture make it more versatile in the kitchen, so it can be used in a wider variety of dishes, including sauces, nachos and larb. "We cracked the molecular code of beef flavor," Lipman said. "When you take raw beef it really doesn't have much flavor. When you start to cook it, with no spices, it starts to get its flavor. What sort of magic is happening there?" The scientists found that a high concentration of heme, a molecule in all foods, is the secret behind beef's unique taste. They tried to reproduce the effect in the first burger, and say they have gotten closer with the new recipe, which also includes coconut oil, sunflower oil, and potato protein. "That's what really makes that crave-able flavor when you start start to cook it," Lipman said. "It's this sort of bloody ... I can't even begin to describe it." | https://www.waaytv.com/content/national/504036422.html?ref=422 |
Could DNA screening test become norm to detect genetic diseases? | New York: While adding DNA sequencing to the screening of newborns for hundreds of potential genetic diseases may help accurately identify babies who will develop a disease, it could be too early to recommend for the general public, say researchers. Every baby born in the US is given a routine blood test to screen for dozens of inherited medical conditions. Now, the US National Institutes of Health is exploring whether to use DNA sequencing to screen newborn babies for additional genetic abnormalities and disorders. Such DNA testing would likely complement, but not replace, the current routine blood tests, reported CNN. In an experiment published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, researchers found that over nine per cent of the 159 sequenced babies had mutations predictive of a genetic condition or disease that might appear during childhood such as hearing loss or heart defects. "The question, though, is: 'Do we really think that all these babies are going to get sick in the future based on what we found?'" Alan Beggs, co-author of the study and director of the Manton Center for Orphan Disease Research at Boston Children's Hospital, was quoted as saying. "And the answer is, 'Probably not'." Moreover, while one baby turned out to have a vitamin deficiency, another, in the neonatal intensive care unit with respiratory distress, carried a gene that raises the risk of cancer. Still others carried hard-to-interpret genes that may raise the risk of heart disease in the coming years. The researchers noted it is too soon to recommend such wide genetic testing for the general public. But they say their findings suggest that in some cases, and for some people, it may be worth doing. More clarity is also needed on issues surrounding newborn DNA testing, including consent, accessibility, data privacy and the potential changes to medical practice and costs. | http://zeenews.india.com/health/could-dna-screening-test-become-norm-to-detect-genetic-diseases-2168823.html |
Is Sonechiriya the best dacoit drama since Bandit Queen? | (By Subhash K Jha) After 2018, it looks like 2019 will be another golden year for Indian cinema. First `Uri` which is on release and then `Sonechiriya` speak about a simmering war raging at the fringe of society, The characters speak an unvarnished truth about life at the edge. What we see is not always pleasant but never uninteresting. Raw wounded, brutal and violent -- the trailer of Abhishek Choubey`s fourth feature film "Sonechiriya" is a dacoit drama without horses. For years we have been brainwashed by Bollywood into believing that dacoits travelled by horses when in fact there are no horses in the Chambal valley. The Dacoit Drama and the tale of the poetic `taawaif` are the most sublime misrepresentations of Indian cinema. The last time I saw a dacoit film without red-eyed bandits scampering around on horses was in filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor`s "Bandit Queen". And now in Choubey`s "Sonechiriya" we are introduced to a powdery wasteland where the ravines are raw and the wounds even rawer. It took me a while to recognise actors Sushant Singh Rajput, Manoj Bajpai, Ranvir Shorey, Ahutosh Gowarikar and Bhumi Pednekar under all the grim grime. The trailer shows all the bandits to be on the run. Their fugitive status is neither pitied nor ridiculed. "Sonechiriya" seems to be a celebration of outlawry in all its grimy gritty glory. There are bouts of humour in the blitzkrieg of non-choreographed violence. We see a couple of dacoits resting it out on a rooftop for the night, when one of them wonders if he would get mutton in jail. "Why only mutton," retorts his compatriot, "The jailor will send his daughter every Sunday for you." Ahem. Brutal to the bone, "Sonechiriya" touches raw nerves in our socio-cultural DNA which has allowed inequality to foster for generations. Now it`s too late to even try to rectify the economic imbalance. The film shows fringe people accepting their place and fighting for what they believe to be their fundamental right to survive. In many shots of the trailer, I was reminded of late veteran actor Sunil Dutt`s "Mujhe Jeene Do". Without the horses, of course. And the `tawaaif` dancing to the sublime sound of legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar`s "Raat bhi hai kuch bheegi bheegi chand bhi hai kuch madhyam madhyam". The night us neither drenched nor is the moonlight mellow in "Sonechiriya". For that we will have to wait for the next Raj Khosla dacoit drama. | http://zeenews.india.com/bollywood/is-sonechiriya-the-best-dacoit-drama-since-bandit-queen-2168806.html |
Did John Abraham just take a dig at the Ambani wedding? | With the recent extravagant nuptials of Isha Ambani and Anand Piramal taking the world by storm, Bollywood actor John Abraham is anything but amused with B-Town stars shaking a leg for money at the wedding ceremony. During a recent interview with Mumbai Mirror, the 46-year-old Dhoom actor expressed his views not being in line with the idea of dancing for money at weddings. Speaking of the hate celebrities receive online, Abraham stated: "Aren't celebrities also asking for it, wearing funny clothes outside airports and doing funny things?" "You can only be laughed at if you decide to be a clown in the circus. It's your choice. I'm not an actor who dances at shows or weddings for money. I find it demeaning. I'm not saying that I'm right, but I wouldn't do it, ever, he added further. The Dostana star goes on to say: As an actor you are here to show your craft. I have always worked hard for credibility, I get that, I move on quietly. I wish we had more actors cut out from the same fabric." "We, as actors, are so consumed by social media and the love that we get on it, that we become prisoners of our own image. We need to get out, see the world for what it is, learn to respect everyone, get a life and stop taking social media so seriously. It's a farce," he adds. The actor doesnt stop there and goes on to drop snide, cryptic remarks at megastar Salman Khan saying: "With the senior actors getting too senior and the younger guys still being boys, you need a man who can run through walls, break down doors. I'll be the action hero for the masses." | https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/416233-did-john-abraham-just-take-a-dig-at-the-ambani-wedding |
Could Xiaomis Mi TV 4 shake up the TV space in India? | The Xiaomi Mi TV 4 just launched in India and its done it with incredible panache. Xiaomis televisions have been well received in China for quite a while now and ever since Xiaomi brought its phones to India, the public has been urging for them to launch their TV as well. Seems that Xiaomi was listening. The Mi TV 4 was launched in China early 2017 faired really well in the market. There, it came out in four variants, but in India theyve only launched the 55-inch version. The unique selling point (USP) for this particular TV is its paper-thin profile that puts the iPhone X to shame. It even won the Red Dot Award for this particular feature. At 4.99mm, it still manages to provide decent picture quality, though not the best. Although at the price of Rs 39,999 for a 55-inch screen, its hardly a point of contention. The border-less frame and all glass display, lets the screen make an impact that you wont soon forget. Check out our list of the best 4K televisions available in India right now. LG, Sony and Panasonic are the premium sellers of smart televisions. Panasonics 55-inch offering is priced at around Rs 75,000, where as Sony and LG have 4K TVs go for over a lakh rupees. Even Samsungs 4K Smart TV MU6470 costs around Rs 1.5 lakh. Brands that were already in the market for the budget consumer, such as TCL, Micromax and Kodak, should also be worried about how Xiaomis price undercuts their offerings. The content that is on Xiaomis custom Android Marshmallow interface called PatchWall are limited but its not like other brands have much going on either. Sure, all the TVs have YouTube but aside from that the options are narrow. For instance, TCL only has MEMC, GoLive and Smart TV. At least Xiaomi has 12 content partners. The most obvious absentees are Netflix, Prime Video and Hotstar while Hungama, Voot, Viu and Sony Liv are already present. This makes the content quality sub-prime. However, Xiaomi has already announced plans of partnering up with Hotstar and Prime Video to make sure thats no longer the case. Despite this, the issue remains that the content itself is not 4K which implies that your viewing experience is partially sabotaged. Even while claiming to have over 5,00,000 hours of content paired with Dolby Atmos surround sound, without YouTube, Prime or Netflix as options, the televisions 4K capabilities remain underutilised. Drive televisions into a new age The Mi TV 4 supports every prominent set-top box in India such as Tata Sky and Dish TV and even local players like Hathway and Siti Cable. More than the connectivity, whats unique is how Xiaomi manages to do this. The channel gets integrated into the user interface based on your viewing patterns as well as trending patterns, so that theyre a part of your live stream when youre connected to the internet. 4K, even HDR, havent been fully embraced by the general public. The dearth of content has been a speed bump. But, with a price difference so large, despite lacking in perfection, Xiaomi is essentially bringing it to the masses. Time will tell. | https://www.techradar.com/news/could-xiaomis-mi-tv-4-shake-up-the-tv-space-in-india |
Will Florida's new Republican governor keep his vow of bipartisanship? | So far, Ron DeSantis has nominated prominent Democrats to lead and pledged his support to the environment and clean water Two months after narrowly winning a contentious election in which he nailed his colors firmly to the mast of Trumpism, Ron DeSantis will be sworn in as Floridas 46th governor on Tuesday with voters in the nations third most populous state still unsure exactly what they will be getting. Many of the Republicans picks for his new administration during the seven weeks transition since his progressive Democratic opponent Andrew Gillum conceded have, predictably, followed his predecessor Rick Scotts brand of hardline conservatism. For example, Mary Mayhew, his choice to lead Floridas healthcare agency, served the White House in blocking expansion of the Medicaid program that provides health insurance for the poor. And DeSantiss key advisor and former state House speaker, Richard Corcoran, is a right-wing ideologue who will become the next commissioner of education. But other considerably more moderate appointments have left DeSantis supporters scratching their heads. Two prominent Democrats, Jared Moskowitz and Jim Zingale, have been nominated to lead, respectively, Floridas departments of emergency management and revenue. And in a clear break from the industry-friendly policies of an outgoing governor who was infamously branded Red Tide Rick, DeSantis has pledged to raise the environment and clean water as priority issues in arguably the nations most ecologically fragile state. Read more It is, in DeSantiss own words, the fulfilling of a campaign pledge to embrace bipartisanship and unite a divided electorate, who handed him a recount victory by fewer than 33,000 votes, from more than 8.2m cast. We were elected to serve all Floridians and that is a charge we will keep, DeSantis said in a written address to the state published at the weekend (he did not respond to requests from the Guardian and other media outlets for a pre-inauguration interview). I know there are political divides in our state, but the election is over and it is time for our state to come together. That means prioritising environmental issues we will put Everglades restoration into high gear and make it the reality that Floridians have been promised for three decades. To some analysts, however, the self-styled pitbull Trump defender whose most infamous campaign ad featured him reading the Trump book The Art of the Deal as a bedside story to his infant son has been forced to follow a more moderate path. One that increasingly veers from that of the US president, who praised him as a great Congressman [who] will be a great Governor. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ron DeSantis campaign ad. Photograph: YouTube The assumption from the beginning was that it would be all Trump all the time, but its not turning out that way, said Susan MacManus, emeritus professor of political science at the University of South Florida and a long-time expert on Florida politics. The narrowness of his victory and the changing demographics of the state made it very clear among savvy Republicans that they have to broaden their base. Hes already demonstrated hes doing some of that by his two Democratic appointments, and even a discussion of willingness not to clamp down so much on medicinal marijuana. Whether DeSantis will prove to be a champion of Floridas environment, which is under severe threat from climate change and water pollution, could even influence Trumps chances of re-election in 2020, MacManus believes. Hes going to have to be, she said. These younger generations are the environmental generations. A lot of small businesses in south-west Florida have been hurt by the red tide and are Republican leaning and theyre not going to take some kind of well, well get to that later approach any more. These people are really upset about pollution of the rivers and the Everglades. [DeSantis] cannot afford to lose those people and Im sure hes made it very clear to Trump that hes not going to carry Florida if he doesnt have those Republicans on board. Florida welcomes back its 1.5m 'returning citizens' after ex-felons regain voting rights Read more One of the first issues DeSantis, 40, a five-year US congressman and former lieutenant commander in the US Navy, must tackle is appointing three new members to the Florida Supreme Court, decisions that will shape the political direction of the states ultimate judicial body for a generation. Whomever he picks, the panel will automatically become less diverse with the retirement of Peggy Quince, an African-American who has served since 1982. Only two women, and no African Americans, are among the group of 11 Scott-favoured nominees from which DeSantis must choose. But is it the Florida voters passage of Amendment 4, a voter-approved measure that restores voting rights to up to 1.5 million mostly black felons, other than murderers and sexual offenders, who have served their sentences, that is already proving a racial hot potato to the incoming governor. In December, DeSantis said it would be months before Floridas Republican-dominated legislature would approve implementing language to allow the measure to be passed into law, a claim that earned an immediate scorching rebuke from Melba Pearson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. DeSantis wants to stand in the way of Amendment 4 by asking the legislature to pass an implementing bill, where in fact Amendment 4 is self-executing, she said. The only responsibility DeSantis has right now is to direct state agencies without delay to register voters consistent with state law. | https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/07/florida-governor-ron-desantis-republican |
