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Has Valencia's "Patience Run Out" With Batshuayi? | GOAL Valencia coach Marcelino suggested that he is running out of patience with Michy Batshuayi after substituting the on-loan forward during a shock Copa del Rey defeat to Sporting Gijon. Los Che were humbled 2-1 by the Segunda Division side on Tuesday, leaving them with some work to do in next Wednesday's last 16 second leg. Dani Parejo scored the away team's only goal, while Valencia's forward pairing of Kevin Gameiro and Batshuayi both drew a blank. The Chelsea loanee was given only 45 minutes before being substituted, in a decision Marcelino defended as "tactical" after the final whistle. But the coach also let slip his concerns over his attacking options in strong post-match comments. REPORT: VALENCIA TARGETING CHICHARITO "We need signings up front. In some cases our patience has run out," he fired to reporters, while stopping short of naming either Batshuayi or Gameiro as the subject of his ire. Batshuayi joined up with Valencia in his second loan move of 2018 at the start of the current season, having impressed during a temporary spell in Germany with Borussia Dortmund. The Belgium international, however, has so far failed to impress the Mestalla faithful, scoring just once in 15 Liga outings in a run which has seen him mostly relegated to the Valencia bench. Valencia, meanwhile, languish in 12th place in the Primera Division and went out of the Champions League at the group stages, with a paltry return of 16 goals in as many league games laying bare their problems in front of the net. This is not the first time that Marcelino has registered his disappointment with Batshuayi, previously suggesting that his loan deal could be cut short. "At the right time we will analyse the final situation and we will decide [what to do with Batshuayi]," the coach told reporters in December . "There is a transfer [clause], I do not know what the situation is contractually, but for all parties who want to leave, we will look for what is best for Valencia and thus the appropriate decisions will be made." Valencia and Batshuayi return to action on Saturday at home to Real Valladolid in La Liga, before hosting Gijon in their Copa return clash. | https://www.beinsports.com/us/laliga/news/has-valencias-patience-run-out-with-batshuayi/1080012 |
Will Windows 10 mean the end of malware? | So did Microsoft at the time. Looking back though, Chris Hallum, who manages the security features in Windows and Windows Phone, now thinks it had incremental improvements tackling a subset of the problem. That's not helped by the fact that PC makers didn't start putting the same kind of touch sensor fingerprint readers as seen on the iPhone on their devices the way he'd hoped they would. He's still hoping to see fingerprint sensors become common, but he's also bullish about what's coming next. "In Windows 10," he says confidently, "you'll see we actually decisively address entire classifications of issues with solutions that maybe in some ways can eradicate the issue in its entirely." Password crisis The first issue to tackle is passwords. "We're no longer thinking about passwords as a problem," he admits freely. "Passwords are actually a real-time crisis. You have to move to something better." And that would be the 'next-generation credential'. It's going to use two-factor authentication, with the second factor being either the Trusted Platform Module security chip which is in many modern PCs and will be in every single Windows device in 2015, or your phone (where the equivalent of the TPM is "pretty close to pervasive") or, he suggests mysteriously, "devices we're not talking about yet". When you first make your account, your PC will create a key that's stored in a secure container, protected by the TPM you might have one key for your personal account, another for your online bank and another for your work account that has a longer PIN. "The user unlocks their Windows container with an unlock gesture, which could be a PIN or a password or biometrics, and they get access to it," says Hallum. That PIN isn't the usual four digits it can be up to 20 characters long and it can include numbers, symbols, spaces and upper and lower case letters. Finger printing good Or you could use a fingerprint. Hallum expects readers that can tell whether your finger is a real finger and whether it's still alive, looking not just at the pattern but "the 3D image with the peaks and valleys" which flatten out on dead fingers and fake fingerprints. He'd like to see a 9mm sensor that doesn't have a big chrome border around it so you can just press your whole fingertip on it once instead of multiple times like the iPhone, but OEMs may pick smaller, cheaper sensors. "We're going to get the cost down to where it can go mainstream," he says with cautious optimism. "We have an OEM signalling not committing but signalling that they may put it across their entire consumer range. Although I hope I don't get burned again because I talked about this for Windows 8" With or without fingerprint readers, the new password-replacing credentials are coming not just from Microsoft but from fellow FIDO Alliance members like Google. Google's similar secure key proposal has already been ratified and Hallum says Microsoft is committed to getting its own system ratified by FIDO too. Flexibility first Hallum believes the flexibility of the Windows 10 credential is an advantage. "The differentiator for us is you will be able to use existing devices to authenticate for this; you can use your PC or your phone. "That means your phone including Windows Phone, Android, an iPhone with its fingerprint reader and maybe one day a BlackBerry could store your credentials and pair to your PC via Bluetooth to sign you in. That means two-factor authentication will become ubiquitous, without people needing multiple fobs and physical tokens." He's confident the credentials will be adopted by a range of services, and says Microsoft is evangelising it to both business and consumer services. "This is going to succeed. You're going to see a lot of consumer services like Netflix. They see how important this is for banking, for content, for consumer services." Business apps that you log into with a Windows username and password today will just work with them too. "Every app should be able to take advantage of it, unless you've done something that is not best practice." | https://www.techradar.com/sg/news/software/operating-systems/will-windows-10-mean-the-end-of-malware-1274842 |
Why Doesn't Criminal Justice Reform Include Immigration Law? | Senior year of high school is an important time. Theres a lot riding on a student, like studying for exams, applying to college, and making plans for the future. But for Daisy, a 17-year-old from Texas (whose last name has been omitted from this article for safety reasons), concentrating on finals has been difficult in the face of her fathers recent deportation . In 2009, Daisy says her parents were victims of a violent robbery outside of their familys home. After police came, her father ended up being jailed and deported to Mexico, she says. He later returned to Texas to reunite with his family and manage an auto repair shop. On May 13, 2018, Daisys father stopped by a clients house to ask for car payments on one he had sold. Having just celebrated Mothers Day as a family, Daisy and her three younger siblings were in the car with their parents. Daisy recounts watching as an argument ensued between her father and his client, at which point their mother called the police for help obtaining the payment. Instead, officers arrested her father in front of his children and placed him in a county jail because he had re-entered the U.S. without documentation after his initial deportation. Julie Mao, a legal expert from the Immigrant Justice Network (IJN) and staff attorney with the National Immigration Project, tells Teen Vogue that Daisys familys experience is extremely common due to U.S. laws that criminalize the unauthorized entry and re-entry of immigrants into the country. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU ), unlawful entry and reentry constitute the highest volume of federally prosecuted cases, with 59,910 prosecutions taking place in 2017 alone. During a recent legislative session, groups like IJN were highly concerned that several bills before Congress, such as the First Step Act , included provisions that Mao says would further vilify undocumented people at the intersection of criminal justice and immigration law. First Step, which aims to reduce mandatory minimum prison sentences and allow incarcerated people to participate in rehabilitative programs, has received widespread support from both sides of the political spectrum, but Mao worries that it leaves out folks like Daisys father. Unfortunately, First Step sets a really dangerous precedent that immigrants who right now are, again, more than 50% of the individuals being prosecuted at this moment dont deserve any type of criminal justice reform, dont deserve for their sentences to be reduced for rehabilitation to apply to them, she tells Teen Vogue . Thats why in November, Daisy traveled to Washington, D.C., and personally met with Congressional officers on Capitol Hill. She shared her familys story and asked them to reconsider how entry and re-entry laws impact immigrant communities. Even though she felt nervous and scared to speak to legislators at first, Daisy says it was worth taking a stand on behalf of her family and anyone else experiencing a similar situation. Theres many people going through this, and these [lawmakers] have power. I want them to do something about this, she tells Teen Vogue . Im speaking up for both my parents and for myself. A few weeks later, on December 7, Daisy testified once again this time, in front of U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, who was hearing her fathers case. Claudia Muoz is the Immigration Programs Director at Grassroots Leadership , an organization mobilizing against mass incarceration and deportations that works closely with families like Daisys. She says that the hearing was especially traumatic for Daisy and her younger siblings, who saw their father shackled at his waist, ankles, and hands. The judge ordered his second deportation for the following day, and there was nothing the family could do. It was scary just seeing my dad [at the hearing], being through that. When I was done speaking, I saw my dad crying, and it just made me cry, Daisy says. I was in shock. On December 21, 2018, President Trump signed First Step into law, which did not include any forgiving measures for immigrants like Daisys father. Other bills, like H.R. 7059 Build the Wall, Enforce the Law Act of 2018 actually call for increasing the mandatory minimum sentences of people who unlawfully enter or re-enter the U.S., cracking down on sanctuary city policies, and allocating funding for the border wall and border security. Mao notes that the latter includes hiring more Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, expanding detention facilities, and increasing deportations all of which put people like Daisys father at a higher risk of being convicted for trying to rejoin his family in Texas. The border wall and border security remain a controversial topic in the ongoing government shutdown as Congress and President Trump struggle to agree on funding. Daisy does not know when shell get to see her father again. Still, she says she will keep fighting so one day they can all be together in their home again. She encourages other young people to have each others backs no matter what. Muoz says a good first step is to get involved with local organizations like Grassroots Leadership that provide resources for families like Daisys to empower themselves and make their voices heard. I think people [can help by] educating themselves on these laws, how they came about, why they exist, and how theyre affecting families that have been here forever, she says. Daisy and her [three] siblings, they were all born in the U.S. Theyve been here. So this particular set of laws illegal entry and re-entry are really just affecting families that have been forever. This is happening all over, and more likely than not, you know somebody whos being affected, she says. Get the Teen Vogue Take. Sign up for the Teen Vogue weekly email . Related: How Family Separation at the Border Impacts Children Check this out: | https://www.teenvogue.com/story/criminal-justice-reform-doesnt-include-immigration-law |
Had ik je ook al een loser genoemd? | Meneer had er zijn hele leven van gedroomd. Althans, zo beweerde hij, terwijl hij in dat Weertse vakantiehuisje een oefenbomgordel droeg en de kalasjnikov die hem zojuist in zijn handen was geduwd kuste: Mijn hele leven heb ik hiervan gedroomd, Allahu akbar. Mag ik een teiltje, kermde ik. De vraag stellen is m beantwoorden: jazeker - en het was ditmaal niet eens een jokkebrokje dat uit taqiyya-overwegingen handelde. Hij droomde vroeger namelijk van heel andere dingen. Daar droomden we toen allemaal van, ongeacht onze afkomst en achtergrond. Hij riep het dan ook alleen maar om de andere aanwezigen en wellicht ook zichzelf ervan te overtuigen dat ze op hem konden rekenen. De uitslover hing de deugjihadi uit. Ik heb het over een van de vier terreurverdachten die in september vorig jaar op dat vakantiepark in Weert werden opgepakt nadat zij een partij wapens en munitie in ontvangst hadden genomen van wat naar later bleek geen wapenhandelaren, maar undercoveragenten waren. Verdacht van het voorbereiden van een terreuraanslag, dienen zij zich vandaag samen met twee anderen bij de rechtbank te melden, maar woensdag al lekte, naar RTL4, een filmpje uit dat door de dienders tijdens de deal was gemaakt. Mijn eerste gedachte: wat een slijmbal. Al werd mijn tweede gedachte daarmee bepaald niet verdrongen: wat een minderwaardig stuk vreten. Anders beweer je niet glashard dat je er je hele leven van hebt gedroomd om wapentuig in handen te krijgen waarmee je van plan bent om zoveel mogelijk onschuldige burgers te vermoorden. Bijna volgens een draaiboek. Ze worden slecht opgevoed in een vaak liefdeloos gezin, presteren ondermaats op school, ontwikkelen zich doorgaans al snel tot etterbakjes die de straat onveilig maken en gaan vervolgens in onrustbarend veel gevallen uit stelen en roven, daarbij drugshandel en geweld niet schuwend. Niet echt karakterbevorderend, als je het mij vraagt. En dan komen ze plots, daarvoor extra vatbaar geworden en met alle gevolgen van dien, onder invloed van de duister gefinancierde scouts van Allah, die precies weten waar ze hun slachters moeten rekruteren. Mijn hele leven heb ik hiervan gedroomd, Allahu akbar. Brrr. Je hebt het grootste deel van je leven verkloot, man. Toen droomde je vergeefs van Audis en Rolexen en lekkere wijven, van wie velen zich van je afwendden omdat ze zagen hoe je maatschappelijk functioneerde. En nu droom je, terwijl je ng verder bent afgedreven, inderdaad hiervan, in de eerste plaats omdat je dromen van vroeger allemaal niet zijn uitgekomen. | https://www.telegraaf.nl/columns/3004744/had-ik-je-ook-al-een-loser-genoemd |
Who will make it to the Lady Tamaraws final roster for Season 81? | Much like the UST Tigresses and the De La Salle University Lady Spikers, the FEU Lady Tamaraws also had a training camp in Baguio City. One of their stops in the City of Pines is a tune-up game with the cadets of the Philippine Military Academy, as shown in the FEU Athletics Twitter account. Notice that there are 16 Lady Tamaraws who suited up for the match. Obviously, Toni Rose Basas is not included for her return is still in the balance. If this selection holds, then the lock-ins for Coach George Pascua are Buding Duremdes, Celine Domingo, Angel Cayuna, Lycha Ebon, Jeanette Villareal, Czarina Carandang, Carly Hernandez, Jerrili Malabanan, Kyle Negrito, and Heather Guino-o. That leaves four spots left with the possible frontrunners being Ivana Agudo, France Ronquillo, and Clavel Dejito. The openings are trimmed to three if Basas can get a clean bill of health. But regardless of their final roster, they are raring to go back to the championship series after being swept by La Salle last year. While most of Season 80s squad will return, the impact of Bernadeth Pons departure remains to be seen. Libero Kyla Atienza has also maxed out her eligibility. The FEU Lady Tamaraws raced to a 10-4 record in the elimination round of UAAP Season 80 and defeated the Ateneo Lady Eagles in the semifinals. Domingo was hailed as the tournaments Best Blocker. | https://volleyverse.com/phi/uaap-volleyball-w/feu-lady-tamaraws-final-roster-season-81/ |
What would Thomas Jefferson think of the government shutdown? | In this undated file photo, Mount Rushmore is shown in South Dakota. From left are George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. The Partners in Preservation Campaign is asking the public to vote on 20 historic sites, including one at Mount Rushmore, that are vying for $2 million in preservation funding. The project at Mount Rushmore seeks $250,000 to restore structural elements of the Borglum View Terrace, where Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum's original studio stood. (Photo: AP Photo, File) It was a perfect post-Christmas day as I watched tourists move in concentric circles around the Jefferson Memorial at the far edge of the National Mall. Jeffersons famous exhortation about the nature of government, that we might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors, still inspires all these centuries later. Then there was this and Im pretty sure its not something that Jefferson ever said or wrote. AREA CLOSED: Because of a lapse in federal appropriations this national park facility is closed for the safety of visitors and park resources. And if you were a tourist looking to ... ahh ... drain the proverbial swamp, the intractability of leaders at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue meant you were out of luck. The shuttered restrooms at the Jefferson Memorial are an appropriate, if a tad flawed, metaphor for our current political predicament. The pipes of government are hopelessly clogged. In our national imagination, we like to think the founders were an 18th century coffee klatsche, conjuring a new nation out of a bloody revolution, even as they hung out in their powdered wigs and knickerbockers, knocked back a bit of grog, and generally debated the heck out of stuff. But, in fact, they were just as sharp-elbowed and fractious as our current leadership. Some even hated each other. Theres a reason why Hamilton has a sad ending, after all. Lawson Bowling, who teaches history at Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., (And who was, as a matter of full disclosure, my favorite professor as an undergraduate) offered a dose of perspective. As Bowling points out, America had no immigration laws during Jeffersons day. And T.J. was no fan of a strong, central government. So those obstacles would have been entirely foreign to him. As president, Jefferson cut federal spending, and he might have said that the fact that life is going right on despite the scary-sounding government shutdown underscores that there is far more to America than the national government, Bowling observed. Jefferson also had zero patience for the kind of partisan shenanigans that have colored our current debate. The lanky Virginian opposed a party system and worked, successfully, to destroy the Federalist opposition, so he would not have faced divided government, though before his presidency this was characteristic of the 1790s, Bowling said. Christopher Borick, a political science professor at Muhlenberg College, offered a slightly different take. The Founding Fathers, were they around today, and were actually your dads, would be very disappointed. The Founders were visionaries and were able to contemplate so many contingencies could follow in the wake of their work, Borick said. They also were pragmatic: They knew that humans werent angels and that there would be conflict between the branches [of government]. Even so, theyd be disappointed over a stalemate over a chunk of cash thats basically a rounding error in the federal budget. On Friday, Trump wouldnt move off his demand for $5 billion in border wall funding and warned that a shutdown could last months or even years, The Washington Post reported. Thats Grade-A Trumpian bluster, but the Founders, who liked to think of themselves as a consensus-minded bunch, would be disappointed by such pettiness, Borick said. They knew there would be major showdowns, Borick said, but they were visionaries and pragmatists. Theres nothing visionary about this fight. And its something a pragmatist would shake their heads at. He had a point. As I left the Jefferson Memorial, I could have sworn I saw T.J. glowering down the National Mall. John L. Miceks column distributed by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. Email him at: [email protected] John Micek (Photo: Cagle Cartoons Syndicate) Read or Share this story: https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/01/09/what-would-thomas-jefferson-think-government-shutdown-founding-fathers/2517177002/ | https://www.jacksonsun.com/story/opinion/columnists/2019/01/09/what-would-thomas-jefferson-think-government-shutdown-founding-fathers/2517177002/?from=new-cookie |
Will Everything Still Be Curated in 2019? | The words curated selection are etched in big, bold Times New Roman text in the storefront window, advertising a product offering which, in likeness to a fairy godmother, is hand-selected, edited or chosen with care for the customer. The act of curating is defined by Dictionary.com as to pull together, sift through and select for presentation. But the fashion industry has sharpened curated with extreme precision to differentiate itself from competitors, numbering its ubiquitous usage in storefronts, whether e-shop or brick-and-mortar. A popular field of study for those employed at museums, a degree in curatorial studies, promises a strong eye in selection and skills in arrangement of artifacts. But it was poached by retail marketers, merchandisers and buyers yet the word curated and all its subsidiaries are here to stay. Differentiate Themselves From Competition Evereve, a womens omnichannel retailer specializing in premium denim and contemporary fashion, operating 86 stores across 26 states with $120 million in annual revenue, reveals how merchandise curation serves to elevate ones product selection from competitors. Carrying brands such as Blanknyc, Seven For All Mankind and Citizens of Humanity, Evereve appeals to the woman aged 30 to 55, and aims to provide customers a story around ways of putting things together including a personal styling experience while they shop. Kristen MacVey, chief merchandising officer of Evereve, formerly of Target Corp., informed that curation will continue to hold relevance in 2019. Because customers are inundated with choice, curation of product offering serves in differentiating companies both in terms of the product selection but also in terms of how that product is presented and marketed in new and appealing ways, said MacVey. Similarly, MC2, an award-winning brand experience agency collaborating with Unilever on both the Magnum ice cream bars and St. Ives pop-up retail experiences, offered that curation is key to disarming competitors. With competition just a click or scroll away, a curated shopping experience will help distinguish brands from the competition, said vice president of marketing and growth at MC2, Allen Yesilevich. Curated for brands means they understand what each customer wants. Curated for customers means they are receiving true value from familiar and unfamiliar brands, reiterated Yesilevich. Curated will remain a word of purpose for retailers and consumers, but Yesilevich anticipates the next retail buzzword to attract Millennial and Gen Z shoppers will be advocacy citing examples from Nike and Dicks Sporting Goods. For its part, WWD has fostered the use of curation in its pages for decades but not with fashion. The garden party of the season, or rather the opening of a new sculpture exhibit at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, could not have been what it was without the tasteful curation by Margit Rowell, marking the earliest usage of curated by WWD in 1986. WWD later inserted curated into further dialogue, adhering to its roots in the art world and in strict connection to exhibitors. But then, in 2000, WWD used it in a ready-to-wear report to describe items that were hand-picked. Today, its about impact, or taking positions on social movements in effort to build brand affinity with customers who align with their vision. Alongside curation, brand values will continue to delineate onetime from longtime customers. Cultivate a Lifestyle Sene, a Los Angeles-based bespoke contemporary retailer for men and women aiming to make custom clothing an everyday option, as reported by WWD, sees curation as a continued trend in merchandising for 2019. Were first a minimalist apparel company. But in-store, we leverage wholesale and consignment to round out the lifestyle of the Sene customer. So we have bikes from Tokyobike, bags from Rains and skin care from Noto, said Ray Li, chief executive officer of Sene. Through cross merchandising products, the customer is given vision to a whole lifestyle, instead of one single product category. Common with minimalist lifestyle retailers, such as Need Supply and Muji, the curated lifestyle is complete with all aspects of ones daily routine. Simple perfumes adjacent to stacked beanies on a curvilinear oak table provide just a sampling of the curated assortment at Need Supply in Richmond, Va. While Mujis global flagship in the Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu shopping mall is curated with a store-in-store travelers paradise. Featured in Muji to Go, the cubicle curation deems travel-ready essentials such as a puff vest, rolling suitcase and mauve soft-bristled toothbrushes in perfect array. Retail buzzwords come and go, but curation is one word nestled permanently in the vocabulary of retailers and brands wishing for differentiation and lifestyle orientation. | https://wwd.com/business-news/marketing-promotion/curated-here-to-stay-in-1202943689/ |
Will the role of a 'Centre Forward' become extinct? | Even with evolution, what makes a good striker, nigh a good footballer is continually trivialized to statistics by some worrying sections of football fans. Yes, stats can be an indication, but stats never tell the full story of a footballers value or impact. I might belong to a breed that jettisons stats almost every time, but I will subscribe to it if needed. One position that numbers continue to fundamentally matter to is the role of the Centre Forward - the stat that matters; goals and to a lesser degree conversion rate. Over the years, formation and tactics have evolved - from the days of Ferenc Puskas where teams were playing outrageous formations like 1-2-5 with inside left forwards and whatnot. Football tactics are now both an art and science, incorporating tenets of vision, emotional intelligence and responsibility. Unless you're Jos Mourinho, it has gone past 'you need a goal, play 2 strikers'. It's about emotional awareness and X-Ray vision to spot what makes the opponent tick; nigh weaknesses most people wouldn't spot. A few months ago, in the thick of Manchester Citys molestation of the entire league, I watched analysis of Everton vs. Manchester City, it was funny how Pep Guardiola used Everton's design to play high up the pitch, leaving just Morgan Schneiderlin, as the only non-defender in and around midfield. What he did was simple; whenever Ederson had to kick the ball, Leroy Sane or Sterling switch into centre midfield to take the ball, and set off on magical counter attacks. It was a pure joy to witness. With this evolution in football, teams realize goals win games. Thus, more emphasis is mostly placed on attacking than almost anything else. The advent of this is that almost every contemporary player of this generation is required to have some attacking/ball playing instinct - even Centre Backs. Inevitably, with the existence of Frank Lampard, Francesco Totti, Fernando Hierro, Steven Gerrard and Paul Scholes, Central midfielders now have huge goalscoring responsibilities. Football Academies around the world train the minds of Central Midfielders to drift into the box for late runs, and score goals. In England, the worrying standard of stiff footballers is shedding away its last vestiges. Expectedly, wingers are now as expected to score goals as much as strikers. In fact, it's scarce to see typical run-to-the-byline-and-cross wingers anymore in European Football. They're now more like inverted forwards - breaching offside traps, having almost as much box presence and possessing as much threat as Centre forwards. In this modern day, would be wingers like Ronaldo - the revolution himself, Salah, Messi - previously, Bale, Sterling, Robben and so forth even outdo Centre Forwards sometimes, those in their respective teams. Today, strikers like Benzema and currently, Firmino continue to bend and warp what a Centre forward means. Historically, a Centre Forward was referred as such because the impression was that the middle harbours most action, thus a man with natural goalscoring instincts is likely to excel and put his skills/instincts to use there. An aside It was right for a moment. I however think it later evolved to teams playing to the striker and overloading the middle to get goals, than the action being inevitably in the middle - a subconscious conviction, inspiring action and faux fact finding. Its also aided by how goals win games and how the goalpost is in the middle of a pitch. If they had attempted to create chances from the wings in the old days too, they would have created as much chances and scored as much goals from the wings. In fact, Ferenc Puskas was not really a Centre Forward he was an Inside Forward, yet he scored more goals than a fair bit of strikers. Yes, I can't really blame that mindset as there will always be a place for evolution - the would-be dictator/custodian of changes and improvement. Nonetheless, this role of the modern day Wingers/Inverted Forwards didn't start in the '90s. Back to the matter The evolution of tactics now demand increased activity and participation from all sides of the pitch. A man with goal scoring instincts can now be anywhere across the frontline all he needs to excel; intelligent movement, positioning and a great sense of timing. Probably not for long, but the goalpost will always be in the Centre of the byline, as such, the guy with a great goal scoring instinct will always be shoved right there, but the greatest hope for goals does not have to be the Centre Forward anymore these days, the Centre Forward is starting to look like another attacking footballer who work best in the middle while the greatest hope for goals might be him or the guys on the sides or even the guy behind the Centre Forward. Because it seems anyone - asides the striker now has license and responsibility to roam into goalscoring positions, so far as he's got tactical awareness and tactical discipline - and therein lies another answer to my query. Yes, modern football tactics also demand other players to hold position and cover for more their advanced teammates who surge into goalscoring positions to prevent counter attacks and that means Centre Forwards might constantly act as positional cover/filler when their teammates, with equally quality goalscoring instinct run into space. Theories That said, while it could be said that the place of a striker - as a goalscoring threat - will never be obsolete, the truth is that, what the future holds could include; 1. The Centre Forwards job description and responsibility to always score goals might change its already changing. This responsibility will now be shared by all footballers, positionally and tactically north of the Defensive Midfielder(s) - especially those footballers ahead of the Centre Midfielders. 2. What makes a striker is his goalscoring instinct. In fact, most footballers' positions will always be primarily determined by instincts first, and secondly skill level. Sometimes, footballers hone skills based on the positions assigned them early on in their careers, but I believe if your instincts were not suited in some way, you might find it hard excel there. Unless future technology also manages to make goalposts subject to flexible positional ubiquity other than the Centre of the byline, the most activity will always be in and around the box - the centre. What contemporary wingers like Ronaldo will most likely inspire is better emotional intelligence from academy Coaches, not to stick players with huge goalscoring instincts on the flanks or in midfield. They will most likely have demands to spot these players early and stick them in the Centre, regardless of their physical size or pace key factors in recruiting strikers for scouts. Even now, footballers like Salah and Ronaldo, who show goalscoring instincts early on, despite their flair and pace - atypically more suited to the flanks, or small stature a usual red flag for scouts scouting Centre forwards, will end up playing as Centre Forwards early on in their careers. 3. Level of talent will also play a role; some footballers are more talented than others. In football, the wing will never be obsolete. Someone will always play from there and he/she will always have better demands of technical skills, flair, pace and the ability to be more elusive than others. Thus, certain flair footballers, even while imbued with natural goal instincts might remain on the wing. More so, stature will also determine positions naturally skilled footballers play more often than not. Yes, football is evolving and the ball is played more on the ground, but Centre Forwards are still big, mean and strong. Most people won't stick a 5'7 frame between two 6'4 Centre Back frames, with 84kg of solid meat - I'm talking muscle and flesh. No. Where we are is however instructive on the future. Thus, we can speculate. The Centre Forward might currently carry reduced goalscoring burden and share his box and goalscoring positions with other advanced footballers, but usually, he will always carry the a great burden of goals. Until some changes and this era inspires radical changes across football academies on what a Centre Forward should be physically, and it becomes more about skill and instincts, the Centre Forward will most likely have the greatest goalscoring responsibility, with teams built to play to his strengths. That said, the future Centre Forward will own that position upon greater scrutiny that will ascertain he possesses greater goal instincts than most, and he is most suited to that role. It might be that the Ccentre Forward might become more like a position than the greatest source of goals, but what makes a centre forward will forever be instinct. Nonetheless, there will always be teams where wingers carry as much or even more goals instinct than the striker. I am not sure what the future holds, but for now, I believe the Ronaldos and Salahs will always exist. Likewise, the Lewandowskis will also always exist. We might just see more Salahs play Centre Forward from early stages in their career. | https://www.pulse.ng/sports/football/will-the-role-of-a-centre-forward-become-extinct/q8tyebf |
Does highlight-reel dunking overshadow Duke star Zion Williamson's overall greatness? | Duke Blue Devils forward Zion Williamson (1) dunks during the second half against the Clemson Tigers at Cameron Indoor Stadium. (Photo: Rob Kinnan, USA TODAY Sports) Duke freshman star Zion Williamson has been drawing national attention for his rim-rocking dunks dating back to high school. And since his arrival in Durham, the 6-7 athletic forward has provided ample highlight-reel slams on the Blue Devils' pursuit of a national title with a freshmen-laden roster. But after Duke's dominant win over Wake Forest on Tuesday a game that saw the 18-year-old score a career-high 30 points Williamson revealed he doesn't like to be labeled for just one facet of his game. "I kind of hate being classified as a dunker," Williamson said, via ESPN. "Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) wouldn't have recruited me if I was just a dunker. But I guess people on the outside don't understand that. I can't play to impress other people. I'm playing to get better for myself and my teammates and hopefully make a run for a national championship." Or do they overshadow Williamson's stock as a do-everything type of player who could be the No. Against Wake Forest, Williamson also added 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals. Plus, Williamson showed his range with with three 3-pointers in the victory. Yet, the highlight reels focused on the eye candy that are Williamson's slams. (via @CBSSports)pic.twitter.com/vT73vJM5ZU Yahoo Sports NBA (@YahooSportsNBA) January 6, 2019 Krzyzewski doubled down on that notion that Williamson is much more than a dunker, adding after the Wake Forest win: "I have confidence in him doing everything. If I don't, there's something wrong with me. He's a complete player." One player who was pigeonholed as a dunker earlier in his career, eight-time NBA All-Star Vince Carter, offered his insight on Williamson's pro potential outside of the slam dunk contest. "He'll be ready (for the NBA)," Carter told ESPN. "One thing I learned when I got in this league is that yes, I'm athletic, but there's gonna be a lot of guys up here that are athletic. I think he's going through that phase, kind of what I went through. Everybody looks at 'he can dunk, he can dunk,' but now when you have guys that are super athletic, then they're going to start saying, 'What else can he do?'" Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr compared Williamson to LeBron James, one of the game's most complete players, back in November. Carter thinks time will show Williamson's true identity in the NBA. "He has the potential to be, obviously, the No. 1 pick whenever he decides to come out. I think that's understood," Carter said. "He's super, super athletic. He has an NBA body already. I think, more than anything, with all his ability, I just say take his time, develop his game, because when you get here, it's a different beast as far as expectations. A lot of guys try to get here and just develop while they get here." | https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2019/01/09/duke-zion-williamson-greatness-overshadowed-highlight-reel-dunking/2524737002/ |
Is it ever OK for non-disabled actors to play disabled roles? | We are familiar with the repellent days of blacking up the disabled actors equivalent is cripping up, a term used by acting activists to highlight that it is not acceptable for a non-disabled actor to mimic impairments, then win an Oscar. The acting union Equity has said that in casting disabled roles, every avenue should be considered to cast a disabled actor. Yet the challenges for disabled actors and the representation of a disability experience in film are not isolated to casting. Fundamental barriers to auditioning limit spaces for disabled actors; for those who do get work, it is still mostly for disabled roles written by non-disabled writers, which may present stereotypical or unrepresentative characters. There is a need to think critically about how disability is being defined, writes academic Dr Alison Wilde in her book Film, Comedy and Disability, with representational and employment concerns deeply interwoven into the film industrys ideologies, practices and processes There are dangers we may thwart our own goals. The result of this self-perpetuating cycle is limited opportunities to tell the disabled story in all its dimensions. Disabled actor-writer Mat Fraser, who played crippled Richard III last year, summed it up: Ideally, anybody should be able to play any body, but only when there is a truly level playing field of opportunity. Every theatre should commission at least one disabled playwright and cast at least one disabled actor each year, he wrote, as a condition of arts funding. Dont tell me there are no disabled actors with talent. This week, I watched Silent Witness with Liz Carr, a disabled actor who, for seven years, has played disabled lab technician Clarissa Mullery. Carr, an alumni of Graeae Theatre Company, was excellent as usual, yet heres the rub she only got a handful of lines on Monday. | https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2019/jan/09/is-it-ever-ok-for-non-disabled-actors-to-play-disabled-roles |
How Can Leaders Ensure Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines? | Its hard to avoid the prominence of AI in our lives, and there is a plethora of predictions about how it will influence our future. In their new book Solomons Code: Humanity in a World of Thinking Machines, co-authors Olaf Groth, Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Economics at HULT International Business School and CEO of advisory network Cambrian.ai, and Mark Nitzberg, Executive Director of UC Berkeleys Center for Human-Compatible AI, believe that the shift in balance of power between intelligent machines and humans is already here. I caught up with the authors about how the continued integration between technology and humans, and their call for a Digital Magna Carta, a broadly-accepted charter developed by a multi-stakeholder congress that would help guide the development of advanced technologies to harness their power for the benefit of all humanity. Lisa Kay Solomon: Your new book, Solomons Code, explores artificial intelligence and its broader human, ethical, and societal implications that all leaders need to consider. AI is a technology thats been in development for decades. Olaf Groth and Mark Nitzberg: Popular perception always thinks of AI in terms of game-changing narrativesfor instance, Deep Blue beating Gary Kasparov at chess. But its the way these AI applications are getting into our heads and making decisions for us that really influences our lives. Thats not to say the big, headline-grabbing breakthroughs arent important; they are. But its the proliferation of prosaic apps and bots that changes our lives the most, by either empowering or counteracting who we are and what we do. Today, we turn a rapidly growing number of our decisions over to these machines, often without knowing itand even more often without understanding the second- and third-order effects of both the technologies and our decisions to rely on them. There is genuine power in what we call a symbio-intelligent partnership between human, machine, and natural intelligences. These relationships can optimize not just economic interests, but help improve human well-being, create a more purposeful workplace, and bring more fulfillment to our lives. However, mitigating the risks while taking advantage of the opportunities will require a serious, multidisciplinary consideration of how AI influences human values, trust, and power relationships. Whether or not we acknowledge their existence in our everyday life, these questions are no longer just thought exercises or fodder for science fiction. In many ways, these technologies can challenge what it means to be human, and their ramifications already affect us in real and often subtle ways. We need to understand how LKS: There is a lot of hype and misconceptions about AI. In your book, you provide a useful distinction between the cognitive capability that we often associate with AI processes, and the more human elements of consciousness and conscience. Its hard to say. But theres little doubt that, as machines become more capable, humans will start to think of them as something consciousif for no other reason than our natural inclination to anthropomorphize. Machines are already learning to recognize our emotional states and our physical health. Once they start talking that back to us and adjusting their behavior accordingly, we will be tempted to develop a certain rapport with them, potentially more trusting or more intimate because the machine recognizes us in our various states. Consciousness is hard to define and may well be an emergent property, rather than something you can easily create orin turndeduce to its parts. We cant exclude that possibility. Either way, we need to make sure were charting out a clear path and guardrails for this development through the Three Cs in machines: cognition (where AI is today); consciousness (where AI could go); and conscience (what we need to instill in AI before we get there). The real concern is that we reach machine consciousnessor what humans decide to grant as consciousnesswithout a conscience. If that happens, we will have created an artificial sociopath. LKS: We have been seeing major developments in how AI is influencing product development and industry shifts. OG & MN: Both in the public and private sectors, the data holder has the power. Weve already seen the ascendance of about 10 digital barons in the US and China who sit on huge troves of data, massive computing power, and the resources and money to attract the worlds top AI talent. With these gaps already open between the haves and the have-nots on the technological and corporate side, were becoming increasingly aware that similar inequalities are forming at a societal level as well. Economic power flows with data, leaving few options for socio-economically underprivileged populations and their corrupt, biased, or sparse digital footprints. By concentrating power and overlooking values, we fracture trust. We can already see this tension emerging between the two dominant geopolitical models of AI. China and the US have emerged as the most powerful in both technological and economic terms, and both remain eager to drive that influence around the world. The EU countries are more contained on these economic and geopolitical measures, but theyve leaped ahead on privacy and social concerns. The problem is, no one has yet combined leadership on all three critical elements of values, trust, and power. The nations and organizations that foster all three of these elements in their AI systems and strategies will lead the future. Some are starting to recognize the need for the combination, but we found just 13 countries that have created significant AI strategies. Countries that wait too long to join them risk subjecting themselves to a new data colonialism that could change their economies and societies from the outside. LKS: Solomons Code looks at AI from a variety of perspectives, considering both positive and potentially dangerous effects. OG & MN: Weve surrendered many of our most critical decisions to the Cult of Data. In most cases, thats a great thing, as we rely more on scientific evidence to understand our world and our way through it. But we swing too far in other instances, assuming that datasets and algorithms produce a complete story thats unsullied by human biases or intellectual shortcomings. We might choose to ignore it, but no one is blind to the dangers of nuclear war or pandemic disease. Yet, we willfully blind ourselves to the threat of dirty data, instead believing it to be pristine. On an individual level, its a matter of awareness, knowing who controls your data and how outsourcing of decisions to thinking machines can present opportunities and threats alike. For business, government, and political leaders, we need to see a much broader expansion of ethics committees with transparent criteria with which to evaluate new products and services. We might consider something akin to clinical trials for pharmaceuticalsa sort of testing scheme that can transparently and independently measure the effects on humans of algorithms, bots, and the like. All of this needs to be multidisciplinary, bringing in expertise from across technology, social systems, ethics, anthropology, psychology, and so on. Finally, on a global level, we need a new charter of rightsa Digital Magna Cartathat formalizes these protections and guides the development of new AI technologies toward all of humanitys benefit. Weve suggested the creation of a multi-stakeholder Cambrian Congress (harkening back to the explosion of life during the Cambrian period) that can not only begin to frame benefits for humanity, but build the global consensus around principles for a basic code-of-conduct, and ideas for evaluation and enforcement mechanisms, so we can get there without any large-scale failures or backlash in society. So, its not one or the otherits both. Image Credit: whiteMocca / Shutterstock.com | https://singularityhub.com/2019/01/09/how-can-leaders-ensure-humanity-in-a-world-of-thinking-machines/ |
Whats Going on With Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwins Big Christian Wedding? | Welcome to You Know What I Heard, the Cuts weekly celebrity gossip column about the peregrinations of the rich and famous. Photo: Getty Images Justin Bieber, 24, and Hailey Baldwin, 22, have been legally married since they secretly tied the knot at a New York courthouse last September. At the time, the tabloids reported that wouldnt consider the marriage official until they had a big religious ceremony with all of their family and friends. But then, Baldwin changed her Instagram handle to @haileybieber, the couple started referring to each other in public as husband and wife, and wedding-planning reports dwindled. According to a report in People this morning, its coming. A source told the tabloid that Bieber and Baldwin are still figuring it out, but they both feel like the sooner, the better. Yeah, same! I want to see Scooter Braun, Alec Baldwin, and the entire Kardashian family jostle for attention in some enormous, tented backyard in Malibu ASAP. And I must know which of Biebers four favorite celebrity pastors will perform the ceremony. Please, let this be Gods will. In the meantime, Bieber and Baldwin have been house hunting in the Valley, for some reason. Yesterday, they looked at a $13 million property in Encino. It has a movie theater, a wine cellar, and two kitchen islands. (See photos here.) Casual reminder: Bieber and Baldwin did not opt for a prenup. Photo: Allen Berezovsky/WireImage/Getty Images Sundays Golden Globes were criminally boring, but the parties, at least, provided some interesting gossip. By scrolling through step-and-repeat photos I discovered that The Marvelous Mrs. Maisels Rachel Brosnahan is married to the guy who plays the Pod Save America character on Younger. (His name is Jason Ralph.) Theyre having a good year, I guess. Also revealed: Emma Stone is back together with SNL segment producer Dave McCary. There were rumors last year that she had left him for Justin Theroux, but now it seems like that didnt happen. (Or, if something like that did happen, McCary has forgiven and forgotten.) According to L.A. Times reporter Amy Kaufman, Stone, and McCary hung out at the Fox after-party in the Beverly Hilton with Taylor Swift and her British actor boyfriend Joe Alwyn. (Stone and Alwyn know each other from working on The Favourite together.) Taylor Swift sighting: At 9pm, she was brought through a side entrance to the Fox party. Her security guards escorted her directly to a booth in the back, where she met her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. She joined him and Emma Stone, who was flanked by her bf, "SNL" writer Dave McCary. Amy Kaufman (@AmyKinLA) January 7, 2019 Per an Us Weekly source, Emma and Dave were super touchy-feely and affectionate which seemed to make Taylor more comfortable doing the same with Joe. Ooh la la. Kate Beckinsale and Pete Davidson. According to People, the 45-year-old actress and 25-year-old SNL comedian chatted intensely for about 45 minutes at the Netflix party. A source told Page Six: They were being very flirty together, they were sitting very close on the outside patio seating. Kate had her hand on his knee, and she kept laughing at all his jokes. Photo: Getty Images Page Six originally reported that Beckinsale and Davidson left the party together, but later the editors amended the story to say that Beckinsale left and Davidson headed to the HBO party with Machine Gun Kelly. Beckinsale has been known to date comedians even younger than Davidson, so the age difference wont be an issue. Their names each have the same number of syllables. And they both seem to like being in relationships! Ill be following this story closely in 2019. One small blessing from this week: Heres Hilary Duff shopping in Bel-Air with her new baby, Banks. Photo: Hillary Duff/ Instagram Stories And heres an interesting blind item from this week, care of Enty at Crazy Days and Nights: This foreign born A-/B+ list mostly television actress has multiple projects going at once and is arguably busier than any of her former co-stars from that now defunct hit cable show. Last night she was nonstop texting and facetiming her married actor co-star. I really urge you all to watch You on Netflix. Photo: TheImageDirect.com/TheImageDirect.com Thanks so much for gossiping this week. If youd like to get this column in your inbox every week, subscribe in the box below, and dont forget to email me at [email protected], send me a message on Twitter, or contact me on Signal, if youd like to chat. Get the best celebrity gossip in your inbox every week. Receive alerts every time there's more news from You Know What I Heard. Email By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. | https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/when-is-justin-bieber-and-hailey-baldwins-big-wedding.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-part |
Why Cant We Do Grand Romantic Gestures at Reasonable Hours? | Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman. Photo: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images There are plenty of things I like to do during the wee hours of the morning: mostly sleeping. What I dont want to do after midnight but before the sun comes up is witness my significant perform an impromptu grand romantic gesture of any sort. Apparently, Nicole Kidman and I do not have that in common. In this weeks People cover story, the actress opened up about the morning she realized Keith Urban was the man with whom she wanted to spend her life. This moment, to my dismay, came at 5 a.m on her birthday. It was my [38th] birthday, and he stood outside with gardenias at 5 a.m. on my stoop in New York, Kidman said. That is when I went, This is the man I hope I get to marry. And the gesture didnt end there. After an undisclosed amount of time passed that morning, Urban apparently whisked Kidman off to Woodstock via motorbike, which she described as pretty intense. Understandably! I can understand the thought process here. Nighttime and pre-dawn romantic gestures are a beloved cultural tradition: the scene of John Cusack holding a boombox outside Ione Skyes bedroom at night in Say Anything is now embedded in our collective unconscious, and everyone knows the story of Romeo serenading Juliet in the middle of the night (though in their defense, they have a pretty compelling excuse). As a culture, we generally tend to appreciate a loving gesture at an objectively inconvenient time, Kidman being just one of many to share this sentiment. Maintaining a healthy sleep schedule. Stay in touch. Get the Cut newsletter delivered daily Email By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. | https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/grand-romantic-gestures-should-be-done-at-reasonable-hours.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-part |
Are People Really Flooding the Container Store Because of Marie Kondo? | Marie Kondo and containers. Photo: Getty Images, The Container Store We have reason to believe youve been to the Container Store recently. Dont worry were not trying to pin anything on you just yet. But, just so you know, on our end it looks like you might have been to the Container Store recently, and it looks like it could be because you were spurred by a Netflix show. The Container Store was PACKED today and I think we all know why Angela Lashbrook (@lemonsand) January 5, 2019 (Our evidence is this tweet and other similar tweets.) Tidying expert Marie Kondos new Netflix show Tidying Up launched on January 1, 2019. The conceit is that Kondo works with people to declutter their homes. Over a timespan of weeks or months, she instructs the formerly cluttered on how to tidy their space purging items that dont spark joy, and treating the items that remain with respect. Some on Twitter have suggested the shows popularity has caused a surge of customers at the Container Store; the cluttered masses eager to purge and organize until they are finally, please, for the love of God: happy. Its an interesting question. (Please nod.) Kondo herself is, in fact, not an advocate of the Container Store. In the opening chapter of her first book, 2012s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, she warns against hanging onto joy-sucking clutter even if that clutter resides in organized boxes. When I finally came to my senses, I saw that my room still wasnt tidy even though it was full of magazine racks, bookshelves, drawer dividers and other storage units of every kind, she wrote. Why does my room still feel cluttered when Ive worked so hard to organize and store things away? The antiContainer Store message caught the eye of Sharon Tindell, the Container Stores chief merchandising officer. It was the focus of a gently incredulous memo she wrote to employees in 2015, explaining that Kondos message while nice, sure is maybe not for everyone. I embrace Marie Kondos philosophy and encourage everyone to read her book, as the trend towards simplicity and minimalism continues to grow, she wrote in the memos closing lines. No. Yes! Damn. Another wrinkle here is that in the summer of 2018, Kondo, through her Bay Areabased company KonMari, began selling boxes herself. A six-piece set of boxes for organizing, not storing were sold for $89 on her website. (At what point does money stop actively sparking joy?) Noticing these boxes seemed to be no longer available, I reached out to Kondo PR and asked where they went. Maries Hikidashi boxes were a limited-edition item that has sold out, they told me. It is no longer in production, but Marie and team are working on determining what the next step for a new spark joy item. Huh. Still, Kondo drives people to the Container Store. Made it 10 min into the first ep of that Marie Kondo show before madly running to the container store Bethy Squires (@BethyBSQU) January 3, 2019 The Container Store should really offer to sponsor #TidyingUp with Marie Kondo, because all I want to do is get boxes to store everything. Of course, I had to take a trip to the Container Store to find out. I visited the store on on Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th streets in the late afternoon on Tuesday. Admittedly, the late afternoon on a Tuesday is not equivalent to the first weekend of the new year, directly after the premiere of the show. But it would have to do. It was my first time at a Container Store and, indeed, they sell containers. Containers for food, containers for clothing, containers for your childs toys, containers for dog stuff. Hm do I need any containers ? I found myself wondering, but no. Hm. No. I dont. Anyway, no I was there to work. The store was not overly crowded, but there were a good amount of people lingering and a persistent five-person-deep line at the checkout. My first target, an older woman shopping with a cart full of containers, was minding her own business in the animal-related-goods container section. No, she said. Ive heard of it, but I havent seen it. Okay. No. Im a makeup artist, so I have a lot of makeup. Im just trying to figure out how to make it less crazy. He suggested the customer surge might be due to the new year rather than Marie Kondo. Okay. No. Okay. She gasped: I didnt even know she was here! Oh no Id condensed the spiel too much. (After I explained that she was not there, she offered her answer: No. Ive heard of it, though! Sorry to disappoint you.) (No! Im sorry!!) Okay. Oh, the Netflix show? one said, using Netflix as a pejorative but not in a particularly mean way. No, were just killing time. Feeling disorganized about our lives. The other said, My mom used to work here actually. Okay. She did not hear me, or at least feigned not being able to hear me in order to avoid talking to the annoying person bothering everybody at the Container Store. Fine. I think Netflix probably timed the show to be released when it was because people are looking at New Years resolutions, she said. Marie Kondo has become, like, a big sensation, and having it as a show is a lot more accessible than just the book. So I feel like its all timed perfectly to happen, all together. Yes, that sounds right to me. Definitely. | https://www.thecut.com/2019/01/busy-container-store-because-of-marie-kondos-netflix-show.html?utm_source=nym&utm_medium=f1&utm_campaign=feed-part |
Was sind die Plne fr das neue Familiengesetz? | Die Bundesregierung will arme Familien mit deutlich mehr Geld untersttzen. Am Mittwoch hat Ministerin Franziska Giffey zusammen mit Arbeitsminister Heil dafr ein neues Gesetz vorgestellt. Was das Gesetz beinhaltet, bringt Inforadio-Redakteur Nico Hecht auf den Punkt. Das Familiengesetz soll knftig mehr Geld fr Alleinerzieher und Geringverdiener zur Verfgung stellen. Und es soll die Antrge bei den mtern dafr vereinfachen. Damit sollen die Untersttzungen vom Staat knftig gut 1,2 Millionen Kinder mehr erreichen, als das bisher der Fall ist. Zentrales Instrument dafr soll der sogenannten Kinderzuschlag sein. Dieser wird zustzlich zum Kindergeld gezahlt. Neu ist der Kinderzuschlag nicht. Aber er soll erhht werden: ab Juli um 15 Euro auf 185 Euro pro Kind im Monat. Das zweites Instrument, sind die Leistungen des Bildungs- und Teilhabepakets. Hier zahlt der Staat etwa Geld als Schulstarterpaket: Fr Schulranzen, Hefte und Stifte etwa. Bisher gab es dafr pro Schuljahr 100 Euro. Mit dem Starke Familiengesetzt sollen es 150 Euro werden. Dazu sollen die Kosten fr Schlerfahrkarte fr Bus oder Bahn bernommen werden. Insgesamt wrden in all diese Manahmen 1, 3 Milliarden Euro investiert werden, bis Ende 2021. Das klingt viel fr den Laien. Nicht aber fr einige Experten: Das Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk meint, es wird sich kaum etwas ndern. Grundlegendes Problem ist, das auch schon bisher, viel zu wenige die Anspruch htten, die Leistungen abrufen. In Berlin sind es gerade mal 10 Prozent der Berechtigten. Das wei auch die Familienministerin.Und will deswegen viel tun, um die Manahmen bekannter zu machen. Nur damit ist es aber lngst nicht getan, beklagt das Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk. Das eigentliche Problem sein eher die brokratischen Hrden. Einerseits seien die Antrge fr die Hilfen viel zu schwierig und umfangreich. Andererseits werden die Hilfen bisher auf das Einkommen der Betroffenen angerechnet. Und damit drohen bisher andere Untersttzungen gekrzt zu werden. So das manche Familie Angst hat, mit Kinderzuschlag am End weniger zu haben als ohne. Das zumindest soll neu geregelt werden. Wie die Hilfen knftig auch leichter beantragt werden knnen, das ist noch nicht klar." | https://www.inforadio.de/programm/schema/sendungen/rep/201901/09/303002.html |
Whats The Holdup In That Unresolved North Carolina House Race? | Last Thursday was the first day of the 116th Congress, but only 434 representatives took office. One seat remains vacant: the North Carolina 9th District, where the outcome remains in doubt as a result of possible election fraud. Accusations of misconduct by a Republican operative continue to pile up, but the investigation is, somehow, likely an even longer way from a conclusion than it was last month. Now, the courts and the new U.S. House of Representatives are considering getting involved and may decide whether the 9th District hosts an entirely new election later this year. Over the last few weeks, more witnesses have given statements supporting the allegation that Leslie McCrae Dowless, a consultant working on behalf of Republican Mark Harriss campaign, coordinated an effort to illegally collect (and, perhaps, destroy) absentee ballots. When we last wrote about the scandal in December, there was already plenty of suspicion surrounding Dowless; since then, more voters have signed affidavits saying Dowless personally collected their absentee ballot, which is illegal in North Carolina. According to one voters statement, at one point Dowless said he had over 800 ballots in his possession. Another affidavit, from a member of a local elections board, suggested that county elections officials may have given Dowless access to absentee voters sensitive personal information, like Social Security numbers. The affidavit claimed that, when elections staff discovered absentee-ballot request forms that they believed were forged, one local official (who has since resigned) contacted Dowless rather than taking the issue to the state board of elections. Dowless himself has said in the past that he encouraged local officials to contact his team, rather than the voters whose names were on the absentee-ballot applications, if there were any problems with the forms he and his crew submitted. We also learned that, over the last two years, state investigators repeatedly tried to bring suspected absentee-ballot fraud in the 2016 election to the attention of local district and U.S. attorneys. State officials specifically recommended in January 2018 that criminal charges be brought against Dowless for illegally collecting absentee ballots in 2016, but prosecutors apparently did not act on this recommendation or the previous tips. The Washington Post also reported that Harris ordered Dowlesss hiring even after being told that Dowless had a criminal record and after Dowless had publicly testified about irregular election practices. The North Carolina State Board of Elections had scheduled an evidentiary hearing to be held on or before Dec. 21. But on Dec. 14, the board announced that they were still awaiting some documents and delayed the hearing to Jan. 11. But now that hearing isnt happening either; in fact, its been postponed indefinitely. Thats because North Carolina currently has no state board of elections at all and no board means no hearing. After the Republican legislature passed a series of changes giving itself more power over the state elections board (part of a larger effort to curtail the power of the then-new Democratic governor), a state court ruled that the boards resulting makeup was unconstitutional. On Dec. 28, the board was dissolved. Under a new law passed last month, the board will reconstitute on Jan. 31 in its pre-2017 form: with five members (no more than three from any one party) chosen by the governor from lists submitted by the state Republican and Democratic parties. However, the boards staff continues to investigate the election fraud allegations behind the scenes. For example, on Jan. 3, Harris met with the boards executive director and chief investigator. The same day, the Harris campaign filed a lawsuit arguing that a court should compel the board to certify the election results. Its unclear when the court will rule on Harriss motion (a hearing date has not been set, but legal briefs in the case are due Jan. 14), but it may not matter what the court decides. Even if Harris shows up in Washington with a certificate of election, the House has the final word on admitting him, and its newly minted Democratic leadership has said they would not seat him as the situation currently stands. Over the weekend, Politico reported that House Democrats were even preparing to launch their own investigation into potential fraud in the 9th District. Theres also the possibility (still a long way off) of a new election in the 9th District. And if the state board of elections orders a revote (which it has the authority to do if it finds that irregularities or improprieties tainted the results), there would be a new primary in addition to a new general election, per that same law the legislature passed last month. If the U.S. House chooses to investigate, it too can trigger a new election including a primary by declaring the seat vacant. Several Republicans have been mentioned as potential challengers to Harris in that hypothetical primary. Former Mecklenburg County Commissioner Matthew Ridenhour (a Marine veteran like probable Democratic re-candidate Dan McCready) has been the most explicit about his interest. However, two big-name Republicans have already said they wont run: former Gov. Pat McCrory and former 9th District Rep. Robert Pittenger, who lost the 2018 Republican nomination to Harris in a primary that may have also been tainted by election fraud. Theres going to be plenty of time for the field to develop: With the new delays in the investigation and the potential need for three rounds of voting (a primary, a runoff and a general), its now possible that the 9th Districts representative to the 116th Congress wont be chosen until November 2019. | https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/whats-the-holdup-in-that-unresolved-north-carolina-house-race/ |
What does IT performance really mean? | Too often, the discussion starts with the hard numbers of quantitative performance, what I call "speeds and feeds": details like what kind of processor, memory size, disk I/O or throughput. The problem is that using these metrics to evaluate the performance of your IT -- whether solutions, service providers or the organization itself -- comes hopelessly short of determining the value that IT is bringing to its new task of leading digital transformation. Dont get me wrong, measures of technical performance are of vital importance. At the end of the day, each technical metric supports a greater business objective, whether that is fixing a problem or driving business transformation for an organization. The definition of IT performance must transcend "speeds and feeds" to encompass what technical performance enables your IT and your company to do, or in other words, how your IT is supporting your organizations purpose. Thats the true measure of value when it comes to IT. The Right Data Used in the Right Way One of my serious hobbies is racing cars, and whether Im on or off the track, measuring performance is of utmost importance. Optimizing my race performance relies on capturing and analyzing data, but its not enough to just know the max speed or how much horsepower Im working with. That kind of data has to be tied to and measured against outcomes. The answers to these questions have to start with a focus on the right data and then be tied to how it actually impacts outcomes. For example, 99.999 percent uptime and ultra-low latency are certainly features of many high-performance IT solutions. But if its unclear to you why five 9s or shaving 10 milliseconds off your average latency matters, whether it even matters at all, or what it means for your applications and your business, then these numbers arent truly helping you make decisions about performance; theyre just numbers. And with more technology than anyone could possibly use coming out at a rapid clip, understanding the data that matters to your applications and using it to decisively evaluate new tech becomes even more key. High-Performance IT Solutions Create Room to Focus Once its clear what data matters to your business and why, the continuous process of evaluating and optimizing the performance of your IT solutions can begin. Distinguishing the signal from the noise creates the space needed to get the most of your IT infrastructure and providers. One straightforward way to do this is to determine which activities and functions are important for your IT organization to control and which can be offloaded to an IT service partner. According to our new survey, The State of IT Infrastructure Management , nearly 8 in 10 IT pros believe they could bring more value to their organization if they spent less time on routine tasks like server monitoring and maintenance. Add to that the fact that 85 percent of our survey respondents also believe IT must be seen as a center of innovation to succeed. But thats clearly a challenge given the time and effort devoted to routine tasks. Thats for you to discover. And when you know what tasks are holding value-added, purposeful work back, allocating resources to digital transformation and other mission-critical initiatives will only get easier. Changing Expectations and Differentiated Performance Were past "speeds and feeds": Its taken for granted that hardware specs will be state-of-the-art. In many cases, compute power is beyond what applications can even use. In this landscape, enterprise IT organizations arent just looking for performance. Theyre looking for differentiated performance provided by the kind of products and services that can increase operational performance above and beyond other solutions -- without adding time or complexity to IT organizations already stretched thin. This is exactly why were so proud of Performance IP, our patented route optimization engine, which uses intelligent automation to put outbound traffic on the lowest latency route, without any need for human intervention. But its not just about services that other IT providers may not have; its about creating visibility and predictability and how that can unlock unrealized operational efficiency and better decision-making -- just by taking things off our customers plates. Technology is on the bleeding edge, but IT organizations arent necessarily in the same position. IT doesnt have to be slow-moving. The sign of a high-performance IT solution or service provider is that they are enabling your organization to focus on what matters: agility, innovation, staying ahead of the rapidly developing technology and empowering your purpose. Image Credit: alexmillos / Shutterstock Josh Williams is Vice President of Solutions Engineering at INAP. His team enables enterprises and service providers in the design, deployment and management of a wide range of data center and cloud IT solutions. | https://betanews.com/2019/01/09/what-does-it-performance-really-mean/ |
Will Jeff Bezos' $137 Billion Divorce Be the Most Expensive in History? | Jeff Bezos announced on Wednesday that he and his wife MacKenzie are divorcing after 25 years of marriage and it may be one of the most expensive divorces ever, after Bezos was named the richest man in the world in June 2018. In a tweet on Wednesday morning, the 54-year-old founder and CEO of Amazon, wrote a statement explaining the divorce, saying theyve decided to continue their shared lives as friends. Get push notifications with news, features and more. We feel incredibly lucky to have found each other and deeply grateful for every one of the years we have been married to each other. If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again, he said in the statement. In 2018, Bezos bested Bill Gates on Forbes annual ranking of the worlds billionaires. Today, Bloomberg reports that Jeffs net worth is now $137 billion, making him the richest person in the world. RELATED: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Announces Divorce from Wife MacKenzie After 25 Years of Marriage Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos Jerod Harris/Getty Washington, where Bezos resides, is a community property state, which means that all assets and debts accrued during the marriage are considered owned equally by both spouses, unless there was a prenuptial agreement stating otherwise. It has not been made public whether the couple had a prenup. If they did not have a prenup, MacKenzie would be entitled to half of Bezos $137 billion, or $685 million. One of the largest Hollywood divorce payouts ever was between Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore, who finalized their divorce after nearly 30 years of marriage in 2011 and split half of his $850 million fortune, Moores settlement totaling $425 million. Mel Gibson and Robyn Moore Ron Galella//WireImage Meanwhile, Steven Spielbergs first marriage to actress Amy Irving lasted just four years, but produced one of the largest settlements in Hollywood history, reported at being as much as $100 million. RELATED: 9 of the Most Explosive (and Expensive) Celebrity Divorces of All Time Basketball star Michael Jordans 2006 divorce with ex-wife of 17 years Juanita Jordan left her walking away with $168 million. Juanita and Michael Jordan Dave Allocca/DMI/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Musician Neil Diamond divorced from ex-wife Marcia Murphey in 1994. Murphey came out of the divorce with $150 million half of his assets according to a Forbes report. Fellow musician Madonna reportedly paid actor Guy Ritchie between $76 million to $92 million during their 2008 split. Another high-profile celebrity divorce was Harrison Fords split with ex-wife Melissa Mathison in 2004. The divorce came after 21 years of marriage and Mathison walked away with a large chunk of Fords earnings after their settlement $85 million, according to Forbes. Melissa Mathison Jeff Kravitz/Wireimage Bezos was the first and only person to ever grace the Forbes annual ranking of billionaires with a 12-figure fortune to his name. The tech giant founded internet behemoth Amazon in late 1994. In 2017, it was revealed that 64 precent of households in the United States are Amazon Prime subscribers, Forbes reported. | https://people.com/movies/jeff-bezos-divorce-most-expensive-in-history/ |
Will Nintendos Mobile Games Be More Important than the Nintendo Switch? | Nintendo is in the news again for its president's comments on the mobile gaming market and Nintendo's ambitions there. Some outlets misreported his quotes to make it sound as though Nintendo wants to quit the home console market in favour of mobile games. Games editor Rishi Alwani, friend of the podcast Mikhail Madnani and host Pranay Parab band together to dispel these rumours and discuss what we actually want from Nintendo's mobile games. This episode begins with our complaints about region-locking and why Nintendo should adopt the same region-free strategies on Switch and mobile. Then we discuss the Nintendo games we have on mobile and share our thoughts on them. After this we look at the revenue split for these games and make a few guesses on what upcoming Nintendo games such as Mario Kart Tour could look like and how its monetisation model could compare against the monetisation model used by Fire Emblem Heroes. Then we look at the Nintendo Switch and its hardware weaknesses and talk about how Nintendo could fix these in the future. While at the moment Nintendo's hardware sales are very strong, we talk about how mobile games could supplement that income for years to come. Then we look at the games we want to see on mobile from Nintendo and we mention why we'd like to see these games coming there. Finally, we talk about the games we've been playing this week. This list includes on of the greatest role-playing games of all time, which some of us have discovered only recently. You can subscribe to Transition via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download this episode,or just listen to it by hitting the play button below. The music for this episode comes via Magnus Souleye Plsson's album PPPPPP, which is the soundtrack for the game, VVVVVV. | https://gadgets.ndtv.com/podcasts/features/will-nintendo-s-mobile-games-be-more-important-than-the-nintendo-switch-1975379 |
What should one see first in the New Year? | J S RAGHAVAN By Express News Service Thambiah calls on me whenever he feels like it. He is still living mentally in a rustic town where you simply walk into the other mans house. Even after his transplantation into the city, he walks in, without a phone call or an SMS. He was seated before me during the last week of 2018, all agog to unload what he wanted to, like a news channel editor eager to flash the breaking news runner. The dawn of a new year is not far away, he said. I was thinking what things one should look at, at the stroke of 12, when December will make way to January. There are long and varying lists. All singular and interesting. As a writer, you may be knowing them, but it is well worth recalling. Some of the animate and inanimate objects may not be readily available, or at hand, say a fox, chakravakam birds, barn owl, a king in his palace, dancing damsels, oceanto mention a few. Ladies bedecked in jewels is another, but where will you find one to appear before you when you open your eyes. Your wife may be enjoying sound sleep (that is, sleeping, making sounds), with her khazana in the confines of a banks locker. A vessel full of water is considered a good omen. A poorna kumbam, a small vessel adorned with inverted coconut and mango leaves is a sure-shot, but we are not VVIPS or mutt heads for a priest to appear with it chanting mantras. Thambiah, as is his wont, stood up to receive, as if it was a poorna kumbam, when what my wife gave him was only a tumbler of coffee, the fuel that fires his engine.He continued: Lotus flower, paddy field, mountain, cow with calf, mridangam, ones hands are a few others. But do you know the most handy things are your palms and the mirror. Can you guess? Maybe, I said, placing the tips of my fingers together, a reminder that ones destiny is in our own hands. And the reflection in the mirror would say, you and only you can shape your destiny; and nobody else, a king, bejeweled lady, fox and such.A visibly pleased Thambiah stood up, shook my hands and wished me Happy New Year! | http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/mindspace/2019/jan/09/what-should-one-see-first-in-the-new-year-1922432.html |
Who are Coronation Street's most famous fans? | 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 Imagine when you settle down to watch your favourite soap with a biscuit and a brew, a host of famous faces are also enjoying the drama from their sofas. Coronation Street, based on a street in inner-city Salford, has built up a fanbase of millions since it launched on December 9 1960. One of the most-watched programme on British television the soap, set in Weatherfield, is now a significant part of our culture. Fans all over the globe have tuned in to watch over the years including Morrissey, Will.i.am and American rapper Snoop Dogg who recorded a special message to mark Corrie's 50th anniversary - and David Bowie reportedly used to watch it during the intervals on tour. Here's the lowdown on some of Coronation Street's most famous fans, and some might surprise you. David Bowie (Image: Yui Mok/PA Wire) Last year the biography David Bowie: A Life by GQ editor Dylan Jones revealed that the icon used to watch episodes of Corrie on tour to retain his energy levels. And the Starman, who died on January 10 2016, timed the intervals of his shows so he could watch an entire episode. Writer Rory MacLean said Bowie, whose music has often been played on the Rovers Return jukebox, would sit down with a VHS and watch Coronation Street every night before getting back on stage after a 20 to 30 minute break. Morrissey (Image: PA) Mozza, from Davyhulme, is known for his fondness of Coronation Street. As a teenager he bagged a role as an extra on the 1975 drama The Stars Look Down, as a boy on a bicycle, after he visited the Corrie set. In his autobiography The Smiths frontman opened up about his love for Coronation Street and BBC rival EastEnders and revealed he was once offered a role in Albert Square as Dot Cottons son. As a youngster he wrote to Granada TV suggesting that he be employed as a script writer for the show, and was invited to submit a script. He said he whipped off a word-slingers delight wherein young take on old as a jukebox is tested in the Rovers Return. But sadly it wasn't to be. Snoop Dogg The US hip hop star previously revealed he is a fan of the soap and wanted a cameo part. The Drop It Like It's Hot star reportedly told fans during a visit to Manchester, ahead of a concert at the Apollo in 2010, that he had asked his agent to negotiate him a role. But a spokeswoman for Granada said it was hard to see how Snoop, real name Calvin Broadus, would fit into Weatherfield. The 47-year-old Californian, who visited Ordsall Community Centre where he helped young volunteers to give their youth club a makeover, recorded a video message to mark the show's 50th birthday. It was revealed that Snoop's dream part on the cobbles would be playing a love interest to the late Deirdre Barlow. And he was ready for a backlash from her husband Ken who he described as a gangster. George Michael (Image: Chris Radburn/PA Wire) The late singing superstar enjoyed a private tour of the former Coronation Street set at the old Granada Studios in 2006 - and was excited to watch one of the soaps most iconic moments unfold. The Freedom singer watched Tracy Barlow murder her boyfriend Charlie Stubbs with a statue, and actress Kate Ford, who plays scheming florist Tracy, recalled how nervous she felt acting out the iconic scenes. Kate said: #georgemichael came to set,watched me film, was so nervous I couldnt remember any lines! After we chatted, and he was seriously lovely. RIP Alison Sinclair, Corries senior publicity manager, told the Manchester Evening News after George died on Christmas Day 2016: I had the pleasure of showing him round with my late brother Gavin who was assistant producer at the time. He was a massive fan and had asked if he could pop along whilst he was in Manchester. A few years later he invited us all along to his gig at the arena and to drinks afterwards. One of my most treasured memories. He was a lovely man, so sad. She added: He was very knowledgeable about the show. And had time for everyone. Corrie unknowingly paid tribute to the pop icon in the Christmas Day special just hours before it was announced that he had died with a choir singing Last Christmas, one of Georges biggest hits with the 80s duo Wham, at the start of the episode. Will.i.am (Image: ITV) In 2017 The Voice coach Will.i.am propped up the bar at the Rovers Return before kicking back with a beer while filming his music video on the Corrie set at Trafford Wharf. The Weatherfield boozer was the unlikely setting for his song Fiyah, which was inspired by his time on the ITV1 singing contest The Voice. Black Eyed Peas star Will.i.am previously visited Weatherfield with his fellow coaches during the filming of the Battle Rounds at MediaCityUK, a stones throw from the Corrie set. He told soap legend Beverley Callard, who plays Liz McDonald, that would like to film a pop video there when he toured the set - and he stayed true to his word. Shaun Ryder (Image: PA) Happy Mondays singer Shaun Ryder also wanted a guest role in Corrie, and the idea was applauded by Kym Marsh who plays Michelle Connor. Kym even suggested the role that Shaun could play - Underworld factory boss Carla Connor's brother. In 2014 Shaun starred in a Christmas special of the Channel Four show Come Dine With Me with Rosie Webster actress Helen Flanagan, hosting "a Madchester Christmas with melons on the menu." Back in 2009 Shaun made a cameo appearance in the gritty Manchester drama Shameless walking his dog. Join our Coronation Street Fan Chat group on Facebook where youll also get updates, spoilers and more. | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/who-coronation-streets-most-famous-15645293 |
Whats Better Than One Mysterious Cosmic Signal? | They began to search the sky, with focused attention and more powerful tools. And, to their relief, astronomers have now found that, no, FRB 121102 is not the lone example of this intriguing phenomenon. Read: A spree of signals from across the universe A Canadian-led team announced Wednesday the discovery of a second repeating FRB. A newly built radio telescope in British Columbia detected six flashes from the same spot in the sky last summer. This FRB, named 180814, appears to originate about 1.5 billion light-years away from Earth, half the distance of the other repeating burst. The same team has also detected 12 more one-off FRBs, which brings the total number of known flashes to 65. The research, described in a pair of papers in Nature, will provide more clues to one of astronomys greatest mysteries. The two repeating signals have more in common than just their flashy nature. When FRBs arrive at Earth, many appear smeared across a range of frequencies, a sign of their long and bumpy journeys through cosmic material across the universe. This includes FRBs 121102 and 180814. But even though the bursts came from two very different locations, and carved out two very different paths to Earth, their radio waves showed similar distortion patterns. This particular finding stunned astronomers at a recent conference, where the researchers teased their discovery with a little trick. They put up images of these bursts, and everyone was like, Okay, that looks familiar, and then the person showing it said, Actually, youve never seen this before, because theyre from a new repeating FRB, said Shami Chatterjee, an astrophysicist at Cornell who studies FRBs and was not involved in the new research. It looks shockingly similar. The similarities suggest the two repeaters may have originated in the same kind of environment. Its possible that repeating bursts are just one of many classes of FRBs, some yet to be discovered. But with so little information, researchers are far from any definitive conclusions. We dont know what it means yet, said Ingrid Stairs, an astrophysicist at the University of British Columbia and a member of the research team. This is our second repeater. I think we need to have a much better sample. When the first FRB was discovered in 2007, some astronomers thought the flashes could be errant noise from telescope instruments. The bursts just didnt seem real. These things are billions of light-years away, said Jason Hessels, an astronomer at the University of Amsterdam and ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, who studies FRBs. Its absolutely remarkable that they can still be bright enough to detect on Earth. The complicated twisting observed in FRBs suggests they come from extreme environments with strong magnetic fields and high temperatures. Astronomers know of several astrophysical objects that could provide these radio-wave-bending conditions: Supermassive black holes, which can belch streams of radiation in space when they eat matter. Neutron stars, the fast-spinning cores of stars, leftover from spectacular explosions. Magnetars, a certain kind of neutron star, which spin even faster. | https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/01/fast-radio-burst-repeating/579865/?utm_source=feed |
Why FM Arun Jaitley is right on Aadhaars use for all subsidies? | The good news, Jaitley said, was that around 99% of the countrys adult population had been linked to Aadhaar and over 63.5 crore bank accounts were linked to various bank accounts of beneficiaries. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is absolutely right when, in a blog post, he wrote about how Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer (DBT) had increasedfrom Rs 7,400 crore in FY14 before the NDA came to power to over Rs 205,000 crore so far in FY19and that this had resulted in over Rs 90,000 crore of savings in the last few years with the elimination of either duplicate or non-existent beneficiaries. While Jaitley quotes the World Banks Digital Dividend Report to say that India can save up to Rs 77,000 crore each year through the use of Aadhaar, the number looks very low if you apply the 50%-theft rule of thumb to the Rs 3 lakh crore or so that the Central government alone spends on subsidies each year. The good news, Jaitley said, was that around 99% of the countrys adult population had been linked to Aadhaar and over 63.5 crore bank accounts were linked to various bank accounts of beneficiaries. Nearly 23 crore PAHAL and Ujjwala beneficiaries get LPG subsidies in their bank accounts, 10 crore MNGNREGA beneficiaries get paid the same way, 58 crore ration card holders are linked, etc. Also read| India set to become third-largest consumer market, says WEF; these factors to drive consumption growth With this impressive performance, it is now time to take it to the next level, to eliminate all physical subsidies and replace them with DBT and, quite soon, even a quasi universal basic income (UBI) for groups like farmers. Right now, around 30% of total DBT payments comprise of what are called in kind benefits. This includes around Rs 30,000 crore for fertiliser subsidy and Rs 13,000 crore for food. Such a classification helps bump up the DBT numbers but is not strictly correct. These payments are not cash payments in peoples bank accounts, they represent giving subsidy the old way via ration shops and other such means, but the buyers are Aadhaar-authenticated. What is required, however, is to give the subsidy in cash and then let the sellers charge the market price, as is done for LPG. Once the market price is charged, the advantage of this is that it helps both consumers as well as suppliers. Suppliers no longer have to wait for months to get paid their subsidy from the government and, with the subsidies in their hands, consumers now have the choice of using the product judiciously. In the case of urea which farmers use too much ofthis damages their farms as well as the environmentonce farmers get the subsidy in their bank accounts, they will buy just the amount they need; indeed, if they get a fixed subsidy, they will even be encouraged to use less urea. In the case of food subsidy, once consumers get the roughly Rs 20-25 per kg difference between the market and ration-shop prices, they will probably move to consuming other foods as wellthey will get paid for 5 kg per month of rice/wheat. More important, once this is done, and there is no need to feed the ration shops, the government can slowly limit Food Corporation of Indias (FCI) operations that, apart from distorting the market, also add tens of thousands of crores to the annual food subsidy budget due to either inefficiency or corruption. This will set the stage for the final step in this journey, a quasi universal basic income for farmers to substitute for all subsidiesfertiliser, water, electricity, etcas well as to give them income support. While Telanganas Rhythu Bandhu is seen as the first such scheme, way back in 2015, the Shanta Kumar committee set up by the government had made this recommendation; while prime minister Modi ignored it then, with Aadhaar as well-entrenched as described by Jaitley, the time is ripe to implement this recommendation. | https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/why-fm-arun-jaitley-is-right-on-aadhaars-use-for-all-subsidies/1438979/ |
Who benefits most from Packers hiring coach Matt LaFleur? | Tennessee Titans offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur emerged from an expansive coaching search to land the head coaching job of the Green Bay Packers. The 39-year-old coach has never been a head coach and only called plays for one season in Tennessee, but his experience as a quarterback, experience working with quarterbacks and his knowledge of offense built over years of with alongside bright offensive minds such as Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay won over Packers president Mark Murphy and GM Brian Gutekunst. Here are a few names to consider: RB Aaron Jones LaFleur built the Titans offense around the running game in 2018, relying heavily on Derrick Henry and Dion Lewis especially after Marcus Mariota suffered a nerve injury in his throwing arm early in the year. LaFleurs willingness to lean on the run game is great news for Jones, a dynamic playmaker who led the NFL in yards per carry last season but wasnt always featured within the gameplan. Expect LaFleur to design his offense in a way that maximizes Jones ability in the run game, both as a slasher in the wide-zone scheme and as a way to increase efficiency throwing the football via the action passing game. Also, expect more pass-catching chances for the running backs next season. A greater opportunity in the passing game could transform Jones into a legitimate Pro Bowl candidate in 2019. QB Aaron Rodgers LaFleur is the new coach in Green Bay because the Packers have confidence in his ability to coach the quarterback position. A former college quarterback, LaFleur has spent much of his NFL coaching career working with veteran quarterbacks. Expect LaFleur to prioritize his relationship with Rodgers, working closely with the two-time MVP to build an offense that will make life easier on the 35-year-old passer. If offenses run by former coaching buddies Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay are any indication, LaFleur will use modern route combinations and a reliance on motion and playaction to free up receivers and create easy throwing opportunities for the quarterback. The Packers offense became increasingly tedious in the final years of Mike McCarthys run. Too often, plays asked receivers to get open on static, isolation routes, and when they didnt, it fell on Rodgers to create something out of nothing. This responsibility created bad habits. LaFleurs offense could fix those issues. A modern scheme capable of rejuvenating Rodgers could create fireworks for the Packers. WR Davante Adams An examination of how the Titans used top receiver Corey Davis last season should excite Adams, who is coming off a career year in 2018. LaFleurs offense moved Davis all around the formation, using pre-snap motion, bunched sets and opportunities from the slot to create favorable matchups for the Titans top receiver. Aaron Rodgers publicly campaigned for the gameplan to include more opportunities with Adams as the No. 1 target this past season. LaFleurs offense should have no problem feeding the two-time Pro Bowler. DC Mike Pettine Pettine wanted to return for his second season, and it appears Pettine returning as the defensive coordinator was important to the Packers, too. LaFleur will keep Pettine on, allowing him to run the defense and build on the foundation he laid in 2018. The Packers defense faded late last season, but Pettines group was ravaged by injuries and lacked a legitimate edge rush. Getting healthy and adding a few more pieces could make it a formidable group. Also, Pettines experience as a head coach should be valuable for LaFleur, who will be finding his way as a first-time head coach in 2019. | https://packerswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/09/matt-lafleur-packers-coach-aaron-rodgers-aaron-jones/ |
Should biopics like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Green Book' be accurate? | Unlike documentaries, narrative features based on true-life stories tend to occupy this nebulous middle ground between fiction and nonfiction, where facts and timelines become collapsed or murky. Side characters or entire moments are created out of whole cloth for the sake of story expediency. For me, good biopics are shaped around facts rather than fudges. As a journalist, thats something I think about all the time when I approach my own work: That its not only possible but vital to tell true stories in interesting and compelling ways, inconvenient details and all. The rules are arent the same when it comes to telling a cohesive story on screen, requiring different skills and nuanced decisions. Film is and should be an artistic expression. I want filmmakers to have the space to be creative and stray from the record to underscore certain ideas or themes. I just dont want to feel lied to by a movie. Golden Globe winners Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book have both been criticized for this and I think with good reason. I wont list all the discrepancies here; you can find numerous stories online that go into detail. But lets talk about key elements from each film that depart from reality. In the case of Bohemian Rhapsody, which is about the band Queen and its charismatic frontman Freddie Mercury (Rami Malek), one aspect is the timing of Mercurys HIV diagnosis. 20th Century Fox From left, Gwilym Lee, Rami Malek and Joe Mazzello in a scene from "Bohemian Rhapsody." Malek won the Golden Globe award for his role in the film. From left, Gwilym Lee, Rami Malek and Joe Mazzello in a scene from "Bohemian Rhapsody." Malek won the Golden Globe award for his role in the film. (20th Century Fox) Writing about movies for a living means thinking about what kinds of stories they tell, so I rang up some of my colleagues to get their take. Heres Kevin Fallon, the senior entertainment reporter for The Daily Beast: I understand when youre distilling a persons life into a two-hour movie, theres going to be the need to play with things a little bit in order to have a narrative chug along, he said. But what this movie does is falsify things in a way to manipulate an audience into a reaction and I find that gross. Bohemian Rhapsody moves up Mercurys diagnosis by two years to 1985, which means the moment lands with an added intensity to make it seem like it was the impetus for that performance of his career at Live Aid, is how Fallon put it. They changed the facts for purely dramatic reasons to manipulate an emotional reaction from the audience but that just wasnt what happened. I think that its a very crass thing to do to Freddie Mercurys legacy and the AIDS movement, honestly. That matters. Even if you think the movie is a good time and you love Maleks performance. Universal PIctures Viggo Mortensen, left, and Mahershala Ali in a scene from "Green Book." Viggo Mortensen, left, and Mahershala Ali in a scene from "Green Book." (Universal PIctures) Green Book may feature lesser-known subjects at its center but it is also based on a true story. It follows the odd coupling of the elegant black pianist Dr. Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) and the white meathead of a driver Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) that he hires as both chauffeur and bodyguard for a concert tour across the South in the early 1960s. Over the course of their two months on the road together, the brilliant but uptight Don Shirley learns to loosen up a little and connect with his blackness, while the uncouth Tony Lip learns not to be such a racist. And a lifelong friendship ensues. The film was co-written by Peter Farrelly (who also directs), Brian Hayes Currie and Tony Lips son Nick Vallelonga, and their source material was drawn from the letters Tony wrote home during the tour, as well as tapes of Vallelonga talking with his father about the old days. Though the film has been marketed as the true and definitive version of how these two men processed issues of race and racism in America, its filtered only through the prism of the Vallelonga family memories. (All three of the screenwriters are white.) And many of us in the media have helped to solidify the movies marketing. Heres Time magazine, for example: According to Vallelonga, everything depicted in the film Green Book happened in real life. The members of Shirleys family feel otherwise and in a story reported by Shadow and Act have called the movies portrayal a symphony of lies. (They were not consulted with for the film.) Heres one criticism that stands out: Whatever impression Tony Lip or his son may have had about the mens dynamic, Don Shirley himself did not consider his driver a close friend. That doesnt mean Shirley wasnt perhaps friendly with his employee. But being friendly is altogether different than a deep and abiding personal friendship and it undercuts the storys message. This is a movie with a moral to its story and that moral is apparently false (not to mention reductive). The critic Candice Frederick reviewed the movie for SlashFilm and this is what she had to say about biopics and accuracy: Its definitely a case-by-case basis. And Green Book is a very specific case. When youre taking artistic license which I dont condemn you have to make sure that youre not simultaneously disparaging the character. And I think thats whats happening with Green Book. Universal Pictures Mahershala Ali won the Golden Globe award for his role in "Green Book." Mahershala Ali won the Golden Globe award for his role in "Green Book." (Universal Pictures) The films portrayal of Don Shirley isnt a well-rounded depiction of a person, period. Hes so distant from his humanity, his so distant from his blackness, hes so distant from people that he becomes this alien character who is reflected through the eyes of a white person. Even without knowing anything about Don Shirleys life, I was like, this cant be it didnt seem plausible that this was all there was to him. | https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-should-biopics-be-accurate-0110-story.html |
Can Yaman kimdir? Ka yandadr? | HRRYET KURUMSAL Yl 1948. Gnlerden 1 Mays... Rotatifler, Trk basn tarihine damgasn vuracak Hrriyet iin dnyor ve Trkiyeyeni bir gazeteye uyanyor. 1 Mays 1948de okuyucusuyla buluan Hrriyet, ilk gnden bu yana "Tarafsz ve kaynandan doru haber" ilkesinden dn vermeksizin yayn yaamn srdrmekte, sektrnn nc ve rnek gazetesi konumunu daha da teye gtrerek kresel bir medya markas olma iddiasyla gelecee uzanmaktadr. O gnden bugne, ilk gnk heyecan yitirmeden, "her sabah yeni bir gn balar ve rotatifler dner" anlayyla kurumsallaan Hrriyet, bugn Trkiyenin en ok okunan gazetelerinden biri ve ok sesli bir toplumun aynasdr. Birkitle gazetesi olarak, Trkiyenin en cra kesindeki kahvehanelerden, ev kadnlarnn mutfana dek geni bir okur kitlesiyle bulumakta, basl gazetesiyle her gn 1,4 milyon kiiye ulamaktadr. Kreselleen dnya, deien gazetecilik anlay erevesinde her platformda okurlar ve paydalaryla iletiim halinde olmay ilke edinenHrriyet basl gazetenin yan sra web-cep- tabletden de gnde milyonlarca kiiye erimekte, 68.ylnda gnlkortalama 3.3 milyon ziyaretiye ulamaktadr. | http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/kelebek/magazin/can-yaman-kimdir-kac-yasindadir-41078362 |