What lies ahead for video games in 2019? | Harry Potter, The Last of Us and Kingdom Hearts are likely to be the stars of the year but streaming could change everything Video games are a fast-moving form of art and entertainment, and that makes the games industry a notoriously difficult one to predict. Games are now almost as varied as the people who play them more than two billion of all ages, across the world, playing on phones or PCs or PlayStations. But apart from Rockstars western epic Red Dead Redemption 2, whose 550m opening weekend made the kind of splash seen only every few years, the biggest earners of 2018 were games that have been around for years: Clash Royale and Pokmon Go on mobile, League of Legends and Counter-Strike on PC, and the omnipresent Fortnite. The money that these established, evolving mega-games make is astounding: its estimated that Fortnite now earns its creator Epic Games about $100m (78.5m) a week. In terms of revenue, any new game released in 2019 will struggle to compete. If anything stands a chance, though, its probably Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a mobile game from the creators of Pokmon Go that will combine JK Rowlings wizarding world with the real one. As you walk around your neighbourhood, your phone will alert you to traces of magic in random locations. As happened with Pokmon Go, expect to see small crowds of Potter-loving millennials gathering in bizarre locations, exchanging knowing nods in between staring at their phones. Its been more than five years since the current home games consoles, the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, were released, which means that new ones are likely to be announced soon (and will probably launch in 2020). This years most anticipated console games are the final wave of big hitters. Sony is pretty much certain to finally release The Last of Us: Part 2, a cinematic adventure that combines a post-apocalyptic zombie survival scenario with excellent starring characters (think The Walking Dead, except back when it was good), and Ghost of Tsushima, a stunningly beautiful homage to samurai cinema. On Xbox, Microsoft has tongue-in-cheek superhero action game Crackdown 3. EAs Anthem, a science-fiction game where players step into mech suits and fight aliens together on gorgeous planets, has people tentatively excited. Kingdom Hearts 3, a long-awaited sequel featuring Disneys iconic characters and worlds, will dominate in its native Japan. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Exciting prospects designers discuss the game Anthem at the E3 conference 2018. Photograph: Mike Nelson/EPA One forthcoming development that could transform how the games industry works is Netflix-style streaming though its unlikely that this will happen in 2019. Almost every major player in the games space has been experimenting with game-streaming technology, from Microsoft to Ubisoft to Google and Amazon, and their executives love to talk about how it will change the world. Right now, games run on the device youre playing them on, but game streaming could make it possible to play the same game on a phone, at home on a TV, or at the office on a PC, offloading all the technical heavy lifting to the cloud and saving players from having to buy expensive consoles. Microsoft already runs Xbox Game Pass, a subscription service that gives players a steady stream of new games for a monthly fee, rather than asking them to pay 50 a pop for individual titles. But streaming relies heavily on good internet speeds, and nobody has yet quite solved the problem of lag. Streaming a film uses much less data than streaming a game, and its not a huge problem if a streamed film stutters occasionally, but streamed video games need to be totally responsive or they feel horrible to play. And a lot of players simply arent ready to abandon their beloved consoles in favour of a new, unproven technology. Many of us have a strong sense of attachment to the physical games and consoles we grew up with, though the younger generation is unlikely to be burdened with such sentimentality. Its unlikely that 2019 will be the year that streaming technology turns the games industrys business model upside down, but it will be another step along the way. Speaking of business models, loot boxes, which thanks to government inquiries and media reports are now seen as adjacent to gambling by many, could start to disappear from games this year. Theyve already been rolled back in titles such as Forza 7 and Star Wars Battlefront, and in Belgium, where regulators have been paying close attention, Blizzard removed them from Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm as well. Loot boxes make money an awful lot of it, in games such as Fifa Ultimate Team but if the negative publicity around these randomised in-game rewards continues, publishers will have to consider other ways of chasing the recurrent revenues that swell their coffers. Ready player one: the most anticipated games of 2019 Read more Were approaching the end of a cycle in video-game world, and its coming at a time when the world seems in flux. Brexit threatens to decimate the UK games industry, and worldwide dips in peoples spending are making investors nervous, which is certain to affect video gamings behemoth companies and perhaps lead to a couple of years of reduced risk-taking. But every year were also seeing new people start to make and play games, and as younger developers and players do things on their own terms and create their own new video-game cultures, the games that emerge from it are becoming ever more interesting. This year Im looking forward to playing Hypnospace Outlaw, a surreal detective game set in the 1990s internet, and NeoCab, a narrative science fiction game with a lot to say about the evils of the gig economy. In years like this, where blockbuster games are thinner on the ground and the giants of the industry are taking stock, indie producers have more space to shine. | https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jan/08/video-games-2019-preview-harry-potter-last-of-us-kingdom-hearts-streaming |
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Have scientists discovered the genetic 'recipe' for MONOGAMY? | Scientists have studied 24 genes they believe are involved in turning a species monogamous. Some animals mate with several partners every season while others stay with one individual for their entire reproductive lifespan. They found that monogamous males had the same patterns of gene expression in the brains of their less loyal relatives. Scroll down for video The strawberry poison frog (Oophaga pumilio, left) is non-monogamous and the closely related mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator, right) is monogamous. Scientists have studied 24 genes they believe are involved in turning a species monogamous The researchers studied ten animal species - five monogamous animals and then a closely related polygamous species for each. This was four mammals, two birds, two frogs and two fish and included: deer mice, meadow vole, warblers, poison dart frogs and Xenotilapia fish. The authors define monogamy as animals that form a pair bond with one sexual mate for at least one season. They also apply the label monogamous to animals that normally have sex with one individual but occasionally mate with another. The researchers studied ten animal species - five monogamous animals and then a closely related polygamous species for each (pictured). The 24 genes (right) show show expression of certain traits is conserved across species 'Our study spans 450 million years of evolution, which is how long ago all these species shared a common ancestor,' said Rebecca Young, research associate in UT Austin's Department of Integrative Biology and first author of the study. 'Most people wouldn't expect that across 450 million years, transitions to such complex behaviours would happen the same way every time.' Gene expression in male brains of all 10 species was studied to find an evolutionary link between the vastly different animal groups. A similar change in gene expression happened every time, despite the complexity of monogamy as a behaviour. Researchers examined gene activity across the genomes of the 10 species, using RNA-sequencing technology and tissue samples from three individuals of each species. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6566067/Have-scientists-discovered-genetic-recipe-MONOGAMY.html |
How a Pakistani man helps to save girl from prostitution? | Web Desk: A 13-year old minor girl was forced to have sexual intercourse with a 49-year-old Pakistani man. He bought the girl to Dubai, after claiming to be her father, and forced her into prostitution, report Khaleej Times. Allegedly, the man raped her and assaulted her with a stick every time she refused to have sex with him. The case was reported in September 2018. According to court records, the girl told prosecutors that the accused forced her into prostitution back home two years ago. He then issued a visit visa for her and brought her to the country, claiming she was his daughter. The girl was forced to have sex with 11 men of different nationalities every day for money. He raped me back home and here (in the UAE) too. He hit me with a stick every time I refused to have sex with him, the girl told prosecutors. The 25-year-old defendant, was a customer at the brothel, fell in love with the girl and promised to marry her. He reported the girls plight to the police after he received a text message from her brother, who resides in Pakistan, requesting for help. The police raided the place and arrested the two women, both aged 23, who admitted to working as prostitutes. They also corroborated the girls rape claims. They said the brothels owner approached the girl while he was drunk and wanted to have sex with her. He assaulted her when she refused. Both women admitted that the accused paid Pakistani Rs200,000 to their families to bring them to the UAE. The 49-year-old denied rape charges but admitted to consuming alcohol. He also admitted he brought the teenager to the country for prostitution and facilitated paid sex for the other two women. Forensic reports showed bruises on the young girls body. | http://www.aaj.tv/2019/01/how-a-pakistani-man-helps-to-save-girl-from-prostitution/ |
What on earth is Dracut? | Dracut is a new system to generate, in the same way for all Gnu/Linux distributions, the special programs and files that make Linux boot. Linux Format decided to find out more. Q. OK, now I understand what we're talking about. A. Please let me check something before I answer that question. Q. Er sure. Yes, of course I do. The Linux kernel A. is the basic software that executes orders to do all of and only the very basic, low-level stuff inside a computer, from managing hardware drivers to scheduling of different processes. Q. A. When a Linux kernel boots, the first thing it must do is find and mount the filesystem hosting the first program to run. That is the piece of software, usually called 'init', that knows how to start all the other programs in an ordered way, and where to find them (because, in general, they may be on a different disk, or on some other server). Q. That doesn't sound like a really complicated task. A. Theoretically, yes. As a matter of fact, it is a complicated task (for a kernel, at least), when you start considering all of the different possibilities. These days, Linux runs on practically everything, from mainframes to mobile phones and car entertainment systems. Apart from the microprocessor, that first filesystem may be installed on good old hard disks, but it's also used on USB keys, network drives, flash chips and RAID arrays. And besides, even the filesystems on two identical computers may have entirely different configurations. Q. A. Well, they may or may not be compressed or encrypted, just to mention the most frequent cases. Which means that the kernel should have not only the right software tools to access them but, in the latter case, also the right password. Finally, in a world full of laptops, Linux must also be able to handle hibernation - that is to boot back to the exact state it was at when it was suspended. Q. OK, so there are a lot of possibilities, after all. A. Indeed. At least there are enough that it would be very hard to describe all of them only with command-line options for the kernel. Besides, the kernel is such a peculiar piece of software that it's also difficult to make it perform all of the possible actions needed to find the root device. Some developers express this concept by saying that the kernel is built only to take orders and requests, not to make decisions. Q. A. It is, as its name suggests, a small 'initial filesystem' that was introduced with the 2.6 version of the Linux kernel, built to be loaded in the RAM and ran entirely from it. The purpose of an initramfs is to host, in a place and format surely usable by the kernel, a custom version of the init program and all the drivers and tools that it may need at boot. Once the kernel finds and launches that application, it doesn't have to perform any other special tasks anymore. It is that init program inside the initramfs that will find the real filesystem - the one where your Gnu/ Linux distribution lives - and start it. Q. A. Well, in general, a filesystem is just a bunch of bytes which, as you'll already know, can be copied everywhere - that is internally formatted in such a way to host and easily find folders and files. However, to make it usable even from the RAM, an initramfs can be mounted as if it were a real disk that, for reasons too technical to cover here, doesn't need any driver. Q. A. That's correct. It has been used so much that, over the years, each GNU/Linux distribution has developed its own custom tools to generate these kinds of filesystems. Q. A. Dracut is both a series of tools and a new method, based on Udev events, to create a general-purpose initramfs. It was created in 2009 to overcome certain limits of the previous distribution-specific systems. Q. Wait! You did it again! Throwing around weird names. A. Udev is the daemon that creates, names and deletes device nodes - that is the software interfaces to hardware devices, in all GNU/Linux systems. Q. A. The main reason is to have a standard way to get persistent device names, even for removable drives. Udev actions are communicated to all the programs that ask to be notified about them. Q. Thanks. A. For end users, the most visible justification for Dracut will be faster boot times. Dracut should make it easier to mount and use the real root filesystem, that is to leave the initramfs with all its limitations, as soon as possible. Q. A. In a nutshell, less code to run and debug, and more efficient ways to do it. As long as every distribution has its own tools to create an initramfs, there are more things that can go wrong. The first idea behind Dracut is to move the generation of initramfs outside the distributions, and to make it simpler to use for their maintainers. Q. A. Through a simpler, generic init program that uses, for all the installation methods and boot configurations, the standard udev tool, inside a common and much more general initramfs. Another way in which Dracut would make developers' lives easier is the fact that it includes a diagnostic shell. There's also some activity to create 'hooks', that is ways for running arbitrary commands. Q. A. Just because of the availability of udev in the new initramfs, Dracut turns the old procedures upside down. Instead of having each distribution, in a different way, stuffing its initramfs with all sorts of black magic tools for hardware detection, the init program in the initramfs generated by Dracut enables udev to create device nodes. Q. A. Exactly. Q. A. The boot phase is practically over. As soon as the device node of the real root filesystem is mounted, the kernel 'jumps' to it, leaving the initramfs to start the real init. Q. A. Yes. You may, for example, easily create smaller images by passing to the Dracut script the -H option. Q. A. In that case, you should describe yourself to Dracut, using the proper command-line options, how your system is configured and how you want it to boot. If you do that, Dracut will translate all that information into proper kernel options and other customisations, in order to create an initramfs that knows from the very first instant what the root filesystem is. | https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/software/operating-systems/what-on-earth-is-dracut-1078647 |
Can Dominic Solanke thrive at Bournemouth? | COMMENT Dominic Solanke joined Premier League outfit Bournemouth on a permanent basis for a fee reported to be in the region of 19 million plus add-ons last week, as the Anglo-Nigerian wonderkid looks to get his career back on track. The former Chelsea starlet failed to make a single appearance for Liverpool during the ongoing season, as he appeared to suffer the consequences of an underwhelming campaign under Jurgen Klopp last term. Even though his career might be stalling, its worth remembering just what a prospect Solanke is. Article continues below Dom Solanke | 2017-18 Premier League stats He scored an impressive 20 goals in 25 appearances for Chelseas U-18s in the 2013-2014 season, and the season after, became the clubs youngest Champions League debutant. On loan at Vitesse Arnhem in the Netherlands, he got experience of first-team football, but Chelsea were never to reap the rewards of Solankes development, as he moved to Liverpool on a free transfer upon the expiry of his contract. The striker made his first Premier League start in the 3-0 win over Stoke City in November 2017, but took till Maythe final day of the seasonto open his account. It was his only goal in 21 PL outings, and while he consistently found himself in good scoring positions and impressed with his movement and build-up play, his return was always going to make his position vulnerable. Now 21, Solanke still only has one sole Prem goal to his name, and he remains worryingly unproven at this level. He may have already been capped by Englandalbeit in a friendly against Brazilbut must use this move to Bournemouth to demonstrate that he can transition from promising youngster to bona fide Premier League hitman. His potential is certainly immense, with Solanke able to offer the Cherries an option as a leading man, support striker or in wide areas. It will be intriguing to see how Eddie Howe opts to use the forwards touch and pace, and how Solanke adapts to Bournemouths style. Theyre one of the fastest teams in the divisionat times almost freneticwith their forwards experts at spotting and exploiting space, and thriving in front of midfielders boasting the technical class to pick them out quickly. Solanke has the quality to fit in, and has the potential to fare better than Jordon Ibe, whos struggled to live up to his transfer fee after swapping Anfield for Bournemouth. However, while Ibe was arguably one-dimensional upon his arrival from Merseyside, and doesnt always look like he has the technical quality to thrive at Bournemouth, Solanke could be a genuine asset for the southerners. Fitting him into the current system halfway through the season represents a challenge for both player and manager alike, and it will be interesting to see how he fares amidst considerable competition at the club. Veteran Jermain Defoe may have departed for Glasgow Rangers, but the likes of Callum Wilson, Josh King and Ibe still represent significant competition for places. It also remains to be seen what Solankes fitness and confidence will be like following his inactivity at Liverpool to date this term. Unlike earlier in his career, it feels like theres a lot standing in the youngsters path to success these days. Fortunately, Howe has demonstrated an ability to make effective Premier League operators out of discarded, underachieving or unheralded players in the past. | https://www.goal.com/en-us/news/can-dominic-solanke-thrive-at-bournemouth/1rg2phj6dh8go12onpd2z8yn4b |