Can Next-Gen Web Advocacy Bring Washington To Heel? | Founded in 2014, one company is trying to address these questions. Countable, a play on the word 'accountability' and 'the act of being counted', has created a public-access platform through which people can follow what their elected officials are doing on Capitol Hill, and provide instant feedback in the form of 'votes,' that it tallies and sends directly to the accounts of subscribers' representatives in Washington. Countables stated mission is to break open the lawmaking process" to the average citizen, while giving individual citizens, advocacy groups, candidates for political office and companies the means to galvanize their members and employees in support of issues of importance to them. Starbucks has used Countable to manage a portion of its internal corporate responsibility efforts. These are significant innovations, given that until recently (and possibly since the first U.S. Congress met on March 4, 1789 in New York's Federal Hall) only the most persistent or cranky of voters would bother to contact their elected officials with an opinion -- for this required writing a letter and putting a stamp on it. Lawmakers typically have an Intern on staff, whose job it is to respond to 'constituent mail' with palliative form letters. Rarely was such information useful to the representatives in determining what mattered to their constituents. Called by GQ magazine the Tinder of Pending Legislation (as truly odd as that juxtaposition may be) Countables interface is built around short, visually-enhanced descriptions of bills introduced by the House or Senate -- and charts their progress towards becoming law. These are listed in Hollywood Squares fashion, surrounding captions that summarize the proposition, like Do you support banning anyone under 21 from buying an assault rifle? "Do you support term limits on members of Congress?" If one clicks on any of the 'squares', one gets information on related bills proposed or voted on, and background on the bigger issue. The content is moderated by Countable itself for accuracy, bias and relevance. "Take action" buttons pepper the content, allowing one to register one's views, or provide direct comment. I met Countable's CEO and founder Bart Myers in an unassuming cafe in downtown Oakland in late December, 2018 just as President Trump initiated a government shutdown to try to force funding of his anti-immigrant Wall with Mexico -- and the pages of Countable documented the legislative counter-punch. At first glance, Myers seems like he'd be more comfortable in the Pacific Northwest than the Bay Area tech scene (turns out, he's from Seattle). He takes his coffee black, and describes himself as a centrist. In the early 2000s, Myers founded a company that was bought by TiVo the early direct recording technology that allowed viewers to tape shows when they were away, and zap advertisements from their cable or public TV feed. In keeping with Myers background as a senior executive with TiVo, there are no visible advertisements on Countable. Advertisements particularly targeted ads, he says, are a big part of the problem. They are deployed to create an echo chamber, feeding people ideas and products that conform to what they already believe. Countable makes its money for now by selling advocacy tools (enterprise software) though the back end with tools that enable individuals, pundits and companies to create advocacy campaign around issues relevant to them and their employees or followers. Myers emphasizes what he calls the omni-partisan nature of the platform: "Countable doesnt care what party you belong to. We believe the majority of people want to be leveled with, and to feel as though they are part of society, not at the fringes; to believe their opinions count whatever they are." This begs the question of how one determines what views are 'acceptable' -- a challenge that has caught many of the Internet establishment off-guard, as hate speech spilled through filters, private information went who-knows-where, and probes into the 2016 U.S. election revealed that foreign agents used social media to change motivate or influence votes, via fake news targeted to those deemed most susceptible to it. Myers frequently speaks of Countable with reference to two obvious for-profit social media giants (hint: they have ticker symbols like FB and TWTR) . "These companies," he says, "claim to give members the ability to create vast communities -- But they then take that power away on the back end, by charging for access to sections of that community, and allowing third parties to pay to insert new members and messages into your community. "There are no hidden players on Countable," Myers insists. "All the information on Countable is reviewed by editorial committees, which make judgement calls based on principles of fair play. In practice that means, for example, no hate speech or discrimination, respect for human rights, and respectful dialogue. Facts." Myers sees Countable's success relying on its ability to build followings around specific issues, and inform users of the basic facts driving them not alternate facts. In a way, Countables approach is a frontal assault on a problem that a number of non-profits have tried to tackle through electronic petitions. MoveOn.org, has so far the most successful, internet-based, non-profit public advocacy group, followed by Change.org. Both lobby influential politicians and corporate leaders to change their positions on a given issue, or to take a specific action in support of it. MoveOn.org has become a fixture in the advocacy community, claiming to have had a hand in ending the Iraq war and passing healthcare reform. Its website says the organization is the pillar of resistance to Trump. MoveOn has taken flack for what many see as its decidedly left-wing bias and relentless member pitches for donations. Skeptics say Countable (presumably no more than MoveOn or Change.org) offers a band-aid on a gushing wound that Americas institutions are broken, and monied interests so deep that any web-based site or app can only hope to scratch the surface. The American system of government been described as the best of imperfect options," Myers says. "One has to start somewhere, and evolve. Regardless, one would have to be an optimist to start a venture which trades not in consumables but in civic responsibility, and doesn't have the obvious revenue proposition of an Uber. Myers speaks about bringing rationality and facts back to the American politics -- but not in a flag waving way. This is exciting stuff, he says in a voice that sounds pumped up, than prepared for the next bump. "Were out to play our part to bring Democracy and factual debates back to America." In a sign of Countable's early success or Washington's dysfunction, or both, scores of US Representatives (and Senators) are apparently using Countable as a crib sheet prior to their votes. "There are hundreds of Congressional email accounts registered with us, and we get direct feedback from lawmakers themselves," Myers says. "The current system, in which the need to fundraise for the next election dominates lawmakers' schedules, provides little time to keep on top of everything.' If countable can inform America's lawmakers, it should be able to inform the general public as well. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/ethanchorin/2019/01/09/can-next-gen-web-advocacy-bring-washington-to-heel/ |
Did IBM Just Break Blockchain? | Crypto winter, which has produced a massive market correction on bitcoin and other cryptocurrency prices, may now extend the big chill on blockchain as well. Beyond the rather convenient management consulting dismissals that blockchain hype has slipped into the valley of disillusionment, the worlds most resilient technology may face its first serious technological challenge with IBMs announcement of commercially ready quantum computing. While blockchain and distributed ledger technologies come in many shapes and sizes, proponents of the bitcoin blockchain and other public ledgers have long advocated for the property of resilience by design. Some going as far as claiming that the bitcoin blockchain is unhackable by todays technological standards, due in no small measure to the distributed, encrypted and consensus-driven mechanisms that require broad agreement among many systems to ledger a transaction. This hardened posture of blockchain has up until now and by todays technological standards proven to be very resilient indeed. One study claimed that to hack the bitcoin blockchain was as likely as winning the Powerball lottery 9 times consecutively. Those odds, which no betting person would wager on, have just received a considerable challenge with the advent commercially viable quantum competing as IBM introduces the first generation of the IBM Q System One the q standing for qubit, which is the basic unit of quantum information. The claims that true blockchains are unhackable or the more accurate designation hack resistant negates the reality that complex systems fail in complex ways. This much is true especially when you countenance an evolving cyber risk landscape that is propelled by Moores law, as much as the miniaturization and commercialization of quantum computing is now a market reality and several years ahead of schedule at that. The answer is a cautious no, at least for now. Any would-be exploit of true blockchains or a large-scale crypto heist exploiting quantum computing, despite IBMs announcement, can only be carried out by a nation state actor or a very determined enterprise with deep pockets and a lot of physical space. The 9 by 9 tower encasing IBMs quantum computer hearkens to the mainframes of the early days of computing, which filled entire rooms. But as a first foray into the democratization of quantum computing, IBM has made a considerable first move. This first version will of course continue to evolve apace with technological advancements and market adoption, which will then imply further miniaturization and, hence, proliferation of the computing power necessary to fall into nefarious hands. When this occurs, which may be as soon as 2020, true blockchain projects and large crypto nest eggs in the hands of even the most cyber mature digital asset custodians may face a hitherto unimaginable peril. Just as 51% attacks where once considered improbable, the prospect of quantum computing power being arrayed against blockchain and the valuable treasures and truths they hold have now entered the realm of possibility, albeit remote. Blockchain technology, like cloud computing or that other foundational technology the internet before it, is very much in its infancy, despite bitcoins tenth anniversary. Serious players, including IBM and other technology majors, are also evolving with blockchain and, critically, their management understanding of the underlying technology and how it can impact core functions of their business and the economy overall. To this end, blockchains evolution, efficiency and security are also not constants, but evolving at the rate of technology innovation as well. One crucial item to remember about blockchain, like all other technologies in the digital transformation toolbox, is that it is not to be used in isolation or as a constant, no matter how permanent data may be on its records. Like the migration to cloud computing, which is a largely uninsured and risk-prone option, blockchain and advanced technologies are infinitely better and safer than many of the legacy, honey pot systems and databases used today. These very legacy systems are easily broken by low-cost high-impact social engineering, phishing and targeted whaling scams, cyber extortion and comparatively unsophisticated ransomware attacks that do not require millions spent on quantum computing. So, despite IBMs impressive foray into leveling the quantum computing playing field, blockchain advocates and digital change leaders need not worry for now. They likely face greater risk from project selection and execution in educating their board rooms than from technological vulnerabilities. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/dantedisparte/2019/01/09/did-ibm-just-break-blockchain/ |
Could crypto-currency change how we pay? | Although we feel we know cash intimately, let's take a deeper look at some of its attributes. First of all, it's represented by a physical object: either a banknote or a coin. If you buy something, you hand over that physical thing to the seller. It leaves your possession and enters theirs. Your net cash worth is reduced by the amount of cash you've handed over. Second, it's relatively hard to clone your cash. It would be nice if you could just photocopy banknotes - well, at least it would be until everyone started doing it and the global economy crashed a few seconds later - or you could stamp coins more cheaply than you could buy them, but there are various protections to make sure that this is inefficient and costly. Banknotes are printed on a specific type of paper that is hard to get (in the US, the paper is cotton-based and will even survive a trip through the washing machine - something we're loath to try with a British 5 note) and the design is created to be extremely difficult to copy or to photocopy. Large denomination coins are designed to be hard to stamp out on simple machines - they have text on the milled edges, they are made from two types of contrasting coloured metal, and so on. Small denomination coins just aren't worth copying: the cost and the work needed will outweigh the benefit of the counterfeit value. A corollary of that is that cash can only come from those who are authorised to create it: in essence, the government. It's a government department, the Royal Mint, that is charged with replacing British cash that's destroyed (say, banknotes that go through the washing machine or coins that get worn and lose their non-clonable features), and with printing or minting more cash to add to the supply. Third, it's anonymous. There need be no record of cash changing hands, and the only people who would know about a transaction would be the seller and the buyer. As soon as some other representation of money comes into play, say a cheque or a credit card, records are kept of the transaction. Banks would have to be involved to transfer this amount of money from the buyer's account to the seller's. The transaction would become 'known'. Going digital If we were to design a digital currency, then we would have to replicate these three key features of cash: the ability to transfer it unambiguously from buyer to seller even though it's not a physical object, the inability to clone it (and to limit its creation to those authorised to create it), and its anonymity. Of these, you'd think the biggest issue would be the cloning problem. We are all aware of how easy it is to duplicate or copy digital objects, from Word documents to MP3s to movies. Even if the digital entity were protected with some kind of DRM, it doesn't take long for someone to work out how to circumvent it. For example, it's how we play DVDs we purchased from England (region 2) in the US on a region 1 player. However, notice what we elided there. The digital entities we were talking about have content; we are interested in these objects for what they contain, not for what they are. An Excel spreadsheet is not interesting as an XLS file you can pass around, it's interesting because it's a file that contains data and calculations - information we may not currently have. An MP3 file is only interesting because it's a recording of a track we like and want. But a digital coin is not like that. It has no 'content' - it is a digital object that is interesting because of what it is. And guess what - we already know about digital objects that are fully protected and that are interesting for what they are: digital signatures. Digital signatures Digital signatures are easy for the signer to create and for everyone else to verify, but they are also extremely hard to fake. Knowing this, if we see a digital signature, we know that it can only have come from the signer and no one else. So if we write an email to you for example, and sign it digitally, you know that it can only have come from us and therefore that we have written it. The content of the email could be plaintext or encrypted. It doesn't matter; it's the signature that provides proof of authenticity. Digital signatures are created through the magic of asymmetric ciphers or public-key cryptography, like RSA. Asymmetric ciphers have two passwords, a private one that only you know and a public one that can be published so everyone else can know it. Data encrypted with the private key can only be decrypted with the public one (and vice versa). To create a digital signature of a file (or a message), you hash the contents of the file with a cryptographic hash algorithm like SHA-256 and then encrypt that hash with your private key. The result is your digital signature for the file. Someone can verify this signature for the file by hashing the file with the same algorithm and checking that this hash is equal to the hash obtained by decrypting the signature with your public key. If they are equal then the file has not been changed and you signed it; if not, either the file has been changed or you didn't create the signature. Using this technology, we can start thinking about how to implement digital coins. Let's suppose we had a central 'bank' dishing out numbers, such as the numbers on banknotes (these are unique - each banknote has its own number). The bank hashes the number and signs it with its private key, creating a digital signature for the number. We'll call the combination of the unique number plus its signature a digital coin. We would have digital coins, yes, and only the bank could create them, but we would still have the cloning problem: we could copy these digital coins all day. Unfortunately, although we can verify that a digital coin is valid, we have no way of determining whether this coin is original or cloned. | https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/computing/pc/could-crypto-currency-change-how-we-pay-1051973 |
When And How Will Our Sun Eventually Die? | originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. Answer by Viktor T. Toth, IT pro, part-time physicist, on Quora: The sun will not stop shining for a very, very long time. The Sun, along with the solar system, is approximately 4.5 billion years old. That is about one third the age of the entire Universe. For the next several billion years, the Sun is going to get brighter. Perhaps paradoxically, this will eventually result in a loss of carbon dioxide in the Earths atmosphere, which is not good news; it will eventually lead to the death of plant life. By 2.53 billion years from now, the surface temperature of the Earth will exceed the boiling point of water everywhere. The process continues; by about 45 billion years from now, the Earth will be in worse shape than Venus today, with most of the water gone, and the planets surface partially molten. Eventually, the Sun will evolve into a red giant star, large enough to engulf the Earth. Its luminosity will be several thousand times its luminosity at present. Finally, with all its usable nuclear fuel exhausted and its outer layers ejected into space, the Suns core settles down into the final stage of its evolution as a white dwarf. Such a star no longer produces energy through nuclear fusion, but it contains tremendous amounts of stored heat, in a very small volume (most of the mass of the Sun will be confined to a volume not much larger than the Earth). As such, it will cool very, very slowly. It will take many more billions of years for it to cool from an initial temperature of hundreds of thousands of degrees to its present-day temperature and below. But in the end, the remnant of the Sun will slowly fade from sight, becoming a brown dwarf: a cooling, dead remnant of a star. This question originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions: | https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2019/01/09/when-and-how-will-our-sun-eventually-die/ |
Do Employers Really Want 'Gritty' Workers Who May Be More Inclined To Blow The Whistle? | Pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth, author of New York Times Bestseller, Grit, The Power of Passion and Perseverance, compelling presents her hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius but a unique combination of passion and long-term perseverance she calls grit. Im a firm believer that grit is the single most important quality to nurture in our youth. Absent surplus grit, I would never have enjoyed the success Ive had over the past 35 years investigating and blowing the whistle on corporate wrongdoing. However, celebrating the pinnacle of grit without addressing the dark side of the mountain is foolhardy. Workers with abundant passion and perseverance may, rightly or wrongly, be perceived by corporate employers as more difficult to manage or control. I question whether corporate employers, including high achievers such as J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon, whom Ms. Duckworth interviewed for her book, really seek and eagerly hire gritty workers. Until the day integrity in corporate affairs is required, Americas corporations may be well-advised to stay clear of the principled and persistent. A personal story may illustrate my point. Decades ago, I received an offer to serve as Legal Counsel and Director of Compliance to a major money manager which was contingent upon passing a 12-hour personal interview with the corporate psychologist. (All senior managers were so required and regularly shared with one another their surreal, twisted, somewhat humorous experiences with the company shrink.) My interview took place in an extravagant suite in a luxury hotel from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. with lunch and dinner, including drinks, served in the suite. The methodology employed consisted of intermittent relatively light-weight psychological/personality testing and lists of questions to be answered and subsequently discussed. Some of the questions were seemingly repetitive, only worded slightly different each time. For example, I was asked questions like: Whats the worst thing that ever happened to you? What was the most difficult time in your life? What was the greatest challenge you ever had to overcome? In my case, the answer to all of the above questions was the disappearance and brutal murder of my father by Idi Amin in Uganda, East Africa when I was barely 17 years old. In responding to the shrinks questioning, I related the circumstances surrounding my fathers disappearance and his involvement with American intelligence; the trauma of being orphaned and penniless at a young age due to the inability to legally probate his estate (without his body); the successful lawsuit against the Ugandan government which funded my undergraduate and legal education; and my accomplishments working at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regulating the money management industry. In short, I related my personal story of persistence in overcoming extreme adversity to achieve some measure of justice, as well as early success in the business world. Grit. I thought I had done well in the psychological interview but toward the end, after the shrink had had a couple of vodkas, he blew the back of my head off with a zinger. He said, I think you enjoy talking about your fathers murder because it makes you seem more interesting. Wow. Regrouping, I sarcastically (thinly masking my anger) responded, So you think I had my father murdered to amuse you? Somehow, I passed the interview, got the job, was quickly given a substantial raise and promoted. Initially, all went swimmingly. A few years later, I blew the whistle on longstanding wrongdoing at the company. If the company wanted an unimpeachable watchdog to enforce compliance with the federal securities laws, then, I submit, clearly I had the right stuff. However, based upon my personal story, the company could have reasonably concluded I was a bad fit for a corporate culture that, at a minimum, tolerated lawlessness. The company could have predicted that, if I encountered wrongdoing in my work, I would report it to regulators. I believe that individuals who demonstrate great grit are probably more likely to diligently adhere to their own values and fight for them. As much as I hate to say it that probably makes these individuals more likely, in my opinion, to blow the whistle on corporate wrongdoing they encounter. A strong moral compass makes it more difficult to follow the corporate herd. In my career I have met and represented dozens of other whistleblowers, some of whom have been West Point and Ivy League graduates, seasoned multi-billion dollar portfolio managers, and other high achievers of the sort interviewed by Ms. Duckworth in her book. Other whistleblowers were perhaps less impressively credentialed or accomplished, diligently working in the trenches. For example, Chris Tobe, a former trustee of the Kentucky pension system who blew the whistle to the SEC about placement agent abuses at the pension. All of the successful whistleblowers I have encountered possessed passion and perseverance in the face of overwhelming organizational resistance. In a word, grit. So, like Duckworth, I believe we should celebrate and teach grit. But lets be realistic and warn that passionate and persistent people do not always receive the praise and rewards they deservein fact, they often are rejected and fail. And thats precisely why they need to passionate and persistent until they achieve success as they define it. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/edwardsiedle/2019/01/09/do-employers-really-want-gritty-workers-who-may-be-more-inclined-to-blow-the-whistle/ |
How Do We Define "Big Data" And Just What Counts As A "Big Data" Analysis? | I used to open my data science talks back in 2013 by saying I had just run several hundred analyses the previous day over a 100-petabyte database totaling more than 30 trillion rows, with more than 200 indicators incorporated into the analysis. When I would ask the audience whether this counted as a big data analysis, there was typically unanimous assent. However, when I noted that what I had done was run a bunch of Google searches and that every day people all over the world were running billions of identical analyses over Googles 100 petabyte index, suddenly the audience usually changed its mind and argued this was clearly not a big data analysis, it was merely search. Indeed, it seems hardly satisfying to argue that a 10-year-old running a Google search should count as a bleeding edge big data analyst. With just over a trillion tweets sent in its history as of Spring 2018 and growing at a rate of around 350 million tweets a day at the time spanning text, images, audio and video, Twitter would seem a nearly textbook example of the traditional three Vs of volume, velocity and variety of big data. The problem is that the overwhelming majority of all Twitter analyses look at just a microscopic subset of the full trillion tweet archive. Take a researcher who uses a keyword search to identify all tweets since Twitters founding that contained a certain keyword and comes up with a dataset of 100,000 tweets. If the actual analysis involves performing sentiment mining on the matching tweets, then at the end of the day the actual analysis itself is only being performed on 100,000 tweets. All of the resulting findings, patterns and results represent not the contents of a trillion tweets, but rather just 100,000 tweets. Moreover, many commercial social media analysis platforms that offer advanced tools like sentiment mining or topical tagging, apply their algorithms only to a random sample of the total results, sometimes as low as 1,000 randomly selected tweets out of the total search results. In 2013 Facebooks internal enterprise data warehouse held more than 250PB of data. Yet, according to the company just 320TB of that data was queried per day. In short, while Facebook held an impressive 250 petabytes of data at the time, just one tenth of one percent of that data was actually queried each day. The rest was merely archived at rest. In Facebooks case in 2013, having a 250PB warehouse was quite impressive and still is even by 2019 standards. From the standpoint of the size of the underlying dataset, Facebooks analyses are clearly big data if data size alone is our metric. Examining 320TB is still quite impressive. However, divided by the 850 employees per day conducting those 320TB of queries, this works out to just an average of 376GB per day per user, which, while still large, is far less notable. Saying your data mart runs hundreds of terabytes of queries per day may be impressive. Saying a small set of employees run a few hundred gigabytes of queries per day is not. Facebook is not alone in the fact that most analyses consider only a small fraction of the dataset they are examining. A month of the Twitter Decahose in 2012 contained 2.8TB of uncompressed JSON. Yet, most Twitter analyses are likely to focus only on the text of those tweets, which accounts for only 112.7GB, just 4% of the entire dataset. Indeed, this is one of the reasons production analytic platforms like Googles BigQuery utilize columnar storage formats. A massive neural network might take days to run on a multi-petaflop system and examine tens of petabytes of data but yield just a single go / no-go result. Does that still count as big data? Given that many "big data" analyses are designed to extract simple findings like timelines or "go / no-go" results from massive piles of input data, it would seem the size of the output data would be a less than satisfactory metric for assessing what precisely counts as a "big data" analysis. These feed into the larger question of big data management versus big data analysis. I once sat on an advisory board with a CIO of a Fortune 50 company that argued his company was at the bleeding edge of the big data revolution in its industry because it had petabytes of data. Yet, when I asked what accounted for all that data, he said it was all the backup images of its tens of thousands of desktop and laptop computers and that they almost never actually accessed the data. Maintaining an on-premises multi-petabyte storage infrastructure certainly can be a major endeavor and require specialized hardware and software engineering. At the same time, keeping a few petabytes in cold storage with just a handful of accesses per year involves very different engineering requirements than building a realtime analytic platform that can perform complex analyses over petabytes in minutes, thousands of times per day. Similarly, by 2013 CERN archived more than 100PB of data. However, only 13PB was stored on disk, with the remaining 88PB across eight robotic archival tape libraries. Does storing data on tape, where it must be staged back onto disk with extremely long latencies to actually use it, still count as big data? Again, the answer revolves around whether big data counts only analysis of large datasets or also the operational complexities of storing large datasets, whether or not they are actually accessed. By 2012 Facebook stored more than 100PB of photos and videos from its users in what amounted to a giant file server. Data on a file server is actually accessed, rather than sitting in cold storage, but somehow it doesnt seem satisfying to count a file server as big data analysis. Putting this into perspective, five years ago Google, Facebook and CERN all had 100PB datasets. Googles 100PB was used for keyword search. CERNs was majority cold stored on tape. Facebooks was on-disk but accessed as a fileserver. To put another way, if a Fortune 50 company builds an on-premise five petabyte tape backup system for its global desktop backup program, it at least can argue that it is managing a petascale storage fabric. On the other hand, if all those desktops simply upload their backup images directly to the public cloud, it is the cloud that is running the petascale storage fabric. Of course, this is the point of the commercial cloud, to outsource petascale storage and analytics to the companies that have pioneered it. In 2013 the Large Hadron Collider generated more than one petabyte of data per second, an immense volume even by 2019s standards. However, that data isnt actually stored. A specialized prefiltering process selected just 1/10,000th of that data stream, yielding just 100 gigabytes per second, which is still significant, but then that was reduced by a further 99% to just one gigabyte per second. From a petabyte per second of raw data down to just one gigabyte per second of actual data that was archived, only 25 petabytes per year was actually needed for long term storage. A company that instruments its vehicle fleet with GPS trackers could theoretically record the location of each vehicle millions of times per second and generate petabytes of data per day. In reality, GPS hardware simply doesnt update that fast and such high precision data would likely be of little use, so recording every few seconds or every minute might be a far more useful metric. Does data have to be stored in digital format for it to be considered big data? By 2012 Google had scanned and digitized more than 20 million books, producing an immense archive of scanned page imagery, OCRd text and search indexes. At the same time, the traditional academic library is more often associated in the public mind with dust and obsolescence than bleeding edge big data technology. In the end, there are no easy answers, but as we increasingly tout everything and anything as big data it is worth stepping back to ask what precisely we mean. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/01/09/how-do-we-define-big-data-and-just-what-counts-as-a-big-data-analysis/ |
Should Trump declare a state of emergency over the border wall? | President Donald Trump has wide latitude by Congress to declare states of emergency -- with terrorism, national security, and public health often cited as a rationale. The president, however, threatened to declare a state of emergency because the legislative branch is exerting its constitutionally provided powers against his expressed wishes. He's within his rights to declare an emergency and build a wall along the border. But others argue this is a dangerous misuse of presidential powers. PERSPECTIVES When a president declares a state of emergency, they are immediately provided 136 statutory powers. According to The Atlantic, these powers range from allowing "the secretary of transportation to requisition any privately owned vessel at sea" to "unilaterally suspend[ing] the law that bars government testing of biological and chemical agents on unwitting human subjects." The president claims the situation at the border is so dangerous that the need for a wall is immediate. With emergency powers, The New York Times identified two ways which could provide President Trump the power to use the military to begin construction on a border wall. The Trump administration could point to two laws and say they allow officials to proceed with building a border wall without first obtaining explicit authorization and appropriations from Congress, according to Elizabeth Goitein, who oversaw the Brennan Center's study and is a co-director of its Liberty and National Security Program. One of the laws permits the secretary of the Army to halt Army civil works projects during a presidentially declared emergency and instead direct troops and other resources to help construct "authorized civil works, military construction and civil defense projects that are essential to the national defense." Another law permits the secretary of defense, in an emergency, to begin military construction projects "not otherwise authorized by law that are necessary to support such use of the armed forces," using funds that Congress had appropriated for military construction purposes that have not yet been earmarked for specific projects. Congress gave the president such broad powers in good faith that they would be used in the best interest of the country during times of crisis. While there is little evidence to support the president's claims of terrorists flowing in through the border, there are very few ways to challenge the legitimacy of a declared state of emergency. [A]s a matter of legal procedure, facts may be irrelevant. Before a court could decide that Mr. Trump had cynically declared an emergency under false pretenses, the court would first have to decide that the law permits judges to substitute their own thinking for the president's in such a matter. The Justice Department would surely argue that courts should instead defer to the president's determination. "If any court would actually let itself review whether this is a national emergency, he would be in big trouble," Ms. Goitein said. "I think it would be an abuse of power to declare an emergency where none exists. The problem is that Congress has enabled that abuse of power by putting virtually no limits on the president's ability to declare an emergency." The Los Angeles Times reports Democratic lawmakers are already making it clear any attempt by the president to declare a state of emergency on the border would be met with swift legal action. Senate Minority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) on Sunday also warned of a legal challenge if Trump uses a national emergency declaration to pay for a wall. "I can just tell you, I don't know what he's basing this on, but he's faced so many lawsuits when he ignores the law and ignores tradition and precedent and just goes forward without any concern," Durbin said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "He'll face a challenge, I'm sure, if he oversteps what the law requires when it comes to his responsibility as commander in chief," Durbin added. Lengthy legal challenges on such a declaration would mean the president is merely delaying the government from actually dealing with the humanitarian crisis unfolding at the border. There are also concerns the erroneous declaration of a state of emergency could have a dramatic destabilizing effect on the government, coalescing power around the president to the detriment of other branches. Andrea Pitzer, the author of "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps," writes in The Washington Post that a declaration of emergency at the border would differ dramatically from other such declarations in the past. Two key differences make Trump's plan particularly risky. The first is that no actual emergency exists -- no equivalent to Pearl Harbor, 9/11 or even economic collapse. Instead, Trump threatens an emergency to punish another branch of the government for constitutionally exercising its authority. The second difference relates more directly to the president himself. U.S. courts have often left space for presidents to respond quickly to events threatening the country's stability, with the assumption that the executive branch is considering all the available intelligence and will have the most informed perspective, a premise that simply does not apply to Trump. Totalitarianism rises out of a process, not a single event. Declaring a state of exception in response to a political impasse would be a big step toward degrading an already vulnerable system. A fake emergency could trigger a real catastrophe -- one that a split Congress would be unlikely to resolve and that a Supreme Court sympathetic to an imperial presidency might even worsen. We have more than a century of precedents at home and abroad to demonstrate all the ways things could go wrong. Even those who support the construction of a border wall have not fallen in line behind the president's claims of an emergency. David French, a senior writer at the conservative National Review, writes: We should be vigilant about controlling access to our country. I believe that more border barriers are an important aspect of border security. But words mean things, and the idea that a border wall is so "essential to the national defense" that it "may require the use of the Armed Forces" to deal with a national emergency is to stretch the plain meaning of the statute past the breaking point. Critically, we cannot forget that in a time of peace, border security is a civilian function, and the penalties for unlawful crossing are matters for civilian law enforcement. Illegal entry is only a misdemeanor under federal law, and there are profound legal limits on the use of the armed forces in a law-enforcement capacity. The law, however, does allow the president to both declare an emergency and use the provided powers to their fullest extent. Many arguments against his ability to move troops to the border to begin construction of the wall hinge on the principle of "posse comitatus." Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, writes in The Atlantic: The principle that the military should not act as a domestic police force, known as "posse comitatus," has deep roots in the nation's history, and it is often mistaken for a constitutional rule. The Constitution, however, does not prohibit military participation in police activity. Nor does the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 outlaw such participation; it merely states that any authority to use the military for law-enforcement purposes must derive from the Constitution or from a statute. The Insurrection Act of 1807 provides the necessary authority. As amended over the years, it allows the president to deploy troops upon the request of a state's governor or legislature to help put down an insurrection within that state. It also allows the president to deploy troops unilaterally, either because he determines that rebellious activity has made it "impracticable" to enforce federal law through regular means, or because he deems it necessary to suppress "insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy" (terms not defined in the statute) that hinders the rights of a class of people or "impedes the course of justice." The Tylt is focused on debates and conversations around news, current events and pop culture. We provide our community with the opportunity to share their opinions and vote on topics that matter most to them. We actively engage the community and present meaningful data on the debates and conversations as they progress. The Tylt is a place where your opinion counts, literally. The Tylt is an Advance Local Media, LLC property. Join us on Twitter @TheTylt, on Instagram @TheTylt or on Facebook, we'd love to hear what you have to say. | https://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2019/01/should_trump_declare_a_state_of_emergency_over_the.html |
Is gang crime in Braintree town centre spiralling out of control? | Get Daily updates directly to your inbox Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email We're just nine days into 2019 and Braintree has been hit by a spate of serious crimes. From stabbings to assaults, the town centre has seen it all in little more than a week. Some residents are so concerned about crime in the area that they are considering moving elsewhere and refuse to let their children go out on their own or after dark. We've taken a look at the criminal activity which has rocked Braintree over the past few days. Saturday, January 5 Officers were patrolling in Braintree town centre on Saturday when they were called to an incident in Market Place at around 5.20pm. Police found a man suffering from serious stab wounds to his hand. He was taken to hospital for treatment to injuries that were described as life-changing. Footage of the incident was circulated online and some witnesses claimed that fighting had continued in the town centre over the subsequent two hours. Essex Police later confirmed that three people had been arrested on suspicion of affray. Sunday, January 7 Police were called to an address in Fairfield Road at around 10am to reports of a fight involving two men. The incident resulted in one man being airlifted to hospital. An Essex Police spokesman said shortly after the incident: "We attended and found a man with a head injury. He has been taken to hospital for treatment. "A 31-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of affray and assaulting an emergency worker and is currently in custody." A spokesman for the East of England Ambulance Service added: "An ambulance, a rapid response vehicle and Essex and Herts Air Ambulance were called to The Depot at Fairfield Road, Braintree this morning following reports that a man had been assaulted. "A patient with serious head injuries was transported to hospital by air Ambulance." Monday, January 8 Police were once again called to Braintree town centre after a man stole two knives from a butcher. Shortly before 12.53pm, a suspect entered Humphrey's Butchers in Bank Street and took blades from the shop. He then left the area and headed in the direction of Costa Coffee. The man has been described as being white and aged in his mid-20s. He is said to have been wearing a black hat, a black puffer jacket and blue jeans. Officers who carried out a search of the area have appealed for witnesses to come forward. Anyone with information is asked to call Braintree police station on 101 quoting the crime reference number 42/3926/19. What people in Braintree have said When asked for her thoughts on crime in the area, Michaela Hutcherson described it as "horrific". The 51-year-old, from Great Notley, said: "I won't let my 15-year-old daughter out on her own, if she goes out with a big group I won't let her out after 8.30pm, and in the summer as the evenings get lighter it is a little bit later. "When we moved to the area about 13 years ago we thought it would be a nice safe place to bring the kids up but now its like London, if not worse." 'Why there is so much anger and violence in society is beyond me' Roger Bearham, 67, from Cressing Road in Braintree, added: "Nothing surprises me anymore the violence, thefts and burglaries seem to be commonplace nowadays. "Nobody should be frightened to walk the streets- it's a terrible indictment for society today. "I am livid; local businesses are the ones that are hit the hardest when they are targetted. "It's ghastly, why there is so much anger and violence in society is beyond me. "Young people don't smile any more they walk along with a fierce face on, everyone just looks violent it was never like this when I was growing up. "The sad thing is we are all becoming numbed to it. "I haven't been in a fight since someone thumped me in high school when I was 14, but I do stand my ground and because of that I probably will get stabbed or mugged one day. "In my eyes it is the end of the world the day I feel too frightened to walk down my own high street- that is what is criminal in all of this." 'It isn't a very good start to the year' Maria Leech, 18, from Braintree, reflected that the recent spate of crimes does not reflect well on the town. She said: "I work in the town centre so when it's winter and it's starting to get dark early in the evening I do worry. "With the crime that has happened here over the last week it isn't a very good start to the year." According to 60-year-old Bernard Kelly, there is a lot of trouble with gangs in the area. 'I've seen fights and assaults and all sorts' Bernard has witnessed a number of crimes and believes this is why many people don't feel comfortable or safe going out at night. He has put a lot of the town's troubles down to gangs. Bernard explained: "Ten years ago when I first moved here there was hardly any trouble, but now there is always trouble in the town with gangs. "I've seen fights and assaults and all sorts in the evenings. "You'd be surprised, while there is trouble with gang violence a lot of the people getting into fights are actually middle aged people, and even women - it is not just young guys and gangs. "My children aren't allowed out on their own, when I pick up the paper I read a bout nothing but crime in the area." Gareth Woods also feels that matters have gotten worse in recent years. He has firsthand experience from his time as a bouncer and saw a rise in weapons in the town. The 49-year-old, from Braintree, said: "Braintree used to be a fairly quiet town but over the years it's got a lot lot worse. "I was a doorman for nearly 20 years so I saw first hand the way things were changing and pretty rapidly the increase of knives and even armed weapons. "I personally am not worried about going up town but it does worry me that youngsters are walking around and walking home on their own at night, they are putting themselves at risk of getting assaulted. "But the biggest concern is this is only going to get worse it will never get better and Braintree is slowly becoming a not very nice place to live. "We moan about our children not going out and socialising and being stuck indoors with there heads stuck in there mobiles or computer games but there scary truth is that whilst they're doing that at least they're not outside putting themselves at risk from attack. "So many parents are happy to let them stay home; years ago you could go out to the pub every night you could get blind drunk and not worry about the walk home but I'm afraid to say that's not the case today, it's sad times in this town but it's happening every where not just here." A victim's perspective Adam Gibbons, co-manager of Humphrey's Butchers, is one of the recent victims of crime. Yesterday (Tuesday, January 8), Adam was making himself some lunch at around 12.30pm when a man entered the shop, walked around the back of the counter and stole two knives. Adam explained: "Two guys came in the shop, one walked straight behind the counter, grabbed the knives and said, 'We're borrowing these' and then walked out. "I never thought this would happen, I thought it was just people messing about at first, but it was when the man handed the knives to the other man." Adam believes the theft was pre-meditated and suspects the weapons were taken to use knives used in another crime. He continued: "I was panicked, I have two young children and I put myself in a very dangerous position. "It was all over in about a minute or a minute-and-a-half." Adam was working alongside one other member of staff at the time and they called the police as soon as the men left. Adam added: "I actually told my other half we need to move out of Braintree because it's just not safe, but why should we move, it's our town not these criminals'." Since the incident Adam, who has worked at the butchers for four-and-a-half years, has moved where he keeps the knives. He explained: "We obviously need access to the knives so we have just moved them to a safer place, that's all we can really do. "They have two extremely sharp knives - the knives could end up inside someone if they are in they are in the wrong hands." The two blades that were stolen are a 12-inch steak knife and a six-inch boning knife, both of which have black acrylic handles. He added: "For the first time in nearly five years today I woke up and didn't want to come into work, I was exhausted and didn't get much sleep last night. "Crime in the area has got a lot worse, it seems to have gone from zero to 100, the police are so overstretched we all need to club together and help them. "Every time someone walks past we are looking to see if its them, I would definitely recognise them if I saw them again." This was the first incident of this kind at the butchers, according to Adam. | https://www.essexlive.news/news/essex-news/gang-crime-braintree-town-centre-2411220 |
Why did UK look so much better vs. Louisville than against SEC teams? | CLOSE Kentucky played very well against Louisville but has struggled to start SEC play. Dominique Yates, Louisville Courier Journal Buy Photo Dominique's Dimes pic 1-9 (Photo: Dominique Yates, Courier Journal)Buy Photo Kentucky collected its first SEC win of the season Tuesday after an 85-74 win over Texas A&M in Rupp Arena. But it was far from pretty to start the game. The Wildcats spotted the visiting Aggies 10 points to start the night before UK took control for an 11-point victory. After a road loss to Alabama on Saturday and then a sloppy start to the game with A&M, a visibly exhausted John Calipari said he thinks the players came together as a team out of fear of losing to North Carolina and Louisville but reverted after they won those games in impressive fashion. Im going with the fans. The prime example is, after the UNC win, Tyler Herro said when he first made it to Lexington, a fan told him, you can lose every game, just dont lose to Louisville. Obviously, the formula to beat Louisville has worked, as Kentucky has won eight of the last 10 meetings. Dealing with a young team is nothing new to Coach Cal, but the question will be is what they do moving forward in an SEC filled with the likes of Tennessee, Mississippi State, and Auburn. More Dominique's Dimes: Clemson and Alabama own college football. | https://www.courier-journal.com/story/sports/college/kentucky/2019/01/09/dominiques-dimes-kentucky-vs-louisville-pressure-sec-competition/2524435002/ |
Does troubled JCPenney need Sears to go away? | Investors seemed to be thinking that way Tuesday. Business and industry sectors Business, economy and trade Companies Department stores JCPenney Retail and wholesale trade Sears Holdings JCPenney (JCP) jumped 10% in morning trading as reports swirled that Sears was on the verge of going into bankruptcy court to begin the process of shutting down. But as the story about Sears changed so did the fortunes of JCPenney's battered stock. Just after 1 p.m. Tuesday, Sears announced an 11th-hour deal to keep the company alive at least for now. JCPenney shares plunged and the stock closed down 5% for the day. Despite the move to save Sears, the company's future is still very much in doubt. An auction of its assets could lead to a decision to start the process of closing down as soon as next week. Investors assume that JCPenney is well positioned to benefit if Sears stores are forced to close. And there's some justification to that thinking, because there's clear crossover between the shoppers of the two store chains. An analysis by Cowen and Co. found that 56% of Sears shoppers also shop at JCPenney, the highest overlap of any of the traditional department store chain. For example, the average age of a Sears shopper was nearly 50, according to Coresight. At Penney, it's just over 48. But not everyone thinks Penney will rise if Sears falls. "I think it's helpful for Penney if Sears goes away. I don't think it's going to really solve JC Penney's problems," said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. "I don't think it's a game changer. Penney needs to do more to attract shoppers on its own. It's a very telling story if your path of success relies on someone else's failure. If Sears does die, the spoils of that are going to be widely distributed." Sears has already closed hundreds of stores in recent years. But Penney hasn't been helped by those closures: Its sales have been flat-to-lower in recent years. "If Penney were really going to benefit from Sears' departure, we would have seen it already," he said. Saunders said. Penney reported another 3.5% drop in holiday season sales after the market closed Tuesday, which was actually not as bad as feared. The company also announced it would close three stores, and that it would have positive cash flow for the full fiscal year that ends this month. So shares jumped 9% -- or about 11 cents -- in midday trading Wednesday. But Penney's decline in sales came as overall holiday sales rose 5.1%, according to an estimate from Mastercard. And despite the positive cash flow, Penney is expected to post another net loss for the year. So the company is facing trouble no matter what happens to its longtime rival Sears. | https://www.kq2.com/content/national/504115162.html?ref=162 |
Has Lake Michigan ever completely frozen over? | Craig Navarro Dear Craig, Its come close, but checking records maintained by the National Weather Service and Environment Canada dating to 1900, the greatest ice coverage recorded on Lake Michigan is 90 to 95 percent, logged in the harsh winters of 1903-04, 1976-77, 1978-79 and 2013-14. Records indicate that lakes Superior, Huron and Erie have totally frozen over, but not Michigan and Ontario. Ice development on the Great Lakes usually begins in late December or January and reaches maximum extent by the end of February or early March. In extreme cold, ice will bank up solidly along the Lake Michigan shore areas, making it possible to travel around the lake entirely on ice, though open areas remain in the middle of the lake. | https://wgntv.com/2017/01/25/has-lake-michigan-ever-completely-frozen-over/ |