What Is School Really For? | I found myself considering this question after speaking with parents of a profoundly gifted student. The child had just turned five and was reveling in integers as part of casual breakfast conversation. He inhaled information almost by osmosis. No teacher or school, for that matter, can compete with that level of content knowledge. Idealists among us might say school is an important part of childhood memories with friendships solidified alongside academic skills. The more pragmatic, likely including parents of this years graduating seniors, might agree with those reasons, but conclude that really, its to meet some fairly straightforward criteria ending in acceptance to a good university. Hard to argue with either since both are true at least most of the time. Retracting the lens even further, however, we remember that university leads to emancipation, and The Future and in that future, economies continue to be built on the backs of workforce generations and well, school is the conveyor belt that simply prepares them. Dylan Williams likens the situation to walking up a down escalator: with the availability of low skill jobs...being destroyed [by automation and offshoring]...we made progress. But the speed of the down escalator has been increasing. If we cannot increase the rate at which our schools are improving, then, quite simply, we will go backwards. Its not for lack of intelligence. On the contrary - we know from the Flynn Effect that were smarter* than weve ever been. Attributed to James Flynn and his research, individual intelligence has been on an ascending trend. In at least 30 countries, IQ scores increase each decade by approximately three points. It makes sense that these have been attributed to positive cumulative effects of formal schooling, better nutrition and a higher standard of living (less time hoeing and tilling the fields affords more time reading, discussing, creating or googling). Progress, globalisation and technology have strengthened our ability to conceptualise, extrapolate and hypothesise so that we are better equipped to navigate a more complex world, but the sum of these have resulted in an acceleration past a tipping point, the marker by which the worlds exponentially increasing complexities evolved faster than a key catalyst for our ability to process it, our learning systems - school. In 1999, on the cusp of the new millenium, Seymour Papert and Gaston Caperton proposed a new way to retool exactly that by proposing a redefinition of the purpose of education. Papert, mathematician, pioneer of artificial intelligence and constructionism, had been previously tasked by Vice President Al Gore to consult on educational reform. The Caperton-Papert platform produced an essay shared at the 91st National Governors Association beginning with the idea that the future of education could not be oversimplified with what had come to be the usual reactionary solutions. Tangible ideals such as increasing test scores, improving teaching or ensuring technology in every classroom are noble goals, easy enough to initiate into policy, but Papert and Caperton did not think they were suitable catalysts for rejigging existing learning systems. They posited a paradigm shift; the fundamental mission of education should not primarily be about academic success and learning, but to nurture within each student, his or her own vision. This vision vision of schooling exceeds even the aspiration that the purpose of schooling, particularly in this accelerated age, is not to pass on knowledge but to teach the learner how to learn. Sugata Mitras findings (in a nutshell, children + internet + helpful bystander = learning, mirroring basically most gatherings these days) show us that in general, children are proficient at learning. No matter the circumstances - a classroom or a dusty street corner, they find a way given resources because that is what they are built to be- expert novices. Paradoxically true of new skill formation, the more expertise one gains, the less work one puts in towards having to learn, the fewer the opportunities to practice novice qualities. Hence this Harvard Business Review article which correlates improved work performance for CEOs who devote a lot of time to their hobbies because it reminds them what its like not to be the expert, the positive effects experienced at the beginning stages of learning. The standards by which schools are often assessed - student achievement, rigor of curriculum, pedagogical expertise - address really only a fraction of the Caperton-Papert ask, specifically the skills and the ethic needed to follow these visions. It is the hidden curriculum, the nuances within school culture which plays a much more formative role in establishing student concept of self as a life-long learner as well as agency in a worth-while life ahead. Just as our cultural identifiers have more to do with the foods we eat, the words we say, the politics we keep, and the traditions we celebrate rather than our countrys GDP or mortality rates, school ethos counts more in the long term than we care to credit. Each variable from the admissions demographic to classroom decor to resources allocated to language used during disciplinary action or celebration of achievement matters as much, sometimes even more, than content explicitly taught when constructing the early trajectory of ones learner profile. In developing our own visions for our future selves, we generally take cues from the way the greater community defines success. Considering that the success of a through-train school is more often than not punctuated by its elite university admissions at the secondary level, ensuring that acceptance into the right university propels students into, rather than derails them from, the ultimate goal of developing a proud vision of self as a powerful life-long learner is much easier stated than believed or enacted upon. Malcolm Gladwells (2013) evaluation of what he calls Elite Institution Cognitive Disorder challenges that very notion. Excerpted from an essay in his book, David and Goliath, this speech carefully outlines a decrease in productivity (in terms of research publications) from the majority of students within an already highly selective admissions demographic in the ensuing years following an elite university education when compared to students attending a less selective alma mater. Known as the Big Fish, Little Pond syndrome, a phenomenon supported by this meta-analyses, we may acknowledge legitimacy begrudgingly, but its hard to ignore Gladwells point. Certainly there are many benefits to attending elite schools, networking and opportunity for starters. While Gladwells perspective makes sense for some and draws ire from others, its still a good reminder that its too easy for schools to be swept into elite university frenzy. Though we may have the best intentions, giving in to the pressure to narrowly define success can actually be detrimental to students in their perceived agency as lifelong learners. More than a place of academic learning, its a microcosm of opportunities to develop self-awareness and wonder, confidence, kindness and curiosity, an incubator for agency at which the awakening of intellect and a sense of purpose intersect. *: smart is defined by Flynn in terms of demonstrating increased abstract problem solving, including thinking more critically and creatively than our predecessors. About J. Christine Greenberg, THS Prep and Primary Principal J. Christine Greenberg is the Prep and Primary Principal of The Harbour School in Hong Kong. Before joining the THS faculty in 2009, Christine worked in schools as a teacher and educational consultant. She completed the rank of Master Teacher in accordance with the Comprehensive Application of Behavioral Analysis to Schooling certification system and was awarded undergraduate degrees summa cum laude in English Literature and Elementary Education (K-8) from the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York. She completed her graduate studies as a Doctor of Philosophy candidate in the field of Special Education where she was the recipient of the annual scholarship from the Department of Health and Behavior Studies in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2014, she co-authored a paper on inclusive practices in education in Hong Kong, It Takes Two to Tango, published in the Global Education Review. Her research and professional interests include progressively inclusive education. | https://www.scmp.com/presented/news/hong-kong/topics/harbour-school/article/2181007/what-school-really |
Was kostet mobile Pflege und Betreuung 2019 in N? | www.preisrechner.at mit aktuellen Daten steht kostenlos zur Verfgung Wiener Neustadt (OTS) - Der Online-Preisrechner der Volkshilfe ist bei der Berechnung der Kosten und Frderungen fr die mobile Pflege und Betreuung in Niedersterreich behilflich. Mit den Werten von 2019 aktualisiert, steht er ab sofort kostenlos auf www.preisrechner.at zur Verfgung. Diese Frage lsst sich nicht so einfach beantworten, denn die Kosten der mobilen Pflege und Betreuung sind in Niedersterreich auf Einkommen und die Pflegegeldstufe abgestimmt. Meist frdert das Land N einen Teil davon, erklrt der Prsident der Volkshilfe N Prof. Ewald Sacher, unser kostenloser Online-Preisrechner ist bei der Berechnung, auch im Vorhinein, eine wertvolle Hilfe. N Landesrtin Ulrike Knigsberger-Ludwig informierte sich ber den kostenlosen Online-Preisrechner der Volkshilfe N: Die Berechnung der mglichen Kosten und Frderungen ist ganz einfach, ein wunderbares Tool. Der Online-Preisrechner bewhrte sich sehr und die BesucherInnenzahlen stiegen in den letzten Jahren stetig. Allein im Jahr 2018 nutzten 46.500 BesucherInnen das Tool, informiert der Geschftsfhrer der Volkshilfe N und Initiator des Preisrechners Mag. (FH) Gregor Tomschizek, besonders gefragt ist der Online-Preisrechner im Jnner mit 5.800 und im April mit 5.600 BesucherInnen. Selbstverstndlich stehen die MitarbeiterInnen der Volkshilfe N / SERVICE MENSCH GmbH auch weiterhin fr eine genaue Berechnung der Kosten und Frderungen in einem persnlichen Beratungsgesprch zur Verfgung. Falls noch kein Pflegegeld bezogen wird, helfen diese auch bei der Antragstellung, informieren ber eine mgliche Erhhung der Pflegegeldstufe und beantworten Fragen rund um Pflege und Betreuung. Sie sind telefonisch unter der Service-Hotline erreichbar: 0676 / 8676 Rckfragen & Kontakt: Volkshilfe Niedersterreich / SERVICE MENSCH GmbH Mag. (FH) Beatrix Dunkl 02622 / 82200-6920 beatrix.dunkl @ noe-volkshilfe.at http://www.noe-volkshilfe.at | https://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20190108_OTS0034/was-kostet-mobile-pflege-und-betreuung-2019-in-noe |
Does CBD Work for Pain Relief? | Kyle Wright was used to living in pain. The 31-year-old who lives in New York City regularly felt the repercussions of decades-old injuries from playing sports and bartending, and contended with the back and shoulder aches triggered by mild scoliosis. Then, at a street fair in Denver, where he used to live, someone offered him a sample of CBD lotion, a product said to contain cannabidiol, one of the many chemicals found in the cannabis plant. (While medicinal and recreational marijuana contain CBD, the component itself doesn't deliver the "high" that's attributed to a different chemical, THC.) Wright gave it a shot. "I was really amazed at how effective the lotion was," says Wright, who now runs a relationship coaching business with his wife. "About 15 minutes later, it felt like the tension had evaporated through my skin." Wright soon began buying CBD lotion and using it on his wrists, shoulders, back and neck -- all areas that craved attention after long days tied to the computer. He continues to use a salve or lotion about twice a week and almost never uses Advil or ibuprofen, his former default remedies. "My joints felt looser, my muscles felt relaxed and the pain is significantly lessened," Wright says. [See: On a Scale From 1 to 10: Most Painful Medical Conditions.] Wright is far from the only one praising the power of CBD to treat pain and other ailments in what's promoted as a non-addictive, side effect-free and non-psychoactive way. The Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research company, even projects the industry will reach $22 billion by 2020, thanks to people like Danielle Jenkins, a 29-year-old who works in nonprofit management in Telluride, Colorado, who says a topical CBD product was "the only thing" that helped certain leg muscles in the thigh after a hockey injury. Daisy Testa, a 31-year-old academic counselor in Chicago, also swears by CBD to relieve both stress and its associated neck pain. Mitchell Roth, a film producer in San Francisco, goes as far as to credit CBD for breaking his wife's addiction to opioids, which she originally used to manage pain related to endometriosis. She's now off both substances. Some physicians are on board, too. Dr. Charlton Woodly, a podiatric surgeon in Texas who has no financial stake in CBD products, integrates CBD into patients' recovery from surgery, breaks and sprains. "I use it in my practice because, unlike pain medications, such as Tylenol, CBD does not cause kidney or liver issues while providing the same pain relief," he says. And Dr. Philip Blair, a family physician who serves as medical director of the CBD brand Elixinol, says he's used CBD with over 2,000 patients after the research and his experience convinced him the substance, in fact, wasn't too good to be true. Within minutes of giving a patient CBD, he says, "I see relaxation of their facial muscles, they become more expressive and spontaneous, their eyes get bigger and their shoulders relax. I hear a deep sigh of relief." [See: 11 Ways to Cope With Back Pain.] But some researchers and clinicians caution against prematurely jumping on the CBD bandwagon, which is gaining members and momentum since the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill, legislation that fully legalizes hemp, a variety of the cannabis plant. But even that enthusiasm is misguided, says Dr. Jordan Tishler, a Harvard physician and CEO of InhaleMD, a Boston-area practice specializing in cannabis therapeutics. The bill, he says, will help farmers and the economy since it will spur the development of new products like textiles. But, he adds, "that has nothing to do with medicine." Here's what else he and other health experts say consumers need to know: 1. CBD isn't entirely legal. CBD companies, some health care professionals and some news reports make blanket claims that CBD is totally legal in every state. Tishler says that's far from the truth. In reality, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration considers all cannabinoids, including CBD, a schedule 1 drug, which means it's as illegal as heroin from the federal government's perspective. The only form of CBD that's legal in its eyes is the prescription medicine Epidiolex, which the FDA approved in 2018 to treat seizures associated with two rare forms of epilepsy -- and nothing else. (CBD may be legal, though, if acquired through a state medical cannabis program.) And even though hemp, which is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is legal so long as the THC content is negligible, people who want to make CBD by farming hemp need to have a license to do so through the federal government or, in some cases, their state, Tishler explains. Unfortunately, there's no good way to know if your manufacturer has acquired this, he says. | https://news.yahoo.com/does-cbd-pain-relief-150419108.html |
Can consultant solve crisis without expensive programs? | Fridays article about the mayors State of the City address reaffirmed my conclusion about how dysfunctional Eugenes city government really is. The City of Eugene has hired yet another consultant, to address a problem that has plagued the city for some time. Every month 130 more people are becoming homeless in Lane County. Thats more than 1,500 new homeless each year. It would be nice to know how many of the homeless are from the existing population of tax-paying residents and how many are new to the area, attracted by the services and accommodations offered by the city. It would also be nice to know how many of the existing population become un-homeless each month and begin to contribute positively to the expense of providing services to this ever-increasing population. Yes, it is time to reduce the existing homeless population and limit the number of homeless inundating Eugene every month, however this should be done, without tapping existing earmarked resources or increasing the tax burden for new programs. I dont believe providing additional services, shelter and other living accommodations is the answer. Perhaps this consultant, who has identified a problem that everyone knows already exists, will also provide a cost-effective solution. Walter Reim, Springfield | https://www.registerguard.com/opinion/20190108/can-consultant-solve-crisis-without-expensive-programs |
How can California pay for universal preschool? | Freshly sworn-in Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to propose a nearly $2 billion plan to expand early childhood education in California, with $1.5 billion coming from a one-time general fund expenditure that some say is a precarious way to fund education. The money would be used to subsidize child care facilities and expand full-day kindergarten, as well as fund in-home postnatal visits for low-income mothers, a program commonly found in European countries. New research from the Berkeley Early Childhood Think Tank says its possible to finance Newsoms loftiest goals just not in the way the governor has proposed. Researcher Bruce Fuller says that rather than a one-time cash infusion, the group would prefer to see long-term investments tied to existing funding mechanisms that wouldnt be at the mercy of a future economic downswing. Digital Access for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. Its better to put in stable financing than propose one-time funding for a scattered set of programs, Fuller said. There are sizable shortfalls in how many families have access to high-quality childcare. The governor has raised hope that he can solve this. But it could end up being a disappointment. The think tanks proposal has four core suggestions, including expanding transitional kindergarten to some 50,000 students and tying their attendance to the Proposition 98 funding guarantee. Prop. 98 allocates money for California schools adjusted on the basis of student enrollment. In recent years, enrollment has declined, leaving worries about a funding shortfall. Fuller said including more 4-year-olds would generate money for education and stave off the shortfall while allowing more students to find placements in high-quality programs. The think tank previously found that Fresno County not only has a shortage of daycare and preschool spots, but that the San Joaquin Valleys growing birth rate is likely to exacerbate the problem. Many of these initiatives are affordable given our budget, but we need to be prudent. We should be building out the infrastructure to fund these programs long-term, Fuller said. The surplus wont last forever. Ken Kapphahn, a fiscal and policy analyst with the Legislative Analysts Office, said that while the state would have to fund the expansion of programs for 4-year-olds, enrolling an additional 50,000 students could mean earning additional money while also resetting the clock on the funding shortfall, which kicks in after two years of enrollment decline. Its possible that the growth in the minimum funding guarantee would be more than the costs associated with expanding the programs, Kapphahn said. To some, this is the best of both worlds. But Steve Ward, legislative analyst for Clovis Unified, says he worries that school districts already facing cuts would end up responsible for educating additional students when they simply cannot afford it. Convincing the Legislature to offer more than the minimum funding guarantee would be one way to pay for preschool and K-12 education. We should not be pitting preschool and K-12 programs against each other for limited resources within Prop. 98, Ward said. The case for one-time funding Michele Cantwell-Copher, administrator for early care and education for the Office of the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools, said shes reassured that Newsom is proposing one-time funding, much of it to support proven programs, such as training more teachers and expanding full-day kindergarten. Anybody whos watching the economy now has noticed we seem to be heading for recession. We should gently ease people in to the idea in the face of our volatile economic status, Copher said. And once you see the investment and its impact, there is inspiration to invest more. Copher said the $750 million allocated to full-day kindergarten is particularly important to lower-income parents, many of whom often dont enroll their children in partial-day kindergarten because theyre unable to pick them up in the middle of the workday. Other components of the plan, which include in-home visits for new parents, are already in line with Fresno Countys Cradle to Career endeavors, Copher said. Cradle to Career is a partnership of school districts, health care organizations and others, whose programs emphasize kindergarten readiness and early literacy. As for how ready Fresno County is for expanded early learning, I think you wont find any resistance here, Copher said. Lupe Jamie, director of the Lighthouse for Children, an early learning center in downtown Fresno, said the facility is anxiously awaiting the governors budget proposal to see the definition of universal preschool. She said she hopes that the investment will allow the center to offer placements for working-class families who dont qualify for subsidized care but cant afford the full tuition, which can be as much as $1,200 per month for infants. Jaime also said she sees the benefits of both a one-time expenditure and a long-term funding mechanism, as well as potential drawbacks to both. For one, programs for 4-year-olds tend to be partial-day, and expanding access to them could leave them under-attended as parents are unable to adjust to the schedule. But the money does need to be steady, she said, so 3-year-olds who attend a quality preschool dont lose their spots as 4- and 5-year-olds the next time belts are tightened. I hope were mindful of the dollars were investing, and that theyve been thought through for the future, so theyre not the first ones cut, she said. During the last recession, our funding was some of the first to get cut, and we still havent recovered. Other proposals The New York Times reported Monday that Newsom also is expected to propose six months of paid parental leave for California families the most of any state in the nation but that the plan does not include a way to pay for it. One possibility would be to raise the state disability income tax by one-tenth of one percent, generating $750 million in revenue, according to Fuller. Fuller said that the money could either be spent to expand parental leave to more families who currently dont take advantage of it, or to allow low-income families to take home their full pay while on leave. If the 70 to 75 percent of your income that you get while youre on leave doesnt allow you to put food on the table, youre not going to take it, Fuller said. The think tanks proposal said the tax increase could allow the state to reach up to 100,000 more families without dipping into the general fund. Using facilities bonds to build early learning centers is another way that school districts and cities can support preschool and transitional kindergarten, the report said. Fresno Unified has used money from bond measures for a kindergarten building at Figarden Elementary that includes both general and special education classrooms. Districts like L.A. Unified have pioneered the use of local revenue bonds to support early learning centers, the Berkeley report says. The legislature can broaden this approach to finance new child- care and pre-k slots for infants, toddlers and preschoolers statewide. | https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education/article224020160.html |
Is it Okay to Make Plans and Dream? | There are two familiar positions related to this question. Some people say that its not okay to make plans for anything; that you should be like a leaf floating in the wind. You let God take you wherever He wants to take you. You dont exert your will, or your desires. You just are. Others say that if anything good happens in life its because you make it happen. After all, God isnt going to show up on your doorstep and offer you a new job, a new relationship, or a new life. He set the world into motion and then stepped back to watch it spin. Everything else is up to you. I found something interesting in Scripture I never noticed before that addresses both of these positions. James 4:13 says, Now listen, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money. Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. You are a mist that appears for a little while, and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lords will, we will live and do this or that. As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. We can throw position #1 that you dont make any plans at all, that you dont exert your will, your desires, or hope into any situation out the window. Some people might think that is what this passage is saying. Its not. Notice it says, Instead, you ought to say, If it is the Lords will, we will do this or that. God is saying, Its okay to have a Id like to do this or that in mind. Its okay to verbalize it and make plans for it. But, in all of your expectations, remain flexible and let Me have the final say. There is no person who will suffer the disappointment and despair that comes from dashed expectations if they live with a plan in one hand and surrender to God in the other. Position #2, as I mentioned, says that you make things happen. That its all up to you. You are the maker of your own destinyyou are your own god. I have one word for that - baloney! Its pretty clear that, according to James, you can make your plans, but God says yes or no. The real truth is that control is an illusion. No one really has any. We dont even control our own breath or how long we live. People who assume they have control over their lives are, as the Scripture says, boastingand boasting is evil. Its opposed to the idea of being God dependent. Only God has total controland because He loves us, we can trust Him with that control. So, in short, if you have a goal, a hope, or a dream, pray over it and if you feel that God is giving you the thumbs up and its not sinful, go for it! Make your plans. Dream your dreams. But always let God have the final word. | https://justbetweenus.org/life/finding-purpose/is-it-okay-to-make-plans-and-dream/ |
What is fog computing? | Fog computing refers to a decentralized computing structure, where resources, including the data and applications, get placed in logical locations between the data source and the cloud; it also is known by the terms fogging and fog networking. The goal of this is to bring basic analytic services to the network edge, improving performance by positioning computing resources closer to where they are needed, thereby reducing the distance that data needs to be transported on the network, improving overall network efficiency and performance. Fog computing can also be deployed for security reasons, as it has the ability to segment bandwidth traffic, and introduce additional firewalls to a network for higher security. Fog computing has its origins as an extension of cloud computing , which is the paradigm to have the data, storage and applications on a distant server, and not hosted locally. With the cloud computing model, the client can purchase the services from a provider, which delivers not only the service, but also the maintenance and upgrades, with the plus that they can be accessed anywhere, and facilitating work by teams. History of fog computing The term fog computing is associated with Cisco, who registered the name Cisco Fog Computing, which played on cloud computing as in the clouds are up in the sky, and the fog refers to the clouds down close to the ground. In 2015, an OpenFog Consortium was created with founding members ARM, Cisco, Dell, Intel, Microsoft and Princeton University, and additional contributing members including GE, Hitachi and Foxconn. IBM introduced the closely allied, and mostly synonymous (although in some situations not exactly ) term edge computing. Advantages and disadvantages Fog computing has a number of advantages. By adding the capability to process data closer to where it is created, fog computing seeks to create a network with lower latency, and with less data to upload, it increases the efficiency at which it can be processed. There is also the benefit that data can still be processed with fog computing in a situation of no bandwidth availability. Fog computing provides an intermediary between these IoT devices and the cloud computing infrastructure that they connect to, as it is able to analyze and process data closer to where it is coming from, filtering what gets uploaded up to the cloud. A downside of cloud computing is that all this computing over the network relies heavily on data transport. While broadband internet access has generally improved over the last decade, there are still challenges with accessibility, peak congestion, lower speeds on mobile 3G and 4G cellular networks, as well as occasions of limited internet availability whether underground, off the grid or on an airplane. This lack of consistent access leads to situations where data is being created at a rate that exceeds how fast the network can move it for analysis. This also leads to concerns over the security of this data created, which is becoming increasingly common as Internet of Things devices become more commonplace. Physically, this extra computing power closer to the data creation site in a fog computing configuration gets located at a fog node, which is considered a crucial ingredient in a cloud-fog-thing network . The fog node, which is located in a smart router or gateway device, allows for data to be processed on this smart device, so that only the necessary data gets further transmitted to the cloud, and decreases the bandwidth used. Real world applications of fog computing An example of a use case for fog computing is a smart electrical grid. Electrical grids these days are quite dynamic, being responsive to increased electrical consumption, and lowering production when it is not needed to be economical. In order to run efficiently, a smart grid relies heavily on real time data of electrical production and consumption. Fog computing is ideal for this as in some cases the data is created in a remote location, and it is better to process it there. In other situations, the data is not from an isolated sensor, but rather from a group of sensors, such as the electrical meters of a neighborhood, and it is better to process and aggregate the data locally, than to overload the data throughput by transmitting the raw data in its entirety. Another use case for fog computing is for IoT applications, such as the next generation smarter transportation network, known as V2V in the US, and the Car-To-Car Consortium in Europe. Dubbed the Internet of Vehicles , each vehicle and traffic enforcement device is an IoT device which produces a stream of data, and connects to the other vehicles as well as traffic signals and the streets themselves, with the promise of safer transportation for better collision avoidance with traffic that flows more smoothly. Each vehicle has the potential to generate quite a bit of data just on speed and direction, as well as transmitting to other vehicles when it is braking, and how hard. As the data is coming from moving vehicles, it needs to be transmitted wirelessly on the 5.9 GHz frequency in the USA; if not done properly the amount of data could easily overload the finite mobile bandwidth. A key component of sharing the limited mobile bandwidth is the processing of data at the level of the vehicle via a fog computing approach through an on-board vehicle processing unit. Fog computing has also been applied in manufacturing in the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). This allows connected manufacturing devices with sensors and cameras to gather and process data locally, rather than send all of this data to the cloud. Processing this data locally, in one wireless real world model allowed for a 98% reduction in packets of data transmitted, while maintaining a 97% data accuracy, in a distributed data fog computing model. In addition, the energy savings are ideal for effective energy consumption, a crucial feature in the setting of battery powered devices. | https://www.techradar.com/news/what-is-fog-computing |
Would Restructuring the Debt Help Lebanon Avoid a Financial Crisis? | The country is unlikely to make its debt sustainable through fiscal adjustment because that would require a sharp decline in interest rates or substantial economic growth. (Shutterstock) Goldman Sachs Group Inc. still sees an imminent debt restructuring in Lebanon as unlikely but is already turning its attention to how much investors could recover as one of the most indebted countries teeters on the brink of financial crisis. Under the U.S. banks base scenario, foreign investors would recover 35 cents on the dollar, Farouk Soussa, an economist at Goldman Sachs, said in a report. He added, however, that any debt overhaul would put the countrys banks first, meaning the actual recovery value would be significantly different to contain damage. Local lenders are among the biggest holders of Lebanons sovereign debt. Political turmoil and sluggish economic growth are prompting questions on how long Lebanon can avoid a financial meltdown that would further destabilize an area rattled by war in Syria and tension between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanons sovereign debt risk surged 280 basis points over the past year to 800, making it the worlds third-worst performing among credit default swaps tracked by Bloomberg. In the continued absence of significant improvements in the political, economic and financial prospects of the country, the possibility of a financial crisis and sovereign default is growing, Soussa said. Read More Report: Real Estate Sales in Lebanon Plummets in 2018 Experts' Analysis of Appalling Statistics About Lebanon Revealed by McKinsey Report In his report, Soussa said the country is unlikely to make its debt sustainable through fiscal adjustment because that would require a sharp decline in interest rates or substantial economic growth. While possible, both are largely outside the control of policymakers, and are highly dependent on regional economic and political developments, he wrote. Starting in 2016, commercial lenders have been encouraged to draw new deposits and park their liquid foreign assets at the Central Bank. The symbiotic relationship between authorities and banks complicates the math of easing one of the worlds biggest debt burdens, Soussa said in the report dated Jan. 4. Any possible restructuring is likely to be designed in such a way as to minimize the fallout for the local banks, he said. While Lebanon has long teetered on the brink of a full-blown crisis, its never defaulted despite the 15-year Civil War, numerous flare-ups with Israel and a devastating war next door in Syria that cost its economy an estimated $18 billion. Its financial system probably has enough foreign-currency liquidity to fund deficits for the next couple of years, all else equal, Soussa added. Foreign investors, however, arent discounting the possibility this time may be different. Caretaker Finance Minister Ali Hasan Khalil admitted as much last month when he warned the crisis today has started to transform into a financial crisis from an economic crisis. Goldman Sachs puts the exposure of local lenders to the governments local debt and Eurobonds at some 55 trillion Lebanese pounds ($36.5 billion), almost double the capital base of the whole banking system. | https://www.albawaba.com/business/would-restructuring-debt-help-lebanon-avoid-financial-crisis-1235694 |
Why is Vikings being axed after season six? | Vikings is heading to its final season but it might not be the end completely (Picture: History) Vikings fans have been coming to terms with the news that the show is set to come to an end after season six. The website Deadline revealed the news over the weekend, saying that the upcoming series of the History Channel show, which will have 20 episodes, will be the last. The second part of season five is currently airing in the US and UK, with season six which has already finished filming set to be shown on both sides of the pond later this year. Well it seems creator Michael Hirst who has written every episode of the show has always had a clear endgame in mind for Vikings, and both he and History Channel have decided that now is the time to conclude the series (with, according to the Hollywood Reporter, the definitive ending fans deserve). Advertisement Advertisement Both he and makers MGM Television also plan to focus on a Vikings spin-off series which is in the early stages of planning but which Hirst would co-create with Die Hards Jeb Stuart if it does get the green light. Rumours that the end of Vikings was in sight first came in November when cast members Jordan Patrick Smith, who plays Ubbe, and Georgia Hirst, who plays Torvi, both shared pictures on Instagram of the Vikings team together for one big group shot. If you've got a story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.co.uk Entertainment team by emailing us [email protected], calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page - we'd love to hear from you. Dont panic there is more to come | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/08/vikings-axed-season-six-8320782/ |