What happens to Amazon now that its largest shareholder may have to split his fortune? | Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. By Erik Sherman Few announce their divorce on social media. But then, Amazon founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos isn't most people. The world's richest man tweeted Wednesday that after a "long period of loving exploration and trial separation," he and his wife, MacKenzie, would split. Also, unlike other people, Bezos' divorce may impact one of the world's most valuable publicly trading companies. Bezos's wealth is largely based on his shares of Amazon stock. And since Washington State, where the couple has lived, has community property divorce laws, that could give MacKenzie Bezos a claim on half of Jeff Bezos' fortune, as they married one year before he started the company. That raises questions of what impact the divorce might have on the company and its leadership. A 2013 Stanford study, "Separation Anxiety: The Impact of CEO Divorce on Shareholders," noted that there are three different ways in which the end of a chief executive's marriage can have an effect on a company. One concerns the productivity and concentration of the CEO. The emotional impact and distractions from the practical issues that come up in a divorce proceeding can affect how well a chief executive can manage a company. Although not routinely, CEOs, even at prestigious companies, will resign in under two years. A second issue is the perception of risk. Companies typically grow by undertaking strategies that come with a degree of inherent risk, like acquiring another business or introducing new product lines. A CEO during and after a divorce will have concerns about personal wealth that can be greatly reduced. The executive might become too risk adverse to protect existing wealth in corporate stock or, on the contrary, chase after too much risk in a hope to "win back" what was lost. The third issue is control. A CEO with a large ownership stake and Bezos is the Amazon's single-largest shareholder, with 16.3 percent of the stock might be forced to sell shares to satisfy a divorce settlement. That would reduce the executive's control over the company and possibly cause a drop in share value because of the large amount sold. Investors don't seem too worried, at least for the moment. Amazon shares were up slightly on Wednesday a few hours after Bezos released the information. That may be due to the way Bezos phrased his message, stressing the continued good relations and sense of partnership between him and his wife. Knowing what will happen is impossible. West Palm Beach divorce attorney Jeffrey Fisher told CNBC that valuing the stock could be contentious. "There would be an argument by the attorneys that the Amazon stake is not worth as much without Bezos in control, so that would affect any settlement," Fisher said. On the contrary, MacKenzie Bezos might, instead, opt for a settlement that didn't require a sale of shares and the corresponding dilution of control and value. But, knowing the future is impossible. Particularly when $137 billion is on the line. | https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/what-happens-amazon-now-its-largest-shareholder-may-have-split-n956771 |
Can Macrons great national debate calm yellow vest protesters? | Published on 09.01.2019 at 19h54 by AFP Emmanuel Macron swept away Frances traditional parties in 2017 with a grassroots campaign that promised more participative democracy. He is hoping the same tactics will now defuse the biggest crisis of his presidency. The centrist leader is gearing up what he has termed the great national debate, a public consultation to discuss the essential questions facing the nation after nearly two months of violent so-called yellow vest protests. The debate is the third prong of the 41-year-olds strategy for ending the demonstrations, which erupted over high fuel taxes but ballooned into a widely supported revolt over living standards.65+ Macron has already opened the states purse strings, scrapping fuel tax hikes as part of a 10-billion-euro ($11.5-billion) package of wage boosts and tax relief for low earners. At the same time, the government has vowed to crack down on the Saturday protests in Paris and other cities since November, with their now-routine scenes of burning cars, smashed up shops and clashes with police. The great national debate, which will see town-hall meetings held around the country, is Macrons attempt to satisfy yellow vest demands for a greater say in the running of the country, amid accusations that he is too high-handed and distant. We believe in this debate, we think its essential, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday. We think that in the current period for our country, we need to be extremely open to having a productive debate, while also being very firm on the functioning of our institutions, he added. Popular frustration Macrons office is trying to corral the discussions into four overarching themes: taxes; Frances transition to a low-carbon economy; democracy and citizenship; and government organisation and public services. But political scientists warn such consultations can easily be swayed by a small, motivated number of citizens, bringing results that arent at all representative of the majority of the French, according to Luc Rouban, an academic at the Cevipof political science institute in Paris. Some MPs in Macrons own party also fear the consultations will spur a cascade of extravagant or nebulous demands, or calls for an outright repeal of existing laws. And in Frances right-wing Republicans party, many have painful memories of a debate about national identity organised in 2009 under their former leader Nicolas Sarkozy which led to more divisions. Ending same-sex marriages, which were approved by the Socialist government in 2013 in the face of massive protests, is at the top of the list of demands made on a website which is compiling the grievances of yellow vest protesters. Another is overturning the lower 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit imposed on secondary roads last year, which furious rural drivers have assailed as symbolic of elite Parisians disregard for the provinces. The government has ruled out any backtrack on existing laws, prompting some yellow vest protesters to deride the debates as a smokescreen aimed at smothering the movement. The debates, to run from January 15 to March 15, are already off to a less-than-auspicious start after the head of Frances national debates commission, Chantal Jouanno, withdrew her participation amid outrage over her 14,666-euro ($16,800) monthly salary. Mayors are supposed to be organising the public meetings, and local officials will receive documentation kits with economic and statistical talking points to avoid endless shouting matches. Macron will also publish a personal letter next week to households spelling out his goals for the debates before participating in one of the first, at a gymnasium in Bourgtheroulde in northwest France. The stakes are high as the president prepares to push through reforms of the retirement and unemployment systems, and streamline public services while cutting thousands of civil servant jobs. Many ministers in the government, particularly right-wing Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, are pushing to use the crisis as an opportunity to slash taxes and public spending. Frances public sector is one of the biggest in the world relative to the size of its economy, but successive governments have struggled to contain spending despite promises to do so. A lingering standoff with the yellow vests would make it nearly impossible to make headway on other reforms, analysts say. Macron is also trying to rally support for a centrist pro-Europe alliance ahead of European Parliament elections in May, at a time when populist movements appear to have the wind in their sails. Macron has everything to fear from this exercise, the rightwing Figaro daily wrote in a front-page editorial on Wednesday. In trying to bring fresh air into our democracy, it could quickly degenerate into a free-for-all, it said. | https://www.journalducameroun.com/en/can-macrons-great-national-debate-calm-yellow-vest-protesters/ |
What Is an ETF? | Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have taken the investing world by storm, and investors have piled into them to take advantage of the opportunities that they provide. All told, investors have put about $3.5 trillion into ETFs as of October 2018 according to the Investment Company Institute's statistics, and hundreds of different ETFs are available for purchase. The popularity of ETFs owes itself to their unique characteristics and features. We'll go into great detail below about what ETFs are and why they're useful for investors, but above all, ETFs have opened the door to a wide variety of investments to which many investors had never before been able to gain access. With their efficiency, diversification, simplicity, and broad focus, ETFs have benefits that no other investment vehicle can match. Exchange-traded funds are baskets of different types of investments that are pooled together into a single entity, which then offers shares to investors that are subsequently traded on major stock exchanges. Each share of an ETF gives its owner a proportional stake in the total assets of the exchange-traded fund. ETFs generally track various benchmarks, with each fund investing with the objective of matching the returns of the benchmark that the fund has chosen. There are a few ETFs that have portfolio managers that actively select their own investments, but because of the disclosure rules that require such funds to tell investors about their holdings on a daily basis, most managers who want to manage money using active management strategies choose vehicles other than ETFs. Image source: Getty Images. Most ETFs are considered to be registered investment companies for tax purposes. That means that they rarely pay any corporate taxes at the fund level, but any taxable income that they bring in is required to be passed through to their shareholders. For instance, ETF investors who focus on funds that invest in dividend-paying stocks are entitled to receive their proportional share of the dividend income that the ETF generates from its investment portfolio. Funds typically accumulate dividends over short periods of time and then distribute the total at regular intervals, such as quarterly or annually. One unique aspect of ETFs is how shares get created and redeemed. Rather than working directly with shareholders, most ETFs use special market makers to facilitate trade. These market makers can create new ETF shares by purchasing the underlying stocks or other investments held by the fund and delivering them to the ETF company, which in turn issues shares that the market maker can sell. Conversely, the market maker can deliver a large block of ETF shares to the fund company and get the corresponding investment securities back in kind. This structure ensures that the market for ETFs remains efficient, and it also contributes to some of the tax advantages you'll learn about in more detail below. The advantages of ETFs have contributed to their nearly ubiquitous use in the financial markets. The biggest benefit to investors of ETFs is that you don't need to have a lot of money to invest in exchange-traded fund shares, and each share gives you exposure to a well-diversified portfolio of investments. Most ETF shares trade for $100 or less, but even one share will give you a small fractional interest in dozens or even hundreds of different companies. By contrast, if those with limited money to invest instead decide to buy shares of just one or two individual stocks, then they risk losing everything if something bad happens to those particular companies. Of course, they also have the opportunity to see dramatic returns if those individual companies do particularly well, which is less likely with a well-diversified ETF. Nevertheless, most investors are more comfortable with the steady profit potential that exchange-traded funds offer. Besides their ease of access, you can find ETFs that cover almost the entire range of available investment assets in the financial markets. Stock ETFs are by far the most common, but you can also find funds that target other asset classes. Bond ETFs, commodity ETFs, foreign exchange ETFs, and hybrid ETFs that mix and match multiple types of assets are readily available if you want exposure. In addition, the way that ETFs target those asset classes differs. Some ETFs aim to give you the broadest possible swath of investments in a given asset class, seeking to offer an entire market in a single fund. Other ETFs drill down on particular subsectors of an asset class, letting you benefit from trends that favor one industry or type of company over rivals or companies in completely different areas of the market. Given that there are so many ETFs on the market, the odds of finding one that matches up with your particular desires for investing are better than you might think. For budget-conscious investors, ETFs also offer a fairly cost-effective way to invest. Most ETFs don't charge extremely high management fees, because the responsibilities that the fund manager has are limited to doing whatever's necessary to track the performance of the index that the ETF has chosen as its benchmark. That saves ETFs the cost of paying investment professionals to pick certain investments over others in the hopes of outperforming the market. When you compare the typical fees that ETFs charge to those of similar options for diversified exposure to a particular asset class, you'll often find that the ETF offers the lowest-cost option available. The only thing to keep in mind on this final point is that there are some costs that are unique to ETFs. Because ETF shares trade on exchanges, you'll usually have to pay a commission to your brokerage company in order to make purchases and sales of given ETFs. Yet in part because of their popularity, many ETF providers that also have affiliated brokerage companies allow their own brokerage customers to buy and sell ETF shares at no commission. That gives both the ETFs and the brokerage division a competitive advantage over their rivals. Yet even if you do end up paying a commission, the rise of discount brokers has made it a lot less painful to bear that cost than it was in the distant past. Many investors who are just getting acquainted with ETFs already have some experience with mutual funds. That makes sense because the mutual fund market is older and quite a bit larger than the ETF market. Even with the rise of ETFs, mutual fund assets dwarf them, with more than $18.4 trillion in assets as of October 2018. However, the mutual fund market has grown less than 1% over the past year, compared to nearly 7% growth for ETF assets, so ETFs are closing the gap. Mutual funds have a lot of similarities to ETFs. They're pools of investments that match up with a given investment objective, and investors can buy shares of mutual funds in small dollar amounts to get access to a diversified portfolio of investment holdings. Index mutual funds track specific benchmarks just like most ETFs do, but there are more actively managed mutual funds than there are actively managed ETFs. Mutual funds are also treated as regulated investment companies in determining income tax liability, and you can find a wide variety of mutual funds that cover asset classes including stocks, bonds, and cash as well as certain other types of investments. Like ETFs, mutual funds pass their costs through to their investors, and the expenses for index mutual funds are fairly similar to what an ETF investor would pay. Yet that's where some of the similarities end, because actively managed mutual funds are in a completely different league in terms of cost. Typical actively managed mutual funds charge roughly 1% of investors' assets every year. That compares to less than a tenth that much for a wide swath of ETFs, as well as index mutual funds. The drain on your investment returns that the fees for active management represents is one of the biggest contributors to the relative growth of the ETF industry compared to mutual funds. One key difference between mutual funds and ETFs is when you can trade shares. For mutual funds, you're only able to buy and sell fund shares as of the close of regular trading on weekdays. Even if you enter an order first thing in the morning, nothing happens until the end of the trading day. That can create huge lags that in turn can cause you to get a much different price for your mutual fund shares than you had initially expected at the time you entered your purchase or sale order. By contrast, because you can trade ETFs any time the market's open, you're able to react quickly to news that moves the market. Sometimes, that can mean capitalizing on a favorable opportunity that might well have disappeared by the time the market closes. Also, mutual funds have some negative tax attributes that most ETFs are able to avoid. Especially for mutual funds that are actively managed, when the fund sells shares of its holdings at a profit, it has to distribute the resulting capital gains tax liability to its shareholders. These distributions typically happen at year-end, and if you hold your mutual fund shares in a regular taxable account, then you can end up having to pay substantial amounts of capital gains tax as a result. This is true even if you automatically reinvest the distribution into additional fund shares. The IRS won't hesitate to tax those mutual fund capital gains distributions -- even if you never touch the cash. As you'll see in more detail below, ETFs are able to avoid some of these tax pitfalls, allowing investors to keep more of their hard-earned money. Less well-known than mutual funds or ETFs are closed-end funds. This relatively small $270 billion market mixes some attributes of mutual funds and ETFs. Closed-end funds are structurally similar to mutual funds, and they've been around a lot longer than ETFs. However, closed-end fund shares trade on stock exchanges, giving you the same advantages of immediate trading access that ETFs provide. The big difference between ETFs and closed-end funds is in the number of total shares outstanding. Exchange-traded funds have mechanisms whereby certain market participants have the ability to create or redeem large blocks of ETF shares with the financial institution that manages the ETF. As a result, when there's high demand for ETF shares, these market participants can go to the ETF manager and make a block purchase of shares that it can then turn around and sell to individual investors on the exchange. By contrast, with closed-end funds, there are only a fixed number of fund shares available at any given time. The company that manages the closed-end fund does not have the ability to issue new shares at will. Instead, any subsequent offerings of shares have to be handled in the same way that a publicly traded company issues new stock in secondary offerings, with registration and regulatory requirements. Because closed-end fund companies rarely choose to do that, supply and demand considerations among investors seeking out a fund play a huge role in the price of closed-end shares. If everyone's interested in a particular fund, then those shares might well trade at a premium above what the proportional value of the fund's underlying assets would suggest is the appropriate number. If a particular fund falls out of favor, then the shares can trade much more cheaply than the value of the assets held within the fund. Because fund investors can't demand that the fund turn over its underlying investments, these premiums or discounts can persist for years. Closed-end funds have mostly fallen out of favor, because they tend to be actively managed and have fees that are even higher than their traditional mutual fund counterparts, let alone typical ETFs. Nevertheless, there are some areas of the financial markets in which closed-end funds continue to prosper. ETF investors can usually get a better deal by seeking out exchange-traded funds with similar investment objectives. As mentioned above, ETFs typically pass through the tax attributes of the income their investments generate. If an ETF holds stocks whose dividends qualify for favorable tax treatment, then shareholders will get the benefits of that treatment. Similarly, holders of ETFs that invest in tax-free bonds don't have to pay income tax on the interest payments they receive from the ETF. ETFs have some key tax advantages over mutual funds. ETFs and mutual funds are both required to pass through any tax liability to their shareholders on an annual basis, but mutual funds tend to make trades in their investment portfolios more frequently than ETFs. That results in greater capital gains tax liability that gets passed through to mutual fund shareholders year after year. Conversely, ETF investors are largely able to avoid having to pay taxes related to capital gains during the period as long as they hold on to their ETF shares. ETFs are broken into various categories: Stock ETFs focus on owning individual stocks. Bond ETFs primarily own bonds. Commodities ETFs put their money into various commodity-linked investments. By far, the majority of assets in ETFs are invested in stock funds, with less than 20% going into bonds, commodities, and hybrid-style ETFs. There are further subdivisions in these categories. For stock funds, nearly three times as much money is invested in U.S.-focused stock ETFs than in international or global stock ETFs. Out of almost $2.1 trillion in money dedicated to U.S. stock funds, about $1.7 trillion is in broad-based ETFs that seek to cover wide swaths of the entire stock market. By comparison, only about $375 billion is invested in more focused ETFs that drill down on specific sectors or industry groups within the market. Most stock ETFs weight their holdings by the market capitalization of the companies they hold, so a fund's position in a stock with a market cap of $10 billion would be twice that of another stock with a $5 billion market cap. However, there are notable exceptions to this rule, with some using equal-weight strategies while others use different fundamental business metrics like earnings or dividends to decide how much of each stock to own. In addition to these categories, there are some other kinds of ETFs you should be familiar with: Leveraged ETFs offer returns that are some multiple of the return of the underlying index. For instance, one popular leveraged ETF is set up to generate daily returns that are equal to twice the return of the S&P 500 index. If the S&P climbs 1% in a day, then the ETF should rise 2%. If the index falls 1%, then the ETF will lose 2%. Inverse ETFs are set up to move in the opposite direction of the underlying index. For instance, an inverse S&P 500 fund would rise 1% if the S&P fell 1% on that day, but the ETF would lose 1% if the S&P rose 1%. Inverse ETFs can also be leveraged to produce some multiple of the inverse of the daily return of the index. There are also some exchange-traded products that aren't funds at all. Some financial companies structure products as debt, with exchange-traded notes being available on major stock exchanges just like ETFs. ETNs share a lot in common with ETFs, but one key distinction to understand is that ETNs represent debt obligations of the company that sponsors them. There's therefore credit risk involved, and unlike how most ETFs work, an ETN doesn't actually have to hold any assets related to the index that it tracks. 4 simple tips to find the right ETF for you With hundreds of different offerings to choose from, there's no perfect set of ETFs that's right for everyone. However, in order to come up with a customized list of ETFs that fit your own particular investment strategy, you'll want to consider following this four-part plan: First, decide how much of your money you want to allocate very broadly across asset classes. For instance, investors seeking a balanced investing approach with a slight bias toward faster growth might decide to put 60% of their money into stock ETFs and 40% into bond ETFs. More conservative investors would likely put less money into stocks, while those seeking more aggressive growth could reduce their bond ETF allocations. Second, figure out whether you're comfortable with broad exposure to the entire stock or bond market, or if you'd prefer to have a more discerning approach to investment selection. It's easy to find broad exposure through ETFs that track some of the most popular stock and bond market indexes in the market, such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Picking individual sectors or industry groups gets a lot more customized, but you can generally find ETFs that will get the job done. Third, unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise, eliminate any ETF that charges more than 0.10% in expenses. It might seem overly miserly to insist on this step, but once you build up a sizable nest egg, even small percentages going to expenses add up to a lot of money. Having $1 million invested in an ETF can save you a boatload of money compared to the $10,000 per year that a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio would charge -- but even 0.10% means $1,000 going out of your hands into the pockets of your ETF provider each and every year. As you'll see below, there are some circumstances in which it's impossible to find a good ETF with that low an expense ratio that covers the specific area you're interested in, but even then, finding the lowest-cost provider available is a valuable exercise. Last, once you've identified low-cost ETFs that match up with the investment objectives you think will do best over the long run, see if you can score any deals that will reduce your fees even further. If you like ETFs from a particular family of funds, see if there's a way to get access to those funds without paying commissions. Especially if you want to make regular additions to your investment account, finding a commission-free option can save you thousands over the course of your lifetime. Obviously, where you end up going through these steps will be a lot different from what another investor might choose. But neither of you is wrong. As long as you're comfortable that the ETF you've selected will give you exposure to investments you think will do well, then following the simple four-step process above should give you good candidates. To help give you a sense of which ETFs are most likely to fit with these criteria, you'll find four solid choices below. ETF Assets Under Management Expense Ratio 5-Year Total Return SPDR S&P 500 (NYSEMKT: SPY) $240 billion 0.09% 52% Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets (NYSEMKT: VWO) $56.1 billion 0.14% 12% iShares Core MSCI EAFE (NYSEMKT: IEFA) $52.8 billion 0.08% 8% Vanguard Total Bond Market (NASDAQ: BND) $36.6 billion 0.05% 13% Data source: Fund companies. Each of these ETFs covers a different part of the investing universe. The SPDR S&P 500 was the first major exchange-traded fund available to investors. It aims to match the return of the S&P 500 Index by owning all 500 of the U.S. companies that are its components. By contrast, the Vanguard and iShares ETFs listed above focus on international stocks, with the Vanguard fund looking at emerging market economies while the iShares fund owns shares of companies based in established developed-market economies. Note that the emerging markets ETF has an expense ratio above the 0.10% threshold mentioned earlier -- that's because investing in these small international markets is more expensive than making similar investments in the U.S., but rest assured that the Vanguard ETF's expenses are among the lowest available in this category of ETFs. Finally, the Vanguard bond ETF owns a broad swath of fixed-income securities. These include Treasury bonds, debt issued by various government entities, and corporate bonds representing company borrowings. Don't let their returns trick you: despite being a tough time for international stocks and the bond market, these funds have held up well compared to their peers. Take a closer look at ETFs ETFs are a great way to invest for the long run, and their combination of long-term growth and low costs can make them a valuable tool in anyone's investing strategy. Going through the universe of ETFs can seem like a daunting task, but, in reality, there are dozens of great ETFs that can all help you reach your financial goals successfully. More From The Motley Fool Dan Caplinger owns shares of iShares Core MSCI EAFE ETF and Vanguard International Equity Index Funds. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. | https://news.yahoo.com/etf-184600298.html |
Is Ontarios once-secret pot warehouse just too small? | Ontarios cannabis warehouse is almost exactly the same size as B.C.s, despite having to serve three times the population, Global News has learned. All recreational cannabis legally sold in the province must move in and out of the facility, which is located in an industrial park in Oakville. The government-owned Ontario Cannabis Retail Corporation has tried to keep the facilitys location secret. However, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union published its address in press releases in late December and also this week. OPSEU says it identified the facility through surveillance conducted by private investigators the union had hired, as well as through visits made by union organizers. Global News has confirmed the facilitys location independently through our own visits to the site. (OPSEU takes the position that people working at the distribution centre ought to be union members under a deal between the Liquor Control Board of Ontario and its union in 2017.) The OCRC, which operates the customer-facing Ontario Cannabis Store, has said nothing at all about the Oakville distribution facility other than to acknowledge that it exists. WATCH: Security breach at Ontario Cannabis Store exposes customer data BC Cannabis Stores, by contrast, has been open about the location of its distribution centre, which is on No. 6 Road in Richmond. The company has revealed the number of people who work there (130) and recruits for employees openly. It has also been open about the facilitys size: 70,000 square feet almost exactly the same size as Ontarios warehouse. B.C. and Ontario have quite similar systems for selling recreational marijuana, except that Ontario has no physical stores and B.C. has a handful. Ontario will open just 25 cannabis stores selected by lottery in April 2019. A few weeks before legalization, a pedestrian walks past B.C.s cannabis warehouse in Richmond. (AP) Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis would not tell us the size of its equivalent facility. Ontario had perhaps the roughest launch of any province in the period immediately after legalization. Over 1,000 customers complained to the provinces ombudsman about delays and poor communication, and in a national poll in late November, Ontario cannabis buyers said they were much more dissatisfied with delivery times than buyers in any other province. I would say Ontario sh*t the bed the worst, Aurora CEO Terry Booth told a cannabis conference in Nevada in November, the Financial Post reported. READ MORE: Ontario marijuana buyers are Canadas grumpiest: Ipsos poll The OCS has been truly amazed by the volume of sales, wrote president Patrick Ford a few days after legalization. Its way beyond what we anticipated. (In B.C., 90 per cent of cannabis buyers told pollsters they were happy with delivery times, as opposed to 60 per cent in Ontario.) WATCH: Ontario government releases the rules surrounding the cannabis retail lottery system Later in the year, Ontario delivery times shortened and product selection improved. The unofficial OCS Reddit board, which was at first devoted to the monopolys various failings, has now turned mostly to crowdsourcing product reviews. A look at Ontarios cannabis distribution centre suggests another explanation for the backlogs: the warehouse, through which all legal pot sold in Ontario must move, may simply have been too small. The warehouses size turns out to be one of many aspects of legalization in Ontario that the provincial government refuses to discuss. Ontarios finance ministry referred the question to the OCRC, and spokesperson Daffyd Roderick emailed a generic response, saying: Location and details of the OCS distribution centre are undisclosed for security reasons and will not be publicly announced or confirmed. WATCH: Ontario says it has backup plan for cannabis deliveries amid potential Canada Post strike A later access-to-information request showed that the OCRCs refusal to discuss whether the warehouse was big enough is connected to the fact that the agency has tried to keep its address secret (though not very successfully). We are not confirming the location of the distribution facility so we did not delve into (this reporters) assumptions regarding the facilitys capacity, Roderick wrote in an internal email. Ontarios finance ministry would not answer questions about whether it planned to open more warehouses, whether it planned to move to a bigger one or whether the existing one would be able to meet demand in April. When we look at the size of our province and the demand, we should be looking at perhaps expanding warehouse operations, opening more stores, not fewer, as this government is planning to do, said deputy opposition leader Sara Singh. It makes sense as to why were seeing such a botched rollout, frankly. Its unfathomable that it would be sufficient. The president of Domain Logistics, the third-party logistics company that OPSEU has identified as running the warehouse, did not respond to multiple interview requests. In October, Domain Logistics published two ads at Hamiltons Mohawk College seeking people to do warehouse-related work at the facility. A municipal development newsletter published by the Town of Oakville last summer said Domain Logistics had leased the warehouse in the second quarter of 2018, which would have been in the last months of Ontarios Liberal government. Disability law compliance forms on the companys site also connect it to the warehouses address. The government has refused to say who is running the warehouse or explain how they got the contract. READ MORE: Contracting out Ontarios pot warehouse should be secret, LCBO argued Ontarios 25 stores set to open in April work out to one retail store for every 567,000 people. By contrast, Nova Scotia started legalization with one store per 74,000 people, New Brunswick with one store per 37,000 people, and Newfoundland and Labradors 24 stores each serve just 22,000 people. Bricks-and-mortar stores in many provinces have had to close because of supply shortages. WATCH: Names of Ontario Cannabis Store marijuana products raise concern We are very concerned about the supply issue so in order to make sure that we dont have issues in Ontario, we are going to open our retail stores in phases, provincial Finance Minister Vic Fedeli told Global News at the time. Charles Sousa, finance minister at the time the warehouse contract was awarded, declined an interview request, as did acting Ontario Liberal leader John Fraser. | https://globalnews.ca/news/4692165/ontario-cannabis-store-warehouse/ |
Can Macron's 'great national debate' calm yellow vest protesters? | French President Emmanuel Macron ay said he wants to discuss the 'essential questions' (AFP Photo/Ludovic MARIN) Paris (AFP) - Emmanuel Macron swept away France's traditional parties in 2017 with a grassroots campaign that promised more participative democracy. He is hoping the same tactics will now defuse the biggest crisis of his presidency. The centrist leader is gearing up what he has termed the "great national debate", a public consultation to discuss the "essential questions" facing the nation after nearly two months of violent so-called yellow vest protests. The debate is the third prong of the 41-year-old's strategy for ending the demonstrations, which erupted over high fuel taxes but ballooned into a widely supported revolt over living standards.65+ Macron has already opened the state's purse strings, scrapping fuel tax hikes as part of a 10-billion-euro ($11.5-billion) package of wage boosts and tax relief for low earners. At the same time, the government has vowed to crack down on the Saturday protests in Paris and other cities since November, with their now-routine scenes of burning cars, smashed up shops and clashes with police. The "great national debate", which will see town-hall meetings held around the country, is Macron's attempt to satisfy yellow vest demands for a greater say in the running of the country, amid accusations that he is too high-handed and distant. "We believe in this debate, we think it's essential," Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said on Wednesday. "We think that in the current period for our country, we need to be extremely open to having a productive debate, while also being very firm on the functioning of our institutions," he added. - Popular frustration - Macron's office is trying to corral the discussions into four overarching themes: taxes; France's transition to a low-carbon economy; democracy and citizenship; and government organisation and public services. But political scientists warn such consultations can easily be swayed by a small, motivated number of citizens, bringing "results that aren't at all representative of the majority of the French," according to Luc Rouban, an academic at the Cevipof political science institute in Paris. Some MPs in Macron's own party also fear the consultations will spur a cascade of extravagant or nebulous demands, or calls for an outright repeal of existing laws. And in France's right-wing Republicans party, many have painful memories of a debate about "national identity" organised in 2009 under their former leader Nicolas Sarkozy -- which led to more divisions. Ending same-sex marriages, which were approved by the Socialist government in 2013 in the face of massive protests, is at the top of the list of demands made on a website which is compiling the grievances of yellow vest protesters. Another is overturning the lower 80 km/h (50 mph) speed limit imposed on secondary roads last year, which furious rural drivers have assailed as symbolic of elite Parisians' disregard for the provinces. The government has ruled out any backtrack on existing laws, prompting some yellow vest protesters to deride the debates as a smokescreen aimed at smothering the movement. - The debates, to run from January 15 to March 15, are already off to a less-than-auspicious start after the head of France's national debates commission, Chantal Jouanno, withdrew her participation amid outrage over her 14,666-euro ($16,800) monthly salary. Mayors are supposed to be organising the public meetings, and local officials will receive documentation kits with economic and statistical talking points to avoid endless shouting matches. Macron will also publish a personal letter next week to households spelling out his goals for the debates before participating in one of the first, at a gymnasium in Bourgtheroulde in northwest France. The stakes are high as the president prepares to push through reforms of the retirement and unemployment systems, and streamline public services while cutting thousands of civil servant jobs. Many ministers in the government, particularly right-wing Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, are pushing to use the crisis as an opportunity to slash taxes and public spending. France's public sector is one of the biggest in the world relative to the size of its economy, but successive governments have struggled to contain spending despite promises to do so. | https://news.yahoo.com/macrons-great-national-debate-calm-yellow-vest-protesters-183623256.html |
How about co-head coaches in Cincinnati? | Getty Images Its believed in league circles that the next coach of the Bengals will be Hue Jackson (with Vance Joseph as defensive coordinator) or Vance Joseph (with Hue Jackson as offensive coordinator). At one point, Michael Scott and Jim Halpert were co-managers of Dunder Mifflin, Scranton branch. Maybe thats the right answer for the perpetually wrongly-directed Bengals, as crazy as it may sound. (And, yes, it sounds crazy.) But its not unprecedented. In 1953, the Packers had co-head coaches. (Sure, it lasted only for the last two games of the season.) Ten years before that, the merged Steelers and Eagles franchise (the Steagles) employed both Walt Kiesling and Greasy Neale as co-head coaches. Jackson would call the offensive plays, and Joseph would support Jackson with broader topics like clock management. Joseph would call the defensive plays, and Jackson would support Joseph. Im mostly joking, but a little serious. With both guys operating under the terms of a buyout for at least the next season, the Bengals possibly get them to do it for the total cost of one total head coach. Again, its crazy. Its over the top. Its one the wrong side of the fine line that separates outside the box from fkin nutty. But ask yourself this. | https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/01/09/how-about-co-head-coaches-in-cincinnati/ |
Can the University of Cincinnati Bearcats bounce back against Tulsa Thursday? | CLOSE UC's Mick Cronin, Keith Williams talk about another road tilt in Tulsa with Scott Springer Scott Springer, [email protected] Cincinnati Bearcats head coach Mick Cronin argues with an official in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game, Wednesday against the UCLA Bruins, Dec. 19, 2018, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. (Photo: Kareem Elgazzar) University of Cincinnati basketball coach Mick Cronin has been a little under the weather this week. Whatever the ailment may be, neither hot soup, Halls Mentho-Lyptus nor Vicks Vapo Rub is likely the answer. On the other hand, a road win might help him mend and make for a cheerful ride home on the charter from Oklahoma. The Bearcats are in Tulsa Thursday trying to remove the stench of Saturday's road defeat at East Carolina. Tulsa, on paper, should be a tougher match-up. The Golden Hurricane finished 2018 10-3. Thus far in January, they lost to No. 19 Houston decisively, 74-56 and beat South Florida on a buzzer-beater trey from guard Curran Scott. They've also won 15 straight at the Reynolds Center and 24 of their last 26 home games. "Tulsa is brutal at home now," Cronin said. "They've already beat two Big 12 teams (Oklahoma State, Kansas State) in their building. They've got tournaments aspirations, they've got a good team and their front line (DaQuan) Jeffries and (Martins) Igbanu are playing as good as anybody in our league. We always struggle with them." UC under Cronin has won six of seven against Tulsa and defeated them last season at BB&T Arena 82-74 thanks to a 24-4 stretch run. One cause for alarm may be the three-point line based on recent experiences. UC gave up a season-high 14 treys to Tulsa, but also made a season-high 15 of their own. The Golden Hurricane shoot 33 percent from the arc this season compared to UC's 35, but the Bearcats aim was drastically off at East Carolina to the tune of 3-for-19 (15.7 percent). Practice reportedly was fierce and spirited coming back from East Carolina. Giving up a season-high 73 points to ECU and allowing them to shoot 51 percent sat well with nobody. "We don't give them much choice in practice," Cronin said. "We just keep doing it over and over. We'll see. Winning on the road in conference play is a new frontier for this team." Keith Williams chalked it (the loss) up to a lesson learned. Williams has started every game outside of Ohio State and Tulane and is the only Bearcat averaging in double figures besides top scorer Jarron Cumberland. The sophomore remains confident. "You just have to try and stay composed on the road," Williams said. "I feel like that loss against ECU was a learning experience for us, that's all. Tough loss, it is what it is. You really can't do nothing but learn from it. We just lost. So I feel bad for those guys." : As of Wednesday, Cronin was undecided. "I have no idea who's starting," he said. "The way we played defense at East Carolina, everything's up for evaluation." Stop the skid: Obviously, UC would prefer not to lose two in a row. Of UC's five losses last season, they lost back-to-back to Xavier and Florida in December and Houston and Wichita State in February. The Bearcats haven't lost three in a row since Feb. 2015 when they fell to Temple, Tulane and Xavier within eight days. No Moore: 6-7 sophomore guard Zeke Moore of Tulsa has left the team and asked for a transfer according to coach Frank Haith. He had played in 14 games averaging just 2.6 points per game. Greece is the word: UC's second all-time leading scorer (2,145 points) Sean Kilpatrick is back at work, this time overseas. Kilpatrick, who just turned 29, is expected to sign with Panathainikos who will be coached by former college and NBA coach Rick Pitino. Since 2014-15, Kilpatrick has played in the NBA for the Timberwolves, Nuggets, Nets, Bucks, Clippers and Bulls and averaged 10.3 points per game. In the 2016-17 season with Brooklyn, he started 24 out of 70 games and averaged 13.1 points. Last season in nine games for Chicago he averaged 15.4 points. The series: The Bearcats and Golden Hurricane have played 38 times dating back to 1946 with UC winning 26. Tulsa and UC were formerly league mates in the Missouri Valley Conference and now are reunited in the AAC. Under Mick Cronin, UC is 6-1 in the series and on a four-game win streak. The lone loss came in overtime in Tulsa in Feb. 2016, 70-68. SCOUTING REPORT The Game Tipoff: Thursday, Jan. 10 7 p.m. at the Donald W. Reynolds Center (8,355) TV/Radio: ESPN2/700WLW Tulsa Record: 11-4 Offense: 71.6 ppg Defense: 67.9 ppg Projected lineup Player Pos Ht Key stat DaQuan Jeffries F 6-5 13.8 ppg Martins Igbanu F 6-8 13.3 ppg Sterling Taplin G 6-1 9.7 ppg Curran Scott G 6-4 7.0 ppg Lawson Korita G 6-5 6.1 ppg Player to watch Senior 6-5 swingman DaQuan Jeffries leads Tulsa in scoring at 13.8 points per game and is second in rebounding at 5.7 per contest. Jeffries also has a team-high 15 blocks and 18 steals and is their second-leading three-point marksman at 37.5 percent. He began his career at Oral Roberts, then went to junior college before coming to Tulsa last season. Cincinnati Record: 12-3 Offense: 75.1 ppg Defense: 59.2 ppg Projected lineup Player Pos Ht Key stat Justin Jenifer G 6-0 8.0 ppg Keith Williams G 6-5 11.0 ppg Jarron Cumberland G 6-5 16.7 ppg Trevon Scott F 6-8 9.7 ppg Nysier Brooks C 6-11 8.7 ppg Noteworthy Cat chat: UC has played two ranked teams and lost to both, Ohio State and Mississippi State. Tulsa has played three ranked teams and has come away 1-2. They lost to Nevada (the mere mention makes UC fans cringe) 96-86 and recently to Houston of the AAC 74-56. Tulsa did defeat then-No. 16 Kansas State 47-46. The Wildcats are no longer ranked. As for common opponents, Tulsa downed South Carolina State by 22 and UC beat them by 21. It makes for a nifty preview note, but rarely does it translate to what actually occurs on the floor. KenPom.com: UC at 12-3 is No. 30, Tulsa at 11-4 is No. 129. | https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/college/university-of-cincinnati/2019/01/09/2019-cincinnati-bearcats-basketball-uc-vs-tulsa-aac-action/2509022002/ |
What did Andrew Luck have to say about Patrick Mahomes? | When the Indianapolis Colts take the field Saturday against the Kansas City Chiefs in an AFC divisional-round matchup, the future of the conference will be facing off in Andrew Luck and Patrick Mahomes. Related 7 Colts that are earning contract extensions With these two elite talents squaring off for the first time, it is easy to see why there is so much excitement regarding the matchup. Mahomes led the NFL with 50 touchdowns while Luck was second with 39. Speaking to the media Tuesday as the team gets ready for the matchup, Luck had plenty of praise for the first-year starter. Yeah, hes fun to watch. He certainly creates some amazing plays, but he also makes the routine and the simple plays, Luck told the Indy media. So I think his ability to really make every throw, to do the simple things well, to do the amazing things well its fun to watch. Certainly, it has been fun to watch on TV and hopefully I dont see too much of it when were playing him, but hes fun to watch certainly. The Colts have been raving about Mahomes this week and for good reason. Not only did he light up the stat sheet completing 66.0 percent of his passes for 5,097 yards, 50 touchdowns and 12 interceptions with a 111.7 passer rating, simply looking at the plays hes made has the entire league intrigued. Not only can Mahomes make spectacular plays outside of the pocket, hes also shown the ability to work within the pocket as well. Pressure and contain will be key for the pass rush because Mahomes has crushed defenses in multiple ways. Mahomes is one of the front-runners for the MVP award, if not THE front-runner, and Luck finds himself in the conversation as well, though not many are going to seriously vote him over the top two candidates. In what should be a classic showdown between two potent offenses, the future of the AFC will be squaring off to begin the divisional round of the playoffs. | https://coltswire.usatoday.com/2019/01/09/indianapolis-colts-andrew-luck-kansas-city-chiefs-patrick-mahomes-comments-playoffs/ |
What's on the inauguration menu for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt.-Gov elect John Fetterman? | Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman will be sworn into office on Tuesday. Itll be Wolfs second term and Fettermans first. The Democrats swearing-in ceremony and Moving Pennsylvania Forward Inaugural Celebration, which follows, features all things Pennsylvania. On the political and sadness side, the religious invocation will be given by a Pittsburgh rabbi whose congregation was targeted in the fall by a gunman. On the patriotic side theres diversity. On a lighter side theres an assortment of major league mascots and menu of home-grown and homemade state delicacies. On the groovy side theres world famous musicians performing headlining act. If going, heres the lineup. Swearing-in Ceremony Start time: 12 p.m. Location: outside the Capitols East Wing, which is along Commonweath Avenue. Cost: Free. Music: JP McCaskey High Schools Chamber Choir, Lancaster School District. Pledge of Allegiance: Sebastian Pelaez, an Allentown resident and commissioner on the Pennsylvania Commission on LGBTQ Affairs. National Anthem: Bobby W. Hill, Philadelphia resident. Fetterman introduction: He is a York County resident who became mayor of tiny Braddock, Allegheny County, before running for statewide office. He lost a 2016 primary bid for U.S. Senate and then beat Lt. Gov. Mike Stack of Philadelphia in the 2018 primary to become Wolfs running mate in the November election. Fetterman is married with three children. Invocation: Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. His congregation was attacked by a lone gunman on Oct. 27. Eleven worshipers were killed. Wolf Oath of Office: administered by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor, a Republican. Inauguration address: Wolf. Meet and Greet Time: 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Location: Governors mansion, 2035 N Front St, Harrisburg. Who: Gov. Tom wolf and First Lady Frances Wolf; Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman and his wife Gisele. Cost: Free. Inauguration Ball Time: Doors open at 5 p.m., entertainment 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. Location: Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex and Expo Center, 2300 N Cameron St., Harrisburg. Cost: $50 for students and seniors and $100 for others. Headlining act: The Roots, the Grammy winning Philadelphia hip-hop band and the house band for The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Mascot appearances: The Phillie Phanatic of the Philadelphia Phillies, Swoop of the Philadelphia Eagles, Pirate Parrot of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Iceburgh of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Food: Amish Soft Pretzel Bites with Maple Mustard; Deviled Red Beet Eggs featuring Sauders Eggs, Lititz; Meat & Cheese provided by Dietz & Watson, Philadelphia; Potatoes provided by Brummer's Happy Breeze Farm, Port Royal; Mushrooms provided by C P Yeatman & Sons, Inc/Mother Earth Organic, Avondale; Brisket provided by McElhaney Family Farm, Hookstown; Chicken provided by Perdue Farms from farms across Pennsylvania. Dessert: Famous Farm Show Milkshakes; Strawberry Eclair Cake and Mini Whoopie Pies by The Pennsylvania Bakery, Camp Hill; Chocolate provided by The Hershey Company, Hershey. Beers provided by the Pennsylvania Beer Alliance: Appalachian Chocolate Avenue Stout, Appalachian Scottish Ale, Evil Genius Stacys Mom, Lancaster Winter Warmer, Lions Head Light, Lions Head, Spring House Lexicon Devil Pale Ale, Wyndridge Handsome Bull Double IPA, Wyndridge Silo Series, Yuengling Lager, Yuengling Golden Pilsner, Yuengling Light Lager, Victory Golden Monkey, Victory DirtWolf, Victory Sour Monkey, Straub Lager, Straub Amber, I.C. Light, Fat Heads Bumble Berry Honey Blueberry Ale, Fat Heads Head Hunter IPA, Troegs Perpetual IPA, Yards Brewing Company Beer, and 2SP Brewing Company Beer. Wines provided by the Pennsylvania Winery Association: Mazza Vineyards & South Shore Wine Company Grner Veltliner and Merlot, Presque Isle Wine Cellars Cabernet Franc, Christian W. Klay Winery Norton, Kavic Winery Chardonnay, Fero Vineyards & Winery Bison Roots Blue, Happy Valley Vineyards & Winery Riesling, Shade Mountain Winery Lemberger, The Winery at Wilcox Chardonnay, Armstrong Valley Winery Cabernet Franc, Oliveros Vineyard Traminette, Penns Woods Winery Cabernet Franc, Paradocx Vineyard Pinot Grigio, Chaddsford Winery Chardonnay, Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery #38, Nimble Hills Vineyards Toczko Vineyards Riesling, Maiolatesi Wine Cellars Merlot. Liquor: Dad's Hat Pennsylvania Rye Whiskey, Philadelphia Distilling Bluecoat Gin, Stateside Urbancraft Vodka Ciders: Assorted Hard ciders from the Pennsylvania Cider Guild and Apple Cider, Rice Fruit Company. For information: https://www.wolfinauguration.com/. Matt Rourke / AP Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman will be sworn-in to his first term on Tuesday. Lt. Gov.-elect John Fetterman will be sworn-in to his first term on Tuesday. (Matt Rourke / AP) [email protected] Twitter @sesack 717-783-7305 | https://www.mcall.com/news/nationworld/pennsylvania/mc-nws-pennsylvania-tom-wolf-inauguration-20190109-story.html |
Is it time to invest in gold? | The Federal Reserve sent a clear signal in minutes released Wednesday that policymakers won't be moving quickly to raise rates in 2019. Minutes of the US central bank's last meeting in December showed that policymakers judged that "the appropriate extent and timing of future policy firming [is] less clear than earlier," amid a host of economic uncertainties. The US central bank is facing an increasingly uncertain economic outlook in 2019. While the US economy continues to remain healthy, producing one of the strongest months of job gains in the last decade in December as employers added 312,000 jobs. The Fed is also wrestling with signs of weakening global growth in Europe and China and a sharp decline in stock prices. At its final meeting in 2018, the central bank noted there were a number of headwinds that could pose downside risks to the US economy in the new year, including a sharper-than-expected slowdown in global economic growth, a more rapid waning of fiscal stimulus, an escalation in trade tensions and a greater-than-expected negative effect of rising interest rates. While Fed officials repeated their credo that the path of interest rates aren't on a "preset course," they notably added that "neither the pace nor the ultimate endpoint of future rate increases was known." The Fed has so far penciled in two rate hikes in 2019, but Chairman Jerome Powell said in remarks in Atlanta last Friday that the central bank is ready to change course "significantly if necessary." | https://www.kimt.com/content/national/504114362.html?ref=362 |