When does Zoe Ball take over the breakfast show as Chris Evans joins Virgin? | Zoe Ball is taking over the Radio 2 Breakfast Show (Picture: Dave Benett/Getty Images) Zoe Ball will soon be at the helm of the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show, following Chris Evans departure last month. She will become the first full-time female presenter of the show and her first session will be on Monday 14 January. Zoe said of the news: Im absolutely thrilled to be following in the giant footsteps of Chris Evans as the host of the Radio 2 Breakfast Show. To be the first woman to present this very special show is both an honour and privilege. Believe me, Im not underestimating the enormity of the task ahead, to follow not one but two of my broadcasting idols, into such a well-loved show is somewhat daunting but I hope, in the same way that Chris made this show his own after taking over from the wonderful Sir Terry Wogan, that with a top team alongside me, I can bring the fabulous Radio 2 audience a show they want to wake up to. Chris Evans and Zoe Ball are both starting new jobs in 2019 (Picture: Getty, WireImage) Chris Evans quit his Radio 2 Breakfast Show on Christmas Eve last year and is now preparing to take on his new role at Virgin Radio. Advertisement Advertisement The veteran radio presenters first Virgin Radio show will air on Monday 21 January. Chris Evans has quit the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show (Picture: BBC) Chris revealed he was leaving Radio 2 in September last year. His first Radio 2 Breakfast Show was in 2005. In a statement, Chris said: I have absolutely loved every single moment of my time at Radio 2. The last 13 years have flashed by in what seems like the blink of an eye. I have learnt so much from so many people to whom I will be eternally grateful. As Sir Terry said before me, theres never a right time to leave something you love but there might be a wrong time if you hang on too long. The star was at the helm of the show for 13 years (Picture: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Chris continued: I honestly think The Breakfast Show is currently as positive, useful, sunny and inclusive as it has ever been. In fine shape for its next custodian. Whoever that turns out to be, I wish them all the very best, they are in for an absolute blast. Director-General of the BBC Tony Hall added: Chris has been an absolutely first-class presenter of the Breakfast Show. He has brought both warmth and a genuine insight into what listeners want. He has given 100 percent to each of his BBC projects, including raising millions of pounds for Children in Need. Id like to thank him for all his efforts over the years and wish him all the best for the future. Advertisement Advertisement The head of Radio 2 Lewis Carnie has said a brand new Breakfast Show would be launched in the new year. Zoe Ball is replacing Chris Evans on his BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show (Picture: Steve Bell/REX/Shutterstock) Zoe was the breakfast show host for Radio 1 between 1997 and 2000. She was replaced by Sara Cox, who held the position for a further three years. Rylan Clark-Neal was confirmed as Zoes replacement on BBC Radio 2 last month. Very excited to be joining the @BBCRadio2 family taking over from the amazing @ZoeTheBall in the new year, he tweeted at the time. I had the best time covering for Zoe and am looking forward to bringing you a BRAND NEW show for Saturday afternoons. I cant wait. Very excited to be joining the @BBCRadio2 family taking over from the amazing @ZoeTheBall in the new year. I had the best time covering for Zoe and am looking forward to bringing you a BRAND NEW show for Saturday afternoons. I cant wait x pic.twitter.com/Ur125qdjEq Rylan Clark-Neal (@Rylan) November 8, 2018 Rylan first sat in for Zoe in the summer and was a hit with listeners; the Saturday afternoon show runs from 3pm 6pm and has a weekly audience of 1.75 million. Im so excited and honoured to be joining the BBC Radio 2 family. After stepping in for the amazing Zoe Ball over the summer, working with her fantastic team, Im thrilled that Ill be working with them again to fill listeners Saturday afternoons with fun, great music and a lot of laughter, he added in a full statement. Zoe Ball has been chosen to present the Radio 2 breakfast show (Photo by Rob Ball/WireImage) I wish Zoe every success as the stations new Breakfast Show host and Im sure shes going to be as brilliant as she always has been. I cant wait to get started and look forward to being in the studio from the New Year. Advertisement MORE: Susan Boyle truly speechless as she wins Golden Buzzer on AGT: The Champions and viewers are thrilled MORE: Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball admits Sara Cox gets jobs she wants but they support each other | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/08/zoe-ball-take-breakfast-show-chris-evans-joins-virgin-radio-8320998/ |
Is Buffalo America's warmest cold city? | Oxford Pennant is trying to prove just that. The company is giving away a trip to Buffalo with a catch. The winner must visit is the winter between February 8th and March 10th. "The best part about Buffalo is during super cold winter days where we're supposedly at our worst, those are the times when you see people digging each others cars out of ditches," said Oxford Pennant co-founder Dave Horesh. "If you go into any restaurant, people are getting to know each other and staying for three to four hours because work is closed and the roads are closed and there's nothing to do but to hang out. I think those are the times where communities are built and it's one of the most charming elements of Buffalo." Anybody (even people from Buffalo) can enter the contest HERE. A winner will be chosen on February 1st. | https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/is-buffalo-americas-warmest-cold-city/71-9d43ed5e-2658-4592-b640-dd6716d7717e |
What's the Difference Between a Food Allergy and Food Intolerance? | With the rise of gluten-free and dairy-free diets over the past few years, food allergies and intolerances appear to be surging now more than ever. Celebs like Kourtney Kardashian and Kate Hudson have famously stripped their diets of common allergenic foods in the name of health, and the public seems eager to follow suit. A new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests many Americans food fears may be unfounded. After reviewing data collected from over 40,000 U.S. adults, the researchers found about 19% of adults believed they had a food allergyand only about 10% actually had one. "While we found that one in 10 adults have [a] food allergy, nearly twice as many adults think that they are allergic to foods, while their symptoms may suggest food intolerance or other food-related conditions," lead study author Ruchi Gupta, MD, MPH, of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, explained in a press release. While these adults may actually believe they have a food allergy, the symptoms they reported were not reflective of true allergic reactions. Most likely, they were experiencing other unwelcome symptomslike diarrhea, abdominal pain, or bloatingfrom a food sensitivity or intolerance. Food allergy symptoms are caused by an immune system response; symptoms of intolerances or sensitivities are not. Someone with a food intolerance is missing a digestive enzyme that would break down a part of the offending food. Food sensitivities aren't as clearly defined, but they usually involve an upset stomach after eating a specific food. Julie Upton, RD, co-founder of Appetite for Health, explains that when a person has a full-blown food allergy, the body's immune system overreacts to proteins that [their bodies perceive as] unhealthy and attacks them as a threat to the body. The reaction to this faulty immune response leads to symptoms like itching, welts on your skin, breakouts, tightening of your throat, or shortness of breath. At worst, allergic responses can result in a life-threatening reaction called anaphylaxis, which requires immediate medical attention. On the other hand, a food sensitivity can cause discomfort, but does not pose a threat to your health, Upton says. Upton says this can be the case for a variety of reasons, but often people use allergies as a way to avoid certain foods they consider unhealthy. In my work, I most often see extremely healthy eaters who claim to be allergic to things like sugar [which is extremely rare], dairy, wheat, or gluten," she says. "In almost all cases they aren't allergic or even sensitive to these foods, but they claim to be in order to have more control over their daily diet and what they may perceive as a more healthful approach to eating." She also mentions false food allergy claims could be the result of an unhealthy relationship with food or a desire to feel different by identifying with an allergy. If you think you may have a food allergy, Dr. Gupta urges people to see a physician for appropriate testing and diagnosis before completely eliminating foods from the diet. Upton adds that elimination diets, an eating plan in which foods are cut out and slowly added back into your diet to find potential allergens, need to be conducted with the aid of a dietitian or allergist. To get our top stories delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Healthy Living newsletter | https://www.health.com/food/food-allergy-intolerance |
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Is Sarri-ball Still the Way Forward for Chelsea? | B/R Football His Chelsea reign began with an 18-match unbeaten run, but nowhalfway through his first season in Englandquestions are emerging over whether Maurizio Sarri is really the tactical mastermind who can lead the Blues into a new era. It was after a goalless draw at home to Southampton on January 2 that patience began to wear thin for many. For weeks the team had been looking slow and lacking in invention. They struggled for goals with five from five matches against Bournemouth, Watford, Leicester, Crystal Palace and Saints. Journalist Dan Levene was one of the most vocal after their drab Southampton affair, declaring on Twitter that Sarri's football was "blunt, ineffective and pointlessly possession-laden." The replies suggested he was not alone in his thoughts. One Chelsea fan claimed he was stubborn for having no Plan B and refusing to drop Jorginho. Another said it was like "watching someone stir oatmeal." Many felt the need for possession without any end product had become too tiresome. The reaction should have been expected to some extent given the manner of the display, yet the situation was a far cry from the adulation Sarri's early performances had brought. Bleacher Report's Sam Tighe wrote in October how Chelsea had been "thrilling us" and were emerging as Premier League title contenders. They have not been able to sustain that early-season form, though, and the fanbase seem pretty split on whether this adventure is going to be as exciting as they had hoped. "There is an odd divide among Chelsea fans," explains Simon Phillips, a football journalist and Chelsea fan. "Some are seemingly ready to jump on every bad result, insinuating that Sarri's style of football is actually boring. But thankfully the majority realise that a system change and implementation takes longer than half a season." Chloe Beresford is an Italian Football expert and told B/R: "I think the reaction is similar to early doubts about his time at Napoli. Fans across the world marvelled at the easy-on-the-eye style in the latter stages of his tenure there, however, this precision takes time to implementas we also saw in Pep Guardiola's first season with Manchester City. It's not easy at a place like Chelsea, but you need patience if you also want good times under Sarri." The Blues boss has had an unconventional rise as a coach. He never played the game professionally, and earlier in life worked as a banker. From coaching small sides in Italy he progressed to Serie B with Pescara in 2005 but truly made his name at Empoli after taking charge there in 2012. He led them to Serie A and was then appointed by Napoli, where he built a side that progressed to the Champions League and played some of Europe's most attractive football. The term "Sarri-ball" is used to describe a style of football that is dominant and controlling, as Tighe outlined: "At peak effectiveness and with every player attuned to its methods, Sarri-ball is quite the sight. It's a footballing style that moves the ball from back to front quickly on the floor in a sort of vertical tiki-taka. "The system is conducted by Jorginho, who was brought over to Chelsea in the Sarri signing, from a regista-esque role at the base of midfield. It's fitting that they were seen as a package deal, as without one, the other might not be anywhere near as effective in what they do." Jorginho has been singled out as part of the issue at times this season, yet Sarri does not see him as a problem. N'Golo Kante has been moved out of his usual defensive-midfield role to accommodate him, and it's a decision that has riled many supporters. In December, when pressed on his style of play and Kante being played out of position, per the Telegraph, Sarri said: "I think that Kante in my style of football has to play [further forward]. I can understand that somebody might think different but if you think to my football, you have to say that I am right." Chelsea are playing a completely different style to the one under Antonio Conte, where Kante was formidable as a defensive midfielder, and Oliver Harbord of Football.London says he was never likely to keep that role. "Jorginho is Maurizio Sarri's trusted soldier. He was the key signing with the Italian coming into Chelsea and was crucial to the Blues getting off to a decent start this season," he told B/R. "He naturally fitted right into the system, and he controlled how the team played, how the tempo was set and marshalled the whole team to press at the right times. However, Chelsea fans are getting a little bit wary of the side-to-side passing, and his productivity isn't great, with just one goal from a penalty and no assists in any competition to his name. "But with Cesc Fabregas reportedly leaving the club, it means Jorginho is certainly undroppable." Chelsea's performances have become pragmatic and lacking moments of individual brilliance, but Sarri has always held complete belief in his methodsand this is not the first time he has had to deal with questions over his style. "At Empoli, he achieved success fairly quickly," explained Beresford. "He was snapped up by Napoli but struggled at firstwith results prompting Diego Maradona to call for him to be sacked. "It was a similar situation to the current one at Chelsea, where doubts began to creep in about his lack of experienceonly for him to turn things around and prove his critics wrong." AFP Contributor/Getty Images Gary Syrett, 35, is a Chelsea season-ticket holder in the Matthew Harding Upper Stand and has seen firsthand the frustration that has set in due to the Blues' play during this period of transition. "We've had some highs and lows under Sarri so far," he says. "The most notable low was that drubbing against Tottenham, but most fans would agree that it is so far, so good. "The only thing really worrying is that he does not appear to have a Plan Bwhich has been the downfall of most of our managers in the last 10 years. If we get a striker in this window, I believe we will get top four, but playing Eden Hazard as a false nine is not the way forward." Chelsea are in the market for a striker. Gonzalo Higuain's situation is still being explored, while Callum Wilson of Bournemouth and West Ham United's Marko Arnautovic are among others being discussed as back-up. There is no Plan B in terms of tactics, though. This is it. "It is his one major flaw and a reason he didn't win anything with Napolihe didn't have a Plan B," explains Beresford. "It's his way or nothing." Sources at Chelsea insist there is no panic over recent form, despite the fact their place in the top four suddenly seems under threat. They claim it was never expected that the move to Sarri's system would be easy but that everyoneincluding owner Roman Abramovichis excited about how he can eventually transform to an attacking style. "The main thing that is missing to elevate Chelsea is a striker," says Alex Goldberg, a Blues fan and co-host of the CalcioLand Podcast. "Scoring is one of Chelsea's biggest weaknesses, and it will be hard to take the next step until a goalscorer is brought in. "Now that he is a bit more settled in, I expect Sarri to start making bolder selections. He's cleared away some players that didn't fit his system, Victor Moses and Gary Cahill for example, and is starting to build a team identity from within. "He might want to acquire players he is familiar with, but he also doesn't get too involved in that department, so he will focus on the players at hand that fit his vision. Trying Hazard at the false nine was one of the first Sarri-ball moves, even if Alvaro Morata's struggles played a part. "When Sarri was hired, late into the summer, I fully expected there to be some hiccups to start the year. Especially since most of the team wasn't tailored for him. Fast forward to now, despite some recent struggles, there have been less hiccups than I expected. Top four was the main goal at the beginningand still is now." Miss out on a Champions League spot and Sarri will certainly come under increased pressure for his second season at Stamford Bridge, but the club have faith in his philosophy and will give him the time to prove his tactical nous can turn them back into Premier League title contenders. | https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2814377-is-sarri-ball-still-the-way-forward-for-chelsea |