How does a government shutdown affect Sac State students? | Sacramento State students are preparing for the spring semester amid a standoff in Washington, D.C. that has led to a partial government shutdown and a freeze on some federal funding. President Donald Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, in a Friday meeting that the shutdown could last months or even years, if Trump did not receive over $5 billion to fund the construction of a wall on the U.S. southern border. As a result of the shutdown, 800,000 federal employees have been sent home or made to work without pay. Anita Kermes, Sac State director of financial aid and scholarships, said that currently, the largest issue for students comes from the need to submit a tax return transcript from the IRS, which is currently closed, in order to receive financial aid through FAFSA. Kermes said students facing this issue should see if they are eligible to receive the information using the data retrieval tool on their FAFSA applications. For those ineligible, Kermes suggested requesting their transcript by mail using a 4506-T form available on the Sac State website. Kermes said that students should complete all forms required to receive financial aid and inform the Student Service Center that they are waiting on forms from the IRS. We will be able to place a fee deferment on the students account to delay tuition payment until the financial aid office receives further guidance or the IRS is back up and operational, Kermes said. April Hughes, a sociology major at Sac State, said shes concerned about how the shutdown will affect caring for her daughter and epileptic husband. Were safe this month but what about next month? Hughes said. I need this [tax] return to help pay back rent and help cover books and such. Hughes said without the tax return, shell have to go without food. I could hardly afford to rent the books last semester, now Im terrified of even checking the list, Hughes said. I havent really eaten in days, we dont have active health insurance, all of our money goes to life-saving [anti-epileptic] medicine and food for our daughter. Russel Vought, the acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told reporters Monday that the Trump administration would diverge from past administrations and begin to pay tax returns. Kermes said that students filing for FAFSA may also be affected if the online application is unable to access federal databases to confirm information entered. Those include the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice and, if the student is male, the Select Service System, which maintains information on everyone subject to the draft. According to Kermes, students should be able to supply the needed information if the database match does not go through, but should see a financial aid counselor if it does not. In all situations, we are doing our best to keep staff informed of the latest developments and prepare them to assist our students that may be impacted by the shutdown, Kermes said. Kermes said that disbursement for students who have already completed their applications will be unaffected by the shutdown. According to Kermes, the issues are affecting 70 students transferring to Sac State for the upcoming spring semester. However, if the shutdown continues, Kermes said it could affect more students next fall. Elizabeth Chapin, California State University public affairs manager, said that the shutdown would not directly affect the CSU system as Department of Education funding had already been approved prior. According to Chapin, however, the shutdown could affect research funding on a campus to campus basis. Lisa Hammersley, Sac State College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics associate dean, said that she knew of no research funding that had yet been affected. However, Hammersley said that the shutdown affected students working with the U.S. Geological Survey office housed on campus. Kevin Cornwell, chair of the Geology Department, has not yet responded to requests for comment. | https://statehornet.com/2019/01/sac-state-affected-by-shutdown/ |
When was the last time we had so little snow in January? | Dear Tom, I cant remember a January with so little snow. Joe C., Carol Stream Dear Joe, So far, the city has logged a paltry 0.4 inches of snow this month, and if no more were to fall, this January would tie 1989 (most recent) as the citys fourth least snowiest placing behind January 1928 with 0.2 inches and 1900 and 1934 with 0.3 inches. Chicago climatologist Frank Wachowski says that since 1885 there have been only seven times in which January recorded less than an inch of snow, a rare occurrence in the citys normally snowiest month (normal 10.8 inches). We had Wachowski check the snowfall for the remainder of the winter following those seven times and totals ranged from just 7 inches in 1949 to 33.2 inches in 1900, with an average of about 18 inches, two inches above normal for the remainder of a typical Chicago snow season | https://wgntv.com/2017/01/24/when-was-the-last-time-we-had-so-little-snow-in-january/ |
Whats Up With the Pac-12? | I'd read the stories. No doubt, you have, too. The Pac-12 is down as a conference. Miserably down. Epically down. Their football has struggled mightily, not even coming close to reaching the playoffs as of years. However, there are glimmers of hope when it comes to Pac-12 football. Oregon is recruiting extremely well under Mario Cristobal. Mike Leach is building a good foundation at Washington State. And, while Southern Cal is struggling, one has to assume that the Trojans won't settle for mediocrity and will make big moves if they don't rejoin the national elite soon, as UCLA did in hiring Chip Kelly. However, Pac-12 hoops is hurting, as well. Check this past week's AP Top 25. Not one Pac-12 team was ranked. Not one! 9-6, sending Steve Alford to the curve and needing Murray Bartow to clean up quite the mess to make the NCAA tournament. 11-4, which isn't bad. However, they have one really solid resume win on their schedule (Iowa State). The Wildcats also went 0-2 against the state of Alabama. When it's football, that's no big deal. When it's basketball, that raises an eyebrow. Huge win over Kansas followed by huge loss at home to Princeton. The Sun Devils started off hot, but have lost four out of their last seven. Andy Enfield hasn't set Los Angeles on fire, as the Trojans are 9-6, including a 35-point stomping by TCU. A loss to Vanderbilt, who weren't projected to be at the top of the SEC this year. There's a slew of Power Five losses that the Pac-12 is struggling with: Missouri and Texas A&M over Oregon State. The same Auburn team that beat Arizona in Maui clobbered Washington as well. Minnesota took down those same Huskies, as well as Utah. Baylor and Iowa both took down Dana Altman's Oregon squad. And, while mid-major upsets are prevalent in any conference, the Pac-12 has quite the large share (including a sweep of Washington State by New Mexico State). The Pac-12's non-conference record was the worst for any Power Five conference in the last two decades. While other conferences seem to ebb and flow during the seasons, the Pac-12 seems to just be sinking ... and fast. There's talent in the league (especially with UCLA). There's tradition and history and some true basketball schools in UCLA, Arizona, and Utah. And geography certainly isn't the issue; Gonzaga consistently continues to be a national power. Maybe it's apathy, given the Pac-12's challenge to compete with so many pro teams in their geographical footprint. However, this is a problem they've dealt with before and overcome with ease, so you really can't say it's much of an issue. Maybe it's the struggle of their network, which pales in revenues and ratings to the SEC and Big Ten networks, allowing more homes and specifically, more recruits, to follow teams on the East Coast rather than the West. The launch of the ACC Network later this year by ESPN certainly won't help the Pac-12 either. However, the Big 12 manages to succeed despite Texas blocking everyone else's chance to snag media dollars in that conference, so while this could be a hindrance to the league, it can't be completely the reason. Maybe it's poor management at the top with Larry Scott, who seems to have no clue as to how to stop the bleeding and whose administration was promptly chewed up and spit out in a thorough feature done by The Oregonian. No doubt, he hasn't found a solution to alleviate the problems his conference has faced on the hardwood and the gridiron. The Pac-12 Conference is struggling and someone, or something, has to change. Otherwise, the conference will soon become Power Five completely in name only. | http://www.sports-central.org/sports/2019/01/07/whats_up_with_the_pac-12.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SportsCentral+%28Sports+Central%29 |
How Many Fans Did Major League Wrestling Draw In 2018? | A revitalized Major League Wrestling ran 13 shows in 2018. The first half of the year included six shows in Orlando while the second half of the year included a more ambitious slate outside of Orlando, with only 1 show running in the city, while two events were held in Queens, NY, one in Fort Lauderdale and two back to back events in Miami to close out the year. In numbers verified by Court Bauer of MLW, the company drew 9,322 fans in 2018 for an average of 717 fans per event (Court notes that there is a VIP section at every event but those complementary seats are never counted in the final figure). In the second half of the year, the company averaged 1,008 fans per show. 5 of 13 events sold out for the year (38%). The average for the second half is competitive with Ring of Honor, which averaged 964 fans per show (although ROH ran 18 shows over that period). Although the company is not running shows in January, there will be 4 events between February-April: A February 2nd taping at the 1600 Arena, a return to Chicago's Cicero Stadium on March 2nd (Court notes that they've requested from the venue to open up previously unused sections) and two back to back events on April 4th and 5th in Queens, NY over WrestleMania weekend. Follow Lavie Margolin on Twitter @Laviemarg | https://www.wrestlinginc.com/news/2019/01/how-many-fans-did-major-league-wrestling-draw-in-2018-649647/ |
Is There a Gender Gap in Workplace Training? | New survey results suggest there is a gender gap in training in the workplace. The survey found that 64 percent of men said they have access to online learning platforms whereas just 48 percent of women said they did. The survey, Awareness & Accessibility: Training Gaps in the Workplace, was conducted by online learning company D2L and surveyed 1,000 third-party U.S. office workers. The company wanted to better understand how learning and development experiences in the workplace vary by gender, according to the D2L press release. But D2L Chief Operating Officer Cheryl Ainoa believes its not necessarily that women arent being provided with learning platforms by their organizations. In my opinion, it isnt the case that less is available to women, Ainoa said. Its an awareness issue because theyre not thinking it pertains to them or theyre not resonating when it gets sent out broadly. Theyre assuming, If its something my manager would support me doing, he or she would be having a conversation. Ilona Kalantarova, a consultant at strategy implementation firm BTS, agreed. Men are more likely to take a risk and sign up for something even though they may not have the full confidence, Kalantarova said. Whereas women must feel 100 percent confident in achieving something before they take what could be perceived as a risk, which could hold them back. According to BTS, only 24 Fortune 500 CEOs are women. To help companies address the underrepresentation of women in the C-suite, BTS launched the Accelerating Women Executives program. The program provides women with a six-month leadership journey, consisting of an assessment of their strengths and opportunities, executive coaching and sponsorship. Research shows that companies that have more women leadership have 53 percent higher return on equity, 42 percent higher return on sales and 42 percent higher return on their invested capital, Kalantarova said. Those are figures that would make any CEO or CFO make a call to action. Ainoa believes the responsibility falls on the managers to make sure they are proactively reaching out to their employees, instead of just relying on a mass email, for example. I really believe leaders should be sitting down with people at least twice a year and saying, Here are the skills that everybody should be working on, whats the next one or two you should be developing and what are the ways to develop those skills? Ainoa said. But if leaders are just sitting back and saying they are going to wait until somebody asks them if they can take a class, by definition thats going to appeal to men more than women and just perpetuate that cycle. Ainoa said its not just the managers that need to be proactive, but the employees as well. Every employee should be working on developing one to three skills at any point in time, she said. You will not remain relevant over time if you dont. | https://www.clomedia.com/2019/01/09/is-there-a-gender-gap-in-workplace-training/ |
When is Gasparilla 2019? | TAMPA -- The pirates are coming! Batten down the hatches and weigh anchor for the pirate invasion of the bay The Gasparilla Pirate Fest parade will set sail with the Children's Gasparilla Saturday, January 19, 2019, from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. The parade will begin at Bay to Bay Blvd. and Bayshore Blvd. and continue north along Bayshore, ending at Edison Ave. MORE: Gasparilla 2019: Schedule of pirates celebrations The code of conduct for the young pirates be family-friendly and pirates and event-goers are asked to keep the alcohol at bay for the pirates-in-training. The main Gasparilla Pirate Festival officially kicks off on Jan. 25 when the pirates of Ye Mystic Krewe dock the Jose Gasparilla and head to Tampa City Hall to demand the key to the city from Mayor Bob Buckhorn. Once the key is secured, the pirates will celebrate with the Parade of the Pirates down Bayshore Boulevard on Saturday, January 26. Avast! The invasion shall begin at 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. as Jose Gasparilla sets sail at the south end of Hillsborough Bay and north into the Seddon Channel until it docks north at the Tampa Convention Center. The Parade of Pirates will make its way down historic Bayshore Boulevard and into downtown Tampa to celebrate the capture of the city starting at 2 p.m. The captain and his Krewe will share their wealth with beads along Bay to Bay Boulevard and Bayshore Boulevard, ending at Cass Street and Ashley Drive. The parade will stretch along the 4.5-mile parade route. The event is free to the public. Reserved seating and tickets for Gasparilla events are available. 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Download the 10 News app now. Email [email protected], visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed. | https://www.wtsp.com/article/entertainment/events/gasparilla/when-is-gasparilla-2019/67-42701122-fbcc-46f4-bfb0-e076b9e0ec35 |
Is There a Catholic View on the Border Wall? | An exhibit by local artist Robenz and Central American migrants is on display on the beach next to a section of the US-Mexico border fence as seen from Tijuana, Mexico, on Jan. 8, 2019. Catholic teaching says that we must balance between the duty of a nation to welcome immigrants, and the duty of immigrants to obey a nations laws. A lot of meaning to be sure, as the raging debate in the U.S. shows. Ive been asked if there is a Catholic position on the building of a wall along our southern border. There is no Church teaching on such a matter, and I dont think that there should be. Walls speak to many different things. Our homes have walls and doors. Every ancient city had walls. The Vatican has walls. Gosh, even Heaven has walls and gatesand a very strict immigration policy! (See Revelation 21:12, Luke 13:25) In this sense walls are protective, keeping those within secure, providing privacy, and preventing the entry of harmful forces. On the other hand, many of us remember the Berlin Wall and the horror it represented. It was akin to a large prison wall, keeping people who desired freedom from escaping to a better world. There was great joy around the globe when it finally came down in 1989. Perspective and experience also affect ones opinion on walls. In Israel, walls were erected dividing Jewish and Palestinian areas. Most citizens of Israel approve and point to a reduction in bombings and other violence. Those from Gaza and Bethlehem, however, are more likely to cite the crushing poverty brought about by economic isolation. Fences, too, provoke widely different reactions. One adage says, Good fences make good neighbors, but another is the cautionary Dont fence me in. The first saying speaks to the peace that comes from agreed-upon and respected boundaries, while the other bemoans unnecessary restrictions on advancement. Scripture speaks differently about walls, depending on the context: We read, A strong city have we, God sets up walls and ramparts to protect us (Isaiah 26:1), but also For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:14). Walls are not intrinsically evil, nor are they always good. The context matters. In the current debate about the wall, I think that the Church should limit herself to speaking to her basic principles on immigrants and immigration. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2241) lays out two principles, which are meant to balance each other: The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him. Political authorities, for the sake of the common good for which they are responsible, may make the exercise of the right to immigrate subject to various juridical conditions, especially with regard to the immigrants duties toward their country of adoption. Immigrants are obliged to respect with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, to obey its laws and to assist in carrying civic burdens. So, the Catholic view is that a prosperous nation such as ours should be generous in receiving immigrants, especially refugees and the poor, but that there are legitimate limits the nation can apply. In particular, the receiving nation has a right to expect things of immigrants: that they follow its laws, respect the countrys way of life, and contribute to the shouldering of civic responsibilities. (A nation also has the right and duty to defend and promote the common good of its citizens see CCC 1910.) I am personally very upbeat about immigrants in this country, most of whom come from Central and South America. I have found them to be hardworking, skilled (especially in the building trades) and largely Catholic with strong family ties. I think that they are a blessing to our nation and that we should admit a large number of them annually. I also understand, though, that our borders cannot simply stand open. There are legitimate concerns for security at the borders and immigration must be well-managed in order to promote the safety and general welfare of all: Americans and immigrants. Perhaps it is good to conclude with a couple of snapshots from history: In 1969, Cesar Chavez, the founder of the United Farm Workers (UFW), marched with UFW members through the Imperial and Coachella valleys to the border of Mexico to protest growers use of illegal immigrants as strikebreakers. He was joined by Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a black Civil Rights leader, and Sen. Walter Mondale. They argued that the U.S. government should do more to enforce laws against illegal immigration. They also organized efforts to report strikebreaking replacement workers to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). They claimed that illegal immigration drove down wages and hindered the ability of the UFW to unionize workers [*]. So, in those years many liberals opposed illegal immigration. By the 1980s, however, conservatives were more opposed to illegal immigration than were liberals. Yet in those very years, President Ronald Reagan surprised most conservatives by being quite optimistic about immigration (legal). He noted that a growing population would bring about a growing economy. He was also criticized by many Republicans for granting amnesty (subject to conditions) to millions of illegal immigrants in 1986. As these snapshots show, the political lines have shifted around over time. This is all the more reason for Catholics to hold to our own more stable and balanced teaching, which respects two traditions or pillars: generosity to immigrants and an orderly process that promotes the security and common good of a nations citizens. Many today, leaders and those among the general citizenry, want to hold fast to one principle while rejecting the other. Catholic teaching says that we must balance between the two. Fine, but be sure that your support is based on national security and the common good of our citizens rather than a rejection of the generosity required of a prosperous nation such as ours. Fine, but be sure that you can articulate the conditions on the right to immigrate so that the common good is protected. Be certain that your plan ensures that immigrants fulfill their duties toward their country of adoption (respect[ing] with gratitude the material and spiritual heritage of the country that receives them, obey[ing] its laws, and assist[ing] in carrying civic burdens). | http://www.ncregister.com/blog/msgr-pope/is-there-a-catholic-view-on-the-border-wall?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NCRegisterDailyBlog+National+Catholic+Register |
Can Foles' play convince the Eagles to keep him instead of Wentz next season? | CLOSE Golden Tate describes his game-winning TD reception against the Bears, and Brandon Graham on what he saw on Chicago's potential game-winning FG. Martin Frank, The News Journal Philadelphia Eagles' Nick Foles, left, and Carson Wentz celebrate after an NFL football game against the Houston Texans, Sunday, Dec. 23, 2018, in Philadelphia. Philadelphia won 32-30. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) (Photo: Matt Rourke, AP) PHILADELPHIA So, you wonder. Nick Foles has led four Eagles victories in four games since taking over at quarterback for Carson Wentz, who's out with a stress fracture in his back. Head coach Doug Pederson has insisted all along Wentz would be the starter once he's healthy. Foles is 9-1 starting for the Eagles in December and the playoffs last season and this. The only loss was a meaningless 2017 regular-season finale in which Foles was out of the game before halftime. The wins, of course, included the Super Bowl last season, when Foles was named the game's MVP, and the 16-15 victory over the Chicago Bears last Sunday in the NFC wildcard playoffs in which Foles led the Eagles to the game-winning touchdown with 56 seconds left. New Orleans an appealing destination for Eagles' fans, even after painful first visit Pederson was asked if Foles would be the starter as long as the Eagles are in the playoffs. "This week," Pederson said. "Its a one-and-done season right now." So if the Eagles are true to their word that Wentz will be the starter as soon as he's healthy, most likely not until the offseason, then Foles will likely have to go elsewhere next season if he wants to be a starter. The Eagles aren't likely to pay Foles $20 million, as his 2019 contract calls for, to be a backup. Foles could "buy" his freedom for $2 million and thus become a free agent. That is, unless the Eagles pick up the option, then try to trade him. Foles to Tate for game-winning TD just one example of Eagles' toughness Either way, there should be quarterback-needy teams lining up to get Foles, beginning with Jacksonville, Miami, the Giants if they decide to move on from Eli Manning, and Washington if the team determines that Alex Smith won't be ready to play next season after suffering a gruesome broken leg. Good luck trying to get Foles to talk about that. "I don't worry about it," Foles said Wednesday. "I've told y'all before that the future, that'll take care of itself. If I worried about that right now, I wouldn't be able to really focus in and enjoy the present. There are plenty of things to focus on right now preparing for the Saints and just getting the body, mind and everything ready for this game. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Nick Foles (9) passes during the first half of an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Chicago Bears Sunday, Jan. 6, 2019, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) (Photo: Nam Y. Huh, AP) "I'm just focused on being here, being the best teammate I can be, and preparing for this Sunday's game." As for Wentz, we don't know how he would do in a playoff setting because he's never gotten the chance to show what he can do because of the injuries. Wentz hasn't done any football activity since Foles replaced him after the Dec. 9 game against the Cowboys, a 29-23 Eagles loss in overtime. Pederson wouldn't commit to Wentz practicing this week, either. At first, Pederson didn't rule out Wentz serving as the backup this Sunday, saying "Im not ready to make that decision yet." But then he said Nate Sudfeld will be the backup, as he has been the previous four games, getting into two of those games when Foles' ribs were injured. CLOSE Doug Pederson looks ahead to Eagles visit to New Orleans Kevin Tresolini, The News Journal "As far as his health, I mean, yeah, he is getting better," Pederson said. "He is getting better. As far as practice, I mean, right now, hes still resting. And until we get the OK from the docs, well keep going as were going." The Eagles invested a No. 2 overall pick in Wentz in the 2016 draft. They have also seen Wentz play like a franchise quarterback last season, when he was the frontrunner for the NFL's MVP award last season until he tore two knee ligaments against the Rams on Dec. 10. This season, the Eagles also saw some good things from Wentz, such as his 69.6 percent completion percentage and his 102.2 passer rating, both better than what Wentz had done in 2017. CLOSE The Eagles up-and-down season saw them edge into the playoffs on the final week of the year with a 9-7 record. They play the Bears Sunday. 1/3/18 Damian Giletto/The News Journal But the Eagles also saw some bad moments, as evidenced by their 5-6 record with Wentz at quarterback this season. At times, it seemed like he was much less mobile than the season before. That may or may not have been related to both the recovery from knee surgery and the back issues, which technically began in late October. The Eagles had scored just three times in the first quarter in the 11 games under Wentz. They have done so in each game since Foles took over. Pederson was asked if that's a reflection on Foles, Wentz, or just a coincidence. "The execution is better," Pederson said. "I think guys are just detailing their work a little bit better as we go. It takes a little time. We've had some different offensive linemen in there. Running backs are different a little bit as the season went on. We have a little more stability there. I think the guys have really embraced (their roles) and made the changes to stay on the field." None of this can be easy for Wentz, watching from the sidelines for a second straight playoff season. So Eagles offensive coordinator Mike Groh was asked if he has to talk to Wentz, to reassure him about the future considering the "muddled" situation at quarterback. "It's muddled in what way?" Groh responded. The questioner answered that it's muddled because Foles has done so well and Wentz "is out of view and almost out of mind." "Oh, I don't think so," Groh said. "Yeah, we're not dismissing Carson around here. Like we just talked about, he's really involved on a daily basis. He's in a supporting role right now due to his injury, and he's trying to heal up and get himself ready to go. "We've got a lot of confidence in Carson and the kind of player he is, and right now, he's just being a really good teammate." Injury update The Eagles, as they've done the last three weeks, had a walkthrough practice Wednesday rather than a full practice on the field. Pederson said CB Sidney Jones (hamstring), LB D.J. Alexander (hamstring) and WR Mike Wallace (ankle) are considered "day to day" and might do more work than they did last week. Contact Martin Frank at [email protected]. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl. | https://www.delawareonline.com/story/sports/nfl/eagles/2019/01/09/can-nick-foles-play-convince-eagles-keep-him-saints-instead-carson-wentz-next-season/2506994002/ |
What inspired artists in 2018? | 1 of 4 Artists often reinvent themselves during the course of their careers. Each step of an artistic evolution can be drastic, or just a slightly different way of seeing things a temporary experiment, or a stylistically defining move in a different direction. The Times asked some prominent Vineyard artists the question, What inspired you in 2018? Cindy Kane responded via email, In October of 2018, I traveled to Japan for three weeks on a walking tour in the region of the Nakasendo trail, which is the mountainous area between Tokyo and Kyoto. Since that time, my thoughts have dwelled on the profound poignancy of the ubiquitous bow. I was very touched by the endearing courtesy in the bow, which is encountered in every aspect of daily life. I was amazed to see that the personnel on the bullet train would bow each time they left the car to go to a connecting car. They turned around to face us, and bowed before moving on. I have been processing this gesture in my work, particularly the deeper bow which expresses apology or gratitude. There is something I have internalized here that strikes an emotional chord in me, and I hope I will be able to tap into this feeling in the future when I need to conjure up the muses. In April Vineyard artist Marston Clough made a trip to the West Coast, where he checked out an exhibit by the artist Raimonds Staprans at the San Jos Museum of Art. He does these bright intense paintings that I love, Clough said. That visit had a lingering effect. I did a couple of paintings that illustrate that direction. However, as Clough noted, I always turn back to the horizon and clouds. Those are the things that always really inspire me. Valentine Estabrook is an artist who is constantly experimenting with subject, form, and media. Her latest series has a political theme. In her artists statement, she wrote, This past year, 2018, I continued painting Vineyard landscapes as well as my abstract works on star constellations. But I also felt a need to express an anger harbored within me. I needed to deal with the feeling of helplessness pervading the political landscape. It all started in January 2017. Two friends and I attended the Womens March in Washington, D.C. That march set a great political mandate, a path forward, back to the original intent of the U.S. Constitution. I was not going to run for Congress. Instead I focused on the attacks aimed at our freedoms. I began to paint. In late 2017 and into 2018, I ordered 10 canvases, all the same size, intended to represent the first approved 10 Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. Im only on the Third Amendment the Housing of Soldiers but Ill get there. Painting this subject brings me a bit of peace and hope. In 2018, gallerist and artist Louisa Gould made a return to her roots, in a sense. Although she is best known for her photography, Gould originally studied painting at the Art Students League and Parsons School of Design in New York City (concurrently with pursuing a career on Wall Street). Last year, Gould was inspired by one of the artists she represents to start painting again. In the fall she completed a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where her passion for painting was reignited. This November, Gould herself will be facilitating the residency. I was much more trained in painting than photography, she says. Ive continued to do a few commissions every year, but with the photography and the business I run, I havent had time for much else. My heart and soul are really in painting. Gould is also the mother of a young child, and the president of the board for the Marthas Vineyard Chamber Music Society. When I was painting, I was just smiling the whole time, recalled Gould of her time at the residency. I was so happy just to be there. My joy was for myself. I wasnt painting for a show or a commission. I was just being myself as an artist, and experiencing the pure joy of it. I love the texture of paint. I truly love color. | https://www.mvtimes.com/2019/01/09/inspired-artists-2018/ |
Who shared fake news on Facebook during the 2016 US presidential election? | Although most Facebook users did not share any fake news articles during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, a new study reveals that the small number who did were mostly Americans over the age of 65. The findings suggest the need for renewed attention to educate particular vulnerable subgroups, such as those over the age of 65, about fake news. So-called fake news - false, misleading information that appears to resemble a news article - gained prominence during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and scientists have raised concerns about fake news' spread and its influence over public discourse. However, much remains unknown about the mechanics behind the spread of fake news during the election. To shed light on the individual-level characteristics associated with sharing false articles, Andrew Guess and colleagues disseminated an online survey to 3,500 people in three different waves throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. Of the respondents, 1,331 of the initial wave agreed to share their Facebook profile data, which allowed the authors to link their survey responses to the respondents' Facebook sharing history during 2016. The shared articles were then cross-referenced against a curated list of fake news domains, including a list created by Craig Silverman of Buzzfeed News. The results showed 90% of these users did not, in fact, share articles from fake news domains with their Facebook friends, and only 8.5% shared one or more fake news articles. Most of the sharers (18%) were both self-identified Republicans over the age of 65, the authors discovered, and these individuals shared nearly seven times as many fake news articles (.75 on average) than respondents in the youngest age group, those ages 18 to 29. ### | https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-01/aaft-wsf010819.php |
Whats next for retail in 2019? | Four trends Toronto-based TrendHunter predicts will dominate the sector over the next year. Toronto-based TrendHunter has released its annual trends report for 2019, unveiling the trends that are expected to dominate nearly every sector in the coming year, including food, wellness, marketing and entertainment. In retail, the insights and research company has boiled down the biggest anticipated changes of 2019 into four broad trends, from displaying products outside of the usual confines of the retail store to zero-waste shops (a movement that ties back to larger changes across the marketing and consumer landscape). Retail Retreat TrendHunter finds that brands have begun displaying more products outside the store setting, creating a fun retreat for customers. For example, special showrooms and product displays are being erected in alternative spaces (including hotels and apartment units), with many of them offering a retreat for rest and relaxation. This trend is being driven by consumers desire for retail experiences that extend beyond pure product purchasing, the company notes. As a result, consumers can expect to find more bespoke furniture showrooms, experiential furniture stores and branded boutique hotels, in the year ahead. One example is U.S.-based furniture retailer West Elm (a subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma), which has recently entered the hotels business, with some of them doubling as furniture showrooms. Retail Tech Directory Stores will continue to leverage technology to enable customers and find and learn about products with ease and convenience, TrendHunter predicts. These changes are happening within bricks-and-mortar stores, which have proven to be more resilient than previously expected (think Toys R Us and Staples), as retailers rediscover the importance of in-store shopping experiences. When it comes to making improvements in-store, tech is the obvious choice. In 2019, the report notes that consumers will see more tech-enabled store enhancement, such as interactive retail robots, in-store product-detecting apps and tablet-connected shopping carts. For example, in November, Loblaw introduced a shop and scan self-checkout app, enabling customers to scan their items as they shop in eight retail locations. Zero Waste Retail Over the last year, sustainability has taken on greater meaning for brands, as consumers become more concerned about their environmental footprint. Retailers have not been immune to this trend, according to the report, which notes that small retailers are building new businesses around the idea of waste reduction (either through minimizing or repurposing waste). This shift serves two purposes, write the authors of the report. It gives the retailers in question leverage over larger and more financially secure corporations, while offering consumers more incentive to shop local. The Unpacked Halifax pop-up shop in Halifax, which sells food and home products, including shampoo, soap and detergent, without the usual packaging, is Canadas first zero-waste store on the East Coast, according to TrendHunter. Expect other stores, such as zero-waste cafes, sustainability-focused salons, to continue growing in popularity this year. Browse Buying Finally, the insights company sees sprawling, multi-option retail spaces as speaking to the Gen Z way of shopping. The onset of digital has shoppers demanding convenience and speed in retail. However, when it comes to Gen Z, leisurely in-store shopping ushers in sprawling spaces designed for browsing, the report finds. Among the types of stores popping up are glamorous ecommerce flagships, ecommerce bargain shops, and sprawling accessories stores. One Canadian example is Ardene, which is set to continue opening a series of large-format stores. | http://strategyonline.ca/2019/01/09/whats-next-for-retail-in-2019/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=whats-next-for-retail-in-2019 |
What If We Paid People to Donate Their Kidneys to Strangers? | That's a pretty rare combination; presumably you'd be pretty excited. Possibly you are now less excited. Possibly you are now picturing a sci-fi dystopia where the poor serve as organ farms for the wealthy. Which is what such people as Gabriel Danovitch worry about. Danovitch, medical director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, believes more should be done to make organ donation financially neutral, compensating donors only for matters such as travel and lost wages. But he adamantly opposes letting donors profit from the transaction, because it would mean exploiting the desperate. Letting people sell a kidney, he told me, would be not only ethically but also medically irresponsible. Desperate people would be tempted to lie about their medical history to qualify as a donor. Those lies could end up killing either the donor or the immune-suppressed recipient, whose body could no longer fight off stray germs or cancer cells. Moreover, Danovitch says, paid donation would substitute for voluntary donation rather than adding to it. All valid concerns. But Frank McCormick calls our attention to another concern: the tens of thousands of people who are dying each year for want of a kidney. An economist by training, McCormick argues that if you keep ratcheting up compensation, eventually you'll find a price that will clear the kidney "market." McCormick is one of the authors of a recent editorial in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology that estimated a staggering toll for that backlog: Of 126,000 people diagnosed annually with end-stage renal disease, only 20,000 will eventually receive a donated kidney, either from donors who have been declared brain-dead or -- since people can live a normal life span with only one kidney -- from live donors who have accepted a relatively small chance of complications in exchange for a high chance of saving someone's life. Patients who need a kidney but can't find a donor generally end up tethered to a dialysis machine every other day. But dialysis is a poor substitute for a functioning kidney, and five years after starting treatment, only a third of hemodialysis patients are still alive. Dialysis is also an expensive kidney substitute, costing roughly $90,000 a year, most of it covered by Medicare; transplants cost less than half that. Which means, McCormick notes, that the government could compensate donors handsomely while still saving money. And because kidney failure disproportionately affects the poor, they on net would be better off, not worse off. Moreover, he says, there are ways to mitigate other problems, such as patient education and waiting periods to weed out the truly desperate. What risks remain are small compared with the benefits of finding a kidney for every eligible patient. That utilitarian calculus seems overwhelming. But most people aren't pure utilitarians; they have moral intuitions that can't be reduced to numbers. Including: Buying body parts is wrong. "It's about health and welfare," says Danovitch of his transplant work. "We're not talking about a financial interaction." Transplant surgeons make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for their work. In fact, everyone in the operating room except the donor is getting handsomely rewarded. And indeed, payments to health care providers can distort patient care, sometimes harming patients. Yet no one suggests moving to an all-volunteer health care system, because the distortions introduced by paying providers are infinitely preferable to what would happen if we refused to pay them. Instead, we've created a liminal social institution where altruism meets markets: "the healing professions." The join is imperfect -- yet it's still better than the alternative. Nor is health care the only such space. Military recruiters, for example, offer hefty bonuses and generous veterans benefits as an incentive for civilians to join up. Like soldiers, kidney donors accept some risk of bodily harm. Undoubtedly some people would donate for the wrong reasons, just as some people foolishly enlist. Yet that risk still seems preferable to leaving so many desperate dialysis patients dependent on the kindness of strangers. (c) 2019, Washington Post Writers Group | https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/01/09/what_if_we_paid_people_to_donate_their_kidneys_to_strangers_139128.html |
Are the Lightning the NHL's super team? | Though its extremely difficult to quantify or define exactly what a Super Team is in professional sports, the NHLs Tampa Bay Lightning are probably pretty close to being labelled as such no matter how you slice it. Boasting a lethal group of forwards complimented by an elite defence corps and arguably the NHLs top netminder, there arent many, if any, holes to be found throughout the NHL leaders lineup. That, like whether or not to classify the Bolts as the NHLs Super Team, isnt an easy question to answer as NHL writers Justin Cuthbert and Andrew Zuber discussed on the latest episode of The NHL Spin. (Getty) A great goalie (Vasilevskiy) on a great team is a scary thing to think think about, said Zuber. So you know what, I will take Tampa Bay you can have the field. I will take the field. I do think there is immense pressure on the Lightning coming in, Cuthbert said. Theres going to be pressure because they havent done it yet. And were getting to the end of their window because they have three unrestricted defencemen. They have Brayden Point, whos a tremendous player but his salary is going to multiply next year because hes performing on a bargain bin salary. Its too tight to pick one team over the rest because theres a lot of talent in the league. Whether or not you think the team as a whole should be considered a super-team juggernaut and the hands-down favourite to lift Stanley in June, the halfway-mark numbers are pretty sensational. The Lightning are on a 15-0-1 run in their last 16 games on pace for 132 points which would be the most weve ever seen in an 82-game season. More NHL coverage on Yahoo Sports: | https://sports.yahoo.com/lightning-nhls-super-team-045951077.html?src=rss |
How far does $500K go in the fight to help Toronto's homeless? | Local churches and synagogues get cash infusion, but its a stop-gap By Jessica Wei LR: David Reycraft, Arys Allen-McPherson, June Sonberg and Emily Rayson from Out of the Cold Winter is in full swing, and it is nowhere more evident than at the Holy Blossom Temple, at Eglinton Avenue West and Bathurst Street, where the weekly overnight shelter sees a nightly capacity rate of around 97 per cent. The shelter is an outpost of the Out of the Cold program (OOTC), which received $500,000 in additional funding from the City of Toronto in November. Although that funding has been put to good use, volunteers and staff with OOTC believe that the problem cant be solved by adding more beds to the citys overextended emergency shelter system. At 9:30 at night, when the lights go out when they get there on one grey mat, sleeping on this floor, said Emily Rayson, a long-time volunteer with OOTC at Holy Blossom, it gets to me, every single year Ive been doing this. I dont know how you break the cycle. Between December 2016 and December 2017, the citys emergency shelter system saw an average nightly occupancy increase of 1,240 people. This past November, the nightly occupancy increased to 6,641 people 1,212 more than in the previous December. Despite having added 807 beds for the current winter season, shelters and emergency respite sites are still routinely hovering around 98 to 100 per cent capacity. At OOTC, the occupancy rates are no different. The most recent numbers that Ive seen for OOTC suggest that were at 97 per cent capacity, said David Reycraft, the director of housing services of Dixon Hall, the organization that has managed the OOTC program since 2003. Interestingly, the occupancy is comparable to last year, but we have more beds in the system this year. Theres this kind of open it and they will come Zeitgeist. The city has committed to opening 1,000 new beds by 2020. But despite this aggressive push toward opening more emergency respite sites, advocates are calling for more affordable housing and supportive housing. This started as an emergency shelter for the homeless, a band-aid solution. It never went away. It was nice for me to see, for the first time, that this group of people are beginning to ask for housing, said Reycraft. Traditionally that hasnt been what they ask for they ask for emergency shelter responses but we do need more affordable housing. Nobody knows this better than the front line staff. The city opens up more homeless respite sites, but a lot of these people arent homeless, said Andrea Katz, a fellow volunteer. There are definitely people here who are homeless but there are people here who are just marginalized and need assistance as well. So they need a different level of support. Although most of their guests are homeless, Katz and Rayson described some who stay with OOTC as also living in rooming houses. These individuals often have issues with housemates or otherwise feel unsafe at home. They have a schedule now, said Rayson. All of the Out of the Cold shelters have almost become six-month housing. Weve created a system that allows them to do that. Reycraft also identified the need for supportive housing to help alleviate the homelessness crisis. Supportive housing is critical for us, he said. Many of these people you would move into housing have all different challenges that make it difficult for them to sustain housing, so you want to be able to support them once you move them into housing. OOTC is expecting a winter similar to last years. With its new funding, it is able to bring on new staff, improve the sites and offset costs associated with food and volunteers. However, improving the program doesnt stem the problem. We were never supposed to be here for this long, said Rayson. This started as an emergency shelter for the homeless, a band-aid solution. It never went away. When we started this thing, we all said, We should be gone in a few years. This shouldnt have to happen. | http://www.postcity.com/Eat-Shop-Do/Do/January-2019/How-far-does-500K-go-in-the-fight-to-help-Torontos-homeless/ |
Why has the Bridgewater Canal turned a bizarre shade of blue? | 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 An investigation has been launched after a stretch of the Bridgewater Canal turned a bizarre shade of blue. A section of the waterway behind the Trafford Centre looked more like soapy bathwater rather than its usual orange-brown colour on Tuesday. A pollution incident is believed to be behind the transformation, the Environment Agency say. Walker Dag Pagan stopped to take some photographs of the canal on his way home on Tuesday. The water was still blue on Wednesday. Dag, 69, from Barton, said: "It was very unusual shade blue colour. "The canal is normally orange because of the old iron ore mine in Worsley. "I've never seen it like that before. I was walking for a good 15 minutes before I reached water that was a normal colour again. "It looked like some sort of spillage." The Environment Agency confirmed they are investigating the cause of the discolouration. An Environment Agency spokesperson said: We are aware of reports of discoloration in Bridgewater Canal. Environment Officers are currently on site and investigating the cause. "At the stage, we do believe that the discoloration has been caused by pollution and we will continue to monitor the site to reduce any environmental impact. It is understood the water was contaminated by a nearby overspill drain. | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/bridgewater-canal-turned-bizarre-shade-15654017 |
What happened to Todd Grimshaw on Coronation Street? | 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 Todd Grimshaw waved a hasty goodbye to Weatherfield in December 2017. The long-standing character was written out after actor Bruno Langley was axed from the soap. Todd sped away from Coronation Street with boyfriend Billy Mayhews foster Summer Spellman. He left the cobbles in a double bill on December 22, but blink and you might have missed his exit. A car roared around the corner onto Coronation Street before Summer was ordered inside by a voice that sounded like Todd. His mum Eileen Phelan asked "Todd?" before the car sped away. Todd left Weatherfield in the wake of his partner Billy Mayhew revealing that he was responsible for the death of Peter Barlow's twin Susan in a car crash 16 years ago, and he hasnt been seen since. (Image: ITV/Coronation Street) In January 2018 Summer returned without Todd. Eileen Phelan drove Billy to meet Todd and Summer, played by Matilda Freeman, but when they arrived they were shocked to find Summer on her own. The teen explained that Todd wasnt coming after the police caught up with them and she got away, and vicar Billy was absolutely horrified. (Image: ITV/Coronation Street) Todd whisked Summer away after Peter called her grandmother Geraldine Spellman when it emerged that Billy was involved in his twins death in a car accident 16 years ago. There was more horror for Billy when recovering alcoholic Peter forced him to drink alcohol, bundled him into the boot of his car and drive him to the edge of a cliff. And in horrifying Christmas Day scenes Billy toppled off the edge. While recovering from his injuries Billy became addicted to painkillers and turned to heroin with his drug dealer brother Lee, before it was arranged for him to go to rehab. Join our Coronation Street Fan Chat group on Facebook where youll also get updates, spoilers and more. | https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/tv/what-happened-todd-grimshaw-coronation-15653869 |