Who doesn't want a magic chair to help them run a little faster? | Im lying there, vibrating and arching my back because Im being poked in it too hard. A man that I dont know is taking my picture. Yet I still dont regret what Im doing. See, before I came to CES 2019, all the writers at TechRadar met to decide what kind of stuff we were going to be checking out. I grabbed the worlds first flexible phone (awesome and terrible in equal measure) and headphones that make swimming easier. I saw another level of virtual reality, but I also had a secret mission. While I was using my Hyperice Vyper vibrating roller (which I love) after a long run before I took a flight to Vegas, I lazily wished I could have someone - or something - to do it for me. Then I remembered that CES is filled with massage chairs, and I felt that the time was right for someone to step up and properly test out as many as he could find. That's the ol' back being prodded The important thing when signing up for critical missions like this is that you have to have a hook for it - so I decided that I needed to check out the recovery aspects of these very expensive chairs. Thats how I ended up testing the Super Nova from Human Touch, a $10,000 chair that was I was lying in only to see how well it helped me recover from my stressful 4.5 mile easy run this morning. As I lay there, taking in the sports massage mode, having my butt rubbed by robot hands, I was overcome with a sense of recovery, a feeling that I was definitely an athlete doing the best for his body. Its hard to not feel elite when youre relaxing along to the soothing sounds of thunderstorms from the high-end Altec Lansing speakers in the headrest, or while your arms are being gently pressed and your circulation stimulated - because blood is important for running. (It also crushed my Garmin watch into my arm a little and set off the GPS mode. This chair was so advanced it knew to prep me for my next run by removing the energy it would take me press another button before I worked out again). Watch my feet, watch my feet The feet are also important for my favored form of exercise, and the small motors caressing my tired tootsies with a little bit of heat made me more willing to go for a long, strenuous run the next day. Definitely. I wont lie: the neck and back massage was a little on the painful side as it arched my back upwards in front of around 10 people who had gathered to watch a top-level sportsman clearly getting a recovery massage and in no way just having a lovely rub down on an expensive chair while pretending he was doing it for work. The ironic thing: it didnt leave my legs feeling any more rejuvenated, as the calf rubbing wasnt all that strong - my Hyperice roller is, annoyingly, far better at the job. So even if I did feel the need to spend this much money on a chair, it wouldnt actually be the best thing to help me recover. This is the fancy remote control. I did nothing with it beyond take a picture. Despite doing this just to get free massages despite my valiant efforts to help find my readers the next wave of wellness tech to help runners and other extreme athletes recover quicker, I didn't quite get the recovery I needed. I did feel a lot more bouncy and free after the run though, my aches and pains dissipated by the ease with which I was able to change the music I was listening to or the actual massage, possibly, I dont know. Oh, and I definitely didnt forget to try the fact that the Super Nova chair is Alexa-enabled, so you dont even need to press anything to start the massage or change the music nope, definitely tried that out and didnt spend the whole time getting a lovely, relaxing robo-rub. Nope. Not at all. Stay tuned to see if I can plunder the halls of this Las Vegas convention, finding the perfect massage chair that you should buy if you run maybe once or twice a year. We all need to recover, after all | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/who-doesnt-want-a-magic-chair-to-help-them-run-a-little-faster |
Can 7UP really help cure a cold? | When it comes to getting rid of colds, there are a lot of theories out there. Some people take Vitamin C tablets like theyre going out of style, others opt for zinc. Others still turn to 7UP to counteract seasonal bugs. Most of us just think of 7UP as a tasty drink or maybe even a secret ingredient for tender cakes and sparkling punches, but Mom saw more. She thought that the comforting combination of a little sugar, hint of citrus and carbonation was just what you needed to put a little pep back in your step. And if you werent normally allowed to drink soda, maybe it was the special privilege of forbidden fruit that had you feeling better. However, we encourage Dr. Mom to check her chart again. Sure, drinking clear soda or ginger ale might help an upset stomach, but it doesnt have any healing properties when it comes to the common cold. Drinks to Soothe a Cold Rather than soda, focus on fluids like water, tea and soup broth. Staying hydrated will help loosen up your congestion and ease a cough. Because soda can make dehydration worse, its best to thank Mom for her advice, but skip the 7UP and other sodas. Alcohol and coffee will also cause dehydration, so best to skip all the fun drinks for now. Infused Water If youre missing 7UPs flavor, try infusing cool water with fruit for a sweet taste and extra hit of vitamin C. Combinations to try include apple, lemon and carrot, as well as strawberries, lemon and mint. Fill a pitcher with the fruit of your choice, pour water over it, and allow to chill in the refrigerator for a few hours. Then sip on your sweet concoction all day while resting on the couch and having loved ones wait on you hand and foot. Tea Warm lemon tea is also a great option and will soothe your aching throat. Stir in some honey to coat your throat and ease your coughing. Drinking (caffeine-free!) tea with honey before bed can help you relax and get some much-needed rest. A little 7UP probably wont hurt, but its best to stick with water, rest and plenty of handwashing until youre feeling back to yourself. | https://www.foxnews.com/food-drink/can-7up-really-help-cure-a-cold |
What is Callaway's Flash Face and how does it work? | Callaways new Epic Flash drivers and fairway woods were created using Artificial Intelligence the first known instance of using A.I. in the golf equipment industry to create a unique face design that is, above all else, staggeringly fast. We all know what it feels like when you make a good swing and crush one off the tee. Well, the new Flash Face is going to make you reassess just how far your longest drives are going to fly. Flash Faces unique, internal mapping consists of dozens of subtle ripples flowing from heel to toe. It is unlike anything else you find on the market today. REVIEW - Callaway Epic Flash driver is an "out and out distance machine" Though the size, height and configuration of the ripples appear random, they in fact work together cohesively to elevate COR in the faces centre region. Callaway Epic Flash drivers FIRST LOOK! That convention-defying accomplishment results in a significant ball speed boost for a noticeable distance increase when you make solid contact. Flash Faces sophisticated architecture was created by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, a field of computer science that uses statistical techniques to give computer systems the ability to "learn" without being explicitly programmed. Callaway Epic Flash fairway woods FIRST LOOK! A new driver face design typically takes eight to ten iterations. Through Machine Learning, Callaways computers cycled through 15,000 face architecture iterations, learning from each one, before arriving at Flash Face. Callaway Apex 19 irons - FIRST LOOK! The distinctive topography on the inner side of the Flash Face is forged from a special titanium and heat treated at 595 Celsius (1100F) for two hours to create a face that combines a low modulus measurement, for flexibility and speed, with excellent strength properties. Well, they took the decision to invest heavily (we're talking millions of dollars) in this new engineering methodology by purchasing their very own supercomputer. Odyssey StrokeLab putters - FIRST LOOK! Im sure many of you are wondering what that 15,000 face architecture iterations actually means. Well to try and give you a better understanding of the role this supercomputer played, it would take around 34 years to run that many iterations on a modern laptop, whereas the supercomputer took around four weeks of around the clock run time to produce the Flash Face. Callaway were so impressed by the results that they decided to purchase another supercomputer that would take little more than a single weekend to go through the same process. Callaway ERC Soft ball - FIRST LOOK! We couldnt have come up with Flash Face using conventional engineering principles, said Dr. Alan Hocknell, senior vice president of R&D. "We wouldnt have gone in this direction without A.I. because its non-intuitive compared to previous face technologies, including our own VFT and X-Face. "The wave configuration isnt symmetrical, nor does the pattern seem logical. Yet the ripples work together in a complex manner to maximise ball speed. Theres never been anything like Flash Face before in golf equipment, and the effect on performance is intense. | https://www.bunkered.co.uk/gear/what-is-callaways-flash-face-and-how-does-it-work?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bunkered+%28Bunkered+Golf+Magazine%29 |
How does the TaylorMade M6 driver perform? | Introduced today, the new M6 couples TaylorMades groundbreaking speed-Injected Twist Face technology with a new sole design to deliver an incredibly fast and easy-to-hit driver. As is the case with the M5 drivers, the new M6 and M6 D-Type incorporate a new twist on last years Twist Face technology. REVIEW - TaylorMade M5 driver is a "true all-rounder" The all-new speed Injection process means that every driver TaylorMade produces is going to be right on the legal limit for speed. As a result, the M6 is going to offer you more ball speed and longer drives. TaylorMade Speed Injected Twist Face explained Now, although this revolutionary technology is one of the key ingredients to making the M6 incredibly long, the new Aerodynamic Carbon Sole Design with its inertia generator is just as important. The answer is quite simple: it is the recipe for more distance and more forgiveness. The new carbon fibre sole design allows for much more discretionary weight to be used elsewhere in the clubhead as much as 54% more, in fact, than the M6 predecessor, the M4. The incredibly fast and forgiving TaylorMade M6 driver With these weight savings, engineers have been able to create a sleek, aerodynamic shape inclusive of the new inertia generator. The inertia generator contains about a quarter of the weight of the entire clubhead to offer maximum forgiveness while lowering the CG compared to previous models. The tech packed M5 & M6 Fairways and Rescues Well, longer and straighter drives is the answer. I decided to put the M6 up against the M4 to see how TaylorMade had improved upon an incredibly long and forgiving driver that won several times on the PGA and European Tours and, just as significantly, was incredibly popular with amateur golfers of all skill levels. During my initial testing on my SkyTrak, I was seeing an average increase in ball speed of between one and two mph, so that Speed Injected Twist Face was delivering on the promises of more speed. However, it wasnt simply that jump in speed that resulted in me hitting longer drives. TaylorMade releases faster TP5 & TP5x golf balls The M6 was launching higher than the M4 and spinning less - a dream combination that led to me getting an additional seven yards on average per drive. This is thanks to the new carbon fibre sole and its Inertia Generator that served to optimise my launch conditions. Whilst I was blown away by the added distance, I was arguably even more impressed with just how easy the M6 is to hit. This thing launches with absolute ease and stays in the air for a ridiculous length of time. If pulling the driver out of the bag fills your heart with dread, then the M6 could well be the club you've been waiting for. Its easy-to-launch nature couples with Twist Face tech and the high MOI and low, deep CG design to make this, quite honestly, one of the most forgiving drivers I have ever tried. Not only that, the new Speed Injection process means that you retain great speed across the face, so even your mishits go relatively long and straight. Meanwhile, if those trees on the right of the fairway always seem to always loom large, then youll be glad to hear you have the M6 D-Type to help you find the fairway more often. This model offers roughly 20 yards more draw bias than the standard M6, so it might be the one for you if that slice is a constant concern. One final thing to mention is the new looks and feel of the M6. Like the M5, the M6 drivers, feature a new blood orange colour scheme and a carbon crown that boasts a 10% larger footprint than that of the M4. The new aesthetics might not be to everyones tastes but they are something I am a huge fan of. TaylorMade releases Speed Injected M5 driver In terms of sound and feel, this is the only area where the M4 probably has the edge. The new carbon sole and its performance benefits come at the expense of the M4s Geocoustic sole design and this does the make the sound of the M6 a little harsher. That being said, the trade-off for that harsher sound is more speed and more forgiveness, so it is one I am happy to make. For my money, the M6 is an incredibly easy-to-hit, high launching, accurate distance machine. I challenge any of you to give it a bash for yourself and not be wowed by it. It is a fantastic driver and a more than worthy replacement to the M4. Available: Pre-order January 14; In Stores February 15 Price: 449 Loft Options: 9, 10.5, 12 Shaft Options: M6 - Fujikura Atmos Orange 5, Fujikura Atmos Black 6 M6 D-Type - Project X EvenFlow Max Carry 45 (numerous additional shaft options available at no additional cost) | https://www.bunkered.co.uk/gear/taylormade-m6-driver-review?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bunkered+%28Bunkered+Golf+Magazine%29 |
What is a TaylorMade Speed Injected Twist Face? | TaylorMades new M5 and M6 drivers boast an industry-first technology that has been engineered to give every golfer the fastest possible driver face within the legal limits. In 2018, TaylorMade engineers developed a new path to performance with Twist Face technology. To counteract the high-toe miss (a hook), the driver face was modified open (loft increased AND face opened) on the high-toe to help straighten ball flight. Similarly, to counteract the low-heel miss (a slice), the driver face was modified closed to de-loft and close the face in the low heel area. TaylorMade releases Speed Injected M5 driver So, that was then. Now, TaylorMade has taken Twist Face to the next level with the introduction of Speed Injected Twist Face technology. There are four key features to Speed Injected Twist Face technology that allow TaylorMade to make every M5 and M6 driver precision-tuned and as fast as the manufacturing limits allow: 1. Ultra-thin Titanium face with redesigned Inverted Cone Technology (ICT) 2. Reengineered, more-flexible Hammerhead 2.0 slot 3. Internal support foam with variable amounts of injected resin 4. A proprietary algorithm to tune each head TaylorMade says that current drivers have a level of variation from each one to the next that can be largely attributed to manufacturing tolerances. This means that some drivers will be slightly slower or faster than the vast majority of those produced. The incredibly fast and forgiving TaylorMade M6 driver Until now, the drivers given to TaylorMades tour pros have been cherry-picked after being rigorously inspected to ensure they are as fast as possible. These drivers have what TaylorMade calls spicy heads. However, the company's new engineering and development processes delivers a level of precision that ensures every golfer gets a 'spicy' clubhead. That's Dustin, Rory, Tiger, and you. The tech packed M5 & M6 Fairways and Rescues The drivers have been designed with a thinner, more flexible face. In fact, initially, they are designed above the legal limit. Thats right - the face starts life as an illegal face. There is, however, no need to worry. The USGA and R&A will not come knocking at your door. Every M5 and M6 driver head is inspected, measured and tuned to deliver maximum speed without breaching conformity rules. The Speed Injection process sees resin injected to bring the face back inside the conforming limits, while ensuring maximum speed for each head. The injection process utilises two new tuning ports on the face of the driver (both models) and a proprietary algorithm to ensure the appropriate amount of resin is used, systematically dialling in the speed for each driver face. TaylorMade releases faster TP5 & TP5x golf balls A significant benefit of the thinner, faster face design is that it provides the M5 and M6 drivers with faster off-centre COR, effectively increasing forgiveness. The new face design is optimised with up to a 20% reduction in thickness that results in a 66% larger sweetspot in the M5 drivers over the M3 and more than 100% larger than the original M1 in 2015. So, that's how it works. Click here for our review of the TaylorMade M5 driver Click here for our review of the TaylorMade M6 driver | https://www.bunkered.co.uk/gear/taylormade-speed-injected-twist-face-explained?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bunkered+%28Bunkered+Golf+Magazine%29 |