Should The Mets Extend Jacob DeGrom? | Certainly not. DeGrom, two years away from free agency, is the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, a huge fan favorite, and one of the few reasons to watch the Mets in 2018. In Queens, and maybe even in all of New York baseball, he is the man right now. Heck, the Mets GM is his old agent. Perhaps, but not so fast. First off, the Mets have him for two more years anyway. And as with anything else, there are potential pros and cons to committing big dollars and multiple years to any player, even that one who stands as your current franchise face. Remember, de Grom is 30, close to the age when many pitchers, even aces, begin a decline. He's never going to be as good as was in 2018 again. Theres also some injury history deGrom had Tommy John surgery in 2010 and minor surgery for elbow nerve damage in 2016. None of this means that the Mets shouldnt sign him, but theyre factors. Modern baseball history is filled with cases of big money free agent deals for 30-somethings that dont work out. And thats essentially what the Mets would be doing with deGrom. Even though hes their own player, the team needs to view him as a 30-year-old free agent its considering signing (that whole hes shown he can handle New York thing is overrated skills are skills). Its pretty much a mixed bag. Johan Santana and Tim Lincecum didnt do it. Neither did Josh Beckett or Roy Oswalt. Felix Hernandez, whom the Mariners signed to a $135 million contract in 2013, hasnt been much good since his age 29 season in 2015. Tim Hudson, Pedro Martinez and Roy Halladay went a bit longer but still petered out by 34. Still, the list of those pitchers who did continue to shine well into their 30s (or beyond 40 in a couple of cases) is impressive too. It includes Curt Schilling, Randy Johnson and Kevin Brown. Also Mike Mussina, Zack Grienke and Greg Maddux. Youve got Justin Verlander, a power pitcher like deGrom, who looked to be slowing down a few years ago but who then came back about as strong as ever the past two years at the ages of 34 and 35. Then there are those in-between cases like CC Sabathia, a dominant pitcher through age 30 who fought through a big two-year downturn before salvaging a decent second career as a junk baller for five additional years (and counting). So whether deGrom continues to mow down hitters for a couple of more seasons or for ten more seasons is anyones guess, the most likely outcome being somewhere in the middle. The good news is that he has the all the makings of a young 30 after converting to the mound from the infield in college, minimizing the mileage on his right arm. For the Mets, signing deGrom would please the fans and win raves from the press as a bold, decisive move. Baseball wise, its more complicated, but still a worthwhile five or six-year risk in the $150 million neighborhood. Beyond that, you need to treat player shopping like car shopping set a limit and be prepared to walk away. | https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanriper/2019/01/09/should-the-mets-extend-jacob-degrom/ |
Could the Oakland Raiders end up playing in Tucson next season? | An Oakland Raiders fan holds a sign reading "Oakland is home" during the third quarter against the Denver Broncos at Oakland Coliseum. (Photo: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports) The Oakland Raiders need a place to play next season. Maybe they could share a stadium with a college football team like the Rams do with USC. Maybe they could do that in Tucson at Arizona Stadium. The Arizona Daily Star has a story about a Tucson attorney trying to make it happen. Greg Hansen writes: "Ali Farhang recently phoned Oakland Raiders president Marc Badain, introduced himself and pitched a plan for the Raiders to play their 2019 home schedule at Arizona Stadium. Badain listened. Farhang planted the possibility of the Raiders relocating to Tucson for a year. They agreed to talk again." Hansen wrote that Farhang got approval from Arizona President Robert C. Robbins and Athletic Director Dave Heeke to pursue the Raiders, and also got the blessing of Arizona Cardinals President Michael Bidwill and Arizona Governor Doug Ducey. Id like to give it the best shot possible, Farhang told The Star. What do we have to lose? Id really like to bring our Tucson leaders to Oakland, meet with the Raiders brass and show them why this is the perfect Raiders move, Farhang added. It would be totally unexpected and out of the box. It would be visionary in a lot of ways, like their late owner (Al Davis) was in so many ways." RELATED: Raiders win possible final game in Oakland CLOSE Raiders fans celebrated before Monday night's game against the Denver Broncos, enjoying what could be the team's final game in the Oakland Coliseum. The Raiders are set to move to Las Vegas in 2020. It's undecided where they'll play in 2019. (Dec. 25) AP The Raiders are set to move to Las Vegas in 2020, where they will play in a new $1.8 billion, 65,000-seat stadium that will make the old Oakland Coliseum look like a relic. But, the franchise is still looking for a home in 2019. The City of Oakland sued the Raiders over the move earlier this month, leading the team to pull its lease offer to play there next year. The Raiders have reportedly been in talks with the San Francisco Giants about playing in AT&T Park and could even be looking to share Levi's Stadium for a year with the 49ers. Another option is moving outside of their market for a year before landing at their "forever home" in Las Vegas. MORE: Oakland sues NFL, Raiders over move to Las Vegas Returning to Oakland, where crazily dressed fans have filled the Black Hole for the past 24 seasons, is also a possibility. A decision likely will come sometime before the Super Bowl. In the story, Farhang said Tucson would be a win-win situation for the Raiders. We could make this a win-win for the Raiders, Farhang told The Star. They could begin building their Las Vegas fan base in Tucson. They would be welcome with open arms, an instant hit in Tucson. And it would bring a tremendous amount of tourism and commerce to Arizona. MORE: From the Heidi Game to the Holy Roller, these are the 10 greatest Oakland Raiders moments The Associated Press contributed to this story. | https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nfl/cardinals/2019/01/09/oakland-raiders-play-tucson-arizona/2528365002/ |
Will Jeff Bezoss Divorce Be the Most Expensive (and Costliest) Ever? | On Wednesday morning, Jeff Bezosfounder, chairman, CEO, and president of Amazon, and (therefore unsurprisingly) the wealthiest person in the worldannounced to his 700,000-plus Twitter followers that, after 25 years of marriage, he and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos (ne Tuttle), have decided to get a divorce. "We want to make people aware of a development in our lives. As our family and close friends know, after a long period of loving exploration and trial separation, we have decided to divorce and continue our shared lives as friends," the couple wrote in a paragraph that they signed "Jeff & MacKenzie." This isn't just any old breakup: It also marks an end to the reign of the world's wealthiest couple . And, to quote CNBC 's headline, "How much could Mackenzie Bezos get in a divorce?" The dollar figures are, of course, still very much up in the air, but CNBC notes that because the Bezoses live in the state of Washington, which is a community property state, it's possible any wealth accumulated during their marriagewhich began a year after Bezos founded Amazoncould end up being split equally between the pair. And seeing as Jeff's profits from the company reportedly tally up to $137 billion, MacKenzie might soon have $66 billion coming her wayeven though they appear to be planning to keep things amicable. "If we had known we would separate after 25 years, we would do it all again," the pair continued in their statement. "Weve had such a great life together as a married couple, and we also see wonderful futures ahead, as parents, friends, partners in ventures and projects, and as individuals pursuing ventures and adventures. Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends." MacKenzie, a novelist with a degree from Princetonher former professor Toni Morrison once described her as "really one of the best" students she's ever had in her creative writing classesfirst met Jeff when he interviewed her for a job at a hedge fund that she hoped would pay her bills as she pursued her career in writing. She was 23 years old when they got engaged, just three months after they began dating, and her husband was still gushing about her 20 years later: "I think my wife is resourceful, smart, brainy, and hot, but I had the good fortune of having seen her rsum before I met her, so I knew exactly what her SATs were," he told Vogue in 2013. That $137 billion figure, however, is pre-divorce fees that may soon be incurredand it's hard to imagine that the world's wealthiest person would get himself a lawyer who was anything less than top-tier. Plus, to fork over $66 billion, he'd likely have to sell or pledge some of his 80 million shares in the company, therefore putting his ownership and control of Amazon into jeopardysomething that might not be in MacKenzie's best interest, seeing as she has four children with Jeff, whom she described just this morning as her "cherished friend." In any case, they're eligible to make history with one of the expensive divorces of all time. If so, they'd be in the company of Rupert Murdoch, whose split from Anna Maria Mann in 1999 led to a $1.7 billion settlement (or $2.6 billion with inflation); and Mel Gibson, whose split from Robyn Moore Gibson cost an estimated $425 million. (Though even they can't measure up to Bernie and Slavica Ecclestone, a 5-foot-4 Formula One businessman and 6-foot-2 former model, whose split cost $1.2 billion, nor the art dealer Alec Wildenstein's $2.5 billion split from the socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein, who's since become known for spending millions on plastic surgery.) Pinterest Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Bezos in Sun Valley, Idaho, in 2013. Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Still, the news is one of the few hints of a potential decline since Amazon's (in some ways quite literal) takeover of the world. In September, for example, reports of Amazon's at times inhumane working conditions sparked outrage. And the following month, news broke that Amazon had met with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to pitch them their new real-time facial recognition technology, which would, of course, pose further threats to undocumented immigrants and allow ICE to further its highly controversial policies. On the other hand, though Jeff may be no art bro , the 54-year-old will now be among the highly single tech billionaires out there. May he take solace in the fact thatat least in the world of eligible, controversial, male tech billionaire bachelorsElon Musk has already made sure that he won't be at the bottom of the barrel. Related: In Addition to Dating Grimes, Elon Musk Has Been Secretly Spending His Time Teaching a Small Army of Kids How to "Blow S--t Up" | https://www.wmagazine.com/story/jeff-bezos-divorce-wife-mackenzie-worth |
Was Lady Gaga's Golden Globes necklace recycled from 2011? | Lady Gaga has insisted her Golden Globes necklace was made 'just for her' by jewellers Tiffany & Co., after an Australian singer claimed she wore it first. The pop superstar, 32, wore an 'exquisitely crafted custom-made Aurora necklace' by the high-end brand at the awards ceremony held in Beverly Hills on Sunday night. But the following day, Ricki-Lee Coulter, who is a former Australian Idol contestant, told her Instagram followers that she originally wore the design eight years ago. Scroll down for video The mystery of Lady Gaga's Golden Globes necklace: The pop star (right) insists her Tiffany & Co. accessory was made 'just for her' - but Australian singer Ricki-Lee Coulter (left) claims SHE wore it first Ricki-Lee, 33, shared photos of herself wearing a similar looking necklace, which she claimed were taken in Melbourne, Australia in 2011. She wrote: 'I was just drooling over Lady Gaga's amazing outfit at the Golden Globes and went "OMG I've worn that!" That amazing Tiffany & Co. diamond necklace! 'I had the honour of wearing it to a Tiffany & Co. event in Melbourne back in 2011 and, although it wasn't the Golden Globes, I still felt like an absolute princess wearing a necklace that they told me at the time was worth over $10million.' After sharing her original post, Ricki-Lee later claimed the necklace she wore in 2011 was called The Majestic (left), but insisted it looked 'exactly the same' as Lady Gaga's Aurora (right) While Ricki-Lee is unknown in the U.S., her claims about the necklace being recycled clearly got back to Lady Gaga, who responded via Instagram Tuesday. Without naming Ricki-Lee, the Bad Romance hitmaker emphasised that the Aurora necklace was made specially for her as an homage to her movie, A Star Is Born. 'I felt like a princess in custom Tiffany & Co. made just for me for the Golden Globes. The Aurora necklace was named after the Aurora Borealis as an homage to A Star Is Born,' she wrote. Lady Gaga's post was a 'paid partnership' with the luxury New York-based jewellers. 'It was made just for me': While Ricki-Lee is unknown in the U.S., her claims about the necklace being recycled clearly got back to Lady Gaga, who responded via Instagram Tuesday. Pictured: Lady Gaga at the Golden Globes in Beverly Hills on Sunday night 'I felt like a princess': Without naming Ricki-Lee, the Bad Romance hitmaker emphasised that the Aurora necklace was made specially for her as an homage to her movie, A Star Is Born After sharing her original post, Ricki-Lee later claimed on Instagram that the necklace she wore in 2011 was called The Majestic, but insisted it looked 'exactly the same' as the Aurora. 'The one I wore was called The Majestic - look it up - they look exactly the same to me,' she wrote in response to followers claiming the two necklaces were different. 'Also, I posted this as soon as I saw it and before any of this talk of it being custom made for her. I simply saw it on her and went, "OMG that's so cool!" From a land Down Under: Ricki-Lee Coulter, who is a former Australian Idol contestant, is a household name in her home country. Pictured: Ricki-Lee performing in Melbourne in 2015 'There's no need for everyone to get nasty here, there's no point. Maybe it is a new one. 'The point was, I saw it and went, "I've worn that", and thought it was awesome! It's not often you watch the Oscars or the Golden Globes and can say "I've worn that". Everybody just needs to chill.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Lady Gaga and Ricki-Lee Coulter for comment. | https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-6574597/Was-Lady-Gagas-Golden-Globes-necklace-recycled-2011.html |
How does someone in a vegetative state have a baby? | News of a woman in a vegetative state for more than a decade giving birth to a boy on December 29 has stirred emotions nationwide. Arizona Children Continents and regions Demographic groups Families and children Family members and relatives Health and health care (by demographic group) Health and medical Infants and toddlers Maternal and child health Medical fields and specialties North America Obstetrics and gynecology Population and demographics Pregnancy and childbirth Society Southwestern United States The Americas United States Women's health Brain death Brain injuries Diseases and disorders Head injuries Neurological disorders and injuries Wounds and injuries "It is very rare," said Dr. Deborah Feldman, who has heard about "maybe two or three cases" in the past two decades. Feldman, director for maternal fetal medicine at Hartford HealthCare Medical Group, treated a woman 20 years ago who had a stroke that rendered her brain-dead during her second trimester and who went on to have the baby. Feldman has read about, but has no direct knowledge of, the Arizona case. The new case "speaks to the fact that the patient actually had largely normally functioning organs," Feldman said. "I can say that, biologically, her body actually was functioning very well in order to grow a full-term baby." Because she is the victim of sexual abuse, CNN is not reporting the name of the patient, who was in long-term care at a Phoenix medical facility. A person in a coma is unconscious, though breathing independently, for a prolonged period of time. If a coma continues, it is considered a "persistent vegetative state." By contrast, a brain-dead patient is unconscious, has lost the capacity to breathe and requires mechanical respiration. Though it is unusual that no one noticed the Arizona patient's pregnancy, many healthy women deliver babies with no prenatal care. "Most of the time, those babies are healthy and robust," Feldman said. "Nature takes care of itself." She believes the same will be true of the child in this case. "In a persistent vegetative state, your organs still work, and your fertility is still there," she said. The risks in such cases would be poor fetal growth as well as all the usual risks of pregnancy found in healthy women, including diabetes and hypertension. "Patients who are not moving don't really have any caloric expenditure, but they're also not eating," Feldman said. "My guess is that she probably had a feeding tube. That really helps with the nutritional support, and babies tend to grow well even with just that." Unlike IV fluids, a feeding tube is surgically placed in the stomach instead of a vein and provides formula for a patient. When a patient is unconscious and unable to push, delivery is "very difficult," Feldman said. "In most cases, we rely on medication to strengthen the contractions -- so that would be oxytocin administered in an IV. That allows the contractions to be strong enough so the patient doesn't have to do anything." During the delivery, doctors would use forceps or a vacuum to assist. "Always, a c-section will be the easiest way to deliver the baby, but obviously that's riskier for the mom because it is a surgical operation," Feldman said. "The recovery would be essentially the same as for a normal patient, with probably slightly increased risk of infection." "It's hard to know" whether the woman knew that she was pregnant (or delivering a baby) or whether she experienced pain, Feldman said, without knowing the specifics of the woman's brain injury. "I can tell you that to go through labor and deliver a baby with absolutely no analgesic is difficult, but I can't speculate as to what this patient felt, if she felt any pain, if she knew it was happening," Feldman said. "It's so sad she had to endure that. It's awful." "I feel like every five to 10 years, this comes up somewhere in the country, and usually, I get an email or a call because someone sees the paper that I wrote," said Feldman, who researched about 10 additional cases beyond her own patient. Thaddeus Mason Pope, director of the Health Law Institute at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Minnesota, wrote in an email that the case illustrates the issue of patient safety in long-term care. "Obviously, the biggest issue is the criminal battery that caused her impregnation," said Pope, who has no direct knowledge of the Arizona woman's case, as this was clearly not consensual sex. | https://www.kq2.com/content/national/504119602.html?ref=602 |
Is Android Google's Achilles' heel? | Just four years ago, the Open Handset Alliance, headed up by Google, released Android, the open source mobile operating system for smartphones (and later tablets). The first Google phone was the T-Mobile G1. Since then Android has enjoyed a meteoric rise, gaining popularity in the smartphone market much faster than even Apple's iOS did on its debut. However, that rapid increase in market share isn't the full story. There are big problems behind the scenes problems that could turn Android into a poisoned chalice for Google. The cost of free First there are the patent wars, which may help its competitors squeeze Android off smartphones and tablets. Major companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Apple are claiming patent disputes against the manufacturers of devices that use the Android operating system. These disputes are usually so costly to fight, smaller companies will often just agree to pay patent licensing costs to the larger company rather than spend cash confronting it in the courts. This means Android, a free operating system, is suddenly costing the device manufacturer money to use. Other patent disputes have had an even bigger impact. For example, Apple gained a temporary injunction in August to prevent the Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 from being sold in Europe (albeit temporarily) after Apple claimed the tablet copied the iPad's design and functionality. Other Android worries come from consumer complaints about over-complication due to the many different versions of the OS being run by different mobile phone and tablet companies, and how slow some networks and phone companies have been to provide updates. There's also the lack of quality control on the Android app market, questions about just how 'open' Android's open source OS is, and no sign of any money coming back to Google to cover the costs of development and deployment. Trouble in paradise This should have been Android's year. In many ways, the project appears to be a runaway success: it's gaining market share at an unprecedented rate 550,000 activations a day and Android app downloads are matching those of the iPhone. However, it's clear that there's trouble in paradise. There has been a litany of woes since Android's launch, which taken together could be enough to put consumers and manufacturers off Google's OS. But before we can understand the reason for this, it may be worthwhile asking why Google developed Android in the first place. Google's involvement in Android started in July 2005 when it bought a company called Android Inc, which was founded in 2003 by Andy Rubin, Rich Miner, Nick Sears and Chris White. Android Inc was a little known company acquired by Google along with a raft of other start-ups. Not much was known about it before it was purchased; Android Inc worked in secrecy then, revealing only that it was working on mobile software. In that year Google was snapping up a large portfolio of technology start-ups, but Android Inc still seemed a strange purchase for a company that had made its fortune in online search and advertising. Remember, this was at a time when the major phone manufacturers were primarily Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, RIM (maker of the BlackBerry) and Samsung. Between them, they had the mobile phone market sewn up, each with a band of loyal followers, so the likelihood of other companies breaking into this market seemed slim. Microsoft, a firm with a lot of money at its disposal, had tried repeatedly with limited success. It wasn't until 2007 that Apple, which was then best known as a computer manufacturer, blew all that out of the water with the release of the iPhone. Phones suddenly weren't just for calls and texts they became portable computers, and the worlds of mobile phones and computing were changed forever. Google had clearly anticipated this, and didn't want to be left behind. If the world of the internet was to be re-housed on the mobile phone, it needed to be part of that market. As such, it had been busy as the driving force behind the Open Handset Alliance, initially a collection of 34 companies, from handset makers and silicon chip producers to app developers, including big names like Dell, HTC, Intel, LG, Motorola, Qualcomm, Samsung, Sony, T-Mobile and Nvidia. Together they wanted to create open standards for mobile phones, and in November 2007 they announced Android, an open source operating system based on the Linux kernel that anyone could use for free. Any developer could design an app for it, without the restrictions that Apple demanded for its App Store. It sounds like a fine enterprise, but the business model behind Android certainly left some people scratching their heads. As well as giving out the OS for free, when it started out Google didn't take any money from revenue generated by the apps on the Android Market. Steve Ballmer certainly didn't get it, and was open about his confusion. Speaking at the Telstra Investor Day conference in Sydney in November 2009, he said: "I don't really understand their strategy. Maybe somebody else does. If I went to my shareholder meeting, my analyst meeting, and said: 'Hey, we've just launched a new product that has no revenue model!' I'm not sure that my investors would take that very well. But that's kind of what Google's telling their investors about Android." We put that question to mobile technology specialist Allan Nogee, Research Director for Wireless Technology Group, In-Stat. "I think that remains to be seen," he told us. "I think if you look back 10 years, Microsoft would also say that its business model was better than Google's on the PC, but if you look today, you would have to question that. Google and Microsoft have little choice on how to move forward when the world around them changes. They are each sticking with what they know and hoping for the best, but things change. Microsoft won the PC OS wars because PC hardware became a commodity and it was the OS that added value. Then 10 years later, Apple beat Microsoft because of operators subsidising smartphones. You might as well buy a Rolls Royce if it costs the same as the Buick." This isn't the first time Google's business strategy has confused people, and it won't be the last. With the massive fortune Google has at its disposal, it can afford to take punts on expensive projects particularly ones that may offer as lucrative a proposition as letting it own the smartphone advertising market. Google's forays into the world of office tools, email, even video-playing services often look like financial suicide on paper. 'Where is the profit?' most company boards would ask. 'Why are we giving these services away free and not reaping any instant reward?' But products like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Docs, Google Calendar and YouTube do have long-term value, and with Google's profits from web advertising to prop them up for the foreseeable future, they don't have to be successful straight away. They also have the benefit of ensuring Google occupies a space a competitor would otherwise take over, with its free offerings generally proving more attractive than paid-for ones. And, of course, each of these services has Google's directed advertising shoehorned into it, meaning there is still some revenue coming back. Not to mention the amount of information the company can collect about individual users. | https://www.techradar.com/uk/news/software/operating-systems/is-android-google-s-achilles-heel-1045312 |
Are We Ready For A Recession? | Listen 9:59 9:59 The economy is in good shape, but some people say we could be heading towards a downturn. A number of recession indicators are beginning to flicker, such as a flattened yield curve, strong demand for treasuries and wild swings in the stock market. The U.S. economy has some very particular tools to deal with recessions, but Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics says the usual monetary and fiscal medicine may not be as effective this time around. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: Twitter/ Facebook. Subscribe to our show on Apple Podcasts, PocketCasts and NPR One. | https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2019/01/09/683696538/are-we-ready-for-a-recession?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=storiesfromnpr |
Is Ross Mathews Moving on From Ex Salvador Camarena? | Fans think Ross Mathews is moving on from ex Salvador Camarena with a new man two months after the longtime pair announced that they were calling it quits. The Chelsea Lately star, 39, has been spending time with Ryan Fogarty, a former tour production assistant for LeAnn Rimes. Ross and Fogarty visited The Abbey in West Hollywood for a tree lighting ceremony in early December. Ross and Ryan were at The Abbey for the event and people were speculating that they were there as a romantic couple and they sat next to each other most of the time they were there, a source tells Us Weekly. The twosome also celebrated the new year together in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where they dined on some unconventional dishes at El Arrayan Restaurante. This pic was taken right after we ate cricket tacos, Fogarty wrote on a photo of himself with the Celebrity Fit Club alum and several other friends on Instagram on Sunday, January 6, along with the hashtags, #amazingpeople #suchgoodfoodandevenbettercompany. Mathews potential new love interest hinted at a possible blossoming romance between the two with a post about his NYE celebration on Tuesday, January 8. Rung in the New Year at Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burtons @casakimberly, he captioned an Instagram snap of himself with a portrait of the late Cleopatra actress. Such a beautiful dinner, with views of the Puerto Vallarta Bay and an amazing fireworks show. However, the company was what made it the most special. I have been so very blessed to have met some diamonds of people and family in my life and years. I may fault at showing how much those people mean, and at times hard headed as a rock, but I promise to do better. The TV personality commented on the photo with three heart emojis. Mathews split from Camarena after nearly 10 years in November. After nearly ten years together, Salvador and I have decided that the time has come to part ways, the Days of Our Lives alum wrote on Instagram at the time. This split is amicable and filled with kindness, compassion and a genuine love for one another. As we go forward, each of us feels as if he has a cheerleader in our corner a family member for life. We are happy. Thank you all for your well wishes and love. One year prior, the RuPauls Drag Race judge admitted to Huffington Post that he had been thinking about having children with his former boyfriend. I want to start focusing on my life and my happiness, he said in October 2017. I want to have kids now. I feel like Ive been married and raising my career. Im ready pretty soon to think about having some babies. With reporting by Marc Lupo and Brody Brown Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox! Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! | https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/is-ross-mathews-moving-on-from-ex-salvador-camarena/ |
Whose Roads Are Worse Than Uticas And Who Has The Best? | While we're proud of our food and are loyal about other aspects of our town, the amount of potholes in our roads isn't one of the things we praise in Utica. But, believe it or not, neither we nor New York state hold the crown on the worst roads in the nation. A company called lvl5 has been enlisting the help of Uber and Lyft drivers to map all of our nation's roads for self-driving cars using the Payver app, but the data is also being used to rate road condition. They released their data this past Fall and while New York is in the bottom ten in regards to potholes and cracks, Michigan is the absolute worst by a long shot. The data was also culminated by county and it looks like Oneida County is middle-of-the-road (see what we did there?) in terms of road quality with Herkimer County being the worst in Central New York. In terms of counties, only two in our state rate high: Wyoming and Yates. As far as overall state road quality, Florida is the absolute best with Hawaii and Washington State not far behind. To read more and check out the maps, head to Medium.com . | http://wour.com/utica-roads/ |
How Much Snow is Expected With Latest Winter Storm in CNY? | The National Weather Service ( NWS ) out of Binghamton has issued Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings for central New York. CNY will experience very strong winds gusting over 50 MPH with rain changing to wet snow in parts of Central New York this morning. The persistent lake enhanced snow will bring various ranges of accumulation up to a foot. ... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THURSDAY... * WHERE... Oneida, Seneca, Tompkins, Cortland, Chenango, and Otsego Counties. * WHAT... Lake effect snow expected. Blowing snow expected. Total snow accumulations of 3 to 7 inches expected the heaviest north. Winds gusting as high as 45 mph. * WHEN... Until 7 PM EST Thursday. Plan on slippery road conditions. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commutes. Areas of blowing snow could significantly reduce visibility. ... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 4 PM EST THIS AFTERNOON... ... WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 4 PM THIS AFTERNOON TO 7 PM EST THURSDAY... * WHERE... Onondaga, Madison, and Southern Cayuga counties including the cities of Auburn, Syracuse, Hamilton, and Oneida * WHAT... Snow and blowing snow expected. Heavy lake effect snow expected. Total snow accumulations 1 to 3 inches through 4 PM today, with winds gusting as high as 40 mph causing blowing snow. Additional lake effect snow of 4 to 9 inches expected 4 PM this afternoon through 7 PM Thursday. * WHEN... For the Winter Weather Advisory, until 4 PM EST this afternoon. For the Winter Storm Warning, from 4 PM EST this afternoon to 7 PM EST Thursday. Travel could be very difficult. Areas of blowing snow could significantly reduce visibility. The hazardous conditions could impact morning and evening commutes. ... WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 AM EST THURSDAY... * WHERE... Southern Herkimer County Including the cities of Ilion, Herkimer, Little Falls, Mohawk, Frankfort, and Dolgeville * WHAT... Snow and blowing snow. Total snow accumulations of 4 to 8 inches. Winds gusting as high as 50 mph. * WHEN... Until 7 AM EST Thursday. Travel could be very difficult. The hazardous conditions could impact the morning and evening commutes. Extended NWS Forcast: Today: Snow. Areas of blowing snow between noon and 2 pm. High near 34. Breezy, with a west wind 18 to 21 mph, with gusts as high as 37 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. Total daytime snow accumulation of around 2 inches. Tonight: Snow, mainly before 3 am, then a chance of snow showers after 3 am. Areas of blowing snow before 8 pm. Low around 20. West wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%. New snow accumulation of less than one inch possible. Thursday: Snow likely before noon, then a chance of snow showers after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 22. Blustery, with a northwest wind 17 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Thursday Night: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 6. Wind chill values as low as -8. Northwest wind 11 to 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New snow accumulation of less than a half inch possible. Friday: Partly sunny, with a high near 14. Northwest wind 9 to 11 mph. Friday Night: A slight chance of snow showers before 1 am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 2. Chance of precipitation is 20%. SaturdayPartly sunny, with a high near 18. Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 6. Sunday: Partly sunny, with a high near 22. Winter Weather Preparation: | http://wour.com/how-much-snow-is-expected-with-latest-winter-storm-in-cny/ |
Will Peter Bone MP Bet On Brexit Happening On March 29th 2019? | Eddie Mair asked him to bet his most valued possession on it. The prominent Eurosceptic Tory MP was live on LBC after Theresa May suffered her second Brexit defeat in less than 24 hours. The government will now have to announce new plans within three days if the Prime Ministers deal is rejected by MPs next week. Eddie Mair asked Peter Bone whether he'd bet on Brexit day happening. Picture: LBC The UK is currently scheduled to leave the EU on March 29th 2019 - whether there is a deal in place or not. Eddie wanted to gauge how confident one of Parliament's most prominent Brexiteers was it would happen. Whats the most important thing in your life? Eddie asked Mr Bone. Im not going to go into my love life, the Tory MP replied. Eddie responded: No, what I want to ask is would you bet that thing, whatever it is, would you bet it that Brexit will definitely happen on March 29th? See what happened next above. | https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/eddie-mair/will-peter-bone-mp-bet-brexit-happening-march-29th/ |
Who owns the moon? | Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first US flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their world history, it also rang some alarm bells. Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national flag in another part of the world still amounted to claiming that territory for the fatherland. When people hear for the first time that I am a lawyer practicing and teaching something called "space law," the question they ask most frequently, often with a big smile or a twinkle in the eye, is: "So tell me, who owns the moon?" Of course, claiming new national territories had been very much a European habit, applied to non-European parts of the world. Project Apollo Archive In particular the Portuguese, the Spanish, the Dutch, the French, and the English created huge colonial empires. But while their attitude was very Europe-centric, the legal notion that planting a flag was an act of establishing sovereignty quickly stuck and became accepted worldwide as part and parcel of the law of nations. Obviously, the astronauts had more important things on their mind than contemplating the legal meaning and consequences of that planted flag, but luckily the issue had been taken care of prior to the mission. Since the beginning of the space race the United States knew that for many people around the world the sight of a US flag on the Moon would raise major political issues. Any suggestion that the moon might become, legally speaking, part of US backwaters might fuel such concerns, and possibly give rise to international disputes harmful to both the US space program and US interests as a whole. Read more: China just launched the first mission to explore the moon's far side. When it lands, the discoveries may be revolutionary. By 1969, decolonization may have destroyed any notion that non-European parts of the world, though populated, were not civilized and thus justifiably made subject to European sovereignty however, there was not a single person living on the moon; even life itself was absent. Still, the simple answer to the question of whether Armstrong and Aldrin by way of their small ceremony did transform the moon, or at least a major part thereof, into US territory turns out to be "no." They, nor NASA, nor the US government intended the US flag to have that effect. The first outer space treaty Most importantly, that answer was enshrined in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to which both the United States and the Soviet Union as well as all other space-faring nations, had become a party. Both superpowers agreed that "colonization" on Earth had been responsible for tremendous human suffering and many armed conflicts that had raged over the last centuries. They were determined not to repeat that mistake of the old European colonial powers when it came to decide on the legal status of the moon; at least the possibility of a "land grab" in outer space giving rise to another world war was to be avoided. By that token, the moon became something of a "global commons" legally accessible to all countries two years prior to the first actual manned moon landing. Businessman Rajzeev V Baagree, who claims to have purchased 5 acres of land on the moon for Rupees 1400 (US$31) per acre, poses next to a computer image of the moon land he purchased and other documents of proof, at his residence in Hyderabad, India Mustafa Quraishi/AP Photo So, the US flag was not a manifestation of claiming sovereignty, but of honoring the US taxpayers and engineers who made Armstrong, Aldrin, and third astronaut Michael Collins' mission possible. The two men carried a plaque that they "came in peace for all mankind," and of course Neil's famous words echoed the same sentiment: his "small step for man" was not a "giant leap" for the United States, but "for mankind." Furthermore, the United States and NASA lived up to their commitment by sharing the moon rocks and other samples of soil from the lunar surface with the rest of the world, whether by giving them away to foreign governments or by allowing scientists from all over the globe to access them for scientific analysis and discussion. In the midst of the Cold War, this even included scientists from the Soviet Union. Not so fast. While the legal status of the Moon as a "global commons" accessible to all countries on peaceful missions did not meet any substantial resistance or challenge, the Outer Space Treaty left further details unsettled. Contrary to the very optimistic assumptions made at the time, so far humankind has not returned to the moon since 1972, making lunar land rights largely theoretical. That is, until a few years ago when several new plans were hatched to go back to the moon. In addition at least two US companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, which have serious financial backing, have started targeting asteroids for the purpose of mining their mineral resources. Geek note: Under the aforementioned Outer Space Treaty, the moon and other celestial bodies such as asteroids, legally speaking, belong in the same basket. None of them can become the "territory" of one sovereign state or another. Read more: NASA's first moon landings in nearly 50 years may happen in 2019. The agency thinks these 9 companies can get it to the lunar surface. The very fundamental prohibition under the Outer Space Treaty to acquire new state territory, by planting a flag or by any other means, failed to address the commercial exploitation of natural resources on the moon and other celestial bodies. This is a major debate currently raging in the international community, with no unequivocally accepted solution in sight yet. Roughly, there are two general interpretations possible. Countries such as the United States and Luxembourg (as the gateway to the European Union) agree that the moon and asteroids are "global commons," which means that each country allows its private entrepreneurs, as long as duly licensed and in compliance with other relevant rules of space law, to go out there and extract what they can, to try and make money with it. An artist's rendering of an asteroid swarm. NASA/JPL-Caltech It's a bit like the law of the high seas, which are not under the control of an individual country, but completely open to duly licensed law-abiding fishing operations from any country's citizens and companies. Then, once the fish is in their nets, it is legally theirs to sell. On the other hand, countries such as Russia and somewhat less explicitly Brazil and Belgium hold that the moon and asteroids belong to humanity as a whole. And therefore the potential benefits from commercial exploitation should somehow accrue for humanity as a whole or at least should be subjected to a presumably rigorous international regime to guarantee humanity-wide benefits. It's a bit like the regime originally established for harvesting mineral resources from the deep seabed. Here, an international licensing regime was created as well as an international enterprise, which was to mine those resources and generally share the benefits among all countries. While in my view the former position certainly would make more sense, both legally and practically, the legal battle by no means is over. Meanwhile, the interest in the moon has been renewed as well at least China, India, and Japan have serious plans to go back there, raising the stakes even higher. Therefore, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln we will need to teach our students about these issues for many years to come. While ultimately it is up to the community of states to determine whether common agreement can be reached on either of the two positions or maybe somewhere in between, it is of crucial importance that agreement can be reached one way or another. Such activities developing without any law that is generally applicable and accepted would be a worst-case scenario. While not a matter of colonization anymore, it may have all the same harmful results. Frans von der Dunk is a Professor of Space Law at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln | https://www.businessinsider.com/who-owns-the-moon-2018-12 |
Is the US facing an immigration crisis? | President Donald Trump made a televised address on Tuesday on the issue of the proposed border wall. United States President Donald Trump is refusing to give up his signature campaign promise of building a wall along the country's border with Mexico. But Democrats won't give him the more than $5bn he wants to build it. The stalemate has led to the second-longest partial US government shutdown in history. In response, Trump went on prime-time television on Tuesday to argue that the barrier is needed to stop what he calls a growing humanitarian and security crisis. Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault Guests: Sahar Aziz - founding director of the Center for Security, Race and Rights, professor of law at Rutgers University David Ward - director of the National Association of Former US Border Patrol Agents Lincoln Mitchell - political analyst and Professor at Columbia University Source: Al Jazeera News | https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/insidestory/2019/01/facing-immigration-crisis-190109180923590.html |
What Gives Dawn Dish Detergent Its Super Powers? | dcwcreations/Shutterstock Say the brand name and you know the product: Kleenex, Band-Aid, Q-tip, Pampers, andof courseDawn. To many, Dawn dish detergent is the go-to soap to cut through the grease and grime on even your dirtiest dishes. Enthusiasts testimonies may point to its unbeatable sudsy quality or its heart-warming stories about literally saving animals lives. After some digging by a non-scientist, there are a couple theories as to why Dawn is the soap of all soaps for not only doing dishes but also protecting your plants, treating laundry, and unclogging your toilet. Check out even more extraordinary uses for dishwashing soap you never knew. The scientific difference Unless you spend your days as a chemist (cool! ), the actual science behind Dawn dish detergent gets a little complex for the layman DIYer. But, put simply, there is a secret ingredient. While the complete recipe is inaccessible for the masses, a Dawn spokeswoman has pointed the magic to uniquely powerful surfactantsor, the chemical compounds that reduce the surface tension of a liquid when its dissolved, aka the stuff that cuts the grease. A small amount of petroleum. Beyond this truth, there is unfortunately little research out there to satiate our curiosities about the heroic nature of Dawn. Find out the secret ingredient that makes the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser so magical, too. The marketing genius Dawn earned its crown as the strongest and gentlest soap for wildlife in the 1970s and has reigned supreme since then. When Proctor & Gamble donated massive amounts of suds after the 1988 Exxon Valdez oil spill, they began a cause campaign that has carried them into the present. And lets be honest, this campaign works. When you pass the Dawn dish detergent bottles in stores, maybe you see the fuzzy duck on the bottle and recall the commercials where Dawn heroically transforms a sad and oil-covered chick to an adorably happy and floofy chickling. P&G masterfully appeals to logic (I need the strongest soap that can do its job) and emotion (if its gentle enough for animals, then it has to be gentle enough for my family). By connecting to everyones emotional decision centers, they stand out from the dish soap crowd. Next, find out the things you should always wash by hand, with dish soapnot in your dishwasher. | https://www.rd.com/home/cleaning-organizing/dawn-dish-detergent-super-powers/ |
Has the Government Finally Woken Up to Support Homegrown E-tailers? | Though the tweak or clarification in the policy will reportedly hurt Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart the most, domestic e-commerce players have welcomed this move as the level playing field January 9, 2019 3 min read You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. Just before the year 2018 ended, on 26th December 2018, the government reviewed its FDI e-commerce policy. Since then, the industry is divided into a hot zone between international and domestic players. The notification, which is effective from 1st February, bars e-commerce players from selling products of companies they have stakes in. It also stops them from signing exclusive agreements products. An entity having equity participation by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, or having control on its inventory by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, will not be permitted to sell its products on the platform run by such marketplace entity, the Ministry of Commerce said. Take the example of Amazon, which has an exclusive agreement with OnePlus to sells its products. Similarly, a lot of smartphone companies such as Realme, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Asus or Huawei have exclusive agreements either with Flipkart or Amazon. Considering their orientation to digital platforms, these businesses are also likely to suffer Though the tweak or clarification in the policy will reportedly hurt Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart the most, domestic e-commerce players have welcomed this move as a level playing field. Home Grown Even though with capital backup, Amazon and Flipkart helped the e-commerce sectors growth in India, by far it has been quite uneven. A lot of smaller players couldnt match up numbers as discounting models turned out to be really expensive for them With the policy coming into play, players like Snapdeal, which felt the unicorns pinch, see this has a ray of hope for smaller players. In a comprehensive tweet, Snapdeals Co-founder Kunal Bahl said, Marketplaces are meant for genuine, independent sellers, many of whom are MSMEs. These changes will enable a level playing field for all sellers, helping them leverage the reach of e-commerce. While on the other side, the domestic industry also feels the governance, transparency and compliance with the industry was the need of the hour. Harsh Chauhan, CTO & Co-Founder, MiniDukan opines that companies should provide a transparent platform to vendors and customers by enabling necessary compliance in their policies and business models. Vendors need a platform which they can trust and not feel betrayed when e-commerce platforms launch their own private labels, he added. The Conversation Nonetheless, one of the most stressed points in the clarification is the clause which restricts the sale of products by any entity having equity participation by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies is expected to disrupt the existing plans of some big e-commerce companies and force them to make immediate changes. Rahul Bahukhandi, Co-Founder, LaYuva says this review of policy on FDI in e-commerce has also brought the discussion back to what is an Inventory based model of e-commerce and what defines a Marketplace based model of e-commerce. The final draft of the e-commerce policy which is expected to be announced soon will provide more clarity and leave no scope for ambiguity. For now, all we need to wait to watch is whether the government is willing to extend its February deadline or the likes of Amazon and Flipkart will have to tweak their business models. | https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/326006 |