Is another 2018 Ryder Cup winner switching to Honma? | Just a day after Justin Rose confirmed golfs worst-kept secret by signing an equipment deal with Honma Golf, it appears as though he could be joined in the Japanese brands ranks by one of his Ryder Cup teammates. Roses fellow Englishman Paul Casey has been spotted playing with Honma irons during practice for this weeks Sentry Tournament of Champions in Hawaii. Casey, 41, has elected to start 2019 in the Aloha State after winning his second PGA Tour title at the Valspar Championship last March. A former Nike staff player, Casey used a mixed bag of clubs last year, which included a set of Mizuno irons (MP-25 and MP-5) to win the Valspar. However, as he prepares to start the new year, it appears as though he could be joining Rose in inking a deal with the premium Japanese brand. The iron in this image appears to be the Honma Tour World Utility (or TW-U). Looking at other pictures from Hawaii, Casey is still using the TaylorMade M4 and Titleist Vokey wedges he had such great such success with in 2018 so, if he has indeed done a deal with Honma, it would seem that it is, so far, just to play the company's irons. PGA Tour star switches nationality to boost Olympic bid Multiple PGA Tour winner makes move to Callaway Well keep you posted Meanwhile, rumours are circulating that Brandt Snedekers long-term partnership with Bridgestone Golf could be over. The nine-time PGA Tour no longer features on the Tour Team page on the companys website. | https://www.bunkered.co.uk/golf-news/is-another-2018-ryder-cup-winner-switching-to-honma?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bunkered+%28Bunkered+Golf+Magazine%29 |
What will be the Political Legacy of Tony Rackauckas? | Orange County Line Last Friday, outgoing Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas sent out a press release summing up his 20 years as DA, highlighting his office's fight against gangs, economic fraud, and other areas. But his legacy is far longer -- and more complex. Starting as a prosecutor in 1972, Rackauckas went on serve as a municipal court judge and also a private attorney who also was instrumental in trying to recall former California Supreme Court justice Rose Bird. Activists long criticized Rackauckas for the wrongful prosecution of innocent men like Arthur Carmona and Dewayne McKinney, and for his reticence to go after former OC Sheriff Mike Carona, who'd go on to serve time in federal prison for corruption. And he spent his last year fending off the county's so-called snitch scandal, in which prosecutors got convictions from illegally obtained confessions. | https://www.kcrw.com/news-culture/shows/orange-county-line/what-will-be-the-political-legacy-of-tony-rackauckas |
Is Sonakshi Sinha dating a Muslim actor? | 2018 has been a lucky year for many B-towners as they took the plunge and tied the knot with their respective partners. While there are rumours that some more couples will be seen taking their relationship to the next level this year too, there are reports that some others have found the love of their life. According to Indian media reports, famed Bollywood actress Sonakshi Sinha is dating a Muslim actor named Zaheer Iqbal, who will be seen making his debut in Salman Khans production Notebook. Sonakshi and Zaheer have been spotted together quite a few times. The rising star had also wished Sonakshi in an endearing Instagram posted on her birthday in June last year. Zaheer is being trained under Salman Khan and it is he who introduced him to Sonakshi at his residence in Mumbai. It is said that the two completely hit it off in instant. It is also reported that the rumoured couple arrived at Salman Khans farmhouse for his birthday bash in the same car. Meanwhile, Zaheer will be making his cinematic debut with film Notebook opposite Salman Khans close friend Monish Bahls daughter Pranutan. The film is expected to release on March 29. | https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/416256-is-sonakshi-sinha-dating-an-upcoming-muslim-actor |
How did ESPN do with its Alabama-Clemson game coverage? | CLEVELAND, Ohio Clemson became the first Division I school to finish a season 15-0 in the modern era of football. And they did it on a national stage, with ESPN and its lineup of networks. Here's a look at how ESPN did with the broadcast Monday night. In-game ESPN aired the game, with Chris Fowler (play by play), Kirk Herbstreit (analyst) and Maria Taylor and Tom Rinaldi (on-field reporters). The game was in Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home of the San Francisco 49ers. How they got there In the four-team playoff, Alabama beat Oklahoma 45-34 and Clemson topped Notre Dame 30-3. Alabama was a 5- to 5.5-point favorite going into the game, with an over-under set around 57. Those who bet the over were winners in the third quarter: The games scoring First quarter: 14-13, Clemson Halftime: 31-16, Clemson Third quarter: 44-16, Clemson Final: 44-16, Clemson. You know its a big game when multiple channels within the network are dedicated to the broadcast. ESPN ran the game on several of its networks, with Field Pass billed as "free-flowing commentary," with Adam Amin-Tim Tebow on one sideline and Steve Levy-Chip Kelly on the other; Command Center split screen with simultaneous camera angles and in-game stats; and Monday Night Film Room with analysts breaking down the game in real time. Storyline It's the first time since the college football playoff structures began that two undefeated teams met in the title game. Alabama was in its fourth consecutive national championship. As Fowler said during the pregame setup, Alabama was seeking its sixth title in 10 years while Clemson was going for its second in three years. From the booth Fowler and Herbstreit have worked together for years and are as solid as an announcing team can be. As Fowler said early on, "Two scores in three minutes, an electric start from Santa Clara," and that set the tone. Fowler is more about energy no matter who is scoring. He doesn't rely on catch phrases. Herbstreit is quick to pick up on why and when coverage is blown, who is out of position. Clemson's Trayvon Mullen intercepts a pass during the first half the NCAA college football playoff championship game against Alabama, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) Jeff Chiu Timing 8 p.m. is better than 9 p.m. for kickoff. Let's go for 7 p.m. next year. The fourth quarter started at 11:12 p.m. The game ended at 11:44 p.m. Shots and observations Cameras caught Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa patting his chest and telling his teammates "On me, on me," after Clemson defensive back A.J. Terrell ran an interception back for the first points of the game. The pylon cam is always a good thing, great for goal-line stands and scoring plays. It was only used a few times Monday, though. "They (Alabama) have missed more point-after attempts and field goals than any team in college football." - Herbstreit. Taylor was quick to note Tagovailoa was complaining on the sidelines about a right hand problem. He entered the game bandaged, for a while. The Blimpcast caught a great overhead shot of the Clemson band performing, which you could see aired on the alternative channels of the megacast during halftime. Graphics showed Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence was 16 of 26 for 324 yards late in the third quarter. (He finished with 347 yards passing.) When Tagovailoa was stuffed on fourth down in the fourth quarter, Herbstreit noted Alabama's four trips to the red zone netted only one touchdown. Clemson started to make me eat my words. Theyve been really impressive in 2Q. Saban being out coached right now . #CFPChampionship Dario Melendez (@Dario_Melendez) January 8, 2019 Sharp calls "If Clemson can win tonight, each (senior) class would finish their careers with 55 wins and two national championships." - Fowler. Fowler predicted the Alabama fake field-goal attempt, as did Clemson's defense. Then, on replay, he said: "That play never had a shot." Random thoughts Would have liked to have seen a closeup and heard the story about what was scrawled and why on Lawrence's left wristband. Would have preferred to see a longer promotional ad for ESPN's fine doc show "30 for 30" rather than the much hyped Imagine Dragons at halftime. And to think: We've got the Super Bowl coming in less than a month, with more halftime hoopla. The "Captain Marvel" promo in the third quarter was 90 seconds long. I'd rather watch the fumble review we didnt get to see. Surprised it took getting to the fourth quarter before we heard that Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had been a walk-on receiver at Alabama. Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa throws during the first half the NCAA college football playoff championship game against Clemson, Monday, Jan. 7, 2019, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) Ben Margot Quotes of the game "If you havent watched a lot of college football this year and you tuned into the National Championship, that should tell you where the sport is in 2019 that (Alabama coach) Nick Saban is going for it on fourth down and about six inches from his own 35-yard line. That's like (New England Patriots coach) Bill Belichick going for it from his 35-yard line." - Herbstreit. (Alabama earned the first down with an up-the-middle quarterback run.) "Ain't nothing less important than the score at halftime." Swinney in his halftime interview with Rinaldi. His team led 31-16. "Nick Saban's defense is being eviscerated." - Fowler, mincing no words in the third quarter. From the booth "We said there were going to be some fireworks. I didnt expect this. We're not even five minutes into the game." - Herbstreit after Travis Etienne ran 17 yards to give Clemson the lead. "When Tua has space he will completely pick you apart." - Herbstreit in the first quarter. "They're rattled right now." - Fowler after Alabama drew a personal foul for an out-of-bounds hit with Clemson driving right before halftime. "You can't just abort the running game and start throwing it all over the place." - Herbstreit with Alabama driving in the third quarter. Twitter shot of the game Clich meter "He will be playing on Sundays for a long, long time." - Herbstreit on Alabama running back Josh Jacobs. The playing-on-Sundays clich was patented by Brent Musburger. Consider this "Both coaches have said Were going to be better next year. " - Fowler with Alabama up 16-14 in the second quarter. | https://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/2019/01/how-did-espn-do-with-its-alabama-clemson-game-coverage.html |
Is character destiny? | James Piereson, a historian and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, takes on the claim that President Trump will fail because character is destiny and Trumps character is abysmal. Piereson responds: The problem with this proposition, at least as it applies to politics, is that Machiavelli destroyed it five hundred years ago in The Prince, and thereby laid the foundations for modern politics. This is not to say that Trumps character and norm-breaking style are unimportant or irrelevant to his performance in office, but that the general proposition (Character is destiny) is generally false as applied to political life. Trump may fail, but most likely for reasons unrelated to his character. It isnt just Machiavelli who destroyed the character is destiny proposition. History has also destroyed it. At least thats what I take from my reading of history. I find no correlation between the character of rulers and how they fare politically and militarily. Leaders with poor character often find themselves miserable in their late years, but they are no more likely than leaders with decent characters to have failed in their political and military endeavors. Im talking mainly about kings and emperors. Here again, I find no correlation between character and political destiny. For my money, Andrew Jacksons character was among the poorest of all U.S. presidents. Although historians have tended to overrate Jackson (at least until recently, when political incorrectness brought him down a peg or two), its difficult to maintain that he was an unsuccessful president. Arguably, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and George H.W. Bush. They were not reelected. Also, their presidencies arent widely held in high regard. Bill Clintons character is poor. He was reelected pretty handily and, if one is able to factor out ideological considerations, was a reasonably successful president. Some presidencies tend to support the view that character matters greatly. I put Lyndon Johnson (bad character, bad presidency), Richard Nixon (bad character, unsuccessful presidency), and Ronald Reagan (good character, great presidency) in that category. But at least as many modern presidencies should be considered counter-examples. Now that impeachment has become a weapon, bad character is a potential source of presidential downfall independent of a presidential performance. Nixon and Clinton were both performing fairly well when they faced impeachment. If Nixon and Clinton had been of better character, they would not have been impeached. Im not sure thats true of Trump. I think he was destined to impeached (if the Democrats took control of the House) from the moment he took office for reasons having nothing to do with his character. In any case, impeachment doesnt necessarily mean a failed presidency. It did in Nixons case, but not in Clintons. As for Trump, I agree with Piereson: If Trump goes down in failure, it will more likely be due to a slowdown in the economy or to some misstep by the Federal Reserve Board, or to some international incident that he cannot handle, or in any case to events not related to his character. Not because Trumps character isnt really bad (or all that bad), as Piereson seems to suggest, but because character isnt political destiny. | https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/01/is-character-destiny.php |
What next for Syrias last major rebel bastion? | Published on 08.01.2019 at 11h54 by AFP For nearly four months, a Russian-Turkish ceasefire deal has protected three million people in Syrias last major rebel bastion of Idlib from a major regime offensive. On September 17, regime ally Russia and rebel backer Turkey inked a deal to set up a buffer zone around the Idlib region to avert a threatened government offensive. Under the agreement, jihadists were supposed to withdraw from a buffer zone along the U-shaped front line around the region by October 15, but they never did. The truce seems to have held however, and, with the exception of sporadic bombardment and skirmishes, it has stopped an all-out military campaign to retake it. To a certain extent, the agreement has been pretty successful, analyst Aron Lund said. Now things are calm in Idlib, at least compared to the horror show that could have happened, said the fellow with The Century Foundation. But without a withdrawal by hardliners from the planned buffer zone, all parts of the deal were not implemented. In particular, two key highways running through Idlib the M4 and the M5 were never reopened to reconnect government-held areas with the Turkish border. Rebel territory consists of most of Idlib province and adjacent parts of Aleppo and Hama provinces. More than half of the stronghold is held by the powerful Hayat Tahrir al-Sham alliance led by the jihadists of Syrias former Al-Qaeda affiliate. An Turkish-backed alliance, the National Liberation Front, holds most of the rest. But in recent days, HTS has gained territory in the northeast of the enclave from the NLF, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says. HTS is now in control of all insurgent areas in the west of Aleppo province, after beating a key component of the NLF, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said. Some 500 fighters of the Nureddine al-Zinki rebel group there have abandoned their weapons and fled north, the head of the Britain-based war monitor said. Lund said the jihadists were looking to gain territory to present themselves as Idlibs chief negotiator. HTS seems to be trying to establish itself as the undisputed hegemon in the area, the group you need to deal with if you want anything done. Theyre knocking down rivals, one by one, he said, adding that after Nureddine al-Zinki, other NLF factions could be next. The Syrian civil war has killed more than 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests in 2011. It has evolved into a complex conflict involving jihadists and foreign powers. Among these, the United States suddenly announced last month it would withdraw all its troops from Syria, after years of backing Kurdish fighters battling the Islamic State group. The decision took Syrias Kurds by surprise, and sent them scrambling to make a new alliance with Damascus for protection against a long-threatened Turkish assault. But analyst Haid Haid said any US withdrawal could also affect Idlibs future. The US military withdrawal will almost certainly have a negative impact on the situation in Idlib, he said. The Damascus regime has notched up a series of victories against the armed opposition and jihadists and now controls almost two-thirds of the country. The two main areas to escape its control are Idlib, and northern and northeastern areas controlled by Kurdish-led forces. If the regime is able to capture those areas, or at least a big part of them, then Idlib would automatically become the obvious next target, Haid said. | https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/what-next-for-syrias-last-major-rebel-bastion/ |
Is Portsmouths Danny Rose about to join Crawley Town? | Crawley Town could be about to sign Portsmouths Danny Rose on loan. It is being reported on twitter pages League 2 transfer hub @League2TransferHub and Transfer News Live @LiveTransferNew he is about to join Reds and Portsmouth have revealed the player is going to leave the club. However he has been earmarked for a Pompey farewell appearance. The midfielder is to face Southend in the Checkatrade Trophy. Rose has been pressed into action for tonights Roots Hall encounter (7.45pm) following the departure of Ben Thompson, with Ben Close injured and Tom Naylor rested. The League Two title-winner has started all four of Pompeys previous fixtures in the much-maligned competition this season. Yet, with Kenny Jacketts permission, Rose has been seeking a January transfer switch in search of regular football. Before any exit can be sealed, however, he has been served with a Blues swansong. Jackett said: Danny will be playing against Southend. We will see in terms of what happens with him after that. He will be looking to get out and play and it has been tough for him to break into our team so far. Those type of lads have been on the fringe of it, but have played well in the Checkatrade and will be around again tonight. I cant speak for Dannay, but leaving is something I have said to him, it could be a possibility if he wants to go. It could be a possibility that tonight is his last game (for Pompey) if he wants to go and further his career elsewhere.a So far it has been the likes of Rose and Burgess that have played in these (Checkatrade) games. We have been able to put out a good mix of some senior players and one or two promising youngsters we can look at. | https://www.westsussextoday.co.uk/sport/football/is-portsmouth-s-danny-rose-about-to-join-crawley-town-1-8761676 |
Where next for Michael O'Halloran as former Rangers wide man leaves Australia? | Get Rangers updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email Premiership sides have been put on alert after Michael O'Halloran was freed from his contract at Melbourne City after just seven months in Australia. The former Rangers and St Johnstone winger was released by the A-League side this week with Aussie media saying the decision was made on "compassionate grounds". O'Halloran moved Down Under last summer after a turbulent two years at Rangers in which he made just 38 appearances and was exiled by former boss Pedro Caixinha over a disciplinary issue. But the 28-year-old wide man proved in two spells with St Johnstone - the latter on loan from Ibrox last season - that he has the ability to be one of the best forwards in the Scottish game. (Image: AFP/Getty) Cutting in off the left he has the ability to produce the spectacular and his goal ratio in two spells in Perth was up there with the best wide men in the Scottish game. Granted, the fact so many teams sit back against Rangers especially at Ibrox meant his biggest asset of pace was largely rendered redundant. Regardless, his availability on a free transfer is sure to make a number of Premiership managers sit up and take notice this month. Of course, England is always a very likely option but Record Sport Online takes a look at potential destinations north of the border. Aberdeen (Image: SNS Group) O'Halloran was linked with the Dons in the summer of 2017 when it was clear he had no part to play at Ibrox under Caixinha. At that point the Dons had lost Niall McGinn to Korea and Jonny Hayes to Celtic and were looking to add goal threat from the wide areas. Gary Mackay-Steven is entering the final few months of his contract at Pittodrie and is stalling on a new deal in the north east. McInnes' patience could well be wearing thin and, should GMS not give an answer in the next few weeks, then the Dons boss could be forced into the market to find a replacement. And O'Halloran, at 28, would be a ready-made fit. Dundee Jim McIntyre is desperate to add firepower to his side as they remain rooted to the bottom of the table. The Dens men have lost Calvin Miller on the left flank with the Celtic loanee returning to Parkhead and are short of goal threat outside Kenny Miller. O'Halloran could be the perfect fit for McIntyre with his pace and ability to glide past players. He has proved in two spells with St Johnstone he does have a final product and how the Taysiders are crying out for that right now. Motherwell The Fir Park side tracked O'Halloran six months ago before he decided to take the plunge Down Under. Stephen Robinson has already brought in Ross McCormack and Gboly Ariyibi on loan this month in the forward areas and he could well think he has enough cover up top. But having lost Ryan Bowman last week and with his previous interest in O'Halloran then he might just be tempted with the news that the player is available for nothing. St Johnstone The obvious contender. O'Halloran has produced his best football in Perth under the watchful eye of Tommy Wright and there's no doubt the Saints boss would welcome him back for a third spell. But wanting and needing are two separate things. Wright has yet to make any signings in the current window but with Matty Kennedy, Drey Wright and Danny Swanson all competing for places in the wide areas then perhaps it's the last position he needs to be looking at. Still, it seems a good fit for the player and should Wright make a move then it would be difficult to imagine O'Halloran turning down the opportunity to kick-start his career at McDiarmid Park. St Mirren (Image: SNS Group) Another side desperate for a spark to claw them away from the relegation zone. Oran Kearney needs inspiration in attack and was dealt a huge blow last week when the one player capable of providing that - Adam Hammill - left Paisley to sign an 18-month deal with Scunthorpe. The Buddies need a goal threat having struck just 15 in the league this season and O'Halloran is the type of player you'd expect could hit the ground running to give kearney's side an immediate boost. | https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/now-michael-ohalloran-former-rangers-13827646 |
How many people became Swedish citizens last year? | In total, Sweden welcomed 61,312 new citizens last year. Gaining citizenship in Sweden requires applicants to be legally resident in the country for between three and five years, depending on where they come from and whether or not they are living with a Swedish spouse or partner. The number of approved citizenship applications in 2018 was slightly down on 2017 (65,562) but still higher than the previous six years, during which the number of new citizens rose from 28,100 in 2010 to 56,026 in 2016. The gender split among 2018's new citizens was close to 50:50, with 29,696 women becoming Swedish and 31,616 men. And many of the new citizens were children: 26,139 in total. The month when most people received Swedish citizenship was February, with the fewest new citizens in December. As for where they came from, the new Swedes had 170 different nationalities, but included more Syrians than nationals of any other country. Throughout 2018, 11,362 Syrians became Swedish, along with 7,070 Somalians, 6,425 stateless people, 2,588 Iraqis and 2,133 Afghan nationals. These five categories accounted for almost a third of the total number of new citizens. READ ALSO: How to get Swedish citizenship or stay permanently in Sweden The next most common nationalities were Eritrean (1,871), Polish (1,799), Iranian (1,695), Thai (1,623), and British (1,369). As The Local has previously reported, there has been a surge in citizenship applications from Brits resident in Sweden following the UK's 2016 vote to leave the EU. A record 1,859 Britons submitted their applications for Swedish citizenship in 2017, up from 1,616 in 2016 and a huge leap from the years preceding the Brexit vote: in 2015, only 511 Brits applied for Swedish citizenship while 491 did so in 2014. Looking at all nationalities, a total of 90,000 applications for Swedish citizenship were made during the year and the agency confirmed in December it would increase resources for this area in 2019 in order to speed up the process. Sweden's Migration Agency reached its goal in terms of the number of citizenship cases concluded, however the number of applications that came in during 2018 was higher than the previous year. On Tuesday, the agency's website showed that applications for citizenship could expect a 27-month waiting time, adding that this did not necessarily mean all applicants would get a decision within that time. That was one month longer than the figure last November, when Migration Agency figures showed that the average processing time for applications in 2018 was 205 days or around seven months but the website advised would-be citizens to allow 26 months for a decision. Most common countries of origin among Sweden's new citizens 1. Syria (11,362) 2. Somalia (7,070) 3. Stateless (6,425) 4. Iraq (2,588) 5. Afghanistan (2,133) 6. Eritrea (1,871) 7. Poland (1,799) 8. Iran (1,695) 9. Thailand (1,623) 10. UK (1,369) 11. Unknown (1,295) 12. Pakistan (1,162) 13. Germany (901) 14. Serbia (861) 15. India (817) 16. Turkey (802) 17. Romania (767) 18. Russia (710) 19. Kosovo (685) 20. | https://www.thelocal.se/20190108/how-many-people-became-swedish-citizens-last-year |
How much is Susan Boyle worth and is she married? | Susan Boyle has made it through to the finals of Americas Got Talent: The Champions (Picture: NBC) Susan Boyle has made a triumphant TV comeback after nabbing Mel Bs Golden Buzzer on Americas Got Talent: The Champions. The 57-year-old sailed through to the final of Americas Got Talent: The Champions thanks to Mel B, who pressed that all-important button and left Susan utterly speechless. Shell progress on to the live finals now in the hope of being crowned the series ultimate champion on February 18. Heres what you need to know about Susan. Susan is reported to be worth around $40m (31m) acording to the website Celebrity Net Worth. Shes made millions from her music since finishing second in Britains Got Talent in 2009 with her first album selling 411,820 copies in the UK in its first week alone. Advertisement Advertisement Shes released five further albums since then, including The Gift, Someone To Watch Over Me, Standing Ovation: The Greatest Songs From The Stage and Hope. Overall, shes sold over 25m records worldwide. However Susan still lives the same modest life she had before she found fame still living in her ex-council house in her home town of Blackburn, West Lothian. The singer still lives in her old home in West Lothian (Picture: Rex Shutterstock) Susan famously admitted at her Britains Got Talent audition she had never been marriednever been kissed. She revealed in 2014, at the age of 53, that she had found her first boyfriend an American doctor telling the Daily Mail: I dont want to say any more about who he is right now as that would be unfair on him. The series kicked off in the US on Monday night and lands on Netflix UK on Wednesday, with new episodes airing weekly. If you have a story for our news team, email us at [email protected]. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter. | https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/08/much-susan-boyle-worth-married-8321276/ |
Is it OK to swear around kids? | Many parents are careful about what they say around their kids, but research suggests casual swearing is totally alright. Cognitive scientist Benjamin Bergen, whos also the author of What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, found that while verbal abuse can be harmful, casual swearing around kids doesnt have any impact on their well-being or emotional development. The use of fleeting expletives doesnt have any impact at all on their well being, on their socialization as far as we can tell, Bergen said via Skype from San Diego. Bergen is a professor in the department of Cognitive Science at the University of California San Diego. READ MORE: Dont blame sugar for kids hyperactivity; sugar high is a debunked myth Bergen said theres a distinction between verbal abuse and casual swearing. Verbal abuse can come in all different varieties and that can include swearing and slurs. We can track over time how kids who are exposed to abusive language show increases in anxiety, depression and troubles in school. Bergen has two young kids of his own, aged four and one-and-half, and said he will drop the casual expletive around his kids. We have come around to the research and let ourselves do naturally what we do at home, which is swear a little bit. Derek Seguin is a Canadian comedian from Montreal. He has no problem swearing on stage and around his kids at home, aged 19, 17 and 12. Every year I swear more and more in front of them, Seguin said at his Montreal home. It used to be that Id only swear for dramatic effect when I was mad. And now its: Pass the fing donuts, or whatever. Seguin said hes become more lenient with his language as his kids age. I think when the first one was young I didnt swear. I was very careful. Dont want to mess up the baby, he said. His youngest was exposed to the most profanity at home, but Seguin said she swears the least. As for the concern about kids picking up on the language, Bergen said kids are more likely to learn profanity from their peers. Theres pretty good evidence that youre not cool enough for your kids to copy you when it comes to swearing, he said. Profanity is anti-authoritarian. It is breaking the rules to use profanity in public. If you, the ultimate authority figure for kids, are using it, then they dont see it as that cool. However, Bergen said one thing kids might learn from parents is knowing when and where swearing is socially acceptable. Check out the Family Matters podcast! Subscribings easy! Heres how Open the Apple Podcasts app, search for Family Matters and select it from the list of results. and select it from the list of results. Once on the Family Matters page, click the Subscribe button to have new episodes sent to your mobile device for free. page, click the Subscribe button to have new episodes sent to your mobile device for free. Click the name of an episode from the list below to listen. Open the Google Podcasts app, search for Family Matters and select it from the list of results. and select it from the list of results. Once on the Family Matters page, click the Subscribe button to have new episodes sent to your mobile device for free. page, click the Subscribe button to have new episodes sent to your mobile device for free. Click the name of an episode from the list below to listen. | https://globalnews.ca/news/4823083/family-matters-swearing-around-kids/ |
Has LG made a big breakthrough in OLED TV production? | LG is the only name in OLED at the moment Everyone knows that if you can get it working, OLED offers far superior picture performance in practically every way that we can measure. It's also thinner and lighter, easier to curve if that's your thing, has a faster response time, wider viewing angles and has far better power efficiency compared to LED. It's the holy grail of display technology. The problem is that the first great OLED breakthrough was hailed as far back as 2008 when Sony put the first OLED TV on sale - the minuscule 11-inch XEL-1 which cost $227 per inch for a total price of $2,499. And since then, progress has been slower than a Windows Vista BloatTop cold boot. At this year's IFA show in Berlin, OLED products were as rare as plasma - a technology that everyone has now abandoned, including LG. Sony, Panasonic, Samsung have all mouthed a lot of phonetic OLED-shaped noises in recent years, but it seems that only LG has found a manufacturing method that really works. The full HD 55EA9800 came out earlier this year and yeah, it was a little bit good. Now though, LG is starting to sound bullish about OLED finally coming of age and is ready to start launching 4K OLED products. The LG 65EC970V is a 4K OLED TV, out in November LG's plan for OLED "The progress that LG has made here should not be dismissed. It's real, genuine progress." It opened its new M2 factory earlier this year, where it's able to build OLED panels using its unique Oxide TFT maskless WRGB production process which is a lot more simple and has better yield rates. As a result, this year LG will be able to produce double the number of panels compared to 2013, using the same amount of materials. In theory that means more OLED TVs at more agreeable prices. I asked LG this question at its Slough HQ this week and the answer wasn't overly positive. "Our full HD OLED TV yield rate is really quite high", Mr K I Kwon, president of LG Electronics UK, told TechRadar. "It's not compared with LCD TV module yield rate but it's enough to lower the price to 3000 in UK. And as you have seen we now have our M2 line factory which can make six 55-inch modules in one piece of glass and for 65-inch three from one piece of glass at the same time, whereas in M1 65-inch can make 1.5 each time which means that one third of the glass [is wasted]. So I believe the price and yield rate will be higher immediately and the price will be down." That's not exactly a promise for the start of a new era. Reading between the lines you can see that while progress is being made, whichever way you look at it we're still some distance from a world where OLED TVs of all shapes and sizes are available at the current prices of LED TVs. Even 65-inch OLED TVs can be much thinner than an LED equivalent New 4K OLED TVs The good news, though, is that LG's first 4K OLED TV will ship in November - I've seen it and can attest that the 65-inch curved LG 65EC970V is stunning. 6,499 in the UK - over 10,000 US dollars. A 77-inch model will be hot on its heels - don't even ask how much that one costs. This is all both encouraging and discouraging in equal measure. Yes it's too expensive for most of us. But at the same time, the progress that LG has made should not be dismissed. It's real, genuine progress. It's found a way to make the panels reliably and that bodes very well for the 4K OLED TVs of the future that maybe we will be able to afford. 2016, we're looking at you buddy. Meanwhile, the aforementioned LG 55EA9800 OLED may not pack a 4K resolution but you can find it online now for just 2000 - that's in line with other top of the line 55-inch 1080p TVs. We're in a position now where we can at least conceive of a world where 4K OLED TVs from LG will start falling in price annually. And you can bet that with LG finally making money from OLED, its rivals will be doubling their efforts to get involved. So there's definitely hope for OLED, but as has been the case for some time now, we're still in the wait-and-see phase. Don't delay buying that new TV, basically. And certainly don't hold your breath. But don't write OLED off, either. | https://www.techradar.com/au/news/television/has-lg-made-a-breakthrough-in-oled-tv-production-1267431 |
Is science finally winning the battle against strokes? | When Jimmy Osmond was taken ill with a stroke during a recent performance as Captain Hook in Peter Pan at the Birmingham Hippodrome, it was a sobering reminder that stroke can hit at any time. It is one of the most common diseases in the UK, with more than 100,000 new cases each year, according to the Stroke Association. Nor is it just a disease of the elderly. One in four of those affected will be of working age or children; Osmond himself is only 55. The pop star and actor previously suffered a stroke in 2004, caused by a hole in his heart, called a patent foramen ovale, that didnt close after birth. Stroke is the fourth biggest killer in the UK yet thanks to improved acute care, there is... | https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/science-finally-winning-battle-against-strokes/ |
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