Will The Real Jay Powell Please Stand Up? | Authored by Kevin Muir via The Macro Tourist blog, Cant deny that its been a wild few weeks in the financial markets. Although it seems like an eternity, its only been ten trading days since U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Steve Mnuchin, called a special meeting of the Presidents Working Group on Financial Markets to ensure that banks had ample liquidity. It was Sunday night, a day before Christmas Eve, and the stock market had been falling precipitously for the previous few weeks. Mnuchin was under a lot of pressure from Trump to fix the problem and he figured he needed to do something. So Mncuchin interrupted his Cabo San Lucas vacation to calm markets. After all, nothing exudes confidence more than making a few phone calls from your Mexican resort to the top six bank CEOs to confirm they dont have a problem with liquidity. Especially when absolutely no one was ever claiming liquidity was an issue. Now many blame Mnuchins brain-dead move for the massive sell-off on Christmas Eve. After all, the day before Christmas is usually a slow trading day with markets closing at 1pm as traders rush off to do their last-minute shopping. Yet instead of a slow listless trading day, it was an absolute bloodbath reminiscent of a Game of Thrones episode. The S&P 500 future closed down 71 handles - almost 3%! I dont think he helped. But what many overlook is that stock market futures were initially up on his stunt. Sunday night after his announcement, spooz were trading up more than 20 points. Granted, by the time the cash market opened at 930am the stock market had given up those gains, but if we look at the intraday chart, after an initial dip right after the open, the market looked like it might bottom. By 1030am we were approaching unchanged on the day, and then it happened. There was a monster wave of selling that took the S&P 500 down a sickening 3% in the last three hours of trading. It was illiquid and made little sense for traders to demand liquidity on the day before Christmas, yet they were spooked and took a shoot first ask questions later attitude. Look at the timestamp on Donald Trumps twitter post: I dont want to bother discussing whether Trump is correct in his assessment of the Federal Reserves policies. It is what it is. I dont want to end up one of those old men yelling at clouds. I am only interested in what it means for the market, and it is my firm opinion that Trumps ongoing feud with the Federal Reserve contributed to a collapse in confidence that caused the financial market sell-off of December. Fed watchers anonymous I was out for dinner with a good buddy last night and he remarked that I had become one of those Fed watchers that I used to make fun of. You know the type - desperately trying to explain every tick through slight nuanced changes in Fed officials language. Yet my response was that the Fed was all that mattered lately. I would be foolish to ignore the 10%+ swings due to the comments from both the Federal Reserve and the President. And I contend that predicting Powells moves in the upcoming quarters will mean more than trying to come up with a fundamental fair value for financial assets. I will quote my favourite macro trader Stanley Druckenmiller when it comes to what moves stock markets (a Macro Ops post thats actually from a 1988 Barrons interview) The major thing we look at is liquidity, meaning as a combination of an economic overview. Contrary to what a lot of the financial press has stated, looking at the great bull markets of this century, the best environment for stocks is a very dull, slow economy that the Federal Reserve is trying to get going. Once an economy reaches a certain level of acceleration. the Fed is no longer with you. The Fed, instead of trying to get the economy moving, reverts to acting like the central bankers they are and starts worrying about inflation and things getting too hot. So it tries to cool things off shrinking liquidity [While at the same time] The corporations start having to build inventory, which again takes money out of the financial assets finally, if things get really heated, companies start engaging in capital spending All three of these things, tend to shrink the overall money available for investing in stocks and stock prices go down. Earnings dont move the overall market; its the Federal Reserve Board focus on the central banks and focus on the movement of liquidity most people in the market are looking for earnings and conventional measures. Its liquidity that moves markets. Although I would love to ignore Jay Powell and his flip-flopping remarks, the reality is that after Trumps Fed has no touch and cant putt comment, Powell caved and caused the following rally: So yeah, I have become a Fed-watcher as the market is trading more based on Powells comments than any sort of fundamental metric. After all, Jay Powell has been the FOMC chair since November 2017 and you could argue that policy has not been altered. Under Powells tenure, the Federal Reserve has consistently raised rates and wound down the balance sheet. Powell has been steadfast in his execution of this tightening campaign. Yet even the most ardent hard-money advocates will admit that eventually, money will be too tight. At some point the Federal Reserve will have tightened too far. Here is where the heart of the problem lies. Getting into Jay Powell and the rest of the FOMC Boards heads to understand their reaction function as the economy evolves will be paramount to forecasting financial asset returns in the coming quarters and years. So without further ado, here is my interpretation of what Powell is trying to accomplish and what that means for the markets. Although the Federal Reserve mouths words about being concerned about inflation, the reality is that they have been consistently undershooting their target, and its been over a decade since Core PCE inflation has been above 2%. I call bullshit on that one. Dont forget that Bernanke is 100% confident that he can control inflation. I know Powell is a different kind of Fed chair, but the confidence within the Federal Reserve runs deep in regard to their ability to quash inflation if it rears its ugly head. We havent had a real inflation problem in decades. The idea that Powell lies up at night worrying about inflation is laughable. But I think Powell has a demon that haunts him. Jay was nominated to the FOMC Board by President Obama in December 2011. Since then, he has repeatedly cautioned about quantitative easing and other extraordinary monetary stimulus measures. I believe Powell understands all too well the massive cost of the Great Financial Crisis in both economic and human terms, and his biggest worry is not inflation taking off, but instead the expansion of a massive financial asset bubble that, when eventually pricked, will have even greater repercussions. It is worth noting that the last two business cycles did not end with high inflation. They ended with financial instability Powell is not worried about inflation anymore than Bernanke was worried about inflation. Yet he is much different than Easy-Ben. Whereas Bernanke was concerned about using monetary stimulus to encourage wealth-affect spending, Powell views these distortions as ultimately counterproductive. So Ben wanted to provide a floor for financial assets - you know, the infamous Fed put, I think Powell is more interested in selling a call. He wants there to be a ceiling so that another bubble isnt created that ultimately pops and causes more economic pain. Trump has been haranguing the Fed for quite some time, yet until recently, Powell has been impervious to the comments. Many strategists have shouted about inflation not being a problem and wondered why the Fed seemed so intent on raising rates. Yet in a private moment, I am sure Powell would agree with them. He isnt worried about inflation. But the possibility of another massive financial bubble scares the shit out of him. When you think about his recent actions through this lens, it makes so much more sense. Why did he make the October 3rd comment that rates were a long way from neutral? Have a look at this chart of the S&P 500 and CSI BarCap high-yield spread going into that day: Financial conditions were loose and showing absolutely zero signs of being sensitive to his tightenings. Powell was probably rightfully scared that the bubble would take off. Therefore he leaned more hawkish than he probably should have if he was simply setting rates purely from economic indicators. From there, the market decided that Powell had just tightened into a recession and quickly priced it all in within the space of a month. Plus it was made worse by Trump nattering about rising rates. It made Powells job of acknowledging the market signals all the more difficult. So it appeared the Fed was tone deaf and intent on raising rate regardless of what happened to the financial markets. It all fed onto itself in a crazy self-reinforcing cycle culminating in the infamous Christmas Eve sell-off. Going forward I will not make any judgment about what Powell should do, but will assert that Fridays statement where he caved to the market forces was unproductive. Assuming that I am correct about his biggest worry being market bubbles, he has now set himself back. Stocks are screaming higher. Investors are once again chasing high-yield and other risky forms of debt. It wont be long until he will be forced back into trying to talk the markets back down. Inflation isnt his worry - market bubbles are his over-riding concern. Remember back a half-dozen years ago when all the hedgies were bearish and David Tepper came out and said something to the effect of; if the economy weakens, then the Fed will ease and stocks go up. If the economy strengthens, then stocks will go up because earnings will be rising. Therefore I am buying. Well, I think its almost the exact opposite situation today. If the economy strengthens then Powell will hike and stocks will fall from the liquidity withdrawal. If the economy weakens, then Powell has shown he is loathe to come to the markets rescue and he will be slow to lower rates. I dont think you need to overthink this. The Fed has tightened into either a slowdown, or a recession. The market sniffed it out, but the Fed ignored the signals for a bit and made the sell-off worse. Now the market is in the process of correcting that overreaction by rallying. But dont forget that Powell has absolutely no stomach for frothy financial markets, so beware getting too excited about the Feds recent dovish talk. This is not Yellen or Bernankes Fed. Powell has a different set of beliefs, and although he has succumbed to market pressures for the moment, it wont take much for the old tone-deaf Powell to return. I will leave you with a quote from Stephen Roach writing In defense of Jerome Powells courageous Fed. Although I am sure Stephen would most likely be disappointed by Powells recent change-of-heart, I think Powells waffling is only for the moment, and that Roachs analysis is ultimately where Powell wants to head in the long run: | https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-01-09/will-real-jay-powell-please-stand?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29 |
What will 2019 bring for Buffalo and Western New York as a whole? | A new museum at Canalside. Upgrades at the airport. New life in the city's tallest building. The new year is expected to bring plenty of change from the Buffalo waterfront to suburban shopping centers. Local politics will be front and center, too, as candidates line up to run for seats in Erie County, on the Buffalo Common Council and on West Seneca's expanding Town Board, among others. At least one area representative could make a bid for U.S. president, and another will keep fighting charges in federal court. Here's a look at what to expect in 2019, including what's on tap in Albany, why you're likely to see traffic woes on major highways and who's likely to run for Erie County executive. Albany It will be the Year of the Progressives in Albany. With the Senate in Democratic hands, the new, all Democratic-run government will push through items blocked when the GOP ran the Senate. Look for early action to expand protections and access to abortions, along with election law changes, like early voting and ending the many scattered state, local and federal election and ballot measures. Campaign finance changes are also likely coming, including the end to a loophole regarding donations for limited liability corporations that has been generous for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and lawmakers. Other initiatives: ending cash bail for criminal defendants, a big infrastructure program, lengthening the statute of limitations for child victims of sexual abuse to bring civil and criminal cases against their attackers, decoupling teacher evaluations from student test scores, legalizing recreational pot, sports betting, and giving state college aid to children of undocumented immigrants. A single-payer health system, pushed by the left, remains most uncertain. And, of course, there will be the annual fight over a $170 billion-plus state budget, who gets taxed or not taxed, and who gets the most state money. Waterfront Look for more things to do at Canalside and the Outer Harbor in 2019, including some long-awaited family-friendly attractions coming to Canalside. Explore & More Children's Museum will open its doors in April, and the restored, vintage Buffalo Heritage Carousel will provide rides for kids of all ages later in the year. Groundbreakings will include the Longshed, which will house the construction of an Erie Canal packet boat, and Heritage Pointe, a mixed-use development opening near the children's museum. On the Outer Harbor, a bike park for riders with different skill levels, and for different types of riding, will open by Memorial Day. A multi-use trail and events lawn, along with areas where habitat has been restored, will also open there. Amenities are coming, too, from bike racks, benches and Adirondack chairs along the bike trail to a food truck area, kiosk, public seating and overlooks near the events lawn. Development Some major construction projects are expected to advance. At Buffalo's One Seneca tower, which is the city's tallest building, developer Douglas Jemal expects to wrap up work on three phases of a plan to redevelop the building in the coming months. Hes bringing 115 new apartments, several storefronts and more than 100,000 square feet of new commercial space to the market, in a bid to activate the towers barren plaza level and make the entire complex more inviting for pedestrians, tenants, shoppers and visitors. Across the street, Paul Kolkmeyers Priam LLC is trying to finish up its conversion of the former Marine Trust Building into condos, while his new banquet space in the former first-floor bank lobby is already open. And William Paladinos Ellicott Development Co. is working on its 12-story tower at 500 Pearl, with a hotel, office space, apartments, retail and parking. Projects are also underway in South Buffalo, North Buffalo and the East Side, where People Inc. has teamed up with Nick Sinatra and David Pawlik on the new Jefferson Avenue Apartments. Rocco Termini is adding to his incubator community on Chandler Street, while Dr. Greg Daniel converts the former Pierce-Arrow Administration Building into apartments. Politics Washington One of your senators will likely start a run for president. One of Western New York's House members will continue to fight criminal charges. And all eyes will be on the runup to the 2020 presidential election. In other words, 2019 looks to be an unusually dramatic year in Washington. All signs point to Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand's joining the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, probably early in the year. Meanwhile, Rep. Chris Collins, a Clarence Republican arrested in August on insider trading charges, appears ready to fight the case in court all the way up to his February 2020 trial. And President Trump will try to fend off whatever special prosecutor Robert Mueller finds in his probe of Russian election interference. Erie County Call 2019 the Year of the County Executive. Incumbent Democrat Mark C. Poloncarz is expected to seek a third term, with no intraparty challenge expected. Republicans are planning for a serious challenge, though no clear contender has yet emerged. Still, many Republicans are suggesting as a candidate State Sen. Christopher L. Jacobs, who has thrived in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. He will lose his Senate majority power in January following the Democratic takeover of the upper chamber, and he could be looking for a new post. Jacobs is not talking, nor are Republican leaders. But others losing their majority influence in the Senate include the GOPs Patrick M. Gallivan of Elma and Michael H. Ranzenhofer of Amherst who both could bring strengths to a Poloncarz challenge. Other big races this year will revolve around the entire County Legislature, the Buffalo Common Council and the mayor of Niagara Falls. Buffalo All nine seats on the Buffalo Common Council will be up for election, as will the city comptroller's job. The race for city comptroller appears wide open after Comptroller Mark J.F. Schroeder told his staff last week that he was leaving city government to become commissioner of the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Within 90 days of Schroeder's resignation, the Common Council must select a replacement, who will serve through the end of Schroeder's term. The position is on the ballot for a full, four-year term in November. Niagara County Residents of the cities of Niagara Falls and Lockport will elect mayors in November. In Lockport, a new mayor, Michelle M. Roman, will take the oath of office today to fill a one-year term. Roman, who will be first Democratic mayor in 15 years, was elected to complete the term left vacant when former Mayor Anne E. McCaffrey resigned Aug. 8 to become president and CEO of Eastern Niagara Hospital. A full four-year mayoral term will be on the ballot in November. In the City of Niagara Falls, people are already lining up to run for mayor in November. Democrats Robert M. Restaino and Seth A. Piccirillo have announced intentions to run, while Mayor Paul Dyster, who has led the city since 2008, has not yet announced his plans. West Seneca This will be one of the most interesting elections in West Seneca history, and it's all because of upsizing. Voters overwhelmingly approved adding two councilmen to the Town Board in 2018, and those new seats will be filled in 2019. That means seven town offices are up for election Nov. 5, including four members of the Town Board, which will have five members in 2020. In addition to the new council slots, the supervisor's seat and one councilman position also will be on the ballot. It's possible there could be four new faces and just one incumbent on the board in 2020. Voters also will choose a town clerk, highway superintendent and town justice. Transportation Roads Look for Part II of major road reconstruction next summer, with three major projects starting their second year in the spring. That means reduced lanes and detours on some of the region's major thoroughfares. They include: Thruway: The $66.4 million, two-year project includes the reconstruction and rehabilitation of nearly 3 miles of road and bridges over four creeks, as well as replacement of the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge. New signs, guard rails, shoulder expansion and additional reflective pavement markings are being added to enhance safety. Skyway: The $29.9 million project includes rehabilitating the concrete road deck, replacement of bridge joints and minor steel repairs. The inbound mainline deck work was completed last summer, and work shifts to outbound lanes this year. During construction, inbound-only traffic will be allowed during the morning commute while outbound-only will be allowed during the evening commute and on weekends. Youngmann Highway: The $6.7 million project is replacing two precast concrete bridges with new steel bridges. The eastbound bridge was replaced last summer, while the westbound bridge will be replaced next summer. NFTA At the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, officials are planning for major construction for an $80 million expansion of Buffalo Niagara International Airport. Plans call for new passageways, escalators and baggage conveyors to upgrade the Cheektowaga facility to modern standards. Significant construction will mark travelers experience at the airport for the next two years, but officials say their plans should minimize problems. The NFTA will also continue its efforts to extend Metro Rail to the University at Buffalo North Campus and beyond. The authority will proceed with its $5 million environmental review required by the federal government for the extension, which is expected to cost at least $1 billion. Casino revenue Officials in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca are waiting in suspense to see if revenue from the Seneca casinos will start flowing again. An arbitration panel met Dec. 12 and 13 in New York City, and either a decision or a negotiated solution is expected sometime in 2019. The Senecas say their original casino compact didn't require them to pay any of their profits to the state after 2016. Niagara Falls, Buffalo and Salamanca all receive shares of that revenue. "The faster that we can get this dispute behind us and get back to more normal friendly relations, the better off we're all going to be in the long term," Niagara Falls Mayor Paul A. Dyster said. Suburban development 2019 should clarify how to redevelop key properties in Erie County's northern suburbs. In Amherst, the town is reviewing the best reuse of the former Westwood Country Club, the Boulevard Mall's future remains uncertain and construction should begin on the first new stores in the Northtown Plaza. In Clarence, the new owners of the Eastern Hills Mall continue to study how to transform the shopping center into a town center. On Grand Island, the town will weigh whether to acquire Cannon Design's headquarters for use as a new town hall, with the global architecture firm eyeing a move to Buffalo. The City of Tonawanda seeks momentum at the 45-acre Spaulding Commerce Center, site of a $20 million taxpayer-funded cleanup completed in 2012, which remains a vacant lot. And the Town of Tonawanda eyes the revival of the site of Tonawanda Coke, which closed in October, and the redevelopment of the Huntley power plant, which closed in 2016 and is listed for sale. In the City of Lockport, one of the most important public works projects in the city's recent history is on tap. Kandey Co. of West Seneca will be paid $6.7 million to replace the last two miles of the 13-mile pipeline that brings drinking water to Lockport from the Niagara River at North Tonawanda. With contributions from Tom Precious, Mark Sommer, Jonathan D. Epstein, Jerry Zremski, Robert J. McCarthy, Deidre Williams, Barbara O'Brien, Thomas J. Prohaska and Stephen T. Watson. | https://buffalonews.com/2018/12/31/a-look-ahead-at-2019/ |
Where in Canada will the Greens win next? | Peter Bevan-Baker got sent to the basement in 2015 when he first won a seat as Green party leader in Prince Edward Island. The legislative office buildings main floors were always set aside for Liberals and Conservatives, with one tiny basement space for rare times in provincial history anybody else had won. Then a by-election win made it two Green members, a historic breakthrough for a third party. They got moved across the street to the fourth floor of a Victorian brick building. It was partially storage space in a sort-of attic. The ceiling slopes down sharply next to the leaders office desk. Sometimes Ill stand up and give myself a good egg, Bevan-Baker says, pointing to his currently bump-free head. His next move could be into the premiers office, to the shock of many, including Bevan-Baker. Recent polls show Island Greens narrowly leading the Liberals, and for nearly two years have shown the Green leader, until recently a small-town dentist, as residents preferred premier. Bevan-Baker might not be measuring the drapes in the premiers office yet, but he wants to have a tape measure, making sure his candidates and platform are government-ready, should the lead hold when an election is called as soon as this spring. When their party talks of their seeming warp-speed rise, its often with a dazed disbelief. Its become popular to be Green, somehow, deputy leader Lynne Lund says over coffee. Its amazing to me. And baffling. The Green seed germinated in Canadas smallest province may be blossoming freakishly fast, but throughout the country, the party brand is steadily sprouting at the provincial level. Before 2011, when Elizabeth May became a federal MP, the small party could get nowhere in first-past-the-post elections. Now she has nine colleagues in provincial houses. Despite repeatedly failing to bring electoral reform and proportional representation to legislatures, Greens have found a new way to break through: elect one and then elect more. Greens went from one member to three in successive B.C. elections in 2013 and 2017, followed by the same pattern in New Brunswick. Bevan-Baker was joined by a partner in P.E.I., and last summer Mike Schreiner broke through in Ontario. This successful pattern has thus far eluded the federal Green party, but hope springs evermore in this falls uncertain contest that May returns to Parliament with some company. The Greens patchy risemany of them declare it a Green wave; its at least a steady lapping at the shorelinecoincides with the growing menace of climate change. But that doesnt appear to be the growths primary driver. Some provincial leaders say theyre breaking through stereotypes by focusing on non-environment issues like housing and innovation, but thats not it either. What has lifted Greens tide, certainly in the Maritimes, is voters drift away from mainline parties. Take New Brunswick, where the NDP was long moribund and Green Leader David Coons surprise 2014 victory in a Fredericton seat broke up the Liberals and Tories electoral dominance: four years later, third parties snagged 30 per cent of the vote, the Greens trio of seats were matched by the conservative populist Peoples Alliance, and Tories rule in minority. There is a frustration that its a battle between the ins and the outsnot ideas or policy commitments but just guys with blue ties and guys with red ties, says Donald Wright, a political scientist at the University of New Brunswick. On P.E.I., erosion of traditional parties tilts even further in the Greens favour. Not only is the NDP barely in the picture, but the official opposition Tories have spiralled downwardstheir seventh leader in eight years quit last falland the Liberals have already been in power for three terms. And after what Bevan-Baker calls the Ping-Pong politics of rule shifting between Tories and Liberals since pre-Confederation, he says voters crave something different in a province where party allegiance traditionally passes on through generations. There was a latent appetite for that. We just happened to come along at the right time, and opportunity presented itself. In the first election for B.C. Green Leader Andrew Weaver, in 2013, he squeezed through an opening between two unpopular main-party leaders, just as Schreiner in Ontario snagged a traditionally progressive seat in Guelph on Liberal Kathleen Wynnes decline and Tory Doug Fords polarizing nature. While provincial Greens have grown after initial victories, May failed to do so in 2015. But pollster Nik Nanos wonders if centre-left voters dissatisfaction with both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh might make her party the benign friendly alternative to establishment parties. Theyll probably be seen as the less repellent and less angry choice, he says. May dreams of winning the way Weavers trio of B.C. seats did; wedge a small Green caucus into a tightly split minority Parliament, and hold the balance of power, just as wielding influence in coalition government is how European Greens have long done it. More success would beget more scrutiny, if the federal Greens can ever grow their caucus beyond one. But in Charlottetown, where a conference birthed Canadian democracy, electoral revolution may come faster than anyone expected. The stars had aligned for Bevan-Baker, considering he never won an election. In 2008, the Scottish-born dentist took over a red former church in the village of Hampton, 30 km west of Charlottetown, and redesigned it as a dental clinic. He hired excellent hygienists and staff, developed a stellar patient list. His smile pokes through even when he looks concerned, and his grey hair cascades to his forehead from the tippy top of his pate. He dabbled in theatre, trumpet playing and fringe political runs for the Green party, federally and provincially on the Island and in eastern Ontario since 1993. He never came close to winning, but all hed hoped was to get challengers and voters thinking about his ideas. The 2015 contest was his tenth run, but first as P.E.I. Green leader; that new status brought him into the many leaders debates, where he showcased his cheeriness and passionate views on sustainable farming and ending P.E.I.s longtime restrictions on abortion. He nearly doubled the votes received by his rival, a Liberal cabinet minister; then he quit dentistry and began laying foundations for future Green growth. In fall 2017, a business group leader, Hannah Bell, won a snap by-election for the Greens, doubling Bevan-Bakers caucus. That prompted the party to begin beefing up its organization, Lund says. By then, influential Atlantic polling firm Corporate Research Associates (CRA) had Bevan-Baker ahead of Wade MacLauchlan, the Liberal premier, in four consecutive surveys. Last August, the party vaulted over the Liberals in CRA pollseven though the Island economy has been thriving and its books show a surplus. Theres a personality issue here that is causing people not to favour the premier, CRA president Don Mills says. The main parties initially treated him like a novel new voice, a harmless curiosity sitting in the corner of the room, says Bevan-Baker. Thats changed. I think they are fully aware of the existential threat to their continued prominence that we present, he says. He suspects the others are watching the Greens closely, looking for ways to discredit the party. Theyre vetting candidates carefully for the first time, and have had to pass on former candidates who dont fit a more disciplined mould, Bevan-Baker says. When the media calls him for comment on a story, the leader can no longer provide his latest thoughts off the top of his head. His party wants a tougher carbon tax than the Islands one-cent gas tax hike, but unlike Sierra Club founder May, climate scientist Weaver and former New Brunswick Conservation Council director Coon, Bevan-Baker has no prominent background tying him to environmentalism. Soil and water health are more pressing environmental concerns for Islanders than climate change, he says. Theyll stand firm on climate policy, but Greens are internally debating whether to tone down some policies, Bevan-Baker says. When the Island Greens get knocked in local media and by rivals, its often not as radicals; its that they wont be any different than the established parties. Across the Confederation Bridge in New Brunswick, theres no mistaking Coons Greens as different. In the legislature, when a Tory minister lauds a salmon farms business award, Liberals and Peoples Alliance offer bland kudos; the Green leader rises to warn about the detrimental effect on wild salmon stocks: This growth the minister speaks to hasnt come without cost. Coons newly elected colleague Kevin Arseneau, an organic farmer and former university student leader, uses his statement time to lash out at dramatic social injustices and the Irving family empire that dominates the provinces forestry, refining and media sectors. Coon first won his seat in Frederictons university-heavy riding in 2014, 4,200 km away from where May and the B.C. Greens broke through. When youre a lone MLA there is a sense on the part of both the other parties in the legislature and perhaps the public that its kind of an accident, some kind of electoral fluke happened, he says. The following election, New Brunswick Greens also took the riding around Mount Allison University, as well as Arseneaus rural seat. With no seat majority, Tories formed a government propped up temporarily by the right-leaning Peoples Alliance, rather than the party that staunchly opposes its bid to lift a natural gas fracking moratorium and demands a carbon tax. Coon doesnt want his party pigeonholed as environmentalists; his Greens are willing to negotiate with the Tories if the Alliance yank support. Yes, fracking is a problem, but it in no way interferes with the ability to collaborate on elements of other important issues, he says. Andrew Weaver, the first provincial Green to win in 2013, is inarguably now the most powerful party member in Canada, thanks to the confidence agreement his three-member caucus signed with B.C. Premier John Horgans NDP after the 2017 election. When Horgan released his climate plan in December, Weaver was on stage with him, calling it a culmination of a lifes work as a climate scientist. That strategy was a condition of the Greens support of the NDP, and may not have existed otherwise, Weaver told Macleans a day later: The plan is there because of the B.C. Greens, period. Im not sure how much clearer I can be, he says. Weaver also takes credit for ride-hailing legislation to allow Uber, and a land speculation tax. Weaver has bitterly criticized Horgans government over the $40-billion liquefied natural gas terminal project, but wouldnt topple the government over it. Greens take their responsibility seriously, Weaver says: We could play games, but thats not advancing good public policy. To the federal Green leader, the reasons for electoral gains arent complicated. They like our policies. Theyre tired of the old-line parties. And the only thing that stops them is the sense a Green vote is a wasted vote, May says. In most countries, Greens elect more members through proportional representation, but provincial referenda (and a Justin Trudeau promise) have failed to bring electoral reform. In every other democracy, 17 per cent would have given us a ton of seats, Weaver says, referring to the B.C. Greens last vote share. Yet theyve made measured advances in first-past-the-post, everywhere but federally. Increasing concerns about climate changeand its nasty effects, from wildfires to Maritime erosioncould drive some attention to Greens, though they may struggle for share of a piece of the debate when main parties frame it as a binary over whether or not to keep a carbon tax. Ask the provincial Greens why May hasnt expanded federal Green territory, and fellow leaders reason its easier to make intimate connections and prove impact in an East Coast province of 27 or 47 seats than it is in the 338-seat House of Commons. Weaver argues she has to stop only focusing on environmental issues when she runs campaigns. And there are persistent rumblings among Greens that May, whos led since 2006, ought to finally hand over the baton; in the last two elections their popular vote was under four per cent, below where her predecessor Jim Harris had taken the party in 2004 and 2006. Ask May about the struggles, and she squarely blames a 2015 collapse of support on strategic voting, which vaulted NDP or Liberals ahead in various ridings where they appeared likeliest to defeat Stephen Harpers Conservatives. But it was the Greens themselves who got rapped by the Commissioner of Elections for circulating a deliberately misleading pamphlet in Victoria last election that asserted it was only a one-point race between the NDP and Greens (the Green candidate placed a more distant second.) Bevan-Baker took notice from the other side of the country. Theres a tendency within some circles of the Green party that the Green party is Gods gift to politics and that we somehow represent all the potential for what could be good about politics and none of the dark side, he says. Now, Bevan-Baker constantly learns anew about political complexities, getting offers from former candidates from other parties who now view the P.E.I. Greens as a bandwagon to jump on. The federal and provincial Greens are all separate entities, but May says shes door-knocked in every winning members riding. In addition to campaigning with May, Schreiner says he told Ontario voters that May and other provincial winners proved what going Green can accomplish, beyond a protest vote. He flew to Fredericton for a Green rally in the New Brunswick election, urging volunteers to deliver Coon some MLA friends; Bevan-Baker joined too, delivering a cheeky speech in tandem with P.E.I. caucus mate Belleach saying one word at a timeto boost Coon and show what he will achieve with some help. With less money and likely fewer ground troops than the governing Liberals, P.E.I. Greens know their poll lead may not deliver them electoral victory. Most would be delighted to become Canadas first Green official Opposition, though a new leader could rejuvenate the Tories. But Bevan-Baker feels confident theyre now legitimate contenders, and have slashed into the political mainstream. If Islanders were not comfortable enough with what we have been offering for the last 3 years, we would have remained at four per cent. After moving to Canada from Scotland in his twenties, Bevan-Baker learned that his great-great-grandfather was George Brown, former politician and Father of Confederation. I certainly dont bring it up often. It feels opportunistic, he says. Having said that, I think hed be intrigued by whats happening here. MORE BY JASON MARKUSOFF: | https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/where-canada-greens-win-next/ |
Where's the best place to buy replacement smartphone adapters for the DJI Osmo Pocket? | Best answer: Right now if you lose your smartphone adapter for the Osmo Pocket you'll need to head to the DJI Store for a replacement. DJI now offers replacement adapters The Osmo Pocket handheld camera has become more easily available, so DJI has increased the amount of accessories you can buy for it. Most importantly at least for the purposes of this article are the detachable smartphone adapters. However, with nowhere to clip them to when you're not using them, not even a space in the case included with the Osmo Pocket, the chances of losing them are sadly too high. At least you can replace them on the DJI store. Using the Osmo Pocket if you lose your adapter If you lose your adapter you can still use the Osmo Pocket with your smartphone thanks to the USB-C port on the base. It's not just for charging the Osmo Pocket either. With the right cable or adapter, you can use the USB-C port just the same as the smartphone adapters to interact via the DJI Mimo application. Beware of third-party 'alternatives' There are already third-party items appearing in places such as Amazon that at first glance appear to be what you need at a much cheaper price. Right now this isn't the case, and if you're needing a replacement you need to be very careful. Getting directly from DJI is the best way to make sure you'll get the most for your purchase withough getting a subpar product. | https://www.androidcentral.com/wheres-best-place-buy-replacement-smartphone-adapters-dji-osmo-pocket?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+androidcentral+%28Android+Central%29 |
Which phones does the DJI Osmo Pocket work with? | Best answer: The DJI Osmo Pocket works with iPhone as well as Android phones with the help of a USB-C connector, but with the right cable or adapter you can also hook up a phone with Micro-USB. Works with iOS and Android Included with the Osmo Pocket in the box are magnetic connectors for both USB-C and Lightning ports, for hooking up either an Android phone or an iPhone directly. Unfortunately, there's no wireless connection involved without buying the additional wireless module from DJI. DJI also makes a point of including a little note that the Osmo Pocket doesn't support Micro-USB, but that doesn't tell the whole story. Use with Micro-USB with a workaround With either a USB-C to Micro-USB cable or an adapter like the Apple USB-C to USB dongle, you can use the Osmo Pocket with a Micro-USB device. It won't necessarily work with all devices, and you'll still need a good quality Micro-USB cable, but you can definitely get the two working together. Either way, if you're purchasing to use exclusively with a Micro-USB mobile device know that you aren't guaranteed support. Requires iOS 10 or Android 5.0 To get the most from the Osmo Pocket, including access to some of its shooting modes like pano or motion lapse, as well as updating the firmware, you need to use it with your phone and the Mimo companion app. Thankfully, it supports software versions back to iOS 10 and Android 5.0, so even older iPhones will be able to hook up to the Osmo Pocket. Also compatible with iPad and Android tablets The Osmo Pocket is also compatible with the iPad and Android tablets, connecting either through the magnetic dongles or via a cable from the USB-C port on the base. However, the app isn't optimized for tablets on either platform. The experience is also a little worse on the iPad. On Android tablets, the Mimo app at least scales to fit the screen as if it were just a very large phone. This doesn't happen on the iPad, so you'll either use it incredibly small or without filling the display. For folks who want more screen to work with though, the option is at least there. | https://www.androidcentral.com/which-phones-does-dji-osmo-pocket-work?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+androidcentral+%28Android+Central%29 |
Are there too many Leinster players playing with other provinces? | Leinster rugby has never been stronger, with the province currently possessing squad depth the envy of clubs teams around the world. Leinster rugby has never been stronger, with the province currently possessing squad depth the envy of clubs teams around the world. Leo Cullen can almost call on two full teams of international players, with the Leinster coaching staff rotating their team to perfection last term en route to a PRO 14/Champions Cup double. One knock-on effect of Leinster's strength in depth has been that a lot of homegrown talent has been forced to move away in order to get proper game time. With the IRFU enforcing an unofficial policy of only selecting players based in Ireland, Munster, Connacht and Ulster have all been beneficiaries of Leinster's talent overspill. Last weekend, as Leinster hosted Ulster and Munster visited Connacht to round off the festive inter-provincials ties, 27 of the 60 starters were from Leinster. Cullen's side fielded 13, Connacht had six while Ulster and Munster had four each. While players such as Tadhg Beirne, John Cooney and Tom Farrell have all made their breakthroughs away from their home team, the question has been asked as to whether the influx of Leinster players into the other provinces dilutes the local identity of the teams and if eventually fans will become unhappy if the majority of their side if made up of ex-Leinster players. Speaking on The Left Wing, Independent.ie's rugby podcast, Luke Fitzgerald thinks that Irish rugby is benefiting from the increase in player momevement, and doesn't think the amount of Leinster players plying their trade elsewhere is an issue. "It is a pretty small talent pool and the population is very skewed," Fitzgerald said. "That's where the most people are playing. The focus in other provinces is very much on developing their own talent but the schools system might be more developed in Leinster. I don't see a problem with it. As long as it is Irish talent then you can see us progressing here. As long as they are Irish, because it is all the same system to me." Fitzgerald added that as long as the nucleus of the provinces remain local, teams are right to continue to strengthen their squads with Irish talent - no matter what province they come from. "I still think you need to have the local guys around - and they do," Fitzgerald said. "There is a mix. You need a few of the local heroes like Peter O'Mahony and Conor Murray. They are always going to have a big local presence and they are their best players. You just need to supplement that. I think the nucleus of the team should be local but you can't stop the furtherment of the team by not supplementing where you have to so that the team can perform. Otherwise people like Jacob Stockdale could be standing out there with no opportunity to score tries. Ulster needed Marty Moore in the scrum. They needed Jordi Murphy because Marcell Coetzee was injured all the time. You need these guys so the local guys can go out and perform. They key is getting the balance right and you do need a balance." Subscribe to The Left Wing, Independent.ie's Rugby podcast, with Luke Fitzgerald and Will Slattery for the best discussion and analysis each week. From in depth interviews with some of Irish rugby's biggest stars to unmatched insights into the provinces and the national team, The Left Wing has all your rugby needs covered. Listen and subscribe to The Left Wing on iTunes and Soundcloud Online Editors | https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/the-left-wing/the-key-is-getting-the-balance-right-are-there-too-many-leinster-players-playing-with-other-provinces-37697407.html |
Where Do the LAUSD Board Members Stand? | - Advertisement - (Image by Reclaim our Schools LA) Permission Details DMCA "Privatizing forces have appropriated the language of civil rights and social-justice movements, while simultaneously gutting our schools of resources and selling our schools away to corporate-run charter companies." - Reclaim Our Schools LA As noted by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) School Board members in their joint statement dated August 21, 2018, "students and their families will bear the brunt of a strike action." Many parents of the hundreds of thousands of students who attend district schools are scrambling to make arrangements for their children knowing that if schools remain open, LAUSD lawyers have admitted that "the health and safety of students" would be threatened and a normal academic program will be impossible to maintain. Students who depend on meals delivered by the schools are especially vulnerable as the district has not stated how these programs would be handled if schools are forced to close. With this massive disruption at the doorstep of the district, our elected leaders have been mostly silent. Board members seem content to let Superintendent Austin Beutner do their speaking for them. That is, with the exception of Nick Melvoin, who has been eager to express his disdain for people who would actually teach as a profession instead of using the classroom as a bridge to law school. Given Beutner's lack of experience in education and his desire to privatize public education, this seems like a recipe for disaster. - Advertisement - Stakeholders in six of the seven board districts(*) may soon have an opportunity to find out where their board members actually stand on the issues that form the basis for the conflict between the district and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA). The coalition Reclaim Our Schools LA has delivered a letter urging the board members "to settle the teachers' strike by using a substantial portion of LAUSD's $1.9-billion surplus" and agreeing to demands detailed in the Reclaim Our Schools LA's Give Kids A Chance education platform. These demands include investing in community schools, improving school safety, less testing and more teaching, and capping and regulating charter schools. They are also asked to leverage their "close ties with wealthy corporate elites to enlist their support for generating revenue for our public schools." By agreeing to or rejecting the terms outlined in this letter, board members will have a chance to publicly take a stand on the issues. - Advertisement - (*) Board District 5 is currently unrepresented after Charter Industry favorite Ref Rodriguez was forced to resign after pleading guilty to a felony and the LAUSD Board refused to appoint a temporary replacement. Carl Petersen is a parent and special education advocate, elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a "strong supporter of public schools." His past blogs can be found at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own. | https://www.opednews.com/articles/Where-Do-the-LAUSD-Board-M-by-Carl-Petersen-Public-Education-190109-883.html |
Why Do Gay Men Hate Their Bodies? | Openly gay British singer-songwriter Olly Alexander, the voice behind pop project Years & Years, was photographed for the pages of Teen Vogue when he was 18 years old. What would be a dream opportunity for most young adults was a nightmare for him, because all he could think about on set was the catering: a "big delicious buffet with cake." It gave him anxiety because he was expecting cigarettes and water. Related | Olly Alexander Is Done Being Repressed Today, in a series of tweets, Alexander, now 28, addressed how he had an eating disorder when he was 18, consumed for years with what he was or wasn't eating. In the spirit of New Year's reflection, he is healthier and no longer triggered by those experiences, but rather, empowered to speak publicly about them. And while he's definitely not alone, as a gay person, Alexander highlights an experience of negative body image that is both isolating and all too common. --- At the start of every year, Americans all set and flaunt their "resolutions," which time-honored tradition shows. Most of them concern the tenets of "happiness," as ingrained as ideas of patriotism, and we don't mean life or liberty. In 2019, happiness is the amount of money in your bank account, where you've traveled, and how hot you look. If you're gay and cisgender, and especially if you're white and/or particularly privileged, resolutions can be about any version of the above. But ideas of what it means to be gay and "well," promulgated by seeing the same forms of media over and over that tell women they're never thin enough and men they're never buff enough, have had a historically and statistically unfortunate effect on LGBTQ people everywhere, regardless of how they identify. "Much of our culture tells us that we won't get the things we want in life if we don't achieve these aesthetic conformities," said New York-based writer and editor Alex Blynn, who identifies as gay. "Nothing makes me feel less satisfied with my body or guiltier about my choices than the January-barrage of gay 'fitness influencers' sharing near-naked photos of themselves on Instagram. They show off their hairless chests and abs and quads while beaming ear to ear with impossibly white teeth and a large plastic container of protein powder in their hands. They're usually on beaches or on a balcony somewhere in LA." For Blynn, who is six feet tall and weighs 245 pounds, because of these messages, and especially at the start of the deluge of New Year #fitspo, he is often left wondering what's wrong with his body. "I can run a couple steady miles, I occasionally lift weights, I practice yoga regularly, I even enjoy hiking," he told PAPER. "I adore pizza and marijuana. I also have a plethora of body hair, a gut, and thick thighs. And most of the time I do feel happy in my natural body, but the majority of mainstream gay culture certainly does not help me feel that way." Although wellness is a spectrum of thought, habit, and experience, this concept narrows for cis gay men. It is most evident at the dawn of a New Year, when we are bombarded with posts on social media, on which gay men post before-and-after progress photos with vaguely spiritual captions; on which gay men talk and write breathlessly about their fitness journeys as if doing so is totally disconnected from the size of their bank accounts, where they get to travel (and how they fly when they do), what clothes they wear, who they surround themselves with, and what they look like. As if a post on social media is just for them and not for an audience of occasional thousands; as if being seen as the hottest person in the room isn't inextricably linked to social currency, and all that affords; as if reinforcing a standard of beauty for those who look like you and believe the same things you do doesn't harm or exclude those who don't look like or believe the same things you do. --- Andrew Power, a New York-based graphic designer and erstwhile drag queen who performs as Hellvetika, hit a raw nerve on the Internet's reactive current this month, when he posted this tweet, despite having also shared his #TopNine images of shirtless 2018 selfies beforehand. "I just want gay men to be honest with themselves," he wrote, calling out "fitness journeys" as being a disguised gateway for social and sexual access. The ensuing thread prompted a polarizing discussion online, with naysayers accusing Power of being a bitter and hateful gay criticizing the whole of fitness culture, who was probably also just ugly and jealous. They also called him a hypocrite due to his own online shirtless selfies. Those who agreed with Power said that he was most likely confronting an inconvenient truth and calling out the privileges of those holding this "truth" sacred. When PAPER spoke with non-binary Brooklyn-based performance artist Blvck La D., they echoed similar sentiments as Power's. "I think that we as gay and queer people tend to focus on fitness, not for ourselves, but for other people," they said. "Usually potential suitors." London musician Neo 10Y (real name: Nik Thakkar) acknowledged the historical pressure tied to all this, citing a "Tom of Finland meets Venice Bitch/Beach aesthetic" that's become a gay goal, but feels that as a community, we've made strides forward. "I feel that queer progressives over the last few years have been leading the body diversity conversation, and helping us all to accept who we are on the outside," he said, though he's shared plenty of ToF-leaning thirst traps online over the years. "It's hilarious," Power wrote on Twitter. "I've been called ugly & lazy, people assume I don't go to the gym myself and that I'm lashing out because I'm jealous and bitter, several people have made fun of me for being short lol." Another user responded to Power's thread: "I go to the gym because I desperately need serotonin. Also I definitely would be healthier if i lost weight. All the shit you talked about is at the back of my head as part of a melange of negativity saying that I'm not worthy. I try to work out inspite [sic] of all that." Another chimed in: "You called out 'gay men.' Which refers to all gay men on a 'fitness journey.'" Like I'm referring to fitness obsessed guys who do steroids and are always talking about how they need to get bigger." A video posted to his YouTube further clarifies his position, and shows that Power knows he struck a chord of discomfort that also yielded discussion. But he said it is a necessary, and essential step for progress in helping gay men transform the way they see themselves. --- According to a 2016 study, of 131 gay and bisexual men deemed the "sexual minority," 32% of them reported having a negative self and body image. Objectification theory is used to explain this experience, which poses the idea that men in the sexual minority face an increased pressure to achieve and maintain an "ideal" body lean and muscular in order to obtain the attraction and validation from male sex partners, not unlike straight women. However, the ongoing negative effects of self-objectification include a cyclical pattern of monitoring one's own body, but focusing more on how it looks than how it feels or functions. Naturally, the study found that this level of physical dissatisfaction, the constant comparison to an ideal, leads to depression, anxiety when having sex, and overall, the undertaking of risky sex decisions. (For example: the study found a direct link between HIV transmission between men who have condomless sex with men and elevated levels of body dissatisfaction). In this 2008 study, co-authors found that among gay men, lesbians, and heterosexual men and women, gay men reported the worst sex quality of life as a function of their body image, with 42% of gay men stating their body image negatively impacted the quality of their sex life. The perceived lack of transparency around the relationship between idealized gay body image and sex is something else Power called out, writing on Twitter: "You wanna be one of the guys standing in a line on a beach in Mykonos just saaay that [...] I'm not saying you can't DO IT, just stop bullshitting us omg." Rembrandt Duran, a buzzy New Yorker who's been referred to as the city's most popular top on a mission to normalize gay sex, has arguably leaned into embracing desirable physical traits inextricably linked to having even more gay sex. But it's something he's felt less pressure to conform to, as he's become more comfortable with himself. "I definitely learned that I had to [conform to gay attractiveness standards] when I first came out, and I was more expressive via the clothing I wore," Duran said. "But as I got older, it bothered me less, and maybe because I became numb to it, but it truly doesn't bother me anymore to 'play the game', especially if it's just a quick hook-up. I've turned it into almost a role playing experience, but I'd never do that when it came to dating. I'd never date anyone I had to masc it up for or be performative." Despite stories like Duran's, research might suggest that the widely held assumption of all idealized, hot gay men having the best sex in the world with other idealized, hot gay men could be little more than myth. Regardless, that assumption continues to be reinforced by pressure within the community that many gay men know intimately. Power remembers when he first moved to New York at age 22 and struggled to fit in: "I was very blind to what the whole fitness culture entailed," he said. "I didn't know what was possible and who I could be friends with, so I kind of wrapped up in all the wrong stuff. And I definitely spent a few years just working way too hard in the gym trying to look a certain way, trying to gain. Basically I felt like that's what I had to do. Why would people even pay attention to me?" But this experience is shared by many across the divide. --- Let it be known that gay men can engage in fitness for any reason they desire, and are not obligated to share their motives. Let it be known that this is true for everyone. If one's goal in going to the gym is to use the accepted standard of chiseled attractiveness to gain social and sexual capital, that's also an individual choice. For New York artist and graphic designer HeyRooney, who identifies as queer, the reinforcement of a "gay adonis" standard means that the culture of wellness, then, fails to be an inclusive one. Take, for instance, what feels like an endless stream of Instagram accounts dedicated to showing only the bodies of toned gay men. "We have to consider how or whether we invest energy in perpetuating that culture," Rooney said. "That doesn't mean everyone cancels their gym memberships, and it doesn't mean we shame fit bodies. It just means we spend less time worshipping them or feeling bad we don't look that way." Tommy Hart works as an instructor for Equinox, an international, high-end chain of gyms, in which some clubs are considered gay meccas. In New York, an "all-access" membership runs well over $200 a month. For many members, it's simply a luxurious place to work out, accommodating of aspirational lifestyles. But in many ways, it also represents an undeniable intersection of social status and body politics. Few feel that pressure more intimately than gay men. And for Hart, his literal job involves staying in "ideal" shape, and helping others achieve similar fitness goals. "We're kidding ourselves if we say we're spending at least an hour a day lifting weights six times a week because 'it's good for your heart,'" Hart said. "Whether it be the movies that glamorize masculine men with massive shoulders, social media 'celebrities' with shredded abs and hundreds of thousands of followers, or even a lot of the porn that I watch, I feel like I'm not sexy or worth anything as a young gay man if I don't have a strong back and a big chest to show off when I post a photo or when I'm at the club. The real problem is, I feel like I need a great body so that I get attention from people who wouldn't otherwise look twice at me." For Paris-based artist and musician Casey Spooner, who is one-half of electronic pop duo Fischerspooner, working toward having a "great" body became part of a performance, a personal politic, and ensuring his success. "I was under immense pressure to perform as my career was in free fall due to the banking collapse of 2008," Spooner said. "I started chanting, My body is a weapon, my body is a tool, my body is a language, my body is for you." This chant became a mantra that he explored through his music over the next nine years. When his album SIR was released last year, Spooner debuted an archetypal new image, complete with an aforementioned Tom of Finland physique, handlebar mustache, leather chaps, and all. This visual narrative was intentionally employed to take a close look at homosexuality and its relationship to the ideal cis male body, but this artist's experiment had its own real-life consequences. "In my pursuit for visual perfection, I found myself struggling with self-esteem and dysmorphia," Spooner said. "I never felt that I could fully achieve the body I wanted so that I could draw connections between art history and gayness." Where life imitated art, Spooner, too, became lost in an image, though he said he did attain what he was after. "I've learned happiness and perfection are painfully allusive." Like Spooner, Power also once believed he could achieve a fit body if only he tried hard enough. "I've spent all this time thinking that I could become a certain kind of image," he said. "I really thought that I could do it by being healthy and that it would be maybe three or four years in the gym really pushing myself that I could become this ideal. Once I realized that there's often so much dangerous risk and sacrifice at stake, I let a lot of that go." --- A legitimate danger of chronic body dissatisfaction among gay and queer people, and especially gay men, is overdoing it. In addition to more mental and social symptoms of body dysmorphia including depression, poor job performance leading to unemployment, sexual anxiety, and high-risk behavior, there are more severe physical symptoms resulting from dysmorphia: steroid abuse, muscular injury, and disordered eating habits including overly restrictive diets, such as over-reliance on dietary supplements are a few. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, at least 30% of people diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) also have an eating disorder. BDD is also a form of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and people with OCD may feel as though taking action on those thoughts is the only way to make the thoughts stop. It's easy, then, to see how an obsession with muscles, translating to hours in the gym, could be considered part of an OCD lifestyle. Most of the people quoted for this story mentioned any of the above afflictions affecting how gay and queer people view themselves. Still others only wanted to speak off the record about their harrowing experiences with forms of body dysmorphia. About three years ago, I was in a place of financial ruin that I'd never previously experienced. I had just returned to New York from Indiana after two years away "finding myself." I returned, nursing the wounds of a breakup that left me feeling unlovable and worthless. I was 26 going on 27; I struggled to find work for months, and had to settle for a string of minimum-wage service jobs to make ends meet, and one of them was working the front desk at a downtown Equinox. I had to pay my rent in installments as money slowly came in, both from those jobs and kind loans from friends. I survived for months on one $1 pizza slice per day, and I lost some weight and got compliments from men who had never noticed me before the weight loss. The sole perk of my gig at Equinox was a free membership, and so, at the pinnacle of high social standing, class privilege, and attractiveness was me, a Black, non-binary, queer, femme-presenting person, spending up to two hours at a time on a Stairmaster. I lost even more weight, could fit a 27 waist for the first time since high school, and still more gorgeous gay men told me how good I looked and that I was skinty. I posted my first-ever shirtless selfies online and my sex life improved. I loved the attention. The broken heart was buried with idealized self-image. I really loved that, too. After about a year of this, I got higher paid jobs, dropped that free luxury membership, and my monetary outlook improved. I started eating more regularly because my body craved it, and I noticed my body return to a more "normal" weight. Though I was fully self-supporting financially and started looking and generally feeling healthier, the compliments and sexual attention stopped. That's when I started throwing up. At first, once a day, then, after every meal. I told a friend I felt myself spiraling, and I got psychiatric help. It has taken years of professional opinions and personal choices, but I have a fuller view of myself than ever before. And even though I still feel invisible in a Venice Beach lineup of shirtless gays because, to so many of them, I am I don't feel pressure to look a certain way. I do feel obligated to make sure I feel my best. Sometimes that's in tandem with a regular, manageable (for me) fitness routine. Mostly it's about my support system. And in the three years since my body-image rock bottom, I've become more grateful for the strength of it, and the strength within me. And thankfully, for every story like mine, there are other antidotes to toxic sides of wellness culture. One online trend that emerged at the end of 2018 was #TopNine posts. Here is one from activist and writer Adam Eli, who told PAPER, "I thought it was true for so long that in order to have a voice or a platform in the queer community you have to look a certain way. But now I know it isn't." Additional reporting by Brendan Wetmore | http://www.papermag.com/gay-masc-bodies-2625382300.html |
How to avoid brittle nails? | Here you have some easy techniques to get strong and healthy nails. 1. Keep them out of water Excessive exposure to water can soften your nails. To avoid this, always wear rubber gloves when you wash dishes and make sure you dont spend too much time in hot showers and swimming pools. 2. Filing is important How you file your fingers is very much important when it comes to the nails health. You should cut your nails with clippers first, then shape them with a fine-grit cushion file rather than a metal file, which is rougher on the skin around your nails. 3. Be careful with your nail polish While choosing the nail polish, make sure you are not doing harm to your nails. Many of your favorite nail polishes, acrylics, and nail polish removers are full of harsh chemicals that cause nail brittleness, dryness and thinning. If you want to make your nails stronger, its wise to avoid gel polishes, acrylic nail glue, acetone soaks and acetone nail polish remover at all costs. Avoid chemical irritants, as your nails can be damaged from chemical exposures. Also, live the nails free and give them some time to rest and breath. 4. Stick on to healthy diets A healthy diet is always the key to a healthy life. Foods like blueberries that are full of antioxidants help protect your bodys cells from free radical damage, while leafy greens provide the iron you need for nail strength. Magnesium-rich almonds are great for smoothing your nails vertical ridges, and the calcium in dairy is an important mineral for helping them grow. Incorporate fish oil, vitamin D, and plenty of coconut oil into your diet as well for optimum nail health. 5. Cut your nails at the right time As much as you might love the look of long, beautifully-shaped fingernails, its best to avoid growing them out if you want to make them stronger. Keep your nails shorter as they are far less likely to be broken in your everyday life. | https://www.eastcoastdaily.in/2019/01/10/how-to-avoid-brittle-nails.html |
Will Online Brokers Eat Advisors Lunch? | Text size The direct-to-consumer investment juggernaut (think online brokerages) shows no signs of stopping, posing a challenge to traditional advisors. So reports ThinkAdvisor, citing research from Cerulli Associates. Assets in direct-to-investor platforms will grow to more than $9 trillion by 2022 from more than $7 trillion today, according to Cerulli, which defines the channel as the sale of investments to retail clients without the assistance of a traditional advisor. The segment now has relationships with nearly 40% of U.S. retail investor households. A combination of investor choice and investor returns will drive the channels growth, the research and consulting firm predicts. That means traditional advisory firms will have to adapt. As direct providers increasingly layer in enhanced advice offerings with access to highly trained advice personnel, traditional advisory firms will need to redouble their efforts to maintain their market share in the face of the growing presence of the firms in this segment, Scott Smith, director at Cerulli, is quoted saying. Although robo-advisor upstarts have shaken up financial services over the past decade, older industry players dominate the direct-to-investor space. According to Cerulli, the top four providers (Fidelity, Vanguard, Charles Schwab and TD Ameritrade/Scottrade) account for 84% of the channels assets. --Ross Snel | https://www.barrons.com/articles/will-online-brokers-eat-advisors-lunch-51547068893 |
Is there red tide off Anna Maria Island? | Beaches on Anna Maria Island may be safe from red tide for now, but the latest report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission suggests it may only be a matter of time before it returns. In a red tide update released Wednesday afternoon, officials said low concentrations (between 10,000 and 100,000 cells per liter) of Karenia brevis algae were discovered at both the Rod and Reel Pier and the Longboat Pass Boat Ramp. Very low concentrations (between 1,000 and 10,000 cells per liter) were reported along the Palma Sola Causeway on Monday. Thats an increase from a report the FWC filed on Friday, which revealed that none of the 13 water samples collected in Manatee contained K. brevis algae. On Monday, the Bradenton Herald reported that Coquina Beach, Manatee Public Beach and the northern tip of the island were free of red tide symptoms. Experts say low concentrations of the harmful algae are enough to cause respiratory irritation and possible fish kills. No dead fish were reported in Florida this week, but the FWC did receive reports of respiratory issues in Manatee and Sarasota, where conditions are notably worse. Digital Access For Only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. SHARE COPY LINK There was no sign of red tide visible on Anna Maria Island Monday morning. In Sarasota, numerous water samples revealed high, medium and low concentrations of red tide. The report said Sarasota was the only county that exhibited bloom concentrations in and offshore. Anyone looking for an update on red tide conditions may dial (866) 300-9399 at any time from anywhere in Florida to receive the latest conditions from the FWC. Those outside of Florida may dial (727) 552-2448. | https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article224156020.html |
Did John McCain and Jeff Flake spoil Arizona media? | CLOSE azcentral media critic Bill Goodykoontz helps plan out the media strategy for Arizona's two new senators. Brian Snyder, Arizona Republic Sens. Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema (Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP; Jack Gruber/USA TODAY) Weve been spoiled in Arizona. Those of us in the media, particularly. For years now, weve been covering Sen. John McCain and Sen. Jeff Flake. Others can debate their effectiveness as lawmakers, their party loyalty and whatever other political calculus you employ to decide whether you liked them. But from a media perspective, they were godsends. And for different reasons, which is even better. Now Arizona has two new senators historic ones, at that. Sen. Martha McSally and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema are the first women to serve in the U.S. Senate from Arizona. Thats great and its news. But its only news once. What media have to hope for is that McSally and Sinema will continue to make some headlines. Yes, theyre just settling in now, still getting their Senate sea legs. And theres this little matter of a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trumps insistence on funding for a border wall Hey wait. THEY REPRESENT A BORDER STATE. Surely they have something to say about this. Meanwhile we read tea leaves from previous votes and statements to try to figure out exactly where they stand. Theyd have been chasing down the microphones and cameras from the get-go. Both McSally and Sinema are experienced legislators, having been members of Congress. And they engaged in a really high-profile, bruising election campaign. McSally ran by talking about her support for Trump, which may not have been the best strategy. Sinema won by saying not much. PHOTOS: ARIZONA'S NEW U.S. SENATORS SWORN IN Lets hope that doesnt continue. Look, its understandable. McCain was a presidential candidate, a long-serving senator, a war hero, a loquacious guy, a constant thorn in Trumps side. Flake, particularly in his last months in office, also made a lot of headlines criticizing Trump and then, to the consternation of some, voting to support his policies. (Somehow people were constantly surprised that Flake is actually quite conservative, and voted like it.) Like what he did or not, Flake was basically unavoidable for comment and nothing gets you trending on social media like ticking off large numbers of people. PHOTOS: JOHN MCCAIN: A STUDY IN CONTRADICTIONS McCain died in August; his death received massive coverage, and many of the reporters and pundits talked about him like a friend. Flake seemed to go out of his way to court cameras on his way out of office. If youre looking for popular-culture barometers, Flake was parodied on Saturday Night Live. McCain had hosted Saturday Night Live. No, being in the news all the time doesnt make you a good senator. Serving your constituents effectively does. Time will tell, but there is no reason to think that McSally and Sinema wont do that. It would be nice, though, if they made a few headlines along the way. Absolutely. But McCain and Flake kept Arizona in the national conversation. Itll be interesting to see if McSally and Sinema keep us there. VIDEO: SEN. JEFF FLAKE'S FAREWELL REMARKS TO THE U.S. SENATE CLOSE Sen. Jeff Flake reads his farewell speech in the U.S. Senate on Dec., 13, 2018. U.S. Senate, Arizona Republic Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. Go to connect.azcentral.com for a staff list, for more information about the newsroom and for details about upcoming events. FOLLOW AZCENTRAL'S THINGS TO DO Facebook | Twitter | Instagram Read or Share this story: https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2019/01/09/did-john-mccain-and-jeff-flake-spoil-arizona-media-column/2528489002/ | https://www.azcentral.com/story/entertainment/media/2019/01/09/did-john-mccain-and-jeff-flake-spoil-arizona-media-column/2528489002/ |
What if Arizona misses a Jan. 31 deadline to join the drought contingency plan? | Rep. Russell Bowers (left) and Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis talk about the Colorado River drought plan, during a meeting at the Central Arizona Project Headquarters in Phoenix. (Photo: Nick Oza/The Republic) The federal Bureau of Reclamation has set Jan. 31 as the deadline for states to sign drought contingency plans, which aim to keep lakes Mead and Powell from falling to catastrophically low levels. If states fail to meet that deadline that means Arizona, since everyone else claims theyre ready to sign Reclamation will dictate how much less water everyone will get. But some Arizona lawmakers have balked at that deadline, saying they wont be rushed into signing such a monumental deal. Not when so many questions surround the plan to implement its cuts in Arizona. Some are convinced that the feds are simply using a scare tactic to keep Arizona at the table. They did the same thing, after all, in the lead up to Arizona signing its monumental Groundwater Management Act of 1980. But there is good reason to think Reclamation will do what it said if there are no deals in hand by Jan. 31. Reclamation has made clear that the risk of Mead tanking is simply too high and that more needs to be done to shore up water levels. It's unlikely that the bureau, which oversees lake operations, will wait to act on a Plan B because Mead's first-ever shortage is expected to be declared in August. CLOSE Arizonas top water managers continue to meet to create a drought contingency plan for Colorado River water supply. David Wallace, The Republic | azcentral.com It's better for everyone if states work this out voluntarily because imposing additional cuts would almost certainly result in a costly, lengthy legal battle. If Arizona signed DCP in March or even May it's likely that Reclamation would drop its plans to impose cuts and abide by the terms of DCP. But consider what that Jan. 31 deadline also means. Reclamation has said if we miss it, it will give basin states 30 days to comment on how Reclamation should dole out the cuts. This is where it gets dicey for Arizona. The other six basin states are already frustrated with us for not signing DCP. And Arizona has junior rights to the water. There's a good chance those comments will also contain things that cant be unsaid arguments about who is or isnt entitled to water that could sour the process when larger operations guidelines for the Colorado River reopen for debate next year. A lot more than the cuts in DCP will be on the table then. And, again, Arizona has junior rights in this debate. I cant say this strongly enough: We do not want to be seen as the problem child as we enter those negotiations. It will only end badly for us. California and Nevada are already beginning to withdraw the water they've voluntarily stored in Lake Mead, should DCP fail. They don't want to leave their water in the lake without the agreement because they'll lose it once a shortage is declared. That will tank the lake even faster. Meanwhile, Arizona would lose all of the water it has previously stored water it now plans to use to bail out farmers without DCP because 1) unlike the other states, we're limited in how much we can withdraw from the lake, 2) no one ordered that water for 2019, in part because we have no place to store all of it, and 3) we're not fully sure our canals could handle that much water, even if users had ordered it. Under the current rules and without DCP, Arizona also would be only one on the hook to shoulder cuts during shortages. And that's not counting whatever else Reclamation makes us do. Obviously, this is a worst-case scenario for Arizona. Because of the short time frame, some have suggested that lawmakers authorize Arizonas participation in DCP separately from a plan to implement DCPs cuts in Arizona. This implementation plan aims to spread the pain across more users, instead of letting Pinal County farmers and housing developers bear the brunt of the cuts under the existing priority system. But its also exceedingly complex with a bunch of interrelated parts (thats why cities call it a Jenga tower). Farmers and homebuilders still arent fully on board with some parts of the plan. And there are a lot of details to work out many that wont be finished anywhere near Jan. 31. So, that's the gamble: Either we take our time to make more people happy inside Arizona and risk angering everyone outside of it, or we speed through something that might tick off more people here to make life better for us regionally. Reach Allhands at [email protected]. Click here to subscribe to azcentral.com. 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Are players thinking about outside factors as Flyers sink near bottom of NHL? | originally appeared on nbcsportsphiladelphia.com WASHINGTON - Two weeks from now, the Flyers will be on a beach, a mountainside chalet or in a remote area where they can't be contacted. Scroll to continue with content Ad Wherever they venture off during their league-mandated bye week, it will likely be far from hockey to escape the spiraling abyss that has become their nightmarish season. Then again, one can argue this team has yet to return from a three-day holiday break as it has failed to win a game during the post-Christmas portion of its schedule, now 0-6-2 following Tuesday night's 5-3 disappointment to the Capitals (see observations). What appeared to be a solid start in Washington quickly evolved into a disastrous second period, when the Flyers have now been outscored 15-1 over those past eight games. Against the Caps, it was their dreadful downfall as they surrendered three unanswered goals. "Second period came and we just stopped skating," Jakub Voracek said. "They locked us in the zone a couple of times, which is going to happen. They're one of the best teams in the league. Absolutely takes the wind out of us. Too many times." Before Tuesday's game in Washington, interim head coach Scott Gordon indicated some players appeared to be thinking about issues not related to the game itself or the job in hand. "There's a lot of things going on in a lot of heads," Gordon said. "Sometimes it's their own personal successes and failures. Sometimes it can be contracts, sometimes it can be who you are playing on any given night." Story continues Afterward, Sean Couturier was asked about Gordon's quote and while Couturier didn't agree with the coach's assessment, he didn't dismiss the idea either. "I don't know. I can't really talk for other guys," Couturier said. "I don't know if it is, or if it's not. It seems every night we have some guys off or we don't have everyone going at the same time. We need to start looking at ourselves in the mirror. Maybe some guys are thinking about it. I don't know." If the Flyers can't find 60 minutes of undivided focus between Thursday's home game against the Stars and that final game in Montreal on Jan. 19 heading into the bye week, this team will establish a new standard for winless hockey. Five more regulation/overtime/shootout losses will surpass the franchise's all-time winless standard set by the 1998-99 Flyers, who went 0-8-4 from late February to late March. Of course, the Flyers likely wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for the NHL record they matched Tuesday night as they started their seventh different goaltender - a dubious accomplishment established by the 1989-90 Quebec Nordiques. Mike McKenna had a front-row seat to what Flyers meltdown mode really looks like. "You just try to get your bearings a little bit and sort things out, but hockey is hockey," McKenna said. "It definitely wasn't my best game." Welcome to the club, Mike. You're already fitting right in. Click here to download the MyTeams App by NBC Sports! Receive comprehensive coverage of your teams and stream the Flyers, Sixers and Phillies games easily on your device. More on the Flyers | https://sports.yahoo.com/players-thinking-outside-factors-flyers-054726993.html?src=rss |
Is James Harden setting himself up for another postseason failure? | Spacing the Floor | Part I: Why dual front-office job/coaching role has ran its course The Beard is on a mission. Scroll to continue with content Ad With each passing game, the Houston Rockets are climbing out of the abyss and into respectability, headed toward contention in the Western Conference. And James Harden, last seasons wire-to-wire Most Valuable Player, is openly stating his case for a repeat, bending the will of defenses with relentless 3-point attempts that stretch beyond todays cultural norms, while sprinkling pinpoint passes for layups and dunks that keep defenses honest. (Getty) I need it [another MVP]. I need it for sure. And Im going to get it, Harden told TNTs Rosalyn Gold-Onwude before a breathtaking performance against Golden State last week in which he hit a game-winning 30-footer over Draymond Green and Klay Thompson in overtime. It seems like hes either getting to the free-throw line by inducing defenders to hack him or launching from 30 feet simply because he feels like it. He comes in and does extra work, Rockets coach Mike DAntoni said. He knew he had to take his body to one more level up. He had to get into a better rhythm. The numbers are staggering: Hes averaging 40.2 points in the last month with 9.6 assists and 6.8 rebounds. Hes launching nearly 15 triples a game and looks no worse for wear. A second MVP will elevate him historically, likely into one of the top five shooting guards in history and hes not yet 30. (Amber Matsumoto/Yahoo illustration) The Rockets have needed every last one of Hardens scoring barrages, and Harden has been more than happy to oblige. Story continues For the last three seasons, Harden has played at this pace and has even ramped it up this season with the absence of Chris Paul and the departures of some key veterans who helped the Rockets get within a sniff of the NBA Finals last May. Hes leading the league in minutes per game, and over the last three years, only Minnesotas Andrew Wiggins has played more regular-season minutes, with Hardens playoff minutes putting him over the top. Hardens regular seasons have been filled with great stats, ankle-breaking moves and hilarious moments that have been turned into GIFs, and theres something to be said about a player who takes 82 games so seriously. But his postseason endings have left plenty to be desired. His 2012 NBA Finals showing 12.4 points per game on 37.5 percent shooting as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder is still a head-scratcher. In 2015, he had 12 turnovers for the Rockets in Game 5 of the West finals as the Golden State Warriors advanced. In Game 5 of the 2017 semis, ancient Manu Ginobili swiped a potentially tying triple from behind as Harden barely had any lift on his jumper. That was followed by a 2-of-11 showing in a 39-point beatdown at Houston that ended the series in six games. When youre going for history, these one-offs will be more scrutinized. His final three games in last years West finals showed a tired player, and the Warriors knew Hardens tank was on E in Games 6 and 7. Harden shot just 36 percent and went 6-of-36 in those final three games the biggest of his career while turning it over nearly seven times a night. A big part of that is DAntonis system, keeping the ball in Hardens hands more than the average ball-dominant star. But Harden doesnt seem to mind and hasnt altered enough of his game during the slow months of December and January to leave enough juice for May and June. James Harden squares off against Stephen Curry last week. (Getty) LeBron James and Dwyane Wade once sat in a locker room after an easy win and discussed how playing 30 or 35 minutes is different for everybody. All 35 minutes aint the same, Wade said that night. You pick your spots, you play hard but you dont wear yourself out. You know its something greater down the line. James is a bionic man, able to carry more of a load than even the average great player, but the regular seasons have only been a precursor to the playoffs. He had the same energy in carrying his then-Cavs through an East finals Game 7 in Boston and nearly upsetting the Warriors in Game 1 of last years Finals as he wouldve if those games were played in November. But still, he knows how to pick his spots and he hasnt been afraid to take rest games in recent seasons. Wade used to joke that going full bore for 82 games only got him a first-round knockout and front-row seat for the rest of the postseason, so he learned how to conserve his body even before his knees began to fail him in the latter stages of his prime. It doesnt look like Harden is throttling back as hes focused on claiming his place in history. But if history is our guide, Harden could be ultimately pursuing another empty postseason run. Buzzer-beaters 1. We get what Derrick Rose was trying to say when he said (and repeated) the phrase kill yourself in reference to his doubters. It wasnt literal and common sense should apply. But he makes it hard on himself when he knows the public is hanging on every word he says. He just doesnt care to be anything but himself. 2. Who knows what to make of Enes Kanters back-and-forth with former NBA player-turned-Turkish adviser Hedo Turkoglu, but its messy. And if a player believes that by going to London hell be putting his life in danger, we should all take that seriously. 3. Vince Carter can probably play until hes 45. And as long as he wants to play and can still throw one down, make a place for him on a roster and at All-Star Weekend. 4. Donovan Mitchell is going through the sophomore blues. But something tells me hell be fine in the long run. Hes too good to stay in this rut. More from Yahoo Sports: Cowboys owner spends more for yacht than he did for team Florida man arrested after late superfans family threatened Driver in hockey tragedy pleads guilty Cardinals hiring move: What is pro football coming to? | https://sports.yahoo.com/james-harden-setting-another-postseason-failure-182126725.html?src=rss |
Should financial advisers be degree qualified? | Michael Klimes asks if degree level education is the best way to create competent advisers The RDR set in motion a key trend in financial planning, with qualifications now seen as a necessary part of proving advisers are up to the job. Many say upping the exam burden as part of the shift to professionalism has been partly responsible for a fall in the number of advisers in the UK. RDR raised the bar for professional advisers not just through the abolition of commission and greater transparency, but also a move to QCF Level 4 as the educational standard. Some advisers say this focus on qualifications has pushed experienced advisers to leave the market, as well as put off potential new ones entering. Australia is now taking professionalisation a step further with the obligation for all new chartered financial planners to get a degree-equivalent qualification, while existing advisers will need to get the equivalent of a graduate diploma. This change stems from the work of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry that has unearthed major scandals involving advisers. However, former Australian assistant treasurer Nick Sherry tells Money Marketing he is sceptical degrees or reams of qualifications necessarily improve the quality of advice, since better educated advisers are not automatically more ethical towards clients. The different answers advisers gave to Money Marketing reveal underlying beliefs about what makes a good adviser in the first place and how this is translated across the profession more broadly. Embracing professionalism Plutus Wealth Management chartered financial planner Ruban Sanmuganathan says if the profession could start from scratch, all advisers should have a university degree so they were educated to the same standard. But he acknowledges advisers do not live in an ideal world and one of the problems that has existed since RDR is the generational gap between advisers who have qualifications and those who have experience. He says this gap is evident when looking across younger advisers, who have probably adapted better to the professionalism, and older advisers, who have found it harder to keep up. To close the gap Sanmuganathan proposes a softer version of the Australian model through the introduction of a mandatory exam to be taken on a regular basis. That exam would be taken every three to five years by advisers who would have a grace period if they did not pass. Sanmuganathan says the purpose of the exam would be to ensure the same level of technical knowledge across advisers and encourage a more holistic understanding of financial planning. He argues current exams are too modular and the most successful financial plans are those which recognise the interdependence of a clients assets. Sanmuganathan adds a mandatory exam would not only break down these exam barriers but also improve the quality of advice and cut the amount of levy paid to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. He also says it would bolster continuing professional development, which he argues is vague and open to manipulation. While there might be push back against a mandatory exam, and it would be expensive for the regulator to implement, Sanmuganathan believes the benefits would be worth it in the long run. Others such as Nexus Independent Financial Advisers managing director Kerry Nelson disagree, saying extra exams would simply push more advisers out of the market. She says the majority of advisers have largely embraced professionalism and are increasing their level of knowledge and qualifications all the time. Nelson argues there is a degree of confusion among advisers and consumers about which examination bodies issue the most reliable qualifications, so introducing a universally recognised body responsible for all qualifications would be preferable to forcing a new exam level on the market. The introduction of another mandatory exam alongside all of the ones advisers already take would only discourage the veterans companies should be striving to retain to stay in the industry, she says. Nelson believes it should not be for the regulators or industry bodies, but companies themselves, that ensure advisers have the right mixture of experience and technical nous, as well as encouraging ongoing learning and mentoring to keep older advisers interested and give a helping hand to younger advisers. Continuous professional development has evolved and is a far more rigorous process than a decade ago, she adds. Adviser view Mowatt Financial Planning director Will Mowatt We as a profession have to think about the big picture and for me this is recruitment as demographics show we need to get young blood into advice firms Trying to recruit can be done in one of two ways: either through an apprenticeship or degree. The apprenticeship is appealing as someone starts as a financial administrator, becomes a paraplanner and finally a financial adviser. At the end of the day financial advice is a practical skill and the way an individual learns will vary but the main thing is a consistent level of qualification. Specialists vs generalists Striking a balance between qualifications and experience is clearly one of the tightropes that has to be walked by advisers, industry bodies and the FCA alike. But the relationship between specialist and general knowledge at both the individual and broader professional level needs to be considered as well. Personal Finance Society chief executive Keith Richards says financial advice sought by the majority of consumers is not complex and most advisers try to give a service that is straightforward. He adds enhanced technical knowledge is already expected for more complex financial planning areas and clients can be referred to specialists when needed. This division of labour between generalists and specialists works for many firms and widens the range of advice available to the general public. Richards says mandating a further increase of qualification requirements would have an impact on both the cost and availability of advice. He argues it would widen the advice gap the Financial Advice Market Review was introduced by government to address. He also says people from all educational backgrounds have become outstanding financial advisers without obtaining a degree once they have gone through the right qualifications and training. Aside from the current defined benefit transfer challenges there is clear evidence the advice sector is already driving its own qualification standards and that could reduce the need for further regulatory intervention. Richards points out there are over 6,500 PFS members at chartered financial planning level and the same number hold advanced qualifications above the minimum diploma standard. Wingate Financial Planning director of Alistair Cunningham is fan of specialists with in-depth knowledge about what they advise and says it is important they are not pushed out of the market. Furthermore, a degree and qualifications do not necessarily develop soft skills, while years of experience and face-to-face interactions with clients does. Society of Later Life Advisers joint chairwoman Jane Finnerty says she sees many advisers educated to degree level or above, but they might be uncertain about their soft skills so her organisation can help them develop in specific areas to meet the needs of older clients better. Lessons from Australia Given the continuing debate in the UK, it is useful to head back to Australia again where consultant Calvert Duffy says the question of how advisers are educated and gain knowledge cannot be separated from how the general public views them. This is because advisers are most effective and valuable when the population at large is financially literate and engaged with the subject matter. Duffy says the cost of educating the public a little better on financial matters costs far less than clearing up any later problems through messy court hearings or heavy-handed legislation down the line. This view appears to be borne out by the experience of steelworkers in Port Talbot in the context of the British Steel Pension Scheme or scam victims of unregulated investments. A better educated public combined with a greater presence of more credentialed advisers could be a solution to these scandals that can tarnish the profession. But it is worth remembering former Australian assistant treasurer Sherrys warning that educating financial advisers better does not automatically translate into more ethical behaviour. That observation about ethics has to be kept in mind as the sector will likely continue to become more professional as the years go by. | https://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/should-financial-advisers-be-degree-qualified/ |
Could Repealing a Florida Statute Safeguard Marriage Equality in the State? | Florida lawmakers want to repeal a state statute leftover from the Defense of Marriage Act. It would remove language that defines marriage in the state as between a man and a woman. Rep. Anna Eskamani, who is a sponsor on the DOMA Repealer Bill, says removing the statute limiting same-sex marriage and the protections couples could receive under the law is a necessary safeguard for marriage equality in the state. She says the bill would protect citizens even if new court cases at the state and federal levels are brought against the Supreme Courts ruling. To say marriage applies to everyone guarantees that no matter what happens in a court house, that folks are going to be equal. Florida Family Policy Councils Director John Stemberger who leads the conservative group associated with Focus on the Family, says its important the statute stands as is. In the future, the Supreme Court of the United States with its changing makeup could actually recognize that marriage is a legitimate states rights issue at some point and in some way recede from its current law. And if that was the case, then those laws would still be enforceable in Florida. In a landmark case, the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015. If youd like to listen to the full story, please click on the clip above. | http://www.wmfe.org/a-state-statute-could-be-used-to-discriminate-against-same-sex-couples-unless-its-repealed/95702 |
Is Love close to leaving NBA side Cleveland Cavaliers? | Cleveland, Ohio @PeopleSport11 When Kevin Love signed a four-year, $120 million extension with the Cleveland Cavaliers this past summer, they were choosing one of two directions. They either made a savvy move that served as both a public relations splash in the wake of LeBron James departure and to transform Love into a more trade-able asset for the lengthy rebuild ahead, or their long-term plan was to build a worse version of Loves Minnesota Timberwolves teams that failed to make the playoffs for six seasons. It seems unlikely they chose the worst possible plan, but you never know in Cleveland. Either way, it was inevitable that Love would find himself in trade rumours this season, if only because he has been the subject of them semiannually ever since he joined James in Cleveland. Those rumors were bound to become even more fervent once the Cavaliers careened down the standings, which they did, losing their first six games, firing their coach, engaging in an awkward negotiation with his next in command, trading two veterans, and exiling another for saying what has long been obvious: The Cavs are tanking. Except, Loves left toe injury threw a bunion into all of this. What was originally supposed to be a six-week reevaluation period and a mid-January return has now been pushed beyond the All-Star break. Asked on Monday if he had a clearer timeline for his return, Love told reporters, according to the Associated Press, I dont know. Its really tough for me to say because I dont know how my foot is going to respond. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later. He has not started running yet, but remains hopeful that the process of ramping up from one-on-one work to full-contact scrimmages could still play out over the next few weeks. Love is not planning to sit out the entire season. NBA | http://www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke/496487/is-love-close-to-leaving-nba-side-cleveland-cavaliers/ |
What's Next For US And China Trade Talks? | United States and Chinese trade officials gathered Jan. 7-9 to discuss ways to "achieve fairness, reciprocity, and balance in trade," a U.S. statement said Wednesday. The U.S. trade delegation will now report back to senior levels of the government to "receive guidance on the next steps." President Donald Trump's deal-making persona could in theory result in him accepting a bad deal with China and many "China hawks" in his administration have this concern, Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics, said on "Bloomberg Surveillance." Alberto Gallo, portfolio manager at Algebris Investments, said it would be hard for China to maintain any agreement "beyond a level of promise" it makes on intellectual property and opening its markets. On the other hand, China can agree to certain financial stability measures, including how it manages the yuan. For the first time in more than two decades, car sales in China fell and this has some wondering if it's related to the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S. Michael Shaoul, CEO and portfolio manager at Marketfield told Bloomberg he isn't convinced car sales data in China is related to trade. Instead, declining car sales can be attributed to China going down "two paths last year" where its central bank was tightening internally and then reversing its tightening and this could have some impact on consumer demand in 2019. Vincent Reinhart, chief economist and macro strategist at Standish Mellon, doesn't necessarily agree. He said concerning data out of China extends beyond just car sales and include the central bank lowering reserve requirements over the weekend, which implies a "new source of stimulus." OPEC Weighs In The potential for an escalation in trade war between the U.S. and China could result in hardships between the two countries, outgoing OPEC head Suhail Al Mazrouei told CNBC's Hadley Gamble. He remains optimistic current "negotiation tactics" are exactly that and will lead to a resolution "this year or next year." The rollout of 5G communication technologies is in the very early stages with China's Huawei, a major developer of 5G equipment, being "blocked out" of the U.S. and other countries, Bob O'Donnell of TECHnalysis Research told CNBC. There isn't reason to believe the ongoing trade talks between the U.S. and China will delay the global 5G rollout as it creates an opportunity for other global companies, such as Samsung, to play a bigger role. Even if the U.S. government places a tariff on future 5G smartphones from China, it's unlikely to impact consumer demand as the price tag on the next generation phones will already be "significant" to start off, he said. Related Link: Pros Tackle Market Reaction, Democrats' Strategy After Trump's Oval Office Address 3 Pros React To Latest Sino-American Trade Talks | https://www.benzinga.com/analyst-ratings/analyst-color/19/01/12959650/whats-next-for-us-and-china-trade-talks |
Did Klay Thompson reveal solution to his offensive struggles? | After watching Klay Thompson light up the Knicks for 43 points Tuesday night, maybe its time for Steve Kerr and his staff to deliver a pointed message to the Warriors star: Dont dribble the ball. We were reminded what a devastating weapon Thompson can be when his offensive game just consists of moving, catching the ball and shooting it. He dribbled the ball just four times while making 18 of his 29 shots in the Warriors 122-95 win over the Knicks. Thats not a typo. Four. Dribbles. Can't stop watching this Klay Thompson video pic.twitter.com/5iGZ9mH8Vj SB Nation (@SBNation) January 9, 2019 Two years ago, Thompson had a record-setting night against the Pacers at Oracle Arena with a minimum of dribbles. He scored a whopping 60 points in just 29 minutes while dribbling just 11 times on his 21 baskets. Despite a recent hot streak, Thompson has had one of his most trying shooting seasons this year, part of which could be related to him seemingly working harder to create his own shots. Hes averaging a career-high 18.8 shots per game this season, but his field-goal percentage (45 percent) is lower than its been in five years. In addition, Thompson is making a career-low 36 percent of his 3-point field goal attempts. This is not to suggest that Thompson has been abandoning his catch-and-shoot game 55 percent of his shots are coming off the dribble. Also, his 10.3 shots per game without dribbling is second in the NBA to Kevin Loves 10.5 no-dribble shots this year. Plus, Thompson is still shooting the second-most 3-pointers per game (6.2) without a dribble in the NBA this season. None other than Steph Curry at 6.8. For comparisons sake, we have James Harden, the antithesis of the no-dribble offense. The Rockets star and reigning MVP has averaged nearly seven 3-point shots per game after dribbling the ball seven or more times, according to a Wall Street Journal story. Harden has attempted 247 3-pointers while dribbling seven or more times this season, which is already more such shots than any NBA team has tried in the past six seasons. Long live Klays catch-and-shoot game. | https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/01/09/did-klay-thompson-reveal-solution-to-his-offensive-struggles/ |
When job one is making humans look like trolls or was it making trolls look human? | In the Swedish film Border, trolls dont lurk under bridges or in magical kingdoms but pass as humans in our everyday world. For makeup and hairstyling team Gran Lundstrm and Pamela Goldammer, this nexus between fantasy and reality presented an intriguing challenge. Thats a unique aspect of this, said Lundstrm, who crafted the prosthetics that Goldammer applied to lead actors Eva Melander and Eero Milonoff on set. Each actors transformation required three hours in the makeup chair. What fascinated me the most was the combination of a fantasy creature and a real person, said Goldammer. Melandar stars as Tina, a talented border guard who can literally smell the guilt of smugglers. Her nose never fails heruntil confronted by a strange yet familiar man named Vore (Milonoff), who reveals her true nature. Lundstrm: I found this British actor called Eddie Marsan, whos got a really interesting face. I did [a test makeup] where I basically took a lot of features from Marsan and put it on Eva. And then I decided that I wanted to change the nose, because it didnt really fit her face; it changed her face too much into someone else. So I brought the nose back to her length and just made a different type of nose. But the chin is based on Eeros chin, I wanted to bring something from him onto her. Lundstrm: Eva and Eero have completely different proportions, so you dont really have to be that worried about getting them to look too similar. But what I did was I made sure they had different noses, for sure. And also, Evas features are much softer. And with Eero, hes a much more sinister character in general, so we could take him a little bit further. And I noticed that he actually used the sculpted features and made them even more exaggerated. Goldammer: I wonder if he really spent time in the mirror working out different expressions. Because in the beginning, when I was applying the makeup on my own, Eero had to be done either before Eva, and then wait for the next three hours in this makeup, or we would apply the prosthetics on him, then wed do Eva [and Eero would have to finish his process after that]. So then either way, he had three hours [to wait with his makeup at least partially on] where he would then go back in the hotel room or in his apartment, and he would just hang out. So Im really curious because the moment his makeup and the paint was finished, hed just get up and he would have changed his expression, have this cheeky twinkle in his eyes. It was really fantastic, and it was very creepy at times. Lundstrm: Both of them had dentures. [Director Ali Abbasi] wanted them to be asymmetrical in general. So Evas eyelids are a little bit different. She has a little bit thicker eyelid on one side, so she looks a little bit asymmetrical in her eyes. But for her mouth, I sculpted the teeth in a way so if they closed their mouths, it wouldnt be a straight mouth anymore. It would be crooked. Lundstrm: So basically, I have to do a face cast of the person first. And we did that in silicone. We sculpt on a positive copy of that face cast in an oil-based clay that we use. Shes got nine different pieces. Once its sculpted, we make molds and we cast silicone pieces out of the molds; most of it was silicone, but we also did some gelatin pieces for it, because it just behaves differently. Theres a crinkling effect you can get with silicone, where you get little wrinkles that are really annoying. So thats why I went back to gelatin. Lundstrm: Well, in this case, we have the cold, because gelatin gets really stiff. Goldammer: Most of the time we were outside, and it was cold at that time of the year. And there was one scene where they are swimming in the water together. So for these days, I asked Gran to make some silicone prosthetics. They look exactly the same, but they just dont react to water. Or when we were outside for the sex scene where they were very little dressed, and it was a very cold day, you could feel how the gelatin got just a bit tougher. And I placed hand warmers on the cheeks, and it was just enough to bring them back. We didnt have any problems. But I mean, for them, it was a pretty tough shoot, because they had to be in very cold water, running naked through a forest, shooting outside in very little clothes. | https://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/ct-ent-border-trolls-makeup-20190109-story.html |
How will Kansas adjust without Udoka Azubuike? | Losing Udoka Azubuike for the season due to a hand injury is obviously a huge blow for Kansas. When he was on the floor this season, Azubuike functioned as Bill Self's co-featured scorer alongside Dedric Lawson. Azubuike is a proven post scorer who's also a very good rim defender. According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Jayhawks have been a whopping 0.10 points per possession better with Azubuike in the game so far this season, compared to what KU has done with him on the bench. To say he will be missed is putting it lightly. Still, the fact that Kansas would be better with a healthy Azubuike doesn't mean the Jayhawks are doomed without him. In fact, there's reason to think that maybe all is not lost for KU. Anyway, we're about to find out: Kansas takes on TCU in Lawrence at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday on ESPN2. Here's what to watch for from Self's team in its post-Azubuike remainder of the season. | http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/insider/story/_/id/25716395/how-kansas-adjust-udoka-azubuike |
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